A cool photo taken by Eric Stace of Ricky Steamboat in front of fabled Dorton Arena in Raleigh, NC. The photo was taken on 6/27/15 in advance of an appearance by Steamboat at a NCWA wrestling event outside Raleigh in Clayton, NC.
Most people refer to Rick Steamboat as "The Dragon" but we here at the Gateway still call him "The Hawaiian Punch", his nickname during the 1970s and early 1980s in the Mid-Atlantic territory.
Steamboat is holding a replica of the "Big Gold" belt, the version of the NWA title belt he held in 1989 during that memorable leg of his legendary feud with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, which lasted from the 1970s into the 1990s.
Steamboat won the NWA title from Flair on 2/20/89 in Chicago, IL and lost the title back to the Nature Boy on 5/7/89 in Nashville, TN.
It's appropriate we post this photo on a Tuesday. That was the regular night for wrestling at the Dorton Arena in Raleigh for decades.
Rumor has it Stace and veteran wrestling photographer Eddie Cheslock are planning a book of photos of some of the great stars of wrestling in front of some of the Mid-Atlantic area's classic venues. We'll keep an eye out for it.
Thirty years ago today, July 6, 1985, Jim Crockett Promotions presented the first Great American Bash event in front of a reported 27,000 fans at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In the main event of the huge stadium show, Ric Flair defended the NWA world heavyweight championship against Nikita Koloff in what was called "The Freedom Challenge." David Crockett, who had been hit a few weeks earlier by Nikita Koloff's vicious "Russian cycle" clothesline during an interview, was assigned as the special referee.
Included here is some memorabilia from the event including a ticket stub and program cover. These original programs for this particular event are pretty hard to come by. Like all of the special event programs produced by the company in those years, the program was printed in full color on high quality medium-stock glossy paper.
The Japanese press covered the event and provided some great images from the matches and a few behind-the-scenes as well. We've included several of those pages here:
Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff (Click to enlarge.)
More Japanese wrestling magazine coverage and event results after the jump.....
From Georgia Championship Wrestling to Jim Crockett Promotions to WCW.
From Gordon Solie to Fred Miller to Bob Caudle to Tony Schiavone to Eric Bischoff.
From the Four Horsemen to the Dangerous Alliance to the nWo.
Like most cities, Richmond, Virginia back in 1975 had its share of spectacular fireworks displays to commemorate the Independence Day holiday. But none of those displays held a candle to the “fireworks” that were unleashed on fans inside the Richmond Coliseum, watching a super spectacular card of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on the evening of July 4, 1975!
To those that have followed the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, you may recall that this card ranked #21 on my listing of Richmond’s greatest Mid-Atlantic cards. The most intriguing match to me going in was a rare Richmond appearance of Andre the Giant, going against the seemingly indestructible Super Destroyer, who was saying at the time that he had held onto his mask for thirteen years. But the match that really stole the show was a NWA World Tag Team Title bout between champions Gene and Ole Anderson against Paul Jones and Wahoo McDaniel.
About three weeks prior to this Richmond show, the Anderson Brothers had regained the World Tag Team Title belts on television in the dramatic “Supreme Sacrifice” match, where Ole ran Wahoo’s head into Gene’s head, knocking Gene out in the process. This return bout in Richmond had the big match feel of a title change, and the apparent sellout crown at the Coliseum was at a fever pitch anticipating a win for the challengers. But…it wasn’t meant to be on this night. An even bout turned the challengers way towards the end, but it was too little too late. The Andersons stalled out the final minutes, and escaped with a 60 minute draw. This match set up four return bouts between these four during the summer and fall of 1975, with the challengers coming tantalizingly close to winning back the belts.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of a big holiday card in Richmond that featured in its main event one of the greatest feuds the territory ever saw. Be sure to check out David Chappell's memories of July 4, 1975 at the historic Richmond Coliseum!
And this coming Monday marks the 30th anniversary of the very first Great American Bash card ever held. It was Saturday, July 6, 1985 at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte.
All of us here at the Mid-Atlantic Gateway want to wish you and your family a happy Independence Day and hoping that you have a your own Great American Bash wherever you are and whatever you're doing this July 4th.
I usually don't like to post video that is of such relatively poor video and audio quality, but this is one of my all-time favorite Mid-Altlantic Wrestling TV segments. I was so happy when I came across it on YouTube, I felt as though I was almost obligated to share it here.
Some perspective:
It is January of 1981. Ric Flair has been a stalwart of the Mid-Atlantic area since 1974 and is a bonafide legend here. Two months ago during Thanksgiving week, he had regained the United States heavyweight championship from Greg Valentine. He is less than 8 months away from winning his first NWA world heavyweight championship.
Roddy Piper, on the other hand, is relatively new to the Mid-Atlantic area, although he has taken the area by storm. He arrived in the fall of 1980 and won a tournament to fill the vacant NWA TV championship in early November of 1981. He had quickly become the number one heel in the territory.
The United States championship was the top singles title in the Mid-Atlantic area and had great credibility with fans. In an angle that aired on Mid-Atlantic TV over Christmas, Piper had attacked Flair and NWA official George Scott at a special holiday TV taping at the Dorton Arena in Raleigh, NC. This set up the U.S. title match between Flair and Piper, with Flair happy to put up the title to get a shot at revenge for the bloody beating he had sustained from Piper a month earlier.
On Tuesday night, 1/27/81, in the same Dorton Arena where the Christmas week attack had taken place, Piper got his shot at Flair and made good on his threats to take Flair's title. That next night, Wednesday 1/28/81 in the TV studios of WRAL in Raleigh, Piper was announced as the new U.S. champion and the confrontation you see in the video above took place.
One of the minor aspects of this segment that I appreciate is an example of how titles were made to have much more importance than they do today. Piper, who was the reigning TV champion when he beat Flair, tried to give Flair the TV title in a condescending manner, feigning sympathy for Flair for no longer having a belt. Flair declines, pointing out to Piper what a prestigious championship it is in its own right, and how if he were fortunate enough to win it one day, then he'd wear it. That masterful little moment by Flair kept the TV title important, too, even though the U.S. title was the thing at issue.
A wonderfully played out segment, everyone playing their part perfectly, including announcers Bob Caudle and David Crockett. The TV direction was spot-on, too, with a great shot of the foreign object Piper used at Dorton after he had thrown it away (for the second time, as we would learn.)
The "Total Package" Lex Luger is the guest this week of "Nature Boy" Ric Flair on episode #9 of Wooooo Nation!
From the WOOOOO! Nation website:
Add a little Flair to your life by joining the Nature Boy every week as he talks pro wrestling, sports, tells stories like only he can, and interviews his celebrity friends. No topic is off limits for Flair during his weekly CBS podcast. Come join WOOOOO! Nation!
Ric welcomes his old friend and one of his favorite opponents, Lex Luger to Wooooo Nation! Ric, Conrad and Lex tell great stories about their time together in the business.
Join Ric with Conrad Thompson as they welcome Lex Luger to "WOOOOO! Nation." Check it out via iTunes or directly download from the WOOOOO! Nation page at the Play.it website.
Harley Race and World League Wrestling Announces Naomichi Marufuji for 2015 Harley Race Wrestling Camp
August 24 -28 www.HarleyRace.com
Troy, MO - Harley Race and his professional wrestling academy based in Troy, MO are happy to announce its fifth and final guest trainer for this year's week-long training camp. He comes from Japan and is regarded as one of the best wrestlers by today's standard. He is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, GHC Tag-Team Champion, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag-Team Champion, NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion, and has held many other titles in his career. He is one of the top professional wrestlers not only in Pro-Wrestling NOAH, but the world today. Harley Race is proud to announce the attendance of Naomichi Marufuji to the 2015 Harley Race Wrestling Camp!
Mr. Marufuji debuted in professional wrestling in 1998 training under the All-Japan wrestling dojo as well as Mitsuharu Misawa. When Mr. Misawa left All-Japan Pro Wrestling to start Pro-Wrestling NOAH, Marufuji joined the young company and was given the chance to shine - and he did just that. Becoming one of the very few wrestlers in that company to hold all 5 championships belonging to Pro-Wrestling NOAH.
Part of our ongoing tribute to the memory of the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes Features vintage audio and newspaper ads below the jump.
This episode of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway's "Main Event Memories" takes us back to September of 1976 when Dusty Rhodes made one of his brief visits to the Mid-Atlantic area. If you read David Chappell's recent article here about the first time he saw the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes in Richmond, you'll recall he references a video promo Dusty sent in from Florida in advance of his Mid-Atlantic title match with Ric Flair in September of 1976.
Dusty had made sporadic guest appearances in the Mid-Atlantic area over 1975-1976. A quick check of his career results on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway archive reveals his visits were usually over weekends or in Charlotte on Monday night, going back to early 1975. Many of those early appearances were against a young Ric Flair who was just getting his feet under him as a star in the promotion.
But the September 4 card was Dusty's first appearance in Richmond, which was one of the three biggest cities in the territory. One of the reasons Dusty had never made Richmond was likely due to the fact that Richmond ran on Friday nights. Dusty's full-time territory was Florida, and during this time Friday night meant Miami in the Sunshine State, obviously an important city for the Florida promotion. Additionally, Dusty was being booked regularly during this time in Atlanta which also ran on Friday nights. This made scheduling Dusty for Richmond a near impossibility.
So we're not sure if Dusty was the sole reason for the Crockett scheduling change, but this particular Richmond card took place on a rare Saturday night and that allowed the American Dream to make his debut at the Richmond Coliseum.
Exclusive audio and newspaper clippings after the jump! ....
