When Kerry Von Erich won the NWA world title in 1984, he fulfilled the appearance contracts of the previous champion Ric Flair, which included dates in the state of Florida for Championship Wrestling from Florida.
NWA Champ Kerry with Coach John Heath on the set of Championship Wrestling from Florida
The magazine from Japan seen below features a photo on the cover taken during that Florida tour of Kerry sporting the Ten Pounds of Gold with Florida heavyweight champion Billy Jack Haynes.
I just came across an interesting interview with Chief Wahoo McDaniel on an episode of "Championship Wrestling '85", formerly known as Championship Wrestling from Florida. The episode has two interesting connections to Jim Crockett Promotions and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling as it relates to Wahoo McDaniel.
The episode originally aired Saturday, 3/16/85 in Florida. It was taped the prior Wednesday morning 3/13/85 at the famous Sportatorium in located at 106 North Albany Avenue in Tampa.
THE UNITED STATES TITLE The first Mid-Atlantic connection was that Wahoo McDaniel was the reigning United States Heavyweight Champion for Jim Crockett Promotions at the time of this appearance in Florida. He was just over a week away from losing the title to Magnum T.A. in their famous cage match back in Charlotte on 3/23/85. So when Wahoo appeared on Florida TV, he was wearing the Crockett U.S. title. he was not acknowledged by the ring announcer or announcer Gordon Solie as champion, but was wearing the belt in the ring. Wahoo teamed with Jay and Mark Youngblood who were former Mid-Atlantic stars and the reigning United States Tag Team champions, a Florida-based title at the time. (Wahoo and Mark Youngblood had held the NWA World Tag Team titles a year earlier in the Mid-Atlantic area.)
THE APOLOGY The second Mid-Atlantic connection was the interview Wahoo did with host Gordon Solie at the desk. Wahoo had been one of the most popular wrestlers in the history of Jim Crockett Promotions throughout the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. But in 1984 he had "turned heel" over his frustration with being stripped of the United States title after defeating Ricky Steamboat for the belt in Greensboro. Wahoo became bitter and found an unlikely ally in Tully Blanchard, the two dubbing their tag team combination as the "Awesome Twosome." Suddenly, Wahoo had become one of the most hated wrestlers in the territory.
So when he appeared in Florida, still with the U.S. title, it was perhaps surprising for him to team with the babyface tag team of the Youngblood brothers.
After the match was over, Wahoo sat down with Solie and the two discussed Wahoo's return to Florida and his ongoing chase of Ric Flair and the NWA World Heavyweight title, a chase that had been going strong back in the Mid-Atlantic area, but now would continue in Florida. It was here that Wahoo actually apologized to the fans.
"You know, I've done a lot of things in the last couple of months," Wahoo told Solie. "My style of wrestling has changed some. I'd like to apologize to a lot of people, because in some places I've done some things I wouldn't ordinarily do."
Wahoo's use of the phrase "in some places" may have been a little cryptic for most Florida fans who would have been largely unaware of Wahoo's heel run in the Mid-Atlantic unless they had read about it the wrestling magazines or perhaps seen some of his occasional appearances in Georgia on WTBS. But that was directly aimed at Mid-Atlantic fans, some of whom could see the weekly Florida TV show on their cable systems.
Wahoo would apologize a second time, this time directly to Mid-Atlantic fans a few months later in a video tape sent in from Florida. It was in advance of a special return appearance for Jim Crockett Promotions to aid Dusty Rhodes against Tully Blanchard and Abdullah the Butcher in Greensboro.
A week after this Florida episode aired, Wahoo lost the U.S. title to Magnum T.A. in Charlotte, and immediately left the territory to take the booking job in Florida.
The entire episode is embedded below, although you can go directly to Wahoo's match and interview using the links embedded in the paragraphs above.
(The complete episode is on the "106NAlbany" YouTube channel.)
Today
(February 6) marks the anniversary of Harley Race's historic NWA title
win over Terry Funk in Toronto, Canada, that took place on February 6,
1977. It was Race's second NWA title win, with six more to come over the
next seven years.
Forgotten by many is the key role Championship Wrestling from Florida played in the key events that led up to title change in Toronto.
The following is an article about all of that magic originally published on The Domed Globe website and republished on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in May of 2021.
by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway
We're always appreciative of newspapers that do a good job of presenting wrestling in a journalistic fashion. This is a particularly good article in the Tampa Tribune promoting an upcoming card for Championship Wrestling from Florida on February 8, 1977, just two nights after Harley Race defeated Terry Funk with an Indian deathlock to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Who knows who wrote the piece. It doesn't really sound like it came from the office, but it sounds way too informed to be written by the a staff sports writer either.
The article captures all the complete twists and turns in the wonderful story leading up to this night at the fabled Fort Homer Hesterly Armory. There were actually two separate stories being told.
The first story cemented former champion Jack Brisco as Florida's top contender for the NWA title. Many of the fans coming to the Hesterly Armory that Tuesday night had witnessed Brisco cleanly beat Harley Race, also a former champion, that past Saturday in St. Petersburg. Surely Brisco could beat Race again, this time with his newly won NWA World championship at stake in Tampa.
The second story told answered a question many might have had following the finish to the title change match in Toronto. As a teenage fan watching wrestling in 1977, when the film of the match from Toronto was shown on Mid-Atlantic television, it seemed strange to me that Race had won by submission with an Indian deathlock. I had only ever seen our local hero Paul Jones win with that hold. In the wrestling magazines, it seemed the reports usually suggested Race typically won with various suplexes or his infamous flying headbutt from the top turnbuckle, resulting in wins by three-count pinfall. Why had Race instead gone for the submission for the win against Funk in Toronto?
The answer, it turned out, played out the night before in Florida.
The main event of the card in St. Petersburg on Saturday night was Terry Funk defending the NWA title against Dusty Rhodes. As the article above reports, Funk injured his knee in the match against
Rhodes, and "against his better judgement" went ahead with the scheduled
title defense against Race the next night in Toronto.
The rest, as they say, is history. Race knew what most fans didn't about the night before in the St,
Petertsburg Bayfront Arena. Funk was hurt, and Race
took advantage. He defeated Funk in 14:10 with an Indian death-lock to capture the gold belt. (I can still hear ring announcer Norm Kimber make the famous call.) It was a hold Race used infrequently (if ever?) and seemed almost out of place as it happened that night in Maple Leaf Gardens.
As the author of the article pointed out. Brisco's victory over Race in
St. Petersburg came three days too early. Race got the better of him in
Tampa this night to retain.
SAT FEB 5, 1977 - St. Petersburg, FL - NWA Champ Terry Funk injures his knee in a successful world title defense against Dusty Rhodes. On the same card, Jack Brisco defeats Harley Race.
SUN FEB 6, 1977 - Toronto, ON - Harley Race defeats Terry Funk to win the NWA World Title. Race deploys a rarely-used Indian deathlock to win the match, exploiting Funk's hurt knee from the night before in St. Petersburg.
TUE FEB 8, 1977 - Tampa, FL - New NWA Champion Harley Race defeats Jack Brisco to defend title, the result of the match written about in the article seen above.
The injury to Funk's knee in St. Petersburg gave Funk an excuse he could bandy about after his loss to Race in Toronto the next night.
The article also colors between the lines nicely, accurately reporting key dates in the NWA title history of Brisco and the Funk Brothers, and even including a reference to an NWA title change in the same building eight years earlier to the week.
It's just an all around amazing piece to be found in a newspaper, and one of my favorite clippings from the history of the NWA title changes during the domed-globe era. And for those curious, it explains one of the mysteries about the historic Toronto finish some fans may have had at the time.
See three pages from the Florida program "The Grapevine" for the Feb. 5 show in St. Petersburg that set the stage for Toronto. (Thanks@bobbynorton9115 on Twitter.)
We're always appreciative of newspapers that do a good job of presenting wrestling in a journalistic fashion. This is a particularly good article in the Tampa Tribune promoting an upcoming card for Championship Wrestling from Florida on February 8, 1977, just two nights after Harley Race defeated Terry Funk with an Indian deathlock to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Who knows who wrote the piece. It doesn't really sound like it came from the office, but it sounds way too informed to be written by the a staff sports writer either.
The article captures all the complete twists and turns in the wonderful story leading up to this night at the fabled Fort Homer Hesterly Armory. There were actually two separate stories being told.
The first story cemented former champion Jack Brisco as Florida's top contender for the NWA title. Many of the fans coming to the Hesterly Armory that Tuesday night had witnessed Brisco cleanly beat Harley Race, also a former champion, that past Saturday in St. Petersburg. Surely Brisco could beat Race again, this time with his newly won NWA World championship at stake in Tampa.
The second story told answered a question many might have had following the finish to the title change match in Toronto. As a teenage fan watching wrestling in 1977, when the film of the match from Toronto was shown on Mid-Atlantic television, it seemed strange to me that Race had won by submission with an Indian deathlock. I had only ever seen our local hero Paul Jones win with that hold. In the wrestling magazines, it seemed the reports usually suggested Race typically won with various suplexes or his infamous flying headbutt from the top turnbuckle, resulting in wins by three-count pinfall. Why had Race instead gone for the submission for the win against Funk in Toronto?
The answer, it turned out, played out the night before in Florida.
The main event of the card in St. Petersburg on Saturday night was Terry Funk defending the NWA title against Dusty Rhodes. As the article above reports, Funk injured his knee in the match against
Rhodes, and "against his better judgement" went ahead with the scheduled
title defense against Race the next night in Toronto.
The rest, as they say, is history. Race knew what most fans didn't about the night before in the St,
Petertsburg Bayfront Arena. Funk was hurt, and Race
took advantage. He defeated Funk in 14:10 with an Indian death-lock to capture the gold belt. (I can still hear ring announcer Norm Kimber make the famous call.) It was a hold Race used infrequently (if ever?) and seemed almost out of place as it happened that night in Maple Leaf Gardens.
As the author of the article pointed out. Brisco's victory over Race in
St. Petersburg came three days too early. Race got the better of him in
Tampa this night to retain.
SAT FEB 5, 1977 - St. Petersburg, FL - NWA Champ Terry Funk injures his knee in a successful world title defense against Dusty Rhodes. On the same card, Jack Brisco defeats Harley Race.
SUN FEB 6, 1977 - Toronto, ON - Harley Race defeats Terry Funk to win the NWA World Title. Race deploys a rarely-used Indian deathlock to win the match, exploiting Funk's hurt knee from the night before in St. Petersburg.
TUE FEB 8, 1977 - Tampa, FL - New NWA Champion Harley Race defeats Jack Brisco to defend title, the result of the match written about in the article seen above.
The injury to Funk's knee in St. Petersburg gave Funk an excuse he could bandy about after his loss to Race in Toronto the next night.
The article also colors between the lines nicely, accurately reporting key dates in the NWA title history of Brisco and the Funk Brothers, and even including a reference to an NWA title change in the same building eight years earlier to the week.
It's just an all around amazing piece to be found in a newspaper, and one of my favorite clippings from the history of the NWA title changes during the domed-globe era. And for those curious, it explains one of the mysteries about the historic Toronto finish some fans may have had at the time.
Late update: See three pages from the Florida program "The Grapevine" for the Feb. 5 show in St. Petersburg that set the stage for Toronto. (Thanks@bobbynorton9115 on Twitter.)
Flair and Steamboat Travel to Florida for an Extra Payday During Crockett's Christmas Break by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway Special Thanks to Mark Eastridge
Mark Eastridge Collection
As I've written about before here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, I always loved when wrestlers with Crockett-area titles defended those belts in other territories. Specifically, the United States heavyweight championship and the NWA world tag team championships were occasionally defended outside the Mid-Atlantic territory in other areas such as Georgia, Florida, and Texas to name a few.
In December of 1977, just a few days before Christmas, Ricky Steamboat took the U.S. title to Championship Wrestling from Florida and successfully defended it in Miami Beach.
He didn't go alone. His top rival for the championship, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, was also booked for Eddie Graham's promotion the same night, but not as the challenger for Steamboat.
It was a bonus payday for both Flair and Steamboat, who were in the middle of what was Jim Crockett Promotions' annual Christmas break. Each year in those days, the Crockett promotion would shut down for two full weeks right before Christmas, returning to action for big shows on Christmas night.
Barry Rose Collection
In 1977, the last Crockett shows before the Christmas break were on Tuesday, December 13 at their regular Tuesday stops in Columbia, SC and Raleigh, NC. The next night, they taped multiple episodes of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Wide World Wrestling" at WRAL in Raleigh, including the annual year-end highlights shows, to get them through the next several weeks of TV while the company was down.
During the Crockett break, Steamboat and Flair took the opportunity to get themselves booked in Florida exactly one week later, on 12/21/77 at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.
Steamboat was the reigning U.S. champion at this time, having defeated Flair for the prestigious belt in Greensboro, NC in October. He defended the title that night in Miami against another Mid-Atlantic regular Bill White. It was an interesting match-up and was likely White's only shot ever at the U.S. championship. Steamboat was successful in that title defense.
Flair wrestled Rocky Johnson in the semi-main event of this card, which was headlined by a WWWF title match between reigning champion "Superstar" Billy Graham and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.
Also on the big card were Jack and Jerry Brisco, Bob Roop, Bob Orton, Jr., Buddy Roberts, Dutch Mantell and many others.
U.S. Champion Ricky Steamboat
in Miami Beach before his U.S. title defense
(plmathfoto@hotmail.com)
It was a homecoming of sorts for Steamboat. When he arrived in Florida in the spring of 1976 with only a few months experience under his belt, promoter Eddie Graham thought Richard Blood (his real name) looked so much like perennial Florida favorite Sam Steamboat, he gave him the name Ricky Steamboat. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Before returning to Miami as United States Champion, Steamboat's last match there had been a win over Jim Lancaster in the preliminaries on a card in July of 1976.
With Superstar Graham on the card in Miami to defend the WWWF title against Rhodes, and two of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's top stars supporting that card, it was one of the more unique cards to take place in Florida in those years.
Photographer and photo-collector Pete Lederberg owns the rights to photographs taken this very night in Miami Beach. The photos were originally shot by area photographer Brian Berkowitz. The title defense and those photographs are a cool little bit of history for Jim Crockett Promotions' U.S. championship.
Berkowitz's photo above of Steamboat with the U.S. title belt was featured full page in color in the book "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship", along with a few other photos licensed from Lederberg. See many other photos from this night (including match photos of Steamboat vs. White and Flair vs. Johnson) in Pete Lederberg's Facebook photo album: Miami 12/21/77.
Thanks to Mark Eastridge, Pete Lederberg, Carroll Hall, and Barry Rose for their contributions to this article.
Previously published September 26, 2016, and July 5, 2020 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Bob Geigel takes the NWA belt from the Midnight Rider when the outlaw from Colorado refused to unmask after pinning NWA World Champion Ric Flair.
by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway
This picture is yet another in our series of "Great Pretender" photographs (on the Domed Globe website) featuring wrestlers photographed with the NWA World Heavyweight championship belt, but who never held the title.
Well, except, this one is a bit of a cheat. The man under the mask is none other the American Dream Dusty Rhodes who did indeed hold the NWA title (including the domed globe version of the title twice) on three different occasions.
Or was it Rhodes? We may never know for sure.
I've got to run to keep from hiding And I'm bound to keep on riding And I've got one more silver dollar But I'm not gonna let them catch me, no Not gonna let 'em catch the Midnight Rider
The Midnight Rider pinned Ric Flair to apparently win the title on February 9, 1983 in Miami, Florida. But NWA President Bob Geigel, who served as special referee for the bout, ruled that the NWA would not recognize a masked wrestler as NWA champion without knowing their identity. If the Midnight Rider wanted to keep the NWA title belt and be recognized as champion, he must unmask.
This was a problem for the Midnight Rider.
You see, Dusty Rhodes had recently lost a loser-leaves-town match to Kevin Sullivan, and was barred from wrestling in the state of Florida for 60 days. If the Rider unmasked and proved to be Rhodes, he would be barred from wrestling under the NWA banner for a year. Stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place, Rider refused to unmask, and the NWA World heavyweight title was returned to Flair.
One of our favorite wrestling stories ever from the Florida territory, the entire story of the Midnight Rider (at least his first run) is told in great detail by Jason Tepper on the Kayfabe Memories website.
Originally posted December 14, 2018 on The Domed Globe website, part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway family of websites.
Flair and Steamboat Travel to Florida for an Extra Payday During Crockett's Christmas Break by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway Special Thanks to Mark Eastridge
Mark Eastridge Collection
As I've written about before here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, I always loved when wrestlers with Crockett-area titles defended those belts in other territories. Specifically, the United States heavyweight championship and the NWA world tag team championships were occasionally defended outside the Mid-Atlantic territory in other areas such as Georgia, Florida, and Texas to name a few.
In December of 1977, just a few days before Christmas, Ricky Steamboat took the U.S. title to Championship Wrestling from Florida and successfully defended it in Miami Beach.
He didn't go alone. His top rival for the championship, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, was also booked for Eddie Graham's promotion the same night, but not as the challenger for Steamboat.
It was a bonus payday for both Flair and Steamboat, who were in the middle of what was Jim Crockett Promotions' annual Christmas break. Each year in those days, the Crockett promotion would shut down for two full weeks right before Christmas, returning to action for big shows on Christmas night.
Barry Rose Collection
In 1977, the last Crockett shows before the Christmas break were on Tuesday, December 13 at their regular Tuesday stops in Columbia, SC and Raleigh, NC. The next night, they taped multiple episodes of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Wide World Wrestling" at WRAL in Raleigh, including the annual year-end highlights shows, to get them through the next several weeks of TV while the company was down.
During the Crockett break, Steamboat and Flair took the opportunity to get themselves booked in Florida exactly one week later, on 12/21/77 at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.
Steamboat was the reigning U.S. champion at this time, having defeated Flair for the prestigious belt in Greensboro, NC in October. He defended the title that night in Miami against another Mid-Atlantic regular Bill White. It was an interesting match-up and was likely White's only shot ever at the U.S. championship. Steamboat was successful in that title defense.
Flair wrestled Rocky Johnson in the semi-main event of this card, which was headlined by a WWWF title match between reigning champion "Superstar" Billy Graham and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.
Also on the big card were Jack and Jerry Brisco, Bob Roop, Bob Orton, Jr., Buddy Roberts, Dutch Mantell and many others.
U.S. Champion Ricky Steamboat
in Miami Beach before his U.S. title defense
(plmathfoto@hotmail.com)
It was a homecoming of sorts for Steamboat. When he arrived in Florida in the spring of 1976 with only a few months experience under his belt, promoter Eddie Graham thought Richard Blood (his real name) looked so much like perennial Florida favorite Sam Steamboat, he gave him the name Ricky Steamboat. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Before returning to Miami as United States Champion, Steamboat's last match there had been a win over Jim Lancaster in the preliminaries on a card in July of 1976.
With Superstar Graham on the card in Miami to defend the WWWF title against Rhodes, and two of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's top stars supporting that card, it was one of the more unique cards to take place in Florida in those years.
Photographer and photo-collector Pete Lederberg owns the rights to photographs taken this very night in Miami Beach. The photos were originally shot by area photographer Brian Berkowitz. The title defense and those photographs are a cool little bit of history for Jim Crockett Promotions' U.S. championship.
Berkowitz's photo above of Steamboat with the U.S. title belt was featured full page in color in the book "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship", along with a few other photos licensed from Lederberg. See many other photos from this night (including match photos of Steamboat vs. White and Flair vs. Johnson) in Pete Lederberg's Facebook photo album: Miami 12/21/77.
Thanks to Mark Eastridge, Pete Lederberg, Carroll Hall, and Barry Rose for their contributions to this article.
Previously published September 26, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway
During the first years of my hardcore fandom of pro wrestling, 1975-1976, there were four main singles stars in the Mid-Atlantic area. Those wrestlers were Wahoo McDaniel, Paul Jones, Ric Flair, and Blackjack Mulligan. This was my "A-list."
But there was another "A-list" I was fascinated by, too, and that was a group of four wrestlers that were atop the NWA's world championship picture during those years. That group included Jack Brisco, Terry Funk, Harley Race, and Dusty Rhodes.
During the mid-to-late 1970s, these were the guys that dominated the NWA coverage in the newsstand magazines. And even though Rhodes didn't win the NWA title until 1979 (and really
only seriously in 1981), he was always in the title picture, and the
darling of the magazines. He was also a special attraction in our area, especially in the 1970s, as much or more than the NWA champions.
I was always fascinated by how these four always were interconnected from a storyline and title-lineage perspective. I remember this first really dawned on me when our TV programs showed the tape of Harley Race beating Terry Funk for the NWA title in Toronto in 1977, and Whipper Billy Watson (a former NWA champion and Toronto legend doing commentary for the match) made the observation that not only was Race now a 2-time champion, but he had defeated both of the Funk brothers in doing so.
From that point forward, the Funk/Brisco/Race triangle (with Rhodes thrown in there causing trouble) was one of my favorite subjects to dwell on.
So it was with great pleasure that I recently came across this wonderful little article from the Tampa Tribune published two days after Race defeated Funk in that very match in Toronto, and promoting the matches later that night at the Hesterly Armory in Tampa. The article is un-credited, but whoever wrote it knew their stuff, and it was a delight reading how he sorted through all of the these connections I used to think about as a young teenage wrestling fan, and related them beautifully to the current events in Florida.
From the article in the Tampa Tribune, February 8, 1977, via Newspapers.com:
Race Regains NWA Title, Defends Against Brisco
Harley Race won the National Wrestling Alliance world heavyweight championship against Terry Funk in Toronto Sunday night and will defend the title against Jack Brisco tonight at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory.
As far as Brisco is concerned, their championship fight is three nights too late. Brisco beat Race Saturday night at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg.
The turn of events involving Funk, Race, Brisco and Dusty Rhodes make soap operas seem awfully dull.
Rhodes beat Funk in the featured title match Saturday night at the Bayfront, but Funk was disqualified for kayoing the referee and the title didn't change hands.
Funk, however, injured a knee in that match and against better judgment went ahead with his scheduled match with Race in Toronto Sunday night.
Race beat Funk in a quick 14 minutes, 10 seconds with an Indian death lock, which places pressure on the knee and ankle.
NWA rules require a new champion to fulfill the former champion's match commitments. Interestingly, this brings Race right back against Brisco on tonight's Gasparilla Championships starting at 8:30 at Hesterly.
Terry Funk defeated Brisco for the championship in Miami in December of 1975.
Race previously held the title by defeating Dory Funk Jr. - - Terry's brother - - in March of 1973 and Race lost it to Brisco the following July.
An interesting triangle.
And who does Rhodes, the popular "American Dream wrestle tonight at Hesterly? Dory Funk Jr.
So, tonight's intriguing lineup pits Race vs. Brisco and Rhodes vs. Funk -- one champion and two ex-champs in the top two bouts.
It was in the same Gasparilla week of 1969 that Dory Funk Jr., lifted the heavyweight championship from Gene Kiniski at Hesterly.
Race has been wrestling professionally for 17 years. He turned pro with the NWA at 16, the youngest wrestler ever to do so.
Race makes his home in Kansas City.
I learned another little NWA title history storyline nugget in this article, too. I never knew the bit about Terry Funk injuring his knee in St. Petersburg the night before the title change in Toronto. Maybe I'd read that before and just forgotten it, but it was a nice little twist to NWA title lore.
Flair and Steamboat Travel to Florida for an Extra Payday During Crockett's Christmas Break by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway Special Thanks to Mark Eastridge
Mark Eastridge Collection
As I've written about before here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, I always loved when wrestlers with Crockett-area titles defended those belts in other territories. Specifically, the United States heavyweight championship and the NWA world tag team championships were occasionally defended outside the Mid-Atlantic territory in other areas such as Georgia, Florida, and Texas to name a few.
In December of 1977, just a few days before Christmas, Ricky Steamboat took the U.S. title to Championship Wrestling from Florida and successfully defended it in Miami Beach.
He didn't go alone. His top rival for the championship, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, was also booked for Eddie Graham's promotion the same night, but not as the challenger for Steamboat.
It was a bonus payday for both Flair and Steamboat, who were in the middle of what was Jim Crockett Promotions' annual Christmas break. Each year in those days, the Crockett promotion would shut down for two full weeks right before Christmas, returning to action for big shows on Christmas night.
Barry Rose Collection
In 1977, the last Crockett shows before the Christmas break were on Tuesday, December 13 at their regular Tuesday stops in Columbia, SC and Raleigh, NC. The next night, they taped multiple episodes of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Wide World Wrestling" at WRAL in Raleigh, including the annual year-end highlights shows, to get them through the next several weeks of TV while the company was down.
During the Crockett break, Steamboat and Flair took the opportunity to get themselves booked in Florida exactly one week later, on 12/21/77 at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.
Steamboat was the reigning U.S. champion at this time, having defeated Flair for the prestigious belt in Greensboro, NC in October. He defended the title that night in Miami against another Mid-Atlantic regular Bill White. It was an interesting match-up and was likely White's only shot ever at the U.S. championship. Steamboat was successful in that title defense.
Flair wrestled Rocky Johnson in the semi-main event of this card, which was headlined by a WWWF title match between reigning champion "Superstar" Billy Graham and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.
Also on the big card were Jack and Jerry Brisco, Bob Roop, Bob Orton, Jr., Buddy Roberts, Dutch Mantell and many others.
U.S. Champion Ricky Steamboat in Miami Beach before his U.S. title defense (plmathfoto@hotmail.com)
It was a homecoming of sorts for Steamboat. When he arrived in Florida in the spring of 1976 with only a few months experience under his belt, promoter Eddie Graham thought Richard Blood (his real name) looked so much like perennial Florida favorite Sam Steamboat, he gave him the name Ricky Steamboat. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Before returning to Miami as United States Champion, Steamboat's last match there had been a win over Jim Lancaster in the preliminaries on a card in July of 1976.
With Superstar Graham on the card in Miami to defend the WWWF title against Rhodes, and two of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's top stars supporting that card, it was one of the more unique cards to take place in Florida in those years.
Photographer and photo-collector Pete Lederberg owns the rights to photographs taken this very night in Miami Beach. The photos were originally shot by area photographer Brian Berkowitz. The title defense and those photographs are a cool little bit of history for Jim Crockett Promotions' U.S. championship.
Berkowitz's photo above of Steamboat with the U.S. title belt was featured full page in color in the book "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship", along with a few other photos licensed from Lederberg. See many other photos from this night (including match photos of Steamboat vs. White and Flair vs. Johnson) in Pete Lederberg's Facebook photo album: Miami 12/21/77.
Thanks to Mark Eastridge, Pete Lederberg, Carroll Hall, and Barry Rose for their contributions to this article.
The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament PART EIGHT 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.
PLANS UNFULFILLED
Now that we have completed a review of all six city tournaments that actually took place in the NWA World Tag Team tournament in the late winter and early spring of 1982 (links above), it's time to take a look at some of the cities where tournaments were initially planned but, for various reasons, never took place.
When the tournament concept was originally conceived by booker Ole Anderson and Jim Crockett Promotions, the thought was that they would have several tournaments outside of the traditional Mid-Atlantic territory in other areas where they had promotional ties and good relationships.
I talked with Ole Anderson twice about these tournaments, once in 2008 (with mutual friend Peggy Lathan visiting Ole and Paul Jones outside Atlanta) and again in 2011 (at the NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Atlanta.) Based on those conversations, here is where I believe those tournaments were to have taken place.
TORONTO: Maple Leaf Wrestling
There is little doubt that the original plan was to have a tournament in Toronto, Ontario in Canada for Frank Tunney's "Maple Leaf Wrestling" promotion. Toronto was frequently mentioned by Sandy Scott during his early appearances pumping up the tournament as a whole. The Crockett's had been booking talent into Toronto for Tunney since 1978. But that Toronto tournament never came together.
"I can tell you that it was one of the biggest disappointments that it never happened here," Andrew Calvert told me via email. Andrew publishes the excellent Maple Leaf Wrestling history website and was a fan attending matches regularly in Toronto at that time. "There were rumors on Wood Street, the street behind Maple Leaf Gardens where all the fans congregated, that it would happen here."
Mosca and Khan teamed in the U.S. but likely would not have teamed
in Toronto. Mosca was a very popular Canadian champion.
__________________________________
Andrew pointed out that there was a Cadillac tournament scheduled for Toronto on January 31, just before the tag tournaments began in earnest in the Mid-Atlantic area, but it was cancelled due to a huge snowstorm. "We figured we might have gotten the tag tournament instead," he said.
But it never happened.
"It would have been a natural, as times were good here then," Andrew continued, "and Tunney had been praised over the years for having 'popularized tag team wrestling in North America.' We had Adonis and Ventura here, too, for their only appearance as a tag team on January 17, 1982 and they were a huge hit." Adrian Adonis and Jessie Ventura were constantly mentioned on Mid-Atlantic TV as possibly entering several tournaments, and did participate in the Greensboro show.
One of the key wrestlers discussed for the tournament early on during
Mid-Atlantic TV broadcasts was Angelo Mosca, who was Canadian Heavyweight champion at the time and one of top stars in
Toronto. Who his partner for a tournament in Toronto would have been, had one been held
there, isn't exactly clear. His partner in the United States was Killer Khan. They wrestled as a team on Mid-Atlantic TV and were in the finals in Charlotte. But Mosca was "good guy" at the time in Toronto and Khan decidedly was not. We'll never know, as a Toronto tournament regrettably never took place.
KNOXVILLE NWA Southern Championship Wrestling
In 1981, a group of partners affiliated with Jim Crockett promotions bought the Knoxville territory, which ran towns in east Tennessee, southwest Virginia and West Virginia. Blackjack Mulligan was the primary partner, running the territory as a way to help season the skills of his son Barry Windham, who was wrestling as Blackjack Mulligan, Jr. at that time. Along with local Knoxville area talent, Mulligan booked a number of wrestlers regularly from Jim Crockett Promotions including John Studd, Jay Youngblood, Terry Taylor, and Johnny Weaver, Weaver helped Mulligan book the territory.
Blackjack Mulligan Sr. and Jr. would have surely been a
favorite if a tournament had been held in Knoxville.
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Ole Anderson said plans were definitely to have a tournament in Knoxville, but they never could work out the schedule to get enough teams there to get it done, and Knoxville was just about too small a territory at that time to have an 8-team tournament on its own. Time passed, there was no urgency, and it just never happened.
Mulligan Sr. and Jr. appeared for both the Knoxville group and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling during this time. Their only tournament appearance was in Charlotte.
COLUMBUS/MACON Georgia Championship Wrestling/Fred Ward Promotions
Ole also told us that plans were to have a second tournament in Georgia in addition to the huge tournament held at the Omni in Atlanta. Promoter Fred Ward, who ran Columbus, Albany, and Macon, was to have hosted the second tournament in one of his towns, but for any number of reasons, it just never happened.
THE SUNSHINE STATE Championship Wrestling from Florida
When the idea of the tournament was first conceived, Florida was in on the action and Florida promoter Eddie Graham was chosen as the figurehead tournament director, and introduced the tournament in a special video recorded on the set of "Championship Wrestling from Florida" with Gordon Solie. The video was seen both on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Georgia Championship Wrestling."
The Bayfront Arena in St. Petersburg hosted a tournament that was part of a big "Bayfront Spectacular" show. Ole Anderson confirmed there was to be at least one other tournament in Florida, perhaps more, but had no idea where. JCP was willing to send talent, but all of that was left up to Eddie Graham. St. Petersburg wound up being the final city tournament all together, and the only tournament to take place in Florida.
THE PALMETTO STATE Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Certainly there had to have been thoughts of having more tournaments in the Mid-Atlantic area, which only had four total. North Carolina got three tournaments (Greensboro, Charlotte, and Fayetteville) and Virginia got one (Richmond) but the third big state in the Mid-Atlantic territory, South Carolina, did not have one city with a tournament. It's hard to believe that one of the regular towns there (such as Greenville, Spartanburg, Charleston, or Columbia) weren't figured in the plans when the idea of the tournament was first conceived. But for whatever the reasons, there regrettably wasn't one in the Palmetto State.
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Coming Up in PART NINE:
A look at the fictional tournaments that were created as part of the larger tournament story, including the entire Western Division tournament which had its mythical finals in the state of Hawaii. And as part of that story, it would eventually be a "beach bum" wrestler from Hawaii that would throw a huge wrench in the works as the tournament neared its conclusion.
The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament PART SEVEN 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.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA Date: March 27, 1982 Venue: The Bayfront Center
St. Petersburg, FL, would prove to be the sixth and final event in the series of tournaments for the vacant NWA World Tag Team championship conducted during the late winter and spring of 1982. Whether or not that was the original plan we may never know. (We will speculate on that in Part Eight of this series coming soon.)
The Florida territory played a role in the tournament from the very beginning. Eddie Graham, the former president of the National Wrestling Alliance and promoter in the state of Florida, was serving as Tournament Committee Chairman and had been seen on a special tape sent from Florida to the Mid-Atlantic area back in late January when the tournament was first announced.
This wound up being Florida's only tournament, although it is thought that when the idea of the tournament was conceived that there would at least be one other tournament held in Florida. But it never happened.
This tournament was unique in that it was just one part of a much larger special show in St. Petersburg called "The Bayfront Spectacular" that also featured an NWA World title defense by Ric Flair. There was a large display board shown on Florida television (seen in the graphic above) which included the main event matches and bracketing for the tournament. Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen, winners of two previous tournaments in Greensboro and Atlanta, sent in a tape from Georgia promoting their appearance in St. Petersburg. I particularly like Stan's reaction when Ole quizzed him about their possible tournament opponents:
Ole: "Can the Briscos beat you?" Stan: "No!"
Ole: "Can the Funks beat you?" Stan: "Who?"
Ole: "How about the Von Erich brothers from Texas?" Stan: "Never heard of 'em!"
Special tournament update segments were hosted by Barbara Clary in the weeks leading up to the event. One of those is seen in the video above. The tournament only featured five teams, with one team getting an early bye. But the limited line-up was still one of the most colorful of all the tournaments and featured three different brother combinations.
The five teams in St. Petersburg were:
Jack and Jerry Brisco
Steve Keirn and Mike Graham
David and Kerry Von Erich
Dory and Terry Funk
Ole Anderson and Stan
A closer look at each team:
JACK AND JERRY BRISCO
The Briscos had been regulars in Florida for many years, and had been an active team up until early March of that year (1982) when Jack entered the Mid-Atlantic territory on a full time basis as a singles competitor. The Brisco brothers had most recently been North American Tag Team champions in Florida, losing the titles three weeks before this tournament to Dory Funk, Jr. and David Von Erich. The team came into St. Pete with a tournament win already under their belt, having won in Charlotte back on February 14. They had competed in Richmond, Atlanta, and Fayetteville as well.
STEVE KEIRN AND MIKE GRAHAM
Considered the "hometown team" in this tournament, Steve Keirn and Mike Graham had a storied championship history as a tag team in Florida. They held various tag team championships from 1977-1981 including the Florida, United States, and North American Tag Team titles. Keirn was a regular in the Memphis territory at this time, and would soon be forming one of the most famous and successful tag teams of the 1980s, the Fabulous Ones (with Stan Lane.) So it was a bit of a homecoming for him to return and team with Mike Graham in Florida, the territory where Keirn had had so much success in the 1970s both as a singles and tag team competitor.
DAVID AND KERRY VON ERICH
Behind the scenes, Fritz Von Erich had sent his son David to Florida to gain experience working as a "bad guy" in hopes of helping to prepare him for a possible run as NWA World champion down the road. David was considered a top candidate for that role by the various promoters in the NWA, including the kingmaker Sam Muchnick. He was being mentored by former NWA World champion Dory Funk, Jr., and the two had recently defeated the Briscos for the North American Title. But for this tournament, David brought in his brother Kerry from their home territory of World Class Wrestling in Dallas. It was a rare opportunity for Kerry to work "heel" as well.
DORY AND TERRY FUNK
The Funk brothers were familiar faces in Florida, both having spent a great deal of time there, and Terry actually having won the NWA World title in Miami Beach from Jack Brisco in 1975. The rivalry between the Funks and the Briscos went way back to the 1960s, and the two brother teams had feuded over the North American titles as recently as two months before this tournament in St. Pete. As mentioned above, Dory was tag champs with David Von Erich at the time of the tournament, but chose his younger brother as his partner for this chance at advancing in the World Tag Team tournament. They had also competed together in the tournament in Atlanta on 2/28.
OLE ANDERSON AND STAN HANSEN
No team seemingly wanted those World Tag Team title belts more than Anderson and Hansen, having ponied up the $1000 entry fee for all five of the previous tournaments and having walked away with victories in two of them - - Greensboro and Atlanta. That night in St. Pete they were considered the "outside team," coming in from Georgia Championship Wrestling.
TOURNAMENT BRACKETING & RESULTS
You will notice in the video embedded above that Barbara Clary mentions it is possible that the Funk
Brothers could face the Von Erich Brothers in the tournament, which
presented a possible interesting plot twist, since Dory Funk and David
Von Erich were reigning North American Tag Team champions at the time. But it didn't happen. graham and Keirn eliminated the Von Erichs in the opening round. The Funk brothers received a bye to the second round.
The tournament wound up only having three matches. In the first of two opening round matches, the Briscos and Anderson/Hansen were both eliminated with a double disqualification. The winner of that match was to get a bye to the finals, but with the double DQ, both were eliminated from the tournament.
In the second opening round match, Graham and Keirn defeated David and Kerry Von Erich, avoiding the potential Funk/Von Erich clash.
With the earlier double disqualification of the Briscos and Hansen/Anderson, the match between Graham/Keirn and the Funks became the de facto championship match.
TOURNAMENT WINNERS: In what may have appeared to be an upset to an outsider looking in, but wasn't a surprise at all to fans in Florida, Steve Keirn and Mike Graham won the tournament with victories over two brother combinations: the Von Erichs and the Funks.
In a little side story told by Eddie Graham in a taped update segment from Florida shown on Mid-Atlantic television the week after the St. Petersburg tournament, Graham thanked promoter Fred Ward (promoter in Columbus, GA) for taking over as active Mat Chairman for the night of the tournament his son Mike was involved in. Graham, who was the Committee Chairman for the tournament at large, said he wanted to avoid any conflict of interest, and was pleased that Mike and Steve Keirn had won in St. Pete and had the highest hopes for their success moving forward.
Tournament Notes and Trivia:
There were three brother combinations in the tournament: the Briscos, Funks, and Von Erichs.
At the time of this tournament, Dory Funk Jr. and David Von Erich were North American Tag Team champions in Florida, but each teamed with their brother in the tournament.
Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen finished out their streak as being the only team to compete in all six city tournaments.
Florida was the fourth state to host a tournament, along with Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina.
This was the final actual tournament ultimately held before the Eastern Division Finals, although there were some fictitious tournaments that played into the finals which will be discussed later.
Mike Graham and Steve Keirn, winners of the St. Petersburg tournament.
Coming Up in PART EIGHT:
With the city tournaments that actually took place concluded, Ole Anderson helps us take a look at the tournaments that were reportedly planned but did not take place. Ole was booking both the Georgia and Mid-Atlantic territories during this time, and was the person who initially conceived of the tournament.
After that, stay tuned for details on the Eastern Division finals, Western Division winners, and the final story on how it all fell apart at the end.
I've always enjoyed the various wrestler artwork that appeared in
various ads for wrestling around the country. I've decided to display
some examples of those from time to time here on the Gateway.
Here is one of my favorites. The Orlando, Florida ads in the 1970s featured this unique, eye-cathcing design at the top of a vertical newspaper ad. It features one wrestler applying a top wrist lock to another.
Here also, I've kept the main event, the definitive feud of the 1970s - - Dory Funk, Jr. vs. Jack Brisco. In this case, its August 10, 1970 and Funk is defending the NWA title.
Special thanks to Mark Eastridge for access to his unmatched collection of wrestling clippings from all over the country going back decades. I look forward to sharing more Wrestle Art in future posts.
Blackjack Recognizable
by Jimmy Nasella
Assistant State Sports Editor, Tampa Tribune
July 24, 1987
TAMPA - He's big, no. make that gargantuan, by the normal-sized person's standards. and recognizable throughout the country.
A pair of factors that can go a long way In keeping one going for 20 years in pro wrestling They also go a long way In letting a guy move around to keep himself, and the fans, from becoming stale. The proof Is in Black Jack Mulligan.
Mulligan, 6-foot-7, 325 pounds will lug his mass into the ring again tonight as part Of the National Wrestling Alliances Great American Bash at the St. Petersburg Bayfront Center.
Being part of the month-long event (the Bash's are winding down a tour of 13 Florida dates) Is but another benefit of Mulligan's longevity.
He recently returned from a stint In the World Wrestling Federation, a journey afforded because Mulligan's longevity makes him one of few in the business who can go from place to place with little problem.
"I'm one of the old-timers who can do it," Mulligan said In a telephone interview from his small ranch situated between Lakeland and Plant City. "It's the result of a long-term investment in the business."
In other words, he has come a long way since his first match on a hot summer day in San Antonio.
It's an even longer way from childhood in Sweetwater, Texas, when he and neighborhood kids would wrestle after watching shows (he liked the bad guys) from Chicago and Fort Worth. "I knew early on what I wanted to do." he said. "I wanted to be a football player first (he was with Denver and the New York Jets before a leg injury forced retirement in 1970) and a wrestler second. Never thought I'd get to do it, but ..."
He began wrestling in junior high school and played football at Odessa High (under Iowa coach Hayden Fry) and college ball at Texas-El Paso (under Bum Phillips). Through it all, however, pro wrestling kept nagging in the back of his mind. "In college we would stage our own matches," he recalled. It was setting the stage, although he didn't know it at the time, for the real thing The real thing, however, didn't seem to be all Mulligan had cracked it up to be when his chance to get in the ring came in San Antonio.
"I'll never forget it." he said between coughs through the phone line, "It was 110 degrees in the mite of the summer. I was against Joltin' Joe Blanchard who had been an All-American at Kansas and an All-Pro in the Canadian Football League. It was horrible — it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I thought that there must be an easier way to make a living."
Since then Mulligan has been to nearly every country in the world, outside the Iron Curtain. He has made a nice living with his Polk County place and another home in Texas. He has done television commercials and has gone from wrestling nine times a week to "about 10 a month." Yes, he says, he has lost a step or two over the years, but it's still fun and he's not ready to retire.
And, since then, Mulligan has seen it all In the ring — including his current plight. Ironically. as Ironies go in pro wres-tling tonight he is teamed with one of his formerly most-hated rivals, Kevin Sullivan as they go against Dory Funk Jr. and Sir Oliver Humperdink in a barbed-wire cage match.
"He's a most unusual partner," Mulligan understated. "We have had combat and he is both a worthy opponent and worthy partner. I'm still not sure I trust the dirty rat — I think he may be connin' me. I keep one eye on Kevin and one on the opposition."
In other matches tonight: Ed Gantner and Bugsy McGraw take on the Sheepherders; Mike Rotunda faces the Black Assassin: Ron Simmons, Scott Hall and Jimmy Valient meet The Raging Bull, Ivan Koloff and Vladimir Petrov; Ronnie Garvin takes on Inkubus, Jim Backlund and Jerry Grey team to meet the Cuban Connection; Lazortron faces Nelson Royal, and the Mulkey Brothers meet Luis Astia and Rick Ryder.
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Thanks to Mark Eastridge for sending the newspaper article on Blackjack Mulligan. Transcription courtesy of Online OCR.
This is a great looking ad from "Championship Wrestling from Florida" featuring NWA Champion Jack Brisco and "the ten pounds of gold."
What a loaded 10-match card! Not only was Jack defending the title against Terry Funk, but two former world champs were also meeting in the semi-final as Terry's brother Dory Funk, Jr. met Harley Race. Plus Eddie Graham, Jim ("J.J.") Dillon, Johnny Weaver, and others.
The card was held at the beautiful Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida on April 19, 1975. The Bayfront, for my money, was one of the most beautiful arenas in wrestling, sitting by the water, it is just about as perfect a setting of any venue in Florida.
We love the old newspaper ads and this one features all the components of a perfect promo ad: a cool looking marquee header, the old traditional NWA logo, old-school wrestler-artwork, great photo of the champ and his belt, all in a well designed package. Belltime 8:30!!
This ad was first featured on our sister-website, The Domed Globe. This article previously posted on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Flair and Steamboat Travel to Florida for an Extra Payday During Crockett's Christmas Break by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway Special Thanks to Mark Eastridge
Mark Eastridge Collection
As I've written about before here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, I always loved when wrestlers with Crockett-area titles defended those belts in other territories. Specifically, the United States heavyweight championship and the NWA world tag team championships were occasionally defended outside the Mid-Atlantic territory in other areas such as Georgia, Florida, and Texas to name a few.
In December of 1977, just a few days before Christmas, Ricky Steamboat took the U.S. title to Championship Wrestling from Florida and successfully defended it in Miami Beach.
He didn't go alone. His top rival for the championship, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, was also booked for Eddie Graham's promotion the same night, but not as the challenger for Steamboat.
It was a bonus payday for both Flair and Steamboat, who were in the middle of what was Jim Crockett Promotions' annual Christmas break. Each year in those days, the Crockett promotion would shut down for two full weeks right before Christmas, returning to action for big shows on Christmas night.
Barry Rose Collection
In 1977, the last Crockett shows before the Christmas break were on Tuesday, December 13 at their regular Tuesday stops in Columbia, SC and Raleigh, NC. The next night, they taped multiple episodes of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Wide World Wrestling" at WRAL in Raleigh, including the annual year-end highlights shows, to get them through the next several weeks of TV while the company was down.
During the Crockett break, Steamboat and Flair took the opportunity to get themselves booked in Florida exactly one week later, on 12/21/77 at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.
Steamboat was the reigning U.S. champion at this time, having defeated Flair for the prestigious belt in Greensboro, NC in October. He defended the title that night in Miami against another Mid-Atlantic regular Bill White. It was an interesting match-up and was likely White's only shot ever at the U.S. championship. Steamboat was successful in that title defense.
Flair wrestled Rocky Johnson in the semi-main event of this card, which was headlined by a WWWF title match between reigning champion "Superstar" Billy Graham and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.
Also on the big card were Jack and Jerry Brisco, Bob Roop, Bob Orton, Jr., Buddy Roberts, Dutch Mantell and many others.
U.S. Champion Ricky Steamboat
in Miami Beach before his U.S. title defense
(plmathfoto@hotmail.com)
It was a homecoming of sorts for Steamboat. When he arrived in Florida in the spring of 1976 with only a few months experience under his belt, promoter Eddie Graham thought Richard Blood (his real name) looked so much like perennial Florida favorite Sam Steamboat, he gave him the name Ricky Steamboat. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Before returning to Miami as United States Champion, Steamboat's last match there had been a win over Jim Lancaster in the preliminaries on a card in July of 1976.
With Superstar Graham on the card in Miami to defend the WWWF title against Rhodes, and two of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's top stars supporting that card, it was one of the more unique cards to take place in Florida in those years.
Photographer and photo-collector Pete Lederberg owns the rights to photographs taken this very night in Miami Beach. The photos were originally shot by area photographer Brian Berkowitz. The title defense and those photographs are a cool little bit of history for Jim Crockett Promotions' U.S. championship.
Berkowitz's photo above of Steamboat with the U.S. title belt was featured full page in color in the book "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship", along with a few other photos licensed from Lederberg. See many other photos from this night (including match photos of Steamboat vs. White and Flair vs. Johnson) in Pete Lederberg's Facebook photo album: Miami 12/21/77.
Thanks to Mark Eastridge, Pete Lederberg, Carroll Hall, and Barry Rose for their contributions to this article.
