>>9823585>How did territories actually work?There were one-town territories (St. Louis comes to mind) and territories that spanned multiple states (Mid South).
> larger territories would run a "loop"Mid South would do the same loop week after week. I forget the order, but MOnday was Tulsa, Tuesday was Shrieveport, etc.
They'd tape TV and get localized shows to each major market. "This Monday, in the Tulsa Arena I'm gonna rip my opponents head off." There are stories of wrestlers spending hours cutting the same promo, just switching up the city each time.
The shows were to draw fans. Most shows were either "full buy" or "shared buy". With a full buy, the promotion bought the airtime from the TV station and kept any ad revenue they could sell. With a shared buy, the promotion would buy the airtime and split inserted ads with the TV station.
Each promotion / region was an island unto its own. Guys would work a promotion. Come in, build heat, work a program, work a return match, work another return match, then have some blow off, then move on to the next promotion.
A guy might work Florida for a couple of months, then get stale, or need a change of scenery, and move over to St. Louis or Houston or Memphis or Dallas.
Sounds like the road loops were brutal, especially in the larger territories like Mid South. You hear stories of guys putting 1,000 miles on a car a week.
