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| The NWA Champions that wore the original "Ten Pounds of Gold" (1973-1986) L-R: Terry Funk, Giant Baba, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Ric Flair, Kerry Von Erich, Jack Brisco, and Tommy Rich |
From our friends over at Wrestler Weekly, "Action Figures Friday" features a look at mid-to-late 1970s Dino Bravo, who held the Canadian Heavyweight Championship in Toronto, but just prior to that was one half of the NWA World Tag Team and Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions with Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods.
On the magazine cover above far left you see an art depiction of Bravo wearing the NWA World Tag Team title belt. In the center and far right, you see photos of Bravo wearing the Canadian title.
The magazine on the right, featuring a cover photograph shot by Jackie Crockett, was a special photo-album issue of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine. Bravo appeared in the Mid-Atlantic area throughout his reign as Canadian champion as a result of a working/business/booking relationship Toronto promoter Frank Tunney had with Jim Crockett, Jr. and George Scott at Jim Crockett Promotions.
2022 Edits: Andrew Calvert at MapleLeafWrestling.com published an outstanding book on the history of the Canadian Heavyweight championship that existed during that era. The book looks at all the Canadian champions including Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine, Dewey Robertson, Angelo Mosca, the Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter and many others. It includes some pretty rare photographs and a great collection of memorabilia. You can find out all about that book on the Maple Leaf Wrestling website or in our Mid-Atlantic Gateway Book Store.
Andrew also has a new book out on the Toronto wrestling territory called "Quick Bits: The best (and rest) of Toronto Wrestling."
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| @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.
Another great presentation from our friends Scottie and Reggie at Wrestler Weekly.
This time they feature the NWA World Tag Team Champions Greg Valentine and Baron Von Raschke in front of one of the classic issues of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine from that era.
Man, these little belts make the whole thing work! Check out the Wrestler Weekly twitter feed for more great wrestling memories, tributes, and memorabilia.
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| Barry Hatchet / MapleLeafWrestling.com |
Dino Bravo and Greg 'Hammer' Valentine had some great bouts in Toronto over our Canadian Heavyweight Title. This could be any one of 3 where Bravo was champ at introductions. Valentine would eventually beat Bravo for the title in April but would lose it back in June.
Bravo had recently turned back the challenge of Ric Flair and had tagged with Ricky Steamboat against the team of Flair and Valentine before starting this series.
Jim Crockett Promotions and Toronto Promoter Frank Tunney had a working relationship between 1978 and 1983, where Tunney booked a majority of his talent appearing on Toronto cards from the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling territory. The Canadian heavyweight champions during this era also appeared for Jim Crockett Promotions on cards in their cities, as well as on the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and World Wide Wrestling TV shows, with the Canadian title belt.
More excellent photos from this staging can be found here.
Very cool customization of "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka with a custom U.S. title belt, presented by our friends at @wrestlerweekly.
Snuka was United States champion in 1979 and 1980 and had a memorable, long, bloody feud with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair over that title belt. You can read all about Snuka's run as United States champion (as well as the entire history of that championship) in our full-color book "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship", available on Amazon and via the Mid-Atlantic Gateway bookstore.
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Our good friend Jeff Jewett put together a great photo for Action Figure Friday that we featured several years ago. It features a figure of the 8-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion (and "greatest wrestler on the face of God's green earth") Harley Race, complete with miniature domed-globe belt and his classic 1980s red and blue robe. He's standing in front of the original 8x10" hardcover edition of the book "Ten Pounds of Gold", a close look at the 1973-1986 NWA World championship title belt and the eight champions who held it during that time period. (You will notice that the original version of the book I wrote with Dave Millican even contained a brief foreword from the legendary "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, which was subsequently removed. You can learn all about that here.)
Jeff had his copy of the original "Ten Pounds of Gold" book signed by Harley Race, which you see in the bottom left corner of the slipcover in the photo above. I just think the whole thing is very cool and loved this, and I appreciate Jeff's thoughtfulness in putting this photo together for me.
As it relates to Race and the "Ten Pounds of Gold" book, I was fortunate enough to have several phone conversations with Harley Race in 2012 when working on the second edition of the book. He loaned me a notebook that promoter Paul Boesch had given him after the historic NWA title change match with Jack Brisco on July 20, 1973 in Houston. That notebook contained dozens of 8x10" photographs taken by Boesch himself that night. Many of those photos appear in the second edition of "Ten Pounds of Gold" and I've always appreciated Harley's generosity and kindness in allowing me to use them.
In what turned out to be the third and final phone call during that time, Harley suggested I change the title of the book. At first I thought he was joking. But he was dead serious. Change the name of the book to "Ten Pounds of Pure Gold." And then it hit me - - that's the way Harley usually referred to the belt. "Ten pounds of pure gold, buddy."
That's a wonderful memory, and all these years later I begin to wish I had done just that.
Thanks again for the photo, Jeff!
Edited from an original post published April 2020 as Part of Action Figure Friday on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Action Figure Friday returns!
The figure is custom-made and a gift from Matty Montcalm at @Wrestlingwclass who surprised me with it when were both at the Tragos-Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame induction weekend in Waterloo, Iowa in July. Thanks so much, Matty!
The photo was staged by the Mid-Atlantic Gateway using a custom designed backdrop of the famous studio set used by JCP from 1977-1983. The custom backdrop was a gift from Mike Simmerman, who provided lots of great images for our old Action Figures Friday series.
Check out our entire series of action figure photos from Mike Simmerman, Matty Montcalm, Scottie Richardson, Jeff Jewett, and others. Plus some of our own!
"I don't believe there is any explanation for this right here," Dusty said to Schiavone. "We was on the JCP private sports plane...I mean, you can go all over the world and not see nuthin' as bad as this."
From the creative mind of Jeff Jewett comes this action figures staging of America's Team with custom made min-furs. Excellent job, and great memories!
The entire 12/14/85 show is available on the WWE Network.
Here is the interview on YouTube:
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"Action Figures Friday" makes random appearances here on the Gateway. It all began with Mike Simmerman's amazing collection of custom figures staged in an even more amazing custom mini-studio based on WRAL in Raleigh in the 1970s and early 1980s. There have been other contributors including Jeff Jewett, Scottie Richardson, Matty Montcalm, Barry Hatchet, and others.
You can filter posts with the Action Figures tag and see all the previous posts for Action Figures Friday.
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Our good friend Jeff Jewett put together a great photo for Action Figures Friday. It features the 8-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion (and "greatest wrestler on the face of God's green earth") Harley Race, complete with domed-globe belt and his classic 1980s red and blue robe. He's standing in front of the original 8x10" hardcover edition of our book "Ten Pounds of Gold", a close look at the 1973-1986 NWA World championship title belt and the eight champions who held it during that time period. The original version of the book even contained a brief foreword from the legendary "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, which was subsequently removed. (You can learn all about that here.)
Jeff had his copy of the original "Ten Pounds of Gold" book signed by Harley Race, which you see in the bottom left corner of the slipcover in the photo above. I just think the whole thing is very cool, and I appreciate Jeff's thoughtfulness in putting this photo together for me.
I was fortunate enough to have three separate phone conversations with Harley Race in 2012 when working on the second edition of the book. He loaned me a notebook that promoter Paul Boesch had given him after the historic NWA title change match with Jack Brisco on July 20, 1973 in Houston. The notebook contained 8x10" photographs taken by Boesch himself that night. Many of those photos appear in the second edition of "Ten Pounds of Gold" and I've always appreciated Harley's generosity and kindness in allowing me to use them. On our third and final phone call, he suggested I change the title of the book. At first I thought he was joking, but he was dead serious: change the name of the book to "Ten Pounds of Pure Gold." After all, that's the way Harley usually referred to the belt -- "ten pounds of pure gold, buddy."
An edited version of this post appeared in September 2022 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Very cool customization of "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka with a custom U.S. title belt, presented by our friends at @wrestlerweekly.
Snuka was United States champion in 1979 and 1980 and had a memorable, long, bloody feud with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair over that title belt. You can read all about Snuka's run as United States champion (as well as the entire history of that championship) in our full-color book "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship", available on Amazon and via the Mid-Atlantic Gateway bookstore.
Republished in September of 2022 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
