RIC FLAIR

 

THE QUEEN OF JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS

 

It took Mary Ann Kostecki only one professional wrestling match to decide to change her name.

The transition in identification came not so many years ago in a small Ohio town where the shapely St. Louis blonde with the green eyes made her mat debut under the tutelage of the late Billy Wolfe.

"Sure, I was nervous until the bell rang, but you might say I was more embarrassed when I heard the ring announcer struggling with my name. I won the match and Billy agreed I had a name nobody could remember," said the statuesque young lady.

The new name...PENNY BANNER.

It has been written previously that Penny selected the name from the movie ARROWHEAD, a film she had seen that starred Charlton Heston, one of her favorite actors. "Heston's name in the movie was Banner, and my mother had always called me Penny as a little girl. So I became Penny Banner from my second wrestling match."

She didn't know it at the time but when Penny joined a judo class at a YMCA, it was her first step toward a pro mat career and eventually national stardom. Sam

Muchnick, president of the National Wrestling Alliance saw Penny giving a judo demonstration on television and was impressed with what he saw. Muchnick called her the next day after seeing the blonde flip a few Marines who were also on the TV show. The NWA President gave Penny a letter to Billy Wolfe, who ran an all-girl wrestling school in Columbus, Ohio, and she was on her way. And she was starting with the right man as Wolfe had been instrumental in the careers of the likes of Mildred Burke, Juanita Coffman, Therese Thiez, Mae Weston and The Fabulous Moolah.

When asked how long it took in training before she was assigned her first wrestling match, Penny replied, "When I first began training, Mr. Wolfe told me it usually took about six to nine months of serious conditioning before any girl got her first chance. But with my judo and physical education experience, I got the green light after one week."

.

As she gained experience, Penny sharpened her skills and rolled up an impressive string of wins while campaigning through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. Girl wrestling is very popular in these areas. She continued her march over some of the top female performers in the country and sought a match with June Byers, who had succeeded Mildred Burke as the NWA women's champion. "It started that Byers was taking on all comers, and I made up my mind that this was my big chance. I walked into the ring in Columbus one night and challenged her. She accepted my challenge." Penny surprised a lot of people that night by taking the highly-touted Texas lass to a ten-minute time limit draw. A later match for the title saw Byers winning the first fall, Penny the second, and time expiring before the third fall could begin.

June Byers was the victim of a serious automobile accident shortly after her last match with Penny and forced to retire. Banner then teamed up with Bonnie Watson for tag events and were highly successful until romance broke up the duo when Bonnie married. Betty Hawkins became Penny's partner, and they won the Western Canada girls' tag title and were undefeated for two years. Betty then married, and Penny was forced to again find a new partner. She was Lorraine Johnson. Together, they won the Women's World Tag Title in St. Joseph, Missouri and had a long winning streak until Cupid entered the picture again. But this time it was Penny who married...a popular Indianapolis wrestler, Johnny Weaver. The two would later have a daughter, Wendi, who at six months of age made Banner think differently about her career. "My wrestling schedule was keeping me away from Wendi and Johnny. Being a wrestler was thrilling but my family was more important to me."

As Wendi grew up, Penny and Johnny switched their home from St. Louis to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Johnny made his wrestling home. Penny wrestled a limited schedule, finding the balance between her career and being a good wife and mother.

When time permits, the Weaver clan enjoy golf and bowling plus Johnny's penchant for watching Sunday sports on TV and a good game of cards. Penny and Wendi, now twelve, love horses and are excellent riders. They own quarter horses not far from their home and compete in numerous shows in the Charlotte area. They have a roomful of ribbons and trophies in their home which they have won competing.

Penny enjoys simple tastes in cooking vegetables, mashed potatoes, roast beef, stuffed peppers and sauerkraut. She also believes every woman should take good care of their bodies. "Our bodies are like a house. If we take care of it, it will take care of us. I like to work out three times a week." Banner has had her share of injuries over the years, including a bad knee which is one of her main weaknesses right now. It has been dislocated five times with ligament and tendon damage.

But for now, Penny will continue to wrestle when she wants. And why not? Penny Banner still rates high among the top ten female wrestlers in the world today.

Taken from WRESTLING REVUE, January 1974 and written by GENE GORDON.

THE FABULOUS (SLAVE GIRL) MOOLAH

 

SWEDE HANSON - - IMPACT PLAYER

 

During his long-term teaming with RIP HAWK.

SWEDE's about to feed a VON STROHEIM a knuckle sandwich.

HANSON near the end of his ring career.

SWEDE in his 'rebel' gear while working in the W.W.F.

HANSON even teamed with ANDRE THE GIANT.

---

Big, rugged ROBERT 'SWEDE' HANSON had a remarkable career.

He wrestled in four decades and was as tough at the end of his wrestling tenure as when he began.

There's no question the apex of his career was when he teamed with RIP HAWK for an incredible sixteen years, during which time they captured virtually every tag team award in the business.

"I'll never forget my years together with Rip. He was quite a character, and you can't imagine all the crazy things we got involved in. Most established teams in the business didn't stay together half as long as we did. Personal goals were never an issue. With us, it was what was best for the team." (Swede Hanson, 1984)

But nothing lasts forever, and they eventually went their separate ways, working for different wrestling organizations.

Around 1973, RIP went to the newly-formed I.W.A., and SWEDE stayed in JCP and soon began teaming with THE SUPER DESTROYER (DON JARDINE). But things soon went sideways, and at this point, HANSON turned 'babyface' and began a bloody war with his masked partner.

Following this program, SWEDE dropped to mid-card status, teaming with the likes of JOHNNY WEAVER, TIGER CONWAY JR. and PAUL JONES.

After a while, he headed north to work for the then-WWF but returned to the MID-ATLANTIC territory near the end of his career. Upon his arrival, he was back to being a 'bad guy' and worked as a mid / lower card single or teamed with ruffians like BRUTE BERNARD, GENE ANDERSON or SGT.JACQUES GOULET.

SWEDE HANSON was like a fine wine. Throughout his career, he became better and better until time caught up with him, as it does with all of us.

I, like many others, had the pleasure of attending the 2007 N.W.A. FANFEST banquet when SWEDE (and RIP) were inducted into the HALL OF HEROES. The two were inducted by their long-time manager, the late 'Playboy' GARY HART. SWEDE's award was accepted by his two children, Bobby and Luana.

When it comes to the history of JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS, 'Big' SWEDE HANSON made an impact very few can match.

BARRY WYNDHAM

 

AROUND CROCKETTLAND

 

RONNIE GARVIN takes time out to sign an autograph for a fan.

THE ROYAL KANGAROOS (LORD JONATHAN BOYD and NORMAN FREDERICK CHARLES III) rarely came out on the short end of a battle. Exception: A 'brass knuckles' war with JOHNNY WEAVER and ART NELSON.

'OUTLAW' RON BASS and JIM (J.J.) DILLON prepare to do battle.

Where's the referee?

MATTI SUZUKI is trying to choke the life out of SANDY SCOTT.

RICKY STEAMBOAT and RIC FLAIR join forces as a tag team.

FLAIR seems to like the idea.

Then fan favorite SWEDE HANSON 'helps' his arch enemy THE SUPER DESTROYER (DON JARDINE) back into the ring.

THE INFERNOS IN CONTROL OF NELSON ROYAL

 

DEALING WITH DEMONS - RED ONES

                                                   LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

JULY 2, 1966

Two new tag team combinations will be seen in action against a pair of established duets on tonight's LEXINGTON YMCA pro wrestling card.

Action kicks off at 8:15 p.m.

Popular GEORGE 'CATALINA' DRAKE and LUTHER LINDSAY will combine their talents for the first time to meet the rugged twosome of THE MISSOURI MAULER and THE GREAT MALENKO. DRAKE and LINDSAY are quick and agile and wrestle by the rule book. Across the ring, MALENKO and the MAULER are both rough wrestlers and have never heard of a wrestling rulebook.

Polished operators PAUL DEMARCO and KEN HOLLIS, both young guys loved by the fans, will join ranks to face off against the MASKED RED DEMONS in the other tag contest of the evening. The RED DEMONS continue to create problems for their opponents. In the short time they have been wrestling in LEXINGTON, they have taken both GEORGE BECKER & JOHNNY WEAVER, as well as GEORGE & SANDY SCOTT to the limit, one match by a double disqualification, the other a sixty-minute draw. Their identities remain a mystery.

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

Two singles matches, both promising lots of action, will send KARL GOTCH against big JOHN GUDISKI and popular STEVE BOLUS facing the veteran CORSICA JEAN.

JACK BRISCO

 

WANTED: THE GREAT BOLO

 

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.

HAYSTACKS CALHOUN

 

TWO LEGENDARY TEAMS TANGLE

                                                                  January 30, 1965

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

Action galore is on tap for professional wrestling fans fortunate enough to attend

the big card tonight at the LEXINGTON YMCA starting at 8:15.

GEORGE and SANDY SCOTT, known world-wide as THE FLYING SCOTTS, and victorious here last Saturday, will face long-time rivals RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON, wrestling's BLONDE BOMBERS, in the featured two-out-of-three-falls main event.

A top semifinal match is scheduled with popular young JOHNNY WEAVER taking on rugged ex-footballer MIKE PAIDOUSUS.

Two other singles matches will round out the program when Indian star CHIEF BIG HEART faces MIKE VALENTINO *, and TONY NERO will face a newcomer to Lexington when he squares off against THE ALASKAN (JAY YORK).

GEORGE and SANDY SCOTT

MIKE PAIDOUSUS

MIKE VALENTINO

JOHNNY WEAVER

RIP HAWK and SWEDE HANSON

* MIKE VALENTINO wrestled in the WWWF as BARON MIKEL SCICLUNA.

THE MASKED MARVELS

 

SALUTING CROCKETT STARS

             One would have to go back sixty-five or more years to remember all of these superstars who     appeared in JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS...

Semi-reluctantly, I admit I am one who qualifies...

RAMON and ENRIQUE TORRES

TONY GAREA

JOHNNY VALENTINE

SKULL MURPHY

THUNDERBOLT PATTERSON

TEX McKENZIE

RICKY STEAMBOAT and JAY YOUNGBLOOD

 

THE ANDERSONS WANT MORE

                                                                     May 25, 1968

LEXINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

LARS and GENE ANDERSON

NELSON ROYAL

BOBBY RED CLOUD

'BULLDOG' LEE HENNING

ABE JACOBS

LUTHER LINDSAY

---

Action should reach an exciting peak tonight at the LEXINGTON YMCA when the popular Texas duo of NELSON ROYAL and PAUL JONES and Minnesota brothers LARS and GENE ANDERSON clash in the wrestling main event.

It will be a best-of-three falls rematch of a thriller won in disputed fashion by the Texans last Saturday night. The ANDERSON brothers demanded another match.

War-dancing Indians CHIEF LITTLE EAGLE and BOBBY RED CLOUD meet another set of villains in 'BULLDOG' LEE HENNING and big JIM GRABMIRE in another team affair.

A scientific match is offered between BOB NANDOR and ABE JACOBS.

The card is completed with a contest between LUTHER LINDSAY and FRANK HICKEY.

Action gets underway at 8:15.

THE MIGHTY IGOR