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January of 1979 saw the
immediate departure of one
of Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling’s most beloved
stars. Blackjack Mulligan,
who had endured nine months
of Bounty Matches at the
hands of Ric Flair and his
surrogates, left the
Mid-Atlantic area during the
first week in January.
Mulligan lost a brutal
“Lights Out—Not Sanctioned
By the NWA” match to his
arch enemy, big John Studd,
at the Richmond Coliseum in
Richmond, Virginia on
January 5th. In the coming
months, Studd would claim
this match was where he
collected Flair’s $10,000
bounty as it was Blackjack’s
last match in the territory.
Mulligan would dispute this,
saying Studd didn’t run him
out of the area and that he
was just taking some time
away from wrestling,
including visiting Willie
Nelson in the Colorado
Rockies!
Prior to the Richmond
“Lights Out” bout on January
5th, Mulligan dropped
another match to Studd in
Fayetteville, North Carolina
on New Year’s Day. On
January 2nd at the Township
Auditorium in Columbia,
South Carolina, Ken Patera
pinned Mulligan to retain
his Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Championship belt.
Mulligan’s losing streak
continued as he dropped a
heated battle with Ric Flair
on January 4th in
Fisherville, Virginia.
As Blackjack was leaving the
area, a familiar face took
his place on the “good guy”
side. Canadian Champion Dino
Bravo came back into the
Mid-Atlantic area, after
having been absent from the
territory for approximately
a year and a half. Dino was
greeted back to the
territory by announcer Bob
Caudle, on the Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling
television show that was
taped from the WRAL TV
studios on January 10th.
Dino told the fans that he
was the proud holder of the
Canadian Heavyweight Title,
having defeated former NWA
World Heavyweight Champion
Gene Kiniski for that honor.
Bravo made his return to the
area’s arenas in an exciting
match against Greg
Valentine, defeating the
“Hammer” in Palmyra,
Virginia on January 11th. In
fact, Bravo was undefeated
in the month of January,
looking sharp and extremely
impressive in the process.
In addition to his first
match back in the area
against Valentine in
Palmyra, Dino also defeated
Greg at the Township
Auditorium in Columbia on
January 16th, at the
Richmond Coliseum on January
19th and at the Charlotte
Coliseum in Charlotte, North
Carolina on January 28th.
Bravo also had an
interesting match in
Toronto, Canada during the
month. Jim Crockett
Promotions was now sending
its talent into Canada, and
it was making for some very
interesting cards! On
January 14th in the Maple
Leaf Gardens, Bravo battled
Nick Bockwinkel for Nick’s
AWA Heavyweight Title. Dino
controlled the action in
that bout, but Bockwinkel
retained his belt by
throwing Bravo over the top
rope, resulting in a
disqualification. This
blockbuster card in Toronto
was supposed to have Harley
Race defending his NWA
World’s Heavyweight Title
against U.S. Champion Ricky
Steamboat, but Race had
flight problems in Chicago
and couldn’t get into
Toronto. Steamboat agreed to
defend his United States
Heavyweight Championship
instead, and allowed both
halves of the Mid-Atlantic
Tag Team Champions, Ken
Patera and John Studd, to
flip a coin and the winner
would face Ricky for the
U.S. belt. Studd won the
flip of the coin, but was
summarily dispatched by
Steamboat! Patera and Studd
did join forces earlier in
the card to defeat the
tandem of Tony Atlas and Jay
Youngblood.
On the Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling
television show that was
taped at the WRAL TV studios
on January 3rd, Ricky
Steamboat was announced to
the viewing audience as the
new United States
Heavyweight Champion. Ricky
had a very active month in
January, defending his
recently won Title many
times. Ricky’s primary
challengers were his former
tag team partner, Paul
Jones, and the man he
defeated for the
Championship at the end of
December, “Nature Boy” Ric
Flair.
Since Paul Jones was the NWA
Television Champion, the
U.S. Title bouts that
Steamboat and Jones wrestled
during the month of January
not only had Ricky’s U.S.
Title at stake, but also
Jones’ NWA Television
Championship was at risk for
the first fifteen minutes of
the match! This led to
interesting results in a
number of these matches,
where Steamboat would defeat
Jones and retain his U.S.
belt, but it taking longer
than fifteen minutes to
secure the win, thus
allowing Jones to still
emerge with his TV Title
intact throughout the month.
Steamboat came out on top of
Jones in U.S. Title bouts by
disqualification in Raleigh,
North Carolina on January
9th, by pinfall after the
fifteen minute mark had
expired in Roanoke, Virginia
on January 20th, again by
pinfall after the fifteen
minute mark had passed in a
No Disqualification bout in
Norfolk, Virginia on January
25th and on January 28th in
Greensboro, North Carolina
when both Jones and
Steamboat were disqualified
for fighting outside of the
ring.
Ricky also had his hands
plenty full defending the
U.S. Title against Ric Flair
during the month of January.
The Nature Boy was desperate
to regain his prestigious
belt, but Steamboat was up
for the challenge. Ricky
pinned Flair in Columbia on
January 7th and again in
Asheville, North Carolina on
January 15th. The two came
back the next night for a
Columbia rematch in a
grueling 2 out of 3 falls
Title bout, with Ricky
prevailing after an
exhausting contest. Closing
out the month, Steamboat
took the measure of Flair in
a U.S. Title match in
Richmond on January 19th,
and also defeated the Nature
Boy by disqualification in
the Charlotte Coliseum on
January 28th.
Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Champion Ken Patera had
several noteworthy battles
over his Title belt during
the month of January,
particularly during the
first week of the New Year!
And it began in earnest on
New Year’s Day, when Ken
battled fellow strongman
Tony Atlas to a rugged one
hour draw in Fayetteville.
After dispatching Blackjack
Mulligan the next night in
Columbia, Ken had a bitter
battle over the Mid-Atlantic
Heavyweight Championship
against Johnny Weaver in
Charleston, South Carolina
on January 5th. These two
apparently couldn’t get
enough of each other, as
they battled again two
nights later in Charlotte,
with Ken eking out a hard
fought victory.
Later in the month, Patera
was taken to the limit by
“Superfly” Jimmy Snuka in
their Mid-Atlantic Title
bout in Anderson, South
Carolina. In this wild
encounter, Ken retained his
belt when he and Snuka
battled uncontrollably
outside the ring, leading to
both combatants being
disqualified. Patera rounded
out his month by having an
equally wild title bout with
familiar foe Tony Atlas in
Charlotte. In this bruising
battle, Ken was
disqualified, enabling him
to retain his Mid-Atlantic
Championship Title
throughout the month.
In addition to holding onto
his Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight
Championship belt during
January, Patera was also
teaming with his partner,
big John Studd, periodically
during the month. This
imposing duo successfully
defended their Mid-Atlantic
Tag Team Titles during the
month, and also found time
to challenge for the World
Tag Team Championship in
January! On January 12th at
the Lynchburg Armory in
Lynchburg, Virginia, Studd
and Patera maintained hold
of their Titles despite
stiff opposition from
challengers Tony Atlas and
Skip Young.
Patera and Studd received
three shots at World Tag
Team Champions Paul Orndorff
and Jimmy Sunka in January,
and all three were
barnburners! Both teams were
disqualified during an all
out war in Fayetteville on
January 15th. After an
equally bitter title
encounter at County Hall in
Charleston on January 19th,
the two teams returned to
the Palmetto state on
January 23rd. In Columbia’s
Township Auditorium Snuka
and Orndorff won a very
exciting bout, where the
final result was in doubt
until the very end.
In addition to the battles
with Ken Patera and John
Studd, NWA World Tag Team
Champions Paul Orndorff and
Jimmy Snuka had a
magnificent series of Title
bouts with the vicious team
of Ric Flair and Greg
Valentine during the month
of January. With Baron Von
Raschke suspended by the NWA
for the entire month of
January, due to the Baron’s
actions when he and Greg
lost the World Tag Team
Titles to Snuka and Orndorff
on December 26, 1978,
Valentine hooked up with his
former tag team partner Ric
Flair in an attempt to
recapture the World Tag Team
Titles.
To put it mildly, Snuka and
Orndorff dominated Flair and
Valentine in January, and in
the process certainly
established themselves as
formidable World Tag Team
Champions. During the month,
Snuka and Orndorff defeated
Flair and Valentine cleanly
in Title matches in nearly
every major town in the
Mid-Atlantic area. These
victories occurred in
Richmond on January 5th,
Charlotte on January 7th,
Greenville, South Carolina
on January 8th, Greensboro
on January 13th and again on
January 28th, Lynchburg on
January 26th, Savannah,
Georgia on January 27th and
Columbia on January 30th.
The only “blemish” for the
Champions against Flair and
Valentine was a double
disqualification outcome at
the Norfolk Scope Coliseum
on January 25th.
January of 1979 was the
first full month where
“Number One” Paul Jones
wrestled exclusively on the
“bad guy” side of the fence.
And Jones’ actions never
ceased to amaze the
thousands of fans that had
pulled for him for so many
years. Taping his fingers
up, and driving them into
the throats of his
unsuspecting opponents,
became a staple for Paul
during the month.
In addition to Jones’ NWA TV
Title versus U.S. Title
bouts against Ricky
Steamboat in January, Paul
also had a number of
successful NWA TV Title
defenses in January against
top challengers Tony Atlas
and Paul Orndorff. Jones
slipped by Atlas on January
19th in Richmond when Paul
got purposely disqualified,
and escaped with Atlas in
Raleigh on January 23rd when
Jones got counted out of the
ring. Jones survived
Orndorff on January 18th in
Anderson when Orndorff
pinned Jones, but after the
fifteen minute mark. Jones
came back with a stronger
showing on January 28th in
the Charlotte Coliseum, when
he pinned Orndorff cleanly.
The end of the month saw a
very interesting challenge
take place on Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling
television. After a build up
of several weeks, Ric Flair
agreed to pay Ricky
Steamboat $10 for every
pound Steamboat could bench
press over 350 pounds. If
Steamboat couldn’t bench
press 350 pounds, Ricky
agreed to pay Ric $10 for
every pound under the 350
pound mark! On the
Mid-Atlantic TV show that
was taped in Raleigh on
January 24th, the sides were
drawn. Steamboat lifting,
seconded by his friend Dino
Bravo. Flair and his buddy,
and weightlifting expert Ken
Patera, were on hand hoping
to see Steamboat come up
short.
Steamboat successfully bench
pressed weights of 225, 275,
315, 365 and finally 415
pounds! The last lift
required a disbelieving
Flair to pay up to the tune
of $650! As Bravo laughed at
him, an enraged “Nature Boy”
said he would pay his debt,
but that he had a new
challenge. Flair said he
would pay out an additional
$1,000 if anybody on the
“good guy” side could lift
500 pounds! February would
start off with this new
challenge, and sparks would
surely fly when fans around
the area tuned into
Mid-Atlantic Championship
Wrestling on that first
Saturday in February!
WHO’S HOT
1. Jimmy Snuka & Paul
Orndorff---The World Tag
Team Champions proved their
worth in January of 1979,
summarily dispatching the
“dream team” of Ric Flair
and Greg Valentine. They
also had little trouble with
the dynamic duo of
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team
Champions Ken Patera and
John Studd. Yes, indeed,
Snuka and Orndorff were for
real!
2. Dino Bravo---Bravo
returned to the territory in
January as the Canadian
Heavyweight Champion, and
had a perfect won-loss
record during the month.
Bravo’s second stint in the
Mid-Atlantic area by all
early reviews had the look
of being a spectacular one.
3. Ricky Steamboat---Steamboat
was impressive in defending
his newly won U.S. Title
during the month, both
against former champion Ric
Flair, and against former
friend and partner Paul
Jones. Ricky even excelled
at weightlifting,
embarrassing Flair in a
weightlifting competition on
TV at the end of the month.
WHO’S NOT
1. Blackjack Mulligan---Mulligan
only lasted a few days into
January, dropping all of his
matches, and was out of the
Mid-Atlantic area before the
end of the first week of the
New Year. A brutal loss to
big John Studd in a Lights
Out Match sent the big man
from Eagle Pass, Texas into
a six month hiatus from
competing in the
Mid-Atlantic area.
2. Baron Von Raschke---The
Baron remained on the roster
in January, but was
completely inactive, serving
a suspension doled out by
the NWA after he put the
piledriver on referee Tommy
Young after he and Greg
Valentine lost the World Tag
Team Titles on December 26,
1978. Valentine had a tough
January with the Baron on
the shelf, and one had to
wonder what to expect from
Raschke when he returned.
3. Ric Flair---The
Nature Boy was frustrated in
his attempts to win the U.S.
Title back from Ricky
Steamboat, and there was no
magic left when he teamed
back up with Greg Valentine
in an attempt to recapture
tag team glory. Flair was
reduced to getting involved
in a silly weightlifting
challenge…which did nothing
but embarrass him on
television.
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© 2010 David Chappell
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Published 12/1/10
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