8. The Hall Of Famer Filled Mid-Atlantic And Mid-South TV Library
For as many people know that Ric Flair was a 16-time World Heavyweight Champion, what about watching a wrestling promotion that featured Flair when he was a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, along with the likes of fellow WWE Hall of Famers Ricky Steamboat, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Sgt. Slaughter, Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, Dory Funk, Jr., Greg Valentine, Jimmy Snuka, Nikolai Volkoff, Bob Orton and Jimmy Valiant. WWE has yet to release wrestling from the Virginia and Carolinas based Mid-Atlantic territory on the WWE Network, but they certainly own the footage, and said TV could be truly exciting to watch. As well, with the 2012 release of the Legends of Mid-South Wrestling DVD, WWE showcased a small piece of the massive amount of footage they now own from Bill Watts' legendary Mid-South territory. Whereas WWE in 2014 is embroiled in considerable drama for its potentially racist practices, famed African-American grapplers the Junkyard Dog and Ernie Ladd were stalwarts here, with the Dog's 1980 headlining steel cage match with Michael Hayes drawing 31,000 fans to the New Orleans Superdome in August of that year as the end of an infamous hair cream blinding angle. Missing Jim Ross calling matches on WWE TV and not wanting to hear his voice all over 90s WCW and Attitude Era WWE broadcasts? Well, if Mid-South gets uploaded to the Network in the next subscription cycle, twice as many eventual WWE Hall of Famers who appeared in the Mid-Atlantic region got their first big exposure in World Class with Ross "saucing it" on the call. Everyone from Paul Orndorff and Ted DiBiase to Shawn Michaels and Steve "Dr. Death" Williams and a ton of mainly 80s era superstars received their first national TV break in Bill Watts' legendary territory, thus making every episode a potentially hugely historical watch.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
