Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Ads

Classic wrestling ads via Seth Hanson, an amazing collector of these cool windows into the past... Find him on Facebook, or Twitter The upper one is from the early 1970s, about 1972 in Greenville, S.C. ,and the bottom is earlier, say 1967, and I believe it to be from Asheville, N.C.

The Biggest Wrestler Of All Time!

Martin "The Blimp" Levy was billed as "the heaviest wrestler of all time" He could give the McGuire Twins a run for their money!  Sadly, he was unlucky in love it seems. Whoa Nellie!

Spooky Luchadores!

Los Dracula, and Los Hermanos Muerte (Brothers of Death) to fuel your lucha nightmares! The Los Dracula's masks are too cool!

Freebirds Meet Cyndi!

Here's a photo of The Fabulous Freebirds and 1980s pop icon, Cyndi Lauper. You know, the WWF's "Rock And Wrestling Connection" days. The 'Birds did not tarry long in N.Y..  They "had to be free" as Ronnie Van Zant said in the song... Michael looks happy here though...

Liger.

A great photo of one of the greats - Jushin Thunder Liger. Myself, Lenis Sargent, and my then girlfriend traveled to Greenville to see him on a WCW card in 1993. That was my last visit to the historical building.

Superstar's Bat Shirt!

Here is a photo Superstar Billy Graham from about 1972 (Going by his Hair line)  sporting an interesting Bat-Woman / Batgirl T-shirt.

Andre Meets Debra H.

The Ring's Wrestling Magazine, June, 1980. Andre Meets Debbie Harry, who was a well-known wrestling buff. She said she liked the wrestling from Atlanta, because it was "more funky". Well said Debbie.

A WWF Halloween.

An interesting photo of a Halloween themed Saturday Night's Main Event (1986, I think). This was the WWF at it's nuttiest. In an interview, Roddy Piper claimed he got between Randy Savage, and Elizabeth just to mess with the Macho Man. Piper? A smart-ass? Heaven forefend!

Freebirds With Gordon Solie

This is just a cool image of Gordon Solie doing an Interview with The Fabulous Freebirds in Atlanta when they were incredibly over. This would be 1981. Wrestling was good then. Even though Michael Hayes looks like he just sucked a lemon here. Is that the infamous Freebird hair creme in his hand?

Jerry Lawler Self Portrait

An excellent self portrait, and mini-bio from the king himself, Jerry Lawler, from  Scott Bowden's Kentucky Fried Wrestling on Blogspot.

Japanese Baron Von Rashke Card

Here's the master of the claw hold sporting the ol' swastika again in this Gong Magazine trading card from somewhere around 1968-1972. It seems you had to cut these out of the magazine..?

Wrestling At The J&J, Part 2!

Here are two more great old posters From Athens Ga.'s J&J Center. I Really hate that I missed these shows. To be able I saw Lou Thesz wrestle would be incredibly cool. On the other card, one of my favorites The Spoiler appeared. Beside the midget legends, the undercard of this show was great with British legends Tony Charles, and Les Thornton, and Les wrestled future star Rick Martell! Even Jerry Stubbs went on to be Mr. Olympia.

Wrestling World - April 1965

A nastier wrestling photo is hard to find. The crusty fellow on the cover is actually The Crusher (Lisowski), and not Tarzan Tyler, as many people first thought. A lot of color from that small cut!

Wrestling at the J&J.

Here are two posters for GCW cards at The J&J Center in Athens, before I had a car to go there. Also, I didn't get their TV, we got Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. I wish I could've been there!

Andre Poster

Here's a poster of Andre The Giant for a card In Simcoe, Ontario. The poster uses the art from the poster that was sent out to the different territories to promote The Giant right before his dates in the area.

The Convict!

Here's a promo / ad for a wrestler called "The Convict", who had successful runs in different territories in the late 1960s - early 1970s, including Los Angeles, and Japan. The convict turned out to be Stan "Plowboy" Frasier, who wrestled as Uncle Elmer, one of the Hillbillies in the mid 1980s WWF.  Just another example of what Vince McMahon Jr. thinks Southerners are like. 

Official Wrestling Guide #1

This 1972 magazine is very interesting. It became one of the very best because it covered a lot of territories beside New York, and California. You gotta love the headlines, and the best is "In Defense Of Beautiful Bobby: "He's Not Queer!" Very in-your-face stuff.

Snake Drugs.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts as the poster boy for the WWF's "Just Say No" campaign. Wowza! It does however seem that he is clean with the help of DDP's yoga program - as of this writing - I hope he can enjoy some peace.

Cosmic Cookie

Here's a shot of Fallen Angel, Kevin Sullivan, and The Lock during the heyday of the "Satanic" cult-leader action in Florida in the early 1980s. Sullivan says in spite of never mentioning The Devil, people totally believed it. He said he was a"catholic, former alter boy" and he'd never be in a satanic cult in real life. It must've been interesting trying to buy groceries back then....

Undertakers?

The Embalmers.

That is indeed Percy Pringle, AKA Paul Bearer on the left of this spooky wrestling photo..