Jim Ross on WWE Raw Angle, Harley Race and the Territories

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JR on…

Harley Race: “Enjoyed my 200 mile round trip drive Friday night to help out old friend and wrestling legend Harley Race at a benefit wrestling event in Sand Springs, Oklahoma which also happens to be Johnnie Mae Young’s home town. Harley broke in the biz at age 15 when he was the driver for 800 pound Happy Humphrey who rode in the back seat of a four door car and had to sit in the very middle of the seat to insure the that the vehicle was safely drivable. Harley said that when Humphrey sat down that the front of the car rose significantly. Race estimated that he drove the huge attraction hundreds of thousands of miles on non interstate, two lane highways. For more info on Harley’s wrestling school check out http://www.harleyrace.com.”

His Angle on Raw: “Considering that my suit, shirt and tie that I wore last week on Raw were all new and that I had never worn them before, my wife wasn’t overwhelmed with the BBQ sauce mess that was made. Its a good reason to do more shopping, right? As the King always says, “One can’t grieve forever.” ”

Territories: “No…wrestling territories are dead and will likely stay that way. The key to a territories success is getting local, strong TV clearances with a slick produced TV show that airs weekly. That isn’t going to happen. It’s not affordable nor does the majority of fans want to see largely unknown wrestlers. Most investors, who haven’t lost their sanity, would never invest in obtaining TV clearances and upgrading TV production values notwithstanding funding a wrestler payroll. Weekly territories are a thing of the past and will never be seen again to the level that they once were or even close. On the flip side, having viable, successful territories did more to develop main event level talents than any thing ever and nothing that can be created in today’s marketplace will ever supplant that concept. New talents can and will be developed but it will have to be in a much different way than back in the territory days where a different audience could be utilized to watch a gambit of wrestlers evolve and learn their craft. Being able to relocate to a variety of territories with differing creative philosophies and audiences/fans helped many wrestlers become stars. “

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.