Hey, It's Good To Be Back Home Again

by Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway

September 2003

 

It had been 16 years since I had watched wrestling in the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. It had been 14 years since an NWA card was held there at all. And it was 27 years ago that I saw my first live wrestling event in the basement of this wonderful old building. 

 

 

It was Thanksgiving weekend of 1976 when I saw my first ever live wrestling matches. I was 15, visiting family for the holidays, and talked my reluctant uncle into taking my cousin Miller and I and dropping us off at the matches at the auditorium that night. (More on that in "Giving Thanks in Spartanburg" in Smoke Filled Rooms.)

 

I attended other shows in Spartanburg over the next few years, as well as neighboring Greenville and Asheville. Years later in the mid-1980s, I was living and working in Alabama and suffering major Crockett wrestling withdrawal. Things were getting hot with the Four Horsemen and Dusty Rhodes, and I made several trips to Spartanburg in 1986-1988 to attend Mid-Atlantic/NWA Pro and World Wide Wrestling TV tapings at the Spartanburg Auditorium. 

 

Ric Flair talks with Bob Caudle during a 1987

 NWA Pro TV taping in Spartanburg. 

 

Not long after that, the promotion then  known as WCW, owned by Ted Turner, and with Jim Crockett Promotions now only a fond memory of Spartanburg fans, held it's last card in Spartanburg. The main event a NWA title match between champion Ric Flair and challenger Terry Funk.

 

So it was a wonderful surprise to learn that Rikki Nelson's Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling promotion was bringing wrestling back to that wonderful old building. Although the current day Mid-Atlantic Wrestling has no connection or ties with the Crockett Promotion that closed it's doors in 1988, there was something cool about wrestling returning to the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium and "Mid-Atlantic Wrestling" being on the marquee. And I knew I wanted to be there. 

 

George South and I drove to the show together, talking about old days at the Auditorium. George wrestled countless times there, usually looking up at the lights when it was all over, one of the best in those days at making the stars look good in the process. 

 

Wrestling has actually always been held in the basement arena of the Spartanburg Auditorium, remarkable for its low ceiling and steel beams that support the grand ballroom above. It was a fixture on Saturday nights in Spartanburg for decades.

 

When I walked into the empty auditorium basement early that afternoon, I was taken aback by a sudden nostalgic rush.  Endless waves of memories of Wahoo McDaniel and the Masked Superstar in the 1970s to Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen in the 1980s. Stale popcorn, watered down Coca-Cola, the smoke was so thick in the arena you could cut it with a knife. And the noise. Anyone who attended matches in that auditorium, with its low ceiling and hard walls, will remember the deafening noise of the wild crowds in Spartanburg. Les Thatcher once told me about having to scream to his opponent who was only a few feet away when calling spots during heated matches in that arena. 

 

One of the things I remembered as a kid  was this beat up metal light that hung over the ring. Painted blue, it displayed the section numbers on it's four sides so fans would know how to locate their seats in the ringside sections. When I returned for the TV tapings in the 1980s, it was gone, a lost relic of days gone by, I assumed.

 

But there it was in 2003, looking exactly as it did when I last saw it some 25 years ago. It brought me full circle, as if time itself had stood still and welcomed me back to the cozy confines of the auditorium basement arena. The only thing missing was the smoke.

 

Later that afternoon, another fixture of Spartanburg wrestling in the 1980s came strolling in the side door, suitcase in hand. Still larger than life, wearing his familiar cowboy hat, was the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. He seemed genuinely pleased to see George, hugging him like a big bear. Dusty had been booked to draw the crowd back to the auditorium that night, the promoters of the event hoping for a nostalgic return to the days back when.  

 

George South and Dusty Rhodes, Sept. 2, 2003, Spartanburg

 

Sadly, it didn't work out that way. I had hoped to see those upper bleachers full again. But the Stardust magic, like the smoke that once choked that arena, was quite apparently a thing of the past.

 

It didn't dampen my spirits that fans didn't return in large numbers. The ones that were there were happy to have wrestling back in the auditorium. Many I talked to longed for the old days, and relished this opportunity to be seeing it here again. I saw a fan wearing our Mid-Atlantic logo baseball jersey, had others come up and warmly tell me they loved the Mid-Atlantic Gateway website, and I was glad that the spirit lived on. There was a shared since of community among many in attendance that night.

 

George South wrestled David Isley in the opening match of the evening. I consider both my friends and enjoyed watching them have a terrific match. That was the main event on the card for me that night.

 

George and I continued to reminisce well past midnight on the way back to Charlotte. I'll treasure that evening because it connected me with my past. Though no longer a smoke filled room, the Spartanburg Auditorium is filled with ghosts from better days and better wrestling. My ears weren't ringing like they used to when I left this year, but I'm not sure I ever enjoyed the Spartanburg Auditorium more.

 

- Dick Bourne, September 2003


Thanks to Rikki Nelson for his allowing me access, 

to Mike Somaini for his fellowship, to Michael Carpenter for the poster and the ticket stub, to Dusty Rhodes for not charging me for the pictures, to the SMA staff & security personnel for the chair, to Gary Royal for re-uniting the Gladiators and Cruel Connection, and to all the friends of this website who were nice enough to say hello.


NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ON THIS SHOW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

Ricky Nelson and George South Dusty Rhodes and Dick BourneGeorge South & Gary Royal: The Gladiators reunited! 

Event Parking Sign A shot from the hill of the lower Auditorium Entrance

The old metal light over the ring        sm_Dusty_Rhodes_-_Autograph.jpg (23173 bytes)


NWAPro_capture.jpg (114637 bytes)

Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair had many battles in Spartanburg. This one was on June 4, 1986 and aired the following Saturday on NWA Pro Wrestling.


Other material about Spartanburg 

on this website:

Giving Thanks in Spartanburg

includes a discussion with 

Les Thatcher


Return to:

MID-ATLANTIC GATEWAY LOBBY

CLASSIC VENUES INDEX

SPARTANBURG AUDITORIUM

 

Event Ticket and parking stub

Spartanburg Auditorium 1987