Brian Damage
The year is 1985 and the world of professional wrestling is rapidly changing. The World Wrestling Federation is expanding nationally, gobbling up many of the weaker territories across the country. The WWF has regularly appeared on MTV and secured a cable television deal with the USA network. Jim Crockett Promotions, is easily the number two promotion in the country with a secured TV deal with the superstation WTBS. The wrestling business was indeed booming, so surely there was room for a third promotion to be brought into the national spotlight. This is the story of the battle to become the number 3 wrestling promotion in all of wrestling…
The fast growing ESPN sports network on cable television was looking to get themselves into the pro wrestling business and opened up a time slot for a wrestling show. It was to be paired with a sport that was going in the opposite direction of pro wrestling in Roller Derby. Regardless, any promotion that was lucky enough to snag a cable TV deal in this particular era, would be a major move for sure. When word got out that ESPN was in the market for professional wrestling on their network, several territories emerged to try and get that coveted spot.
Jerry Jarrett and his Continental Wrestling Association based in Memphis, Tennessee was extremely interested in the ESPN spot. So much so, it was reported that Jarrett teamed up with a person that at one time was considered an enemy to several promoters in Ann Gunkel. Gunkel ran against the almighty NWA in the 1970’s and was thought of as an outlaw and public enemy number one. Despite that, Jarrett became business partners with her, to try and create a pilot show for ESPN to view. Jarrett invested in better lighting, new ring and booked Jerry ‘the King’ Lawler versus Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage at the Mid South Coliseum. Before any of this got off the ground, Jarrett and Gunkel had a falling out and Gunkel was removed as a business partner delaying the pilot for a few weeks.
‘Cowboy’ Bill Watts made it known that he would “aggressively” go after the ESPN TV deal. Many felt that Watts’ Mid South territory had the best shot at landing the deal due to his strong roster of wrestlers and experience producing TV. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, Watts did not secure the spot.
According to then manager/booker Gary Hart…World Class Championship Wrestling was in the running for the ESPN slot and was even offered it. Hart claimed that it was WCCW owner Fritz Von Erich who declined the offer. The reasoning, according to Hart, was Fritz frowned on the idea of his show being paired with roller derby. Fritz allegedly felt that fans would look at his promotion as a joke sharing TV time with something as ridiculous as roller derby.
‘The Tennessee Stud’ Ron Fuller attempted to make a play at the ESPN slot by renaming his territory. Fuller renamed his Southeastern Wrestling, Continental Championship Wrestling to give it a more national appeal. He also expanded his territory back into a few areas he gave up on years ago due to not being big moneymakers to show ESPN he was a larger organization. Problems arose, however, when ESPN asked Fuller to invest on better production values. The money that it would’ve taken to overhaul production, just wasn’t worth it for Fuller and company.
Ultimately, the battle was won by Verne Gagne and the American Wrestling Association (AWA). The rumor was that the AWA won the ESPN contract because of an ESPN executive’s young son. The son allegedly immediately recognized Sgt. Slaughter as a wrestler from his appearances in GI Joe. Apparently, that was enough to seal the deal for the AWA and ESPN. The other report, is that Verne personally knew an executive that worked for ESPN from doing business with Pro Wrestling USA.
Now don’t get me wrong, the AWA was a very strong territory to begin with…but getting the ESPN deal helped solidify the promotion as a true number 3 wrestling company in the United States. During which time, the WWF, NWA (JCP) and AWA were affectionately known as ‘The Big 3’ in professional wrestling.
