WCCB-18 Charlotte NC

WCCB-18 CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

"The Best of NWA Championship Wrestling" featuring Johnny Weaver and David Crockett

When I first published the feature on studio wrestling for WRAL-5 in Raleigh NC in January 2006, I erroneously listed the short-lived Best of NWA Championship Wrestling program as having been taped there. I have since learned through a conversation with legendary wrestler and announcer Johnny Weaver that this program was actually taped in a small studio at a UHF station in Charlotte NC right next door to the old Charlotte Coliseum: WCCB channel 18.

The program only lasted 13 weeks, and aired only in a few markets.  Johnny Weaver was the host, with David Crockett conducting some of the interviews. Weaver had a different co-host each week, and they would review tape and film of matches both from the arena and also from previous broadcasts of Mid-Atlantic and World Wide Wrestling. Occasionally, tapes would be shown of matches from other NWA territories, usually from Florida or Georgia.

The studio was very small, and there was no ring set up for wrestling. There was a desk-set with an NWA logo behind it, and a separate interview set as well.

As a matter of trivia, WCCB was the original choice location for the weekly TV tapings when Crockett moved them from WRAL in Raleigh to Charlotte in 1981. That deal fell through, and the decision was made to move to the tiny confines of WPCQ-36 in Charlotte.

Host Johnny Weaver with Blackjack Mulligan on the set
of The Best of NWA Championship Wrestling

WCCB was located right next door to the old Charlotte Coliseum (once the Independence Arena/Cricket Arena, now the Bojangles Coliseum.)

BASIC INFORMATION
Call Letters:	WCCB
Channel Number:	18
Network Affiliate:	ABC / Independent
Began taping:	Fall 1978
Ceased taping:	Winter 1978
Play-by-play Host:	Johnny Weaver
Interviews:	David Crockett
Ring Announcer:	None (No live wrestling)
Night Taped:	Monday
Show Name:	Best of NWA Championship Wrestling

 

 

(L) David Crockett interviews US Champion Ric Flair. (R) Host Johnny Weaver talks with Ken Patera.

 

  

(L) NWA TV Champion Paul Jones talks with David Crockett. (R) Johnny Weaver closes the show with Mid-Atlantic Champion Tony Atlas, Dick Murdoch, and Blackjack Mulligan.

 

Mid-Atlantic Champion Tony Atlas and host Johnny Weaver review tape of 

Tony Atlas's win over Ken Patera for that championship.

 

Special thanks to Johnny Weaver for his assistance with this feature. Published February 2006.

Photos from WCCB studio were taken between 9/17/78 and 10/15/78, the dates Tony Atlas won and lost the Mid-Atlantic title respectively. They appeared in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine.