Midway through the decade of the 1960s, life in the United States was a work in progress. A bit over a year earlier the nation was rocked to its core with the assignation of president John F. Kennedy. From Great Britain a musical foursome known as the Beatles had made a splash stateside. Many in the country were growing disillusioned with the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The civil rights movement was also a major part of the lives of many in the country at the time, especially for many throughout major metropolitan areas in the South. Underlying it all, a quiet panic was always a breath away as a cold war between the U.S. and the forces of communism rested uneasily nearby.

On a much different hand, professional wrestling was chugging along just fine in the United States by 1965. A good number of wrestling promotions were doing quite well as what would be known as the territorial system began cementing. Wrestling promotion offices, often but not necessarily based around state lines, were scattered all across the U.S., as well as in Mexico and Canada.

The major governing body of wrestling at the time was the National Wrestling Alliance although two other groups, the American Wrestling Association based in the upper mid-west and the World Wide Wrestling Federation based in the northeast had carved out their own successful territories with their own set of champions. The NWA though revolved around the rest of the territories and uniquely featured a world champion whose appearances in the various territories were infrequent enough that they were truly special events.

What came to be referred to here as the Memphis promotion was doing well in 1965. Although the northernmost cities such as Louisville, Lexington and Evansville were not yet part of the territory, the actual territory at the time stretched across parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri. Building upon years of steady work in the area by such wrestling stars as The Welch family (Jack, Herb, Lester and Roy), Don & Al Greene, Art Neilson, Tex Riley, Rowdy Red Roberts, Len Rossi, The Fargos (Jackie, Sonny & Don), Corsica Joe & Corsica Jean, Sputnik Monroe, Billy Wicks and others, the promotion operated by Nick Gulas and longtime star turned promoter Roy Welch had long tentacles throughout a large part of the southern United States. This was driven home even more so as Gulas and Welch enjoyed good business relations with other wrestling offices in the South such as the Gulf Coast promotion headed by the Fields family (related to the Welch family), the Florida promotion headed by Cowboy Luttrell and the Georgia promotion headed by Ray Gunkel, Paul Jones and Buddy Fuller. With cooperation often extremely necessary between promotions, Gulas and Welch held a great amount of influence in many cities in the South.

While TV was a popular item in households, the syndicated networks put together by promotions were still in the distance so many cities hosted their very own TV shows each week. Most major cities in the area ran weekly wrestling cards which in turn created a regular circuit which enabled Gulas and the promoters who worked with him to build a business from. Of course, smaller towns and cities were also frequent stopovers for the promotions in the territory days.

Covering so much territory meant Gulas and Welch needed plenty of talent. The promoting team came to rely on a steady diet of regulars who often shifted from city to city in the territory to other cities in order to remain fresh in the minds of the fans.  More...