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NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship
The NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship was the major title in the Georgia Championship Wrestling professional wrestling promotion. It started in 1964 and was unified in 1981 with the NWA National Heavyweight Championship. The title was picked back up in 1998 by NWA Georgia, which became NWA Wildside in September 1999 when it merged with National Championship Wrestling. Along with this change, the championship became known as the NWA Wildside Heavyweight Championship. The title continued until Wildside ceased operations on April 30, 2005. In 2012, NWA Action (later renamed NWA Atlanta) picked up the title and restored its original name. Cru Jones won the reactivated title by defeating Steve Stiles on June 23, 2012, in Stockbridge, Georgia Stockbridge is a city in Henry County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 25,637, up from 9,853 in 2000. Stockbridge is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. History The area was settled in 1829 when Con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Wrestling Alliance
The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling promotion and former professional wrestling governing body operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA began as a governing body for a group of regional professional wrestling promotions, the heads of which made up the Board of Directors. The group operated a territory system which sanctioned their own company championships while recognizing a singular world champion who defended his title across all the territories, participated in talent exchanges, and collectively protected the territorial integrity of member promotions. Prior to the 1960s it acted as the sole governing body for most of professional wrestling. It remained the largest and most influential body in wrestling until the mid-1980s by which time most of the original member promotions went out of business as a result of the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) national expansion. In September 1993, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dale Lewis (wrestler)
Dale Folsom Lewis (August 29, 1933 – August 30, 1997) was an American wrestler who competed in the Greco-Roman heavyweight division at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. He won the 1959 Pan-American Games in this event. Championships and accomplishments *American Wrestling Association **AWA Nebraska Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **AWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) ** AWA Midwest Tag Team Championship ( 3 times) - with Stan Pulaski (2) and Francis St. Claire (1) * George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame ** Class of 2007 * Georgia Championship Wrestling ** NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (1 time) * St. Louis Wrestling Club ** NWA United National Championship (1 time) *Championship Wrestling From Florida ** NWA Brass Knuckles Championship (Florida version) 2 times ** NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) * World Championship Wrestling (Australia) **NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Championship The NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Championship was th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Muraco
Don Muraco (born September 10, 1949) is an American retired professional wrestler and podcaster. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation from 1981 to 1988, where he held the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship on two occasions and was crowned the inaugural winner of the King of the Ring tournament in 1985. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004 and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2014. Professional wrestling career Early career (1970–1981) Muraco was born at Sunset Beach, Oahu, Hawaii in 1949 and is of Native Hawaiian heritage. A Hawaii state amateur wrestling champion for Punahou School in 1967, Muraco chose professional wrestling over football. He spent the first year of his career learning the ropes in Vancouver, Portland, Florida and Los Angeles before getting his first big break, for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA).Don's actual height was 6 feet tall and he weighed in around 25 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harley Race
Harley Leland Race (April 11, 1943 – August 1, 2019) was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and trainer. Race wrestled in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was an eight time world champion, having won the WWA World Heavyweight Championship once and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship seven times and was the first NWA United States Heavyweight Champion (now WWE United States Championship). Race is one of six men to have been inducted into each of the WWE Hall of Fame, the NWA Hall of Fame, the WCW Hall of Fame, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. Early life Race was born in Quitman, Missouri on April 11, 1943. Race was an early fan of professional wrestling, watching programming from the nearby Chicago territory on the DuMont Television Network. After overcoming ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Fuller (wrestler)
Ronald Welch (born March 3, 1948) is a retired professional wrestler and manager better known by his ring names Ron Fuller and Tennessee Stud. He is the elder brother of Robert Fuller ("Col. Robert Parker").Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.119) The brothers co-owned Continental Championship Wrestling for a time. Career history At 6'9", Fuller was a basketball stand-out at Briarcliff High School in Atlanta and won a scholarship to the University of Miami where he was a three-year letterman. Upon graduation, he followed in his family's footsteps and became a professional wrestler. He started out with his grandfather and father's promotion in Tennessee and eventually bought it out. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Fuller expanded his territory from Tennessee to the Florida panhandle, naming it Southeastern Championship Wrestling and making it a "hot spot" for Southern wrestling. In the early 1980s, Fuller wore a mask and called himself the "Tennessee St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Watts
William F. Watts Jr. (born May 5, 1939) is a retired American professional wrestler, promoter and former American football player. Watts garnered fame under his "Cowboy" gimmick in his wrestling career, and then as a promoter in the Mid-South United States, which grew to become the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). In 1992, Watts was the Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) but after clashes with management over a number of issues, as well as feeling pressure from Hank Aaron over a racially insensitive interview, he resigned. He was subsequently replaced by Ole Anderson. In 1995, Watts briefly worked as a booker for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 2009, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Football career Watts played as a linebacker for his high school football team, the Putnam City Pirates. Bud Wilkinson recruited him to play for the Oklahoma Sooners, where he played as a guard during his sophomore and junior years. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invader II
Roberto Soto (born September 12, 1948) is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Invader II. Soto was one-half of the tag team "The Invaders" with Invader I. Professional wrestling career Although competing primarily in the Puerto Rican-based World Wrestling Council with González, Soto would also wrestle in International World Class Championship Wrestling and Continental Championship Wrestling during the 1980s. In 1988, he was among those present when wrestler Bruiser Brody was stabbed to death by Soto's tag team partner José González while at a WWC event in San Juan, Puerto Rico and interpreted for American wrestlers after police officers arrived on the scene. Competing in Japan during the 1990s, he would later return to the WWC teaming with Invader III in a feud against González . However, their alliance was short-lived, with Soto eventually defeating Invader III in a mask vs. mask match at WWC Anniversary on August 1, 1998. Championships ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Griffin, Georgia
Griffin is a city in and the county seat of Spalding County, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,478. Griffin was founded in 1840 and named for landowner Col. Lewis Lawrence Griffin. Griffin Technical College was located in Griffin from 1963 and a branch of Southern Crescent Technical College is in Griffin. The Griffin Synodical Female College was established by Presbyterians, but closed.Florence Fleming Corley, "The Presbyterian Quest: Higher Education for Georgia Women," ''American Presbyterians,'' 1991, Vol. 69 Issue 2, pp 83-96 The University of Georgia maintains a branch campus in Griffin. History The Macon and Western Railroad was extended to a new station in Griffin in 1842. In 1938, Alma Lovell had been distributing religious Bible tracts as a Jehovah's Witness but was arrested for violating a city ordinance requiring prior permission for distributing literature. In '' Lovell v. City of Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Gunkel
Raymond Fred "Ray" Gunkel (February 16, 1924 - August 1, 1972) was an American amateur and professional wrestler and promoter in the state of Georgia. Gunkel was a two-time AAU national champion and, as a professional, a three-time NWA Texas Heavyweight Champion. He died of heart trauma after a match in Savannah, Georgia in which he defeated Ox Baker. Amateur wrestling career Gunkel was born on February 16, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Kelvyn Park High School before attending Purdue University. He competed on the university's wrestling and football teams. As an All-American wrestler, he was undefeated in his junior and senior years and helped his team win the Big Ten Conference twice. As an individual, he finished second in the NCAA final to Dick Hutton. He also won the Amateur Athletic Union national championship in both 1947 and 1948. Professional wrestling career Texas Gunkel originally wanted to become a teacher, but he entered professional wrestling immediat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Blassie
Frederick Kenneth Blassman (February 8, 1918 – June 2, 2003) was an American professional wrestler and manager, known by the ring name "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Renowned as "The Hollywood Fashion Plate","Classy" Freddie Blassie with Keith Elliot Greenberg, ''Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks'', (WWE Books, 2003). he was a one-time NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, and was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1994. He is regarded as one of the greatest wrestling heels, or villains, of all time. Early life Blassie was born Frederick Kenneth Blassman in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1918. His parents, Anna (née Sind) and Jacob Blassman, were German immigrants who arrived in the United States prior to World War I. Frederick was an only child, which he claimed was because he weighed 15 pounds when he was born and his mother didn't want to go through childbirth again. His father was abusive and an alcoholic, and Frederick often had to take refuge with his grandparents whenever Jacob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddy Colt
Ron Read (January 13, 1936 – March 5, 2021), known professionally as Buddy Colt, Ty Colt and "Cowboy" Ron Reed, was an American professional wrestler who worked in NWA promotions including the St. Louis Wrestling Club, Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling. Among others, he won the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship seven times, the NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship four and the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship once. Professional wrestling career Trained by Killer Karl Krupp, Buddy Colt made his pro wrestling debut in 1962 in Nick Gulas and Bob Welch's NWA Mid-America in the Tennessee region, worked under the name “Cowboy” Ron Reed. Aside from NWA Mid-America, he also worked St. Louis Wrestling Club, went to the West Coast to work for the World Wrestling Alliance (WWA) where he was renamed Ty Colt. In 1969, he renamed to Buddy Colt working NWA Western States, the Amarillo, Texas promotion run by the Funk family, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four Weekly'' website in 2008, becoming ''Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online''. Issues are offered in print and digital. The newsletter is often considered the first " dirt sheet", which is a wrestling publication which covers the art from a real-life perspective. History The beginnings of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' date back to 1980, when Meltzer began an annual poll amongst those with whom he corresponded regarding professional wrestling. According to Meltzer, he was just a fan at first. A short time later, he began maintaining a tape-trading list, and would occasionally send match results and news updates along with tape updates. Meltzer stated that he wanted to keep his friends in college "in the loop" for his tape trading a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
