This week we take another brief departure from Mike Simmerman's awesome collection of custom figures and photographs to take a look at another collection presented north of the border on the excellent Maple Leaf Wrestling Blog published by Andrew Calvert.
Barry Hatchet Photo
MLW contributor Barry Hatchet has taken some great photos of some custom figures on his custom designed Maple Leaf Gardens set. Similar to the custom designed TV studio that Mike uses for many of his Mid-Atlantic photographs, the little details in Barry's Maple Leaf Gardens set are what make these photos really work.
And Barry's detail is incredible! Right down to the 1980s boombox sitting at ringside for Jimmy Valiant's ring intro music. Plus ring steps, ringside table and ring bell, tag ropes, etc. Awesome stuff.
Here are two page links to posts on the Mapple Leaf Wrestling site with lots of incredible photos.
Borrowing from the French philosopher Voltaire, I offer some sage advice. And as I offer this advice to you now, I confess to have repeated this advice quietly to myself several times over the last few days; don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
Is this treasure trove of early 1980s Mid-Atlantic Wrestling programming on the WWE Network perfect? No. But is it good? You bet it is. It is very good.
I've been waiting for the WWE Network to add Mid-Atlantic Wrestling to their network for four years, since the day it first launched back in February of 2014. Yet I find myself fretting over the things I don't like, the things that are missing, the things they had to change. And it is here that I keep telling myself those same words:
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
Over the last few days I have found myself alternately excited and frustrated by this new material (and the lack thereof) now included on the WWE Network service. I'm not complaining about the period of time covered by the drop (September 1981 - October 1983). That period is just as relevant as any other period in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling history. We all enjoy certain time frames more than others, we all have our favorite periods, usually determined by when we first started watching wrestling. They'll get to the rest of what they have at some point, I feel confident.
No, what I keep reminding myself of is how blessed we are to have this material available at all.
Many people like to demonize Vince McMahon as the devil incarnate. Hogwash. Without Vince McMahon and the WWE owning those libraries of old tapes, none of this material would have likely ever seen the light of day in its current form. These are the folks investing millions of dollars in a digital delivery system (i.e.; "the network") to archive and make available these shows. And I, for one, am very grateful for that.
Some people respond that YouTube has a lot of old Mid-Atlantic Wrestling shows, so we don't need the network. To be sure, there are many random clips and complete episodes on YouTube, and I actually enjoy those very much. But nothing there matches the volume and the comprehensiveness of this material on the WWE Network (both what they have put up and what is still yet to come.)
Now, all that being said, I have been just as deeply disappointed in what has been omitted within this time frame as I have been excited about what is there. Friends of mine that are more familiar with how the network works have encouraged me with their experience of the network continuing to add material in subsequent weeks after a big drop, often filling in gaps and adding shows that are missing in the sequence. Glad to hear that.
Some of what's missing can't be blamed on WWE. The sad fact is a few of the shows are simply missing and no longer exist and those could never be added. But not all of what's missing falls in that category. In fact, likely not most of it.
My problems is, I'm just paranoid enough about this stuff to imagine they have selectively omitted things for reasons known only to them. (Not really, but I just told you I'm paranoid about it.)
Here are several examples:
The October 3, 1981 show is missing, which includes Ric Flair's first appearance in his home area as NWA World Heavyweight Champion and a warm interview with host Bob Caudle. This is one of the most historically significant shows of that fall. It's missing.
A full three weeks of shows (2/19, 2/26, and 3/5) are missing leading up to the huge and historic Greensboro cage match featuring Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle vs. Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. This show is known generally as the "Final Conflict" and was the show that convinced Jim Crockett Promotions to try closed-circuit events, which led to the first Starrcade later that year.
One of the most shocking heel turns of the era was the Brisco Brothers turning heel. Three of the shows in a row (4/30, 5/7, and 5/14) that build up to that, including the show with actual turn itself, are missing. While clips are replayed on later shows, these shows kicked off the bitter feud that would eventually culminate at Starrcade '83 seven months later. And they are missing.
In those same shows is the angle where Greg Valentine injures the ear of Roddy Piper, which set up the feud that would also lead all the way to Starrcade '83. Piper called it the "year of the ear." Most of that initial material is missing (although they show clips of it later.)
Bob Caudle and David Crockett congratulate Ric Flair on winning the NWA World Championship
on the 10/3/81 episode of "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling." Sadly, the episode is not
currently included on the WWE Network.
These are just a few examples. It'd odd that it doesn't seem to be random shows missing, it seems to be key shows missing.
But given what I'm told the network did earlier with the drop of "World Class Wrestling" and "World Championship Wrestling (WTBS)" shows, I have hope that they fill in these gaps at a later date. But it begs the question - - what purpose is served by holding those back now? They are part of a story being told that is missing for no apparent reason and it greatly disrupts the flow of these things.
THE OPENING THEME MUSIC
One of things people have been unhappy about is the removal of the opening theme music. This really isn't the WWE's fault, and we knew it was probably going to happen. Because they don't own the rights to the music originally used and don't want to get into the additional cost of licensing the music in perpetuity, the network removes or drowns out all unlicensed music and uses canned music they own or license to replace it.
The original theme music during those years, with its familiar opening bass line, was taken from a 1978 minor disco hit titled "Got to Have Loving" written and performed by 1970s disco producer, arranger and performer Don Ray. Jim Crockett Promotions started using a custom edit of the song for its opening theme music sometime in 1979 and continued using it until the spring of 1986 when the name of the show was changed to "NWA Pro Wrestling" and a new musical theme was introduced.
I will admit is is jarring when that familiar opening sequence of the Mid-Atlantic logo begins and you hear something totally foreign. Your brain expects to hear those descending bass notes leading into the synth jungle-disco drum line to follow, and then the familiar sight and sound of Bob Caudle welcoming us to another hour of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. Now we hear a generic sounding theme that has sort of a funky-soul-disco feel to it, like it also came straight out of the late 1970s.
And it's not just the opening of the show. It is used to replace the original music when bumping out to commercials, or during slow-motion instant replays, and in place of the closing theme, too. At the end of the show, this new music completely removes the familiar, almost ritualistic, barter declaration:
"Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling has been furnished to this station for broadcast at this time by Jim Crockett Promotions in exchange for commercial consideration"
And because they lay this new music over the original audio throughout the show to drown out the original music but still allow us to hear what Bob Caudle is saying (sort of), it is much louder than the normal audio level of the show itself, and it becomes a little annoying.
Actually, it's not that bad of a replacement tune if a replacement had to be made to begin with. I sure would prefer the original, but I like the funky horns in this replacement and if we had to lose the original, this suits me fine. But to be sure, it does take you out of the moment every time it plays.
THE LOCAL PROMOS
Also missing are most of the the custom local promotional spots for each market that were inserted into the original shows. That's also understandable, but that also eliminates the very familiar announcement that always announced those promos:
"Let's take time for this commercial message about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling events coming up in your area."
A few of the local promo spots survived if they were on the original tape to begin with. (We're compiling a list to be posted here later.) In their place in many of the shows are interviews taped live in the studio that most people never saw because they were seeing their local interviews in that spot. For many months, the time was used to allow underneath (enhancement) talent the time to work on interviews, something they never had the opportunity to do in these shows otherwise. Some of these are painful to watch. In the shows from late 1982 and the spring of 1983 that I've watched so far, the promos feature the main event talent and seem to be aimed at the Florida market where Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was now apparently being seen. It's actually kind of fun hearing those as there is lots of discussion of the wrestlers working then for Championship Wrestling from Florida.
All of these shows are great to see again, but they aren't perfect. But here again, I keep reminding myself - - - - don't let perfect be the enemy of good. And I'm having a really good time watching these shows again, most of which I haven't seen since they originally aired over 35 years ago. I'm not going to let the fact that they aren't perfect ruin an otherwise good time.
Besides, if you really are missing the original theme music and need your fix, here it is for you to enjoy (from the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Archives site):
MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING THEME (1979-1986)
Now, go get the network, watch and enjoy these old shows. And let the WWE Network know on their Facebook and Twitter pages how glad you are they have added Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.
It was one of the greatest "slight of hand" moments in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling history. In one 24-hour period, Bolo Mongol was banished from the territory and the Masked Superstar arrived. What no one noticed was that it was the same man in the role of both characters.
Poster from the collection of West Potter
In 1976, Professor Boris Malenko managed the fearsome team of the Mongols, Bolo and Geeto, the famous IWA tag team champions who had jumped from that organization and had come to Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA and had brought their IWA tag belts with them.
In the NWA, the team was briefly recognized as the "International" tag team champions. It was a way of acknowledging that the IWA (International Wrestling Association) tag champs were in the area without actually using that organization's name.
The team ran roughshod over the Mid-Atlantic area in the late winter through early fall of 1976. They had numerous matches that were seen, if not billed, as title unification matches with the Anderson Brothers, who were reigning NWA World tag team champions for most of that year. The Andersons eventually won that war. And the IWA eventually got their belts back after threatening legal action. That's a story for another day.
International Tag Team Champs the Mongols managed by Professor Boris Malenko (Photo by Gene Gordon/Copyright Scooter Lesley)
By the fall of 1976, the Mongols had broken up as a team and Geeto left the territory. Prof. Malenko still managed Bolo Mongol, who was embroiled in a bitter feud with Chief Wahoo McDaniel. Malenko wanted revenge for Wahoo breaking his false teeth in a memorable moment on Mid-Atlantic television, and so a match was set for the Greensboro Coliseum where the loser would have to leave the territory, a stipulation known in that era as a "loser leaves town" match. In addition, Malenko added the stipulation of hair vs. hair.
Actually, Bolo had a series of loser-leaves-town matches in the days leading up to Greensboro across the territory, against both Wahoo McDaniel and Paul Jones. But it was the Greensboro match with Wahoo, with the added stipulation of hair-vs.-hair, that would prove to be Bolo's Mongolian Waterloo.
It was the main event of a big card in Greensboro on September 26, 1976, a wild an woolly affair, eventually won by McDaniel, who proceed to cut the top-knot off Bolo Mongol's head after the match. But the more critical repercussion of the match was that Prof. Malenko's prized client would have to leave the Mid-Atlantic territory for good.
And so he did, not only leaving the Mid-Atlantic area, but disappearing from wrestling forever. But he didn't truly leave, because you see, the man who portrayed the character of Bolo Mongol was the legendary Bill Eadie, and the very next night, he reappeared on the scene as a new wrestler, the Masked Superstar from parts unknown, once again under the managerial genius of Professor Malenko.
Prof. Boris Malenko and The Masked Superstar (Photo by Bill Janosik)
The most amazing thing about these events at that time was that no one was the wiser; fans didn't have a clue that the new wrestler behind the mask had just been dispatched days earlier as Bolo Mongol.
"One day we finished Bolo with a hair match in Greensboro against Wahoo on a Sunday evening," Bill Eadie told the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in a 2003 interview, "and Monday night I was in Greenville as the Masked Superstar…and nobody knew."
It was an amazing transformation and an incredible feat to pull off, especially for someone so relatively new in the business. Eadie had only been wrestling at this point for a few years. It was Malenko who was instrumental in preparing Eadie for the switch.
"As I was still wrestling as Bolo Mongol, Boris Malenko took me to Park Center in Charlotte every Monday during the day when we had off time to try to change my approach. I would focus on more wrestling and less stomping, and would work on interviews," Eadie told us.
That preparation paid off. The Masked Superstar was presented as more of an intellectual and technical wrestler. He did "Russian leg sweeps" and "flying swinging-clotheslines" and won with the dreaded "cobra hold." Bolo Mongol just beat you to death, and when he was through with that, would kick and stomp the crap out of you as a bonus for good measure. Malenko presented the Superstar on TV in interviews as having a doctorate in psychology and having been a medal winning athlete in the olympics. The Superstar gave long, eloquent interviews; think Nick Bockwinkle, except with a mask. All Bolo Mongol ever did was grunt occasionally. And with Superstar's verbal eloquence and that mask and the different gear, no one had a clue that Bolo Mongol and the Masked Superstar were one and the same.
The whole idea of the Masked Superstar as a character came from the fertile mind of George Scott, who was the booker for Jim Crockett Promotions in those years.
"George [Scott] just came up to me one night and told me that we’d always had a masked guy in the area and asked if I’d be interested," Eadie told the Gateway. "I told him it would be up to Geeto, but at that point Geeto really wanted to go home. After Geeto and I talked about it, I told George that I’d try it."
And the rest, as they say, is history. The Masked Superstar went on to become one of the most famous and successful wrestlers in the world, splitting most of his time between the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia territories, but also as a top title challenger in the WWF to both Bob Backlund and Hulk Hogan, as well as a top star for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan, feuding with Antonio Inoki.
Eadie made another famous transformation later in his career, becoming "Ax", one of the founding members of the Demolition tag team in the WWF. He also wrestled in both the WWF and New Japan as the masked Super Machine.
From the collection of Andy McDaniel
The transformation from Bolo Mongol to Masked Superstar is one of our favorite moments from one of our favorite years in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling.
The Transition Dates:
Sunday, September 26 - Wahoo McDaniel defeats Bolo Mongol (mgd. by Prof. Boris Malenko) in a hair-vs-hair, loser-leaves-town match in Greensboro.
Monday, September 27 - The Masked Superstar (mgd. by Prof. Boris Malenko) makes his in-ring debut, defeating Johnny Weaver in Greenville, SC.
Wednesday, September 29 - At a TV taping at WRAL studios in Raleigh, Bob Caudle and Wahoo McDaniel review the film from Greensboro where Wahoo defeats Bolo Mongol, cuts off his top knot, and sends him packing. On the same show, Prof. Boris Malenko introduces his new man, the Masked Superstar, to the Mid-Atlantic fans.
The WWE Network has added approximately 100 episodes of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling to the on-demand section of their website. The shows have their own category under the "Vault" section.
The shows begin with the 9/12/81 episode and conclude with the 10/22/83 episode just over two years later. Interesting that they pause right as the Starrcade '83 build begins with the huge press conference episode from Florida. Hopefully, more shows will be added in the weeks to come.
But what a treasure trove we have to begin with. From the first shows where Ric Flair as announced as new NWA World Heavyweight Champion, to the 1982 classics such as Brisco vs. Piper and Slaughter vs. Wahoo, to the big feuds between Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood with the teams of Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle and the Brisco Brothers.
Inexplicably there are some missing shows, and some key ones at that. For example, the three episodes leading up to the huge Greensboro cage match between Steamboat/Youngblood vs. Slaughter/Kernodle in March of 1983 (known as "The Final Conflict.)
Another missing gem is the early October 1981 show where Ric Flair makes his first appearance back in his home area as NWA world champion. Former champ Dusty Rhodes also appears on that show. How they can leave that one out is beyond me.
But in general, most shows are included during the time span covered.
If you have never subscribed to the WWE Network before, now's the time! They have a free 30-day trial of the entire network and you can stream these shows to your smart TV or streaming device (such as AppleTV, Roku, etc.) or to your phone or tablet. or simply watch in your Internet browser on your computer. For more information, click here: wwe.com/wwenetwork.
Let the WWE know you want more Mid-Atlantic by simply viewing the shows they have on there now. They keep statistics on what we watch. Now is a good time to hit those shows hard.
The "WWE Network News" website has a comprehensive list of the shows that have been added so far:
During the glory days of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, fans would flock to the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina knowing that they would be seeing the absolute best cards of grappling action that Jim Crockett Promotions could produce. And more often than in any other town in the Mid-Atlantic area, Greensboro would play host to major title changes that its spectacular cards would spawn. Such would be the case on Sunday evening, September 3, 1978, within the confines of the Coliseum in Greensboro when the fans in attendance saw the NWA World Tag Team Titles shockingly switch from the villainous champs Greg Valentine and Baron von Raschke to the beloved tandem of Paul Jones and Ricky Steamboat!
In typical Greensboro fashion, this Sunday night card was stacked from top to bottom. The crowd saw an impressive performance by the rising Texan Skip Young, rooted on the popular duo of Johnny Weaver and the masked Mr. Wrestling over the surprisingly potent duo of Skandor Akbar and Mr. X #2 and roared with delight when “Sensational” Dick Murdock took the double-tough veteran Gene Anderson to the proverbial woodshed. After getting properly lathered up, the Greensboro faithful howled from the rafters during a wild Lumberjack match between bitter rivals Ric Flair and Blackjack Mulligan that was off the hook even by Flair/Mulligan standards.
But the match that stole the show this early September night in Greensboro was the World Tag Team Title bout with Valentine and Raschke putting their coveted Titles on the line against Jones and Steamboat. A remarkable series of events had thrust these two teams together on June 7, 1978 at a TV taping at the WRAL studios. The week before on TV, Raschke had agreed to put his NWA Television Title on the line against either Jones or Steamboat, who at that point were the World Tag Team Champions, but only if the champs put the World Tag belts on the line against the Baron and his mystery partner after the TV Title bout.
After some on-screen deliberations, Jones and Steamboat took up the Baron’s challenge. In a coin flip the following week on television, Jones was chosen to wrestle Raschke and defeated the Baron to win the TV Title, but Paul was injured in the process. This handicapped Mr. #1 in the World Tag Team Title bout immediately afterward, and the Baron and his newly-named partner, Greg Valentine, proceeded to capture the World Tag Team straps.
Throughout the summer of 1978, Jones and Steamboat battled ferociously to capture their World Tag Team Titles back. Uncharacteristically for the good guys, they told the fans that they would do anything to recapture the World belts. It seemed apropos that as the summer neared its end in early September, that Ricky and Paul would pull off their summer-long crusade in Greensboro.
The championship bout lived up to all the hype, and the final frantic seconds of the contest saw Steamboat catch Valentine with a double thrust and followed with a quick small package to capture the winning pinfall three-count from referee Sonny Fargo. A deliriously happy Greensboro contingent yelled their approval at the title change while Valentine and Raschke could only stare in disbelief as Jones and Steamboat left the ring and Greensboro with the World Tag Team Championship belts in tow!
But unbeknownst to the fans that saw the match in Greensboro, there were machinations unfolding behind the scenes that would cast a bright spotlight on the World Tag Team Title match that had just concluded in such a spectacular fashion. On the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television show that was taped on Wednesday September 6, 1978 and would air for most fans on that upcoming Saturday, the first segment was devoted to a dissection of the Greensboro World Tag Team Title bout. And as Paul Harvey would have paraphrased, we were about to hear the rest of the story…
In 1978, the Masked Superstar attempted to collect the $10,000 bounty Ric Flair had put on the head of Blackjack Mulligan. The two battled most of that summer, drawing huge houses for their bounty matches inside a steel cage.
Mike Simmerman's action figure photos continue this week with a cool look at that feud using customized action figures.
Blackjack Mulligan and the Masked Superstar face-off.
Blackjack applies the claw hold on the Superstar.
As always, thanks to Mike Simmerman for the photos from his collection.
When the WWE bought WCW from Time Warner, it acquired with the deal the original video tape library of Jim Crockett Promotions. That library originally transferred to Turner Home Entertainment following the Turner's purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988. When WWE bought WCW, the JCP library came along with it.
Johnny Weaver and Rich Landrum with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper on "World Wide Wrestling" April 1981
(WWE Network)
Soon, original episodes for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from that library be available on the WWE Network, the WWE's OTT streaming service.
This begs the question just how far back does the WWE's JCP library go? Back in 2009, the WWE began adding Mid-Atlantic Wrestling episodes to their premium cable channel originally called "WWE 24/7 On Demand" (later re-branded "WWE Classics On Demand.") They began showing sequential episodes of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling that began in November of 1981. This led many to believe that is when the JCP library started. It had been known for years that Jim Crockett Promotions did not begin archiving all of their programs until sometime in 1981. (Prior to that time, they simply recorded over each episode each week on the broadcast tapes that went out to the stations.)
However, there was evidence that they had some material that went back further than November of 1981. On the debut episode of the round-table discussion show "Legends of Wrestling", there was a 55-second clip of an interview with Roddy Piper that took place on "World Wide Wrestling" recorded on Wednesday, April 15, 1981 that first aired the following Saturday. This indicates that perhaps they have shows going back at least that far.
When WWE announced a special collection of ten selected shows to be released in advance of the big drop of shows on their service, the earliest was dated 9/12/81, which is two months earlier than the first show seen on the defunct WWE Classics On Demand cable channel.
We are very hopeful that the library goes back beyond August of 1981 to some of the shows taped at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, the long-time venue for Mid-Atlantic television tapings going back to 1959.In August of 1981, Crockett moved its TV tapings from WRAL to WPCQ TV in Charlotte. The WPCQ studio was way too small, requiring the ring to be set at an angle so that the ring, studio bleachers, cameras and set could all fit in. Add to that the quality of the studio equipment at WPCQ was noticeably inferior to the state of the art equipment at WRAL, resulting a noticeable drop in audio and video quality of the broadcast.
More updates as they become available on all this. The" WWE Network News" website reported last weekend that the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling episodes would begin appearing on the service on Monday, January 8.
THEY LOVE ME BUT THEY WON'T ADMIT IT Rip Hawk Claims Fans are Afraid to Display Their Affection for Fear of Ridicule
Here's a new twist on why a wrestler sometimes draws boos instead of cheers.
Rip Hawk, the 228 pound bomber from Evansville, Indiana claims the fans love him but they're afraid to show their affection for his wrestling skill because they fear ridicule from other ringsiders.
Rip Hawk (r)
with manager Homer O'Dell
Questioned about the subject of his "popularity", Hawk convinced us that he has a point. Just how sharp the point is we're a little to bewildered at the moment to determine.
"Certainly the fans love me," the Hoosier, fresh from a barber's chair with a bristling crew-cut, remarked. "They may jeer me just to follow the others, but you can bet that deep down they admire my wrestling skill. I'm good. They know I'm good. So how can they have anything in their hearts but admiration for me?"
Of course, the fact the Ripper is just about one of the most treacherous heavyweights to appear in the U. S. in recent years doesn't account for the jeers he receives from the fans. No indeed. Not in the Hawk's way of reckoning. These jeers are meant to be cheers if the fans could let loose with their real feelings and not worry about what the fellows sitting next to them think.
The cheering "Jeers" start almost the moment Rip enters the arena and walks into view of the fans. By the time he's in the ring it sounds like a hog-calling convention. Rip doesn't need to attempt any sneak, roughing trick to agitate the fans. His cocky attitude and high strutting turns the tide of fan support against him in jig time.
The blond haired Hoosier is a darn good athlete, we must admit. He's about medium weight by heavyweight wrestling standards and he stands 5'-10". Rip is 30 years old.
It's an odd thing about Rip's height. Usually a wrestler of medium height becomes a crowd favorite when appearing against a man well over the 6-foot mark. But not in the Ripper's case. Whether his opponents are big or small or medium, the fans want the Hawk throttled. It's a strange love they have for him.
Rip isn't what you would call a rougher of the magnitude of the Duseks or the Sharpe brothers. He's an in-between roughhouser who relies on his ability to outfox his opponent, then administer the coup de grace with some sly maneuver which might escape the referees watchful eyes. And if the Hawk is caught in the execution of some misdeed in the ring he quickly assumes the innocence of a mischievous choir boy who has just landed a spit ball on the rector's ear during church services.
To hear the Hawk protest his innocence as the referee starts his third-degree is a sight to behold. The Hawk cajoles, pleads and goes through the agonies of the damned to get the referee "off his back." And during this display of innocence the fans are lovingly jeering him.
Oh, Rip's public. How they love him!
* * * * * * * * * * * * Author Unknown. May have been part of the Rip Hawk Fanclub newsletter. Thanks to Andy McDaniel for providing the article and photo.
The WWE Network recently announced it would be adding Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling content from the early 1980s in January of 2018. In advance of that, they apparently plan to include a selection of 10 episodes to be part of the "new content" collection in their "Collections" section of the on-demand site.
Here are the ten selected shows thought to be part of an early collection on the WWE Network in advance of the big drop of 100 shows in "The Vault." The information is taken from the WWE Network News website.
The dates listed are apparently first-run air dates, not the dates the shows were taped in studio. As was the case for decades in Jim Crockett Promotions, some markets received the tape on a "bicycle" distribution one or two weeks delayed from the original air-dates in the major markets. The dates provided are thought to be the "first-run" dates.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING
9/12/1981 (Special Gateway Look at this Episode)
MID-ATLANTIC TELEVISION CHAMPION RON BASS PARTNERS WITH JAY YOUNGBLOOD FOR A TAG TEAM MATCH MAIN EVENT. RODDY PIPER LEADS ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER INTO ACTION AGAINST RON RITCHIE. PLUS, SGT. SLAUGHTER, JAKE ROBERTS, AND MANY MORE IN ACTION.
12/12/1981
SGT. SLAUGHTER AND PVT. JIM NELSON TAKE TO THE RING TO BATTLE THE DUO OF TONY ANTHONY AND LARRY HAMILTON IN A TAG TEAM MATCH MAIN EVENT. PLUS, RICKY STEAMBOAT IN ACTION, IVAN KOLOFF DEFENDS THE MID-ATLANTIC TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP, AND MORE.
6/26/1982
CHAOS ERUPTS WHEN JAKE ROBERTS TAKES TO THE RING TO GO ONE-ON-ONE WITH RODDY PIPER. JACK BRISCO PARTNERS WITH RICKY STEAMBOAT TO BATTLE MATT BORNE AND STEVE SYBERT. PLUS, JIMMY VALIANT, WAHOO MCDANIEL, AND MANY MORE IN ACTION.
8/21/1982
NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION RIC FLAIR TAKES TO THE RING TO GO ONE-ON-ONE WITH JACK BRISCO IN SINGLES COMPETITION. PLUS, RODDY PIPER PARTNERS WITH JIMMY VALIANT FOR A TAG TEAM MATCH, GENE ANDERSON CALLS OUT WAHOO MCDANIEL, AND MORE.
11/27/1982
NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION RIC FLAIR LOOKS TO HUMILIATE RODDY PIPER BY CHALLENGING HIM TO A UNIQUE CONFRONTATION. PLUS, NWA UNITED STATES CHAMPION GREG VALENTINE IN ACTION, BOB ORTON JR. PARTNERS UP WITH JACK BRISCO, AND MUCH MORE.
3/12/1983
GREG VALENTINE PUTS THE COVETED NWA UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE LINE AGAINST RODDY PIPER IN THE MAIN EVENT. PLUS, NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION RIC FLAIR COMPETES IN SINGLES ACTION, ONE MAN GANG PARTNERS WITH MID-ATLANTIC TELEVISION CHAMPION DICK SLATER, AND MUCH MORE.
4/30/1983
TENSIONS BETWEEN RICKY STEAMBOAT AND SGT. SLAUGHTER ERUPT. RODDY PIPER CONTINUES HIS REIGN AS THE NEWLY CROWNED NWA UNITED STATES CHAMPION BY TAKING TO THE RING TO COMPETE IN SINGLES ACTION. PLUS, JOS LEDUC, THE GREAT KABUKI, AND MANY MORE IN ACTION.
7/2/1983
PAUL JONES ANNOUNCES THE WINNER OF HIS ‘DREAM CONTEST’ AFTER LEADING JAKE ROBERTS AND DORY FUNK JR. TO THE RING FOR MAIN EVENT ACTION. PLUS, RICKY STEAMBOAT LOOKS TO SHUT JERRY BRISCO’S MOUTH, WAHOO MCDANIEL GOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE MAGIC DRAGON, AND MORE.
9/10/1983
THINGS TAKE A DANGEROUS TURN FOR RIC FLAIR WHEN “THE NATURE BOY” TAKES TO THE RING TO CHALLENGE HARLEY RACE FOR THE NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE MAIN EVENT. PLUS, BOB ORTON JR., WAHOO MCDANIEL, AND MORE IN ACTION.
10/22/1983
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NATIONAL WRESTLING ALLIANCE MEET TO ESTABLISH THE UPCOMING BATTLE FOR THE NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BETWEEN HARLEY RACE AND RIC FLAIR AT STARRCADE. PLUS, THE ASSASSINS, RICKY STEAMBOAT, DICK SLATER, AND MANY MORE TAKE TO THE RING FOR ACTION.
Earliest Mid-Atlantic show listed for WWE Network precedes previously aired shows on the defunct WWE Wrestling Classics 24/7 channel.
by Dick Bourne Mid-Atlantic Gateway
The WWE Network recently announced they would begin carrying early 1980s episodes of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (expected to debut on 1/8/17 per the WWE Network News website) as part of their "Vault" section of their streaming service. They also indicated there would be 10 selected episodes that would be included in the "Collections" section of the service in advance of the major 100-episode drop.
The first of those selected episodes has an air date listed as 9/12/81 and the following description:
Mid-Atlantic Television Champion Ron Bass partners with Jay Youngblood for a tag team match main event. Roddy Piper leads Abdullah the Butcher into action against Ron Ritchie. Plus Sgt. Slaughter, Jake Roberts, and many more in action.
There are lots of things interesting to note about this episode as it related to the context of the times as well as a peek into what the WWE library of Jim Crockett tapes includes.
EARLIEST EPISODE KNOWN SO FAR IN WWE LIBRARY
First of all, this episode predates the episodes that previously aired on the defunct WWE Wrestling Classics 24/7 pay channel back in the 2000s. Their episodes began with the 11/18/81 (taping date at WPCQ studio) show. It's nice to see them include in this early show on their list: it predates the first show from the 24/7 network by over two-months.
I'm hoping since this is simply a "selected" episode, the library goes back a bit further. There is some indication that it might, as indicated by a brief clip of Rich Landrum and Johnny Weaver with Roddy Piper from a summer 1981 episode of "World Wide Wrestling" that aired as a clip on one of the WWE Wrestling Classics round-table shows. (That round table show is probably on the WWE Network now.)
THE RECENT MOVE FROM WRAL TO WPCQ STUDIO
In the summer of 1981, Jim Crockett Promotions moved the location of their TV studio wrestling tapings from the classic confines of WRAL studios in Raleigh, NC, to the cramped and awkward setting of WPCQ in Charlotte. The first taping took place on Wednesday night, August 5, with the original air-date of Saturday, August 8. So it's worth noting that this 9/12/81 episode in the WWE list is very early into JCP's tenure at WPCQ. We're hoping that perhaps some of the final episodes from WRAL are part of the WWE's library, especially given that the aforementioned clip with Landrum, Weaver, and Piper exists from that studio.
DUSTY RHODES IS STILL NWA CHAMPION
Ric Flair first won the NWA World title on September 17, 1981, so there will be at least this one episode where Rhodes is till champion, and hopefully a few more. This also means we should see the episode in late September where Ric Flair is introduced as the new NWA World Champion.
The other champions as of this program:
World Tag Champs: Gene and Ole Anderson
United States Champion: [VACANT - Wahoo Stripped of Title]
Mid-Atlantic Champion: Ivan Koloff
Mid-Atlantic Tag Champs: The Russians (Volkoff and Markoff mgd. by Lord Al Hayes)
Mid-Atlantic TV Champion: Ron Bass
World Jr. Champion: Les Thornton
NOTES ON THIS 9/12/81 SHOW
From some notes we made back in 1981 while watching wrestling here is what it looks like will be on that 9/12/81 show.
The tag team of Ricky Steamboat and Jake Roberts open the show.
The team of the Super Destroyer (Scott Irwin) and The Grappler (Len Denton) face Scott McGhee and Don Kernodle in another tag team event.
Ivan Koloff and the recently-arrived Sgt. Slaughter wrestle in singles action.
Newly crowned TV champion Ron Bass and Jay Youngblood tag up to finish the show.
The referee for the show is Stu Schwartz.
Austin Idol appears on an interview segment.
This show may include a tape of the infamous match where Wahoo McDaniel was attacked by Abdullah the Butcher and the footage had to be video-distorted for blood. There is at least some footage of Abdullah in action, accompanied by Roddy Piper, as indicated in the WWE"s short description of the show (see above.)
The Super Destroyer (Scott Irwin) wins for his team with a vertical suplex from the second turnbuckle, a move he called the "superplex." As hard as it is to fathom in this day and age, that was a revolutionary move for its time, and no one had really seen anything like that in our area up until then. We had seen flaying body-presses from the top rope (ala Ricky Steamboat) and flying body splashes from the top rope (ala Jimmy Snuka), but never a suplex delivered from the turnbuckles. This was considered cutting edge for its time.
It will be great to see this show for the first time since it originally aired over 36 years ago.
