Sunday, October 28, 2018

"Mr. Wrestling" Tim Woods' Last Stand (Part 5)

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

Catch up on this story in PART ONE  | PART TWO  |  PART THREE  |  PART FOUR

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PART FIVE

At the outset of the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television program that was taped at the WRAL TV studios in Raleigh, North Carolina on October 17, 1979, the still injured masked "Mr. Wrestling" surprisingly removed his hood to show his unyielding resolve to settle his score with Jimmy Snuka and Buddy Rogers. After having the whole TV program to contemplate and digest the actions of a very focused Tim Woods, Rogers and Snuka appeared on the very last segment of the show to address this shocking turn of events.

Legendary Jim Crockett Promotions announcer Bob Caudle exclaimed to the two villains, "All right, Buddy Rogers [and] U.S. Heavyweight champ Jimmy Snuka right here. I gotta ask you about this...'Mr. Wrestling' Tim Woods, he came out! He is ready; he's gonna be back soon. His neck is healed...watch out; watch out!"

An ultra confident Buddy Rogers defiantly responded, "Let me tell you something, when it comes to Tim Woods not only is he gonna wait in line but he's goin' on the very bottom of the list. He might grow too old before he ever sees a shot at this title just due to the fact that heavy fine that was imposed on Snuka and myself by the NWA."

Still visibly upset by the mere thought of that stiff NWA fine, Buddy continued, "I guarantee you, he'll never live that down." Bob Caudle then directly challenged Rogers by commenting, "A lot of people would look upon that as saying, 'hey, they're afraid'...Rogers is afraid to have Snuka meet him!" Rogers scoffed at that notion and barked back, "Let 'em say anything they want but Tim Woods will NEVER get a shot at this Title as long as my man has it!"

Tim Woods would then have a whole calendar week to stew about Rogers' comments about him not getting a United States Heavyweight Championship bout against Jimmy Snuka. Woods was so upset that he would appear first on the next edition of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV, leading off a blockbuster show that would feature Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood defeating Paul Jones and Baron von Raschke for the NWA World Tag Team Championship.



Woods showed up on that October 24, 1979 television program with a "Wanted--Out Of Wrestling" poster with the images of Snuka and Rogers on it in one hand, and a baseball bat on his other shoulder with the menacing Snuka and Rogers positioned in the ring only a few feet away from him, and the newly unmasked Tim Woods would have a major announcement for the Mid-Atlantic faithful during this ultra tense encounter with his mega rivals!

Tim Woods drops a bombshell on Jimmy Snuka and Buddy Rogers! To be continued in Part 6!

Special thanks to Brack Beasley.

http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/p/yearbooks.html