| BLACK SATURDAY – JULY 14, 1984
July 2004 – Rich Tate Note: This article first appeared in a print edition of Peach State Pandemonium. Freddy Miller (smiling): Hello everybody, and welcome to World Championship Wrestling. On behalf of WTBS, it’s a pleasure to welcome the World Wrestling Federation – exciting new matches, great competitors from all over the world. Here’s the man to tell you all about it – here’s Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon (shaking Miller’s hand): Thank you very much, Freddy. Miller (exiting): Welcome aboard. McMahon: Thank you. It’s indeed a pleasure to be associated with WTBS, and we promise to bring you the greatest in professional wrestling entertainment in the world today. In what has become known as “Black Saturday”, July 14, 1984, was a pivotal point in the history of professional wrestling. After months of working behind the scenes to save Georgia Championship Wrestling, Inc., from being purchased by Vincent Kennedy McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation, the deal was finally closed. McMahon now seemingly controlled “World Championship Wrestling”, the television program used as the vehicle to promote GCW on television. Unless you were part of either company, or perhaps may have been a subscriber to Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer newsletter, you had no idea what had happened. Meltzer had followed the story and published the announcement of the sale in his June 1984 issue. The following is the lead article, titled “McMahon Buys Georgia Wrestling”, from that issue: In one of the biggest bombshells to hit wrestling in some time, Titan Sports has bought out Jack and Jerry Brisco, major shareholders in Georgia Championship Wrestling, Inc. The Briscos' percentage, plus the sizeable percentage controlled by current Titan Sports employee Jim Barnett, gives McMahon more than 50 percent of the Georgia stock, thus a controlling share. If you hadn’t seen that or were not employed by the organizations involved, you were in for a huge surprise around 6:05 pm ET as you tuned into WTBS on that Saturday evening. For many, it was a ritual they had come to follow weekly since Ray Gunkel and Ted Turner reached a deal to air Georgia Championship Wrestling on Channel 17. The first airing of the wrestling show debuted on WTCG on December 25, 1971. Gunkel had become disconcerted with the Channel 11, where they had their local wrestling programs aired since 1954. Channel 11 had continually moved the program around so much it was difficult for fans to find it with any regularity. When Ted Turner came along and offered the chance to showcase the promotion at a permanent time slot at 6:00 pm each Saturday evening, Gunkel jumped at the opportunity. In a move similar to the Colts overnight relocation from Baltimore to Indianapolis, within days of reaching an agreement, ABC Booking, Inc., had a new home for their television program. Aside from the two-year skirmish known as the “All-South Split”, Georgia Championship Wrestling flourished with their new channel, new management, and changes in technology. Turner had joined his father’s billboard company and changed its name to Turner Advertising. In 1968 he purchased WJRJ, a nearly dead independent station in Atlanta that could be found on Channel 17. On New Years Day 1970, he changed the call letters of the station to WTCG and began making inroads to build the station through old movies and television reruns. Eventually, he would add local sports programming, including Georgia Championship Wrestling, and his station would take off to unforeseen places. The rest is, of course, history. Using Turner’s resources, Georgia Championship Wrestling became one of the highest rated programs on cable television during that format’s boom period. Many people who research and study wrestling claim that GCW ran past the territorial boundaries set forth by the National Wrestling Alliance, in allowing their show to air in markets where other NWA promotions were based. However, it was not the fault of Ray Gunkel or Ted Turner, or anyone for that matter. It was simply that they just happened to have their wrestling program shown on a station that had a visionary such as Turner at its helm. It very easily could have happened anywhere if someone else had the same ideas. Eventually, the cable boom did allow for promotions that didn’t have the same fortune as Georgia Championship Wrestling to take advantage of the airwaves. It can be argued that cable and a heavy syndication period not only expanded a viewers options, but it also killed territorial wrestling. It is easy to blame McMahon, who did his part, but without the technological advances in television, McMahon could not have succeeded in monopolizing the business. McMahon was one of the benefactors of cable television, as the New York affiliate station he was on, WOR, became available in most packages offered on basic cable services. He also soon landed a deal where the monthly Madison Square Garden cards would be aired on the USA Network. Eventually, the WWF would have a weekly show packaged for the promotion on USA as well. It wasn’t as if he was hurting for television time. In Atlanta alone, you could see the WWF on various outlets, in addition to other promotions coming to the area via syndication. The weekly programs that could be seen in the Atlanta area through syndication included shows from Dallas and Memphis. Southwest Championship Wrestling could also be seen on USA. Still, McMahon’s goal was to expand his promotion nationally either because he feared staying local would only allow someone else to gain the upper hand and do it before him, or because he wanted to monopolize the business. Most feel it was the latter. Several stories have since surfaced about exactly what led to the purchase of the company. The two most important sides of the story come from Ole Anderson and Jack Brisco. Both men have published books within the last few months, and both also were the key players in Georgia Championship Wrestling and the purchase by McMahon. Some parts of their accounts of what happened toward the end differ simply on forgotten dates and time periods. However, the bottom line is consistent. As the story goes, the company started suffering financially sometime in the later part of 1981, although attendance and the product was still good and considered to be a peak period on the surface. The house shows around Georgia were still doing well on a regular basis, and the tours of the northern towns added to the promotion in Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia, were hugely successful each time out. Still, Ole Anderson, booker of the territory at the time, had begun to notice things didn’t smell right in 1982. He discovered that large sums of money based were not making it into the company, but rather into mysteriously arranged bank accounts. After some digging around, he learned that each of the local promoters were being told to return a specific sum or percentage of the night’s take directly to Jim Barnett, who was the President of the company, and had been since 1974. Barnett was allegedly a multi-millionaire, and this legend was supposedly started by himself. People would see him live and spend lavishly over the decades since he had first gotten into the business of promotion, and they came to believe him when he talked of his riches and lush life. Yet the company was hurting, and Anderson began to have doubts of Barnett’s financial standing. Fred Ward owned ten percent of GCW and promoted shows under the guise of Fred Ward Promotions in central Georgia along with his son-in-law Ralph Freed. Freed, too, owned a piece of the business, and had become close to Anderson and the Atlanta office. Both had been asked by Barnett many times over the years to add some of their personal funds to the company in order to keep the business afloat. It was their understanding Barnett was also doing the same, though they were never certain he did. Barnett’s longtime friend and business partner, Jim Oates, also was a stockholder. Others who owned some part of GCW around the time things started falling apart were Gene Anderson (two and a half percent), Bill Watts, Paul Jones, and Jack and Jerry Brisco (combined thirty percent). Ole, also owned ten percent. It is unclear exactly how many points Barnett, Oates, Watts, and Jones held at this time. Ole began to grow disgusted in the fact that Barnett was apparently taking money that belonged to not only the stockholders, but the wrestlers, referees, etc. After all, it was his feeling that the company was drawing well, so there should be no reason the payouts should be the size they had become. As 1982 was coming to a close, he and Freed confronted Barnett with their findings. Anderson informed his boss that he would be calling a meeting of the stockholders and making them aware of the situation. He was going to then suggest that Barnett be removed from any position that would allow him to control the business decisions or the money. Barnett would be offered the opportunity to remain part owner in the company, but Ole was going to request he be named President and Chairman of GCW. Barnett granted Ole his wish in order to remain drawing at least some of the fruits of the organization’s success. A few days later, a meeting was held, but Barnett headed it and announced to everyone that Ole would now be running things. The debts Barnett had been using as the excuse for taking more money than normal from the house shows had not been paid at all. Anderson managed to make certain all debts were paid off by the summer of 1983. It was obvious on the surface that the company was having some sort of issues since the product had become inconsistent, as well as some of the level of talent being lesser than what fans were used to seeing. Prior to Barnett’s ousting, Jack and Jerry Brisco had pushed for awhile to get their dividend checks to be larger, as they knew there was money to be spread around to the shareholders. Once Anderson had cleared up old debts, they began pushing again. Ole continued to ask them to be patient, saying the $200,000 they had amassed in the bank should be spared for operating expenses rather than passing it all out at once. This angered the Briscos, but they continued to bide their time, assuming the ship would get righted in the near future. As 1983 was coming to a close, Jack and Jerry’s frustration was growing. When they heard Roddy Piper was injured in a freak accident while working as an announcer for the WWF, they decided to call McMahon’s office to see how their friend was doing. McMahon spoke with them, assuring them that Roddy was fine. It didn’t end there. Right or wrong, McMahon has been singled out as the sole reason the business changed and fans no longer had a local card to attend on a weekly basis as they had become so accustomed to before Hulkamania. Still, it cannot be debated that he is a shrewd businessman. He has built an empire larger than he ever even expected when he was given control of the family business. McMahon knew the Brisco brothers owned a percentage of Georgia Championship Wrestling. He saw this phone call as a business opportunity. After discussing the status of Piper’s injury, he asked them to come to New York for a meeting with him and they accepted. A few days later they received round trip tickets. Although McMahon didn’t say why he wanted to meet with the Briscos, they knew in their gut why he had asked them to make the trek into WWF land. He had been buying out local promotion’s television slots and taking promoter’s talent for quite some time, and the WWF had announced pulling out of the NWA at the annual meeting that past August. Jack and Jerry arrived at LaGuardia Airport and joined McMahon in the VIP Lounge of the Delta Airlines terminal. He asked them if they would consider selling their shares of Georgia Championship Wrestling to him and they didn’t flinch before admitting they would. Of course, all of this was unbeknownst to the other stockholders. The Briscos returned to the Carolinas, where they were working at the time, with the knowledge that they had promised to deliver the stock percentages of everyone except Ole and Gene Anderson. They knew those two wouldn’t sell. They thought for sure Fred Ward and Ralph Freed would sell. They knew Jim Barnett would be able to get his friend Jim Oates to sell. The others would be no problem. Over the next few weeks, the Briscos began making their moves silently, although Anderson started to assume something was going on he should know about. He called a meeting with Jack and Jerry in Atlanta at a hotel in February 1984. Exactly what happened there is up to whom you want to believe. Still, it’s one of those great wrestling stories that you have to hear to believe. Ole’s side of the story is that they were drinking together and as the meeting went on, he was able to convince the brothers to be patient, and that the money would begin flowing more freely very soon. Little did Anderson know that it most definitely would – only not from the source Ole wanted it to be. They left the lounge and went to a room upstairs booked by them, and according to Ole, he asked them were they going to stick together for the sake of the company. They both agreed. What happened next is where it really gets cloudy between the accounts, but Anderson says he had one of them pull out a pocketknife. He says they proceeded to cut themselves and mix their blood together. He admits now he had obviously been watching too many movies about mafia life. Jack’s version is that this incident occurred in the restroom of the lounge. He also says that when Ole cut himself and tried to hand them the knife, they refused to take part. They told him they did not want to be blood brothers with a dumb Polack. Regardless, the company continued to do business as usual, while the brothers made their rounds in making certain they could deliver everyone’s shares to McMahon. It has been reported to me by several sources that when they went for Paul Jones’ share, his wife actually made the transaction, as she had never wanted anything to do with the business. Paul was very weak and distant by this time, so it is very likely that she did it without his knowledge whatsoever. By March, they had managed to convince everyone to sell. They waited to go to Ward and Freed, as it was still only likely that the Columbus guys would sell their part of Atlanta. They needed to be sure they had gotten to everyone else before risking a leak to Ole. When they approached Ward and Freed, they refused to sell. Regardless, they were still able to inform McMahon he had the majority share, and McMahon wasted no time in making his move and got his attorneys to begin pushing the paperwork through to seal the deal. All this was happening at a disastrous time for Ole. As word leaked to him that the Briscos were trying to get Ward and Freed to sell their stock, he also received the news that his mother had passed away. With Ole away in Wisconsin for the funeral and taking care of family matters, Vince was in Georgia. Louise Bennett was working as the secretary for the office of Georgia Championship Wrestling. She called Ole to give him the news of the purchase. Anderson immediately booked a flight back to Atlanta. McMahon’s attorneys met with Jack and Jerry, along with their attorney, John Taylor, to go through the legal documents and hammer out the details. This happened on April 9, and they began at 9 am. It would be 11 pm before the papers were signed and completed. McMahon was now the majority stockholder for Georgia Championship Wrestling, Inc., which was now a piece of the World Wrestling Federation. However, Anderson had already rounded up the company’s lawyers. He scoured the contracts the stockholders had in place for years. One thing from the Articles of Incorporation caught his eye: “If a majority of the stockholders decide to rescind the Buy-Sell agreement, they can do so.” He had argued that point with his lawyers shortly after fearing there were problems among the stockholders, but they had assured him it would have no bearing on anything. They filed an injunction, which stalled the takeover. When the legal proceedings began, Anderson’s attorneys had him assured all would be fine, but he was still skeptical of their take on the Buy-Sell agreement. Sure enough, after the lead attorney for Georgia Championship Wrestling attempted to plead his case, the judge asked him to review the Buy-Sell clause. Anderson was livid. He says that is the moment he knew if was over. Still, his attorneys filed an appeal, but it went nowhere. According to Jerry Oates, George Scott – who was booking for the WWF at the time – showed up in Atlanta the week prior to Black Saturday. He told all the wrestlers there would be changes, but McMahon wanted them all to be there as usual on Saturday morning. The only ones who showed up on July 14 were Don Jardine and Les Thornton. Of course, they went with McMahon. Legend also has it that McMahon came to Atlanta on July 7, the day of the last taping of World Championship Wrestling before the buyout was final. He was supposedly joined by Gorilla Monsoon and Jay Strongbow. McMahon is said to have offered Anderson a job, to which Ole had a few choice words as a response. All of that is true, but it actually happened earlier than that, and McMahon made three visits rather than the two already known of. The second was with his wife Linda, the third with Jack and Jerry Brisco. The visits really began as soon as it was common knowledge within the office that McMahon owned a piece of the organization, several weeks before Black Saturday. The sale was official in June, and McMahon could have done anything he wanted with the company, but Anderson decided to go ahead and sell his share, as did Ward and Freed. Once that was done, shortly after the July 7 episode of World Championship Wrestling, McMahon now had complete control and was left to scramble and get something on the air quickly. A few months shy of ten years since Georgia Championship Wrestling had defeated the competition of Ann Gunkel’s All South Wrestling Alliance, GCW had been beaten by McMahon and Hulkamania, an entity that was out to destroy all of its competition. Eventually, it would accomplish its goal, but by getting one of the most watched cable time slots, and the company who utilized it, the WWF had arguably toppled its biggest obstacle. The most disturbing thing was if you were a fan, instead of seeing Gordon Solie and hearing the studio crowd after the opening music faded, you were presented with Freddy Miller welcoming you to a silent studio. He was trying to look convincing while telling you that the WWF on WTBS was a good thing, but even he looked to be unsure of his latest career move. It got more unsettling seeing McMahon walk on and take the microphone from Miller to give you a rundown of matches including the likes of George Steele and Hulk Hogan. According to former GCW ring announcer Jay West, he and Freddy had a conversation later, where, “Freddy told me that Gordon was of course offered the WWF show first and when he turned it down without a second thought it was offered to Freddy. Freddy had an ego and I feel it was difficult to admit this to me so I assume it was true.” Within a week, Gunkel arranged a meeting between Ole and Ted Turner. It was her intent to convince Turner to give Anderson a time slot in order to put together a new promotion. A few weeks later, Championship Wrestling from Georgia debuted, but it wasn’t the same. Most of the talent were Georgia mainstays, and Gordon Solie was calling the action, but it was simply stuffed into such a bad time slot that only roosters were awake enough to keep up with it on a regular basis. The WWF was eventually forced off of WTBS because Ted Turner had been promised by McMahon that his shows would consist of live studio matches. However, it wasn’t logistically possible for the WWF to be in Atlanta every Saturday, so despite doing a few episodes at Techwood, eventually tapes were being shown. In addition, Turner had begun airing Bill Watts’ Mid-South programs, and they were doing better in the ratings than the WWF. McMahon finally got so frustrated that he sold the television time slot to Jim Crockett. Shortly afterwards, Ole Anderson sold his new promotion to Crockett as well. The irony is that merger led to what would ultimately be McMahon’s final major competitor – World Championship Wrestling. |
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