411’s Tales from The Territories Episode Nine Report: ‘Crockett: Evil Heels of The Carolinas’

-Still fighting off the flu, but this is the best I have felt since last Friday. My two boys are healthy again which is the most important thing. This week we head to JCP and of all the shows in this series this is the territory I am most familiar with. Let’s get to it!

-Roundtable: Arn Anderson, Ricky Morton, Baby Doll, Nikita Koloff, David Crockett, and Jim Cornette (it should be noted Cornette is listed as a talking head, but isn’t at the table with the others).

-Brief history lesson as Jim Crockett Promotions was the cornerstone of the NWA and was centered in Charlotte, NC. Technically it was known as NWA: Mid-Atlantic. Jim Crockett Jr hired Dusty Rhodes in the mid 80s to take over as booker as JCP became known as a heel territory.

-Ricky says there will never be anything again like JCP and they were able to change the business. He is just glad to say he was part of it. He talks it about it going from small buildings to large arena and sometimes outdoor stadiums. Arn says that from 1985-88 was Golden Era of Wrestling and will always be the greatest era ever. He talks about Vince McMahon going on an all-star hunt and taking top guys. Arn notes he was working in Pensacola and was recruited by Dusty. Ricky says that Crockett told him that Flair had been pulling for then for a month and he finally brough them into the territory.

-Arn says the territory caught fire by the end of 86 heading into 1987 and everyone was making money. They show clips of Flair and Dusty bragging about how much money they were making. Arn says that was the first time he started to make real money. They were all treated like rock-stars. They were flying on private planes, buying new vehicles and selling out buildings. Arn talks about the time he, Luger, and Tully went to local Mercedes dealer and bought 4 brand new cars (Tully bought one for himself and his wife).

-Making money is all about selling tickets and Crockett made people by tickets having big heroes with great villains. In Crockett villains ran the show. Ricky: “we had to chase the heels to draw the money.” Ricky brings up Cornette and how much heat he had each night. He watched Cornette get his ass whipped by the fans until the point Jim grew a set and started to fight back.

-The Heat Magnet: Jim goes over his heel credentials: he has had the following thrown at him: ice, food, bottles, rocks, shoes, umbrellas, eggs, chairs, mud, tennis balls, vomit (“human I think), and a horseshoe. He was also the only civilian at one point to have to wear a bullet proof vest to work.

-Cornette and Baby Doll tell the story of am angle where Cornette hit Baby Doll with his racket. The place exploded and people in the crowd were crying. The announcers told people that because of the shot to the stomach there was a chance Baby Doll might not have children and Cornette told the crowd great as nobody wanted a thing like that to produce. Needless to say, the fans really hated Jim. Baby Doll brings in The James Boys (Frank and Jesse) and they put a noose over Cornette’s neck. They take him out back and tie him to a pick-up truck where Baby Doll is in the driver’s seat. She was supposed to take off when they banged on the truck. To be safe Cornette got his thumb under the rope as a precaution and in the excitement Baby Doll takes off too early. Thankfully for Jim he is able to slip the noose off before he gets killed. He notes it was one take and they had to err on the side of dangerous because if it looked like shit then you lose the customers. Got to love the commitment!

-The Perfect 10: Baby Roll is the daughter of a wrestler and wasn’t made smart to the business, but wanted to get involved. She called WCCW to see about getting the job to be Gino’s valet. She worked there for a few months and Hayes told her to talk to Dusty. He was about to start in The Carolinas and he told Baby Doll to come up the following week. Arn tells Baby Doll the camera loved her and she looked drop dead gorgeous.

-They show video of Dusty slapping Baby Doll and she was shocked the women hated her more than the men. They ran an angle where Dusty got Baby Doll for 30 days. She had to stay in character as a heel and had to make it seem like she didn’t want to be with Dusty. To keep her in line Dusty would put a noose around her and walk her around like cattle or a dog. Yeah, we aren’t getting away with anything like that ever again. One night someone pulls her hair and she turns to decks someone and sees a pregnant lady.

-Commercials!

-Back with Baby Doll saying her first was heading for the ladies pregnant stomach when she realized and she was able to slow down enough to just tap her. She was worried she was going to get sued and then wondered why a pregnant woman would pull her hair and stand on a chair to get at her. Arn: “because you were good at your job.”

-Riot at The Omni: Arn says The Omni had the best look and is his favorite arena of all time. Everything was black other than the lights over the ring. It’s the night in a cage where Dusty saves Flair, but Flair attacks Dusty and joins with The Andersons in beating the piss out of Dusty. The faces try to climb the cage to make the save and it doesn’t happen. It leads to a riot as the fans start to push in the cage door. Ole had been in a moment like that before and told Arn they needed to get out of the ring. Dusty sold even while the riot was going on and Arn credits the 10 police officers for saving his life as they escorted him out of the arena. It was the only time in his life and in a wrestling setting that Arn thought he was going to die.

-Commercials!

-Back as they show some of the video and yes, that crowd is pissed. Arn says it was like being in a 15 minute fist fight. Ricky: “it’s hard to fight 40 people.” Arn says they were able to get back to the back and they were all bleeding and none of it was from the match. Arn says if there were no police officers they would either be dead or still in the cage.

-They talk about Cornette and how his greatest asset was his mouth. Ricky first met Jimmy as a photographer who sold photos to the boys. Crockett told Cornette if he could get heat with the fans they same way he does with the boys he would have a gold mine. Cornette talks about throwing a fireball at Garvin, and thousands and thousands of beating they put on The Rock and Roll Express. “People need to believe in you and what you are doing.”

-Night of The Skywalkers: I am sure you have heard of this story! Arn says Night of the Skywalkers was a battle between the bookers and the boys over who was going up on the scaffold. Arn told me no way and they all agree the match wasn’t safe. Dusty decided to book The Road Warriors against The Midnight Express in the match. People paid to see Cornette get pitched off the scaffold. The idea was for the Express to lose but to give the fans what they wanted, Cornette had to take the fall as well. Cornette says he was not an acrobat, but told Animal to hold his leg until he can get a grip under the scaffold. The idea was then for Jim to hang for a second and then fall with Bubba catching him.

-Commercials!

-Back with Cornette dangling from the scaffold. The original idea Dusty pitched was for Cornette to throw his legs up and fall backwards like a cheerleader and have The Express and Bubba catch him. Jim saw how high he would be and wanted nothing to do with that. So Jim came up with his just dropping and Bubba catching him on the way down and they would roll to the left. Bubba totally whiffs and go Lord did that have to suck as Cornette just splats and blows out both his knees. He notes he has lived a fine life without an ACL.

-The Russian Nightmare: Scott Simpson was a football player in Minnesota and was brought in during The Cold War as a Russian bad ass, Nikita Koloff. Nikita with a full head of hair is something to see. Nikita told Crockett before he started, he had no professional or amateur training and hadn’t even been in the ring. Crockett knew that and told him just to show up with his head shaved. He went so far with the gimmick that he didn’t speak English to anyone and ordered subscriptions to Russian magazines. Arn respected the fact that Nikita was protecting his gimmick. Cornette tells a story of how Arn told Nikita he could drop the accent in the back because they all knew he was from Minnesota.

-Nikita says he screen tested for Rocky IV and never broke character. They loved what Nikita brought but apparently when he went face to face with Stallone he was too big and Nakita realized it when the director said Nikita’s shadow was blocking out Stallone. Ha!

-Nikita says he carried the gimmick so far that he had Lithuania put as his place of birth on his daughter’s birth certificate. Damn! He saw no point in going back to Scott Simpson as everyone knew he was Nikita Koloff.

-Jim Cornette says “Mr. Wrestling” Tim Woods basically saved pro-wrestling.

-Commercials!

-Oct 4, 1975 there is a flight from Charlotte to Wilmington and it crashes with 5 members of the Mid-Atlantic roster. David gives the story as his brother asked if he would make the flight with Ric Flair, Tim Woods, Johnny Valentine, Bob Bruggers, and the pilot. Crockett made a joke to the pilot, “I hope you aren’t dumping fuel.” The engine started to flutter and to this day he isn’t sure why the pilot didn’t land at the airport in Florence. They were over a river and Crockett knew there was no way they were surviving a crash into a body of water. Everything got quiet and everyone was controlling their breathing and that was the last thing he heard. The plane goes down and Cornette calls it the defining moment in JCP. Valentin was the top heel in the territory and never wrestled again. Bruggers was just starting and it ended his career. Flair broke his back and miraculously was back in the ring in six months. The other guy was Mr. Wrestling and he was the top babyface as he was a symbol of clean, scientific wrestling. It was a plane full of heels besides Woods and he knew it would be news if he was on a plane with heels. Him being on a plane with his hated rival, Valentine would kill the promotion. So when police asked for names, Woods gave his real name and stated he was a promoter. Some were smart enough to figure it out, so Woods checks himself out of the hospital against medical advice. He showed up to wrestle as Mr Wrestling three days later to throw fans off the scent. He didn’t have as severe as injuries as everyone else, but knew if he worked 3 days later than nobody would suspect he was just in a plane crash. Cornette credits this act by Woods as saving JCP and keeping them on a path to become as huge as they did and as the top threat to the WWF.

-Commercials!

-Next week is the season finale and it’s Mid-South with Roberts, Jim Ross, Dibiase, and Hayes. Sweet!

-Tully’s Confession: Ricky says his wife was going to church and was trying to get him to go. He happened to have a night off and they watched Tully Blanchard on The 700 Club. Tully is confessing to things he did and he namedrops Ricky Morton in a story involving cocaine and different women every night. Ricky looked over and he could see horns coming out of his wife’s head and that was the end of that. He would have killed Tully had he seem him that night.

-In 1988, JCP was sold to Ted Turner and rebranded as WCW. Ricky credits everyone in the territory for making it what it was and Arn says it was a family that was going to sink or swim together. Baby Doll talks about being the only girl for a year and a half and they treated her like gold where she heard horror stories from other women. Arn says they all depended on each other and Baby Doll closes by saying it was magic.

-Several of these stories have been shared but it doesn’t make them any less awesome. This episode flew by and I could have listened to them talk for another two hours. The Koloff stuff was the most interesting to me as I haven’t heard much from him. With Arn and Cornette you know you are getting a great storyteller and they didn’t disappoint. The plane crash story has been told before, but I never heard the stuff about Mr. Wrestling so that was pretty crazy. Just great stuff this week! Thanks for reading!