411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘Black Saturday: The Rise of Vince’

-Welcome to the Season Finale of Dark Side and I thank you all for following along with me the last ten weeks. They usually close each season with a bang and this time it’s Black Saturday. Let’s get to it!

-For the final time this season, a reminder that Chris Jericho is our narrator.

-We start at WrestleMania I as Jericho says the wrestling world has been dominated for over 40 years by The WWE and their owner, Vince McMahon. In the early 80s Vince was just staking his claim in a wrestling world divided into territories.

-Jim Cornette says that in 1983 wrestling fans knew Vince Jr as the announcer of the WWF TV program. Those in wrestling knew Vince was the son of Vince McMahon Sr, and had just bought the company from his father in 1982. Cornette introduces himself as an historian and says he has studied Black Saturday and it’s effects on Modern Pro-Wrestling. He notes that when Vince bought the WWF, the business in that part of the country had never been stronger.

-Dave Meltzer is next to give us a brief history of the NWA and how they were the governing body of the territories. Dave and Jim both say that wrestling has always had in fighting between the territories. Cornette compares it to The Mafia and talks about the yearly meeting all the leaders of the territories had. They all looked at Vince Jr as a kid, not knowing Vince wanted to be the Walt Disney of wrestling.

-Jim Barnett is running Georgia Championship Wrestling and it is one of the territories that is still making solid money. Cornette calls Barnett a charmer and he was the guy called to make connections. Gerald Brisco says he got along well with Barnett and learned a lot from him. Dave says Barnett was different than most wrestling guys and was into fine art. He wasn’t allowed in the NWA for years as they had an old boys club and didn’t want someone gay in their group. Cornette says Barnett was a cutthroat behind the scenes, who would cut your balls off and shove them down your throat and you would thank him for it.

-Barnett was friends with Ted Turner, who aired Georgia Championship Wrestling nationally on his cable station, WTBS. Dave notes Georgia was the first wrestling show on cable television and everyone thought Turner was nuts for putting an Atlanta regional wrestling show on national TV. Wrestling ended up being the biggest show on the station. All the big stars from the NWA would fly in to Atlanta to do some shows to get national recognition.

-Brisco says it was the #1 TV show on cable TV. It was a combination of Gordon Solie’s voice and the Hall of Fame talent that assembled in Georgia. Tommy Rich, former NWA World Champion, says it was a crazy time and watching the fans was sometimes more fun that watching the boys in the ring. The studio only held 100 people and they would bring in boy scout groups, girl scout groups to watch the show. We meet Bobby Simmons, former Georgia Championship Wrestling employee. He would be one of the people setting up the ring.

-Ole Anderson was in charge of match making and ruled the promotion with an iron fist. Cornette says that Ole was one of the smartest individuals around. Joe Hamilton, Jr (Nick Patrick) is next and says you either hated or loved Ole, and then corrects himself as it was hard to love Ole. Makes me happy to see Nick! Ole was a hard ass that made people earn everything. Next up is Ole’s son, Bryant Rogowski, and he says what you saw with his dad is what you saw. People believed what they saw from whether in real life or on TV. This was filmed before Ole’s recent passing as his son notes he was recently diagnosed with MS and is in a state where he can’t do a lot for himself. Ole was all about business and he bought into the Georgia company rather early into his career. Brisco and his brother also bought into the company. Cornette gives a rundown of the half dozen or so guys that bought into the company.

-Ole started questioning where the money was going as things were being skimmed off the top. They knew some would go to pay off officials and politicians, but not all of it. They expanded north a bit as the money was going into the pockets of Mr. Barnett. Ole was the only one to question Barnett and Cornette tells a story of Ole getting into the books while Barnett was in Asia buying new suits. Ole kicked the door down to his office and saw where Barnett was spending 3 grand on phone bills, and Jim had a personal chef and driver.

-They had a meeting and checks were handed out about a calendar that was sold. Ole was able to rally the troops and got the majority of the owners on his side. Bobby says Ole told him to put the checks back in the bank and that he worked for him now. Ole said he was running the company and everything would be done his way. Cornette: “Hell hath no fury like Barnett scorned.”

-Commercials!

-Ole tries to convince people that Jim was embezzling money. Jim’s defense was that it was the cost of doing business. Louise Cochran, another former Georgia employee, says the company was in a lot of debt because Jim over promised. That was an opening for Ole and they had a talk with Barnett. The idea was Ole was going to be President and if Jim didn’t like it, they would toss him off his balcony. This was years before Shug and Vanilla Ice! Brisco calls out Ole for picking on a smaller Barnett. Cornette says fucking with Barnett can ruin your career. Barnett knew he had to wait for his moment as everyone knew he would do something eventually.

-Back to Vince as he maintained the status-quo at first. Behind the scenes he had ideas and the first thing he wanted to get was television. His plan was to take over the TV time of other promotions and he hires, Jim Barnett. The NWA has the annual meeting in 1983 and this is where Vince and Barnett blindsided everyone with their resignations. Cornette says that can only mean two things: they are out of wrestling or they are competition to the NWA. Ole knew what it meant and told them the gloves would be off. The problem was you couldn’t handle the business in 1983 and 1984 like you did in 1953 and 1954. Also, Vince wasn’t going to play that game and he had Barnett in his corner.

-Bob Roop says that Barnett was getting older but needed to keep working. There was an unspoken agreement that everyone was respectful of the other territories. Ole’s son feels Barnett and McMahon were working together right away and started their plan to sabotage Georgia. Vince would go to stations and offer them $2000 a week to take his show and stop showing Ole’s. That’s our Vince! Well, our 80s Vince. Not the one accused of shitting on people. Georgia had no contract so they started losing their reach. Vince would steal building and apparently give anonymous tips to cops about workers in other promotions selling drugs. Ole’s son admits that his dad never found proof, but it was just funny that these things just started happening once Vince started his plans.

-Vince got the USA time-slot from Southwest Championship Wrestling (San Antonio) as they could not afford the slot anymore. All American Wrestling debuted in the slot. He told the other promoters that he had a National show now and they could send him tapes to get their guys over, but it was all a ploy as Vince wanted the tapes because he wanted to sign the top stars from the other promotions. Again, that’s our Vince! Though, I don’t really blame him for that as it was just business and they were all going to cut their throats eventually. The big name was obviously getting Hulk Hogan from the AWA and he immediately wins the WWF Title in MSG. Vince had his superhero to put all over TV as Vince knew controlling TV was the key. Meltzer says Vince was public enemy number one and he doesn’t doubt the stories that people put hits out on Vince.

-Barnett tells Vince he thinks he can get the WTBS spot and Vince knew that could let him take over every territory in the country.

-Commercials!

-Ole was desperate to hold his territory and Cornette says the in ring product started to suffer. Ole was using the leftovers as a lot of his talent went to WWF. They weren’t spending the money on the top talent like they used to which frustrated the boys. The Briscos wanted to push Ole out, but needed a majority vote. The Lawyers told them they could not have a meeting without stating a purpose. They went to a bar to regroup and Ole showed up to meet them. They told him they were going to take the company over from him. They wanted to know why the money in the bank can’t be paid out, and Ole’s son goes over how his dad had to explain to them why they needed cash in the bank to pay bills and deposits for buildings. The dividend checks would come when he would get another $100,000. He reminded them that he would benefit from dividend checks. They all made an agreement that if they would ever want to sell stock, they had to offer it to other board members first. Ole cut his hand with a knife and signed the agreement in blood. He convinced everyone else to do it. Ole’s son says his dad was a man of his word and would never tell a lie. You can easily see how proud he is of his dad and how highly he thinks of him. I commend that as that is his father!

-The Briscos are looking to sell and Barnett puts them in touch with Vince. Brisco says he still jokes with Vince that he flew them up in coach. The Briscos felt they could sell because Ole broke the agreement first by not paying out. Vince asked if they could get him 51% of the territory and they told him they could. Barnett knew the lay of the land with the stock owners and could get what he wanted from everyone. By the end, Vince owned 67.5% of Georgia Championship Wrestling. Ole’s son brings up the agreement that they had to sell to the other stock holders first and he was assured by the lawyers that would protect him. “Well, that turned out not to be true.”

-Commercials!

-Ole’s mother passes in in March of 1984 and while handling the arrangements in Minnesota he gets a call from Louise. She says the door to her office opened, and Vince walked in and told her that he now owned the company. She called Ole and told him that Vince stole the company. Louise thought it was sneaky and didn’t like the way they went about doing it. Ole and his son flew home immediately and Ole filed an injunction. They fought for 3-4 months, but it didn’t matter. Old footage from Ole giving an interview where he notes there was a deal in the bylaws that if the majority of the stock holders wanted to change the rules, they could. Barnett was smart enough he could do it, while Ole didn’t know.

-Cornette says Vince was still talking to Ole and was offering him a job. He kept telling Ole that it was just business. Vince introduces Ole to Linda, and well, according to Cornette it was “Fuck You and Fuck Linda.” And that’s our Ole!

-Hamilton says he went in on a Saturday and Vince McMahon was there. None of the talent knew anything. Roop was told not to go to TV and Louise said she didn’t go as she was fired. Bobby says Vince fired everyone and told them if they wanted to use them, they would call them.

-July 14, 1984: Fans turn on WTBS expecting Gordon Solie and instead, they get Freddy Miller, who introduced Vince McMahon. There was no studio audience and no wrestling in the studio as instead, Vince showed taped WWF matches from other parts of the country. Cornette: “Fans of Georgia Championship Wrestling practically rioted.” Dave notes the fans bombarded the switchboards of WTBS as they screamed they wanted their RASSLIN! Rich says the fans were not buying what Vince was selling. Vince didn’t want the promotion, but instead he wanted their TV spot. Brisco says he was excited as it was the future and he calls it “Green Saturday,” as it changed his life and fortunes. That’s our Stooge! I was a WWF kid, so I would have loved it.

-Ole’s son noted that Jack and Gerry should have waited like Ole told them, but they didn’t. Brisco says that Paul Jones (the wrestler) called and told him that there was a hit out on him and his brother.

-Commercials!

-The Death of WCW comes in 3 weeks! Again, it seems they got a lot of the big names, but seem to be missing Hogan and as we heard, missing Flair as well.

-Ole is out for revenge as we get back to the idea that he put a hit out on The Briscos. Louise doesn’t think it is true because Ole wouldn’t want to spend the money and would have just done the hit himself. She has a point! “He would have been glad to do it himself.” Brisco talks about the threats their entire family received from fans.

-Ole works out a deal with Vince to sell his shares and then took that money to Ted Turner to get another slot. So we get Championship Wrestling from Georgia on WTBS at 7:30 AM on Saturday.

-Vince is struggling to connect with his Southern audience as Cornette notes this was a failure. Vince meets with Barnett and tells him to look for a buyer. The run for Vince on WTBS lasted one year, which is longer than I thought. They find a buyer in Jim Crockett for one million dollars. That money was used to finance WrestleMania and the rest is history. Awesome!

-The WWF became the name brand of pro-wrestling and he blows by everyone else who can’t compete with him. Ole’s son says that he knows his dad held a grudge against Vince for a long time. He shows off a letter that Watts wrote to Ole in April of 1987 about the significance of Black Saturday. In the letter it reads in regards to Vince, “his legacy will be the destruction of the industry as we know it.” Feel free to debate that as I guess he did destroy the industry as they knew it, but also took to places they could never imagine.

-Barnett was still Vince’s right hand man, but was still old time wrestling and Vince wanted to be modern. In 1987 they had a difference of opinion and Vince let Barnett go.

-Commercials!

-Cornette says “what goes around comes around,” and we get to Vince getting turfed from his own company due to the recent allegations. Hamilton says if you take a picture of Vince that is why there is a Human Resources Department. He credits Vince for revolutionizing the business, but there is also that dark side. Cornette notes Vince was forced out by his family as I just realized we are talking about the first allegations that forced him to retire. With so many allegations, it’s hard to keep track. Vince still owns 80% of the company though and forces his way back under the idea that he is over seeing the sale of the company. Mustache Vince is still so weird to see! Endeavor buys WWE and combines with UFC to form one big company. Jim says we are going to lose a lot of history and the last vestiges of old time wrestling as Endeavor has no feelings towards the history of WWE.

-Cornette says Black Saturday was the canary in the coal mine. Ole’s son says that was the moment the business evolved into show business. Roop says Vince put thousands of wrestlers out of work and the producers asks about all the wrestlers that became millionaires. Roop says only 3%. Rich says times change and he is still holding on to the 80s.

-Hamilton doesn’t think they blame the Briscos, but they blame Vince. He admits that it was the move to make though. Dave says cable television killed the territories and that would have happened with or without Vince as either Verne or Crockett would have gotten there. THANK YOU! Dave does say that he doesn’t think anyone else would have been as successful with it as Vince.

-We get a postscript: “On January 26, 2024, Vince McMahon resigned from his role as TKO Executive Chairman and his position on the Board of Directors after a former WWE employee filed a lawsuit against him alleging “physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, and trafficking.” This effectively ended his 55 year run with The WWE.”

-One more: “Ole Anderson (Alan Robert Rogowski) passed away on February 26, 2024.”

-I love history and I love pro-wrestling and when they two can be combined I am all there. This was a wonderful watch and it’s crazy how timing works with Vince’s recent issues and Ole passing just a month later. The talking heads were good here with Cornette carrying a lot of the heavy lifting and Dave filling in a good bit as well. The rest all had skin in the game, so their opinions can be slanted to what side they were on, and that’s to be expected. Ole’s son and Roop were clearly on the side that Vince was a dick who ruined the business, while Brisco was happy with his decision and what it helped create. Hamilton (Patrick) was pretty neutral and obviously the former Georgia employees had every right to be annoyed by what Vince, Barnett, and The Briscos did as it cost them their jobs. I agree with Dave in that someone was getting to cable first and Vince won the race. You can argue if him winning that race was best for business, but it’s hard to argue against what he created. I guess that also comes down to what type of wrestling fan you are and that likely depends on where you grew up. I few up on 80s WWF so that was my jam, but I appreciated all wrestling as a kid as I would watch NWA, WCW, AWA, World Class, Global, whatever that promotion was with the round system and Sgt Slaughter. This was obviously less Dark Side and more Business Side of Wrestling, but that’s fine as we need lighter episodes sometimes to cleanse us. Once again, thanks for following along with me this season and we will see what the future holds. We will be back with Vice though in a few weeks with The Death of WCW and I am sure that will bring rational conversations. Thanks for reading!