In early 1963, the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was formed by Vince McMahon Sr. and Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt, following a dispute with the NWA over "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers being booked to hold the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[13] Both men left the company in protest following the incident and formed the WWWF in the process, awarding Rogers the new WWWF World Championship in April of that year. He lost the title to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17, 1963, after suffering a heart attack shortly before the match. The WWWF operated in a conservative manner compared to other pro wrestling territories;[14] it ran its major arenas monthly rather than weekly or bi-weekly, usually featuring a babyface champion wrestling various heels in programs consisting of one to three matches.[15] Although business was initially rather strong, crowds in Madison Square Garden fell off due to a lack of television exposure. After gaining a television program deal and turning preliminary wrestler Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartino’s heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sell out business by 1970. Mondt left the company in the late sixties and although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, Sr. quietly re-joined in 1971. At the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and WWF employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization. Derek
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 16:13:21 +0000
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