Death of the Territories

Expansion, Betrayal and the War That Changed Pro Wrestling Forever

By: Tim Hornbaker

Narrated by: Kyle Tait

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

Great hardcore knowledge

A great listen for people who already know a fair bit about it. Might be too specific for those who don’t already know a bit about this.

Great book

Great narration fantastic book if your a wrestling fan of history ..it goes really in depth

Very thankful for the history and knowledge.

This Book was a great listen,I've always enjoyed the history of wrestling, I like how its all beginning and 80s,it goes back and forth,up and down. But if your a fan you can follow with no problem,I actually did a few chapters twice.

In depth and informative, didn't love the voice

This book is truly deep, almost too deep at times, into the strange and chaotic world of territory wrestling and the rise of WWF and WCW. The length is just about right and while at times it reads like a book report, it kept me interested. Truly, the amount of research that went into this is staggering.

Unfortunately, the vocal performance leaves a little to be desired. Nearly every sentence is ended like the sentence carries too much weight. It's hard to describe, but it is read like every sentence should blow you away rather than just presenting the info. I found this pretty wearing after a few hours.

A ruthless business it became

I heard many things over the years, but this book puts it in perspective how, when, and where. Good read!!!

Detailed history of the US wrestling territories

There's a lot in here that even I didn't know. Great history of pro wrestling in the States.

Great for old-school rasslin fans

I really enjoy learning more about old school pro wrestling, er, rasslin and this has that! My knowledge of wrestling (for what it is) is mostly post-1984 and WWF's rock and wrestling, so hearing old NWA stories and about the territory days is fascinating to me. There were a few times where I was like, "really?" and in some good ways, some bad. Like talking about all the bad taste angles done in World Class by the Von Erichs and I didn't remember the Fritz-fake heart attack angle being mentioned at all. It was fun listening to 1983 in particular and how Vince was setting the stage for his national take over. Anyway, if you like old rassling stories, this is for you!

Great Narrator

Awesome job by the narrator. Great pronunciation and pace of reading. I recommend this audiobook to any wrestling fan.

A Great Entry Point

This is a great entry point for those looking to learn about the history of a very uniquely American sport/art.

There obviously isn't enough room to cover everything in the dying days of the territories, but, this sure manages to cover a lot of ground.

While reading, it was very easy for me to get engrossed and completely lose track of time. The narration was performed very well and I didn't catch any mispronunciations or other audio errors.

I highly recommend this book.

Wonderful adventure for the pro wrestling fan.

Even though most wrestling fans of any age know the end of the story, Tim Hornbaker does a great job given the readers excellent detail into the atmosphere of the territories in the pre-cable television pro wrestling landscape. This is a must-have book for fans. I enjoyed it greatly.