Bob Caudle T-Shirt

Man, I got a Bob Caudle shirt from JCP! What a world we’re living in right now! pic.twitter.com/U2mP6i1O48

— Mid-Atlantic Roots (@midatlanticdna) August 14, 2022

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.

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

* * * * *

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.

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

* * * * *

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

Magazine Memories: The Von Erichs model the PWI T-Shirt

Greg Valentine break's Wahoo's Leg - 40 Years Ago Today

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It is one of the most iconic images from the 1970s in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions: Greg Valentine with a big grin on his face, wearing his newly won Mid-Atlantic championship belt, and sporting the infamous "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" t-shirt.

It's hard to believe that match happened forty years ago today. It took place on Wednesday night, September 7, 1977, at a TV taping at the WRAL television studios in Raleigh, NC. The match stands the test of time and is available in its entirety on the subscription service NWAOnDemand.com.

Wahoo McDaniel and Greg Valentine feuded over the Mid-Atlantic heavyweight championship for much of 1977 and early 1978. The zenith, however, was the memorable televised bout where Valentine regained the title from McDaniel and broke his leg in the process. It is one of the most famous matches and famous angles in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling history.

But part of what made it so memorable was Valentine's classic t-shirt that he wore in the aftermath. It was a simple black shirt with block lettering that simply said "I Broke Wahoo's Leg", and on the back of the shirt read the equally in-your-face declaration - - "No More Wahoo."

Valentine wore the t-shirt on television and in arenas for months, enraging fans along the way. A photograph appeared in "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine" and in newsstand magazines as well, with a grinning Valentine wearing the shirt and the belt, taunting Wahoo and creating heat for their return bouts that would follow when Wahoo returned to action.

In an interview with the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, Valentine admitted that the t-shirt wasn't his idea. "It was George Scott," Greg told David Chappell. "George Scott was the booker back then. It was mainly his idea. I certainly give him the credit."

Greg would explain in TV interviews that he had the t-shirts custom made for him at a shop in Las Vegas, never mind the fact that the familiar look of the t-shirt could have been made in any t-shirt shop in any mall in America in those days. But the line was funny, and served to only further enrage Wahoo's fans.

Sweet G.A. Brown's 45-rpm single serves as a backdrop to the the action figure of Greg
Valentine wearing tiny replicas of the Mid-Atlantic heavyweight title belt and the famous t-shirt.

The match and the angle still live on today in popular culture. Facsimile shirts are spotted being worn by wrestling fans (even journalists!) at wrestling conventions. Collectors can custom-order a miniature "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" shirt for their action figures. Wrestling broadcaster Matt Striker mentioned the famous t-shirt in 2014 during a match on an episode of "Lucha Underground." And singer/songwriter Sweet G.A. Brown immortalized the classic wrestling angle in his wonderful song "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" which I have written about previously here on the Gateway.  

Greg tells us that even forty years removed from that match, fans still ask him about it.  "I get asked to sign my autograph that way," he told me. "All these years later, people still remember that."

Greg Valentine and his famous t-shirt in 1977 and 2005. (Blake Arledge Photo)

Valentine re-created the angle at a Legend's Show in Spartanburg, SC, also wearing a replica of the Mid-Atlantic title belt. The site of Greg wearing that shirt and belt in 2005 took you right back to 1977.

So today we raise an elbow and celebrate this lasting memory of one of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's most brutal feuds and memorable moments. It is has proven to be a moment that Mid-Atlantic Wrestling fans have not forgotten.

* * * * * * *

See Also:

Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title History
Classic Mid-Atlantic Match from 1977 on NWAOnDemand.com Subscription Service 
For Matt Striker, Past is Prologue
The Coolest 45rpm Vinyl in the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Collection ("I Broke Wahoo's Leg")

Wrestlers and Their T-Shirts

Well, that seems like an odd topic for a post on the Gateway, doesn't it?

Long before there was ProWrestlingTees.com, wrestlers just wore whatever t-shirt they thought to throw in their bag that morning. But it always interested me what they chose. This oddball interest, I simply cannot explain.

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.

We thank Steve Davies for sharing his photographs with the world.

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.

Make America WOOO Again!

Now this is something we can all agree on, regardless of our own personal political leanings:

Flair '16: Make America WOOO again!

The Crockett Foundation has a brand new t-shirt in their online store.

From the Crockett Foundation website:

"Make America WOOOOO Again with this awesome 2016 Presidential Campaign T-shirt. 16 Time World Champ, 2016 Election Frontrunner…coincidence, we think NOT!"

"With each sale that we make, we donate a portion of the proceeds to our a veteran or veteran service animal in need. Some of the things that we purchase for these wounded heroes are post-traumatic stress disorder trained service animals which help veterans cope with trauma. We also purchase music instruments for veterans which has been proven to help veterans with PTSD to rehabilitate with music therapy. Another way we help is to buy yoga equipment and train them in yoga therapy which will help them tremendously as well.

"We set up our online shop and wrestling shirts store to also help wounded service animals by ways of paying for their veterinary care that is needed and also hope those canine hero’s find a loving home to be adopted into."

Check out all the cool items at the Crockett Foundation online store including their new book of wrestling photographs from the 1970s and 1980s "When Wrestling Was Wrestling", Four Horsemen shirts, Crockett Foundation logo gear and much more!

Support the Crockett Foundation by visiting their online store today!

Official "Ric Flair Show" T-Shirt!

Image on the "Ric Flair Show" official t-shit.

The first official "Ric Flair Show" t-shirt is now available from ProWrestlingTees.com.

The black t-shirt sports the official "Ric Flair Show" logo on 100% preshrunk heavyweight cotton tees and printed with DTG (Direct to Garment) printers.

Support your favorite podcast and purchase your "Ric Flair Show" t-shirt today! They ship worldwide.

The "Ric Flair Show" is part of the MLW Radio Network. A new show rolls out every Wednesday at 9 PM ET. This week's show features two amazing guests, former WWE world champion Kurt Angle and UFC's head honcho Dana White!

For more information on the show including how and where to download it, visit RicFlairShow.com.

The Mid-Atlantic Gateway is a proud sponsor of "This Week in History" on the Ric Flair Show!

Crockett Foundation T-Shirt Commemorates the Original Four Horsemen

***WHO'S ON YOUR WRESTLING RUSHMORE?***We've commemorated the original 4 Horsemen with this limited edition 2016...
Posted by Crockett Foundation on Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Crockett Foundation: Four Horsemen T-Shirt

What a very cool, very clever design for the latest t-shirt available from the Crockett Foundation at their online store. A "blending" of the classic 1987 Four Horsemen logo with the Crockett Foundation logo. Awesome looking shirt.

You can purchase one of these 2015 Limited Edition shirts at this link on the Crockett Foundation online store. A Portion of all sales goes towards helping a veteran in need.

For Matt Striker, The Past is Prologue

"I harken back to events that made everything you remember possible. 
I am aware of origins."   - Matt Striker

I don't know Matt Striker, but I suspect he and I might get along if we ever crossed paths.

Striker is the play-by-play broadcast voice of Lucha Underground, the cutting-edge wrestling program that airs Wednesday nights at 8PM ET on El Rey Network. At present, El Rey Network can be a little hard to find; it's a relatively new network. But I absolutely promise you if you make the effort to get there, Lucha Underground is so worth that effort.

It might seem strange that a 53 year old fan of 1970s and 1980s territorial wrestling like me, terminally stuck in the past and who has very little interest in today's wrestling product, could be so enthusiastic about such a modern, alternative product as Lucha Underground. But I am completely, totally, 100% head-over-heels in love with this show. Nothing else in wrestling compares to it today. Heck, not much on TV compares to it today. It is the best hour of my television week.

Lucha Underground combines the best parts of Mexican lucha libre, American independent style, Japanese strong style and even a little European style, too. It is the perfect hybrid, making it almost a style all its own. It also contains some the best story-telling through a series of short, gritty, cinematic style vignettes. It's just magic and wonderful in every way.

I didn't know a whole lot about Matt Striker when I discovered Lucha Underground. I wasn't watching WWE when he was a regular wrestler and commentator there. I first became aware of him when he and Ricky Steamboat dubbed commentary for the 1-hour broadway Flair vs. Steamboat match from the "Boogie Jam" in 1984 that was on Ricky Steamboat's WWE DVD set. Hearing him on that, I figured he had to be a big fan of the 1970s and 1980s. And it appears I was right.

From the onset, I enjoyed Striker's enthusiastic commentary on Lucha Underground. He and his broadcast partner Vampiro do an outstanding job on calling their matches. They walk the line perfectly between the professional call of the action and also letting you know they are fans just like us. For my money, they are the best in the business right now.

Matt Striker and Vampiro call the action on Lucha Underground.

As I got interested in Lucha Underground, I quickly started picking up on Striker's frequent references to old-school wrestling, making comparisons to wrestlers and teams from the 1970s and 1980s. Some of these were very obscure, some more widely known. I loved it! His analogies seemed almost educational at times. He would even occasionally reference angles from 40 years ago, but without making them seem like old references or being out of place.

Two quick examples: Charlie Brown and Greg Valentine's famous t-shirt "I Broke Wahoo's Leg"...

Never Let 'em See You Sell, Kid.

One of the greatest wrestling t-shirt designs ever conceived of first made its way on the scene at an Atlanta fan convention in 2009. It photographically depicts the various emotions of the one and only Ole Anderson. Except that each photo shown above each listed emotion is the exact same photo. Joy, sorrow, excitement…same photo of Ole. It is brilliant. It is wonderful. And it captures Ole Anderson perfectly.

Scott Teal of 1wrestlinglegends.com and crowbarpress.com designed the shirt. Scott co-authored Ole Anderson's auto-biography.

Brad Anderson recently saw a photo of the shirt on Facebook and loved it. Brad is the son of Ole's long time Minnesota Wrecking Crew tag team partner Gene Anderson.

"That's so great," Brad related. "Ole not selling anything!"

Brad was reminded of something his father taught him, both as it related to wrestling, and everything else in life: "Never let 'em see you sell, kid."

Gene obviously taught Ole that same lesson well.

The t-shirt is available at Scott Teal's Crowbar Press website at http://www.crowbarpress.com/t-shirts.htm.

- Dick Bourne

From the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Archives 

Want more watered-down Cokes and stale popcorn like we used to get at the wrestling shows? Visit the Cokes & Popcorn page on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Archives.

Do It With Flair

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 their superstars. These were sold at the 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 shirt. This particular shirt was only available for a short period of time in late 1985 and early 1986.

Now 30 years later, Ric's daughter Ashley, working under the name Charlotte in the WWE, has a very cool shirt that is a variation on that same theme.

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

We love it!

WWE/NXT Superstar Charlotte Flair

You can grab one of Charlotte's shirts at WWEShop.com.
(Shirt no longer available.)

This article was republished on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway on January 25, 2021.