Jimmy Snuka & The U.S. Title | The Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Jimmy Snuka Remembers the U.S. Title Belt

An iconic image of 1970s Mid-Atlantic Wrestling sends Jimmy Snuka down Memory Lane

by Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Three U.S. Champs That Never Had their Photos Made With the Red Strap U.S. Belt - Until Now

I love it when I can make a connection with one of the old timers, get them interested again in something I loved from back in the day. Such was the case in Charlotte recently at the NWA Legends Fanfest when I asked Jimmy Snuka to have his photo made with my replica of the United States heavyweight championship belt (similar to the one used in Crockett Promotions from 1975-1980.)

Snuka was working his way through a Saturday afternoon, signing autographs and taking photos with fans. He didn’t seem too particularly engaged by it. I had no idea how he would react to seeing this rare replica of this particular belt.

I walked around the table and handed him the belt and told him I didn’t want to be in the photo, I just wanted him to hold the belt.

When he looked down at the belt, his eyes lit up and a huge smile spread across his face.

“Bruddah!!” he exclaimed, and looked at me, almost as if to wonder . . . was this the actual belt he held all those many years ago? The replica did look that good. “Bruddah, this is old days! Good times!” he said with a huge grin on his face. “Me and the Nature Boy!” He actually started holding the belt out for other fans to see it.

“You and Gene Anderson, 1980,” I said, marking out myself at how excited he seemed.

“Yes, yes!” he replied, looking back at the belt, “Mr. Gene Anderson, bruddah! Good times! ”

He took a photo, holding the belt in his left hand, making his trademark “superfly” sign with his right, a genuine happy smile on his face.

I think for just a few seconds, he was taken back to a period of time he had not thought much about in many years. I’m guessing that most fans want to talk WWF with him, his feuds with Bob Backlund, Don Muraco, or Roddy Piper. But the site of that distinctive looking center plate on the U.S. belt replica definitely connected with him and seemed to have him thinking back to his hot feud in late 1979 and 1980 with Ric Flair over that title. Having just turned “bad guy” for the first time in his career, Snuka was managed then by Gene Anderson when he won the U.S. title. Anderson was one half of the legendary Minnesota Wrecking Crew tag team that now had a stable of wrestlers all his own consisting of Snuka, the Iron Sheik, and Ray “The Crippler” Stevens.

After the photo was taken, now 30 years later, he looked at the belt again briefly and then handed it back to me. “Very nice, bruddah, very nice.”

I’ll never forget that big smile that came on Jimmy Snuka’s face. It is one of my favorite Fanfest moments of them all.

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Photograph of Jimmy Snuka with the U.S. belt replica taken by Peggy Lathan. Period photo of Jimmy Snuka with US belt, photo credit unknown. The U.S. belt replica was crafted by Dave Millican (davemillicanbelts.com) The plates on this belt were cast from molds that descended directly from those made by Nikita Mulkovich, who made the original two versions of the Crocket U.S. title belt.

Article published 8/10/2010.