Flair & Steamboat: A Look Back When Hell Frooze Over. Again.

MAIN EVENT MEMORIES 
The Anderson Brothers vs. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat 
August 11, 1981 - Raleigh, NC
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

"The Hawaiian Punch" Ricky Steamboat and
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair

It's hard to imagine now, with 35 years having passed by and so much water under the bridge, that two superstar wrestlers teaming up would be such a big deal. But in 1981, when Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat joined forces to challenge Ric's cousins Gene and Ole Anderson for their NWA world tag team championship, it was a very big deal.

Not as big, perhaps, as in 1979 when Flair had just turned babyface and fans and good-guy wrestlers alike weren't sure if they could trust the Nature Boy. Back then, when Flair asked Ricky Steamboat to be his partner and challenge Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke for the NWA world tag titles that summer, it did indeed seem like hell had frozen over. The blood feud between Flair and Steamboat that had been going on for two straight years was unlike any other ever seen in the territory.

That was big, but now this seemed just as big to me for different reasons. This story had multiple layers to it now, calling back to family feuds and broken relationships going back some five long years.

Ric Flair's on-again, off-again relationship with his cousins Gene and Ole Anderson had been one of the greatest on-going stories in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling lore:

• 1976: The big break-up as Flair took Greg Valentine as his partner and wrestled the titles from the Andersons in a scenario so unlikely that it actually made the fans cheer for the hated Anderson brothers. The two teams traded the titles back and forth over the next two years.
• 1978: Ric's reunion with the family in 1978 when blood proved thicker than water and special referee Gene Anderson, thought to be impartial in the war between Flair and Steamboat, helped Ric retain the U.S title in the match where fans felt sure Steamboat would regain it. 
• 1979: The family was at odds again when Flair turned good-guy and cousin Gene became the manager of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka who proceeded to take Ric's U.S. title, and his favorite robe to boot.

Now in 1981, with Gene back in action after his managerial stint was over, the Anderson brothers reunited and regained the world titles. Not being able to leave well enough alone, Ole saw to it that the family feud erupted again when he and Gene joined Ivan Koloff in ganging up 3-on-1 on Flair inside a steel cage.

While Flair's current feud with Koloff had seemed more professional (albeit very violent), the family feud with the Andersons was very personal. With the cousins again waging war, Flair made the decision to once again attempt to do what he hadn't been able to do since his days in 1976-1978 with partner Greg Valentine - - take the NWA world tag team championships from the Andersons.

Flair took several different partners early on to tackle the Minnesota Wrecking Crew - - Blackjack Mulligan, Jay Youngblood, Wahoo McDaniel - - but in the end, there was only one man Flair could turn to that had a chance of making that magic happen again. It was his career long rival and now one of his best friends and allies - - the "Hawaiian Punch" Ricky Steamboat.

Like an onion with seemingly endless layers to peel away, this match-up had all of this tangled up history behind it. Flair was once again living out this family feud that had been going on for five years. Steamboat must have remembered back to the bloody wars with Flair in 1977, how Gene Anderson had helped Ric keep the U.S. title in that major battle of 1978. But the two were able to once again put that history behind them and join forces, just as they had shocked the world in doing two years earlier.

I'm convinced that they would have eventually been successful in taking the world tag team titles from the Andersons had it not been for something else happening in the meantime that changed the face of wrestling history: Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City, KS to win the NWA World Heavyweight title. The Anderson's tag titles were safe once again as Ric Flair turned his attention to touring the world in defense of the "ten pounds of gold."

With the world title in the picture, Flair and Steamboat would renew their rivalry several more times over the next 13 years, but for a brief few weeks in the summer of 1981, there was magic in the air again as hell froze over for a second time and Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat formed one of wrestling's most powerful and exciting combinations.

Originally posted October 27, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Check out other MAIN EVENT MEMORIES on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway:

1. The Anderson Family (1976) The Andersons and their cousin Ric Flair
2. Dusty's Big Championship Weekend (1976) with Flair, Mulligan, and the Andersons
3. Mulligan vs. Flair on a Hot July Night (1978) Worlds Collide!
4. The Origins of Wahoo vs. Flair (1975) with Wahoo McDaniel and Ric Flair
5. Blackjack Mulligan vs. Rufus R. Jones (1976) "Have mercy, Mama!"
6. The Briscos Challenge Flair & Valentine (1978) Jim Crockett makes the match.
7. A Local Boy Gets His Shot (1981) Don Kernodle teams with Ric Flair in his hometown.
8. Bullrope Match: Ole vs. Flair (1981) Dusty prepares Ric for a big match in Charlotte.
9. Ric Flair Wins His First Mid-Atlantic Championship (1975) Hair vs. Title in Hampton!
10. Blackjack Mulligan Regains the U.S. Title (1978) New Year's Night in Richmond
11. The Gathering on Tour (1986) Post Starrcade event in Columbia SC
12. Township Tangle (1978) Flair & Valentine vs. Wahoo & Jones
13. Flair Wins the NWA Title (1981) Historic Win over Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City
14. Brisco, Valentine Defend Titles in Richmond (1974) Huge main events in Richmond

Battle of the Dream Teams: Flair and Steamboat vs. Piper and Valentine

by Jody Shifflett, Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

This poster is from 1981 at the historic Greensboro Coliseum. Four of the best ever in professional wrestling squared off against each other. 

The dynamic duo of Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat against the dirty tough duo of Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine. I could not find the results of this match but with George Scott as special guest referee I’m sure steamboat and Flair took the win. 

A great undercard featuring two rough tough Texans, Blackjack Mulligan against Bobby Duncan in a Texas Street Fight. Matches between big guys like this usually did not go a great distance time-wise, but they were brutal and usually bloody. 

Another great match featured Ivan Koloff against the Iron Sheik. This match had to of been exciting with two of the best bad guys in the business back in the day. 

The poster has a great layout being in light blue and bold red lettering for all of the main eventers. And as always an 8:15 start time!

NO. 10 IN THE SHIFFLETT POSTER SERIES

Figure Friday: U.S. Champ Roddy Piper

@wrestlerweekly

Another nice staging for Action Figures Friday by our friends Scottie and Reggie at @wrestlerweekly featuring United States Heavyweight Champion Roddy Piper in 1981. All that's missing are the bagpipes and a kilt!

Piper was a two-time U.S. champion, first winning the strap on 1/27/81 from Ric Flair at the Dorton Arena in Raleigh, NC. He lost the title on 8/8/81 to Wahoo McDaniel in Greensboro.

His second title reign came two years later when he defeated Greg Valentine on 4/16/83 in Greensboro, NC, only to lose the title back to "the Hammer" two weeks later on 5/1/83 in the same city.

Originally published in May 2019 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Poster: Flair & Mulligan vs. Piper & Valentine

by Jody Shifflett
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

This poster was from Valentine’s Day 1981 and took place at the farthest northern point that Mid-Atlantic wrestling covered at the time which was Culpeper, Virginia. 

What a main event  for the small venue which featured four of the greatest wrestlers of all time and I can only imagine what the atmosphere was like inside the Culpeper Junior High School gym as these four Titans went to war in the ring. 

Pretty good under card led up to the main event and I would imagine that was a good match between Ole Anderson and Dewey Roberson because these were both respectively tough men, which most of the Mid-Atlantic stars were anyway. 

Features great sunrise colors and the classic 8:15 start time!

NO. 6 IN THE SHIFFLETT POSTER SERIES

Poster: Flair vs. Anderson at Cincinnati Gardens

by Brack Beasley
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

This poster promotes a card held at the Cincinnati Gardens, a venue rich in professional wrestling history. Held on Friday, October 16th, 1981, both the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the United States title were on the line. 

Ric Flair, still riding high only one month into his first reign with the Ten Pounds of Gold, took the challenge of cousin Ole Anderson, while Sgt. Slaughter would defend his belt against Johnny Weaver. 

The big names didn't stop at the main events as the rest of the lineup included Wahoo McDaniel, Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Ivan Koloff, Jay Youngblood, and Bad Leroy Brown. No doubt an exciting night of wrestling for the fans in Cincinnati.

With a horizontal layout, the poster has red and black print over an ultra bright yellow background and great images of Flair, Wahoo, Koloff, and the Andersons. It's especially nice to see the full body image of Flair in my personal favorite Olivia Walker robe.

 NO. 35 IN THE BEASLEY POSTER SERIES

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Mid-Atlantic Gateway Notes
by Dick Bourne

Cincinnati was an interesting town for JCP, as it fell outside their usual territorial footprint at the time. It was really more a Georgia Championship Wrestling town when Georgia had started running Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia after it had been basically abandoned by the Sheik's Detroit promotion. Their cards were promoted off of Superstation WTBS. But Crockett had a TV outlet there that did pretty well, and booker Ole Anderson, who was booking both Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at the time, stacked the Cincinnati cards with more Mid-Atlantic talent than he did Georgia talent for awhile. 

Anderson booked himself as Ric Flair's first regular title challenger in the Mid-Atlantic territory. The Andersons had been in a bitter feud with Flair the entire summer of 1981 before Ric won the NWA title in September, and so Ole made a natural choice as Flair's challenger plus it was a continuation of the on-again / off-again family feud between Flair and his cousins that had been going on since 1976. Flair and Ole headlined cards all over the reach of JCP including Cincinnati, Buffalo, NY, Savannah, GA, and all across the traditional Mid-Atlantic territory.

Wahoo McDaniel and Roddy Piper was the most heated feud in the territory at that point, coming off Piper's hiring of Abdullah the Butcher a month and a half earlier to attack Wahoo on TV which resulted in Wahoo being injured and being stripped of the U.S. title for failing to defend against Piper, even though it was Piper who had hired the Butcher. The U.S. title had been placed in a tournament.

And speaking of that U.S. title tournament, Sgt. Slaughter, a newcomer to Jim Crockett Promotions, was just coming off his big surprise tournament win of the United States Championship less than two weeks earlier. Johnny Weaver was his early opponent in lots of towns across the Mid-Atlantic territory helping to establish Slaughter as a top heel, including this card in Cincinnati.

A great card in the Queen City!

New NWA Champion Dusty Rhodes Wrestles on Wide World Wrestling

 

In July of 1981, the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dusty Rhodes made his first appearance with the ten pounds of gold on World Wide Wrestling. Rhodes had defeated Harley Race for the honors weeks earlier in the Omni in Atlanta, GA. Commentators Rich Landrum and Johnny Weaver called the action as Rhodes battled Jim Nelson in the cozy confines of WRAL TV studios in Raleigh. 

Video from that era is very rare, but through the magic of a vintage audio recording, we present Dusty's first appearance on Mid-Atlantic area television as NWA World Champion.

NWA World Champion Dusty Rhodes on World Wide Wrestling

Audio from the collection of David Chappell.

Gene Anderson gets One Last Shot at the NWA World Champioinship

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

The great Gene Anderson, original founding member of the famous Anderson family in wrestling, was never known for his singles competition. He was primarily known for being part of a famous tag team known as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with two different worked-brothers: Lars Anderson in the 1960s and Ole Anderson in the late 1960s through the early 1980s.

Photo courtesy of WrestlerWeekly.com
@wrestlerweekly on Twitter

Gene was the silent killer of the team, letting his braggadocious, loudmouth, younger brothers do all the talking. Les Thatcher once noted while calling an Anderson Brothers match on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in 1975:

"As Teddy Roosevelt said, 'Talk softly and carry a big stick.' You'll hear very little out of Gene Anderson," Thatcher quipped. Gene Anderson carried a very big stick in the Minnesota Wrecking Crew.

The Andersons were no strangers to tag team championships. They held multiple regional and world championships over several decades. But it was somewhat of a rare occurrence when Gene Anderson received a shot at the NWA World heavyweight singles title.

He received a few in the early 1970s against champion Dory Funk, Jr., in towns like Norfolk, Richmond, and Raleigh for promoter Joe Murnick, who more than others apparently saw value in putting Gene in the ring on top with Funk.

But after those shots in 1970 and 1971, Gene Anderson's days as a contender for the World heavyweight singles title ended. To my knowledge, he never got a shot at Harley Race, Jack Brisco, or Terry Funk throughout the remainder of the 1970s. (Please correct me if I am wrong about that.)

And then suddenly, almost exactly 10 years after his last NWA title shot on July 7, 1971, Gene gets one last shot at the title again, this time against new champion (and long time rival in the tag team wars) Dusty Rhodes on July 11, 1981 in Spartanburg, SC.

Admittedly, on the surface the booking of this match doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Throughout his career, Gene was predominantly a tag team wrestler and never was in the mix for singles titles. Ole as an opponent made more sense, and indeed Ole was getting several shots at Rhodes during this time. Ole had the long running singles feud with Dusty, particularly in the Georgia Championship Wrestling area. He could also deliver a better promo to promote the match.

Gene Anderson, Bob Caudle, and Ole Anderson

This Spartanburg card was a matinee show at 3:00 PM. Ole is not listed on it, so it's likely he was booked on another spot show town on a matinee card. I've not been able to find a record of any such show at this point. Both Ole and Gene reunited later that same evening in Charlotte for a defense of their NWA World tag team championship against Ricky Steamboat and Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Rhodes and the NWA title weren't on that Charlotte show, so it's safe to assume Rhodes defended the title in some other Crockett town that Saturday night,  but I've not come across any record of a title defense for Rhodes that night.

The Spartanburg newspaper reported the following day that Rhodes had defeated Anderson in the main event. In other action on that 7/11 Spartanburg card, Bad Bad Leroy Brown defeated the Iron Sheik. No other results were listed.

This would be Gene's last shot at the NWA championship. He never got another shot after that, at least none that we have ever come across. (As always, we welcome additional information.) He and Ole were also in their final run as NWA World tag team champions. I kind of like knowing this one last, odd singles title shot was against Dusty Rhodes, who had a long and storied rivalry and feud with the Andersons.

If you've hung around the Mid-Atlantic Gateway for very long, you know we are big fans of the Anderson Brothers. This is a nice little rare piece of Anderson lore to hang on to.


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Thanks as always to Mark Eastridge for the newspaper clippings. Thanks to Scottie Richardson at WrestlerWeekly.com for the poster image. Thanks also to Brack Beasley.

Originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in July of 2017, and republished in 2018 and 2020 as part of our Classic Poster Series. 

Tony Barnhart: The Rocky Side of Wrestling (1981)

One of my favorite sportswriters and college football journalists is Tony Barnhart, who, by the looks of things, might have been a bit of a wrestling fan going back to his college days. You never can tell, but his familiarity with the tomahawk chop and the sleeper hold are tell-tale signs.

The following is a transcribed article that appeared in the Greensboro Record in August of 1981.

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The Rocky Side of Wrestling
By Tony Barnhart
Greensboro Record, 8/14/1981  

There are few places more laid back than a newspaper on Sunday night. The Saturday evening cardiac contest has been survived once more and those stuck in the office can at least look forward to working in a low-key atmosphere. It can be depressing, but it is rarely life-threatening.

Last Sunday, however, it became apparent early on that the night would be anything but typical.

The security guard, a congenial and well-groomed fellow, looked a bit ruffled. “Do you know who won the rasslin’?”

I was expecting something a little more original – like “Hello.” I appeared confused – and with good reason.

“You know, the rasslin’ they had at the Coliseum last night. The phone’s been ringing off the hook all day because it ain’t in the paper.”

I felt bad about being unable to shed any light on the guard’s problem, but I soothed my conscience by promising to let him know the minute we heard anything.

I walked up the steps to the second floor, chuckling to myself about how the poor guard had let a few complaining calls affect him so adversely. But he did not have the benefit of working for years in sports where one develops a thick skin for such.

Being a little late, I expected my working companion to be furiously going over the pages for the next morning’s edition. Instead I found him with his face pressed to the window, staring blankly into the parking lot.

From across the room I called his name, but he did not respond. Then I walked over next to him and called his name again.

“I can’t take it anymore,” he said. “They just keep calling and calling. It’s never going to stop.”

The phone began its angry ring.

The Fans Respond

For years, both newspapers have printed the results of the pro wrestling matches held here. And the bottom line is that when such information fails to appear, a segment of the population gets quite upset – and they all have telephones

Normally, we receive a call from the promoter at the end of the matches. He gives us the information and we print it – a flawless system. But for some reason, that call did not come last Saturday night and we were left down for the count, as it were.

I cradled the receiver as though it were the handle of a boiling pot. I was in the middle of identifying myself when the party on the other end began to bubble over.

“It wasn’t in there,” she said.

“Ma’am?”

“The wrestling was not in the paper.”

“Yes ma’am. We normally get a call on that, but last night we didn’t.”

“Well why didn’t they call you?

“I don’t know, ma’am, but we’re trying to track it down now.”

“Well, hurry up and find out because I want to know if Wahoo McDaniel won.”

“Well ma’am, I don’t know about that, but I just heard a rumor that Gene and Ole Anderson were disqualified in their match.”

“Well that’s par for the course.” And she hung up.

And so it went. Before the evening was out, we grew to know each pro wrestling fan in Greensboro on intimate terms. They wanted those results and suddenly it had become a challenge to find them.

The Search

My colleagues wouldn’t want me to tell you this, but that night our office because consumed with the idea of finding out just who had done what to whom on the mat out at the Coliseum.

Calls began going out all over the state looking for a promoter, a fan, a popcorn vendor – anybody who had an idea what had gone on out there. On their best days, Woodward and Bernstein had never put this much into an investigation.

A change began to take place in the personalities of my co-workers. On two separate occasions, I had to fight my way out of an Indian Death Lock just to get to the phone. One guy spent his dinner hour practicing the Atomic Drop on a small filing cabinet.

About 9 o’clock, we had our first lead. One of the guys had gotten the phone number of a Coliseum usher. The usher said that Wahoo McDaniel had indeed won, at least that’s what one of the janitors had told him.

But that little tidbit of information did nothing to stem the tide of phone calls which overpowered us sometime around midnight.

The next morning, they found our bodies strewn all over the office. I was slumped over my chair, an unwitting victim of a Tomahawk Chop. One guy spent the night with his legs tangled in a chair after failing to execute a Kiwi Roll.

As we were being carried out of the building, I stopped just long enough to whisper to the fresh troops coming in. “Go get it, fellows., Those people out there deserve to know because it’s important to them and they care. Don’t ever quit – EVER.”

They told me I collapsed after those words and that just a few minutes later the call came through from the promoter. The results made the afternoon edition.

We had failed on our mission, but like Davy Crockett at the Alamo, we had paved the way for others. Hopefully we’ll never fail to get another wrestling call and perhaps be asked to make the supreme sacrifice

But if we do, My Sleeper Hold will be ready.

Poster: Newcomer Roddy Piper battles area stalwart Paul Jones at the Spindale House

by Brack Beasley

Mid-Atlantic Gateway

 

The Spindale House in Spindale, NC was a familiar stop for Crockett Promotions in the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately for local wrestling fans it all ended abruptly on the Friday night, June 5th, 1981 when Roddy Piper incited a full blown riot at the venue. Piper never had a problem drawing heat but this must have been something on a totally different level as the riot resulted in professional wrestling being banned in Spindale.

This poster promotes that infamous card in Spindale with a main event of Paul Jones versus Piper. The Mid-Atlantic Tag Team belts were on the line in the semi with champions Johnny Weaver and Dewey Robertson versus Mr. Fuji and El Torro while the undercard included Mike Reed, Ron Ritchie, Frank Monte, Charlie Fulton, and women wrestlers Suzette Ferreira and Angie Minelli.

With a vertical layout, the poster has all black print on an orange background along with images of Jones and Piper beside their match listing.

Nice details to note - it also lets us know that the event is sponsored by the Forest City Jaycees and you can buy your tickets at Bill's Auto Glass Shop and at Northwestern Bank locations in Forest City, Spindale, and Rutherfordton.

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Gateway Notes: 

Lots of action in and around the entire 4-state Mid-Atlantic area that Friday night in addition to the Spindale show, including the regular Friday night card in Richmond, VA (Ric Flair vs. Ivan Koloff, Anderson Bros. vs. Leroy Brown and Jay Youngblood), Charleston, SC (Masked Superstar  and Mr. Wrestling 2 vs. Austin Idol and "Prince" Jimmy Valiant, and the affiliated Knoxville, TN (Blackjack Mulligan vs. The Iron Sheik, Mulligan Jr. vs. Mongolian Stomper.)  

Odd to see Piper headlining this show against Paul Jones. Piper was United States champion at the time, but is not billed on the poster as champion. It isn't clear if this was a title defense or not. Piper was in the latter stages of a very heated feud with Ric Flair, who he defeated for that title back in late January of that same year. Jones had been more upper-middle-card during this time, although he and Wahoo McDaniel had reformed their team and were chasing the Anderson Brothers for the NWA World Tag team titles, daja-vu from their legendary feud in 1976.

 NO. 22 IN A SERIES

Greg Valentine Comes to Atlanta for the Georgia Heavyweight Title Tournament (1981)

by Dick Bourne 
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

On May 17, 1981 at the Omni in Atlanta, there was a one-night tournament for the vacated Georgia Heavyweight Championship. Ten men were entered in the tournament, including a couple of guys advertised as coming in from outside the territory to compete including Bruiser Brody and Greg Valentine.

Brody no-showed (or perhaps was never really going to appear to begin with, who knows) but Valentine came in from the Mid-Atlantic area and went all the way to the finals, defeating Mr. Wrestling II in the quarter finals and Iron Mike Sharpe in the semi-finals before losing to "Wildfire" Tommy Rich in the finals.

Prior to the tournament, Greg Valentine sent in a taped interview from Raleigh to promote his appearance in the tournament. The interview was conducted by Rich Landrum (host of "World Wide Wrestling") in the studios of WRAL TV.

The video below, which is the final seven minutes of the Georgia TV show leading up to that big Omni card, contains the Greg Valentine promo plus another tape from the Mid-Atlantic area featuring the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions Gene and Ole Anderson.

(No idea why the person who posted this clip labeled it from "WGHP-TV High Point Fox 8..." because the clip has nothing to do with any of that.)

GENERAL NOTES

• The match with the Anderson Brothers from WRAL is from the summer of 1981 and is from "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" with Bob Caudle and Lord Alfred Hayes calling the action.  
• Tommy Rich was wrestling in that tournament with a $10,000 bounty on his head, allegedly placed there by NWA World Champion Harley Race, who was trying to avoid having to face Rich for the NWA title. Greg Valentine mentions being interested in collecting the bounty in his promo, but was apparently unable to do so as Rich defeated him in the tournament finals to win the Georgia title and then went on to challenge Race for the NWA title at the next show at the Omni on 5/31/81. Race would successfully defend against Rich on 5/31, but then lost the NWA world title to Dusty Rhodes on the following Omni show on 6/21/81. 
• If you look closely, you will see part of the Georgia championship belt extending off the front of Gordon Solie's podium. 
• In a Studio Wrestling note, the backdrop you see in the Valentine interview (as seen in the image at top) was the Mid-Atlantic set used from 1975-1977 and is my favorite of all the old sets, mainly because it was first one I really remember and was used during the years I first really loved wrestling. 
• This Georgia Championship Wrestling show featured two other Mid-Atlantic clips not seen in the video above. The first featured a match between Greg Valentine and Steve Muslin from 1980 on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." The second was a promotional interview similar to Greg Valentine's with Rich Landrum interviewing "The Dream." (I hope to present those in a future post.)

GEORGIA TOURNAMENT NOTES

• Gordon Solie promoted the tournament as a round-robin tournament, although it was not competed in such a fashion. There were 10 men announced as appearing in the tournament: Dusty Rhodes, Iron Mike Sharpe, Mr. Wrestling II, Tommy Rich, Ray Candy, Bruiser Brody, Greg Valentine, Ken Patera, Mike Boyer, and Bill Irwin. Brody and Boyer diod not appear, but Nickolia Volkoff and Jim Duggan replaced them.
• From the tournament results posted on The History of the WWE website, it appears that 2 of the 10 (Rhodes and Volkoff) received byes, but I've been unable to figure out the elimination brackets from these results. But they are listed as:

Quarter Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Bill Irwin
Quarter Finals: Ken Patera defeated Ray Candy
Quarter Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Mr. Wrestling #2
Quarter Finals: Iron Mike Sharpe defeated Jim Duggan
Semi Finals: Ken Patera fought Dusty Rhodes to a no contest
Semi Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Nikolai Volkoff
Semi Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Iron Mike Sharpe
Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Greg Valentine to win the title

Originally posted November 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Poster: Fabulous Freebirds Part of a Strange Show in Winston-Salem

by Brack Beasley
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

This poster takes us back to 1981 and promotes a card at the Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum on Friday night July 17th. It's billed as a triple main event and the top of the bill features a very rare early appearance in Jim Crockett Promotions by the Fabulous Freebirds challenging the Gene and Ole Anderson.

In the semi it was the Big Cat Ernie Ladd vs. Bad Leroy Brown and the first main event pitted Austin Idol against Paul Jones. 

The poster itself has an attractive horizontal layout with black print over a light green background and the date and top two main events really stand out in high impact red. The familiar "Wrestling" splash is in the top left corner along with four images of the Andersons, Brown, Idol, and Jones. 

From top to bottom this particular card had a great mix of familiar and not so familiar faces to Mid Atlantic fans.

Gateway Notes: What a rare and unusual main event for the Mid-Atlantic area! The whole show is like something out of the twilight zone. Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at this time, and lots of Georgia regulars were getting sporadic bookings in the Mid-Atlantic area (and vice-versa.) But this main event sort of came out of the blue. Especially considering that Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy had split up as a team in the spring of 1981, and Gordy was teaming with Jimmy Snuka that summer, and in fact they were the Georgia Tag Team champions at the time of of this match with the Andersons, based on records of the title that I could find. Perhaps the Freebirds here were Hayes and Buddy Roberts, except Roberts had left Georgia by this time, meaning he wouldn't have been being booked by Anderson. So who knows? (Do you? Email us if you have further info on this card.)

This is an odd show for other reasons, too. The poster advertises the card for Winston-Salem's Coliseum, but the newspaper ad promotes it as an outdoor show at Ernie Shore Field, the local baseball venue. Since posters usually were printed weeks in advance, we're guessing the show got moved outdoors for one reason or another.

The newspaper ad for this card indicated that while the Anderson brothers were indeed the NWA World Tag Team champs, this was a non-title affair. Also, the Iron Sheik replaced Austin Idol on this show and that change was reflected in the newspaper ad as well.      -D. Bourne

NO. 15 IN A SERIES

Roddy Piper and Bob Armstrong bring their Georgia feud to Mid-Atlantic Wrestling

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

The recent spate of excellent quality uploads of old "Georgia Championship Wrestling" shows on YouTube had me fondly remembering Roddy Piper's one-year stint in Georgia and particularly his early feud with "Bullet" Bob Armstrong.

In the fall of 1981, Ole Anderson became booker for both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories, something pretty unheard of in that time.  One result of his having that dual responsibility was the cross-over of talent between the two promotions. This was yet another chapter in the long history of what I have dubbed the "talent exchange" or partnership between the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories that went back to the mid-1970s.

Gordon Solie and Roddy Piper, hosts of
"Georgia Championship Wrestling" on SuperStation WTBS

One of the most visible examples of this was Roddy Piper becoming the co-host of "Georgia Championship Wrestling" alongside Gordon Solie in late October of 1981. Piper proved to be the perfect bombastic and colorful compliment to Solie's rather dry style of calling matches. It's not clear what Solie must have first thought of Piper when he debuted alongside him on WTBS on Halloween evening of 1981, but after a few weeks he warmed up to him pretty quickly as there was great chemistry between the two and they became one of the top pro wrestling broadcasting duos in the country with broad exposure on the nationally televised Georgia program.

Piper was such a hit in the color commentary role that Ole Anderson also paired him with Bob Caudle on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" a few months later. Piper was perhaps the only wrestler to ever be a color commentator on two top shows for two different promotions at the same time. It was this experience that would first get him noticed in that role and would later serve as a foundation for the groundbreaking "Piper's Pit" segments on WWF television shows in 1984. 

Bob and Brad Armstrong

Along with his commentary duties in Georgia, Piper also would occasionally conduct interviews. In his first few months, he seemed particularly enamored of the father and son combination of Bob and Brad Armstrong, and his passive-aggressive confrontations with the two eventually led to fireworks between Piper and Bob Armstrong.

For several weeks in a row, Piper would interview the Armstrongs at ringside, complimenting the tag team prowess of the team, but also questioning their strategies and execution. He even went so far as to get personal with Bob, suggesting he was perhaps a bad father for occasionally letting his son take a beating in a match.

Bob, for his part, handled all of this masterfully in the slow build to the inevitable explosion with Piper, at first just just acting mildly annoyed at Piper's antics, usually brushing him off or ending the interviews before Piper was ready to end them, leaving the rowdy Scot occasionally flummoxed and at a loss for words.

Bob Armstrong was the perfect foil for Piper, aptly able to hold his own in a verbal joust with him, using his popular southern wit to confound the west coast bullying and arrogance of Piper. Armstrong was now looked at as one of the wise old veterans in the territory by the fans, and fans enjoyed watching Armstrong put Piper in his place over those early weeks.

But Piper was relentless. And as he turned the volume up on his criticism of the Armstrongs, it began to get under Bob Armstrong's skin. However, the two never touched for nearly three months.

Things finally came to a boiling point on the 1/30/82 episode of "Georgia Championship Wrestling"  and Armstrong attacked Piper at the podium and the they brawled into the ring.

That wild melee led to an actual match between the two at the Omni on Sunday, February 7. It was Piper's long awaited first match in Georgia and part of a big night at the Omni which included National Heavyweight Champion Tommy "Wildfire" Rich defend that title against former NWA world champion Harley Race.

There are different accounts as to the result of the February match. Most reports say it was a double DQ or a no-contest finish. The match would actually serve as a springboard to a progression of matches Piper would have over the next few months at the Omni, moving from one challenge up to the next. Following Armstrong, there was Tommy Rich and then Dick Slater. Others opponents down the line in 1982 for Piper included Dusty Rhodes, Ole Anderson, and Don Muraco.

Even though Piper moved on to other opponents in Atlanta, his feud with Bob Armstrong would continue outside the territory. Piper's only real role in Georgia was doing TV's with Gordon Solie on Saturday mornings, and matches on the Omni cards every three weeks or so. He didn't wrestle often on the house show circuit in Georgia because he was a full-time wrestler for Jim Crockett Promotions, and was actually booked out to Atlanta through the Charlotte Crockett office. In fact, through much of this time period Piper was Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion, feuding first with Ricky Steamboat and then with Jack Brisco over that title belt.


THE PIPER/ARMSTRONG FEUD MOVES 
TO THE MID-ATLANTIC TERRITORY

Their feud was a quite unusual because it began in Georgia, but was largely carried out in the Mid-Atlantic territory, even though Armstrong never appeared in person on Mid-Atlantic television.  The feud had incubated every Saturday on WTBS for nearly three months (November 1981 - January 1982) without the two ever touching.

Then soon after that one Atlanta match on 2/7/82, things moved directly to the Mid-Atlantic territory, where Piper was the reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. But other than isolated matches in Norfolk and Greensboro, their war took place entirely in the city of Greenville, SC on Monday nights.

Over a two month period, beginning on February 22 and culminating on April 19, the two had five (5) different matches in the Greenville Memorial Auditorium.

• 2/22/82 - Mid-Atlantic title match (mid-card)
• 3/01/82 - No Disqualification match (semi-main)
• 3/22/82 - 2 out of 3 falls match (main event)
• 3/29/82 - Indian Strap match (main event)
• 4/19/82 - Canadian Lumberjack match (main event)

With Armstrong not appearing in person on any Mid-Atlantic TV shows, and only a few isolated clips shown from Georgia, it is astounding that Piper and Armstrong went for five events in Greenville, headlining the last three of them. it is a testament to the chemistry they had together and how well things clicked on the Georgia show, which was seen on cable channel WTBS in the Greenville market, although cable penetration in 1982 was far more limited than today.

Piper and Armstrong also headlined three shows in Cincinnati, OH, a city which featured talent from both Mid-Atlantic and Georgia promotions. The local promoter for the Cincy shows was Les Thatcher.

Piper and Armstrong also headlined three shows in Cincinnati, OH which were part of the Georgia Wrestling tours of Ohio and Michigan at that time. The local promoter for the Cincy shows was Les Thatcher, and lots of Mid-Atlantic talent was booked on those shows as well.

It was a wonderful feud and a great memory from that time where so much talent was appearing in both territories simultaneously.

******

Thanks to Brian Rogers for his help with these Greenville newspaper clippings.

 
Originally posted October 30, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Follow-up: Roddy Piper and the U.S. Championship in Oregon (1981)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Earlier I published a story on Roddy Piper defending the United States Heavyweight championship in Salem, Oregon for promoter Don Owen in 1981. It was part of a week-long tour for Roddy of the Pacific Northwest territory (Portland.) Piper was the reigning U. S. champion for Jim Crockett Promotions, having defeated Ric Flair earlier that year.

Following that article's solicitation for more information from longtime Portland fans, I received an email from a nice fellow named Steven in Seattle who filled in some gaps for us on the previous story, as well as some terrific information on Roddy's appearance two nights earlier in Portland.

 

Classic Portland Wrestling (Instagram)

 

On Tuesday June 16, Piper also defended the U.S. title against arch-rival "Playboy" Buddy Rose, who was the top heel in the Portland territory. (The special referee was former NWA World Champion Lou Thesz.) In this amazing photo from the Classic Portland Wrestling page on Instagram, Rose is seen squatting down in front of a prone Piper, holding the United States championship belt. It isn't clear in this photo whether Rose is taunting Piper (likely) or in a show of respect handing him the belt (less likely) following a grueling match. I wish we knew more about that match and its outcome, but obviously Piper retained the title that night. He also defended the title against Rose the following night in Seattle, Washington. (See a great photo of Piper signing autographs on this same Pacific Northwest tour with the Crockett United States Championship belt on Classic Portland Wrestling.)

Piper's return to the Portland territory in 1981 was a really big deal, and he was received as the returning hero. Piper was one of the biggest stars ever there, and so his return really meant something to fans there. The promotion took advantage of Piper's status as United States champion, and even though the Crockett U.S. title was actually a territory title in and of itself (the top singles title in the Mid-Atlantic territory), it was occasionally seen on the nationally cablecast Superstation WTBS for Georgia Championship Wrestling, and was regularly featured in national newsstand wrestling magazines as one of the stepping stones to the NWA World Heavyweight championship. 

Months after Piper had left Portland for the Mid-Atlantic area, Steven told us about the cool moment on the KPTV channel-12 "Portland Wrestling" television broadcast when legendary Portland host Frank Bonnema announced that there was a new United States Heavyweight wrestling champion and his name was Roddy Piper. This surely got a nice reaction from the Portland faithful. Bonnema told the TV audience that they had received a telegram that Piper had won the title "back east in North Carolina." Piper indeed had defeated Ric Flair for the belt in Raleigh, NC, on 1/27/81.

As I reported in the preceding article about Piper's 1981 Pacific Northwest appearances, Piper's opponent  in Salem, OR on 6/18/81 was The Destroyer, but we had no idea who might have been working under the mask there as the Destroyer at that time. Steven let us know that it was David Patterson, who was better known in later years as Dave Sierra as well as the Cuban Assassin. Patterson is a Mid-Atlantic alumnus, who worked in lower card matches and as enhancement on TV matches for JCP in the early 80s, and always demonstrated the potential he had through his time here, but never got a break in the Mid-Atlantic area.  

If haven't seen the article on Piper returning to Oregon that preceded this one (including the 6/18/81 newspaper ad for Salem), check it out here:

Roddy Piper Defends the Crockett U.S. Title in Oregon (1981)
http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/2020/11/piper-us-title-oregon.html

Visit the excellent Classic Portland Wrestling Instagram page for more Portland wrestling memorabilia. (Direct link to the Buddy Rose/Roddy Piper photo above.) (Piper wearing the U.S. belt, back turned.)

(See a great photo of Piper signing autographs on this same Pacific Northwest tour with the Crockett United States Championship belt on Classic Portland Wrestling)

 

MID-ATLANTIC GATEWAY BOOK STORE

Flair & Steamboat: Hell Freezes Over. Again.

MAIN EVENT MEMORIES 
The Anderson Brothers vs. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat 
August 11, 1981 - Raleigh, NC
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

"The Hawaiian Punch" Ricky Steamboat and
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair

It's hard to imagine now, with 35 years having passed by and so much water under the bridge, that two superstar wrestlers teaming up would be such a big deal. But in 1981, when Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat joined forces to challenge Ric's cousins Gene and Ole Anderson for their NWA world tag team championship, it was a very big deal.

Not as big, perhaps, as in 1979 when Flair had just turned babyface and fans and good-guy wrestlers alike weren't sure if they could trust the Nature Boy. Back then, when Flair asked Ricky Steamboat to be his partner and challenge Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke for the NWA world tag titles that summer, it did indeed seem like hell had frozen over. The blood feud between Flair and Steamboat that had been going on for two straight years was unlike any other ever seen in the territory.

That was big, but now this seemed just as big to me for different reasons. This story had multiple layers to it now, calling back to family feuds and broken relationships going back some five long years.

Ric Flair's on-again, off-again relationship with his cousins Gene and Ole Anderson had been one of the greatest on-going stories in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling lore:

• 1976: The big break-up as Flair took Greg Valentine as his partner and wrestled the titles from the Andersons in a scenario so unlikely that it actually made the fans cheer for the hated Anderson brothers. The two teams traded the titles back and forth over the next two years.
• 1978: Ric's reunion with the family in 1978 when blood proved thicker than water and special referee Gene Anderson, thought to be impartial in the war between Flair and Steamboat, helped Ric retain the U.S title in the match where fans felt sure Steamboat would regain it. 
• 1979: The family was at odds again when Flair turned good-guy and cousin Gene became the manager of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka who proceeded to take Ric's U.S. title, and his favorite robe to boot.

Now in 1981, with Gene back in action after his managerial stint was over, the Anderson brothers reunited and regained the world titles. Not being able to leave well enough alone, Ole saw to it that the family feud erupted again when he and Gene joined Ivan Koloff in ganging up 3-on-1 on Flair inside a steel cage.

While Flair's current feud with Koloff had seemed more professional (albeit very violent), the family feud with the Andersons was very personal. With the cousins again waging war, Flair made the decision to once again attempt to do what he hadn't been able to do since his days in 1976-1978 with partner Greg Valentine - - take the NWA world tag team championships from the Andersons.

Flair took several different partners early on to tackle the Minnesota Wrecking Crew - - Blackjack Mulligan, Jay Youngblood, Wahoo McDaniel - - but in the end, there was only one man Flair could turn to that had a chance of making that magic happen again. It was his career long rival and now one of his best friends and allies - - the "Hawaiian Punch" Ricky Steamboat.

Like an onion with seemingly endless layers to peel away, this match-up had all of this tangled up history behind it. Flair was once again living out this family feud that had been going on for five years. Steamboat must have remembered back to the bloody wars with Flair in 1977, how Gene Anderson had helped Ric keep the U.S. title in that major battle of 1978. But the two were able to once again put that history behind them and join forces, just as they had shocked the world in doing two years earlier.

I'm convinced that they would have eventually been successful in taking the world tag team titles from the Andersons had it not been for something else happening in the meantime that changed the face of wrestling history: Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City, KS to win the NWA World Heavyweight title. The Anderson's tag titles were safe once again as Ric Flair turned his attention to touring the world in defense of the "ten pounds of gold."

With the world title in the picture, Flair and Steamboat would renew their rivalry several more times over the next 13 years, but for a brief few weeks in the summer of 1981, there was magic in the air again as hell froze over for a second time and Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat formed one of wrestling's most powerful and exciting combinations.

Originally posted October 27, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Check out other MAIN EVENT MEMORIES on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway:

1. The Anderson Family (1976) The Andersons and their cousin Ric Flair
2. Dusty's Big Championship Weekend (1976) with Flair, Mulligan, and the Andersons
3. Mulligan vs. Flair on a Hot July Night (1978) Worlds Collide!
4. The Origins of Wahoo vs. Flair (1975) with Wahoo McDaniel and Ric Flair
5. Blackjack Mulligan vs. Rufus R. Jones (1976) "Have mercy, Mama!"
6. The Briscos Challenge Flair & Valentine (1978) Jim Crockett makes the match.
7. A Local Boy Gets His Shot (1981) Don Kernodle teams with Ric Flair in his hometown.
8. Bullrope Match: Ole vs. Flair (1981) Dusty prepares Ric for a big match in Charlotte.
9. Ric Flair Wins His First Mid-Atlantic Championship (1975) Hair vs. Title in Hampton!
10. Blackjack Mulligan Regains the U.S. Title (1978) New Year's Night in Richmond
11. The Gathering on Tour (1986) Post Starrcade event in Columbia SC
12. Township Tangle (1978) Flair & Valentine vs. Wahoo & Jones
13. Flair Wins the NWA Title (1981) Historic Win over Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City
14. Brisco, Valentine Defend Titles in Richmond (1974) Huge main events in Richmond

Gene Anderson Gets One Last Shot at the NWA Title (1981)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

The great Gene Anderson, original founding member of the famous Anderson family in wrestling, was never known for his singles competition. He was primarily known for being part of a famous tag team known as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with two different worked-brothers: Lars Anderson in the 1960s and Ole Anderson in the late 1960s through the early 1980s.

Photo courtesy of WrestlerWeekly.com
@wrestlerweekly on Twitter

Gene was the silent killer of the team, letting his braggadocious, loudmouth, younger brothers do all the talking. Les Thatcher once noted while calling an Anderson Brothers match on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in 1975:

"As Teddy Roosevelt said, 'Talk softly and carry a big stick.' You'll hear very little out of Gene Anderson," Thatcher quipped. Gene Anderson carried a very big stick in the Minnesota Wrecking Crew.

The Andersons were no strangers to tag team championships. They held multiple regional and world championships over several decades. But it was somewhat of a rare occurrence when Gene Anderson received a shot at the NWA World Heavyweight singles title.

He received a few in the early 1970s against champion Dory Funk, Jr., in towns like Norfolk, Richmond, and Raleigh for promoter Joe Murnick, who more than others apparently saw value in putting Gene in the ring on top with Funk.

But after those shots in 1970 and 1971, Gene Anderson's days as a contender for the World Heavyweight singles title ended. To my knowledge, he never got a shot at Harley Race, Jack Brisco, or Terry Funk throughout the remainder of the 1970s. (Someone please let me know if I missed one.)

And then suddenly, almost exactly 10 years after his last NWA title shot on July 7, 1971, Gene gets one last shot at the title again, this time against new NWA champion (and long time rival in the tag team wars) Dusty Rhodes on July 11, 1981 in Spartanburg, SC.

Admittedly, on the surface the booking of this match doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Throughout his career, Gene was predominantly a tag team wrestler and never was in the mix for singles titles. Ole as an opponent made more sense, and indeed Ole was getting several shots at Rhodes during this time. Ole had the long running singles feud with Dusty, particularly in the Georgia Championship Wrestling terriotory. He could also deliver a better promo to promote the match.

Gene Anderson, Bob Caudle, and Ole Anderson

This Spartanburg card was a matinee show at 3:00 PM. Ole is not listed on it, so it's likely he was booked on another spot show town on a matinee card. I've not been able to find a record of any such show at this point. Both Ole and Gene reunited later that same evening in Charlotte for a defense of their NWA World tag team championship against Ricky Steamboat and Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Rhodes and the NWA title weren't on that Charlotte show, so it's safe to assume Rhodes defended the title in some other Crockett town that Saturday night,  but I've not come across any record of a title defense for Rhodes that night.

The Spartanburg newspaper reported the following day that Rhodes had defeated Anderson in the main event. In other action on that 7/11 Spartanburg card, Bad Bad Leroy Brown defeated the Iron Sheik. No other results were listed.

This would be Gene's last shot at the NWA championship. He never got another shot after that, at least none that we have ever come across. (As always, we welcome additional information.) He and Ole were also in their final run as NWA World tag team champions. I kind of like knowing this one last, odd singles title shot was against Dusty Rhodes, who had a long and storied rivalry and feud with the Andersons.

If you've hung around the Mid-Atlantic Gateway for very long, you know we are big fans of the Anderson Brothers. This is a nice little rare piece of Anderson lore to hang on to.


* * * * * * 

Thanks as always to Mark Easteridge for the newspaper clippings. Thanks to Scottie Richardson at @WrestlerWeekly for the poster image. 

Originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway July 19, 2017. 

Republished in edited format in July 2018 and March 2022 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

A Sister's Enlightenment (Orangeburg SC 1981)

PART TWO

PART THREE

Local Boy Gets His Shot: Don Kernodle and Ric Flair team up in Burlington (1981)

"Headlining the schedule will be a tag team match pitting Burlington's Don Kernodle and Ric Flair against Greg Valentine and Roddy Piper."

A quick glance at the newspaper ad above and one might not think anything unusual about Don Kernodle teaming with Ric Flair in the early 1980s. Flair was the Mid-Atlantic territory's beloved top star at that time, on his way to be coming NWA world champion for the first time later that year.

However, Don Kernodle was still wrestling the circuit as a mid-card babyface, having been in that role for over seven years, and struggling to break out to the next level. That break would indeed come in early 1982 when Sgt. Slaughter selected him and Jim Nelson to become his Marine privates. Pvts. Nelson and Kernodle became one of the top tag teams in the territory with Sgt. Slaughter as their mentor, winning the Mid-Atlantic tag team championships. Kernodle later became the partner of Sarge himself, and the two had one of the biggest box-office feuds of the early 1980s with Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood.

But in March of 1981, Kernodle was still toiling away as a mid-carder, one of the top workers in the ring, but never getting the chance to get over at the next level. But on this one night in March in his hometown of Burlington, NC, Don got an opportunity to shine.

Jim Crockett Promotions ran semi-regular spot shows at Cummings High School in Burlington.  Kernodle had grown up in Burlington and was a four-year standout high school wrestler before going on to success as a wrestler for Elon College in Elon, NC (adjacent to Burlington). He lettered in wrestling all four years at Elon, and also dabbled in Judo and arm wrestling where he was a 2-time national champion. So he was a well known local name in the area, plus he had been seen on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling television shows for years.

In March of 1981, Ric Flair was in the middle of a tag team feud with his two arch-rivals that had dubbed themselves "the dream team" - - Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine. Flair's regular partner during this run was Ricky Steamboat. So the normal main event for Burlington could have easily been Flair and Steamboat vs. Piper and Valentine, which was headlining major venues all over the territory.  But on this Thursday in March of 1981, booker Ole Anderson had the idea to take advantage of Don Kernodle's local name in the Burlington area and team him with Flair for one special night at the local high school spot show.

Needless to say, that angle worked well, drawing not only the hardcore fans, but also many in the community who knew the Kernodle family and turned out to support Don in what was surely the biggest match of his career by this point. Kernodle and Flair tore the house down and scored a big victory over the "dream team" of Piper and Valentine.

Less than a year later, in early 1982, Kernodle would finally get the push he longed for (and well deserved) when he turned heel and became part of Sgt. Slaughter's marine unit.

 

Originally published August 29, 2015 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

* * * * * * * *
Newspaper clippings from the collection of Mark Eastridge.
Check out all the Main Event Memories on the Gateway.