thesquaredcircle

You really romanticize the World Class era of the sport but there's nothing wrong with that. 80s was the greatest era and it'll never be topped. People grew up loving certain territories.


World Class was only one the map for a few years. Like AWA, they really benefited from being broadcast on ESPN in the early days of that network. Most of the federation's existence could only be read about in magazines. When ESPN dropped them both, it was the first nail in the coffin. Neither federation was willing to take a gamble and expand. AWA obsessed with an aging Bockwinkel, then its talent gets poached, forcing a Larry Zybsko title reign(when I changed the channel forever). Contrary to what you state, World Class revolved around the Von Erichs and they would never change course, causing all that talent you list to leave almost immediately. Sure, the Von Erich brothers could sell out that Sportatorium, but they had to move on from that small venue if they wanted to compete with the big boys.

The death of Gino Hernandez was a sign of things to come. He was a rising star and it deserved so much more coverage than it got. It was pushed under the rug, and less than 10 years later World Class doesn't exist and all the Von Erichs but Kevin are dead.