A very nice newspaper ad for "Wrestling from Roanoke" airing live on WDBJ-7 from Roanoke, Virginia. The ad mentions the show's host, local Roanoke TV personality Hal Grant, and features a photo of former world champion Lou Thesz. Also featured is a stylized logo for channel 7 including the moniker "Best In Sight...Day & Night!"
"Wrestling from Roanoke" (also known during that time as "All Star Wrestling") was a local production of WDBJ-7 in conjunction with promoter Pete Apostolou's Roanoke Sports Club. Apostolou was the man on the ground in Roanoke for Jim Crocket, Sr. out of Charlotte and ran regular cards in Roanoke and Lynchburg, as well as Salem and other spot-show towns around the area.
Wrestlers would appear live on channel 7 at 6:00 PM for interviews and angles to set up the live arena show later that same night at the National Guard Armory, Roanoke Arena, or Victory Stadium, or in another one of Apostolou's towns.
MORE ON HANS SCHMIDT
The TV main event on this particular Saturday evening featured national star Hans Schmidt against longtime southern star across many territories "Big" Bill Dromo. Hans Schmidt was in the middle of a long successful run for Jim Crockett Promotions. He battled on Greensboro cards against Antonio Rocca and Pat O'Connor in the spring and summer of 1962, culminating in a victory over O'Connor on July 5 in a Texas Death Match to win the NWA United States Championship. He lost the title back to O'Connor a month and a half later on August 16, 1962.
It was a big deal for Schmidt to beat O'Connor, who was a former NWA World Champion who had lost that top honor to Buddy Rogers in Chicago just a year earlier. O'Conner was awarded the vacant United States Championship by the NWA board shortly after the match with Rogers, allowing him to continue to tour the NWA territories with a title, continuing as a big draw for the various alliance promoters. It was also a big night for promoter Jim Crockett, hosting a title change of such stature in his top city of Greensboro.
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| Hans Schmidt (Wikipedia) |
Schmidt also held promoter Fred Kholer's Chicago version of the United States title in the mid-1950s and was a star on Kholer's "Wrestling from Marigold" television broadcast that was on the national Dumont Network. He was one of the first major heels on televised wrestling cards in the United States in the 1950s. Known as "the Teuton Terror", Schmidt wrestled for nearly every major regional wrestling territory in the 1950s-1970s.
