The "territories" of the National Wrestling Alliance were sacred ground, protected by the written By-Laws (until the Consent Decree in 1956) and then acknowledged by handshakes and unwritten agreements in the years that followed. A territory, in terms of the NWA, was defined by the area in which an official Alliance booking agent sent wrestlers to shows. Those towns would be "owned" by the individual booking agent and no other booking agent, in the NWA or outside the NWA, could stage wrestling programs there. Although the members of the NWA stifled independent bookers and promoters by withholding talent, threats, and other controversial means, it was impossible to hold a 100% monopoly in any particular territory. But in the heyday of the NWA, members tried their best to do so using every trick in the book, and plenty of new ones made up as they went along. Promoters rarely owned a wrestling territory without also being a booking agent. As far as being a member of the Alliance, all members HAD to have a booking office. That was a prerequisite, and many promoters were denied membership because they did not book a "territory." Internal debate over ownership of particular towns came up often and the Grievance Committee of the NWA was established to hash out those types of issues. Also, it should be noted, that some NWA members mocked those who still openly spoke about territorial ownership in public forums after the 1956 Consent Decree. The Consent Decree was signed by all Alliance members at the end of a lengthy Government investigation into antitrust violations and effectively banned such defined territorial recognition. This was done to save face with the Department of Justice, which was still observing the NWA's actions in the late 1950s and '60s, even though Alliance members still adhered to the same guidelines all through this time period. In an August 6, 1953 letter to Harry Newman, a promoter in Springfield, Illinois, NWA President Sam Muchnick wrote about a handful of Southern Illinois towns in which there was confusion of ownership. He wrote: "I suggest that sometime during the [annual NWA] meeting in Chicago, that the interested parties sit down and work out a definite understanding for the future, regarding the territories. I did write to Fred [Kohler] that I may ask the Alliance to make lines of demarcation. This has been suggested to me by a number of Alliance members who feel that their territories have been invaded." Johnny Doyle wrote a letter to the Department of Justice on September 7, 1955, explaining that he'd talked with Kohler about the happenings at the recent NWA convention in St. Louis. He wrote that "Rule Number Five, of the NWA, regarding bookers protecting and respecting the territories of other bookers, had been dropped from the constitution or by laws. But that all of the members swore to enforce the rule secretly and rigidly, as heretofore." Albuquerque Booking Office Amarillo Booking Office Atlanta Booking Office Boston Booking Office Buffalo Booking Office Calgary Booking Office Charlotte Booking Office Chicago Booking Office Columbus Booking Office Columbus Booking Office (Women's Wrestling) Dallas Booking Office Des Moines Booking Office Detroit Booking Office Dyersburg Booking Office El Paso Booking Office Eugene Booking Office Great Falls Booking Office Hollywood Booking Office Honolulu Booking Office Houston Booking Office Kansas City Booking Office Los Angeles Booking Office Mexico City Booking Office Minneapolis Booking Office Montreal Booking Office Nashville Booking Office New Orleans Booking Office New York City Booking Office Omaha Booking Office Orem Booking Office Pittsburgh Booking Office Richmond Booking Office San Francisco Booking Office Seattle Booking Office Spokane Booking Office St. Louis Booking Office Tampa Booking Office Toledo Booking Office Toronto Booking Office Tucson Booking Office Tulsa Booking Office Washington, D.C. Booking Office |
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