Charting Mid-Atlantic Wrestling: A Statistical look at the Territory

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Working with statistics makes my head hurt. I love reviewing them, but have no patience for compiling them. David Chappell is better at it than I am, and has more patience for it. But nobody can do it better or has taken as much time to process them than Al Getz at his website Charting the Territories.

We were delighted when Al notified us he was working on this project for the Mid-Atlantic area. He was looking for more detailed information regarding placement on cards, etc., and so we asked Mark Eastridge (the greatest newspaper researcher we've ever known or come across) if he would allow us to share his vast newspaper ads & results archives with Al to assist with his statistical analysis. Mark's collection  goes back beyond the 1950s, and he has been building it for decades. He was happy to oblige. After all, we all share the same passion for documenting the history of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. And even though Al credits the Mid-Atlantic Gateway's Almanac as inspiration for this work, it's Mark Eastridge's amazing collection that really makes it possible. 

The result of all that work is the relatively new Mid-Atlantic section of the Charting the Territories website. Al begins his statistical and historical look in 1973, the year that the Crockett territory was fully branded Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. He's going quarter-by-quarter, and has posted the first two quarters of 1973 as of this writing.

Charting the Territories - Mid-Atlantic Wrestling - First Quarter 1973
Charting the Territories - Mid-Atlantic Wrestling - Second Quarter 1973

Al compiles these stats using a system he developed called the SPOT Rating metric. According to his website, the SPOT (Statistical Position Over Time) Rating measures a wrestler’s average position on the cards. The result is a great “depth chart” which, as we see it, provides something like a rating system, sorting the wrestlers at that time by how high they appeared on cards, indicating their relative impact and value to the promotion. It's clear that a lot of time and work went into this.

We are very excited to see this collection of statistics and other information grow. We are linking to it from our Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Almanac page (you'll find the links at the bottom of the right hand column on the main index), supplementing the vast amount of information compiled there by David Chappell that begins in 1974. Once Al gets to 1974, we'll be linking to his pages from our various almanac pages including the historical narratives and rosters. 

This stuff is amazing, so visit Charting the Territories and dive in!