- Rich Tate

Unfortunately, I missed putting together last month’s column due to some personal issues that required much of my time. Those problems have not gone away, so it is with great regret that I must make this my last column for awhile. Hopefully, Vince will allow me to resume my columns in the future, or perhaps assist his site in another capacity.

My original plan was to cover different individuals each month who had some impact that could be considered integral to the success of Georgia Championship Wrestling. Although the secondary plan will be diminished, I will cover some of those individuals now in a more condensed version.

While in no certain order of importance, these are the people I feel contributed the most in front of the camera to make GCW special to it’s fans.

Johnny Walker, who worked as Mr. Wrestling II for the latter part of his career, was undoubtedly the most popular wrestler in Georgia post the All-South split. He donned a mask after spending the first half of his career working as a mid card competitor nicknamed "Rubberman," and became known as Mr. Wrestling II in an effort to help promoter Paul Jones combat Ann Gunkel’s All-South Wrestling promotion.

This was a great concept, as it borrowed from Tim Woods’ Mr. Wrestling gimmick. As covered in my earlier columns, Woods was too busy with obligations in Eddie Graham’s Florida territory to help Jones as much as he needed.

Walker had been wrestling in Florida as the Grappler, also a masked man, when he was asked to make the move to Georgia. He had recently lost the mask in Florida, and the move made good sense for all involved.