Series on John Ringley Continues

This week's pro wrestling column in @PostandCourier
READ: https://t.co/Gtzb8q7MMe pic.twitter.com/gtMayQuDOG

— Mike Mooneyham (@ByMikeMooneyham) December 2, 2024

Great Mooneyham Piece on John Ringley

"If I had anything I needed a grown person’s opinion on, I would go to Mr. Crockett. I always referred to him as ‘Mr. Crockett’ — I could never call him ‘Jim.’ We had kind of a camaraderie. He was a great man.”- John Ringleyhttps://t.co/8alq8GkjTV

— Mike Mooneyham (@ByMikeMooneyham) November 25, 2024

First Reference to "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling" by JCP

NOTE: The Mid-Atlantic Gateway has ceased regular publication, but from time to time something new will pop up here that's of historical interest or just of interest to us personally. 

First Reference to "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling" by Jim Crockett Promotions
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Over the years, we've tried to track down the earliest references we could find to "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling" as a brand name used by Jim Crockett Promotions.

Prior to 1972, the company simply used "Championship Wrestling" or "All Star Wrestling" to brand and promote its live events through newspaper ads and event posters, as well as their TV programs.

But in 1971, John Ringley (Jim Crockett's son-in-law who helped run the company) came up with the name "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling" and over the next two years, the name would slowly phase in to become the single brand of the company. Ringley remembers the day he suggested it to Jim Crockett, Sr.

 "I was in the car with him on Morehead Street when I suggested the Mid-Atlantic name," Ringley told me. "He seemed interested in it right away." 


TRADEMARK USAGE
Trademark data shows the earliest use of the brand was 12/31/1971 and that was also the date it was first used in commerce.

Source: WYSK.com

The earliest the term shows up in company advertising that we have been able to uncover is a weekly Raleigh, NC show on March 28, 1972 at Dorton Arena. It is believed, although not yet absolutely confirmed, that this was around the same time as the TV shows taped in Raleigh changed names from "Championship Wrestling" (for the Raleigh market) and "All Star Wrestling" (for syndication) to "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling."

First known use of the brand "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" in advertising
(although we're always looking for earlier cases.)

The Mid-Atlantic name started slowly making it's way into newspaper ads around the territory, although it took the better part of two years for that to completely evolve.

Other early uses of the name included a monthly event program titled "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine" that published its first issue in July of 1973. This was an eight-page black and white publication produced by Les Thatcher, who worked for the company in many capacities during this time, and sold at arenas. It would be replaced by 24-page quarterly publication of the same name in early 1975.


THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The territory's championships would all be changed to Mid-Atlantic titles in name over the course of about five months. 

On September 6, 1973, Jim Crockett Promotions changed the name of their top singles title from "Eastern Heavyweight Championship" to "Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship." Reigning champion Jerry Brisco was given the new belt in a brief presentation in the ring in Greensboro, NC.

On October 9, 1973, the Atlantic Coast Tag Team titles were renamed "Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championships" and were first defended in Raleigh NC on that night.

On February 27, 1974, the first Mid-Atlantic TV champion was crowned when Danny Miller won a tournament that aired on 3/2/74, taped for television 2/27/74 in Raleigh. He defeated Ole Anderson in the tournament finals.

A Brief History of Wrestling in the Mid-Atlantic Area

A Look Back at the Promoters and Television History of Jim Crockett Promotions
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Professional wrestling has been one of the most popular live events in the Carolinas and Virginia since the early/mid-1900s. Several key players were responsible for making pro wrestling an institution here, some familiar to fans, others perhaps not so familiar.

The company known for promoting wrestling across Virginia and the Carolinas for decades was Jim Crockett Promotions. Jim Crockett, Sr. started promoting wrestling in our area when he bought an old warehouse in Greensboro, NC, in December of 1933, named it the “Sportrena”, and held his first matches there. With that first card, the company that later grew to be known as Jim Crockett Promotions was born.

Crockett established his base of operations in Charlotte a year later in 1934, moving in on a chaotic promotional scene at that time. In 1939 he and successful Richmond promoter Bill Lewis bought out the interests of promoter Pete Moore who had been in partnership with Crockett for nearly 10 years going back to their days headquartered out of Bristol, VA. Moore’s promotional interests spanned the width and breadth of the area that we think of now as the Mid-Atlantic territory.  After buying Moore out, Lewis based his operations out of Richmond, and Crockett based his out of Charlotte. Together they brought top pro-wrestlers from around the country to the halls, armories, and small arenas throughout the Carolinas and Virginia.

As the companies evolved, Crockett had become the main promoter, with Lerwis booking all of his talent through the Crockett's Charlotte office. Lewis died in 1961, and Crockett sent Joe Murnick, his top lieutenant in Charlotte, to replace him. Murnick would headquarter out of Raleigh, but assumed all of Lewis's territoy to the east, including Fayetteville, Richmond, Hampton, and Norfolk and all points in between.

Over the years, Crockett had many local promoters like Murnick working for him within the various regions of the main territory including such men as Henry Marcus (central and lower South Carolina), Paul Winkhaus (Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina) and Pete Apostolou (Central and Southwest Virginia.). These promoters coordinated the local promotion of Crockett’s wrestling events. However, it was Murnick who became Crockett’s largest and most trusted partner.

In April of 1973, Jim Crockett, Sr. passed away and his son in law, John Ringley, took over the operations of the company. He was soon followed by Crockett's oldest son, Jim Crockett, Jr., who during his tenure expanded the reach of the company outside of the traditional territorial boundaries that had existed for years within the pro wrestling industry, and wound up being one of the two top players nationally. 

Crockett Jr.'s lieutenants included Joe Murnick and his sons Elliot and Carl, along with longtime wrestlers Sandy Scott, Johnny Weaver, and Gene Anderson, who transitioned to regional promoters at the ground level, working with and later slowly replacing those listed earlier.

The territory was always known within the business as the “Charlotte territory” because that is where the Crocketts were based. Until the mid-1970s, fans simply knew it as “All-Star Wrestling” or “Championship Wrestling.” Around the time of Jim Sr.’s passing, the promotion began to brand its wrestling business as “Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling”, which also became the name of their television program. Prior to this time, television wrestling had been taped out of multiple locations each week including Charlotte, High Point, Roanoke, and Raleigh. In 1974, the company consolidated its weekly television production to one location - - the studios of WRAL in Raleigh, NC. There had been many hosts of the local programs over the years including Nick Pond, Charlie Harville, Hal Grant, Bill Ward, and Bob Caudle. After the 1974 consolidation, Caudle became the main voice of the company, and would serve in that capacity until the company was sold to Ted Turner in 1988.

But it was from the WRAL studio that the magic we saw unfold each week on our TV screens originally took place. In 1975, Crockett Promotions added a second studio program eventually known as “World Wide Wrestling” which was hosted at different times by Ed Capral, Rich Landrum, David Crockett, and Tony Schiavone.

Eventually finding itself on the losing side of a wrestling war in the late-1980s, the 53-year old family business was sold to Ted Turner in late 1988. Turner had been a partner in Crockett's national expansion, enthusiastically providing four hours of weekly television on his nationally cable-cast Superstation WTBS out of Atlanta. This eventually included quarterly prime-time TV specials as well.

The syndicated "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" (later renamed "NWA Pro Wrestling") and "World Wide Wrestling", along with the national WTBS "World Championship Wrestling" battleship, drove hundreds of thousands of fans to the arenas each month. For a short time anyway, the once small Mid-Atlantic territory one of the largest and most successful wrestling promotions in the country.

This article was based on a shorter limited piece originally posted June 28, 2017 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

John Ringley: The Match Maker

The following article was originally published in the Charlotte News in May of 1973. It was written by Ronald Green, sports editor of the News at the time. Green, a journalist and columnist in Charlotte for 50 years is member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, among many other career honors in North Carolina and nationally. 

Green had a series of great articles about pro-wrestling in Charlotte in the 1970s, including this one on promoter John Ringley, who had just taken over as head of Jim Crockett Promotions one month earlier following the death of Jim Crockett, Sr.



Charlotte News
Originally Published May 9, 1973
Article by Ronald Green, Charlotte News Sports Editor

Johnny Ringley's idea of an easy chair is one made of metal that folds and is situated where he can watch a good wrestling match. Preferably in a big crowd. Anything softer and in quieter surroundings makes him uncomfortable.

At the age of 33, Ringley has traveled close to a million miles, much of it by car in late afternoon-to-wee hours journeys to towns around the Carolinas and Virginia. So hurried has been his pace for the past 13 years, he gets restless after 24 hours away from his work and wants to "jump back in."

Ringley is the new maestro of grunt and groan in this area, the successor to the late Jim Crockett as promoter of professional wrestling and assorted other entertainment.

"I've done it all," said Ringley, tall, sandy-haired and quick with a smile. "After I married Mr. Crockett's daughter Frances, he offered me a job with him but I turned it down.

"A few months later, I accepted it. I started out doing everything — putting out window cards, setting up rings, selling tickets, taking tickets, announcing in the ring . . . I've done everything there is to do in this business but wrestle and I don't intend to do that. But wrestling is No. 1 with me and always will be."


ESCORTED ROLLING STONES
To those whose tastes run away from hulking gladiators, this may be difficult to understand. There is a more glamorous side to Ringley's work, that of dealing with stars like Tom Jones and the Rolling Stones.

Ringley recalls, "We had Tom Jones when he was the second or third act from the opening on the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. We had Dionne Warwick when she was still so little known, she did her act and then went into the audience to sell programs."

Ringley has hauled the Rolling Stones all over this area and thanked the Lord when he was rid of them. He has had Herman's Hermits in his home to celebrate New Year's because they were on the road and he thought they should have company for the occasion.

We're not into rock and Broadway stuff as heavily as we used to be," he said. "They cost too much and are much more difficult to deal with."

But Ringley's organization has stepped up its promotion of the Harlem Globetrotters from about 10 games a year to 25 or 30. Next to wrestlers, he counts them as the easiest group with whom to work. No written contracts, just verbal agreements and never a failure to appear.

Wrestling, the world peopled with brawny, long-haired Jack Armstrongs and bearded or masked badmen, remains the primary product flowing out of the old house-turned-office on East Morehead St., though.


FOLLOWS CROCKETT CREDO
"We're operating in three towns a night, six nights a week with wrestling," said Ringley. "And we're booked solid into September. We've already booked dates, in fact, as far ahead as next spring."

Ringley is the matchmaker, assigning wrestlers for all these shows, rushing to see one of them here, one there, feeling out the audiences to determine what they like.

"The fans are really the matchmakers," he said. "They make the match. I just write it down on paper. Mr. Crockett always said, "Give them what they want and they'll come to see it."

"I try to operate along the same lines as he did. I learned from him and before he died, he had turned over most of the business to me. It was always comforting to have him sitting in that office, though. It was like having money in the bank, knowing I could ask his advice."

It was mid-morning as Ringley talked. He had a trip to make to Danville, Va., and back.

In one recent week, he worked the wrestling show here on Monday night, drove to Columbia and back on Tuesday, drove to Savannah and back on Wednesday, conducted business by car and plane in Greenville, Macon and Atlanta on Thursday, flew to Orlando and back on Friday, drove to Roanoke and back on Saturday and to Raleigh and back on Sunday, keeping early morning office hours here most of those days.

"I love it," said the matchmaker. "There's nothing I'd rather do."

*  *  *  *  *

 

Originally published in The Charlotte News, May 9, 1973.

Jim Crockett, Sr. had passed away only 39 days earlier.

Special thanks to Mark Eastridge for providing this article

to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. 

Hart and Ringley on Charlotte TV Special (1972)

"Playboy" Gary Hart and JCP's John Ringley (1972)

In 1972, John Ringley hosted a special episode of "Championship Wrestling" that aired on WBTV-3 in Charlotte that focused on Rip "The Profile" Hawk. Ringley and Hawk's manager, "Playboy" Gary Hart were situated on a set in the WBTV studio. They reviewed 16mm film footage shot at the Charlotte Coliseum and Greensboro Coliseum featuring Hawk against various opponents including Jack Brisco in a battle over the Eastern Heavyweight Championship.

Matches included:

• Rip Hawk and Swede Hansen vs. Johnny Weaver and Argentina Apollo
• Rip Hawk and Swede Hansen vs. Johnny Weaver and Art Nelson (Greensboro)
• Rip Hawk vs. Jack Brisco (Hawk wins Eastern title) (Charlotte)
• Rip Hawk vs. Art Nelson (taped fists match) (Greensboro)

We recently had a conversation with Mr. Ringley about booking changes back during this very time period. That article can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway by clicking this link.

This post was originally published on the Studio Wrestling website, a sister-website of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.  

Evel Knievel's Closed-Circuit Snake River Canyon Jump: A Ringley & Crockett Promotion

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

EvelKnievel.com

On September 8, 1974, legendary daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls County, Idaho, in a self-designed rocket. As a 13 year old kid, this was a seminal moment in my childhood. I had just started getting interested in wrestling, and I always thought Evel Knievel would have made a great pro wrestler. Or maybe a a great pro wrestling manager. Either way, Evel could give as good a promo as anyone in pro wrestling.

I was already a huge Knievel fan, eagerly anticipating his next motorcycle jump over cars or buses that would regularly be televised on ABC's Wide World of Sports. I knew he had aspirations of one day jumping the Grand Canyon. This was apparently to be a warm-up to that bigger feat. Or perhaps the National Park Service had no interest in him attempting something like that at the Grand Canyon. Regardless, I was seriously into the hype surrounding the Snake River jump, even if it was the semi-final to some future main event.

The event drew national attention and was promoted on pay-per-view around the country. The Knievel organization established partnerships with local promoters, one of which was Ringley & Crockett, Inc. in Charlotte.

Ringley & Crockett, Inc. was the non-wrestling arm of Jim Crockett Promotions, run by Jim Crockett, Sr.'s son-in-law John Ringley until the end of 1974. Ringley promoted rock concerts, Harlem Globetrotters basketball, fishing tournaments, and all sorts of other events. They were also the promoters for the Evel Knievel Snake River Canyon jump to be telecast on giant-screen closed-circuit television at the Charlotte Coliseum on Independence Blvd., also the home of many big Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events in the Queen City. 

Sadly, the jump failed. A good description of what happened, as well as info on the jump-site (where Evel's dirt take-off ramp still stands as a tourist attraction), can be found on a favorite website of mine, RoadsideAmerica.com. An except:

With much media fanfare, daredevil Evel Knievel tried and failed to leap the mile-wide chasm of the Snake River Canyon on his specially engineered rocket motorcycle. His drogue parachute malfunctioned and opened on take-off. Evel and his contraption floated to the bottom of the canyon, landing on the riverbank directly below his launch ramp (If he'd gone into the river, his safety harness probably would have drowned him). It was a less-than-auspicious milestone for Evel and the city of Twin Falls, but Evel's fans loved him for at least trying.

Where I grew up, the closest closed-circuit location for the jump was in Johnson City, TN, and despite my ongoing pleading, my father had no interest in paying to see Evel Knievel climb into a rocket. 

Carroll Hall at the All Star Championship Wrestling website came across the clipping and forwarded it here. It was nice to discover the Crockett connection to this event after all these years.

For more on Evel Knievel, visit EvelKnievel.com.

The "Red Cover"

This is the cover of a photo album sold at the wrestling events in 1974, one of two distinct issues that year with this theme. Known to collectors as "the Red Cover", there was also a second photo album released that year (known as "the Blue Cover").

The album featured about 16 pages of black and white promotional photos of the wrestlers of that era including Johnny Valentine, Rip Hawk, Swede Hansen, Johnny Weaver, Jack Brisco, Jerry Brisco, and many others. Even a very young Ric Flair, his first year in the territory.

One of the distinguishing features of this issue that makes it special to collectors is the designation on the cover "Produced by Ringley and Crockett." John Ringley, then married to Frances Crockett, had been pegged to run the company following the death of Jim Crockett Sr. in 1973. Up until that point, the company Ringley & Crockett, Inc. had handled all the non-wrestling related promotions of Jim Sr.'s empire including concerts, Globetrotters basketball, fishing tournaments, etc. It appeared that perhaps now that company name would absorb the wrestling related business as well, or maybe not. Perhaps it was just going to undertake the publishing of the photo albums, magazines, and programs.

Regardless, it wasn't long after this particular album was published that John Ringley and Frances Crockett divorced, and the wrestling business was known from that point forward solely as Jim Crockett Promotions, Inc.

The Crockett Lieutenants - Notes from a Conversation with John Ringley

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

I was looking through some notes that I had made during a casual conversation I had with John Ringley back in 2016. There were some tidbits about some of the Crockett lieutenants and local promoters that I had not included in earlier posts resulting from those conversations. I thought I would tie up those loose ends now.

THE LIEUTENANTS
We talked about some of the key people working for Crockett when Ringley was with the company. These notes are taken from Ringley's reflections back on those days:

Leo Voss 
A referee and a good lieutenant for Crockett. He would go on the road and handle a lot of local spot towns (gate receipts, etc.) From Oklahoma, a big fisherman.

George Harbin
An ex-wrestler, who ran Lexington and did ring announcing there and Charlotte TV. Did lots of small things for JCP. An important lieutenant.

Wally Dusek
Ex wrestler, perhaps the most important lieutenant of all. Crockett trusted him completely. Like Voss, would handle gate receipts, and also receipts from outlet ticket sales (for example The Hat Shop in Charlotte.) Built rings, delivered them to arenas, with his crew set them up, tore them down. Was also an agent.

There were two other guys Ringley relied heavily on - -  Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson, whom Ringley said were also his close personal friends.


THE LOCAL PROMOTERS
Then there was a discussion we had of the local promoters Crockett partnered with. These weren't technically Crockett's lieutenants, and they were also independent. I would give them a higher rank like captain or major. But they were the guys on the ground that made things work outside of Charlotte.

The local promoters were:

Joe Murnick - Raleigh, Richmond, Norfolk (and surrounding towns)
Pete Apostolou - Roanoke, Salem, Lynchburg (and surrounding towns)
Henry Marcus - Charleston, Columbia (and surrounding towns)
Paul Winkhaus - Greenville, Asheville (and surrounding towns)

Mr. Ringley told me these local guys were all independent operators, considered business partners to Jim Crockett Promotions, who originally booked talent from Jim Crockett for their towns but then later were basically just sent talent from the office. As these guys retired or died, they were replaced by “agents” (for example Sandy Scott, Danny Miller, and Wally Dusek.) Of all the local promoters, Ringley said Paul Winkhaus was his favorite.


GREENVILLE TV
Another little tidbit we discussed was related to my work on studio wrestling history for JCP, specifically the early TV tapings that took place at WFBC in Greenville, SC. in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Ringley remembered announcer Bob Poole, but oddly did not remember Bill Krieger. But the main voice he remembered was that of Billy Powell, who not only did local wrestling promos and ring announcing for Greenville for decades, but also did all the voice overs for radio and TV spots for the concert and other entertainment events Ringley and Jim Crockett promoted. He called Billy Powell "the voice of Ringely and Crockett Promotions." This was the name of the separate company incorporated in 1970 that promoted all non-wrestling events for the Crockett promotional empire, which include concerts, Globe Trotters basketball, etc. Jim Crockett Promotions, Inc. was still the company that handled everything wrestling.


Ringley also made these comments regarding his ex-wife Frances Crockett, unsolicited:

"I thought a lot of Frances, I still do. She had the best business mind by far of any of the children. She proved it with baseball. She loved baseball. When I met her, she had baseball posters in her bedroom."

Again, my many thanks to Mr. John Ringley for taking the time to talk with me back in 2016. I'm happy to tie up these "loose ends" from those conversations.

Mid-Atlantic Myths: Eastern States Championship Wrestling

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

A recent YouTube video on the history of Jim Crockett Promotions (Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling: The Untold Story) asserts that the promotion was known as "Eastern States Championship Wrestling" prior to the rebranding to "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." This is not the case, but if you Google the phrase "Eastern States Championship Wrestling", you'll find a dozen or so pro-wrestling references, all oddly similar, that mention this was the early branding identity of Jim Crockett Promotions.

Eastern States Champion Rip Hawk
There was an Eastern States Championship in the
1970s, but the territory was never known as
"Eastern States Championship Wrestling"
* * *

This appears to be a modern-day Internet/Wikipedia phenomenon, and sadly it has become one the most common misconceptions among fans about the history of the company. To our knowledge, neither the territory nor the company were ever known (officially or otherwise) as "Eastern States Championship Wrestling."

One of the reasons I bring this up is because our website is credited in the documentary as a general source for information used in the video, and I wanted to document here that we are not the source for this misconception.

It's not exactly clear where this myth got started, although some of the earliest independent references I could find through Internet searches trace to this early 2000s post on the Kayfabe Memories website (quoted almost word for word in the YouTube documentary): "The history of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling goes all the way back to 1935 when Jim Crockett Sr. started promoting in the Carolina and Virginia areas....The area was known at the time as Eastern States Championship Wrestling." (-KayfabeMemories.com)

First let me say that Kayfabe Memories is a wonderful website with an amazing collection of memories and stories written by many knowledgeable people about the territory days of pro-wrestling. But in an age of "cut-and-paste" internet journalism, some things that are simple honest errors or misunderstandings get copied to other sources (like Wikipedia and fan websites) and before you know it there are lots of references to things that are untrue that spread throughout the Internet that people begin to accept as fact. The idea that Jim Crockett Promotions called itself "Eastern States Championship Wrestling" is a great example of this.


MISTAKES HAPPEN
Now I'm the last person to throw stones at someone making an error, especially when it comes to the largely undocumented world of pro-wrestling history. I've made plenty of honest errors myself when writing about wrestling. And I always try to own up to them and get them corrected as soon as possible. But this Eastern States myth is one that has bothered me for awhile because there is really no basis for it. The only possible thing I can speculate on that might have resulted in this misconception is the existence of the company's Eastern States Heavyweight championship in the early 1970s, but that only existed for three and a half years (1970-1973). How that got misunderstood as going back in the 1930s is beyond me.

Prior to the switch in branding to "Mid-Atlantic" which began as early as 1972, there was no specific name for the promotion publicly. It was usually referred to as "Championship Wrestling" or "All-Star Wrestling" in newspaper ads and on event posters, which were the names of the TV programs when they were launched in the late 1950s. Prior to that, ads and posters simply promoted "Wrestling". The local promoters partnering with JCP were independent contractors up until the 1970s and they occasionally used other regional names to promote shows in their ads, but there was no broader company name until 1972-1973 when the branding for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling began.


MORE MYTHS
Other popular misconceptions included alongside this Eastern States myth are that
(1) Jim Crockett, Jr. took over the company after his father retired, and that
(2) he subsequently named it Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.

Jim Crockett, Sr. never really retired. He died on April 1, 1973 while still fully in charge of the company. The person he was grooming to take over the family business was his son-in-law John Ringley. Not long after Crockett, Sr.'s death, Ringley left the company after a separation from his wife Frances (Jim Sr.'s daughter), and that's when his oldest son Jim, Jr. took over.

The branding name "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" was actually conceived of by John Ringley in the early 1970s, suggested to Jim Crockett, Sr. as both men were riding in a car together on Morehead Street in Charlotte. Ringley remembers it clearly, as related to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in my conversation with him in 2016. (David Crockett confirmed this in the 2013 Michael Elliot documentary for Highspots.com "Jim Crockett Promotions: The Good Old Days.") Ringley wanted to brand their company to the public, moving away from the generic "All Star Wrestling" or "Championship Wrestling" names that were used by them and many other promotions for the TV shows and live events for decades. Jim Sr. approved of the idea, and the name "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" started showing up in newspaper ads as early as March of 1972, more than a year before Jim Crockett, Sr.'s death. The TV show's name was changed when TV production was consolidated to one location in 1973.

Whatever way the story of "Eastern States Championship Wrestling" got started, I felt the need to set it straight, at least as best we know it. We always welcome further information that helps fill in gaps or provides further detail on the rich history of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions, and we appreciate anyone and everyone who endeavors to keep the history of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling alive.

Thanks to Carroll Hall for his assistance with this article.

John Ringley: Jim Crockett's Early Relationship With Television

by Dick Bourne 
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

As mentioned earlier, I recently had the pleasure of a casual conversation with John Ringley, at one time the most trusted confidant of promoter Jim Crockett, Sr. He had graciously agreed to talk with me for a feature I am constantly updating related to the old TV studio taping locations of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. The following is another little "tidbit' about the wrestling and TV business in the early days gleaned from those conversations, plus a broader perspective on wrestling and TV's relationship in general. 

When Mr. Ringley and I began talking about the changes in presenting wrestling on television over the decades, one thing became clear: in the early days of TV, unlike today, professional wrestling was in an equal partnership with their television counterparts.

The 1940s and 1950s

Wrestling from New York and Chicago and the west coast had been a staple of national television in the 1950s. By the late 1950s, a growing percentage of  programming on local stations began originating from the studios of those stations, and wrestling was one of earliest programs on local television. 

In 1958, Charlotte, NC television station WBTV partnered with local wrestling promoter Jim Crockett, Sr. to produce live televised wrestling bouts in Charlotte. The arrangement was advantageous for both parties. WBTV needed original local programming, and Jim Crockett benefited from an effective and far reaching way to promote his weekly wrestling cards at the Charlotte Park Center.

Studio 2 at WBTV-3 in Charlotte

The 1960s

At first, the wrestling matches were broadcast live. Later, as technology improved, the station began to record the matches on huge reels of videotape and air them later. Eventually, Crockett soon began similar arrangements with other TV stations including WGHP TV in High Point, NC and WRAL TV in Raleigh.

Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, it was a barter arrangement with hardly any additional expenses for Jim Crockett Promotions. John Ringley explained how it worked at WBTV.

"Things were so different back in the day as it related to expenses," Ringley said. "It was a partnership with television. For example, at WBTV in Charlotte - - the only expense [Jim Crockett Promotions] had was buying dinner for the television studio floor crew at channel 3. That was it!"

And Big Jim made sure those boys always ate well.

The relationship was one of near perfection. Crockett didn’t have to pay for studio time. WBTV didn't have to pay for the wrestlers or the matches.  It was a simple arrangement, equally advantageous to both parties. Crockett promoted his upcoming live events in the area. WBTV got to sell advertising for the highly-rated program.

The only other expense was of course to get the ring set up and torn down in the channel 3 studio, a task that fell to longtime veteran wrestler and trusted Crockett lieutenant Wally Dusek and his crew.

The Crockett/WBTV relationship was put together by people at the top of each organization. "Charlie Crutchfield was the fellow we dealt with at channel 3," Ringley told me. Crutchfield was once president of  Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company which owned WBTV. He had been with the Charlotte based broadcasting company since 1933, where he was a host on 1110 WBT-AM radio. "He was a powerful man, with ties to the highest levels of government and of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)," said Reno Bailey of Crutchfield on his BT Memories website. It is only fitting that James Crockett and Charles Crutchfield, two pillars of the Charlotte community for decades, worked together to make "Championship Wrestling" one of the early success stories of local television in the southeast.
 
WBTV stopped taping wrestling in 1973 when all of Crockett's local TV tapings were consolidated to WRAL studios in Raleigh.

"It was a great bunch of folks to work with for all those many years we did TV there (at WBTV), " Ringley told me.

Hart and Ringley on a "Championship Wrestling" Special

"Playboy" Gary Hart and JCP's John Ringley (1972)

In 1972, John Ringley hosted a special episode of "Championship Wrestling" that aired on WBTV-3 in Charlotte that focused on Rip "The Profile" Hawk. Ringley and Hawk's manager, "Playboy" Gary Hart were situated on a set in the WBTV studio. They reviewed 16mm film footage shot at the Charlotte Coliseum and Greensboro Coliseum featuring Hawk against various opponents including Jack Brisco in a battle over the Eastern Heavyweight Championship.

Matches included:

• Rip Hawk and Swede Hansen vs. Johnny Weaver and Argentina Apollo
• Rip Hawk and Swede Hansen vs. Johnny Weaver and Art Nelson (Greensboro)
• Rip Hawk vs. Jack Brisco (Hawk wins Eastern title) (Charlotte)
• Rip Hawk vs. Art Nelson (taped fists match) (Greensboro)

We recently had a conversation with Mr. Ringley about booking changes back during this very time period. That article can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway by clicking this link.


This post was originally published on the Studio Wrestling website, a sister-website of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
Republished on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway 11/7/19.

John Ringley in the Mid-South

Check out this little article from Little Rock, Arkansas from 1977. The article features quotes from John Ringley, who was one of the key figures in Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1960s and early 1970s.

After leaving JCP, Ringley worked for promoter Leroy McGuirk out of the Tulsa (Oklahoma) territory that included central Arkansas and other surrounding areas.

Contributor Mark Eastridge came across the clipping from the Arkansas Gazette and sent it to us. We love coming across articles from that era that involve promoters at Jim Crockett Promotions or their alumni.

Newspaper article courtesy the collection of Mark Eastridge.

Booking Changes at Jim Crockett Promotions (Early 1970s)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

I recently had the pleasure of a casual conversation with John Ringley, at one time the most trusted confidant of promoter Jim Crockett, Sr. He had graciously agreed to talk with me for a feature I am constantly working on and updating related to the old TV studio tapings of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling as well as some information on the various local promoters that worked with Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1960s and 1970s. But we also touched on a few other subjects, one being the major booking change in 1973 that changed the face of the Mid-Atlantic territory.

Ringley was the man who recruited and hired George Scott to take over the booking responsibilities of the promotion, a move which changed the face of the company in the coming years. He and Scott immediately brought in Johnny Valentine, Wahoo McDaniel, and Don Jardine to the territory, which shook things up on top of the cards and began to redefine the territory as a "singles territory" at least in terms of the main events.

This was the booking change in the company that is most remembered and discussed historically. But before hiring George Scott, Ringley had pushed Jim Crockett, Sr. into making another major change in booking a few years earlier.

David Crockett, Charleston promoter Henry Marcus, and John Ringly (circa 1973)

Ringley told me he felt things had become a little stale with long-time booker George Becker in the late 1960s.

"(Becker) had started regularly booking 6-man tags as the main events, and I was frustrated with that direction," he told me, as an example. "What was next? 8-mans? 10-mans?"

Ringley began lobbying Crockett Sr. to make a change. Crockett resisted at first, but they finally came to a compromise. Becker would step down as booker to be replaced by the tandem of Johnny Weaver and Rip Hawk. Both Weaver and Hawk had assisted Becker with finishes and other booking chores for years. This change took place in late 1969 or early 1970.

But Ringley explained that he always saw wrestling in 7-year cycles, and felt that the company was in the bottom of one of those cycles at that time. He still felt that the company needed a more significant change in direction.

"After Mr. Crockett died (in April of 1973), I decided to make a wholesale change," he said. That's when John Ringley hired George Scott.

Scott immediately began making changes, the most significant being changing a tag-team driven territory to one with more singles-oriented main events. He was given full reign to make those changes by Crockett Sr. and Ringley. Scott's changes in booking strategy, as well as bringing in a whole slate of new talent, including a promising rookie named Ric Flair, eventually went on to set the territory on fire again.

Ringley, however, wasn't around to see those changes pay off. He left the company not long after Scott was hired.

"Jim Crockett was like a father to me," he told me. "He had a big heart and helped a lot of guys out when they first came to into territory." Ringley's own father died when he was young.

Ringley went to work for Eddie Graham in Florida. While there he was recruited by music promoter Buddy Lee to come work for him in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a good fit given Ringley's vast experience working for Jim Crockett Promotions as a promoter of music events and such attractions as the Harlem Globetrotters. Lee had been a wrestler who worked for Jim Crockett, Sr. back in the 1950s and formed a music promotional company in Nashville in the 1960s. The company he started, Buddy Lee Attractions, is still one of the largest talent agencies in Nashville. Ringley later worked for wrestling promoter Leroy McGuirk in Oklahoma.

John Ringley's push to change the booking direction of Jim Crockett Promotions had lasting effects on that family's business, and the wrestling business in general,  for years to come.

I'll have more tidbits from my conversation with John Ringley in future posts.