Wrestler and referee injured at Raleigh, NC tv tapings

       At least during it's first year on the air, wrestling on WRAL 5 was taped on Thursday night. I have not yet been able to determine when they switched to Wednesday night tapings. In the second clipping below that was Karl Von Hess vs. Bob Boyer in the match where the referee got injured.

Wrestling at the Galax, VA YMCA in 1959-1960

Airdate: Saturday Aug. 25, 1962 on WBTV 3 in Charlotte, NC

       National Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Champion Buddy Rogers had an upcoming defense of his belt on Monday August 27, 1962 at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, NC. The challenger would be Haystack Calhoun. Buddy Rogers appeared at the Wednesday Aug.22, 1962 WBTV 3 studio taping in Charlotte, NC. The champion wrestled George "Two-Ton" Harris in that tv match. Buddy Rogers stated that if he could put the figure four on Two-Ton, he could do the same to Haystack Calhoun. Buddy did defeat Two-Ton with the figure four in that tv match but I did not see the title match on Monday night. I wonder how successful he was with Haystack? The tv show aired on Sat. Aug. 25, 1962. The photos and the article from the Lexington, NC newspaper come from my collection.

TV Wrestling on May 1, 1965

Championship Wrestling with host Big Bill Ward on WBTV 3 in Charlotte, NC. Championship Wrestling on WGHP 8 in High Point, NC with host Charlie Harville. This is one of those nights when the tv channel knob received a lot of wear and tear between 6:30 and 7 because we did not want to miss any of the action. The Clancy/Kozack vs Murphy/Bernard was a real Pier Six brawl.

March 14, 1959 in Spartanburg, SC

July 7, 1971 in Asheville, NC

            I scanned the results from Gene Anderson's 1971 journal in 2005. A big thank you to Gene's son Brad for allowing me to read his Dad's records from 1971-1972.

Live Wrestling Debuts on WDBJ 7 in Roanoke, Virginia

           On Saturday June 8, 1957. Live Wrestling premiered on WDBJ  channel 7 in Roanoke, Virginia. It was promoted by Pete Apostolou.