Southeastern/Continental Championship Wrestling

[goc]

I've been watching quite a bit of Continental recently and decided to just go ahead and make a topic for the stuff I write about it instead of continuing to post everything in the What Are You Watching thread. Outside of some people of Wrestling Classics who talk about the territory like it was the greatest wrestling ever, there really is not much talk about Southeastern/Continental pre-Eddie Gilbert days. But I have to say most of the stuff I've seen from the territory has been at least good. Some of it being REALLY good. Hopefully anyone who has something to say about the territory or any of the main stars from it will feel free to chime in and this won't just be me writing to myself.

[goc]

I never really cared much for Jimmy Golden, but I'm trying to clean up some stuff that's been sitting on my hard drive and just finished watching January and some of February 1981 Southeast Championship Wrestling (Continental) and he has been outstanding as the new top heel of the territory. I don't totally understand the whole deal with Ron Fuller wearing the Tennessee Stud mask since everyone already seemed to know it was him, but Golden turns on him and ties his arms to the ropes and steals his mask. Then he cuts some great promos on Fuller while always having the mask with him. Then after a few weeks we finally get a promo from Ron Fuller who says he feels humiliated in the South East area and so he's going to move on to another territory. Of course, that leads to a great Jimmy Golden promo afterwards, since all the trash he talked about Fuller seems to have come true. All the while he's facing guys like Mr Wrestling II and Ken Lucas at the arenas, big stars (at least for the territory) coming to avenge their friend Ron Fuller. I'm sad this is all the Southeast that I have because I'd really like to see when Fuller inevitably comes back to face him. That's not to mention the good stuff going on between Bullet Bob Armstrong & Brad Armstrong vs Randy Rose, Dennis Condrey & Saito. Plus they spent about 10 minutes giving a very balanced and thoughtful look into an upcoming "Women's Liberation" tag match with Joyce Gable and Judy Martin vs. Roy Welch & Robert Gibson that kind of blew me away for a promotion based in Alabama in 1981. Southeast, Gulf Coast, Continental, whatever you want to call it this promotion is really a hidden gem. It's sad there isn't more footage.

 

 

Just watched the first four episodes of Continental Championship Wrestling from 1986. It was ok, but definitely not as good as the Southeastern from 1981 I watched a couple months ago. It was actually kind of confusing to follow, I'm not sure if the dates were wrong on the files I have or what, but it seemed like a guy would lose his title and the next week have it on TV again with no explanation. I saw Norvell Austin beat Adrian Street twice for the Southeastern title, with no explanation for how Street ever got it back.

 

Bob Armstrong is fun doing The Bullet gimmick, and is so bad at keeping "the secret" talking about "my son, I mean Bob Armstrong's son coming out to help me." But watching him do goofy dances at ringside before beating up on some jobber was worth watching. Other than that, there isn't much here I was real interested in. Norvell Austin feuding with Adrian Street over the Southeastern Title and The Rich Cousins in what seemed to be a never ending feud with The Nightmares over the tag titles weren't doing anything for me. Definitely not as good as Saito/Condrey/Rose vs. The Armstrong Family or even Jimmy Golden vs. Tennessee Stud Ron Fuller.

 

 

My Continental footage has big gaps so I just watched a week near the end of June and it was much better. There was a real fun match between Roy Lee Welch and Tim Horner with Roy Lee Welch apparently having faked a knee injury in a match the previous week and spending a lot of the early minutes protesting his innocence and asking for a handshake from Horner. Of course he eventually blasted Horner with a punch instead of giving him a clean break and then won the match with a handful of Horner's tights. Honestly, one of my favorite matches is the "newly turned/in the process of turning heel pretends to want a fair match against a babyface before inevitably cheating" so this was right up my alley.

 

Then Jerry Stubbs is doing a Mr. Perfect gimmick where he offers $1,000 to anyone who can last 10 minutes with him, and apparently $10,000 to anyone who can beat him and/or last 30 minutes with him but I'm not sure on that part. Anyway, Frankie Lancaster barely survives the 10 minutes then rolls outside the celebrate and grab the money, even though the match isn't over and Stubbs' Continental Title is still on the line. So Stubbs goes out and kicks his ass. Stubbs hits him with a chair and when Frankie goes under the ring to do his blade job Stubbs tosses the chair after him. This ends with Stubbs killing him with a brainbuster on the concrete floor and Brad Armstrong running out to make the save, if you could call it that after the guy's already suffered a 5 minute beatdown ending with a brainbuster on the floor.

 

Bob Armstrong is feuding with The Flame still but now he is "El Fuego" I like Bob Armstrong but this seems like the Bullet gimmick would have had a shorter shelf life than the length of time it ran for, especially with all the guys like The Flame and Mr Wrestling II coming in to take the mask.

 

Adrian Street is still here, now feuding with "Wildcat" Wendell Cooley. Street debuts a hilarious music video of his own original song "Something Very Strange about a Cowboy" which I loved. Found it here if anyone wants to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNBOWLP7rrk

 

Then a Wendell Cooley match has Wendell Cooley coming out...in a Wildcat Jacket!

 

 

 

 

I'm kind of disappointed there's been no posts in this thread since my last one. I mean I bring you guys an Adrian Street music video and a picture of a guy whose jacket includes a hood with a Wildcat face and I don't even know if anyone is reading this stuff.

 

Watched another week of Continental. Show started with Gordon Solie & Wendell Cooley showing video of how Cooley lost to Adrian Street in a non title match. Linda jabs him in the eyes for the finish which Gordon calls wonderfully with "Something happened." Then Adrian Street steals the Southeastern title. Cooley is not very good on the mic as he demands Street return his belt. At the very end of the show he does get the title back, however Street has replaced the black leather strap with a pink one. Cooley is not amused. But he still can't cut a good promo about it.

 

Then we get The Bullet vs. El Fuego and they do pretty much nothing, but a fun nothing, for about 4 minutes before someone else in a mask runs in to attack The Bullet. And as far as I can tell that's all he is "some guy in a mask." Bullet brawls with that guy while El Fuego runs off (well he ain't running nowhere he's over 300 lbs) to the locker room. Then El Fuego comes back and BLASTS Bullet with a fireball. Now, I've seen some fireballs watching Memphis wrestling with Jerry Lawler and Eddie Gilbert, and some of those have looked pretty good. But this is on another level. I don't know what Jody Hamilton did that made his so much better but the guy threw a hell of a fireball. I didn't mention it about the last show, but there was a clip of him throwing a fireball from that episode and it was also really good looking.

 

So anyway, Bullet gets hit by the fireball but he barely even sells the damn thing as he's up on his feet and fine about a minute later after Steve Armstrong makes the save with a chair. Come on Bob, I want to like you but you're killing me here.

 

Jerry Stubbs cuts a good promo about how he beat the crap out of Frankie Lancaster last week and now he's looking for revenge on Brad Armstrong for "saving" him. I still dispute that, by the way. Brad Armstrong & Jerry Stubbs have a good match for the Continental title. The finish has the ref get bumped and Frankie Lancaster comes out to wake him up. Stubbs gets distracted by it and Armstrong rolls him up to win the title. Then Stubbs attacks Lancaster before Brad makes an ACTUAL save this time.

 

Tim Horner has a match against some guy while Roy Lee Welch does commentary. I continue to love this storyline. Roy Lee Welch does a great job putting over the storyline. Welch was the U.S. Junior Champion before suffering (I think) a legit knee injury. All I know is his injury was announced sometime in the shows I watched in January and he just made his return in June. Anyway, he's pissed that Tim Horner gets a shot at the World Junior Champion Denny Brown when he never beat Welch for the U.S. Junior Title. Welch lets us know that, obviously, anything Horner does in this match he can do better.

 

Main event is Jimmy Golden & Robert Fuller beating Steve Armstrong & Tommy Rich for the tag titles. Didn't do much for me but I did enjoy Fuller & Golden's promo afterwards.

 

 

 

Watched the first Continental TV show in July. Show starts with former champs Tommy Rich and Steve Armstrong having a long squash match against The Invader and my new favorite jobber name, Snake Brown.

 

Then we get a promo from Frankie Lancaster swearing revenge on Jerry Stubbs for giving him the brainbuster on the floor. He's stumbling all over himself in this promo. Continental has a lot of good promo guys, but they are almost exclusively all on the heel side. 50 year old Bullet Bob Armstrong is the only babyface who can talk. And maybe Tommy Rich but I really haven't been interested in any of his stuff so far. All the young Armstrongs, Brad, Steve, Scott, Wendell Cooley, Tim Horner, Frankie Lancaster, none of the young babyfaces can cut a promo.

 

Tim Horner defends the U.S. Junior Title against Roy Lee Welch. Welch grabs the mic before the match and asks Tim Horner if he's SURE this is a title match, going back to their non title match 2 weeks ago where he swore before the match that Horner told him it would be a title match. Horner hits a cross body on Welch and the momentum and Welch uses the momentum to roll on top of Horner and they wind up landing with Welch's feet on the ropes for the pin. The ref counts 3 but saw Welch's feet on the ropes and call it off, but Welch has already grabbed the title from the announcer's table and is celebrating in the ring. Horner then comes from behind and rolls him up for the pin. I'm already anticipating Welch's promo next week about the injustice of it all. Roy Lee Welch then beats him down with the Junior Title after the match and leaves with the belt. That crossbody into the pin with Welch's feet on the ropes looked really good, and I totally thought that was going to be the finish.

 

We get an Adrian Street/Wendell Cooley match and I can not express to you how disappointed I am that they seem to have already retired that Wildcat jacket. Now he's coming out in a Cowboy hat with "If Heaven Ain't a Lot Like Texas" as his entrance music. Adrian Street's "Imagine What I Could Do To You" is a real underrated wrestling entrance theme. Street looks like he doesn't know what to do during his entrance without Linda there. Street wins the match when Linda shows up at the end to trip Cooley on a suplex allowing Street to fall on top and pin him. I love Street's character but I've never seen him have a memorable match.

 

Cooley & Street cut promos afterwards to build up a match in Columbus with Linda handcuffed to Cooley's brother. Cooley says he doesn't have the pink belt because it's "under recontruction" and for some reason I was thoroughly amused by Street's line about Cooley "Ever since I put a dress on him he's been acting just like a female dog."

 

The show ends with Roy Lee Welch saying he thought he won the match and that's why he left with the belt, but as soon as he was told that Tim Horner actually won he went to return the belt to him. But it was missing! There's a thief running around, someone went into his dressing room and stole the belt. I really love Roy Lee Welch in this feud. Tim Horner comes out and attacks Welch and the show ends with them brawling and Gordon calling for someone to come break it up.

 

 

[shoe]

We're going to do a podcast on some matches on the Titans of wrestling. I'm a huge fan if the territory. I haven't seen a ton. About 46 discs worth, but man is it a blast .

[shoe]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV6RCTo_Cd0AwTyy2Cjfjxb6rcCeJ7Zlg&feature=mh_lolz

 

That is the playlist if anyone wants to follow along.

[shoe]

Also is the territory Brad Armstrong comes across as the future of the business. Obviously he didn't pan out. Though here he was a strong worker, he had charisma, and cuts a good promo. He seemed real natural.

 

The Nightmares are one of the great teams that no one really talks about. They could work face or heel. They had a MX feel to them.

[Ricky Jackson]

Pete, I hate to break it to you, but if you've seen 46 discs worth of Continental, you've see a ton of Continental.

 

Really jazzed to watch this footage and do the pod because this is almost completely unexplored territory for me and it sounds like a lot of fun.

[goc]

http://gulfcoast.prorasslin.net/ This site has a lot of clippings for cards from the 70s. I just clicked on one at random and was interested to see a Ladder Match for the Alabama Title in Dothan, Alabama in 1975. I also am amused that looking at some of the other clippings it seems like they used The Yankees as their masked heels instead of calling them Assassins or Invaders or the usual schtick.

 

http://gulfcoast.prorasslin.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/5-30-75.jpeg

[Ricky Jackson]

Great stuff!

[Kronos]

I know exactly zero about this promotion, outside of the domestic violence angle (and that only vaguely). Interesting reading - I would definitely be down for listening to that podcast.

[Smack2k]

Loving this thread...I have seen those discs as well as some other stuff here and there I grabbed...

[Superstar Sleeze]

"Wildcat" Wendell Cooley is my new favorite wrestler ever.

[shoe]

Goc I will disagree with you about Brad Armstrong as a promo in the territory.I thought he was really good here.I mean he wasn't at the level of his Dad. I thought he came across well in promos. Especially considering his rep as a bad talker.

[goc]

Goc I will disagree with you about Brad Armstrong as a promo in the territory.I thought he was really good here.I mean he wasn't at the level of his Dad. I thought he came across well in promos. Especially considering his rep as a bad talker.

I am willing to concede the point to you having watched a couple more promos from him. When I wrote that I'd really only seen him cut 1 which wasn't very good, but I've seen him cut 2 more since then that were much better. He's definitely not The Bullet but he's miles ahead of Cooley & Lancaster that's for sure.

[Busterira]

I have always been a huge fan of Southeastern/Continental. Its just great southern brawling wrestling. But as mentioned there is that 46 discs set and few other dvds and thats about it. Its missing huge gaps of what is said to be some of the great feuds of the territory. The Bob Armstrong heel run was supposedly fantastic and he had so much heat on him he couldn't even go out on public.

 

Here he is as the ref during a Ron Fuller vs Ric Flair match as the special ref and turning heel.

 

 

 

 

In 81/82 the Sheepherders were tearing up Alabama with great feuds against Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden and The Freebirds. The Sheepherders were also feuding with Austin Idol and on one show Idol showed up in the actual studio driving on to the set in a police car to pick up the Sheepherders. Problem is about zero footage of this exits. We do have the Hayes-Gordy cage match when the Sheepherders run in and attack Hayes and Gordy saves him.

 

 

There is also Idol vs the Stud Stable feud

 

Idol promo after being attacked at gas station

 

 

Say what you will about Idol and he has the reputation of being a lazy worker at times and walking out on territories. I am a huge Idol fan. I am a big promo guy and Idol was hands down a top 10 promo guy of all time. He was always great in Alabama.

 

 

Then there is Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller. I think these guys maybe the single most under appreciated/underrated tag team of all time. They were phenomenal and are one of my fav tag teams. Man could they go and brawl and they were hilarious on he mic as well when they were heels.

[goc]

The second week of July starts with some new faces as Dutch Mantel debuts as a friend of Jerry Stubbs who has come in to fight The Bullet. Dutch cuts a funny promo talking a bunch of trash about The Armstrongs.

Then Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony debuts beating up some poor jobber who looked barely trained.

Tim Horner comes out in what might possibly be the worst, cheapest looking homemade "White Lightning" T-shirt I've ever seen. Gordon shows a replay of last week where Roy Lee Welch took the Junior belt and they talk about Welch saying he doesn't have it because someone stole it from his locker room. Horner isn't a good promo but I did like his line saying Welch better give him back the belt because he won't like it if Horner has to go to his house to get it.

Roy Lee Welch is now wearing a crown and says he's not the self proclaimed King of Wrestling, everybody has declared him the King of Wrestling. He doesn't like being called a thief because you can't steal what is yours. He never lost the belt it's his. But he didn't steal it, and he doesn't have it.

Frankie Lancaster has his revenge match against Jerry Stubbs and Lancaster puts on a helmet at the start of the match and the ref just pretends it isn't there. Gordon says as long as he doesn't use it offensively it's ok to which Lancaster immediately uses it to headbutt Stubbs in the stomach leaving Gordon to hem and haw about whether Stubbs ran into it or Frankie hit him with it, deciding that Stubbs ran into it. Why they switched from Les Thatcher and Charlie Platt to Gordon Solie I'll never know. Anyway, Stubbs ends up getting a chair and hitting Frankie over the head with it, but it's no sold because of the helmet. They never said this is a No DQ match so I'm having a real problem with the helmet and chair use in this one. Stubbs ends up taking the helmet off of Lancaster and the ref runs in to make sure Stubbs doesn't use it as an offensive weapon. Now it matters. Stubbs hits a Brainbuster and then goes for a 2nd one which causes Brad Armstrong to run in to save and cause Stubbs to win by DQ. This would have worked a lot better if they'd have just run a No DQ match and have Brad Armstrong run out to stop a post-match beatdown.

Now we get the match hyped up last week of Wendell Cooley vs. Adrian Street with Linda handcuffed to Cooley's brother. I haven't been real high on Cooley but he throws some great uppercut punches. cooley actually looks pretty good in this match. This gets really overbooked when Street shoves off a Cooley bulldog and Cooley takes out the ref. Then Linda hands Street a crutch which he uses to beat up Wendell with. Wendell's brother tries to come in the ring but Linda is holding him back and Street hits him in the throat with the crutch, then takes the handcuff keys from the ref and uncuffs Linda. It all breaks down from there and I have no idea what the official finish even is, as they immediately cut from that to a Robert Fuller, Jimmy Golden & Tom Pritchard promo.

Fuller is claiming he has an injured foot and is crying about Tommy Rich & Steve Armstrong taking off his special boot during their match in Birmingham. They show tape of it while Fuller cuts a great promo putting over how much of a fighting champion he is to go to the ring with an injury and how low down and dirty Armstrong and Rich are for taking off his boot. Fuller is obviously the greatest competitor ever for winning the match and pinning Tommy Rich as a one legged man.

A local promo for Montgomery has Gordon with Tommy Rich & Steve Armstrong talking about a 6 man tag Stretcher match where if you revive on the stretcher before they take you back to the dressing room, you can come back. I wish we had tape of that, but I say that about a lot of the stuff I see them talking about on the local promos.

Wendell Cooley come out cuts a promo talking about his brother being hurt and challenging Adrian Street to a Bullrope Match. This was actually not bad and I might be becoming a Cooley fan.

Main event is Dutch Mantell vs. The Bullet and I am endlessly entertained by Bullet's dancing during his "Bad To The Bone" entrance. The match is nothing to write home about. It ends in DQ when Jerry Stubbs runs in and attacks Bullet. Dutch grabs his whip and then he and Stubbs hang Bullet over the ropes with it. Bullet's friend Bob Armstrong's son Steve makes the save.

 

 

 

 

 

[goc]

The 3rd week in July in the Southeastern Gulf Coast Continental Championship Wrestling Federation starts with Gordon Solie and Tim Horner at the desk talking about Roy Lee Welch having stolen the U.S. Junior Title. They show a video of Tim Horner going into the heel locker room to get it back. He goes in Roy Lee Welch's bag and finds the title but then ends up getting his ass kicked by all the heels and tossed out of the room.

Wildcat Wendell Cooley defends the Southeastern Title against the Dirty White Boy. Decent match made more entertaining by Adrian Street doing guest commentary. Finish comes with Cooley being whipped into the ref (he seems to have a problem with taking out refs) and then Linda coming down and giving Dirty White Boy a crutch which he uses to KO Cooley.The ref counts the pin for DWB but the crowd protests so he goes to find Linda hiding under the ring and then reverses the decision.

Scott Armstrong comes out to talk to Gordon and I'm wondering why anyone let him go in front of the camera with those big goofy glasses on. He talks about how his brother Brad is now out with a knee injury courtesy of Jerry Stubbs, who also has taken back the Continental Title. Jerry Stubbs comes out with a signed, notarized letter from NWA President Bob Geigel that says Scott Armstrong is banned from using the Superkick.

Scott and Stubbs have a match that's all built around Stubbs complaining to the ref when Scott loads up for the Superkick. Then Scott ends up hitting it and the ref just scolds him instead of calling for a DQ so...wtf. During the match Solie has someone call Geigel to find out about the letter, and they find out that Stubbs' letter was a forgery. It didn't even stop him from using the move for one match so I'm not sure what the point of this angle was. I think the match ends in a double countout because they end up just brawling down the aisle and the match ends.

After commercials, Scott is informed by Gordon that the Bob Geigel letter was a forgery and the Superkick is legal. Scott says that's the best news he has heard in a long time, which I find questionable since his Superkick was illegal for all of 15 minutes. Scott's rematch with Jerry Stubbs is going to be a Falls Count Anywhere match for the Continental Title. Stubbs says he never signed a contract and won't put his title up in that kind of match. We aren't going to find out if that happens because I have a 1 month gap and my next show isn't until the middle of August.

Next match is a 6 man Steel Cage match with Fuller, Golden & Pritchard vs. The Rich Cousins (with Johnny as The Intern because he lost a loser leaves match) and Steve Armstrong. Match ends when DWB comes out and gives Pritchard an ether soaked rag which Pritchard uses to put Intern out. Pritchard then sticks the rag down the front of his tights which I find very problematic. Heels wear out Rich's knee and leave the faces laid out in the cage.

We get a video from Kevin Sullivan who is coming in to the territory to take out The Bullet. And speaking of guys coming in to take out The Bullet, they are already building up a Loser Leaves match between Dutch Mantel and The Bullet, so I'm guessing Dutch's run here was all of about 2 or 3 weeks. I'll just go ahead and assume he's gone by the time I get to the next show in August.

The show ends with my man Roy Lee Welch at the desk with Gordon. He corrects Gordon when he calls him the former U.S. Junior Champ and he tells everyone he has a recorded phone call he wants to share. It turns out to be an obviously fake Ronald Reagan putting over Roy as he and Nancy's favorite wrestler and that as far as the White House is concerned, he's still the U.S. Junior Champion. Roy Lee Welch: U.S. Junior Heavyweight Champion, King of Rasslin and Ronald Reagan's favorite wrestler. I really hope this feud isn't over when my footage picks back up towards the end of August.

[goc]

The date on this show is 8/23/86 and the last one was 7/19 but I think that can't be right because the show starts with Dutch Mantel vs. The Bullet Loser Leaves Town. No pre-match dancing from The Bullet, this is serious business. They have a pretty lackluster brawl until the ref gets bumped and then Jerry Stubbs runs out and attacks The Bullet. Another ref runs in and counts as Dutch sits on top of Bullet but Bullet rolls him up for the win. Dutch is gone.

We get another video from soon to be here Kevin Sullivan talking about Bob Armstrong's kids being the weakness that Sullivan will exploit. Sullivan is tired of talking, talk is for lovers and he and Bullet aren't going to make love, they are going to make war.

Tommy Rich & Steve Armstrong squash some scrubs then Fuller & Golden cut a promo on them. Fuller's tired of Rich stealing his special boot, wearing it & hitting him with it. They have an 8 man cage coming up with Kevin Sullivan & Tom Pritchard vs. Bullet, Rich, Steve Armstrong & The Intern.

Jerry Stubbs wrestles a jobber and finishes the match by doing the old suplex a guy in off the apron but turning it into the Brainbuster. Then MY MAN Roy Lee Welch comes out with his crown, who Gordon mistakenly calls the "self proclaimed King of Wrestling" which Roy quickly corrects. I'm positive the date on this is wrong now because Gordon asks him about the title being in his bag last week when Horner went into his locker room and Welch says it's obvious someone planted it in his bag. Then they show a replay of Horner getting his ass kicked and thrown out of the heel locker room. Welch maintains he had no idea that was in his bag, he doesn't have it now, but he IS still the champion. Roy wants his belt back.

Local promos for an upcoming show in Montgomerry has Horner cut a pretty good local promo about Welch, Stubbs maintains that his letter from Geigel was legit and Welch promises to beat Tim Horner.

Tim Horner vs Adrian Street is the main event this week and I'm excited because Roy Lee Welch drops in to do guest commentary. He can't believe Continental has said he must return the title by the end of the month. He doesn't have it. He doesn't want to have to use his politcal connections. Solie blames Horner's troubles in the match on his eye injury and Welch takes full credit, he did all the damage to Horner himself and personally removed him from the locker room. Once Horner makes his comeback, Welch leaves and goes down to the ring. Welch trips Horner as he's running the ropes and then Street splashes him for the win. Horner goes out after Welch and kicks his ass until Street jumps in it and Welch & Street do a 2 on 1 until Wendell Cooley makes the save.

Nothing really gif worthy on this week so I'm not going to force it. Not a bad show, but not too much happened.

[Memphis Mark]

The Southeastern promotion was one of my favorites . I used to watch Southeastern Wrestling every Saturday night for about a year . I picked up the Knoxville show out of a small tv station in Jackson , TN.. When Ron Fuller bought the promotion from John Canza he had a core group of talent. The five men the promotion revolved around were Ron & Robert Fuller , Jimmy Golden , Bob Armstrong and the Mongolian Stomper.

 

All of these guys were in their prime and in great shape . They all could work , it was a great promotion. All would only have 12 to 16 guys in the territory . All of the talent were involved in meaningful programs , really easy for the fans to follow . Off the top of my head I remember Dennis Condry , Phil Hickerson , Joe LeDuc , Norvell Austin , Ricky Gibson , Tony Charles , Ron Garvin , Bob Orton , Jr , Bob Roop , Don Carson , David Shutlz , Rip Smith , Ron Slinker , Ron Wright , Mike Stallings , Dick Slater , Prof. Tanaka , Mr. Fugi , the Von Steigers and the Great Malenko in the territory ..

 

One of the best angles involved the Mongolian Stomper and Joe Leduc. Big Joe was doing his 10 man challenge on tv.Joe would place a harness on each arm , tied ropes to the harness , clasp his hands together , placed 5 men on each side and have them attempt to pull his hands apart in a short period of time . During the middle of the challenge the Stomper runs out and gives Joe a steel chair.

 

Of course Joe is bleeding all over the set and vows to destroy the Mongolian Stomper. The war was on ! Great stuff !To my knowledge none there is no suriving Knoxville footage. Take it from me it was a great program.I think Knoxville ended in 79 or 80 , when Ron purchased Gulf Coast territory.

 

The Alabama years are pretty good, The promotion was still Southeastern from 80 to late 84. Then they changed the name to Continental and moved the tv to Boutwell. Next to my home promotion , Memphis ., Southeastern is my favorite territory . Worth watching.

[goc]

I have always been a huge fan of Southeastern/Continental. Its just great southern brawling wrestling. But as mentioned there is that 46 discs set and few other dvds and thats about it. Its missing huge gaps of what is said to be some of the great feuds of the territory. The Bob Armstrong heel run was supposedly fantastic and he had so much heat on him he couldn't even go out on public.

The Bob Armstrong heel turn is the number 1 thing that I wish I had footage of that I don't. The only other thing I've seen other than that video of him as the ref is this video of his problems with Charlie Platt.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvX6iP0cRPs

[Busterira]

The Bob Armstrong heel turn is on his shoot interview disc. The exact version that is posted above. I have that footage of his problems with Platt somewhere. Kris Z might have it as I lent out my Alabama footage for the DVDVR project. I think there might be a little bit more of Armstrong's heel run on the goldmine collection. I just can't remember off the top of my head. Southeastern is one of those territories I hope someday unearthed footage from 80-83 will just somehow magically show up one day. Very doubtful but one can at least hope.

[goc]

I didn't mean so much just the turn itself, but more of the entire run. Just that little video of him and Platt has him doing really good heel promos.

[Busterira]

I found a couple more videos on on youtube. I just can't remember if we have this footage. It would be good to have for the DVDVR set.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY71wLPQWNM

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTRrKX5cyfI

[goc]

Loved Bob's promo in that first video. I really like how the heels in Southeastern don't think of themselves as bad guys and spend a lot of their promos putting over how virtuous and upstanding they are while their babyface opponents are low down cheating scum. Roy Lee Welch has been doing an outstanding job of that in the stuff I've been watching from 1986.

[goc]

The Southeastern promotion was one of my favorites . I used to watch Southeastern Wrestling every Saturday night for about a year . I picked up the Knoxville show out of a small tv station in Jackson , TN.. When Ron Fuller bought the promotion from John Canza he had a core group of talent. The five men the promotion revolved around were Ron & Robert Fuller , Jimmy Golden , Bob Armstrong and the Mongolian Stomper.

I read somewhere on Classics someone talking about how Ron Fuller and Bob Armstrong were rivals pretty much FOREVER, and if they were both babyfaces at the same time you could almost count on one of them turning heel soon. How accurate is that?

[Blazer]

What match had the Headhunters come out from under the ring during a cage match to attack someone? I remember seeing that on Pro Wrestling This Week in late '86.