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After the tumultuous month
of April 1978, things
settled down a little bit in
the month of May in the
Mid-Atlantic area. However,
the repercussions from April
reverberated throughout May.
And at the core of the
events that defined May of
1978 was the split between
Ric Flair and Blackjack
Mulligan, with Ric putting a
$10,000 bounty on
Blackjack’s head, which
occurred just a few weeks
before in April.
The month of May was
Blackjack Mulligan’s first
full month as a good guy.
And May was a month where
Blackjack teamed up with
many of his former enemies.
Some of those pairings were
hard to believe! For
instance, on May 5, 1978 in
the Richmond Coliseum,
Mulligan tagged with former
rival Paul Jones to defeat
the Masked Superstar and
Baron von Raschke. It was
only a couple of years
before that Mulligan and
Jones were battling over the
prestigious United States
Heavyweight Title. In a
promo that aired prior to
the May 5th match in
Richmond, even Paul Jones
seemed amazed that he was
going to team with Mulligan.
Jones told Mulligan and the
viewing audience that
Superstar and Raschke were
“like vultures, trying to
collect that $10, 000. I
don’t think a man should
have a price on his head.
I’ll help you…I’ll help
you.”
Another former enemy that
Blackjack teamed up with
during the month of May was
Chief Wahoo McDaniel. On May
2, 1978, Mulligan and
McDaniel joined forces to
defeat Greg Valentine and
Baron Von Raschke at the
Dorton Arena in Raleigh,
North Carolina. And two
weeks later at the Dorton
Arena, Mulligan teamed with
Wahoo and another Texan,
Sensational Dick Murdock, to
defeat the trio of Ric
Flair, Greg Valentine and
the Masked Superstar.
Mulligan even got help from
the man he battled with over
the United States Title at
the beginning of 1978, Ricky
Steamboat. In the Greensboro
Coliseum on May 6, 1978,
Mulligan and Steamboat
teamed to battle the
money-hungry duo of the
Masked Superstar and Baron
von Raschke. While not
collecting the bounty for
Ric Flair that night,
Superstar and Raschke dealt
out their fair share of
punishment on Mulligan that
evening.
Greg Valentine was the
primary bad guy to go after
Blackjack and the $10,000
bounty in individual matches
during the month of May. On
May 13th in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, Mulligan and
Valentine clashed in a
bitter Bounty Match. And on
May 30, 1978 in Columbia,
South Carolina, Mulligan
defeated Valentine in a
particularly rugged bout,
where Blackjack lost large
amounts of blood.
United States Heavyweight
Champion Ric Flair had a
number of his cronies run
interference for him with
Blackjack Mulligan during
the month of May, but Ric
did have time to defend his
U.S. belt several times
during the month. On May
23rd, Ric defended his U.S.
Title successfully against
Dick Murdock, escaping with
his belt by purposely
getting himself
disqualified. Then on May
26th in Charlottesville,
Virginia, the Nature Boy
successfully defended his
Championship by outlasting
his old nemesis, Chief Wahoo
McDaniel.
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Champion Ken Patera was
successful in holding onto
his championship in his
first full month as
champion. Patera primarily
defended his Title against
Wahoo McDaniel, the man who
he defeated for the
Championship in April. The
self-proclaimed World’s
Strongest Wrestler held onto
his Championship against
Wahoo in action packed bouts
on May 6th in Greensboro,
May 9th in Raleigh and on
May 17th in Rocky Mount,
North Carolina. Later in the
month of May, Patera began
defending against other
worthy opponents. One
particularly grueling
defense for Patera later in
the month of May was against
Dick Murdock on May 28th in
Greensboro.
May was also the first full
month as champions for NWA
World’s Tag Team Champions
Paul Jones and Ricky
Steamboat. Jones and
Steamboat had several
noteworthy defenses in May
against former World Tag
Team Champions Ric Flair and
Greg Valentine. On May 14th
in Asheville, North
Carolina, Flair and
Valentine really pushed
Jones and Steamboat to the
limit, but the new champs
managed to escape with their
belts intact. Jones and
Steamboat also defended
their World Tag Team straps
against other worthy
opponents during the month
of May. Two particularly
tough, but successful
defenses were against the
duo of the Masked Superstar
and Cyclone Negro on May 9th
in Columbia, South Carolina,
and against the pairing of
Greg Valentine and Baron von
Raschke in Harrisonburg,
Virginia on May 11th.
A rare event happened in May
of 1978, as Paul Jones and
Ricky Steamboat held BOTH
the NWA World’s Tag Team
Titles AND the Mid-Atlantic
Tag Team Titles for the
entirety of the month of
May. Jones and Steamboat
never defended the
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles
during May, and it became
unclear what the status of
the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team
Titles would become.
NWA Television Champion
Baron von Raschke had an
active month in May
defending his belt that he
won about a month earlier
from Johnny Weaver. The
Baron risked his TV Title
for the first 15 minutes of
any singles match, and on
many occasions the Baron was
fighting the clock as much
as his opponent! Raschke’s
most frequent opponent in
the month of May was
probably Dick Murdock. The
Baron and Murdock had tough
battles over the TV Title in
Charlotte, North Carolina on
May 14th, Anderson, South
Carolina on May 18th and in
Charlottesville, Virginia on
May 26th. But Paul Jones may
have come the closest to
dethroning the Baron, coming
within an eyelash of
defeating the big German on
May 30th in Raleigh. But
through it all, Raschke came
out of the month of May with
his TV Title intact.
An old friend to many came
back through the
Mid-Atlantic area for a
brief visit at the end of
the month of May. Rufus R.
“Freight Train” Jones
travelled around the
territory at the tail end of
the month, delighting his
many fans that had followed
him for years. On May 28th,
Rufus battled in two of his
familiar venues. That
afternoon in Roanoke,
Virginia, the Freight Train
lost to Cyclone Negro, due
to interference by Negro’s
manager, the Missouri
Mauler. Later that evening
in Greensboro, Rufus teamed
with Tony Atlas and that duo
went to a Double DQ with
Negro and Baron von Raschke.
Then Rufus travelled down to
Columbia, South Carolina, on
May 30th, where he and
Johnny Weaver took the
measure of Mr. X # 1 and Mr.
X # 2.
May of 1978 also saw an odd
occurrence on May 7th in
Savannah, Georgia, where
four masked men faced each
other in the same match! Mr.
Wrestling Tim Woods teamed
up with Georgia star Mr.
Wrestling II, to down the
tandem of Mr. X # 1 and Mr.
X # 2 in a wild encounter.
Overall, May 1978 saw a
great deal of carryover from
the cataclysmic events of
April! Blackjack Mulligan
held on, despite the best
efforts of Ric Flair to put
the big Texan out of
commission. And while all
the area’s titles stayed
with their respective
holders, there was no
shortage of action and near
misses. With the roster
staying stable through the
month, it appeared the
summer of 1978 was going to
be a very heated one in the
Mid-Atlantic area!
WHO’S HOT
1. KEN PATERA---In his first
full month as a bad guy,
Patera looked quite imposing
as he successfully defended
his Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Title. The blond strongman
looked especially impressive
in knocking off Wahoo
McDaniel in numerous bouts,
making the Indian look
pedestrian in several of
those encounters.
2. TONY ATLAS---The
muscleman from Roanoke,
Virginia surely appeared to
be coming into his own as a
legitimate star in May of
1978. Anybody who saw Tony
as a mid-carder in the
Mid-Atlantic area in
1975-76, surely noticed a
huge improvement in Tony’s
confidence and in-ring work.
3. BARON VON RASCHKE---The
Baron continued to
successfully hold onto his
NWA TV Title during the
month of May. Raschke was
particularly impressive in
holding off the challenge
from Sensational Dick
Murdock.
WHO’S NOT
1. BLACKJACK
MULLIGAN---Despite avoiding
having Ric Flair’s $10,000
bounty collected against
him, it’s hard to imagine
that Blackjack didn’t have a
very tough month. And the
bumps and bruises from the
bounty hunters were just
getting started.
2. MR. WRESTLING---Tim Woods
continued to be in a bit of
a funk during the month of
May 1978. Clearly, the loss
of the U.S. Title to Ric
Flair back in April took a
lot out of the masked man.
3. WAHOO
McDANIEL---Similarly,
Wahoo’s loss of the
Mid-Atlantic Title in April
to Ken Patera took a lot of
starch out of the Indian.
Wahoo came up short in
multiple title opportunities
against Patera during the
month of May.
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©
2008 David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Published 07/7/08
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