There have been a few moments, good, bad and ugly in the history of this great sport that have changed wrestling forever.

But one specific Saturday all the way back in 1984 is unquestionably one of the most important and shocking.

And I'm here to explain to you exactly why.

So I am Gareth, you are watching What Culture Wrestling, and we're about to take a closer look at the infamous moment that was

Black Saturday. The Before. Wrestling on television has changed in such a way that it's near

impossible to replicate the outrage of 1984

in the fragmented, disconnected and disillusioned present day.

The world itself felt exponentially bigger, but frames of reference were substantially smaller

without the internet or even much access to a world beyond the one outside the

window or on the television screen. And like any long-standing institution, wrestling contributed to

that fabric before, you know, Vince McMahon attempted to tear it up and restitch it in his own image.

Georgia Championship Wrestling first appeared on Ted Turner's WTCG

station, which would later become WTBS, out of Atlanta in 1972. The show rapidly became a

success story, a Saturday night fixture, airing iconically at 605pm to a loyal and dedicated audience

that were mostly content with the closed shop service.

In 1976, WTBS expanded nationally as a cable superstation, with GCW becoming the first National

Wrestling Alliance territory to secure such a valuable nationwide cable television contract,

in an era where the NWA still had dominion

over most territories across the United States.

In 1982, G.CW. rebranded the weekly show as World Championship Wrestling, a name

that soon became synonymous with the promotion itself, and would famously last beyond this

entire debacle years later.

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