It would be a position he would hold for the next several years. The revival of a brand of pro wrestling that was the forerunner throughout the 70s & 80s. McMahon also guaranteed jobs with the WWF for the Briscos; Jerry Brisco remained with WWF/WWE before suffering three strokes in 2009. Smirnoff > NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Les Thornton* vs. Kevin Sullivan > the Freebirds (01) (Terry Gordy . 2/7/61 World Championship Wrestling was a program featuring the "rasslin'" style of wrestling, that emphasized a more athletic product and put less emphasis on cartoonish gimmicks. 1/1/69 Walker made a name for himself, working with NWA promoter Paul Boesch out of Houston but opted to start a family and retired as a young man just ten years after his debut. If you have not purchased your USA card please do ASAP. Jones was so infirmed by this time (he died in 1988) that Gunkel effectively ran the promotion. 11/7/70 , 7/5/67 3/5/70 11/17/55 6/30/61 1/25/70 Before they joined the NWA, they were a member. Georgia Tag Team title (1968-1980) 3/19/70 1/21/57 1/30/70 2/25/57 1/7/57 The two sometimes ran shows against the NWA Detroit brand periodically but mostly kept within the confines of the organizations umbrella. 2022-2023 FOLKSTYLE TOURNAMENT INFORMATION, 7:00 Weighs in for 12/14U State and 8/10U Novice - -MUST BE IN LINE AT 7AM -. 1/1/69 DVD $8.00 Buy It Now +$3.60 shipping 5 watchers Sponsored GEORGIA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING HOUSE SHOWS 1981-82 PRO WRESTLING DVD (W-992) Championship vacated for unknown reasons. The Garvins, Ronny and Terry, also held the titles in the early 70s and battled with Bullet Bob Armstrong and Robert Fuller until a new pair of heels took the title scene and made it their playground. Though he got his break in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, it was in Georgia Championship Wrestling that he really made his mark on the NWA. By Coach Chad Smith Noah Stutler, a 8th grade wrestler for Bainbridge Middle School and also a Junior Varsity starter for the Bainbridge High School wrestling team competed at the Georgia All Freshman State Competition yesterday in Atlanta. 2/21/67 7/8/55 Georgia Championship Wrestling's first weekly television series had premiered on then-WTCG in 1972 when station owner Ted Turner purchased the rights to air the program from station WQXI. Mid-South Sports's longterm prospects were not good at that point, most of their wrestlers had gone with Ann, and Ann's promotion had gotten Mid-South's television time slot, though both promotions aired on WTCG. It was a regular stop-off for the NWA Champion, but they maintained their own set of NWA-branded Georgia championships. 11/26/56 9/23/61 In 1984, the Brisco brothers sold their stock in GCW to McMahon for $900,000. The promotion was affiliated with what had been the world's top sanctioning body of championship titles for decades before, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and ran live wrestling shows throughout its geographic "territory" of Georgia. 7/20/61 , 1/7/55 Shows were taped before a small (yet enthusiastic), live in-studio audience, as were most professional wrestling TV shows of that era. 1/2/68 2/4/70 3/17/44 The WWF's style of wrestling sharply differed from that of GCW, with the WWF featuring cartoonish characters and storylines and squash matches and GCW featuring more athletic competition. 11/15/69 Gerald Brisco (19741984) 2/18/70 7/2/69 6/21/69 Trending pages Lars Anderson Hulk Hogan A.J. It can be purchased here:https://www.usawmembership.com/login. 10/15/57 There have been a total of 13 recognized individual champions and 8 recognized teams, who have had a combined 10 official reigns. Lots of Buzz Sawyer though, for the people that like him.Match listing:Buzz . 1/18/70 GCW was one of the most powerful wrestling promotions in the NWA. History of Spies Once back on American soil, Barnett was involved with the wrestling business full bore, and things started to turn around for Watts and his Mid-South one-off. 3/12/61 Hulk Hogans Rock n Wrestling | When Wrasslin Shifted to Entertainment, Gorgeous George and the Don Eagle Chicago Short Count Screwjob, Freddie Blassie The Truth (and Somewhere In-Between). Shipping calculated at checkout. Though he had a tough time getting his product out there as easily as he thought, things began to pick up swiftly. While Barnett still held stock, it was less than even Ole, so they all thought they were in fairly safe waters, but McMahon smelled the stench of a dying animal and went in for blood like any good predator. 1/16/67 6/3/61 The final champion was Angelo Mosca and the title was eventually abandoned after 1979. Join Al Getz as he looks at all the known house shows for Georgia Championship Wrestling for a one-week period in 1971. 12/7/62 However, once he paired with Renesto, the team of The Assassins tore through the Southern and Southeastern wrestling area and left no prisoners in their wake. The Georgia Tag Team Championships also saw more than its fair share of action in the late 70s and into the 80s. However, the story of its heyday really begins in 1944, with the first cards held by promoter Paul Jones. The NWA Georgia Television Championship shuffled around a lot, but it also gave many wrestlers the chance to make it their own and push their careers in the process. Please make sure you are signing up for the correct tournament. He brawled his way through the Georgia heavyweight division, capturing the title four times during his time there, and he unified his belt with the newly formed NWA National Heavyweight Championship in September 1981. 1/17/57 8/30/61 9/12/69 6/4/68 1/21/70 Secondly, Southerners resented the symbolism of a "Yankee" company coming down from the North and "taking over" their wrestling. Parade Of Champions Once Barnett sold, The Briscos were quick to follow, leaving Paul Jones little choice but to scramble and get what he could out of his piece of the pie. 1/28/70 2/17/70 9/14/62 In 1955, Barnett leveraged his way into the Chicago promotion and bought into the NWA franchise. Both images show the WTBS Techwood Drive studios on the right and Alexander Memorial . 1/26/70 Wrestlers can not be addedafterregistrationcloses. 4/27/63 , 8/14/50 10/24/67 Alongside the new spot at the Omni, Ted Turner also secured the rights to produce wrestling for his WTCG station that would eventually morph into the TBS cable station. Click here to send us your information. Later in 1984, McMahon decided that, as part of his continued expansion, the WWF needed a second national cable outlet for its weekly programming. The show featured wrestling matches, plus melodramatic monologues and inter-character confrontationssimilar to the programming offered by other territories, including the Northeast-based World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). 10/28/55 1/30/61 Savannah, Georgia is steeped in U.S. history as much as it is the wrestling business. 1/27/70 superstar sgt. To register for novice tournaments you must be a first or second year wrestler, you can not have placed at kids state. Walker would also travel to the transplanted Mid-South territory in the early 80s to work, and while he was there, he trained a few names that would change the business: "Magnum TA" Terry Allen and Rick Rude, among others. 12/6/53 7 min read. Wrestling is perhaps the purest form of athletic competition to exist in the realm of organized sports. 2/7/67 The Genius Cast with Lanny Poffo (2018-19), HOMAGE.com Our favorite in retro wrestling attire! 5/10/63 1/17/67 Rich defeated Harley Race for the NWA Heavyweight Championship in April of 1981, only to lose the title back to Race four days later. 8/21/57 10/23/57 Event Name: WTCG would become a satellite-distributed superstation in 1976, change its call letters to WTBS in 1979, and became WPCH-TV after its over-the-air Atlanta-area signal was spun off from the national TBS cable channel in 2007. 9/16/55 On June 23, 2018, a tribute event to the late Bill Dromo was held in Carrollton, Georgia. The WWF version of the show received somewhat lower Nielsen ratings than its NWA-associated forerunner. Tributes: Remembering Some of the World's Greatest Wrestlers, "End of an era on TBS Solie, Georgia and 'Black Saturday', "Full List Of WWE Network Additions (07/12/2018): Historic WWE Network Hidden Gem, Smackdown, and More! In addition, WWF World Championship Wrestling was mainly used as a re-cap show, featuring matches which had previously aired on the WWF's main programming venues such as WWF Championship Wrestling and WWF All-Star Wrestling. Jackson most regularly worked with GCW based out of Atlanta and Continental Championship Wrestling based out of Dothan, Ala., as well as working TV tapings for . 12/30/60 After documenting 9 house shows durin. 11/6/57 As the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion headed into 1972, some major changes were set into motion. Austin Idol is still in the aftermath of breaking Tommy Rich's leg plus other great moments from that day at TBS Studios 10/7/55 4/16/68 While GCW's programming had a loyal fan base and was fairly popular, things were not as great for the promotion behind the scenes. National Tag Team title (1980-1986) Crockett, who had just bought out Championship Wrestling from Georgia, bought the World Championship Wrestling program from McMahon for $1 million and returned NWA programming to TBS. It opened the door for more nationalization of contracts and the shuffling of top-tier talents between the existing NWA promotions. Thank you for keeping up with us in this series as we delve into the history of the wrestling territories. 1/27/66 12/2/60 In 1983, Barnett was edged out of any shot calling in GCW through politicking and backroom dealings. This does not mean by any chance, though, that those divisions cooled down. GCW's core audience began writing and calling TBS in droves,[3] furious over the fact that GCW was no longer airing on the station and demanding to know why. 2/27/50 4/14/70 1/7/57 Current name: Georgia Championship Wrestling Current abbreviation: GCW Status: Inactive Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA Active Time: 1944 - 1984 Details Names: Georgia Championship Wrestling (1944 - 14.07.1984) Abbreviations: GCW Owners: Vince McMahon (1984) Gerald Brisco, Jack Brisco, Ole Anderson & Paul Jones (1983 - 1984) Georgia Championship Wrestling was formed in Atlanta in 1944 by promoter Paul Jones (retired wrestler Andrew Lutzi, not Paul Frederik who later was given the name) as ABC Booking. Georgia Championship Wrestling alumni Category page Edit this page This category is for all wrestlers who have wrestled in Georgia Championship Wrestling at some point within their career. GCW's program was hosted by NWA announcer Gordon Solie, who also hosted programs for various other NWA affiliated promotions at the time (such as Championship Wrestling from Florida). 10/29/68 1/24/69 9/4/57 He ended his time in Georgia with a series of matches against Ted DiBiase, where he lost his title and began wrestling under the mask against DiBiase as Mr. R. Tommy wrapped up his time in GCW in 1984 before he headed on to Memphis. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The Top Ten in All Areas of Pro Wrestling, The Longest Running Pro Wrestling Columnist, Dave Meltzer, Mike Mooneyham, Steve Yohe, Tim Hornbaker, Greg Oliver, Bill Apter, Karl Stern, Scott Teal, wrestlingclassics.com, wwe.com, kayfabememories.com, wrestling-titles.com, The Lapsed Fan podcast, 6:05 Superpodcast, Great Black Heroes McMahon promised the GCW fans who were tuned in that they would enjoy his new program just as much. 10/14/55 8/20/59 2/18/44 10/14/55 1/2/59 , 1/9/50 2/21/70 In 1979, Austin Idol made his bid for the belt and took it from Ray Candy, and captured it two more times by the end of 1980, feuding with Tommy Rich and Kevin Sullivan, who held it three times himself. 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