Charting The Territories

In the fourth quarter of 1978, the top wrestlers in Mid-America included Randy Savage, Dutch Mantell and Bobby Eaton.

In the third quarter of 1978, the top wrestlers in Mid-America included Dutch Mantel, George Gulas & Tojo Yamamoto.

In the second quarter of 1978, the top wrestlers in Mid-America included Randy Savage, Dutch Mantell and Don (Fargo) Garfield.

In the first quarter of 1978, the top wrestlers in Mid-America included Randy Savage, Ox Baker, Pez Whatley and Lanny Poffo.

NWA Mid-America, promoted by Nick Gulas (with Harry Thornton as co-promoter in Chattanooga), operated out of Nashville. The split with Jerry Jarrett happened the year before, so at this point in time the promotion ran a much smaller geographical area than in the past. Starting in May the promotion would run opposition to Jarrett in Louisville, with Jarrett retaliating by running opposition in Chattanooga. By the end of the year, both stopped running opposition and focused on their defined areas. The weekly loop looked like this: Mondays - Birmingham, AL (Feb-Dec) Tuesdays - Birmingham, AL (Jan) Wednesdays - Nashville, TN Fridays - Huntsville, AL Saturdays - Chattanooga, TN -Chattanooga was run on Sundays 14 times during the year and once on Friday, but every other week was a Saturday -They ran Louisville, KY between May and September; the shows bounced around between Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays I have data for 258 cards from 10 different cities. These maps show the c...

If you've been following this blog, you know the key feature is the SPOT ratings, which measures a wrestler by their average spot on the card over a period of time. It most certainly has its limitations, many of which I will discuss in this post. But the overarching theme and what you should take away from this post is this ... SPOT  is best used to evaluate wrestlers in a specific territory in a specific time frame. What's Wrong With SPOT: All Towns/Venues are Not Created Equal - The way the SPOT formula currently works, the wrestlers in the advertised main event of a specific card get equal billing. So the main event for a card at Madison Square Garden would get as much "credit" as the main event at the Jaffa Mosque in Altoona, PA. It's obvious that main eventing the Garden means more, but what SPOT does is merely aggregate a wrestlers' position over a variety of cards, some big and some small. I certainly could add some sort of factor that takes into c...

In the fourth quarter of 1966, the top wrestlers in Florida included Jose Lothario, Sam Steamboat, Les Welch, the Infernos, Don McClarity and Rocket Monroe.