February 1975 Spotlight:

Ric Flair Wins His First Singles Championship

by David Chappell


 

FEBRUARY 8, 1975               WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.

 

 

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair  has held a mind-boggling number of championships during what has arguably been one of the the greatest careers in professional wrestling history. Ric's first pro wrestling championship ever has been universally agreed to have been secured in Greensboro, North Carolina on July 4, 1974 when Flair and partner Rip Hawk defeated Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers for the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles. After that first title victory, the Nature Boy went on to win title after title spanning several decades, including multiple versions of  the World's Heavyweight Title as an individual competitor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A promotional print shows Ric Flair holding the Mid-Atlantic TV title belt before a match in Spartanburg, SC

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.