Weaver and his tag team partner George Becker (billed as a former World Heavyweight Champion, although which version of the world title he may have held is unknown to me) had held the Southern Tag Team Championship through much of 1965 only to lose the title to Aldo Bogni & Bronco Lubich (managed by Colonel Homer O'Dell) in late 1965. Weaver-Becker would trade the title back and forth with the Bogni-Lubich team for the entire 66-68 period with Bogni-Lubich holding the belts for about two-thirds of the period.

Neither Bogni nor Lubich ever achieved much of a reputation outside of the Carolinas. By 1972 Bronco Lubich was working as a referee in Florida and Texas, and I never again heard tell of Aldo Bogni. Even during this period neither Bogni nor Lubich had any success as singles wrestlers. Becker, Weaver, Hawk & Hanson always won their one-on-one encounters against Bogni or Lubich.

A number of different tag teams entered the fray but none were able to break the strangle hold of the two above teams on the title. Rip Hawk & Swede Hanson were in the area throughout this period and engages in a serious feud with Bogni & Lubich in late 67. The Masked Red Demons were around for a while before being unmasked by Becker & Weaver as being the Hines Brothers. The Kentuckians (Big Boy Brown & either Luke Smith or Tiny Anderson) made the occasional appearance but didn't challenge for the title. The Infernos (managed by J.C. Dykes) were in the area for about two years. One of the Infernos had a "loaded" shoe that came into play during matches. During late 1967 the tag team of Lars and Gene Anderson arrived to create havoc, joined shortly thereafter by brother Ole Anderson. Second tier tag team combinations included Jesse James & anybody (virtually every good guy in the area teamed with James on occasion) , Bob Orton & The Great Malenko, The Missouri Mauler & The Great Malenko, Tex McKenzie & Nelson Royal , Klondike Bill & Nelson Royal (after McKenzie suffered a disabling injury at the hand of the Anderson Brothers), Klondike Bill & The Amazing Zuma , Abe Jacobs & Luther Lindsey, Abe Jacobs and Bobby Red Cloud, P.Y. Chung & Hiro Matsuda, and a quintet of "cousins" who combined in various combinations Roger Kirby, Jerry London, Les Thatcher, Dennis Hall and Rudy Kay (no kin to the Rudy Kay who appeared in Chicago during the 50s & early 60s).

After Bob Orton left the area, The Missouri Mauler (a/k/a Larry "Rocky" Hamilton emerged as the Southern Heavyweight Champion. Like Orton he was managed by Boris "The Great" Malenko. The Missouri Mauler would hold the title for most of this period , losing the belt once to Klondike Bill and twice to Johnny Weaver, but regaining the belt shortly after each loss.  Apparently Tex McKenzie held the belt briefly but I never saw big Tex wearing the belt.

Underneath guys appearing in the area included the likes of Big Ike Eakins (who died of a heart attack midway through this period), El Gaucho, Kenny Mack, George "Two Ton" Harris, Benji "The Mummy " Ramirez and Bruiser Morgan. 

Very few women's or midget's wrestling was held in the area and definitely no mixed tag teams. Outside interference in matches was almost unheard of unless by a manager and only Malenko, O'Dell, and Dykes were in the area at the time, and they managed only one tag team or wrestler apiece. Heel vs. Heel matches were fairly common; Hero vs. Hero matches less so and usually went to a time limit draw.

As you can see, the Carolinas were not populated by a lot of huge stars at this time. In fall 1966 & 1968 WRESTLING WORLD ran their top 50 wrestlers (in addition to their NWA , AWA, WWWF & WWA ratings) and only Bob Orton, The  Missouri Mauler, Luther Lindsey and Hiro Matsuda were ranked in their nationwide top 50 on either occasion (and Lindsey and Matsuda were bit players). After this period Charlotte emerged as the dominant city in the area and stars such as Ric Flair (and others) emerged, but that story already has been told elsewhere.

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