Lets face it ...a lot of modern wrestling nowadays is really boring with really no cool behind the scenes stories. There really isn't much comical stories like the time Austin Idol took a fake check from a wrestling battle royal according to Jim Cornette and cashed it at a bank in the 1980's . The people who worked at the bank attended the show and believed it was all real , allowing Idol to pocket the money.




"Don't ya know me darlin , I'm Austin Idol !"

There are a number of fun behind the scenes stories from shoots and more. Plus this thread is a nice one so that the modern stuff can be done in the current thread (which I think should be renamed The Wrestling Thread) since everyone is talking about the current state of the industry beyond WWE. But that is up to the mod on that one.


Anyhow one wild story is the chain reaction that moves can make in pro wrestling. In the 1980's one move actually changed the course of a lot of destines .


- Jim Cornette and his co-host discussed the Georgia Championship Wrestling change in 1982/1983. In that Georgia had at one time Jim Barnett , Ole Anderson , Brisco Brothers and Bill Watts (10% owner) of the territory. Overall the territory for a number of years ran like a machine in the 1970's and had been built very well by Barnett's business dealings and Ole's booking.


- But as time passed Ole and Barnett didn't get along it appears and as Jim claims that Christmas (perhaps 1983) Barnett went to Japan or China to get his suits made. He would go every year there on a trip. Now as Jim explains Barnett would put money into the company and take it out when need be. So Ole somehow got in the office and saw that Barnett had taken funds and used it to push him out of running the territory so once he returned home he no longer was in charge.


- Ole now was in charge fully and Cornette claims either he was burnt out by the years of booking/performing or the fact he now had to run things as well. And it was terrible at how things went. Wrestlers would lose or win for no reason and it became pretty bad. The Brisco brothers didn't like how things were going but Jim Barnett decided no one was gonna **** him over.





- Barnett contacted Vince McMahon who was busy gobbling up TV at the time to spread the WWF across the country and sold his part. Barnett also learned that the Brisco brothers weren't happy with things in Georgia and got Vince in contact with them. So they sold out too. The Brisco's worked a deal where they'd get employed by Vince for the next 30+ years as we saw.


- Ole at this stage had bought the 10% piece by Watts and was blindsided by this. The territory in effect now belonged to Vince and he tried to fight it. I detailed months ago that McMahon tried to get Ole to work for him like Barnett and the Brisco's would . At a hearing in court Ole lashed out at Vince and Linda McMahon which would never allow him to work for them.


But one move as we saw impacted so much as Cornette's co-host brought up...

1) The sale of Georgia had led Vince to do Black Saturday where WWF aired and many complained. This had Ted Turner sign UWF to air on TBS. The UWF became more popular than Vince's WWF . Turner also got Ole Anderson a show on TBS with a renamed Georgia territory.


2) Vince's WWF expansion in Georgia didn't work and he sold the time slot to Jim Crockett saying he'd regret buying it. The cost was $1 million dollars as Crockett was expanding Mid-Atlantic territory nationally. This had an effect on UWF as Turner dropped that company from TBS and impacted it , where later it would in 1987 be sold to Crockett .


3) This move as I posted literally impacted 3 territories in rapid order ...GCW , Mid-Atlantic and UWF. Its amazing how much changed due to one move by Ole Anderson there in 1982/1983.