Charlotte, NC

If you were living in Charlotte back in the 1960s, chances are you looked forward to Saturday afternoons so you could flip your dial to Channel 3 and watch the great Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. First hosted by “Big” Bill Ward, it presented television matches (from the WBTV studios) and had greats like George and Sandy Scott, Brute Bernard and Skull Murphy, George Becker and Johnny Weaver and, of course, the famous Great Bolos in its stable.

Every Saturday, the faithful would grab their soft drink or coffee, find a good seat on the couch and watch their favorites in televised action. Most viewers got really vocal about it, acting as though they were there in the bleachers instead of in front of their old Motorolas. Soon, they began broadcasting the show on Saturday nights, with Ward occasionally reminding us to “go to church this Sunday” before he signed off.
If a match ran “over the time limit,” the station would still fade the show and go to the “News” intro — but, before anchorman Bob Bean would finish the newscast, he gave us the result of the last match (the one that was faded).

The Mid-Atlantic era actually began to take off in the early 1970s, though, with names like Jimmy Valiant, Wahoo McDaniel, “#1″ Paul Jones, Jack Brisco … and a young upstart by the name of Ric Flair. Eventually, Ted Turner bought out the organization, transformed it into World Championship Wrestling (and moved the headquarters from Briabend Dr. here to Atlanta, Ga.) … and, as they say, the rest is history.

One of the things that made Mid-Atlantic great for so long (especially during its earliest days) was that it was family-friendly. No one had to worry about someone gigging (what we called “bleeding”) or cursing (the worst was when Big Boy Brown called his opponent a “refugee from a funeral home”). There were no bras or panties exposed on female wrestlers like Moolah or Penny Banner. And the storylines were solid. Not only that, but you had a chance to meet and greet the wrestlers personally, getting their autographs and/or pics made with them.

For years, after my short stint with Mid-Atlantic, I searched for wrestling organizations that would honor that same commitment (I mean, being family-friendly). When the WWF (now WWE) began bombarding the airways with their soap operas, more and more independent (”indie”) organizations began popping up around the country. I took an announcing stint with Championship Pro Wrestling, then one in Florida (until the promotion folded) — still looking for the same buzz that we had in Mid-Atlantic here.

Today, I commute back and forth as an announcer and publicist for Ohio Championship Wrestling based in Ashland, Kentucky. This show is the closest you can get to the old Mid-Atlantic days … in fact, some have said that all it lacks is the old MAW logo. Still, the old “glory days” are missed … and we here in Crown Town have to realize that, if we want that “family-friendly” type of show again, we’re gonna have to “make some noize” at some of the newer shows.

Of course, there are some great young “stallions” in the new Mid-Atlantic territory, and others, like my friends The Stro (formerly The Maestro with WCW) and WCW/SMW legend Bobby Blaze are proud of their Carolina Connection and the Charlotte area.
You see, they don’t all have to mimic WWE. If a promotion’s going to pattern themselves after another, why not the granddaddy of them all — because, after all, Mid-Atlantic Wrestling grew from a tiny studio gig into a tremendously popular organization … just by being family-friendly!