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A
Hot August Night
August 1, 1980 was a scorching summer’s day in the Richmond
area. On that Friday, the temperature soared, and then soared some
more. It felt like about a 120 degrees, though the official high was
"only" 99 degrees in Richmond and 104 degrees in nearby
Norfolk.
Being a Friday, of course, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
was in town that evening. Typically, Jim Crockett Promotions would
bring in a sizzling card of wrestling action to match the hot
weather outside. Such was the case on this night, though in a
somewhat different fashion. This card at the Richmond Coliseum,
while in no measure one of Jim Crockett’s best, gave me two of my
most lasting memories of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.
The semi-final bout of the evening saw Blackjack Mulligan square
off with Enforcer Luciano in a Texas Street Fight. While Blackjack
was a familiar face to Mid-Atlantic fans, the Enforcer was a strange
character who was only in the area for about three months. As the
story goes, the Enforcer came into the area from Detroit with a
"contract " out on Mulligan. In actuality, Mulligan had
dispatched the challenge of Superstar # 2 (John Studd) in the late
spring of 1980, and Mulligan’s next significant program would not
occur until mid-August 1980 with newcomer "Bad Boy" Bobby
Duncum. Hence, the Enforcer was only a brief transition figure, but
a pretty entertaining one. Many may best remember Luciano for
breaking cement blocks with his bare fist and chewing up a light
bulb on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television program!
The Texas Street Fight was Mulligan’s specialty match, and
involved the participants dressing however they wanted and bringing
whatever they wanted into the ring. It amazed me how many
"foreign objects" that Luciano could cram into his
clothing. He had nearly everything on him but the kitchen sink.
Despite chains, brass knuckles, powder, etc. Luciano never got on
track against Mulligan. It became clear after a couple of minutes,
that this would be a slaughter and Luciano’s swan song in the
Mid-Atlantic area. After wearing the Enforcer down, Mulligan took
one of his cowboy boots off, flung Luciano into the ropes and
smashed him in the head with the hard boot. The Enforcer was counted
out, and Luciano proceeded to lay flat on his back with his arms and
legs spread out wide for a good five minutes. The image of Luciano
laying in the middle of the ring for so long has always stayed with
me. To this day, when I see anyone in any sport get a real
butt-kicking, I remember the Enforcer on this night and think to
myself that they didn’t get laid out nearly as badly as Luciano
did! Needless to say, Enforcer Luciano was never heard from again
after this Texas Street Fight!
The main event on this hot August night also provided me with a
lasting remembrance of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. The
match was a NWA World Tag Team Title match with Jimmy
"Superfly" Snuka and Ray Stevens defending against Ricky
Steamboat and Jay Youngblood in a fence match. It was always an
adventure when there was a fence match in Richmond. There would be a
number of men that would come out before the match with the four
sections of the fence and "attach" the fence sections to
the four ring posts. It never made for a sturdy looking structure,
and apparently it wasn’t as at least four men stayed during the
match itself acting as a "human brace" with their hands
holding onto the fence. You always wondered if the fence would
collapse, particularly when a wrestler was thrown headfirst into the
fence, which happened often. On this night, the high flying Jimmy
Snuka would give the fence its ultimate test.
Snuka’s usual finishing move was a dive off the top rope with
his opponent lying nearly on the other side of the ring. It was a
breathtaking maneuver, particularly during this time period, as
wrestling did not showcase many aerial moves in this era. During
this match, Ray Stevens had weakened Jay Youngblood considerably and
tagged in Snuka. The "Superfly" mounted the ropes, with
Youngblood a good three-quarters of the way across the ring from
him. Snuka perched himself on the top rope, crouched, and we in
attendance all thought the great dive would begin. But then Snuka
inexplicably paused, turned, and looked toward the top of the
rickety fence. We were all thinking, NO, he couldn’t be
considering going to the top of the fence!! But that’s exactly
what he was doing….everyone in attendance held their collective
breaths as Snuka attempted to navigate from the top rope to the top
of the 10 foot fence as the flimsy fence was swaying. He eventually
made it and was somehow standing on top of the fence, with the men
below holding on to their respective parts of the fence with all
their might. When the "Superfly" raised his arms above his
head in preparation for his jump, he appeared to lose his tenuous
balance and everyone in the Coliseum had their hearts in their
throats. I know I was positive that he was going to fall backwards
off of the fence. Somehow, miraculously, Snuka kept from falling off
the fence and righted himself and actually jumped upward but still
flew through the air far enough to reach a prone Jay Youngblood. Jay
moved out of the way a split second before Snuka arrived, and Snuka
plowed face-first into the mat. The other three wrestlers backed off
momentarily, obviously waiting to see if Jimmy was all right. Snuka
was down for about thirty seconds and then was able to make a tag to
Stevens, while Youngblood was in turn making his tag to Steamboat.
The match continued in anti-climactic fashion, with Stevens and
Snuka ultimately capturing the win and keeping their titles.
Anyone who saw Snuka scale and jump off that fence will never
forget that magical moment. I sweated during the early part of that
Friday because of the searing heat, but never more so than later
that night inside the Coliseum when Jimmy Snuka was teetering on top
of that fence. This was undoubtedly a hot August night in Richmond
that I’ll always remember!
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