This month we will look at Mark & Jay Youngblood and the impact they made on the Mid-Atlantic area.

Jay made his debut in JCP in 1979 and he got a good mid-card push from the beginning, teaming with guys like Tony Atlas, Paul Orndorff, Jim Brunzell, and other faces. Then in the fall of 79, Youngblood found a partner in Ricky Steamboat and the territory would never be the same. They immediately started challenging the NWA World Tag champs who were Baron Von Raschke & Paul Jones and on October 24^th 1979 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Steamboat & Youngblood captured the NWA Tag titles for the 1^st time and defended their belts for 5 months before losing them to Ray Stevens & Greg Valentine on March 29^th 1980 in Charlotte, North Carolina, but they lost their belts to Ray Stevens & Jimmy Snuka on June 22^nd 1980 in Greensboro, North Carolina. A couple of months later, Stevens & Snuka "broke" Jay’s leg, putting him out of action for a while (in reality, he went to work in Portland).

When Jay returned to JCP in June 1981, Steamboat was having singles success, so Jay didn’t have a partner to work with exclusively, so he bounced around a little with Johnny Weaver, Jake Roberts, & Porkchop Cash and winning the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Titles with each of those men. Also, Jay was having some singles success facing the likes of Ole Anderson, Roddy Piper, The Grappler (Len Denton), Super Destroyer (Scott Irwin), Ivan Koloff, & Sgt. Slaughter, and in December 1981 he held the NWA World champ Ric Flair to a time limit draw on TV which got him some NWA title shots on the house shows, but it wasn’t the same as it was teaming with Steamboat, but that would change in the Summer of 1982 as they reformed their team and on August 22^nd 1982 in Toronto, Ontario, they won the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team belts from Don Kernodle & Jim Nelson. They would vacate the belts though to go after the NWA World Tag Team belts which were held by Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle which would ignite one of the greatest feuds in Mid-Atlantic history as these two teams battled & brawled all throughout the area. Steamboat & Youngblood regained their belts on March 12^th 1983 in Greensboro, North Carolina in the much talked about Cage Match with Slaughter & Kernodle, but a month later a new challenge would come. Steamboat & Youngblood wrestled against fellow babyfaces Jack & Jerry Brisco in a non-title TV match, and in the finish, Jerry has Steamboat in the figure-four when Jack "accidentally" falls on it and "injures" Ricky’s knee. Steamboat & Youngblood wasn’t so sure it was an accident, but a few weeks later they gave them a rematch on TV where the Briscos firmly turned heel by unexplicably trying to injure Ricky’s knee.  More...