I was remembering back to somewhere between 1984 and 86.
I was watching Mid South Wrestling and it was a pretty damn good show. In one hour, Ric Flair defended the NWA World Title twice.
First match was against Hacksaw Butch Reed. It only went about ten minutes, but was a great match. Reed as always was a great power wrestler, and took Flair to the limit. Later Flair put the title on the line against Ted DiBiase. DiBiase had been jumped by Dick Murdoch and left laying in blood after a brainbuster on the floor; earlier in the show. "Against doctors orders", DiBiase bleeding pretty bad; said it was his goal to be the world champion and wrestled anyway. DiBiase was putting up a gutsy performnce before giving up to Flair while in the figure four leg lock. The match lasted about 15 minutes, and was better than most the crap on TV today.
What happened to the concept that wrestling on TV was about wrestling. Today as we all know its about ratings. In the early 80's Fritz Von Erich market World Class Championship Wrestling in
60 markets across the U.S. That's not counting the markets overseas. He did it all by having great wrestling. Not by having the top stars on TV appear. No rock bands. No tits and ass all over the place. But by a unique concept of showcasing wrestling. Before the day of multi million dollar contacts and before pay per view. There wasn't many times you would see a guy that didn't know what he was doing in the ring. Everyone enjoyed being a wrestler. It wasn't just about money. So for those of you who think Vince McMahon was the pioneer of wrestling on TV. He just followed suit. Fritz did it first.