Jake Roberts On Black Saturday: Vince McMahon, WWF Taking Over GCW TV Time Slots

While the "Monday Night Wars" are the most prominent conflict between WWE and WCW, the true first shot between the two sides took place before WCW existed. "Black Saturday" in July 1984 saw Vince McMahon close his acquisition of Jim Barnett, Jack, and Gerald Brisco's shares of Georgia Championship Wrestling (known as GCW), allowing WWF access to a coveted Saturday timeslot on Ted Turner's WTBS – now TBS – TV channel. This led to Turner's decision to form World Championship Wrestling and rivaled the burgeoning Titan Sports. WWE Hall of FamerJake "The Snake" Roberts had been working as both a wrestler and a booker with GCW at the time, and he recalled getting the news of McMahon's acquisition during the latest episode of "Dark Side of the Ring: Unheard". 

"I was just blown away... I flipped man, I cussed them out, and tore up my booking papers and threw them," said Roberts. "I said, 'You'll need to put that back together so you can find out where the hell I was going,' and I walked out. What a freaking idiot I was." 

Jake "The Snake" added that he had been naive to the viability of WWF compared to the NWA territories, reasoning that he couldn't see how it would work out. As such, he walked out. Roberts soon found his way to the promotion two years after "Black Saturday" as he assumed the gimmick he is widely known and regarded for. Now a WWE Hall of Famer, the rest is history. McMahon and WWF floundered on TBS, and soon sold the timeslot back to Jim Crockett Promotions, which would eventually air "WCW Saturday Night."