WEAVER battles FUNK for the GOLD

                From February 1, 1971 thru April 10, 1972, one of the all-time greatest booking programs in JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS history unfolded.

JCP's top wrestler at the time JOHNNY WEAVER sought to capture the NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP, held by Texan DORY FUNK JR.

The fourteen month series of matches occurred almost exclusively in Charlotte, North Carolina, with Texas and Florida an integral part of the program.

Enjoy the following rare photos from this incredible series of matches...

Clipping from THE MID-ATLANTIC GATEWAY

Challenger JOHNNY WEAVER

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
DORY FUNK JR.

A perfectly executed suplex by FUNK.

The Champ had the momentum at this point.

The participants face off.

The referee is Walter Buckner.

A WEAVER arm bar has the Champ in pain.

The Challenger tosses the Champ.

Champion FUNK returns the favor.

JOHNNY in control once again.

 

 

 

 

 

 THE INFERNOS

(ROCKY SMITH, FRANKIE CAIN)

J.C. DYKES

 

 

THE MASKED AND UNMASKED INFERNOS

 If anyone ever 'pinned me down' (pardon the pun) and made me 'cry uncle' as to who was my all-time favorite pro wrestling 'heel' team, I could have the hold released immediately by saying...

THE INFERNOS

with Mgr. J.C. DYKES

The original men behind the blue hoods were Frankie Cain and Roland 'Rocky' Smith. After a few years, Frankie left the team to become known as The Great Mephisto.

Filling the vacancy was Rocky's brother Curtis Smith.

Later, others would wear the masks before the official Infernos were done, and to this day, there are knock-off Infernos.

But none come close to the greatness as J.C. DYKES and his blue tigers, THE INFERNOS.

The original pairing of THE INFERNOS
Rocky Smith and Frankie Cain (standing)
J.C. Dykes (seated)

Then came THE INFERNOS trio of
Rocky Smith, J.C. Dykes, Curtis Smith

Here is a great photo of THE INFERNOS unmasked and away from the wrestling ring.
Rocky Smith, J.C. Dykes, Curtis Smith

The photo, I believe, is from the collection of David Smith, Rocky's son. I borrowed it from THE MASKED INFERNOS Facebook page. Since some of my web page photos are on THE MASKED INFERNOS Facebook page, I hope they won't mind I took this photo from their's.

 

 

 

 NELSON ROYAL, LES THATCHER,

SANDY SCOTT

 JOHNNY WEAVER vs TWO TON HARRIS

1987 - BACK TO THE BASH

 

JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS, into its sixth decade of operation, would soon be no more.

The sale of the company to TURNER ENTERTAINMENT was on the horizon.

In one of its final big programs, THE GREAT AMERICAN BASH was a month-long event, starting July 1 in Lakeland, Florida and ending July 31 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. But in-between these two Sunshine State shows, The BASH journeyed as far west as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and north as Landover, Maryland. Cross-country shows were held in Chicago, Atlanta, Richmond, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, Baltimore, Charlotte, Greensboro, Norfolk, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia and Cleveland, among others.

ROAD WARRIOR HAWK and 'Total Package' LEX LUGER lock up.

THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS ('Sweet' STAN LANE and 'Beautiful' BOBBY EATON) double-team FREEBIRD MICHAEL HAYES.

TULLY BLANCHARD shows the toll on his body after battling DUSTY RHODES.

MIKE ROTUNDO catches one from former WORLD CHAMP DORY FUNK, JR.

A REMATCH IN LEXINGTON

                                                                     March 19, 1966

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

56 years ago

TEX McKENZIE

'BIG' IKE EAKINS

'ROWDY RED ROBERTS'

STEVE BOLUS

ABE JACOBS

BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY

Texas wrestling buddies TEX McKENZIE and NELSON ROYAL have happily agreed to give the skin-headed duo of BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY a rematch at the LEXINGTON YMCA tonight.

BERNARD and MURPHY have been howling 'robbery' because of the recent meeting of the two teams a few weeks ago here at the YMCA. These two are demanding satisfaction, so the return best-out-of-three falls rematch will feature tonight's all-star card.

'BIG' IKE EAKINS will face popular New Zealander ABE JACOBS in the evening's semi-final contest.

Girl wrestlers, both making their LEXINGTON debuts, will square off with JESSICA ROGERS meeting PRINCESS CHI CHI.

Good-looking STEVE BOLUS will combat 'ROWDY' RED ROBERTS in the 8:15 opening encounter.

 

 

THE INFERNOS

with Mgr. J.C. DYKES

 

NELSON ROYAL

 

Ricky Ferrara is at Nelson's mercy as Royal works on his opponent's arm.

A familiar sight in Virginia and the Carolinas...Nelson has his hand raised.

Cowboy Nelson Royal looks over his Mooresville, N.C. ranch.

Fellow wrestlers Tiger Conway Jr. and Ed Wiskowski (later Colonel DeBeers) enjoy one of the many charity rodeo events Nelson sponsored at his ranch.


He lived on a twenty acre tract of land in Mooresville, North Carolina and was one of the town's most outstanding citizens at the time.

He devoted countless hours of his life helping those less fortunate. He organized numerous benefit rodeo shows at his arena for many charitable organizations as well as putting together softball games and the like for community purposes.

Besides being a good citizen and a friend to many, the man in question was by profession a heavyweight wrestler named NELSON ROYAL.

Nelson began his in-ring career around 1961 and came to JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS a few years later. 'Nellie' actually wrestled as a heel upon his arrival (using the name SIR NELSON ROYAL) and often teamed with THE VIKING.

He soon 'switched' to babyface and his incredible JCP career took off. The front office teamed Nelson with the tall, lanky TEX McKENZIE, and they quickly became one of the territory's top 'good guy' teams, alongside BECKER & WEAVER and the FLYING SCOTTS.

After several years, TEX left the area, and ROYAL was then paired with JCP newcomer PAUL JONES. Nelson and Paul were as popular as Nelson and Tex, and the 'Royal Run' continued.

Later, Nelson teamed with greats such as Sandy Scott, Les Thatcher and The Amazing Zuma and worked as a single.

Royal 'feuded' with all of the 'heel' teams that made their way through JCP for nearly twenty years and was always a favorite of the fans, in and out of the ring.

 

 

 

A CHARLOTTE CARD I REMEMBER WELL

                                                                     October 24, 1966

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

56 Years Ago

The very first Monday night after I received my driver's license in September 1966, found my friend Jimmy and me planted in our ringside seats at Charlotte's Park Center.

Even though that was a school night, I was permitted to flex my independence somewhat and make my first trip to Charlotte as a licensed driver.

Once this venture was over, I was informed that wrestling (at least attending live matches) would have to be sacrificed for the time being. I had just started high school, and I was expected to hit the books, make good grades so I could get into a good college, so I could have a brilliant career in...whatever. You know the drill.

So back to the regular confinement of seeing wrestling only on WBTV and WGHP every Saturday.

With much begging and persuasion, the ban was lifted six or seven weeks later when I was permitted to return to the Queen City for a "wrestling extravaganza." I was permitted to attend ONLY because the show was at the Charlotte Coliseum, a building I had visited only a couple of times since it opened in the late 1950s. Once was for the Ringling Bros. Circus and the other for some ACC basketball game that I was dragged to by a friend.

KLONDIKE BILL was in the midst of his big push by JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS at this time. He had been "injured" by THE GREAT MALENKO during the summer, building to the Russian's annihilation by the Alaskan on the Charlotte Labor Day card.

KLONDIKE then set his sights on MALENKO's tag team partner, THE MISSOURI MAULER, who held the SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP. BILL would take the belt from the MAULER, eventually losing it back to his nemesis.

The Texas team of TEX McKENZIE and NELSON ROYAL were working a program with BRONCHO LUBICH and ALDO BOGNI during the Fall of 1966. With nothing really settled, the JCP bookers decided to head this Coliseum show by putting TEX and NELLIE in a match with BOGNI and LUBICH and to toss their evil manager HOMER O'DELL into the mix as a wrestler. To even up the sides, the red-hot KLONDIKE BILL was added to the Texas side of the ledger.

NELLIE took fall number one over LUBICH with his atomic drop. A triple-team body slam by the villains (with the far-sighted referee missing it completely) put BILL's shoulders down for the count to square the match. Then KLONDIKE's big splash on O'DELL closed the show.

BOBBY SHANE (one of David Crockett's proverbial young lions) was getting a CROCKETT push at the time. In fact, SHANE would soon be teaming with KLONDIKE in tag team main events. On this night, he faced GEORGE "TWO TON" HARRIS, in his final days as a headliner. Young BOBBY grabbed a DQ victory over TWO TON.

Girls were featured on the show, and probably for the 500th time, the great PENNY BANNER pinned TAMMY JONES.

The rugged German duo of KURT and HENRY VON STROHEIM, a B-plus to A-minus team faced another young lion in PAUL DEMARCO and veteran JESSE JAMES. With JESSE involved, it was no more than a TV match. DEMARCO could hold his own, but JESSE's career was dissolving as fast as Cam Newton's. The Berlin boys won.

The match of the card which interested me the most was the semi-final. The SOUTHERN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS and favorites of most all area wrestling fans, GEORGE BECKER and JOHNNY WEAVER were battling the rowdy duo of the MASKED RED DEMONS, with red-headed TWO TON HARRIS at ringside as their manager.

BECKER and WEAVER had been feuding with the DEMONS since the summer when the masked men first appeared in the CROCKETT territory. After a short while, the DEMONS added the tutorial skills of TWO TON, who quickly dyed his locks red and obtained a bright red suit, with a belt buckle the size of Rhode Island, which was comparable to HOMER O'DELL's cane, i.e., a weapon.

I had witnessed these two teams go to a double DQ back in a Statesville, N.C. summer card.

JIM CROCKETT, for this match, added a stipulation to the proceedings. One of these masked men had to wear a white mask so the referee and participants could tell the ruffians apart. "Too much switchin' goin' on," said the boss. "It's too confusin." TWO TON protested. Too bad.

Much to my disappointment, when the RED DEMONS entered the ring for war, one wore a white tobogon, pulled all the way down over his face, with eye, nose and mouth holes cut out.

The championship looked to be in jeopardy when one DEMON pinned WEAVER for the first fall. Between falls, with the referee distracted, TWO TON gave JOHNNY a "big splash" with that giant belt buckle strategically placed on WEAVER's sternum. JOHNNY barely made it to his feet for the second fall.

BECKER abdominal stretched one of the DEMONS, and the match was even.

The winner of the third fall would claim the titles. And for a time, it appeared the masked men would take the crown. But our heroes battled back. Soon the DEMONS were getting thrashed. BECKER tossed the white-clad DEMON out of the corner, and the tobagon came off. Of course, his regular red mask was underneath. Then the hooded duo tried their usual switcheroo, but to no avail. JOHNNY had one of them in the corner and was ripping at the mask. At this point, TWO TON gave the "clear out" signal. But before the DEMON got away from WEAVER, the front of his mask was torn to the point that it flapped open and I remember seeing his face as clear as a bell. Of course, at that time, I had no idea who he was, but I remember this as if it happened this morning. I saw his face.

The three sped up the aisle and BECKER and WEAVER were awarded the match on a count-out.

Three months before JOHNNY passed away, I asked him about this particular match. Was he supposed to tear the mask as he did, or was it an accident? He said he didn't remember what I described to him.

"You remember lots of these matches better than I do. George and I wrestled these guys so many times in a six-month period, I can't keep them straight."

That is completely understandable.

I saw George and Johnny work these guys, maybe four times, out of the probable one hundred matches they had with one another.

"What I do remember about these guys is that they were both small as wrestlers go, and you could throw them a mile. They took great bumps. Many times it scared me the way they took bumps. I just knew for sure that they weren't going to get back up, but they did. Oh...and they both loved their liquor."

Another story Johnny told me about the DEMONS...Some of the wrestlers had complained a little about smelling alcohol on the them during some matches. One night, in a small Virginia town, the promoter told IKE EAKINS to watch them like a hawk and make sure they didn't have any booze to drink before their main event. IKE assured the promoter he would take care of it. But when the DEMONS got to the ring, they smelled like a still.

After the show, the promoter got in IKE's face and chewed him out for not doing as he was asked. "I was with them the entire time in the dressing room before they went out. They did NOT take a drink," IKE replied. "Were you with them the ENTIRE time?" the promoter wanted to know. "ABSOLUTELY, except when they used the bathroom before their match."

Hearing that, the promoter and IKE went into the bathroom. The promoter found a bottle of booze hidden in the toilet tank.