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Skip ahead to fall of 2018 and I see that Tim Hornbaker has put out a new book. Death of the Territories expansion,betrayal,and the war that changed pro wrestling forever. I added it to my Amazon wishlist. And totally forgot about it.
Skip ahead,this time to November of 2019,my mother had asked me what I wanted for Xmas. I remembered the Death of the Territories book. Saw it was cheap on Amazon,under 15 bucks,so told her that was what I wanted.
It came in about a week later. But at the time I was knee deep in another book. So I thought OK I will put this in the bathroom and read it while taking a dump. What I didn't plan on was how captivating this book would be. There has been a few times where I go so into reading the book that I sat on the toilet too long and my legs went to sleep.
Before the 1980s the US was divided up into a bunch of territories. Each territory had a wrestling fed that ran that area. And feds from outside the area would not run another fed's area. This is a rule that is still kinda in effect with indie wrestling. And most feds worth watching will not run another feds area. The few that do run other feds area will run into problems.
By the early 80s Vince McMahon Sr was ready to sell the WWF. Being based in the NYC area the WWF got lots of press. But back then if you lived outside the Northeast you usually couldn't see WWF wrestling. For example I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Back then that was Mid South territory.
Well once Vince Jr bought the WWF he started going into other feds territory. Add in that WWF was now on the USA Network. Which meant people all over the US could see WWF wrestling. So Vince used this TV exposure plus some dirty tactics to help kill off the territory system. Vince would so stuff like offering say the Mid South territory's biggest name huge money to come work for WWF.
Now most wrestling fans that were around back then,or have an interest in history of wrestling know part of this story. But this book is the first time I know of where in one place you can find all the info on what Vince Jr did and what the other feds did to fight him.
The Tim Hornbaker NWA book while it was a great book ,it was very dry and could be a chore to read. Death of the Territories on the other hand is a fast easy read.
You can tell Tim did lots of research. And there is stuff in this book that I had never heard before. And if you didn't already dislike Vince Jr for all the stuff he has done to pro wrestling you will dislike him after reading this book.
So if you are a fan of pro wrestling and want to learn about a important time in modern wrestling history this is a great book to pick up.
