Johnny
Weaver passed away at his home in Charlotte NC on February 15, 2008.
He was 72 years old.
Return to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Return to Smoke Filled
Rooms
Johnny Weaver
Net
Johnny
Weaver Blog
|
|
Saying Goodbye to Mr. Mid-Atlantic
My real interest in professional
wrestling started in the late 1960s and continued unabated through
to the late 1980s when Jim Crockett Promotions ceased operations.
During that two decade period there was one performer that was a
constant that you could count on every week, and that wrestler’s
name was Johnny Weaver.
Johnny was part of my very earliest
wrestling memories. I don’t remember a lot of those Saturdays in
front of my black and white TV in the 60s, or even how I wandered
onto Channel 6 in Richmond at 5:00 for All-Star Wrestling. I do
remember that my Dad used to watch the World Series of Golf from the
Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio with me at 4:00 on those
Saturday afternoons way back when. And I remember when that show
ended, All-Star Wrestling came on. While I don’t remember much about
that time, I do remember one wrestler, and his name was Johnny
Weaver.
Johnny was the consummate good guy. He
and his partner at the time, George Becker, would do battle with
some real villains. I mean, villains that scared me at the time as a
young child, to the point that I would turn the TV off. It was
amazing to me that Johnny could stand up to the likes of outlaws
such as Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson. But he somehow did, and I think
that’s what kept me watching wrestling…I was drawn to that weekly
confrontation between good and evil. And Johnny was there every
week, representing good.
As the 1970s arrived, my interest in
professional wrestling became an obsession! And Johnny was right
there with me nearly every Saturday. Not only every Saturday, but a
lot of Friday’s as well, as I started going to live matches in
Richmond. Regardless of where Johnny was on the card, his match was
always one I looked forward to seeing. Particularly if he was in a
tag team match, I looked forward to joining in Johnny’s foot/ stomp
and hand/clap when he was on the ring apron.
After his late 1973/early 1974 program
with the Super Destroyer, Johnny was no longer a main event
performer for Jim Crockett Promotions, and in fact was absent from
the Mid-Atlantic area for the first three-quarters of 1975. But in
the aftermath of the terrible plane crash in Wilmington, North
Carolina in October of 1975, there was a bit of good news…Johnny
Weaver returned! I remember how glad I was to see Johnny back in the
ring on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling TV show, and in his
first reappearance, he also showed his versatility by doing color
commentary with Bob Caudle, subbing for David Crockett who was
recovering from injuries sustained in the plane crash.
During the mid/late 70s, and on into
the early 1980s, Johnny morphed from a main eventer, to the
respected veteran who the top level bad guys had to overcome to earn
that spot. Main event villains Greg Valentine in 1976/1977, Roddy
Piper in 1980, and Tully Blanchard in 1984 all had to earn their
stripes by getting by Johnny. And without a doubt, Johnny put them
all through their paces!
In addition to the programs with
Valentine, Piper and Blanchard, Johnny’s in-ring activity from the
mid-70s to the mid-80s saw his memorable Claw versus Sleeper feud in
1978 with Baron Von Raschke, where Johnny also captured the NWA TV
Title. Johnny battled Ken Patera over the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Title in late 1978/early 1979. In 1981, Johnny was one-half of the
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions with both Dewey Robertson and Jay
Youngblood. A memorable feud in 1982 saw Johnny battle Lord Alfred
Hayes and the Russians. And in 1984, Johnny took the mask off of the
Assassin, and wore it himself as the "Ultimate Assassin." As late as
1987, Johnny taught the "Weaverlock" to Dusty Rhodes, and appeared
in Dusty Rhodes’ corner against Lex Luger in Starrcade 1987. And
speaking of Starrcade, Johnny wrestled in the inaugural Starrcade in
1983.
While Johnny would properly be
classified a "mid-card" wrestler from 1975-1985, he was much more
than that. He won the majority of his arena matches, often giving
the fans a good feeling going home, even when the bad guys may have
won the main event match later in the evening. And Johnny would
still get a main event match here and there even as the years wore
on. My favorite memory in that sphere was from a card in Richmond in
August of 1976, where Johnny headlined against Blackjack Mulligan
for Mulligan’s U.S. Title. In the promos leading up to that match,
Blackjack said there was gonna be a hanging…he was gonna throw a
rope over the rafters in the Richmond Arena and hang ol’ Johnny
Weaver, and have a good laugh! While Johnny didn’t win the U.S. belt
that night, fortunately, he wasn’t hung from the rafters either!
But into the 1980s, most fans
associated Johnny with his television announcing. When the World
Wide Wrestling TV show came into the Richmond market in March of
1979, one of the first shows that aired had Johnny doing guest
commentary with host Rich Landrum. Johnny would soon thereafter
become Rich’s regular co-host, and the two meshed together
wonderfully. Rich nicknamed Johnny "The Dean of Professional
Wrestling," and Johnny would sing "Turn Out The Lights, The Party’s
Over" to signal the end of a match. Johnny also announced with David
Crockett, and later with Bob Caudle on NWA Pro Wrestling.
After Jim Crockett Promotions bit the
dust in the late 1980’s, Mid-Atlantic fans like me were left to our
memories, and often wondering what ever happened to our heroes. When
Dick Bourne and I started the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in 2000, we hoped
to sharpen our collective memories of the Mid-Atlantic years by
doing a website. One of the wonderful results, and really
unintended, was actually making contact with many of our
Mid-Atlantic heroes from the past. With the help of Peggy Lathan,
one of those was with "Mr. Mid-Atlantic," Johnny Weaver. It was a
wonderful feeling to have a small part in reuniting Johnny and his
former adversary, Rip Hawk, for two recent get-togethers in
Charlotte. Likewise, it was wonderful to be a part of a surprise
birthday party thrown for Johnny in Rocky Mount Virginia this past
November. Little did I know, Johnny would pass away in a scant three
month hence.
I received an email from Johnny just
two days before he died. I still find it hard to believe that I was
a regular on Johnny’s email list! I’m proud that the Gateway was
able to get information out to Johnny’s fans about his illustrious
career. There would have been so much more, had Johnny lived longer,
and that is so sad. But one thing that I’m happy about, is that
through the Gateway, Johnny truly realized how many fans still
remembered him and his career, and the extent to which he touched so
many lives. I have no question that when he passed away, Johnny knew
without a doubt that he was still the "Dean of Wrestling" to so many
wrestling fans, and not merely a forgotten ghost of wrestling’s
past.
What a lot of wrestling fans didn’t
know about Johnny was that he worked for years with the Mecklenburg
County Sheriff’s Department near Charlotte after his wrestling
career was over, transporting prisoners. Being a prosecutor for many
years, I know that inmates are not often at their best going to and
coming from Court. Transporting them is not an easy job, and is
often thankless and always dangerous. But it is oh so important for
everybody that works in the criminal justice system. From all
accounts, Johnny was as reliable in his job as a Deputy Sheriff as
he was working for Jim Crockett Promotions. I know, many times in
trying to set events up for Johnny, we had to work around his
schedule with the Sheriff’s Department! And his schedule there was
brutal, much like it was as a wrestler in the Mid-Atlantic area. But
somehow, I don’t think Johnny would have wanted it any other way.
Whether it was wrestling, announcing,
booking (yes, Johnny booked matches as well!), or transporting
prisoners, Johnny Weaver was a constant, and rock solid at whatever
he did. Unassuming, and never one to try to draw attention to
himself, Johnny’s abilities did that for him. When I think of
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, Johnny holds my earliest
memories, and he was that person that you always were going to see
in some capacity every week. And somebody you needed to see for your
wrestling week to be complete! To me, Johnny Weaver was and always
will be, "Mr. Mid-Atlantic." The consummate good guy in the ring and
on TV during the Mid-Atlantic years, I was blessed to get to know
him as a good guy outside of the ring and when the glare of the TV
lights were off… at the end of his full and eventful life.
Goodbye Mr. Mid-Atlantic…you have left
a lifetime of wrestling memories for the many wrestling fans you’ve
left behind.
David Chappell
March 2008
©
Mid-Atlantic Gateway |