Poster: Andre the Giant's First Night in Greensboro (1974)

by Brack Beasley
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

This poster is from the famed Greensboro Coliseum and dated June 6, 1974. It represents Andre the Giant's first appearance in Greensboro, during his first tour of the Mid Atlantic territory. 

Can you imagine the reaction of the fans that night to seeing the Giant in person? I know I'll never forget the first time seeing Andre in the late 1970s, also in a battle royal. 

The layout is pretty simple on this one with black print standing out against a light orange background but as usual, it promotes a loaded Greensboro card. 

While Johnny Valentine is most remembered for his singles work, the team of himself and the Super Destroyer Don Jardine appears quite intimidating. Other Mid-Atlantic legends such as Rip Hawk, Swede Hanson, Johnny Weaver, Abe Jacobs, Sandy Scott, and Danny Miller are also featured.

Andre the Giant, announcer Big Bill Ward, and Andre's friend,
driver, and interpreter Frank Valois.

 

Notice Frank Valois is in an early match vs. Sandy Scott. Valois was Andre's driver and interpreter (and great friend.)

My apologies in advance if any of these posters have been posted on the Gateway in the past but maybe some of the newer visitors will see them for the first time. 

* * * * 

For more on Andre the Giant's first tour of the Mid-Atlantic area, see the following articles by Dick Bourne and Les Thatcher:

• Andre The Giant's First Tour Through the Mid-Atlantic Area - Part One
• Les Thatcher's Lost Opus: Andre the Giant Arrives - Part Two
• Andre The Giant's First Tour Through the Mid-Atlantic Area - Part Three
• Andre the Giant's First Night in Charlotte

Previous poster: Flair/Valentine vs. Wahoo/Steamboat (Winston-Salem 1977)

NO. 2 IN A SERIES

Best Of: With Ric Flair, It's "All in the Family"

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It's probably fair to say that in the storybook world of pro-wrestling, especially back in the territory days, worked family connections were just as common as bonafide family relationships.

For all the Funks, Briscos, and Von Erichs there were just as many Valiants, Fargos, and Andersons.

Ric Flair and Rip Hawk
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions
(Photo by Bill Janosik)

Sometimes wrestling would even take an actual truthful family relationship (like father and son Johnny and Greg Valentine) and create a worked relationship (Johnny and Greg Valentine as brothers in the mid-1970s.)

But then there is the case of the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Flair would for a short time be a member of two different wrestling families soon after arriving to Jim Crockett Promotions.

Ric Flair arrived in Charlotte in May of 1974, debuting for Jim Crockett Promotions against Abe Jacobs at the Charlotte Coliseum on Monday night, May 13.

Within two weeks, booker George Scott was toying around with different ways to align Flair to begin his slow push. There were two family relationships that sprung up almost at the same time.

Ric was first said to be the nephew of Rip Hawk, the "blond bomber" who had a notorious reputation in the area going back more than a decade. George Scott teamed Hawk and Flair up early, only a few weeks after Flair arrived, and the two would soon win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team championship from Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers on the Fourth of July in Greensboro. Flair's star was quickly on the rise.

But during that same time, the story was also floated on TV and in newspaper promos that Flair was a cousin of Gene and Ole Anderson, playing off the fact they were all three from Minnesota.

A newspaper article written in advance of a 5/24/74 show in Burlington, NC, listed the matches for the upcoming card, and included this:

"Singles action has Ric Flair, a relative of the Anderson Brothers, facing Billy Ashe."

Three days later on 5/27 in Greenville, SC -- exactly two weeks after his debut - - Flair and Rip Hawk teamed for the first time, getting an upset win of sorts over area veterans Nelson Royal and Danny Miller. Flair's push was on.  Less than seven weeks later, they won the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles.

We've joked over the years that if Flair was Rip Hawk's nephew and he was also Gene and Ole Anderson's cousin, then that must have meant that Rip Hawk and the Anderson Brothers were somehow related.

Try to figure out that family tree!

Wait ... we did.

Extensive genealogical and ancestral research has unearthed the following information:

1. There was a family of Andersons that immigrated to Minnesota from Sweden in the late 1800s. The patriarch was Noah Anderson. He and his wife Elsa had four children, two boys and two girls.
2. Their first son, Nils Anderson, married and had four sons of his own: Gene, Lars, Nils Jr., and the youngest Ole. All became pro wrestlers.
3. Their first daughter, Alma Anderson, married a Minnesota physician named Morgan Flair. They had a son named Richard "Ric" Flair who also became a pro-wrestler. (This makes Ric a first cousin to the four Anderson brothers by blood.)
4. The second daughter, Catherine Anderson, married a pro wrestler named Harvey "Rip" Hawk. (This makes Rip an uncle by marriage to Ric Flair and, as an aside, an uncle by marriage to the four Anderson brothers, too. Apparently Rip never wanted to publicly acknowledge them.)
5. Unrelated to this article, but to finish out the family tree, Noah and Alma's second son, Liam Anderson, had a son named Arn, which makes Arn blood cousin to the four Anderson brothers and Ric Flair, and as it works out, also a nephew by marriage to Rip Hawk. Liam and his wife Lesa Anderson moved to Georgia when Arn was just a baby, which might explain Arn's south-Georgia accent (as well his penchant for uttering classic southern phrases like "If I tell you a grasshopper can pull a freight train, hook him up!")

This research illustrates the uncle-nephew relationship between Rip Hawk and Ric Flair and the cousin relationship with the Anderson brothers. Ahhh, the many wonders of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling lore.

Mythical Anderson Family Tree (Click to see larger image.)

Confused? Don't worry. As Ole Anderson would say, this is all horsesh*t. And it may go quite the way of making the argument that I had way too much free time on my hands when writing this.

Originally published May 23, 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. 

Updated with Family Tree diagram in 2019

Best of: How Johnny Valentine's 1000 Silver Dollars Doubled

 
 
by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

How Johnny Valentine's 1000 Silver Dollars Doubled
PART ONE

Early in the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling tenure of Johnny Valentine, the “Champ” truly came up with a gimmick match that would entertain fans around the territory for years. Valentine had a stranglehold on the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship belt during the year of 1974, but Johnny felt he needed more competition to keep him sharp beyond merely defending the Mid-Atlantic Title. This led to the birth of Johnny Valentine’s 1000 silver dollar challenge!

Around the middle of the year in 1974, Valentine began bringing a fish bowl full of silver dollars to ringside…1000 silver dollars to be exact. Johnny promised that he would give up the silver dollars to any wrestler that could pin him or make him submit in 10 minutes. These challenges occurred almost exclusively on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television, but as the months went on some of these challenges made it into the area’s arenas.

During the early months of these 1000 silver dollar challenges, Valentine defended his money against a host of challengers at least a couple of times a month. While Johnny said he would take on all comers, he generally defended the $1000 only against lower and mid card wrestlers, mainly on the “good guy” side of the area’s talent ledger. Interestingly, Valentine had very few easy matches defending his money, even against a slew of lesser opponents. Johnny often had to “pull rabbits out of his hat” to prevail close to the 10 minute time limit mark, and even had a few surprising draws sprinkled in.

Listen to Joe Murnick's ring introduction to Johnny Valentine vs. Bob Bruggers
for the 1000 Silver Dollars!

Despite all the close calls, Valentine continued his 1000 silver dollar challenge unbeaten streak against challenger Bob Bruggers on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV show that aired in many area markets on Saturday July 20, 1974. Immediately after the bout, Johnny was confronted by none other than “Mr. Number One” Paul Jones! Paul challenged Johnny, and “Mr. #1” said that Valentine was afraid to put his 1000 silver dollars on the line against him. Valentine scoffed at the notion of such a match, telling Paul, “Get in line boy! You’re not good enough to wrestle me!” Johnny went on to say that Paul Jones was at the bottom of the ladder, didn’t belong in the same ring with him and should be carrying his bags!

Valentine brushing off Jones’ challenge just made Paul more angry and determined. And Paul had a plan to move himself up to the top of Valentine’s list. Jones said to Johnny, “I’ll give you some incentive boy!” Jones told Valentine and the viewing audience that he would match Valentine’s 1000 silver dollars, and bring the money next week, making it a total of 2000 silver dollars. Paul then said to Johnny, “And I can beat you in 10 minutes, and I know I can! And if I can’t beat you in 10 minutes you can have the 2000 dollars! You just be here; I’ll be here! And I bet you move me right to the top of the list next week!” Johnny, who was on his way out of the ring, immediately turned around when he heard Paul say he would bring money to the ring next week!  Valentine said, “Wait a minute; wait a minute.” Jones responded, “DON’T YOU WAIT A MINUTE ME!!”

No. 1 Paul Jones battles Johnny "The Champ" Valentine

Valentine then shouted at Jones that he still thought that Paul didn’t belong in the same ring with him, but that he saw money now. The “Champ” again queried Jones if he was serious about bringing 1000 silver dollars of his own money to the ring next week. Valentine said, “You’re telling me that if you can’t beat me in 10 minutes your thousand dollars is MINE??” Jones said, “Yeah, that’s EXACTLY right! I knew I’d get you in the ring one way or the other!” Paul went on to say, “I’ll be here next week early with my 1000 silver dollars! I’ll put ‘em in there myself, and match your thousand silver dollars. And I can beat you in 10 minutes…I know I can!!”

After an instant of digesting what Jones had said, a big smile came over Valentine’s face and he exclaimed, “I ACCEPT!”

After Paul left the ring, Valentine continued to roam around the ring with a maniacal smile across his face, shouting at Jones to bring his money next week and yelling at ring announcer Joe Murnick, “I want SILVER DOLLARS…SILVER DOLLARS!!!” The “Champ” clearly had a quite odd fixation on silver coins, rather than paper money!

Listen to the final minute of the Bruggers match called by Bob Caudle and Johnny Weaver and then all of the the classic verbal confrontation between Paul Jones and Johnny "The Champ" Valentine!


The challenge has been accepted! Paul Jones battles Johnny Valentine with 2000 Silver Dollars on the Line in PART TWO!

Originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway October 30, 2015 

Classic Poster Friday: Valentine and Hawk challenge Jones and Bruggers

Winston-Salem, NC    June 13, 1974

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

What a classic poster featured here, a show in Winston-Salem, NC, from June 13, 1974. It features the rare pairing of Johnny Valentine and Rip Hawk together as tag team partners in a Mid-Atlantic Tag Team title challenge against reigning champions "No. 1" Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers.

Championship Context:
Reigning tag champs Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers had defeated Gene and Ole Anderson for the titles two months earlier in Fayetteville, NC. and were defending the titles here against the reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight champion Johnny Valentine and his partner Rip Hawk.

Hawk had taken several different partners over the preceding months in an attempt to take the titles from Jones and Bruggers, including Ivan Koloff, Chuck O'Connor (later Big John Studd), and Gene Lewis. But it was a rare opportunity to see Johnny Valentine and Rip Hawk team up together.

Not long after this show in Winston-Salem, Hawk would take a very young up-and-coming star named Ric Flair as his regular partner, and less than three weeks after this Winston-Salem show defeated Jones and Bruggers for the titles on a big Independence Day card in Charlotte.

The poster before digital restoration
by Uptown Color

Newspaper Results
Winston-Salem NC 6/13/74

• Jones/Bruggers defeated Valentine/Hawk by DQ
• Scott/Conway defeated Ota/Hiyashi
• Ivan Koloff pinned Danny Miller
• Scott Casey drew Mike Paidousis
• Amazing Zuma defeated Frank Morrell
• Les Thatcher defeated Pedro Godoy by DQ

Poster Restoration

Having this crisp image of this poster is a small miracle in and of itself. The original poster we had collected was terribly marked up by the original owner (seen above) with the winners circled and various notes written on the poster. We found a print shop in Richmond that agreed to take on the challenge of cleaning it up for us and results were incredible! We can't say enough good things about the professionalism and craftsmanship of our friends at Uptown Color! 

Poster from the collection of Brack Beasley, originally the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Restoration project coordinator: David Chappell

Digital Restoration service provided by Uptown Color, Richmond VA

WRAL Wednesday: Johnny Valentine and Ric Flair

Ric Flair, Les Thatcher, and Johnny Valentine on the set of
"Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling"

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

We're back in the old TV studio of WRAL channel 5 in Raleigh in 1975, where this week we take a look at photographs of the team of Johnny Valentine and Ric Flair. The photos were taken from the studio bleachers by Ric Carter.

In the photo above, Flair and Valentine stand with host Les Thatcher on the set of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." Flair is wearing the Mid-Atlantic TV championship belt. Valentine is wearing the famous red-leather United States championship belt, but view of the belt is blocked by either a floor director or camera operator. You can just make out the top of the leather strap around Valentine's waist over the left shoulder of the fellow at ringside. It's better seen in the photo below.

It was Johnny Valentine's first TV appearance as United States Heavyweight Champion. He had just defeated Harley Race six days earlier for that title in Greensboro. During Valentine's TV match, Les Thatcher told fans that they would be reviewing tape of the title change from Greensboro on next week's show. 

In the photo above left, Ric is seen in the ring wearing the Mid-Atlantic TV title belt. In the photo above right, U.S. Champion Johnny Valentine (wearing the U.S. title belt) talks with Les Thatcher. Below that on the left, Flair works over his opponent on the mat.

Flair and Valentine's opponents in this tag-team match on this evening were Bob Bruggers and Kevin Sullivan.

At this time, there were two separate hours of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" taped each Wednesday evening at WRAL. The first hour (the "A" show) was hosted by Bob Caudle and was seen in every TV market that Crockett had at the time. The second hour (the "B" show) was hosted by Les Thatcher and was a second hour in markets where clearances for a second show could be obtained. The shows had the same theme music, but slightly different sets and graphics.

This particular show was taped Wednesday, 7/9/75 and aired on Saturday, 7/12/75. Other matches on this show included Chief Wahoo McDaniel vs. The Blue Scorpion, Paul Jones and Rufus R. "Freight Train" Jones vs. Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell and George "Two Ton Harris (which we will feature next week), plus Ole Anderson vs. Bob Burns.

This is the third in an ongoing series of photos from WRAL studio that we are featuring each Wednesday.

All photographs in this series by Ric Carter, © CartersRXd.net. Used with permission.

Vintage audio provided by Gary Wray.

Brand New 1976 Yearbook coming in September!

It's All in the Family for "Nature Boy" Ric Flair

We've joked over the years that if Flair was Rip Hawk's nephew and he was also Gene and Ole Anderson's cousin, then that must have meant that Rip Hawk and the Anderson Brothers were somehow related.

THE ANDERSON FAMILY TREE
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It's probably fair to say that in the storybook world of pro-wrestling, especially back in the territory days, worked family connections were just as common as bonafide family relationships.

For all the Funks, Briscos, and Von Erichs there were just as many Valiants, Fargos, and Andersons.

Ric Flair and Rip Hawk
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions

Sometimes wrestling would even take an actual truthful family relationship (like father and son Johnny and Greg Valentine) and create a worked relationship (Johnny and Greg Valentine as brothers in the mid-1970s when Greg first arrived in the Mid-Atlantic.)

But then there is the special case of the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Flair would, for a very short time, be a member of two different wrestling families soon after arriving to Jim Crockett Promotions.

RIP HAWK'S NEPHEW
Flair arrived in Charlotte in May of 1974, debuting for Jim Crockett Promotions against Abe Jacobs at the Charlotte Coliseum on Monday night, May 13.

Within two weeks, booker George Scott was toying around with different ways to align Flair to begin his slow push. There were two family relationships that sprung up almost at the same time.

Ric was first said to be the nephew of Rip Hawk, the "blond bomber" who had a notorious reputation in the area going back more than a decade. George Scott teamed Hawk and Flair up early, only a few weeks after Flair arrived, and the two would soon win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team championship from Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers on the Fourth of July in Greensboro. Flair's star was quickly on the rise.


COUSIN TO THE ANDERSON BROTHERS
But during this same time, the story was also floated on TV and in newspaper event ads that Flair was a cousin of Gene and Ole Anderson, playing off the fact they were all three from Minnesota.

A newspaper article written in advance of a 5/24/74 show in Burlington, NC, listed the matches for the upcoming card, and included this little new factoid:

"Singles action has Ric Flair, a relative of the Anderson Brothers, facing Billy Ashe."

Three days later on 5/27 in Greenville, SC -- exactly two weeks after his debut - - Flair and Rip Hawk teamed for the first time, getting an upset win of sorts over area veterans Nelson Royal and Danny Miller. Flair's push was on.  Less than seven weeks later, they won the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles.

We've joked over the years that if Flair was Rip Hawk's nephew and he was also Gene and Ole Anderson's cousin, then that must have meant that Rip Hawk and the Anderson Brothers were somehow related. Maybe Flair wasn't a member of two different wrestling families - - maybe both were all one big happy family.

Now, go ahead and try to figure out that family tree. I dare you.


THE ANDERSON FAMILY TREE (WE PROMISE)
Extensive research (really) has unearthed the following genealogical information. This is our story and we are stickin' to it:

1. There was a family of Andersons that immigrated to Minnesota from Sweden in the late 1800s. The patriarch was Noah Anderson. He and his wife Alma had four children, two boys and two girls.
2. Their first son, Nils Anderson, married and had four sons of his own: Gene, Lars, Nils Jr., and Ole. All became pro wrestlers.
3. Their first daughter, Alma Anderson, married a Minnesota physician named Morgan Flair. They had a son named Richard "Ric" Flair who also became a pro-wrestler. (This makes Ric a first cousin to the four Anderson brothers by blood.)
4. The second daughter, Catherine Anderson, married a pro wrestler named Harvey "Rip" Hawk. (This makes Rip an uncle by marriage to Ric Flair and, as an aside, an uncle by marriage to the four Anderson brothers, too. Apparently Rip never wanted to publicly acknowledge them.)
5. Unrelated to this article, but to finish out the family tree, Noah and Alma's second son, Liam Anderson, had a son named Arn, which makes Arn blood cousin to the four Anderson brothers and Ric Flair, and as it works out, also a nephew by marriage to Rip Hawk. Liam and his wife Lesa, moved to Georgia when Arn was just a baby, which would explain Arn's south-Georgia accent (as well his penchant for uttering classic southern phrases like "If I tell you a grasshopper can pull a freight train, hook him up!")

Mythical Anderson Family Tree (Click image to enlarge.)

Confused? Don't worry. As Ole Anderson would say, this is all horsesh*t. And it may go quite the way of making the argument that I had way too much free time on my hands when writing this.

This article was republished in May 2021 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Classic Poster: Wahoo McDaniel vs. Ric Flair in Roanoke

Mid-Atlantic Gateway Collection

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

This beautifully designed classic poster is from 1975 and features one of the definitive main events of the era - - Wahoo McDaniel vs. Ric Flair for the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight championship.

At first glance, you might think this was a poster form 1976 when the Flair/Wahoo feud was one of the main feuds of that year, and lasted nearly the entire year. But it is actually from the summer of 1975, less than three months before the Wilmington, NC, plane crash that threatened to prematurely end Flair's career.

Wahoo was the reigning Mid-Atlantic champion here, having defeated Johnny Valentine for the title three weeks earlier in Asheville, NC. With Valentine having subsequently defeated Harley Race for the U.S. title and no longer a threat to Wahoo, the Chief had moved on to the challenge presented by Valentine's protege, Ric Flair. The feud with Flair was in its very early stages, but it was already clear to anyone paying attention that this was a money program.

Flair would win the Mid-Atlantic championship from Wahoo in Hampton, VA, almost exactly two months after this Roanoke stadium show. Two weeks later, the private charter plane Flair was on went down short of the Wilmington runway and put Flair out of action for nearly four months. The 30-day rule was apparently waived through special dispensation and he was allowed to keep the Mid-Atlantic title until he returned to action in early 1976 and immediately began the long program with Wahoo. The two traded the Mid-Atlantic title back and forth for all of 1976, and they remained rivals for most of the rest of Wahoo's career, as Wahoo would become a top challenger for Flair's NWA world title at various times in the 1980s.


THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT THIS POSTER

• Roanoke posters always had the cool designation at the top: "Roanoke Sports Club Presents." The Roanoke Sports Club was the name of the promotional company run by local Roanoke promoter Pete Apostolou. 
• This is my favorite of all the typical designs for wrestling posters in that era: portrait (vertical) orientation with the main event in big block letters so that it jumps off the poster. Notice also in this case that Flair's name stacked on Wahoo's made the perfect pyramid. Just a great looking poster.
• Advance tickets for wrestling in Roanoke were always on sale at The Sportsman, a bowling and entertainment facility owned by Pete Apostolou in downtown Roanoke.
• Interesting to see Jerry Blackwell early in his career billed here as "Man Mountain Blackwell."
• Victory Stadium was one of three regular venues for wrestling in Roanoke, the other two being Starland Arena and the Roanoke Civic Center.

The Wilmington Plane Crash - 42 years Ago

42 YEARS AGO TODAY
OCTOBER 4, 1975

Promoter, 3 Wrestlers Injured in Plane Crash
Charlotte Observer

by Mary Bishop Lacy and Roger Mikeal

WILMINGTON - Charlotte promoter David F. Crockett and three Charlotte based professional wrestlers were among six persons injured Saturday evening when their plant crashed near Wilmington.

Crockett, 29, of 732 E. Park Ave. was reported in good condition late Saturday might at New Hanover Memorial Hospital in Wilmington. Also in good condition were wrestler Richard Fliehr, 24, known professionally as Ric Flair, and George Burrell Woodin, 41, listed by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department as a promoter.

Wrestlers Robert Bruggers, 31, and Johnny Valentine, 47, were reported by a hospital spokesman to be in serious condition.

The Pilot of the plane, Joseph Michael Farkas, 28, was listed in critical condition and was undergoing surgery for head injuries at the hospital late Saturday night. The hospital spokesman said Farkas' identification bore addresses in Monroe, Charlotte, and Connecticut.

Hospital officials refused to give details on the other men's injuries. The six men reportedly left Charlotte in the yellow and white Cessna 310 at 5:30 p.m. for the Saturday night wrestling matches at Wilmington's Legion Stadium. Who owned the plane and where it took off couldn’t be learned immediately.

About 6:25 PM when the plane was a bout a mile west of the Wilmington Airport and was approaching a runway, Farkas radioed the control tower that the one of his engines had stopped, according to Deputy Sheriff E. D. Long.

Cutting across treetops and snagging a wing on a utility pole, the plane crashed about a half a mile from the airport along a railroad embankment and near a state prison camp according to the sheriff’s and state highway patrol reports.Several of the crash victims were thrown from the plane, and one was pinned between seats inside according to a spokesman for Ogden Rescue Squad, which carried the men to the hospital.

Crockett is an official of Jim Crockett Promotions, a Charlotte based enterprise that specializes in sports promotions.

Valentine considered one of the top professional wrestlers in the country has wrestled in a number of foreign countries including Japan and Australia. Known as a lover of opera and fine cuisine, Valentine has been a professional wrestler for 25 years.

Flair Is a flamboyant blonde wrestler who has been wrestling in the Charlotte area about 2½ years. He is a native of Minnesota and had been scheduled to meet Ken Patera in a wrestling match at Charlotte’s Park Center Monday night.

Bruggers, also from Minnesota played with Miami Dolphins football team as a linebacker for several years around 1970. He began wrestling in Charlotte about two years ago.


On Site in Wilmington:
A First Hand Account of How Things Were Handled at Legion Stadium In Wilmington the Night of the Crash
by Shawn Hudson
Special for the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, October 2002

I was in Legion Stadium the night the plane crashed. I wish I could remember it all but I am not as young as I used to be.

The original card was to have been a double main event: Tim Woods vs. Johnny Valentine (with Woods avenging his broken leg at the hands of Valentine) and Ric Flair vs. Wahoo McDaniel which was a feud just getting started. This was maybe my second or third live event, the one in Wilmington preceding this was Paul Jones vs. Valentine and on the under card of that was Flair vs. Ken Patera. That's how I remember both feuds were just getting started.

The stadium was full and the ring announcer came out just after I had heard the rumor that there had been a crash. The show did not start late. The ring announcer was keeping kayfabe and said that there was a plane crash and Valentine and Flair were injured. He then went on to say that Tim Woods was lost and couldn't make it to the Stadium on time. Then he mentioned that the Spoiler # 1 was also lost. This has always puzzled me. Spoiler #2 and Spoiler #1 were a team that had come in to avenge the unmasking of The Super Destroyer. I honestly don't remember hearing that night that Bob Bruggers was on the plane or even scheduled to wrestle. Since Bruggers was injured and Spoiler # 1 disappeared from JCP about the same time I always theorized that Spoiler # 1 was Bob Bruggers. I recently had a chance to speak with Wahoo at a show and we talked about that night. He told me that Bob was his roommate when he was in the NFL and that Bruggers wasn't Spoiler # 1. Wahoo actually didn't seem to remember much about either Spoiler so he may have forgotten the angle after all these years but he was frank with me about the rest of his actions that night so I know he wasn't lying to me.

Back to that night. Needless to say the crowd was in shock. Shortly after the initial announcement, Wahoo came out and said that they were still going to wrestle and ran down the revised card. I remember Danny Miller in the opening bout, he later teamed with Wahoo, Spoiler # 2 was the main heel on the card. I want to say that Abe Jacobs and Two Ton Harris were there but I can't remember for sure. I know Miller, Wahoo, and Spoiler #2 pulled double duty and maybe a few more. The finale would be a Battle Royal. After Wahoo ran down the card, he said that if we wanted to, we could get our money back and leave. I don't think anyone left.

Wahoo won the Battle Royal that night and then went on to feud with Spoiler # 2 eventually unmasking him in several house shows, Wilmington and Richmond being two of them that I know of right off the top of my head.

Wahoo told me he was supposed to take that plane also but changed his plans at the last minute and drove from Richmond I believe. He said he arrived in Wilmington, heard about the crash, and got to the crash sight as they were putting the guys in ambulances. The pilot was pretty messed up and later died after hanging on for maybe 2 months. Everyone else looked fine except for a few cuts and scratches because they had been throw from the plane according to Wahoo. There are some inconsistencies between what Wahoo said and the press reports. Some accounts have Valentine pinned in the plane and Wahoo’s account has him being thrown from the plane . It could be that he was removed before Wahoo got to the scene of the crash.

There was an article that ran in The Wilmington Morning Star the day after the crash. I remember that there was a picture of the plane and I spent what seemed like hours pouring over it. I remember trying to convince myself that part of the wreckage was the U.S. Title. I'll try to dig up the article from the library.

-Shawn Hudson

* * * * * * * * * * * 

Edited text from an e-mail I received from Shawn Hudson in 2002:

I wanted to let you know the good news and thank you for opening a door for me by publishing my article about the Wilmington plane crash. in 1975. 

I was contacted by Kevin Kelly with the WWE. He is researching the crash and found my article on your site. They plan on doing a piece on the crash for an upcoming "WWE Confidential" segment. 

They have asked me to appear at the Raw show in North Charleston Monday and I will be taping an on camera interview. They said they are going to also try to speak with Tim Woods and David Crockett when they are in Dallas the following week. 

Best wishes!

Shawn Hudson

November 23, 2002

Blooper - Wrong Country!

Our "Blooper" this week comes from a big tag-team main event on a Saturday night in Spartanburg, SC in 1974.

NFL veteran Bob Bruggers and Bear Cat Wright took on the tandem of Chuck O'Connor (later better known as Big John Studd) and Ivan Koloff.

Except the writer of this ad got his countries mixed up and renamed the Russian Bear IRAN Koloff!

Add to that the typo-blooper of Ivan's partner, spelled here as Chuck O-CONNERS. What?? We're thinking the ad writer might have been a bit hungover from the night before!

Where in the world do you come up with "IRAN" Koloff?The "R" and the "V" aren't even next to each other on the keyboard, so it's not a typo.

IRAN Koloff may have foreshadowed a feud 6 years later in the Mid-Atlantic era where the "Russain Bear" Ivan Koloff had a bloody heel-vs.-heel war with Iran's Hussein "The Arab" The Iron Sheik!

Childhood Heroes at WGHP-TV Wrestling

FROM THE GATEWAY MAILBOX:
A Letter to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway following the posting of our WGHP Television Studio feature. Michael Roach talks about meeting two special childhood heroes. 


I spent many days at the TV tapings at High Point, and I got to know a lot of the guys, at least as well as a little kid that was star struck could. Two of my earliest memories are from those tapings.

WGHP wrestling announcer Charlie Harville
interviews Johnny Weaver

I never had a dad around, and even as a very young man I was already showing signs of going down a bad road. I was fighting and telling lies. My mom saw where this kind of thing could lead. Well one day after we went to the tapings at WGHP, she went over to Johnny Weaver and talked to him for a few minutes, then she called me over. I was in awe. The studio was empty other than us. Johnny was sitting on the ring near were the seats were and I was standing there next to him looking up at my hero. My mom had let him in on my acting up, and he asked me what was going on. I really don’t remember what I said, more than likely not a lot, people that have known me for a long time would be shocked that I was ever at a loss for words, but I was then. I do remember that he asked what I wanted to do with my life, and I said with out a moments thought that I wanted to be a wrestler. He smiled and said if I acted right at home and did not give my mom problems, and did good in school, that he would one day teach me how to wrestle.

Well I thought of that many times in my life after that. I ended up only being 5'8 so I never did call him on it! But I have no doubt that it changed my life. I did stop telling lies, and tried to be a good person, and I, to this day, try my best to live a life where I help people. In Just a few minutes he became my role model, and I will never forget that.

Then one day when we went to the taping, there where no seats left. I remember being upset that we would not be able to see the show, but then the coolest thing that could have happened to a kid happened. We ended up sitting with the wrestlers.

There was a small room that led into the studio. After the people were in there seats the guys would come in and sit there waiting for their matches. The guys were talking, and sitting around. I was looking at the monitor seeing the show, and then someone sat next to me. I looked over and it was Bob Bruggers. He said hello and talked to me for a bit. I asked him about himself, and then he told me that he had played football for the Miami Dolphins. WOW! That just blew me away.

Growing up in High Point we had no teams around, and the team that I loved was the Dolphins. This was near the end of the tapings there, around 1974 I think. After a few minutes he went out and did his match. I can not even tell you how cool it was to sit there and watch him walk away and then he was on the screen in front of me. I was yelling for him to do well. I remember the guys getting a laugh watching me get so into it.

Well you know what happened in 1975 not long after that. When the plane crash happened, I was in shock. When I heard he was in that plane, I felt that my friend was gone. What a damn shame that was, but I will always remember him for the kindness he showed a little kid one day in High Point.

I have so many good memories from that point in my life, going to the shows in Greensboro, and Winston Salem, and all over really. Thank you for starting this website. It is great to have these memories, and to know I am not the only one that really misses the days when the best show in the world was in my backyard.

- Michael Roach

February 2006