During his stage show at Starrcast IV, Jim Crockett spoke about the difficult back and forth between the WWF and Jim Crockett Promotions in the early days of pay-per-view.
WWE created Survivor Series to combat NWA Starrcade and the Royal Rumble to combat the Bunkhouse Stampede.
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Crockett recalls starting The Clash Of Champions free TV special to combat WrestleMania IV in 1988, and why that upset Ted Turner:
“Pay-per-view was the way to go, of course, and we did that. Of course, then Vince does his first pay-per-view and I had come up with the bright idea let’s try to hurt his pay-per-view. So, we did a two-hour live special from Greensborough. No commercials during the matches. The next day, we did great, great ratings, matches were great. [Then,] Ted Turner calls, ‘I want to see you.’ Well, his partners for his business, were the cable companies. Cable companies make a lot of money off [of] pay-per-view. And we hurt the pay-per-view badly. And [Ted Turner] said, ‘you will never, ever do that again.'”
(H/T: Fightful)
