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Smoke Filled
Rooms
My Secret Charlotte
by Kyra Quinn (2013)
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© Copyright
2010 Freedom Communications. All Rights Reserved.
Online article reprinted with permission of the author.
Wrestling fan visits historic
Shelby venue: Pennsylvania woman to see where her hobby
began in 1985
Graham Cawthon 2010-07-28
12:25:37
SHELBY – When it comes to travel / tourism, a lot of people
are trying to put Shelby on the map.
But the ‘City of Pleasant Living’ is already well known for
quite a few things, including country music and livermush.
As well as pro wrestling.
Shelby City Park
Kyra Quinn was 8 years old and living in Pittsburgh when she
turned on the TV. She didn’t know what to make of what she
saw but she was hooked.
It was World Wide Wrestling, a syndicated program that aired
wrestling from the Mid-Atlantic area throughout the country.
And, on that particular day, the matches originated from a
packed Shelby City Park gym.
July 1985
“The first match I ever saw on TV was the Rock ‘n’ Roll
Express against the Russians,” she said.
And,
in front of an enthusiastic Shelby crowd and nationwide
audience, the fan favorite Express won the nearly 30-minute
bout.
“I couldn't believe that those two young good-looking guys
could take such a beating and keep coming back,” she said of
the Express, comprised of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson.
Kyra found her new hobby.
“I was hooked right away by the athleticism, the drama,”
Kyra said.
Now, 25 years later, Kyra will get to visit Shelby, where
her passion began.
Trip to Shelby
Each August, Charlotte hosts the NWA Fanfest, where hundreds
of fans from around the world converge for four days and get
to meet their favorite wrestlers from the 1960s to today.
Now living in State College, Pa., Kyra will make a nearly
10-hour drive for her third Fanfest.
But, alongside wrestler George South and wrestling historian
Dick Bourne, she will also make a special trip to Shelby and
Spartanburg, S.C., two important wrestling towns during the
1980s.
Full circle
Bourne, who runs the Mid Atlantic Gateway website that
celebrates Jim Crockett Promotions, which often ran shows in
Shelby, said it’s a full circle trip for Kyra.
“Those heyday Crockett years of the mid-to-late 80s led her
to Fanfest 20 years later to meet some of those wrestlers,”
he said. “And now she will get to visit the building where
it all started for her.”
Bourne said the three will be in town Aug. 4. Kyra said
she’s looking forward to the experience.
“This trip to Shelby, and Spartanburg, 25 years after I
watched that first, fabulous match, will be a special thing
for me.”
Reach City Editor Graham
Cawthon at 704-669-3334.
Website image:
© Copyright 2010 Freedom
Communications. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of
the author.
Link to original story:
http://www.shelbystar.com/news/shelby-48517-woman-pennsylvania.html
Link to printable vsersion:
http://www.shelbystar.com/common/printer/view.php?db=shelby&id=48517
Link to article photo:
http://www.shelbystar.com/sections/article/gallery/?pic=1&id=48517
Article published
8/10/2010.
Copyright © 2010 Mid-Atlantic
Gateway
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