So Long For Now
by Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway
"Hi wrestling fans, Bob Caudle along with David
Crockett - - welcome to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling! And David, have we
got a great program for all our wrestling fans this week…"
That was the greeting we heard most every Saturday afternoon
for many years as the warm, familiar voice of Bob Caudle welcomed us to the
cozy confines of the WRAL television studio, the home of “Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling” for decades.
And we welcomed him, too. Bob Caudle was like our favorite
uncle or our best friend, and it was as if he was calling the action right
there beside us in our living rooms.
Bob passed away overnight Saturday night/Sunday morning. His son Mike wrote to us that Bob had died peacefully in his sleep. He was 95 years
old. Wrestlers often say "Father Time does no jobs." That's certainly true, but Bob Caudle gave Father Time a run for his money.
Just five months earlier, Bob lost the love of his life. He
and Jackie had been married for 76 years. When two people have been together
that long and one dies, it frequently seems that the other is not far behind to
join them. On my last visit with Bob at his home in Raleigh, he told me how
lonely it was without Jackie across from him in her recliner. "I sometimes
will say something to her and forget she's not there," he told me. Now Bob
and Jackie are together again, wrapped in God’s loving arms.
 |
| Bob and Jackie Caudle |
Bob's passing leaves a big hole in my life. David Chappell
and I became friends with Bob and Jackie in the early 2000s and visited them
frequently at their home on St. Paul's Square and later at Capitol Oaks retirement community in Raleigh. We’d take them out to Smithfield’s BBQ, one of their favorites. Bob loved those hush-puppies. The Caudles even hosted my 50
th birthday party. I
grew to love them both, Jackie was such a sweet and loving soul, and Bob, whose
voice I literally grew up with as a teenager and young adult, always the
gentleman, always the warmest and kindest man. What a thrill it was when Bob
inducted David and me into the Hall of Heroes in Charlotte in 2016, and told an audience
at the banquet that Jackie called me her “step-son.”
No higher honor could I ever receive.
I am going to miss Bob more than I can adequately express.
 |
| David Chappell, Bob Caudle, and Dick Bourne (Raleigh, 2016) |
Bob and Jackie were
married right out of high school when they were just 19 years old. Bob began
his long broadcasting career at WWAY television in Wilmington, NC, and worked later
in Savannah, GA at WTOC, where he had his first brief taste of calling
professional wrestling. "We put up a ring at the station there and I
did about three or four shows," he told Mike Mooneyham a few years back.
They came to Raleigh in 1962 where they raised their family,
and Bob began a long successful career at WRAL-TV, channel 5. Over the decades
of the 60s and 70s, Bob at different times did news, sports, and weather at the
station. It was veteran sports personality and Hall of Fame broadcaster Ray
Reeve that asked Bob to take his place as wrestling announcer for the shows
taped at WRAL in the early 1960s, and a star was born.
 |
| TV Guide Ad for WRAL TV-5 Action News Team, 1970s |
Along with WRAL newsman Nick Pond, who called the action for
the Raleigh TV market, Bob called the action for the "All Star
Wrestling" show that aired throughout the Carolinas and Virginia. The show
was eventually renamed "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" in 1973,
and Bob would become the voice of professional wrestling for generations of
fans.
While heading up the constituency office for North Carolina
Senator Jessie Helms in the 1980s, Bob continued as a major part of Jim
Crockett Promotions, traveling with them as JCP's television programs moved
from the TV studio out to small arenas as they began their nationwide expansion
in 1983. He had many co-hosts on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling over the years (later "NWA Pro
Wrestling") including David Crockett, Johnny Weaver, Lance Russell, Roddy Piper, Terry Funk, and
Jim Ross. He also served as a mentor to a young up-and-coming wrestling announcer
named Tony Schiavone.
When Jim Crockett Promotions was acquired by Turner Broadcasting
in 1988, Bob joined them as well, calling weekly TV wrestling on the syndicated
"NWA Pro Wrestling" and co-hosting pay-per-events with Jim
Ross. When he left Turner in the early 1990s, he became the TV host for Jim
Cornette’s “Smokey Mountain Wrestling” and later Nelson Royal’s “Atlantic Coast
Wrestling.”
 |
David Crockett and Bob Caudle signing autographs
at the 2004 Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Charlotte |
After a long absence from the wrestling scene, Bob
resurfaced as a frequent guest at wrestling conventions in the 2000s, most
notably as a regular at Greg Price's NWA/Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Fanfests and Hall of
Heroes banquets in Charlotte. His last wrestling-related work was doing a taped
introduction at
the pay-per-view event “Ric
Flair’s Last Match”
in July of 2022.
Bob’s longtime friend of 50 years, David Crockett, arranged the video-taped
appearance for promoter Conrad Thompson. Wearing a throwback navy JCP-blazer, Bob welcomed fans to the event, just as he had done so warmly on television
decades earlier.
One of the greatest testaments to Bob Caudle’s character
comes from the many folks within the wrestling industry that have such respect
for him and hold him in such high regard. You’d never find anyone that had a
bad word to say about him. His greatest compliments come from his peers who
worked with him over the years, from people like Les Thatcher, Tony Schiavone, David Crockett
and Jim Ross, all of whom have shared publicly their reverence, affection, and
respect for him. And he respected them, too. Bob was always interested in what
his former cohorts were up to. He was happy that Tony Schiavone had returned
to wrestling and held a top job at AEW. “What
do you hear about Ross?” he would ask when we talked on the phone. Whenever I have
the rare pleasure of running into Jim Ross, he always asks about Bob. “I love
Bob Caudle,” he once told a nationwide TV audience on AEW Wrestling.
 |
| Les Thatcher and Bob Caudle (Charlotte, 2004) |
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| Jim Ross, Bob Caudle, and Tony Schiavone (Charlotte 2016) |
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| David Crockett, Bob Caudle, and Tony Schiavone (Raleigh, 2022) |
Bob could never quite get his arms around the fact that so
many wrestling fans remembered him all these years later. He was always so
humbled by it. I’ll always remember the moment Bob and Jackie came down the
escalator at the University Place Hilton at the first Mid-Atlantic Legends Fanfest in
Charlotte in 2004. Fans were lined up waiting for the doors to open on the
convention floor and huge applause broke out as fans recognized him. Jackie
later told us with a big smile that she never knew her husband was such a big deal.
That was an understatement. Bob was a very big deal.
As we say goodbye, I
can’t help but think of his familiar sign-off each week as the show ended:
“That’ll do it for this week, fans. We’ll see you next
week, and until then, so long for now.”
* * * * *
