by Carroll Hall
All Star Championship Wrestling
Saturday March 12, 1983 was the 29th birthday of my brother Kenneth and also the date of the infamous cage match in Greensboro, NC: Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle defending their world tag team championships against Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. Originally I had a prior commitment for that night but when those plans changed, I surpised my brother by taking him to the show in Greensboro. Up to that point in time we had always bought our tickets at the door because with our work schedules, it was generally on the day of an event before we could be sure we could go. This would be the first time we were turned away from a show since we started attending arena shows in May 1965.
We did not make it too far from where we exited I-40 when the traffic came to a crawl. When we finally made it to the Coliseum entrance, I rolled down the window and a police officer asked if we already had tickets. When I said no, he replied all the tickets were gone. We kept going at a crawl until we finally made it back to I-40 West. By the time we got through the traffic jam and got back home it was between 11 and 11:30 which was not far off of the time we normally got home from a show in Greensboro. This would be the last time we would ever travel to Greensboro to see wrestling. We were lucky enough to see Steamboat/Younglood vs. Slaughter/ Kernodle in three Greenboro matches prior to this on October 23, November 6 and December 26 in 1982.
Fast foward to Friday March 12, 2004. I had just recently joined my first wrestling message board. On this date I sent a PM (private message) to another member who was participating in a thread about that fabled cage match. That member turned out to be Dick Bourne of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Two days later, on Sunday March 14, 2004 in the late afternoon, Dick Bourne visited me at my home. As it turns out we live in the same area but had never met. That was the beginning of a friendship that I treasure more than simple words can describe.
