June 2, 2003 Observer Newsletter: Landscape of the wrestling business
There is probably nothing more impossible than trying to predict the future of a star-driven industry that has historically been both faddish and cyclical.
Nick Bockwinkel made a statement once about when he started, he had a map and put pins down where every wrestling company was based. Every year, he’d have less pins on the map. It’s almost impossible to fathom pro wrestling not being a part of American, Canadian, Mexican or Japanese culture. It seems so entrenched today. But there are so many places where it was once big, but now doesn’t exist.
If we go back to territorial history, there seemed to be the steady territories and the hotshotty territories. While everyone had their ups and downs, during the 70s, places like St. Louis (which did have a mid-70s dry spell as compared with the beginning and end of the decade) and WWWF seemed strong throughout, but most other places varied greatly.
Current subscribers click here to continue reading.
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.