This TV Sports listing from an August 1974 edition of TV Guide (East Tennessee/Carolina edition) is chock full of wrestling shows from several territories, including Mid-Atlantic, Knoxville, Memphis, and All-South Wrestling.
Here are some specifics and context:
At 1:00 PM on WFBC-4 from Greenville, SC it was Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, hosted by Bob Caudle in the same traditional time-slot in appeared in for decades. Up until recently, the show had been named All-Star Wrestling until promoter John Ringly (a top lieutenant for Jim Crockett, Sr.) came up with the Mid-Atlantic name.
At 2:00 PM on WKPT-19 in Kingsport, TN, was likely an edited version of the Memphis show hosted by Lance Russell, simply titled Wrestling as I believe Kingsport was run by the Jarretts at this time.
At 2:30 PM on WBTV-3 from Charlotte, NC, was Championship Wrestling with Big Bill Ward from the WBTV studios. Just a month or two later, all of Jim Crockett's TV wrestling would be consolidated to Raleigh in the studios of WRAL-5.
At 2:30 on WJHL-11 out of Johnson City was likely the old Knoxville show Wide World of Wrestling hosted by Big Jim Hess, which was promoted by John Cazana, just prior to Ron Fuller's buying of the territory, which was in late 1974.
At 3:00 PM on WRET-36 from Charlotte, it was Mid-Atlantic Wrestling hosted by Bob Caudle, (a rare time when the show was identified as such in TV guide!) This was the Raleigh show, since channel 3 was still producing their own studio show, which, as mentioned above, was soon to end.
At 6:30 on WTVK-26 from Knoxville was Wide World of Wrestling hosted by 'Big" Jim Hess, the locally-taped Knoxville show promoted for years by the Cazana family until purchased by Ron Fuller in late 1974. It was loosely affiliated with Gulas promotions out of Nashville, from where they booked a lot of talent. Soon after buying the territory, Ron Fuller would move the taping of his show to WBIR-10 in Knoxville, rename it Southeastern Championship Wrestling, and hire Les Thatcher to host.
Also at 6:30 on WRET-36 in Charlotte was All-South Wrestling, the non-NWA "outlaw"show promoted by Ann Gunkle and hosted by Ed Capral, the previous longtime host of Georgia wrestling in Atlanta. All-South would soon go out of business, and Capral was hired by Jim Crockett, Jr. to host his brand new Wide World Wrestling syndicated show out of Raleigh in 1975.
Finally at 11:15 on WLOS-13 from Asheville was Championship Wrestling with Charlie Harville, which was a Jim Crockett Promotions show that originated from WGHP-8 in High Point, NC. Similar to the WBTV Championship Wrestling show from Charlotte mentioned above, this show was soon to end when all of Crockett's TV would consolidate to Raleigh. At that point, WLOS would switch to the Mid-Atlantic "B" show hosted by Les Thatcher out of Raleigh. This time slot (soon to move fifteen minutes later due to the local news expanding to a half-hour) was the traditional WLOS time slot for many years.
HOME | MID-ATLANTIC BOOK STORE | STUDIO DIRECTORY
ABOUT | CONTACT | MID-ATLANTIC GATEWAY
Visit the DESKTOP VERSION
of the website for tons of FILTER OPTIONS to find info on your favorite
announcer or studio location. Filter options are located on the right
side of the web/desktop version of the website.
