When and where were you born?
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 1, 1930. I’m 73 years old. I still referee a few wrestling matches every once in awhile. I
refereed last night in Gainesville. They had a legends match, and I refereed that.
And who was in that match?
Ricky Morton and Bobby Eaton.
How was that match?
They went about fifteen minutes and Bobby got disqualified.
Was the crowd into them?
Oh, yeah, they loved it.
Was any of your family ever involved in the business?
No. My kids went every Friday night to the auditorium, but they were never interested in getting into the business.
What made you decide to get into it?
My brother used to take me to the wrestling matches. And I got a job at the Atlanta City Auditorium as an usher for the wrestling matches.
So I didn’t have to pay – I got in free. I would work in the balcony seating people. One time a guy asked me if I wanted a job selling
Coca-Cola’s with him. So I was getting paid to watch the wrestling matches. (Laughs)
Well, a buddy of mine one time told me they were having matches at the Lakewood Boys Club. He said, “why don’t you come out,
Charlie?�. He told me it was every Saturday night. So I went out there, and I actually started wrestling. I didn’t really know
anything. It was dog eat dog. Well, I started bugging the wrestling office in Atlanta about refereeing. And you had to be in the clique to get
in the door. So I started refereeing for some independent shows.
About how old were you when you really got your foot in the door?
I was twenty-five. I remember I rode a Greyhound bus from Atlanta to Montgomery, Alabama. There was a card with Tarzan White. You
know, he was an All-American football player...
Right...
Well, it cost me $7 to get there on the bus, and I made $5. (Laughs) But I was in the wrestling business, you know it? (Laughs) But that
was my first real job in the wrestling business.
I was refereeing here, there and everywhere, and finally one night the wrestling office in Atlanta called me. They wanted to know if I
wanted to work for them. I told them, “I certainly do.� They told me I had to carry the ring to Eastman, set it up, referee, tear it down
and come back. Well, it was the coldest night of the year. It was February. We didn’t have a heater in the truck. I took some of the
blankets we used on the ring and threw them over my legs. (Laughs)
So when I got back to the office, I got a check for $15 for refereeing and $10 for setting the ring up. That was my first big payoff, and I was
in big time wrestling. They’d call me and I’d work all the little spot shows around the state, but I wasn’t getting to work the
big towns like Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Augusta or Savannah. Eventually, I got in and they started letting me work those places, too.
And I still made $15. That was the magic number, I reckon. (Laughs)
So for about every eight people they came through the gate, you got paid your wages.
Yeah. (Laughs) I enjoyed the business all the years I was in it. I helped Bobby Simmons, Nick Patrick, Larry Nichols and a couple other
guys...
Scrappy?
Yeah, Scrappy. And we had another guy – he didn’t last long – he quit and went to work for the Fulton County Sheriff’s
Department. He’s been with them ever since.
Do you remember his name?
No, I can’t remember the kid’s name. He was very nice and had good manners and everything.
He worked with you for Gunkel Enterprises?
Yeah. He did some ring announcing, and I trained him to do some refereeing.
What was the time frame when you first started working the higher profile towns like Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Augusta and
Savannah?
It was in the early 1960’s.
And it wasn’t much after that when you started working in the actual office itself, right?
Yeah, I ran the ticket office, and refereed at night. You had to be in the ticket office at nine o’clock in the morning, and stay there until
five in the afternoon.
As Bobby Simmons has told me, Ray Gunkel would call at one minute after nine o’clock to make sure the office was open...
Yes, sir...and he’d call you at five o’clock just to make sure you were still there. (Laughs) He was tough. I don’t care where
you were booked to work at night, you’d better be there the next morning. There were times I’d work a town like Savannah and
get home at four or five in the morning. Sometimes I’d just go straight to the office and sleep there on the couch. (Laughs) I’d
let the phone wake me up because I knew Ray would call just after nine. (Laughs)
When I first started, Ray and Don McIntyre owned the office. They told me when I first started working for them that referees were a dime
a dozen. I told them I was worth more than a dime, and that I was a good referee. And I proved it, I think, to myself and everybody else I
knew during the years I was doing it.
Charlie Harbin was the top referee at the time frame we are talking about.
Charlie Harbin gave me my first start.
Was he your mentor?
Yes sir, he took me under his wing.
Tell me about Charlie.
Him and his brother George wrestled all over the United States. I think Charlie told me the last time he wrestled, he went to Denver,
Colorado, and the high altitude got to him. He quit and came back to Atlanta as a referee, and he’d wrestle occasionally, mostly with
a mask. Charlie had the gout, but he’d still referee. Gunkel would tell him, “it ain’t my fault you’ve got the gout. Youâ
€™ve got to work.â€�
So he’s a dime a dozen referee, but he’s got to be working. (Laughs) I’ve been trying to assemble a lineage of the
bookers for the NWA office. Leo Garibaldi’s the first name I have at some point in the 1960’s, and he was also working as a
referee. Do you remember who booked before him?
Chief Little Eagle – he was a booker. Freddie Blassie had done some of the booking. Ray did some, but I can’t think of anybody
else.
Leo had the book for a long time here.
Yeah, Leo was a smart man. He would keep a notebook with all of the finishes for every town he booked. When they’d go into a
town, he’d look back in the book to see what they had done there before. Leo was pretty sharp. When Leo left here, Tom Renesto
came in as the booker.
Right...
And Tom was a good booker, too. Tom stayed here...how long was he here, about ten years?
I think he came back in 1969 with Jody and he took the book then, and ran it right up to the split. Then he went over to work with
Gunkel Enterprises, and then he came back to the NWA office for awhile before going to Memphis.
Yeah, that’s right. The NWA office took some of the guys back like Tom, Bobby Simmons – they didn’t bring me back, but I
didn’t care. I knew they’d call me eventually to at least help book some of the towns. I think every town I ever booked made
money. I had more winners than I did losers.
Where would they have you book?
I booked Waycross every Monday night – and did well – I had a lot of $5,000 houses there. I booked Thomasville, Moultrie, Valdosta,
Nashville – most of the towns in south Georgia.
And this was in the 1970’s?
Yes.
You booked mostly the smaller towns. Does that mean you also had to do the publicity?
I’d have a group sponsor the shows like the American Legion or the Jaycee’s or something like that. I’d send the posters to
them and they’d post them up all over town. And they’d do some radio ads because they got the time for free. They’d sell
the advance tickets.
I think the biggest crowd I ever had was in Swainsboro. Dick Slater was in the main event on the card, and on TV the week before Freddy
Miller asked him where he was going to work that week. Slater said, “on Thursday night I’m going to Swinesburg.� (Laughs)
Miller says, “Swinesburg? You mean Swainsboro don’t you?� Slater said, “no I mean Swinesburg. They’ve got a
bunch of hogs who live there.� (Laughs) When the crowd fills into the building that night it was standing room only. He was being
booed from the time he walked out to the ring to the time he left. (Laughs)
He definitely knew how to draw heat.
Yes sir.
So I imagine you had the opportunity to have worked with Don McIntyre while he was actually promoting during a break by Paul
Jones.
Yeah, that’s when I started. And when Don stepped down as promoter and Paul came back in, Don sold out his share of the office to
Buddy Fuller.
And, of course, Fuller was here until the fallout after Ray’s death. Talk about Don McIntyre. He’s a guy whom I know little
about, and there doesn’t seem to be much information to be found about him.
He was a good wrestler for many years. Him and his brother Red worked together as a tag team for a lot of years. When Red got out he
went back to Missouri and bought a car dealership. When Don got out he went into real estate and was very successful.
Did he stay in Georgia?
Yeah, he was here in the area.
Was he here until the time he died?
Yeah. I remember he had a nice home and one day he answered the door and a man shot him – you ever hear about that?
No, that’s news to me.
Yeah, he went to Don’s house and told him he wanted his money, and they got into a scuffle and he shot Don. He lived down the
street from Ray Gunkel.
In Sandy Springs?
Yeah, then Don sold that house. He and his wife Juanita – they had moved up along the Chattahoochee River somewhere.
So was Don a good guy to work with?
Oh he was a good guy, but he was tough to work for. You know, all those guys – all they thought about was making that money.
What was it like to work with Ray Gunkel?
I worked for him running the wrestling office, and I had to be there at nine in the morning and couldn’t leave until five. I don’t care
if I had to referee the night before in Savannah, I had to be awake in the office in Atlanta by nine o’clock. And I-16 wasn’t around
in those days. (Laughs) You had to go off and on of 16 because it wasn’t like it is today.
One time I got some ligaments tore up in my knee in Savannah, and I had to drive back by myself. I had gone to the hospital there and
they gave me some crutches and told me to see my doctor when I got back to Atlanta. So I had my right leg up across the seat of the
truck and was driving with my left foot. (Laughs)
What about Freddie Blassie? You got to work with him during his prime here.
Freddie was one of the greatest heels there ever was. Freddie was riding over with me one time to Bowdon Junction. Red Dugan was
promoting that town. So we get over there – in those days we just used four wrestlers in the towns, you know – we’d have two
singles matches and a tag team match.
So we get there and Red comes back before the show and says he can’t give us our $15 guarantee. Blassie asked him to repeat
himself, and Red said it again. Blassie told everybody to start packing up to leave. Red finally said he’d give us the guarantee.
(Laughs) We used to do two out of three falls, and we’d go back to the dressing room between falls.
I remember one night Blassie would not go back. And he told me, “you ain’t going nowhere. You’re staying right here in the
ring.� I looked at him and said, “Freddie, I’d hate to make you walk home.� So then he went to the back. But he was
yelling at the fans, calling him pencil necked geeks and everything. He never let up on his gimmick.
I remember another time Little Eagle was doing the booking and Freddie and him didn’t get along too well. They both had Cadillac
convertibles. Blassie gets out to the ring that night and says to the crowd, “that’s my red convertible out there. Don’t bother it!
� Of course, you know what happened – flat tires. They stuck knives all in Little Eagle’s tires. (Laughs)
Freddie was sharp. He made a lot of money in this business. He left here and went back to California and worked for the LeBell’s
and Roy Shire. And he went to Japan I don’t know how many times.
I read in his book that he went to Japan every year for seven years or something like that.
I haven’t gotten his book yet. I’ve been wanting to buy it, but haven’t gotten around to it.
It’s a good read. He rags on a lot of the Atlanta towns and fans. (Laughs)
Freddie loved Atlanta.
He lived here for a long time, even when he was working elsewhere.
Oh, yeah. I remember Freddie used to take my little daughter around for a ride in his Cadillac, and that would thrill her to death. She
loved Freddie Blassie.
We were talking earlier a bit about bookers, mainly Garibaldi and Renesto. Some of the stuff I have researched and read from the
1960’s seems to have been some of the better stuff going on in the country at the time. And Renesto seems to have made the
transition between Leo and himself almost seamlessly. What did you think of Tom Renesto?
I think Tom was a great booker. I really do. I think he was the best booker we had in Atlanta. Me and Tom hit it off real well. He had a
good wrestling mind. I don’t want to take anything away from Leo because he did some good things. But I really enjoyed Tom and
working with him was always interesting.
ABC Booking was originally formed to include Atlanta, Birmingham and Chattanooga. Why didn’t that relationship ever pan out?
Do you know any of those details?
When I started working with them it was already ABC, and I don’t exactly know why. I had a lawsuit one time, and I had an ABC
Booking attorney. He won the case for me, and at the deposition the guy asked me who I worked for. I told him ABC Booking. The guy
told me that was the first time anyone from the business ever said ABC Booking – they always said they worked for wrestling.
We spoke about Buddy Fuller buying Don McIntyre’s shares to the Atlanta office earlier...
He brought in his own crew with him. Sputnik Monroe, Dick Dunn, Charlie Carr, Rocket Monroe – they all came in with Buddy, and they
became stars here.
Most of those guys before coming here were working in the Gulf Coast territory, right?
Right. And they worked for him in Phoenix, Arizona, too, just before coming here. Both of his sons came here later, and they were good
workers – Robert and Ron...
Yep...
Ron made a lot of money and bought a hockey team that won the championship. I think he still runs shows in Knoxville during the
summers and draws good houses. Ted (Allen) carries a ring up there for them every week to Chilhowee Park. There’s another guy
right down the street who runs shows, and he’s gotten mad with Ron because he started running those cards.
Can you tell me what you know that was going on behind the scenes between the time Ray Gunkel died in August and Ann started
Gunkel Enterprises in November?
All indications were that Buddy was trying to bring Eddie Graham in to try to run Ann out. They just wanted to take her piece of the office
away from her. They had no feelings for anybody other than themselves. I didn't like that. When the decision came to split, I was the first
one to walk out. And all the wrestlers walked except Bob Armstrong and Derrell Cochran.
Ann had this meeting on a Wednesday, and Rock Hunter wasn’t at the meeting and he didn’t know anything about the
decision to split until after that night’s show in Columbus. And Bob was the only other wrestler to show up for Fred Ward’s
card.
I don’t know why Rock didn’t know about the meeting. Everybody else knew.
Now, Eddie Graham was trying to work his way into the Atlanta office, and even supplied most of the talent that helped keep Paul
Jones and Buddy’s office running cards.
He sent wrestlers up to work for the NWA office. He was really already trying to get more control of the NWA itself. There were rumors he
wanted to get rid of Sam Muchnik. He did eventually get to be the President of the NWA, but it was believed he wanted more control over
who was the NWA champions.
Did Eddie actually ever buy into the Atlanta office?
He bought in, but I don’t know how many points he got. Buddy Colt bought in, too. And the Brisco brothers bought in around that
time, too.
So they were already involved in the ownership of the office earlier than I thought. Did the Brisco brothers hold their points right up
through 1984?
Yeah.
Out of all the so-called “outlaw� promotions, I think All-South had one of the more successful runs. What do you think?
Our first show was at the Oglethorpe Gym. The NWA office even tried to stop us from having a show. They said we didn’t have a
license. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department was sent out, but Ann had already heard about what they were trying to do and
went out and took care of it, so they couldn’t stop us. Fred Ward had a lawsuit against us to keep us from putting on shows in
Columbus. Eventually it was all dropped.
Dick Steinborn had been set up to promote against Ward in Columbus and Macon, but Fred put up a good fight for awhile, but eventually
lost that battle.
The Atlanta office tried to start getting exclusive rights to all the arenas in the big towns. They had exclusive first in Augusta, but the
promoter there went with Ann. Since they had the Bell Auditorium, we had to start running at the National Guard Armory for about a year
before we could get into the Bell Auditorium. We went to the National Guard Armory in Savannah until they built the Civic Center and then
we started going there. When we were still trying to get into Columbus, we went over to Phenix City, Alabama, for awhile. When
Steinborn finally got past the city council in Columbus, we started running the auditorium there on Monday nights, and they’d stay on
Wednesday nights.
Is there any truth to the rumor that Fred Ward knew that Ann was going to split, and had actually committed to going with her, but
then backed out at the last minute?
Yeah, she had invited Fred to leave the NWA and he agreed to it. But I think Eddie and Buddy and some of the other guys got to Fred.
And Fred was a big believer in the NWA, and I think he just changed his mind at the last minute. The last time we worked with Fred was
the Monday of the week of the split in Macon.
In your opinion, what led to the end of the All-South promotion?
I think Ann spent more money than she had coming in. She’d have these guys under contracts, and was guaranteeing them things
to keep them.
So she was keeping them on contracts sort of the way Vince McMahon is doing rather than the verbal commitment per show deal
like most guys were doing back then?
Oh, yeah. I believe when it started she put everybody under a one year contract. She had gotten hospitalization and life insurance for the
guys. She kept that up for a year, but gradually the money started going down.
It sounds like she was wanting to revolutionize the way promoters did business.
Yeah, but when it came right down to it, I think Jim Barnett bought her out because she was losing money. We did good for the first year.
We were going as well as the other guys. I mean, we were on Channel 17, too, you know? Ann was even trying to get Georgia
Championship Wrestling thrown off of Channel 17. She was tight with Ted Turner. We taped our show before they did, and she paid
Roberto Soto $500 to do a blade job on TV on the floor to see if the NWA guys would catch it you know? (Laughs) She almost
succeeded in getting them off the air.
I had heard they were close before. Were they dating at the time? Or was i just a close friendship?
Well, she got pretty tight with Ted after Ray died. I don’t know if they were dating or not, but I just think Ted liked her style.
Yeah, they had a lot in common in regard to trying to revolutionize the businesses they were in, or so it appears.
We had been on Channel 11 for a long time before going with Ted.
The first TV show for the local promotion was in 1954 on Channel 11 and the first show on Ted’s station was Christmas Day of
1971.
Yeah, when you get as old as me it’s hard to remember those dates. (Laughs)
When you went back to work for the Atlanta office after the closing of All-South, how long did you work for them?
I stayed until 1980.
I know you and Buck Robely had a bit of a falling out, and it was when he was here booking. That must have happened in 1978 or
1979, right?
Yeah...
I was just wondering about that because when I am trying to line up the bookers, it gets real unclear as to the time frames around
the end of the 1970’s and early 1980’s. I believe he was in just before Bill Watts came back for a second run as booker.
I left just before Bill came back in. Ole and Gene took over the book when they fired Robely.
Right. Bobby Simmons has enlightened me on that, in that Gene was really supposed to be the booker, while Ole was slated to be
his assistant.
Yeah. (Laughs)
Back to the falling out you had with Buck...
I had a $5,000 house which was unheard of in Snellville. It’s near Loganville where iI live. All my kids went to that school, and we
had their wrestling team sponsor the show. And that was the biggest crowd they ever had at that gym. So Robely came and asked me
where were the ring lights. I said, “what ring lights?â€� He said, “well, down in Louisiana we use ring lights.â€� I said, â
€œRobely, you ain’t in Louisiana.â€� He said, “you’re find, you smartass.â€� I told him, “I’ve seen a lot of bookers
here and you’ll be gone soon.�
Sure enough he was gone about a month later and Barnett called me and wanted me to come talk to him, Ole and Gene about booking
again. So I went up there and met with him and told him I’d do it if I got a raise. (Laughs) He told Doug Smith who was working in
the office to write me a $500 check. (Laughs) You know, talking about Gene – he was pretty sharp, you know it? I had a poster made
up one time with Gene and Ole on it. It said “Twitch and Bitch�. (Laughs) Bobby had it, but he gave it to Ole last year. (Laughs)
Ole – he loved it.
What was your take on Ole as a booker?
Ole was good, but damn, he’d give you fifteen finishes – you know, the high spots he’d want. He’d tell me all this and want
me to go to the dressing rooms and tell the guys. I couldn’t remember half of it by the time I’d get to them. (Laughs) I’d tell
him we needed a telephone in the dressing rooms or something so we could correspond back and forth with each other. (Laughs)
So you worked until 1980. What did you do after that?
Well, in 1981 I went to work for the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department. I stayed there about a year and got out. I didn’t do
anything for about a year. I’d work some spot shows with different people. I went to work at the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office
until I was sixty-five when I retired. I’ve been retired ever since. I still referee some legend matches. Next month I’m going to
North Carolina to work a legend match up there.
For who?
Ben Throckmorton – he’s having his annual show in North Carolina. I worked for him last year – Thursday, Friday and Saturday â
€“ and every town was packed.
The first time I met you, you were working a show for Ben Masters in Cordele. I think he does one or two of those legend nights a
year...
Yeah...
Do you work all of those?
Most of them. Ben draws good crowds. I think the last time we were there he had about eight hundred people. And it was cold – they
had it outdoors...
You don’t have to remind me of that...I remember leaving work that day to make the trip down and it was hot so I had on short
sleeves. I didn’t bring a jacket because it had seemed so nice. Then I got down there and was freezing not long after the sun
had gone down. (Laughs)
It wasn’t that cold to me, though...
No because you were busy getting rich over at the gimmick tables...
(Laughs) I was selling hats and tee shirts, and when I was in the ring working, Bobby would be over there for me. (Laughs)
I remember you had Mary Little Bear and Bill McMinn working for you, too... (Laughs) Of course, Bobby told me one time that if there
was a chance to make a dollar, you would find a way to make two dollars... (Laughs) You attend most of the reunions, too, don’t
you?
Well, I go down to Mobile every year for the Gulf Coast reunion. This year we had about two hundred people down there, and you were
there, and you seemed to enjoy it...
Yes, first time I have been, and I thank you, Bobby and Bill Bowman for inviting me down. I had a great time and I fully intend to be
there as long as I am welcome.
You ought to get out to Vegas for the Cauliflower Alley Club, too...
As soon as you tell me you’re paying, I’m going. (Laughs) Did you ever work anywhere other than Georgia?
I did if I was on vacation or something. If I went to Panama City, I’d call the Mobile wrestling office and they ran all those towns down
there. They’d book me to referee down there while I was on vacation. One time I went down to Mobile to work, but after about two
weeks I realized the money wasn’t going to be good so I left. Another time I went up to work the Knoxville area. Jim wanted me to go
up and work for the Fuller’s for awhile because they had a hurt referee. Jim told me if Ron didn’t pay me fair, he’d make up
the difference. But Ron paid me better than Jim, and he had Dennis Condrey come to the motel and pick me up everyday to take me
around to the shows.
As far as going down to work on your vacations in the Gulf Coast territory, you made it a working vacation.
(Laughs) Yeah, it gave me a little extra spending money. (Laughs) I even went down to Tampa on vacation one time and called Eddie
Graham. He booked me for about a week down there, and I worked Nassau, Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Tampa on that trip. Nassau
was a great trip, but I think they sold rocks at the door. (Laughs)
Who was the first match you ever refereed?
Bill Dromo and Farmer Powell. Powell was under a mask wrestling as Mr. X. That was in Eastman. At the time Dromo was billed as â
€œYoungâ€� Bill Dromo, then later he was called “Bigâ€� Bill Dromo – now I just call him “Old Manâ€� Dromo. (Laughs) He
came to Georgia in the 1950’s and he’s still here. He still is a Canadian – he never became an American citizen. His wife
Karen is from Germany, but she has her American citizenship.
I’m going to call out some names to you, and I’d like you to give me the first word, phrase or sentence that springs to mind.
Alright...
Ted Allen...
I met Ted for the first time in Cartersville when he was a kid in high school, and helped him get into the business.
Rocket Monroe...
Rocket’s a funny guy – sometimes he’d tell his partner the wrong finish just as a rib...(Laughs)
Leo Garibaldi...
Leo was a great booker.
Ed Capral...
Great announcer.
Don McIntyre...
He loved money.
Paul Jones...
One thing about Paul – he owned the Sports Arena, and it was a dump. One day a man offered him $200,000 for it, and that was the
day two fools met. (Laughs) One fool offered too much, and the other turned it down...(Laughs)
Chief Little Eagle...
Good worker and booker.
Fred Ward...
Me and Fred got along real well until the split because he stopped having anything to do with anybody that worked for Gunkel Enterprises.
Ray Gunkel...
He was a tough and strictly business.
Ann Gunkel...
Ann was a good lady – she took good care of me.
Dick Steinborn...
One hellacious worker. I don’t think there was ever a better worker.
Freddie Blassie...
One of the best pencil necked geeks I knew. (Laughs) He’d go by the name of Joe Bevins on the phone in the wrestling office if he
didn’t want someone to know who he was, (Laughs)
Tom Renesto...
A great booker.
Jody Hamilton...
Jody was a good worker. I remember one night his thirteen year old son was riding with us back and forth to Savannah. I’m laying in
the back seat trying to sleep, and he said, “I’m tired, you want to drive, Nick (Patrick)?� I jumped up and said, “no I’ll
drive� (Laughs)
Jim Barnett...
Made a lot of money working with Jim. He took care of people. The only person to pay me better was Vince McMahon.
When was that?
After he bought the Atlanta office. When he taped some TV here, I refereed some of the matches, and some of the spot shows they ran in
Georgia. He’d pay me $500 for a house show and $100 for TV. Before that you were lucky to get anything for doing TV. George Scott
was his agent here at the time, and Pat Patterson was running Jacksonville. Pat called up George and offered me $300 to work a show
in Jacksonville – and I packed up and drove there as fast as I could. I got there and Patterson said, “you’re an old timer arenâ
€™t you Charlie?â€� I said, “yeah, I am.â€� He paid me $500 and was only supposed to give me $300.
Ole Anderson...
Ole was tough. He never said anything good about anybody. He didn’t even like Gene sometimes. (Laughs) He was a real a-hole
when he was Ole, but when he’s Rogowski it’s altogether different. He’s mellowed quite a bit – he ain’t no young
chick anymore.
Ron West...
Ron was one of the best referees we ever had.
Charlie Harbin...
He was my hero. He got me started in the business. He taught me everything I know.
Bobby Simmons...
I can’t say enough about Bobby. I call him everyday. We’re real good friends and have been up and down the road many times.
I love him and his wife. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t like Bobby Simmons.
Charlie, thanks for taking time out to speak with me about your career.
Thank you. I enjoyed it.
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 1, 1930. I’m 73 years old. I still referee a few wrestling matches every once in awhile. I
refereed last night in Gainesville. They had a legends match, and I refereed that.
And who was in that match?
Ricky Morton and Bobby Eaton.
How was that match?
They went about fifteen minutes and Bobby got disqualified.
Was the crowd into them?
Oh, yeah, they loved it.
Was any of your family ever involved in the business?
No. My kids went every Friday night to the auditorium, but they were never interested in getting into the business.
What made you decide to get into it?
My brother used to take me to the wrestling matches. And I got a job at the Atlanta City Auditorium as an usher for the wrestling matches.
So I didn’t have to pay – I got in free. I would work in the balcony seating people. One time a guy asked me if I wanted a job selling
Coca-Cola’s with him. So I was getting paid to watch the wrestling matches. (Laughs)
Well, a buddy of mine one time told me they were having matches at the Lakewood Boys Club. He said, “why don’t you come out,
Charlie?�. He told me it was every Saturday night. So I went out there, and I actually started wrestling. I didn’t really know
anything. It was dog eat dog. Well, I started bugging the wrestling office in Atlanta about refereeing. And you had to be in the clique to get
in the door. So I started refereeing for some independent shows.
About how old were you when you really got your foot in the door?
I was twenty-five. I remember I rode a Greyhound bus from Atlanta to Montgomery, Alabama. There was a card with Tarzan White. You
know, he was an All-American football player...
Right...
Well, it cost me $7 to get there on the bus, and I made $5. (Laughs) But I was in the wrestling business, you know it? (Laughs) But that
was my first real job in the wrestling business.
I was refereeing here, there and everywhere, and finally one night the wrestling office in Atlanta called me. They wanted to know if I
wanted to work for them. I told them, “I certainly do.� They told me I had to carry the ring to Eastman, set it up, referee, tear it down
and come back. Well, it was the coldest night of the year. It was February. We didn’t have a heater in the truck. I took some of the
blankets we used on the ring and threw them over my legs. (Laughs)
So when I got back to the office, I got a check for $15 for refereeing and $10 for setting the ring up. That was my first big payoff, and I was
in big time wrestling. They’d call me and I’d work all the little spot shows around the state, but I wasn’t getting to work the
big towns like Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Augusta or Savannah. Eventually, I got in and they started letting me work those places, too.
And I still made $15. That was the magic number, I reckon. (Laughs)
So for about every eight people they came through the gate, you got paid your wages.
Yeah. (Laughs) I enjoyed the business all the years I was in it. I helped Bobby Simmons, Nick Patrick, Larry Nichols and a couple other
guys...
Scrappy?
Yeah, Scrappy. And we had another guy – he didn’t last long – he quit and went to work for the Fulton County Sheriff’s
Department. He’s been with them ever since.
Do you remember his name?
No, I can’t remember the kid’s name. He was very nice and had good manners and everything.
He worked with you for Gunkel Enterprises?
Yeah. He did some ring announcing, and I trained him to do some refereeing.
What was the time frame when you first started working the higher profile towns like Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Augusta and
Savannah?
It was in the early 1960’s.
And it wasn’t much after that when you started working in the actual office itself, right?
Yeah, I ran the ticket office, and refereed at night. You had to be in the ticket office at nine o’clock in the morning, and stay there until
five in the afternoon.
As Bobby Simmons has told me, Ray Gunkel would call at one minute after nine o’clock to make sure the office was open...
Yes, sir...and he’d call you at five o’clock just to make sure you were still there. (Laughs) He was tough. I don’t care where
you were booked to work at night, you’d better be there the next morning. There were times I’d work a town like Savannah and
get home at four or five in the morning. Sometimes I’d just go straight to the office and sleep there on the couch. (Laughs) I’d
let the phone wake me up because I knew Ray would call just after nine. (Laughs)
When I first started, Ray and Don McIntyre owned the office. They told me when I first started working for them that referees were a dime
a dozen. I told them I was worth more than a dime, and that I was a good referee. And I proved it, I think, to myself and everybody else I
knew during the years I was doing it.
Charlie Harbin was the top referee at the time frame we are talking about.
Charlie Harbin gave me my first start.
Was he your mentor?
Yes sir, he took me under his wing.
Tell me about Charlie.
Him and his brother George wrestled all over the United States. I think Charlie told me the last time he wrestled, he went to Denver,
Colorado, and the high altitude got to him. He quit and came back to Atlanta as a referee, and he’d wrestle occasionally, mostly with
a mask. Charlie had the gout, but he’d still referee. Gunkel would tell him, “it ain’t my fault you’ve got the gout. Youâ
€™ve got to work.â€�
So he’s a dime a dozen referee, but he’s got to be working. (Laughs) I’ve been trying to assemble a lineage of the
bookers for the NWA office. Leo Garibaldi’s the first name I have at some point in the 1960’s, and he was also working as a
referee. Do you remember who booked before him?
Chief Little Eagle – he was a booker. Freddie Blassie had done some of the booking. Ray did some, but I can’t think of anybody
else.
Leo had the book for a long time here.
Yeah, Leo was a smart man. He would keep a notebook with all of the finishes for every town he booked. When they’d go into a
town, he’d look back in the book to see what they had done there before. Leo was pretty sharp. When Leo left here, Tom Renesto
came in as the booker.
Right...
And Tom was a good booker, too. Tom stayed here...how long was he here, about ten years?
I think he came back in 1969 with Jody and he took the book then, and ran it right up to the split. Then he went over to work with
Gunkel Enterprises, and then he came back to the NWA office for awhile before going to Memphis.
Yeah, that’s right. The NWA office took some of the guys back like Tom, Bobby Simmons – they didn’t bring me back, but I
didn’t care. I knew they’d call me eventually to at least help book some of the towns. I think every town I ever booked made
money. I had more winners than I did losers.
Where would they have you book?
I booked Waycross every Monday night – and did well – I had a lot of $5,000 houses there. I booked Thomasville, Moultrie, Valdosta,
Nashville – most of the towns in south Georgia.
And this was in the 1970’s?
Yes.
You booked mostly the smaller towns. Does that mean you also had to do the publicity?
I’d have a group sponsor the shows like the American Legion or the Jaycee’s or something like that. I’d send the posters to
them and they’d post them up all over town. And they’d do some radio ads because they got the time for free. They’d sell
the advance tickets.
I think the biggest crowd I ever had was in Swainsboro. Dick Slater was in the main event on the card, and on TV the week before Freddy
Miller asked him where he was going to work that week. Slater said, “on Thursday night I’m going to Swinesburg.� (Laughs)
Miller says, “Swinesburg? You mean Swainsboro don’t you?� Slater said, “no I mean Swinesburg. They’ve got a
bunch of hogs who live there.� (Laughs) When the crowd fills into the building that night it was standing room only. He was being
booed from the time he walked out to the ring to the time he left. (Laughs)
He definitely knew how to draw heat.
Yes sir.
So I imagine you had the opportunity to have worked with Don McIntyre while he was actually promoting during a break by Paul
Jones.
Yeah, that’s when I started. And when Don stepped down as promoter and Paul came back in, Don sold out his share of the office to
Buddy Fuller.
And, of course, Fuller was here until the fallout after Ray’s death. Talk about Don McIntyre. He’s a guy whom I know little
about, and there doesn’t seem to be much information to be found about him.
He was a good wrestler for many years. Him and his brother Red worked together as a tag team for a lot of years. When Red got out he
went back to Missouri and bought a car dealership. When Don got out he went into real estate and was very successful.
Did he stay in Georgia?
Yeah, he was here in the area.
Was he here until the time he died?
Yeah. I remember he had a nice home and one day he answered the door and a man shot him – you ever hear about that?
No, that’s news to me.
Yeah, he went to Don’s house and told him he wanted his money, and they got into a scuffle and he shot Don. He lived down the
street from Ray Gunkel.
In Sandy Springs?
Yeah, then Don sold that house. He and his wife Juanita – they had moved up along the Chattahoochee River somewhere.
So was Don a good guy to work with?
Oh he was a good guy, but he was tough to work for. You know, all those guys – all they thought about was making that money.
What was it like to work with Ray Gunkel?
I worked for him running the wrestling office, and I had to be there at nine in the morning and couldn’t leave until five. I don’t care
if I had to referee the night before in Savannah, I had to be awake in the office in Atlanta by nine o’clock. And I-16 wasn’t around
in those days. (Laughs) You had to go off and on of 16 because it wasn’t like it is today.
One time I got some ligaments tore up in my knee in Savannah, and I had to drive back by myself. I had gone to the hospital there and
they gave me some crutches and told me to see my doctor when I got back to Atlanta. So I had my right leg up across the seat of the
truck and was driving with my left foot. (Laughs)
What about Freddie Blassie? You got to work with him during his prime here.
Freddie was one of the greatest heels there ever was. Freddie was riding over with me one time to Bowdon Junction. Red Dugan was
promoting that town. So we get over there – in those days we just used four wrestlers in the towns, you know – we’d have two
singles matches and a tag team match.
So we get there and Red comes back before the show and says he can’t give us our $15 guarantee. Blassie asked him to repeat
himself, and Red said it again. Blassie told everybody to start packing up to leave. Red finally said he’d give us the guarantee.
(Laughs) We used to do two out of three falls, and we’d go back to the dressing room between falls.
I remember one night Blassie would not go back. And he told me, “you ain’t going nowhere. You’re staying right here in the
ring.� I looked at him and said, “Freddie, I’d hate to make you walk home.� So then he went to the back. But he was
yelling at the fans, calling him pencil necked geeks and everything. He never let up on his gimmick.
I remember another time Little Eagle was doing the booking and Freddie and him didn’t get along too well. They both had Cadillac
convertibles. Blassie gets out to the ring that night and says to the crowd, “that’s my red convertible out there. Don’t bother it!
� Of course, you know what happened – flat tires. They stuck knives all in Little Eagle’s tires. (Laughs)
Freddie was sharp. He made a lot of money in this business. He left here and went back to California and worked for the LeBell’s
and Roy Shire. And he went to Japan I don’t know how many times.
I read in his book that he went to Japan every year for seven years or something like that.
I haven’t gotten his book yet. I’ve been wanting to buy it, but haven’t gotten around to it.
It’s a good read. He rags on a lot of the Atlanta towns and fans. (Laughs)
Freddie loved Atlanta.
He lived here for a long time, even when he was working elsewhere.
Oh, yeah. I remember Freddie used to take my little daughter around for a ride in his Cadillac, and that would thrill her to death. She
loved Freddie Blassie.
We were talking earlier a bit about bookers, mainly Garibaldi and Renesto. Some of the stuff I have researched and read from the
1960’s seems to have been some of the better stuff going on in the country at the time. And Renesto seems to have made the
transition between Leo and himself almost seamlessly. What did you think of Tom Renesto?
I think Tom was a great booker. I really do. I think he was the best booker we had in Atlanta. Me and Tom hit it off real well. He had a
good wrestling mind. I don’t want to take anything away from Leo because he did some good things. But I really enjoyed Tom and
working with him was always interesting.
ABC Booking was originally formed to include Atlanta, Birmingham and Chattanooga. Why didn’t that relationship ever pan out?
Do you know any of those details?
When I started working with them it was already ABC, and I don’t exactly know why. I had a lawsuit one time, and I had an ABC
Booking attorney. He won the case for me, and at the deposition the guy asked me who I worked for. I told him ABC Booking. The guy
told me that was the first time anyone from the business ever said ABC Booking – they always said they worked for wrestling.
We spoke about Buddy Fuller buying Don McIntyre’s shares to the Atlanta office earlier...
He brought in his own crew with him. Sputnik Monroe, Dick Dunn, Charlie Carr, Rocket Monroe – they all came in with Buddy, and they
became stars here.
Most of those guys before coming here were working in the Gulf Coast territory, right?
Right. And they worked for him in Phoenix, Arizona, too, just before coming here. Both of his sons came here later, and they were good
workers – Robert and Ron...
Yep...
Ron made a lot of money and bought a hockey team that won the championship. I think he still runs shows in Knoxville during the
summers and draws good houses. Ted (Allen) carries a ring up there for them every week to Chilhowee Park. There’s another guy
right down the street who runs shows, and he’s gotten mad with Ron because he started running those cards.
Can you tell me what you know that was going on behind the scenes between the time Ray Gunkel died in August and Ann started
Gunkel Enterprises in November?
All indications were that Buddy was trying to bring Eddie Graham in to try to run Ann out. They just wanted to take her piece of the office
away from her. They had no feelings for anybody other than themselves. I didn't like that. When the decision came to split, I was the first
one to walk out. And all the wrestlers walked except Bob Armstrong and Derrell Cochran.
Ann had this meeting on a Wednesday, and Rock Hunter wasn’t at the meeting and he didn’t know anything about the
decision to split until after that night’s show in Columbus. And Bob was the only other wrestler to show up for Fred Ward’s
card.
I don’t know why Rock didn’t know about the meeting. Everybody else knew.
Now, Eddie Graham was trying to work his way into the Atlanta office, and even supplied most of the talent that helped keep Paul
Jones and Buddy’s office running cards.
He sent wrestlers up to work for the NWA office. He was really already trying to get more control of the NWA itself. There were rumors he
wanted to get rid of Sam Muchnik. He did eventually get to be the President of the NWA, but it was believed he wanted more control over
who was the NWA champions.
Did Eddie actually ever buy into the Atlanta office?
He bought in, but I don’t know how many points he got. Buddy Colt bought in, too. And the Brisco brothers bought in around that
time, too.
So they were already involved in the ownership of the office earlier than I thought. Did the Brisco brothers hold their points right up
through 1984?
Yeah.
Out of all the so-called “outlaw� promotions, I think All-South had one of the more successful runs. What do you think?
Our first show was at the Oglethorpe Gym. The NWA office even tried to stop us from having a show. They said we didn’t have a
license. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department was sent out, but Ann had already heard about what they were trying to do and
went out and took care of it, so they couldn’t stop us. Fred Ward had a lawsuit against us to keep us from putting on shows in
Columbus. Eventually it was all dropped.
Dick Steinborn had been set up to promote against Ward in Columbus and Macon, but Fred put up a good fight for awhile, but eventually
lost that battle.
The Atlanta office tried to start getting exclusive rights to all the arenas in the big towns. They had exclusive first in Augusta, but the
promoter there went with Ann. Since they had the Bell Auditorium, we had to start running at the National Guard Armory for about a year
before we could get into the Bell Auditorium. We went to the National Guard Armory in Savannah until they built the Civic Center and then
we started going there. When we were still trying to get into Columbus, we went over to Phenix City, Alabama, for awhile. When
Steinborn finally got past the city council in Columbus, we started running the auditorium there on Monday nights, and they’d stay on
Wednesday nights.
Is there any truth to the rumor that Fred Ward knew that Ann was going to split, and had actually committed to going with her, but
then backed out at the last minute?
Yeah, she had invited Fred to leave the NWA and he agreed to it. But I think Eddie and Buddy and some of the other guys got to Fred.
And Fred was a big believer in the NWA, and I think he just changed his mind at the last minute. The last time we worked with Fred was
the Monday of the week of the split in Macon.
In your opinion, what led to the end of the All-South promotion?
I think Ann spent more money than she had coming in. She’d have these guys under contracts, and was guaranteeing them things
to keep them.
So she was keeping them on contracts sort of the way Vince McMahon is doing rather than the verbal commitment per show deal
like most guys were doing back then?
Oh, yeah. I believe when it started she put everybody under a one year contract. She had gotten hospitalization and life insurance for the
guys. She kept that up for a year, but gradually the money started going down.
It sounds like she was wanting to revolutionize the way promoters did business.
Yeah, but when it came right down to it, I think Jim Barnett bought her out because she was losing money. We did good for the first year.
We were going as well as the other guys. I mean, we were on Channel 17, too, you know? Ann was even trying to get Georgia
Championship Wrestling thrown off of Channel 17. She was tight with Ted Turner. We taped our show before they did, and she paid
Roberto Soto $500 to do a blade job on TV on the floor to see if the NWA guys would catch it you know? (Laughs) She almost
succeeded in getting them off the air.
I had heard they were close before. Were they dating at the time? Or was i just a close friendship?
Well, she got pretty tight with Ted after Ray died. I don’t know if they were dating or not, but I just think Ted liked her style.
Yeah, they had a lot in common in regard to trying to revolutionize the businesses they were in, or so it appears.
We had been on Channel 11 for a long time before going with Ted.
The first TV show for the local promotion was in 1954 on Channel 11 and the first show on Ted’s station was Christmas Day of
1971.
Yeah, when you get as old as me it’s hard to remember those dates. (Laughs)
When you went back to work for the Atlanta office after the closing of All-South, how long did you work for them?
I stayed until 1980.
I know you and Buck Robely had a bit of a falling out, and it was when he was here booking. That must have happened in 1978 or
1979, right?
Yeah...
I was just wondering about that because when I am trying to line up the bookers, it gets real unclear as to the time frames around
the end of the 1970’s and early 1980’s. I believe he was in just before Bill Watts came back for a second run as booker.
I left just before Bill came back in. Ole and Gene took over the book when they fired Robely.
Right. Bobby Simmons has enlightened me on that, in that Gene was really supposed to be the booker, while Ole was slated to be
his assistant.
Yeah. (Laughs)
Back to the falling out you had with Buck...
I had a $5,000 house which was unheard of in Snellville. It’s near Loganville where iI live. All my kids went to that school, and we
had their wrestling team sponsor the show. And that was the biggest crowd they ever had at that gym. So Robely came and asked me
where were the ring lights. I said, “what ring lights?â€� He said, “well, down in Louisiana we use ring lights.â€� I said, â
€œRobely, you ain’t in Louisiana.â€� He said, “you’re find, you smartass.â€� I told him, “I’ve seen a lot of bookers
here and you’ll be gone soon.�
Sure enough he was gone about a month later and Barnett called me and wanted me to come talk to him, Ole and Gene about booking
again. So I went up there and met with him and told him I’d do it if I got a raise. (Laughs) He told Doug Smith who was working in
the office to write me a $500 check. (Laughs) You know, talking about Gene – he was pretty sharp, you know it? I had a poster made
up one time with Gene and Ole on it. It said “Twitch and Bitch�. (Laughs) Bobby had it, but he gave it to Ole last year. (Laughs)
Ole – he loved it.
What was your take on Ole as a booker?
Ole was good, but damn, he’d give you fifteen finishes – you know, the high spots he’d want. He’d tell me all this and want
me to go to the dressing rooms and tell the guys. I couldn’t remember half of it by the time I’d get to them. (Laughs) I’d tell
him we needed a telephone in the dressing rooms or something so we could correspond back and forth with each other. (Laughs)
So you worked until 1980. What did you do after that?
Well, in 1981 I went to work for the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department. I stayed there about a year and got out. I didn’t do
anything for about a year. I’d work some spot shows with different people. I went to work at the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office
until I was sixty-five when I retired. I’ve been retired ever since. I still referee some legend matches. Next month I’m going to
North Carolina to work a legend match up there.
For who?
Ben Throckmorton – he’s having his annual show in North Carolina. I worked for him last year – Thursday, Friday and Saturday â
€“ and every town was packed.
The first time I met you, you were working a show for Ben Masters in Cordele. I think he does one or two of those legend nights a
year...
Yeah...
Do you work all of those?
Most of them. Ben draws good crowds. I think the last time we were there he had about eight hundred people. And it was cold – they
had it outdoors...
You don’t have to remind me of that...I remember leaving work that day to make the trip down and it was hot so I had on short
sleeves. I didn’t bring a jacket because it had seemed so nice. Then I got down there and was freezing not long after the sun
had gone down. (Laughs)
It wasn’t that cold to me, though...
No because you were busy getting rich over at the gimmick tables...
(Laughs) I was selling hats and tee shirts, and when I was in the ring working, Bobby would be over there for me. (Laughs)
I remember you had Mary Little Bear and Bill McMinn working for you, too... (Laughs) Of course, Bobby told me one time that if there
was a chance to make a dollar, you would find a way to make two dollars... (Laughs) You attend most of the reunions, too, don’t
you?
Well, I go down to Mobile every year for the Gulf Coast reunion. This year we had about two hundred people down there, and you were
there, and you seemed to enjoy it...
Yes, first time I have been, and I thank you, Bobby and Bill Bowman for inviting me down. I had a great time and I fully intend to be
there as long as I am welcome.
You ought to get out to Vegas for the Cauliflower Alley Club, too...
As soon as you tell me you’re paying, I’m going. (Laughs) Did you ever work anywhere other than Georgia?
I did if I was on vacation or something. If I went to Panama City, I’d call the Mobile wrestling office and they ran all those towns down
there. They’d book me to referee down there while I was on vacation. One time I went down to Mobile to work, but after about two
weeks I realized the money wasn’t going to be good so I left. Another time I went up to work the Knoxville area. Jim wanted me to go
up and work for the Fuller’s for awhile because they had a hurt referee. Jim told me if Ron didn’t pay me fair, he’d make up
the difference. But Ron paid me better than Jim, and he had Dennis Condrey come to the motel and pick me up everyday to take me
around to the shows.
As far as going down to work on your vacations in the Gulf Coast territory, you made it a working vacation.
(Laughs) Yeah, it gave me a little extra spending money. (Laughs) I even went down to Tampa on vacation one time and called Eddie
Graham. He booked me for about a week down there, and I worked Nassau, Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Tampa on that trip. Nassau
was a great trip, but I think they sold rocks at the door. (Laughs)
Who was the first match you ever refereed?
Bill Dromo and Farmer Powell. Powell was under a mask wrestling as Mr. X. That was in Eastman. At the time Dromo was billed as â
€œYoungâ€� Bill Dromo, then later he was called “Bigâ€� Bill Dromo – now I just call him “Old Manâ€� Dromo. (Laughs) He
came to Georgia in the 1950’s and he’s still here. He still is a Canadian – he never became an American citizen. His wife
Karen is from Germany, but she has her American citizenship.
I’m going to call out some names to you, and I’d like you to give me the first word, phrase or sentence that springs to mind.
Alright...
Ted Allen...
I met Ted for the first time in Cartersville when he was a kid in high school, and helped him get into the business.
Rocket Monroe...
Rocket’s a funny guy – sometimes he’d tell his partner the wrong finish just as a rib...(Laughs)
Leo Garibaldi...
Leo was a great booker.
Ed Capral...
Great announcer.
Don McIntyre...
He loved money.
Paul Jones...
One thing about Paul – he owned the Sports Arena, and it was a dump. One day a man offered him $200,000 for it, and that was the
day two fools met. (Laughs) One fool offered too much, and the other turned it down...(Laughs)
Chief Little Eagle...
Good worker and booker.
Fred Ward...
Me and Fred got along real well until the split because he stopped having anything to do with anybody that worked for Gunkel Enterprises.
Ray Gunkel...
He was a tough and strictly business.
Ann Gunkel...
Ann was a good lady – she took good care of me.
Dick Steinborn...
One hellacious worker. I don’t think there was ever a better worker.
Freddie Blassie...
One of the best pencil necked geeks I knew. (Laughs) He’d go by the name of Joe Bevins on the phone in the wrestling office if he
didn’t want someone to know who he was, (Laughs)
Tom Renesto...
A great booker.
Jody Hamilton...
Jody was a good worker. I remember one night his thirteen year old son was riding with us back and forth to Savannah. I’m laying in
the back seat trying to sleep, and he said, “I’m tired, you want to drive, Nick (Patrick)?� I jumped up and said, “no I’ll
drive� (Laughs)
Jim Barnett...
Made a lot of money working with Jim. He took care of people. The only person to pay me better was Vince McMahon.
When was that?
After he bought the Atlanta office. When he taped some TV here, I refereed some of the matches, and some of the spot shows they ran in
Georgia. He’d pay me $500 for a house show and $100 for TV. Before that you were lucky to get anything for doing TV. George Scott
was his agent here at the time, and Pat Patterson was running Jacksonville. Pat called up George and offered me $300 to work a show
in Jacksonville – and I packed up and drove there as fast as I could. I got there and Patterson said, “you’re an old timer arenâ
€™t you Charlie?â€� I said, “yeah, I am.â€� He paid me $500 and was only supposed to give me $300.
Ole Anderson...
Ole was tough. He never said anything good about anybody. He didn’t even like Gene sometimes. (Laughs) He was a real a-hole
when he was Ole, but when he’s Rogowski it’s altogether different. He’s mellowed quite a bit – he ain’t no young
chick anymore.
Ron West...
Ron was one of the best referees we ever had.
Charlie Harbin...
He was my hero. He got me started in the business. He taught me everything I know.
Bobby Simmons...
I can’t say enough about Bobby. I call him everyday. We’re real good friends and have been up and down the road many times.
I love him and his wife. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t like Bobby Simmons.
Charlie, thanks for taking time out to speak with me about your career.
Thank you. I enjoyed it.
| Copyright © Georgia Wrestling History, Inc. All rights reserved. |
This interview was conducted by Rich Tate in June 2003.
Charlie and I had a chance to sit down one Saturday afternoon recently at his home. If you ever find yourself lucky enough to be asked to
spend time in his company, by all means do so. He is one of the true characters of pro wrestling, and has a story to share about
practically any name or incident you ask about. I haven’t met anyone in the business yet who doesn’t know who Charlie is, and
no one has a bad thing to say about him. In our discussion, I learned quite a bit about a man who has spent parts of six decades as a
referee, as well as those who he worked with.
Charlie and I had a chance to sit down one Saturday afternoon recently at his home. If you ever find yourself lucky enough to be asked to
spend time in his company, by all means do so. He is one of the true characters of pro wrestling, and has a story to share about
practically any name or incident you ask about. I haven’t met anyone in the business yet who doesn’t know who Charlie is, and
no one has a bad thing to say about him. In our discussion, I learned quite a bit about a man who has spent parts of six decades as a
referee, as well as those who he worked with.
| CONVERSATIONS |
