History of Georgia Wrestling on Television

The following is a post by Georgia Wrestling historian Rich Tate from 2003 on the old Wrestling Classics message board. It is included here for historical purposes. [LINK]

More specific information about the period following Black Saturday in July of 1984 can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in the article Ole and Solie: The Evolution of TV Wrestling in Georgia after Black Saturday. 

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RICH TATE: I am attempting to piece together a timeline for wrestling on TV in the Atlanta area. Can anyone make corrections or fill in gaps? Especially after Black Saturday...that's where my most confusion lies. Also, if anyone can add to it by adding in what may have been happening in Macon, Columbus, Augusta and Savannah, it's very much appreciated. (Bold and italicized text is mine.)

1954: Live Atlanta Wrestling first appeared on WLWA Channel 11 (ABC affiliate), a three-year-old station, hosted by Ray McCay, who had previously been doing the radio broadcasts of local shows on WQXI-AM 790. The show would jump around the schedule throughout its run on this station, and seemed to become an afterthought more and more as time went on. Prior to that, local fans could only see what the network feeds brought in, and more recently, the shows had been sent in via tape from Texas.

1955: Ed Capral, who had been the ring announcer, replaces McCay on Live Atlanta Wrestling.

1961: Channel 11 ownership changed hands, and its call letters became WAII.

1969: Once again, new owners took over at Channel 11, and the call letters became WQXI.

1970: On January 1, Atlanta independent UHF Channel 17 (WJRJ) is purchased by Ted Turner and renamed WTCG. Les Thatcher began working as a co-host and associate producer, a position he would hold for three years.

1971: Live Atlanta Wrestling changed its name to Georgia Championship Wrestling, beginning with the program shot on August 14. On December 25, Georgia Championship Wrestling aired for the first time on WTCG in a permanent time slot, with taping in the afternoon, and airing each Saturday at 6:00 pm. This was the reason the promotion decided to change stations. It had become very difficult to keep fans coming to the studios for live matches when the schedule was so varied at Channel 11.

1972: In June, WTCG begins re-airing its Saturday tape on Wednesday night as a prime time replay. This lasted until the fall. On December 2, WTCG began airing back to back episodes of Georgia Championship Wrestling and All-South Championship Wrestling in back to back Saturday evening slots. Capral changed over immediately to the All-South program, and Sterling Brewer was called in to cover the announcing for GCW, while maintaining his job in Birmingham for Nick Gulas’ show.

1973: Brewer was replaced on Georgia Championship Wrestling by Gordon Solie, who continued to do the announcing for Championship Wrestling from Florida out of Tampa. During the summer, Georgia Championship Wrestling shifted to morning hours to tape their programs.

1974: After the closing of All-South, Georgia Championship Wrestling continued on as the sole wrestling show on WTCG.

1976: A second program, called Best of Georgia Championship Wrestling, began airing on WTCG hosted by Freddy Miller. On December 17, WTCG became the second satellite-delivered cable program service (behind Home Box Office), and the first satellite superstation. The first Georgia Championship Wrestling show that could be seen beyond Atlanta was taped and aired on December 18.

1979: WTCG changed its call letters to WTBS on August 27, with the first Georgia Championship Wrestling show taped and aired on September 1.

1982: Georgia Championship Wrestling changed its on-air name to World Championship Wrestling.

1983: A co-promotion initiated between Ole Anderson and Jerry Jarrett called GCW Superstars aired for three months on WTBS, produced and hosted by Les Thatcher.

1984: On July 7, the final episode of World Championship Wrestling taped and aired on WTBS, and fans were introduced to WWF programming the following week. The WWF debuted on July 14 in WCW’s former time slot, on a day that has been dubbed by fans as “Black Saturday.” In September, a new promotion operated by Ole Anderson and Ralph Freed got an early morning time slot on WTBS each Saturday. The promotion and the show were both called Championship Wrestling from Georgia, and Gordon Solie was back as the announcer. Meanwhile, Turner sold a Sunday night time slot on WTBS to Mid-South Wrestling, hosted by Jim Ross.

Gateway Note: More specific information about the period following Black Saturday in July of 1984 can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in the article Ole and Solie: The Evolution of TV Wrestling in Georgia after Black Saturday. 

1985: Jim Crockett bought the Championship Wrestling from Georgia business and time slot on WTBS, and began airing World Championship Wrestling on the time slot he purchased from Vince McMahon. This version of the program was hosted by David Crockett and Tony Schiavone. 

Joe Pedicino began producing and hosting a show on WATL Channel 36 (Independent) that aired each Saturday night, starting at 8:00 pm. It lasted through 2:00 am, and showed tapes from various promotions around the world in their entirety.



Some responses are included below with additional or clarrifying information.

[A] KING COMBO: 
1983: A co-promotion initiated between Ole Anderson and Jerry Jarrett called GCW Superstars aired for three months on WTBS, produced and hosted by Les Thatcher."

AFAIK, didn't the full shows only air in Chattanooga (where the show was taped), and only selected matches aired on the Sunday show w/ other GCW footage?

"1984: On July 7, the final episode of World Championship Wrestling taped and aired on WTBS, and fans were introduced to WWF programming the following week. The WWF debuted on July 14 in WCW’s former time slot, on a day that has been dubbed by fans as “Black Saturday.” In September, a new promotion operated by Ole Anderson and Ralph Freed got an early morning time slot on WTBS each Saturday. The promotion and the show were both called Championship Wrestling from Georgia, and Gordon Solie was back as the announcer. Meanwhile, Turner sold a Sunday night time slot on WTBS to Mid-South Wrestling, hosted by Jim Ross."

The show was still called World Championship Wrestling (in the intro and on the studio banner) after Black Saturday. The "coming up next..." slates on TBS still referred to the show as Georgia Championship Wrestling, as did Gorilla Monsoon. The show had original interviews at this point but no original matches.

It is worth noting that of the 3 shows, Mid-South drew the highest ratings (making it the highest rated show on cable at the time).

"1985: Jim Crockett bought the Championship Wrestling from Georgia business and time slot on WTBS, and began airing World Championship Wrestling on the time slot he purchased from McMahon. This version of the program was hosted by David Crockett and Tony Schiavone. 

Joe Pedicino began producing and hosting a show on WATL Channel 36 (Independent) that aired each Saturday night, starting at 8:00 pm. It lasted through 2:00 am, and showed tapes from various promotions around the world in their entirety."

Somewhere in February-March, the WWF buckled to Turner's pressure and moved the W/GCW show to the studio on Techwood Drive for its own tapings w/ Gorilla Monsoon as host and Freddie Miller as ring announcer. This lasted about a month or so before the slot was sold to Crockett. These tapings featured the studio returns of Mr. Wrestling II & Roddy Piper.

"1986: Ann Gunkel starts a second version of All-South Championship Wrestling that aired for several weeks on WANX Channel 46 (Independent), hosted by Les Thatcher."

I believe this was the year of the first showing of the "History of Atlanta Wrestling" special on WATL, along w/ the first Wrestlethon (24 hours of various footage hosted by Pedicino w/ phones manned by wrestling personalities taking donations for local charities). Wrestlethon '88 featured the return of live studio wrestling in Atlanta, w/ several matches done at WATL, and a feature on the Fox Network's late show.

Someone else probably knows more about North Georgia, SCW, NWA Georgia/Wildside, etc.

[B] RED MASK: Rich, Championship Wrestling From Florida w/Gordon Solie aired on WTCG Channel 17 Saturdays at 7pm right after GCW at 6pm around late '74/'75 after All-South went down.

[C] CINCINNATI KID: wish I could give you more information on the wrestling on TV in Atlanta. I do note that the station that initiated the shows was WLW-A, which was owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Company's division of Avco. It was that same company who started TV wrestling in Cincinnati on WLW-T, then on Channel 4, on February 4, 1950. In time, the Crosley affiliates in Dayton, Ohio - WLW-D, Channel 2, and in Columbus - WLW-C, Channel 4, (after the Cincinnati station moved to Channel 5), all began carrying matches from the Al Haft promotion. Matches were aired on Saturday afternoons and Saturday nights. By the early 1960's, even WLW-I in Indiapolis was airing TV matches of the Haft promotion out of Dayton with the other WLW stations likewise picking up the feeds. As with other programming and in the area of engineering, Crosley was always at the forefront. 

Crockett, Caudle, Schiavone Reunion in Raleigh (2022)

Photo courtesy of Tony Schiavone

What a reunion! David Crockett, Bob Caudle, and Tony Schiavone get together in Raleigh, NC. 

David and Tony made the special effort to visit Bob during the afternoon on January 12, hours before the big All Elite Wrestling (AEW) show that night in Raleigh. Jim Ross had planned to join them, too, but travel arrangements prevented it. 

Bob and David hosted Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling together in the 1970s. David then moved over to host World Wide Wrestling in 1982, and Tony joined him as co-host in early 1984. Bob continued as host of NWA Pro Wrestling throughout the 1980s. Tony and David also hosted World Championship Wrestling together on Superstation WTBS in the mid-to-late 1980s. All three were part of big national television and pay-per-view specials for Jim Crockett Promotions and later Ted Turner's WCW.

What a special photograph! Thanks to both Tony and David for sharing this great reunion.

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Late edit (1/17/22): We posted this same photo on Twitter  as well, and it went viral (at least viral for us), garnering over 139,000 twitter impressions in the days after. A big surge of that occurred after Good Ol' J.R. Jim Ross retweeted it. A lot of fans from the 70s, 80s, and 90s were happy to see Bob again, and delighted to see all three of these guys together in the same special photograph. 

(Originally posted on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.)

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Back to the Future: Crockett & Schiavone on the WTBS Set (2022)

David Crockett and Tony Schiavone

In 2022, Starrcast promoter Conrad Thompson had a replica built of the World Championship Wrestling television production set, nearly identical to the one used in the Techwood Drive studios of WTBS in Atlanta during the Crockett TBS years of 1985-1988. It was a featured part of the "Ric Flair's Last Match" show and convention in Nashville.

The replica set was used for photo-ops involving Crockett, Schiavone, and the Four Horsemen, as well as the backdrop for Crockett and Schiavone to call the big PPV event "Ric Flair's Last Match."

Nobody adds the special nostalgic Mid-Atlantic/JCP touches to events quite like Conrad Thompson. I wonder if this would fit in my basement??

(Edited from an original post on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.)

Caudle, Schiavone, and Ross Together in Charlotte

 Check out the article on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway about three top wrestling broadcasters from the 1970s-1990s all at the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Fanfest together in Charlotte in early August.

Mid-Atlantic Gateway:
Caudle, Schiavone, and Ross a Highlight of Fanfest
http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/2016/06/caudle-schiavone-ross.html

Tony Schiavone on The Ross Report

WWE

Last summer, good ol' J.R. had Tony Schiavone as a guest on his highly ranked podcast "The Ross Report" on Podcast One, which can be found on iTunes and at PodcastOne.com.

There was lots of great discussion and of course the expected back and forth on the WCW days, but I was most interested in Tony's reflections on his early days with Jim Crockett Promotions and his days growing up in Richmond a fan of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in t he mid-1970s.

Tony was always one of our favorites, and although the main focus points of this Studio Wrestling site are the Mid-Atlantic television studios in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, the WTBS studio in Atlanta was an important part of the studio wrestling history as a taping location for Crockett from 1985-1988.

When Tony began work for Jim Crockett Promotions in 1983, the weekly TV tapings had just moved out of the WPCQ Charlotte studios earlier that year. He was a regular fixture, however, in the make-shift studio on Briarbend Drive hosting many of the local promos over the next years.

Here are some one-minute excerpts from that August 27, 2014 podcast with Jim Ross:

On moving to Charlotte and how he got started with Jim Crockett Promotions:


On road trips to Richmond, Roanoke, and Greensboro as a fan in the mid-1970s:



We encourage you to listen to the entire episode at "The Ross Report" via iTunes or the Podcast One website, and to visit J.R.'s sponsors and to support his show directly.

Also visit J.R.'s website J.R.'s Place at http://www.jrsbarbq.com. You hit links to take you to the podcast there, buy some of J.R.'s outstanding BBQ sauce and check out J.R.'s very popular blog.

The Local Promos on Briarbend Drive

Magnum T.A. and Tony Schiavone at the Briarbend Drive studio.
(Woody Smith Photo / Retro Charlotte / Charlotte Observer)

One of the studio locations rarely discussed here or anywhere else for that matter is the small makeshift studio on Briarbend Drive in Charlotte. Briarbend Drive is the fabled location of the offices of Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1980s.  It is also the scene of an infamous angle where the Four Horsemen jumped Dusty Rhodes in a parking lot in the months leading up to Starrcade '86.

But the office was also home to a small studio where the local promotional spots were taped each Tuesday. The spots were inserted into the syndicated "Mid-Atlantic/NWA Pro Wrestling" and "World Wide Wrestling" programs that were sent to markets across the territory, and later across the country.

Earlier, during the years these shows were taped at WRAL in Raleigh and WPCQ in Charlotte, the local promos were taped there in those same studios. But once Crockett moved his TV tapings out into the arenas in July of 1983 with the mobile production unit known as NEMO, they set up the small studio at Briarbend to do the marathon promo sessions there.

Tony Schiavone was the primary host of these promo sessions, but others hosted as well including David Crockett, Jackie Crockett, Big Bill Ward, and others.