Wide World Wrestling Theme Music

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

(Includes rare, exclusive audio tracks embedded below.)

When I first got "hooked" on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, one of the things (other than the great wrestling) that I liked most about both Crockett shows was the great theme music.

I'm not talking about wrestler's theme music. This was in 1975 and almost a decade before every wrestler had their own theme music.

I'm talking about the opening theme music that started off each show. It was a signature element of each of the two programs that Jim Crockett Promotion produced, and is today as much of the sentimental or nostalgic aspect of those shows. That's something long ago lost as it regards pro-wrestling on TV today.

Ed Capral with NWA champion Harley Race
on the set of "Wide World Wrestling" in 1977

Over the many years, I've enjoyed collecting theme music from the various wrestling shows I watched in the 1970s and 1980s. Some used edited versions of popular commercial music, some used "production" music written especially for that use.

My favorite wrestling TV-show theme of them all was the music for "Wide World Wrestling" in 1975-1978. "Wide World Wrestling" was Jim Crockett's "B" show. If a TV market only featured one of Crockett's TV shows, it would always be the "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" show, which was the "A" show. If a traditional Crockett TV market featured both Crockett shows, then "Wide World" would be added as the second show in that market, or the "B" show.

The show began in October of 1975 and was hosted by longtime Atlanta wrestling broadcaster Ed Capral. When Capral left in 1977, he was succeeded by hosts Russ Dubuc and then the duo of booker George Scott and Tom Miller. In 1978, Crockett changed the name of the program to "World Wide Wrestling" as host Rich Landrum took over the show, and by the early 1980s, this was the show that started going into Crockett's expansion markets, as well as remaining the "B" show in Crockett's home markets.

"Truckin'" Tom Miller, host of "Wide World Wrestling"
for roughly 6 months in 1978

The opening theme music for this show was awesome! The opening video package that ran under the music was a quick montage of various wrestlers doing various wrestling maneuvers that flew by at quick pace that matched the upbeat tempo of the music. The music and video open had sort of a "Wide World of Sports" feel to it. ABC's "Wide World of Sports" was one of the most popular sports programs of the era and as much a part of Saturday afternoons as wrestling was in that era.

Recently our friend Craig at Wrestling Media (wrestlingmedia.ws) was kind enough to send us the original recording of the music used for "Wide World Wrestling." I got his very nice email on Thanksgiving Day - - what a wonderful gift on Thanksgiving! I was thankful indeed for his generosity and for remembering at all that this was something I had been looking for for years. He was able to identify it solely by the low-resolution recording I had of it on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Archive site.

The music, titled "Diamond Head" was written and recorded by Walter Murphy, who had a #1 pop hit back in 1976 called "A Fifth of Beethoven." Murphy has an extensive resume of production music and there are several vinyl recordings of his still floating around. The album that has "Diamond Head" was titled "Major Production Music", Vinyl 6088 on Major Records (now known as Valentino.) It is track 3 on side B of the record and was recorded and released in 1975 (the same year "Wide World Wrestling" debuted.

The "Wide World Wrestling" theme was created by taking various segments of the original 1:30 recording and piecing them together to make the final 25 sec. version you heard each week to open the show. The tempo of the wrestling version was also a little faster than the original, although at the same pitch.

I took Murphy's original recording and edited a version together that is nearly identical (in arrangement and speed) to the classic 1975 wrestling theme, and happily present it here.

There are no known video recordings of the 1975-1978 "Wide World Wrestling" show, which is a very sad thing. The theme hasn't been heard in this arrangement since 1978, so only fans who are roughly in their mid-40s or later would even remember it. But for those that watched "Wide World Wrestling" every single weekend without fail as I did each week, this will be a wonderful trip down memory lane and a nostalgic reminder of a great era in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. And for those hearing it for the first time, this is what a real wrestling theme sounds like.

Wide World Wrestling - Opening Theme (1975-1978)


Wide World Wrestling - Closing Theme (1975-1978)


More on this album of production music on the Discogs website:
https://www.discogs.com/Walter-Murphy-Production-Music/release/3544026

Thanks to Craig at Wrestling Media (wrestlingmedia.ws) for his forwarding this information and for providing me the original track that resulted in my favorite wrestling theme music of them all.

Originally published December 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Got to Have Lovin': New Theme Music and Set for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling (1979)

There were lots of great music themes over the years for Jim Crockett Promotions TV shows, but likely the most remembered is the 1979-1986 theme for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. 

The music was an edit from a 1978 European disco hit titled "Got to Have Loving" by French writer/arranger Don Ray (real name Raymond Donnez.) It was the only single from Ray's solo album "The Garden of Love." 

The new theme debuted on the February 10, 1979 episode of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (taped February 7 at WRAL studios in Raleigh.) It played across the same familiar "four square" opening that had debuted back in 1977. 

Here is the opening as it played out each week in your living room:

The complete Don Ray track can be found on YouTube (along with the complete album, too.)

That February show also debuted the familiar set that would be used on the Mid-Atlantic tapings through the remaining years at WRAL and then moved and used in modified formation at the smaller WPCQ studio in Charlotte. It was discarded all together when production moved out to the arenas in July 1983.

The set included a new standing-desk for hosts Bob Caudle and David Crockett, with a gorgeous textured background that included the new moniker "Mid-Atlantic Championship Sports" in raised block letters and a map that included two more states (West Virginia, Georgia) than the previous map and logo used on the 1974-1979 set.

Another big change going forward that began with this show was that introductions for matches would no longer be conducted from inside the ring, but instead by Bob Caudle as he would turn in front of a blue-screen NWA logo. That blue screen allowed a chroma key effect to be used, showing the wrestlers in the ring during their introduction. This set up would be used for the duration of the studio shows, and I've always thought it was a big mistake to make that change. The fans in the studio audience never reacted to Caudle's introductions like they had done over the years for Joe Murnick (or the Murnick boys) because Bob couldn't be easily heard by the fans. Most of the time it made for very flat reactions to the introductions. 

The winds of change were blowing with new music, a new set, and a new method for ring introductions, making the taping on February 7, 1979 one for the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling television history books.

Ed Capral Signs Off Wide World Wrestling

INCLUDES RARE VINTAGE AUDIO
Legendary wrestling announcer Ed Capral hosted Wide World Wrestling, a brand new program for Jim Crockett Promotions, from 1975-1978.

Capral was the longtime host for pro wrestling in Atlanta on channel 11 until the Atlanta wrestling wars of the mid-1970s, when he jumped ship to the upstart All South Wrestling promotion run by Ann Gunkle, the widow of the late Ray Gunkle, an amateur and pro wrestler who was a major star in the southeast. All South lost the war to the stalwart NWA wrestling promotion and Capral found himself without an announcing job.

Jim Crockett hired him to host their brand new program, and Capral brought his classic old-school announcing style to TV stations across Mid-Atlantic area.

Ed Capral with NWA World Champion Harley Race on the set of
Wide World Wrestling.

We present here a vintage audio clip from of Ed signing off an episode of Wide World Wrestling in 1977 and previewing the matches that would be seen on the show the following week. That line-up, by the way, was loaded with talent including a young Tully Blanchard going up against NWA World Champion Harley Race.

For the record, here is match list Capral announced:

• Harley Race vs. Tully Blanchard
• Ric Flair & Greg Valentine vs. Roberto Soto & Jimmy Garvin
• Dick Murdoch vs. Danny Miller
• Ricky Steamboat & Paul Jones vs. Scott Irwin & Ricky Ferrara
• Wahoo McDaniel vs. Charlie Fulton
  

And of course the familiar barter announcement and the classic Wide World Wrestling theme music plays along, one of my favorite TV wrestling themes of all time. (More on that music here.)

Enjoy this little audio blast from the past!

 

ED CAPRAL SIGNS OFF WIDE WORLD WRESTLING

 

 

Audio is courtesy of the collection of Gary Wray. 

 

 

Frank Deal: The Opening Voice of WGHP Championship Wrestling (1973)

This is an ad from a 1975 TV Guide magazine for WGHP's "Eyewitness News" featuring weatherman Frank Deal. Frank's voice is the voice you heard over the theme music for WGHP's Championship Wrestling show in the early 1970s.

Charlie Harville was the host of "Championship Wrestling", but it was Frank's voice over the opening theme of the show. 

Deal was the channel-8 weatherman from 1969 to 1996. He also hosted his own "Superstar" classic movie show in primetime. 

Thanks to Carroll Hall at "All Star Championship Wrestling" blog for this image and information on Frank Deal. It's further proof we go to any lengths to document the smallest details of TV wrestling at the Mid-Atlantic Gateway and Studio Wrestling!

"Championship Studio Wrestling" (Mid-America Wrestling)

Check out this rare footage from a program called "Championship Studio Wrestling" from the NWA Mid-America Wrestling promotion out of Chattanooga, TN. It features host Harry Thornton (one of the promoters behind the scenes) interviewing Bobby Eaton and the Great Togo. 

The show was taped at WDEF-12 studios in Chattanooga, TN under the promotional mantle of Nick Gulas.

I was particularly pleased to hear the theme music at the end of the show, which rekindled a childhood memory. It is a Chico Buarque de Hollanda song called "A Banda" performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. My parents had the 1967 album from which that song was taken, "Herb Alpert's Ninth", which featured both Beethoven and Alpert on the cover.

Here is an audio clip from the video above that jumps straight to Harry Thorton doing the show close and then to the theme music. 

"Championship Studio Wrestling" host Harry Thornton
Mid-America Wrestling promoted by Nick Gulas

Theme Music: Mid-Atlantic Wrestling - Raleigh Intro (1973)

Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, the wrestling show taped in Raleigh was taped using a "dual" audio-track system. While the video was being taped of the weekly program, two separate audio tracks were being recorded. The first was specifically for the Raleigh market, the second was for syndication to the other affiliate TV markets in the Crockett wrestling network.

Bob Caudle was the voice of the program that went out to the stations around the territory, in cities like Richmond, Roanoke, Wilmington, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville SC, etc. These were markets that didn't have their own local wrestling broadcasts. Throughout this time, Charlotte and High Point (Greensboro market), NC, had their own local wrestling broadcast taped at local television stations.

Nick Pond was the man who called the action for the Raleigh show throughout the 1960s, with his co-host Raleigh promoter Joe Murnick. But sometime in late 1972 or early 1973, Elliot Murnick, one of Joe's sons, took over the job as voice of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling for Raleigh.

When Elliot took over the Raleigh taping, there was a custom open for his show, and extended version of the Mid-Atlantic theme music with a separate studio announcer introducing Elliot Murnick.

Here is a rare, low-fidelity recording of that open:

"It's Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, an hour of excitement and thrills..."