All language subtitles for Dark Side of the Ring - S05E10 - Black Saturday The Rise of Vince

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

South's most popular wrestlers, fans
were shocked by the surprise appearance

New York promoter, Vincent McMahon Jr.

Thank you. It is indeed a pleasure to be
associated with WTBS. And everybody's

mouth dropped open.

It seemed 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.

It was a day that would live in infamy,
forever known as Black Saturday.

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

epic behind -the -scenes showdown
between titans of the industry.

They kind of hoodooed him and snuck it
out from underneath him more so than him

giving it up. Oh, he said, 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 set Vince
McMahon on the path toward building a

billion -dollar wrestling empire.

It was all the beginning groundwork of
future warfare.

Vince McMahon was a caster on the
wrestling business.

Vince won. He was the best at it. He was
the most vicious shark in the sea.

Welcome to WrestleMedia!

For over 40 years, the wrestling
business has been dominated by World

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 territory.

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 Sr.'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

Let's meet me. Where did you get that
tie, Freddie Miller? I'm Jim Cornette,

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 Jr.

bought the WWF, the business in that
part of the country had almost never

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

you've got this territory and you've got
this territory.

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

and I've been covering pro wrestling
since the early 1970s.

In the NWA, there was 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

then.

Every year the NWA had a meeting, all
the promoters came.

It was like the Gambinos and the Bananos
and there's the Gottis. 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 plans that he had, but the

that he was willing to go to to have
those plans come to fruition.

While some territory 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

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

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 Briscoe, better known as
Jerry Briscoe on the wrestling circuit.

Let's go see the world tag team
champions Jack and Jerry Briscoe in

brother and I became the only two people
ever to hold both the Eastern

Championship and the Mid -Atlantic
Championship.

Right, brother.

They say we're wild and we're mean.
We're creating a scene. We're going

I got along real well and learned so
much from Jim Barnett.

All the other promoters were ex
-wrestlers, or they were loud and

Jim always wore a beautiful suit with a
tie, and he had the hair slicked back,

and he had jewelry on. Is wrestling in
current violence?

I don't think so, no. I never thought
so. He's very different from a wrestling

guy. I mean, he was interested in
wrestling, but he's more interested in

arts, which is kind of unique for 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 old boys club.

Behind the scenes, he was a cutthroat.

He had the ability to cut your balls off
and shove them down your throat and

you'd thank him for it.

Known as a powerful liaison to TV
executives, Jim Barnett is close to

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 it up on a

satellite, and everybody thought he was
nuts. Who's going to want to 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 could 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 flew into Atlanta every weekend

to appear on the two -hour television
program.

A severe amount of punishment to the
head. It was the number one TV show on

cable TV.

That's how hot it was. I mean, what made
it so hot was the unique combination of

Gordon Soley, the voice of championship
wrestling, and the available talent.

There's 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.

I think what made it 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.

Come aboard, Tommy.

Thank you very much, Gordon. It was
crazy.

A lot of times you 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 loved me too.

I seen Grannies take their cane and beat
Ole Anderson up with it because he's

beating me up, you know.

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

It was cramped. The studio would only
hold 100 people.

and you packed them in like sardines to
get 100 in there. Boy Scout groups, Girl

Scout troops, church groups, just fans
that love 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

Ole was very intelligent. One of the
most intelligent guys, one of the most

-spoken guys.

He was loud. He was opinionated.

But Ole was a great wrestler, and he had
also gotten quite a

reputation as a matchmaker and a booker.

Either you hate him or you love him.

You don't love him, but either you hate
him or you like him. He's kind of hard

to love.

My name is Joe Hamilton, Jr. I refereed
and wrestled as Nick Patrick throughout

my entire career. I stopped the match
myself.

I heard Ricky Morton one time say, I
don't think Ole Anderson even likes ice

cream. And I agree, he probably didn't.

He was just so old school and grouchy.

A lot of the old -timers back then were
like that, you know? They was being hard

-ass on the young guys and making them
learn.

It 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

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 MS, 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

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

in the financial side of the promotion.

I started buying my stock in small
increments where it built up to over

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

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.

You know, we had to pay off the
politician, or we had to give some money

commissioner, or whatever it was.

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

few bucks after this show, but it was
seven or eight 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 concerns, you know,
because I wasn't getting a dividend, and

I'd invested tens of thousands of
dollars. We finally got Jim to expand

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 Georgia,

and it wasn't getting in anybody else's
pocket but Mr. Barnett's.

Oli was the first one, maybe the only
one at the time, to question Jim

The story went around that while Barnett
was in Hong Kong making his annual trip

because he liked to go to Hong Kong and
get all his new suits made, Oli either

kicks the door in or busts the door in,
whether the accountant was in the office

or not, but Oli got into the books.

It was like Fort Knox trying to get to a
box office statement.

Because he had them on the lock and key,
and the people working in the office

were instructed, don't let anybody in my
office. It was actually padlocked shut.

Ole, you know, started examining the
books and everything, and he saw, like,

Barnett spending all kinds of crazy
money on phone bills, $3 ,000 a month

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 Georgia
Championship owners at a hotel south of

Atlanta in a conference room.

And Jim handed out the checks from the
proceeds of the calendar we sold.

Supposedly when Jim left, that's when
Ole came in and addressed 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 doors
opened.

Lights on. I thought, what is this?

And I heard Oli go, Bobby, come here.

And Oli handed me all the checks 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

whatever that meant.

He said, I think I can run this company,
and we're going to do it my way.

He thought everything was black and
white. There were no gray areas, that it

just business. You acted like business
people.

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.

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.

Nobody approved those expenditures,
which was true.

Jim would just explain it off as the
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 throat.

I'm Louise Cochran, formerly known as
Louise Bennett, in Georgia Championship

Wrestling. We were in a lot of debt
because Jim had promised the buildings

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 Rolly
to move in. I think it was more just of

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 going to be elected president of
Georgia Championship.

That's the way it's going to be. And if
you don't like it, I'm going to toss you

over your railing.

Here you are, a 285 -pound monster, and
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, Oli has taken it to a whole new
level. He didn't just no -show Barnett

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 going to 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

maintained a status quo.

He had plans, but he didn't start
putting them out front of everybody

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 going to

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's going to happen?

They were all blindsided, for sure. When
they resign from the NWA, that would

mean they're either going to 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
going to go into business for

themselves, with themselves, in some
other fashion.

Oli smelled it. He said, okay, then the
gloves are going to be off.

Well, the problem was you couldn't
handle the wrestling business in 1983

like you handled it in 1953 and 54.

And secondly, Vince wasn't going to play
that game.

He had one of the most powerful
wrestling personalities of the last 30

his corner who knew absolutely
everybody.

Barnett hated it early.

And Barnett also was looking at
survival.

He was getting up there in age. But he
needed to keep working. He needed to

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.

So that 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 honored 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 $2 ,000 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 honor a championship

wrestler from Georgia.

So the station would say, okay.

Next, you start losing buildings.

You call to check on the building and
see how ticket sales are going. They

well, we stopped selling them.

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

difficult to operate.

More so than usual.

Is it certain that this was all Vince
McMahon Jr.'s doing?

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

slot from Southwest Championship
Wrestling, another regional promotion

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.

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.

Hulk Hogan was on top in the AWA for
Vern, 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.

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, and they're
talking, what if we put a hit on the

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

I don't doubt that it's true at all
because, you know, like, these are bad

dudes. It's just like, you know, Vince
is breaking the rules.

Through Barnett's calculated
maneuvering, Vince has seized TV time

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

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

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

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 second -tier guys, people

that weren't going to 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 going to

sell tickets.

Holy 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 were actually getting phone calls
from some of the top talent around the

country. Hey, what's going on? You
better watch Oli.

And not only took their word for it, but
were up there on several big shows and

experienced that the payoffs weren't the
same.

Frustrated that their investment is no
longer paying dividend, The Briscoes

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

We called a stockholder meeting because
we were going to take over Ole's

dictatorship and do it ourselves.

And we flew into town early, met with
the lawyers, and the lawyers said, guys,

you can't do this. The doctor admitted
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?

It was old Anderson.

His purpose was to track us down to find
out what the hell we were planning on

doing.

And we weren't shy. We laid out that
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've

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've got to buy plane tickets.

Once we get another $100 ,000 in the
bank, then I'll write the dividend

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

We were done drinking, much of it we
could drink, and argued as much as we

argue.

I'll come up to the room with you. I've
got a deal for you. Okay, we'll listen.

One last pitch.

You were going to God, Father? Yeah,
I've 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 going to
sell stock, they had to offer it to the

other shareholders.

Enjoy your championship first before
they can sell it to anybody else.

My dad has a little pocket knife, sticks
it in his head, digs it down, gets some

color.

They look at him like, oh, my God,
what's wrong with you?

Only my word means more than blood. I
mean, to me, I mean, if I give you my

word, I'm going to live up to it. I
don't need.

these little gimmicks to certify my
honesty.

Probably took him about 10 minutes to
convince Jack and I to do the same

So that was the only 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

going to do anything, he would do it.

He just, he believed people because...

You know, he would never tell a lie.

As part of the blood oath agreement, the
Briscoes will focus on increasing

ticket sales in exchange for regular
payouts. But the deal doesn't last for

long. The first one to break the oath
was Oli because he quit paying us what

agreed to pay us. So we thought that we
had an open water 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 going to have anything.

Desperate to cash out, Briscoes begin
shopping their shares outside of the

company, starting with Jim Barnett, who
turns them down.

Knowing the Briscoes 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 rib Vince about

flying us up coach.

We met in a 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

what their weak spots were, whatever the
case. All Jim Barnett had to do was

point Vince McMahon in the right
direction, not only with the Briscoes,

anybody else, or talk to them himself.

He could make you do something you
didn't want to do, and by the time he

finished, you'd think it was your idea.

In the end of the negotiations and all
the transactions, Vince ended up owning

67 .5 % of Georgia Championship
Wrestling, 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

Well, it turned out not to be true.

Behind the back of Ole Anderson, the
Briscoes 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

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.

I now own the company.

I called Oli and told him that Vince had
sold 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 in a hotel in Atlanta.

He immediately met with the lawyers.
They filed for injunctions, and they

for three or four months before it was
finally all over. But 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

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 because Barnett was smart
enough to realize that he could have

it. And I didn't know.

I can remember the Saturday morning TV
at TBS Studios. Vince McMahon is in the

building.

It's the only time 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

used to get in 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, Oli,
Oli, 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, Oli, I'd like you to meet my
wife, Linda.

Well, my dad, in a typical fashion,
responds, you know what?

You and Linda.

Despite Oli'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, and he's
making his face.

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

None of the talent knew anything.

It was all inter -office stuff. Nobody
knew who sold to 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 the on Saturday that
Saturday because I just got 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 going to

watch Georgia wrestling every Saturday.

July 14th, 1984, they turn on World
Championship Wrestling, and they didn't

Gordon Soley. They see Freddie Miller.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to World
Championship Wrestling. Freddie Miller

introduced Vince McMahon.

Here's Vince McMahon.

Vince? Thank you very much, Freddie.
Welcome. When Freddie Miller introduced

Vince, and just the silence.

Of the dead air time, you know. No, no,
no crackman 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

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.

They were just bombarding the TBS
switchboards.

We want our wrestling.

Georgia wrestling was a lot different
than Vince's wrestling.

Vince brought his style down here. I
don't think they bought it or just

like it because it wasn't homeboys.

So I think that 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 call

it Green Saturday because it changed my
fortune.

But obviously a lot of fans that were
true fans of Georgia's 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...

taking advantage of the time when he's
dealing with his mother's funeral to

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 Briscoes.

And they got whatever money they got.

Ole had supposedly hired an armed guard
to stand there and actually do body harm

to us if we tried to get in the office.

Not the promoter, but Paul Jones, the
old wrasser, 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 rumors circulate about a potential

plot to have the Briscoes killed.

We waited the two days, nothing happened
to us, and we threw one of the biggest

parties we ever thrown.

You think he would have done that?

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

would have done it himself.

He would have never asked anybody else
to do it. He would have been glad to do

it himself.

The only negative way that I think it
affected us is the loss of friendship

the negative things that were said about
me. The threats that my 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

backstabbered. 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

to sell you my piece, too.

Which, you know, I guess, thank you,
Vince, because Vince could very easily

just said, OK, I'm closing up.

Your shares aren't worth anything.

Ole went to Ted Turner directly. He
said, hey, the people want to see the

Georgia wrestling and the Georgia
wrestlers, and I've got them. Give me

time slot.

And when I went to Ted Turner later on,
I said, who do you think's been wearing

this damn thing?

The last eight, nine years, me.

So he gave Oli Saturday morning at 7
.30.

A very spirited crowd here today at the
WTBS Sports Arena. We're very proud to

bring you once again championship
wrestling from Georgia. While Oli

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

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 night time slot. Turner's on

ass. It's not doing him the good that he
thought it was going to 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

Barnett to land a deal. Barnett finds a
buyer in one of McMahon's other major

competitors, Jim Crockett Promotions.

How long did Vince's run last on TBS?
One year.

Turner was going to kick Vince off as
soon as he legally could.

And so Barnett opened the door to
Crockett. You know, that TBS time slot,

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.

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, and he's building up

WrestleMania, Hulk Hogan's getting big,
and he's just shooting way past

everybody else, and 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 all I got
here.

Bill Watts, himself a pioneering
promoter in Mid -South Wrestling, writes

letter to Oli in 1987 reflecting upon
the significance of Black Saturday.

Dear Oli, 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

of our business, all precipitated by
McMahon, in my opinion. I certainly

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,
nondisclosure agreements for

and, you know, even worse.

McMahon paid a former employee three
million dollars 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.

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 nothing but an embarrassment to
the company that Vince stepped down.

forced him out of the company.

because his son -in -law and his
daughter and all these people that he's

with and trusted were saying, Vince,
you've got to go.

This is not going to do the stock price
any good. It's not going to do our

business any good. You've got to step
aside.

And the thing he learned from the
Georgia takeover, he still owns 80 % of

company. So after six months, then he
comes back in a whirlwind of

action. Let me just say that I've made
mistakes, obviously, 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 going to sell this son of

bitch. And the time is right.

Endeavor announcing WWE and UFC will
combine to form a $21 billion global

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 going to lose a lot of history,
and we're going to lose the, you know,

last vestige of what old -time
professional wrestling was for 100

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
groundbreaking moment. It was the

canary in the coal mine.

Vince McMahon put anywhere from hundreds
to maybe thousands of wrestlers out of

work. Didn't Vince make a lot of those
guys millionaires, though?

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, and

that's life. Just times change, you
know, and I'm just holding on to them

Do you think guys like Barnett, Jack,
Jerry Briscoe, do people blame them for

the demise of the territories?

I don't think they blame the Briscoes,
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 Vern Gagne or Jim

Crockett. And they wouldn't have done as
well as Vince did.

Somebody was going to be successful.
Wrestling wasn't going to go away.

But would they have been as successful
as Vince McMahon was?

I'm going to say no.