Saturday Night Wrestling

 

I miss when wrestling was a one-hour, Saturday, late night type of thing.

The WESC Wrestling Radio Show in Greenville

Greenville News (Greenville SC) May 14, 1978
Article by Deb Richardson
Clippings from the collection of Mark Eastridge

 

"The Wrestling Show" aired on WESC FM in Greenville, SC at midnight on Monday nights after the weekly matches in the Greenville Memorial Auditorium. This was in the mid to late 70's. WESC  midnight-to-6:00 am DJ Fred Nabors was the host.

Fred Neighbors (center) with Ric Flair and Greg Valentine

 

Sandy Scott, Crockett's local promoter at the time, was in studio also. They would have the results from the night's event, play taped interviews from earlier the same night that Fred Nabors would conduct before the matches and tape them for play on the show. Usually, they would get some of the guys to stay in town and go live on the air during the show.

Ric Flair, Greg Valentine, Sandy Scott

 
A fellow named Jim McNerney lived in Greenville and was trying to break into writing for the wrestling magazines. He persuaded Fred Nabors to let him come in the studios that night and take these pictures.

 - Don Holbrook, Greenville SC
Mid-Atlantic Gateway Contributor

More photos: Nabors, Flair, Valentine  |  Nabors, Scott, Flair, Valentine  |  Ric Flair & a Cold One

Roanoke Sports Club Audio Tag

In the late 1970s, Roanoke promoter Pete Apostolou tagged a little promotional audio segment onto the end of the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling program that aired on WSLS-10 in the greater Roanoke market. Apostolou was the local promoter for Jim Crockett Promotions. His own promotional company was called The Roanoke Sports Club.

After Bob Caudle would preview the matches for next week's show, you would hear the following:

 

"Mid-Atlantic Wrestling has been a presentation of WSLS TV-10 in association with the Roanoke Sports Club. Join us next Saturday afternoon for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling!

For complete information about sponsorship of wrestling matches in your area, contact the Roanoke Sports Club, Post Office Box 1855, Roanoke, Virginia, 24008."

This of course was only heard on the Roanoke version of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, but was indicative of Apotolou's additional efforts to promote his towns in the Roanoke area, that included Lynchburg and other spot show towns.

 

Apostolou's headquarters for the Roanoke Sports Club was the Sportsman in downtown Roanoke, where advance tickets were always available for Aposolou's JCP wrestling programs at both the Civic Center and the famous Starland Arena.