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
|