In the season finale of Dark Side of the Ring, this week’s episode is focused on Black Saturday. Now, like most of the episodes this season, I was not born for this and did not know much about the topic except that Vince took over wrestling. So I was intrigued to learn about the events that led to Black Saturday and why it fell under the “Dark Side” umbrella. So for one final time till next season, let’s review Dark Side of the Ring.
In the 1980’s wrestling was divided by territories. Most of the major cities in the United States had different companies and talent traveled from territory to territory to make their name in the wrestling business. In 1982, Vince McMahon purchased the WWF from his father which was the start of his rise in the wrestling business. In the early days, most of the major promoters would meet once a year to discuss major plans for wrestling within the United States and many of them looked at McMahon as the low man on the totem pole trying to make a name for himself.
As many of the smaller promotions were struggling, Georgia Championship Wrestling under the leadership of Jim Barnett had all of the connections to help people out. Barnett was different from all of the other promoters as he was not a wrestler, but he was tough and always was able to get what he wanted. Barnett was also close with Ted Turner, owner of TBS, which is why GCW was streamed on national TV every week. This was the number-one show on national TV due to the popularity of talent as well as the on-screen personnel. Ole Anderson was the booker of GCW and was regarded as a great wrestler, but also had a mixed reputation for being a matchmaker.
The reason that he had bought into GCW along with Gerold and Jack Briscoe was to make more money since the company was becoming more and more profitable. However, one day Anderson went through the books and realized that Barnett was spending a lot of money on personal things, which led to the rest of the owners pushing Barnett out of the company and Anderson was put in charge after he threatened Barnett.
While all of this was going on McMahon was secretly strategizing taking over the wrestling world. The first thing he did was hire Barnett, and they both resign from the NWA which means they are going to do business for themselves and not help anyone else. Other promoters started to worry that McMahon did not know what he was doing, but they were going to find out that McMahon had a huge plan all along.
McMahon was meeting with TV executives pitching his wrestling show to them, but they had to stop airing GCW. Buildings that GCW was used to running were no longer allowed to run because McMahon had paid them money that his company would exclusively run that building. He got a spot on the USA Network and started contacting top wrestlers in territories to appear on his TV Show to generate more money. He had made Hulk Hogan champion and that was his poster child for this new era of wrestling. He began controlling the TV side of wrestling as his company was becoming more popular by the week. As McMahon was taking over territory by territory there was only one left and that was GCW which Barnett promised him he was going to help him take over.
As McMahon became more powerful, Anderson was doing everything he could to make sure GCW remained successful. The problem was McMahon had most of the top talent available, whereas Anderson was stuck with a lot of the leftover talent who were not drawing big money. The Briscoe Brothers realized that Anderson was not living up to the expectations of being in charge, so they wanted to take Anderson out of office and for them to take over the company. Anderson and The Briscoes met at a bar to discuss this and Anderson had an idea. If anyone was going to sell their stock they had to share it with the other shareholders. Anderson cut his forehead and convinced the Briscoes to do the same so they could all agree to those deals.
The first person to break this deal was, of course, Anderson because he was not paying them what they should have. The Briscoes were looking to sell their shares to someone out of the company and even though Barnett said no, McMahon said yes. So they met in New York and McMahon was going to get 51% of the company. At the end of the deal, he owned not only the TV deal but also 67% of the company. However, lawyers kept telling the Briscoes that they had to offer the stocks to people in the company first, which they did not do.
Anderson fought with lawyers to stop McMahon, but he could not stop it. McMahon kept telling Anderson that this was just business and was going to offer him a job, but Anderson was too stubborn. Many people were not aware of the change in ownership until people got to the building or until people saw it on TV. McMahon had fired the entire GCW staff and he had told them if he was interested in them he would contact them, but if he did not they would be fired. On that episode of GCW McMahon was introduced and then different WWF matches were shown. Many fans were furious and called the TV station and complained saying that they wanted GCW back. People were starting to realize that McMahon did not care about GCW and all he wanted was the TV spot to make WWF the most powerful company in all of wrestling. Anderson had sent a hitman on the Briscoes because he was angry about what they did and he wanted revenge.
As the Briscoes did not die they threw a party to celebrate one of the most successful business decisions they have made. The one thing that they regret is that they lost the friendship they had with Anderson. Anderson sold his share with McMahon and he went to Ted Turner and asked for another TV time slot as he tried to make a comeback. His new timeslot was at 7:30 AM on Saturdays while McMahon was struggling. His wrestlers were not connecting with the fanbase and he was looking for a buyer to buy his time slot. He sold his Saturday Night time slot to Jim Crockett and McMahon got $1 Million, which was the money he used to finance Wrestlemania. This is how WWF became the biggest wrestling company in the world as all of the other companies were not able to compete with the success of McMahon. Barnett, who was more of an old-school wrestling fan, did not like that McMahon was turning the WWF into modern wrestling. As the two began to argue, McMahon had let Barnett go.
The episode ends with going over the downfall of McMahon, which some would say is karma. As more allegations came out there were many people that told McMahon that he had to step down from the company. He ended up selling to Endeavor as WWE is changing again. Although wrestling is a forever changing door Black Saturday will always be known as the first major change in wrestling as we all know it today.
Overall: This should have been a two-part episode. There was so much information that was explained and so many minor details that they left out, that at points the episode got confusing. Especially for someone like me who was not even alive for everything that happened during this episode. Although this was extremely interesting (in my opinion one of the better episodes of the season) more things needed to be explained especially as they quickly explained the current allegations with McMahon which deserved more time. Although I do not believe this lived up to the “Dark Side” name like the majority of the season this was a great episode for the historian wrestling fans out there.
The Dark Side of the Ring episode on Black Saturday and all of Season 5 are now on demand and streaming on Vice.
