|
Al Snow told a great story. Ole Anderson brought Tony Atlas into his territory and got him over huge by having him bench 500 lbs in the middle of the ring. Even let the fans come in and try to lift the weight. Nobody could come close. Atlas lifts it and the place goes fucking nuts. Then they announce he'll make his debut next week.
Sell out the next week. Wrestles a match against a guy the size of Funaki. Like a 12 minute, exciting, back and forth match with Atlas going over.
Atlas gets backstage and Ole immediately fires him. Because by having the "best match of the show", he ended up burying himself by taking so long to beat a guy he was way bigger than, not to mention punching him a million times in the match and leaving no mark. If anyone came out of the match looking good, it was his opponent for hanging in that long. And at worst, it exposed to the audience that it's all fake.
Dude got fired after exactly one match in the territory because they felt he exposed the business in said match. That's how protective the territories were.
|