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.