ALL ACROSS JCP COUNTRY

 

PHIL (BUCK) ROBLEY

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - 1969

GEORGE and SANDY SCOTT won from THE INFERNOS with J.C. DYKES via DQ.

BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY topped ABE JACOBS and LES WOLFE.

JOHNNY WEAVER whipped MATTI SUZUKI.

BOBBY RED CLOUD topped PHIL ROBLEY.

LES THATCHER

GREENVILLE, S.C. - 1968

LARS, GENE and OLE ANDERSON toppled ARGENTINA ZUMA, LES THATCHER and PAUL DEMARCO in six man action.

JESSE JAMES topped PEPPY GOMEZ.

PANCHO VALDEZ pinned JACK RICO.

BOB RAMSTEAD wrestled JOHNNY HEIDEMAN to a draw.

GEORGE BECKER and JOHNNY WEAVER

CHARLESTON, S.C. - 1965

GEORGE BECKER and JOHNNY WEAVER won over BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY.

THE KENTUCKIANS bested THE ALASKAN and THE BEAST.

GEORGE 'CATALINA' DRAKE topped EDUARDO CASTILLO.

PEE WEE LOPEZ pinned JIM DANDY.

EL LOBO

GREENVILLE, S.C. - 1969

GEORGE BECKER and JOHNNY WEAVER defeated LARS and GENE ANDERSON.

BOB GRIFFIN and LES WOLFE lost to BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY.

OLE ANDERSON whipped BOBBY RED CLOUD.

JOHNNY HEIDEMAN topped EL LOBO.

JOHNNY VALENTINE

 

QUEEN CITY WRESTLING

                                                                       July 15, 1963

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

JOHNNY WEAVER

JOHNNY 'RUBBERMAN' WALKER

JOHN and CHRIS TOLOS

GEORGE 'TWO TON' HARRIS

RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON

JESSE JAMES

GEORGE 'CRYBABY' CANNON

Six man tag team action, one of the wildest, rowdiest forms of professional wrestling, will head up tonight's big card at Charlotte's PARK CENTER. Bell time is 8:15.

Making up one trio of the big scuffle will be wrestling's 'BLONDE BOMBERS', RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON, who will be joined by GEORGE 'TWO TON' HARRIS, and opposing this rugged threesome will be fan favorites JOHNNY WEAVER, 'COWBOY' JESSE JAMES and JOHNNY 'RUBBERMAN' WALKER.

This main event is scheduled for the best two-out-of-three falls with a one hour time limit.

There's also standard four man tag action in the semifinal, this one matching two brother teams against one another, when JERRY and BOBBY CHRISTIE face rule breakers JOHN and CHRIS TOLOS, known as THE MICHIGAN WRECKING CREW.

The best-of-three falls will also settle this one.

In singles competition, PAT O'HARA meets the girth of GEORGE 'CRYBABY' CANNON, and popular REGGIE PARKS takes on JOE McCARTY, a newcomer from (honestly, he says) Tigertail, Tennessee.

THE SPOILER / SUPER DESTROYER (DON JARDINE) VERSUS JACK BRISCO

 

THE GREAT BOLO: A WANTED MAN

 

I specifically remember THE GREAT BOLO and BOLO wearing this garb when they returned to the Charlotte Coliseum in the late 1960s to face JACK BRISCO and TIM (MR. WRESTLING) WOODS.

THE GREAT BOLO and BOLO work over one of THE KENTUCKIANS in one of the biggest money-making feuds in pro wrestling history.

THE GREAT BOLO (Renesto) reaches for his 'foreign object' while working on BIG BOY BROWN of THE KENTUCKIANS. (Note the tape under the mask to cover Renesto's mustache.)

Big TEX McKENZIE works over the masked man.

Even bigger HAYSTACK CALHOUN tries to physically rip THE GREAT BOLO's hood off, along with the head the mask covers.

A 1961 posed photo of BOLO and THE GREAT BOLO when the two were working for JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS.

From the time I first started pro wrestling on TV, I was fascinated by a mysterious man who wore a mask and went by the name THE GREAT BOLO. This rulebreaker was the top heel in JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS and drew money like nobody's business.

Every week, all across the Carolinas and Virginia, droves of people tuned in and turned out to see the likes of GEORGE BECKER, 'Irish' MIKE CLANCY, CHIEF BIG HEART and GEORGE and SANDY SCOTT rip off the hood of this hoodlum so we could all find out who he was (not taking into account that just because we might see his face, we would automatically know his name), but that was a mute point.

The mask of THE GREAT BOLO was his championship belt. To lose the mask was to destroy his wrestling career. Many years after the fact, we now know that THE GREAT BOLO was a superb grappler named TOM RENESTO. But according to an interview the late Mr. Renesto gave a few years before his passing, at the time, the other wrestlers did not actually know who was under the mask of THE GREAT BOLO. Promoter Jim Crockett demanded that Renesto travel alone and don the hood before entering the wrestling venue.

Very similar scenario as the old-time movie serials in which the villains were named The Scorpion, The Wrecker, The Crimson Ghost , The Lightning, etc. Only in the last chapter would the identity of the evil doer be exposed to the audience.

But, ironically, the identity of THE GREAT BOLO would be revealed by only one person in the wrestling business. That person was...THE GREAT BOLO.

A number of years after leaving JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS, THE GREAT BOLO (Renesto) and his partner BOLO were wrestling in Georgia as THE ASSASSINS when Renesto decided it was time to leave the business as an in-ring combatant.

He removed his own mask, and THE GREAT BOLO was no more.

OLE AND GENE ANDERSON

 

HIGH FLIERS MEET MASKED TERRORS

                                                                    August 1, 1964

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

'IRISH' MIKE CLANCY

THE BOLOS

GEORGE and SANDY SCOTT

BOB BOYER

The mysterious terror duo of professional wrestling, THE GREAT BOLO and BOLO, will try to ground the airborne tactics of THE FLYING SCOTTS, brothers GEORGE and SANDY, in tonight's main event collision at the LEXINGTON YMCA.

Tonight's best-of-three-falls battle is a rematch of a thriller of two weeks ago won by the SCOTT BROTHERS on a reversed decision. The referee had raised the hands of THE BOLOS in victory but then found a 'foreign object' in the mask of the hooded competitor who scored the third fall.

GEORGE and SANDY asked for another shot with the masked men.

'IRISH' MIKE CLANCY will face TOMMY O'TOOLE in the evening's semifinal.

Dashing young DOUG GILBERT makes his LEXINGTON debut against JOHN HEATH.

BOB BOYER and TINKER TODD square off in the 8:15 opener.

BEARCAT WRIGHT

 

TEXAS ROYAL IN STATESVILLE TOWN

                                                                        May 20 1965

STATESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

61 Years Ago...

and I was there

MAGNUM TA, DUSTY RHODES, ROBERT GIBSON, RICKY MORTON