Georgia Championship Wrestling was one of the more
exciting regional promotions in the history of professional wrestling.
The Georgia territory was around for several years, but didn’t truly
hit its stride until the later 1970s. What catapulted GCW into wrestling
legend was cable television. While most wrestling territories were
defined by their live matches, Georgia was the first true territory to
really be defined by its television show. Originally shown Saturday nights on Atlanta television
station WTCG, Gordon Solie and Les Thatcher hosted the program from its
initial appearance in the fall of 1972. Featuring stars such as Bill
Watts, Buddy Colt, Ole Anderson, the Assassins, Mr. Wrestling I and II,
the Funks, among others, the GCW hour-long TV show was action packed.
The main title was the Georgia Heavyweight Title. The Georgia tag belts
were the group’s tag team championship. In the fall of 1979, Georgia
Championship Wrestling was the first wrestling television show to be
broadcast nationally on cable. Superstation WTBS, the flagship station
of a young media mogul named Ted Turner, featured Georgia Championship
Wrestling (now hosted by Solie alone) at 6:05 Saturday nights. The show
heavily promoted the upcoming live event at Atlanta’s Omni (and before
that, at the old City Auditorium), usually the next day. While Atlanta
was the main focus of the promotion, shows were run weekly (and
sometimes two to three weeks) in Augusta, Albany, and Columbus. Shows
would also take place in smaller towns on the outskirts of Atlanta such
as Carrolton, Conyers, Gainesville, and several others. Beginning in 1980, Georgia Championship Wrestling
expanded into a two hour broadcast on Saturday nights, the first
wrestling television show to do so. Talent appearing in Georgia at that
time were (on the heel side) Ole Anderson (who owned primary interest in
the promotion), Ivan Koloff, the Assassins, Alexis Smirnoff, Terry Funk,
and Don Carson. Kevin Sullivan, Steve Keirn, Stan Hansen, Austin Idol,
Dusty Rhodes, Tony Atlas, Lars Anderson, and Tommy Rich rounded out the
babyfaces. Georgia was an area with few wrestlers who wrestled strictly
there. The majority of superstars spent time in other promotions,
primarily showing up on the GCW tv program to hype an appearance at the
next Omni card. The television program would recap all the angles and
matches from the previous Omni show, and start angles on the television
program. Matches were fast paced, and the GCW program was one of the
better produced wrestling programs of that era. The studio (on Techwood
Drive in Atlanta) was small enough to give the crowd and excellent
vantage point for the matches. Solie conducted interviews from a podium
close to the ring (similar to how the studio matches in Memphis were
done). The show evenly paired matches with interviews, and most
commercial breaks featured upcoming Georgia Championship Wrestling
television shows. The GCW program drew tremendous television ratings
(before most fans started caring about that sort of thing), and was
consistently one of the highest rated programs on cable. By 1982, GCW was promoting several shows outside of
Georgia, due to the exposure on WTBS. Cards were promoted in Cincinnati
, Canton, and Columbus in Ohio, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Many of the smaller Georgia towns no longer had live cards
promoted there due to the expansion. GCW was at its zenith in 1982, with
NWA World Champion Ric Flair, Tommy Rich, Ole Anderson, Stan Hansen,
Ivan Koloff, the Freebirds, Paul Orndorff, Masked Superstar, Mr.
Wrestling II, Ernie Ladd, the Samoans, the Super Destroyer, Bob
Armstrong, and Buzz Sawyer all regularly making appearances in GCW. The
talent depth began decreasing by 1983 and 1984. While television ratings
remained high, attendance at live shows were decreasing. On June 14, 1984 (called Black Saturday to wrestling
fans) Vince McMahon, Jr. took controlling interest of Georgia
Championship Wrestling, and began broadcasting WWF wrestling in the
Saturday night timeslot. Longtime fans were dismayed, and began a
successful letter writing campaign to get Georgia wrestling back on WTBS.
Ted Turner responded to the public opinion by giving Ole Anderson a
wrestling slot on TBS Saturday mornings at 7:35, Eastern Standard Time.
Ratings were low, and the talent available in Georgia at that time was
not up to the standards set in years past. Sadly, Georgia Championship
Wrestling faded away slowly in early 1985, being absorbed by Jim
Crockett Promotions out of Charlotte, North Carolina.
