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Death of the Territories: Expansion, Betrayal and the War that Changed Pro Wrestling Forever
For decades, distinct professional wrestling territories thrived across North America. Each regionally-based promotion operated individually and offered a brand of localized wrestling that greatly appealed to area fans. Promoters routinely coordinated with associates in surrounding regions, and the cooperation displayed by members of the National Wrestling Alliance made it easy for wrestlers to traverse the landscape with the utmost freedom.
Dozens of territories flourished between the 1950s and late ’70s. But by the early 1980s, the growth of cable television had put new outside pressures on promoters. An enterprising third-generation entrepreneur who believed cable was his opportunity to take his promotion national soon capitalized on the situation.
A host of novel ideas and the will to take chances gave Vincent Kennedy McMahon an incredible advantage. McMahon waged war on the territories and raided the NWA and AWA of their top talent. By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.
Providing never-before-revealed information, Death of the Territories is a must-read for fans yearning to understand how McMahon outlasted his rivals and established the industry’s first national promotion. At the same time, it offers a comprehensive look at the promoters who opposed McMahon, focusing on their noteworthy power plays and embarrassing mistakes.
Dozens of territories flourished between the 1950s and late ’70s. But by the early 1980s, the growth of cable television had put new outside pressures on promoters. An enterprising third-generation entrepreneur who believed cable was his opportunity to take his promotion national soon capitalized on the situation.
A host of novel ideas and the will to take chances gave Vincent Kennedy McMahon an incredible advantage. McMahon waged war on the territories and raided the NWA and AWA of their top talent. By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.
Providing never-before-revealed information, Death of the Territories is a must-read for fans yearning to understand how McMahon outlasted his rivals and established the industry’s first national promotion. At the same time, it offers a comprehensive look at the promoters who opposed McMahon, focusing on their noteworthy power plays and embarrassing mistakes.
280 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
September 25, 2018
The National Wrestling Alliance, a group of allied wrestling promoters and their territories had been around for decades. With the advent of cable TV, could the territory system survive? Not if one enterprising promoter from the Northeast has his way...
Yeah, the teaser is misleading since we all know Vince won the war. Anyway, I enjoyed National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Professional Wrestling and decided to pick this up. I was not disappointed.
Death of the Territories starts with an overview of the established system, the National Wrestling Alliance, and details various bumps in the road, like Vince McMahon Sr. hijacking Buddy Rogers and leaving the NWA, only to rejoin years later, and promoters running opposition in one another's territory.
Once the cable boom hits, there are a lot of damn pigs eyeing up the whole trough. People paint Vince McMahon Jr. as the devil, and while he's definitely got some bad points, a lot of other promoters would have expanded nationally with the resources to do so.
I've gleaned a lot of this information from various books and documentaries over the years but this time I feel like I got the whole picture. There wasn't any bias. It didn't go out of its way to drag Vince McMahon through the mud and it didn't make him a saint, either, like a lot of WWE-made material does.
All the maneuvering behind the scenes was fascinating. I had no idea about the various attempts of other promoters to go national once cable was readily available. Ever hear of Global Wrestling (not to be confused with the Global Wrestling Federation)? Me either. The book runs through the 1980s and ends when Jim Crockett sells his promotion to Ted Turner, where it becomes WCW and eventually ignites another war. Hopefully Hornbaker will cover that next.
Pretty much every territory I've ever heard of got its due here: Don Owen of Portland, the Von Erichs, Joe Blanchard, Paul Boesch, Eddie Graham, Bill Watts, and a slew of others. Each made their mark but couldn't keep up with the changing times and the Scrooge McDuck-like bank account of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
The warts and all presentation made it a gripping read. I read it in two sittings, a rarity for me these days.
Upon finishing, I think partly some of the old promoters going the way of the dinosaur was karma biting them in the ass. The good old boy network helped run people who weren't NWA members or aligned with the NWA out of business during most of the NWA's existence. It's just this time, it was the NWA members that got got. I think the wrestling world would be better off without one horse running the race a few laps ahead of all the others, though.
Four out of five turnbuckles. Get cracking on that Monday Night Wars book, Tim!
Yeah, the teaser is misleading since we all know Vince won the war. Anyway, I enjoyed National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Professional Wrestling and decided to pick this up. I was not disappointed.
Death of the Territories starts with an overview of the established system, the National Wrestling Alliance, and details various bumps in the road, like Vince McMahon Sr. hijacking Buddy Rogers and leaving the NWA, only to rejoin years later, and promoters running opposition in one another's territory.
Once the cable boom hits, there are a lot of damn pigs eyeing up the whole trough. People paint Vince McMahon Jr. as the devil, and while he's definitely got some bad points, a lot of other promoters would have expanded nationally with the resources to do so.
I've gleaned a lot of this information from various books and documentaries over the years but this time I feel like I got the whole picture. There wasn't any bias. It didn't go out of its way to drag Vince McMahon through the mud and it didn't make him a saint, either, like a lot of WWE-made material does.
All the maneuvering behind the scenes was fascinating. I had no idea about the various attempts of other promoters to go national once cable was readily available. Ever hear of Global Wrestling (not to be confused with the Global Wrestling Federation)? Me either. The book runs through the 1980s and ends when Jim Crockett sells his promotion to Ted Turner, where it becomes WCW and eventually ignites another war. Hopefully Hornbaker will cover that next.
Pretty much every territory I've ever heard of got its due here: Don Owen of Portland, the Von Erichs, Joe Blanchard, Paul Boesch, Eddie Graham, Bill Watts, and a slew of others. Each made their mark but couldn't keep up with the changing times and the Scrooge McDuck-like bank account of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
The warts and all presentation made it a gripping read. I read it in two sittings, a rarity for me these days.
Upon finishing, I think partly some of the old promoters going the way of the dinosaur was karma biting them in the ass. The good old boy network helped run people who weren't NWA members or aligned with the NWA out of business during most of the NWA's existence. It's just this time, it was the NWA members that got got. I think the wrestling world would be better off without one horse running the race a few laps ahead of all the others, though.
Four out of five turnbuckles. Get cracking on that Monday Night Wars book, Tim!
August 7, 2018
Tim Hornbaker tells the story of the collapse of the pro wrestling territorial system within the United States.
I long believed that Vince McMahon was mainly successful in establishing a nation-wide wrestling promotion because he was a visionary; that he was the first of the American wrestling promoters to give it a go when it came to territorial expansion. Many before him had tested the territorial limits by attempting to expand into nearby states, but never with the gusto that McMahon possessed. However In Death of the Territories, Hornbaker makes a case that while Vince was certainly successful in part due to his ruthless promotional tactics, his rise to power was definitely aided in part due to the ineptitude of his competition.
In fact, most promoters just believed that Vince was doing it all wrong – that they could sit back and wait for him to fail. When they finally realized that McMahon was paving the road to the future rather than falling off the trail, it was too late. Vince was already too far ahead to be caught, the most anyone could do was just live in his shadow. Hornbaker touches on changing trends in society, wrestling latching onto the rock and roll youth movement and the accessibility of cable television- a key weapon in the wrestling war. Cable allowed promoters to provide their vision of wrestling to fans beyond their territory laying the groundwork for live events in states thousands of miles away.
It wasn’t a cake walk for Vince and his military of muscle however. Hornbaker tells of Vince’s financial issues early on where he nearly didn’t succeed in his grand vision. I found these stories the most interesting given that Vince is now the purveyor of wrestling history, so these facts rarely escape into the public eye.
With nearly forty pages of footnotes, Tim Hornbaker’s Death of the Territories is a tightly researched, engaging read that tells of the turbulent years surrounding Vince’s conquest of the wrestling world and the struggles of those that tried to keep up.
I long believed that Vince McMahon was mainly successful in establishing a nation-wide wrestling promotion because he was a visionary; that he was the first of the American wrestling promoters to give it a go when it came to territorial expansion. Many before him had tested the territorial limits by attempting to expand into nearby states, but never with the gusto that McMahon possessed. However In Death of the Territories, Hornbaker makes a case that while Vince was certainly successful in part due to his ruthless promotional tactics, his rise to power was definitely aided in part due to the ineptitude of his competition.
In fact, most promoters just believed that Vince was doing it all wrong – that they could sit back and wait for him to fail. When they finally realized that McMahon was paving the road to the future rather than falling off the trail, it was too late. Vince was already too far ahead to be caught, the most anyone could do was just live in his shadow. Hornbaker touches on changing trends in society, wrestling latching onto the rock and roll youth movement and the accessibility of cable television- a key weapon in the wrestling war. Cable allowed promoters to provide their vision of wrestling to fans beyond their territory laying the groundwork for live events in states thousands of miles away.
It wasn’t a cake walk for Vince and his military of muscle however. Hornbaker tells of Vince’s financial issues early on where he nearly didn’t succeed in his grand vision. I found these stories the most interesting given that Vince is now the purveyor of wrestling history, so these facts rarely escape into the public eye.
With nearly forty pages of footnotes, Tim Hornbaker’s Death of the Territories is a tightly researched, engaging read that tells of the turbulent years surrounding Vince’s conquest of the wrestling world and the struggles of those that tried to keep up.
June 20, 2019
Disappointing. The early chapters were more of what I wanted: a detailed examination of how Vince McMahon bought out his father, and the other stakeholders, and assumed control of the WWF in preparation for national expansion. After that, however, the book becomes a repetitive slog of touring itinerary and gate receipts and talent rosters with little detail or examination of why these things mattered. As well, there is zero analysis of how McMahon managed to pay off his sizable debts and keep expanding. The book I want probably can’t be written because many of the key players have passed away and the McMahon family practice omertà in regard to their business practices back then. Book also glossy over the sleazier criminality inherent in the business.
May 26, 2023
No doubting the amount of information in this book. The problem is, that's it. It's a TON of information, just rapid fire facts, the entire time. It makes the book very challenging to read. And this is coming from someone who listens to wrestling podcasts a lot.
August 24, 2018
Beginning with the explanation of how wrestling established imposed territories (mostly in the US but truly across the world), Hornbaker recounts how, in both incremental spurts and monumental leaps, wrestling formed itself into the state in which we view it today.
Yeah, this could also just be summarized as "the rise of Vince McMahon Jr", as that's what it truly amounts to, but the nitty-gritty, Machiavellian tactics to the shifts in loyalty, the creative elements leading to innovative changes, and the scores of tragedies and missed opportunities need to be read to be believed.
Hornbaker doesn't just casually report who did what and where they did it---also laid out here are moments wherein we see how wrestling *used* to operate, when the pyrotechnics and pizzazz that we correlate with the modern-day antics of the WWE empire weren’t yet a thing. Some readers might remember those days (not me...I joined the wrestling bandwagon in the early 90s, so much of this is not trodden ground).
If there's a hang-up in the book, it's that there was a choice made to switch between entities and/or territories in the narrative within small time frames (e.g. Memphis in the time of late 1986 to early 1987; next chapter is Florida-ish area from early 1986-late 1987; dates are just me spitballing) and, as Hornbaker a) can only report the events as they happened and b) can't help when they happened, I can see why this choice was made, but it could be confusing for some readers, as sticking to a strict, linear timeline and then plugging in the events as they happened *where* they happened might read more coherently. This is just presuming that most readers will subscribe to the idea that, as they read further, time is progressing forward, and not backward, then forward, then backward again. The book suffers a little because I don't think that the reader is given the 100% opportunity (as opposed to, like, the 90% at present) to have it cleanly laid out, detail by detail, how it ended up as WCW versus WWF.
Are you a wrestling fan? If so, then this is mandatory reading. Learn the history. If you don't like pro wrestling and are a skeptic on if the sport holds anything of value, then I implore you to give this a shot.
Many thanks to NetGalley and ECW Press for the advance review.
Yeah, this could also just be summarized as "the rise of Vince McMahon Jr", as that's what it truly amounts to, but the nitty-gritty, Machiavellian tactics to the shifts in loyalty, the creative elements leading to innovative changes, and the scores of tragedies and missed opportunities need to be read to be believed.
Hornbaker doesn't just casually report who did what and where they did it---also laid out here are moments wherein we see how wrestling *used* to operate, when the pyrotechnics and pizzazz that we correlate with the modern-day antics of the WWE empire weren’t yet a thing. Some readers might remember those days (not me...I joined the wrestling bandwagon in the early 90s, so much of this is not trodden ground).
If there's a hang-up in the book, it's that there was a choice made to switch between entities and/or territories in the narrative within small time frames (e.g. Memphis in the time of late 1986 to early 1987; next chapter is Florida-ish area from early 1986-late 1987; dates are just me spitballing) and, as Hornbaker a) can only report the events as they happened and b) can't help when they happened, I can see why this choice was made, but it could be confusing for some readers, as sticking to a strict, linear timeline and then plugging in the events as they happened *where* they happened might read more coherently. This is just presuming that most readers will subscribe to the idea that, as they read further, time is progressing forward, and not backward, then forward, then backward again. The book suffers a little because I don't think that the reader is given the 100% opportunity (as opposed to, like, the 90% at present) to have it cleanly laid out, detail by detail, how it ended up as WCW versus WWF.
Are you a wrestling fan? If so, then this is mandatory reading. Learn the history. If you don't like pro wrestling and are a skeptic on if the sport holds anything of value, then I implore you to give this a shot.
Many thanks to NetGalley and ECW Press for the advance review.
September 28, 2018
This book was thoroughly researched and covers possibly the most important story in pro wrestling's history. The author finds great quotes from 1980s newspapers with promoters around the country upset about Vince McMahon Jr- how he's "disrespecting the sport" with his entertainment oriented product or disrespecting the order of things by moving in on other promoter's territories.
The reality of the 1980s was that cable television had changed the equation, and territorial wrestling was never going to last. Vince McMahon was well positioned by running the "richest" territory of New York City. But he also had the vision to go after everyone, the guts to risk it all financially over and over to push others out, and the business acumen to execute it all and recognize what could make wrestling mainstream. I like that Tim Hornbaker didn't really take shots at McMahon in this book. For all McMahon's questionable business decisions of the last 18 years, the 1984 expansion is likely his greatest triumph.
Despite the wealth of research in this book, the storytelling left a lot to be desired for me. It may have benefited from more first hand interviews, or more in depth development of key characters. But ultimately I'm just not sure if this story can be effectively told in 280 pages. The scope is so wide that it's impossible to give all these stories the time they deserve. There are two hour documentaries about the death of the AWA, the death of WCCW, the death of Bruiser Brody and the collapse of Jim Crockett promotions. Yet some of these stories are told in a few pages here. I was intrigued by the description of Don Owen in Portland as a fair paying, never say die promoter. I wanted to learn more about him, but I knew I'd have to find a different book to be able to do that, because he's moved on from so quickly.
So in the end I'd say this book has a lot of great information. If you read it for a no nonsense collection of facts and stories from the 1980s, you'll probably enjoy it. If you're looking for a super in depth analysis or colorful recounting of any particular subject, it may be less of a sure bet.
The reality of the 1980s was that cable television had changed the equation, and territorial wrestling was never going to last. Vince McMahon was well positioned by running the "richest" territory of New York City. But he also had the vision to go after everyone, the guts to risk it all financially over and over to push others out, and the business acumen to execute it all and recognize what could make wrestling mainstream. I like that Tim Hornbaker didn't really take shots at McMahon in this book. For all McMahon's questionable business decisions of the last 18 years, the 1984 expansion is likely his greatest triumph.
Despite the wealth of research in this book, the storytelling left a lot to be desired for me. It may have benefited from more first hand interviews, or more in depth development of key characters. But ultimately I'm just not sure if this story can be effectively told in 280 pages. The scope is so wide that it's impossible to give all these stories the time they deserve. There are two hour documentaries about the death of the AWA, the death of WCCW, the death of Bruiser Brody and the collapse of Jim Crockett promotions. Yet some of these stories are told in a few pages here. I was intrigued by the description of Don Owen in Portland as a fair paying, never say die promoter. I wanted to learn more about him, but I knew I'd have to find a different book to be able to do that, because he's moved on from so quickly.
So in the end I'd say this book has a lot of great information. If you read it for a no nonsense collection of facts and stories from the 1980s, you'll probably enjoy it. If you're looking for a super in depth analysis or colorful recounting of any particular subject, it may be less of a sure bet.
September 16, 2018
(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)
For decades, distinct professional wrestling territories thrived across North America. Each regionally-based promotion operated individually and offered a brand of localized wrestling that greatly appealed to area fans. Promoters routinely coordinated with associates in surrounding regions, and the cooperation displayed by members of the National Wrestling Alliance made it easy for wrestlers to traverse the landscape with the utmost freedom.
Dozens of territories flourished between the 1950s and late ’70s. But by the early 1980s, the growth of cable television had put new outside pressures on promoters. An enterprising third-generation entrepreneur who believed cable was his opportunity to take his promotion national soon capitalized on the situation.
A host of novel ideas and the will to take chances gave Vincent Kennedy McMahon an incredible advantage. McMahon waged war on the territories and raided the NWA and AWA of their top talent. By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.
Providing never-before-revealed information, Death of the Territories is a must-read for fans yearning to understand how McMahon outlasted his rivals and established the industry’s first national promotion. At the same time, it offers a comprehensive look at the promoters who opposed McMahon, focusing on their noteworthy power plays and embarrassing mistakes.
I have long been a fan of professional wrestling. Whether it be the WWF/WWE that I grew up on, or the days of WCW and ECW, I have always had a certain attraction to wrestling and the characters involved in it. For the most part, those characters were the people in front of the camera - the performers, in other words.
This book took me back a long way and gave me a much clearer view of the people behind the cameras. In fact, so far back that television wasn't even a consideration for these wrestling territories. They often shared big name talent with each other to help bring in the punters but it wasn't until the introduction of - and understanding of - television that one man in particular stood out from the crowd - and ended up crushing them.
Was this a good book? Absolutely. The knowledge of the promoters, the wrestlers, the expansions and the locations is first-rate. I don't say that lightly. It could have been very easy to just focus on the name McMahon and tell that story, but the other promoters before him (including his father) help tell the complete story.
There was a little bit of repetition in the first 1/4 of the book with promoters and their territories and the story didn't completely flow chronologically. It was a little frustrating as I went along.
But, other than that, this was a book that captivated me from start to finish and I was able to put the book down a more knowledgeable person. And you can't argue with that!
Paul
ARH
For decades, distinct professional wrestling territories thrived across North America. Each regionally-based promotion operated individually and offered a brand of localized wrestling that greatly appealed to area fans. Promoters routinely coordinated with associates in surrounding regions, and the cooperation displayed by members of the National Wrestling Alliance made it easy for wrestlers to traverse the landscape with the utmost freedom.
Dozens of territories flourished between the 1950s and late ’70s. But by the early 1980s, the growth of cable television had put new outside pressures on promoters. An enterprising third-generation entrepreneur who believed cable was his opportunity to take his promotion national soon capitalized on the situation.
A host of novel ideas and the will to take chances gave Vincent Kennedy McMahon an incredible advantage. McMahon waged war on the territories and raided the NWA and AWA of their top talent. By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.
Providing never-before-revealed information, Death of the Territories is a must-read for fans yearning to understand how McMahon outlasted his rivals and established the industry’s first national promotion. At the same time, it offers a comprehensive look at the promoters who opposed McMahon, focusing on their noteworthy power plays and embarrassing mistakes.
I have long been a fan of professional wrestling. Whether it be the WWF/WWE that I grew up on, or the days of WCW and ECW, I have always had a certain attraction to wrestling and the characters involved in it. For the most part, those characters were the people in front of the camera - the performers, in other words.
This book took me back a long way and gave me a much clearer view of the people behind the cameras. In fact, so far back that television wasn't even a consideration for these wrestling territories. They often shared big name talent with each other to help bring in the punters but it wasn't until the introduction of - and understanding of - television that one man in particular stood out from the crowd - and ended up crushing them.
Was this a good book? Absolutely. The knowledge of the promoters, the wrestlers, the expansions and the locations is first-rate. I don't say that lightly. It could have been very easy to just focus on the name McMahon and tell that story, but the other promoters before him (including his father) help tell the complete story.
There was a little bit of repetition in the first 1/4 of the book with promoters and their territories and the story didn't completely flow chronologically. It was a little frustrating as I went along.
But, other than that, this was a book that captivated me from start to finish and I was able to put the book down a more knowledgeable person. And you can't argue with that!
Paul
ARH
April 27, 2019
The storylines and drama behind the scenes of the wrestling industry in the '80s surpass anything you'll see today on Monday Night Raw. The writing is pretty dry but the book is so thoroughly researched and the the content is so outrageous that it doesn't really need a master storyteller.
The second half of the book, when the war is all but won, gets bogged down in a lot of business details like show attendance, tv ratings, wrestler contracts, etc. it's very impressively researched and I found it interesting but it's very dry and lacks the shock power of the first half where promoters are backstabbing and doublecrossing each other in a race to claim territory and, eventually, go national.
The second half of the book, when the war is all but won, gets bogged down in a lot of business details like show attendance, tv ratings, wrestler contracts, etc. it's very impressively researched and I found it interesting but it's very dry and lacks the shock power of the first half where promoters are backstabbing and doublecrossing each other in a race to claim territory and, eventually, go national.
May 22, 2022
Finished this book. Was a good historical look back at the timeline involving the the state of wrestling and the old territories from the 60s to the 80s and how Vince McMahon rose to the top and how all he cut into the tv deals of all of these regional wrestling promotions until they starved and began to fall off one by one until it was just the WWF and what became WCW that remained
April 7, 2021
*3 and a half stars*
July 16, 2021
Tim Hornbaker pens an extraordinary account of the dramatic change of scenery throughout the professional wrestling landscape in 1982-84 and the rise of Vincent K. McMahon after acquiring the World Wrestling Federation from his father. Hornbaker first identifies the many territories of the National Wrestling Alliance while it still represented the vast majority of North American wrestling, then chronicles the specific events and technological innovations that drove each one of them to extinction.
People who are familiar with Sam Muchnik, Herb Owen, Bob Geigel, and Ole Anderson will appreciate how thoroughly Hornbaker analyzes each territory's demise. To understand the rise of McMahon, you must also understand how television broadcasts were vital to all wrestling promotions, which networks worked with which promotions, and how cable television was about to change all of that one way or another. Though it might sound like a lot to absorb, Hornbaker lays it out gently market-by-market in a way that never feels overwhelming.
From McMahon's first conquest (the former NWF territory in upstate New York) to his more-pivotal acquisitions like Georgia Championship Wrestling, "Death of the Territories" follows the methodical strategy McMahon utilized to corner each promotion within their own backyard and eventually acquire their assets through buyouts or default, depending on how nicely his victims wanted to play. It also covers some lesser-known ventures that didn't go well for WWF initially, but eventually jumped on the wagon after surrounding markets did. Southern California was one of those failed ventures.
This book could have been longer and reached further into the 90's, but it settles on a very specific event; the death of the old NWA. Though Verne Gagne's AWA promotion is mentioned, it doesn't cover their involvement in the struggle as much as I would've preferred. Gagne also stretched his promotion across the mid-west aggressively, but the book mostly focuses on the television stations McMahon deprived him of that eventually led to AWA's demise. AWA might've been the only major promotion that folded simply because it made bad TV, but Hornbaker lets Gagne off pretty easy on that subject. Cracking that egg would require the focus to shift towards content matter, but this book tells the story of the outside world, not the quality of the television shows.
For anyone that's ever wondered "How did Vince do it?", "Death of the Territories" answers that question definitively. Although it doesn't cover McMahon's most-famous acquisition of WCW, it chronicles the events that set the stage for the Monday Night War. I just wonder why Hornbaker didn't write a 500-page book that included that too since he is on such a roll here, explaining the monopolization of the industry, he may as well have went home with it. Nonetheless, this is information all wrestling fans should be aware of, particularly those who still believe McMahon never had malicious intent towards other promotions, as he repeatedly falsely claims in white-washed WWE documentaries. This book tells the truth.
People who are familiar with Sam Muchnik, Herb Owen, Bob Geigel, and Ole Anderson will appreciate how thoroughly Hornbaker analyzes each territory's demise. To understand the rise of McMahon, you must also understand how television broadcasts were vital to all wrestling promotions, which networks worked with which promotions, and how cable television was about to change all of that one way or another. Though it might sound like a lot to absorb, Hornbaker lays it out gently market-by-market in a way that never feels overwhelming.
From McMahon's first conquest (the former NWF territory in upstate New York) to his more-pivotal acquisitions like Georgia Championship Wrestling, "Death of the Territories" follows the methodical strategy McMahon utilized to corner each promotion within their own backyard and eventually acquire their assets through buyouts or default, depending on how nicely his victims wanted to play. It also covers some lesser-known ventures that didn't go well for WWF initially, but eventually jumped on the wagon after surrounding markets did. Southern California was one of those failed ventures.
This book could have been longer and reached further into the 90's, but it settles on a very specific event; the death of the old NWA. Though Verne Gagne's AWA promotion is mentioned, it doesn't cover their involvement in the struggle as much as I would've preferred. Gagne also stretched his promotion across the mid-west aggressively, but the book mostly focuses on the television stations McMahon deprived him of that eventually led to AWA's demise. AWA might've been the only major promotion that folded simply because it made bad TV, but Hornbaker lets Gagne off pretty easy on that subject. Cracking that egg would require the focus to shift towards content matter, but this book tells the story of the outside world, not the quality of the television shows.
For anyone that's ever wondered "How did Vince do it?", "Death of the Territories" answers that question definitively. Although it doesn't cover McMahon's most-famous acquisition of WCW, it chronicles the events that set the stage for the Monday Night War. I just wonder why Hornbaker didn't write a 500-page book that included that too since he is on such a roll here, explaining the monopolization of the industry, he may as well have went home with it. Nonetheless, this is information all wrestling fans should be aware of, particularly those who still believe McMahon never had malicious intent towards other promotions, as he repeatedly falsely claims in white-washed WWE documentaries. This book tells the truth.
August 30, 2023
This is a miserably written "story" that feels a lot like you're spending countless hours cycling through 12 different Wikipedia pages, but you have to start from the very top each time you cycle back to a page you've already hit.
If you want a dopamine kick every time you see a wrestler's name you're well aware of (you will read Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, and "Superstar" Billy Graham introduced to you as if you hadn't been paying attention every 4-5 pages), feel free to give this book a shot.
For a better use of your time, simply Google Jim Crockett and/or Verne Gange, spend an afternoon reading about them, and you're sure to find plenty of things better edited than this list of redundant musings.
If you want a dopamine kick every time you see a wrestler's name you're well aware of (you will read Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, and "Superstar" Billy Graham introduced to you as if you hadn't been paying attention every 4-5 pages), feel free to give this book a shot.
For a better use of your time, simply Google Jim Crockett and/or Verne Gange, spend an afternoon reading about them, and you're sure to find plenty of things better edited than this list of redundant musings.
January 4, 2019
Learned very little new facts. Well-researched but at times his lack of understanding of various territories shines through: Case in point, Tim mentions Jerry Jarrett lost Jerry Lawler as a talent to the WWF when Jarrett by that time was working closely with Vince and strongly suggested Lawler come in as a wrestler and an announcer. He could have reached out to Jarrett, Watts, etc., for reflections on that time, but I don't believe he did. Feels like everything was pulled from old issues of the Observer, which I've been reading since '86, so it felt like a concise albeit well-written rehash of Dave's reporting.
May 31, 2020
Hands down the worst book on wrestling I have read so far. Tedious, boring, and most of it amounts to just rewriting the Observer (badly), and the program. Most disappointingly, it also contains many factual errors like taking several (fake) claimed attendance numbers as factual, referring to the wrong wrestlers (claiming Tiger Mask - sic - wrestled an 1988 show), etc.
April 20, 2021
Having heard this story a thousand times, it’s actually impressive how boring this book made it out to be. A staggeringly dull collection of dates, gates and roster moves that was likely all culled from Wikipedia.
October 20, 2018
No new information revealed, read like a longform Wikipedia entry. Exceptionally disappointing effort.
March 7, 2020
While this is far from the first book to be written on the turbulence of pro wrestling in the 80's, The Death of the Territories is certainly an excellent choice and can be an appealing read no matter what angle the reader is approaching the wrestling business from.
Tim Hornbaker writes with an engaging, anecdotal style that keeps the material interesting from the first page to the last. While he does start with a heavy dose of detail that might weigh on the attention span of non-wrestling fans, he manages to keep things flowing steadily, bouncing back and forth between the various promotions and territories of the day. As the account goes on and the backstories have been told, Hornbaker kicks the story into a higher gear, and you're soon being taken from territory to territory at a solid pace and with enough detail to understand the mechanics taking place in the promoters offices.
As mentioned earlier, there are a few different angles to approach the book from; the first is as a wrestling fan, which I have been going back to my earliest memories.
As a fan, it was a thrilling read, and the coverage of the in-ring product and listing of the top talent of each territory cemented that experience. Having a robust knowledge of that era of wrestling to begin with, I was reading with anticipation as the years and territories came and went, expecting certain events to unfold and certain careers to hit milestones and be mentioned, and to that end I was not disappointed. Hornbaker gives praise and tribute to the men and women who made the territories and promotions possible, both in the ring and out, and practically no one active in those eras were left out.
As someone with a decade spent in various indy promotions in just about all roles, it was a well-done read that showed respect to the industry and its players. Hornbaker takes care to not take the easy route of dumping on pro wrestling, and while he certainly does not gloss over the darker elements that haunted the industry, he does ultimately display pro wrestling in a positive light as an athletic endeavor and as an entertainment medium.
Lastly, I had to ask myself, "How would someone who does not like wrestling, or was only a casual viewer in the Rock N' Wrestling WWE heyday view this book?" and the answer is, sadly, that they would likely not. The only reason I can see non-wrestling/casual fans picking up this title is to read about it for the business aspect of wrestling from the 70's through to the 90's. On that aspect it also excels, though. Hornbaker delves deeply into the business dealings that led to the prominence of the NWA and its territories, and promotions like (the now WWE) WWF, AWA, the various promoters who came and went from the NWA umbrella, and others who fell somewhere in between. You get a feel for each promoter's contrasting business styles in an industry facing a rapidly altering landscape due to the growing TV broadcasting industry, changing attitudes toward the industry from media and viewers alike, and the internal disputes between the players of the game.
Whether they are aging promoters that ignored the changes of the industry; veteran promoters reacting to the change with efforts that were either ineffective, only temporarily effective, or might be seen as too-little-too-late; to the promoters like Jim Crockett Jr., who tried to roll with the change and compete; non-wrestling influences like Ted Turner trying to enter the game and capture a slice of the pie; and of course, the man who irrevocably altered pro wrestling forever, Vincent K. McMahon, you get a taste of what each group was doing at the time. As for McMahon, no matter if you saw him as an ambitious young man with a vision for a new model for pro wrestling, or a ruthless businessman trying to destroy his father's friends and their businesses, McMahon's impact is undeniable, and the story largely revolves around the whirlwind he created in what was a stable, if not slightly stale industry.
In short, I give this book a full recommendation for fans of wrestling, and insiders of the business alike, and for those with an interest in business in general, and how one industry, as a whole, reacted to a great flux brought on by both outside and inside forces.
For further recommendation, and to continue the story of wrestling's history, I would say start with this book, and then pick up "The Death of WCW" by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez immediately after. They complement each other well, and serve to give a full image of the collapse of wrestling's golden age and the rise of the WWE and Vince McMahon as the titans (pun intended) of the pro wrestling industry.
Tim Hornbaker writes with an engaging, anecdotal style that keeps the material interesting from the first page to the last. While he does start with a heavy dose of detail that might weigh on the attention span of non-wrestling fans, he manages to keep things flowing steadily, bouncing back and forth between the various promotions and territories of the day. As the account goes on and the backstories have been told, Hornbaker kicks the story into a higher gear, and you're soon being taken from territory to territory at a solid pace and with enough detail to understand the mechanics taking place in the promoters offices.
As mentioned earlier, there are a few different angles to approach the book from; the first is as a wrestling fan, which I have been going back to my earliest memories.
As a fan, it was a thrilling read, and the coverage of the in-ring product and listing of the top talent of each territory cemented that experience. Having a robust knowledge of that era of wrestling to begin with, I was reading with anticipation as the years and territories came and went, expecting certain events to unfold and certain careers to hit milestones and be mentioned, and to that end I was not disappointed. Hornbaker gives praise and tribute to the men and women who made the territories and promotions possible, both in the ring and out, and practically no one active in those eras were left out.
As someone with a decade spent in various indy promotions in just about all roles, it was a well-done read that showed respect to the industry and its players. Hornbaker takes care to not take the easy route of dumping on pro wrestling, and while he certainly does not gloss over the darker elements that haunted the industry, he does ultimately display pro wrestling in a positive light as an athletic endeavor and as an entertainment medium.
Lastly, I had to ask myself, "How would someone who does not like wrestling, or was only a casual viewer in the Rock N' Wrestling WWE heyday view this book?" and the answer is, sadly, that they would likely not. The only reason I can see non-wrestling/casual fans picking up this title is to read about it for the business aspect of wrestling from the 70's through to the 90's. On that aspect it also excels, though. Hornbaker delves deeply into the business dealings that led to the prominence of the NWA and its territories, and promotions like (the now WWE) WWF, AWA, the various promoters who came and went from the NWA umbrella, and others who fell somewhere in between. You get a feel for each promoter's contrasting business styles in an industry facing a rapidly altering landscape due to the growing TV broadcasting industry, changing attitudes toward the industry from media and viewers alike, and the internal disputes between the players of the game.
Whether they are aging promoters that ignored the changes of the industry; veteran promoters reacting to the change with efforts that were either ineffective, only temporarily effective, or might be seen as too-little-too-late; to the promoters like Jim Crockett Jr., who tried to roll with the change and compete; non-wrestling influences like Ted Turner trying to enter the game and capture a slice of the pie; and of course, the man who irrevocably altered pro wrestling forever, Vincent K. McMahon, you get a taste of what each group was doing at the time. As for McMahon, no matter if you saw him as an ambitious young man with a vision for a new model for pro wrestling, or a ruthless businessman trying to destroy his father's friends and their businesses, McMahon's impact is undeniable, and the story largely revolves around the whirlwind he created in what was a stable, if not slightly stale industry.
In short, I give this book a full recommendation for fans of wrestling, and insiders of the business alike, and for those with an interest in business in general, and how one industry, as a whole, reacted to a great flux brought on by both outside and inside forces.
For further recommendation, and to continue the story of wrestling's history, I would say start with this book, and then pick up "The Death of WCW" by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez immediately after. They complement each other well, and serve to give a full image of the collapse of wrestling's golden age and the rise of the WWE and Vince McMahon as the titans (pun intended) of the pro wrestling industry.
December 10, 2021
"Death of the Territories" is a thorough and engaging book that explains the biggest turning point in the history of professional wrestling. As a fan of the sport, I instantly knew I had to read this when I first saw it. I already had a semi-extensive knowledge of how professional wrestling territories collapsed. However, I’m always interested in learning more about any passion of mine. Tim Hornbaker very much delivered on my desire to keep expanding my knowledge. Hornbaker is a sports fanatic and historian who has written multiple books on notable moments in baseball history, as well as professional wrestling. It doesn’t get more American than that, does it?
"Death of the Territories" starts by proving background on the early history of professional wrestling. Hornbaker gives context to how the territories actually came to be in the first place. The rise of the three-letter acronyms that still dominate the industry, which led to geographically based areas of professional wrestling. These so-called “territories” would not cross paths with each other often, and they respected the others’ autonomy. That is, until one man’s vision became too large for just the North-eastern territory.
Vince McMahon Sr, was the leader of the North-eastern wrestling territory. McMahon Sr, just as most of the other leaders in the industry, was very respectful of the other territories’ jurisdictions. To him, encroaching on another territory, much less trying to acquire one, was unfathomable. His son, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, did not hold the same values. After McMahon Sr started to get too old to run the business, his namesake and natural successor began to run the show. And run it he did.
McMahon started syndicating his territorial show across the country. This was unheard of and met with massive backlash. However, it was not only met with backlash; it was also met with extreme success. McMahon took professional wrestling national and created some of the biggest stars in wrestling history. It was at this time that Hulk Hogan started to become the face of the sport. Wrestlemania became one of the best-selling live events of all time, and territories slowly started to fall victim to the ever-expanding reach of Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
The seemingly never-ending expansion of Vince McMahon led to a simple duopoly in the wrestling industry by the 1990s. The World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling were the only two major wrestling promotions left in the United States. Rich man vs. Rich man. Vince McMahon, a member of arguably the most important wrestling dynasty vs. Ted Turner, billionaire entrepreneur that revolutionized the modern news cycle, as well as the man responsible for the success of the Atlanta Braves. Two titans from two different worlds. Both shared an amazing love for the sport of professional wrestling. They also both shared extreme loves of money and competition. The Monday Night Wars began and the territories were seemingly on their death bed.
The Monday Night Wars are thoroughly explained in "Death of the Territories". However, this is a story that has been told many times by many people. Simply put, after many long and arduous battles, the Monday night war had ended. As the Battle Hymn of the Republic plays, one man emerges from the rubble of the battlefield. As this man makes his way through the carnage, onlookers can see the silhouette of a 6’1, buff billionaire. He lifts his sword and utters the phrase “Raw. Is. War.” Vince McMahon was the king of professional wrestling. The WWF had officially acquired WCW and just like that, the duopoly turned into a monopoly.
"Death of the Territories" by Tim Hornbaker does an exquisite job at conveying this unbelievable, yet true, story. The pacing of the book is almost perfect. It feeds you adequate amounts of interesting details, while also telling the story at an engaging pace. Hornbaker truly makes the reader feel as though they are witnessing the painful death of fair competition within the wrestling industry. This is such an amazing story and I think anyone, a fan of professional wrestling or not, could find this book interesting. I highly recommend "Death of the Territories" to anyone who wants to learn more about the history of professional wrestling because there were days before the WWE was the only option.
"Death of the Territories" starts by proving background on the early history of professional wrestling. Hornbaker gives context to how the territories actually came to be in the first place. The rise of the three-letter acronyms that still dominate the industry, which led to geographically based areas of professional wrestling. These so-called “territories” would not cross paths with each other often, and they respected the others’ autonomy. That is, until one man’s vision became too large for just the North-eastern territory.
Vince McMahon Sr, was the leader of the North-eastern wrestling territory. McMahon Sr, just as most of the other leaders in the industry, was very respectful of the other territories’ jurisdictions. To him, encroaching on another territory, much less trying to acquire one, was unfathomable. His son, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, did not hold the same values. After McMahon Sr started to get too old to run the business, his namesake and natural successor began to run the show. And run it he did.
McMahon started syndicating his territorial show across the country. This was unheard of and met with massive backlash. However, it was not only met with backlash; it was also met with extreme success. McMahon took professional wrestling national and created some of the biggest stars in wrestling history. It was at this time that Hulk Hogan started to become the face of the sport. Wrestlemania became one of the best-selling live events of all time, and territories slowly started to fall victim to the ever-expanding reach of Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
The seemingly never-ending expansion of Vince McMahon led to a simple duopoly in the wrestling industry by the 1990s. The World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling were the only two major wrestling promotions left in the United States. Rich man vs. Rich man. Vince McMahon, a member of arguably the most important wrestling dynasty vs. Ted Turner, billionaire entrepreneur that revolutionized the modern news cycle, as well as the man responsible for the success of the Atlanta Braves. Two titans from two different worlds. Both shared an amazing love for the sport of professional wrestling. They also both shared extreme loves of money and competition. The Monday Night Wars began and the territories were seemingly on their death bed.
The Monday Night Wars are thoroughly explained in "Death of the Territories". However, this is a story that has been told many times by many people. Simply put, after many long and arduous battles, the Monday night war had ended. As the Battle Hymn of the Republic plays, one man emerges from the rubble of the battlefield. As this man makes his way through the carnage, onlookers can see the silhouette of a 6’1, buff billionaire. He lifts his sword and utters the phrase “Raw. Is. War.” Vince McMahon was the king of professional wrestling. The WWF had officially acquired WCW and just like that, the duopoly turned into a monopoly.
"Death of the Territories" by Tim Hornbaker does an exquisite job at conveying this unbelievable, yet true, story. The pacing of the book is almost perfect. It feeds you adequate amounts of interesting details, while also telling the story at an engaging pace. Hornbaker truly makes the reader feel as though they are witnessing the painful death of fair competition within the wrestling industry. This is such an amazing story and I think anyone, a fan of professional wrestling or not, could find this book interesting. I highly recommend "Death of the Territories" to anyone who wants to learn more about the history of professional wrestling because there were days before the WWE was the only option.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2022
I'm going to preface this review by saying that while I'm not necessarily a fan of wrestling, I'm also.... not not a fan of wrestling? I'm fascinated by professional wrestling as an industry and as an incredibly unique form of entertainment, one that (and here is the cliche!) blurs the lines between what is reality, what is storytelling, and what is some kind of fusion of the two that has taken on a life of its own. That's the perspective I'm writing this review from, as someone who is kind of in between being a fan and being a person who randomly picked up a book on pro-wrestling.
This book covers the slow death of the territory system on which pro-wrestling operated for decades before WWF's push to go national through television broadcasting. The territory system was basically what it sounds like -- regional, somewhat exclusive wrestling promotions that operated on local circuits with minimal toe-stepping on the promotions in other territories. This model was held in place by something akin to a gentleman's agreement up until the early-mid 1980s, when Vince McMahon Jr. took over his father's wrestling promotion and began a push for national expansion and television broadcasting that totally upended the industry. The result is the near-monopoly of pro-wrestling that we see today.
This book is absolutely packed with information -- it's incredibly detailed and very thoroughly researched. The downside...is that it's absolute packed with information. This is a somewhat dense book without a lot of flair to the writing style, and some portions of the book read like just long lists of different events, gates, and match outcomes. I listened to this over audiobook, and I can't decide if that was the right call. On the one hand, I think the audiobook pushed me through circumstances where I might have grown bored reading a print copy. On the other, I think a print copy would be really beneficial for following along with names and acronyms. I think this could also be a great reference book for anyone who does any kind of analysis or scholarship on the topic, and for that I think a print copy would be better.
As far as being engaging, I found myself the most interested in the beginning of the book, which initially touches on Vince McMahon's acquisition of his father's company and the beginning of the expansion of the WWF, and then the end of the book, which loops back into that topic more thoroughly. The middle dives into the status of many different territories during the early 1980s before the territory system begins to fall. I think that this is a necessary piece -- it tells crucial stories about promotions that no longer exist, many of which had big impacts on wrestlers who would go on to take the world stage -- but at times, it was pretty dry and dull.
I think this is a good book to dive into for people who already have some familiarity with the territory system and the history of pro-wrestling, which I think is probably true of most pro-wrestling fans. For people who are curious and don't have that same background or aren't fans yet, I would probably recommend they go watch some pro-wrestling documentaries (Vice's The Dark Side of Wrestling is a good series for newbies AND true crime fans) or youtube video essays or just some matches first. As an entertainment form and an industry, pro-wrestling is incredibly rich and dynamic, with a lot of drama both inside and outside of the ring -- and even in the board rooms! I think even for the curious, a book like this just isn't a great starting place, because you miss out on the visuals, the charisma of performers, and the sheer spectacle that I think draws people to pro-wrestling in the first place.
This book covers the slow death of the territory system on which pro-wrestling operated for decades before WWF's push to go national through television broadcasting. The territory system was basically what it sounds like -- regional, somewhat exclusive wrestling promotions that operated on local circuits with minimal toe-stepping on the promotions in other territories. This model was held in place by something akin to a gentleman's agreement up until the early-mid 1980s, when Vince McMahon Jr. took over his father's wrestling promotion and began a push for national expansion and television broadcasting that totally upended the industry. The result is the near-monopoly of pro-wrestling that we see today.
This book is absolutely packed with information -- it's incredibly detailed and very thoroughly researched. The downside...is that it's absolute packed with information. This is a somewhat dense book without a lot of flair to the writing style, and some portions of the book read like just long lists of different events, gates, and match outcomes. I listened to this over audiobook, and I can't decide if that was the right call. On the one hand, I think the audiobook pushed me through circumstances where I might have grown bored reading a print copy. On the other, I think a print copy would be really beneficial for following along with names and acronyms. I think this could also be a great reference book for anyone who does any kind of analysis or scholarship on the topic, and for that I think a print copy would be better.
As far as being engaging, I found myself the most interested in the beginning of the book, which initially touches on Vince McMahon's acquisition of his father's company and the beginning of the expansion of the WWF, and then the end of the book, which loops back into that topic more thoroughly. The middle dives into the status of many different territories during the early 1980s before the territory system begins to fall. I think that this is a necessary piece -- it tells crucial stories about promotions that no longer exist, many of which had big impacts on wrestlers who would go on to take the world stage -- but at times, it was pretty dry and dull.
I think this is a good book to dive into for people who already have some familiarity with the territory system and the history of pro-wrestling, which I think is probably true of most pro-wrestling fans. For people who are curious and don't have that same background or aren't fans yet, I would probably recommend they go watch some pro-wrestling documentaries (Vice's The Dark Side of Wrestling is a good series for newbies AND true crime fans) or youtube video essays or just some matches first. As an entertainment form and an industry, pro-wrestling is incredibly rich and dynamic, with a lot of drama both inside and outside of the ring -- and even in the board rooms! I think even for the curious, a book like this just isn't a great starting place, because you miss out on the visuals, the charisma of performers, and the sheer spectacle that I think draws people to pro-wrestling in the first place.
October 8, 2018
In the beginning, wrestling captivated America. Farm boys were familiar with it, having done it themselves as tests of strength and finesse. Over time, it became entertainment - a part of the carnival where hookers grappled with unsuspecting marks who attempted to impress their friends by trying to defeat the wrestler. Over time, it became an event in various venues. Unfortunately, fans soon tired of the multi-hour matches that featured more grunting than action. Hence, the birth of the fixed match and kayfabe.
Over time, various wrestling promotions formed and dominated the landscape. Recognizing their need to stay profitable, many of these same promoters formed the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948. Here, the heavyweight champion was crowned and arrangements made to bring him to the various alliance members, as well as to provide a mechanism for talent sharing so cards stayed fresh and have clearly defined territories so no member would directly compete with another. Absent the 1957 consent degree from the government, the NWA largely worked as intended until one day it didn't.
Once Vincent K. McMahon assumed control of Capital Wrestling from his father, he was determined to take over the wrestling business and place it under his domain. Combined with the advent of cable TV and lots of money, he was able to invade territories, take their stars, venues, and TV stations. From there, he would let them bleed to death. Worse yet, the remaining promoters were slow or reluctant to adjust to the changing landscape and found themselves out of business. Only Jim Crockett Promotions in the mid-Atlantic territory survived longest of all, but even they eventually sold out to Ted Turner to stay in business.
What Tim Hornbaker has done is tell the story of one man's successful conquest of the wrestling business and how he did it. This story is compelling, well told and copiously sourced. All angles are examined and no one is given a short shrift. Seeing promoters like Owen, Ed Farhat, Verne Gagne, and Jack Adkisson slowly succumb to the behemoth that was Titan Sports is heartbreaking to read. These men lost their livelihoods and could not come to grips that "sports entertainment" was the next direction that wrestling took. McMahon would not complete his coup d'etat until his purchase of WCW in 2001.
Hornbaker does not portray McMahon as a villain; to the contrary, the author merely details the steps McMahon took to create his grappling empire. Hornbaker is not a judge here; he's telling the story and letting the reader draw his own conclusions.
BOTTOM LINE: The definitive history of the end of the territorial era in pro wrestling.
Over time, various wrestling promotions formed and dominated the landscape. Recognizing their need to stay profitable, many of these same promoters formed the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948. Here, the heavyweight champion was crowned and arrangements made to bring him to the various alliance members, as well as to provide a mechanism for talent sharing so cards stayed fresh and have clearly defined territories so no member would directly compete with another. Absent the 1957 consent degree from the government, the NWA largely worked as intended until one day it didn't.
Once Vincent K. McMahon assumed control of Capital Wrestling from his father, he was determined to take over the wrestling business and place it under his domain. Combined with the advent of cable TV and lots of money, he was able to invade territories, take their stars, venues, and TV stations. From there, he would let them bleed to death. Worse yet, the remaining promoters were slow or reluctant to adjust to the changing landscape and found themselves out of business. Only Jim Crockett Promotions in the mid-Atlantic territory survived longest of all, but even they eventually sold out to Ted Turner to stay in business.
What Tim Hornbaker has done is tell the story of one man's successful conquest of the wrestling business and how he did it. This story is compelling, well told and copiously sourced. All angles are examined and no one is given a short shrift. Seeing promoters like Owen, Ed Farhat, Verne Gagne, and Jack Adkisson slowly succumb to the behemoth that was Titan Sports is heartbreaking to read. These men lost their livelihoods and could not come to grips that "sports entertainment" was the next direction that wrestling took. McMahon would not complete his coup d'etat until his purchase of WCW in 2001.
Hornbaker does not portray McMahon as a villain; to the contrary, the author merely details the steps McMahon took to create his grappling empire. Hornbaker is not a judge here; he's telling the story and letting the reader draw his own conclusions.
BOTTOM LINE: The definitive history of the end of the territorial era in pro wrestling.
September 21, 2018
DEATH OF THE TERRITORIES, by Tim Hornbaker, recounts the professional wrestling world starting with its geographically organized existence from the 1950's to the late 1970's as an alliance where each region knew how to work with and coexist amongst the group as a whole to the total upheaval of the wrestling community. A revolution started by Vince McMahon Jr and the WWF and ended in the late 1980's with a new dynamic; McMahon on top, and everyone else retired, gone, and/or wiped out. Any remaining other wrestling entities are so beneath McMahon's company financially and in popularity it's as if there are in a completely different avenue of the wrestling business.
Hornbaker really digs deep into the history of wrestling: the promoters, the organizations, and the wrestlers themselves. The layout of the book attempts to be chronological, but sometimes the tangents to explain a particular organization or person leaves the calendar and then circles back to the proper order later. The information and stories Hornbaker has gathered are great; there are things I've never known and stories that are one of a kind about many colorful personas, plentiful in the history of professional wrestling. Growing up in the 1980's in North Carolina, I watched first hand many of the shows and organizations that Hornbaker wrote about and having his gathered insights to look back on, it brings so many more layers and makes everything from that time so much more interesting. The book's layout is challenging at times with so many names and regions to keep track of, which while mirroring how many wrestling fans felt at the time, as a reader was tough to keep straight. As a reader, I wish Hornbaker could have formally had some breakout chapters to highlight certain people and/or groups so that there is a definitive break in the timeline of the book and then drop the reader back in when the spotlight is done.
Layered in facts and great tales of wrestling past, DEATH OF THE TERRITORIES is a must have for the wrestling enthusiast. I think wrestling touched most people in the 1980's and was a key component in the pop culture of the time. To that end, most people who read this novel will find some way to connect to it and take away new knowledge on the business of professional wrestling.
Thank you to ECW Press, Tim Hornbaker, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Hornbaker really digs deep into the history of wrestling: the promoters, the organizations, and the wrestlers themselves. The layout of the book attempts to be chronological, but sometimes the tangents to explain a particular organization or person leaves the calendar and then circles back to the proper order later. The information and stories Hornbaker has gathered are great; there are things I've never known and stories that are one of a kind about many colorful personas, plentiful in the history of professional wrestling. Growing up in the 1980's in North Carolina, I watched first hand many of the shows and organizations that Hornbaker wrote about and having his gathered insights to look back on, it brings so many more layers and makes everything from that time so much more interesting. The book's layout is challenging at times with so many names and regions to keep track of, which while mirroring how many wrestling fans felt at the time, as a reader was tough to keep straight. As a reader, I wish Hornbaker could have formally had some breakout chapters to highlight certain people and/or groups so that there is a definitive break in the timeline of the book and then drop the reader back in when the spotlight is done.
Layered in facts and great tales of wrestling past, DEATH OF THE TERRITORIES is a must have for the wrestling enthusiast. I think wrestling touched most people in the 1980's and was a key component in the pop culture of the time. To that end, most people who read this novel will find some way to connect to it and take away new knowledge on the business of professional wrestling.
Thank you to ECW Press, Tim Hornbaker, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
October 2, 2019
From my perspective, professional wrestling is basically theatre for fit people.
It occurred to me while reading this book that I witnessed a good portion of what happened in here, but I didn't understand what was going on. I grew up watching professional wrestling on a black and white television, watching the WWWF (later WWF, now WWE) on WNOR out of New York City. The 'announcer' was Vince McMahon Jr- I had no idea he was the son of the owner. I knew that the WWWF was centered around NYC, with its big events at MSG.
What I didn't understand was that there were over 30 other regional wrestling 'territories' in North America. Each had its own set of stars, with handshake agreements to bring in grapplers from other regions to freshen up the lineup, or to build plotlines from time to time. The territories also had a code (sometimes written, sometimes not) to not raid talent from other territories, or to host events outside of their own territories.
When I moved with the military, I learned about the NWA and AWA on television, as well as the local league in Pensacola. I saw a fair amount of movement of wrestlers between leagues, and I wondered how it all fit together.
This book chronicles how Vince McMahon Jr had the vision and the perseverance to end the territory system once and for all. Yes, he broke the rules. Yes, he signed talent from outside the Northeast. Yes, he deliberately staged events in out-of-territory cities to upstage other wrestling promoters. Yes, he emphasized entertainment over technical wrestling. Love him or hate him, McMahon delivered a product that people wanted to a mass audience, through cable TV and later pay-per-view.
As for the book itself, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars for the exhaustive research that it contains, coupled with a narrative that ties it together. I had expected a narrative going topic by topic, with occasional mention of a specific set of matches to emphasize the key points. Instead, this book gives a blow-by-blow account of what wrestlers in what league had what type of match in what city on what day, and how many people were in attendance. Chapeau for the patience to dig up that level of research.
If you grew up watching wrestling in the territory days and wonder what happened, this book provides a really good explanation of just how we got here.
It occurred to me while reading this book that I witnessed a good portion of what happened in here, but I didn't understand what was going on. I grew up watching professional wrestling on a black and white television, watching the WWWF (later WWF, now WWE) on WNOR out of New York City. The 'announcer' was Vince McMahon Jr- I had no idea he was the son of the owner. I knew that the WWWF was centered around NYC, with its big events at MSG.
What I didn't understand was that there were over 30 other regional wrestling 'territories' in North America. Each had its own set of stars, with handshake agreements to bring in grapplers from other regions to freshen up the lineup, or to build plotlines from time to time. The territories also had a code (sometimes written, sometimes not) to not raid talent from other territories, or to host events outside of their own territories.
When I moved with the military, I learned about the NWA and AWA on television, as well as the local league in Pensacola. I saw a fair amount of movement of wrestlers between leagues, and I wondered how it all fit together.
This book chronicles how Vince McMahon Jr had the vision and the perseverance to end the territory system once and for all. Yes, he broke the rules. Yes, he signed talent from outside the Northeast. Yes, he deliberately staged events in out-of-territory cities to upstage other wrestling promoters. Yes, he emphasized entertainment over technical wrestling. Love him or hate him, McMahon delivered a product that people wanted to a mass audience, through cable TV and later pay-per-view.
As for the book itself, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars for the exhaustive research that it contains, coupled with a narrative that ties it together. I had expected a narrative going topic by topic, with occasional mention of a specific set of matches to emphasize the key points. Instead, this book gives a blow-by-blow account of what wrestlers in what league had what type of match in what city on what day, and how many people were in attendance. Chapeau for the patience to dig up that level of research.
If you grew up watching wrestling in the territory days and wonder what happened, this book provides a really good explanation of just how we got here.
March 8, 2021
(Audiobook) This book attempts to offer the reader a history of pro wrestling, especially how the old territory system rose and fell. Unfortunately, I am not sure who the target audience was supposed to be. The work just jumps right into the 1920s/1930s and mentioning how pro wrestling was in those times and how it evolved into the 1950s and 1960s. However, this work assumes that the reader will have a working knowledge of pro wrestling, and I think the author missed a great opportunity to educate folks how pro wrestling came into being before the TV boom of the 1950s (there was even a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon taking a shot at pro wrestling).
From there, this work reads as a chronology of the regional wrestling system, how some loose confederations banded together to form the NWA and how the regional systems attempted to manage wrestling and its stars. However, the wrestling world changed with the rise of Vince MacMahon. He turned the regional system on its head and in the 1980s created a national/international system that still defines wrestling today. However, the work can’t quite find the balance between the match actions and the action outside the ring. It doesn’t seem to acknowledge the scripted nature of pro wrestling, holding the old line about wrestling not being “fake”. While the outcomes are pre-determined, the actions of the men and women in the ring are not, and they have to know what they are doing, less they injure or even kill themselves.
As an old wrestling fan, I appreciated some of the recounting of the 1980s, when I avidly followed it. However, this work was a little too disjointed for my liking. There was potential to offer greater insight into that time, but it didn’t quite get there. Would recommend some other YouTube videos and/or podcasts to get a better, more engaging sense of wrestling in the pre-WWF/WWE in its prime days.
From there, this work reads as a chronology of the regional wrestling system, how some loose confederations banded together to form the NWA and how the regional systems attempted to manage wrestling and its stars. However, the wrestling world changed with the rise of Vince MacMahon. He turned the regional system on its head and in the 1980s created a national/international system that still defines wrestling today. However, the work can’t quite find the balance between the match actions and the action outside the ring. It doesn’t seem to acknowledge the scripted nature of pro wrestling, holding the old line about wrestling not being “fake”. While the outcomes are pre-determined, the actions of the men and women in the ring are not, and they have to know what they are doing, less they injure or even kill themselves.
As an old wrestling fan, I appreciated some of the recounting of the 1980s, when I avidly followed it. However, this work was a little too disjointed for my liking. There was potential to offer greater insight into that time, but it didn’t quite get there. Would recommend some other YouTube videos and/or podcasts to get a better, more engaging sense of wrestling in the pre-WWF/WWE in its prime days.
June 29, 2020
As short (and by necessity) densely packed narrative histories of something as complex as an entire national industry completely transforming in the space of a few years, go, Hornbaker's impressively researched and clearly argued account of Vince McMahon's almost always hostile takeover of pro wrestling in North America might never be equalled.
This isn't just a great wrestling history book. This is a great history book.
Compressing so much history into a book this size is a huge achievement. True, there's the odd editing slip-up here and there and some issues are skated over without the detail necessary to tell the story properly but a 260ish page book about wrestling history is simply more commercially viable than the 800+ page monster I'm sure Hornbaker could have produced instead.
Starting off by setting the scene of what territorial wrestling was, Hornbaker quickly moves onto Vince's WWWF takeover, expansion and resulting end of a national business model that had existed for decades. He's fair to McMahon (almost to a fault) and hands out plenty of criticism for the business ethics of some of the promoters Vince ran out of business.
McMahon's expansion, Hornbaker makes clear, rested on little more than mountains of debt and self-belief. His competitors were all simply too slow, too complacent or too belligerently parochial to effectively work together for long enough to stop him. When they belatedly did, they either destroyed themselves (World Class), hadn't a clue how to change with the times (AWA), overspent wildly (JCP) or had the misfortune to have a ticket-buying fanbase reliant on the oil industry when it crashed (Mid-South). Still, their stubborn resistance makes for a fascinating, dramatic underdog story, even when you know the ending.
This isn't just a great wrestling history book. This is a great history book.
Compressing so much history into a book this size is a huge achievement. True, there's the odd editing slip-up here and there and some issues are skated over without the detail necessary to tell the story properly but a 260ish page book about wrestling history is simply more commercially viable than the 800+ page monster I'm sure Hornbaker could have produced instead.
Starting off by setting the scene of what territorial wrestling was, Hornbaker quickly moves onto Vince's WWWF takeover, expansion and resulting end of a national business model that had existed for decades. He's fair to McMahon (almost to a fault) and hands out plenty of criticism for the business ethics of some of the promoters Vince ran out of business.
McMahon's expansion, Hornbaker makes clear, rested on little more than mountains of debt and self-belief. His competitors were all simply too slow, too complacent or too belligerently parochial to effectively work together for long enough to stop him. When they belatedly did, they either destroyed themselves (World Class), hadn't a clue how to change with the times (AWA), overspent wildly (JCP) or had the misfortune to have a ticket-buying fanbase reliant on the oil industry when it crashed (Mid-South). Still, their stubborn resistance makes for a fascinating, dramatic underdog story, even when you know the ending.
May 2, 2019
Do you like professional wrestling? Have you ever wanted to know why the North American wrestling landscape changed from the tapestry of small promotions, each of them covering their own geographic area or "territory" to the near-monopoly WWE has today? If your answer to either of those questions are "no", then this book isn't for you.
If you answered yes however, this book may be for you, if you're prepared to read through 240 pages bogged down with attendance figures, gate receipts, promotion abbreviations and wrestling results. If you know nothing about the so-called "territory days", this book will probably seem confusing; I have a decent knowledge but got confused at times.
The book title make it seem more exciting than what actually happened. There wasn't much of a war nor betrayal. Instead it describes how WWE owner Vince McMahon took over each territory - spoiler alert- : by obtaining exclusive TV and arena rights, stacking the match card to get more people, and offering wrestlers to be seen on a national scale.
If you're interested in wrestling history it's a decent albeit somehwat boring read.
If you answered yes however, this book may be for you, if you're prepared to read through 240 pages bogged down with attendance figures, gate receipts, promotion abbreviations and wrestling results. If you know nothing about the so-called "territory days", this book will probably seem confusing; I have a decent knowledge but got confused at times.
The book title make it seem more exciting than what actually happened. There wasn't much of a war nor betrayal. Instead it describes how WWE owner Vince McMahon took over each territory - spoiler alert- : by obtaining exclusive TV and arena rights, stacking the match card to get more people, and offering wrestlers to be seen on a national scale.
If you're interested in wrestling history it's a decent albeit somehwat boring read.
May 16, 2020
im Hornbaker’s Death of the Territories proves that wrestling history can be informative and entertaining, while still following traditional methods for documenting the story you’re telling (in layman’s terms, you can write a book backed by facts rather than just talking out of your a*s). Hornbaker chronicles the various factors that saw wrestling’s popularity explode while simultaneously altering the status quo forever. It’s a tale of ambition, complacency, and miscues that can apply to any business today.
Death of the Territories is the natural follow up to Tim Hornbaker’s previous book, Capitol Revolution. There, he traced the McMahon family’s rise to fame as the promoters behind Capitol Wrestling and its successors, the World-Wide Wrestling Federation and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Hornbaker ended the book with Hulkamania about to take off, leaving plenty of room for a future installment in wrestling history. Rather than focusing on just the WWF, Hornbaker examines the entire wrestling scene in the United States and Canada, providing an excellent companion for Capitol Revolution and his book on the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling.
The problem with wrestling history is that it’s rarely done right. Writers are often lazy, recycling urban legends with little or no historical basis or they have no idea how to document where they get their information from. Although the quality of wrestling journalism online has taken off, there’s still a huge void in print and digital books for well-written and well-documented history about professional wrestling.
The 1980’s was one of the wildest times in professional wrestling. The industry was enjoying a boost in popularity with a number of territories providing some of the best action in years. Even better, fans could now enjoy wrestling from outside territories thanks to the spread of cable television and to a lesser degree, the advent of tape trading amongst fans. Fans now could see wrestlers from another region without reading about it in the Apter magazines or visiting a friend out of town.
However, these same forces also changed the industry’s traditional business model. The idea that promoters limited their shows to one region was no longer written in stone as cable television gave them an outlet to promote their product much farther than originally possible. Fans hadn’t seen this since the Golden Age of Wrestling in the 1950’s when network television carried wrestling around the country. Once upon a time, promoters bought up TV time in a limited geographic area, promoting their shows within this airspace and abstaining from encroaching on other promotions. For example, the WWF stayed in the Northeast while the AWA was traditionally limited to the Midwest.
The result was an incredible time to be a wrestling fan, with fans of the sports of the kings now having access to a smorgasbord of the crème de la crème of the wrestling world. Fans with cable were often able to watch more than one promotion and over time, it became common for fans to have access to the WWF, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), and sometimes others such as Mid-South or World Class Championship Wrestling. The spread of pay-per-view and home video expanded fans’ access to other promotions.
However, while competition proved a boon for fans, it proved problematic for promotions with smaller budgets. As the boundaries between promotions broke down, promoters found themselves having to compete with bigger promotions not only in terms of house shows, but in terms of keeping their talent. Over time, Vince McMahon signed even some of the smallest promotions’ stars, just to hurt their business. Ironically, McMahon would lament the same practice when World Championship Wrestling signed away some of his top stars.
Death of the Stories covers it all, from promotions in Hawaii to promotions on the East Coast. Tim Hornbaker packs considerable information into each page and has an energetic writing style that makes this a page-turner for anyone interested in business and/or wrestling history. The book is well-documented with numerous sources, but never strays into reading like a textbook.
My only complaint about this book is that it could have been longer, allowing the author to go into even more detail. Given the sheer scope of the book (you’re talking about numerous NWA territories, the AWA, and the WWF), it’s hard to detail big events such as the first WrestleMania, the details behind Starrcade, etc. For example, there are conflicting stories about Vince McMahon’s finances leading into WrestleMania with some stories indicating he was in good shape while others making it sound like Vince gambled everything on the show. While Hornbaker gives his take on things, he doesn’t go into much detail. Likewise, he mentions Pro Wrestling USA, the collaboration between the NWA and AWA that was designed to fight the WWF’s national expansion into their respective territories. This is glossed over which is unfortunate as it is one of wrestling’s greatest “what if” stories had it succeeded. Hornbaker’s book on the NWA, National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling came in at 372 pages while Capitol Revolution was 259 pages. It’s arguable the NWA legacy needs 372 pages, but I argue the territories’ collapse and consolidation into two national promotions deserves just as much given its importance.
Nonetheless, this is a solid book and one any student of wrestling history owes it to themselves to pick up. Death of the Territories follows the rise of Vince McMahon and the simultaneous fall of the territorial system, covering even the smallest of territories. It gives an excellent look into the strategy and tactics that worked for McMahon in turning the WWF into America’s number one promotion. Perhaps equally important, it traces what went wrong for McMahon’s competitors.
Death of the Territories is the natural follow up to Tim Hornbaker’s previous book, Capitol Revolution. There, he traced the McMahon family’s rise to fame as the promoters behind Capitol Wrestling and its successors, the World-Wide Wrestling Federation and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Hornbaker ended the book with Hulkamania about to take off, leaving plenty of room for a future installment in wrestling history. Rather than focusing on just the WWF, Hornbaker examines the entire wrestling scene in the United States and Canada, providing an excellent companion for Capitol Revolution and his book on the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling.
The problem with wrestling history is that it’s rarely done right. Writers are often lazy, recycling urban legends with little or no historical basis or they have no idea how to document where they get their information from. Although the quality of wrestling journalism online has taken off, there’s still a huge void in print and digital books for well-written and well-documented history about professional wrestling.
The 1980’s was one of the wildest times in professional wrestling. The industry was enjoying a boost in popularity with a number of territories providing some of the best action in years. Even better, fans could now enjoy wrestling from outside territories thanks to the spread of cable television and to a lesser degree, the advent of tape trading amongst fans. Fans now could see wrestlers from another region without reading about it in the Apter magazines or visiting a friend out of town.
However, these same forces also changed the industry’s traditional business model. The idea that promoters limited their shows to one region was no longer written in stone as cable television gave them an outlet to promote their product much farther than originally possible. Fans hadn’t seen this since the Golden Age of Wrestling in the 1950’s when network television carried wrestling around the country. Once upon a time, promoters bought up TV time in a limited geographic area, promoting their shows within this airspace and abstaining from encroaching on other promotions. For example, the WWF stayed in the Northeast while the AWA was traditionally limited to the Midwest.
The result was an incredible time to be a wrestling fan, with fans of the sports of the kings now having access to a smorgasbord of the crème de la crème of the wrestling world. Fans with cable were often able to watch more than one promotion and over time, it became common for fans to have access to the WWF, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), and sometimes others such as Mid-South or World Class Championship Wrestling. The spread of pay-per-view and home video expanded fans’ access to other promotions.
However, while competition proved a boon for fans, it proved problematic for promotions with smaller budgets. As the boundaries between promotions broke down, promoters found themselves having to compete with bigger promotions not only in terms of house shows, but in terms of keeping their talent. Over time, Vince McMahon signed even some of the smallest promotions’ stars, just to hurt their business. Ironically, McMahon would lament the same practice when World Championship Wrestling signed away some of his top stars.
Death of the Stories covers it all, from promotions in Hawaii to promotions on the East Coast. Tim Hornbaker packs considerable information into each page and has an energetic writing style that makes this a page-turner for anyone interested in business and/or wrestling history. The book is well-documented with numerous sources, but never strays into reading like a textbook.
My only complaint about this book is that it could have been longer, allowing the author to go into even more detail. Given the sheer scope of the book (you’re talking about numerous NWA territories, the AWA, and the WWF), it’s hard to detail big events such as the first WrestleMania, the details behind Starrcade, etc. For example, there are conflicting stories about Vince McMahon’s finances leading into WrestleMania with some stories indicating he was in good shape while others making it sound like Vince gambled everything on the show. While Hornbaker gives his take on things, he doesn’t go into much detail. Likewise, he mentions Pro Wrestling USA, the collaboration between the NWA and AWA that was designed to fight the WWF’s national expansion into their respective territories. This is glossed over which is unfortunate as it is one of wrestling’s greatest “what if” stories had it succeeded. Hornbaker’s book on the NWA, National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling came in at 372 pages while Capitol Revolution was 259 pages. It’s arguable the NWA legacy needs 372 pages, but I argue the territories’ collapse and consolidation into two national promotions deserves just as much given its importance.
Nonetheless, this is a solid book and one any student of wrestling history owes it to themselves to pick up. Death of the Territories follows the rise of Vince McMahon and the simultaneous fall of the territorial system, covering even the smallest of territories. It gives an excellent look into the strategy and tactics that worked for McMahon in turning the WWF into America’s number one promotion. Perhaps equally important, it traces what went wrong for McMahon’s competitors.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2025
After reading over 300 books as an adult - almost-entirely being biographies of baseball, sporting or historical figures - I have come to two conclusions about good biographies worthy of your time. There's authoritative, well-researched biographies so chocked full of details that they make even historians envious - and then there are captivating biographies, books that simply enchant your entire reading experience and captures your imagination on every single page. This book is undoubtedly the former, though I was waiting for just a taste of the latter.
The telling of the beginning of the wrestling territorial system and all commentary on Vince McMahon's WWF national expansion was satisfying and met my expectations. However, simply stating match results and attendance numbers in various territories throughout the 1980s lulls the reader to sleep and makes you wish to fast forward to the next tale regarding McMahon's ascendance to the mountain top. Four stars for the sheer amount of information gathered, but the presentation could have been so much better...
The telling of the beginning of the wrestling territorial system and all commentary on Vince McMahon's WWF national expansion was satisfying and met my expectations. However, simply stating match results and attendance numbers in various territories throughout the 1980s lulls the reader to sleep and makes you wish to fast forward to the next tale regarding McMahon's ascendance to the mountain top. Four stars for the sheer amount of information gathered, but the presentation could have been so much better...
May 24, 2022
Wow. I went from having cursory knowledge of how things happened (from listening to podcasts by people like Jim Cornett and good old J.R. and Bruce Pritchard) to having a much better understanding of what I was seeing as a youngster (watching WWF and NWA/AWA/WCW on the TV) and of how the people moved around. A phrase stuck with me from late in the book, how pro wrestling used to run on handshake deals and then became more strictly business, and that echoes from what I'd heard from the old timers out in the offshore oil patch in the Gulf of Mexico. That kind of thing probably all happened around the same timeframe, too, given the ages of the folks who said it. How curious.
There is, of course, some rehashing of events in the book itself, as it doesn't take a strictly linear path through the years, but it's told in such an open, engaging style that I didn't mind so much. I really liked it, and will probably search out more of this same kind of material.
There is, of course, some rehashing of events in the book itself, as it doesn't take a strictly linear path through the years, but it's told in such an open, engaging style that I didn't mind so much. I really liked it, and will probably search out more of this same kind of material.
October 24, 2018
I have been a pro wrestling fan for almost 60 years. I remember Buddy Rogers, Bruno Sammartino, The Kangaroos, Bobo Brazil and many other Old-time wrestlers. I remember watching Florida Championship Wrestling with Gordon Solie in black and white when I was in college. I have been fascinated by the entertainment that pro wrestling has provided and have always been interested in knowing more about the business side of it.
Hornbaker takes me back to the AWA, NWA, Mid-South and other regional federations and how they tried to fend off the national ambitions of the WWF and Vince McMahon.
My sense is that this book is fine for readers who are long time pro wrestling fans. I think many other readers would be confused without knowing more about the history of the federations and the personalities of the wrestling federation owners and the wrestlers.
Hornbaker takes me back to the AWA, NWA, Mid-South and other regional federations and how they tried to fend off the national ambitions of the WWF and Vince McMahon.
My sense is that this book is fine for readers who are long time pro wrestling fans. I think many other readers would be confused without knowing more about the history of the federations and the personalities of the wrestling federation owners and the wrestlers.
May 29, 2023
Don’t even know how to rate books. I have no system. But this felt like a 3 star one for me. As an informative, historical overview of Vince McMahon’s takeover of the wrestling industry — which began with a host of shrewd, progressive business moves, including having the capital to wipe out and/or subsume the many independent regional territories that made up the wrestling business, dubbed the NWA — it is a very good book. But the writing is dry, if readable, and there is a stunning lack of the juicy stuff that comes with learning about the carnivalesque world of pro wrestling. Without all of that wild speculation and hearsay, and without the accounts of backstabbing, infighting and tabloid controversy, it’s very dry. Oh well, for those who love capitalist takeover and for those who love wrestling to a mind-numbing degree (I fit the latter), it is worth a read.
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