WWF Maple Leaf Wrestling Sep 08 1984

It's been a bit since we stopped to consider all the moves that VKM made in 1983 and 1984. I own a FANTASTIC book by Tim Hornbaker called "Death Of The Territories," and it gives a blow-by-blow account of how McMahon barnstormed across North America. It explains the moves that rival territory owners made to combat him, and it also gives multiple accounts of things that these rival promoters did to hurt themselves during these times. Verne Gagne truly believed that Vince's "new" style of wrestling presentation was a passing fad. Surely, rasslin' fans would tire of the bright colors, the celebrities, the rock & roll music, etc., right? Getting back to VKM, he spent the summer of 1984 making surprise deals that, in retrospect, shouldn't have been that surprising. Per Hornbaker's book, Vince and the Tunney family announced the WWF takeover of Toronto on Jun 27, with television tapings starting on July 10. Previously, JCP had been supplying the top half of the card to Maple Leaf as part of a revenue sharing arrangement. Per David Crockett, top guys like Flair and Steamboat became resentful of this arrangement because of the travel and (more specifically) the exchange rate. I haven't checked the math, but this seems quite plausible. At one time, Toronto and Buffalo were important parts of Jim Crockett Promotions. Now, the talent were unhappy and ticket sales were on the decline. It wasn't long after the death of Frank Tunney that his nephew Jack decided to change things up. By getting into the Tunney office, Vince now had access to much of Canada. He would follow this up by "acquiring" Stampede Wrestling from Stu Hart in Calgary. Though the details of the arrangement are very much in dispute, the talent windfall that this gave McMahon is certainly not. Out of this, the WWF landed the services of Tom Billington and Davey Smith, aka the British Bulldogs. Also, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart made their way to New York from this. Although the deal itself would turn sour and Vince allegedly stopped paying Stu Hart, the talent stayed with the WWF. Another major acquisition was Sylvester Ritter, aka Junk Yard Dog. JYD had been the biggest draw for Bill Watts' Mid South Wrestling out of Louisiana and Oklahoma. Although he was putting on weight, slowing down, and had a nasty cocaine habit, JYD was a STAR. His defection was one that Watts truly never recovered from. All of this, combined with McMahon's well chronicled takeover of WTBS had made the WWF a juggernaut.