David Chappell's

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling History

July 1974

by David Chappell


The Almanac

Almanac Index

June 74 Roster


Championship Picture This Month:

 

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT---Jack Brisco

MID-ATLANTIC HEAVYWEIGHT---Johnny Valentine

MID-ATLANTIC TAG TEAM---Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers
Rip Hawk and Ric Flair (July 4, 1974 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina)

MID-ATLANTIC TELEVISION---Ivan Koloff
Paul Jones (July 8, 1974 at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina)


 



 

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