Four Mid-Atlantic Area Champions Appear on Georgia Championship Wrestling (1981)

Georgia Championship Wrestling - November 14, 1981

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway  

Back in the territory days, Saturday was the primary (and often the only) day for wrestling in every territory in the United States.

YouTube user "KrisZ891979" uploaded some great Georgia wrestling from 1980 and 1981awhile back, including some complete shows from the fall of 1981 like this pristine video of the entire November 14, 1981 program that aired at 6:05 on WTBS.

Reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Roddy Piper had joined Gordon Solie as co-host of the program two weeks earlier, and the two became quite a broadcast combination over the next year. Piper was the perfect cocky-heel counter to Solie's dry, straight-forward approach and the two meshed really well in an unconventional way, especially for those times.

PART NINE

Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at the time, and one result was a sharing of talent between the two groups. In particular on this program:

• Mid-Atlantic Champion Roddy Piper, who is never acknowledged as such by Solie or Piper, but is acknowledged by Ivan Koloff as Mid-Atlantic champ in an interview on the program
• NWA TV champion Ivan Koloff, carrying his championship belt and announcing his intention in defending the title in Georgia. (The title was a Crockett title)
• Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions Chris Markoff and Nikolia Volkoff (managed by Lord Alfred Hayes) are seen on the program in a tape from the Knoxville "NWA Championship Wrestling" program hosted by Les Thatcher. The team would be wrestling in the annual Thanksgiving tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta a few weeks later. The Knoxville office was closely affiliated with Jim Crockett Promotions at the time and used a number of pieces of talent from the Charlotte office. 
• Ray Stevens, currently a top heel for the Crocketts and an occasional tag team partner of Ole Anderson's
• and of course Ole Anderson himself, who along with his brother Gene, were the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions, primarily a Crockett area title.

That made for a total four Crockett Promotions champions appearing in one way or another on this Georgia program. Throw in Mid-Atlantic star Ric Flair, who had just recently won the NWA World Championship from Dusty Rhodes, and it's fair to say their was more than a small Mid-Atlantic influence on the Georgia promotion at the time. Flair is not on this program, but had been on almost every Georgia show since winning the title, and would be on the week following this one as well.

This Georgia show is loaded with a lot of great talent that were hallmarks of the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion at the time including Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar, Bob and Brad Armstrong, Austin Idol, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Mike Jackson, and others.

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was and always will be my first love, but Georgia Wrestling during this time was on fire, and was a fun part of every Saturday as well.

Edited from a post originally published October 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Greg Valentine Comes to Atlanta for the Georgia Heavyweight Title Tournament (1981)

by Dick Bourne 
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

On May 17, 1981 at the Omni in Atlanta, there was a one-night tournament for the vacated Georgia Heavyweight Championship. Ten men were entered in the tournament, including a couple of guys advertised as coming in from outside the territory to compete including Bruiser Brody and Greg Valentine.

Brody no-showed (or perhaps was never really going to appear to begin with, who knows) but Valentine came in from the Mid-Atlantic area and went all the way to the finals, defeating Mr. Wrestling II in the quarter finals and Iron Mike Sharpe in the semi-finals before losing to "Wildfire" Tommy Rich in the finals.

Prior to the tournament, Greg Valentine sent in a taped interview from Raleigh to promote his appearance in the tournament. The interview was conducted by Rich Landrum (host of "World Wide Wrestling") in the studios of WRAL TV.

The video below, which is the final seven minutes of the Georgia TV show leading up to that big Omni card, contains the Greg Valentine promo plus another tape from the Mid-Atlantic area featuring the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions Gene and Ole Anderson.

(No idea why the person who posted this clip labeled it from "WGHP-TV High Point Fox 8..." because the clip has nothing to do with any of that.)

GENERAL NOTES

• The match with the Anderson Brothers from WRAL is from the summer of 1981 and is from "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" with Bob Caudle and Lord Alfred Hayes calling the action.  
• Tommy Rich was wrestling in that tournament with a $10,000 bounty on his head, allegedly placed there by NWA World Champion Harley Race, who was trying to avoid having to face Rich for the NWA title. Greg Valentine mentions being interested in collecting the bounty in his promo, but was apparently unable to do so as Rich defeated him in the tournament finals to win the Georgia title and then went on to challenge Race for the NWA title at the next show at the Omni on 5/31/81. Race would successfully defend against Rich on 5/31, but then lost the NWA world title to Dusty Rhodes on the following Omni show on 6/21/81. 
• If you look closely, you will see part of the Georgia championship belt extending off the front of Gordon Solie's podium. 
• In a Studio Wrestling note, the backdrop you see in the Valentine interview (as seen in the image at top) was the Mid-Atlantic set used from 1975-1977 and is my favorite of all the old sets, mainly because it was first one I really remember and was used during the years I first really loved wrestling. 
• This Georgia Championship Wrestling show featured two other Mid-Atlantic clips not seen in the video above. The first featured a match between Greg Valentine and Steve Muslin from 1980 on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." The second was a promotional interview similar to Greg Valentine's with Rich Landrum interviewing "The Dream." (I hope to present those in a future post.)

GEORGIA TOURNAMENT NOTES

• Gordon Solie promoted the tournament as a round-robin tournament, although it was not competed in such a fashion. There were 10 men announced as appearing in the tournament: Dusty Rhodes, Iron Mike Sharpe, Mr. Wrestling II, Tommy Rich, Ray Candy, Bruiser Brody, Greg Valentine, Ken Patera, Mike Boyer, and Bill Irwin. Brody and Boyer diod not appear, but Nickolia Volkoff and Jim Duggan replaced them.
• From the tournament results posted on The History of the WWE website, it appears that 2 of the 10 (Rhodes and Volkoff) received byes, but I've been unable to figure out the elimination brackets from these results. But they are listed as:

Quarter Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Bill Irwin
Quarter Finals: Ken Patera defeated Ray Candy
Quarter Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Mr. Wrestling #2
Quarter Finals: Iron Mike Sharpe defeated Jim Duggan
Semi Finals: Ken Patera fought Dusty Rhodes to a no contest
Semi Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Nikolai Volkoff
Semi Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Iron Mike Sharpe
Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Greg Valentine to win the title

Originally posted November 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

The World Heavyweight Champions and the Titles They Held in the Mid-Atlantic Area

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

During the Mid-Atlantic era of 1973-1986 (when the territory went by that name) there were several NWA world champions that held regional titles here either before or after they were world champion.

We take a look at those champions and the titles they held.


Dory Funk, Jr.
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (1983, 1984)

Okay, I'm already cheating a little bit here. Technically the "Mid-Atlantic era" began in October 1973 when the Eastern title was renamed the Mid-Atlantic title, and the Atlantic Coast tag team titles were renamed the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles. Jack Brisco was NWA champion by that time. But since we've broadly listed the Mid-Atlantic years as beginning in the year 1973, I thought I'd include the man who was NWA champion at the beginning of that year, Dory Funk, Jr.

Dory won the the Mid-Atlantic Championship in early 1983, nearly 10 years after losing the NWA title to Harley Race in Kansas City. I always loved the fact that the man he defeated was none other than his arch rival in the 1970s Jack Brisco. Funk/Brisco was the defining rivalry of the 1970s, and so it was very cool to see these two legendary figures trade our territory's championship all these years later.

Funk also held the Mid-Atlantic title in 1984 wrestling under a mask and known as the Masked Outlaw.


Harley Race
United States Heavyweight Championship (1975)

When booker George Scott decided to establish a United States championship in the Mid-Atlantic area, the man he chose to launch that title was former NWA champion Harley Race. Race had held the NWA title for three short months in 1973, and that line on his resume helped give the new title credibility right off the bat.

Race was brought in to defend the U.S. title against Johnny Valentine, putting Valentine over to establish the championship in the territory. He was announced on area television as U.S. champion weeks before the July 1975 match with Valentine, but in reality he was champion for that one night only - bringing the title to the ring and dropping it to Valentine in what is still remembered to this day as a classic.


Jack Brisco
Eastern Heavyweight Championship (1971, 1972)
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (1982)
World Tag Team Championship (with Jerry Brisco in 1983 and 1984)

Jack Brisco held area championships both before and after he was NWA World Heavyweight champion. He won the Eastern Heavyweight title (the forerunner to the Mid-Atlantic title) from the Missouri Mauler just after Thanksgiving in 1971 at a High Point, NC TV taping, and then traded the title with Rip Hawk in 1972, a little over a year before winning the NWA title from Harley Race.

Brisco was never a regular here in the early 1970s, despite winning our area's championship twice. His home area was always Florida, but he was booked out to lots of territories for exposure as he was being groomed for an NWA title run. He made lots of shots here in 1972 and 1973 leading up to his NWA title victory over Race, usually over a weekend, but sometimes lasting a whole week.

Brisco's first full-time run in the Mid-Atlantic area began in the spring of 1982 and lasted until jumping to the WWF in 1984 after selling his stock in the NWA Georgia promotion to Vince McMahon. In 1982 he had great feuds over the Mid-Atlantic title with Roddy Piper and an old Florida rival from the early 1970s, Paul Jones. He eventually lost the title for good after his 6th title reign (which included the Eastern title reigns) to career arch-rival and former world champion Dory Funk, Jr.

Following his Mid-Atlantic title run, Jack reunited with his brother Jerry to defeat Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood for the NWA World tag team titles in the late spring of 1983 and held those titles multiple times over the next year before losing them in April of 1984 to Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood right before leaving for the WWF.


Giant Baba
None

Baba obviously never held a title here, but did wrestle here on a few occasions, most notably a 1977 card in Greensboro that shared talent between Jim Crockett Promotions and Baba's All-Japan Wrestling. Baba defeated Baron Von Raschke on that card.

Image from The Domed Globe Website at tenpoundsofgold.blogspot.com

Terry Funk
United States Heavyweight Championship (1975)

Funk was given a short run as U.S. champion in November 1975 to set the stage for winning the NWA title in December of that year.

Following champion Johnny Valentine's career-ending airplane accident in October 1975, Funk was tabbed to win the tournament to fill the vacant title. Funk defeated Paul Jones in the finals of the Greensboro tournament, and then returned three weeks later on the big Thanksgiving night show in the same city to drop the title to Jones. Two weeks later, Funk defeated Jack Brisco to win the the NWA World title in Miami Beach, Florida.


Dusty Rhodes
NWA World Tag Team Championship (with Dick Slater in 1977, Manny Fernandez in 1984)
NWA World TV Title (1985, 1986)
National Heavyweight Title (1985)
United States Heavyweight Championship (1987)

I'm cheating a little bit again here by listing the NWA World Tag Titles in 1977, because even thought Rhodes and partner Dick Slater did indeed hold those belts for four weeks, they never actually defended them in our area. But those NWA World Tag Team titles were Mid-Atlantic area titles, established here in early 1975. The Andersons took the titles with them to Georgia in late 1976 and basically were there with them for the better part of a year, trading them with Flair and Valentine during that time. It was while they were in Georgia with the belts that they lost the titles to Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater in September of 1977.

Rhodes and Slater were set to defend the titles in Greensboro on 10/30/77 against former champions Flair and Valentine but lost the titles back to the Andersons a week or so before that scheduled match.

Rhodes, however, did win the World Tag Titles with Manny Fernandez in 1984. It was at the beginning of his run as booker for Jim Crockett Promotions, and in the next four years would give himself multiple runs as NWA World TV champion in feuds with Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. He also had a run as National Heavyweight champion, awarding himself the title after firing Buddy Landel in December of 1985.

Rhodes won the U.S. championship from Lex Luger at Starrcade '87. He was stripped of the title after accidentally hitting Jim Crockett with a baseball bat in 1988. It was a title Rhodes had chased at various times since the title had been established in 1975. He was Johnny Valentine's first challenger in Greensboro, and challenged Flair for the title in a memorable match in 1979 that involved special referee Buddy Rogers. After that long chase, it was nice to see him finally win it.


Tommy Rich
None

Tommy Rich never held titles here, but he did wrestle here on occasion, most notably a short run when Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories simultaneously in 1981. He also wrestled here for about a month in late 1983.


Ric Flair
Mid-Atlantic TV Championship (1975, 1977)
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles (w/ Rip Hawk 1975, Greg Valentine 1977, John Studd 1978)
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (1975, 1976)
United States Heavyweight Championship (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980)
NWA World Tag Team Championship (with Greg Valentine in 1976 and 1977; and Blackjack Mulligan in 1979)

Ric Flair first won the NWA World Heavyweight championship in 1981. Prior to that he held every regional and national championship there was in the Mid-Atlantic area. Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling was his home area, and he is the only world champion to come straight out of our territory.

His first championship was the Mid-Atlantic tag title with his "uncle" Rip Hawk in 1974. He followed that up with his first singles title defeating Paul Jones for the TV title in early 1975.

But his break-out run began with winning the Mid-Atlantic title from Wahoo McDaniel in September of 1975, just weeks before being involved in the same plane crash that ended the career of Johnny Valentine. Though he was told he would likely never wrestle again, Flair returned better than ever in early 1976 and held the Mid-Atlantic and United States singles titles as well as the NWA World Tag Team titles over the next 6 years before finally winning the ultimate prize, the NWA World Heavyweight championship.


Kerry Von Erich
None

To my knowledge, Kerry never wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions, although I could be wrong. Please let us know if I am! His two older brothers did, though. Kevin and David teamed in a January 1982 tag team tournament  in Charlotte, NC.

 Originally published September 27, 2015 and August 5, 2019 here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

* * * * * * * * * *

For more information on these great champions of the National Wrestling Alliance, check out the book "Ten Pounds of Gold."

The World Champs and the Titles They Held in the Mid-Atlantic Area

 
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

During the Mid-Atlantic era of 1973-1986 (when the territory went by that name) there were several NWA world champions that held regional titles here either before or after they were world champion.

We take a look at those champions and the titles they held.


Dory Funk, Jr.
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (1983, 1984)

Okay, I'm already cheating a little bit here. Technically the "Mid-Atlantic era" began in October 1973 when the Eastern title was renamed the Mid-Atlantic title, and the Atlantic Coast tag team titles were renamed the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles. Jack Brisco was NWA champion by that time. But since we've broadly listed the Mid-Atlantic years as beginning in the year 1973, I thought I'd include the man who was NWA champion at the beginning of that year, Dory Funk, Jr.

Dory won the the Mid-Atlantic Championship in early 1983, nearly 10 years after losing the NWA title to Harley Race in Kansas City. I always loved the fact that the man he defeated was none other than his arch rival in the 1970s Jack Brisco. Funk/Brisco was the defining rivalry of the 1970s, and so it was very cool to see these two legendary figures trade our territory's championship all these years later.

Funk also held the Mid-Atlantic title in 1984 wrestling under a mask and known as the Masked Outlaw.


Harley Race
United States Heavyweight Championship (1975)

When booker George Scott decided to establish a United States championship in the Mid-Atlantic area, the man he chose to launch that title was former NWA champion Harley Race. Race had held the NWA title for three short months in 1973, and that line on his resume helped give the new title credibility right off the bat.

Race was brought in to defend the U.S. title against Johnny Valentine, putting Valentine over to establish the championship in the territory. He was announced on area television as U.S. champion weeks before the July 1975 match with Valentine, but in reality he was champion for that one night only - bringing the title to the ring and dropping it to Valentine in what is still remembered to this day as a classic.


Jack Brisco
Eastern Heavyweight Championship (1971, 1972)
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (1982)
World Tag Team Championship (with Jerry Brisco in 1983 and 1984)

Jack Brisco held area championships both before and after he was NWA World Heavyweight champion. He won the Eastern Heavyweight title (the forerunner to the Mid-Atlantic title) from the Missouri Mauler just after Thanksgiving in 1971 at a High Point, NC TV taping, and then traded the title with Rip Hawk in 1972, a little over a year before winning the NWA title from Harley Race.

Brisco was never a regular here in the early 1970s, despite winning our area's championship twice. His home area was always Florida, but he was booked out to lots of territories for exposure as he was being groomed for an NWA title run. He made lots of shots here in 1972 and 1973 leading up to his NWA title victory over Race, usually over a weekend, but sometimes lasting a whole week.

Brisco's first full-time run in the Mid-Atlantic area began in the spring of 1982 and lasted until jumping to the WWF in 1984 after selling his stock in the NWA Georgia promotion to Vince McMahon. In 1982 he had great feuds over the Mid-Atlantic title with Roddy Piper and an old Florida rival from the early 1970s, Paul Jones. He eventually lost the title for good after his 6th title reign (which included the Eastern title reigns) to career arch-rival and former world champion Dory Funk, Jr.

Following his Mid-Atlantic title run, Jack reunited with his brother Jerry to defeat Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood for the NWA World tag team titles in the late spring of 1983 and held those titles multiple times over the next year before losing them in April of 1984 to Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood right before leaving for the WWF.


Giant Baba
None

Baba obviously never held a title here, but did wrestle here on a few occasions, most notably a 1977 card in Greensboro that shared talent between Jim Crockett Promotions and Baba's All-Japan Wrestling. Baba defeated Baron Von Raschke on that card.

Image from The Domed Globe Website at tenpoundsofgold.blogspot.com

Terry Funk
United States Heavyweight Championship (1975)

Funk was given a short run as U.S. champion in November 1975 to set the stage for winning the NWA title in December of that year.

Following champion Johnny Valentine's career-ending airplane accident in October 1975, Funk was tabbed to win the tournament to fill the vacant title. Funk defeated Paul Jones in the finals of the Greensboro tournament, and then returned three weeks later on the big Thanksgiving night show in the same city to drop the title to Jones. Two weeks later, Funk defeated Jack Brisco to win the the NWA World title in Miami Beach, Florida.


Dusty Rhodes
NWA World Tag Team Championship (with Dick Slater in 1977, Manny Fernandez in 1984)
NWA World TV Title (1985, 1986)
National Heavyweight Title (1985)
United States Heavyweight Championship (1987)

I'm cheating a little bit again here by listing the NWA World Tag Titles in 1977, because even thought Rhodes and partner Dick Slater did indeed hold those belts for four weeks, they never actually defended them in our area. But those NWA World Tag Team titles were Mid-Atlantic area titles, established here in early 1975. The Andersons took the titles with them to Georgia in late 1976 and basically were there with them for the better part of a year, trading them with Flair and Valentine during that time. It was while they were in Georgia with the belts that they lost the titles to Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater in September of 1977.

Rhodes and Slater were set to defend the titles in Greensboro on 10/30/77 against former champions Flair and Valentine but lost the titles back to the Andersons a week or so before that scheduled match.

Rhodes, however, did win the World Tag Titles with Manny Fernandez in 1984. It was at the beginning of his run as booker for Jim Crockett Promotions, and in the next four years would give himself multiple runs as NWA World TV champion in feuds with Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. He also had a run as National Heavyweight champion, awarding himself the title after firing Buddy Landel in December of 1985.

Rhodes won the U.S. championship from Lex Luger at Starrcade '87. He was stripped of the title after accidentally hitting Jim Crockett with a baseball bat in 1988. It was a title Rhodes had chased at various times since the title had been established in 1975. He was Johnny Valentine's first challenger in Greensboro, and challenged Flair for the title in a memorable match in 1979 that involved special referee Buddy Rogers. After that long chase, it was nice to see him finally win it.


Tommy Rich
None

Tommy Rich never held titles here, but he did wrestle here on occasion, most notably a short run when Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories simultaneously in 1981. He also wrestled here for about a month in late 1983.


Ric Flair
Mid-Atlantic TV Championship (1975, 1977)
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles (w/ Rip Hawk 1975, Greg Valentine 1977, John Studd 1978)
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (1975, 1976)
United States Heavyweight Championship (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980)
NWA World Tag Team Championship (with Greg Valentine in 1976 and 1977; and Blackjack Mulligan in 1979)

Ric Flair first won the NWA World Heavyweight championship in 1981. Prior to that he held every regional and national championship there was in the Mid-Atlantic area. Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling was his home area, and he is the only world champion to come straight out of our territory.

His first championship was the Mid-Atlantic tag title with his "uncle" Rip Hawk in 1974. He followed that up with his first singles title defeating Paul Jones for the TV title in early 1975.

But his break-out run began with winning the Mid-Atlantic title from Wahoo McDaniel in September of 1975, just weeks before being involved in the same plane crash that ended the career of Johnny Valentine. Though he was told he would likely never wrestle again, Flair returned better than ever in early 1976 and held the Mid-Atlantic and United States singles titles as well as the NWA World Tag Team titles over the next 6 years before finally winning the ultimate prize, the NWA World Heavyweight championship.


Kerry Von Erich
None

To my knowledge, Kerry never wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions, although I could be wrong. Please let us know if I am! His two older brothers did, though. Kevin and David teamed in a January 1982 tag team tournament  in Charlotte, NC.

 Originally published September 27, 2015 here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

* * * * * * * * * *

For more information on these great champions of the National Wrestling Alliance, check out the book "Ten Pounds of Gold."

The Domed Globe: Harley Race Places a Bounty on Tommy Rich

Classic Video from Georgia Championship Wrestling, February 23, 1980

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

* * * * * *

Occasionally, we swerve over into something fun from Georgia Championship Wrestling. In this case it's one of my favorite segments ever from Georgia featuring NWA World champion Harley Race, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, and "The Universal Heartthrob" Austin Idol in 1980. This post was originally featured over on the Domed Globe website in July of 2017.

 * * * * * *

I was happy to come across this classic old video on YouTube (embedded down below). It is one of my all-time favorite matches and angles in Georgia Championship Wrestling history.

The match was Tommy "Wildfire" Rich challenging "The Universal Heartthrob" Austin Idol for the  TV championship, with Harley Race at ringside. But the TV title wasn't the main focus.

NWA Champion Harley Race on "Georgia Championship Wrestling"

Idol was the #1 contender for the NWA World championship in Georgia and was slated to challenge reigning champion Harley Race for the laurels on Sunday February 24, 1980 at the Omni in Atlanta. Race had made no bones about the fact that he did not want to face Rich, and had placed a $5000 bounty on his head. Any wrestler who could take Rich out before the match at the Omni would collect the cash.

No one really considered that Idol would be in the hunt for the bounty, as he had his own issues to worry about defending his TV title. However, Idol somewhat unexpectedly agreed to defend against Rich on national television the day before the Race-Rich showdown.

On the Saturday 2/23/80 edition of "Georgia Championship Wrestling", Idol met Rich in the cozy confines of WTBS studios in Atlanta. Prior to the match, Idol did an interesting interview where he had his TV championship belt over his right shoulder and a simple dress belt over his left shoulder. He never mentioned the belt, and Gordon Solie never asked him about it; it was just there. We would find out why Idol had the belt a little later.

The actual match between Idol and Rich was a typically good match between the two, with Rich maintaining the upper hand through most of the early moments with classic chain wrestling, arm drags, and hip tosses.

A few minutes in, however, who should show up at ringside to watch the match but the NWA World Heavyweight Champion himself, Harley Race. Race was in street clothes, and was clearly cheering on Idol in the match, getting on the referee for what Race thought were slow counts, complaining that Rich's sleeper hold was actually a choke, etc. Race became a distraction at ringside, however, and Idol began to dominate  the match with a elbow drop from the middle turnbuckle and a flying knee drop to the forehead of Rich.

As Rich began to regain momentum, though, Idol threw him into referee Scrappy McGowan, and with the ref down, Idol attempted to apply a figure-four leglock to Rich. Race became excited at this,  climbed up on the ring apron, an exhorted Idol to go after the leg of Rich while the referee was down. However, as Idol was attempting to apply the hold, Rich kicked him off and Idol collided with Race on the ring apron, sending Idol crashing to the mat and Race crashing to the floor.

Rich covered a stunned Idol in an attempted pin, but the referee was still down from the earlier collision. Seeing the ref down himself, Race removed his sport coat, climbed to the top of the turnbuckles and dove off attempting to hit Rich with his famous, patented flying headbutt. But Rich saw it coming and moved to the side and Race hit Idol with the headbutt instead. Rich covered Idol again and a revived referee Scrappy McGowan crawled over and made the three-count.

Tommy Rich had just won the National TV Championship from Austin Idol, and much of that had been brought on by Harley Race.

Rich immediately went after Race in response to his interference, and the two brawled in the ring, Rich hammering away at the world champion as the WTBS studio crowd became unglued.

Idol momentarily left the ring but when he returned he had that dress belt with him, the same simple dress belt he had draped over one shoulder in the earlier interview with Gordon Solie. He attacked Rich from behind, laid him out, and applied the figure-four leglock. It was then that it became clear why Idol had been carrying around that dress belt. He looped it around both his and Rich's legs, basically strapping both of them together so that Rich could not escape the hold. Idol began clamping down hard on the figure-four leg lock and as he did so, Race began dropping his knee repeatedly down on Rich's left knee and leg.

It became clear what was going on: Austin Idol was attempting to collect the bounty that Harley Race had placed on the head of Tommy Rich. And Race was happy to help him do it.

Eventually, help came from the locker room, and Mr. Wrestling II delivered his famous knee lift that sent Race sailing out of the ring. Idol eventually bailed out of the ring as well, aided by Race, and the two hightailed it to their locker room.

Rich had won the TV title, but was badly injured at the hands of Idol and Race. He was unable to challenge Race the next night at the Omni. Idol had successfully claimed the bounty.

There is much more that developed from this angle. Mr. Wrestling II replaced Rich and got the shot at Race for the title. Wrestling II dedicated the match to Rich, but in the end, II wasn't able  to take the title from Race. Race's master plan had worked, and he was successful in getting out of Atlanta with his championship intact. Rich would get a measure of revenge, but we'll save that story for a future update.

I've included the video of all this here for two reasons: (1) as mentioned up front, this is one of my favorite Georgia angles ever, and (2) the video includes some wonderful interviews with Race spotlighting the NWA domed-globe belt, ten pounds of "PURE gold", as Race liked to say.

Enjoy the video and the memories.

Originally published on The Domed Globe website, July 14, 2017.

Action Figures Friday: Ten Pounds of Gold

The NWA Champions that wore the original "Ten Pounds of Gold" (1973-1986)
L-R: Terry Funk, Giant Baba, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Ric Flair,
Kerry Von Erich, Jack Brisco, and Tommy Rich

Tommy Rich in Columbia (1981)

PART TEN

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

PART TEN: 
Tommy Rich comes to Columbia SC's Township Auditorium

In 1981, Ole Anderson was for a short time the booker for both Jim Crockett Promotions and Georgia Championship Wrestling.  As a result there were several wrestlers who worked both territories during that time, usually full-time in one area while working spots in the other.

Tommy Rich was one such wrestler. He worked primarily for Georgia Championship Wrestling, but made several shots for Jim Crockett Promotions during the year, including appearances on the TV shows.

This April 14, 1981 show in Columbia, SC, at the Township Auditorium is but one example. Here, Rich appeared in the semi-main event against "Bad Boy" Bobby Duncum. You will notice in the ad for the show, local promoter Henry Marcus billed Rich "from Georgia Championship Wrestling - Channel 17", the attempt being to make Rich seem like a special attraction coming off his exposure on the Superstation WTBS.

The main event featured the battle between the two top tag teams fighting for the NWA world tag team championships. Reigning champions Paul Jopnes and the Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie) defending against former champions Gene and Ole Anderson. All four wrestlers were Mid-Atlantic main-stays, but fair to point out that all four were equally familiar to Georgia audiences as well.

Two weeks later, on 5/1/81 in Richmond, VA, the Andersons defeated Jones and Superstar to regain the NWA tag team titles. But on this night in Columbia they were able to escape as champions.

Later in 1981, the Superstar returned to Georgia as his home base and he and Tommy Rich had one of the most bitter, hard fought, main event rivalries in the territory that last for many months.

Fun to see the continuing "sharing" of talent between the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia areas. in the 1970s and early 1980s.

More Mid-Atlantic / Georgia Connections

Part One: Paul Jones and the Hollywood Blondes in Augusta
Part Two: Thunderbolt Patterson tours the Mid-Atlantic area
Part Three: The Mid-Atlantic Challengers in Augusta 5/9
Part Four: Georgia Fans Find Out About World Tag Title Change - Before It Happens
Part Five: Paul Jones Surprises Charlotte During Mid-Atlantic/Georgia Talent Exchange
Part Six: Wahoo McDaniel Returns a Favor 5/16/77

...and many more.

Saturday TV: Greg Valentine Coming to Atlanta

by Dick Bourne 
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

On May 17, 1981 at the Omni in Atlanta, there was a one-night tournament for the vacated Georgia Heavyweight Championship. Ten men were entered in the tournament, including a couple of guys advertised as coming in from outside the territory to compete including Bruiser Brody and Greg Valentine.

Brody no-showed (or perhaps was never really going to appear to begin with, who knows) but Valentine came in from the Mid-Atlantic area and went all the way to the finals, defeating Mr. Wrestling II in the quarter finals and Iron Mike Sharpe in the semi-finals before losing to "Wildfire" Tommy Rich in the finals.

Prior to the tournament, Greg Valentine sent in a taped interview from Raleigh to promote his appearance in the tournament. The interview was conducted by Rich Landrum (host of "World Wide Wrestling") in the studios of WRAL TV.

The video below, which is the final seven minutes of the Georgia TV show leading up to that big Omni card contains the Greg Valentine promo, plus another tape from the Mid-Atlantic area featuring the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions Gene and Ole Anderson.

(No idea why the person who posted this clip labeled it from "WGHP-TV High Point Fox 8..." because the clip has nothing to do with any of that.)

GENERAL NOTES

• The match with the Anderson brothers from WRAL is from the summer of 1981 and is from "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" with Bob Caudle and Lord Alfred Hayes calling the action.  
• Tommy Rich was wrestling in that tournament with a $10,000 bounty on his head, allegedly placed there by NWA World Champion Harley Race, who was trying to avoid having to face Rich for the NWA title. Greg Valentine mentions being interested in collecting the bounty in his promo, but was apparently unable to do so as Rich defeated him in the tournament finals to win the Georgia title and then went on to challenge Race for the NWA title at the next show at the Omni on 5/31/81. Race would successfully defend against Rich on 5/31, but then lost the NWA world title to Dusty Rhodes on the following Omni show on 6/21/81. 
• If you look closely, you will see part of the Georgia championship belt extending off the front of Gordon Solie's podium. 
• In a Studio Wrestling note, the backdrop you see in the Valentine interview (as seen in the image at top) was the Mid-Atlantic set used from 1975-1977 and is my favorite of all the old sets, mainly because it was first one a really remember and was used during the years I first really loved wrestling. 
• This Georgia Championship Wrestling show featured two other Mid-Atlantic clips not seen in the video above. The first featured a match between Greg Valentine and Steve Muslin from 1980 on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." The second was a promotional interview similar to Greg Valentine's with Rich Landrum interviewing "The Dream." (I hope to present those in a future post.)

GEORGIA TOURNAMENT NOTES

• Gordon Solie promoted the tournament as a round-robin tournament, although it was not competed in such a fashion. There were 10 men announced as appearing in the tournament: Dusty Rhodes, Iron Mike Sharpe, Mr. Wrestling II, Tommy Rich, Ray Candy, Bruiser Brody, Greg Valentine, Ken Patera, Mike Boyer, and Bill Irwin. Brody and Boyer diod not appear, but Nickolia Volkoff and Jim Duggan replaced them.
• From the tournament results posted on The History of the WWE website, it appears that 2 of the 10 (Rhodes and Volkoff) received byes, but I've been unable to figure out the elimination brackets from these results. But they are listed as:

Quarter Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Bill Irwin
Quarter Finals: Ken Patera defeated Ray Candy
Quarter Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Mr. Wrestling #2
Quarter Finals: Iron Mike Sharpe defeated Jim Duggan
Semi Finals: Ken Patera fought Dusty Rhodes to a no contest
Semi Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Nikolai Volkoff
Semi Finals: Greg Valentine defeated Iron Mike Sharpe
Finals: Tommy Rich defeated Greg Valentine to win the title

Republished in November 2021 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

A Georgia Wrestling Saturday (with a Mid-Atlantic Connection)

Georgia Championship Wrestling - November 14, 1981

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It's Saturday, so why not watch a little wrestling? Back in the territory days, Saturday was the primary (and usually only) day for wrestling in every territory in the United States.

YouTube user "KrisZ891979" has been uploading some great Georgia wrestling from 1980 and 1981, including some complete shows from the fall of 1981 like this pristine video of the entire November 14, 1981 program that aired at 6:05 on WTBS.

Reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Roddy Piper had joined Gordon Solie as co-host of the program two weeks earlier, and the two became quite a broadcast combination over the next year. Piper was the perfect cocky-heel counter to Solie's dry straight-forward approach and the two meshed really well in an unconventional way, especially for those times.

PART NINE

Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at the time, and one result was a small sharing of talent between the two groups. In particular on this program:

• Mid-Atlantic Champion Roddy Piper, who is never acknowledged as such by Solie or Piper, but is acknowledged by Ivan Koloff as Mid-Atlantic champ in an interview on the program
• NWA TV champion Ivan Koloff, carrying his championship belt and announcing his intention in defending the title in Georgia. (The title was a Crockett title)
• Mid-Atlantic Tag Team champions Chris Markoff and Nikolia Volkoff (managed by Lord Alfred Hayes) are seen on the program in a tape from the Knoxville "NWA Championship Wrestling" program hosted by Les Thatcher. The team would be wrestling in the annual Thanksgiving tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta a few weeks later. The Knoxville office was closely affiliated with Jim Crockett Promotions at the time and used a number of pieces of talent from the Charlotte office. 
• Ray Stevens, currently a top heel for the Crocketts and an occasional tag team partner of Ole Anderson's
• and of course Ole Anderson himself, who along with his brother Gene, were the reigning NWA World Tag Team champions, primarily a Crockett area title.

That made for a total four Crockett Promotions champions appearing in one way or another on this Georgia program. Throw in Mid-Atlantic star Ric Flair, who had just recently won the NWA World Championship from Dusty Rhodes, and it's fair to say their was more than a small Mid-Atlantic influence on the Georgia promotion at the time. Flair is not on this program, but had been on almost every Georgia show since winning the title, and would be on the following week as well.

This Georgia show is loaded with a lot of great talent that were hallmarks of the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion at the time including Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar, Bob and Brad Armstrong, Austin Idol, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Mike Jackson, and others.

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was and always will be my first love, but Georgia Wrestling during this time was on fire, and was an important part of every Saturday as well.

Republished in edited format in March 2022 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Tommy Rich with the Ten Pounds of Gold

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

NWA World Champion Tommy Rich with Freddie Miller on
"Best of Championship Wrestling" 5/3/81

In April of 1981, Tommy Rich shocked the world when he upset Harley Race to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the belt known as the "ten pounds of gold."

Most fans didn't learn about Rich's historic win until after he had already lost the title back to Race. He won the belt on a Monday night in Augusta, GA and lost it back to Race 5 days later on a Friday night in Gainsville, GA.

Back in those days, the main TV shows for the territorial wrestling promotions all aired on Saturdays, and so Rich didn't even have a chance to celebrate his win in proper fashion on television.

When "Georgia Championship Wrestling" aired the Saturday after Rich's loss back to Race, Tommy was noticeably melancholy even when being congratulated by host Gordon Solie and NWA President Jim Crockett, Jr. They showed film footage of Rich's win over Race at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta. Crockett talked about having just flown back to the U.S. from Japan where that nation was all abuzz over Rich's title win.

Since that time, now 35 years later, the only VCR footage that has widely circulated was that Saturday segment with Solie, Rich, Crockett, and the footage from Augusta. It has been on YouTube for years, as well.

But recently, additional footage has surfaced (posted on YouTube by user KrisZ891979) of Rich being interviewed while he was still NWA champion, footage I had heard might exist but had never seen before.

In this clip, Rich is being interviewed by Freddie Miller, who did promotional announcing and occasional ring announcing on Georgia Championship Wrestling on WTBS. Miller also served as the host of the "Best of Championship Wrestling" program that aired on Sunday evenings on WTBS, and it was on this Sunday show that this interview aired, two days after Rich lost the title back to Race.

Which then begs the question when was this interview with Rich actually taped? Since Rich still had the belt, it almost certainly had to have been taped during the week in which he held it. However, the interview took place on the actual Georgia set with the Georgia Championship Wrestling backdrop which normally wasn't set up until Saturday morning before the weekly Saturday TV taping to air later that evening on WTBS. "Best of" was a studio show (without a studio audience) usually taped late on Saturday mornings or early Saturday afternoon after the 2-hour taping of the main Georgia show with Solie.

Could it be that this interview was actually taped on Saturday 5/2 after Rich had lost the belt back to Race on Friday 5/1? I suppose that's possible. Race was still booked with the georgia office on that Saturday, and defended the title for them that Saturday night in Chattanooga, TN, a GCW town during those days. Point being, the belt would have still been available for this interview with Race still in the territory.

But I doubt that could have happened. It would have been way too big a breach of kayfabe with so many people at the WTBS TV studio seeing this (cameramen, studio crew, director, etc.) and in those days that would have been unheard of. I'm guessing either (1) the studio backdrop was set up early for this interview before Tommy lost the belt, or (2) the backdrop was left hanging in the studio during the week as a normal practice in those days. It's also worth pointing out that Rich is wearing different clothes in each of the segments, indicating as well that segments were taped on different days.

Regardless of when or how the interview was conducted, it is great to see that a formal interview with Rich and the NWA title belt took place and still exists. Rich's reign as NWA champion is not much more than a mere footnote to the title's grand history, but as even Harley Race has said himself, Rich won the title in the ring and deserves to be recognized as a world champion.

The footage on YouTube contains both the Saturday and Sunday segments. The link below will take you to YouTube and directly to the point in the footage (7:33) where the Sunday interview begins.

Freddie Miller Interviews NWA World Champion Tommy Rich 
"Best of Championship Wrestling" - WTBS Atlanta GA - Airdate Sunday 5/3/1981
https://youtu.be/d7UCExVvVo0?t=7m33s

Thanks to Scott Bowden for letting us know about this rare footage of Tommy Rich with the "Ten Pounds of Gold."

Tommy Rich's Week As NWA World Champion (1981)

Monday 4/27 - Augusta GA - Rich wins NWA world title from Harley Race

Tuesday 4/28 - Macon GA - Rich beats Race to retain the NWA world title

Wednesday 4/29 - Columbus GA - Rich beats Race to retain the NWA world title

Thursday 4/30 - Rome GA - Rich beats Race to retain the NWA world title

Friday 5/1 - Gainsville GA - Race defeats Rich to regain the NWA world title 

Saturday - 5/2 - Rich appears on "Georgia Championship Wrestling" with Gordon Solie and Jim Crockett, Jr.

Sunday - 5/3 - Taped interview airs on "Best Of" of Freddie Miller and Rich with the NWA title belt.

This article is also posted over at the Domed Globe website, part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway family of websites.

Summertime Outdoor Shows

Remember the old commercial jingle that was popular in the late 1970s during summertime - -

🎼 "Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet..."

Well for me it was more like wrestling, hamburgers, chocolate pie and a cherry red 1967 Ford Mustang. But I digress.

The thing is, it all relates to our childhood memories in the summertime. And for a lot of us, summertime meant pro-wrestling outdoor shows at our local baseball park or football stadium.

Here is a good example of one of those shows, 35 years ago today!

Wahoo McDaniel and Ivan Koloff battled in the main event, followed by the "Minnesota Wrecking Crew" Gene and Ole Anderson taking on the somewhat unusual pairing of Paul Jones and "Wildfire" Tommy Rich. Rich was making semi-regular appearances in the Mid-Atlantic area, although still primarily a mainstay for Georgia Championship Wrestling. Ole Anderson was booking both territories at the time and a lot of talent was making appearances in both areas.

Regular outdoor shows were common in Wilmington, along with Rocky Mount, NC, Florence, SC, and other towns in the Mid-Atlantic area as well.

"Hot fun in the summertime." Great memories of days gone by.

Crazy Cool Replica Wrestling Posters at Crowbar Press

Our good friend Scott Teal at Crowbar Press has been creating some very cool replica posters of some of the great wrestling cards from years gone by.

Many different territories are covered and the posters are available in three different sizes (16x20, 12x16, and 8x10.)

My personal favorites are from the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories, but Scott has created these from all the major areas including Florida, WWWF, Australia, California and all points in between, from the 1930s on through to early PPV era.

The poster shown at right is from a famous show in the Georgia territory in 1980. Not only headlined by NWA world champ Harley Race against future world champion Tommy Rich (with special referee Lou Thesz to boot), it is the show with the famous cage match where Ole Anderson turned on Dusty Rhodes in one of the most brilliantly conceived, long drawn out angles ever. It served as the model for a similar angle in the same building a little over 5 years later when Ric Flair would turn on Dusty in a cage. That Dusty just never would learn. You can order this poster (without the watermark of course) in the three different sizes listed above.

There are tons of posters on Scott's site from all corners of the world and from some of the most famous cards and shows in the world.  Check them out at Crowbar Press!