Rokket Reload

The TV Times They are a Changin' by Jonny Rokket

Wrestling fans across the south have been fortunate to be able to enjoy televised wrestling in some form or another since the early fifties. There have even been mentions of televised studio tapings in Augusta back in the early days of television. But it wasn't until Georgia Championship Wrestling, an Atlanta company formed in 1944 by promotor Paul Jones, aired on Christmas Day, 1971 on WQXI in Atlanta that wrestling television in Georgia would become a regularity. Shortly after, GCW booker/wrestler Ray Gunkel would oversee one of his last decisions (and perhaps the most important in GCW TV history) before his death by heart attack during a match against Ox Baker in Savannah. He would switch TV outlets to new Atlnta UHF station WTCG which would later become WTBS, The Superstation.

Check out this match from 72/73 as Mr. Wrestling defends the Georgia Heavyweight Title against Cowboy Bill Watts. This was during the "Atlanta Wrestling Wars" as a shut-out Ann Gunkel (Ray Guncel's widow) would form the All South Wrestling Alliance as Bill Watts would take over GCW, temporarily named Mid-South Sports. Both programs aired on TBS until All-South folded in 1974.



In 1976, when TBS went satellite, making it available to cable systems across the U.S., the once again renamed Georgia Championship Wrestling became the first NWA promotion to be broadcast nationally. Check out this clip of Georgia Championship Wrestling from July 26, 1980 with footage from the 7/20 Omni show.



But that was not the only wrestling programming going on in Georgia at the time. WMAZ-13 in Macon aired an extended version of this 1984 program which featured GCW regulars such as Ted DiBiase, Brad Armstrong, Ronnie Garvin, Ole Anderson, and Gordon Solie. But that same year, on July 14, 1884, Georgia wrestling fans would experience their darkest day, known as Black Saturday.



In 1984 Jack & Jerry Brisco sold their majority stock to Vince McMahon who also purchased the company's TBS time slot.



After seven weeks NWA based Georgia Wrestling returned as Championship Wrestling from Georgia aired September 8th.





Unfortunately for McMahon Georgia Wrestling fans neither wanted McMahon's style of wrestling nor wrestling provided by a "yankee" company. In March of 1985 McMahon sold Charlottle, NC promotor Jim Crockket, Jr. the Saturday night TBS time slot but not the promotion. By April NWA World Championship Wrestling kicked off on WTBS.



Shortly after Crockett also added a Sunday night edition was later called NWA Main Event after Crockett sold the company to Ted Turner in 1988. A year later Turner also added Saturday morning show NWA Power Hour which became WCW Power Hour. World Chmpionship Wrestling would later be christened "WCW"



While Turner had moved many TV tapings to Orlando, Florida, WCW still existed on WTBS and eventually TNT. Turner nabbed Hogan and Randy Savage. On September 4th, 1996 WCW took to the air live going head-to-head against McMahon's Monday Night Raw. Soon after Scott Hall made his debut, The Outsiders invaded...





...then came the greatest turn in wrestling history:



But for all the success...McMahon would have his revenge and on March 26, 2001, after nearly twenty years, the legacy of GCW and WCW would come to an end.





The days of classic Georgia Wrestling may be gone...but Atlanta and the NWA still blast into the TV sets of Georgia through shows like NWA Anarchy.