- Tim Dills

The Players

In 1975 a kindly grandmother named Christine had a lot going for her. She was one of the few women to achieve much success in her chosen field. Her bosses, Nick and Roy, had been successful in business for over twenty five years. Her son, Jerry, worked in the same business as his mother and was considered to have great instincts for that business. Despite these things Christine worked in a business known to be full of back-stabbing, dirty tricks and often, bad pay. It’s enough to make a body wonder if this nice lady named Christine Jarrett ever looked at her young grandson, Jeff Jarrett, and wondered what she was doing working in the business of professional wrestling.

Nick Gulas began promoting wrestling in Tennessee in the late 1940s and early 1950s in conjunction with Roy Welch, his promoting partner. Welch’s name lent instant credibility to most pro wrestling fans in Tennessee since the Welch family had long been in-ring favorites around the circuit. Nick was a small man with thick black-rimmed glasses and was of Greek descent. Nick and Roy owned pro wrestling’s Tennessee territory. Many who worked for Gulas didn’t like him because he came across as obnoxious and foul-mouthed. To some he was intimidating and came across as a bully. Sometimes his paydays, based on how many people actually paid to see an event or house show he promoted, were less than what were expected by those who worked those shows for him. Despite these factors most people who knew Nick Gulas admit he worked very hard to make his wrestling promotion successful. Early in his career Gulas hired Christine Jarrett to sell tickets to the weekly wrestling shows at the Hippodrome in Nashville. Gulas would also eventually add another person who would become very instrumental in how the Tennessee territory would operate over time. That person was his son, George.