Talk:WWE Libraries/Archive 1

Discussion

I don't think the WWE owns Eastern Championship Wrestling footage since that organization was a part of the NWA before breaking off and becoming ECW. --Don 13:59, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Incorrect. The NWA held no copyrights. The individual promotions that controlled the seperate territories were their own companies - the NWA was an umbrella organization that allowed for the use of a shared champion and for protection from someone else trying to muscle in on one's region. The NWA was not a promotion, but, like its name states, an Alliance. Read the NWA section of the article more carefully - or, as might be the case, try reading it in the first place. WWE owns quite a lot of NWA footage.

As a side note, Tom Tod Gordon, Eastern Championship Wrestling owner prior to Paul Heyman, tried to sue WWE over the Pre-Extreme years of footage, 1992-1994. He claimed that Eastern Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling were seperate entities, and thus when WWE bought the Extreme Championship Wrestling library, it did not include the Eastern Championship Wrestling footage. The suit was thrown out of court. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 23:53, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Side note:It's Tod Gordon —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.149.186.10 (talk) 09:52, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

Mid-South/UWF Library ownership

Is it correct that WWE owns it? I read on a board that Bill Watts's ex-wife owns the library out of a divorce settlement and that she is in negotiations with WWE about selling it.

Maple Leaf Wrestling

ok, on the WWE company purchases section who keeps removing Maple Leaf Wrestling !!! --T00C00L 07:44, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Listen, and listen very carefully: first, you need to learn how to read edit summaries, second, you need to start using edit summaries. Third, I have not found a shred of evidence behind your claim of WWE's ownership of MLW. Until you can provide a cite (see WP:V), and as long as you continue to fail to justify your edits, you will be reverted on sight an without comment. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 00:26, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

well, thats a tough one, but i know wwe owns maple leaf wrestling, but you say NO, well i can counter that by saying, do YOU have any undisputable proof that WWE owns UWF (universal wrestling federation)cuz if you search for universal wrestling federation on the wwe website, nothing of that name appears or exists!!! so, you dont have proof of that either, cuz i know about maple leaf wrestling, from non wwe affiliated but other wrestling sites and even on wikipedia, but i forgot which article !!! T00C00L 08:32, 21 August 2006 (UTC) WWE Search

not even wwe's video library page had anything about UWF or even Georgia Championship Wrestling!!! face it, man, ive trapped you, but i know wwe owns these including Maple Leaf Wrestling, but they just dont like to mention it!!! T00C00L 08:43, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

If you had bothered to look at the references at the bottom of the article you will see that WWE indeed owns both of those archives. And please remain civil. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 08:52, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

NO, why dont You see it!!! The Video Library, and i am Civil and Cool. i guarantee it has no mention of UWF or even Georgia Championship Wrestling!!! T00C00L 09:35, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

The other references. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 20:13, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

ahha, i have found some more PROOF of maple leaf wrestling belonging to WWE: - NWA Toronto United States Heavyweight Championship, just read the first paragraph!!! T00C00L 13:10, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

also, check these out- http://mapleleafwrestling.4t.com/info.html and if you want more than check this out http://mapleleafwrestling.4t.com/featuresmlwp/mapleleaftv.html, on the <second link on This paragraph try searching WWF on your browser and you'll get There!!! T00C00L 13:26, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

all my sources say, maple leaf wrestling has indeed been sold to WWF and it was sold in 1984, more accurately July 1984!!!

To quote: "Superstars would grow to include the Quebec market after the changes in 1977 and would continue to be seen in that province until the WWF bought out George Cannon's in the 1980s." Nowhere on that page does it explain who "George Cannon" is. Indeed it says that the Tunney's owned MLW. Also, on the main site, it says that WWF "took over" in 1984 - but it does not say that they bought MLW - do not forget that, in addition to purchasing smaller promotions, McMahon was muscling out regional promotions through market saturation and divide and conquer tactics. The evidence you provide is insufficient. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 20:13, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Vince McMahon didn't actually buy anything in Toronto, he just partnered with Jack Tunney until he didn't need him anymore. McMahon said he was coming in with or without the Tunneys' support. Eddie Tunney got bumped out after a few years. Jack made some good money through the partnership until getting pushed out himself. --Gary Will 23:26, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

i still believe wwe owns MLW, but you aint listening, but you gotta change your mind one day!!! T00C00L 02:36, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Fortunately for us, what you believe simply doesn't matter. The facts matter. And, personally, I'll take Mr. Will's noted knowledge in this area over yours or mine any day. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 12:30, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Tape Format

I recently listened to an interview conducted by Indeed Wrestling Weekly with a guy who used to work in the WWE Tape library (http://dl01.blastpodcast.com/indeedwrestling/15285_1157433044.mp3). He says alot of stuff but one thing he didn't mention was the format of the tapes. So I emailed the guy who did this interview, and he passed it onto "Mr. Quest" and I got this back - "They all are recorded onto Sony Digital tape which is pretty typical for TV production"

Should I include this in the article somewhere?

Dinsdale1234 16:11, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, no. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 18:34, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Class

Please do not change the class back from a Start to a B. This article is not yet a B class according to WP:PW guidelines. The article does not have a single in-line citation. Please fully cite the article first, and then I'll change the class from Start to B class. Thanks. Nikki311 15:39, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

former shows

Should it be included that they also own all former shows tapes like Heat and Velocity?--[[Adam Penale]] (talk) 14:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

No. This is about the content comprising the library, not the shows aired. Indeed, there have been hundreds of television programs, both local, national, and international, aired by all the companies WWE would buy. Smackdown and Raw are mentioned only because they are (nominally) separate brands - not because they are separate television series. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 03:25, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

USWA

Doesn't WWE own this too? 41.245.156.10 (talk) 07:24, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

No. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 07:40, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Future!

im pretty sure the section about the future aqcuisition on TNA is incorrect..should it be deletd!??--Ruthless-paki (talk) 23:46, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Unowned content

Would it be helpful to add context to the page by briefly summarizing the major US wrestling content which is not part of the WWE library? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.31.156.195 (talk) 22:05, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

No. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 22:03, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

I disagree. It WOULD be a good idea. But only major/significant ones. 137.158.152.213 (talk) 10:44, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Interesting things you find out

I was about to add Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation/Mid-South under WCW/Crockett Promotions, but decided to read the UWF's entry to make sure there was mention of WWE's library for sure. Never knew that Jim Crockett only bought the company and the wrestlers' contracts, not the library. John (talk) 19:46, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

There are various stories floating around as to why, but Bill Watts was going through a divorce at around the same time he sold the UWF, and his wife Ene wound up with the footage in the divorce settlement. Could have had something to do with Joel Watts, Ene's son and Bill's stepson, who was the producer of Mid-South and UWF broadcasts. Something along the lines of him being more loyal to his mother than to Bill, and that with his background, he could maintain and/or make better use of the footage than perhaps anybody. Looks like Ene and Joel have been busy in recent years trying to sell this stuff on their own, so I doubt you will hear any serious talk about the WWE acquiring it until one or both of them become tired of what they're currently doing.RadioKAOS (talk) 00:44, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Editing and condition sections

More examples would be: editing and wiping performed by WCW, specifically WRT blood and language. There's probably more examples of this than I'm personally familiar with. Another one would be the elimination of original commentary from Philadelphia Spectrum matches, which actually began during the 1980s, I believe because the announcers were employees of PRISM (the cable network which originally aired the matches) and not the WWF. As for condition, it's been mentioned on and off for years that Ole Anderson kept the Georgia tapes stashed in boxes in his garage and practically forgot about them. Ever notice that what little Georgia footage the WWE has released looks like it was recorded off the air, as opposed to coming from master tapes? The only exception to that I've seen is the Georgia footage in the Road Warriors DVD. Also notice that the WWE promised a Georgia wrestling DVD over a year ago and (far as I'm aware) it was never released?RadioKAOS (talk) 00:44, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Another change to lead

Just a thought:

The collection represents a very significant portion of the visual history of modern professional wrestling

Should "in North America" be appended to this? There's a significant amount of footage existing from Japan and the UK going back many years which the WWE obviously does not control. I dunno if historical Mexican footage (not to mention any number of "lesser" countries) wasn't wiped and still exists, but the WWE doesn't control that either.RadioKAOS (talk) 03:37, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Good observation. I've qualified it as "... in the United States and Canada." --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 18:43, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

I've read that WWF/E used IWA:Puerto Rico as a sort of developmental stop for talent, does anyone know if they own any footage from this promotion? Because if so, Puerto Rico would need to be added as well to U.S. & Canada. Also some of their Youtube shows have shown clipf from the Global Wrestling Federation out of dallas, does anyone know anything about this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mattgrrr (talk • contribs) 00:25, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

UWF

I don't believe the UWF video library should be listed under the JCP section, it should be listed separately because while Jim Crocket bought the promotion he did not own the video library which was recently acquired by the WWE. You see Florida was the same way, the promotion was bought and merged with JCP (which later became WCW) but the video history was separate. For UWF at most April 1987 thru December 1987 would be part of JCP the rest of that history 1950s - 4/87 would be listed separate. Personally I wouldn't go into that much detail. I'd list it like:

• Universal Wrestling Archives, Inc.
  • NWA Tri-State (1950s - 1979)
  • Mid-South Wrestling (1979 - 1986)
  • Power Professional Wrestling ('don't really know what this was, but appears to be part of the archive')
  • Universal Wrestling Federation (1986 - 1987) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Psion20 (talk • contribs) 23:56, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

As you can probably tell by now, I'm not obsessed with keeping up with news. However, if WWE did obtain this library, that should be significant enough in itself to warrant more of a mention than just a footnote towards the bottom of the article. The addition to the article didn't appear to be sourced. I'm looking at the UWA website right now, and it's business as usual.

When exactly did Bill and Ene Watts divorce? I would think the divorce, and the fact that she wound up with ownership of the library as a result, played a role in preventing Crockett from obtaining it in the first place. Joel Watts, who originally produced most of the footage, apparently took sides with his mother and against his stepfather during the divorce, which likely played a role in how things went down, too.RadioKAOS (talk) 08:12, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

GWF Library acquisition

I've heard WWE just bought the Global Wrestling Federation video library, shouldn't it be added? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.160.84.70 (talk) 01:22, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Unless there's official verification indicating this to be the case, no. Creativity-II (talk) 11:30, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Sounds very official: http://www.prowrestling.com/update-on-wwe-owning-tape-libraries-wrestlemania-xxx-pre-sale/ & http://www. examiner.com/article/wwe-news-wwe-purchases-global-wrestling-tv-library — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.6.2.254 (talk) 02:14, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Different kind of tape library

http://www.prowrestling.com/wwe-purchases-rights-to-another-video-tape-library/

The above link discusses a private library of tapes that seem to be JCP matches but are not associated with the promotion. I really don't know how something like this fits into the list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Psion20 (talk • contribs) 22:34, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

http://www.norfolknavyflagship.com/sports/professional_wrestling/article_9acd0736-d08b-11e3-a5ea-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=story. This story also seems confirm the purchase — Preceding unsigned comment added by Psion20 (talk • contribs) 22:43, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

Can't I say it was just a claim from someone on a radio show that worked in the library?

Dinsdale1234 23:18, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Nope. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 00:00, 25 March 2007 (UTC)