Tony Schiavone Shoots On Memphis Studio Wrestling

Tony Schiavone shares his thoughts on how Memphis wrestling was shot in the studio.

#tonyschiavone #wrestling #memphis #jeffjarrett #prowrestling

[MrSheckstr]

So this segment should be used as an example to explain HOW Vince McMahon in the 80s managed to pull the rug out from under the old School NWA territories…..
VINCE did TV in arenas, not studios …. And his studio shows (like gorilla and heenan) would go from the studio to the action in the ring in a arena …. And his TV showcased the top of the roster, even if it was mostly in squash matches.
As a kid for years in the mid 80s wrestling was (mostly) three hours on Saturday night, first one hour of NWA studio, then an hour of AWA small venues (but not studio) and finally one hour of WWF in a GIANT arena, and every show started it a camera looking down from the upper deck into a see of fans with the ring off in the distance….Add to that the fact the NWA rarely showed its top tier ….
I can still remember the debut of Ric Flair in WWF and NOT being impressed because he looked like a weather beaten old man, and someone i had never saw, because he never did the Saturday night TV segments.
And that itself is why alot of times ICONIC NWA wrestlers failed to make a splash in the WWF ….. not because The WWF buried them, but because their home markets in the south had already BURIED them for the northern fans who never had the chance to go to the house shows in the south, or check out the local wrestling shows versus the nationally syndicated show
Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, even the Road Warrior….. these are all people i only heard of AFTET their WWF debut

[impalaman]

You can thank Curt Hennig for the "re-decorating" job he did in 1988--so pissed off at losing the AWA title he destroyed the "newscaster" desk and the fake cardboard backdrop with the CWA logo that had a "He-Man" looking champion that CWA would never have! (Phil Hickerson never came close!) They also replaced the ugly brown curtains leftover from the 70s with green ones