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Death of the Territories

Expansion, Betrayal and the War That Changed Pro Wrestling Forever

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Death of the Territories

By: Tim Hornbaker
Narrated by: Kyle Tait
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About this listen

For decades, distinct professional wrestling territories thrived across North America. Each regionally based promotion operated individually and offered a brand of localized wrestling that greatly appealed to area fans. Promoters routinely coordinated with associates in surrounding regions, and the cooperation displayed by members of the National Wrestling Alliance made it easy for wrestlers to traverse the landscape with the utmost freedom.  

Dozens of territories flourished between the 1950s and late '70s. But by the early 1980s, the growth of cable television had put new outside pressures on promoters. An enterprising third-generation entrepreneur who believed cable was his opportunity to take his promotion national soon capitalized on the situation.  

A host of novel ideas and the will to take chances gave Vincent Kennedy McMahon an incredible advantage. McMahon waged war on the territories and raided the NWA and AWA of their top talent. By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.

©2018 Tim Hornbaker (P)2019 Tantor Combat Sports & Self-Defense Sports History Wrestling Sports Combat Sports War Wrestling Biographies
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it's an interesting history of an unexplored part of working class entertainment. However it often skips past what appear to be key events, or did not set the scene properly. A title change following a double cross, in a match is described as being seminal, for example, but never really explains why clearly enough.

It would benefit from a good edit, but it's enjoyable.

enjoyable if a little sloppy in places

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Really informative and interesting, if you have any interest in the history of wrestling I would 100 percent recommend this

Great

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The book is fantastic, very in depth and a lot of background on wrestling even hardcore fans like myself hadn't heard of before.
But the narrator is poor, draws out words and emphasises the end of words more than HHH. Off putting and ruins the mood the book creates.

Great book annoying narration

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loved this book. it provided a great history of Pro wrestling in the USA. would recommend

great book

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I've only recently become interested in wrestling and I find myself much more interested in the backstage politics rather than the in ring action. It covers different aspects that what I've seen or heard from other media which meant I was hooked on it and not bored by the same old things. The narrator wouldn't be good for novels in my opinion but his energy perfectly suits the timeframe when this story begun as well as the theatricality wrestling industry. There are time when things are rattled of like he is simply reading statistics of wins and losses. But those moments are few and far between, otherwise I think it flows really well. It feels like a view from the trenches rather than a general's view of the battlefield. There wasn't as much about the climactic battle with the WCW and ECW brands as I expected. This mostly covers the skirmishes and alliance between the large number of small territories in the early days of the wrestling industry. It covers the key events from wrestlers popularity, industry defining wins and losses, face and heel turns, business hardships and successes as well as all the backstage choices that lead to the state of the wrestling industry. Great listen and would have been an even better read.

Great book

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