EVERYTHING about the territories system was better. There were cruiserweight territories, tag-team territories, territories that specialized in bloodbaths. There was someplace for just about anybody who had any acumen for being a wrestler to work and learn.
Rose put down roots in Oregon. The money was good, the travel reasonable. When he wanted to spread his wings, he could. Anyone could. If you never overstayed your welcome, you never got stale.
How many people are stale in WWE? A better question: How many people AREN’T? With all due respect to the Undertaker, his long-running gimmick and his impressive body of work, does anybody really need to see him ever again? Even the very best performers get stale under the current system unless they go away for awhile.
With territories, going away for awhile meant making money somewhere else. Now, it means unemployment.
With territories, there was always the anticipation of someone new coming in, then the excitement of him arriving. The Apter mags were great for fueling that: DOES WILDFIRE TOMMY RICH HAVE HIS SIGHTS SET ON THE WWF TITLE? He didn’t, but it was still fun.
Now it’s just the same old, same old. The only things that can incite interest are hot angles. Remember those? I don’t. But when you’re the only game in town, there’s no pressure to come up with any.
Fans attend WWE shows, watch WWE TV and buy WWE PPVs by rote. It’s what they’ve always done, a habit. The numbers dip, but never tragically. That’s unfortunate. With no competition, a deep decline in business is the only thing that can pressure WWE to put together better storylines.
That was another great thing about territories: If the product blew, you didn’t eat. That’s as it should be. Draw money or starve. That’s incentive. Today, guys who have never been singularly responsible for even one ticket being sold make six figures.
Territories were a lot better for "insiders," too. When tape trading was popular, you could sometimes watch 5-6 good TV shows per week. There was more news, more gossip, more Meltzer.
It’s never going back to the way it was. That’s “progress.”
But we shouldn’t pretend that these are wrestling’s glory days or that Vince McMahon is wrestling’s savior (or that he ever was). In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
