Matches/Feuds that killed a business

[N E O G E O B O Y S]

The other day I read an story here about how Bruiser Brody killed a teritory after applying a 30 minutes headlock on his opponent, don't know if it's real or not, but I will like to know if there has ever been a match or feud that was so terrible that killed an entire organization

[BlackoutCreature]

Not because it was bad, but bloody, but Tully Blanchard vs. Bob Sweetan is largely considered the beginning of the end for Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling. It was apparently too violent for USA Network, who threw them off the air because of it and gave the timeslot to the WWF. This basically led to almost the entirety of modern WWE television programming.

The indecisive finish to Kerry Von Erich vs. Jerry Lawler at SuperClash 3 is largely credited with killing the AWA. In its defense though the company was pretty much in a tail spin long before then.

Then there's Hogan vs. Sting at Starrcade 97. Yeah, WCW had plenty of chances to recover from it, and there were times where they did to a degree, but you can pretty much trace their downfall back to this disaster.

[Gus Richlen Was Wrong]

EliteXC. Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli. Seth was put in at the last second to replace Ken Shamrock and KOed Kimbo in seconds. Then he went and alleged that EliteXC wanted him to throw the fight and the company wound up going under.

[brody]

Brody and Blackwell helped kill off Denver in the AWA as they ran that main event for 3 straight months and never once actually got the match off as one or the other no-shows.

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

Buff Bagwell versus Booker-T on Monday night Raw gets (dis)credited with killing the chances of WCW getting rebooted after Vince bought the company

[Ted Sheckler]

Al Snow tells a story where Tony Atlas debuted for a promotion and they got him super over super quick. The first week Atlas debuted and said hi to the audience, the second week he came out again and said he was going to try and break a weight lifting record of 500 pounds. The third week he came back, lifted the weight for 3 reps, the crowd went nuts and Atlas got onto the microphone and thanked the audience and said he was debuting next week and that he wanted everyone to come out and support him. People filled the building for him.

So Atlas wrestles this guy but instead of Atlas winning in 1-3 minutes and looking like a beast they go considerably longer with Atlas winning a back and forth match with a much smaller man. He gets backstage and Ole Anderson says he killed the town, nobody could ever take Atlas seriously again in the territory and that they had to get rid of him.

So, not really an example of killing a company but it was a match that killed a town.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I was listening to a bunch of old Jim Cornette rants on YouTube and he mentions that the night The Sheik beat Andre The Giant was the turning point in Detroit wrestling where the business started to go bad. The fans figured that if anyone could stop The Sheik it would have been Andre, but Sheik cheats by throwing fire in Andre's eyes and that killed any interest the fans had left.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Jan 2, 2017 1:37:24 GMT -5 Ted Sheckler said:

Al Snow tells a story where Tony Atlas debuted for a promotion and they got him super over super quick. The first week Atlas debuted and said hi to the audience, the second week he came out again and said he was going to try and break a weight lifting record of 500 pounds. The third week he came back, lifted the weight for 3 reps, the crowd went nuts and Atlas got onto the microphone and thanked the audience and said he was debuting next week and that he wanted everyone to come out and support him. People filled the building for him.

So Atlas wrestles this guy but instead of Atlas winning in 1-3 minutes and looking like a beast they go considerably longer with Atlas winning a back and forth match with a much smaller man. He gets backstage and Ole Anderson says he killed the town, nobody could ever take Atlas seriously again in the territory and that they had to get rid of him.

So, not really an example of killing a company but it was a match that killed a town.

That sounds vaguely familiar. Without refreshing my memory, I'd say almost had to be Georgia, or possibly the Carolinas during the fairly brief period that Ole was booking both.

[BRAINFADE]

Didn't Tully and Arn retaining the tag belts against the Road Warriors at Starrcade 87 pretty much kill Chicago for the NWA?

[SmashTV]

I'd say the Team Challenge Series finished off the AWA, but it was possibly already on life support at that point anyway.

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2017 1:37:24 GMT -5 Ted Sheckler said:

Al Snow tells a story where Tony Atlas debuted for a promotion and they got him super over super quick. The first week Atlas debuted and said hi to the audience, the second week he came out again and said he was going to try and break a weight lifting record of 500 pounds. The third week he came back, lifted the weight for 3 reps, the crowd went nuts and Atlas got onto the microphone and thanked the audience and said he was debuting next week and that he wanted everyone to come out and support him. People filled the building for him.

So Atlas wrestles this guy but instead of Atlas winning in 1-3 minutes and looking like a beast they go considerably longer with Atlas winning a back and forth match with a much smaller man. He gets backstage and Ole Anderson says he killed the town, nobody could ever take Atlas seriously again in the territory and that they had to get rid of him.

So, not really an example of killing a company but it was a match that killed a town.

That sounds like a lot of BS, from Ole or Snow or both. Odds are Snow was told that story by Ole. Atlas having a competitive match with a smaller guy, still winning the match, and it killing the town forever? Highly doubtful. Sounds more like a booker who disliked "skinny guys" making excuses for the rest of the business failing that month/year and trying to pin it on one guy he didn't like by burying him in telling a story.

[lizzurd]

Dec 24, 2016 14:49:05 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

The indecisive finish to Kerry Von Erich vs. Jerry Lawler at SuperClash 3 is largely credited with killing the AWA. In its defense though the company was pretty much in a tail spin long before then.

The collapse of the AWA must've been a sight to behold in real time. Everyone should watch all 3 of these shows in a row on the WWE Network. It is startling how they go from a somewhat impressive half full Comiskey Park to depressingly EMPTY UIC Pavilion. The saddest part of SuperClash 3 was watching a clearly suicidal Verne Gagne and disheveled Lee Marshall attempting to sell the event as "the greatest event in the history of professional wrestling" after the Rock 'n' Roll Express fought The Stub Stable to a double DQ in the main event. It's obvious they don't believe a word they're saying. Verne even starts rambling about some guy named Paul Caruso he wrestled in New York back in the 50's. Very sad.

[BlackoutCreature]

Jan 2, 2017 13:22:56 GMT -5 SmashTV said:

I'd say the Team Challenge Series finished off the AWA, but it was possibly already on life support at that point anyway.

The AWA was long dead by this point. The Team Challenge Series was its shambling zombie corpse.

[Ted Sheckler]

Jan 2, 2017 13:35:48 GMT -5 @kudohdriver said:

Jan 2, 2017 1:37:24 GMT -5 Ted Sheckler said:

Al Snow tells a story where Tony Atlas debuted for a promotion and they got him super over super quick. The first week Atlas debuted and said hi to the audience, the second week he came out again and said he was going to try and break a weight lifting record of 500 pounds. The third week he came back, lifted the weight for 3 reps, the crowd went nuts and Atlas got onto the microphone and thanked the audience and said he was debuting next week and that he wanted everyone to come out and support him. People filled the building for him.

So Atlas wrestles this guy but instead of Atlas winning in 1-3 minutes and looking like a beast they go considerably longer with Atlas winning a back and forth match with a much smaller man. He gets backstage and Ole Anderson says he killed the town, nobody could ever take Atlas seriously again in the territory and that they had to get rid of him.

So, not really an example of killing a company but it was a match that killed a town.

That sounds like a lot of BS, from Ole or Snow or both. Odds are Snow was told that story by Ole. Atlas having a competitive match with a smaller guy, still winning the match, and it killing the town forever? Highly doubtful. Sounds more like a booker who disliked "skinny guys" making excuses for the rest of the business failing that month/year and trying to pin it on one guy he didn't like by burying him in telling a story.

Well, this was back in the days when people thought wrestling was real so a guy lifting 500 pounds and coming out the next week and going toe to toe with someone much smaller kind of would make the fans scratch their heads in my opinion. Especially if the guy was a job guy or lower midcard talent who Atlas should have beat in a few minutes.

I'm not sure I believe that the fans stopped coming forever but I could see it killing Atlas' mystique and making him look weak and beatable.