Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Classic Clipping: Flair & Steamboat form "Dream Team" in Charlotte

July 21, 1979
Charlotte Coliseum
Charlotte, North Carolina




Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's dream team of Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat battled reigning NWA world tag team champs Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke in a Lumberjack match at the Coliseum in Charlotte, NC.

Flair had just tuned "good guy" for the first time ever a few months earlier and was mounting a full court press to defeat Paul Jones (his current arch enemy) and the Baron for the world tag team belts. He enlisted the aid of both Ricky Steamboat and Blackjack Mulligan in that quest.

An interesting tag team combination was featured in the semi-main. The legendary "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers took one half of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew Gene Anderson as his partner to battle the team of Jim Brunzell and Rufus R. "Freight Train" Jones. Rogers would become the manager of both Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and John Studd, and following an injury to his ear in late 1979, sold the contracts of his charges to Gene Anderson who became the manager of Snuka and several others to form "Anderson's Army."

Republished in November of 2022 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.