July of 1974 was an eventful
month in Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling, with
two championships changing
hands, and one of the
greatest names in the
history of the territory
entering the area.
The month of July got off to
a hot start, with NWA World
Heavyweight Champion Jack
Brisco making a pass through
the area. On July 1st at
Township Auditorium in
Columbia, South Carolina,
the young champion from
Oklahoma had quite a battle
with the masked Super
Destroyer. In this Title
match, the Super D. promised
to unmask if he defeated
Brisco for the World Title!
The Destroyer came so very
close to doing just that,
but he had to settle for a
time limit draw.
Brisco also had an exciting
time limit draw against
“Number One” Paul Jones on
July 2nd at the Dorton Arena
in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Much like the match the
night before in Columbia,
the challenger controlled a
great deal of the action,
but the champion escaped
with his belt. Brisco
finished his stay in the
Mid-Atlantic area on the 4th
of July at the Scope
Exhibition Hall in Norfolk,
Virginia, where he scored a
convincing win over the
“Russian Bear,” Ivan Koloff.
July 4th also was a big
night for Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling at
the Greensboro Coliseum in
Greensboro, North Carolina.
As part of the gigantic
holiday card there, Rip Hawk
and Ric Flair defeated Paul
Jones and Bob Bruggers for
the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team
Titles. After 26 minutes of
rugged action, Hawk defeated
Jones and new Champions were
crowned! This defeat for all
intents and purposes ended
the Jones/Bruggers tag team
combination.
Hawk and Flair were busy
wrestling as a team after
their Title victory, but the
bouts were mainly non-Title.
Early in the month, the new
Champs had their hands full
with the dangerous duo of
Nelson Royal and Tiger
Conway, Jr. Among the
numerous times these four
wrestled, were bouts held in
Norfolk on July 11th and
Roxboro, North Carolina on
July 18th where Royal and
Conway came away with
clear-cut victories.
Unfortunately, these two
victories were non-Title
affairs.
Tiger Conway hooked up with
Swede Hanson later in the
month, and these two made a
dynamic combination. The
Conway/Hanson duo battled
Hawk and Flair to a brutal
draw in Richmond, Virginia
on July 26th. These four
followed up that contest
with two wild double
disqualification finishes in
Greenville, South Carolina
on July 29th and the next
night in Raleigh. In these
matches, the clear matches
within matches saw the big
Swede going after his former
partner Rip Hawk, and the
two youngsters, Flair and
Conway, battling it out
against each other. These
bouts were ferocious in
their intensity!
Newcomer “Chief” Wahoo
McDaniel entered the
Mid-Atlantic area during the
month of July, though his
first full time month in the
territory would be in August
of 1974. Though, Wahoo
definitely made his presence
felt in July! While helping
announcer Charlie Harville
with color commentary early
in the month on the High
Point, North Carolina TV
show, McDaniel was drawn
into the ring with an old
adversary from Texas, Johnny
Valentine. While it wasn’t a
scheduled or official match,
Wahoo and Valentine beat
each other to death for
about five minutes! This
impromptu match was so
captivating that Jim
Crockett Promotions would
continue to show a tape of
it to fans many years later!
After the fracas between
Wahoo and Valentine ended,
the Indian Chief went back
to the announcer’s desk with
Harville and commented on a
match with Valentine and Rip
Hawk against Ed Wiskowski
and Abe Jacobs. During that
bout, won by the bad guys,
Wahoo told Harville that he
and Valentine had a bitter
feud in Texas several years
back, and that Valentine
sent him to football camp
one year with a broken
finger and a punctured
eardrum! These two appeared
on a collision course.
Wahoo had a couple of
impressive outings in
Mid-Atlantic rings during
the month of July. On July
15th at the Greenville
Memorial Auditorium, Wahoo
got the best of Johnny “The
Champ” Valentine, sending
Johnny down to a rare
pinfall defeat. McDaniel
followed that victory with
an equally impressive
performance the next night
in Raleigh. In that exciting
encounter, Wahoo teamed with
Sonny King to defeat the
devastating tandem of the
Super Destroyer and
Valentine.
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Champion Johnny Valentine
maintained a strong grip on
his championship belt during
the month of July. The very
popular Sonny King emerged
as the top threat to
Valentine’s belt during
July. Valentine and King
headlined two of the biggest
shows during the month, at
the area’s biggest venue,
the Greensboro Coliseum. At
the huge July 4th holiday
show there, Sonny won the
Title bout by
disqualification, thus
walking out with a victory
but not with the
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Championship. “The Champ”
got a measure of revenge
three weeks later in
Greensboro in a return Title
Match between the two. In
that bout, after many ebbs
and flows, Johnny pinned
King after a grueling
contest.
Perhaps Valentine’s most
memorable bout during the
month was a match on
Mid-Atlantic Championship
television, where Paul Jones
challenged Johnny for his
prized 1000 silver dollars.
Paul told the viewing
audience that Valentine was
ducking him, and Jones put
up 1000 silver dollars of
his own! Paul told the fans
that if he couldn’t beat
Valentine in 10 minutes,
that Valentine could have
his 1000 silver dollars, in
addition to holding onto his
own 1000 silver dollars. In
the TV match, with Wahoo
McDaniel doing color
commentary with Bob Caudle,
Valentine stalled out the
time limit, with the match
ending with Johnny caught in
Jones’ painful abdominal
stretch. But “The Champ”
never gave up, and Paul left
the WRAL studios 1000 silver
dollars lighter. Also during
the month, Valentine had a
successful defense of his
1000 silver dollars on TV
against the always
formidable Bob Bruggers.
While Paul Jones had a tough
month in the sense that he
lost 1000 silver dollars to
Johnny Valentine, and he
lost one half of the
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles
on July 4th, “Mr. Number
One” did have some good news
during the month of July. On
July 8th before a huge crowd
at Charlotte’s Memorial
Stadium, Jones defeated arch
rival Ivan Koloff for the
Mid-Atlantic Television
Title. This was a rough and
tumble bout under Texas
Death Match rules, with
Jones agreeing to shave his
head in the ring if he
didn’t win the TV Title! It
was touch and go, but Paul
somehow managed to gut out a
big victory.
During the remainder of
July, Jones and Koloff
battled on even terms, with
Jones maintaining his hold
on the Mid-Atlantic
Television Title. Koloff
came out on top in his
specialty match, the Russian
Chain Match. A pair of
particularly rugged Russian
Chain Matches occurred on
back to back nights during
the month. On July 15th in
Fayetteville, North
Carolina, Koloff controlled
the action in that bout for
the most part. The following
night in Columbia, South
Carolina, the Russian Bear
dragged a bloody Paul Jones
around the ring to emerge
victorious.
Koloff even attacked Jones
on Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling television during
July, when Paul was
defending his TV Title
against the gigantic Chuck
O’Connor. Seemingly, these
two could just not get
enough of each other!
Paul Jones fared much better
in return Texas Death
matches, with his hair on
the line in some of those
encounters. Paul retained
his TV Title in Texas Death
matches in Hampton, Virginia
on July 13th, Charleston,
South Carolina on July 19th,
Roanoke, Virginia on July
20th and Fayetteville, North
Carolina on July 29th. But
none of those bouts were
easy, and both Jones and
Koloff were taking loads of
physical punishment in these
violent contests.
Burly Art Nelson returned to
the Mid-Atlantic area during
the month of July, and
immediately began teaming
with his old partner Johnny
Weaver. Before Nelson left
Jim Crockett Promotions for
several months, he and
Weaver had formed an
impressive tag team
combination. In fact, Weaver
and Nelson scored an
impressive victory over the
Japanese duo of Mr. Hayashi
and Mr. Ota on July 16th in
Columbia, South Carolina,
shortly after Nelson’s
return.
However, at the television
taping on July 10th at the
WRAL-TV studios, Nelson
inexplicably turned on
Weaver during a tag match,
and it was clear Art had
returned to the “dark side.”
The following night in
Norfolk, Virginia, Nelson
brutalized fan favorite Ed Wiskowski in front of a
packed audience of
disbelieving fans! Nelson
and Weaver met head on to
settle their differences on
July 29th in Fayetteville,
with Art breaking every rule
in the book to steal a
decision away from Weaver.
A masked newcomer, the
Avenger, arrived in the
Mid-Atlantic area during the
latter stages of the month
of July. Unlike the other
masked man in the area, the
Super Destroyer, this new
masked wrestler was
extremely popular with the
fans. The Avenger came into
the area for the expressed
purpose of unmasking the
Super Destroyer, who had
injured him in another
territory. When the
Destroyer was getting ready
to wrestle Tio Tio in a TV
match late in the month, the
Avenger came out and
challenged the Super D.,
presenting a contract for
the Destroyer to sign.
Tearing up the contract, the
Super Destroyer brushed
aside the challenge in his
normally abrasive way, but
it was clear the Avenger
would keep chasing the
Destroyer until he got the
retribution he was seeking.
A couple of big names in the
wrestling world made passing
glances into the
Mid-Atlantic area during
July. Buddy Colt came up
from Florida to continue a
feud with Paul Jones on July
9th in Columbia. Paul
defeated Colt by
disqualification in this
matchup of former tag team
partners. Dick Murdock also
passed through the territory
briefly in July, wrestling
several times, including a
victory over Scott Casey in
Norfolk on July 11th.
July of 1974 was a very
eventful month with two
Title changes, and saw the
feud between Paul Jones and
Ivan Koloff reach a boiling
point. Add to that the
return of Art Nelson, and
two big time newcomers in
Chief Wahoo McDaniel and the
masked Avenger entering the
area, and it spelled
non-stop action for
Mid-Atlantic fans!
WHO’S HOT
1. Johnny Valentine---“The
Champ” continued to control
the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Championship, despite a
stiff challenge from Sonny
King. Johnny also got the
best of Paul Jones in a
heated TV match, taking 1000
silver dollars from Paul
when Jones couldn’t beat him
in ten minutes.
2. Ric Flair---Flair was
quite impressive in the bout
where he and Rip Hawk
captured the Mid-Atlantic
Tag Team Titles from Paul
Jones and Bob Bruggers. Ric
was also proving himself to
be a formidable singles
wrestler as well.
3. Paul Jones---While Jones’
month of July was not free
from disappointments, he
nevertheless defeated the
mighty Ivan Koloff for the
Mid-Atlantic TV Title early
in the month, and managed to
hold onto that prestigious
Title for the remainder of
the month.
WHO’S NOT
1. Bob Bruggers---The former
Miami Dolphins football
players lost his share of
the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team
Titles early in the month,
and slipped into the
mid-card ranks as the month
wore on.
2. Johnny Weaver---Johnny
also slid into the mid-card
ranks in July, although he
remained as popular as ever.
To make matters worse for
Weaver, his former partner
Art Nelson turned on him
during the middle of the
month!
3. Ivan Koloff---The
‘Russian Bear” lost the
Mid-Atlantic Television
Title to Paul Jones early in
the month, and was unable to
recapture it, despite
repeated attempts.
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© 2009 David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Published 10/21/09
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