2009 Running Pro Wrestling Thread

It was back before wrestling was broadcast on TV, I believe.

And someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the title holder would be one of the only wrestlers to appear on TV when it was on.

 

That would make sense. I remember when Ric Flair had the NWA Television Title and he was one of the wrestlers who was on T.V. at the time.

 

The NWA TV championship was, at least initially, ONLY defended on TV and in matches with 15-minute time limits, back when a U.S./National title match went 20-30 and the World title match would go 45-60 (and 90 for Flair-Windham matches). The announcers would even talk about having to prepare for a TV title match because it required a quick win. It evolved into a third-level belt, though occasionally they would make a bigger deal of it (I seem to recall Steven Regal escaping with the title after getting pinned at 15 ... 01 awwwww no title switch).

 

Problem is it's only an hour show with a very raw, underdeveloped roster. I don't think they could pull off another title.

 

The TV title was also a way to give certain shows (like WCW Saturday Night) a consistent championship match, wasn't it? Guys like Hogan and Flair weren't going to slum on that show once the Monday night shows got rolling in earnest.

I was just glad that belt gave the Disco Inferno a title run. Always loved that guy.

 

I don't remember Flair ever holding the TV strap. Arn Anderson was the consummate TV champion.

Originally, back when the weekly TV show was just one-hour squash matches and interviews plugging the house shows, the TV title was created so you could see one solid match on TV every week. The belt was only to be defended on television.

Then it became known as "the best wrestler on television" and then just became a prop -- the jobber title, so to speak.

 

You're right, actually. I think he only held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, but he did hold other small titles when he wrestled for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, IIRC.

 

Prior to Nitro, WCW Saturday Night was the main show on TV for the company on a weekly basis during the early 90s. The matches would generally be of better quality than the WWF two-minute squashes, but generally, very little would happen in terms of decisive finishes. Flair and Sting would appear in matches on occasion.

You also had WCW Worldwide, which showed mostly squashes, with a few exceptions (like a Vader/Foley Texas Death Match in which Foley got powerbombed on the outside mats a year after their memorable storyline of the powerbomb on the concrete). It was taped at Disney, and generally was pretty lame.

Then once Nitro hit, WCW Saturday Night got basically ignored. It was used to hype up Nitro with just the bottom-feeding wrestlers. Heck, Hacksaw Jim Duggan once was given the title of 'King of Saturday Night wrestling' or something like that.

 

As some others have said, many promotions, like NWA and Mid-South Wrestling, had their TV champion defend his belt every week. That was a way to kind of throw a bone to the television audience and build a following. It was usually a pretty decent match, but they'd throw a jobber in there every once in a while. Some of the more popular wrestlers at the time (JYD, Ted Dibiase, Terry Taylor) were TV champs.

I really miss those old-school wrestling shows which consisted of four or five matches of named guys against jobbers, then one or two main-event type matches. Now, you have champions jobbing to scrubs because WWE has changed the whole mindset. I don't really hate it, but I kind of like the idea of not everyone being a "superstar." That mirrors life and if anything Cowboy Bill Watts taught me, professional wrestling mirrors life. You didn't need to pick up a newspaper in the 80s to know what was going on in the world, you just needed to tune into Mid-South Wrestling.

 

I can't remember what channel it airs on, but on Saturday or Sunday nights they air classic AWA matches. Now some of those are fun to watch - sometimes.

 

ESPN Classic had been airing a bunch of old shows.

 

which are pretty good for nostalgic purposes, but when somene gets pinned after a suplex, you get that WTF? feeling.