And
while Ric has won a number of tag team titles, by far
his greatest accomplishments have been as a singles
wrestler. Maybe that's why I have been particularly
fascinated about finding out details about Ric Flair's
firstr title victory as a singles wrestler.
Almost all sources have listed Ric Flair's first
singles title victory as having occurred on June 3, 1975
in Raleigh, North Carolina, listing Ric as beating Paul
Jones for the Mid-Atlantic Television Title in that town
and on that date. I have always been sure that the June
3, 1975 Raleigh, NC designation was incorrect as to
Ric's first singles title victory, but I had no clue
until recently as to what the correct date and location
were.
As a bit of a backdrop, I have an audiotape from the
April 23, 1975 installment of Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling featuring two of the best promos that Ric
Flair and Paul Jones ever cut. Significantly, in these
promos, Mid-Atlantic Television Champion Ric Flair was
talking about defending his TV Title against challenger
Paul Jones in a title defense at the Richmond Arena on
May 2, 1975. Jones complains that Flair has caused him
to lose sleep at night because Ric "stole" the
TV Title from him, while Ric counters that the TV belt
makes him "a very wealthy young man" and that
he will "walk out the champion" the way he
walks in the champion. Of course, what has always been
most significant to me about this audiotape is that we
have Ric Flair talking about defending his
Mid-Atlantic TV Title on April 23, 1975, thus he could
not have possibly won it for the first time on June 3,
1975 in Raleigh, NC. But the question always remained:
just when and where did Ric Flair win his first singles
title? As of early 2002, there appeared to be no answer,
but then a friend of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, Greg
Price, unknowingly came to the rescue.
Through Greg's generosity, the Mid-Atlantic Gateway
was able to obtain access to the contents of Jim
Crockett Promotions booker George Scott's 1975 "day
planner." This date book "diary" from
1975 has allowed the Gateway to in many respects re-live
the year of 1975, providing us a wealth of information
and insights on the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
promotion that we otherwise would not have. Since
audiotapes provide the Gateway with much of our specific
historical information, and those tapes are relatively
sketchy for much of the year of 1975, the day planner
from George Scott has been a lifesaver for us for this
particular year.
As the 1975 day planner has a listing of all matches
in the promotion for that year, the Gateway has a true
and reliable roadmap for the early part of 1975.
Following the map, we are able to determine that
Mid-Atlantic Television Champion Paul Jones had a very
inactive month in January 1975 defending this title. In
fact, Paul only defended the TV Title once in January,
defeating Brute Bernard on Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling TV on January 15, 1975. During this time,
Jones was busy teaming with Tiger Conway battling Gene
and Ole Anderson, and taking shots at Johnny Valentine's
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title. Going by the day planner
entries, Paul Jones did not defend the Mid-Atlantic TV
Title again until February 8, 1975 when he put the belt
up against Ric Flair in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
On this fateful night at Memorial Coliseum, Ric defeated
Jones to become the new Mid-Atlantic Television
Champion. This was the Nature Boy's first ever singles
championship in his professional wrestling career!
Looking at the specific entries in George Scott's day
planner for the February 8, 1975 card in Winston-Salem
(above) provides some fascinating insight. First,
it doesn't appear that Winston-Salem was a lock to get
this historic match. It appears as though Hampton VA was
originally booked for February 8. Later,
"Hampton" is completely crossed out to the
point you can barely read it. "Winston Salem"
is written on either side and then again later with
different color ink and underlined. Both Winston-Salem,
North Carolina and Hampton, Virginia typically ran their
cards on Saturday nights during this era. Secondly, Ric
Flair was clearly not the first choice to be Paul Jones'
opponent in this match, but rather it was Ivan
Koloff. Koloff's name was scratched out of this
match in Scott's day planner, and Flair's name was
inserted in its place. The original booking of this
match clearly took place a couple of weeks in advance,
as Koloff left the area completely at the end of January
1975 to join the IWA promotion. The Winston-Salem
newspaper ad listed Jones vs. Koloff. The result lists
Flair winning the tile with an armbar. (An armbar??)
Winston-Salem
clippings courtesy Mark Eastridge.
Following the daily entries in Scott's diary
immediately after Ric Flair's TV Title victory on
February 8th, the TV belt is not defended again until
February 21, 1975 when Ric defends his TV Title for the
first time, wrestling Tiger Conway in Lynchburg,
Virginia. Flair's next defense of his TV Title noted in
the date book, and the last one during the month of
February, occurs in Charlotte, North Carolina's Park
Center on February 24, 1975, with Ric retaining the TV
Title by disqualification over Tiger Conway.
February 8, 1975 was certainly an eventful night for
the youngster Ric Flair, but as all wrestling fans know
there was much more on the horizon for this rising star
beyond the Mid-Atlantic Television Title. As the old
saying goes, the rest is history.
We welcome your comments or challenges to this
information. Feel free to drop us a note at the
Mid-Atlantic Gateway.
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