New book on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling history!

The legends of
TV Wrestling!

All Star Wrestling

Harley Race

Wahoo McDaniel

Ernie Ladd!

Johnny Weaver

The Horsemen!

Dusty Rhodes

Magnum TA

George 'Two Ton' Harris

Tim Woods

Jimmy Garvin

Brute Bernard

Johnny Valentine

Nature Boy

Arn Anderson

The New Breed

Johnny Hunter

Terry Funk

Diamond Dan and Hoss

Rick Link

Bingham Brothers

... and more in John Hitchcock's
decades spanning look at
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling!

 The Greensboro Coliseum's wrestling days were numbered by 1990. I think it got down to a crowd of 1,800 to 2,000 a show and that wasn't good business. WCW was getting ready to pull the plug and sadly we all knew it. You can't have that much red ink for too long so the good old Front Row started to have fun stirring up the mix.

  Bill Watts was now running the company; he was in a very tough spot because his job was to cut costs and contracts. Watts had a reputation of being a smart booker but asking wrestlers to take less money is not a good job to have. And bringing in his son as a top star wrestler was a really stupid idea. Eric Watts was a tall thin quarterback from Louisville who didn't know how to wrestle and he was pushed down everyone's throat like he was the second coming.

 He sucked and everyone knew it.

Word got out that Watts, would was on a big winning streak, was going to wrestle and defeat Arn Anderson in Greensboro. This was kind of like Michael Jordan being soundly defeated one on one by Ray Charles. And, for the record, Ray Charles is both blind and dead.

Anyway, that really pissed everybody off and I decided Arn was not going to lose to Eric Watts. There was no way this was going to happen. I began to make plans to stop this insanity. I went up to a friend of mine named Tarron Coleson who wrestled on the independents and hired him to do a run in during the match. I told him that when Watts was going for his finishing hold the STF, he would then jump into the ring and stop the match. I was willing to pay Coleson two hundred bucks and post his bail if he got thrown in the jail over night.

 And he said he would do it.

Now Tarron was a big boy that was about six two and about 380 pounds so I figured that he could take the beating he was going to get by diving into the ring that night. But then, if you can't take advantage of your friends, who can you take advantage of?

   So word got out that Arn doing the job to Watts was not acceptable and people got talking. In the Pro Wrestling Torch it was reported that if Arn lost to Watts that there would be a riot. Then we all began to hear reports that Arn Anderson was hurt and would not wrestle in Greensboro that night. That was fine with me but as the matches neared it was on and off again about Arn appearing.    

  The big night came and out walked Watts to the biggest blasting of all time. He strolled out with David Crockett and four Greensboro Policemen ready to rumble. It was a very surreal moment, but then who walks out to face Watts but Stunning Steve Austin!

 Yeah, it was that Steve Austin in the curtain jerker no less.

 As Austin began his walk to the ring we all began to chant, "We Want Arn!"  And that didn't go over very well with him. Austin started yelling at the Front Row and pushed the steel barricade at us!

Just as quickly we all pushed the barricade right back at him! It was not the best thing to do because the cops began to walk towards us and Crockett said, "Go on! I always wanted to throw your ass in jail!" Then, as if by magic, Austin defused the situation by climbing into the ring. The match was on and poor Austin did not look happy having to lose to this over rated punching bag Eric Watts.

This match went about ten minutes when, near the end, Austin was trapped in the STF finisher and made the ropes. Watts put the hold on again and believe it or not the time expired and the match was a draw. As Austin left the ring, we all began to Chant, "Austin Rules!" Steve looked over at us and smiled a huge sigh of relief. Austin gained everyone's respect that night and Watts looked like a real chump standing there in the ring dumbfounded without his hand raised.

 We found out later that Steve Austin got into big trouble for not doing the job to Eric Watts. Bill Watts called him in to his office in Atlanta and asked why. Austin said that he couldn't lay down for his untalented son in front of such knowledgeable fans. That would make him look stupid.

  You know the truth hurts.

 We were not rid of Eric Watts that easily, he returned a few more times to punish us with his idiotic push. One night, I made a sign on typewriter paper that said, Eric the Weenie on one side and a hot dog on the other. I took this ugly thing down to Kinko's and printed up about three hundred of them. When I got to the Coliseum, I started giving them out to everyone. A couple of young kids asked me why I was doing this to Watts, I looked them right in the face and said, "Didn't you hear? Eric Watts turned on Sting and beat his ass in Raleigh!"

That was a lie but it worked!  Those kids took a handful and gave them out to everybody. When Watts came out that night, he got the Weenie chant from all two thousand fans in attendance. And man was that funny!

 During his match, Watts was being hammered by all of us on the Front Row. Bruce Mitchell stood up and said, "Hey Watts! Is it true you threw four interceptions in that bowl game?"

Suddenly, Watts was thrown out of the ring and was right in front of us. I really thought he was going to start swinging at us by this time. But to his credit he slyly looked right at us both and said, "For your information, that was five interceptions!"

And he winked at us.

So I guess he wasn't all that bad a guy. But he sucked as a wrestler.

Next :
The World Famous Squeegee Story

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