The following is a transcript of a portion of a 6:05 Superpodcast interview with Bobby Simmons, a key office employee (as well as a referee) for Georgia Championship Wrestling going back to the "wrestling war" days of the early to mid 1970s. In fact, Bobby got into the business working for Tom Renesto and Ann Gunkle of All-South Wrestling, the group that split off from the NWA. Simmons was the only person that worked for Gunkle that was immediately given a job with the NWA group, at that time run by Jim Barnett and booked by Harley Race. He was a valued member of both teams.
Here, Bobby talks about the other long-forgotten TV shows in Georgia that were produced by promoter Fred Ward, who ran the towns of Columbus, Macon, and Albany. Ward had his own TV shows, booking the talent from the main Georgia office out of Atlanta. This subject has always been of interest to me, but little was known about it outside of folks that were there at the time. Bobby shed some major light on both "Columbus Championship Wrestling" and "Macon Championship Wrestling."
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Bobby, you mentioned earlier that on Saturdays you had Atlanta TV in the morning and then you had Columbus TV later in the day at the Columbus Sports Arena. At some point during the week, you also had Macon TV – what was the schedule like with TV’s, and how hectic was a Saturday with both of those TV tapings and – correct me if I’m wrong – that’s over 100 miles apart: Columbus to Atlanta.
Bobby: From downtown to Columbus – probably 118, maybe. Something like that. It was not interstate back then, either. It was not an interstate that went all the way to Columbus; there is now, wasn’t then. The police knew in all those little small towns – we’d be coming through there and they’d watch for us. We were, uh – after Gunkel went out of business and we were Georgia Championship Wrestling, we taped 2 hours on Saturday morning. It was supposed to start at 10 o’clock and be over shortly after noon. If that was the case, you could get out of there – you would be to Columbus by 3/3:15 and then you had 45 minutes until the show started, and it was live; there was no tape. So, but that was never the case, because it never started on time, and there was always some sort of technical glitch between shows that would slow you down – from starting the second hour. You would get out of there – I had gotten out of Atlanta TV as late as 2 o’clock, and have to be in Columbus. I had actually walked through the sports arena in Columbus, GA, throw my bag over the counter to the guy running the concession stand, and went to the ring, because the guys were on their way to the ring, and they were gonna use another wrestler for a referee, and as I walked in, he’d peel off and I’d go to the ring. I’d find out from the guys in the ring what we were doing.
And that was live TV, Columbus, right?
Bobby: It was live TV. It was that close. Mr. Ward and Ralph Freed – his son-in-law – and Leon Ogle – who was his son-in-law, Ralph worked in the office and Leon – Leon actually booked for Mr. Ward for a number of years. He – oh, they would pull their hair out. They’d go crazy, sitting there waiting. You’ve got a live TV show, you’ve got no wrestlers, you’ve got no referee, and we’re all on the road trying to get there, but we could not leave Atlanta until we got through the Atlanta TV, and it was very close sometimes. Macon TV was on Thursday afternoons when I first started working for them. It was done from, like, 1 to 2 or 2 to 3; it was in the afternoon. I can’t remember exactly what time it started, but we were running Savannah, GA – which was another 175 miles south of Macon – and you had to, you couldn’t leave until you got through with that TV, so it made you push to get to Savannah on time. So that was those TV’s. One other TV they did for a while – we used to tape a TV at the Atlanta Wrestling Office; was in the old Atlanta Sports Arena and for years was used as a back-up to the Auditorium. If you couldn’t get the auditorium. They eventually started doing a TV there where they would – it was for Macon, it was for Albany, it was for Augusta, it was so we could send in the different tape other than that Atlanta TV tape, and we did that for a while on Tuesday afternoons. There again, sometimes we wouldn’t get out of there until 4 o’clock, and if you had to go to Albany that night, you had about 20 minutes to grab a hamburger and hit the road. So, it was – the TV, that was the TV’s we did, and they were, you were always pressed to get wherever you were going when you got through with them. The only time you weren’t in a hurry was after Columbus TV: because it was live, it was over at 5 o’clock, so you had 2 and half hours to get where you were going Saturday night, and the two towns we ran on Saturday were back toward Atlanta, so it wasn’t bad getting to those. You actually could sit down and eat a meal on Saturday night on the way.
Now, I guess since we’ve, you know – we’re a little younger and not from the area, basically – so we’ve never seen the Columbus or the Macon TV; just a couple matches. I mean, no more than 5. Describe for us…was it formatted differently at all? Were the angles that different, or did the programs overlap between the three shows? How exactly did that work?
Bobby: Well, you know, Fred Ward was - the Macon TV, the Columbus TV were his. There were times when Mr. Ward – as I’ve said, Leon Ogle, who was Fred’s son in law – booked Fred’s towns for a while and he did his own angles. Everything they did there was geared for Columbus, for Macon, for Albany. They would – angles were different, the top guys could be different, even. Bob Armstrong – I’m sure you’re familiar with, Bullet Bob. He wrestled for Continental, he’s been all over. But Bob and a guy named Bill Dromo – who, great friend of mine, but Bill was never a top guy here in Atlanta. They always used him opening to middle of the card, but in Columbus, Mr. Ward used Bill and Bob on top. They were like saints in those towns – people loved them in those towns, because Mr. Ward built his own angles and did his own thing! There were times that they would use the Atlanta booker to book the towns and run the whatever – lot of times it’d be a continuation of whatever we’re doing anywhere else. Columbus TV was filmed in the old Sports Arena in Columbus, which was an old warehouse. Someone told me it was used for a mule barn at one time, but it had bleachers. It would hold about 2000 people, they charged a dollar a piece to get into the live TV show on Saturday. They always drew 4/500 people, and if the Auditorium was unavailable, they would run Wednesday night house shows in the sports arena, so it was a good sized building. Macon TV was in a studio, and they were – that’s pretty much how it worked. Those tapes – those Columbus tapes – rumor has it they’re still around, but they’re salted away and they’re afraid to dig ‘em out and try to sell ‘em or do anything with them. They’re afraid that Vince might claim he owns them too, so, you know. Nobody thinks he does, but, you know – our lawyers are bigger than your lawyers, so I guess they’re afraid to try. Some of those Columbus tapes probably still exist.
Source: 6:05 SuperPodcast Wiki
https://605-superpodcast.fandom.com/wiki/Bobby_Simmons
See also: Man Behind the Mike: Jim Carlisle (Georgia)
Carlisle hosted both the Columbus and Macon TV shows.
https://studiowrestling.blogspot.com/2016/04/man-behind-mike-jim-carlisle-ga.html
