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Topics: 75
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Post: #890916
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This message was edited by SuplexDeficiencyJones on October 16th, 2016 14:55 GMT
During the pre national expansion, territory day's of the late 1970's and very early 1980's. When only a small portion of American households had cable television (Whether the infrastructure locally wasn't set up. Or individual consumer' s didn't feel compelled at the moment not to subscribe even though it was available to them). And the magazines were the main source of information about wrestling outside one's home territory/ television market. I was to a degree fascinated with Poffo's ICW largely due to the quantity of coverage (And favorable for a clearly shoe string operation) they got from Norman Keitzer's publications (The Wrestling News and their rendition of Wrestling Revue) . And still find their operation an interesting case study of the business side of wrestling (And of building a startup business in general) .
With that said. Could it be argued that Poffo's ICW was the most successful and / or influential "Outlaw" or "Independent" wrestling promotion of the pre national expansion era? Think about it .
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How much of their talent went on to bigger payday' s and exposure in bigger promotions (Plus Randy Savage would become World Champion in WWF and WCW. Ronnie Garvin got a reign as NWA World Champion. Despite criticism on that one, it's still an honor the majority of Garvin' s generational peers in the business never got bestowed upon them. One Man Gang would get a run as UWF champion a few year's after working there as Crusher Bloomfield ).
They were in business for approximately five year's (Longer than World Class lasted after leaving the NWA. Or Global in Dallas despite a regular time slot on ESPN . Or Florida/ PWF post Crockett buyout of Florida' s NWA office) .
When you look at their territory from a geographical standpoint. Only the AWA and WWF had larger geographic coverage.
And did they provide a template (Or at the very least a confidence building precedent) for ECW and Savoldi' s ICW. To make a go of it competing against the establishment in later year's?
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Topics: 653
Replies: 2135
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Post: #890955
PT: #2/13
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From what I have heard, ICW was set up by Angelo Poffo to give Randy and Lanny more exposure since he thought that they were not getting proper pushes in other territories. Is this true?
ICW is an interesting promotion. From the footage I have seen the Poffos put on a pretty entertaining product. In fact, they were probably one of the more entertainment-oriented promotions from the era and sort of a precursor to what Vince Jr. would do with the WWF. I think it is a shame that ICW never collaborated with Dick the Bruiser’s WWA. Imagine Bob Luce and the Poffo family in the same territory!
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Topics: 1098
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Post: #890981
PT: #3/13
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Actually, I would say Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling was the most successful and influential outlaw promotion.
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Post: #890999
PT: #4/13
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Quoted from: SuplexDeficiencyJones, October 16th, 2016 14:52 GMTAnd did they provide a template (Or at the very least a confidence building precedent) for ECW and Savoldi' s ICW. To make a go of it competing against the establishment in later year's?
I say that the ICW-CWA feud was the one true precursor to the Monday Night Wars between Raw and Nitro. ICW announcers would give away the real names of CWA wrestlers on the air, issue challenges to CWA wrestlers, and Randy Savage even once attacked Bill Dundee at the CWA's gym. These kinds of cheap shots and dirty tricks (Bischoff giving away the results of taped Raws on live Nitros, anyone? Or calling out Vince for a match at Slamboree 98, and, when Vince didn't show up, declaring himself the "winner"? ) would be recycled during the Monday Night Wars, except for the part about attacking wrestlers at the gym.
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Post: #891056
PT: #5/13
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I don't believe in calling any promotion an outlaw - but the most successful would be the WWF.
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Post: #891201
PT: #6/13
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Ok, I'll bite. How, under any definition, was the WWF an outlaw promotion?
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Post: #891298
PT: #8/13
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No need to repeat what Eater said, he summed up my thoughts perfectly.
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Post: #891334
PT: #9/13
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I respectfully have to say that its a bit of a stretch to call a major promotion like the WWF, which was expanding their operations into new markets an outlaw.
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Topics: 47
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Post: #891346
PT: #10/13
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Size didn't matter - the AWA tried to go Outlaw in LA. The NWA stacked NWA cards in LA to defeat them.
What does size have to do with how the NWA viewed competition? Anybody that came in and opposed that was not an NWA sanctioned territory was an OUTLAW in their view.
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 horhna |
October 31st, 2016 00:31 GMT |
 
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Post: #892445
PT: #12/13
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I thinks it's been established that McMahon made peace with the NWA sometime in Sammartino's first reign and became a "quiet" member (I'm thinking 1970 or 1971). VJM was an officer of the Alliance....there's minutes from NWA conventions during the 70's that confirm that much. It's been confirmed that he (with his son's urging) cast the vote that put the NWA title back on Ric Flair and took it off Dusty Rhodes (going against his long time friend Eddie Graham in the process).
The WWWF/WWF spent most of it's life as a dues paying, voting member of the NWA until Titan Sports (VKM) bought out Capital Sports (VJM) and withdrew late 1982 earlier 1983.
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Topics: 60
Replies: 1547
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Post: #893738
PT: #13/13
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This message was edited by Wrestling Mind on November 13th, 2016 10:33 GMT
Quoted from: SuplexDeficiencyJones, October 16th, 2016 14:52 GMTDuring the pre national expansion, territory day's of the late 1970's and very early 1980's. When only a small portion of American households had cable television (Whether the infrastructure locally wasn't set up. Or individual consumer' s didn't feel compelled at the moment not to subscribe even though it was available to them). And the magazines were the main source of information about wrestling outside one's home territory/ television market. I was to a degree fascinated with Poffo's ICW largely due to the quantity of coverage (And favorable for a clearly shoe string operation) they got from Norman Keitzer's publications (The Wrestling News and their rendition of Wrestling Revue) . And still find their operation an interesting case study of the business side of wrestling (And of building a startup business in general) .
With that said. Could it be argued that Poffo's ICW was the most successful and / or influential "Outlaw" or "Independent" wrestling promotion of the pre national expansion era? Think about it .
?
How much of their talent went on to bigger payday' s and exposure in bigger promotions (Plus Randy Savage would become World Champion in WWF and WCW. Ronnie Garvin got a reign as NWA World Champion. Despite criticism on that one, it's still an honor the majority of Garvin' s generational peers in the business never got bestowed upon them. One Man Gang would get a run as UWF champion a few year's after working there as Crusher Bloomfield ).
They were in business for approximately five year's (Longer than World Class lasted after leaving the NWA. Or Global in Dallas despite a regular time slot on ESPN . Or Florida/ PWF post Crockett buyout of Florida' s NWA office) .
When you look at their territory from a geographical standpoint. Only the AWA and WWF had larger geographic coverage.
And did they provide a template (Or at the very least a confidence building precedent) for ECW and Savoldi' s ICW. To make a go of it competing against the establishment in later year's?
I consider Poffo's ICW to be the most successful of the pre-national expansion era "outlaw promotions".
You've got a (fairly) large territory with not much disposable income...there are not many big towns with a booming economy involved with Poffo's ICW. It's definitely a promotion that has to be run in an extremely fiscally conservative manner, no doubt.
Lexington was a big town in the East end of the territory, no doubt. Cape Girardeau was a big town for the West end. Had St. Louis been the big town on the West end of the territory...things would've gone down a little differently for Angelo. I guess it's a case of changing some details...but nevertheless, it's worth noting.
Angelo's ICW embodies success from, basically, nothing. His supreme money-management abilities had everything to do with the territory being successful for as long as it was.
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