Ken Patera: A Tale of Two Very Different Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Runs

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

PART ONE

An exciting newcomer by the name of Ken Patera came onto the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling landscape in February of 1975. Ken came to the territory with great credentials, primarily from the world of amateur weightlifting. Ken won a gold medal at the Pan American games in 1971, and participated in the 1972 Olympic Games in the sport of weightlifting. Patera, rightly so, was introduced as “Wrestling’s Strongest Man” during his first Mid-Atlantic stint, which lasted for about a year.

The Ken Patera of 1975 and early 1976 was a friendly, soft spoken and educated man, often referring to the fact that he had attended Brigham Young University in his interviews. Despite all of his credentials, Ken was exceedingly modest, a trait that seemed to endear him to the Mid-Atlantic fans. Patera showcased his strength in a number of incredible feats of strength shown on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television show in the spring and summer of 1975. The most memorable of these feats was Ken holding back a pickup truck, his back against a wall with his feet against the bumper, with announcer Les Thatcher having the vehicle in reverse, flooring the accelerator with smoke bellowing from the screeching tires!

Patera’s in-ring feats were also noteworthy during his first stint with Jim Crockett Promotions. Ken was an excellent tag team wrestler, and came close numerous times to dethroning World Tag Team Champions Gene and Ole Anderson with a series of partners from the “good guy” side of the fence. On the singles side of things, Patera had interesting feuds with none other than Johnny “The Champ” Valentine during the spring and summer of 1975, and with Blackjack Mulligan and Steve Strong during the fall of 1975.

Patera tricked Valentine on a TV segment where Johnny was putting lower card wrestlers’ names in a fish bowl, saying he would randomly draw a name out and give the lucky man a shot at his 2000 silver dollars. Valentine’s 2000 silver dollar TV challenge was legendary around the area at this time. During a commercial break, Ken exchanged all the names in the fish bowl with his own name, and Valentine about had a coronary when he drew the name “KEN PATERA” out of the fish bowl! This led to a silver dollar match on TV where Ken had Johnny flat out in the ring at the 10 minute mark, but the referee decided that Valentine didn’t submit so the “Champ” kept his money.

The two battled evenly in the areas’ arenas over the next few months, with Patera getting a number of shots at Johnny’s prestigious United States Title. These bouts had tremendous intensity, and often revolved around Patera cinching Valentine in a headlock or bear hug with his powerful arms sapping the strength out of the “Champ.” Valentine would often somehow manage to pull out a victory, but Ken typically walked out of the ring immediately while Johnny lay motionless on the canvas for a number of minutes!

Ken’s last major angle during his first run in Jim Crockett Promotions played off of his weightlifting background. In October of 1975, Superstar Billy Graham challenged Patera to a bench press weightlifting contest on TV. Graham put forth his friend, the muscular Mid-Atlantic newcomer Steve Strong, to actually participate in the competition. By the time the contest actually took place, a couple of weeks later, Blackjack Mulligan had joined Patera and Strong in the contest to see who could bench press the most weight. After the weight had risen to over 400 pounds, Mulligan and Strong attacked Patera as he was attempting to lift, with the result being that the weight crashed down on Ken’s neck and chest. Patera was out of action for about a week, but it was amazing that he wasn’t hurt more seriously. This incident led to a brief feud in November and December where Patera attempted to exact revenge on Mulligan and Strong.

The “World’s Strongest Wrestler” was then deemphasized and left the Mid-Atlantic area in February of 1976. Other than making a couple of “guest” appearances in the territory later in the year, Mid-Atlantic fans didn’t see Patera again in the territory until the early months of 1978. During the interim, fans saw Ken participate in the CBS “World’s Strongest Man” contest and for the fans that read the national wrestling magazines, they saw that Patera was wrestling in the WWWF territory in the northeast.

The Ken Patera that was wrestling in New York was a far different grappler than the one Mid-Atlantic fans grew to love in 1975, in appearance, personality and wrestling style. The hair had become long and blonde, the modesty had been replaced by arrogance and the scientific wrestling had been replaced by ruthless rulebreaking. The question then became, if Ken Patera came back to the Mid-Atlantic area, which version of the Olympic strongman would we get? It wouldn’t take long to find out!


... To be continued in Part Two

 

Originally published December 2015

Poster: Hot Night in South Boston

by Jody Shifflett
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

Here is a great card from 1978 featuring pretty odd tag teams on both sides. Captain Redneck Dick Murdock and Mr. USA Tony Atlas against the duo of the Nature Boy Ric Flair and strongman Ken Patera.

I’m hoping Flair and Patera won but who knows what happened at this hot spot show where anything could happen back in the day. 

The undercard was pretty good with a great mix of veterans and newcomers. I’m sure the fans got their moneys worth on this hot July Monday night!

NO. 7 IN THE SHIFFLETT POSTER SERIES

Poster: Valentine and Wahoo Headline Stacked Card in Greensboro (1975)

by Brack Beasley
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

This poster takes us back to Sunday, September 28th, 1975 and features an absolutely loaded card at the Greensboro Coliseum. 

Johnny Valentine defended his United States Heavyweight title in the main event against perennial foe Wahoo McDaniel in what was sure to be a hard hitting, violent affair. Unfortunately, it turned out to be Valentine's last match in Greensboro due to the Wilmington, NC plane crash less than a week later. 

In the semi, Gene and Ole Anderson put their NWA World Tag Team belts on the line against the exciting duo of Dusty Rhodes and Paul Jones, while Ray Stevens came into town trying to collect Valentine's bounty on Tim Woods. 

The mid-card match had Ric Flair vs. Tiger Conway Jr. and the undercard included Ken Patera, The Avenger (Reggie Parks), Great Malenko, Spoiler No. 2, Danny Miller, and Steve Keirn. 

The poster's horizontal layout has red and black print over a two tone hot pink and yellow background. In addition, images of seven wrestlers adorn both sides and are accompanied by the signatures of Wahoo and Ole. 

Oh, what we wouldn't do to go back maybe just once and experience an event such as this one, professional wrestling as it should be.

NO. 37 IN THE BRACK BEASLEY POSTER SERIES

Richmond Countdown #13 - Friday, September 14, 1979

Chap's Top 15 Wrestling Cards in Richmond (1973-1986)
#13 - Friday, May 21, 1982
by David Chappell, Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Newspaper Clippings from the collection of Mark Eastridge

I'm proud to share my memories of my personal Top 15 cards ever in Richmond. Join me as I count down some of the most exciting thrill packed nights of wrestling action the Mid-Atlantic area ever saw.

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Jim Crockett Promotions put on a memorable card of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on the evening of September 14, 1979. The card included a major title change in the Main Event, plus a couple of other outstanding and intriguing bouts near the top of the card. Even the mid-card and preliminary matches on this night had a lot to offer. It was quite a night at the Richmond Coliseum!



MAIN EVENT—Ken Patera vs. Jim Brunzell

Ken Patera entered the Richmond Coliseum this night as perhaps the most dominant Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion ever. Patera defeated the legendary "Chief" Wahoo McDaniel for the Mid-Atlantic Title in April of 1978. Except for losing the title to strongman Tony Atlas for a very brief time in mid-1978, Patera had essentially held the title for a year and a half when he faced the challenge of "Jumpin’ Jim Brunzell" this night in Richmond. Brunzell had come to the Mid-Atlantic area earlier in 1979 from the AWA, where he had primarily been known as a tag team wrestler. There was a good buildup between Patera and Brunzell leading to their climactic bout in Richmond.

The title switch was set up a couple of weeks earlier on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television program, where Brunzell pinned Patera twice on the same TV show. This scenario was similar to an effective angle done two years earlier between Blackjack Mulligan and Dino Bravo, where Bravo was set up in the same fashion as a legitimate contender to Mulligan’s U.S. Title.

While there was a tremendous size and strength difference between Patera and Brunzell, Jim was able to utilize his speed and quickness to upend Patera and win the Mid-Atlantic Title this night. Patera dominated most of the match and bloodied Brunzell, but Brunzell captured a quick pinfall that ended Ken Patera’s impressive reign as the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. Brunzell would have a decent reign as the Mid-Atlantic Champion, trading the title with Ray Stevens later in 1979 and finally losing the belt for good to the Iron Sheik in the spring of 1980.

 
Ricky Steamboat vs. Jimmy Snuka

This was a "Champion vs. Champion" match. Jimmy Snuka had won the United States Heavyweight Championship two weeks earlier in a tournament. Ironically, Snuka defeated Ricky Steamboat in the finals of that tournament. At this time, Steamboat was the NWA Television Champion. In this match, only Steamboat’s title was at stake as the TV title was always at stake for the first 15 minutes of any match that the champion wrestled. These two put on a spectacular high-flying display that was a sight to behold. This match was non-stop action from the two former friends, who had called themselves the SPC (South Pacific Connection) only months before prior to Snuka turning heel. The match ended on a disqualification from Snuka, but only after the two had thoroughly dazzled everyone in attendance.


Ric Flair vs. John Studd

This was an intriguing match for a number of reasons. By 1979, it was rare indeed to see any Mid-Atlantic card with Ric Flair involved in the third match from the top. It goes to show the strength of this particular card. Flair was about three months into his first Mid-Atlantic run as a "good guy." Ric had brought Studd into the area in late 1978 to collect a bounty that Flair had put on the head of Blackjack Mulligan. The storyline was that Ric was in Hawaii and "discovered" Studd on that trip and brought him back to the Carolinas. Veteran Mid-Atlantic fans would have recalled that Studd was actually the same person as Chuck O’Connor, who had wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions in 1974.

This match was an extremely rare singles confrontation between Flair and Studd, as the two never worked a real program together. The difference in size between these two was staggering, and much like the Brunzell-Patera match, the bigger Studd dominated his smaller foe during much of the match. But by the end of the bout, the quicker Flair began running circles around his bigger opponent and ultimately snared a quick pinfall on the giant Studd.


Brute Bernard & Gene Anderson vs. Johnny Weaver & S.D. Jones

This was a fascinating bout to me, because if you took S.D. Jones out of the equation, you would have had a Jim Crockett Promotions Main Event from the 1960’s! Weaver, Bernard and Anderson were all on the downhill sides of their respective careers at this point in time, but they turned back the clock and put on a good and entertaining show on this evening. Weaver and Jones won the match, but that was secondary in my mind. I recall watching and wondering how many more times would I see these great aging stars wrestle against each other.


Preliminary Matches

It was interesting that a couple of former WWWF World Champions wrestled preliminary matches on this Richmond card. Former WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales teamed with Bob Marcus to defeat Charlie Fulton and David Patterson. Former WWWF Tag Team Champion Tony Garea beat veteran Swede Hanson. I wish that somehow Hanson had been part of the later tag match involving Weaver, Bernard and Anderson! That match would then have truly been a trip down Jim Crockett Promotions "memory lane!" The opening bout saw a rare battle of "good guys" as another old-timer, Abe Jacobs, wrestled to a draw against Coco Samoa.

This event had all the ingredients to place it among the best ever Mid-Atlantic Wrestling cards in Richmond. September 14, 1979 has thus been given the distinction of being placed at number 13 on my all-time list. An unlucky number, but for those who witnessed this card, they count themselves as very lucky!

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Click here for earlier installments of the "Richmond Top 15"


Up Next: #12 - May 1, 1981

Cyclone Negro Faces The Fury

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

One of the stranger segments ever on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television occurred in the WRAL TV studios in Raleigh on June 28, 1978. As announcers Bob Caudle and David Crockett were running down the show’s card, a person in street clothes wedged his way onto the set.

Cyclone Negro (Pinterest)

The unknown gentleman nervously said, “Excuse me Mr. Crockett, my name is Ed Fury, I’m new around here. I’ve been watching this Cyclone Negro. I’ve been trying to get in the NWA for a long time and I think I can beat this Cyclone Negro if I’m just given a chance. I mean, I don’t like this guy at all; I can beat this guy. If I’m just given a chance, I’ll get rid of him for you!”

Incredulously, Crockett responded, “Well Ed, I’ve heard about you…have not seen you wrestle. You have a very good reputation as a professional wrestler and if you want a match I’m sure we can arrange a match.” The awkward exchanged continued with Fury exclaiming, “I’ll take him anywhere, it doesn’t matter…on TV, anywhere. I want him; I want the guy…I’ll get rid of the guy for you. I want him; I want Cyclone Negro.”

Crockett countered, “Well, if you want him bad enough, why don’t you wrestle him here next week?” With his voice cracking, Fury answered, “Anywhere, it doesn’t matter; I want the guy. It doesn’t matter where I get him…I can’t stand this guy!”

While not following up on why Fury despised Negro so much, Crockett did say, “I know the fans would like to see how good you are, and you picked a tough customer in Cyclone Negro.” Fury acknowledged, “He’s tough, I know he’s tough…he’s one of the best in the world but I still want this guy. I’ve got to make my reputation some kind of way and why not start with Cyclone Negro, I don’t like him anyway.”

When Caudle applauded that this bout would be on TV for all to see Fury agreed and said with his voice rising, “Let everybody see it; I’m gonna beat the guy. I don’t care, I want the guy no matter where I get him…I want him!” Crockett then moved to shut down the uncomfortable segment saying, “All right Ed, next week right here on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, you’ll have your chance.” Fury responded, “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Caudle then seemed to almost joke, “Okay, he’s gonna get rid of him for us David! I’m ready and I know the fans are ready and you’re ready.” Crockett answered, “I hope he does.” Caudle then said, “I do too.”

The normally stoic Caudle again seemed to poke at Fury’s surprising TV challenge when Negro and Patera were in the interview area later in the show. Caudle quipped, “All right Ken, and I think we might just quickly make a comment…a young man Ed Fury came by and said he was gonna get rid of this one for us!” Patera laughed it off by countering, “Yeah, he’s an idiot just like the rest of these goofs making these silly challenges; he’ll wind up in the garbage heap like the rest of ‘em.”

In many respects, Patera turned out to be a prophet of sorts as the next week on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV would be remembered for Blackjack Mulligan divulging the contents of Ric Flair’s personal items in the van the two previously owned and not the Cyclone Negro/Ed Fury challenge match. Negro, the U.S. Brass Knucks Champion with manager the Missouri Mauler in tow, who was tabbed the “Brown Bomber” by his crafty mentor, demolished Fury in the televised bout and thoroughly exposed the youngster from Greenville, North Carolina as a pretender rather than a contender.

Fury wrestled throughout the remainder of 1978 in the Mid-Atlantic area as a preliminary wrestler, often appearing on opening matches of cards, and let’s be charitable and say his wins were few and far between. Negro had a short but effective run in Jim Crockett Promotions during part of 1978, occasionally wrestling in main event matches. Negro’s piledriver and knockout punch were truly weapons to be feared. It still remains a mystery why Ed Fury was brought out on TV to publically challenge the “Brown Bomber,” as it was abundantly clear that the only one unleashing the fury between these two would be Cyclone Negro.

Remembering Muhammad Ali Through the Prism of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Exclusive, rare audio recording of Tony Atlas
included within this post.

****************************

When “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali passed away recently, it got me to thinking about Ali’s connections to professional wrestling. Without question, Ali was a big fan of wrestling. In fact, Ali admitted that much of his showmanship outside of the boxing ring had its genesis from the pro wrestling world. And on rare occasions, “The Greatest” even entered the wrestling ring or its immediate environs as an actual participant.

Ali’s connections to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling were not substantial, but nevertheless were noteworthy and memorable in my mind. The final portion of Ali’s in-ring boxing career (1974-1981) intersected with a significant number of years from the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling era.

ABC News

My earliest joint recollection of Ali and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was on November 1, 1975. Traveling to Harrisonburg, Virginia, and what is now called James Madison University (JMU), I had just heard a promo cut by Superstar Billy Graham building a Texas Death Match against Wahoo McDaniel set for November 7, 1975 at the Richmond Coliseum. At JMU, they were showing a replay of the brutal “Thrilla in Manila,” the epic Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight, that had happened a month earlier. On the replay, there were also sound bites from Ali. I couldn’t help but think how Graham and Ali had the same natural charisma, which made you hang onto every word they said. The violence of the fight replay also had me wondering the whole next week if the Texas Death Match in Richmond would be as violent as the boxing match in Manila was. Superstar Graham’s promo certainly suggested that it would be!

During the mid-1970s, when Ali was still a boxing champion or top contender, Ric Flair would occasionally bring up Ali’s name in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling promos. Usually it was in the context of other celebrities of the day, like Joe Namath, Elvis Presley or Burt Reynolds, that the “Nature Boy” would favorably compare himself to. Ric would also take poetic license with some of Ali’s famous lines, and turn them into his own masterpieces. My favorite Ric Flair “Ali-ism” came from the middle of 1975 when Flair told announcer Bob Caudle on a Mid-Atlantic television interview, “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee…and every pretty lady wants a piece of me!!”

Ali’s most famous encounter with a wrestler in the ring was the matchup against Antonio Inoki on June 26, 1976 in Tokyo, Japan. While not tied to Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, I was nevertheless interested in the outcome and remember listening for updates by round on my scratchy transistor radio. The match and resulting “draw” left many unsatisfied, but it did bring Ali back into a wrestling discussion on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling television! Later in the summer of 1976, “Professor” Boris Malenko managed Bolo Mongol, who had just completed a tour of Japan. Malenko bragged that Bolo Mongol had defeated Inoki three times in three different Japanese cities. Malenko hastened to add for the viewing audience, that Inoki was the same man that Cassius Clay (Boris used Ali’s birth name) couldn’t defeat!

What made this segment particularly memorable was that for the only time I could remember, Bolo Mongol actually spoke on Mid-Atlantic TV saying, “Clay could not beat him; I beat him.” I was told much later in time that Bolo Mongol and the Masked Superstar were actually the same person. At first I didn’t believe it, and went back to the audio I had of that Bolo Mongol statement…and yes, it was clearly the same voice as that of the Masked Superstar!

Tony Atlas and Muhammad Ali  (Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine)

The popular strongman from Roanoke, Virginia, Tony Atlas, also had a Mid-Atlantic connection with “The Greatest” during Tony’s second stint in the Mid-Atlantic area in 1978. Atlas and Ali made a joint appearance of sorts in an edition of a Mid-Atlantic Magazine that was sold in the territory’s arenas in 1978! Posing for a photo together as part of a Friendship Force International function, both Tony and Ali seemed very happy in promoting the “peace through friendship” agenda that the Friendship Force espouses and acts on, by bringing diverse people from all over the world together.

But what comes to mind for me as the most enduring Ali connection with Mid-Atlantic Wrestling also happens to involve Tony Atlas, and it was a promo that Tony did with Rich Landrum promoting a bout against Ken Patera, which was a no disqualification match in Charleston, South Carolina set on August 18, 1978.




Exclusive Rare Audio: Tony Atlas Does His Best Muhammad Ali (Local Promo with Rich Landrum)

Mark Eastridge Collection

Doing his best Muhammad Ali impersonation and in perfect Ali cadence, to the point that I thought “The Greatest” had entered the Mid-Atlantic area for one night to battle the dastardly Patera for the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title, Atlas exclaimed, “Everybody’s always talkin’ about Ken Patera, sayin’ Ken Patera is strong…Ken Patera lift a whole lotta weight. Eveybody know Ken Patera lift five hundred pounds. Let me tell you something Ken Patera, when I get you in the ring daddy I’m gonna float like a butterfly and I’m gonna sting like a bee…Patera, your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see!”

Without taking a breath, Atlas continued, “I gonna hit you in your mouth, there ain’t no doubt. Patera, if you come out there I’m gonna put you out! Now Patera, I know you got the title; I want the title. But this is p-funk! Electrify, personify and satisfy daddy! So I’m gonna boogie down; I gotta do it! I am the people’s champion… I’m not the Mid-Atlantic champion… I wanna be the Mid-Atlantic Champion. I want the title daddy; I want some of you to go along with it! We gonna get down, right there daddy! All of it’s gonna happen. P-funk, excitement, pandemonium in the air…Patera come on out, daddy we’re gonna get down, we gotta get down, we’re gonna get down.”

Tony wrapped up the interview reiterating, “Patera, I want the title; I want some of you to go along with it. 500 pounds is gonna be hittin’ back, 500 pounds is gonna be boogying with ya daddy! Patera, you got the title, you ain’t gonna keep the title! I want you Patera; it’s gonna be p-funk. P-funk, excitement...I gotta get there! I’m goin’ there now. Bye ya’ll, I’ll meet you there…"

With Muhammad Ali’s recent death, the tie-ins between the legendary boxer and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling immediately started coming back to me. While the connections might be few in number, they have stuck with me for around four decades. But more than anything else, thinking about them together again, confirmed to me that both Muhammad Ali and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling were each truly, “The Greatest.”

Mid-Atlantic's Dick Murdoch was "Sensational"

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

For about eight months in 1978, fans of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling had the good fortune of watching the ring escapades of “Sensational” Dick Murdoch from Waxahachie, Texas. Despite his very brief tenure in the territory, Murdoch made his presence felt, and left a lasting impression on everybody that saw him wrestle while he was in Jim Crockett Promotions.

Murdoch was a fan favorite during his 1978 stint in the Mid-Atlantic area, but interestingly he first appeared in the territory for several appearances around the Thanksgiving holiday in 1977, and wrestled as a “bad guy.” Dick must have gotten the “evilness” out of his system, because when he reappeared in February of 1978, he was a salt of the earth and good ol’ country boy “good guy.” In fact, Murdoch embraced being called a “redneck,” and the fans couldn’t get enough of it!

From his entry into the area in 1978, the promotion christened Murdoch with the “Sensational” moniker, and if you only looked skin deep at Dick, you might have wondered how or why. However, the old adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover definitely applied to Dick Murdoch. Ken Patera once described Murdoch as having “buggy-whipped arms, concave chest, a toothless mouth, spindly legs and a pot belly.” That description belied the fact that Dick was deceivingly strong, tremendously agile for a six foot four inch 285 pound man and could cut a promo with the best of them.

Dick’s coming out party for Jim Crockett Promotions came on a March 15, 1978 television taping, where fellow Texan Wahoo McDaniel had been left without a tag team partner due to the absence of Ken Patera. Wahoo went out of the TV studio and came back with Murdoch, who screamed out, “This ain’t gonna take long!” The opponents, NWA World Tag Team Champion’s Ric Flair and Greg Valentine dismissed Murdoch’s involvement as just a redneck off the street. The champs were in for a big surprise!

Murdoch ran circles around Flair and Valentine for much of the match, and then was able to catch Ric in his patented “brain buster” finishing hold. Dick dropped Flair right on his head, stunning the “Nature Boy” and leading to a quick three count! The Texans were riding high, while the World Tag Team Champions were left in stunned disbelief. Dick Murdoch had made believers of the Mid-Atlantic fans on this night!

As the calendar moved to April of 1978, Murdoch made amends with a former adversary from Texas, big Blackjack Mulligan. Blackjack and Ric Flair had split in the famous “Hat and Robe” angle, and Mulligan became the immediate target of a $10,000.00 bounty put out on him by the “Nature Boy.” In time, Murdoch came to Mulligan’s side, and the two were partners in many a tag team bout where the Bounty was at stake through the spring and early summer of 1978. Mulligan and Murdoch’s bond became so tight,that they in time started to call themselves the “M & M Boys,” after baseball’s Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.

During the summer of 1978, Murdoch turned to doing some sporadic TV announcing with George Scott as the permanent new host for the World Wide Wrestling television show had not been finalized. Dick was both informative and entertaining in this short broadcasting stint, but he made it clear to the fans that his forte was wrestling in the ring, not talking about it.

The summer of 1978 also saw Murdoch make a strong bid for Ric Flair’s United States Heavyweight Title. Murdoch and Flair went around to the territory’s big towns, and put on action-packed and highly entertaining championship bouts. Flair held onto his prized title, but often times only by the slimmest of margins.

As great as the Flair-Murdoch U.S. Title bouts were, the verbal lead-up to them was nearly as good. Dick, wearing a “Tri-County Fertilizer” baseball cap, said Flair reminded him of one of those words, and it wasn’t Tri-County! Ric responded that Murdoch was a “dirt farmer,” and further that he was “a redneck personified.” Dick responded the Flair looked “like a bellman at the Waldorf Astoria.” And on and on it went!

After Murdoch’s U.S. Title run petered out, the M & M Boys turned their attention to the new NWA World Tag Team champions, Baron von Raschke and Greg Valentine, and Dick also wrestled tags with other partners. The M & M Boys also turned Virginia Beach, Virginia into their own personal playground in the summer and early fall of 1978, where Murdoch earned the nickname “hammer-head.” When his Virginia Beach escapades got mentioned on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV, Murdoch told announcer Bob Caudle with a gleam in his eye, “Yeah, the M & M Boys kinda found a home up there.”

When October 27, 1978 rolled around, Baron von Raschke and Greg Valentine put up their World Tag Team Titles against the M & M Boys at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia. Everything suggested pre-match that this could be a monumental night...a title change was in the air! Unfortunately, it was monumental but not for the reasons many thought going in. Instead, it turned out to be Dick Murdoch’s last match in the Mid-Atlantic area. An injury to Murdoch at the hands of Raschke and Valentine forced Mulligan to carry Murdoch back “across the Red River” into Texas to heal up. Dick Murdoch never wrestled in the Mid-Atlantic area again.

The self-proclaimed “King of the Rednecks” whose favorite food was “Lone Star beer” had a much too short run in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. But nobody squeezed more exciting wrestling, entertainment and all around good times into such a tiny window of time. Dick Murdoch may have only registered as a “blip” overall on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling radar screen, but he was a SENSATIONAL “blip” that I will never forget.

Ken Patera: A Tale of Two Very Different Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling Runs (Part Two)

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

PART TWO       (Catch up on Part One here.)

In February of 1978, exciting news broke on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television that Ken Patera was returning to the Mid-Atlantic area! Patera’s first television matches had him positioned as a “good guy,” but a subtle change in Ken’s personality and ring demeanor was evident from the wrestler Mid-Atlantic fans remembered in 1975. And that long blonde hair was hard to get used to! For instance, when Ken was paired with Johnny Weaver in a tag team match on TV, Ken gave credit to Johnny for securing the win, but in the same breath said the World’s Strongest Wrestler could have beaten both opponents by himself!

On the March 15, 1978 TV tapings at the WRAL studios in Raleigh, a few more eyebrows were raised regarding the returning Ken Patera. A main event tag team match was promoted at the start of the broadcast, the scheduled participants being Patera and Wahoo McDaniel against the tandem of Ric Flair and Greg Valentine. However, when it was time for the bout to begin, Patera was nowhere to be seen. The explanation given to the fans was that Patera had encountered travel problems. But the end result was that Wahoo was left without a partner against two diabolical opponents. Luckily for McDaniel, “Sensational” Dick Murdock substituted in as Wahoo’s partner, and in fact, the “good guy” team scored an upset win over Flair and Valentine!

Fast forward two weeks to the taping of the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV show on March 29, 1978, and this time Patera was paired with fan favorites Paul Jones and Ricky Steamboat against the ferocious team of Ric Flair, Greg Valentine and Cyclone Negro. The bout started off normally, but things started to change quickly. The first sign of trouble was when Jones went to make a tag to Patera, and rather than tag with Paul, Ken suggested Jones stay in the ring longer. That prompted an incredulous color commentator David Crockett to note, “Jones knows when he’s tired.”

As the match continued, Patera had Greg Valentine in a compromising position in his own corner, but rather than laying into Greg, Ken kept yelling, “GET UP VALENTINE,” all the while allowing Valentine to back pedal and make a tag to his partner Ric Flair! This conduct really had everybody scratching their heads. David Crockett even mentioned Ken’s “bad guy” stint in the WWWF saying, “his style was very different up there.” A perplexed Bob Caudle in his play-by-play role countered, “Maybe he’s bringing some of that style in here with him.”

It didn’t take long for the match to break down completely, with all six wrestlers in the ring at the same time. Rather than fight the “bad guys,” Patera started dropping elbows on his partner, Paul Jones! In response, Bob Caudle exclaimed, “PATERA…HE TURNED AGAINST HIS OWN TEAM, DAVID…I DON’T BELIEVE IT!!” David Crockett countered, “I DON’T BELIEVE IT!!” Luckily for Jones and Steamboat, Dick Murdock intervened and kept the carnage in the ring from being any worse.

When interviewed after the match with his new friends Ric Flair, Greg Valentine, Cyclone Negro and the Missouri Mauler, Patera was clearly relishing his new role as a Mid-Atlantic rulebreaker. Flair and Valentine were singing Ken’s praises, telling him he made the right career move by turning on his former friends. Ken called Jones and Steamboat “losers,” and said further that, “It’s always refreshing to be on the right side!” Patera concluded his first “bad guy” interview by saying, “When I left here I left as a winner, and I’m coming back ten times stronger!”

To cement Patera’s “heel turn,” Ken was matched up with Joe Furr, a perennially lower card “good guy” grappler, on the next edition of the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television show that was taped on April 5, 1978. To hear the fans in the WRAL TV studios boo Patera then was a surreal moment. The World’s Strongest Wrestler went out of his way to punish the overmatched Furr, before finally putting him out of his misery with the vicious swinging neck breaker submission hold.

After the lopsided bout with Furr, Bob Caudle denounced Patera’s change of attitude and called him a “turncoat,” to which Patera responded that he had just become “very aggressive” in the ring, and he was just evening the score against wrestlers like Paul Jones and Mr. Wrestling, who had let him down three years ago when they were in the Mid-Atlantic area together.

It didn’t take Patera long to prove that his transition to the “dark side” had some career benefits associated with it. On April 9, 1978 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ken defeated the immensely popular Indian Wahoo McDaniel for the prestigious Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title. It was the first championship that Patera had ever held for Jim Crockett Promotions. Ken laughed that Wahoo was out of shape and over-the-hill, and turned back rather easily several challenges from the “Chief” in rematches during the spring of 1978.

Patera then embarked on a remarkable run with the Mid-Atlantic Title, holding it nearly continuously until being dethroned by Jim Brunzell in Richmond, Virginia on September 14, 1979. This upset occurred after “Jumpin’ Jim” had pinned Ken twice in non-title bouts during one TV show a few weeks earlier, which seemed to foreshadow the end of Patera’s extraordinary title reign.

But it’s hard not to marvel at how dominant Patera was during his Mid-Atlantic Title reign for most of 1978 and 1979. The only blemish was a four week spell during the fall of 1978 when Tony Atlas took the belt from Ken, only to have Patera come back at beat Tony for the Title in Atlas’ hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. The feud between the two weightlifters, Atlas and Patera, was an entertaining one. It even brought out Patera doing new feats of strength, including bending a spike, a steel bar and blowing up a hot water bottle until it burst on Mid-Atlantic TV! Atlas was able to match those feats, and the “good versus evil” battle between Atlas and Patera to see who should be called the “World’s Strongest Wrestler” captivated the Mid-Atlantic fans!

For a portion of the time Patera was the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion, he also held the unusual distinction of holding one-half of the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles with his partner “Big” John Studd. Ken’s reign as a tag team champion ran from December of 1978 through the spring of 1979, and while this reign wasn’t terribly historically significant, it was quite unusual for the promotion to allow any competitor to hold more than one title at any given time.

Until Ken ran into the buzz saw named Jim Brunzell, Patera’s biggest threat to his Mid-Atlantic belt in 1979 came from the Italian sensation, Dino Bravo. Ken insulted Bravo calling him a “spaghetti bender” and a muscle-head who could lift a “ton,” but couldn’t spell it! Patera even put up a purse early in the year, adding fifty dollars for each TV opponent who couldn’t pin him or make him submit, and while Bravo made a strong play for the cash, Ken’s chicanery along with help from his partner John Studd, kept the money and title belt just barely outside the reach of Dino.

After Ken’s stunning defeat at the hands of Jim Brunzell, it was unclear what program Patera would embark upon next. In a bit of a surprise, in October of 1979 the articulate Patera took on the services of the great icon “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers as his manager. At the time, Rogers was managing the wild tandem of John Studd and Jimmy Snuka. This alliance had Ken team up with Studd, Snuka AND Rogers in some wild 8-man tag team matches. But just as Ken was getting settled in with Rogers as his manager, he abruptly left the Mid-Atlantic area in early November.

Unlike many wrestlers who would frequent the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling area multiple times over the years, Ken Patera never came back to Jim Crockett Promotions after his second stint. That leaves Ken with two very noteworthy, but very different, runs in the Mid-Atlantic area about two years apart. In many respects, the Ken Patera the fans saw in 1975 and then again in 1978 was like the difference between night and day. Which version was better? That’s certainly open to legitimate debate. But one thing is not open to debate…Ken Patera was a phenomenal performer whenever he wrestled in the Crockett territory, whether as a hero or as a villain, and that he left a legacy of excellence for all Mid-Atlantic fans to remember.

Ken Patera: A Tale of Two Very Different Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling Runs

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

PART ONE

An exciting newcomer by the name of Ken Patera came onto the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling landscape in February of 1975. Ken came to the territory with great credentials, primarily from the world of amateur weightlifting. Ken won a gold medal at the Pan American games in 1971, and participated in the 1972 Olympic Games in the sport of weightlifting. Patera, rightly so, was introduced as “Wrestling’s Strongest Man” during his first Mid-Atlantic stint, which lasted for about a year.

The Ken Patera of 1975 and early 1976 was a friendly, soft spoken and educated man, often referring to the fact that he had attended Brigham Young University in his interviews. Despite all of his credentials, Ken was exceedingly modest, a trait that seemed to endear him to the Mid-Atlantic fans. Patera showcased his strength in a number of incredible feats of strength shown on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television show in the spring and summer of 1975. The most memorable of these feats was Ken holding back a pickup truck, his back against a wall with his feet against the bumper, with announcer Les Thatcher having the vehicle in reverse, flooring the accelerator with smoke bellowing from the screeching tires!

Patera’s in-ring feats were also noteworthy during his first stint with Jim Crockett Promotions. Ken was an excellent tag team wrestler, and came close numerous times to dethroning World Tag Team Champions Gene and Ole Anderson with a series of partners from the “good guy” side of the fence. On the singles side of things, Patera had interesting feuds with none other than Johnny “The Champ” Valentine during the spring and summer of 1975, and with Blackjack Mulligan and Steve Strong during the fall of 1975.

Patera tricked Valentine on a TV segment where Johnny was putting lower card wrestlers’ names in a fish bowl, saying he would randomly draw a name out and give the lucky man a shot at his 2000 silver dollars. Valentine’s 2000 silver dollar TV challenge was legendary around the area at this time. During a commercial break, Ken exchanged all the names in the fish bowl with his own name, and Valentine about had a coronary when he drew the name “KEN PATERA” out of the fish bowl! This led to a silver dollar match on TV where Ken had Johnny flat out in the ring at the 10 minute mark, but the referee decided that Valentine didn’t submit so the “Champ” kept his money.

The two battled evenly in the areas’ arenas over the next few months, with Patera getting a number of shots at Johnny’s prestigious United States Title. These bouts had tremendous intensity, and often revolved around Patera cinching Valentine in a headlock or bear hug with his powerful arms sapping the strength out of the “Champ.” Valentine would often somehow manage to pull out a victory, but Ken typically walked out of the ring immediately while Johnny lay motionless on the canvas for a number of minutes!

Ken’s last major angle during his first run in Jim Crockett Promotions played off of his weightlifting background. In October of 1975, Superstar Billy Graham challenged Patera to a bench press weightlifting contest on TV. Graham put forth his friend, the muscular Mid-Atlantic newcomer Steve Strong, to actually participate in the competition. By the time the contest actually took place, a couple of weeks later, Blackjack Mulligan had joined Patera and Strong in the contest to see who could bench press the most weight. After the weight had risen to over 400 pounds, Mulligan and Strong attacked Patera as he was attempting to lift, with the result being that the weight crashed down on Ken’s neck and chest. Patera was out of action for about a week, but it was amazing that he wasn’t hurt more seriously. This incident led to a brief feud in November and December where Patera attempted to exact revenge on Mulligan and Strong.

The “World’s Strongest Wrestler” was then deemphasized and left the Mid-Atlantic area in February of 1976. Other than making a couple of “guest” appearances in the territory later in the year, Mid-Atlantic fans didn’t see Patera again in the territory until the early months of 1978. During the interim, fans saw Ken participate in the CBS “World’s Strongest Man” contest and for the fans that read the national wrestling magazines, they saw that Patera was wrestling in the WWWF territory in the northeast.

The Ken Patera that was wrestling in New York was a far different grappler than the one Mid-Atlantic fans grew to love in 1975, in appearance, personality and wrestling style. The hair had become long and blonde, the modesty had been replaced by arrogance and the scientific wrestling had been replaced by ruthless rulebreaking. The question then became, if Ken Patera came back to the Mid-Atlantic area, which version of the Olympic strongman would we get? It wouldn’t take long to find out!


... To be continued in Part Two Next Week!