Post by Iceman on Sept 21, 2005 2:00:17 GMT -5
Jarrett Wrestling Promotion History
There was no formal name for the Lawler-Jarrett promotion. Although names like the CWA and USWA were used later, it was simply called Championship Wrestling, the name of their TV show. Most people just call it Memphis, although it was actually based in Jarrett's hometown of Nashville.
Jerry Jarrett had started as a wrestler for Nick Gulas in the late 1960s and eventually started booking the Western towns in Nick's vast territory, Memphis, Jackson, TN, Tupelo, and Jarrett opened up Louisville and Lexington as well as Evansville, IN too. He was buying into Nick's promotion, but in 1977 they had a split over Jarrett's refusal to book George Gulas in his towns. It turned out that Jarrett's so called "shares" in the promotion were not actually shares at all due to legal manouvering by Gulas.
Rather than fight it, Jarrett walked away and opened up his own promotional company. He ran all the towns he had before. Gulas tried to hang on to Memphis, but almost the entire crew went with Jarrett who also got TV. Without TV and without most of the familiar faces, Gulas withdrew from Memphis. Jarrett then ran his promotion from 1977 until selling it in 1996. When Nick Gulas went out of business in 1980, Jarrett grabbed Nashville also.
Around 1982-83, Lawler became a partner due to an aborted attempt at taking over the area himself. Lawler had been promised a cut of the promotion by Jarrett who had not followed up. Lawler then planned to take over the arena contracts and TV, lure some of the wrestlers, and effectively take the territory away from Jarrett. Jerry got wind of this and approached Lawler. They made peace. The break away was stopped and Lawler was sold the shares in the promotion that he'd originally been promised.
Although Randy did branch out near the end of ICW around 1983-84, it was mostly out of necessity. Angelo's group was dead in the water. The talent pool was mostly dry and the crowds were small. They had fought a good fight, but it was at an end. Jarrett took the Poffo family in for a simple reason, money. There was money to be made in the Kentucky towns because of the heat between the two promotions up there and the rivalry. Lanny's and especially Randy's talent along with Angelo getting heat at ringside made them natural money drawing heels in the rest of the circuit.
There's a funny sidelight to all of this. When Poffo was going under and approached Jarrett for peace, Jarrett didn't want Poffo to lose his remaining ICW TV affiliates, figuring those stations would be useful for promoting the towns with his own wrestling. He sent Poffo tapes of action from the Mid-South Coliseum to air on his stations. Poffo, without Jarrett's knowledge or permission, sold the tapes to Kit Parker Films. Since the mid 1980s there have been numerous tapes and DVDs showing the same footage from Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum. All of that came from Poffo who, of course, pocketed the money from the sale to Kit Parker Films.
Credit: Tamalie
There was no formal name for the Lawler-Jarrett promotion. Although names like the CWA and USWA were used later, it was simply called Championship Wrestling, the name of their TV show. Most people just call it Memphis, although it was actually based in Jarrett's hometown of Nashville.
Jerry Jarrett had started as a wrestler for Nick Gulas in the late 1960s and eventually started booking the Western towns in Nick's vast territory, Memphis, Jackson, TN, Tupelo, and Jarrett opened up Louisville and Lexington as well as Evansville, IN too. He was buying into Nick's promotion, but in 1977 they had a split over Jarrett's refusal to book George Gulas in his towns. It turned out that Jarrett's so called "shares" in the promotion were not actually shares at all due to legal manouvering by Gulas.
Rather than fight it, Jarrett walked away and opened up his own promotional company. He ran all the towns he had before. Gulas tried to hang on to Memphis, but almost the entire crew went with Jarrett who also got TV. Without TV and without most of the familiar faces, Gulas withdrew from Memphis. Jarrett then ran his promotion from 1977 until selling it in 1996. When Nick Gulas went out of business in 1980, Jarrett grabbed Nashville also.
Around 1982-83, Lawler became a partner due to an aborted attempt at taking over the area himself. Lawler had been promised a cut of the promotion by Jarrett who had not followed up. Lawler then planned to take over the arena contracts and TV, lure some of the wrestlers, and effectively take the territory away from Jarrett. Jerry got wind of this and approached Lawler. They made peace. The break away was stopped and Lawler was sold the shares in the promotion that he'd originally been promised.
Although Randy did branch out near the end of ICW around 1983-84, it was mostly out of necessity. Angelo's group was dead in the water. The talent pool was mostly dry and the crowds were small. They had fought a good fight, but it was at an end. Jarrett took the Poffo family in for a simple reason, money. There was money to be made in the Kentucky towns because of the heat between the two promotions up there and the rivalry. Lanny's and especially Randy's talent along with Angelo getting heat at ringside made them natural money drawing heels in the rest of the circuit.
There's a funny sidelight to all of this. When Poffo was going under and approached Jarrett for peace, Jarrett didn't want Poffo to lose his remaining ICW TV affiliates, figuring those stations would be useful for promoting the towns with his own wrestling. He sent Poffo tapes of action from the Mid-South Coliseum to air on his stations. Poffo, without Jarrett's knowledge or permission, sold the tapes to Kit Parker Films. Since the mid 1980s there have been numerous tapes and DVDs showing the same footage from Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum. All of that came from Poffo who, of course, pocketed the money from the sale to Kit Parker Films.
Credit: Tamalie
