N.C. Artist Competed Against Don Kernodle in Weight Lifting

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

North Carolina artist, United States Army veteran, and longtime Mid-Atlantic Wrestling fan Ronald Ragland passed away earlier this summer. His daughter Allison White wrote us with the news and shared an interesting wrestling connection about her late father she was reminded of when going through some of his papers.

Back in 1971, Ragland competed in a weight-lifting competition and one of the other competitors in his weight class was none other than future pro-wrestling star Don Kernodle. Both lifted in the 242 lb. weight class. Ragland won the competition with a total of 1,190 pounds lifted across all categories. Kernodle came in second with a total weight lifted of 1,083 pounds. (See the meet results sheet here.)

Don Kernodle with Ronald Ragland
at the NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Charlotte

 
"He talked about this many times and that he and Don Kernodle competed," Allison wrote me. "The best highlight for him was he actually got to meet Don Kernodle at the 2008 Hall of Fame event in Charlotte.  Don was so friendly, you would have thought they were best buddies all their lives.  And till the day Dad died, he would tell this story and how nice it was to meet him."

It was just one of a few other wrestling connections her father had. "Before Dad got married in the 50's he lived at the Charlotte YMCA and lifted weights with Bob Fink (Rock Hunter, Ivan Koloff's Manager.) He was offered a job as a wrestler, they needed more wrestlers for TV, but he was already working at his first advertising company."

Ragland and his daughter were fortunate enough sit with Rip Hawk at one of the Hall of Heroes banquets at an NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Charlotte. The two exchanged letters and emails afterwards, with Rip sending Ron several personally autographed photos.

Ragland's lifelong love of wrestling got Allison hooked on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, too. "Dad took me to the Dorton Arena on my 12th Birthday in March 1976," she wrote me, "and I was hooked also after seeing the main event Blackjack Mulligan vs. Paul Jones. Dad had connections at WRAL since they were working on Kerr Drug Commercials with them at that time. I got to go to several TV tapings."

Ronald Ragland was a commercial artist for all of his career. Following retirement, he created a limited edition series of old country artwork. WRAL TV in Raleigh did a feature on Ragland for their "Tar Heel Traveler" series before his death, which can be seen on their website here:

A tribute to late Raleigh artist, award-winning weightlifter Ronald Ragland :: WRAL.com
Featured on Tar Heel Traveler

 Photos provided by Allison White.

The Pride of the Carolinas, Don Kernodle: The Last of the Territorial Stars

Gateway Note: The following is a text version of Mike Sempervive's wonderful career retrospective and tribute podcast to Don Kernodle, who passed away May 17, 2021.  Sempervive writes, produces, and voices the Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast heard on the Arcadian Vanguard podcasting network. He also co-hosts the nationally broadcast Wrestling Observer Live daily radio program with Brian Alverez for WrestlingObserver.com.

We are proud to host and archive this special text version of the 5 1/2 hour audio podcast of the Kernodle tribute that was originally published in two parts over the summer of 2021. The complete unabridged version of the podcast tribute (including a wealth of audio clips) can be found here at MidAtlanticPod.com. Follow Mike on Twitter at @MidAtlanticPod.

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By Mike Sempervive
Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast (@midatlanticpod)
Special to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Born on May 2, 1950 and hailing from Burlington, North Carolina, at the age of 7, young Don Kernodle knew what his life goal was as soon as he saw professional wrestling on television. 

Photograph by Ginger Layman Lynch

Attending high school at Eastern Alamance before moving on to Elon College, located ten minutes west of his hometown, Kernodle was a very good athlete. Not only would he serve the school as a four-year member of the wrestling team, Kernodle also got into powerlifting, as well as becoming a national championship-level arm wrestler, as well a practitioner of judo - which was a rarity, at the time, especially for those not in the military. That variety of physical talents in his toolbox would become Kernodle’s saving grace during his first experience with the pro wrestling business, which he was so smitten by.

At a Tuesday night house show at Dorton Arena, Kernodle mustered up the nerve to approach then-president of Jim Crockett Promotions John Ringley about getting into the sport. To his surprise, Ringley told Kernodle to come to the studios at WRAL-TV, the next day.

When he arrived, he found out he’d be facing off against Bob Roop, who represented America as a heavyweight wrestler during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. A newcomer to the area, Roop was doing an open challenge where he’d offer $2000 to any layperson who could defeat him in less than ten minutes.

After signing a battery of hold-harmless release forms presented to him by the company’s jack-of-all-trades, Les Thatcher, Kernodle was then placed into a dressing room. The only other person in said room? Bob Roop.  

According to the interview he did with the Mid-Atlantic Gateway website, Kernodle said: “I’m nervous; I’m scared. I didn’t know what to expect. So, when I sit down, I’m only about ten feet away from Roop as he’s lacing up his boots. He’s bent over, and he hasn’t even raised his head yet… finally he raised up his head, looked at me and said, ‘You must be the guy that I’m wrestling tonight.’”
 
Kerndole continued, “‘Yes sir, Mr. Roop, I am.’ I walked over to him and shook his hand and said, ‘My name is Don Kernodle. This is nothing personal with you…this is the only chance I’ve got to get into professional wrestling, so I want to try it… they were trying to intimidate me. Yeah, they were really trying to psyche me out…which they did!”

The Gateway Interview: Don Kernodle (2009)

 

Back in July of 2009, we had the chance to interview Don Kernodle while getting together with him and his brother Wally (aka Rocky Kernodle) with mutual friends  Peggy Lathan, Wendi Weaver, and others. It was on the eve of that year's Johnny Weaver Cup tournament for CWF Mid-Atlantic based out of Burlington, NC, where Don would be honored on that night. 

David Chappell led the discussion with Don as we both had a blast covering all sorts of topics in an epic 8-part interview that first appeared on the old (rather archaic) Mid-Atlantic Gateway website, and is still archived at that old web address.

You can click the graphic above to go to PART ONE or navigate to the other installments using the list below. It's one of the best interviews we did in those early years of this website, and that was largely due to Don himself, who gave fascinating insights into how he broke into the business and many other topics.

THE GATEWAY INTERVIEW: DON KERNODLE (JULY 2009)

PART ONE  |  PART TWO  |  PART THREE  |  PART FOUR

PART FIVE  |  PART SIX  |  PART SEVEN  |  PART EIGHT

 
We were very sad to learn the news of Don's passing. He was a warm, fun loving guy we enjoyed getting to know over the past 12 years or so, and always looked forward to seeing him and Wally, whether for fried chicken and BBQ at Smithfield's in Mebane or crossing paths with them at the Mid-Atlantic Legends Fanfest events. He always greeted you with that familiar "Hey, ol' buddy!"

Don Kernodle was honored at the 2009 Johnny Weaver Cup
tournament for CWF Mid-Atlantic Wrestling in Burlington, NC.

The interview contains lots of photos taken by Eddie Cheslock (including that one in the header), Peggy Lathan, and some from the private collection of Don's partner Jim Nelson (Boris Zhukov). The two were Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions back in 1982.  

Don't miss Peggy Lathan's farewell to Don posted earlier on our site:
A Friend Says Goodbye to Don Kernodle

And Mike Mooneyham's most recent column for the Charleston Post & Courier remembering Don is excellent.

And look for a special episode of Mike Sempervive's Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast on the life and times of Don Kernodle with a detailed examination of one of the territory's biggest events ever, "The Final Conflict." Coming soon to midatlanticpod.com.

A Friend Says Goodbye to Don Kernodle

by Peggy Lathan
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

I was shocked to hear about Don Kernodle's passing. He was one of my best friends and had been for almost 50 years. I have so many good memories of Don, most of them including Johnny Weaver.

I first began going to the matches with my mother and grandmother in Greenville, SC in 1968. Johnny Weaver was one of the first wrestlers I met, talking to him as he stood by the back wall watching matches.  Back then, the wrestlers would stand in the back and sign autographs and pose for pictures. Johnny was my favorite and while chatting, I told him about our three generations attending the matches. 

DON KERNODLE (circa 1976)

One night in 1973, Johnny told Don about the three of us, and Don wanted to meet my family. He was fascinated about three generations all attending the matches together, the same seats, every week. That was the beginning of a long-time friendship. 

Don hit it off with my grandmother. Nannie loved Don, she would cheer for him and was his biggest supporter. Don would make her so happy. I remember several times, the bad guy would throw Don out on the floor and he would land right at my grandmother's feet. I'm sure Don would plan it that way. He would look up from the floor and plead, "Help me Nannie, help me! Don't let them hurt me, Nannie." She would reach down and pat him on the back or the shoulder, and as the bad guy approached she would ball up that fist and threaten to whip them if they got near Don. "Oh, thank, you Nannie, thank you," Don would say.

Don and I had many good times together. We went to the beach several times with Johnny Weaver, Don's brother Wally, and other friends. We attended races, had cookouts at Johnny's house, attended matches and just enjoyed being together doing fun things. I'm really going to miss those times and all of the phone calls and cards. 

Rest in Peace, my friend.  I will always love you.  'Till we meet again. 

  - Peggy Lathan             

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For more on my Nannie, see:
Every Wrestling Crowd Had One: The Little Old Lady Ringside

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Other posts by Peggy Lathan:
Ric Flair Shuts Down The Pantry
Ole Anderson: Good Sammaritan
Gene Anderson was No Help at All!
Ronnie Garvin: AirPlanes and Rear View Mirrors
Meeting Baby Doll

Poster: Flair and Sweet Ebony Diamond challenge Valentine and Superstar at Ernie Shore Field

 

by Brack Beasley
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

Ernie Shore Field in Winston-Salem, NC opened in 1956 and was home to the Winston-Salem minor league baseball team. On occasion this baseball stadium would host concerts as well as professional wrestling, both Mid Atlantic and IWA.

This poster takes us back to the summer of 1980 and promotes a card held on July 25th with the main event being a tag team matchup pitting the Masked Superstar and Greg Valentine against Ric Flair and Sweet Ebony Diamond.

Rocky Johnson entered the Mid Atlantic territory under a mask as Sweet Ebony Diamond and was a superb performer, but probably best known today as father of "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson. 

Dewey Robertson was also on this card, having lost the Canadian Heavyweight Championship to the Iron Sheik a couple of months earlier. Sheik was on a roll, having also won the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship from Jim Brunzell two weeks before this card at Ernie Shore.

I'm confident it was an exciting Friday night under the stadium lights for wrestling fans with an undercard also featuring Mid-Atlantic greats Johnny Weaver and Don Kernodle. 

The poster design itself really draws your attention with black print on a bright yellow background and the date and main event in bold high impact red. It would definitely be hard to miss sitting in the front window of a local business as you're passing by.

NO. 5 IN A SERIES

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Gateway Notes:

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was also being held that Friday night in Charleston SC and Lynchburg, VA. Charleston was headlined by Blackjack Mulligan vs. Enforcer Luciano in a Texas Street Fight. Lynchburg's main event saw Jim Brunzell trying to reclaim his Mid-Atlantic title from the Iron Sheik.

Don Kernodle Passes Away

We are very saddened to hear the news of Don Kernodle's passing. He was a true legend of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, and while most remember his ground breaking feud with partner Sgt. Slaughter against Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood, older fans will remember the many years Don toiled away in the mid-card and under-card before finally getting that break. He earned every bit of it. 

 Rest in peace. 

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling comes to Augusta GA to Challenge for Georgia Titles (1977)

PART THREE IN A SERIES

by Dick Bourne & Mark Eastridge
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Edited from our 2015 Series on the Mid-Atlantic/Georgia Talent Sharing Arrangements

When we think of springtime in Augusta, we typically think of the PGA Masters Championship taking place annually at Augusta National Golf Club.

But in 1977, Augusta was ground zero for a series of unofficial talent exchanges between Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling that was a showcase for a master class of talent at that time. 

Augusta GA was located right at the Georgia/South Carolina border and in the television mix of both promotions. The May 2nd, 1977 card at the legendary Bell Auditorium had an unusual line-up where all of the challengers for the Georgia titles were current regulars from the Mid-Atlantic territory.


Paul Jones (c) vs. The Masked Superstar for the Georgia Heavyweight Championship
Paul Jones was the reigning Georgia Heavyweight champion. He had been a regular in the Mid-Atlantic territory for many years, but was campaigning in the state of Georgia for the spring and summer of 1977. His challenger for the Georgia championship was the Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie), who was currently one of the top heels in the Mid-Atlantic territory and in the middle of a red-hot feud with the Mighty Igor there. This Augusta match-up foreshadowed their heated and violent feud in the Mid-Atlantic territory that would blossom in the fall of 1977, even resulting in the Superstar cutting Paul Jones hair. The Masked Superstar would later become a regular in the Georgia territory in the early 1980s. But for this one night, he unsuccessfully challenged Jones for the Georgia title, losing on disqualification for outside interference by Boris Malenko. Malenko was the Superstar's manager in the Mid-Atlantic territory, but was also a challenger for a title on this special card.

Thunderbolt Patterson (c) vs. Boris Malenko for the Georgia TV Title
The second main event that night was "Professor" Boris Malenko challenging Thunderbolt Patterson for the Georgia TV championship. Malenko was a veteran of all the southern NWA territories and was a recognized name in Georgia. Thunderbolt had already been a big part of this talent-sharing period with the Mid-Atlantic territory, and had just days earlier been in Hampton, VA teaming with Wahoo McDaniel to challenge Ric Flair and Greg Valentine for the NWA world tag team championships in a Mid-Atlantic main event. The Wahoo/Thunderbolt pairing was a rare and special combination to challenge Flair and Valentine.

The Anderson Brothers (c) vs. Johnny Weaver and Tiger Conway, Jr. for the Georgia Tag Team Titles
The third main event that night featured the reigning Georgia Tag Team champions Gene and Ole Anderson being challenged for those belts by the Mid-Atlantic duo of Johnny Weaver and Tiger Conway, Jr. The Anderson Brothers were Georgia regulars during this time, but were still making regular Mid-Atlantic appearances in their old home territory trying to regain the NWA World Tag Team championship from Ric Flair and Greg Valentine. The Andersons brought the world tag team titles to Georgia in the fall of 1976 and planned to keep them there until Flair and Valentine had snatched them away right after Christmas of 1976.  In the meantime, the Andersons won the Georgia tag titles and were taking on all challengers, including the unusual Mid-Atlantic challenge of Weaver and Conway this night in Augusta.


A "MID-ATLANTIC FEEL" TO THE CARD
Fans in Augusta had to be thrilled to see some of the top Mid-Atlantic stars making their town and challenging for the top titles in the Georgia territory. Not many towns in either territory got a mixed-roster line-up like this.

The Mid-Atlantic challengers appeared to be in for one-shot deals as the Masked Superstar, Boris Malenko (managing Superstar at that time), and Tiger Conway were back in the Mid-Atlantic territory the next night in Raleigh NC, and Johnny Weaver was in Columbia, SC the next night as well.

This Georgia card had a great Mid-Atlantic feel to it with all of the Mid-Atlantic challengers and former Mid-Atlantic regulars in the main events. But the undercard had a Mid-Atlantic feel to it as well with the opening two matches featuring all guys who had been regulars in the Mid-Atlantic territory in 1975-1976:

(1) Randy Savage (who had teamed under his real name Randy Poffo with his brother Randy Poffo in 1975)
(2) Roberto Soto (also teaming earlier in the Carolinas and Virginia with his brother Manuel Soto and battling the Anderson brothers)
(3) Charlie Fulton and Don Kernodle (who had been opening card talent for Jim Crockett Promotions for several years.)

The following week, however, the crossover of Mid-Atlantic/Georgia talent would present one of the most amazing breaks from kayfabe during an era where those breaks were very rare. Tune in for May 9 in Augusta, GA when we visit the Mid-Atlantic/Georgia talent exchange!

 

Originally posted September 28, 2015 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

 

The article above was from our 2015 series spotlighting the talent exchange between Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1977.

In PART ONE, we looked at the Valentine's night show in Augusta. PART TWO featured a look at one of Georgia's top babyface Thunderbolt Patterson making special appearances in the Mid-Atlantic area challenging for the U.S. title and the world tag team titles. See links below for a guide to all the posts in this series.

* * * * * * * * * *
Summary of articles in the Mid-Atlantic/Georgia series.
View all current articles in this series on one page.

Missing Shows: Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, February 19, 1983

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

The WWE network's line up of Mid-Atlantic shows on their OTT network is sometimes a double-edge sword: while I love having the shows they put up, it hurts when they leave out key episodes in important storylines. 

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling  February 19, 1983

Now it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I'd rather have the shows they do put up than not have any of them at all. But one of most frustrating things about the situation is that it seems the missing shows fall out at often the worst time in the Mid-Atlantic historical timeline.

Such is the case with three weeks worth of missing shows in late February and early March of 1983, in the weeks leading up to the huge so-called "Final conflict" show in Greensboro on March 12, 1983 where Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood defeated Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle in a steel cage match to win the NWA World Tag Team titles, and avoided the dissolution of their tag team partnership in the process. 

Likewise, there are two key shows missing in the build-up to the Brisco's famous heel-turn some weeks later in early May.  

Thanks to David Chappell's audio cassette recordings of these shows, we will be able to fill in the blanks in the week to week timeline, and they will be chroniocled here in our "Missing Shows" series. Plus, we've offered the folks over at the Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast the audio clips to include on their episodes covering shows not included on the WWE network. (This was first most successfully done on this special episode of the podcast covering week of 8/14/82.)

In this article below, I'll summarize some the key events that took place on the missing February 19, 1983 show in the lead-up to the "Final Conflict", including the big contract signing for the main event (those were relatively rare in those days) and a rare (and somewhat strange in retrospect) appearance by Ricky Morton in the WPCQ TV studio, shortly before the advent of the Rock and Roll Express.)

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Original broadcast: 02/19/83
(taped 2/16/83 at WPCQ-TV studios in Charlotte)
This program does not appear on the WWE Network.

FILM: Jimmy Valiant pins Terry Funk
Booker Dory Funk, Jr. brings in his brother Terry Funk as a quasi bounty hunter to try and eliminate Jimmy Valiant, who was chasing Dick Slater and the other members of the House of Humperdink. After the commercial break, Humperdink and crew continue to rant and rave about Valiant beating Funk when suddenly Valiant comes out of nowhere to attack Slater and throw him into the ring. Greg Valentine and One Man Gang quickly come to Slater's aid, and Slater and Valentine hold Valiant while the One Man Gang cuts his hair! It's eventually broken up by the surprise appearance of Bugsy McGraw, who has come to his "street brother's" aid. It was such a surprise, in fact, that Bob Caudle had no idea who he was.

Special Segment: The 'Final Conflict' Contract Signing
Recorded earlier in a conference room, NWA official Sandy Scott hosts a contract signing between the NWA World Tag Team Champions Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle and their challengers Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. The date and location of the climactic title match is announced (Saturday March 12, Greensboro) and the stipulation is announced that the match will take place within the confines of a steel cage. But Sarge and Kernodle have another stipulation to announce if Steamboat and Youngblood want them to sign for the match. If Steamboat and Youngblood don't win, they can never tag as a team again. This causes Steamboat and Youngblood to pause for a moment, but then they resolve their apprehension and the contracts are signed by all parties. 

I'm pretty sure the big cage match in Greensboro was never actually official billed or dubbed as The Final Conflict (unless it happened on local promos), it's just a name that has become associated with the event over the years. 

Special Live Segment: Steamboat & Youngblood bring out Guests
Steamboat and Youngblood celebrate the contract signing by bringing out and thanking two special guests who helped them get to this point.

First was Johnny Weaver, who had helped them train and dvelope negiotiating tactics to finally get this big match signed. 

But more notably, the second guest would be the person who had helped them torment Slaughter and Kernodle behind the scenes over the previous weeks, including the theft of Slaughters' iconic drill-sergeant hat and the engineering of the destruction of Kernodle's expensive sport coat (seen way back on the January 8th episode). It was revealed to be none other than Pvt. Jim Nelson, who had quietly and covertly been helping Steamboat and Youngblood annoy Slaughter and Kernodle.  

Gary Hart Recruits Mike Rotundo
Gary Hart announces he is in the process of recruiting Mike Rotundo to join his stable with Kabuki and the Magic Dragon. Hart does commentary during Rotundo's match with Ricky Harris. Hart is peeved that Rotundo hasn't given him the common courtesy of a reply yet. he says he is sure that he can instill the killer instinct in Rotundo. (I'd just settle for some enthusiasm in Rotundo's interviews!)

Ricky Morton makes his short-lived Mid-Atlantic Debut
One of the most disappointing aspects of this show not being on the WWE Network is not being able to see the exciting debut of young superstar Rick Morton (as he's called at this time) in the Mid-Atlantic area, and in the WPCQ studio. 

Morton's first appearance is on the losing end with partner Frank Monte against the duo of Dory Funk, Jr. and Dick Slater, managed by Paul Jones. Morton shines in this match, to the point that it annoys Jones, who is doing color commentary with Bob Caudle. 

When the tag match is over (originally scheduled to be the last match of the show) Funk and Jones are still so annoyed at Morton that they offer a special challenge match to which Morton quickly agrees. He and Funk go at it in a fast paced match with Paul Jones ranting and raving at ringside with Bob Caudle. Morton gets the majority of the offense in with quick arm-drags, and flying head-scissors and dropkicks. The match is still going on as time runs out in the show and the credits roll.

It certainly appears there were plans to develop Morton into something given the show-closing angle with Funk and Jones. But two weeks later he is in Memphis, teaming in successive weeks with Jim Dalton, Terry Taylor, and finally Robert Gibson. The team of the Rock and Roll Express was apparently born that night. Morton would not return until July of 1985, when he and Robert Gibson defeated the Russians to win the NWA World Tag Team titles on their first night in. And the rest is history. 

Other Notables:

• Jim Nelson represents himself well in his special segment where he is revealed as Slaughter and Kernodle's saboteur, especially given he hasn't had much promo time at that point. It was a nice angle that sets up tag matches to fill time in house show slots in the weeks leading up to 3/12 in Greensboro featuring Weaver and nelson teaming uop to go against Slaughter and Kernodle. Nelson delivers a funny line about while Sarge and Kernodle were out eating steak, they had him getting his supper at the 7-11.
• In Jack Brisco's halftime interview, he mentions Terry Funk being in, and that he and Jerry would love to fight the Funk Brothers. Not sure if the Briscos vs. Funks match took place in the ensuing weeks here or not, but the Funk brothers and the Brisco brothers each challenged Slaughter and Kernodle for the World Tag Team titles in the weeks leading up to the March 12 Final Conflict show.  I would have loved to see those matches.
• During the Funk/Slater tag team match, Paul asks can you imagine if the Funk brothers and the Brisco brother faced each other in a match? Almost as if he had thought of this concept all by himself. It was one of the little things that made Paul hilarious during this early stint as a manager and color commentator.  
  

 

MATCHES: 
Arena Film: Terry Funk vs. Jimmy Valiant
Mike Rotundo vs. Ricky Harris
Dory Funk, Jr. & Dick Slater vs. Frank Monte & Ricky Morton
Dory Funk, Jr. vs. Ricky Morton (as time expires)

SPECIAL FEATURES
Contract Signing: Sandy Scott signs a Cage Match for the NWA World Tag Team Titles
Recogocnition: Steamboat and Youngblood thank Weaver and Nelson

CURRENT CHAMPIONS:
World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair
World Tag Team Champions: Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle
United States Champion: Greg Valentine
Mid-Atlantic Champion: Dory Funk, Jr.
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions: Vacant
NWA TV Champion: Dick Slater

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SHOW SUMMARY
In the same general format as the summaries in our TV & Podcast Section.

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Original broadcast: 02/19/83
(taped 2/16/83 at WPCQ-TV studios in Charlotte)
This program does not appear on the WWE Network.

FILM: Jimmy Valiant pins Terry Funk in Charlotte
Interview - Sir Oliver Humperdink, Dick Slater

[Break]

Confrontation: Jimmy Valiant jumps Dick Slater, who is saved by Greg Valentine, One Man Gang. Slater and Valentine hold Boogie while One Man Gang cuts his hair. Valiant is saved by Bugsy McGraw (and Bob has no idea who he is at first.)

[Break]

Local Promos

[Break]

[VCR] Contract signing: Slaughter/Kernodle and Steamboat/Youngblood hosted by Sandy Scott

Interview - Steamboat & Youngblood they bring out Johnny Weaver and Pvt. Jim Nelson

[Break]

Halftime Interviews: Mike Rotundo (TV Champion), Jack Brisco

[Break]

Interview - Gary Hart

Match #1
Mike Rotundo pins Ricky Harris
guest commentary by Gary Hart

[Break]

Local Promos

[Break]

Paul Jones joins Bob Caudle on commentary.

Match #2
Dory Funk, Jr./Dick Slater defeat Frank Monte/Rick Morton 

Interview - Slaughter, Kernodle

Match #3
Special challenge match: Dory Funk, Jr. vs. Rick Morton (Show ends with match in progress.)

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

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

Action Figures Friday: Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Figures from the collection of Matthew Montcalm

We're back this week with "Action Figures Friday" and returning to the collection of our buddy Matthew "Matty" Montcalm, better know on Twitter as Wrestlingwclassics (@wrestlingwclass)

Matty has done some amazing customizations of wrestlers from the territory days that don't have commercial action figures. A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at how he built a custom Jay Youngblood figure, and then modified a commercial Ricky Steamboat figure so that it would reflect how Ricky looked in the 1970s/1980s in Jim Crockett Promotions. Good stuff!

This week we take a look at a team that was arguably Steamboat and Youngblood's top rival over their time as a team together, Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle.

Custom figures designed by Matthew Montcalm (@wrestlingwclass)

"Sgt. Slaughter was an easy one for me," Matty wrote me. "Simple arm, boot and calf swap. Mattel has already produced a couple Slaughter figures so the head was already there for me, the rest was and easy part swap."

He went on to explain further how the process works. "I take a hair dryer to the joints of a figure, that way parts are easier to pop off and put on others."

"Kernodle, on the other hand, has the old school trunk/singlet gear and I needed a head," he explained. "So I had to pop open the torso and trunks, to get the legs on him, and glue them. Then I took a Curtis Axel head and sculpted hair using Apoxy Sculpt, let it air dry and painted it."

The results were great. "I’m pretty happy with the way they came out," Matty wrote. "First time seeing them, so that is always a plus."

Sarge and "Noodle" first won the NWA World Tag Team titles in a fictional situation after the titles had been abandoned by Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen. Hansen and Anderson came out on top of the famous 5-month tournament series in the late winter and spring of 1982, but during their reign behind the scenes, JCP booker Ole Anderson left the company and returned to full-time status ion Georgia, while he and Stan still had the belts. Eventually, Jim Crockett wanted his belts back and so after the belts were returned, JCP concocted a story where a tournament was held in Japan for the vacant titles and Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle defeated the team of Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki to win the belts. There was obviously no Internet in those years and the vast majority of wrestling fans had no knowledge of Japanese wrestling. So that preposterous story (Baba and Inoki were actually rival promoters at the time) was conceived just as a way to get the belts on Sarge and Kernodle and simply move forward.

The Slaughter/Kernodle vs. Steamboat/Youngblood rivalry was  a classic, and resulted in one of JCP's most successful shows ever March of 1983 where "Youngboat" finally regained the titles in a famous cage match at the Greensboro Coliseum. The turn-away crowd led Crockett to believe there was the possibility of utilizing closed circuit for a future big shows, and from that the Starrcade event was eventually born as a closed-circuit event a year and half before the first Wrestlemania closed-circuit event in the WWF.

More to come on selected Friday's as we take a look at action figures that take us back to the Mid-Atlantic days.

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Visit Matty's various social media pages for his ongoing presentations of wrestling memorabilia and nostalgia: Twitter (Wrestlingwclassics @wrestlingwclass) Instagram (@wrestlingwclassics) and Facebook (@wrestlingwclassics).

The Marines Take Fayetteville

The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament
PART SIX
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you missed earlier posts in this series, check them out in the links below, especially the INTRODUCTION, which puts the whole tournament in a perspective that serves as a launching point for the following discussions. 

PART ONE: Introduction
PART TWO: Greensboro
PART THREE:  Charlotte
PART FOUR: Richmond
PART FIVE: Atlanta

FAYETTEVILLE, NC
Date: March 1, 1982
Venue: Cumberland County Memorial Arena 

Bob Caudle interviews Pvt. Kernodle and Pvt. Nelson, Sgt. Slaughter's young Marine recruits.

On the 3/6/82 episode of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" during a match between Pvt. Nelson and Pvt. Kernodle vs. Ron Ritchie and Tony Anthony, host Bob Caudle informed viewers that Nelson and Kernodle had won the recent tournament in Fayetteville, NC. Caudle's co-host for that week, Roddy Piper, sung the praises of the young Marine recruits:

Roddy Piper: "Look at these young gentlemen here. Right there in Fayetteville, look at 'em! There are your champions. Aren't they good!?"

Bob Caudle: "I tell you, that may have surprised a lot of people, but not us. Because having been taught and having been trained by Sgt. Slaughter - - Roddy Piper, you've been saying all along, watch out for these guys."

Sadly, little is known about the tournament in Fayetteville, other it was won by the Marine Privates. We know four of the other teams that participated from the newspaper ad that appeared in the local paper for the show, but no results have been published anywhere to our knowledge.

The four teams billed in the newspaper ad as being in the Fayetteville tournament were:

• Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen
• Jack and Jerry Brisco
• Porkchop Cash and Jay Youngblood (reigning Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions)
• Pvt. Nelson and Pvt. Kernodle

Remaining teams were likely comprised of mostly undercard wrestlers. That same night there was a big card in Greenville, SC and that card featured many of the wrestlers that had been in previous tournaments such as Sgt. Slaughter, Roddy Piper, Bob Armstrong, Ray Stevens, Kelly Kiniski, plus Ricky Steamboat, Carl Fergi, and many others.

In preparation for this article, I spoke with Jim Nelson (aka Boris Zhukov) and asked him what he remembered about that night in Fayetteville. Sadly, like a lot of wrestlers, he doesn't remember much. He was wrestling seven days a week then, and this was 36 years ago after all, so that's to be expected. (Exactly what happened on 3/1/82 on your job 36 years ago? See how it works?) He did seem to think they beat Youngblood and Cash in the finals, and that makes sense given the two teams would feud over the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team titles in the next month.  He also specifically remembers he and Don wrestling the Briscos along this same time, and while he wasn't sure if it was in that tournament, it is reasonable to think it likely would have been since the two teams would not have normally met otherwise being on different positions on the cards. If this is the case, they likely defeated the Briscos in the semi-finals in Fayetteville. 

If you have any information about that tournament, specifically results and bracketing, please CONTACT US so we can include it here.

On that 3/6/82 TV show, Piper went on to call Nelson and Kernodle the "Fayetteville Connection," and then updated the viewing audience on all the tournament winners so far. Oddly enough, Piper did not mention Richmond, VA in his update, and it may have been that since Sgt. Slaughter and Pvt. Nelson had won Richmond, they didn't want to confuse fans with talking about having Nelson the winner of two different tournaments with two different partners.  Nelson and Kernodle were going to be pushed as a top team for the next few months, and would go on to win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team championships in May.


Tournament Notes and Trivia:

• Pvt. Jim Nelson is the only man in the entire run of tournaments to win more than one tournament with two different partners. (Richmond with Sgt. Slaughter, Fayetteville with Don Kernodle.)
• Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen continued their streak as being the only team to compete in all of the city tournaments, five total so far. 
• Fayetteville is home to the U.S. Army's Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. military installation in the world. It would be fun to know if Pvt. Kernodle and Pvt. Nelson were treated warmly by the military friendly crowd, or if the Army crowd cheered anyone and everyone against the young Marines. Regardless, it's no coincidence that behind the scenes, booker Ole Anderson picked Fayetteville for its military connection to have Nelson and Kernodle get their big win.
• Nelson and Kernodle accomplished this big win on their own. Their mentor Sgt. Slaughter was in Greenville, SC, on this night defending the United States Heavyweight championship against Ricky Steamboat.  
• The Fayetteville tournament ended a string of three city tournaments in four days across three different states (Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina.) 

Coming Up in PART SEVEN:
On to the Sunshine State! The tournament heads for Florida in what wound up being the final legitimate tournament in the series, although there would be at least two fictional tournaments that would come into play later. St. Petersburg would host the "Bayfront Spectacular" that would include their tournament which was an odd one: it featured only five teams competing, but had one of the most colorful line-ups including a team from the first family of Texas wrestling, the Von Erichs! Stay tuned for more on this interesting 1982 tournament for the NWA World Tag Team Championships.

Wrestling Was Meant to be Watched on Saturday

"You're looking at the two finest tuned wrestling machines in the world today. The proof is not in what I say. The proof is in these two belts around our waists."   - Ric Flair

With our current series on the 1970s "Dream Team" of Ric Flair and Greg Valentine in progress here on the Gateway (currently up to Part 3), we thought we'd throw a little "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" from YouTube up for a Saturday afternoon. Because after all, anyone who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s knows that professional wrestling was meant to be watched on Saturday!

These interview segments are from a show taped in December 1982 when Ric and Greg had briefly reunited their classic 1970s tag team as almost a holiday gift for all the fans that year. Ric was reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champion and Greg was reigning United States Heavyweight Champion.

Interesting note on their first interview here. It only was seen in markets that did not have local promos inserted for shows in their local area. You will notice Ric addresses West Virginia and specifically Florida where the Mid-Atlantic show was being seen in more markets. Not sure if the Mid-Atlantic guys made any appearances in Florida at that time (Ric certainly did as NWA champion), but he made sure to put over many of the main event guys working Florida at that time including Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, Angelo Mosca, James J. Dillon and others.

Also featured in this YouTube video are NWA World Tag Champions Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle, Ricky Steamboat, Jay Youngblood, Roddy Piper, and #1 Paul Jones.

Highs and Lows: Silver Starr '85 and the Crockett Ballpark Fire

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

I was looking through some 1985 wrestling results for Jim Crockett Promotions, and it dawned on me that one of the company's biggest events that March followed only one day after one of the company's biggest calamities, the fire at the Crockett ballpark.

First, let's look at the wrestling event: 

On Saturday March 16, the Greensboro Coliseum hosted a huge event that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Greensboro Coliseum dubbed "Silver Star '85." It was also part of a slate of events that would celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jim Crockett Promotions that year.

"Silver Starr" was a name born from the creative mind of booker Dusty Rhodes, who had also come up with the name of the company's very successful annual Thanksgiving event called "Starrcade," which had just concluded its second big year.

I've always thought, too, that Dusty just liked the imagery of a silver star, perhaps like an old western Sheriff's badge, pinned over his heart. Dusty was, after all, the modern day John Wayne.

In the ad at right, "Star" is spelled with only one "R", but in some television advertising, it was spelled with two of them - - SilverStarr - - to mirror the branding of the "Starrcade" name, I suppose. I really loved that stuff.

The show was loaded top to bottom, headlined by an NWA world title defense as Ric Flair defended the "ten pounds of gold" against U.S. champion Chief Wahoo McDaniel in an "Indian strap match," which was Wahoo's specialty. The traditional roles were reversed for these two during this time: Flair was a huge babyface in our area (but nowhere else) and Wahoo was now a hated heel. Those roles would reverse again later in this year in 1985.

Another big event, and one of the big draws of this show, was Dusty Rhodes challenging Tully Blanchard for the TV title, with Tully's "Perfect 10" Baby Doll locked inside a steel cage that would be hung high over the ring. The added stipulation was that if Dusty lost, he would "leave town" and never wrestle in Greensboro again.

The third main event played off the patriotism of the era where Magnum T.A. and Don Kernodle were scheduled to be joined by the returning Sgt. Slaughter to face the Russian team of Ivan and Nikita Koloff and Krusher Khrushchev in a flag vs. flag match. Slaughter had been one of the top stars in the company as a heel in 1981-1983, and had turned good-guy in the WWF in 1984 in a high profile angle with the Iron Sheik. But Sarge and the WWF had parted ways by the fall of 1984 over issues related to Sarge's outside deal with the G.I. Joe toy franchise. He was now headlining for the AWA and for "Pro Wrestling USA", a promotion that was trying to run shows with combined talent from the AWA and several NWA promotions in hopes of competing with the WWF in the Northeast states. In the Mid-Atlantic area story, Sarge was recruited by his former tag team partner Don Kernodle to aid him in his battle with the Russians.

So as you can see, it was a huge event, one of the biggest of the year, and the company was enjoying a surge of interest generally as Dusty Rhodes' booking and Crockett's talent acquisitions were just beginning to take off.

But the enthusiasm of this event was blunted by the tragedy of the Crockett baseball park fire that happened just the night before.

Jim Crockett Promotions not only was one of the most successful wrestling promotions in the country, but their AA Baseball franchise, the Charlotte O's, was one of the more successful baseball clubs in the AA minor league system. The team was run by Frances Crockett, who had been named Southern League Executive of the Year in 1980. They were coming off a league championship the year before.

Jim Crockett Memorial Park

Their home was Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Park, a classic old wooden structure that had been home to minor league baseball in Charlotte for over 40 years. And in recent years, a it had hosted a fair number of wrestling cards, too.

The Greensboro newspaper reports on both the Crockett Ballpark fire and the results of Silver Star '85

Investigations later indicated that the fire was a result of arson following a high school baseball game played there earlier (Wikipedia). The Crocketts quickly built a makeshift stadium where the team played for the next several years, but business was dramatically impacted by the fire and eventually the team was sold in 1987.

So a weekend that should have been full of celebration for the Crockett family was certainly marred by the fire that completely destroyed their home ballpark. Not only that, but according to France's daughter, the storage area at the park housed a lot of Crockett family memorabilia that was also destroyed in the fire.

It was definitely a weekend of highs and lows for the Crockett family in March of 1985, as represented in the newspaper clippings above. The company's baseball business would fade after the sad events of the ballpark fire, but the wrestling business was just getting ready to catch fire once again, at least in a metaphorical sense, in a very big way.

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Comment from Michael Hicks (via Facebook):
I always thought this show was somewhat underrated considering the lineup. It deserves more recognition for being a major part of the changing of the times in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. A busy month in JCP as the Koloffs would win the NWA tag straps two nights later on Monday, March 18 in Fayetteville and the following Saturday -- March 23 -- in Charlotte, Magnum TA would win the US title from Wahoo. 

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Late Note:  Despite some reports of Sgt. Slaughter not being at this show, we have since confirmed that he was. I was able to confirm that with Don Kernodle recently, and also received a nice email from Joshua Jenkins who attended the show that night in Greensboro.

Traffic Jams & Friendships

by Carroll Hall
All Star Championship Wrestling

Saturday March 12, 1983 was the 29th birthday of my brother Kenneth and also the date of the infamous cage match in Greensboro, NC: Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle defending their world tag team championships against Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. Originally I had a prior commitment for that night but when those plans changed, I surpised my brother by taking him to the show in Greensboro. Up to that point in time we had always bought our tickets at the door because with our work schedules, it was generally on the day of an event before we could be sure we could go. This would be the first time we were turned away from a show since we started attending arena shows in May 1965.

We did not make it too far from where we exited I-40 when the traffic came to a crawl. When we finally made it to the Coliseum entrance, I rolled down the window and a police officer asked if we already had tickets. When I said no, he replied all the tickets were gone. We kept going at a crawl until we finally made it back to I-40 West. By the time we got through the traffic jam and got back home it was between 11 and 11:30 which was not far off of the time we normally got home from a show in Greensboro. This would be the last time we would ever travel to Greensboro to see wrestling. We were lucky enough to see Steamboat/Younglood vs. Slaughter/ Kernodle in three Greenboro matches prior to this on October 23, November 6 and December 26 in 1982.

Fast foward to Friday March 12, 2004. I had just recently joined my first wrestling message board. On this date I sent a PM (private message) to another member who was participating in a thread about that fabled cage match. That member turned out to be Dick Bourne of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Two days later, on Sunday March 14, 2004 in the late afternoon, Dick Bourne visited me at my home. As it turns out we live in the same area but had never met. That was the beginning of a friendship that I treasure more than simple words can describe.

Weaver Cup Poster for 2015

Main Event Memory: A Local Boy Gets His Shot

"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 the same town. 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.

Republished on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway September 7, 2020.


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

Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?

"Pride of the Carolinas" Don Kernodle
One half of the NWA World Tag Team Champions in 1982-1983 

In 1981, Don Kernodle was selling used cars in addition to a full schedule working for Jim Crockett Promotions. One of the cars he listed in this ad in the Burlington (NC) Times-News was a 1973 Cadillac coupe owned by Blackjack Mulligan!

The first vehicle in the ad reads: "CADILLAC COUPE, 1973. Excellent condition. Owned by Blackjack Mulligan. $1695."

1981 Newspaper Ad - Burlington Times-News

Don was still about a year away from his big push that began as a tag team with Jim Nelson as Sgt. Slaughter's Marine privates, and then as Sarge's partner in a huge box office program with Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood over the NWA world tag team championships.

Thanks as always to Mark Eastridge for the great vintage newspaper clippings from his vast collection.