by Jody Shifflett Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor
Here is a great card from 1978 featuring pretty odd tag teams on both sides. Captain Redneck Dick Murdock and Mr. USA Tony Atlas against the duo of the Nature Boy Ric Flair and strongman Ken Patera.
I’m hoping Flair and Patera won but who knows what happened at this hot spot show where anything could happen back in the day.
The undercard was pretty good with a great mix of veterans and newcomers. I’m sure the fans got their moneys worth on this hot July Monday night!
This poster promotes a card held on May 22nd, 1976 at the Starland Arena in Roanoke, VA and the U.S. Heavyweight Title was on the line in the main event.
Paul Jones was in the midst of valiantly trying to regain the U.S. belt that he had lost to Blackjack Mulligan back in March but unfortunately for Jones, this would not be the night. He would eventually manage to win the belt back from Mulligan much later in 1976, October 16th to be exact.
The semi-main event was an excellent tag team match-up of Johnny Weaver and hometown hero Tony Atlas versus Geeto and Bolo Mongol. Preliminaries featured some interesting match-ups as well with Angelo Poffo versus Pete Sanchez, Bill Howard versus Dr. Fugiani, and Two Ton Harris versus Larry Zbyszko.
With a vertical layout, the poster has all black print on a two tone orange and yellow background along with images of Jones, Weaver, and Harris.
The Sportsman in Roanoke would be the place to purchase advance tickets.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Gateway notes:
It's hard for younger fans who might only know Paul Jones from his managerial days in the 1980s on WTBS to fully grasp how over Paul Jones was as both a U.S. Champion (the top territory title) and challenger for that title as well. Jones/Mulligan headlined many cards during the year 1976.
Tony Atlas (also billed occasionally in Roanoke as Tony "Atlas" White) was indeed a legend in the local area, both as a high school athlete and weight lifter. He would be given a short Mid-Atlantic title run a year and half later by booker George Scott, both winning and losing the title in his hometown Roanoke.
Dr. Fujianai was the U.S. working name at the time of a young Tatsumi Fujinami, who would become a legendary wrestler in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling as IWGP champion and once defeated Ric Flair at the Tokyo Dome to win the NWA World Championship (although that win was later disputed.)
Brack mentions The Sportsman as the place to buy advance tickets, which was usually noted on Roanoke posters and in local TV promos. The Sportsman was another enterprise of local wrestling promoter Pete Apostolou, located in downtown Roanoke. According to a note I received from longtime area fan (and Mid-Atlantic Mafia member) Kyle Rosser, The Sportsman was a downtown Roanoke fixture for many years featuring a restaurant/lunch counter on the first floor, a pool hall on the second floor, and a bowling alley on the third floor. Sounds like a very cool place! - DB
The Sportsman, Roanoke VA The Place to purchase advance tickets for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling.
Lynchburg, VA was a regular stop on the Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling circuit for so many years and this particular poster promotes a great card held on Saturday, August 23, 1975 in the City Armory.
The tag team main event featured the short lived but formidable team of Johnny Valentine and Ric Flair versus fan favorites Tim Woods and Paul Jones. The Fabulous Moolah also defended her Women's World Championship against Susan Green. It was billed as a "Ladies Title Match" although Moolah was anything but a lady the couple of times I saw her wrestle live in the late 70s.
The midcard match featured Tony Atlas White, as he was promoted at the beginning of his career anytime he wrestled near his hometown of Roanoke, VA.
With a vertical layout the poster has all black print over a light pink background and images of Valentine, Flair, Jones, Green, Moolah with her World title belt, and Danny Miller with the old Eastern States title around his waist. Peter's News Stand would have been your source for advance tickets.
As hot as it must have been on this August night in the Armory, I'm sure it was nothing compared to the heat Valentine, Flair, and Moolah were drawing.
Rare audio included below of Ric Flair, Baron Von Raschke, and Paul Jones vs. Ricky Steamboat, Tony Atlas, and Dino Bravo
by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Recently Mike Sempervive posted an interesting entry to his "On This Day in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling History" series to his Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast Twitter feed. It involved a wild six-man tag team match on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from February of 1979:
On This Day in JCP TV History - 1979
Tony Atlas, Ricky Steamboat & Dino Bravo beat Ric Flair, Paul Jones & Baron Von Raschke by DQ. Baron hit Atlas twice with chairs, as Jones put Steamboat in the Indian Death Lock and Flair locked Bravo in the Figure 4, slapping him in the face pic.twitter.com/c7MzgEXJ44
— The Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast (@MidAtlanticPod) February 24, 2021
Matches like that featuring two main event teams against each other were rare in those days. All six were main eventers and headlining Mid-Atlantic and World Wide Wrestling cards across the territory as well as in Canada.
Shortly after that, David did indeed dig up the 42-year old audio cassette tape and produced the goods! While video of the match is long lost to the ash-heap of history, this audio lets you relive a little of that magic.
Enjoy the final three minutes of six-man tag team mayhem between the teams of Ric Flair/Baron Von Raschke/Paul Jones vs. Ricky Steamboat/Tony Atlas/Dino Bravo. The audio begins as Ric Flair has the figure-four locked in on Bravo and Steamboat makes the save. (I miss the one-save rule.)
I don't think David Crockett was ever so excited about a wrestling match.
FLAIR-RASCHKE-JONES vs. STEAMBOAT-ATLAS-BRAVO
For the record, here is the excerpt by David Chappell regarding this match from the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Almanac for February 1979:
The Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television show that was taped on February 21st featured a six man tag team match that was definitely of Main Event quality! The “good guy” team of Tony Atlas, Ricky Steamboat and Dino Bravo battled the “bad guy” trio of Ric Flair, Paul Jones and Baron von Raschke. After getting Atlas outside the ring, the Baron waffled Tony with two brutal chair shots. Then meantime in the ring, Jones put Steamboat in the Indian Death Lock while simultaneously Flair caught Bravo in the Figure Four Leg Lock, slapping Dino in the face as he applied the pressure. Eventually, Atlas got a chair of his own and cleared the ring. The bad guys were disqualified for using the chair first, but clearly Atlas, Steamboat and Bravo got the worst of it despite their win by disqualification.
In July of 1975 a newcomer appeared on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling landscape, and his presence was impossible to ignore for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the young Tony Atlas White was 250 pounds of bulging muscles that gave him the look of a bodybuilder who was doubling as a professional wrestler. Secondly, Atlas hailed from Roanoke, Virginia, a town with a rich wrestling history in Jim Crockett Promotions.
Mid-Atlantic Champion Tony Atlas
with Johnny Weaver
Atlas was given a bit of a push when he first began in the Mid-Atlantic area, even wrestling the fast-rising star Ric Flair early on in his tenure. Tony showed promise in the ring and was clearly an outstanding athlete, but he needed experience in the squared circle and was rarely given an opportunity to do interviews when he first started. While Atlas was plenty popular, he was never able to initially make a deep connection with the Mid-Atlantic fans, who more so just stared and marveled at his chiseled physique.
Tony spent 16 months in Jim Crockett Promotions, until November of 1976, honing his craft and performing solidly in mid card bouts throughout the Mid-Atlantic area. Building on his initial training with George and Sandy Scott, Atlas teamed often with veterans like Johnny Weaver, Ronnie Garvin and Swede Hanson and became a more seasoned and polished performer. When Tony left the Mid-Atlantic area at the end of 1976, he was not heard of for some time by his hometown supporters. Then about a year and a half later, Roanoke’s favorite son announced he was set to make his triumphant return home!
On the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television show that was taped on March 15, 1978 color commentator David Crockett proclaimed, “A young man that we’ve been talking about, a man from Roanoke, Virginia, I’m talking about Tony Atlas…he will be here in the very near future. He’s really up there on the top now and he’s coming to Mid-Atlantic Wrestling because he wants to get all the way to the top. And we have an interview from Tony and I’d like you the people to see what Tony has to say.”
From the set of Georgia Championship Wrestling, announcer Freddie Miller reintroduced the Mid-Atlantic fans to Atlas saying, “One of the most popular wrestlers in the country, and one of the strongest, is Tony Atlas. Tony Atlas is from Roanoke, Virginia but he is very well known in the Carolinas and elsewhere. Having worked with you in Georgia of recent days and having the response not only from our folks, but the people all over this country, may I say it’s an honor to interview you and to have you…I know the folks in Carolina want to see you back!”
Tony addressed the Mid-Atlantic fans stating, “You know, a lot of people down in the Carolina area have been sending me letters and they’ve been telling me different things about what’s been goin’ on. You know, due to the time I’ve been down here in Georgia goin’ through a lot of training and stuff. I’ve been training with Thunderbolt Patterson and people of that nature, and I’ve learned a lot from these people.”
Atlas went on to size up the competition in his old stomping grounds noting, “But during the time I’ve been down here, I’ve been hearing a whole lot of funky stuff’s goin’ on in the Carolinas…like I’ve heard about this new guy that’s supposed to be comin’ in there…Cyclone Negro. Ric Flair’s been bowlin’ over top of people; Blackjack Mulligan’s got his nose up in the air…well, they got a lotta people down there that need straightening out.”
And the strongman from Roanoke let it be known that it would be a new and improved Tony Atlas arriving back in Jim Crockett Promotions. “Y’all let me tell you somethin’…I’m ready for you this time,” Atlas emphasized. Tony continued, “When I was there once before I didn’t have my thing together, and it’s hard to boogie in the ring daddy when you ain’t got your thing together. But I trained hard, I worked hard and I put in a lot of hours in the gym, and I went through a lot of sacrificing and stuff in order to condition myself in order to do battle with such people as Cyclone Negro, Ric Flair, Blackjack Mulligan and Greg Valentine.”
Atlas concluded the interview by calling out the baddest of the bad in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling confidently exclaiming, “So all of y’all get yourself in good shape because I’m comin’ down to the area and I’m looking forward to boogalooin’ on some of y’all guy’s heads. Y’all best to have your thing together and talk about me now, I know y’all gonna talk bad about me which I don’t care because the only thing that means anything is what we do in that squared circle brother.”
Miller finished up saying admiringly, “Tony, I want to say this. It’s always a treat to have you on and I know this…the folks in the Carolina area will be looking forward to your return there as soon as possible. Thank you so much for the time.”
Exactly a month later the “new” Tony Atlas returned to a Mid-Atlantic ring, defeating Greg Valentine in a top flight bout in Spartanburg, South Carolina on April 15, 1978. The new and improved Atlas was not only smoother in the ring, but his outgoing personality poured out and he was more popular than ever with the Mid-Atlantic fans. Tony wrestled as a main eventer in Jim Crockett Promotions straight through into July of 1979, when he departed his home area for good. During his second Mid-Atlantic stint, Atlas became the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion defeating Ken Patera on September 17, 1978 and lost it exactly four weeks later to Patera, with both title changes occurring in his hometown of Roanoke.
Whether it was becoming the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion, matching Ken Patera’s feats of strength on television, battling NWA Heavyweight Champion Harley Race on even terms or standing up to big Ernie Ladd after the “Cat” slapped him on TV, those and a lot of other big name wrestlers did indeed get straightened out by a Tony Atlas who had gotten himself together during his second stint in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling during 1978 and 1979. Roanoke’s favorite son surely shined brightly when he returned home.
Exclusive, rare audio recording of Tony Atlas
included within this post.
****************************
When “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali passed away recently, it got me to thinking about Ali’s connections to professional wrestling. Without question, Ali was a big fan of wrestling. In fact, Ali admitted that much of his showmanship outside of the boxing ring had its genesis from the pro wrestling world. And on rare occasions, “The Greatest” even entered the wrestling ring or its immediate environs as an actual participant.
Ali’s connections to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling were not substantial, but nevertheless were noteworthy and memorable in my mind. The final portion of Ali’s in-ring boxing career (1974-1981) intersected with a significant number of years from the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling era.
ABC News
My earliest joint recollection of Ali and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was on November 1, 1975. Traveling to Harrisonburg, Virginia, and what is now called James Madison University (JMU), I had just heard a promo cut by Superstar Billy Graham building a Texas Death Match against Wahoo McDaniel set for November 7, 1975 at the Richmond Coliseum. At JMU, they were showing a replay of the brutal “Thrilla in Manila,” the epic Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight, that had happened a month earlier. On the replay, there were also sound bites from Ali. I couldn’t help but think how Graham and Ali had the same natural charisma, which made you hang onto every word they said. The violence of the fight replay also had me wondering the whole next week if the Texas Death Match in Richmond would be as violent as the boxing match in Manila was. Superstar Graham’s promo certainly suggested that it would be!
During the mid-1970s, when Ali was still a boxing champion or top contender, Ric Flair would occasionally bring up Ali’s name in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling promos. Usually it was in the context of other celebrities of the day, like Joe Namath, Elvis Presley or Burt Reynolds, that the “Nature Boy” would favorably compare himself to. Ric would also take poetic license with some of Ali’s famous lines, and turn them into his own masterpieces. My favorite Ric Flair “Ali-ism” came from the middle of 1975 when Flair told announcer Bob Caudle on a Mid-Atlantic television interview, “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee…and every pretty lady wants a piece of me!!”
Ali’s most famous encounter with a wrestler in the ring was the matchup against Antonio Inoki on June 26, 1976 in Tokyo, Japan. While not tied to Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, I was nevertheless interested in the outcome and remember listening for updates by round on my scratchy transistor radio. The match and resulting “draw” left many unsatisfied, but it did bring Ali back into a wrestling discussion on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling television! Later in the summer of 1976, “Professor” Boris Malenko managed Bolo Mongol, who had just completed a tour of Japan. Malenko bragged that Bolo Mongol had defeated Inoki three times in three different Japanese cities. Malenko hastened to add for the viewing audience, that Inoki was the same man that Cassius Clay (Boris used Ali’s birth name) couldn’t defeat!
What made this segment particularly memorable was that for the only time I could remember, Bolo Mongol actually spoke on Mid-Atlantic TV saying, “Clay could not beat him; I beat him.” I was told much later in time that Bolo Mongol and the Masked Superstar were actually the same person. At first I didn’t believe it, and went back to the audio I had of that Bolo Mongol statement…and yes, it was clearly the same voice as that of the Masked Superstar!
Tony Atlas and Muhammad Ali (Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine)
The popular strongman from Roanoke, Virginia, Tony Atlas, also had a Mid-Atlantic connection with “The Greatest” during Tony’s second stint in the Mid-Atlantic area in 1978. Atlas and Ali made a joint appearance of sorts in an edition of a Mid-Atlantic Magazine that was sold in the territory’s arenas in 1978! Posing for a photo together as part of a Friendship Force International function, both Tony and Ali seemed very happy in promoting the “peace through friendship” agenda that the Friendship Force espouses and acts on, by bringing diverse people from all over the world together.
But what comes to mind for me as the most enduring Ali connection with Mid-Atlantic Wrestling also happens to involve Tony Atlas, and it was a promo that Tony did with Rich Landrum promoting a bout against Ken Patera, which was a no disqualification match in Charleston, South Carolina set on August 18, 1978.
Exclusive Rare Audio: Tony Atlas Does His Best Muhammad Ali (Local Promo with Rich Landrum)
Mark Eastridge Collection
Doing his best Muhammad Ali impersonation and in perfect Ali cadence, to the point that I thought “The Greatest” had entered the Mid-Atlantic area for one night to battle the dastardly Patera for the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title, Atlas exclaimed, “Everybody’s always talkin’ about Ken Patera, sayin’ Ken Patera is strong…Ken Patera lift a whole lotta weight. Eveybody know Ken Patera lift five hundred pounds. Let me tell you something Ken Patera, when I get you in the ring daddy I’m gonna float like a butterfly and I’m gonna sting like a bee…Patera, your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see!”
Without taking a breath, Atlas continued, “I gonna hit you in your mouth, there ain’t no doubt. Patera, if you come out there I’m gonna put you out! Now Patera, I know you got the title; I want the title. But this is p-funk! Electrify, personify and satisfy daddy! So I’m gonna boogie down; I gotta do it! I am the people’s champion… I’m not the Mid-Atlantic champion… I wanna be the Mid-Atlantic Champion. I want the title daddy; I want some of you to go along with it! We gonna get down, right there daddy! All of it’s gonna happen. P-funk, excitement, pandemonium in the air…Patera come on out, daddy we’re gonna get down, we gotta get down, we’re gonna get down.”
Tony wrapped up the interview reiterating, “Patera, I want the title; I want some of you to go along with it. 500 pounds is gonna be hittin’ back, 500 pounds is gonna be boogying with ya daddy! Patera, you got the title, you ain’t gonna keep the title! I want you Patera; it’s gonna be p-funk. P-funk, excitement...I gotta get there! I’m goin’ there now. Bye ya’ll, I’ll meet you there…"
With Muhammad Ali’s recent death, the tie-ins between the legendary boxer and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling immediately started coming back to me. While the connections might be few in number, they have stuck with me for around four decades. But more than anything else, thinking about them together again, confirmed to me that both Muhammad Ali and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling were each truly, “The Greatest.”
As most everyone
knows, Ronnie Garvin is a pilot and he used to fly to the matches. I
would pick him and whomever was flying with him up at the airport and drive
them to the arena, One day, who should get out of the plane but Tony
Atlas and Tiger Conway, Jr.
Tiger Conway had some BIG HAIR in the 1970s
Everyone climbed into my car. Ronnie rode up from with me. Tony and Tiger were in the back seat and
both of them had these HUGE afros back then, and they completely blocked the
view out of back window. All I could see was big hair! I had to tell
them many times to "part their hair" so I could see what was behind me! At least one of you lean to the left and one of you lean to the right!
* * * * *
Here's
another funny Ole story straight from Ronnie. Ronnie would try to get
Ole to fly with him, and Ole never would. I don't remember why - if he
was scared of flying or if he was scared of Ronnie!
In any event,
Ronnie finally talked Ole into flying with him. Ronnie's plane had something like a glove box and it had broken so Ronnie had
taken it out of the dash to fix it. So there was a gaping hole in the
dash. He knew Ole was nervous, so he decided to play a rib on him. He
put the broken box back in the dash and during pre-flight, he was
telling Ole about the plane. He pointed to the box and told Ole that
that was the most important part of the plane that kept it airborne and
to be careful and not to bump it or anything.
When Ronnie took off,
gravity took over and that loose box fell out right in Ole's lap.
Ronnie played up the rib, saying we're going to crash, and Ole was just
having a fit. Ronnie started laughing and told Ole not to worry that
everything was okay. I'm betting Ole found another way back home that
night rather than fly back with Ronnie!
Believe me, if Ronnie flew like
he drove, I would NEVER have gotten in an airplane with him either.
