"Jim Crockett's All-American Legacy" Looks at U.S. Title Book

Originally Published November 2015

Josh Watko over at JW's Wrestling Memorabilia web site wrote the nicest review for our book "United States Championship."

In the review, titled "Jim Crockett's All-American Legacy" he also said some very nice things about the Mid-Atlantic Gateway website, which is always appreciated, and we're glad he enjoys spending time here.

Josh's website is actually a blog where he regularly spotlights items from his incredible collection of wrestling memorabilia. One of the things I particularly like about his site is that he will post memorabilia related to current events. An example is a recent post about the passing of wrestling legend Nick Bockwinkle that features magazine covers and an action figure from several decades ago, as well as Watko's thoughts and memories of one of wrestling all-time great champions. He also often links his posts to anniversaries of big events from yesteryear such as Starrcade, Wrestlemania, or the Great American Bash.

He also posts about recent books on wrestling, and I am pleased he wrote about "United States Championship."

His review begins:

November 27, 1975. Greensboro, North Carolina. A night of wrestling presented by Jim Crockett Promotions. Terry Funk. Paul Jones. All the ingredients needed for what we would now look upon as a classic night of professional wrestling. Traditional wrestling. Wrestling the way that many still remember as the greatest era in the history of the sport. The one element that I failed to mention? The Funker and Number One were battling over the United States Championship. Funk had just won a tournament for the vacant title while Jones, an icon of Carolina wrestling, was the other wrestler who had made it to the finals. Who won the epic Thanksgiving night rematch? You could go look it up and simply see the result, but I have a better idea. How about learning each nuance of the match. Why it happened, what happened during, and what the ramifications were. This is where a brand new book comes into the picture.

The complete article "Jim Crockett's All-American Legacy" takes a look at the special aspects of the book and serves as a sneak-peak inside the book as well.

Watko wrote this about the Gateway:

The Gateway is a site that I'm sometimes too scared to surf over to. The reason is that I know I'm about to lose an hour or two getting absorbed into the great content covering anything and everything that you ever would want to know about Jim Crockett Promotions and the rich Carolina wrestling history. ... The writing and photography pulls you in and actually almost transports you back to the era that's being described.

I love that. It's what David Chappell and I envisioned when we started the website back in 2000. We hope you just get lost in here.


TO ORDER YOUR COPY OF THIS NEW BOOK:

The book on the U.S. title is available on Amazon.com as well as through the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. Click here for more details.

Gateway Museum: Blackjack Mulligan's Lone Star Hat

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

One of the most prized exhibits in the Mid-Atlantic Gateway museum is the Blackjack Mulligan tribute, which includes Mulligan's own Resistol cowboy hat with the famous Lone Star Beer / shotgun-shells hat band. It sits next to a cast replica of the U.S. title belt in the style that Mulligan wore in when holding the title on multiple occasions from 1976-1978. 

The hat was a special gift from Blackjack Mulligan himself, received on a visit to the "Headlock Ranch" (Florida annex!) back in the mid-2000s. It is a treasured possession, as you might imagine. According to Blackjack, there were only two of those hats with that particular hat band. The other was given to George South by Mulligan on that same visit to Mulligan's home.

The U.S. belt replica was crafted especially for the Gateway museum by Dave Millican. The plates were cast directly from the 1980-1982 version of the belt in cooperation with Sgt. Slaughter, who maintains possession of that 1980 belt to this day. (The original 1976 belt is apparently lost to time.) That 1980 belt was on black leather, but I asked Dave to create a red croc leather to make it resemble the 1976 version the Mulligan held. Dave absolutely nailed that leather, and the look of the belt. Both the original 1976 and 1980 belts were made by famous belt maker and wrestler Alex Mulko, better know by his working name Nikita Mulkovich.

Mulligan's hat sits on a Resistol display pedestal given to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway by Nelson Royal's widow Karen, who cleaned and re-shaped the hat for us at Nelson Royal's Western Store in Mooresville, NC. That was a special gift all on its own.

For more information on the United States Heavyweight Championship in Jim Crockett Promotions and the five belts that represented it from 1975-1988, check out the book in the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Book Store.

T-Shirts

Wrestlers wore some interesting t-shirts back in the day.

Top left: Rocky Johnson (Sweet Ebony Diamond), "Steve Rickard's Gymnasium and Health Clinic, Wellington, New Zealand." Steve Rickard was the NWA promoter in New Zealand and brought many of the top U.S. stars to his promotion down under.

Top right: Dewey Robertson, "Moosehead Beer." Dewey was Canadian and Moosehead was Canada's "proudly independent" brewery. Headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick and still independently owned to this day.

Bottom left: Roddy Piper, "Master." Piper had all sorts of t-shirts, most of  them looked like he had them printed up at a local mall. He had some classics. This wasn't necessarily one of them, but I liked the photo with the pipes and U.S. belt.

Bottom right: Wahoo McDaniel, "The King's Gym - Body Building." No idea where this gym was, but would like to know, so if you have info, smarten us up. Wahoo never spent much time in the gym, but that was only because he was too busy fishing and golfing. One of pro-wrestling's greatest atheltes and according to ost everyone that stood across the ring from him one of the toughest men to ever walk the planet.

Road Jackets for Jim Crockett Promotions (1985)

It would be pretty cool to have a complete collection of these satin jackets today. They were sold by Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985 and 1986, primarily through mail order out of their in-house magazine.

The jackets feature some of the earliest designs for JCP as they worked to get merchandising off the ground in those years.

The wrestlers featured included a team jacket for "America's Team" Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A., as well as individual logos for each of them. Also featured were Ric Flair, Manny Fernandez, and the Rock and Roll Express.

The jackets sold for a whopping $50, which was a lot of money back in the mid-1980s. I'm guessing not a whole lot of them were sold. However, those same logos appeared on caps and t-shirts as well, which likely sold better, especially at the arenas.

My personal favorite, strictly from a design standpoint, was the logo for Dusty Rhodes, which had a great western look and evoked an image that just said "TEXAS" with the star in the center of the letter "O" in Rhodes. The Ric Flair design is great looking, too, and a variation was used in the famous "I Do It With Flair" t-shirt of the same era.

Poster: Mr. Wrestling defends the U.S. Title against Ric Flair

by Brack Beasley
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

For personal reasons this is one of my all time favorite posters. It promotes a card held at the old Winston Salem Memorial Coliseum on Friday, March 31st, 1978. 

First and foremost, I was fortunate enough to be in attendance that night and acquired this poster from the box office where it was taped to the outside of the window. You can see where the tape was removed along both sides. 

Just like most young boys growing up, I had heroes and idols that I aspired to be or be like. First there was Superman, then Batman, but once I saw Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods under the hood of course) on TV for the first time, he was my new superhero. 

This hero was even better because I could see him in person on occasion, reach out and touch him, and get his autograph. He was indeed real unlike the others before. I wish my memory was better but I do recall going home with my best friend from school that day in Mt. Airy, NC and my father picked us up when he got off work. Then down Highway 52 to Winston-Salem we went. Dad even splurged on the ringside seats, probably all of 4 or 5 dollars each at the time, and a current copy of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine was mandatory for a dollar.

The main event of the evening was a match I had dreamed of seeing as Mr. Wrestling defended his newly won United States Heavyweight Title belt against the Nature Boy Ric Flair. Although the poster doesn't mention it being a title match, Mr. Wrestling won the prized championship from Blackjack Mulligan almost two weeks earlier in Greensboro, NC. 

Ricky Steamboat collided with the always tough Cyclone Negro in the semi while the lone tag team event of the evening had Bobo Brazil and Swede Hanson against Crusher Blackwell and Jan Nelson. The undercard consisted of Byron St. John versus Frank Monte and Mr. Sato versus Steve Musulin.

Much to my delight, and to the delight of the many fans in the Coliseum that night, Mr. Wrestling successfully retained his title. Although I don't remember many details of this match, the sight of Mr. Wrestling pinning Flair in the middle of the ring with his trademark standing head cradle as the crowd erupted has never left my mind. What a celebration it was seeing him get his hand raised in victory and being handed back his U.S. belt. Unfortunately, his U.S. title run was brief as Flair eventually won the belt in Charlotte only nine days later.

The horizontal poster layout features full body images of Mr. Wrestling and Brazil on the left and images of Flair, Steamboat, and Hanson on the right with the "Wrestling" splash in the upper left corner. The two tone bright yellow over pink background is eye-catching as well with the main-eventers, date, and locale in high impact red print.

This wasn't the first time I saw Mr. Wrestling in person, nor was it the last, but it was definitely the most memorable and satisfying. I am thankful to have this poster as it is a memento and reminder of such a great night many years ago. 

NO. 27 IN A SERIES

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See also: The Gateway Museum: Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods

U.S. Title Book Review: Jim Crockett's All-American Legacy

Edited from a post originally published in November of 2015 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Josh Watko over at JW's Wrestling Memorabilia web site wrote the nicest review for our  book "United States Championship."

In the review, titled "Jim Crockett's All-American Legacy" he also said some very nice things about the Mid-Atlantic Gateway website, which is always appreciated, and we're glad he enjoys spending time here.

Josh's website is actually a blog where he regularly spotlights items from his incredible collection of wrestling memorabilia. One of the things I particularly like about his site is that he will post memorabilia related to current events. An example is a recent post about the passing of wrestling legend Nick Bockwinkel that features magazine covers and an action figure from several decades ago, as well as Watko's thoughts and memories of one of wrestling all-time great champions. He also often links his posts to anniversaries of big events from yesteryear such as Starrcade, Wrestlemania, or the Great American Bash.

He also posts about recent books on wrestling, and I am pleased he wrote about "United States Championship."

His review begins:

November 27, 1975. Greensboro, North Carolina. A night of wrestling presented by Jim Crockett Promotions. Terry Funk. Paul Jones. All the ingredients needed for what we would now look upon as a classic night of professional wrestling. Traditional wrestling. Wrestling the way that many still remember as the greatest era in the history of the sport. The one element that I failed to mention? The Funker and Number One were battling over the United States Championship. Funk had just won a tournament for the vacant title while Jones, an icon of Carolina wrestling, was the other wrestler who had made it to the finals. Who won the epic Thanksgiving night rematch? You could go look it up and simply see the result, but I have a better idea. How about learning each nuance of the match. Why it happened, what happened during, and what the ramifications were. This is where a brand new book comes into the picture.

The complete article "Jim Crockett's All-American Legacy" takes a look at the special aspects of the book and serves as a sneak-peak inside the book as well.

Watko wrote this about the Gateway:

The Gateway is a site that I'm sometimes too scared to surf over to. The reason is that I know I'm about to lose an hour or two getting absorbed into the great content covering anything and everything that you ever would want to know about Jim Crockett Promotions and the rich Carolina wrestling history. ... The writing and photography pulls you in and actually almost transports you back to the era that's being described.

I love that. It's what David Chappell and I envisioned when we started the website back in 2000. We hope you just get lost in here.


TO ORDER YOUR COPY OF THIS BOOK:

The book on the U.S. title is available on Amazon.com as well as through the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. Click here for more details.

A Briscos/Funks Showcase on Thanksgiving Night in Greensboro: A Night for the Jim Crockett Scholarship Fund (1973)

by Dick Bourne

Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Ticket stub from Thanksgiving Night in Greensboro 1973
Nov. 22, 1973  -  48 years ago!

The Territory's Biggest Night

When Jim Crockett passed away in 1973, the family decided to establish a scholarship in his name. According to a report in the Greensboro News & Record, the traditional Thanksgiving night event in the Greensboro Coliseum was the first in a series of scholarship events to be held in the coming weeks to honor the legacy and memory of James Allen Crockett, Sr. Proceeds from the event would go to that fund.

The Thanksgiving event in Greensboro, which was always a big affair and one of the biggest shows of the year in the entire territory, was particularly loaded that evening. The NWA World champion Jack Brisco was booked to defend the ten pounds of gold against former champion Dory Funk, Jr. in what was another in a series of classic battles between the two wrestlers who defined pro-wrestling in the 1970s. Jack had defeated Harley Race in July of that same year for the title, and the angle now was that Brisco had never defeated his arch-rival Funk, Jr. in a title match.  This was a huge deal at the time and billed as a special event selected for Greensboro. To add even more star power to that main event, former legendary champion Lou Thesz was brought in as special referee for the title contest.

A number of other big names were brought in from outside the area for the show, which wasn't that unusual for big shows in Greensboro. Terry Funk was in to challenge Eastern (by then renamed Mid-Atlantic) Heavyweight champion Jerry Brisco in a battle of the younger brothers who were in the main event that night. Indeed, Thanksgiving night in Greensboro was a Funk vs. Brisco showcase.

Also in for this huge show were the father and son combination of Eddie and Mike Graham. Eddie and Mike were top stars for Championship Wrestling from Florida, and Eddie was also the promoter of that territory. They squared off against one of the Mid-Atlantic territory's top legendary heel tag teams Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson. What a classic brawl that must have been.

Another top star in for the big card that didn't wrestle regularly in the territory was Cowboy Bill Watts. A regular in Georgia and Florida, Watts had made several special appearances in Greensboro that year, but was not a regular member of the Crockett roster.

TRANSCRIPTS

Championships At Stake In Thanksgiving Wrestling  

Thanksgiving night in the Greensboro Coliseum will be wrestling championship night, the finest card ever presented to Piedmont sports fans. 

Jack Brisco, the new world heavyweight title-holder, will risk his crown against Dory Funk Jr. of Texas, the former champion. Funk lost his title some time ago to Harley Race, who in turn was beaten by Brisco ... and Jack Brisco has never beaten Funk in a title match. Lou Thesz, a former world champ, will be the special referee. 

Younger brothers of both champions clash In the Eastern Heavyweight title match. Jerry Brisco, who holds the crown, will take on Terry Funk. Both title features will be one hour time limit.  

This Thanksgiving special, which usually draws the season's largest wrestling crowd at the Greensboro Coliseum, will be the first in a series of Jim Crockett Scholarship Fund events throughout the area. Wrestlers and promoters alike are working to set up a series of college scholarships to honor the late Jim Crockett, regarded as the South's outstanding promoter at the time of his death last spring.  

Other matches include Cowboy Bill Watts versus Beauregard, Bob Bruggers versus El Gaucho and The Destroyer versus Rufus R. Jones. A special tag team match will have Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson against Eddie and Mike Graham. 

Wrestling Set Tonight  

The late Jim Crockett will be honored tonight during professional wrestling in the Greensboro Coliseum tonight involving world champions. 

Lou Thesz, who held the world crown for many years, will referee a match between current champ Jack Brisco and Dory Funk Jr.  Funk lost his title to Harley Race who was beaten by Brisco.

The Eastern Heavyweight title is also at stake with present titlist Jerry Brisco being challenged by Terry Funk. Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson will have a tag team battle against Eddie and Mike Graham and there will be several singles events. 

A Rare Thanksgiving Night Card in Charlotte

With so many big outside names taking the top spots on the Greensboro card, one could easily wonder where the rest of the Mid-Atlantic roster was that night. Typically, Norfolk, VA, also hosted a big card of wrestling on Thanksgiving night. But in 1973, Charlotte instead played host to a rare Thanksgiving night show that, like Greensboro, also featured some special guest stars.

The headline event for the Charlotte Coliseum featured the top two singles stars in the territory at the time, Johnny Valentine vs. Johnny Weaver. In the semi-main event, the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles were on the line as new champions Jay York and Brute Bernard defended against the area's most popular tag-team combination, former champs Sandy Scott and Nelson Royal. As an added bonus, former world boxing champion Joe Louis was in town and had been assigned as special referee for the title contest.

Two big outside names were brought in for the show as well. Area favorite Paul Jones had been campaigning in the state of Florida for the last couple of years and had won the Florida Heavyweight championship. He was in the midst of a red-hot feud with Buddy Colt. The two had traded the Florida title several times during the year of 1973 and now they brought their heated rivalry to Charlotte for Thanksgiving night. The Florida title was not on the line in Charlotte, but it was a bit of a homecoming for Jones who had wrestled on cards throughout the Mid-Atlantic territory for years before moving down to the sunshine state. Charlotte fans were well familiar with the feud because "Championship Wrestling from Florida" was seen on Charlotte area television in those years.

Charlotte's traditional night for wrestling was Monday night, and as a testament to the city's ability to support pro-wreslting, Jim Crockett Promotions returned to the city the very next Monday night 11/26, only four days following the big Thanksgiving night show. The main event back at the cozy confines of the Charlotte Park Center was Johnny Valentine vs. Rufus R. "Freight Train" Jones.

The death of Jim Crockett had saddened the entire Mid-Atlantic area earlier that year, but on this big night Jim Jr., David, Jackie, and Frances did their father proud with one huge night of wrestling in their showcase cities. It was the territory's biggest night of the year and was 1973's shining moment.

  Edited from a post originally published June 30, 2015 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

 

Matt Striker Always Makes Us Smile

Twitter: @badguywrassler

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
EDITED FROM AN ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 22, 2018 

What fun to come across this photo on Twitter of Matt Striker and "Good Ol' J.R." Jim Ross. It was taken at a World Class Revolution wrestling event at Southfork Ranch outside Dallas, Texas. 

Conrad Thompson noticed something about the t-shirt Matt is wearing, and pointed the photo out to me. It is an old Mid-Atlantic Gateway t-shirt which was sold here many years ago. That made me smile. 

A former WWE Superstar and broadcaster, Striker is most recently known in wrestling for being the lead announcer for "Lucha Underground", which aired for four seasons on the El Rey Network. During that time, it was one of my favorite hours of television every week. Although the program showcased modern-day styles in wrestling (along with a heavy dose of superhero/science-fiction story telling), Matt managed to weave many "old school" wrestling references into his commentary on the show, my favorite being a nod to Greg Valentine's famous t-shirt "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" from season one. I always get a kick out of those references. Even though he is a veteran of the pro wrestling business, Matt is at heart an old school wrestling fan like the rest of us. A very nice fellow, as well.

J.R. digs the our little website, too, we're told. He even told Bruce Mitchell once on his podcast that the Gateway was "an icon on my iPad."

We have great respect for both of these gentlemen, so it goes without saying we're honored.

EDITED FROM AN ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 22, 2018

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See also: "For Matt Striker, the Past is Prologue" (A look at a couple of those early Mid-Atlantic references on Lucha Underground.)

Classic Windbreakers for Jim Crockett Promotions (1985)

It would be pretty cool to have a complete collection of these satin jackets today. They were sold by Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985 and 1986, primarily through mail order out of their in-house magazine.

The jackets feature some of the earliest designs for JCP as they worked to get merchandising off the ground in those years.

The wrestlers featured included a team jacket for "America's Team" Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A., as well as individual logos for each of them. Also featured were Ric Flair, Manny Fernandez, and the Rock and Roll Express.

The jackets sold for a whopping $50, which was a lot of money back in the mid-1980s. I'm guessing not a whole lot of them were sold. However, those same logos appeared on caps and t-shirts as well, which likely sold better, especially at the arenas.

My personal favorite, strictly from a design standpoint, was the logo for Dusty Rhodes, which had a great western look and evoked an image that just said "TEXAS" with the star in the center of the letter "O" in Rhodes. The Ric Flair design is great looking, too, and a variation was used in the famous "I Do It With Flair" t-shirt of the same era.

Originally posted February 15, 2017 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

New Tony Schiavone T-shirt Calls Back to a Classic Design from the Past

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

Tony Schiavone has a new t-shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees. Well, I think it's new, it may have been around awhile, but I just came across it. But I marked out a little bit for this. It's a take-off on an old historic, but largely forgotten, classic Jim Crockett Promotions t-shirt sold at the Starrcade '84 event.

Whoever created this design nailed the homage to the original. Bravo.

The original design has a bit of a story to it, as it was the first (and only to my knowledge) "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" t-shirt produced by Jim Crockett Promotions.

Let's be honest, merchandising was never Jim Crockett Promotions' strong suit. The list of marketing and merchandising missed-opportunities makes for a pretty long list.

There had been wrestling programs (Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine) and a few posters (Wahoo, Blackjack, Steamboat to name a few) in the 1970s, but those were only sold at the arenas and were never marketed on TV. 

In 1983, Crockett made a short-lived attempt to capitalize on the success of their first huge closed-circuit event Starrcade '83 by offering the Starrcade '83 photo album and a t-shirt through mail order.

In 1984 came the very first t-shirt sold at the arenas that bared the words of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. And it was the last as far as we know. It was a simple design bearing the name of their follow-up closed-circuit extravaganza, Starrcade '84, with the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling moniker stretched below.

The shirt is very rare, there weren't many made. George South has one in his collection, hanging in his museum. You can occasionaly come across one on Ebay, sometimes going for a high asking price, depending on what shape the t-shirt is in.

Following this 1984 shirt, JCP would introduce their first line of slogan/logo t-shirts featuring their top stars in 1985. The logos were also available on hats, jackets, and bandanas. "I Do It With Flair" is the best remembered of that series, and spurred on a similar t-shirt design for Ric Flair's daughter in the WWE in 2015.

In 1986, a second line of designs were released featuring artistic renderings of their top stars, a trend which continued until the sale of JCP to Ted Turner in 1988.

The Schiavone t-shirt is a very cool item indeed, and we hope to see more things like this that call back to the glory years of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling.  

You can get your own Schiavone Starrcade '84 t-shirt at ProWrestlingTees.com.

Late edit: Kudos to the artist who created this shirt, Ryan D (@highonryan), the creative genius who handles merchandise for Conrad Thompson's wildly popular Ad Free Shows (@adfreeshows) podcasts.

Do It With Flair (Revisited)

In 1985, Jim Crockett Promotions released their first line of commercial merchandise that was based on their wrestlers. They previously had released some event-related t-shirts, but none directly related to the wrestlers themselves. These were sold at the live events as well as through mail order.

Ric Flair's first shirt was a classic. The phrase "I do It With Flair" was boldly emblazoned in sparkling gold on the front of a royal blue t-shirt. This particular shirt was only available for a short period of time in late 1985 and early 1986.

Thirty years later, in 2015, Ric's daughter Ashley, working under the name Charlotte Flair in the WWE, featured a very cool shirt that was a variation on that same theme.

Charlotte's shirt had a two-sided message. On the front it said  "If you're gonna do it..." and then the back says "Do it with Flair."

What an awesome tribute to her Dad and a long forgotten piece of memorabilia from the Crockett days.

We love it!

WWE/NXT Superstar Charlotte Flair in 2015

(The shirt is no longer available at WWEShop.com.)

Edited from an original article published June 16, 2015 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling on the Hampton Coliseum Schedule for December 1985

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

I always marvel looking back at some of the old mainstay venues for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s and how busy those venues were at the time. It sure isn't the same today for many of those that remain, as the larger multi-use facilities have strangled many of the mid-size buildings that once thrived.

 Take a look at this venue event schedule for the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA for December 1985. It is loaded with a wide array of diverse programs, including of course a card of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on Friday night, December 6. Friday was usually Richmond's night if promoter Joe Murnick had his druthers, but with the Church of Christ holding a big dinner there on Saturday night (12/7) and perhaps something else booked in Richmond for 12/6, Hampton took the Friday slot. 

 

The card that night primarily consisted of the "B" circuit at that time, which had been anchored around Jim Cronette and the Midnight Express for most of 1985. Crockett had organized a "second circuit" to run all of the old Georgia towns now that they ran the old Georgia territory. (You will remember they got the WTBS TV slots from the WWF in in April of 1985 and absorbed all of the towns that Ole Anderson and Georgia promoter Fred Ward had been running up until that point.) That second circuit also hit a lot of regular or semi-regular smaller Crockett towns in the Carolinas and Virginia, too, and such was the case this night with Hampton. The "A" team, which consisted of Rhodes, Flair, Magnum, Steamboat (still around), Road Warriros, Andersons, etc., was likely in Charleston, SC perhaps even split over two locations. 

The Crockett crew would undergo some unexpected personnel changes during December involving two people who were no-shows on this particular card in Hampton. Billy Jack Haynes quit the promotion shortly after Starrcade '85, reportedly unhappy with his Starrcade pay-off and his positioning on post-Starrcade cards. More famously (or infamously perhaps) was the situation with Buddy Landel, who had just won the the National Heavyweight title from Terry Taylor at Starrcade and missed an important TV taping where he was reportedly scheduled to get a big push in a big angle, and was fired by Dusty Rhodes soon after. That hadn't happened yet by the night of this 12/6 show in Hampton, but Landel's no-show this night might have been indicative of his growing performance and reliability issues during this time. 

Thanks to George Pantas for forwarding this Hampton venue schedule to us. We love seeing stuff like this!

Ricky Steamboat defends Crockett's U.S. Title in Florida

Flair and Steamboat Travel to Florida for an Extra Payday During Crockett's Christmas Break
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Special Thanks to Mark Eastridge

Mark Eastridge Collection

As I've written about before here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, I always loved when wrestlers with Crockett-area titles defended those belts in other territories. Specifically, the United States heavyweight championship and the NWA world tag team championships were occasionally defended outside the Mid-Atlantic territory in other areas such as Georgia, Florida, and Texas to name a few.

In December of 1977, just a few days before Christmas, Ricky Steamboat took the U.S. title to Championship Wrestling from Florida and successfully defended it in Miami Beach.

He didn't go alone. His top rival for the championship, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, was also booked for Eddie Graham's promotion the same night, but not as the challenger for Steamboat.

It was a bonus payday for both Flair and Steamboat, who were in the middle of what was Jim Crockett Promotions' annual Christmas break. Each year in those days, the Crockett promotion would shut down for two full weeks right before Christmas, returning to action for big shows on Christmas night.

Barry Rose Collection

In 1977, the last Crockett shows before the Christmas break were on Tuesday, December 13 at their regular Tuesday stops in Columbia, SC and Raleigh, NC. The next night, they taped multiple episodes of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Wide World Wrestling" at WRAL in Raleigh, including the annual year-end highlights shows, to get them through the next several weeks of TV while the company was down.

During the Crockett break, Steamboat and Flair took the opportunity to get themselves booked in Florida exactly one week later, on 12/21/77 at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.

Steamboat was the reigning U.S. champion at this time, having defeated Flair for the prestigious belt  in Greensboro, NC in October. He defended the title that night in Miami against another Mid-Atlantic regular Bill White. It was an interesting match-up and was likely White's only shot ever at the U.S. championship. Steamboat was successful in that title defense.

Flair wrestled Rocky Johnson in the semi-main event of this card, which was headlined by a WWWF title match between reigning champion "Superstar" Billy Graham and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.

Also on the big card were Jack and Jerry Brisco, Bob Roop, Bob Orton, Jr., Buddy Roberts, Dutch Mantell and many others.

U.S. Champion Ricky Steamboat
in Miami Beach before his U.S. title defense
(plmathfoto@hotmail.com)

It was a homecoming of sorts for Steamboat. When he arrived in Florida in the spring of 1976 with only a few months experience under his belt, promoter Eddie Graham thought Richard Blood (his real name) looked so much like perennial Florida favorite Sam Steamboat, he gave him the name Ricky Steamboat. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Before returning to Miami as United States Champion, Steamboat's last match there had been a win over Jim Lancaster in the preliminaries on a card in July of 1976. 

With Superstar Graham on the card in Miami to defend the WWWF title against Rhodes, and two of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's top stars supporting that card, it was one of the more unique cards to take place in Florida in those years.

Photographer and photo-collector Pete Lederberg owns the rights to photographs taken this very night in Miami Beach.  The photos were originally shot by area photographer Brian Berkowitz. The title defense and those photographs are a cool little bit of history for Jim Crockett Promotions' U.S. championship.

Berkowitz's photo above of Steamboat with the U.S. title belt was featured full page in color in the book "Jim Crockett Promotions' United States Championship", along with a few other photos licensed from Lederberg. See many other photos from this night (including match photos of Steamboat vs. White and Flair vs. Johnson) in Pete Lederberg's Facebook photo album: Miami 12/21/77.

Thanks to Mark Eastridge, Pete Lederberg, Carroll Hall, and Barry Rose for their contributions to this article.

 

Previously published September 26, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Boogie Art! The Famous Boogie Man Jam Poster

 "The Boogie Man" Jimmy Valiant is seen here with the original artwork for the Boogie Man Jam poster and t-shirt that were sold during the Boogie Jam Tour in the Mid-Atlantic territory in 1984. What a great photo taken by our buddy Jamie Colbert.

This original art is signed by artist Bill Stroud. It had been in storage in the Crockett archives for years until being purchased from Jackie Crockett by the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in 2009. It has since been re-sold and is in the hands of a private collector.

The art depicts many of the main event stars on that huge Boogie Jam tour that included Dusty Rhodes, Dick Slater, Greg Valentine, Ric Flair, The Assassins with Paul Jones, and of course the "Boogie Man" Jimmy Valiant.

A rare collectable indeed from one of the most successful events and tours for Jim Crockett Promotions in 1984.

We will feature more on the Boogie Man Jam in future posts.

For more information about Jimmy Valiant including his training school and Hall of Fame Museum in Shawsville, VA, visit http://jimmyvaliant.weebly.com.

 This story originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway April 30, 2017

This Photo Made Us Smile

Twitter: @badguywrassler

What fun to come across this photo last night on Twitter of Matt Striker and "Good Ol' J.R." Jim Ross. It was taken at a World Class Revolution wrestling event at Southfork Ranch outside Dallas, Texas.

Conrad Thompson noticed something about the t-shirt Matt is wearing, and pointed the photo out to me. It is an old Mid-Atlantic Gateway t-shirt which was sold here some 10-15 years ago. That made me smile.

A former WWE Superstar and broadcaster, Striker is currently the voice of "Lucha Underground" on the El Rey Network, one of my favorite hours of television every week. Although the program showcases modern-day styles in wrestling (along with a heavy dose of superhero/science-fiction story telling), Matt manages to weave many "old school" wrestling references into his commentary on the show, my favorite being a nod to Greg Valentine's famous t-shirt "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" from way back in season one. I always get a kick out of those references. Even though he is a veteran of the pro wrestling business, Matt is at heart an old school wrestling fan like the rest of us. A very nice fellow, as well.

J.R. digs our website, too, we're told. He even told Bruce Mitchell on his podcast a couple years ago that the Gateway was "an icon on my iPad."

We have great respect for both of these gentlemen, so it goes without saying we're honored.  - D. Bourne

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See also: "For Matt Striker, the Past is Prologue" (A look at a couple of those early Mid-Atlantic references on Lucha Underground.)

Woooo! Mercy Daddy! The Boogie Man Jam Poster

"The Boogie Man" Jimmy Valiant is seen here with the original artwork for the Boogie Man Jam poster and t-shirt that were sold during the Boogie Jam Tour in the Mid-Atlantic territory in 1984.

This original art is signed by artist Bill Stroud. It had been in storage in the Crockett archives for years until being purchased from Jackie Crockett by the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in 2009. It has since been re-sold and is in the hands of a private collector.

The art depicts many of the main event stars on that huge "Boogie Man Jam '84" tour that included Dusty Rhodes, Dick Slater, Greg Valentine, Ric Flair, The Assassins with Paul Jones, and of course the "Boogie Man" Jimmy Valiant.

A rare collectable indeed from one of the most successful events and tours for Jim Crockett Promotions in 1984.

We will feature more on the Boogie Man Jam in future posts.

For more information about Jimmy Valiant including his training school and Hall of Fame Museum in Shawsville, VA, visit http://jimmyvaliant.weebly.com.