Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor
Here is an interesting spot show poster promoting a card held at the Barber Scotia College Gym in Concord, NC on Thursday, February 4th, 1982.
Billed as a triple main event, Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight champ Roddy Piper took on Ricky Steamboat (although the poster does not mention if this was a title defense), Big John Studd collided with young Jack Mulligan Jr. (Barry Windham), and Johnny Weaver took the challenge of Lord Alfred Hayes.
The lone tag team match was Karl Fergie and Eddie Mansfield versus Pork Chop Cash and Terry Taylor while Don Kernodle met Mike Miller in the opener.
Designed with a vertical layout, all black print on a pastel orange background, and the western style "Wrestling" across the top, it has attributes common to spot show posters such as the local businesses where advance tickets could be purchased and "Sponsored by the Concord Jaycees".
Along with the image of Steamboat, there are great pics of Studd and Taylor, two faces seldom seen on Mid Atlantic posters.
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Mid-Atlantic Gateway Notes
This was a pretty nice card for a small spot show. The Barber Scotia College Gym was a regular spot venue for JCP in the general Charlotte area, one of many!
Interesting to see 'Jack' Mulligan Jr. on the poster, as Windham would normally always be referred to in a promotional setting as 'Blackjack' Mulligan Jr. It might be the only time I recall seeing or hearing either Mulligan Sr. or Jr. referred to as "Jack" in an official way, although other wrestlers would call them that on promos frequently. Just seems odd on a poster to bill him that way, although it might have simply been a matter of typesetter at the poster company Souther Posters not having enough room to include his whole name given the font size. Studd and Mulligan Jr. were the top program for Flair and Mulligan Sr.'s Knoxville promotion which was closely affiliated with JCP. Knoxville didn't have enough towns running successfully at the time to appropriately pay Studd or Windham, so they brought that match to JCP shows frequently.
Terry Taylor sure was getting a push, on TV anyway, during this time. Bob Caudle and David Crockett would mention he was NWA rookie of the year every chance they got. But nothing really came of it here, he was never given an angle or a breakthrough win on TV or pushed in a semi-main program, despite the fact that he was technically proficient in the ring and fans, and girls in particular, seemed to love him. There was thought to giving him a babyface push on top for Flair and Mulligan's Knoxville promotion in late 1981, Flair put him over big in promos on Knoxville TV, but that didn't pan out either. I always hated that because I liked his stlye, he was one of the great "young lions" as David Crockett was always fond of saying. His big break came a couple of years later for Bill Watts in Mid-South Wrestling where he was North American Champion (their top title) and a top contender for Ric Flair's NWA World title.
Check out more of Brack's great poster collection by clicking our POSTER link and scrolling down through all of the poster-related posts.
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