Four Mid-Atlantic Area Champions Appear on Georgia Championship Wrestling (1981)

Georgia Championship Wrestling - November 14, 1981

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway  

Back in the territory days, Saturday was the primary (and often the only) day for wrestling in every territory in the United States.

YouTube user "KrisZ891979" uploaded some great Georgia wrestling from 1980 and 1981awhile back, including some complete shows from the fall of 1981 like this pristine video of the entire November 14, 1981 program that aired at 6:05 on WTBS.

Reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Roddy Piper had joined Gordon Solie as co-host of the program two weeks earlier, and the two became quite a broadcast combination over the next year. Piper was the perfect cocky-heel counter to Solie's dry, straight-forward approach and the two meshed really well in an unconventional way, especially for those times.

PART NINE

Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at the time, and one result was a sharing of talent between the two groups. In particular on this program:

• Mid-Atlantic Champion Roddy Piper, who is never acknowledged as such by Solie or Piper, but is acknowledged by Ivan Koloff as Mid-Atlantic champ in an interview on the program
• NWA TV champion Ivan Koloff, carrying his championship belt and announcing his intention in defending the title in Georgia. (The title was a Crockett title)
• Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions Chris Markoff and Nikolia Volkoff (managed by Lord Alfred Hayes) are seen on the program in a tape from the Knoxville "NWA Championship Wrestling" program hosted by Les Thatcher. The team would be wrestling in the annual Thanksgiving tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta a few weeks later. The Knoxville office was closely affiliated with Jim Crockett Promotions at the time and used a number of pieces of talent from the Charlotte office. 
• Ray Stevens, currently a top heel for the Crocketts and an occasional tag team partner of Ole Anderson's
• and of course Ole Anderson himself, who along with his brother Gene, were the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions, primarily a Crockett area title.

That made for a total four Crockett Promotions champions appearing in one way or another on this Georgia program. Throw in Mid-Atlantic star Ric Flair, who had just recently won the NWA World Championship from Dusty Rhodes, and it's fair to say their was more than a small Mid-Atlantic influence on the Georgia promotion at the time. Flair is not on this program, but had been on almost every Georgia show since winning the title, and would be on the week following this one as well.

This Georgia show is loaded with a lot of great talent that were hallmarks of the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion at the time including Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar, Bob and Brad Armstrong, Austin Idol, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Mike Jackson, and others.

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was and always will be my first love, but Georgia Wrestling during this time was on fire, and was a fun part of every Saturday as well.

Edited from a post originally published October 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

The Final Show at WPCQ Studio in Charlotte (1983)

A series of posts about our favorite episodes available for streaming on the WWE Network
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling

WWE Network Data: First Airdate Saturday July 2, 1983
(Taped Wed. June 29, 1983) [WWE Network Link]

United States Heavyweight Champion Greg Valentine

FINAL SHOW AT WPCQ STUDIO
This show would be the very last taping at WPCQ studios in Charlotte, and the last time Mid-Atlantic and World Wide Wrestling would ever be taped in a studio setting. Jim Crockett Promotions had moved their TV production to these cramped quarters two years earlier, moving from WRAL in Raleigh when that station needed the studio every night for their locally produced insert-segments of the new show "PM Magazine."

WPCQ was a real step down in production quality for the programs with noticeable declines in the quality of video and audio during this time. Additionally, and most noticeably, the studio was too small, and the ring had to be turned catty-cornered in order to have room for Bob Caudle's set, as well as the cameras and production crew.

So the move of TV production out into the arenas was a welcome development, although I love the old studio settings by and large, and miss that era. But there wasn't a Saturday that at some point during a show from WPCQ that I didn't think to myself, boy, do I miss WRAL.

They certainly went out with a bang as this episode was a ton of fun, particularly due to the work of Jerry Brisco on the mic as one of the most annoyingly cocky heels ever. His performance, along with brother Jack, is just masterful.

The Briscos confront Ricky Steamboat

THE BRISCOS

This episode is a showcase for the Brisco brothers as heels.  Jerry calls it "The Brisco Brothers Hour." Jack and Jerry are basking in the glow of their victory over Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood for the NWA World Tag Team titles, and are really rubbing it in. The Briscos are on my list of all-time favorite tag teams, largely due to their work in this area as heels in 1983.

During this episode they get in the face of Mike Rotundo at the opening of the show, and later provoke Ricky Steamboat to lose his temper, although Jerry came out on the wrong end of that as Steamboat knocks him out cold!

The Briscos wrestle Keith Larson (aka Wally "Rocky" Kernodle) and Rick McCord on this show in what can only be called a scientific wrestling clinic. As part of their heel personas, the Briscos were always out to prove they were superior technical wrestlers and they just have their way with Larson and McCord who, by the way, were two of the more talented undercard/mid-card wrestlers to ever work the territory.

Rufus R. Jones defends the honor of the winner of Paul Jones's picture.

PAUL JONES GIVES AWAY HIS PICTURE
For about six weeks leading up to this show, manager Paul Jones has been conducting a contest where the winner will receive a huge, oversized poster of Paul in a Tuxedo. The big poster has been on display for weeks and provided some hilarious moments over that time as Paul talked weekly with Bob Caudle about the contest. This week, he finally awards the photo to the contest winner at the end of the show. Paul is very rude to her and Rufus R. Jones comes out to defend the honor of the contest winner. Paul and the two wrestlers he manages, Dory Funk, Jr. and Jake "The Snake" Roberts, beat up Rufus in the ring as the credits roll at the end of the show.


DORY FUNK, JR.'s LOVE AFFAIR WITH MIKE ROTUNDO
One thing is clear re-watching these late 1982 and early-to-mid 1983 episodes: booker Dory Funk, Jr. was in love with Mike Rotundo. There can be no other way to describe it. No other wrestler during this time period got more exposure in the ring, on interviews, and doing color commentary on TV than the mid-card All-American from Syracuse.

This week, Rotundo is the color commentator with host Bob Caudle. As great a performer as Rotundo would prove to be in the ring, he was just as bad on the mic during this early part of his career. Rotundo definitely got his groove going and developed a personality in 1988 when he was a heel in the Varsity Club and was playing off goofy, lovable babyface Rick Steiner. But in 1983 he was as green, dry, and dull as you could possibly imagine. But Dory was intent on giving Rotundo ample opportunities to improve. And this was one of them, doing color commentary the entire program. I actually love Rotundo's work in the ring. But this was painful. Somehow, it did not detract from me enjoying this awesome episode, though, and I hope it won't for you, either.


THE LOCAL PROMO SPOTS
Most of these episodes on the WWE Netowrk do not include the local promotional spots that were some of the most entertaining parts of the programs back in the day. Those localized interviews were recorded during the day prior to the taping of the shows and then inserted into the tape that went out to the various market stations. Since these archived episodes don't have the local promos, they include a "live" studio interview taped right along as the main program was being taped. For much of late 1982 and 1983, these segments were largely aimed at the Florida territory. The Mid-Atlantic show was seen on a few select stations throughout Florida and so the guys being interviewed would aim many of their comments towards the wrestlers in Florida. Fans in the Mid-Atlantic area would not see these interviews; they were seeing their local promotional spots at that moment.

A good example of these is the interview Dick Slater does in the second promotional spot location. Slater directly addresses Dusty Rhodes (at that time a regular in Florida, and also the booker of the territory) and tells him he might be the American Dream and the Midnight Cowboy (a reference to Dusty working as the Midnight Rider) but he will never be the Errol Flynn of wrestling!


TIDBITS:

• Interesting to see a very young Joel Deaton on this show. Deaton would later wrestle under a mask as "Thunderfoot" managed by James J. Dillon in 1985. He would work several smaller southern territories in the late 1980s before making a name for himself in the 1990s in Japan. I always liked Deaton's work in the ring.
• Greg Valentine methodically works over John Bonello in an entertaining opening match.
• Roddy Piper mentions he has a new partner "Mr. T" - - and then pulls out a tire iron. I did do a double-take when he said that though, thinking about where Piper would be less than two years later with the real Mr. T at the first Wrestlemania.
• During Dick Slater's match, Bob Caudle mentions that the Assassins are coming into the area soon, and that one of them is reportedly the son of the Great Bolo. This would turn out to be the new Assassin #2, which later turned out to be Hercules Hernandez under the mask. They played up the Great Bolo son angle for several months. The Great Bolo was a huge star for Jim Crockett promotions in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it's cool that they were calling back that far into their history.
  
• Harley Race makes it clear he doesn't want to wrestle Flair anymore, and claims Flair was a "fluke" champion since all he really did was slip past a "fat man" to win the title. This was a shot (a "rib on the square" as Steve Austin is famous for saying) at the wrestler Flair beat for the NWA title, Dusty Rhodes.
• Flair, Piper, and Race all appeared in pre-taped interviews from the brand new make-shift studio at the main office building of Jim Crockett Promotions on Briarbend Drive. The studio was established as the location for taping the local interviews that would be inserted to the syndicated programs. The interviews had previously been taped at the WPCQ studios prior to the taping of the shows. But with the move out to the arenas to begin next week, JCP needed a spot to record the shows, and so they set up a make-shift studio at the Briarbend offices.
• Wahoo McDaniel does his famous war dance and tomahawk chop (Bob Caudle affectionately called it the "tommy-hawk" chop over the years) before defeating the Magic Dragon. Considered by most to be politically incorrect today, that war dance and chop was one of the things that made Wahoo so exciting and so special to me when I first started watching wrestling.

CHAMPIONS ROLL CALL
NWA World Champion: Harley Race
NWA World Tag Champions: Jack & Jerry Brisco
United States Champion: Greg Valentine
Mid-Atlantic Champion: Dory Funk, Jr.
NWA TV Champion: The Great Kabuki

STUDIO MATCHES ON THIS PROGRAM
[1] Greg Valentine (US Champion) vs. John Bonello
[2] The Briscos (NWA Tag Champs) vs. Keith Larson / Rick McCord
[3] Jimmy Valiant & Bob Orton Jr. vs. Bill Howard & Joel Deaton
[4] Dick Slater vs. Vinnie Valentino
[5] Dory Funk Jr. (Mid-Atlantic Champ) & Jake Roberts vs. Bret Hart & Mike Davis


FILMED MATCHES FROM THE ARENA:
Wahoo McDaniel vs. The Magic Dragon (with Gary Hart)

INTERVIEWS
Jack and Jerry Brisco
Ric Flair and Roddy Piper (pre-taped at the Briarbend Drive studio)
Mike Rotundo
Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
Harley Race (pre-taped at the Briarbend Drive studio)
Dick Slater
Paul Jones (with Jake Roberts and Dory Funk, Jr.)

WWE NETWORK
FREE MONTH FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS!
Check out all of the Mid-Atlantic episodes currently available!

MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP PODCAST

Don't miss this great podcast, hosted by Mike Sempervive and Roman Gomez, as they look back at classic early 80s episodes of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling as seen on the WWE Network.

 

MID-ATLANTIC TV REPORT AND SUMMARIES

David Taub reviews and summarizes all the episodes of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling airing on the WWE Netowrk. Visit our TV Report & Podcast page for links to all the shows.

Edited from a story originally posted January 30, 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. 

Canadian Champion Dino Bravo vs. Len Denton (WRAL Studio)

More video at WrestlingClassics.com
http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=156572

Favorite Episodes: The Final Show at WPCQ (July 2, 1982)

A series of posts about our favorite episodes available for streaming on the WWE Network
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling

WWE Network Data: First Airdate Saturday July 2, 1983 (Taped Wed. June 29, 1983)

United States Heavyweight Champion Greg Valentine

FINAL SHOW AT WPCQ STUDIO
This show would be the very last taping at WPCQ studios in Charlotte, and the last time Mid-Atlantic and World Wide Wrestling would ever be taped in a studio setting. Jim Crockett Promotions had moved their TV production to these cramped quarters two years earlier, moving from WRAL in Raleigh when that station needed the studio every night for their locally produced insert-segments of the new show "PM Magazine." WPCQ was a real step down in production quality for the programs with noticeable declines in the quality of video and audio during this time. Additionally, and most noticeably, the studio was too small, and the ring had to be turned catty-cornered in order to have room for Bob Caudle's set, as well as the cameras and production crew.

So the move of TV production out into the arenas was a welcome development, although I love the old studio settings by and large, and miss that era. But there wasn't a Saturday that at some point during a show from WPCQ that I didn't think to myself, boy, do I miss WRAL.

They certainly went out with a bang as this episode was a ton of fun, particularly due to the work of Jerry Brisco on the mic as one of the most annoyingly cocky heels ever. His performance, along with brother Jack, is just masterful.

The Briscos confront Ricky Steamboat

THE BRISCOS

This episode is a showcase for the Brisco brothers as heels. Jack and Jerry are basking in the glow of their victory over Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood for the NWA World Tag Team titles, and are really rubbing it in. The Briscos are in my top 5 of all-time favorite tag teams, all due to their work in this area as heels in 1983.


During this episode they get in the face of Mike Rotundo at the opening of the show, and later provoke Ricky Steamboat to lose his temper, although Jerry came out on the wrong end of that as Steamboat knocks him out cold!

The Briscos wrestle Keith Larson (aka Wally Kernodle) and Rick McCord on this show in what can only be called a wrestling clinic. As part of their heel personas, the Briscos were always out to prove they were superior technical wrestlers and they just have their way with Larson and McCord who, by the way, were two of the more talent undercard wrestlers to ever work the territory.

Rufus R. Jones defends the honor of the winner of Paul Jones's picture.

PAUL JONES GIVES AWAY HIS PICTURE
For about 6 weeks leading up to this show, manager Paul Jones has been conducting a contest where the winner will receive a huge, oversized poster of Paul in a Tuxedo. The big poster has been on display for weeks and provided some hilarious moments over that time as Paul talked weekly with Bob Caudle about the contest. This week, he finally awards the photo to the contest winner at the end of the show. Paul is very rude to her and Rufus R. Jones comes out to defend the honor of the contest winner. Paul and the two wrestlers he manages, Dory Funk, Jr. and Jake "The Snake" Roberts, beat up Rufus in the ring as the credits roll at the end of the show.



THE LOVE AFFAIR WITH MIKE ROTUNDO
One thing is clear rewatching these late 1982 and early-to-mid 1983 episodes: booker Dory Funk, Jr. was in love with Mike Rotundo. There can be no other way to describe it. No other wrestler during this time period got more exposure in the ring, on interviews, and doing color commentary than the mid-card All-American from Syracuse.

This week, Rotundo is the color commentator with host Bob Caudle. As great a performer as Rotundo would prove to be in the ring, he was just as bad on the mic during this early part of his career. Rotundo definitely got his groove going and developed a personality in 1988 when he was a heel in the Varsity Club and was playing off goofy, lovable babyface Rick Steiner, but in 1983 he was as green, dry, and dull as you could possibly imagine. But Dory was intent on giving Rotundo ample opportunities to improve. And this was one of them, doing color commentary the entire program. I actually love Rotundo's work in the ring. But this was painful. Somehow, it did not detract from me enjoying this awesome episode, though, and I hope it won't for you, either.



THE LOCAL PROMO SPOTS
Most of these episodes on the WWE Netowrk do not include the local promotional spots that were some of the most entertaining parts of the programs back in the day. Those localized interviews were recorded during the day prior to the taping of the shows and then inserted into the tape that went out to the various market stations. Since these archived episodes don't have the local promos, they include a "live" studio interview taped right along as the main program was being taped. For much of late 1982 and 1983, these segments were largely aimed at the Florida territory. The Mid-Atlantic show was seen on a few select stations throughout Florida and so the guys being interviewed would aim many of their comments towards the wrestlers in Florida. Fans in the Mid-Atlantic area would not see these interviews; they were seeing their local promotional spots at that moment.

A good example of these is the interview Dick Slater does in the second promotional spot location. Slater directly addresses Dusty Rhodes (at that time a regular in Florida, and also the booker of the territory) and tells him he might be the American Dream and the Midnight Cowboy (a reference to Dusty working as the Midnight Rider) but he will never be the Errol Flynn of wrestling!


TIDBITS:

• Interesting to see a very young Joel Deaton on this show. Deaton would later wrestle under a mask as "Thunderfoot" managed by James J. Dillon in 1985. He would work several smaller southern territories in the late 1980s before making a name for himself in the 1990s in Japan. I always liked Deaton's work in the ring.
• Greg Valentine methodically works over John Bonello in an entertaining opening match.
• Roddy Piper mentions he has a new partner "Mr. T" - - and then pulls out a tire iron. I did do a double-take when he said that though, thinking where Piper would be less than two years later with the real Mr. T at the first Wrestlemania.
• During Dick Slater's match, Bob Caudle mentions that the Assassins are coming into the area soon, and that one of them is reportedly the son of the Great Bolo. This would turn out to be the new Assassin #2, which later turned out to be Hercules Hernandez under the mask. They played up the Great Bolo son angle for several months.
• Harley Race makes it clear he doesn't want to wrestle Flair anymore, and claims Flair was a "fluke" champion since all he really did was slip past a "fat man" to win the title. This was a shot at the wrestler Ric beat for the NWA title, Dusty Rhodes.
• Flair, Piper, and Race all appeared in pre-taped interviews from the brand new make-shift studio at the main office building of Jim Crockett Promotions on Briarbend Drive. The studio was established as the location for taping the local interviews that would be inserted to the syndicated programs. The interviews had previously been taped at the WPCQ studios prior to the taping of the shows. But with the move out to the arenas to begin next week, JCP needed a spot to record the shows, and so they set up a make-shift studio at the Briarbend offices.
• Wahoo McDaniel does his famous war dance and tomahawk chop (Bob Caudle affectionately called it the "tommy-hawk" chop ovder the years) before defeating the Magic Dragon. Considered by many to be politically incorrect today, that war dance and chop was one of the things that made Wahoo so exciting and so special to me when I first started watching wrestling.

CHAMPIONS ROLL CALL
NWA World Champion: Harley Race
NWA World Tag Champions: Jack & Jerry Brisco
United States Champion: Greg Valentine
Mid-Atlantic Champion: Dory Funk, Jr.
NWA TV Champion: The Great Kabuki


STUDIO MATCHES ON THIS PROGRAM
[1] Greg Valentine (US Champion) vs. John Bonello
[2] The Briscos (NWA Tag Champs) vs. Keith Larson / Rick McCord
[3] Jimmy Valiant & Bob Orton Jr. vs. Bill Howard & Joel Deaton
[4] Dick Slater vs. Vinnie Valentino
[5] Dory Funk Jr. (Mid-Atlantic Champ) & Jake Roberts vs. Bret Hart & Mike Davis


FILMED MATCHES FROM THE ARENA:
Wahoo McDaniel vs. The Magic Dragon (with Gary Hart)

INTERVIEWS
Jack and Jerry Brisco
Ric Flair and Roddy Piper (pre-taped at the Briarbend Drive studio)
Mike Rotundo
Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
Harley Race (pre-taped at the Briarbend Drive studio)
Dick Slater
Paul Jones (with Jake Roberts and Dory Funk, Jr.)

WWE NETWORK
FREE MONTH FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS!
Check out all of the Mid-Atlantic episodes currently available!

Republished on 01/14/2021 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Saturday TV: World Championship Wrestling 1-4-86

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes of "World Championship Wrestling" from 1/4/86 and features the Four Horsemen reeling after Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors break the leg of Ole Anderson on New Year's Night in Atlanta's Omni. The Horsemen, who were really just coming to be known under that moniker, would be without Ole until his dramatic return later that June.

The program features some outstanding promos, including the famous (and hilarious) interview where Ric Flair winds up in the floor of the studio demonstrating what it would be like for Baby Doll if she ever rode Space Mountain.

The show also spotlights a major development for the Horsemen, as James J. Dillon becomes the Executive Director of Tully Blanchard Enterprises and soon after the de facto leader of the Four Horsemen.

The show also features a rare appearance by former NWA World champion and reigning Missouri State Champion Harley Race.

Classic TV: Mid-Atlantic Wrestling from April 1980

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from 4/19/80
Includes local promos for Kingsport, Tennessee's Dobyns-Bennett High School for a main event of Blackjack Mulligan & Andre the Giant vs. Masked Superstar 1 & 2.

1) Tony Russo/Swede Hanson vs SD Jones/Rufus Jones
2) Ric Flair vs The Scorpion
3) Local Promos - Masked Superstars 1 & 2
4) Greg Valentine/Ray Stevens vs Matt Borne/Abe Jacobs
5) Interview - Nature Boy Ric Flair

Saturday TV: World Wide Wrestling 10-15-83

Saturday TV: NWA Pro Wrestling 5/23/87

Great episode of "NWA Pro Wrestling" from the fabled Dorton Arena in Raleigh, NC.

Saturday TV: World Wide Wrestling (9/6/86)

As we celebrate Ricky & Robert's induction in the WWE Hall of Fame, this show features them regaining the NWA World Tag Team championship.

Saturday TV: NWA Pro Wrestling (8/23/86)

Featuring an NWA title defense: Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes, Baby Doll's infamous heel turn, a near riot, my favorite Ric Flair robe, Bob Caudle and Johnny Weaver, and one of the craziest bumps you'll ever see by Sam Houston in his match with Buddy Landel.

Saturday TV: World Wide Wrestling (5/10/86)

The James Boys Strike in Spartanburg!

Saturday TV: World Wide Wrestling 2/27/88

United States Heavyweight Championship

Steel Cage Match

"The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes 

vs. Bobby Eaton

Saturday TV: World Wide Wrestling 2/20/88

NWA World Heavyweight Championship

Ric Flair vs. Sting

Saturday TV: World Wide Wrestling 1/18/1986

Saturday TV: World Wide Wrestling 1/4/86

Tully Blanchard & Baby Doll: The Slap heard 'round the World 
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

This is one of the great episodes of World Wide Wrestling and was in a transitional time where J.J. Dillon became aligned with Tully Blanchard as part of Tully Blanchard Enterprises, and the Four Horsemen were soon to follow.

In fact, "the bundle of questions" David Crockett quizzes NWA champion Ric Flair about the trouble he and his "family" the Andersons have been causing Dusty and his crew lately, and mentions you almost have to throw Tully Blanchard in with that family. 

And if you want to see David Crockett at his obnoxious best, don't miss the incredible interview he conducts with Tully Blanchard after his split with Baby Doll. We always talk about Ric and Arn as two of the best promos ever. But Tully Blanchard made you believe this stuff was REAL.

The Midnight Express jump the Rock and Roll Express to kick start their feud which would be one of the top programs throughout 1986.

And of course, it features "the slap heard round the world." And Big Dust rides in to save the day. Real heat, brother.

I believe this was taped in Greensboro just before the Crockett's Christmas break in mid-December of 1985, and aired on the syndicated network on 1/4/1986.

The show features Ric Flair, Magnum T.A., Manny Fernandez, Tully Blanchard, James J. Dillon, Baby Doll, Black Bart, the Rock and Roll Express, the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette, George South, Gene Ligon, Ron Bass, the Koloffs and Krusher Khrushchev, Denny Brown, and of course the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. Your hosts are David Crockett and Tony Schiavone.

PS - One beautiful note of continuity: You will notice that Ole Anderson doesn't appear on this show. It was taped in mid-December and the Andersons had appeared earlier in this same evening on a show that was taped for air on 12/28/85. But Ole is not seen or heard from on the 1/4/86 show. The reason is that on 1/1/86 in the Omni in Atlanta, Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors "broke the leg" of Ole Anderson that put him out of action until June of that year. Booker Dusty Rhodes knew to keep him off the syndicated tapings that would air on 1/4 because a nationwide audience on WTBS would be shown the Omni footage on 1/4. That's how much they protected kayfabe back then. A beautiful thing.

A Georgia Wrestling Saturday (with a Mid-Atlantic Connection)

Georgia Championship Wrestling - November 14, 1981

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It's Saturday, so why not watch a little wrestling? Back in the territory days, Saturday was the primary (and usually only) day for wrestling in every territory in the United States.

YouTube user "KrisZ891979" has been uploading some great Georgia wrestling from 1980 and 1981, including some complete shows from the fall of 1981 like this pristine video of the entire November 14, 1981 program that aired at 6:05 on WTBS.

Reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Roddy Piper had joined Gordon Solie as co-host of the program two weeks earlier, and the two became quite a broadcast combination over the next year. Piper was the perfect cocky-heel counter to Solie's dry straight-forward approach and the two meshed really well in an unconventional way, especially for those times.

PART NINE

Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at the time, and one result was a small sharing of talent between the two groups. In particular on this program:

• Mid-Atlantic Champion Roddy Piper, who is never acknowledged as such by Solie or Piper, but is acknowledged by Ivan Koloff as Mid-Atlantic champ in an interview on the program
• NWA TV champion Ivan Koloff, carrying his championship belt and announcing his intention in defending the title in Georgia. (The title was a Crockett title)
• Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions Chris Markoff and Nikolia Volkoff (managed by Lord Alfred Hayes) are seen on the program in a tape from the Knoxville "NWA Championship Wrestling" program hosted by Les Thatcher. The team would be wrestling in the annual Thanksgiving tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta a few weeks later. The Knoxville office was closely affiliated with Jim Crockett Promotions at the time and used a number of pieces of talent from the Charlotte office. 
• Ray Stevens, currently a top heel for the Crocketts and an occasional tag team partner of Ole Anderson's
• and of course Ole Anderson himself, who along with his brother Gene, were the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions, primarily a Crockett area title.

That made for a total four Crockett Promotions champions appearing in one way or another on this Georgia program. Throw in Mid-Atlantic star Ric Flair, who had just recently won the NWA World Championship from Dusty Rhodes, and it's fair to say their was more than a small Mid-Atlantic influence on the Georgia promotion at the time. Flair is not on this program, but had been on almost every Georgia show since winning the title, and would be on the following week as well.

This Georgia show is loaded with a lot of great talent that were hallmarks of the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion at the time including Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar, Bob and Brad Armstrong, Austin Idol, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Mike Jackson, and others.

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was and always will be my first love, but Georgia Wrestling during this time was on fire, and was an important part of every Saturday as well.

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

Snapshot in Time: A TV Saturday in February 1974

This is a newspaper ad that ran down the Saturday line-up for WLOS-13 in Asheville, NC on February 16, 1974. WLOS was the Jim Crockett Promotions affiliate station for the "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" B-show hosted by Les Thatcher.

And at the bottom of this ad, you will see the listing for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling featuring George Scott, Joe Soto, and....

"the TERRIBLE ANDERSONS."

 You've got to love that. No doubt Ole would have.

Wrestling aired at 11:15 each Saturday night on WLOS, following the local news. it later moved to 11:30 PM in 1975 when the local Saturday night newscast expanded to a half-hour.

WLOS also holds a small place in the studio-wrestling history of Jim Crockett Promotions. In the early 1970s, promoter Paul Winkhaus (the local promoter for the Crocketts) would provide film clips of the shows at the Asheville Auditorium or the Civic Center to be played on the late news, usually hosted by Munsey Millaway. They would occasionally tape interviews with the wrestlers right there at the TV station, all in support of the local cards in Asheville. Winkhaus was a great promoter to have as your man on the ground.

It's also interesting to take a look at what else was on TV at the time, including the Pro Bowlers Tour, auto racing, and a preview of Evel Knievel's next motorcycle jump on the venerable sports show "ABC's Wide World of Sports."

"The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat...."

It also seemed odd that a show like "Shock Theater" would be airing at 1:00 PM in the afternoon. I would think a show like that would be much more fun late at night.

Thanks to Mark Eastridge for passing this newspaper clipping along to us.