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Things were so simple back in
the day. You didn’t have to set anyone on fire to start a
feud with them. It could be something as simple as coming to
the aid of a friend.
I’ve been listening to old audio tapes of Mid-Atlantic
Wrestling from 1975, and I think I’ve found the very
beginning of the feud between Wahoo McDaniel and Ric Flair.
On the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling show taped July 23, 1975, Ric
Flair, the Mid-Atlantic TV champ, is wrestling Bob Bruggers.
Les Thatcher is doing commentary and is giving Bruggers
athletic background, talking about how he played football at
the University of Minnesota and played NFL football for the
Miami Dolphins. He roomed with Wahoo McDaniel while in
Miami.
Flair and Bruggers have a pretty even and competitive match,
but at the end Flair gains the upper hand, wins the match,
and then relentlessly goes after Bruggers after the match,
screaming for someone to bring him some competition. Wahoo
McDaniel, currently the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight champ
having defeated Johnny Valentine less than a month earlier,
hits the ring for the save. Wahoo gets the microphone and
tells Flair “That’s a good friend of mine laying there. You
say you want some competition, well you’ve got some
competition right here, right now!” and they launch into a
wild brawl, with Flair finally bailing out after a series of
Wahoo’s chops.
Flair would soon lose the TV title to Paul Jones and mount a
challenge for Wahoo’s Mid-Atlantic title. The two would
battle over the next couple of months until Flair finally
beat Wahoo for the title in late September in Hampton VA in
a match where if Flair lost, he would have to shave his
head.
A few weeks later in early October, the airplane Flair was
on with Bob Bruggers, Johnny Valentine, Tim Woods, and David
Crockett went down in Wilmington NC. Despite suffering a
broken back in the crash, Flair was back in action by late
January 1976 and defending the Mid-Atlantic title against
the former champion Wahoo McDaniel. The two would trade the
title several times over the entire year of 1976, with Wahoo
eventually getting the title back for good in December 1976.
Flair and new partner Greg Valentine began a family battle
with Flair’s cousins the Anderson Brothers for the World Tag
titles.
The feud between Wahoo and Flair lasted for over 10 years, which
included battles over the Mid-Atlantic, United States, and NWA World
heavyweight titles.
But it all started over Wahoo coming to the aid of a friend,
his old NFL roommate. That was enough. It made sense to
everyone watching, we all would have done the same.
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