BEST MAT ACTION ANYWHERE

 ...Fans of the MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING territory were always in for a great evening when the stars of JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS came to their towns...

ARGENTINA APOLLO tosses SWEDE HANSON.

BILLY SPEARS and PANCHO VALDEZ go at it.

FRANK MORRELL puts the boot to the back of MATTI SUZUKI.

KOA TIKI has the advantage over GENE ANDERSON at this moment.

ABE JACOBS is at the mercy of PHIL ROBLEY.

UNMASKED MARVEL BILLY GARRETT clamps a nerve stinger on DANNY MILLER while the other MARVEL JIM STARR looks on.

 

TAG TEAM BELTS ON THE LINE

                                                                        July 13, 1963

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

60 Years Ago

Wrestling fans who like tag team action will get a double dose in an all-star card tonight at the LEXINGTON YMCA.

The current SOUTHERN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS, RAY ANDREWS and ERIC POMEROY, will defend their honor and belts against the savage challengers, ALDO BOGNI and BRONCHO LUBICH, who are managed by their strutting, cane-carrying manager HOMER O'DELL.

Popular stars REGGIE PARKS and JOHNNY WEAVER return after an absence to face the mammoth duo of "big and round guys" GEORGE 'CRYBABY' CANNON and GEORGE 'TWO TON' HARRIS in the co-main event.

Both tag team matches are set for the best-two-out-of-three falls.

Action will get underway at 8:15 when two more big men, FRANK VALOIS and PAT O'BRIEN, meet in the opener.

 

 

BOLO = FRANCHISE PLAYER

 In the late 1950s, JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS was virtually built around one guy, a really 'bad guy'...THE GREAT BOLO.

He wore a yellow gold mask with matching attire. No wrestling fan knew his true identity, and according to a lengthy interview by the man under the hood himself (TOM RENESTO), the other wrestlers didn't, at the time, know either. This idea, he said, was designed by JIM CROCKETT himself. BIG JIM felt that keeping the wrestler's identity a real secret made for a more realistic approach to the storyline.

THE GREAT BOLO had his own private dressing room, and he wore the mask into the building upon arrival and out of the building when he left.

(I'm not sure if I really buy into that, but true or not, it makes a great story.)

THE GREAT BOLO was BIG! Fans laid out their money every night in some city hoping to find out who the guy really was. All of the top wrestlers ('babyfaces' and 'heels') in the territory worked the masked man.

I experienced my first LIVE wrestling event sixty-three years ago at the old semi-pro baseball park one summer night in Statesville, North Carolina. The main event was Indian star BILLY TWO RIVERS VERSUS THE GREAT BOLO. Next to GEORGE BECKER, BILLY was the top 'good guy' in JCP at the time.

Most of us tikes in the neighborhood went. We lived in a black and white world in the late Fifties, and when THE GREAT BOLO stepped out of one of the dugouts and made his way towards the ring, we were stunned by the bright gold colors. Up to that point, we could only guess what colors he wore. On black and white TV, it could have been most any shade.

My group, along with some other local kids, made a dash towards the masked man, whopping it up and trying to taunt him. A threatening move and a loud growl-like sound scattered us all back to our grandstand seats in record-setting speed.

Several years later, with tag team wrestling becoming extremely popular, THE GREAT BOLO brought in a partner BOLO (JODY HAMILTON). From this point on, the duo was billed as THE GREAT BOLO and BOLO, or simply THE BOLOS.

Either way, they were just as hot as RENESTO had been as a single.

In one of the hottest and biggest JCP feuds of all time, a bloodied BOLO (ripped mask and all) battles BIG BOY BROWN of THE KENTUCKIANS.

It's going to be a long way down anytime TINY ANDERSON of THE KENTUCKIANS gives you a body slam.

BOLO makes a bumpy landing in this non-JCP photo.
Had this been in the MID-ATLANTIC area, the bleachers would have been packed with fans.

The BOLO applies a chin lock to ABE JACOBS.

GEORGE BECKER and partner ENRIQUE TORRES put a hurtin' on THE BOLOS.

For the full story of the history of THE BOLOS (later THE ASSASSINS), every wrestling fan should read JODY HAMILTON's fantastic book, ASSASSIN: THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK, co-written by SCOTT TEAL.

 

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 MAN IN WHITE

 

He wrestled barefaced as TIM WOODS. He donned an all-white mask and wrestled as MR. WRESTLING. Either way, he sold a lot of wrestling tickets.

Ole Anderson about to taste a MR. WRESTLING elbow.

GEORGIA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION

Gene Anderson takes a tumble from the masked man.

Ready for ring action.

George Burrell Woodin began his wrestling career at the age of 29 using the ring name TIM WOODS. He was given the name 'MR. WRESTLING' by Nebraska promoter Joe Dusek. Woodin would go on to become a main event superstar in the Georgia, Florida, Texas and the MID-ATLANTIC territories.

During his tenures with JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS, TIM WOODS had several title runs - - MID-ATLANTIC TV CHAMPION, U.S. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, MID-ATLANTIC TAG TEAM CHAMPION (with Dino Bravo) and WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPION (also with Bravo).

Tim (along with Ric Flair, Johnny Valentine, Bob Bruggers, David Crockett and pilot Michael Farkas) was aboard the 1975 Wilmington, N.C. bound aircraft that
came up short in landing and crashed. Pilot Farkas eventually died from injuries and Valentine and Bruggers never wrestled again. Woods and Bruggers were 'babyface' wrestlers, the rest were 'heels'. To protect the business from exposure, when arriving at the Wilmington hospital, Tim gave his real name and said he was a wrestling promoter. And to quash rumors among wrestling fans that Tim Woods had been on the plane with the 'heels', he was back in the ring within two weeks.

Ric Flair later said in his book 'TO BE THE MAN', that Tim Woods was more than just MR. WRESTLING that day---he was the man who saved the wrestling business.

A gentleman in and out of the ring, Tim Woods passed away November 30, 2002. It's difficult to imagine he's been gone that long.

Just imagine what a hit Tim would have been if he had attended wrestling fan gatherings.

 

 

BECKER and O'DELL

                                                                 October 24, 1964

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

Hero GEORGE BECKER and the arrogant HOMER O'DELL will face off in a wrestling special at the LEXINGTON YMCA tonight, and BECKER is so anxious for the match that he has agreed to beat O'DELL two falls within twenty minutes or he'll work for free.

The match is one of several on another all-star agenda, which also includes a two-out-of-three falls tag team battle between the polished duo of NICK KOZAK and 'IRISH' MIKE CLANCY taking on the 'BLONDE BOMBERS' of the sport, RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON.

Another best-of-three falls tag contest features O'DELL's team of ALDO BOGNI and BRONCHO LUBICH facing the popular twosome of JESSE JAMES and DOUG GILBERT.

The 8:15 opening match will feature colored girls BETTY ANN SPENCER meeting SWEET GEORGIA BROWN in a special encounter.

HOMER O'DELL

GEORGE BECKER

RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON

NICK KOZAK

ALDO BOGNI and BRONCHO LUBICH

'IRISH' MIKE CLANCY

PENNY BANNER

The Queen of Jim Crockett Promotions