| A TALE OF TWO PROMOTIONS December 2001 – Rich Tate Note: This article first appeared on Kayfabe Memories. I decided a good start to my second column entry would be to discuss what led Gordon Solie and many others to Atlanta. Since it was briefly mentioned last month, I thought it might be wise to go into more detail on the rebuilding phase that Paul Jones had to endure to create the Georgia Championship Wrestling that we all came to know on the Superstation WTBS. Ray Gunkel and Paul Jones had worked together promoting professional wrestling in Atlanta for decades. Other key players over the years in Georgia Championship Wrestling were middle Georgia area promoter Fred Ward, and company shareholder Ed Welch (aka Buddy Fuller). Ray Gunkel was a former amateur champion in 1947 and 1948 before turning professional and taking over a piece of the Atlanta office. He worked as both a promoter and wrestler throughout his career, and although he headed operations in Atlanta, he traveled much of his career, working for most of the top promotions in the country. His career was still going strong for ABC Booking in Atlanta when he suffered a heart attack during a match in Savannah against Ox Baker on August 1, 1972. Gunkel had willed his share of the Atlanta office to his wife, Ann, who then began working with Jones and others to keep the Atlanta office thriving as a member of the National Wrestling Alliance. Prior to Ray's death, he had been attempting to persuade the other owners into allowing Tom Renesto to buy into the group. He was not successful, but the Gunkel family remained close with him over the months before and after Ray passed away. Unfortunately, for Atlanta fans, the relationship between Ann, Jones, and Welch was a sour one. In November 1972, the Fullers had intentions of having the Tampa and Atlanta groups merged shortly after Gunkel's death. Ann stayed in Atlanta, but started up a competitive office that was known as the All-South Wrestling Alliance. The decision to start All-South was a gutsy move for Ann, but when she held a private meeting with the wrestlers and managers who worked for the ABC office, she quickly learned that she had the support of almost everyone. It was obvious that no one wanted to have the Tampa group takeover the Atlanta area, and in loyalty to the Gunkel family, they, for the most part, agreed to side with Ann's venture. The roster of talent that had been working for ABC prior to the split included the Assassins, Dick Steinborn, Ted and Jerry Oates, Ox Baker, Rock Hunter, Argentina Apollo, the Gladiator, the Super Gladiator, Oki Shikina, Jesse James, Skandor Akbar, Tommy Seigler, El Mongol, the Hollywood Blonds (Jerry Brown and Buddy Roberts), Wayne Cowan, Joe Turner, Bill Bowman, Roberto Soto, the Avenger (Francisco Flores), Krusher Karlson, Bob Armstrong, Bill Dromo, and Derrell Cochran. All-South bore no affiliation with the NWA, still most of the wrestlers working under her with ABC, including television announcer Ed Capral, decided to follow her across town, thus leaving a void in the NWA portion of Atlanta. The only wrestlers to stay behind and show loyalty to Jones and Welch were Derrell Cochran, Bill Dromo, and Bob Armstrong. The private meeting was held on a Wednesday, following the Monday in which the Fullers attempted to make a deal with her to sell her shares to them outright. As it turned out, Armstrong and Hunter were the only ones absent at that meeting. Thus, the only people present to not follow were Dromo and Cochran. Even Ward had hinted privately to Ann beforehand that he would promote her shows in his towns rather than continue with Jones and Welch. However, when Ann called him that Wednesday to tell him of the agreed split, he informed her that he had changed his mind. Ward had a show scheduled in Columbus that evening, and the only two wrestlers to arrive for work were Armstrong and Hunter. Hunter apparently had no idea that no one would show for the card because he had missed the meeting that morning. The Auditorium was filled, and he only had two men to put into the ring, so he had them wrestle each other and refunded everyone their money back in full. Up until 1971, live Atlanta Wrestling had appeared each Saturday night on Atlanta's NBC affiliate, WQXI channel 11. The station never kept them scheduled at a consistent time slot, and this caused a problem because they shot the program live, and it would sometimes be as late as 10 or 10:30 pm before they could go on the air. This posed a problem with fans showing for the matches because it could not always be communicated when they would be working. In 1971, Ted Turner, owner of an independent channel known then as WTCG, which appeared on a VHF station 17, bought out the rights to the television program. ABC eventually got a permanent time slot of Saturdays at 6:00 pm, and was done live under the same name for awhile, before they eventually began taping the shows in the mornings. When Ann opened the All-South Wrestling Alliance, she had a roster of talent that left the ABC office, and Ted Turner gave her a slot on WTCG that aired immediately after the Live Atlanta Wrestling program. Her show would be called All-Star Wrestling. The interesting thing to note here is that both groups shared the same studio at Techwood, and not only did their shows air back-to-back, but they taped them that way, also. Although there was no animosity between the workers coming and going, it is quite obvious there may have been in the offices backstage. Because Ward had decided to renege on promoting for All-South, Ann needed a way to run shows there. Columbus has always been a huge wrestling area, and Ward had consistently kept the house filled over the years with the very wrestlers that Ann now utilized. Realizing that she had the talent the fans knew and wanted to continue seeing, she had Steinborn acquired a license to promote shows there. But Ward had a monopoly on the Auditorium, larger than the arena at the Armory, where All-South ran initially, and she struggled to acquire permission to run there. The local government originally sided with Ward as the exclusive promoter for any wrestling events at the Auditorium, and the matter had to go through legal action before All-South could get its foot in the door. Once she did, she was now able to match Jones and Fuller's numbers in both Atlanta and Columbus. It appeared as though she had succeeded in her venture. Other affiliates of the NWA, mostly from Tampa, had sent wrestlers from all over the country to help build cards immediately after the split. Jones received assistance from such wrestlers as Ramon Torres, Hiro Matsuda, Stan and Butcher Vachon, Dale Lewis, Chief Jay Strongbow, Boris Malenko, Andre the Giant, and Sputnik Monroe. WWWF champion Pedro Morales made some trips to Atlanta, also, as did Don Curtis, who had been promoting in Jacksonville, FL, for Eddie Graham's Tampa office since his retirement from the ring. Graham, himself, came along a few times, and Buddy Fuller (Welch) returned briefly, too. The excitement fueled by the wars between these two different groups was made even more interesting because the Omni Auditorium had just been opened for business, and it could hold many more people than the Atlanta City Auditorium where the regular cards had always been held downtown. Now that the Omni was available for use, both groups ran cards there as often as possible since it could bring them both much more money than anywhere else they presented shows. One of the Atlanta office's first coup was bringing in Bill Watts, to book shows for them. He would eventually become the top heel in the area during his stay. They also managed to convince Tim Woods to return to Atlanta as Mr. Wrestling. He had been a long time favorite with the local fans, and since he had last worked in Atlanta, he had been unmasked in Graham's Florida territory. However, no one in Atlanta knew of this, since they had no access to the Florida TV program. The only problem with using Woods was that he was not consistently able to work the Friday night cards for Atlanta, as he was still a top draw for Graham's Florida group. Thus, Jones had a difficult time being able to keep up with Gunkel's cards. Then someone developed the idea to create another Mr. Wrestling. This turned out to be a stroke of genius on the part of the Jones office. The original Mr. Wrestling, Tim Woods, had captured the imagination and hearts of the local fans over the years, and had become a major draw for Jones over the previous years. However, because he was a top draw in the Florida group, also, Graham couldn't afford to be overly generous with sharing him on weekends, which were the most crucial nights for a big crowd. Thus, Mr. Wrestling #2 entered the picture. This one was different, though, in that he did wear all white, but his mask featured black around the front, whereas Woods' mask was solid white. In a matter of a year, the All-South group couldn't keep up with Jones' group because Mr. Wrestling #1 and Mr. Wrestling #2 became a huge draw as both singles and tag team partners. But the big money started pouring in when Jerry Jarrett, who had come in to do some booking for them, decided to split the two into a feud that based itself around #2 being jealous that #2 was getting all the shots at Jack Brisco for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. What angered him even more was that the stipulation for #1 to get a shot at the title, was that he would have to remove his mask, which he did, and #2 wasn't at all pleased about that. This even caused the fans to split themselves down the middle as well. Whenever the two faced each other, the crowd would generally be about half and half as far as which Mr. Wrestling they favored. Another side-note here is that #2 even suggested that he be called Mr. Wrestling for a while, as he felt he was the better of the two. Eventually, though, it was decided that #2 was a bigger draw by being cheered by all fans, and they did the "bury the hatchet" angle, with #2 driving an axe into some lumber on the set of Georgia Championship Wrestling, while Woods and Solie watched. #2 also teamed with Bob Orton, Jr., throughout the years they had to be competitive with the All-South group. They even had a run as Georgia Tag Team Champions, and #2 also found himself feuding with Buddy Colt toward the end of the race. 1974 was a pivotal period, and by the end of the year, All-South closed its doors, allowing Paul Jones and Jim Barnett, who joined up that year, to become the only major wrestling group in the area, and eventually become one of the most talked about territories in the country. That year saw many top stars in the sport either spend time or visit the local arenas. Including the wrestlers already mentioned, fans could see the likes of Jerry Lawler, the Fullers, the Garvins, Bob Armstrong, Bobby Shane, Rufus R. Jones, Roberto Soto, Bobby Duncum, Porkchop Cash, Sputnik Monroe, Gorgeous George, Jr., Stan Vachon. Louie Tillet, Tojo Yamamoto, Ali Vaziri, Jackie Fargo, Mike Graham, the Bounty Hunters, Kevin Sullivan, Don Greene, Eddie Marlin, Tommy Gilbert, Roger Kirby, Jimmy Golden, Rocky Johnson, and Steve Keirn. Some of the managers that made their way through the territory were Jimmy Garvin, Gary Hart, Bearcat Wright, and Jim Kent. Toward the end of the year, as All-South was nearing its demise, the Assassins returned, as did Rock Hunter, just to name a few. And over the next few years, Georgia Championship Wrestling became the first area to be visible to more homes in the world than any other wrestling group. Ted Turner, a true visionary, managed to get WTCG linked up as the first independent television station to be seen via satellite, and began reaching viewers as far away as Alaska and Canada. The first day the station could be seen was December 17, 1976, two years after the fall of All-South, and Georgia Championship Wrestling would never be the same. |
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