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October of 1974 in the
Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling area started off
with a bang, as Tim Woods
returned to the territory to
challenge Johnny “The Champ”
Valentine for his 2000
silver dollars. What
happened in this televised
match spawned a memorable
feud that would occur a
little less than a year
later in the summer and
early fall of 1975.
On October 1st, “Mr.
Wrestling” Tim Woods arrived
back in the Mid-Atlantic
area, minus his patented
white mask. Tim battled the
mammoth Chuck O’Connor in
Columbia, South Carolina in
his first bout back in the
territory, and then the next
night in the WRAL TV studios
in Raleigh, North Carolina,
Woods battled Johnny
Valentine for Johnny’s 2000
 silver dollars. This was
definitely a “main event”
match on television between
these two top stars in the
wrestling business!
Announcers Bob Caudle and
David Crockett reintroduced
the audience to Woods,
running down his many
amateur awards and
credentials. Through the
majority of the match, Woods
controlled the action.
However, when referee Sonny
Fargo was thrown through the
ropes and onto the floor,
things went haywire. Woods
wrapped Valentine up for the
pin, and had Johnny’s
shoulders down for a good
15-20 seconds, but there was
no referee to count the
fall. When Tim realized the
problem with the referee and
went to check on him,
Valentine got the jump on
him and drove Woods’ head
into the mat with a vicious
suplex. Johnny then put the
figure four leg lock on
Woods, and forced Tim to
submit. Despite Tim’s
screams of pain, Valentine
refused to release the hold,
breaking Woods’ leg in the
process.
Valentine was smiling
immediately after breaking
Woods’ leg, but later took
the tact that he would never
have done this on purpose,
and it happened because
Woods had hit him so hard on
his ear during the match,
that Johnny couldn’t hear
Tim give up! This
far-fetched explanation
apparently carried some
weight with NWA President
Sam Muchnick, as Valentine
was not suspended for his
reprehensible behavior, but
only reprimanded and fined.
Tim Woods didn’t react
nearly so generously, coming
back at Valentine with a
vengeance when he returned
to the area in August of
1975!
Former partners and now
bitter rivals, Rip Hawk and
Swede Hanson, continued
their heated feud during the
month of October. Hawk had
been taking brutal beatings
for the most part during his
matches with Hanson, but
thought he had caught a
break when the NWA legalized
his favorite hold, the
piledriver! At the end of
the month, Hawk and Hanson
battled in two bouts where
the piledriver came into
play. On October 26th in
Roanoke, Virginia, the two
rivals hooked up in a bloody
fence match where the
piledriver was legal. And
then two nights later in
Fayetteville, North
Carolina, Hawk and Hanson
wrestled a match where
either wrestler could only
win the match by using the
piledriver! In this match,
Swede pummeled Rip, using
Hawk’s patented hold against
him for the victory! Hawk
was rapidly running out of
options in his battles with
the big Swede.
The “Ripper” had things work
for him substantially better
in tag team action. Hawk and
partner Ric Flair maintained
their hold over the
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles
during
 the month of October.
The toughest Title Match for
the champions came early in
the month, when the dynamic
team of Swede Hanson and
Tiger Conway, Jr. took Hawk
and Flair to the limit on
October 3rd in the
Greensboro Coliseum. Hawk
and Flair had mixed results
in non-title bouts during
October. The champs beat
Johnny Weaver and the
Avenger on October 10th in
Norfolk, Virginia and did
likewise versus Danny Miller
and Swede Hanson on October
22nd in Raleigh, North
Carolina at the Raleigh
Memorial Auditorium.
However, Rip and Ric dropped
non-title bouts during the
month to Johnny Weaver and
Swede Hanson on October 11th
in Lynchburg, Virginia and
to the Avenger and Swede
Hanson on October 21st in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Champion Johnny Valentine
was riding high during the
month of October, keeping a
tight grip on his prized
Title belt. In addition to
putting Tim Woods out of
wrestling during the month,
maintaining hold of his 2000
silver dollars in the
process, “The Champ” was so
bold as to even take on TWO
wrestlers in a Handicap
Match on Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling
television! Valentine
defeated BOTH Bill Ash and
Terry Sawyer, looking every
bit the invincible champ in
the process! The brazen
Valentine even took on Sonny
King in King’s own specialty
match, the ten round fight!
Despite dropping boxing
matches to King in Columbia,
South Carolina on October
8th and in Hampton, Virginia
on October 12th, Johnny put
on respectable showings in
both contests.
 No town in the Mid-Atlantic
area saw more of Johnny
Valentine in October than
did Charlotte, North
Carolina. Johnny headlined
four cards in Charlotte
during the month, two
against the exciting Tiger
Conway, Jr. and two against
his bitter enemy, Sonny
King. Valentine wrestled
Conway in Title matches in
Charlotte’s Park Center on
October 7th and October
14th. During the October 7th
bout, Johnny got Tiger so
upset that the young
challenger was disqualified.
In the return bout on
October 14th, “The Champ”
controlled much of the
action in route to a pinfall
victory.
Johnny battled Sonny King at
the Park Center in Charlotte
on October 21st, and through
Johnny’s experience and
chicanery, the Champ managed
to steal a count out victory
over Sonny. Infuriated, King
was able to sign a Title
Match against Valentine in
the return bout at Park
Center on October 28th. The
rematch ended in more
frustration for King,
whereby the challenger was
awarded a disputed win over
Valentine, but still no
title belt to show for all
his efforts.
The inevitable showdown
between the two masked men
in the territory, the Super
Destroyer and the Avenger,
moved closer to becoming a
reality in October. Before a
match on Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling
television between the Super
Destroyer and Abe Jacobs,
the Avenger came out with a
contract and challenged the
Destroyer. The Super D.
dismissively cast aside the
Avenger’s challenge, calling
the Avenger stupid and
referring to him as an
illiterate. When the Avenger
said the Destroyer had a
“yellow streak” down his
back and then walked away,
the Destroyer proceeded to
attack him from behind and
was joined by his cohorts
Ric Flair and Chuck
O’Connor. Just before the
three nearly took the mask
off the Avenger, Paul Jones
and Wahoo McDaniel ran into
the TV studio and chased the
bad guys off, preserving the
Avenger’s identity.
 “The Eighth Wonder of the
World,” Andre the Giant,
made another impressive pass
through the Mid-Atlantic
area at the end of the
month. The crowds were huge
at the venues where Andre
appeared. At the Greenville
Memorial Auditorium on
October 28th a capacity
crowd was in attendance to
see Andre, with another 3000
fans turned away at the
door. In that match, the
team of Andre, Paul Jones
and Wahoo McDaniel defeated
the Super Destroyer, Ivan
Koloff and Chuck O’Connor in
dominating fashion. The next
night in Columbia, South
Carolina, the same threesome
of good guys dominated the
Super D., Koloff and Art
Nelson. Andre finished his
tour of the Mid-Atlantic
area by capturing a $2,500
Russian Roulette Battle
Royal in Danville, Virginia
on October 30th, and on
Halloween night, Andre,
Jones and Wahoo vanquished
the ferocious trio of the
Destroyer, Ivan Koloff and
Johnny Valentine.
The month of October came to
an end with a very
significant television
taping at the WRAL TV
studios, much the way the
month started. The October
30th TV taping of
Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling in Raleigh, North
Carolina featured three
significant events. In one
of them, Ric Flair battled
Sonny King with Mid-Atlantic
Heavyweight Champion Johnny
Valentine doing ringside
commentary. Valentine told
King that if he made a good
enough showing against
Flair, King would be given a
Mid-Atlantic Title match.
The match went to a time
limit draw, and while
Valentine did not think King
put up a good showing,
announcer Bob Caudle did!
A truly unique “Football
Match” took place on that
same October 30th TV taping.
The bout came about because
the Destroyer was
questioning Wahoo McDaniel’s
football credentials, saying
that the Chief in no way
measured up to Wahoo’s
former New York Jets
teammate, Joe Namath.
Wahoo’s response to the
Super D. was, “Who did you
ever play for?” But then,
Wahoo came up with a novel
idea to test the Super
Destroyer’s football
prowess. The Indian told the
Destroyer that he would tape
five one hundred dollar
bills to a ring post, and
within five minutes if the
Super D. could come through
him from the other side of
the ring and grab the money,
the loot was his! It was an
interesting contest, and the
Destroyer came close to
grabbing the money, but
Wahoo’s ferocious chops kept
the Super D. at bay, and the
masked man was unable to get
his hands on the money! But
the news wasn’t all bad for
the Destroyer, as he didn’t
lose his mask with this
defeat, as his mask was
specifically not at stake in
this most unusual match.
The final “main event” on
this tremendous October 30th
television taping, pitted
“Number One” Paul Jones
against the “Russian Bear”
Ivan Koloff for Jones’
coveted Mid-Atlantic
Television Title in a 30
minute time limit encounter.
This was part of an ongoing
“dream match” series that
fans had been writing in
requesting to see special
matches on television. Jones
had retained his TV Title
for several months, and
appeared poised to keep his
belt in this match. Jones
seemed on top for much of
this contest, and even got
Ivan snared in his painful
Indian Death Lock at one
point, but Koloff was able
to get to the ropes to break
the hold. Ivan battered Paul
about the head when he was
controlling the bout, and
had Paul groggy on several
occasions. But when the
match neared its conclusion,
Paul seemed to surely have
Ivan defeated, but referee
Angelo Martinelli counted
Jones’ shoulders down
instead of Ivan’s, whose
shoulders also appeared to
be down, and Ivan Koloff was
the new Mid-Atlantic
Television Champion! As
announcer Bob Caudle said,
“Paul Jones pinned himself!”
This defeat was a
devastating one for Jones,
and it certainly ended the
month of October 1974 on a
down note for most of the
fans of Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling.
WHO’S HOT
1. Johnny Valentine---The
“Champ” put Tim Woods out of
wrestling, kept his 2000
silver dollars and most
importantly, maintained hold
of his Mid-Atlantic
Heavyweight Championship. A
successful month, no matter
how you want to measure it.
2. Ivan Koloff---The
“Russian Bear” recaptured
the Mid-Atlantic Television
Title from Paul Jones at the
end of the month. That, plus
a solid rest of October,
gives Ivan the number 2 slot
this month.
3. Swede Hanson---The big
Swede continued to dominate
his former partner, Rip
Hawk, during the month of
October. In fact, Swede even
used the piledriver against
Rip!
WHO’S NOT
1. Tim Woods---The former
“Mr. Wrestling” only
appeared in the territory
for a couple of matches in
October, but suffered a
broken leg at the hands of
Johnny Valentine in a
memorable television match.
Woods would go after
Valentine for revenge, but
this wouldn’t happen for
many months.
2. Rip Hawk---The “Ripper”
continued to have all kinds
of problems against his
former partner, Swede
Hanson. Even with the
piledriver legalized, Hawk
could not handle Swede! On
the positive side, Hawk and
partner Ric Flair held the
Mid-Atlantic tag belts
throughout the month.
3. Paul Jones---Losing the
Mid-Atlantic Television
Title to Ivan Koloff at the
end of October certainly
made October of 1974 a less
successful month for “Mr. #
1.” And the way Paul dropped
the belt to Koloff was
certainly gut-wrenching, to
say the very least.
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© 2010 David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Published 5/07/09
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