A HOT JANUARY NIGHT

                                                                   January 11, 1969

Lexington, North Carolina

MR. WRESTLING and SAM STEAMBOAT

RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON

TERRY and RONNIE GARVIN

JESSE JAMES

Professional wrestling's 'Blonde Bombers' --- RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON --- will take on the hero unit of Hawaiian star SAM STEAMBOAT and the masked man MR. WRESTLING in tonight's main event at the Lexington YMCA.

The Canadian brother duo of TERRY and RONNIE GARVIN will meet fan favorites BOB RAMSTEAD and JESSE JAMES in the semi-final tag team match.

Both tag contests will be decided under a best two-of-three falls stipulation.

Preliminary singles bouts will find rugged ROCK HUNTER meeting young BILLY SPEARS and TINKER TODD facing another masked man in the guise of EL LOBO.

The action gets underway at 8:15 p.m.

J.C. DYKES AND THE INFERNOS

 

THE ALASKANS - JAY YORK AND FRANK MONTE

 

CHILLIN' WITH RIP AND SWEDE

 Anyone who ever saw RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON wrestle knows that when the rugged duo was in the ring, it was all business. Just ask their opponents.

But even JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS' "BLONDE BOMBERS" needed some 'down time' away from the squared circle.

Time to relax, refocus and just have a good time.

Here's how RIP and SWEDE spent their time away from the arenas.

First, they work on their tans...

Then, it's off to the links...


"Swede, I wish you would hit Becker and Weaver as hard as you hit that last drive."

Time for a bit of refreshment...

Perhaps, 'politically incorrect' by today's standards, but it was all in fun.

INFERNO CURTIS SMITH

 

A 1969 CHARLOTTE CHRISTMAS CARD

                                                                 December 25, 1969

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

55 Years Ago

Promoter JIM CROCKETT has slated another CHRISTMAS DAY spectacular for the CHARLOTTE COLISEUM, starting at 8:15 p.m.

It is a charity card with a FENCE MATCH set as the headliner.

This type of match takes place inside a seven-foot high steel barrier, which eliminates any escape routes by the combatants.

The two teams confined will be fan favorites GEORGE BECKER and JOHNNY WEAVER and the angry twosome of SKULL MURPHY and BRUTE BERNARD.

In their last meeting, MURPHY enlisted the aid of a steel chair, smashing WEAVER's head into a bloody mess, then bolting to the dressing room. The fence will prevent MURPHY (or anyone else) from doing it this time.

This main event is set for two-out-of-three falls, within a one-hour time limit.

"Two other tag team matches are booked on tonight's card," said CROCKETT.

ABE JACOBS and LES WOLFE will face KURT VON STROHEIM and ART NELSON in one of them.

In the other, SAILOR ART THOMAS and LUTHER LINDSAY will collide with GENE and OLE ANDERSON, the MINNESOTA WRECKING CREW.

"It's a wrestling card with something for everybody," said CROCKETT, pointing to the Christmas spirit of the event. "We'll also have midgets and girls as well."

THE MAN

 

CHARLOTTE CHRISTMAS WRESTLING - 1968

                                                                   December 25, 1968

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

A total of eighteen professional wrestlers will participate in a charity program at the CHARLOTTE COLISEUM tonight, presented by JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS.

A FENCE MATCH is the top attraction this Christmas. SAILOR ART THOMAS, GEORGE BECKER and JOHNNY WEAVER face THE MISSOURI MAULER, HIRO MATSUDA and HOMER O'DELL in this specialty. A seven-foot chain link steel fence is to be rigged around the squared circle. Contestants will do-or-die to the finish in this match, as neither team will be able to escape before the match is over.

The MINNESOTA WRECKING CREW, GENE and OLE ANDERSON, will tangle with JIMMY and BILLY HINES in the semi-final best-of-three falls match. Fans may recall that the HINES brothers wrestled a few years back as THE MASKED RED DEMONS.

There will be a special ladies wrestling contest.

Midgets are also on this holiday variety card. LORD LITTLEBROOK will defend his mighty honor against THE MIGHTY ATOM.

"BULLDOG" LEE HENNING will be out to take down NELSON ROYAL in a one-fall contest.

The opener sends TINKER TODD against PAUL JONES.

Tickets are available at the NATIONAL HAT SHOP and the COLISEUM box office. Doors open at 7:00 and the matches begin at 8:15.

SANDY SCOTT, RONNIE GARVIN, THUNDERBOLT PATTERSON

 

BILLY AND BRONCHO BASH

                                                                      March 25, 1963

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

A renewal of a big feud between Indian great BILLY TWO RIVERS and rugged Yugoslavian BRONCHO LUBICH will headline tonight's PARK CENTER wrestling card presented by promoter JIM CROCKETT.

TWO RIVERS holds a win over LUBICH in their last meeting, a bout that generated hard feelings on both sides, and the rematch should be a honey. It's set for two-of-three falls, one hour time limit.

The semifinal squares off two brother teams for tag team action. Fan favorites GEORGE and SANDY SCOTT go against DOC and MIKE GALLAGHER. This one is set for 45 minutes, two-of-three falls.

Three singles bouts complete the card.

These have GEORGE BECKER facing FRANK VALOIS.

CRUSHER ANGELO goes against DALE LEWIS.

DON WHITTLER battles JIM GRABMIRE.

All are one fall contests, with the first beginning at 8:15 p.m.

MAGNUM TA (TERRY ALLEN)

 

JOHNNY WEAVER and RIP HAWK - - REUNITED

 

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.