Review of Back to the Territories with Kevin Sullivan

by Alan Wojcik

Ask people who watched it and they will tell you Championship Wrestling from Florida was the hottest territory in the United States during the 1970’s & 80’s. Former NWA World champions like Jack Brisco, Harley Race & Dory Funk Jr. defended the belt there, the legend of the “American Dream” Dusty Rhodes was created there and to many people, evil personified was born there in KEVIN SULLIVAN who joins Jim Cornette for the next edition to the KAYFABE COMMENTARIES series BACK TO THE TERRITORIES.

It was all run by the late Eddie Graham after he bought out promoter Cowboy Luttrall in Tampa, Florida after a successful run with Dr. Gerry Graham in Capitol Wrestling (you know it as WWE). Mr. Sullivan is the perfect choice to speak with Cornette since he was in the territory through the era plus he partnered with the late Mike Graham and was a close confidant to Eddie. Over the two hours and twenty minutes, Cornette & Sullivan covered the layout of the promotion, how Graham ran live events, the main cities CWF operated in, the mainstream image in the Florida community, the super events (Battle of the Belts, Last Tango in Tampa) plus the stars of the territory like Pak Song with Gary Hart, Barry Windham, Steve Keirn, Don Curtis, “Mr Wrestling” Tim Woods, Professor Boris Malekno, “Purple Haze” Mark Lewin, the evil Abudadein & the dreaded Golden Spike, Bobby Shane, Hiro Matsuda and legendary announcer Gordon Solie.

I am fortunate to currently live in the Tampa area. I have met many people who attended live events and actually worked for Mr. Graham. I wish I could time travel to the promotion to see the excitement these people created on a nightly basis. Mr. Sullivan worked many places after Florida but you can see the love he holds for Mr. Graham and the CWF days. You will also hear stories that no one knew until both Graham gentlemen passed away. I also loved a story of how Mr. Keirn almost became WWWF World champion after a conversation between Mr. Graham and Vince J McMahon. Cornette also gets the juicy stories on Sullivan’s “devil worshipping” character turn.

You can buy this release through www.kayfabecommentaries.com or www.wwnlive.com plus you can see the shows through the WWN Live channel on your Roku device. For more on future releases follow @KayfabeComment on Twitter. Follow Alan Wojcik’s media work through @MyNameIsWojcik on Twitter & www.Facebook.com/KayfabeWrestlingRadio