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Chappell:
Talking about the mid 80s…..Ricky and
Robert, Nikita, Magnum and the like. That was the
time when Mid-Atlantic Wrestling was losing its
regional flavor. Actually, I thought that began
with the first Starrcade in 1983, when the closed
circuit was used and wrestlers were brought in
from outside the area. Tell us your thoughts on
the Starrcade events.
Caudle:
I did the first Starrcade in Greensboro, and
that was really something. I remember how many
people tried to get in there…we had that arena
full. I think it was over 16,000 squeezed in
there. There was so much traffic on the way in
there. [Interstate] 85 was backed up for miles.
And of course, later on they moved the Starrcades
to other towns. But that first one was special.
Chappell:
I think a number of Mid-Atlantic fans were
miffed when Gordon Solie was brought into the
early Starrcades to announce with you. To many of
us, you were our announcer and Solie was just an
outsider. What are your feelings on that?
Caudle:
I didn’t work much with Gordon…only a few
times. In later years when Turner took it over,
I’d run into Gordon because he’d be doing some
of the promos for Turner. But I never worked a
whole lot with him.
He
did shows out of Florida and Atlanta. I don’t
know if it was the Crockett’s, or when Dusty
started getting involved in some of the
booking…but they really, really liked Gordon.
They thought Gordon would really add a lot to the
broadcasts. Gordon and I got along well, but
Gordon didn’t add a whole lot in my opinion.
But
as far as bringing guys in with me like Gordon, as
I’ve said before, they did that for years and
years. Like Ward and Capral. Then later [
Jim
] Ross came up from the southwest…Ross then
became the golden boy. At the time, I think they
were all just going to knock me off or something.
But anyway, we just hung in there and did the same
old thing.
Chappell:
That ‘same old thing’ was just fine with
us, Bob!
Caudle:
Bringing other guys in didn’t really bother
me. I didn’t have a big ego about the thing, and
still don’t. From an ego standpoint, I didn’t
care one way or the other about the new people
they brought in. It didn’t bother me.
Chappell:
Over the years, it seemed to me that a lot of
wrestling announcers were more interested in
drawing attention to themselves than the wrestlers
and the product they were covering. You never came
across like that.
Caudle:
For me, the perfect show would be if I did a
show and nobody knew who I was…they would know
who the wrestlers were and how the matches were. I
wasn’t on there to make
Bob Caudle
look good; I was on there to make the wrestlers
look good.
Chappell:
Exactly.
Caudle:
That was the way I always approached
[announcing].
Chappell:
Much like a good referee in a football or a
basketball game. They say their best games are
when they just do their jobs, and nobody notices
them.
Caudle:
Very much so. A lot of other [announcers] hyped
themselves so much…but that wasn’t me. I just
had a different personality.
I
always felt like people didn’t tune in to see
me, rather they tuned in to see the matches.
That’s what it was all about.
Chappell:
As we’re talking about Starrcade 1983, tell
us how you saw the local Mid-Atlantic promotion
evolve into a national product around that time
period.
Caudle:
Well, to me, that started to change when Dusty
came in and started booking. He did a great job
for a while. Then Crockett decided he could start
running headliners in two different places on the
same night. The bought a jet airplane …and they
had another plane too. They would have Flair and
somebody on in Charlotte early, and then put them
on a plane and fly them to Cincinnati and they’d
be on the last match there on the same night.
Around
that time in the 80s, I was amazed…we started
taping in places like Cincinnati. I was shocked
when I got to Cincinnati. I think more people knew
me in Cincinnati than knew me in Raleigh! (laughs)
Then we went up into Michigan, up above
Detroit and taped up there. We taped in Little
Rock, Arkansas. So we were taping all over the
place.
Taping
everywhere like that was expensive stuff. When
they would go out to a place like Little Rock,
they were having to hire the crews and get the
trucks and equipment and all that kind of stuff.
It became a REAL expensive type situation.
That’s when the expenses started soaring, and
the income coming in wasn’t taking care of it as
much.
Chappell:
This type of travel in the late 80’s was
certainly different for you. I mean, before that,
you were able to announce and stay relatively
close to home.
Caudle:
Yes, but it worked out pretty well for me. I
was able to take the time off to do that. After I
left RAL in 1980, I went to work for Senator
Jessie Helms. Sen. Helms let me have the time off.
So the added travel in the mid and late 80s
wasn’t a problem as far as that goes.
A
lot of times I’d just go to Charlotte, and get
on the plane with them there.
Chappell:
I would be interested in hearing about your
work for Senator Helms.
Caudle:
Well, I worked for him from 1980 until 1996. I
retired in 1996. I was his legislative assistant.
I tell you, I really enjoyed it. I worked at his
main in-state office in Raleigh. We had other
offices around the state and of course in
Washington, and I would stay in touch with them as
well. I did what we called Special Projects
stuff…dealing with groups that were involved
with certain issues…like the Corps of Engineers
or Fish and Wildlife where there would be a lot of
people involved in things like building dams. We
got involved with a lot of highway construction
initiatives. Really, it was everything
though…any time a citizen had a concern we
looked into it.
Chappell:
It sounds like you were the first line of
defense to the Senator when any of life’s
problems arose for folks!
Caudle:
(laughing) That’s exactly what it was. I
usually dealt with folks when they were really mad
about something. I caught my share of flak from
people. But that being said, I really enjoyed my
work there…I really did. I don’t know how you
felt about it in your situation in Virginia
(Editor’s note:
David
Chappell was a legislative assistant to a Virginia
representative from 1982-89), but after 16 years I
really began to get burned out.
Chappell:
Tell me about it! (laughs)
Well, how did you initially hook up with
Senator Helms?
Caudle:
I had worked for him for nineteen years at RAL.
He worked at RAL before he was elected as a U.S.
Senator. So I had worked for him a long time back
then, and we became close friends.
Chappell:
Describe how it was to work for Senator Helms
when he was in office.
Caudle:
In all of the years I was in his Senate
office, I never had any problem at all with him.
Whatever decision I decided to make while I was in
his office, he never said a negative word about
it. He would always say, ‘You did the right
thing.’
Chappell:
Did being the voice of Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling help you in any way in your
job with Senator Helms? Surely people recognized
you?
Caudle:
I don’t think anybody ever even mentioned
it!
Chappell:
You’re kidding?
Caudle:
No, I don’t think it ever came up. As you
know, most of the folks I was dealing with for
Senator Helms had a problem or an issue, and they
weren’t there to talk about wrestling.
Chappell:
I guess that does stand to reason.
Caudle:
Also, another thing that happened after a
while, was that RAL dropped wrestling. We
weren’t on RAL after we started going out later
and taping at the arenas.
RAL
used to have a great big audience when we ran on
Saturday at 7:00 in the evening. I remember Jerry
Falwell wrote a letter to the station complaining
about the violence and all, and they moved it to
11:30 at night. And that time slot really hurt
us…so we lost a lot of our audience in the
Raleigh area.
Chappell:
Tell us about your final years announcing
wrestling, and working with
Jim
Ross.
Caudle:
I worked with
Jim
Ross a lot towards the very end, for a couple of
years when we were really traveling around. This
was after Crockett sold out to Turner. While we
were still with Crockett before the sale, I had
very little stuff to do with Ross…we did a few
shows together but not much at that stage.
Ross
went to work with them full-time in Charlotte,
when he first went in there. And I was still just
part-time, doing it on a per-show type basis.
That’s the way I had always worked it…just a
per-show deal. Ross came in and was really
involved in everything…he was in the office
involved with putting the matches together and all
that and did a lot more than just call the
matches.
Chappell:
You did some Pay Per View events with Ross?
Caudle:
Yes, we did some Pay Per Views together, and
also some of the prime time TBS Clash of
Champions. We did a Clash together in 1989 from
Ft. Bragg, North Carolina…it was summertime and
it was so hot in there you couldn’t believe it!
I’ll never forget that one! (laughs)
Chappell:
How was it announcing on Pay Per Views as
opposed to the type of announcing you had done
earlier before the advent of Pay Per View?
Caudle:
I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed doing
our regular shows. For the Pay Per View shows, we
were on camera at the opening and welcomed
everybody and ran down the matches and that was
it…often times nobody ever saw us, or knew who
we were or what was going on with us for the rest
of the night.
But
over and above that, the Pay Per View events were
longer…we’re talking about two or three hours
straight. And all of the matches were promoted as
being main event type matches. For me, it just
wasn’t the same. I guess the one thing that I
did like about the Pay Per Views, was being part
of all the big crowds that we drew for them.
But
the thing that was the most fun of all of it, and
I wished it had never changed and was still that
way, was the studio stuff.
Chappell:
You get no argument from me on that!
Caudle:
That’s what I enjoyed the most, and I think
that’s when we all probably did our best work.
PART
SIX |
