Hello Wrestling fans and welcome to another action packed edition of the AWA Georgia Championship Wrestling Report. First let’s take a look at our current champions and the other great talent that has competed in AWA GCW over the past month.
AWA Georgia Championship Wrestling Report
Georgia Heavyweight Champion – Thunderbolt Patterson
defeated Ivan Koloff mgd by Ron Wright September 1, 1977 in Macon, Georgia
Georgia Tag-Team Champions – Mr. Wrestling 1 and 2
defeated Night Train (Norvell Austin and Ricky Thompson mgd. by Sputnik Monroe)
Georgia TV Champion – Ricky Gibson
defeated Sgt. Jacques Goulet mgd. by Ron Wright
Others competing in the area for period ending September 21, 1977
Ati Tago, BlackJack Laine, Bruiser Bill White, Brute Bernard, Cowboy Bob Kelly, Cyclone Negro, Danny Littlebear, Don Bass, Giant Rebel, Gypsy Joe, Ivan Koloff, Invader 1, Invader 2, James J. Dillon, Lanny Poffo, Kim Duk, Mad Dog Vachon, Nick Bockwinkel Otto Von Heller, Paul Christy, RT Tyler, Red Raiders 1 and 2, Rick Oliver, Robert Gibson Ron Fuller, Roy Lee Welch, Silvano Sousa, Sonny King, Steve Travis, Sweet Daddy Banks, and “Vicious” Vic Rain. Managers – Baron Josef Turco, Sputnik Monroe and Ron Wright – Others employed by GCW include GCW President Fred Ward, Asst. to the President Freddie Miller, TV Commentators Charlie Platt and Ed Capral and Referees Ron West, Bobby Simmons and Dick Dunn.
Comings and Goings (Roster Moves)
7/5 Acquires FA’s Wayne Hammer and Johnny Hunter
7/ 5 Acquires Mighty Igor from Calgary in exchange for Jacques Goulet
7/31 Acquires FA’s Roy Lee Welch, Jimmy “Burrhead” Jones, and Bill Costello
7/31 Released Sputnik Monroe
8/1 Paul Jones resigns as GCW President citing health related concerns
8/14 Fred Ward named new GCW President
8/14 Acquires Otto Von Heller, Porkchop Cash, and Bobby Colt from AGPW in exchange for Wayne Hammer, Johnny Hunter and Bill Costello
8/14 Reacquires Sputnik Monroe
9/3 Acquires Sonny King and Bruiser Bill White from MACW in exchange for 1st and 2nd round parity draft picks
9/3 Released Tony Rocco
9/3 Baron Joseph Von Turco arrives expected to work as manager in the area
9/3 Acquires Danny Littlebear, Ati Tago and Mr. Paul DeMarco from WWC in exchange for Invaders and Mighty Igor
9/5 Acquires Bruiser Bob Sweetan from PNW in exchange for Ivan Koloff
9/5 Acquires Cyclone Negro and Lanny Poffo from Amarillo in exchange for Bob Sweetan
9/5 Released Doug Gilbert
9/14 Lost in draft – Robert Gibson and Mr. Paul DeMarco
Gibson had been seriously injured at the July Omni show in a match that saw him team with brother Ricky against the Vachon Bros. Robert Gibson’s career appears to be in jeopardy as of this writing.
DeMarco had been expected to team with Bruiser Bill White
9/15 Acquires “Vicious” Vic Rain from WWA in exchange for Bobby Colt
9/15 Acquires James J. Dillon from Detroit in exchange for Jim Dalton
9/15 Reacquires BlackJack Laine from Midwest in exchange for Buddy Porter
9/15 Acquires FA’s Rick Oliver and Red Raider 2.
It is the goal of AWA Georgia Championship Wrestling to bring the very best in professional wrestling to our great fans. If your favorites aren’t currently competing in the Peach State let us know by writing to us here at the Report.
The Dog Days of summer
The weather forecast throughout this summer for the Peach State has been hot, and hotter and that has been the wrestling action as well with no signs of things slowing down as we head into the Fall. Let’s begin our look at the news in GCW by going back to August 18th at the Omni in Atlanta. If you’ve been following GCW over the past few months you knew that the heat was going to reach a blistering peak in the Main Event where
World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinke 
was scheduled to defend his title against former World Heavyweight Champion the
“Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff with Thunderbolt Patterson serving as special referee. The Russian’s manager did everything within his power to prevent Patterson from serving as special referee in this match including having his men attack Patterson from behind. ‘Bolt never one to back down, however, was determined that he would carry out the duties assigned to him by AWA President Stanley Blackburn remained strong and refereed the match. The match between itself will go down in history as one of the greatest matches ever seen in the Omni. In the end, however, it was Bockwinkel retaining his title. Koloff instead of taking the loss with dignity, like a good sportsman would do instead reacted just as you would expect any dirty commie to and attacked the referee blaming Thunderbolt Patterson for his loss. Koloff was joined in his attack by his stable mates Mad Dog and Butcher Vachon before Ron Fuller and Ricky Gibson were able to run them off. Patterson had to be taken to the hospital but returned with a vengeance.
‘Bolt now a Man on a Mission was determined to get pay back, take the Georgia Heavyweight Championship from the Russian Bear and run him out of the area in the process. And he did exactly that by soundly defeating Koloff to win the Georgia Heavyweight Championship on the huge Labor Day Spectacular show in Macon. This show marked GCW’s return to Macon after a several month absence and our great fans turned out in full force to support Patterson. The beating that Koloff received has caused the Russian to leave the American Wrestling Association altogether. Is there any doubt that only the strongest survive to compete under the AWA banner. That’s not to deny that Koloff ranks among the greats. We fully expect him to lick his wounds, and possibly return to the AWA once he’s fully recovered.
Thunderbolt Patterson now ranks as a two time Georgia Heavyweight Champion, a feat accomplished by very few other men. Ironically enough Patterson won his first title in Atlanta on July 4 of last year when he defeated another foreigner; the masked man from Singapore the Spoiler. At the time that Patterson won the title there was a giant the “Irish Giant” Paddy Ryan just making his presence known in the Peach State. Now a new giant Ron Wright’s humongous new charge the
Giant Rebel has made his way to into the area. The last time Patterson was defeated by the Irish Giant. Sooner or later Patterson will have to defend his title against the Giant Rebel. Will his luck be any better this time?
Ron Wright may have lost his top charge and the Georgia Heavyweight Champion but it still looks like the #1 Hillbilly will remain a dominant figure in the area for some time to come. As we just mentioned Wright has brought in the Giant Rebel and he still has the
Vachons in his stable.
In speaking of the Vachons a situation took place on August 18th in the Omni that has to be discussed no matter how ugly it is. Did
Ricky Gibson sacrifice his younger brother
Robert Gibson to the Vachons? You may remember that Robert Gibson came out of the audience a few months back to challenge then Georgia Jr. Heavyweight Champion
Sgt. Jacques Goulet. Gibson who was still in the early stages of his training to become a professional wrestler pulled a major upset over Goulet when the Legionairre was distracted by Ricky Gibson. Robert continued his training from there and began working as a referee in order to ease his adjustment to the sport. Ricky went on to defeat Goulet and then began having problems with the Vachons. The Vachons jumped Ricky from behind and his brother came to his aid. Robert then made the possibly career ending mistake of asking Ricky to take him on as his tag-team partner to go against the
Vachons. Surely Ricky knew that his brother wasn’t ready to face two of the most savage men this sport has ever seen. After all Robert has only competed in a small handful of matches and those have been tag-team matches with one of his trainers Gypsy Joe teaming with him and doing the majority of the work in matches.
Ricky has been around the block he knows how things work. So why would he allow his brother to compete in the match, which took place on September 21st in the Omni, that would ultimately see Robert seriously injured by the Mad Dog and the Butcher. Blaming the Vachons for their heinous acts that left Robert with a broken neck would be easy. But the Vachons are animals and were only acting on their animalistic nature. Robert Gibson lies in traction today and the blame lies squarely at the feet of his older brother. Ricky could have and should have chosen a more experience grappler such as Ron Fuller, Steve Travis, Mr. Wrestling, Mr. Wrestling 2, Mighty Igor or Gypsy Joe to be his partner. Instead he led his younger brother to the slaughter and now he will have to live with the consequences.
Ricky did choose
Gypsy Joe as his partner on September 21st at the Omni, but while the two fan favorites adopted an extremely aggressive style for the match they were still overmatched by the Vachons tag-team experience. Ricky may never be able to completely make amends for what he has done to his brother, but he do his part to make sure that the Vachons never end the career of another young grappler. In order to do this Ricky is going to need back up against the Vachons and the rest of Ron Wright’s and he may have found it in the form of
Cyclone Negro and Lanny Poffo. Poffo has a new attitude since breaking away from his Dad, Angelo Poffo, but you can bet that he learned a thing or two from the old man, and his partner Cyclone Negro is one of the toughest men to ever set foot inside the squared circle. If anyone can help Ricky Gibson measure up to Ron Wright’s stable of Giant Rebel, Butcher Vachon and Mad Dog Vachon it would be Cyclone Negro and Lanny Poffo.
Mr. Wrestling and Mr. Wrestling 2 have just survived one of the toughest challenges in their fabled careers. That came in the form of the
Invaders. The Invaders were able to challenge the Mr. Wrestling’s not only for the Georgia Tag-Team Championships but for recognition as the best masked tag-team in the sport today. The Invaders put up quite a fight by taking advantage of their near identical physiques to effectively pull the double switch in many of their matches. This allowed them to defeat Mr. Wrestling 2 in singles competition to in the Omni on August 18th and defeat Mr. Wrestling by DQ on that same night when the volatile Mr. Wrestling 2 ran into the ring to attack the Invader who was in the ring at the time. This led to the big Labor Day Spectacular match between the two teams, which took place in Macon. The stipulations going into the match were the Georgia Tag-Team Championships v/s the Invaders masks. The intense battle that ensued saw Mr. Wrestling and Mr. Wrestling 2 come out on top to retain their titles and force the Invaders to unmask. After taking their masks off, the ultimate form of humiliation for any masked grappler, the Invaders were revealed to be Johnny Rivera and Jose Gonzales. Unable to deal with the humiliation the Invaders have left the AWA.
There is no rest for the weary, however, especially when the weary are the Georgia Tag-Team Champions.
Mr. Wrestling and Mr. Wrestling 2 are bound to have their hands full with the challengers from newcomer
Baron Joseph Von Turco’s 3 headed monster stable of the
“Korean Assassin” Kim Duk, the “German Storm Trooper” Otto Von Heller and “Vicious” Vic Rain. The team of Don Kent and Ted Heath collectively known as the
Bulldogs are also waiting in the wings, as are the former Georgia Tag-Team Champions Dirty
Don Bass and BlackJack Laine who are now led by the “Cadillac Man” Sputnik Monroe. This is a very interesting story in that the team of Bass and Laine at that time led by “No Class” Bobby Bass defeated Ken Mantell and Dean Ho to win the titles last year before dropping the titles to Mr. Wrestling 2 and Ricky Martel who were subsequently defeated by the Sputnik Monroe led duo known as the Night Train. The cowboys seem to be more focused with the Cadillac Man in their corner and should pose a serious threat to the champions. Mr. Wrestling and Mr. Wrestling 2 can also expect to be challenged by the Vachons in what should be a monumental tag-team war.
The Cadillac Man not only has Bass and Laine under contract but he also has the
“Cajun Cowboy” RT Tyler in his stable and that could spell trouble for a lot of people including
Ron Fuller. The Cajun nearly matches the Stud in size and weight but Fuller has the definite edge in experience that may allow him to withstand the challenge of the latest bad man to come looking to take him down. Tyler believes that Fuller demonstrated weakness in losing the Russian Chain Match to
Ivan Koloff in July and claims that he will make a name for himself by finishing off big Ron once and for all. Fuller has had some tough times recently but this challenge plus the return of his cousin
Roy Lee Welch should rejuvenate the Southern Stud. He did look to be back in top form as he sent two of the Baron’s charges;
Brute Bernard, and Otto Von Heller down in defeat in recent matches.
James J. Dillon called our offices, collect, last week to inform us that he was returning to the Peach State. It’s not what you might expect, however. Dillon claims to have had his fill of managing monsters like
Abdullah the Butcher and the Mongolian Stomper and is now competing himself. Dillon has undergone rigorous training to prepare himself for that mat wars and that training paid off with a tour of the Maritimes that saw him become the top wrestler in Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling. Dillon now plans to do the same thing here in GCW and claims that he will only associate with the most intelligent and most talented men in the area. One of Dillon’s newfound associates appears to be the man from the Steel City
“Bruiser” Bill White. The always dangerous Bruiser has returned to the Peach State after gaining valuable experience elsewhere. White appears to be ready to take his career to the next level and it is highly possible that teaming with Dillon is just thing to get him there. If we know Dillon he’s also making overtures to another promising youngster, namely
Rick Oliver. Oliver comes to GCW after making quite a reputation for himself in Alabama.
Fans of high flying, risk taking, non stop action are going to love GCW newcomer Mike Jackson, not to be confused with the youngest member of the Jackson Five. Jackson who is in high demand all over the world is expected to thrill GCW fans and give some major problems to anyone that he steps into the ring with. Jackson has been working out with his close friend
“Golden Boy” Paul Christy in preparation to make the big splash. These two have shown great chemistry early on and are expected to mature into a fine tag-team here in the Peach State.
As we mentioned earlier wrestling returned to the Macon Coliseum for a huge Labor Day Spectacular. This was the first time GCW had been in Macon in nearly 6 months. The show will go down in history not only, because of Thunderbolt Patterson defeating the Russian Bear to become a 2 time Georgia Heavyweight Champion or because Mr. Wrestling and Mr. Wrestling 2 forced the Invaders to unmask but it was the night that long time Macon promoter and ring announcer
Fred Ward was named the President of Georgia Championship Wrestling. Ward succeeds Paul Jones who had earlier in the year been part of a hostile takeover that drove Mrs. Anne Gunkel from power. Ward made some huge announcements immediately upon taking charge of the promotion. The most notable of these being that the GCW TV program will now be taped as part of the now weekly Macon shows. GCW will also be running shows regularly throughout the state including cities such as Augusta, Columbus, Marrietta and Savannah.
Now let’s get to the results
OMNI
ATLANTA, GA.
AUGUST 18, 1977
GIANT REBEL W/ RON WRIGHT DEFEATED STEVE TRAVIS
BLACKJACK LAINE AND DIRTY DON BASS W/ SPUTNIK MONROE DEFEATED DANNY LITTLEBEAR AND GYPSY JOE
RON FULLER DEFEATED BRUTE BERNARD W/ BARON VON TURCO
THUNDERBOLT PATTERSON DEFEATED RT TYLER DQ
INVADER DEFEATED MR. WRESTLING 2
MAD DOG AND BUTCHER VACHON W/ RON WRIGHT DEFEATED RICKY AND ROBERT GIBSON
INVADER 2 DEFEATED MR. WRESTLING DQ
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
© NICK BOCKWINKEL DEFEATED “RUSSIAN BEAR” IVAN KOLOFF – SPECIAL REF THUNDERBOLT PATTERSON
MACON COLISEUM
MACON, GEORGIA
SEPTEMBER 1, 1977
RT TYLER W/ SPUTNIK MONROE DEFEATED GYPSY JOE
RON FULLER DEFEATED OTTO VON HELLER
GEORGIA TV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH – © RICKY GIBSON DEFEATED BRUTE BERNARD W/ BARON VON TURCO
ROY LEE WELCH DREW “BRUISER” BILL WHITE
GEORGIA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
THUNDERBOLT PATTERSON DEFEATED “RUSSIAN BEAR” IVAN KOLOFF W/ RON WRIGHT TO BECOME THE NEW GEORGIA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
GEORGIA TAG-TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
MASKS V/S MASKS
© MR. WRESTLING AND MR. WRESTLING 2 DEFEATED INVADERS
INVADERS UNMASKED IDENTIFIED AS JOSE GONZALES AND JOHNNY RIVERA
OMNI
ATLANTA, GA
SEPTEMBER 21, 1977
JAMES J. DILLON DEFEATED ATI TAGO
GIANT REBEL W/ RON WRIGHT DEFEATED JIMMY “BURRHEAD” JONES
BLACKJACK LAINE AND DIRTY DON BASS W/ SPUTNIK MONROE DEFEATED MIKE “ACTION” JACKSON AND “GOLDEN BOY” PAUL CHRISTY
KIM DUK W/ BARON VON TURCO DEFEATED ROY LEE WELCH
RT TYLER W/ SPUTNIK MONROE DEFEATED RON FULLER COR
MAD DOG AND BUTCHER VACHON W/ RON WRIGHT DEFEATED RICKY GIBSON AND GYPSY JOE
GEORGIA TAG-TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
© MR. WRESTLING AND MR. WRESTLING 2 DEFEATED “GERMAN STORM TROOPER” OTTO VON HELLER AND “VICIOUS” VIC RAIN W/ BARON VON TURCO
GEORGIA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
© THUNDERBOLT PATTERSON DEFEATED RED RAIDER
Pages: 1
AWA GCW Report August/September 1977 (Read 353 times)