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Pro Wrestling in the South Back in the Day

Posted: Oct 04, 2008

I was on the phone with a friend last week, just catching up on this and that, when my buddy posed a question. “Did you ever get into pro rasslin’?” Now, for the record, I spell it like that because, to me, wrestling is something they do on a mat in a college gymnasium. Rasslin’ is what we watched on TV and in the auditoriums around the South during the seventies. So my answer to his question was easy, “you bet!” I liked it so much, I even attended the training camp once with dreams of being one of the guys.

My Daddy turned me onto rasslin’ in the late 1960’s. The first characters I remember seeing coming through the rabbit ears on the old black and white set were folks like Argentina Apollo (my Dad was an old fan of his Dad, Argentina Rocka), Haystacks Calhoon, Missouri Mauler and Jack Brisco.

The era of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling began in 1970, and ended in 1986. Oddly enough, this mirrors the Southern Rock era pretty closely. Maybe that’s why so many of my fondest seventies memories involve Saturday afternoon’s televised episodes of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and the Monday night trips to Greenville Memorial Auditorium to watch the matches live.

One of my high school buddies,  a guy we called The Weasel, was an over the top fanatic about rasslin.’ He did everything short of worshipping Ric Flair, and followed Flair’s every move. 

For a few years there, we went almost every Monday night to the old “Brown Box,” 8:15 bell time. I saw some great matches during those days, stars like Greg Valentine, The Andersons, Ricky Steamboat, Jay Youngblood, Paul Jones, Wahoo McDaniel, Super Destroyer, The Avenger, Tiger Conway, Ivan Koloff, Swede Hanson and my favorites Andre The Giant, Ernie Ladd, Blackjack Mulligan and Nature Boy Ric Flair. Of course Johnny Weaver was there almost every week, giving 110 percent. I heard that Weaver recently passed on. Another legend gone. Sad.

In my upcoming and ongoing series “No Hold Barred,” I will be reliving some of the great memories of the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling era, and profiling some of the stars of the sport. One of the first will be one of my all time favorite rasslin’ stars, the man with the deadly “heart punch,” Ox Baker. A man who lived the song "Flirtin' with Disaster." Join us. Should be fun.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern.
Buffalo


 

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michaelbuffalo says...

Thanks guys. Yeah, I really lost interest years ago, but boy howdy that Mid Atlantic era of the 70s was just plain great. Lot's more to come. Get ready for a cage match.

copperhead says...

OK I love this. Ricky Steamboat use to work out at this no frill , just Iron and steel gym at Myrtle Beach. I was raising a son by myself and he was having problems in school. I talked to Steanboat about this and he wrotr my son a letter and sent photos. End of problem. These guys lived on the road and the fact that he took time out for my son is something I will never forget. A lot of the guys hung out at the Afterdeck and Doll House in MB. They were really good to us and we always had fun with them. So hell yea I'm a fan. I don't watch it now but I love the Mid Atlantic shows.

rebyll says...

I can't wait!!!!!

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