The Swedish Killers!

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

What a great old newspaper ad this is from Asheville, NC, in 1967, written by promoter Paul Winkhaus. Winkhaus was the local promoter for Jim Crockett Promotions in the Greenville and Asheville area, and he put a lot of thought (and drama) into his newspaper advertisements at the time.

 
The main event was the team of George and Sandy, the popular "Flying Scott Brothers" versus the "Swedish Mat Killers" Lars and Gene Anderson.

THE SCOTTS FACE KILLER SWEDES IN THIS HOT TAG MATCH! PRESTIGE AND MAT RATINGS AT STAKE!

Killer Swedes! Can Flying Scotts compete with Killer Swedes? The card also featured Chippewas, Shawnees, Bulldogs, Mummies, and Panchos!

What a great main event featuring brother team vs. brother team. We're big fans of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew (and the Scott brothers for that matter), so we loved seeing this ad.

A great period in the 1960s and a hot card at the old Asheville City Auditorium.

See T.V. Wrestling each Saturday 5 PM on channel 4!

Thanks to Andy McDaniel for forwarding this newspaper ad to us. 

Originally Published in November of 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

The Original Minnesota Wrecking Crew

This is the original Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Gene and Lars Anderson, years before "baby brother" Ole came on the scene. One of the great tag teams of the mid-to-late 1960s that does not get its proper due.

Blooper! Lard Anderson! (1966)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Another classic Anderson Brothers blooper, this one from Johnson City, TN, in March of 1966. Tennessee legend Whitey Caldwell went to a 15-minute draw with LARD Anderson!

Mark Eastridge adroitly pointed out we now have a complete Anderson Brothers Blooper Trifecta, wrestling in some alternate parallel universe, as JEAN, OLD, and LARD Anderson. (Check out those earlier Bloopers if you haven't already seen them.)

Of course, the result in the newspaper should read LARS Anderson. It's an honest typo. After all, the "d" and the "s" are next to each other on the qwerty keyboard. 

There is some interesting Anderson Brothers history around this March 1966 card from a historical timeline perspective. Larry Heinemi had only been working under the name Lars Anderson for a matter of weeks at this point. He and Gene Anderson had just teamed up and left the AWA for the Nashville territory, and worked for Welch/Gulas for about three months before making their team-debut for Jim Crockett Promotions in in May of 1966.  In this clipping, we are seeing the earliest period of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew. There was no Ole Anderson yet; that would come two years later. The birth of the team was Gene and Lars, and that team was just weeks old at the time of this card in Johnson City, TN. (All of that history is laid out month by month in the early timeline of our book "Minnesota Wrecking Crew.")

Thanks as always to Mark Eastridge. His ongoing research found this great blooper!

See a list of all the earlier bloopers here.

 

Best Of: With Ric Flair, It's "All in the Family"

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It's probably fair to say that in the storybook world of pro-wrestling, especially back in the territory days, worked family connections were just as common as bonafide family relationships.

For all the Funks, Briscos, and Von Erichs there were just as many Valiants, Fargos, and Andersons.

Ric Flair and Rip Hawk
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions
(Photo by Bill Janosik)

Sometimes wrestling would even take an actual truthful family relationship (like father and son Johnny and Greg Valentine) and create a worked relationship (Johnny and Greg Valentine as brothers in the mid-1970s.)

But then there is the case of the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Flair would for a short time be a member of two different wrestling families soon after arriving to Jim Crockett Promotions.

Ric Flair arrived in Charlotte in May of 1974, debuting for Jim Crockett Promotions against Abe Jacobs at the Charlotte Coliseum on Monday night, May 13.

Within two weeks, booker George Scott was toying around with different ways to align Flair to begin his slow push. There were two family relationships that sprung up almost at the same time.

Ric was first said to be the nephew of Rip Hawk, the "blond bomber" who had a notorious reputation in the area going back more than a decade. George Scott teamed Hawk and Flair up early, only a few weeks after Flair arrived, and the two would soon win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team championship from Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers on the Fourth of July in Greensboro. Flair's star was quickly on the rise.

But during that same time, the story was also floated on TV and in newspaper promos that Flair was a cousin of Gene and Ole Anderson, playing off the fact they were all three from Minnesota.

A newspaper article written in advance of a 5/24/74 show in Burlington, NC, listed the matches for the upcoming card, and included this:

"Singles action has Ric Flair, a relative of the Anderson Brothers, facing Billy Ashe."

Three days later on 5/27 in Greenville, SC -- exactly two weeks after his debut - - Flair and Rip Hawk teamed for the first time, getting an upset win of sorts over area veterans Nelson Royal and Danny Miller. Flair's push was on.  Less than seven weeks later, they won the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles.

We've joked over the years that if Flair was Rip Hawk's nephew and he was also Gene and Ole Anderson's cousin, then that must have meant that Rip Hawk and the Anderson Brothers were somehow related.

Try to figure out that family tree!

Wait ... we did.

Extensive genealogical and ancestral research has unearthed the following information:

1. There was a family of Andersons that immigrated to Minnesota from Sweden in the late 1800s. The patriarch was Noah Anderson. He and his wife Elsa had four children, two boys and two girls.
2. Their first son, Nils Anderson, married and had four sons of his own: Gene, Lars, Nils Jr., and the youngest Ole. All became pro wrestlers.
3. Their first daughter, Alma Anderson, married a Minnesota physician named Morgan Flair. They had a son named Richard "Ric" Flair who also became a pro-wrestler. (This makes Ric a first cousin to the four Anderson brothers by blood.)
4. The second daughter, Catherine Anderson, married a pro wrestler named Harvey "Rip" Hawk. (This makes Rip an uncle by marriage to Ric Flair and, as an aside, an uncle by marriage to the four Anderson brothers, too. Apparently Rip never wanted to publicly acknowledge them.)
5. Unrelated to this article, but to finish out the family tree, Noah and Alma's second son, Liam Anderson, had a son named Arn, which makes Arn blood cousin to the four Anderson brothers and Ric Flair, and as it works out, also a nephew by marriage to Rip Hawk. Liam and his wife Lesa Anderson moved to Georgia when Arn was just a baby, which might explain Arn's south-Georgia accent (as well his penchant for uttering classic southern phrases like "If I tell you a grasshopper can pull a freight train, hook him up!")

This research illustrates the uncle-nephew relationship between Rip Hawk and Ric Flair and the cousin relationship with the Anderson brothers. Ahhh, the many wonders of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling lore.

Mythical Anderson Family Tree (Click to see larger image.)

Confused? Don't worry. As Ole Anderson would say, this is all horsesh*t. And it may go quite the way of making the argument that I had way too much free time on my hands when writing this.

Originally published May 23, 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. 

Updated with Family Tree diagram in 2019

Swedish Killers!

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

What a great old newspaper ad this is from Asheville, NC, in 1967, written by promoter Paul Winkhaus. Winkhaus was the local promoter for Jim Crockett Promotions in the Greenville and Asheville area, and he put a lot of thought (and drama) into his newspaper advertisements at the time.

 
The main event was the team of George and Sandy, the popular "Flying Scott Brothers" versus the "Swedish Mat Killers" Lars and Gene Anderson.

THE SCOTTS FACE KILLER SWEDES IN THIS HOT TAG MATCH! PRESTIGE AND MAT RATINGS AT STAKE!

Killer Swedes! Can Flying Scotts compete with Killer Swedes? The card also featured Chippewas, Shawnees, Bulldogs, Mummies, and Panchos!

What a great main event featuring brother team vs. brother team. We're big fans of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew (and the Scott brothers for that matter), so we loved seeing this ad.

A great period in the 1960s and a hot card at the old Asheville City Auditorium.

See T.V. Wrestling each Saturday 5 PM on channel 4!

Thanks to Andy McDaniel for forwarding this newspaper ad to us. 

Also published in November 2022 on the mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Classic Poster Friday: All Three Anderson Brothers - 50 Years Ago Today

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Lexington NC  June 15, 1968

This week's Classic Poster goes all the way back to June 15, 1968 in Lexington, NC - - fifty years ago today! It's an especially rare poster because it features all three Anderson brothers in a six man contest.

That Saturday night at the Lexington YMCA, home of so many exciting weekly cards in that town over many years, Gene and Lars Anderson were joined by their little brother Ole to battle Paul Jones, Nelson Royal and Chief Little Eagle.

Alan "Rock" Rogowski had arrived in Charlotte just five days earlier and made his debut as the third brother in the Minnesota Wrecking Crew. Yes, Ole Anderson had arrived. It began a 4-month period where all three Anderson brothers were in the Crockett territory at the same time, wrestling in several six-man features over that time period.

Although special for its rarity, a small disappointment was a photo placed in error of the Torres brothers (looks like them, anyway) instead of the Anderson Brothers.  

MINNESOTA WRECKING CREW
Lars, Gene, and Ole Anderson

It was a small window of time to see all three of these brothers together. Lars left Jim Crockett Promotions to return to the AWA in October of 1968, just four months after Ole first arrived. From that point forward, the main Anderson team would be Gene and Ole Anderson, and that team would dominate the tag team scene in the area for the next 14 years.

As far as this big night in Lexington, here's the back story leading up to the this six-man tag team main event:

Over previous weeks, Gene and Lars Anderson had fought to several disputed tag-team decisions with Texas heroes Paul Jones and Nelson Royal. In hopes of providing a clear winner in the series of skirmishes, special stipulations were added to the final bout scheduled between the two teams on Saturday, June 8, 1968.  One stipulation was that the match be fought under no-disqualification rules. The second stipulation provided that Chief Little Eagle, who had his own history with the Anderson Brothers in Lexington, be assigned by the NWA as a special referee. Jones and Royal won the match, but the Andersons charged that it had been with the help of the special referee, and the brothers challenged Jones and Royal to take Eagle as their partner the following week and they would bring in a special partner of their own - - their brother Ole Anderson who had just entered the territory.

"With all the argument, a six-man has been arranged this week. Little Eagle will join Royal and Jones while another Anderson - brother to Gene and Lars - will complete the other team. Ole is moving into the territory and has a reputation as being just as rough as his brothers." - Lexington Dispatch Newspaper

The results of the wild six-man action can be read in the Lexington Dispatch article below.

Also of note is the preview of the following week's card which saw Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods) make his debut in Lexington.

Special thanks to Mark Eastridge for the newspaper clipping and Brad Anderson for the photo of the Anderson Brothers, from his father's personal collection. The poster is from the Mid-Atlantic Gateway collection.

Becker and Weaver vs. The Andersons (Norfolk 1967)

Here is some rare vintage audio: a 45 sec. clip from Norfolk, VA, promoting an upcoming card on October 26, 1967 at the Norfolk City Arena (as seen in the newspaper ad above.).

The promo aired during "All Star Wrestling" on WAVY-TV channel 10 in Norfolk. We don't know who the narrator is, perhaps an employee of the station. He's likely local, though, as he clearly has that eastern Virginia accent...."Nawfolk." Love it.

What a great looking newspaper ad, too, we love this design. Take a look at those 1967 ringside prices.

George Becker and Johnny Weaver vs. Lars and Gene Anderson in a two-of-three falls main event. The dynamic team of Les Thatcher and Rudy Kay in support. Didn't get much better than that in 1967.

Lars Anderson Would Kick Santa in the Teeth

ST. CLOUD TIMES  
by Bob O'Connell
St. Cloud Times Staff Writer, December 18, 1968

A brassy new Buick will roll down St. Germain Wednesday evening, and behind the wheel will ride a former Granite City resident who Is one of the most hated, successful men in sports.

His name is Larry Heiniemi, better known to professional wrestling fans as Lars Anderson. With former All-American football player and fellow St. Cloud State College alumnus Les Wolff, the two will bring more than 500 pounds of brawn to the wrestling card that starts at 8:30 in the St. Cloud Armory.

Profits of the match will go to the St. Cloud State athletic scholarship fund.

Lars is a villain, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

In the last 18 months, his furiously competitive profession has taken him to tobacco country, where he has received the same heartfelt welcome from the Bible Belt as Sherman got at Atlanta. It is more of a truism in wrestling than in any other sport that nice guys finish last, with the exception of Vern Gagne, Larry's first trainer.

At the box, where it counts, the big folding green goes to the guys who push old ladies down in the street and resort to the roughest, basest tactics to win in the ring.

Wednesday night with Larry "Pretty Boy" Hennig, will be teamed a vicious, hulking half of "The Minnesota Wrecking Crew" tag team that terrorized the Southeast for 18 months. But the crowd will also be looking at a 1964 Olympic Wrestling team inductee. Lars Andersen knows his wrestling.

Besides a handful of Midwest AAU titles, Heiniemi also won the Canadian National Wrestling Championship in 1985 and took all NIC honors in football.

Why the name change to Anderson?

"My last name was too difficult for people to spell and remember in the South, and now that I'm back wrestling in Minnesota, I don't want to change back because half the wrestling world now knows me as Anderson," he explained.

Anderson has come a long way way since be first stood before Vern Gagne in the summer of 1966, a skimpy 215 pounds. Gagne set up a makeshift ring on his farm that summer and put him through his paces. After eight weeks of learning to fall, move, defend himself and pile on pounds without adding fat, Heiniemi was finally unveiled by his tutor In the Twin Cities.

His determination is obvious in and out of the ring, and it is comforting to know that, in a world of flower children and psychedelic love, the world is not all full of good fairies. There are still a few guys around who would unabashedly kick Santa in the teeth to be No. 1.

* * * * *

ALL STAR WRESTLING

December 18, 1968 - St. Cloud Armory

Benefit for the St. Cloud State College Scholarship Fund

MAIN EVENT

Lars Anderson & Larry Hennig vs. Cowboy Bill Watts & Billy Red Lyons 

2-of-3 Falls, 60 minute time limit

OPENING BOUT

Les Wolff vs. Mike Riker

SPECIAL ATTRACTION

Viktor the Bear vs. Chris Markoff

Advance Ticket Outlets: Cecil's Bar, Rip Ripulski's, Little John's Pub

Thanks to Mark Eastridge for sending us this article.

Meet Our Baby Brother: Ole Anderson

The Anderson Brothers Bring in the Baby!
by Richard “Dick Deluxe” Egner
for the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

     In 1966 I was 11 years and old and our family had just moved to rural North Carolina,  In those days television was much simpler-3 networks and TV antennas with aluminum foil on them.  One Saturday afternoon after bemoaning the lack of entertaining shows I stumbled onto a truly life changing event.  It was Championship Wrestling from Charlotte with Big Bill Ward at the microphone.

The Minnesota Wrecking Crew: Gene and Lars Anderson

     I vaguely knew wrestling existed, when we were younger and living in Wisconsin in the late 50's my Dad used to pick up the phone when my brother and I got too rowdy and pretend he was calling “The Whipper”.  The mere implication Whipper Billy Watson was coming over to restore order was enough to straighten us out! (I didn't know who he was but it sounded pretty serious!)

    At any rate Saturday afternoon's became my most anticipated moments of the week.  The shows were filmed at a TV studio in Charlotte and the always avuncular and serious Mr .Ward would always carefully describe the action as evenly as possible-especially considering the dastardly deeds so often perpetuated by what I soon found out were “heels”.

    While the show almost always began with singles bouts, the real action as the hour progressed inevitably was tag team action.  Little could I have imagined that nearly 50 years later the names and memories would remain so vivid. George Becker and Johnny Weaver, Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson, the Scott Brothers, the villainous Infernos with the evil J.C. Dykes as manager, Tex McKenzie and Nelson Royal, Aldo Bogni and Bronko Lubich with their scheming mastermind Colonel Homer O'Dell.

    But perhaps the scariest and most exciting team was the Anderson Brothers from Minnesota.  Lead by Gene, he and Lars we a cruel and efficient machine and somehow their blend of physicality, brute strength and clever methods of bending the rules made them truly a force.

    As the weeks went by I noticed that at the end of each show there was information on how to attend the TV tapings on Wednesday nights.   Hey Dad!..Sure enough, after some cajoling Dad decided it was time to pack up the car and drive the 90 miles to Charlotte for the show!

   I'm guessing it was spring of 1967 but at any rate we got to the studio and sure enough there was Big Bill Ward! The ring was somewhat smaller than it appeared and the 50 or so fans who attended were crammed in the bleachers very tightly-and boy was that ring close!

    The opening bout featured a “scientific” match between, if I recall correctly, Les Thatcher and the young rookie Bobby Shane. They shook hands and for 10 minutes put on a great demonstration of holds and despite a testy moment or two it was all fair and square.  Somehow right before the 3 count the time limit was up and it was declared a draw!  After a hearty shake of hands it was off to commercial break.

    Prior to match number two, Big Bill strode up to ring side and to my surprise Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson came out for an interview.  Rip did all the talking and while I don't recall the exact fued, it was clear they planned to rip their opponents a new one-and in turn they listed a full schedule of nights of mayhem ahead-Monday in Charlotte at the Park Center, Greenville, South Carolina, Lumberton, Winston Salem and so forth.

    At the time it was not yet “Mid-Atlantic” Wrestling, it was Carolina's Wrestling and it was clear that Mr Jim Crockett and the NWA were in charge! And there were a fair amount of titles at stake on any given bill.  Clearly the Southern Tag Team Belt was the prize possession but also a variety of other belts were at stake including the mysterious and always traveling NWA World Champion who at the time was Gene Kiniski.

    I also about this time discovered national wrestling magazines and soon my walls were filled with pictures of my heroes locally and from territories throughout the USA and worldwide.  AWA? WWWF?  Who was Bruno? Verne Gagne?  Could they beat Kiniski?

    Another great feature was the addition of new talent and after a while via studying the magazines I had a pretty good idea of who these newcomers might be.  When The Missouri Mauler was introduced I felt very superior that I knew his name was Larry Hamilton!  And there was a rumor his brother Jody was one of the Assasins!
   

Lars, Gene, and Ole Anderson

     But of all the memories of my 3 years in North Carolina from 1966 to 1969 the most memorable was the night the Minnesota Wrecking Crew introduced “baby brother” Ole-fresh from the Northwoods of Minnesota.  As rough and tumble as Lars was, Ole somehow seemed meaner and more in tune with Gene.  That first night was a 6 man tag match and while I don't recall who the opponents all were I do remember poor old Lee Bulldog Henning taking a ferocious pounding.

    Within weeks the Andersons were feuding with everyone with extra special heat between them and the hero's of all hero's-George Becker and Johnny Weaver.   At a subsequent taping I have the unforgettable memory of the teams facing off on a special 2 of 3 fall grudge match for TV.  We were there and the buzz in the room was palpable. 

    After a particularly rough and tumble first fall, the lights dimmed and to my surprise both teams-moments before attempting to cripple each other, decamped to beyond the footlights and Geroge Becker and Gene Anderson popped over to ringside to bum a smoke from my Dad!..What?  Anyhow within minutes they were back in and out of the ring pounding each other and the end of course was riddled in controversy.

    Later that summer my family moved to Houston and my love affair with Carolinas Wrestling was replaced by my newfound passion-Houston wrestling promoted by Paul Boesch.  I kept up with the action in North Carolina via the magazines and I continued to follow wrestling closely-eventually I worked for Mr Boesch and for a time was a columnist for The Wrestler magazine (Texas Rasslin roundup!) where I breathlessly recounted the action.

    It's hard to believe 50 years have passed but I have nothing but fond memories of those Wednesday tapings and Saturday afternoon's glued to the TV soaking up every match.  And who could have ever imagined that the introduction of Ole Anderson to the scene would have turned out to been such a historic event and lead to such a long and iconic career,  And I was there!

* * * * *
Richard “Dick Deluxe” Egner is now a 61 year old musician/entertainer based in New Orleans, Louisiana.