Modern wrestling has been boring me lately, so I decided to take on a massive project of converting my wrestling tape collection to Blu-ray. Along the way in this process, I started tracking down years’ worth of matches from promotions I never watched in my formative wrestling years. For me, wrestling “began” in 1984, so this was quite the enlightening experience.
For all the great things Vince McMahon did for wrestling, effectively killing off the territory system definitely ranks higher and higher on my list of worst side effects. Back in the day, wrestlers would travel from promotion to promotion. Once their act got stale, they’d leave, say, New York and the World Wide Wrestling Federation to travel to Texas and work for World Class Championship Wrestling for a year before heading to another territory.
As I’ve learned over the course of this cataloging, the territory system was awesome. It provided these “dream matches” I didn’t even realize occurred, like King Kong Bundy vs. Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA vs Nikolai Volkoff, Junkyard Dog vs Butch Reed, Koko B Ware and Bobby Eaton (with manager Jimmy Hart) vs. Stan Lane and Steve Keirn. All these intriguing “what if?”-style matches of some of the biggest names in wrestling actually took place long before wrestling came into national prominence with the rise of Hulkamania.
Naturally as I’m looking through these matches, my figure wish list mode is kicking into overdrive, and I came up with a list of my most-wanted figures from the major territories. Most of these guys are super long shots, but that’s the point of a wish list, right?
Portland
This Oregon-based promotion doesn’t get a lot of wistful reminiscing from fans, which I can only chalk up to not a lot of people seeing it. This was the promotion where “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Curt Hennig, Rick Martel, Billy Jack Haynes, Matt Borne (aka Doink the Clown), The Sheepherders and more honed their skills before arriving in the WWF and NWA. For this territory, the top choice has to be Buddy Rose.
I know what you’re thinking. The Blow Away Diet guy? Yes, but sorta. Before finally accepting the big payday from McMahon to play a joke character, Rose was a spectacular heel. He ran Portland Wrestling with his Army, including Rip Oliver, The Sheepherders, Matt Borne, and Ron Bass, as they feuded with all the major babyfaces in the area. Rose was a tremendous villain as he could run his mouth, take a beating, and keep the fans irate enough to keep paying weekly to see him get humiliated. His best feud was arguably against Piper, which has become one of the great forgotten feuds in wrestling history. While he may not be on most folks’ Top 100 list, thanks to his run in Portland I actually really want a figure of Buddy Rose. Crazy world, ain’t it?
World Class
One of the most famous territories was the one run by Fritz Von Erich and headlined by his sons The Von Erichs. World Class boasted an amazing roster with numerous WWE Hall of Fame members, including Steve Austin and The Ultimate Warrior. The territory is most fondly remembered for the years-long rivalry between the Von Erichs and The Fabulous Freebirds. Mattel has already given us two of the three major Von Erich brothers with Kevin and Kerry, so this choice is pretty obvious — David Von Erich. Widely considered the best of the brothers, David was a phenomenal talent and reportedly was booked to beat Ric Flair for the NWA title. I’ve gotta assume Mattel is going to release the Freebirds in a three-pack so we need the third Von Erich to battle them.
Georgia
Georgia was one of the main NWA territories and constantly swapped talent with Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South, meaning at any point the promotion had guys like Dusty Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, The Road Warriors, Tommy Rich, and Junkyard Dog battling in main events. While we’ve gotten most of those guys, the one who I’d really like is a little mad — Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer.
Sawyer had a blood feud with Rich through much of 1983, but he also battled The Road Warriors and their partner Jake “The Snake” Roberts. He had a unique look with his bald head and furry boots and as a later mainstay in Mid-South, he clashed with stars like DiBiase, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and The Fantastics before a final main spotlight feud against the Four Horsemen in the NWA alongside The Great Muta.
AWA
In the ’80s, wrestling eventually came down to a Big 3 — the WWF, the NWA, and the AWA. Had the Minnesota-based promotion put its world title on Hulk Hogan, it’s highly possible it, not the WWF, would be the dominant wrestling promotion today. Stars like Sgt. Slaughter, The Road Warriors, The Freebirds, Mr. Perfect, and The (Midnight) Rockers competed for the promotion during the ’80s. While we’ve got most of those guys, my choice for the AWA was its equivalent to Ric Flair — Nick Bockwinkel.
With his manager Bobby Heenan by his side, Bockwinkel was a dominant champion as he staved off the challenge of foes like Hogan, Jerry Lawler, Wahoo McDaniel and Curt Hennig. As a WWE Hall of Famer, he might stand a solid chance of one day getting a figure made from Mattel.
Memphis
The Southern promotion was the early precursor to ECW as it featured crazy booking and brawls in the concession stands. Next to Jerry Lawler, the most popular act was easily The Fabulous Ones. Stan Lane and Steve Keirn were one of the first pretty-boy tag teams that would go on to inspire and influence teams like The Rock N Roll Express, The Midnight Express, The Midnight Rockers, and The Fantastics.
They battled every team that was anybody in Memphis and were responsible for some of the best matches in Memphis. They’re one of the all-time best teams and from a dream match perspective, it’d be fun pitting them against groups like The Brain Busters, the Twin Towers, and Demolition.