End of the Road for the Mid-Atlantic Championship

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

"We will let the fans know what the disposition of this title will be very soon."   - Jim Crockett, Jr., 12/27/86 

Those words still echo with me all these years later. I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what would become of my beloved Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight championship.

The sequence of images above from "World Championship Wrestling" on 12/27/86 show Ronnie Garvin handing over the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight championship belt to Jim Crockett, Jr. in the studios of WTBS in Atlanta.

Garvin forfeited the title after he and Barry Windham had won the United States Tag Team championships. He is wearing the US Tag Team title belt. Jim Crockett told Ronnie he couldn't hold both titles, and he had to decide which one to forfeit.

"Well you know, it's a big disappointment to me ... it's a lot of work behind this belt and it represents the Mid-Atlantic area. And I don't mean no disrespect for it, because parting with this means a whole lot to me. But I don't want to disappoint my partner Barry Windham"   - Ronnie Garvin, 12/27/86

While Jim Crockett told Tony Schiavone that he would announce later what would be done with the title (we assumed a tournament), the belt and the championship were never seen or mentioned again.

Click to enlarge.

It was a sad day for long time fans of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling who had witnessed such great wrestlers hold that title including Danny Miller, Ole Anderson, Jerry Brisco, Johnny Valentine, Wahoo McDaniel, Ric Flair, Paul Jones, Jack Brisco, Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Ricky Steamboat, Ray Stevens, and so many others. 

Earlier that same year, the name of the flagship syndicated program for Jim Crockett Promotions was changed from "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" to "NWA Pro Wrestling." With that name change and the disappearance of the championship, the great era known as "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" had quietly come to an end.

For more on the origin and history of the Mid-Atlantic championship, check out our book "Mid-Atlantic Championship," a detailed title history with over 50 photographs of the champions and the belts, as well as dozens of newspaper clippings.And the story of each and every title change, over 60 of them in a period of 13 years.

This story was originally published May 12, 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Book Review Flashback: Mooneyham Reviews "United States Championship

A look back at a very nice review Mike Mooneyham wrote for the Charleston Post & Courier.

Bourne strikes gold with new book on U.S. wrestling title
Oct 25 2015 1:00 pm
by Mike Mooneyham, Charleston Post & Courier

Dick Bourne has done it again.

Bourne, who runs the popular Mid-Atlantic Gateway site, has followed up his “Ten Pounds of Gold” and “Big Gold” books with an informative and entertaining volume on “Jim Crockett Promotions’ United States Heavyweight Championship.”

The book, which takes a comprehensive look at one of pro wrestling’s most revered titles, just might be Bourne’s best effort yet.

A lifelong follower of Mid-Atlantic wrestling, Bourne explores the five classic U.S. title belts that were worn by some of the profession’s greatest performers over a 13-year period.

Just the images — more than 100 photographs of both the champs and the belts — are worth the price of admission....

Read the full review on postandcourier.com >>>

The Arn Anderson Podcast Spotlights Arn's Four NWA World TV Title Reigns

We're celebrating @TheArnShow’s World TV title episode:

Many folks may not know that the NWA World TV title, which later became the WCW World TV title, traces its origins back to the Mid-Atlantic TV title in 1974.

• Mid-Atlantic TV Title (1974): Danny Miller became the first champion, defeating Ole Anderson in a tournament that took place on TV.
• NWA TV Title (1978): Jim Crockett Promotions renamed the championship in 1978 during the reign of Baron Von Raschke. The story was that a tournament was held featuring all of the regional/territorial TV champions to crown one NWA TV Champion.
• NWA World TV Title (1985): After Dusty Rhodes defeated Tully Blanchard for the NWA title, Jim Crockett announced that the title would now be classified as a "World" title. Funny how that happened when Dusty won the title!
• WCW World TV Title (1990): Ted Turner's new wrestling company which he had just bought from Jim Crockett a little over a year earlier renamed the championship to reflect the companies new name. Arn was in the middle of his second TV title reign.

Some other TV title history tidbits we recently included on our twitter feed:

• Early TV champions (1974-1975) included Danny Miller, Ivan Koloff, Paul Jones, and a young Ric Flair!
• In fact, Ric Flair's first singles title was the Mid-Atlantic TV championship in early 1975, defeating No. 1 Paul Jones. It was Arn's first singles title for JCP in 1986.  
• OK, we know Arn Anderson officially won the World TV title from Wahoo McDaniel in a tournament in Greensboro NC on 1/4/86. But we all also know he REALLY won it when he and Tully Blanchard kicked the crutches out from under Dusty Rhodes months earlier on WTBS and Arn walked away with the belt. 
• Tully Blanchard brought the TV title back into main event prominence in 1984, but Arn Anderson took it to a whole new level in 1986 as Jim Crockett Promotions expanded nationwide and the TV title had tremendous exposure on Superstation WTBS, defended regularly on TV by Arn Anderson.

 
Don't miss the TV title episode of the the Arn Anderson podcast, available at thearnshow.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Champ and The Chief Wrap Up 1974 (Best of the Gateway)

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Johnny “The Champ” Valentine and “The Chief” Wahoo McDaniel had many memorable battles inside the ring while in Jim Crockett Promotions, but one of their most memorable exchanges for me didn’t involve fisticuffs, but was of the verbal variety. The two squared off during the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling 1974 year-end highlights show hosted by Sam Menacker, and the verbal sparks would fly!

With Wahoo and Valentine together in the empty TV studio in December of 1974, Menacker showed a clip of Valentine brutalizing the preliminary wrestler Tapu on TV several months earlier with Wahoo coming in the ring to aid the fallen Samoan grappler. The Chief caught the Champ with a suplex and left Valentine in an exceedingly rare posture…on his back, looking up at the television studio lights.

Wahoo couldn’t help but gloat a bit at the clip saying, “There’s your champion right there. Now that’s a championship position for Johnny Valentine…prone lookin’ at the lights. Now, does that look like a champion?” When Johnny didn’t immediately respond, the Chief continued to push the point. Wahoo asked, “What do you have to say about that Valentine, you see it? You’re not on the winning end now, what’s the matter…you lost for words?” Menacker joined in, “Yeah, you’re out cold there Valentine!”

A visibly upset Valentine fired back exclaiming, “You had no reason to come in that ring, you had no right in that ring and you attacked me from behind!” Wahoo countered, “I only came in the ring to save the boy and you hit me, and I just retaliated.” The Champ followed, “Well, it will be a different story when you’re face to face with me.”

Menaker, now trying to keep order noted, “Look, I’m not taking sides. Listen, the fact remains John, you saw what happened there. He came in there to try and help.” Johnny would have none of it saying, “Well, it wasn’t his concern. I wasn’t expecting anything and he was able to accomplish something that he wouldn’t have accomplished if I had been watching him, which I wasn’t. I wasn’t expecting to be suplexed by the man with my own suplex.”

The Chief dismissively answered, “You know, they should start calling Johnny Valentine ‘Alibi Jones.’ That’s when you can’t get it done. And all the time when he’s on the top he has wonderful things to say about himself, but when you’re laying down lookin’ up Valentine, it’s hard for you to find anything nice to say about yourself.” Johnny retorted, “Anyone can be hurt and upset when they’re not expecting something. I wasn’t expecting the suplex I will admit, and that suplex hurt because it was my favorite hold so it’s bound to hurt me too.” Wahoo countered, “That’s right, you should know that somebody else is gonna use it and if it does that much for you and somebody else should know the same hold and you should be able to guard against it.”

Wahoo McDaniel and Johnny Valentine had a feud for the ages.

The Champ was getting increasingly exasperated and fired back, “You can make sure that I’ll have guards up whenever I get in the ring with you; you’ll never suplex me again, that’s for sure!” McDaniel shot back, “I’ll tell you one thing, I know about three or four different type suplexes…little different from yours. But they’re all the same…you land right on your head!” A seething Valentine replied, “You just have no idea how deep I run; how deep my bag of tricks are! You don’t know how many tricks I have at the bottom of that bag; I’ll dig way to the bottom and I’ll have tricks you’ve never heard of!”

“I know you, and I’ve probably wrestled you more than anybody. You’ve beaten me and I’ve beaten you; you’ve hurt me and I’ve hurt you,” Wahoo commented. Valentine replied, “Yeah, but I’ve got stronger for it and you’re weaker…look at you! You look terrible!” Wahoo beginning to lose his composure shouted, “I’m in the greatest shape of my career!”

Trying to end the segment without the two grapplers coming to blows, Menacker implored the two legends, “Just try to relax a little bit gentlemen…we are showing some highlights of 1974 and I realize there’s a lot of animosity.” Johnny then gleefully poked at the Indian, “I want you to see some of the scars on his head…I put ‘em there!” Wahoo pounced on that and responded in kind, “Well, ask him about the broken fingers he got and look at them scars he got there…he wouldn’t win any beauty contests in Atlantic City either, I can tell you that!” Valentine edged closer to Wahoo smirking, “Well, you got some more comin’!” The Chief then pressed his nose to Valentine’s snarling, “I can hardly wait!”

As Menacker bid the fans goodbye and the segment went to commercial, I couldn’t help but wonder if the verbal sparring between the Champ and the Chief would lead to immediate blows during the break, or rather if they would save the physicality for inside the squared circle in the New Year of 1975. For two all-time greats that weren’t necessarily blessed with the gift of gab, this entertaining verbal exchange put a nice bow on the year of 1974. And you just knew that each would follow up these heated words with scorching action against the other in 1975!
 

Originally published June 21, 2017 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Mid-Atlantic TV Report: May 22, 1982

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
on the WWE Network

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
TV Summaries & Reviews
by David Taub
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

This is a review of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling as it appeared on the WWE Network. Results are included for the week (Monday-Sunday of the given week) as available. Please email with any corrections, typos, results, other details at 1davidtaub@gmail.com. Follow @TaubGVWire

For links to all available summaries, visit our TV Summary Index.


Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Original broadcast: 5/22/82
(taped 5/19/82 at WPCQ-TV studios in Charlotte)
WWE Network feed.  [How to watch this show on the WWE Network.]

WWE Network Direct Link to this show: Mid-Atlantic 5/22/82

Bob Caudle and Jake Roberts open the show. They talk about the World tag team tournament final. Next week, NWA representative Sandy Scott will announce the four cities hosting the first four matches in the best-of-seven final between Ole Anderson & Stan Hansen vs. Wahoo McDaniel & Don Muraco.

Jake also talks about time expiring in his match last week. He says the new rules proposed last week by Scott should allow for them to continue the match. However, that will have to wait because Kernodle & Nelson are out of the country. They also mention Piper vs. Brisco from last week.

Match 1
Wahoo McDaniel & Don Muraco d. Steve Sybert & Jerry Moore
Sonny Fargo is the referee for the hour. Piper joins Caudle for commentary. Non-stop talk from Piper about Jack Brisco. He mentions how he won the U.S. championship from Ric Flair. Piper is a man, the rest are cowards. I don’t know why it donned on me now, but Piper doesn’t have the “Rowdy” nickname yet. Piper likes the new experimental rules, then walks off the telecast for an unexplained reason while the match continues. Wahoo pins Sybert after a chop to the chest.

[Break]

— Int. w/Bob Caudle: Jack Brisco & Jerry Brisco
Jack talks about Piper, holding the Mid-Atlantic championship. Out of nowhere, referee Sonny Fargo interrupts, saying there is a no show for the next match, so the Briscos can opt to wrestle single. Jerry volunteers. Jack finishes up his comments on Piper.

Match 2
Jerry Brisco d. Tony Russo
Jack sticks around to commentate with Bob Caudle. He talks more about Piper and how he likes the new NWA rules. Jack leaves to take a phone call. Jerry wins with the figure-four. Piper comes out, and ascends to the top rope and jumps off on Jerry’s leg while still engaged in the leg lock. Jerry sells the move big time. Pual Jones, Ron Ritchie, Jake Roberts and King Parsons come out to tend to Jerry. Jack comes out a few moments later, but Piper is long gone. Fargo gets tossed around a few times for his troubles as well.

[Break]

Match 3
Pretty Boy Fergie d. Mike Davis
Wahoo McDaniel joins Caudle. He’s upset, because he and the Briscos are from the same tribe. Wahoo makes veiled threats to Piper. Fergie wins with the neckbreaker.

— Int. w/Bob Caudle: Steve Sybert & Jerry Moore
This is in lieu of local promos. Sybert claims Wahoo hit him with an illegal chop to win Match 1. Moore gives a pretty bland promo, looking forward to the caliber of competition. Sybert says they just need more time to be the best tag team. He doesn’t like being called caveman.

[Break]

Match 4
Killer Kahn d. Ken Timbs
Caudle is solo for this one. High pitched screams when Kahn is on the offense. Timbs gets one move in. Kahn finishes his opponent with a side Russian legsweep and the knee to the chest for the pin.

[Break]

— Int. w/Bob Caudle: Wahoo McDaniel & Don Muraco
Muraco starts with his back to the camera. Wahoo talks about the upcoming series against Ole & Hansen. He notes that he’s been absent the last few weeks, with Muraco wrestling single. Muraco denies he interfered in the Slaughter vs. Wahoo match from a few weeks ago. Muraco says they’re willing to face anybody.

[Break]

— Int. w/Bob Caudle: Paul Jones
Jones is offended by Piper injuring Jerry Brisco. No one knows how hurt Jerry is. He volunteers to cancel any commitments to help out Jack Brisco. Jones is wearing a Remo’s Gym Inc. shirt.

Match 5
King Parsons d. Jim Dalton
Jones sticks around on commentary. Parsons has the red/white/blue French flag tights. Caudle says we’ll be hearing a lot of the name of King Parsons. He gets the pin after two high drop kicks (the first hit better than the second).

— Int. w/Bob Caudle: Mike Davis & Mike Rotundo
This is in lieu of local promos. Davis delivers the best babyface underneath guy promos. Says Jack Brisco is mad and Piper is in trouble. Then, we get Rotundo. Caudle says fans have said many good things about him. Then, we get a “gee whiz, I’m happy to be here” interview. It seems that Caudle covers up by delivering a real wordy question.

Match 6
U.S. Champ Sgt. Slaughter [ch.] d. Mike Rotundo (Non-Title)
Caudle says The Privates vs. Roberts & Weaver will resume next week as part of the new NWA set of rules. Still no word on Jerry Brisco’s knee. Mostly Slaughter, but Rotundo does get multiple near falls. Slaughter wins with a forearm to Rotundo’s chin then a pin. The replay doesn’t work.

— Int. w/Bob Caudle: Ole Anderson
Anderson yells about the Briscos. A fired up Paul Jones comes out and gets in Ole’s face. He warns that the same thing could happen to Jones.

“So long for now!”

* * * * *

Results for the week, 5/17/82-5/23/82  
(source: Clawmaster’s Archive via Sports and Wrestling blog posted by David Baker)

Mon., 5/17/82 Guelph, ON (TV) — Guelph Memorial Gardens
Kelly Kiniski beat Tony Senza
Tarzan Tyler & John Studd beat Ron Bass & Tim Horner
Angelo Mosca beat Tito Senza
Kelly Kiniski beat Tito Senza & Tarzan Tyler
Pvt. Nelson beat Tim Horner
The Destroyer beat Tim Horner
Pvt. Nelson & Pvt. Kernodle beat Keith Larson & Kelly Kiniski
Johnny Weaver beat Pvt. Kernodle
Angelo Mosca beat John Studd by countout

Mon., 5/17/82 Greenville, SC
Mike Rotundo beat Tony Russo
King Parsons beat Bill White
Killer Kahn beat Mike Davis
Don Muraco & Jake Roberts beat Ole & Gen Anderson
Jimmy Valiant & Paul Jones beat Ivan Koloff & The Ninja

Tue., 5/18/82 Oshawa, ON
Keith Larson beat Tito Senza
Kelly Kiniski beat Tim Horner
Tony Parisi beat Tarzan Tyler
Angelo Mosca beat John Studd by countout
Pvt. Nelson & Pvt. Kernodle beat Johnny Weaver & Billy Red Lyons

Tue., 5/18/82 Raleigh, NC — Raleigh Civic Center
Don Muraco beat Sgt. Slaughter
Wahoo McDaniel beat Roddy Piper
King Parsons & Porkchop Cash beat Carl Fergie & David Patterson
Ron Ritchie beat Gary Moore

5/18/82 Columbia, SC
Jack Brisco & Jimmy Valiant beat The Ninja & Ivan Koloff
Killer Kahn beat Paul Jones
Mike Rotundo beat Jim Dalton
Mike Davis beat Tony Russo
Abe Jacobs beat Steve Sybert

5/19/82 Niagara Falls, Ontario
Billy Red Lyons beat Tito Senza
Tim Horner draw Keith Larson
Kelly Kiniski beat Tarzan Tyler
John Studd beat Johnny Weaver
Angelo Mosca & Tony Parisi beat Pvt. Nelson & Pvt. Kernodle

5/20/82 Harrisonburg, VA
Gene Anderson vs. Jack Brisco
Roddy Piper vs. Wahoo McDaniel

5/21/82 Richmond, VA
Wahoo McDaniel beat Sgt. Slaughter to win United States Title
Jack Brisco beat Roddy Piper
Angelo Mosca & Killer Kahn beat Paul Jones & Don Muraco
Mike Rotundo beat Pvt. Kernodle
Mike Davis beat Greg Moore

Sat., 5/22/82 Charlotte, NC
Keith Larsen d. Ken Timbs
Kelly Kiniski d. Gary Moore
Porkchop Cash d. Bill White
Angelo Mosca d. Leroy Brown
Sgt. Slaughter d. Don Muraco
Gene Anderson & Ole Anderson d. Jack Brisco & Paul Jones
Wahoo McDaniel d. Roddy Piper

Sun., 5/23/82 Greensboro, NC
Mike Davis d. Bill white
Mike Rotunrdo d. Jim Dalton
Angelo Mosca d. Paul Jones
Jimmy Valiant & Jake Roberts d. Ivan Koloff & The Ninja
Roddy Piper d. Don Muraco
U.S. Heavyweight championship: Wahoo McDaniel [ch.] d. Sgt. Slaughter; Stu Schwartz
NWA World Champion Ric Flair beat Jack Brisco

Action Figures Friday: U.S. Champion Ric Flair (1979)

From our friends at Wrestler Weekly (@wrestlerweekly). One of the classic cover shots of Ric Flair ever.

Championship Podcast: January 30, 1982

The new episode of the "Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast" has dropped and features a look at the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling episode from January 30, 1982.

Each week, Mike Sempervive and Roman Gomez will review another episode form the series that is currently available in the In-Ring/Territories section of the WWE Network. The show is a production of the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network and is available to stream on their website and anywhere else you get your podcasts (such as iTunes, etc.)

This week, the tournament for the vacant World Tag Team titles is being hyped, and tape is shown of outside team Adrian Adonis and Jessie Ventura who will be competing in the Greensboro tournament coming up a week after this show airs. You can find out all the details on that torunament which lasted for months in our special 12-part series that starts here.

There is some good discussion about Bob Caudle on this podcast episode as well.


We continue to enjoy this weekly deep dive into each of these Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling episodes and encourage you to check it out if you haven't already done so.


Also available from the podcast is a special "Prelude Episode" that set the stage for the year 1982 and things to come, as well as two "bonus" episodes, one looking back at Starrcade '84, the other a special bio/profile of the patriarch of the Crockett promotional empire Jim Crockett, Sr. Both of these bonus shows are excellent!

Previous Episodes:
January 02, 1982
January 09, 1982
January 16, 1982
January 23, 1982

* * * * *

From the "Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast" website for this episode:

Welcome to The Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast. On this episode of the show, Mike Sempervive returns alongside Roman Gomez, to take a look at Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from January 30, 1982, featuring:

• More bells and whistles are added to the NWA World tag team title tournament, which now has expanded into Florida.
• An amazing commentary platoon of Roddy Piper and Ray Stevens.
• The unwieldiest named contest in the history of professional wrestling soldiers on – with a new top vote getter revealed!
• A brief moment with the Devil’s Duo that not many got to see until now.
• Plus a tribute to the centering presence that was Bob Caudle, and much more, on another exciting edition of the Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast!

The Mid-Atlantic Championship Podcast is a production of the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network.



Also, be sure to also check out David Taub's summaries of the Mid-Atlantic shows that are on the WWE Network. We will be cross-referencing that listing with links to the podcast episodes as well.

Dusty Rhodes Promotes Stanback Powders (1970s)

A sure cure what ails you, according to the American Dream anyway.

In the mid-late 1970s, Stanback hired Dusty Rhodes to be a TV spokesman for their Stanback Headache Powders. The commercial aired regularly during Georgia Championship Wrestling on WTCG-17 (later WTBS).

The image in the graphic above was lifted from a 8mm home movie shot directly off the TV screen during that time.

The ad's tag line was a familiar one during those years; "Snap back with Stanback!"

* * * *

Thanks to Terry Frederick who added this magazine ad to our Facebook post.
 

And thanks also to David and Angela Gravely who added this promotional poster to our Facebook post:

Gateway Books Sales Rankings - Decmber 2019

TOP FIVE BEST SELLERS - CHRISTMAS/DECEMBER 2019

1. Four Horsemen
2. The Mid-Atlantic Championship
3. Big Gold
4. Ten Pounds of Gold (Second Edition)
5. United States Championship

We had out best month of December ever leading up to Christmas - - thanks so much! We appreciate the positive feedback on the books.


TOP FIVE BEST SELLERS FOR THE YEAR 2019

1. The Mid-Atlantic Championship
2. Four Horsemen
3. Big Gold
4. Ten Pounds of Gold (Second Edition)
5. United States Championship

Our newest book, The Mid-Atlantic Championship, topped sales for the year, as you would expect a new book to do. But Four Horsemen (published in 2017) wasn't far behind. Big Gold continues to hang in there, too, despite it being a more expensive because it is a full-color book.


ALL TIME TOP FIVE (2008-2019)

1. Four Horsemen
2. Big Gold
3. Ten Pounds of Gold (Second Edition)
4. United States Championship
5. Minnesota Wrecking Crew

Four Horsemen remains atop this list of our all-time best sellers and will likely never get knocked off that top spot. It far exceeded our wildest expectations, thanks to the help of folks like Conrad Thompson and J.J. Dillon who gave the book a big push early on. It continues to do well every month, and was still the number one seller for us this Christmas.

*Please note: The Canadian Heavyweight Championship by Andrew Calvert, listed in our bookstore, is not included in these rankings. While we link to the book (we were involved in the book's layout) and include it as part of our belt and title series of books, we don't actually sell the book ourselves.

The Mid-Carders Take Center Stage (April 1975)

by David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Call me strange (and you wouldn't be the first!), but I always enjoyed the extremely rare occurrence on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television where the grapplers who filled in the middle of the cards for Jim Crockett Promotions actually got slotted for some interview time on TV. One of the first interview segments that featured solely mid-carders that I audio recorded was on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling television show that was taped on April 23, 1975 in the WRAL TV studios in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The three gentleman (actually bad guys!) from the ranks of the mid-card that were interviewed by announcer Bob Caudle on this occasion were Art Nelson, Mr. Fuji and Doug Gilbert. Nelson had been a main event star for the promotion throughout the early 1970s, but was being de-emphasized at this point in time. Mr. Fiji had recently entered the Mid-Atlantic area from New York where he had been rather high on the WWWF cards, but had become a mid-card performer for Jim Crockett, often teaming with Nelson as a rough tough duo. Gilbert had recently returned to the Carolinas after previous stints in the territory as principally a middle-of-the-card stalwart.

Just prior to the interview segment, Nelson and Fuji defeated the team of Don Kernodle and Tio Tio while Gilbert was also successful in the television ring, besting young Kevin Sullivan in a singles contest. Caudle began the interview by telling the fans, "I can't think of anymore dangerous place for a person to be than I am right now between three really notorious wrestlers, like Art Nelson here on my left, Doug Gilbert and then Mr. Fuji."

Nelson responded, "Let me say, not notorious, well conditioned athletes. Let me say this, when you get in that ring then you'd have to be worried, but as long as we're on the floor here we don't bother anybody. If you get in that ring, and you're not in condition, you can't take it, then you'd have to be worried about it." Art continued, "This is a man's business, we're men, and we go in that ring and we don't fool with babies. Now you know, Fuji and I were here a few weeks ago and we were talking about wrestling top teams. Where are they?"

The burly man from Atlanta then proceeded to call out Mid-Atlantic stars Wahoo McDaniel, Paul Jones and Ken Patera! Art rhetorically asked, "Where's the Indian? Where's little boy blue the guy with the belts...where's he at? Where's the strongman? I don't see them around, I hear 'em, but I sure can't see 'em. But as long as they're scared to get in the ring with us, there's nothin' we can do about it because we said we'd meet all comers, we'd wrestle anybody, right Fuji?"

A chuckling Fuji exclaimed, "Right! Very, very true Mr. Nelson-son, you see fans, you see how devastating Japanese cobra is. Samoan boy he paralyzed already, he no good...like wrestling old lady! Ha-ha-ha...Mr. Gilbert-son." 

Caudle immediately quizzed Gilbert, "I gotta say Doug Gilbert, you know I thought you were gonna help Kevin Sullivan out. It looked like you were going to commit an act of sportsmanship in your match, and then all of a sudden you hit him. That's very unsportsmanlike!" Gilbert deadpanned, "I won the match didn't I?" Caudle conceded, "You won the match, right."

Doug further expounded, "Well, you're going to have to realize that when you get into a profession like professional wrestling, sportsmanship doesn't count very much. What counts is ability, what counts is winning the match. That's what happened, I won the  match. These gentlemen won their match. That's what counts...winning!" Caudle followed up, "Doug Gilbert shows a lot of wrestling ability up there. You got a lot of moves and you use them up there...why do you have to resort to some of the other type tactics?"

Gilbert matter of factly answered, "It's a lot easier." Caudle queried, "It's a lot easier to win that way then, Doug?" To which Gilbert shook his head and Nelson produced some United States currency from his trucks to make a point why he and his two colleagues on the interview set were in the wrestling business. Nelson pontificated, "Green power is what's important. Green power! That's the dollar bill...ten dollars, a hundred dollars."

None of these three took off in the Mid-Atlantic area after this rare opportunity on the TV microphone...Nelson and Fuji were out of the territory before the end of the year and we later found out that Gilbert donned the hood as Spoiler #1 during the fall of 1975 as part of the team of the Masked Spoilers that were primarily an upper mid-card tandem before Gilbert exited the area without the mask in early 1976. But just getting to hear from the solid mid-card wrestlers that provided quality depth to the Crockett roster was noteworthy, and gave an added dimension and a bit of personality to the voiceless talent that was often overlooked and certainly underappreciated.