SCOTT AND RICK STEINER

 

THE INFERNOS FIREBALL LES THATCHER

 

KLONDIKE BILL AND ANDERSONS DEBUT

                                                                        JULY 9, 1966

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

58 Years Ago

Fan favorite JOHNNY WEAVER gets another crack at the SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP when he meets title holder THE MISSOURI MAULER in tonight's LEXINGTON YMCA pro wrestling two-out-of-three falls main event.

It will be a rematch of a thriller here several weeks ago in which the MAULER was able to hang on to his title only by a thread.

WEAVER employed his famous "sleeper hold" for what would have been the deciding fall, but he was outside the ropes, and the brutal (and fortunate) champ was allowed to retain his belt when the referee was forced to disqualify WEAVER.

JOHNNY has promised a different outcome tonight.

In the evening's tag team battle, the popular duo of ABE JACOBS and RUDY KAYE will meet LARS and GENE ANDERSON, a rugged twosome from Minnesota, who are making their Lexington debut.

This match is also for two-of-three falls.

Another big man of wrestling, Kodiak, Alaska's KLONDIKE BILL, also makes his first appearance here when he faces the tough veteran EL GAUCHO in one of two supporting bouts.

The 8:15 opener will send two bullies, IKE EAKINS and TONY NERO, against one another.

DON KERNODLE and RICKY STEAMBOAT

 

THOSE BLAZIN' INFERNOS

 

THE INFERNOS and J.C. DYKES ready to work...

(Under the hoods are ROCKY SMITH and his brother CURTIS. ROCKY was an original INFERNO. CURTIS replaced original INFERNO FRANKIE CAIN.)

DENNIS HALL in command of his INFERNO encounter...for the time being. That's referee Sam 'Lucky' Roberts in the background.

Popular NELSON ROYAL attempts to remove the INFERNO's mask...

J.C. shouts instructions to his men, who seem to be in a bad situation.

One of the 'managerial' skills of J.C. DYKES.

ROCKY SMITH, J.C. DYKES, FRANKIE CAIN

NELSON ROYAL in a pinch.

DON CURTIS about to catch fire.

Right in the kisser.

J.C. DYKES, FRANKIE CAIN, LES THATCHER

Looks like a rough day at the office.

Incredible GENE GORDON photo of J.C. DYKES, GEORGE HARBEN and THE INFERNOS at Charlotte's Park Center.

(from the CARROLL HALL collection)

SANDY SCOTT

 

BACK TO THE SEVENTIES

 

BLACKJACK MULLIGAN's "claw" does in another opponent.

RIC FLAIR stomps on THUNDERBOLT PATTERSON.

JERRY "CRUSHER" BLACKWELL ties up an adversary.

JERRY and JACK BRISCO clown for the camera.

GENE ANDERSON receives a GREG VALENTINE leg drop.

GREG VALENTINE on the receiving end of a WAHOO MCDANIEL chop.

After a match, nothing like a big cigar and good wrestling magazine for the "NATURE BOY".

BRONCHO LUBICH, MGR. GEORGE HARRIS, CHRIS MARKOFF

 

ROCK HUNTER - - HUMAN OR VAMPIRE?

 

A vampire is a fictional being...or is it?

MID-ATLANTIC WRESTLING fans might have disagreed back in 1972. Some might have been convinced there was a vampire-like wrestler in JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS who got as much pleasure drawing blood from his opponents as Count Dracula himself.

The wrestler was ROCK HUNTER.

MR. HUNTER enjoyed making two men in JCP suffer more than any others...KLONDIKE BILL and NELSON ROYAL.

"KLONDIKE 'FATSO' BILL and 'COWGIRL' NELSON are my two favorite victims," said HUNTER (not me). "Why? Because they're the easiest. They don't have a brain between them. Wrestling them is like having a night off."

Fans (including me) would disagreed. I loved BILL and NELLIE.

ROCK would continue boasting, "I'd wrestle them both in a handicap match, but none of the promoters would allow it...I had to get a partner, so I picked my friend MATTI SUZUKI. We got our match in Asheville, N.C."

NELSON and KLONDIKE before the start of the Asheville, N.C. match.

"SUZUKI took care of the Alaskan goof, so I could concentrate on ROYAL, my victim of the evening. I beat on him until he could no longer stand."...ROCK HUNTER

"Then I applied my 'squeeze' hold on that Texas noggin'. I squeezed and squeezed until..."

"His head popped open like a melon. Oh, it was beautiful. That cowgirl never knew what hit him."

Maybe ROCK HUNTER couldn't count that night, but the referee could. And when ROCK refused to break his 'squeeze' hold at five, he and partner SUZUKI were disqualified, and KLONDIKE BILL and NELSON ROYAL were the winners that Asheville night.

THE SPOILER / THE SUPER DESTROYER (DON JARDINE)

 

BIG MEETS BALD

                                                                November 28, 1964

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

Last week's professional wrestling main event featuring THE KENTUCKIANS versus BRUTE BERNARD and SKULL MURPHY was expected to be a wild contest, and indeed, it did turn out that way. TINY ANDERSON and BIG BOY BROWN were disqualified in the third and deciding fall.

So tonight, the two teams will go at each other again at the LEXINGTON YMCA , but this time, a NO DISQUALIFICATION stipulation has been added. Both teams agreed to the rematch to show their respective supremacy in the ring.

Fans are in for quite a treat when the two-out-of-three falls clash begins.

Fan favorite GEORGE BECKER returns to the YMCA to face rough guy MIKE VALENTINO in the evening's co-feature.

BILLY PARKS will attempt to control and defeat THE BEAST, and NICK KOZAK will face FRANK VALOIS in the 8:15 mat opener.

COWBOY RON BASS

 

A PROFILE OF "THE PROFILE"

  Throughout the long history of JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS, few attained the status and recognition of RIP 'The Profile' HAWK.

A long-time 'heel', RIP often made the claim in interviews that the fans, in reality, loved him and supported him. Naturally, this brought out more heat from the fans who denied this was the case. Wrestling fans did love one thing about RIP. They loved to see him get beat in his matches. Many a fan usually left the arenas disappointed in that regard. RIP usually had the final word.

Even when 'babyfaces' like JOHNNY WEAVER or JERRY BRISCO won a side bet with RIP, they ended up getting dropped on their heads when they bent over to pick up their winnings.

"Oh boy...it's payday!"

In the early 1960s, RIP squared off against another JCP icon, JOHNNY VALENTINE.

A bit of bubbly before a match...

Earning his name as HAWK rips the hair of LOUIE TILLET.

Nearing the end of his tenure with JCP, RIP poses wearing the MID-ATLANTIC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP belt (which he shared with his 'nephew', an up-and-coming youngster named FLAIR).

Many of us had the opportunity and privilege of meeting and getting to know RIP from his appearances at the NWA FANFESTs. The respect he has among his peers became evident listening to many of the other FANFEST wrestlers from a by-gone era.

Perhaps WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION HARLEY RACE said it best at the 2007 FANFEST..."Pound for pound, RIP HAWK was easily one of the roughest and most knowledgeable men who ever worked in the business."

As it turns out, those interviews RIP used to give were right after all---I did love RIP HAWK...and I still do.

THE GREAT BOLO

 

INDIANS AND INFERNOS

                                                                   November 11, 1967

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

THE INFERNOS

with Manager J. C. DYKES

CHIEF LITTLE EAGLE

BOBBY RED CLOUD

"Failure to continue" will determine the winner when top professional tag teams are matched for the fifth time in recent weeks in tonight's main event mat feature at the LEXINGTON YMCA.

It will be a TEXAS DEATH MATCH tonight when the popular Indian combo of CHIEF LITTLE EAGLE and BOBBY RED CLOUD clash with the dreaded masked duo of THE INFERNOS. In this match, falls will not count. There is NO DISQUALIFICATION and NO TIME LIMIT. The match will proceed until one of the teams is incapable of participating. This is pro wrestling's version of a "fight to the finish".

THE INFERNOS will have their red-headed manager, J. C. DYKES, in their corner. He will, no doubt, have with him his metal canteen and loud whistle. The canteen, DYKES claims, is for "refreshment" purposes for his masked men, but fans have seen J. C. use it as a weapon in the past. The whistle is to give instructions to THE INFERNOS during their match. But lately, fans have been bringing their own whistles to the matches, causing confusion between the manager and his wrestlers.

TEX McKENZIE

NELSON ROYAL

P. Y. CHUNG

HARU SASAKI

The co-feature on tonight's card is for two-out-of-three falls and will send the torrid Texan team of fan favorites TEX McKENZIE and NELSON ROYAL against the sly and crafty Oriental combo of P. Y. CHUNG and HARU SASAKI. A definite clash of cultures is present here.

BOB NANDOR

Popular RUDY KAYE meets TINY MILLS, and spectacular BOB NANDOR takes on newcomer STEVE STANLEY in the evening's single matches.

MILLS, much larger than his nickname implies, returns after a long absence.

The first bell is at 8:15.

KLONDIKE BILL and GEORGE SCOTT