All language subtitles for S05E10 Dark Side of the Ring

[narrator]
On July 14th, 1984,

millions of loyal
viewers tuned into

cable channel WTBS

to watch its most
popular program,

World Championship
Wrestling.

Thank you so
very, very much.

But instead of a live
broadcast featuring the

south's most
popular wrestlers...

[Growling]

Fans were shocked by the
surprise appearance

of New York promoter...

Vincent McMahon Jr.

Thank you. It is
indeed a pleasure

to be associated
with WTBS.

And everybody's
mouth dropped open.

Did seem like the
world of wrestling

stopped at that time.

I was watching the TV.
I had no idea it was coming.

Nobody knew why.

You know, the fans of that
promotion were furious.

[Phones ringing]

It was a day that
would live in infamy,

forever known as
'Black Saturday.'

[Phones ringing]

Vince McMahon's
first step toward

his goal of
total monopoly.

He had a vision that
wrestling should be

national under
one person.

Far more than the tale
of one man's ambition,

'Black Saturday' is the story
of an epic behind the scenes

showdown between
titans of the industry.

They kind of hoodoo'd him
and snuck it out from

underneath him, more so
than him giving it up.

And Ole said, "Well
let's do a blood oath."

The first one to break
that oath was not us.

So my father,
he gets a call,

"They've stolen
the company."

A high stakes power play
that sets Vince McMahon

on the path
toward building

a billion dollar
wrestling empire.

It was all the beginning
groundwork

of future warfare.

Vince McMahon is a cancer
on the wrestling business.

Vince won, he was
the best at it,

he was the most vicious
shark in the sea.

♪

♪

Welcome to
WrestleMania!

-[Cheering]
-[Horn Blaring]

For over 40 years the
wrestling business has been

dominated by World
Wrestling Entertainment,

under the singular control
of its owner and mastermind,

Vince McMahon Jr.

But in the early 1980s,

McMahon is just beginning
to stake his claim on an

industry divided into
regional promotions

known as territories.

♪

In 1983, most wrestling fans

saw Vince McMahon Jr.

as the announcer of the

WWF television program.

Now everybody in the
wrestling business

knew that Vince was Vince
McMahon Senior's son

and was the guy who had
just bought the WWF,

the World Wrestling
Federation,

from his father in 1982.

Let's meet Jimmy Cornette
and his dynasty of wrestlers.

That's exactly right,
let's meet me.

Where did you get that
tie, Freddie Miller?

I'm Jim Cornette, and
through my 40 year career

in wrestling, I've been an
historian, specifically.

I've studied 'Black Saturday'
and its effects

on modern day
pro wrestling.

When Vince McMahon
Junior bought the WWF,

the business in that
part of the country

had almost never
been stronger.

Since the 1940s,

regional promoters
like McMahon Sr.,

did business through a
governing body called

the 'National
Wrestling Alliance.'

Well, the NWA,
they made these bylaws,

and they had territorial
boundaries where you

got this territory,
and you got this territory.

My name is Dave Meltzer
and I'm the editor of the

Wrestling Observer Newsletter
and I've been covering

pro wrestling since
the early 1970s.

In the NWA,
there were always,

always wars and fighting
and things like that.

Wrestling has always been
kind of like the mafia

without the
cement overshoes.

Nobody ends up at the
bottom of the river,

just a few black eyes
every now and then.

Every year the
NWA had a meeting.

All the promoters came.

It was like the Gambino's
and the Bonanno's,

and there's the Gotti's.

And it was all the families
that came together once a

year and decided the major
decisions for wrestling in

the United States for
the following year.

The other promoters looked at
Vince Jr like an upstart kid.

They didn't realize he
wanted to be the

Walt Disney of wrestling.

They didn't understand
not only the,

the plans that he had, but
the lengths that he was

willing to go to, to have those
plans come to fruition.

While some territories
showed signs of struggle,

Georgia Championship
Wrestling was thriving...

thanks to the shrewd
leadership of Jim Barnett.

Barnett was one of the
great minds in

wrestling as a promoter.

When he needed
to charm people,

he could charm people.

And he had connections
outside wrestling.

If you needed to discuss
something with a politician,

if you needed to talk to a
television executive or a

station manager
or a big sponsor,

Barnett was the guy
that they called to

make the connection.

Even in today's business,
as off the wall as the

characters are, Jim Barnett
would still stand out

as a very unique
character.

I'm Gerald Brisco,
better known as

"Jerry" Briscoe on the
wrestling circuit.

Let's go see the world
tag team champions

Jack and Jerry
Brisco in action.

My brother and I became the
only two people ever to

hold both of the eastern
championship and

the mid-Atlantic
championship.

Right, brother?

Well, they say we're
wild and we're mean,

we're creating a scene.
We gone crazy.

I got along real well and

learned so much
from Jim Barnett.

All the other promoters
were ex-wrestlers,

or they were loud
and braggadocious.

Jim always wore a
beautiful suit with a tie,

and he had the hair slicked
back and he had jewelry on.

Does wrestling
encourage violence?

I don't think so, no.
I never thought so.

He was very different
from a wrestling guy.

I mean, he was
interested in wrestling,

but he's more
interested in fine arts,

which is kinda unique for
a, a wrestling promoter.

For a while, they wouldn't
let Jim in the NWA until,

geez, like '70.

Because they didn't want
somebody gay in their,

in their old boy's club.

Behind the scenes,
he was a cutthroat.

He had the ability to cut
your balls off and shove 'em

down your throat and
you'd thank him for it.

Known as a powerful
liaison to TV executives,

Jim Barnett is close to
media tycoon Ted Turner,

who airs Georgia
Championship Wrestling

nationally on his
cable network, WTBS.

Wrestling was the first
hit on cable television.

It was Georgia
Championship Wrestling.

Turner just took his
local Atlanta channel,

17 TV Station, and put
up on the satellite,

and everybody
thought he was nuts.

Who's gonna wanna watch a
local Atlanta television show

in San Francisco, right?

There wasn't so
many options for TV,

so it was one of the
stations you got.

So you can watch
the Atlanta Braves,

and Andy Griffith
was big...

but wrestling was the
biggest show on the station.

You know, that was
like must see.

Coming up next, Georgia
Championship Wrestling.

All the stars of the
National Wrestling Alliance.

Surprise!

Flew into Atlanta every
weekend to appear on

the two hour
television program.

[Cheering]

A severe amount of
punishment to the heads.

It was the number one
TV show on cable TV,

that's how hot
it was, I mean...

what made it so hot was a
unique combination of

Gordon Solie, the voice of
Championship Wrestling.

I'm Gordon Solie,
your host.

And the available talent.

There were so many Hall of
Famers on that original

list of talent that it's
mind boggling that that

kind of group of talent
could assemble in

one small territory
like Georgia.

Ooh!

I think what made it so
special is it was TBS,

first TV station to go
all over the country,

and I got to wrestle
the best of the best,

I mean the cream
of the crop.

My name's Tommy
"Wildfire" Rich,

former NWA world
heavyweight champion.

-Welcome aboard, Tommy.
-Thank you very much, Gordon.

It was crazy.

A lot of times you'd sit
back and watch people,

and it would be as big a
show watching them as it

would be watching the
wrestling, you know.

Oh, Lord, yeah,
the Georgia peaches

and the grannies
love me, too.

I've seen grannies take their
cane and beat Ole Anderson

up with it, 'cause he's
beating me up, you know.

I put the TV ring up every
Saturday at the TV station.

It was cramped studio,
it only held 100 people.

And you packed 'em
in like sardines

to get a hundred
in there.

Boy Scout groups, Girl Scout
troops, church groups...

just fans that loved
to come every week.

My name is Bobby Simmons.
Started working for ABC

booking when I was 14
years old, running errands,

and then went
to work for

Georgia Championship
Wrestling.

We had good crowds and we
did sell out a lot of arenas.

The day to day operations
are handled by

matchmaker
Ole Anderson. ..

Ole Anderson!

A veteran wrestler
who rules

Georgia Championship
Wrestling with an iron fist.

Ole suckered him
that time.

Ole was very intelligent.

One of the most
intelligent guys,

one of the most
well-spoken guys.

He was loud,
he was opinionated.

Why don't you be quiet for
about two seconds and

let me talk and
say something!

But Ole was a
great wrestler.

And he had also gotten
quite a reputation

as a matchmaker
and a booker.

Stop the cameras!

Either you hate him or
you love him, or, well...

you don't love him, but
either you hate him

or you like him.
Let's put it...

[Chuckling]
He's kinda hard to love.

[Laughing]

My name is Joe Hamilton Jr.
I refereed and

wrestled as "Nick Patrick"
throughout my entire career.

I stopped the match myself.

Two! Nick Patrick very slow
to make a count right here.

I heard Ricky Morton
one time say,

"I don't think Ole Anderson
even likes ice cream."

You know, it's like-
[Laughing] And I agree,

he probably didn't,
you know.

He was just so old school
and grouchy but...

a lot of the old timers back
then were like that, you know?

They was, being hard ass
on the young guys and

making 'em,
making 'em learn.

He was what you saw.

My father was
very no nonsense.

I think the guy that you
saw on the screen was

very much the same guy
that ate breakfast with me

the next morning.

And I think that's really
part of the reason

he was successful,
is because people

could believe what
they were seeing.

My name is
Bryant Rogowski,

and I'm the oldest son
of Ole Anderson.

My father obviously spent
years bumping in the ring

and suffered a lot of
physical injuries,

and some years ago he
was diagnosed with M.S.,

and right now he's just
in a state where

he can't really do a
lot for himself.

I think he was all
about business.

It wasn't long into his
wrestling career that

he began to think about
being in charge.

Eventually, he bought
into the Georgia company.

Ole isn't the only wrestler
looking to increase

his fortunes by getting
involved in the

financial side
of the promotion.

Smart enough!

I started buying my stock
in small increments

where it built
up to over 10%.

And the same
with my brother.

In 1983, the stockholders
in Georgia Championship

Wrestling were the original
promoter Paul Jones,

a Columbus promoter,
Fred Ward,

his son-in-law, Ralph Freed,
Jim Barnett's business

partner, Jim Oates,
Jack and Jerry Briscoe,

and Ole Anderson.

Although Georgia
Championship Wrestling

is turning a profit,

Ole Anderson begins
to question whether all the

live show earnings are
being accurately reported.

Wrestling had always been
a very cash heavy business,

and money had always
probably been

siphoned off the
top to some degree.

And, you know, "We had to
pay off the politician."

Or, "We had to give some
money to the commissioner."

Or whatever it was.
And I think

surely there was
some truth to some of that.

But when my dad started
to really pay attention in

Georgia, and realized that
it wasn't only him

bringing Barnett a few
bucks after this show,

but it was 7 or 8
other guys all doing

the same thing...

he realized that
that amount of money,

surely couldn't all be
used for those purposes.

I had tremendous
concern, you know,

because I wasn't getting a
dividend and I'd invested

tens of thousands
of dollars.

We finally got Jim to
expand into Michigan,

Ohio and West Virginia,
part of Pennsylvania,

and we started selling
out right and left.

And I was actually
doing the settlement

at the shows at the time,
so I personally know

the amount of cash that I
was taking back to,

to Georgia, and that
wasn't getting in

anybody else's pocket
but Mr. Barnett's.

♪

Ole was the first one,
maybe the only one

at the time, to question
Jim Barnett.

The story went around that
while Barnett was in

Hong Kong making
his annual trip,

because he liked
to go to Hong Kong,

get all his new
suits made,

Ole either kicks the door
in or bust the door in,

whether the accountant
was in the office or not,

but Ole got
into the books.

It was like Fort Knox
trying to get to a,

a box office statement,
because he had 'em under

lock and key and the people
working in office were

instructed, "Don't let
anybody in my office."

It was actually
padlocked shut.

Ole, you know,
start examining the

books and everything,
and he saw, like,

Jim Barnett
spending all kinds of

crazy money
on phone bills,

$3,000 a month phone bills,
and he had a personal chef,

and he had a
personal driver.

So, Ole just thought
that, you know,

Jim was embezzling
money from the company.

They had a meeting of the,
the Georgia Championship

owners at a hotel
south of Atlanta,

in a conference room.

And Jim handed out
the cheques from

the proceeds of the
calendar we sold.

Supposedly when Jim left,
that's when Ole

came in and addressed
the, the owners.

Ole had rallied the troops
and gotten the majority of

the other stockholders
on his side.

♪

When I get to the office,
Jim's door is opened.

The light's on, I thought,
"What is this"?

And I heard Ole go,
"Bobby, come here."

And Ole handed me all the
cheques that I had written

for the proceeds of the
calendar, he said,

"Put this back
in the bank."

And he told me
that day, he said,

"You don't work
for Jim Barnett anymore,

you work for me."
Ole told me, he says,

"I'm not out to hurt Jim.

I'm not out to
put him in jail."

Whatever that meant.
He said, "I think I can

run this company and we're
gonna do it my way."

He thought everything
was black and white,

there were no
grey areas, that it was

just business, you acted
like businesspeople.

Well...

He found out very quickly
that it didn't work that way.

Hell hath no fury
like Barnett scorned.

After reviewing
the accounts for

Georgia Championship
Wrestling,

part owner Ole Anderson
tries to convince

his fellow shareholders
that manager Jim Barnett

is embezzling funds
from the company.

Well Ole would call me
and say,

"Well, Jim's stealing
all this money."

"Ole, is he stealing"?

"Well yeah, he's using
it for his limousine,

he's using it for this,
and nobody approved

those expenditures."
And, which was true.

Jim would just
explain it off,

it's cost of
doing business.

We had both
sides of the story.

Ole and Jim were not
the best of friends.

They were not even good
partners most of the time.

They were always at
one another's throats..

I'm Louise Cochrane,

formerly known as
Louise Bennett,

in Georgia
Championship Wrestling.

We were in a lot of debt,

because Jim had
promised the buildings

and the TVs so much
per week, or per month...

and it didn't matter if
we didn't make money.

That was a power play
for Ole to move in.

I think it was more than
just of a money power thing,

than a Jim is tanking us
with his spending thing.

My dad and Ralph,

another stockholder
in Georgia Championship,

went downtown to Barnett's
penthouse apartment,

and they had a
talk with him.

I think my dad probably
did most of the talking,

and explained to Barnett,
my dad was gonna be

elected president of
Georgia Championship.

That's the way it's gonna be,
and if you don't like it,

I'm gonna toss you
over your railing.

♪

Here you are, 285 pound
monster, and you're,

you're bullying
this old man.

You did not want to get on
the bad side of Jim Barnett

because he could actively

---- with you and your
wrestling career.

Now Ole is taking it
to a whole new level.

He didn't just no-show
Barnett, or stand him up,

or hold him up for
more money for

a main event
or whatever...

he's run him out
of the company.

Barnett knew that he
might not be able to

do anything
about it then.

You just know that he
definitely knew he was

gonna do something
about it eventually.

While Ole reorganizes
the company under

his own management
in early 1983,

Vince McMahon has been
quietly strategizing

to expand his own
promotion

into other NWA territories.

When Vince bought the
company from his father,

at first everything
maintained the status quo.

He had plans,
but he didn't start

putting them out
front of everybody,

where they could tell
what he was doing.

But, behind the scenes,

Vince Jr. has these
plots in mind before

even the other
promoters know that

he's gonna do it.

And the first thing that he's
thinking about is television.

♪

Vince McMahon's scheme
to steal the airwaves

from other promoters begins
by hiring an unlikely ally

as his director of
operations, Jim Barnett.

In 1983 they have
the annual meeting,

all the promoters
are there.

Barnett comes in,

so does
Vince McMahon Jr.,

and they both give
their resignations.

That couldn't be good.

What the ----'s
gonna happen?

Their, they, they, they were
all blindsided, for sure.

When they resigned
from the NWA,

that would mean they're
either gonna get out of

wrestling, or they're
going to run opposition.

That's the only two
things it can mean.

And that seems to indicate
that they're gonna go into

business for themselves,
with themselves,

in some other fashion.
Ole smelled it.

He said, "Okay, then the
gloves are gonna be off."

Well, the problem was you
couldn't handle the

wrestling business in
1983 and '84 like

you handled it
in 1953 and '54.

And secondly, Vince wasn't
gonna play that game.

And he had one of the
most powerful wrestling

personalities of the last
30 years in his corner

who knew absolutely
everybody.

Barnett hated Ole.

Barnett also was
looking at survival.

He was getting
up there in age,

but he needed
to keep working.

He needed to keep
that income coming in,

to maintain the facade
that he was a millionaire.

I'm Bob Roop, 13 year
amateur wrestler,

15 year professional
wrestler,

five-time
Hall of Fame member.

Bob Roop ladies and
gentlemen, Bob Roop!

Vince Senior, asked Ole
to come up and

meet with Junior,
and see if they could

make some kind
of arrangement.

And Ole said, "No."
He said, "Absolutely not."

You know, "He's trying to
steal my territories,"

and stuff.

There was this unspoken
agreement that people

honoured each
other's territory.

I'm sure Barnett was talking
to McMahon right away and

starting to sabotage
Georgia Championship.

Things started to happen
around that time that

had never
happened before.

McMahon would go to a
station that we were on,

we had a show running,

and offer them
2000 bucks a week

to take his show,

but they had to get rid
of Ole's show.

Nothing on paper,
there was no contract,

nothing said that
they had to honour

Championship Wrestling
from Georgia.

So the station
would say, "Okay."

Next you'd start
losing buildings.

You'd call to check
on the building and,

and see how ticket sales
are going, they say,

"Well, we stopped
selling 'em."

Bunch of police cars roll
up outside the TV station,

take somebody away.

They got an anonymous tip
that he's dealing drugs.

Or they're searching the
guys at the airport.

Things that just had never
happened before that were

just a constant thorn in his
side and making things

difficult to operate,
more so than usual.

I don't think he
ever had any proof,

and I don't know
how he would.

But like I say,
it was stuff that

never happened
until then.

Vince was infiltrating
everybody's territory.

Vince got the USA
Network time slot from

Southwest Championship
Wrestling,

another regional promotion
out of San Antonio.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the Southwest tag
team champions.

They couldn't afford
the slot anymore,

Vince jumped in
and took it.

And All American Wrestling
debuted on the USA Network.

He would call different
promoters and say,

"Hey, I've got this
cable show now.

If you'll send me tapes, then
I'll put your wrestlers on it

and I'll get them over to a
whole new audience."

But the people that he was
getting the tapes of and

showing, are people that
he wanted to sign

for the WWF.

He gets the Junkyard Dog
from Mid-South Wrestling,

he gets Steamboat
from the Carolinas.

He got Kerry von Erich
in Dallas.

He was buying out talent
from other areas.

You know,
Hulk Hogan was,

was on top in the
AWA for Verne,

and all of a sudden
he went to New York.

Hulk Hogan shows up

to win the WWF championship

from the Iron Sheik in
Madison Square Garden.

Now Vince has the superhero

on the top of his cards that

he wants to put in every
arena in the country and

all over television, to lead
his national expansion.

He knew that if you
controlled television,

you would control the source
of distribution for all the

wrestling programs and
all the top wrestlers.

Oh! [Laughing]

And that's what he
wanted to corner.

Everything had been
done a certain way,

and now everything
was different.

And Vince was public
enemy number one.

Some of the promoters
in there talking,

"What if we put a hit
on the guy"? You know?

And, you know,
it's a wild story. Um...

I don't doubt that it's true
at all because, you know,

like, these are, these
are bad dudes, just like,

you know, Vince was
breaking the rules.

Through Barnett's
calculated maneuvering,

Vince has seized TV time
from promotions

across the country,

but one remains
for the taking...

Georgia Championship
Wrestling,

and its nationwide
slot on WTBS.

And when Barnett comes to
him with a grudge against

Ole Anderson, who has
the widest distribution

of any television
program in wrestling,

and Barnett says to Vince,

"I think I can
get it for you."

And that's all he
needed to hear.

If he could take over
and control television

across the country,
then he could take over

every territory
in the country.

While Vince McMahon
scoops up talent and

TV spots from territories
across the country,

Ole Anderson tries to
hold Georgia Championship

Wrestling together by
any means necessary.

Maybe Ole thought he could do
everything at that point in

time, but Georgia Wrestling,
it still had the reputation,

but the product was
starting to suffer.

Yeah, I think he was trying
to run a business with,

you know,
second tier guys,

people that
weren't gonna draw.

I mean, he'd employed
just about everybody

in the business at one
point or another,

and it was those guys who
were now working for Vince

in WWF and becoming
his superstars,

leaving my father just

scratching around
for leftovers.

And that just wasn't
gonna sell tickets.

Ole had changed the
concept where

we weren't bringing in a
lot of outside talent.

Our live events were not
drawing the money because

we weren't spending the
money on the talent that

we were spending
on before.

And the top guys quit wanting
to come to our territory.

And we, we were actually
getting phone calls from

some of the top talent
around the country,

"Hey, what's going on?
You better watch Ole."

And not only took
their word for it,

but were out there
on several big shows and

experienced that payoffs
weren't the same.

Frustrated that their
investment is no longer

paying dividends,
the Briscos decide

Ole isn't cut out to
manage the company.

But in order to push out Ole,
they will have to get

their fellow
shareholders to agree

with a majority vote.

We called a
stockholder's meeting,

because we were gonna take
over Ole's dictatorship and,

and, and do
it ourselves.

And we flew into town
early, met with the lawyers,

and the lawyers said,
"Guys, you can't do this

stockholders' meeting,
it's illegal."

Because we didn't
state a purpose.

The meeting got
put off, of course,

so we went back to the hotel
and wanted to drown

our sorrows, so we were
sitting in the hotel bar,

and who all of a sudden
showed up in this bar?

Is Ole Anderson.

His purpose, track us down
to find out what the hell

we were planning
on doing.

And we weren't shy,
we laid out,

"We're here to take
you out of office."

♪

They want to know how much
money there is in the bank.

He tells them, "Well,
why can't you pay it out"?

And so I'm sure for the
hundredth time he tries to

explain to them how you
have got to have some

operating capital to
run this business.

You know, "I've got to
pay deposits on buildings,

I've got to pay
for advertising,

I got to buy plane tickets.

Once we get another
100,000 in the bank,

then I'll write the
dividend cheques.

Of course, I want to,
I'll get one too."

And we were done drinking
as much as we could drink,

and argued as much as we
could argue, and, Ole,

"I'll come up to the room with
ya I got a deal for yas."

"Okay, we'll listen to
one last pitch."

Ole said: "Well, you ever
watched The Godfather?"

Yeah. Well, I got this deal
with you, if you guys agree.

Let's do a blood oath

so we're all on
the same page."

The deal was if anybody
was gonna sell stock

they had to offer it to the
other shareholders in

Georgia Championship
Wrestling first,

before they could sell it
to anybody else.

♪

And my dad has a
little pocketknife,

sticks it in his head, gigs
it down, gets some colour.

♪

And they look at him
like, "Oh my God!

What's wrong with you"?

Ole, my word means
more than blood.

I mean,
you know, to me.

I mean, if I give you my word,
I'm gonna live up to it.

I don't need these
little gimmicks to, to,

to certify my,
my honesty.

Probably took him about
10 minutes to convince

Jack and I to do
the same thing.

[Laughing]

So that was the Ole
solution to our problem.

You know, let's cut
ourselves and

bleed on each other.

My dad was such a man
of his word that

if he shook your hand and
said he was gonna

do anything,
he would do it.

He just, he believed
people because,

you know, he,
he would never tell a lie.

As part of the
blood oath agreement,

the Briscos will focus on
increasing ticket sales

in exchange for
regular payouts.

But the deal doesn't
last for long.

So, first one to break the
oath was Ole 'cause

he quit paying us what he
agreed to pay us, so...

we felt that we, we had
an open waters there

to do what we
wanted to do.

That lit a fire under us that
if we stick in this situation

too much longer, we're not
gonna have anything.

Desperate to cash out,

the Briscos begin
shopping their shares

outside of the company,

starting with Jim Barnett,
who turns them down.

Knowing the Briscos
are looking to sell,

Barnett knows someone
who wants to buy...

Vince McMahon.

So Vince flew us
up to LaGuardia,

and still to this day
I'll rib Vince about

flying us up coach.
[Laughing]

We met at LaGuardia
Airport. He said,

"Can you guys deliver me
51% of the territory"?

And I looked at him and
I said, "Yes, sir, I can."

I had to make
a call to Jim Barnett.

Jim Barnett knew
everybody that

owned a piece of Georgia.

Jim Barnett knew who they
liked, who they didn't like,

what they were mad about,
what their weak spots were,

whatever the case.
All Jim Barnett had to do

was point Vince McMahon
in the right direction,

not only at the Briscos
but anybody else.

Or, talked to
them himself.

He could make you do
something you didn't

want to do, and by the
time he was finished,

you'd think it
was your idea.

In the end of the
negotiations and

all the transactions,
Vince ended up owning

67 and a half percent of

Georgia Championship
Wrestling.

[Thundering]

Which of course also
held the contract for

the television
program on TBS.

There was an agreement in
the articles of incorporation

that before anybody
was to sell, they had to

first offer it to one of
the other stockholders.

And he was told repeatedly
by the attorneys that

that was going
to protect him.

Well, it turned out
not to be true.

Behind the back
of Ole Anderson,

the Briscos align
with Jim Barnett

to give Vince McMahon
control of

Georgia Championship
Wrestling,

a move that will forever
reshape the industry.

In March of 1984,

my grandmother passed
away very suddenly.

My father and I go up to
Minnesota, Wisconsin

and take care of
the arrangements

and family business.

He gets a call
from the office,

I think it was Louise
who called him.

I was in my office and the
door opens and

Vince walks in.
"Good morning."

Ah... "I now own
the company."

So I called Ole,

and told him that Vince
had stole the company.

I thought it
was real sneaky.

It's not that they did it,
it's just how they did it.

He and I got on a
plane right away.

He parked me at a
hotel in Atlanta.

He immediately met
with the lawyers,

they filed for injunctions,
and they fought for three

or four months before it
was finally all over,

that he wanted to
stop Vince from

taking over Georgia
Championship.

With Ole's legal efforts to
block the takeover thwarted,

all that's left for
him to do is concede.

There was a deal in the
bylaws for our corporation

that said, "If a majority of
the stockholders decide to

change all the damn rules
that are written up here,

they can do that."

And they just changed
all the rules that

we'd been
going by for years.

So we lost it because
Barnett was smart enough

to realize that he
could have done it.

And I didn't,
didn't know.

I can remember the Saturday
morning TV at TBS studios,

Vince McMahon is
in the building.

It's the only time that I've
ever been in the

same room as
Vince McMahon to this day.

But from there,
the fight was on.

Vince was still at that
point trying to talk to Ole,

because Vince is a guy that's
used to getting his own way

and used to being able
to talk people into

anything he
wants them to do.

I think, you know,
Vince would say,

"Ole, Ole, I'll give
you a job."

You know, tried to tell
him over and over,

"It's just business.
It's just business."

Vince says, "Ole, I'd like
you to meet my wife, Linda."

Well my dad, in typical
fashion, responds,

"You know what"?

"---- you and ---- Linda"!

♪

Despite Ole's fury,
few outside the company

are even aware of the
change in ownership.

Until Vince McMahon
takes to the airwaves.

So I go in there on this
particular Saturday,

and there's this guy
standing there with

his arms folded,
making this face.

♪

As it turns out, the man
was Vincent K. McMahon.

None of the, none of the
talent knew anything.

That was all
interoffice stuff.

Nobody knew who sold
the what or who was

on what side
or nothing.

The camera guys and all them,
they didn't have a clue.

I got a call, was told
not to come to TV,

that we weren't going
to be taping that day.

I didn't go to TV on
Saturday, that Saturday,

because I had
just gotten fired.

Vince had a meeting with all
the talent that was here,

and he said, "None of you
have jobs anymore."

He said, "If we want to use
you, we'll contact you."

And that was it.
It was over.

♪

The wrestling
program on TBS

had been an
institution for years.

Every wrestling fan that
was able to get cable

at that point in time,
is gonna watch

Georgia Wrestling
every Saturday.

July 14th, 1984,

they turn on World
Championship Wrestling,

and they didn't
see Gordon Solie,

they see Freddy Miller.

Hello, everybody,
and welcome to

World Championship
Wrestling.

Freddy Miller introduced
Vince McMahon.

Here's Vince McMahon.
Vince.

Thank you very much,
Freddy.

When Freddy Miller
introduced Vince,

and then,
just the silence of

the dead airtime,
you know.

No, no, no crowd,
not a fan, no nothing.

Let's take you now to
Minneapolis and

Jesse 'The Body' Ventura.

They started showing
videotapes of matches from

other WWF television
programs and

other WWF arenas
and TV shoots.

One of the many
stars here in the

World Wrestling Federation.

The fans of
Georgia Wrestling,

they practically rioted.

[Phones ringing]

They were just bombarding
the TBS switchboards.

"We want our wrastlin'."

Tommy Wildfire has
just exploded on the...!

Georgia Wrestling was a
lot different than

Vince's wrestling.

Vince brought his style
down here and I don't think,

I don't think they bought
it or didn't, you know,

just didn't like it, 'cause
it wasn't homeboys, you know.

So I think,
I think, ah...

they just wasn't buying
what he was selling.

He didn't want the Georgia
Wrestling territory.

All he wanted
was that TV.

I'm getting excited
because I'm seeing

a new future starting
to be made.

I called it 'Green Saturday'
because it

changed my, my,
my fortune.

But obviously a lot of fans
that were fan, true fans,

of Georgia Championship
Wrestling didn't see it

the same way I saw it.

Ousted from the promotion
he helped build,

Ole makes no secret
of his resentment.

If Jack and Jerry
had agreed with him

to wait things out
a few more months,

and then taken advantage
of the time when

he's dealing with his
mother's funeral

to sell out behind his back,
I think that that would have

really impacted his
opinion, strongly,

for quite a while,
to the negative.

And I was pissed at
The Briscos, and um...

they got whatever
money they got.

Ole had supposedly hired
an armed guard to

stand there and actually
do bodily harm to us

if we tried to get
in the office.

Not the promoter,
but Paul Jones,

the old wrestler,
called and said,

"There's supposedly
a hitman

out on you guys
for two days.

Be very careful where you go
and who you associate with,

because I think
it's real."

Ole Anderson is on the
hunt for revenge as

rumours circulate about
a potential plot to

have the Briscos killed.

We waited the two days,
nothing happened to us,

and we threw one of
the biggest parties

we ever thrown.

No. First of all, he would have
never got rid of the money.

And secondly,
he'd 'a done it himself.

[Laughing]

He would have never
asked anybody else to

do it, he would have been
glad to do it hisself.

The only negative way that
I think it affected us

is the loss of friendship
and the negative things

that were
said about me.

The threats that brother
and I got during

this time frame too
was phenomenal.

I mean, our families were
receiving phone calls,

you know, that we were
no good backstabbers.

It was a very rough deal.

Determined to keep the spirit
of Georgia Championship

Wrestling alive,
Ole sells his shares and

starts his own promotion.

Ole was able to
work out a deal.

He called up Vince
and said,

"Vince, I'm gonna sell
you my piece too."

Which, you know, I guess,
thank you, Vince.

Because Vince could very
easily have just said,

"Okay, I'm closing up,

your shares
aren't worth anything."

Ole went to Ted Turner
directly and he said,

"Hey! The people want to see
the Georgia Wrestling

and the Georgia wrestlers,
and I've got them.

Give me another
time slot."

And when I went to
Ted Turner later on I said,

"Who do you think's been
running this damn thing

for the last eight,
nine years? Me!"

So he gave Ole Saturday
morning at 7:30.

And a very spirited crowd
here today at the

WTBS sports arena,
where we're very proud

to bring you once again

Championship Wrestling
from Georgia.

While Ole attempts
to mount a comeback,

Vince is struggling to
connect with Georgia viewers.

They were used to seeing
a certain style and

it wasn't something that
they'd seen before.

They didn't know
who these guys were.

They didn't care.

They were looking for
the people they knew.

Vince is getting
crowded out of

the Saturday
nighttime slot.

Turner's on his ass.

It's not doing him
the good that

he thought it
was gonna do him.

This is one of the
first and only

Vince McMahon
complete failures.

Looking to offload his
valuable WTBS time slot,

McMahon once again
turns to Jim Barnett

to land a deal.

Barnett finds a buyer in
one of McMahon's

other major competitors,

Jim Crockett Promotions.

One year. Turner was gonna
kick Vince off as soon as

he legally could,
and so Barnett

opened the door to Crockett.

You know that TBS
time slot, it's...

at the time it probably
sounded like a great deal.

Vince will sell
the time slot

on Saturday night on TBS to

Jim Crockett Promotions,
and Vince McMahon

would get a million dollars,

and everybody becomes
happy with that.

So, with Barnett putting
all the pieces together,

Vince McMahon temporarily
monopolizes cable TV

wrestling in the
United States,

but is a failure at that,
so he uses that flop to

make money to
finance WrestleMania.

♪

Where he then started on
the road to put

every other promoter
out of business.

The wrestling extravaganza
of all time, WrestleMania.

All in that 80s period,

that's where he
got the big jump.

WWE became the name
brand of pro wrestling,

and he's got Cyndi Lauper,
he's building up

WrestleMania,
Hulk Hogan's getting big,

and, and he's just shooting
way past everybody else.

And they don't, they
don't have the outlet

to compete with him.

Black Saturday forever
altered the trajectory

of the wrestling business,
something no one

understood better
than Ole Anderson.

It was almost like he had
just cleared his desk off and

scraped everything
into it.

Honestly, the state
my father is in today,

I don't know that he can
hate anybody, sadly enough.

But I think he held a grudge
against Vince for a long time.

I'm just trying to
see what I got here.

Bill Watts, himself a
pioneering promoter in

Mid-South Wrestling,
writes a letter to Ole

in 1987, reflecting upon
the significance

of Black Saturday.

"Dear Ole. I know actions
and words once

said or done
cannot be recalled.

You were seeing the beginning
of the metamorphosis of

change of the very
fibre of our business,

all precipitated by
McMahon, in my opinion.

I certainly agree, his legacy
will be the destruction

of an industry as we
know it, or knew it."

After the Black
Saturday incident,

Barnett was Vince's
right hand man,

but Barnett was still more
old-time wrestling and

Vince wanted to be modern,

and somewhere in
'87 they had a

difference of opinion
and Vince let Barnett go.

Jim Barnett only worked for
WWF for a fraction of

his long career, but his
actions during the

company's expansion
helped solidify a

new way of doing
business in wrestling...

The Vince McMahon way.

Vince McMahon,
for 40 years,

he made his
business based on

taking TV time slots,
or companies,

out from under people.

Doing takeovers,

buying stock,
issuing stock,

public offering of the WWE
that made him a billionaire,

but his downfall
eventually came

through the same way.

You know, there's an
old saying,

'what goes around comes
around' and/or '---- around

and ---- around pretty
soon you won't be around.'

Well... Vince had...

it came out in the Wall
Street Journal that he had

allegations of paying
certain women off,

you know, non-disclosure
agreements for infidelities,

and, you know,
even worse.

McMahon paid a
former employee

$3 million to
keep her quiet.

You take a picture
of Vincent McMahon,

and that there is the
reason why there is

a human resources
now in companies.

[Chuckling] That is
the reason why.

As far as revolutionizing
our business, yes, he did.

Is there a dark side
and a bad side?

Yes, there
damn sure is.

It was enough of an
embarrassment to

the company that Vince
stepped down.

They forced him out of the
company because

his son-in-law and his
daughter and

all these people that
he's worked with and

trusted were saying,
"Vince, you got to go.

This is not gonna do the
stock price any good,

it's not gonna do our
business any good.

You got to step aside."

And the thing he learned
from the Georgia takeover,

he still owns 80%
of the company.

So, after six months,

then he comes back,
in a whirlwind of action.

Let me just say it. I've
made mistakes, obviously.

[Chuckling] You know,
both personally and

professionally through
my 50 year career.

I've owned up to every
single one of them

and then moved on.

And then announces,
"I'm coming back

because we're gonna sell
this son of a bitch."

And the time is right.

Endeavor announcing WWE and
UFC will combine to form

a $21 billion global
live sports and

entertainment company.

And that's what worries
all the wrestling fans.

Say what you
want about Vince,

at least it was the
family business,

he's done it
for 50 years.

Now, Endeavor.

What mental romantic
attachment

do they have to the
wrestling business?

To its history,
to keeping it alive?

We're gonna lose a
lot of history and

we're gonna lose the,

you know, the last vestige
of what old time

professional wrestling
was for 100 years.

I think Black Saturday was
kind of a tipping point

in the wrestling business.

That was the moment it
started to evolve away from

the wrestling business
and into show business.

Black Saturday in and
of itself wasn't

a ground-breaking
moment.

It was the canary
in the coal mine.

Vince McMahon put
anywhere from hundreds,

maybe thousands of
wrestlers out of work.

Maybe 3% of them.

The other 97% didn't
get to work anymore.

That's when all the
change is going on and

you can't go back.
I mean, that's life.

Just times change,
you know.

And I'm just holding
on to them 80s.

[Laughing]

I don't think they
blame the Briscos,

but they definitely
blame Vince.

But it was the move,
it was the move to make.

What killed the territories
was cable television.

And that would have been
with Vince McMahon

or without Vince McMahon.

If it wasn't Vince McMahon
going national,

it would have been Verne
Gagne or Jim Crockett,

and they wouldn't have
done as well as Vince did.

Somebody was gonna
be successful.

Wrestling wasn't
gonna go away,

but would they have
been as successful

as Vince McMahon was?
I'm gonna say no.