Top wrestling states: North Carolina

November 5, 3:00 AMPro Wrestling ExaminerMark Satrang

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Sticking with the wrestling tradition of the Deep South, any discussion of top wrestling states has to include North Carolina. When a long-time wrestling fan thinks of wrestling (or rasslin’) in North Carolina, only one thing comes to mind – Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. 

When it comes to old-school wrestling territories, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling stands tall as one of (if not the) best of all. Jim Crockett, Sr., started promoting pro wrestling in North Carolina way back in 1931. Promoting his brand of wrestling under the name Jim Crockett Promotions, it became a family business as sons David and Jim, Jr. also joined into the business.

In the early 1970s, Jim, Jr. took over the reigns of the company, and the company official brand name became known as “Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.” The company became the focal promotion of the National Wrestling Alliance and was a great alternate to the WWF’s cartoon-like circus, with its reality-based storylines, believable characters, amazing talented in-ring wrestlers a focus on the in-ring action. The promotion also had a great focus on tag team wrestling. Their style of tag team wresting, where the villains double-team and constantly beat on one member of the heroes’ team, only for the hero to finally make a valiant tag to their eager partner is now known as the “Southern style” of tag wrestling.

In 1985, Mid-Atlantic gained national exposure when they secured a two-hour Saturday evening timeslot on the fledgling WTBS cable station. It was a huge ratings winner for TBS (and its owner Ted Turner). By 1988, Crockett sold his wrestling brand to Ted Turner, which in turn led to the creation of World Championship Wrestling as a global wrestling brand.

While Mid-Atlantic was only territory in the much larger NWA, it is often thought of and remembered as the focal point of the NWA. Plus the NWA Championship was usually around the waist of Mid-Atlantic talent (most notably Ric Flair) during this heyday of the ‘80s.

Nowadays when long-time wrestling fans think of the NWA, World Championship Wrestling or southern pro wrestling in general it usually comes back to the talent who occupied the Mid-Atlantic territory at some point or another. Those include classic tag teams like The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Ivan & Nikita Koloff, Magnum TA and Ric Flair’s “Four Horsemen” stable, including men like The Andersons, Tully Blanchard and Barry Windham. In fact, even though Flair is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, he most often associated with (and announced from) Charlotte, North Carolina. In fact the Carolinas have now affectionately been renamed “Flair Country” in wrestling circles for the impact that he had on the area.

Four Horsemen interview:

During its heyday, wrestling in North Carolina was as real as possible. With easy to follow stories based on personal rivalries, the battle for championships and pure win-loss success it was entertainment based on pure sport. And with mixed martial arts as popular as it is today, the concept of pro wrestling as pure man-on-man combat obviously has its place even today.

Other top wrestling states:
Michigan
Georgia
Florida