New book on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling history!

The legends of
TV Wrestling!

All Star Wrestling

Harley Race

Wahoo McDaniel

Ernie Ladd!

Johnny Weaver

The Horsemen!

Dusty Rhodes

Magnum TA

George 'Two Ton' Harris

Tim Woods

Jimmy Garvin

Brute Bernard

Johnny Valentine

Nature Boy

Arn Anderson

The New Breed

Johnny Hunter

Terry Funk

Diamond Dan and Hoss

Rick Link

Bingham Brothers

... and more in John Hitchcock's
decades spanning look at
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling!

Wrestling Memories
from Greensboro, 

North Carolina - 

the Heart of
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling

Heel Time in
Thomasville and Burlington

As a group, we couldn't get enough of wrestling. Bruce, Bud, Lisa, Obin, Big Eddie, KC and I went anywhere that was with in an hour and a half drive to see wrestling.

It became our cool thing to do and I bet we all hit every armory and high school gym that had wrestling. And every time we went, we drove the other fans crazy cheering for the heels. These towns were really strange in that these people were ninety percent true believers and we pushed as many buttons we could find.

It was a little dangerous but with that many people in our group, we got away with it. After taking over at the Greensboro Coliseum, these cracker boxes with about one hundred and fifty people didn't have a chance.

We all were loud and obnoxious as any body could be and the wrestlers loved it. The building would be cold during the winter but if we showed up there was heat inside and thee wrestlers played off of us as hard as we cheered against them.

It was a real hoot and after awhile, the other fans broke into two groups. One large group that dreaded seeing us and a small group that wanted to join us.

And if one of these hillbillies tried to sit with us, we would light their ass up as being a turncoat. Man, there were many times that after turning on a young mark I would see the guy leave crying as we hammered the guy .

One night a young guy started cheering with us and I did not like him. So I looked right at him and said he could join our group if he got his teeth fixed. He started crying like a baby.

What a wussy.

Another thing that we all noticed really fast is that every wrestler on the show would have a group of friends' ringside cheering them on.

These people were really easy to spot because once you started giving their boy hell they would pop like nobody's business. This was a lot of fun. Those guys and gals would get more into yelling at us then cheering for their buddy.

We got this one chick so hot at us that she went to the backroom and demanded that the Lumber Warrior come out and kick our asses. The Warrior acted all pissed at us but as soon as she turned her back he would laugh with us.

We didn't let anybody join our group but one guy, Chris Cruise. Cruise was the play-by-play announcer for WCW for many years and it turned out he loved wrestling as much as we did.

Of course, he was handicapped because he grew up in Maine and worshipped the WWF product and was the biggest mark in the civilized world for Bruno Samartino.

At first it was very difficult to like the guy because he constantly raved about Bruno. And week after week he got to call the matches at WCW and he couldn't tell that WCW was vastly superior to that over rated Yankee wrestling.

I mean, can you imagine thinking Bruno was a big deal when you watch Ric Flair week after week? But Cruise soon fit right in and we all had a ball at every show we went to.

Cruise also was one of the most out of touch guy I ever met as far as wrestling went. He always asked Bruce and I what was going on in the wrestling world. The guy worked in the business and didn't have a clue most of the time!

But he had a very wicked sense of humor and fit right in. At another show the main event was Bugsey Mc Graw verses Jimmy Valiant. Mc Graw is a big pot bellied guy and Valiant is really skinny.

Matter of fact, Valiant looked like a homeless starving bum, nothing like the big time main eventer that was so famous in the Mid Atlantic Territory during the eighties. So as the match started, I stood up and announced to the crowd that this match was going to be fought over cheeseburgers.

I then tossed about four McDonald's Cheeseburgers into the ring .I figured that they would put up a real fight for food. Both wrestlers were pretty shocked but Valiant pushed a few burgers into his corner to eat after the match.

The place went nuts cheering against us but that was to be expected. Some did get a laugh out of the stunt.

After about three months, we were getting really good heat on all of us. And that would lead us to other very strange nights in the future.

Next Time:
Hitting the Ring at Plato's Crash Landing

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