Tag Team Warfare: A Changing of the Guard (1977)

By David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

The year of 1977 saw the fabulous young team of Ric Flair and Greg Valentine strip away the aura of invincibility from the veteran duo of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Gene and Ole Anderson. Flair and Valentine took the coveted NWA World Tag Team Titles away from Gene and Ole in Greensboro, North Carolina on December 26, 1976. 

NWA World Tag Team Champions
Ric Flair and Greg Valentine

In 1977, Ric and Greg slowly turned the tide of this bitter feud against the Anderson’s in their favor, but it wasn’t done without many classic battles. Flair and Valentine held onto the World Tag Team Titles through the Spring of 1977, but were dethroned by Gene and Ole in May in a match that Wahoo McDaniel served as a special referee. After that bout, the Andersons primarily had their base of operations in Georgia, but again dropped their Titles back to Ric and Greg in late October in a brutal encounter where they injured Gene Anderson.

In the 1977 Year-In-Review Wide World Wrestling television program that aired in most Mid-Atlantic markets on December 24, 1977, Flair and Valentine gave a rather biased review on the tag team battles between these four combatants in 1977. Announcer Sandy Scott led off by saying, “In ’77 and the tag team warfare, the World Tag Team Championship changed hands and we have two of the champions right here now. We’ve got Greg Valentine and Ric Flair.” 

Greg Valentine responded, “Well, you know, since you’ve spent about 35 minutes talking to all the losers it’s about time you brought a couple of winners on. Because that’s exactly what you’re looking at. The World’s Champions! You know, you’re talking about us being the World’s Champions, we had to chase the Andersons down for eight or nine months. The reason why we lost the belts in the first place was because of a certain individual by the name of Wahoo McDaniel being a referee in the match.”

Valentine continued, “[Wahoo] should have never had the license to be a referee, but we finally tracked him down, we nailed them right on television and made them sign a contract. And then just like we told all the people, we met ‘em in the Greensboro Coliseum and we beat ‘em fair and square, one, two, three right in the middle of the ring and now we’re the new World Champions. And Gene Anderson is suffering a very severe shoulder injury because of this, but you know that’s tough. That’s the breaks of the game.”

The Nature Boy then chimed in, “Sandy, what can I say? I’ve told you; I’ve told the people out here thousands of times. They gotta be sick of hearing me saying it! But they also have to know that it’s true. We are the greatest team of all time! Everything we do, everything we say is first class. Look at us! Tailor made clothes, big cars, pretty ladies, and the gold belts that symbolize the World’s Tag Team Championship. The gold belts that symbolize number one in the world today.”

Flair concluded, “And all you people out there that just can’t quite get it through your heads that we are the best. But you better open your eyes because ‘78 is gonna even be a bigger year. Bigger money, bigger cars, prettier ladies, finer clothes is all gonna happen to the World Champions in ’78! WOOOO!!” 

Flair and Valentine retained their World Tag Team belts into the Spring of 1978, when the NWA stripped them of the Titles alleging that Ric and Greg did not show up for matches and on occasion left the ring before verdicts were reached. Despite that inauspicious ending of their Title reign in 1978, this young and talented team of Ric Flair and Greg Valentine took the wrestling world by storm during 1977. Truly, a changing of the guard.

Poster: Wahoo and Andre challenge Flair and Valentine in Charlotte

 
by Brack Beasley
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

The old Charlotte Coliseum, nowadays named the Bojangles Coliseum, was and still is an awesome venue for live events. On Sunday March 27th, 1977 it hosted a great card of Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling with a tag team main event of NWA Worlds Tag Team champions Ric Flair and Greg Valentine defending against Andre the Giant and Wahoo McDaniel. 

The odds would seem to be on the Giant and the Chief and sure enough they walked out of the arena this night with a victory, but by disqualification, allowing the champions to retain their titles.

Blackjack Mulligan continued to defend his U.S. title against Dino Bravo and the Hollywood Blondes defended their Mid-Atlantic tag team titles vs. Ron Starr and Rick McGraw. The undercard included young Ricky Steamboat who would soon catch fire in the territory. 

The poster itself has a seldom seen off-white background with black print and the venue, date, and main event in high impact red, along with 5 great images of the main event participants and Jerry Brown of the Blondes. 

NO. 11 IN A SERIES

Flair & Steamboat: Hell Freezes Over. Again.

MAIN EVENT MEMORIES 
The Anderson Brothers vs. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat 
August 11, 1981 - Raleigh, NC
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

"The Hawaiian Punch" Ricky Steamboat and
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair

It's hard to imagine now, with 35 years having passed by and so much water under the bridge, that two superstar wrestlers teaming up would be such a big deal. But in 1981, when Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat joined forces to challenge Ric's cousins Gene and Ole Anderson for their NWA world tag team championship, it was a very big deal.

Not as big, perhaps, as in 1979 when Flair had just turned babyface and fans and good-guy wrestlers alike weren't sure if they could trust the Nature Boy. Back then, when Flair asked Ricky Steamboat to be his partner and challenge Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke for the NWA world tag titles that summer, it did indeed seem like hell had frozen over. The blood feud between Flair and Steamboat that had been going on for two straight years was unlike any other ever seen in the territory.

That was big, but now this seemed just as big to me for different reasons. This story had multiple layers to it now, calling back to family feuds and broken relationships going back some five long years.

Ric Flair's on-again, off-again relationship with his cousins Gene and Ole Anderson had been one of the greatest on-going stories in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling lore:

• 1976: The big break-up as Flair took Greg Valentine as his partner and wrestled the titles from the Andersons in a scenario so unlikely that it actually made the fans cheer for the hated Anderson brothers. The two teams traded the titles back and forth over the next two years.
• 1978: Ric's reunion with the family in 1978 when blood proved thicker than water and special referee Gene Anderson, thought to be impartial in the war between Flair and Steamboat, helped Ric retain the U.S title in the match where fans felt sure Steamboat would regain it. 
• 1979: The family was at odds again when Flair turned good-guy and cousin Gene became the manager of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka who proceeded to take Ric's U.S. title, and his favorite robe to boot.

Now in 1981, with Gene back in action after his managerial stint was over, the Anderson brothers reunited and regained the world titles. Not being able to leave well enough alone, Ole saw to it that the family feud erupted again when he and Gene joined Ivan Koloff in ganging up 3-on-1 on Flair inside a steel cage.

While Flair's current feud with Koloff had seemed more professional (albeit very violent), the family feud with the Andersons was very personal. With the cousins again waging war, Flair made the decision to once again attempt to do what he hadn't been able to do since his days in 1976-1978 with partner Greg Valentine - - take the NWA world tag team championships from the Andersons.

Flair took several different partners early on to tackle the Minnesota Wrecking Crew - - Blackjack Mulligan, Jay Youngblood, Wahoo McDaniel - - but in the end, there was only one man Flair could turn to that had a chance of making that magic happen again. It was his career long rival and now one of his best friends and allies - - the "Hawaiian Punch" Ricky Steamboat.

Like an onion with seemingly endless layers to peel away, this match-up had all of this tangled up history behind it. Flair was once again living out this family feud that had been going on for five years. Steamboat must have remembered back to the bloody wars with Flair in 1977, how Gene Anderson had helped Ric keep the U.S. title in that major battle of 1978. But the two were able to once again put that history behind them and join forces, just as they had shocked the world in doing two years earlier.

I'm convinced that they would have eventually been successful in taking the world tag team titles from the Andersons had it not been for something else happening in the meantime that changed the face of wrestling history: Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City, KS to win the NWA World Heavyweight title. The Anderson's tag titles were safe once again as Ric Flair turned his attention to touring the world in defense of the "ten pounds of gold."

With the world title in the picture, Flair and Steamboat would renew their rivalry several more times over the next 13 years, but for a brief few weeks in the summer of 1981, there was magic in the air again as hell froze over for a second time and Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat formed one of wrestling's most powerful and exciting combinations.

Originally posted October 27, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Check out other MAIN EVENT MEMORIES on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway:

1. The Anderson Family (1976) The Andersons and their cousin Ric Flair
2. Dusty's Big Championship Weekend (1976) with Flair, Mulligan, and the Andersons
3. Mulligan vs. Flair on a Hot July Night (1978) Worlds Collide!
4. The Origins of Wahoo vs. Flair (1975) with Wahoo McDaniel and Ric Flair
5. Blackjack Mulligan vs. Rufus R. Jones (1976) "Have mercy, Mama!"
6. The Briscos Challenge Flair & Valentine (1978) Jim Crockett makes the match.
7. A Local Boy Gets His Shot (1981) Don Kernodle teams with Ric Flair in his hometown.
8. Bullrope Match: Ole vs. Flair (1981) Dusty prepares Ric for a big match in Charlotte.
9. Ric Flair Wins His First Mid-Atlantic Championship (1975) Hair vs. Title in Hampton!
10. Blackjack Mulligan Regains the U.S. Title (1978) New Year's Night in Richmond
11. The Gathering on Tour (1986) Post Starrcade event in Columbia SC
12. Township Tangle (1978) Flair & Valentine vs. Wahoo & Jones
13. Flair Wins the NWA Title (1981) Historic Win over Dusty Rhodes in Kansas City
14. Brisco, Valentine Defend Titles in Richmond (1974) Huge main events in Richmond

Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater Defend the World Tag Team Titles in the Mid-Atlantic Area - - Almost (1977)

PART EIGHT

PART EIGHT

by Dick Bourne and Mark Eastridge
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
includes Vintage Classic Audio


As we've discussed in 7 earlier installments in this series, full time wrestlers from both the Mid-Atlantic territory and the Georgia territory made special appearances in each other's areas for one-night events.

While Augusta Georgia was "ground zero" for Georgia Championship Wrestling in this exchange, Georgia stars appeared in many different Mid-Atlantic towns during this time period including Richmond, Charlotte, and Greensboro, and others.

In September of 1976, reigning NWA world tag team champions the Anderson brothers left the Mid-Atlantic territory to go to Georgia, and they took their NWA world tag team title belts with them. A year later, they lost those belts to the unlikely pairing of Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater on 9/23/77 in Atlanta.

Rhodes and Slater were scheduled to come to the Mid-Atlantic territory to defend their newly won titles on October 30 in Greensboro, and actually had sent in video taped interviews to promote the match to be aired in the local Greensboro TV market. Newspaper ads ran advertising Rhodes and Slater bringing their titles to Greensboro to face former champions Ric Flair and Greg Valentine.

 
But before Rhodes and Slater made it here with the belts for the 10/30 show, they lost them back to the Andersons on 10/14/77 in Atlanta. Greensboro newspaper ads, seen above, were revised to reflect the Andersons as new champions.

"Dusty Rhodes, you may call yourself  'the American Dream' but you're going up against the Dream Team!"  - Greg Valentine 

Here is rare vintage audio of Valentine and Flair welcoming Rhodes and Slater to town:

Vintage Audio: Greg Valentine and Ric Flair promote their scheduled match with Rhodes and Slater

 
I've always hated that Dusty Rhodes and Dick Slater never made it here with the tag team belts. It would have been an interesting match-up between them and Flair and Valentine - - to say the very least!

And it's nice to hear Greg Valentine use the term "Dream Team" - - that's the name of David Chappell's ongoing 8-part series about Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's "dream team" of the 1970s, Ric Flair and Greg Valentine.

See the earlier posts in this series. 

 Originally published August 24, 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Dino Bravo's Memorable Mid-Atlantic TV Debut (Part 3)

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Be sure to check out PART ONE and PART TWO of this great story from 1976!

PART THREE
Newcomer Dino Bravo had already secured his NWA World's Tag Team Title match with Gene and Ole Anderson on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV taping set for May 12, 1976, but in his second television appearance in the Mid-Atlantic area, Bravo had to contend with rough and tough veteran Bill White. That challenge became immensely more difficult when the Andersons jumped in the ring, clearly trying to take out Dino so he would be in no condition to wrestle the following week. But to the chagrin of Gene and Ole, Tim Woods hit the ring and helped Bravo fend off the assault by the Anderson Brothers.

During the middle of the program, announcer Bob Caudle addressed Woods and said, "Tim, I tell ya, you got in there to help a young fellow out a little bit ago. The Andersons were really beating up on him." Woods answered, "Well I tell ya, I hate to see that. A fine young athlete Dino Bravo, he came here and laid it right on the line, he made no bones about it. He said what he wanted, I understand he got it. He came in there, he wrestled his opponent, he beat him, and then the Andersons with their old tricks come in with the old double whammy...one of them came in and the other finally kneed him from the back."

Woods continued, "He nearly beat the two of them, honestly. He was really fighting. And the Andersons are known, not only for hurting opponents, injuring them, but after that slapping them around like they did to Rufus, and I wasn't about to let that happen to Dino Bravo." Caudle concluded this segment by saying, "Well, I tell you, it was a great gesture on your part."

As the program was about to end, Caudle started a conversation with Ole Anderson saying, "Ole, earlier we saw you in there fighting against a young fella Dino Bravo." Ole snarled, "This Bravo, he's been around, he's got in our hair. He's followed us to a couple of places before, and we thought we were through with him a year ago. I figure anytime we have a team in there and we break one of that member's arms, then the other guy ought to have enough brains to stay away. But Bravo doesn't have enough brains!"

Anderson continued, "He came out here last week and interfered in a match, he gets out here and he thinks he's so big, he thinks he's so tough, he wants to be a white knight, wear a white hat or whatever it happens to be...thinks he's Mr. Good Guy! He's gonna come out and he's gonna avenge all the wrongdoings that we've done. Anytime we've been in the ring, anytime we've hurt anybody, it was because they deserved it. Now this little pipsqueak loud mouth good lookin' boy, fair haired, everybody thinks he's the savior of the race. He's gonna come out here and he's gonna make everything right by getting rid of the Anderson Brothers."

Ole added, "Well let me tell you something, it's not gonna happen! You know as well as I do that these belts mean more to us than anything else, we've given up our family and friends and everything because of these belts." At this point, Bravo comes onto the set with Woods right behind him. A furious Ole screams, "You come out here again I'm gonna take this belt...you're gonna see this belt up close!" Woods interjects, "Shut your big yap Anderson!" Ole shouts back, "I'll shut my yap when I feel like it!"

Woods then reasoned to Ole, "All you know is how to hurt people. You call yourself the World Champion? You're supposed to be wrestlers, you're supposed to represent wrestling. You call that wrestling?" Ole then questioned Tim, "What do you have to do out here? What are you, Mr. Good Guy too? You guys think you're pretty tough."

A smiling Bravo then announced, "Thank you very much for finding a partner for me, Mr. Anderson. If I had to choose one, there's the man right here I would have chosen. And next week, you won't hurt me like all these young wrestlers throughout this country, and I'll make sure next week, Ole Anderson and Gene Anderson, it won't happen like a year ago in California...this time we'll beat you."

An infuriated Ole countered, "You're gonna get a partner and come back and try and beat us? The only way you guys are gonna see this belt is when I jam it right down your throats! And you better be ready because we're gonna break a lot of arms and they're gonna be your arms!" As the Andersons departed the set, a disgusted Wood said, "Go ahead, I tell you what, I've watched these Andersons slap people around, hurt people...I'm telling you I'm SOOO happy to see a man like Dino Bravo that gets up and says what's on his mind."

Tim went on to tell the fans, "He's got the match, he's picked me as his partner and believe you me, next week, right here for the world's heavyweight championship, we're talking about the championship of the world, Dino Bravo and I will wrestle these Anderson Brothers. Believe me, we're gonna have a little conference between now and then." Bravo added, "I got the match, and I'm not gonna blow it and I got the best man with me right here and we'll walk away with those belts next week believe me."

Caudle wound down this heated segment by noting, "Well Dino, I tell you, he came in there and he sort of helped you out against the Andersons earlier tonight...I guess you said to yourself then, here's the man I want, we can beat them." Bravo concurred, " That was quite a surprise, but believe me, if I had to choose a partner this would be the man right here, Tim Woods." Bob responded, " Well you're both great wrestlers and I think your styles are gonna compliment each other;  I think the Andersons are worried. I think Ole's upset, I really think he is!"

Woods reflected, "Dino Bravo had the two men going in here by himself...now here's a man who is not afraid of them, not afraid of their reputation, not afraid to get in there and fight 'em, wrestle 'em, do whatever it takes. And I guarantee you Dino, I'm not either." Bob then questioned Bravo, "And you've got a score to settle with them, right?" Dino answered, "I've seen them hurt a lot of people, and this is the end of it. Tim, we're gonna do it together baby!" Woods agreed saying, "Okay, I'll be with you all the way and that's a promise so help me God." Caudle concluded the show saying, "It's gonna be next week, and it's gonna be a great one!"

It absolutely turned out to be a great one, as Dino Bravo and "Mr. Wrestling" Tim Woods upset the Andersons the following week to become the World's Tag Team Champions and ushered in a program that lasted throughout the summer of 1976. Dino Bravo's debut on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television was indeed memorable...and then some!

1982 Tournament Coda: What if Toronto?

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
with Andrew Calvert, Maple Leaf Wrestling 

I'm not normally into fantasy booking, although one can't help but wonder what a tournament in Toronto would have looked like in 1982 when the NWA World Tag Team titles were up for grabs in tournaments being held in many cities across three different promotions.

I'm referring, of course, to the nearly 5-month long multi-city tournament for those vacant tag team titles that we recently covered in a 12-part series. And by all accounts, Toronto was supposed to host one of those regional city tournaments, but did not. (We discuss all of this in Part Eight - Lost Tournaments of our 12-part series on that 1982 extravaganza.)

Andrew Calvert, of the excellent Maple Leaf Wrestling website, and I began an email exchange while I was working on that series imagining "what if" a tournament had been held in Toronto. I asked him to come up with an imaginary bracket based on who was regularly working Toronto at the time, figuring in some "special appearances", too, similar to the other tournaments.

We kicked it around and here is what we came up with:

In addition to the tournament matches, the card would feature three other main event bouts, all apropos of the times:

• NWA World Championship: Ric Flair vs. Harley Race
• WWWF Championship: Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine
• Canadian Heavyweight Championship: Angelo Mosca vs. Ivan Koloff

What a card! And it very easily could have been put together in those years. Obviously a 10 match card would be somewhat out of the ordinary, but as long as we're fantasy booking this, might as well have both the NWA and WWWF champion make a title defense, as both champions regularly appeared atop Toronto cards in this era.

Let's take a look at the tournament teams:

Gene Kiniski/Kelly Kiniski
Former NWA World Champion Gene Kiniski was a fixture in Toronto and one if its biggest all-time stars. His son Kelly was just getting started in the business and would work much of 1982 for Jim Crockett Promotions learning his craft. We obviously would want this rare father-and-son pairing in the tournament.

Rick Martel/Tony Garea
An extremely popular tag team in the WWWF at the time and widely known to Toronto fans as they saw WWWF TV in their market. This would be one of the "outside" special guest teams, similar to what we saw in the other city tournaments.

John Bonello/Tony Parisi
As Andrew described them, this would be a good "local team." Both were local favorites, Parisi was in nearly every opener, and Bonello was the popular local youngster.

Adrian Adonis/Jessie Ventura
Coming off a big win in their Toronto tag-team debut over Tony Parisi & Dom Denucci earlier that year, they were familiar to Toronto fans as they had AWA TV in the Toronto market for years. Adonis and Ventura legit appeared in the tournament held in Greensboro, NC in February and were presented on Crockett TV as an AWA representative in the tournament. They got over huge in their first Toronto appearance as a team and would have made a great team for this tournament.

Dino Bravo/Ricky Steamboat
The two popular stars had teamed in Toronto before. Bravo was a former Canadian champion who had just returned after a two year absence. Steamboat had become a huge star in Toronto over the years that Jim Crockett Promotions booked talent into the Toronto office. A perfect babyface team for the tournament.

Ole Anderson/Stan Hansen
According to Andrew, Stan Hansen never wrestled in Toronto, but it seemed to me that this would have been the perfect time for him to make that debut. The Anderson/Hansen team were the only team to wrestle in all of the legit tournaments, and I would hate for that streak to have been broken here. And of course they wound up winning the whole thing.

An alternate plan was to have The Destroyer (Dick Beyer) team with Ole instead. Beyer was regular in Toronto and a heel the fans loved to hate (similar to Kiniski). According to Andrew, the fans would have loved this team.

Blackjack Mulligan Sr. and Jr.
A second great father and son duo for this tournament.  Blackjack Jr. (Barry Windham) made his Toronto debut in February of 1982 and got over with the Toronto fans in a big way. Mulligan Sr. was also a favorite in Toronto.

John Studd/Sgt. Slaughter
Studd was the #1 contender to the Canadian title and U.S. Champion Sgt. Slaughter always a huge (hated) favorite in Toronto.


As far as how the tournament might play out:

• Martel and Garea would advance over the Kiniskis, which could be booked in such a fashion that it was Kelly Kiniski's inexperience that resulted in their first round defeat.
• Ventura and Adonis would dominate Bonello and Parisi, establishing them as the top heel team quickly since they would be going to the finals. 
• Bravo and Steamboat would go over Anderson and Hansen in one of the most competitive bouts of the entire tournament, a match that would be hard to pick if you were filling out your brackets early.
• Slaughter and Studd would defeat the Mulligans with heavy heel tactics. This would be one of the more heated matches in the tournament since there were established singles-issues with all of these four men. 

The semi-finals would provide two excellent match-ups:

• Ventura and Adonis would use every dirty tactic possible to go over Martel and Garea in what would amount to a WWWF vs. AWA match-up. (There was some thought to having the Kiniskis advance to face Ventura and Adonis, a heel-vs.-heel match up, which might have been a ton of fun. In the end, we settled for the more traditional approach here.)
• Likewise Sarge and Studd would be taking every shortcut in hopes of getting to the finals, but Steamboat and Bravo would rise to the occasion and advance.

In the finals:

• It would be a dream final, and many fans would cheer for the popular "bad guys" Adonis and Ventura in the match-up against Steamboat and Bravo. Eventually, the "good guys" would prevail (as they almost always did in Toronto tournaments of that era, according to Andrew.)

Your Toronto Tournament Winners: Dino Bravo and Ricky Steamboat!

Oh, what could have been!

LATE EDIT:
Andrew posted this video, Johnny Weaver explaining the NWA World Tag Team tournament structure on Toronto's Maple Leaf Wrestling TV show. Even though Weaver mentions they were hopeful for a tournament to be held in Toronto, it never happened.

Special thanks to Andrew Calvert for his input in coming up with this fantasy tournament in Toronto. For more information on the history of wrestling in Toronto and the Maple Leaf Gardens, visit the Maple Leaf Wrestling website.

The Sad Final Chapter in the 1982 World Tag Team Tournament

The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament
PART TWELVE - The Final Chapter
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you missed earlier posts in this series, check them out in the links below, especially the INTRODUCTION, which puts the whole tournament in a perspective and serves as a launching point for the discussions that follow. 

PART ONE: Introduction
PART TWO: Greensboro
PART THREE: Charlotte
PART FOUR: Richmond
PART FIVE: Atlanta
PART SIX: Fayetteville 
PART SEVEN: St. Petersburg
PART EIGHT: The Lost Tournaments
PART NINE: Wahoo & Muraco Win the West 
PART TEN: Anderson & Hansen Win the East
PART ELEVEN: Wahoo & Muraco Split as a Team


PART TWELVE:
ANDERSON & HANSEN PREVAIL

Wahoo & Muraco Dissolve Their Partnership
Two things happened in May of 1982 that sent the NWA World Tag Team Tournament flying off the rails. One was the story taking place on camera for the fans to see. The other was a story taking place behind the scenes that fans never knew about.

In front of the camera, Wahoo McDaniel regained the United States Championship. It was a title which had been taken from him by the NWA in the summer of 1981 due to some shenanigans pulled by Roddy Piper and Abdullah the Butcher. When Wahoo returned to the Mid-Atlantic area in April of 1982 fresh off the Western Division tournament victory with partner Don Muraco (a fictitious part of the tournament), he received a non-title shot at U.S. champ Sgt. Slaughter on TV, which he won. This ignited a feud between Slaughter and Wahoo over the belt, and Wahoo eventually came out on top. Now with new title defense obligations that the championship required, Wahoo's focus turned to the U.S. title and this proved to be very disappointing to his partner Don Muraco.

Muraco, by his own admission a little bit crazy, lost his composure about the whole matter in quick fashion, walking off on Wahoo in the same interview where he intended to congratulate him. Only five days after Wahoo had won the U.S. title, Muraco turned his back on the Chief after a misunderstanding in a standard TV match. Muraco thought Wahoo had turned his back on him first in the ring, being solely focused on his feud with Slaughter. (You can read all about that here.)

Muraco's paranoia ran wild and he went a bit off the deep end, telling a crazy story about Wahoo coming to Hawaii to borrow money from King Curtis before seeking Muraco out to be his partner. Muraco said he was furious that he had moved his family across the continent so that he and Wahoo could chase the World tag team titles in this multi-month tournament. Muraco felt Wahoo had now abandoned that goal to focus on his newly won U.S. title.

In a way, you can see his point. (And I love booking where the heel actually has a point, but just goes about resolving it in the wrong way.)

Behind the scenes, as we've discussed in previous parts of this series, booker Ole Anderson and Jim Crockett Promotions were about to head their separate ways. I talked with Ole Anderson twice about these tournaments, once in 2008 (with mutual friend Peggy Lathan visiting Ole and Paul Jones outside Atlanta) and again in 2011 (at the NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Atlanta.) I asked Ole for details about that falling out, but he basically explained (in the colorful language he is known for) that everyone else was an idiot that didn't see things his way. (Ole is nothing if not consistent.)

Just as Crockett Promotions announced the Best-of-Seven series between Eastern and Western winners for the championship, Ole basically left JCP and based himself in Georgia full time, where he continued as booker there.

The Championship - and the Belts  - - go to Georgia
What also happened when Ole left JCP was that he took the NWA World Tag Team title belts with him. When Stan Hansen returned from Japan commitments, Ole and Stan were named NWA World Tag Team champions in Georgia on the nationally broadcast "Georgia Championship Wrestling" show on WTBS. This took place on Saturday, June 26, 1982.

Gordon Solie offered a reasonable explanation for that title development, basically explaining that since the Western Division winners had broken up as a team, Ole and Stan, the Eastern Division winners, were awarded the tittles basically by default.

Here is a brief video of that explanation:

As Gordon Solie pointed out, "by default" was really not an apt way to look at it. In fairness to Anderson and Hansen, they were the only team to enter all six regional/city tournaments, and the only team to win more than one. They had certainly earned their way to the Eastern Division Championship.

Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen
NWA World Tag Team Champions in 1982

The Belts Go Back to Crockett Promotions
Eventually, Jim Crockett Promotions wanted their belts back, and a deal was struck for Ole to bring them back to Charlotte. He even arranged a booking out of it for the trip, working a Charlotte house show on 8/22/82 in a six-man team event.

The belts were clearly returned on that trip, as Anderson and Hansen had them on Georgia TV the day before Ole's trip to Charlotte, Saturday, 8/21/82, but no longer had them the following Saturday 8/28/82.

The titles were not mentioned again on Georgia TV.


New Champions Named in Jim Crockett Promotions 
For their part, Jim Crockett Promotions waited until a month later to resolve the situation and name new tag team champions. A story was concocted in the interim that Sgt. Slaughter had headed to Japan and had summoned Pvt. Don Kernodle to join him there, and Kernodle immediately hopped on a plane. A few weeks later, on the Mid-Atlantic TV shows that aired 9/29/82, Slaughter and Kernodle showed up with the NWA World Tag Team title belts and were announced as new champions. The story was told that they had won a tournament for the vacant titles in Japan, defeating Antonio Inoki and Giant  Baba in the finals. This, it goes without saying, was a fictitious tournament.


A Theory as to What Was Supposed to Have Happened
I've had a theory (that is as good as any theory out there otherwise, I suppose) that the original booking plan all along was for Muraco to turn on Wahoo, but that it would have happened during the Best-of-Seven finals series for the championship. A Muraco turn was foreshadowed from first day he arrived in the territory, as Muraco told fans he would "never turn his back on a friend."

Regardless, Ole and Stan would have still wound up winning the titles in the end.

I've even fantasy-booked in my head that Wahoo might have been forced by Slaughter to defend the U.S. title on the same night as match #7 in the Best-of-Seven series, forcing Wahoo to wrestle twice in that night and causing Muraco and himself to lose to Ole and Stan.

But when Ole and the Crocketts had their falling out and Ole left before the finals could take place, JCP went forward with the Muraco turn early, thereby creating a plausible explanation why the tournament wouldn't continue to its conclusion.


Title History Clarified
For the record, since most title histories have this wrong, here are the dates related to the status of the NWA World Tag Team titles, as documented in this 12-part series:

• 01/23/82 - Gene and Ole Anderson stripped of the NWA World Tag Team titles for failure to defend. Tournament announced.
• 06/26/82 - Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen awarded championships after Wahoo McDaniel and Don Muraco default for the final series in the tournament for the vacant championship. (Anderson and Hansen were Eastern Division winners.)
• 08/22/82 - Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen vacate the championship.
• 09/29/82 - Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle announced as champions having won a tournament for the vacant titles in Japan.

Postscript
The elaborately conceived tournament that had been announced back in January and had gotten underway in Greensboro in February, had come to an unceremonious end in June. Anderson and Hansen defended the titles regularly for Georgia Championship Wrestling, not only in Georgia, but in their tours of Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia. Eventually JCP got their title belts back and new champions Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle went on to have a classic, industry-changing feud with Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. And the rest, as they say, is history.

For his part, Ole Anderson's run as NWA World Tag Team champions with Stan Hansen was Ole's last. He and brother Gene Anderson, making a brief run out of retirement, took one last stab at getting the titles in March of 1985 when they unsuccessfully challenged Ivan and Nikita Koloff for the titles in the Omni in Atlanta.

* * *

Special thanks to Mark Eastridge and Brian Rogers.

Tournament in Shambles: Wahoo and Muraco Split as a Team

The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament
PART ELEVEN 
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you missed earlier posts in this series, check them out in the links below, especially the INTRODUCTION, which puts the whole tournament in a perspective and serves as a launching point for the following discussions. 

PART ONE: Introduction
PART TWO: Greensboro
PART THREE: Charlotte
PART FOUR: Richmond
PART FIVE: Atlanta
PART SIX: Fayetteville 
PART SEVEN: St. Petersburg
PART EIGHT: The Lost Tournaments
PART NINE: Wahoo & Muraco Win the West 
PART TEN: Anderson & Hansen Win the East


PART ELEVEN

Tournament in Shambles
As we discussed in previous posts, the NWA World Tag Team Tournament that started back in early February of 1982 began to fall apart as booker Ole Anderson and Jim Crockett Promotions had a falling out that eventually led to a parting of the ways. It's never been clear what the genesis of the problems were between the two parties, but it was likely to have centered around the dual-booking arrangement by which Ole Anderson was booking both the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories at the same time.

Just as it was announced that the final round of the four-month tournament would take place in the form of a best-of-seven series between the Eastern and Western winners, Ole Anderson left Jim Crockett Promotions.

Here is a timeline of how things played out:

Best of Seven Series Announced
On the Saturday 5/15 episode of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling", David Crockett announces that the Western winners Wahoo McDaniel and Don Muraco will meet the Eastern Division winners Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen in a best-of-seven series to take place in various cities to be announced soon.

New U.S. Champion Wahoo McDaniel talks with Bob Caudle
as Don Muraco stands by looking somewhat annoyed.

Wahoo McDaniel Wins the U.S. Title
On Friday 5/21, Wahoo McDaniel defeats Sgt. Slaughter for the United States Championship in Richmond, VA. On Saturday TV 5/22 (which was taped on Wednesday 5/19), Bob Caudle announces that Sandy Scott will be back the following week 5/29 to announce the seven cities that will host the best-of-seven series. Wahoo's first TV appearance as new U.S. champion would not be until that show that airs on 5/29.

Muraco Turns on Wahoo
By the time TV is taped again the next week on Wednesday 5/26 (to air 5/29), Ole Anderson is basically no longer working with JCP and disappears from Mid-Atlantic TV without comment. Wahoo McDaniel is introduced as the new U.S. champion and they announce that due to his scheduled title defenses conflicting with dates of the finals of the tag team tournament, the tournament best-of-7 will have to be pushed back.

Don Muraco is noticeably frustrated with this development. As Wahoo talks with Bob Caudle, Muraco interrupts. He's not being aggressive, but he is clearly upset:

"You come to me in Hawaii, and I spend close to $15,000 to move my family to the East coast, we win the [West] coast regional and, well congratulations on winning the U.S. title, I know you deserve it, beating Slaughter. But originally, I thought I was coming here for the World Tag Team championships, not to fool around with a bunch of other belts. You got your belt, that's fine." - Don Muraco

Muraco walks off in frustration, almost to avoid getting more upset. Wahoo, for his part, admits that he never thought he'd win the U.S. title when he and Muraco came in as Western Division winners. But now, as awkward as things are, he has the U.S. belt and he plans to defend it. 

"It's embarrassing to me because we have been friends for a long time, we're a good team together, and I'd hate to see anything come between us.." - Wahoo McDaniel

Wahoo and Muraco are the first match on the 5/29 show with a tag team match against Juan Renosa and Bill White. The two are working well together as a team until Sgt. Slaughter, angry over having lost the U.S. title to Wahoo, starts interfering in the match. Wahoo chases Slaughter out of the studio, briefly leaving Muraco alone to be double teamed by Renosa and White. Muraco is able to escape the double-team, but when he goes over to make the tag to Wahoo, he finds that Wahoo isn't there. Wahoo returns as Muraco continues to fight both opponents. This time Muraco angrily makes the tag to McDaniel and then walks out of the ring, leaving Wahoo now to fend for himself.

Wahoo is able to win the match, and is noticeably surprised that Muraco would leave him in the ring, but tells Bob Caudle that he believes he and Muraco will work things out in the end. 


World Tag Team Titles Forgotten in Mid-Atlantic Area
After four months of building toward new world tag team champions with this elaborate tournament, Jim Crockett Promotions simply ceases to mention the tag team titles further. Behind the scenes, the booker who put it all together, Ole Anderson, has left the territory - - - and taken the NWA World Tag Team title belts with him.

On the Saturday 6/5 Mid-Atlantic TV show, Don Muraco tells a crazy story about Wahoo showing up broke in Hawaii earlier that year looking to borrow money from King Curtis, and then begging Muraco to be his partner in the tag team tournament. Wahoo responds by telling Muraco he sees him all the time on cable TV making money there (a reference to Muraco's weekly appearances on "Georgia Championship Wrestling" on WTBS) and that he feels he should be able to defend his U.S. title and make some money of his own. Muraco completely disavows McDaniel, and their time as a team is now completely finished.

Even though we're told the finals of the tournament are simply delayed, this is the last time the NWA World Tag Team titles are mentioned again in the Mid-Atlantic area until September of that year when Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle are introduced as new champions having won a fictitious tournament in Japan.

But in the meantime, new NWA World Tag Team Champions would indeed be announced - but only in Georgia Championship Wrestling, as it turned out.



COMING UP IN PART 12: THE FINALE!
The NWA Tag team Champions are announced, but not in the Mid-Atlantic area. We'll take a look at how Gordon Solie explained it on WTBS (including video) and we'll also propose a theory as to what the original plans for the conclusion of the tournament were to be. Stay tuned!

Anderson and Hansen Win the East

The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament
PART TEN  
THE EASTERN DIVISION FINALS
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you missed earlier posts in this series, check them out in the links below, especially the INTRODUCTION, which puts the whole tournament in a perspective and serves as a launching point for the following discussions. 

PART ONE: Introduction
PART TWO: Greensboro
PART THREE: Charlotte
PART FOUR: Richmond
PART FIVE: Atlanta
PART SIX: Fayetteville 
PART SEVEN: St. Petersburg
PART EIGHT: The Lost Tournaments
PART NINE: Wahoo & Muraco Win the West 

Angelo Mosca and Killer Khan confront Ole Anderson
in advance of the Eastern Finals on 5/9/82
______________________________________

THE EASTERN DIVISION FINALS
With the city tournaments (sometimes referred to as regional tournaments) concluded and Western Division winners named, the Eastern Finals were announced and scheduled for Charlotte, North Carolina.

Sadly, the tournament which had been such huge part of the discussion on TV and the big shows in the territory over the past months, began to fall apart behind the scenes. I've always thought that sometimes bookers just lost interest sometimes in stories they were telling, for no apparent reason. It would just happen. Such was the case with this infamous NWA World Tag team tournament over the following weeks.

Behind the scenes, the Crocketts and booker Ole Anderson were having disagreements. The dual-booking arrangement that had begun in the fall of 1981 where Ole Anderson was booking both Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories, apparently wasn't working out to the satisfaction of the Crocketts. Ole Anderson confirmed as much to me in a discussion we had about the tournament at the Atlanta wrestling fanfest weekend back in 2011.

Its the little details that make for good wrestling angles and stories. Likewise it's the lack of details, or not paying attention to details, that ruin otherwise good wrestling angles and stories.

On the 4/10/82 episode of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling," Sandy Scott informed us that there were several teams still in the running in the Eastern division:

"Other teams that are in the East now, that are still in it, are Greg Gagne/Jim Brunzell, Angelo Mosca/Killer Khan, Jack and Jerry Brisco, Adonis and Ventura, and Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen. The finals will be held in a city yet to be announced." - NWA Representative Sandy Scott

What was particularly annoying about this was that only three of these five teams had actually competed in any of the city tournaments, and only two had actually won a city tournament. Perhaps the teams of Gagne/Brunzell and Mosca/Kahn were originally planned to be booked on one of the city tournaments. It is notable that the Gagne/Brunzell team was mentioned more than once over the many weeks hyping the city tournaments. More likely, though, it was all part of fictitious wrestling-story telling to add luster to the tournament. But again, the lack of attention to the little details distracted from the feel of legitimacy that the tournament had up until this point.

Several problems stood out. First off, a tape from Florida had just been shown where tournament director Eddie Graham announced that his son Mike and partner Steve Keirn had won the tournament in Florida, but Sandy doesn't even mention them in his list of teams still alive in the East. Graham had also mentioned that Funks were still in the tournament, but Sandy didn't mention them either.

Secondly, the original premise of the tournament structure was that you had to win a city tournament to advance to the Eastern finals, and yet three of the teams announced had not won any of the city tournaments.

Also, one of these final-four teams, the Samoans, were not the famous Afa and Sika from the WWF. They were Tapu and Tio that had previously worked for Angelo Poffo's ICW promotion. This team was nothing more than enhancement talent for JCP in the months following, including two losses on television. (More than any other factor, especially in hindsight, this ruins the credibility of the final days of this tournament.)

Lastly, there were other teams that had won city tournaments, in particular Sgt. Slaughter and Jim Nelson as well as Jim Nelson and Don Kernodle (along with the aforementioned Mike Graham and Steve Keirn) but weren't mentioned as still being alive in the East. No explanation was given.


The Eastern Final Four
On the 4/24/82 episode, Sandy Scott announced that the Queen City of Charlotte had been selected to host the Eastern Division finals and it would be held on May 9th. Angelo Mosca and Killer Khan appeared on the program and Mosca mentioned that he and Khan had won a tournament in Montreal, Quebec. This was a fictitious tournament.

A week later on the 5/1/82 episode, Scott officially announces the final four teams in the East:

• Jack and Jerry Brisco - won the tournament in Charlotte on 2/14
• Angelo Mosca & Killer Khan - announced earlier as having won a tournament in Montreal, but in actuality never were entered or wrestled in any of the city tournaments
• The Samoans - This was not the famous team of Afa and Sika from the WWF. Similar to Mosca/Khan, never were entered or wrestled in any of the city tournaments
• Ole Anderson & Stan Hansen - won Greensboro on 2/7 and Atlanta on 2/28, and wrestled in every city tournament that actually took place

Let me just say this right here and now. Pvt. Jim Nelson was robbed! Nelson won two different tournaments with two different partners (Sgt. Slaughter in Richmond and Don Kernodle in Fayetteville), yet still wasn't included in the Eastern finals.

In fact, there was no explanation given as to how these particular four teams qualified for the finals. Anderson/Hansen and the Brisco brothers were fair enough as they had won city tournaments. Mosca/Khan at least "won"a fictitious tournament in Montreal. But the Samoans had not even wrestled in a city tournament, real or fictitious, much less won one. Meanwhile, several other teams had won city tournaments, but were left out of the finals.


Eastern Results

Stan Hansen and Ole Anderson defeated Jack and Jerry Brisco in the finals to win the Eastern Division. It was appropriate that Anderson and Hansen won the East given they legitimately won two city tournaments (the only team to do so) and equally appropriate that the Briscos made it to the finals with the one city tournament win and  appearances in many others.

Anderson and Hansen advanced to the final match by defeating the Samoans, while the Briscos topped Mosca and Khan.

In other matches on this big Charlotte show:

• U.S. Title match: Don Muraco defeated Sgt. Slaughter by DQ but failed to win the title
• Tommy Rich defeated Roddy Piper (bringing their Georgia feud to Charlotte)
• Mike Rotundo defeated Jim Dalton
• Ron Ritchie and Carl Fergie battled to a draw

Further Developments / Best of Seven Series Announced
On the 5/15 show, David Crockett announces that Eastern Division champions Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen will face Western Division champions Wahoo McDaniel and Don Muraco in a best-of-seven series. The cities that will host the series will be announced soon, he says.

Behind the scenes, whatever falling out the Crocketts had with booker Ole Anderson finally reached a boiling point and Anderson leaves the territory to work full time booking and wrestling in Georgia. The dual-booking arrangement is over. It isn't clear if he was fired or if he quit. His last date for JCP is June 5th in Charlotte teaming with Roddy Piper against Jack Brisco and Don Muraco. Hansen's last match for JCP appears to have been the night of the Eastern finals.  He then left for a six-week month tour of Japan, returning to team with Ole again in late June.

But with Ole and Stan leaving, the big development which affected the storyline of the tournament shifted to Wahoo McDaniel winning the United States Heavyweight Championship from Sgt. Slaughter on 5/21/82 in Richmond, Virginia. Muraco wasn't real happy about it.


COMING UP IN PART ELEVEN
We take a look at how Ole Anderson's departure and Wahoo McDaniel's U.S. title victory were equal catalysts in the anti-climatic end to the 1982 NWA World Tag Team Tournament.  Stay tuned!

Wahoo McDaniel and Don Muraco Win the West

The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament
PART NINE 
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you missed earlier posts in this series, check them out in the links below, especially the INTRODUCTION, which puts the whole tournament in a perspective and serves as a launching point for the following discussions. 

PART ONE: Introduction
PART TWO: Greensboro
PART THREE: Charlotte
PART FOUR: Richmond
PART FIVE: Atlanta
PART SIX: Fayetteville 
PART SEVEN: St. Petersburg
PART EIGHT: The Lost Tournaments


THE WESTERN DIVISION WINNERS

The Eastern Division city tournaments (sometimes referred to as the regionals) had been going on since early February, but up until now there had been no mention of the Western Division. That changed in early April.

Sandy Scott announced on the 4/10/82 episode of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" that we now had Western Division winners:

"I talked to Eddie Graham late this afternoon and he has informed us that there is a winner of the Western Regional. They took place in Hawaii, and the winners are Wahoo McDaniel and Don Muraco."    - NWA Representative Sandy Scott

Bob Caudle smiled big on the announcement and pointed out that Wahoo McDaniel was familiar to all the fans. It would be Wahoo's full-time return to the area after nearly a 5-month absence where he had been wrestling in Florida, Georgia, and a month long tour of Japan.

Don Muraco would be making his first appearance in the Mid-Atlantic area. Fans who had Superstation WTBS on their cable systems and could watch "Georgia Championship Wrestling" each week were somewhat alarmed by the announcement that Wahoo and Muraco had teamed up because they knew Muraco was a "bad guy" in Georgia, feuding with Tommy Rich and forming an alliance with the hated Roddy Piper.

But two weeks later, Bob Caudle introduced in person the Western Division winners on the 4/24/82 episode of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, and the pair looked great together and looked ready for the finals.

"Well you know, Muraco and I used to wrestle together when we were in the AWA, and I was on the way to Japan, he was too, we got together, met, got in the tournament and we won a little money and an opportunity to go on in the tournament. We are the Western Division champions in this tag team tournament and we are looking forward to whoever the Eastern winners are in the tournament. We are ready."  - Wahoo McDaniel

Wahoo had woven some truth into this tale, as he had indeed been on a month long tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling in January and February of that year, teaming with old AWA foe Superstar Billy Graham and wrestling such legends as Antonio Inoki and future legend Riki Choshu.

The Western Division was entirely a fictitious part of this storyline. Booker Ole Anderson created the story that Wahoo and Don Muraco had won the western division finals in Hawaii, which was Muraco's home, and would play into the story as it went along.

Muraco, for his part, gave his first interview in the area, and immediately foreshadowed how this story would eventually play out for this team.

"Let me tell you something, it looks like it's starting to get nuts around here. Looks like everybody is starting to go crazy. And when it starts getting nuts, and it starts getting crazy, when it starts getting mean, the Indian came looking for someone because I'm a man that never turned his back on a friend, number one. And number two, I never backed down from anybody. This man over here is a legend, all over these parts. And he wanted somebody crazy, he wanted somebody who could stand by his side."    - Don Muraco

Muraco's comment that he had "never turned his back on a friend" planted the seed for what was to come in May, as the Eastern Division still had to play itself out in the ring.

It didn't take the two long to show off why they "won the west." Wahoo and Muraco teamed up on TV for the first time, defeating David Patterson and Ken Timbs in a stiff match, both of them wrestling very aggressively, but cleanly. Jack Brisco was on color commentary with Bob Caudle, and mentioned that he was there to scout this team as he and his brother Jerry were hopeful to win the Eastern Division, and if so would be facing this team.

One of Jack's roles in his commentary was to put Muraco over to fans in the Mid-Atlantic area who may have never seen him before. Brisco described Muraco as one of the most brutal wrestlers he had ever seen. Brisco spoke from experience, having feuded with Muraco years ago in the Florida area.

Brisco also pointed out that Muraco was a former World Champion surfer, having won the world surfing championship in the over-200 pound class, and described him as quite an athlete.

At the end of the 4/24 show, both Wahoo and Muraco were amped up and seemed more than ready to head to the tournament finals.

"Everybody's here to tune up. But we're here to play!"  - Don Muraco

"I know you all are going home and trying to revamp, try to get ya a little bigger partner, go to that gym in the morning and try to work out a little harder, but it might be just a little late. We're here! The tournament's on top of you! You can't get in too good a shape in ten or fifteen days.  We've been layin' in the bushes waitin'. Two good tans; we didn't get 'em layin' in the sun, we got 'em runnin' down the beach! We've been workin' out together every day. We're ready."   - Wahoo McDaniel

COMING UP IN PART TEN:
Wahoo and Muraco would have to wait a short while for their trip to the finals. The Eastern Finals hadn't taken place yet. Sandy Scott would also show a video from Florida with tournament director Eddie Graham giving an update, and Sandy would announce the teams that were still alive as we headed to the Eastern finals. All of that and more next time! So as Bob Caudle would say, so long for now.

PS - We love the t-shirt Muraco was wearing when he was introduced with Wahoo: "Patience my ass. I'm gonna kill somebody."

Missed Opportunities: The Lost Tournaments of 1982

The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament
PART EIGHT
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you missed earlier posts in this series, check them out in the links below, especially the INTRODUCTION, which puts the whole tournament in a perspective that serves as a launching point for the following discussions. 

PART ONE: Introduction
PART TWO: Greensboro
PART THREE: Charlotte
PART FOUR: Richmond
PART FIVE: Atlanta
PART SIX: Fayetteville 
PART SEVEN: St. Petersburg


PLANS UNFULFILLED
Now that we have completed a review of all six city tournaments that actually took place in the NWA World Tag Team tournament in the late winter and early spring of 1982 (links above), it's time to take a look at some of the cities where tournaments were initially planned but, for various reasons, never took place.

When the tournament concept was originally conceived by booker Ole Anderson and Jim Crockett Promotions, the thought was that they would have several tournaments outside of the traditional Mid-Atlantic territory in other areas where they had promotional ties and good relationships.

I talked with Ole Anderson twice about these tournaments, once in 2008 (with mutual friend Peggy Lathan visiting Ole and Paul Jones outside Atlanta) and again in 2011 (at the NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Atlanta.) Based on those conversations, here is where I believe those tournaments were to have taken place.


TORONTO: Maple Leaf Wrestling
There is little doubt that the original plan was to have a tournament in Toronto, Ontario in Canada for Frank Tunney's "Maple Leaf Wrestling" promotion.  Toronto was frequently mentioned by Sandy Scott during his early appearances pumping up the tournament as a whole. The Crockett's had been booking talent into Toronto for Tunney since 1978. But that Toronto tournament never came together.

"I can tell you that it was one of the biggest disappointments that it never happened here," Andrew Calvert told me via email. Andrew publishes the excellent Maple Leaf Wrestling history website and was a fan attending matches regularly in Toronto at that time. "There were rumors on Wood Street, the street behind Maple Leaf Gardens where all the fans congregated, that it would happen here."

Mosca and Khan teamed in the U.S. but likely would not have teamed
in Toronto. Mosca was a very popular Canadian champion.
__________________________________

Andrew pointed out that there was a Cadillac tournament scheduled for Toronto on January 31, just before the tag tournaments began in earnest in the Mid-Atlantic area, but it was cancelled due to a huge snowstorm. "We figured we might have gotten the tag tournament instead," he said.

But it never happened.

"It would have been a natural, as times were good here then," Andrew continued, "and Tunney had been praised over the years for having 'popularized tag team wrestling in North America.' We had Adonis and Ventura here, too, for their only appearance as a tag team on January 17, 1982 and they were a huge hit." Adrian Adonis and Jessie Ventura were constantly mentioned on Mid-Atlantic TV as possibly entering several tournaments, and did participate in the Greensboro show.

One of the key wrestlers discussed for the tournament early on during Mid-Atlantic TV broadcasts was Angelo Mosca, who was Canadian Heavyweight champion at the time and one of top stars in Toronto. Who his partner for a tournament in Toronto would have been, had one been held there, isn't exactly clear. His partner in the United States was Killer Khan. They wrestled as a team on Mid-Atlantic TV and were in the finals in Charlotte. But Mosca was "good guy" at the time in Toronto and Khan decidedly was not. We'll never know, as a Toronto tournament regrettably never took place.


KNOXVILLE
NWA Southern Championship Wrestling
In 1981, a group of partners affiliated with Jim Crockett promotions bought the Knoxville  territory, which ran towns in east Tennessee, southwest Virginia and West Virginia.  Blackjack Mulligan was the primary partner, running the territory as a way to help season the skills of his son Barry Windham, who was wrestling as Blackjack Mulligan, Jr. at that time. Along with local Knoxville area talent, Mulligan booked a number of wrestlers regularly from Jim Crockett Promotions including John Studd, Jay Youngblood, Terry Taylor, and Johnny Weaver, Weaver helped Mulligan book the territory.

Blackjack Mulligan Sr. and Jr. would have surely been a
favorite if a tournament had been held in Knoxville.
__________________________________

Ole Anderson said plans were definitely to have a tournament in Knoxville, but they never could work out the schedule to get enough teams there to get it done, and Knoxville was just about too small a territory at that time to have an 8-team tournament on its own. Time passed, there was no urgency, and it just never happened.
 
Mulligan Sr. and Jr. appeared for both the Knoxville group and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling during this time. Their only tournament appearance was in Charlotte.


COLUMBUS/MACON
Georgia Championship Wrestling/Fred Ward Promotions
Ole also told us that plans were to have a second tournament in Georgia in addition to the huge tournament held at the Omni in Atlanta. Promoter Fred Ward, who ran Columbus, Albany, and Macon, was to have hosted the second tournament in one of his towns, but for any number of reasons, it just never happened.


THE SUNSHINE STATE
Championship Wrestling from Florida
When the idea of the tournament was first conceived, Florida was in on the action and Florida promoter Eddie Graham was chosen as the figurehead tournament director, and introduced the tournament in a special video recorded on the set of "Championship Wrestling from Florida" with Gordon Solie. The video was seen both on "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" and "Georgia Championship Wrestling."

The Bayfront Arena in St. Petersburg hosted a tournament that was part of a big "Bayfront Spectacular" show. Ole Anderson confirmed there was to be at least one other tournament in Florida, perhaps more, but had no idea where. JCP was willing to send talent, but all of that was left up to Eddie Graham. St. Petersburg wound up being the final city tournament all together, and the only tournament to take place in Florida.


THE PALMETTO STATE
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Certainly there had to have been thoughts of having more tournaments in the Mid-Atlantic area, which only had four total. North Carolina got three tournaments (Greensboro, Charlotte, and Fayetteville) and Virginia got one (Richmond) but the third big state in the Mid-Atlantic territory, South Carolina, did not have one city with a tournament. It's hard to believe that one of the regular towns there (such as Greenville, Spartanburg, Charleston, or Columbia) weren't figured in the plans when the idea of the tournament was first conceived. But for whatever the reasons, there regrettably wasn't one in the Palmetto State.


* * * * *

Coming Up in PART NINE:
A look at the fictional tournaments that were created as part of the larger tournament story, including the entire Western Division tournament which had its mythical finals in the state of Hawaii. And as part of that story, it would eventually be a "beach bum" wrestler from Hawaii that would throw a huge wrench in the works as the tournament neared its conclusion.

Graham & Keirn Win the Bayfront Spectacular

The 1982 NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament
PART SEVEN
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

If you missed earlier posts in this series, check them out in the links below, especially the INTRODUCTION, which puts the whole tournament in a perspective that serves as a launching point for the following discussions. 

PART ONE: Introduction
PART TWO: Greensboro
PART THREE: Charlotte
PART FOUR: Richmond
PART FIVE: Atlanta
PART SIX: Fayetteville

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA
Date: March 27, 1982
Venue: The Bayfront Center

St. Petersburg, FL, would prove to be the sixth and final event in the series of tournaments for the vacant NWA World Tag Team championship conducted during the late winter and spring of 1982. Whether or not that was the original plan we may never know. (We will speculate on that in Part Eight of this series coming soon.)

The Florida territory played a role in the tournament from the very beginning. Eddie Graham, the former president of the National Wrestling Alliance and promoter in the state of Florida, was serving as Tournament Committee Chairman and had been seen on a special tape sent from Florida to the Mid-Atlantic area back in late January when the tournament was first announced.

This wound up being Florida's only tournament, although it is thought that when the idea of the tournament was conceived that there would at least be one other tournament held in Florida. But it never happened.

This tournament was unique in that it was just one part of a much larger special show in St. Petersburg called "The Bayfront Spectacular" that also featured an NWA World title defense by Ric Flair. There was a large display board shown on Florida television (seen in the graphic above) which included the main event matches and bracketing for the tournament. Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen, winners of two previous tournaments in Greensboro and Atlanta, sent in a tape from Georgia promoting their appearance in St. Petersburg. I particularly like Stan's reaction when Ole quizzed him about their possible tournament opponents:

Ole: "Can the Briscos beat you?"        Stan: "No!" 

Ole: "Can the Funks beat you?"        Stan: "Who?"

Ole: "How about the Von Erich brothers from Texas?"    Stan:  "Never heard of 'em!"

Special tournament update segments were hosted by Barbara Clary in the weeks leading up to the event. One of those is seen in the video above. The tournament only featured five teams, with one team getting an early bye. But the limited line-up was still one of the most colorful of all the tournaments and featured three different brother combinations.

The five teams in St. Petersburg were:

• Jack and Jerry Brisco
• Steve Keirn and Mike Graham
• David and Kerry Von Erich
• Dory and Terry Funk
• Ole Anderson and Stan

A closer look at each team:

JACK AND JERRY BRISCO
The Briscos had been regulars in Florida for many years, and had been an active team up until early March of that year (1982) when Jack entered the Mid-Atlantic territory on a full time basis as a singles competitor. The Brisco brothers had most recently been North American Tag Team champions in Florida, losing the titles three weeks before this tournament to Dory Funk, Jr. and David Von Erich. The team came into St. Pete with a tournament win already under their belt, having won in Charlotte back on February 14. They had competed in Richmond, Atlanta, and Fayetteville as well.

STEVE KEIRN AND MIKE GRAHAM
Considered the "hometown team" in this tournament, Steve Keirn and Mike Graham had a storied championship history as a tag team in Florida. They held various tag team championships from 1977-1981 including the Florida, United States, and North American Tag Team titles. Keirn was a regular in the Memphis territory at this time, and would soon be forming one of the most famous and successful tag teams of the 1980s, the Fabulous Ones (with Stan Lane.) So it was a bit of a homecoming for him to return and team with Mike Graham in Florida, the territory where Keirn had had so much success in the 1970s both as a singles and tag team competitor.

DAVID AND KERRY VON ERICH
Behind the scenes, Fritz Von Erich had sent his son David to Florida to gain experience working as a "bad guy" in hopes of helping to prepare him for a possible run as NWA World champion down the road. David was considered a top candidate for that role by the various promoters in the NWA, including the kingmaker Sam Muchnick. He was being mentored by former NWA World champion Dory Funk, Jr., and the two had recently defeated the Briscos for the North American Title. But for this tournament, David brought in his brother Kerry from their home territory of World Class Wrestling in Dallas. It was a rare opportunity for Kerry to work "heel" as well.

DORY AND TERRY FUNK
The Funk brothers were familiar faces in Florida, both having spent a great deal of time there, and Terry actually having won the NWA World title in Miami Beach from Jack Brisco in 1975. The rivalry between the Funks and the Briscos went way back to the 1960s, and the two brother teams had feuded over the North American titles as recently as two months before this tournament in St. Pete. As mentioned above, Dory was tag champs with David Von Erich at the time of the tournament, but chose his younger brother as his partner for this chance at advancing in the World Tag Team tournament. They had also competed together in the tournament in Atlanta on 2/28.

OLE ANDERSON AND STAN HANSEN
No team seemingly wanted those World Tag Team title belts more than Anderson and Hansen, having ponied up the $1000 entry fee for all five of the previous tournaments and having walked away with victories in two of them  - - Greensboro and Atlanta. That night in St. Pete they were considered the "outside team," coming in from Georgia Championship Wrestling.


TOURNAMENT BRACKETING & RESULTS

You will notice in the video embedded above that Barbara Clary mentions it is possible that the Funk Brothers could face the Von Erich Brothers in the tournament, which presented a possible interesting plot twist, since Dory Funk and David Von Erich were reigning North American Tag Team champions at the time. But it didn't happen. graham and Keirn eliminated the Von Erichs in the opening round. The Funk brothers received a bye to the second round.

The tournament wound up only having three matches. In the first of two opening round matches, the Briscos and Anderson/Hansen were both eliminated with a double disqualification. The winner of that match was to get a bye to the finals, but with the double DQ, both were eliminated from the tournament.

In the second opening round match, Graham and Keirn defeated David and Kerry Von Erich, avoiding the potential Funk/Von Erich clash.

With the earlier double disqualification of the Briscos and Hansen/Anderson, the match between Graham/Keirn and the Funks became the de facto championship match.

TOURNAMENT WINNERS:
In what may have appeared to be an upset to an outsider looking in, but wasn't a surprise at all to fans in Florida, Steve Keirn and Mike Graham won the tournament with victories over two brother combinations: the Von Erichs and the Funks.

In a little side story told by Eddie Graham in a taped update segment from Florida shown on Mid-Atlantic television the week after the St. Petersburg tournament, Graham thanked promoter Fred Ward (promoter in Columbus, GA) for taking over as active Mat Chairman for the night of the tournament his son Mike was involved in. Graham, who was the Committee Chairman for the tournament at large, said he wanted to avoid any conflict of interest, and was pleased that Mike and Steve Keirn had won in St. Pete and had the highest hopes for their success moving forward.


Tournament Notes and Trivia:

• There were three brother combinations in the tournament: the Briscos, Funks, and Von Erichs.
• At the time of this tournament, Dory Funk Jr. and David Von Erich were North American Tag Team champions in Florida, but each teamed with their brother in the tournament.
• Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen finished out their streak as being the only team to compete in all six city tournaments. 
• Florida was the fourth state to host a tournament, along with Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina. 
• This was the final actual tournament ultimately held before the Eastern Division Finals, although there were some fictitious  tournaments that played into the finals which will be discussed later.

Mike Graham and Steve Keirn, winners of the St. Petersburg tournament.

  
Coming Up in PART EIGHT:
With the city tournaments that actually took place concluded, Ole Anderson helps us take a look at the tournaments that were reportedly planned but did not take place.  Ole was booking both the Georgia and Mid-Atlantic territories during this time, and was the person who initially conceived of the tournament.

After that, stay tuned for details on the Eastern Division finals, Western Division winners, and the final story on how it all fell apart at the end.

THE 1982 NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT

Introduction  |  Greensboro  |  Charlotte  |  Richmond  |  Atlanta  | Fayetteville

UH OH: So how do we explain this?