Ted Turner’s Top Five Business Moves that Ultimately Led to Changing the Pro Wrestling Industry Forever

I woke up today ready to write a completely different article, but today’s news took precedence. A major name in the world of professional wrestling has passed. This was a loss bigger than pro wrestling and that is what will be covered regarding the passing of Ted Turner. Quite a legacy indeed, that was massive in and out of television. It was hard to give five specific contributions to pro wrestling, so not all contributions are specific to what I usually write. But a top five column is a top five column, and his recognition is deserved here in the PWTorch Universe.

Land Ownership

Ted was smart enough to diversify his income. When you are a risk taker, it’s important to do so. You have to have steady income in times that your ideas and investments don’t work out for you. When Ted Turner was alive, he was one of the largest private owner of land. Much of it was used to raise buffalo, which came into play when starting Ted’s Montana Grill, which became a new line of income.

In a world of corporate wrestling where you can be cut or have your pay changed on a corporate demand, diversifying income might be a smart thing to look at. Ted owned his business and still thought about how else does one stay paid.

Advertising

As a business owner myself, I am constantly looking for ways to get my business name out. As much as I love writing for PWTorch, I keep consistency in my writing because one of the trade offs I get is plugging Nerdstalgia (@NerdstalgiaShop on socials including YouTube). It’s a new way of advertising to gather as many eyeballs as possible.

From Ted, who already owned all this open land, selling off space to add billboards was a smart way to make the money. I learned about most of this listening to Eric Bischoff’s “83 Weeks” podcast. In the episode they did on Ted, Eric spoke about it being Ted’s idea to have the rotating billboard, that way he could sell ad space to more than one client at a time. Truly an innovator.

Nostalgia

Before you could pull up “Friends” episodes on demand, you’d easily be able to find a cable network air random episodes almost any night you’d want to. This all stems from syndication and how it was able to expand in the cable era. Even before cable, WTBS was a Superstation, which could be accessed through a satellite dish across the country. He’d air first-run Atlanta Braves Baseball and various professional wrestling shows, then would fill in much of the day with older episodes of television that the big three networks no longer aired. With shows like “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Sanford and Son,” and “Gilligan’s Island,” TBS accomplished two things. One was introducing a younger generation to great television that we would have missed. I have fond memories of watching Gilligan or Barney Fife waiting for WCW Pro.

The other thing that was happening was nostalgia of the previous generation being able to relive these old shows or catch them due to missing them the first time around. My grandfather, for instance, watched every episode of “Gunsmoke” once coming around to a television not being a device of the Devil. True story.

Turner didn’t stop there, either. Turner Classic Movies was created when Turner purchased older movie studios and the rights to their back catalogue, monetizing this art that was sitting in film vaults. Boomerang Network was created after combining ownership of Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera cartoon properties, and found a place to air only old cartoons. HBO would become a way to watch new movies in home, but would also fill a 24-hour network with many films of previous years. Ted understood the value of nostalgia and the art that would bring about the feels.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of “PWTorch ’90s Pastcast” with Patrick Moynahan and Alex McDonald, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

Networks

As I previously mentioned above, WTBS was the start of nationalizing a channel that would air the same thing on each television is accessed. No local affiliate controlling each market. When cable helped mainstream that concept, TBS was a logical station to add to cable packages.

Of most importance to this audience, professional wrestling could be watched. Be it Georgia Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, or the brief stint that Vince McMahon bought a time slot for the WWF expansion, professional wrestling and TBS were linked. Later, TNT would become a network for “higher brow” entertainment – as much as I hate that term – and Turner also launched CNN, the organization that reported on the founder’s passing this morning as I write this article. The first 24-hour network devoted only to news (and ratings). For better or for worse, it was the baby of the Turner empire, as was Cartoon Network that gave us Boomerang, Toonami, and Adult Swim.

WCW

When it comes to professional wrestling, this was Ted’s greatest contribution. When smaller organizations would have to fold or merge, Ted Turner was there to support them with TV time. When JCP was no longer financially viable, Ted was there to purchase the organization and rebrand it as World Championship Wrestling, the name of the flagship show that had been airing for years at 6:05 Eastern. As the organization grew, and Ted’s loyalty to wrestling was being questioned, Ted found a way through Eric Bischoff to make the company a positive line item.

Wrestling would become very different had Nitro not come in and changed the way things were done. Live atmosphere each week, emphasize the television show, and build a reason for people to come back, as well as the production values that Turner had access to made the WWF reconsider how they did business. The wrestling industry changed because of WCW and WCW existed because of Ted Turner.

May he rest in peace.

(Griffin is a lifelong fan of wrestling, superheroes, and rebellious music of all forms. He is the owner of Nerdstalgia, and you can shop online, learn about visiting the store in Colorado Springs, or catch him at a comic con in the Rocky Mountain area by going to http://nerdstalgia.shop.)