Welcome to the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel Daily Chronicle. The daily newsletter for an injection of events that happened on this day and relative time frames in Territory Pro Wrestling History
Thanks Tony! This article brought back a lot of good memories for me. I started watching Live Atlanta Wrestling when I was about four years old. I grew up in Athens GA and we were on Paul Jones circuit with live wrestling every Thursday night. I was amazed by seeing the stars that once I had only seen on television. It was always a big deal when Paul Jones come on the TV to talk with Ed Capital about the upcoming Friday night card in Atlanta. I will always remember the excitement when Jones would announce the world champion Dory Funk Jr Would be in Atlanta next Friday night! On very rare occasions they also send the world champion to Athens on Thursdays before the big event on Friday in Atlanta. Thanks again for bringing back some wonderful memories.
Charles thank you so much for sharing your memories of these days with me and all of us here in the Time Tunnel Communiry. I have a question for you! What was the biggest match in your opinion you ever got to see in Athens?
Wow that's hard to say. I would estimate over a period of 20 years I witnessed approximately 400 to 500 matches in Athens under four or five different promotions.
I do recall seeing four world title matches. 1974 Ernie Ladd defended what I think was the WWA or ICW title against ox Baker on Ann Gunkle card. 1977 Terry funk defending against Mr wrestling 2 around 19 80.81 Harley race defending against Tommy Rich. In 1987 Ric flair defending against Dusty Rhodes. Out of those four the best wrestling match was Race and Rich.
Really enjoyed this. In most conversations I've read or heard about the Atlanta territory, Jones has been sort of relegated to sort of figurehead status. Nice to see him get some proper attention for his accomplishments.
Thats what I was going for, thank you so much for saying that. He was the pioneer of wrestling in Atlanta, the NWA member and the guy who fans recognized on television in the 50s and 60s and early 70s as “wrestling” in Atlanta. Fuller and Gunkel hav to some degree been downplayed or ignored for what they built there as well. I guess the City Auditorium has too. Everything is Gordon, TBS and the Omni, but all of these prior people and places made wrestling in ATlanta what it was. Barnett had a gold mine in Atlanta and he knew it when he had the chance to buy a big stake in it.
Thanks Tony! This article brought back a lot of good memories for me. I started watching Live Atlanta Wrestling when I was about four years old. I grew up in Athens GA and we were on Paul Jones circuit with live wrestling every Thursday night. I was amazed by seeing the stars that once I had only seen on television. It was always a big deal when Paul Jones come on the TV to talk with Ed Capital about the upcoming Friday night card in Atlanta. I will always remember the excitement when Jones would announce the world champion Dory Funk Jr Would be in Atlanta next Friday night! On very rare occasions they also send the world champion to Athens on Thursdays before the big event on Friday in Atlanta. Thanks again for bringing back some wonderful memories.
Charles thank you so much for sharing your memories of these days with me and all of us here in the Time Tunnel Communiry. I have a question for you! What was the biggest match in your opinion you ever got to see in Athens?
Wow that's hard to say. I would estimate over a period of 20 years I witnessed approximately 400 to 500 matches in Athens under four or five different promotions.
I do recall seeing four world title matches. 1974 Ernie Ladd defended what I think was the WWA or ICW title against ox Baker on Ann Gunkle card. 1977 Terry funk defending against Mr wrestling 2 around 19 80.81 Harley race defending against Tommy Rich. In 1987 Ric flair defending against Dusty Rhodes. Out of those four the best wrestling match was Race and Rich.
Standard brilliance from you. Also, feel free to keep the Ann Gunkel photos coming—no such thing as too many!
I’ll see what I can do…believe it or not…there’s a few limited amount of them. She was a beautiful woman
Really enjoyed this. In most conversations I've read or heard about the Atlanta territory, Jones has been sort of relegated to sort of figurehead status. Nice to see him get some proper attention for his accomplishments.
Thats what I was going for, thank you so much for saying that. He was the pioneer of wrestling in Atlanta, the NWA member and the guy who fans recognized on television in the 50s and 60s and early 70s as “wrestling” in Atlanta. Fuller and Gunkel hav to some degree been downplayed or ignored for what they built there as well. I guess the City Auditorium has too. Everything is Gordon, TBS and the Omni, but all of these prior people and places made wrestling in ATlanta what it was. Barnett had a gold mine in Atlanta and he knew it when he had the chance to buy a big stake in it.