Georgia Championship Wrestling - November 14, 1981
by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Back in the territory days, Saturday was the primary (and often the only) day for wrestling in every territory in the United States.
YouTube user "KrisZ891979" uploaded some great Georgia wrestling from 1980 and 1981awhile back, including some complete shows from the fall of 1981 like this pristine video of the entire November 14, 1981 program that aired at 6:05 on WTBS.
Reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Roddy Piper had joined Gordon Solie as co-host of the program two weeks earlier, and the two became quite a broadcast combination over the next year. Piper was the perfect cocky-heel counter to Solie's dry, straight-forward approach and the two meshed really well in an unconventional way, especially for those times.
PART NINE
Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at the time, and one result was a sharing of talent between the two groups. In particular on this program:
Mid-Atlantic Champion Roddy Piper, who is never acknowledged as such by Solie or Piper, but is acknowledged by Ivan Koloff as Mid-Atlantic champ in an interview on the program
NWA TV champion Ivan Koloff, carrying his championship belt and announcing his intention in defending the title in Georgia. (The title was a Crockett title)
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions Chris Markoff and Nikolia Volkoff (managed by Lord Alfred Hayes) are seen on the program in a tape from the Knoxville "NWA Championship Wrestling" program hosted by Les Thatcher. The team would be wrestling in the annual Thanksgiving tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta a few weeks later. The Knoxville office was closely affiliated with Jim Crockett Promotions at the time and used a number of pieces of talent from the Charlotte office.
Ray Stevens, currently a top heel for the Crocketts and an occasional tag team partner of Ole Anderson's
and of course Ole Anderson himself, who along with his brother Gene, were the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions, primarily a Crockett area title.
That made for a total four Crockett Promotions champions appearing in one way or another on this Georgia program. Throw in Mid-Atlantic star Ric Flair, who had just recently won the NWA World Championship from Dusty Rhodes, and it's fair to say their was more than a small Mid-Atlantic influence on the Georgia promotion at the time. Flair is not on this program, but had been on almost every Georgia show since winning the title, and would be on the week following this one as well.
This Georgia show is loaded with a lot of great talent that were hallmarks of the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion at the time including Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar, Bob and Brad Armstrong, Austin Idol, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Mike Jackson, and others.
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was and always will be my first love, but Georgia Wrestling during this time was on fire, and was a fun part of every Saturday as well.
Edited from a post originally published October 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Time to take a look back at Georgia wrestling in 1982 and a match between a Mid-Atlantic superstar and a young kid who would one day become a superstar himself.
It
was the first Georgia wrestling show of 1982, and current Mid-Atlantic star Paul Jones
was making the second of two guest shots on "Georgia Championship
Wrestling" for booker Ole Anderson, who was booking both the Georgia and
Mid-Atlantic territories at that time.
What is more notable from a historical perspective about Jones's appearance, however, was his opponent on this show. His name was Jim Vertaroso and host Gordon Solie billed him as a power-lifting champion out of Rome, GA. What you will see is a big guy who is pretty green in the ring, but shows great promise. The longer you watch though, you will notice that the young man in the ring with Paul Jones is the future Arn Anderson. (Arn's appearance is at 12:54 in this video.)
We believe this was the week after Arn's television debut and may have been his first singles match. (Edit: Arn mentions on the debut episode of his podcast "ARN" that his recollection was his first appearance on Georgia TV was in a tag team match with partner Zeke Rivers against Bob and Brad Armstrong which aired 12/26/81.)
Virtaroso (and we're assuming that's how he would spell it) would later wrestle under his real name Marty Lunde in Southeastern, Mid-South, and Georgia, before Ole Anderson gave him the name Arn Anderson when he came back to work for him in Georgia in 1983.
Arn's look here in early 1982 is quite different as he is much heavier and with that big '70s looking mustache. In fact, he looks a lot like his son brock now who is learning the ropes in AEW. Who knew watching this show just after the New Year's celebrations were over that they were seeing a future superstar and Hall of Famer in action against "No. 1" Paul Jones.
The match with Paul Jones vs. Jim Virtaroso (Arn Anderson) is at 12:54 in this video.
The show features co-host Roddy Piper with Gordon Solie, and also includes The Masked Superstar and the Super Destroyer, Dick Slater, Stan Hansen, Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk, Tommy Rich, Buzz Sawyer, Mike Jackson, and many others.
Plus, fellow belt-enthusiasts will enjoy the presentation of new National tag team title belts to reigning champions Bob and Brad Armstrong at the opening of the show.
Edited from a post originally published October of 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Thanks to Kyle Rosser for additional information.
On May 17, 1981 at the Omni in Atlanta, there was a one-night tournament for the vacated Georgia Heavyweight Championship. Ten men were entered in the tournament, including a couple of guys advertised as coming in from outside the territory to compete including Bruiser Brody and Greg Valentine.
Brody no-showed (or perhaps was never really going to appear to begin with, who knows) but Valentine came in from the Mid-Atlantic area and went all the way to the finals, defeating Mr. Wrestling II in the quarter finals and Iron Mike Sharpe in the semi-finals before losing to "Wildfire" Tommy Rich in the finals.
Prior to the tournament, Greg Valentine sent in a taped interview from Raleigh to promote his appearance in the tournament. The interview was conducted by Rich Landrum (host of "World Wide Wrestling") in the studios of WRAL TV.
The video below, which is the final seven minutes of the Georgia TV show leading up to that big Omni card, contains the Greg Valentine promo plus another tape from the Mid-Atlantic area featuring the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions Gene and Ole Anderson.
(No idea why the person who posted this clip labeled it from "WGHP-TV High Point Fox 8..." because the clip has nothing to do with any of that.)
GENERAL NOTES
The match with the Anderson Brothers from WRAL is from the summer of 1981 and is from "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" with Bob Caudle and Lord Alfred Hayes calling the action.
Tommy Rich was wrestling in that tournament with a $10,000 bounty on his head, allegedly placed there by NWA World Champion Harley Race, who was trying to avoid having to face Rich for the NWA title. Greg Valentine mentions being interested in collecting the bounty in his promo, but was apparently unable to do so as Rich defeated him in the tournament finals to win the Georgia title and then went on to challenge Race for the NWA title at the next show at the Omni on 5/31/81. Race would successfully defend against Rich on 5/31, but then lost the NWA world title to Dusty Rhodes on the following Omni show on 6/21/81.
If you look closely, you will see part of the Georgia championship belt extending off the front of Gordon Solie's podium.
In a Studio Wrestling note, the backdrop you see in the Valentine interview (as seen in the image at top) was the Mid-Atlantic set used from 1975-1977 and is my favorite of all the old sets, mainly because it was first one I really remember and was used during the years I first really loved wrestling.
This Georgia Championship Wrestling show featured two other Mid-Atlantic clips not seen in the video above. The first featured a match between Greg Valentine and Steve Muslin from 1980 on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." The second was a promotional interview similar to Greg Valentine's with Rich Landrum interviewing "The Dream." (I hope to present those in a future post.)
GEORGIA TOURNAMENT NOTES
Gordon Solie promoted the tournament as a round-robin tournament, although it was not competed in such a fashion. There were 10 men announced as appearing in the tournament: Dusty Rhodes, Iron Mike Sharpe, Mr. Wrestling II, Tommy Rich, Ray Candy, Bruiser Brody, Greg Valentine, Ken Patera, Mike Boyer, and Bill Irwin. Brody and Boyer diod not appear, but Nickolia Volkoff and Jim Duggan replaced them.
From the tournament results posted on The History of the WWE website, it appears that 2 of the 10 (Rhodes and Volkoff) received byes, but I've been unable to figure out the elimination brackets from these results. But they are listed as:
Quarter Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Bill Irwin
Quarter Finals: Ken Patera defeated Ray Candy
Quarter Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Mr. Wrestling #2
Quarter Finals: Iron Mike Sharpe defeated Jim Duggan
Semi Finals: Ken Patera fought Dusty Rhodes to a no contest
Semi Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Nikolai Volkoff
Semi Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Iron Mike Sharpe
Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Greg Valentine to win the title
Originally posted November 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
The recent spate of excellent quality uploads of old "Georgia Championship Wrestling" shows on YouTube had me fondly remembering Roddy Piper's one-year stint in Georgia and particularly his early feud with "Bullet" Bob Armstrong.
In the fall of 1981, Ole Anderson became booker for both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories, something pretty unheard of in that time. One result of his having that dual responsibility was the cross-over of talent between the two promotions. This was yet another chapter in the long history of what I have dubbed the "talent exchange" or partnership between the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories that went back to the mid-1970s.
Gordon Solie and Roddy Piper, hosts of
"Georgia Championship Wrestling" on SuperStation WTBS
One of the most visible examples of this was Roddy Piper becoming the co-host of "Georgia Championship Wrestling" alongside Gordon Solie in late October of 1981. Piper proved to be the perfect bombastic and colorful compliment to Solie's rather dry style of calling matches. It's not clear what Solie must have first thought of Piper when he debuted alongside him on WTBS on Halloween evening of 1981, but after a few weeks he warmed up to him pretty quickly as there was great chemistry between the two and they became one of the top pro wrestling broadcasting duos in the country with broad exposure on the nationally televised Georgia program.
Piper was such a hit in the color commentary role that Ole Anderson also paired him with Bob Caudle on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" a few months later. Piper was perhaps the only wrestler to ever be a color commentator on two top shows for two different promotions at the same time. It was this experience that would first get him noticed in that role and would later serve as a foundation for the groundbreaking "Piper's Pit" segments on WWF television shows in 1984.
Bob and Brad Armstrong
Along with his commentary duties in Georgia, Piper also would occasionally conduct interviews. In his first few months, he seemed particularly enamored of the father and son combination of Bob and Brad Armstrong, and his passive-aggressive confrontations with the two eventually led to fireworks between Piper and Bob Armstrong.
For several weeks in a row, Piper would interview the Armstrongs at ringside, complimenting the tag team prowess of the team, but also questioning their strategies and execution. He even went so far as to get personal with Bob, suggesting he was perhaps a bad father for occasionally letting his son take a beating in a match.
Bob, for his part, handled all of this masterfully in the slow build to the inevitable explosion with Piper, at first just just acting mildly annoyed at Piper's antics, usually brushing him off or ending the interviews before Piper was ready to end them, leaving the rowdy Scot occasionally flummoxed and at a loss for words.
Bob Armstrong was the perfect foil for Piper, aptly able to hold his own in a verbal joust with him, using his popular southern wit to confound the west coast bullying and arrogance of Piper. Armstrong was now looked at as one of the wise old veterans in the territory by the fans, and fans enjoyed watching Armstrong put Piper in his place over those early weeks.
But Piper was relentless. And as he turned the volume up on his criticism of the Armstrongs, it began to get under Bob Armstrong's skin. However, the two never touched for nearly three months.
That wild melee led to an actual match between the two at the Omni on Sunday, February 7. It was Piper's long awaited first match in Georgia and part of a big night at the Omni which included National Heavyweight Champion Tommy "Wildfire" Rich defend that title against former NWA world champion Harley Race.
There are different accounts as to the result of the February match. Most reports say it was a double DQ or a no-contest finish. The match would actually serve as a springboard to a progression of matches Piper would have over the next few months at the Omni, moving from one challenge up to the next. Following Armstrong, there was Tommy Rich and then Dick Slater. Others opponents down the line in 1982 for Piper included Dusty Rhodes, Ole Anderson, and Don Muraco.
Even though Piper moved on to other opponents in Atlanta, his feud with Bob Armstrong would continue outside the territory. Piper's only real role in Georgia was doing TV's with Gordon Solie on Saturday mornings, and matches on the Omni cards every three weeks or so. He didn't wrestle often on the house show circuit in Georgia because he was a full-time wrestler for Jim Crockett Promotions, and was actually booked out to Atlanta through the Charlotte Crockett office. In fact, through much of this time period Piper was Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion, feuding first with Ricky Steamboat and then with Jack Brisco over that title belt.
THE PIPER/ARMSTRONG FEUD MOVES TO THE MID-ATLANTIC TERRITORY
Their feud was a quite unusual because it began in Georgia, but was largely carried out in the Mid-Atlantic territory, even though Armstrong never appeared in person on Mid-Atlantic television. The feud had incubated every Saturday on WTBS for nearly three months (November 1981 - January 1982) without the two ever touching.
Then soon after that one Atlanta match on 2/7/82, things moved directly to the Mid-Atlantic territory, where Piper was the reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. But other than isolated matches in Norfolk and Greensboro, their war took place entirely in the city of Greenville, SC on Monday nights.
Over a two month period, beginning on February 22 and culminating on April 19, the two had five (5) different matches in the Greenville Memorial Auditorium.
2/22/82 - Mid-Atlantic title match (mid-card)
3/01/82 - No Disqualification match (semi-main)
3/22/82 - 2 out of 3 falls match (main event)
3/29/82 - Indian Strap match (main event)
4/19/82 - Canadian Lumberjack match (main event)
With Armstrong not appearing in person on any Mid-Atlantic TV shows, and only a few isolated clips shown from Georgia, it is astounding that Piper and Armstrong went for five events in Greenville, headlining the last three of them. it is a testament to the chemistry they had together and how well things clicked on the Georgia show, which was seen on cable channel WTBS in the Greenville market, although cable penetration in 1982 was far more limited than today.
Piper and Armstrong also headlined three shows in Cincinnati, OH, a city which featured talent from both Mid-Atlantic and Georgia promotions. The local promoter for the Cincy shows was Les Thatcher.
Piper and Armstrong also headlined three shows in Cincinnati, OH which were part of the Georgia Wrestling tours of Ohio and Michigan at that time. The local promoter for the Cincy shows was Les Thatcher, and lots of Mid-Atlantic talent was booked on those shows as well.
It was a wonderful feud and a great memory from that time where so much
talent was appearing in both territories simultaneously.
******
Thanks to Brian Rogers for his help with these Greenville newspaper clippings.
Originally posted October 30, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
by Dick Bourne and Mark Eastridge Mid-Atlantic Gateway
For the third straight Monday night show in a row at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta, GA, Mid-Atlantic Wrestling regulars appeared on the card as part of a de facto Mid-Atlantic/Georgia talent exchange during the year 1977.
As we've discussed in 5 earlier installments in this series, full time wrestlers from both groups made appearances in each other's territories for one night special events. Augusta Georgia was "ground zero" for Georgia Championship Wrestling in this exchange.
On two different nights in the previous months, Georgia fan favorite Thunderbolt Patterson had travelled to the Mid-Atlantic area to team with Wahoo McDaniel. He had most recently joined the Chief on 4/30/77 in Hampton, VA to take on the NWA World Tag Team champions from Ric Flair and Greg Valentine. (See Part 2 of the series for more on Thunderbolt's many appearance for Jim Crockett Promotions in the spring of 1977.)
The two failed to take the belts in Hampton, but formed a very impressive combination that the fans really got behind. Two weeks later, on Monday 5/16 in Augusta, GA, Wahoo returned the favor to T-bolt and came to Georgia, as this popular combination received another chance at the World Tag Team titles, except this time from a different team.
A packed Bell Auditorium crowd saw Wahoo McDaniel come in for one night only to team with Thunderbolt to challenge the new World Tag Team champions Gene and Ole Anderson.
The Anderson Brothers had defeated Flair and Valentine for the titles a week and a day earlier, taking the titles on 5/8 in Charlotte, NC. (See Part 4 and Part 5 of this series for more on that historic night.) You will note that the article above from the Augusta newspaper mentions that the Andersons had regained the titles in Charlotte. What wasn't mentioned was that Wahoo McDaniel was the special referee in that match where the title changed hands. Even though Wahoo had found himself a strange ally to the Andersons in their battles with Flair in Valentine in the Mid-Atlantic area, he would set that aside to team with Thunderbolt to attempt to wrest the titles from the Minnesota Wrecking Crew.
Wahoo and T-bolt won the match by disqualification but, as we all know well, the titles can't change hands on DQ. The Anderson brothers retained the titles.
Much of the undercard on this show would be recently familiar to Mid-Atlantic fans, too. Roberto Soto, Bill Howard, Abe Jacobs, Charlie Fulton, and Don Kernodle loaded the Bell Auditorium card, and all had been Mid-Atlantic regulars over recent years.
Originally published October 19, 2015 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway
And one more thing - - - we've spotted another blooper! In that April 30 Hampton, VA card up top, it appears there might be an inter-gender match scheduled - - Johnny Eagle facing MRS. X!
And thanks to Charlie G. who points out Cowboy Frankie LAN and Steve KOVADS on the same clipping. Those might be considered more typos than bloopers, but I sure missed them first pass through.
by Dick Bourne and Mark Eastridge Mid-Atlantic Gateway
It is certainly one of the most fascinating cases of a kayfabe violation in the territory wrestling days that you can imagine.
Our ongoing series about the 1977 Mid-Atlantic Wrestling/Georgia Wrestling talent exchange continues with this look at a big card of wrestling at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta, GA on May 9, 1977.
As we've described earlier in this series, Augusta was ground zero for some of the most interesting "mixed cards" of Mid-Atlantic and Georgia Championship Wrestling. The week before on the May 2nd card, all of the challengers for all three Georgia championships were from the Mid-Atlantic territory. So a week later, Augusta gets another treat: Mid-Atlantic area championships go on the line against Georgia challengers in Augusta.
UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: BLACKJACK MULLIGAN vs. MR. WRESTLING II
Blackjack Mulligan brought his United States Heavyweight championship to Georgia for this one night to defend against Mr. Wrestling II, one of the most popular stars ever in the Georgia territory. As we discussed earlier in Part Two of this series, Mulligan was a big part of the talent exchange in defending the U.S. title on several occasions against Georgia's Thunderbolt Patterson when T-bolt made several visits to the Mid-Atlantic area over the spring of 1977.
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: GENE AND OLE ANDERSON vs. DINO BRAVO AND "MR. WRESTLING" TIM WOODS
The other main event that night saw the new NWA world tag team champions Gene and Ole Anderson, bringing those tag team titles back to Georgia from the Mid-Atlantic area, and defending their newly won belts against the mixed Mid-Atlantic/Georgia combination of visiting Dino Bravo and "Mr. Wrestling" Tim Woods.
There was only one problem: when the Augusta Chronicle newspaper ad announcing the new champions ran in the Sunday morning newspaper, the Anderson Brothers hadn't won the titles yet.
The Andersons would defeat Ric Flair and Greg Valentine for the NWA world tag titles that Sunday night, May, 8, 1977 in Charlotte, NC in a cage match with special referee Wahoo McDaniel. But the Augusta newspaper ad announcing the Andersons as new champs ran that Sunday morning.
If you believe in historical conspiracies, this ranks right up there with newspapers in the far east reporting Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president after John Kennedy's assassination before it happened. And they say wrestling is fixed. But I digress.
This was a relatively rare occurrence in wrestling, but sometimes the office inadvertently gave away results. But usually the mistake was made within the same territory. Rarely did one territory give away another territory's major title change.
It didn't really matter as no one in Augusta would have known that the Andersons were scheduled to face Flair and Valentine that Sunday night in Charlotte, unless they had just spent the weekend in the Charlotte area and might have seen local Charlotte TV wrestling. Who knows. It's an interesting little twist, though.
Bravo and Woods reunited their former championship combination that Monday night in Augusta. The two defeated the Andersons on television in 1976 for the world titles. It was on that night that Tim Woods put the white mask back on to become "Mr. Wrestling" once again. Bravo was in Georgia for only this one night to team with Woods, and was back in the Mid-Atlantic the next night in Columbia, SC challenging Blackjack Mulligan for the U.S. Title. However, Bravo, would move to Georgia full-time in another month or so.
Other tidbits:
● The Richard Blood in the opening match of the Augusta card was not Ricky Steamboat. It was Merced Solis, the wrestler later to be known to fans as Tito Santana. Solis wrestled under the ring name Richard Blood in both the Mid-Altlantic and Georgia areas in 1977 and 1978. Steamboat was in the middle of making history by upsetting Ric Flair during this general timeframe for the Mid-Atlantic TV title.
● The NWA world tag team titles themselves were in a way a part of a broader long-term exchange between the two territories. The title was created in early 1975 and the first champions were the Anderson Brothers. They left with the titles to work Georgia full-time in the fall of 1976, and during the balance of 1976, all of 1977, and early 1978 were engaged with Ric Flair and Greg Valentine back in the Mid-Atlantic area, and the two teams traded the titles back and forth. The Andersons put a little Georgia history on those belts, however, when Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater won the belts for roughly a month in 1977.
● Quick recovery: In the Mid-Atlantic storyline, Ole Anderson is badly injured after the 5/8/77 Charlotte cage match when he is "stuff pile-drived" by Greg Valentine and Ric Flair. Ole sells the injury big time, having to be stretchered out of the ring, and the injury is used to explain why the Andersons aren't seen in the area for awhile. But of course, the next night, Ole is fully recovered in Augusta for the title defense against Mr. Wrestling and Dino Bravo. Ahh, you have to love the territory wrestling days.
In Part Five of this series, we'll take a look at #1 Paul Jones and his role in the Mid-Atlantic/Georgia talent exchange, which was taking place right at the same time of these Augusta shows. See you next time, and until then, so long for now.
Paul Jones and the Hollywood Blondes (Jerry Brown and Buddy Roberts) visit Augusta, GA on Valentine's Day night. It is the first in a series of Augusta cards to feature Mid-Atlantic talent in the coming months.
T-bolt travels from Georgia Championship Wrestling to make several challenges for the U.S. title and the NWA world tag team titles in the Mid-Atlantic area over several months.
Part Seven: Ric Flair Comes to Georgia (July - December 1977)
Ric Flair made nearly a dozen appearances in Georgia in 1977 while a Mid-Atlantic regular. He often times would bring the United States championship with him.
OLE ANDERSON BOOKING BOTH TERRITORIES
In
the fall of 1981 through the spring of 1982, Ole Anderson served as
booker for both Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Georgia
Championship Wrestling. Check out this complete Georgia wrestling program from November 14, 1981 featuring a large amount of talent appearing on Superstation TBS from the Mid-Atlantic area.
TOMMY RICH IN 1981
In 1981, Georgia Championship Wrestling's Tommy Rich made several appearances
in the Mid-Atlantic territory, including this one in Columbia SC where
local promoter Henry Marcus made clear that one of cable TV's top stars
was on his Township Auditorium card.
by Dick Bourne and Mark Eastridge Mid-Atlantic Gateway Originally published in 2015
As we've discussed in 6 earlier installments in this series, full time wrestlers from both Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling made appearances in each other's territories for one night special events. Augusta, GA was "ground zero" for this talent exchange for Georgia Championship Wrestling in the early part of 1977, but Atlanta was another hot spot, especially for the visiting "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.
In the second half of 1977, Ric Flair made nearly a dozen appearances in the state of Georgia, many of them on WTCG-TV channel 17 in Atlanta. WTCG would later become Superstation WTBS. He also wrestled on several big shows at the Atlanta City Auditorium and the Omni.
But first, back to Augusta's historic Bell Auditorium:
AUGUSTA, GA - 10/17/77
On October 17, Ric Flair and Rufus R. "Freight Train" Jones made the trip from the Mid-Atlantic territory for another in a long series of cards in Augusta, GA in 1977 that featured Mid-Atlantic talent. Flair defended the United States championship against Dick Slater. Rufus teamed up with Georgia star Tony Atlas to challenge Gene and Ole Anderson for the NWA world tag team championships which they had just regained in Atlanta three days earlier from Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater.
Flair escaped from Augusta with the U.S. title in hand, but four days later he lost the title to Ricky Steamboat in Charleston, SC. The Andersons would also soon lose their tag titles again, this time to Flair and Greg Valentine just two weeks later in Greensboro.
RIC FLAIR IN GEORGIA
Here is a list of Ric's Georgia appearances in the second half of 1977, many of them as the reigning United States Heavyweight Champion from Jim Crockett Promotions:
07/22 Atlanta, GA Ric Flair beat Sandy Scott
07/23 Atlanta, GA(TV) Ric Flair beat Randy Alls
09/02 Atlanta, GA U.S. Champion Ric Flair beat Steve Keirn
09/23 Atlanta, GA Tony Atlas beat U.S. Champion Ric Flair by DQ
09/24 Atlanta, GA(TV) U.S. Champion Ric Flair beat Ted Allen
10/17 Augusta, GA Dick Slater beat U.S. Champion Ric Flair by DQ
11/28 Augusta, GA Ric Flair vs. Dick Slater
11/30 Columbus, GA Ric Flair vs. Dick Slater
12/02 Atlanta, GA Dusty Rhodes beat Ric Flair by DQ
12/05 Augusta, GA Ric Flair vs. Dick Slater in a lumberjack grudge match
12/09 Atlanta, GA Dusty Rhodes beat Ric Flair
Take a look at all the posts in our series on the 1977 Mid-Atlantic/Georgia talent exchanges in our special directory here.
Coming next: A classic tag team clash between Mid-Atlantic and Georgia teams was set for Greensboro in late October 1977, but it never happened. Learn why in Part Eight - - coming soon!
Keeping up with blunders and bloopers in the newspaper ads, we might as well point out a few errors in the Augusta ad above.
Most are simple ones:
(1) Tommy RICK should be Tommy Rich who was just beginning to catch fire in Georgia.
(2) Stan HANSON is misspelled, it should be Hansen.
(3) And of course, there is the most often misspelled name of one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and it didn't matter if it was 1977 or 2007 (and it still occasionally happens today!) RICK Flair. (They did get it right in the result, though.)
(4) Lastly, there seemed to be some confusion over Mr. Kent's first name - Jim in the ad, Don in the result.
One other note: the Richard Blood in the opening match against Randy Savage was not Ricky Steamboat, it was Merced Solis, better known later as Tito Santana.
Originally published 11/2/15 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Halloween Edition by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway
The recent spate of excellent quality uploads of old "Georgia Championship Wrestling" shows on YouTube had me fondly remembering Roddy Piper's one-year stint in Georgia and particularly his early feud with "Bullet" Bob Armstrong.
In the fall of 1981, Ole Anderson became booker for both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories, something pretty unheard of in that time. One result of his having that dual responsibility was the cross-over of talent between the two promotions. This was yet another chapter in the long history of what I have dubbed the "talent exchange" or partnership between the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories that went back to the mid-1970s.
Gordon Solie and Roddy Piper, hosts of
"Georgia Championship Wrestling" on SuperStation WTBS
One of the most visible examples of this was Roddy Piper becoming the co-host of "Georgia Championship Wrestling" alongside Gordon Solie in late October of 1981. Piper proved to be the perfect bombastic and colorful compliment to Solie's rather dry style of calling matches. It's not clear what Solie must have first thought of Piper when he debuted alongside him on WTBS on Halloween evening of 1981, but he warmed up to him pretty quickly as there was great chemistry between the two and they became one of the top pro wrestling broadcasting duos in the country with broad exposure on the nationally televised Georgia program.
Piper was such a hit in the color commentary role that Ole Anderson also paired him with Bob Caudle on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" a few months later. Piper was perhaps the only wrestler to ever be a color commentator on two top shows for two different promotions at the same time. It was this experience that would first get him noticed in that role and would later serve as a foundation for the groundbreaking "Piper's Pit" segments on WWF television shows in 1984.
Bob and Brad Armstrong
Along with his commentary duties in Georgia, Piper also would occasionally conduct interviews. In his first few months, he seemed particularly enamored of the father and son combination of Bob and Brad Armstrong, and his passive-aggressive confrontations with the two eventually led to fireworks between Piper and Bob Armstrong.
For several weeks in a row, Piper would interview the Armstrongs at ringside, complimenting the tag team prowess of the team, but also questioning their strategies and execution. He even went so far as to get personal with Bob, suggesting he was perhaps a bad father for occasionally letting his son take a beating in a match.
Bob, for his part, handled all of this masterfully in the slow build to the inevitable explosion with Piper, at first just just acting mildly annoyed at Piper's antics, usually brushing him off or ending the interviews before Piper was ready to end them, leaving the rowdy Scot occasionally flummoxed and at a loss for words.
Bob Armstrong was the perfect foil for Piper, aptly able to hold his own in a verbal joust with him, using his popular southern wit to confound the west coast bullying and arrogance of Piper. Armstrong was now looked at as one of the wise old veterans in the territory by the fans, and fans enjoyed watching Armstrong put Piper in his place over those early weeks.
But Piper was relentless. And as he turned the volume up on his criticism of the Armstrongs, it began to get under Bob Armstrong's skin. However, the two never touched for nearly three months.
That wild melee led to an actual match between the two at the Omni on Sunday, February 7. It was Piper's long awaited first match in Georgia and part of a big night at the Omni which included National Heavyweight Champion Tommy "Wildfire" Rich defend that title against former NWA world champion Harley Race.
There are different accounts as to the result of the February match. Most reports say it was a double DQ or a no-contest finish. The match would actually serve as a springboard to a progression of matches Piper would have over the next few months at the Omni, moving from one challenge up to the next. Following Armstrong, there was Tommy Rich and then Dick Slater. Others opponents down the line in 1982 for Piper included Dusty Rhodes, Ole Anderson, and Don Muraco.
Even though Piper moved on to other opponents in Atlanta, his feud with Bob Armstrong would continue outside the territory. Piper's only real role in Georgia was doing TV's with Gordon Solie on Saturday mornings, and matches on the Omni cards every three weeks or so. He didn't wrestle often on the house show circuit in Georgia because he was a full-time wrestler for Jim Crockett Promotions, and was actually booked out to Atlanta through the Charlotte Crockett office. In fact, through much of this time period Piper was Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion, feuding first with Ricky Steamboat and then with Jack Brisco over that title belt.
THE PIPER/ARMSTRONG FEUD MOVES TO THE MID-ATLANTIC TERRITORY
Their feud was a quite unusual because it began in Georgia, but was largely carried out in the Mid-Atlantic territory, even though Armstrong never appeared in person on Mid-Atlantic television. The feud had incubated every Saturday on WTBS for nearly three months (November 1981 - January 1982) without the two ever touching.
Then soon after that one Atlanta match on 2/7/82, things moved directly to the Mid-Atlantic territory, where Piper was the reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. But other than isolated matches in Norfolk and Greensboro, their war took place entirely in the city of Greenville, SC on Monday nights.
Over a two month period, beginning on February 22 and culminating on April 19, the two had five (5) different matches in the Greenville Memorial Auditorium.
2/22/82 - Mid-Atlantic title match (mid-card)
3/01/82 - No Disqualification match (semi-main)
3/22/82 - 2 out of 3 falls match (main event)
3/29/82 - Indian Strap match (main event)
4/19/82 - Canadian Lumberjack match (main event)
With Armstrong not appearing in person on any Mid-Atlantic TV shows, and only a few isolated clips shown from Georgia, it is astounding that Piper and Armstrong went for five events in Greenville, headlining the last three of them. it is a testament to the chemistry they had together and how well things clicked on the Georgia show, which was seen on cable channel WTBS in the Greenville market, although cable penetration in 1982 was far more limited than today.
Piper and Armstrong also headlined three shows in Cincinnati, OH, a city which featured talent from both Mid-Atlantic and Georgia promotions. The local promoter for the Cincy shows was Les Thatcher.
Piper and Armstrong also headlined three shows in Cincinnati, OH which were part of the Georgia Wrestling tours of Ohio and Michigan at that time. The local promoter for the Cincy shows was Les Thatcher, and lots of Mid-Atlantic talent was booked on those shows as well.
It was a wonderful feud and a great memory from that time where so much
talent was appearing in both territories simultaneously.
Originally published October 30, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Thanks to Brian Rogers for his help with these Greenville newspaper clippings.
It was the hot summer of 1977, and Gene and Ole Anderson dominated the tag team scene in the state of Georgia. At one point they held both the Georgia Tag Team titles and the NWA World Tag Team titles.
This screen capture from raw 16mm film footage seen in the Vault section of the WWE Network shows the Andersons wearing the World Tag Team title belts preparing for a defense against "Cowboy" Bill Watts and Thunderbolt Patterson at the Omni on June 24, 1977.
WWE Network
The Anderson Brothers were a month and a half removed from their big victory over Ric Flair and Greg Valentine in Charlotte, NC, on May 8, 1977 where they regained those World tag team titles in a famous cage match where Wahoo McDaniel was the special referee.
Later that fall in 1977, the Andersons would lose those titles to Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater, but for only a month. The Andersons held those titles off and on in Georgia and the Mid-Atlantic area from 1975-1981.
The film footage, which dropped on the WWE Network on 2/28/19, is heavily edited raw footage of about 7 minutes in duration, and without sound. This clip comes out of the blue as it is believed that WWE doesn't own much Georgia footage, and the source of this material isn't known. It might have been added as part of their recognition of Black History Month, spotlighting Thunderbolt Patterson.
Not much wrestling in this match, as it was an all out, fists-a-flying, "pier six" brawl. Too bad there was no sound, as the crowd was surely into this match-up. Thunderbolt had been feuding with the Andersons for months with various partners over both the Georgia and World tag team titles. The finish to this match is hilarious, which eventually resulted in the Andersons keeping their titles. Check it out in the 1977 sub-section of the Vault on the WWE Network.
It was Marty Lunde's first big break on the national scene when he became Ole Anderson's "nephew" in Georgia in 1983 and teamed with Matt Borne managed by Paul Ellering.
This was an excellent tag team and, even though only in the business less than 18 months, Arn already displayed the skills that would propel him to the top of the industry only a couple years later as one of the top tag team wrestlers in the world.
This video is relatively poor quality, but a rare glimpse of the Anderson/Borne tag team.
A little Minnesota Wrecking Crew nugget is included here:
At the 2:40 mark in the video, Pat Rose breaks out of a Borne front-facelock with a fireman's carry. As Rose moves to tag his partner, Borne tags Anderson and quickly goes to block Rose from making the tag as Arn regains the advantage on Rose. It was perfectly executed. This was a trademark move of Gene and Ole Anderson during their years together where they would constantly prevent opponents from tagging with what was known as the "tag and block."
Paul Ellering made note of this (in his usual sarcastic demeanor):
"Did you notice that block? Now what other team can be that precision timed to do something like that? I know of no other team except maybe ... deja vu ... the Andersons. But, we are the team of now."
Ellering was guiding young Anderson's career at this point, much to the frustration of Uncle Ole in the storyline. Ellering constantly trolled Ole with the fact that Ole and Gene were the Andersons of the past, but Arn, with partner Matt Borne, were the tag team of now and in the future.
It should be pointed out that while Arn was being billed here as Ole's nephew, he would later be billed as both his brother and his cousin as no one seemed to be able to keep that story straight.
Paul Ellering, heard here doing commentary with Gordon Solie, would soon form a stable of wrestlers called "The Legion of Doom" which would include Anderson (briefly), King Kong Bundy, Jake Roberts, the Spoiler (Don Jardine) and of course the Road Warriors.
Arn is most remembered of course for his tag teams with Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Bobby Eaton, amoung others. But his two early partnerships with Matt Borne (Georgia 1983) and Jerry Stubbs (Southeastern Wrestling 1983-1984) made for two fo the best young tag teams in the business at that time, and should not be forgotten.
Classic Video from Georgia Championship Wrestling, February 23, 1980
by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway
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Occasionally, we swerve over into something fun from Georgia Championship Wrestling. In this case it's one of my favorite segments ever from Georgia featuring NWA World champion Harley Race, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, and "The Universal Heartthrob" Austin Idol in 1980. This post was originally featured over on the Domed Globe website in July of 2017.
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I was happy to come across this classic old video on YouTube (embedded down below). It is one of my all-time favorite matches and angles in Georgia Championship Wrestling history.
The match was Tommy "Wildfire" Rich challenging "The Universal Heartthrob" Austin Idol for the TV championship, with Harley Race at ringside. But the TV title wasn't the main focus.
NWA Champion Harley Race on "Georgia Championship Wrestling"
Idol was the #1 contender for the NWA World championship in Georgia and was slated to challenge reigning champion Harley Race for the laurels on Sunday February 24, 1980 at the Omni in Atlanta. Race had made no bones about the fact that he did not want to face Rich, and had placed a $5000 bounty on his head. Any wrestler who could take Rich out before the match at the Omni would collect the cash.
No one really considered that Idol would be in the hunt for the bounty, as he had his own issues to worry about defending his TV title. However, Idol somewhat unexpectedly agreed to defend against Rich on national television the day before the Race-Rich showdown.
On the Saturday 2/23/80 edition of "Georgia Championship Wrestling", Idol met Rich in the cozy confines of WTBS studios in Atlanta. Prior to the match, Idol did an interesting interview where he had his TV championship belt over his right shoulder and a simple dress belt over his left shoulder. He never mentioned the belt, and Gordon Solie never asked him about it; it was just there. We would find out why Idol had the belt a little later.
The actual match between Idol and Rich was a typically good match between the two, with Rich maintaining the upper hand through most of the early moments with classic chain wrestling, arm drags, and hip tosses.
A few minutes in, however, who should show up at ringside to watch the match but the NWA World Heavyweight Champion himself, Harley Race. Race was in street clothes, and was clearly cheering on Idol in the match, getting on the referee for what Race thought were slow counts, complaining that Rich's sleeper hold was actually a choke, etc. Race became a distraction at ringside, however, and Idol began to dominate the match with a elbow drop from the middle turnbuckle and a flying knee drop to the forehead of Rich.
As Rich began to regain momentum, though, Idol threw him into referee Scrappy McGowan, and with the ref down, Idol attempted to apply a figure-four leglock to Rich. Race became excited at this, climbed up on the ring apron, an exhorted Idol to go after the leg of Rich while the referee was down. However, as Idol was attempting to apply the hold, Rich kicked him off and Idol collided with Race on the ring apron, sending Idol crashing to the mat and Race crashing to the floor.
Rich covered a stunned Idol in an attempted pin, but the referee was still down from the earlier collision. Seeing the ref down himself, Race removed his sport coat, climbed to the top of the turnbuckles and dove off attempting to hit Rich with his famous, patented flying headbutt. But Rich saw it coming and moved to the side and Race hit Idol with the headbutt instead. Rich covered Idol again and a revived referee Scrappy McGowan crawled over and made the three-count.
Tommy Rich had just won the National TV Championship from Austin Idol, and much of that had been brought on by Harley Race.
Rich immediately went after Race in response to his interference, and the two brawled in the ring, Rich hammering away at the world champion as the WTBS studio crowd became unglued.
Idol momentarily left the ring but when he returned he had that dress belt with him, the same simple dress belt he had draped over one shoulder in the earlier interview with Gordon Solie. He attacked Rich from behind, laid him out, and applied the figure-four leglock. It was then that it became clear why Idol had been carrying around that dress belt. He looped it around both his and Rich's legs, basically strapping both of them together so that Rich could not escape the hold. Idol began clamping down hard on the figure-four leg lock and as he did so, Race began dropping his knee repeatedly down on Rich's left knee and leg.
It became clear what was going on: Austin Idol was attempting to collect the bounty that Harley Race had placed on the head of Tommy Rich. And Race was happy to help him do it.
Eventually, help came from the locker room, and Mr. Wrestling II delivered his famous knee lift that sent Race sailing out of the ring. Idol eventually bailed out of the ring as well, aided by Race, and the two hightailed it to their locker room.
Rich had won the TV title, but was badly injured at the hands of Idol and Race. He was unable to challenge Race the next night at the Omni. Idol had successfully claimed the bounty.
There is much more that developed from this angle. Mr. Wrestling II replaced Rich and got the shot at Race for the title. Wrestling II dedicated the match to Rich, but in the end, II wasn't able to take the title from Race. Race's master plan had worked, and he was successful in getting out of Atlanta with his championship intact. Rich would get a measure of revenge, but we'll save that story for a future update.
I've included the video of all this here for two reasons: (1) as mentioned up front, this is one of my favorite Georgia angles ever, and (2) the video includes some wonderful interviews with Race spotlighting the NWA domed-globe belt, ten pounds of "PURE gold", as Race liked to say.
During Georgia's "World Championship Wrestling" on WTBS on 6/2/84, Ric Flair stood with Gordon Solie at the podium, holding his coveted NWA World Championship belt, doing color commentary for an ongoing match.
Just nine days earlier, Flair had regained the NWA title from Kerry Von Erich in Japan. He took the opportunity to talk about having the title belt back, which included this quip about his relationship with the women of Texas - - - one of my favorite Ric Flair lines of all time:
"Gordon, I've said this before, you know, now Kerry Von Erich and all those people in Texas are going to have to live with this thought one more time:
I've never worn a cowboy hat, I've never had on a pair of jeans in my life, never even seen a pair of cowboy boots. But every woman in Texas calls Ric Flair the all-around cowboy.
And now they are going to have to call him the World Champion once again."
