During an episode of Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard spoke on Vince McMahon Sr. paying his talents a set amount of money for a specific start and end date with his territory. Here’s what he had to say:
Yeah, we had seen [Rick Martel] in Houston. He actually worked the territory for Dallas and Houston. I’d seen Martel work live, and Rick now was coming through New York and I think he was teaming with Tony Garea at the time as two young good-looking babyfaces. And that’s always good to have on the card.
What was unique to Vince Sr. is when you came in, and you started with Vince, you started– and for the most part, you also had your ending date the day that you started,” Prichard added. “So, you knew when you were going to start. You knew how long you were going to be there. You had a general idea of how much money you would make, but you also knew when it was going to come to an end. And you would work your way into the territory, get over, and then you would work your way out of the territory, and that was one way that Vince [Sr.] was able to keep that talent fresh all the time while coming through there.
Obviously, the top guys like Bruno [Sammartino] were able to stay there for a long time. Bob Backlund, Pat Patterson as a heel was able to stay and have a run, not only as a heel but also a babyface, and later on, an announcer. But that was the uniqueness of New York, was that you went in, you knew when you started and when you were going to end.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: Something To Wrestle With. H/T WrestlingInc.