WTBS STUDIO

Many people have asked about the studio we taped our show in. Georgia Championship Wrestling was for years taped in a studio about the size of small hamburger restaurant. It only seated about 100 fans when filled to capacity and it was full every week. We recorded two hours every Saturday morning for replay that night from 6:05 to 8:05. We started, or were supposed to start at 10:00 am, but I do not ever remember starting on time. Later TBS moved into a more spacious studio on Techwood Drive, but this story is about the W. Peachtree studio.

If you watched the show or have some old tapes this will help you put in perspective how small it really was.

The ring was 16' x 16'.  The first rows of seats were four feet from the ring and there were only three rows on the risers.

Watching the tape you will see  the risers behind the ring. Off to the right there were about four or five rows of chairs on the floor.

That was all the room there was. Directly behind the chairs was a black curtain. Black on TV appears as infinity, or a space that seemingly has no end, however in reality there was a concrete block wall two inches behind that curtain.   

We produced many hours of quality wrestling in that studio. This is the studio where Bruiser Brody pushed the guy in the wheel chair in front of Gordon Solie. Its the studio where Abdullah first ate raw liver, fish eyes, light bulbs and anything else he could get his hands on. Moondog Mayne devoured live goldfish on the set of GCW and many future stars got their first taste of national exposure in that little room (I did say quality didn't I ?). 

Every week we had boy scouts, girl scouts, church groups and fans from all over the country come to our tapings.

Tickets were free and we took reservations for the tickets by mail and over the phone on Tuesday mornings at the ticket office.

We opened the office at 9:00 am and by 9:10 we had no TV seats left. It was always interesting because you never knew who would show up at TV. Ted Turner was a frequent guest. There was a catwalk above the lights, and many times I have seen him up there while the fans below never knew he was there. We have had Mayors, ball players, and entertainers stop by to see the matches. 

Here is a little funny that you had to be there to really appreciate: 

I had gotten dressed and was waiting for the matches to start. I walked out into the studio and was talking to the fans.

We had a large group of boy scouts attending that day and they were seated on the risers. Gordon came out to the set and was telling the fans that we had some great matches lined up and who was there that day. When he mentioned that The Sheik would be wrestling that morning the Boy Scouts went crazy. I mean crying and carrying on like somebody was after them with a gun.

I remember the scout leader calming them down and explaining that it was only a show and that he would not hurt them and they should remain calm. I went back and told Eddie what had happened and what followed was priceless... 

I was standing in the ring and The Sheik came around the corner with a six foot boa constrictor wrapped around his neck.

He went straight for the boy scouts. Almost in mass they turned and ran up those risers and blindly jumping off into that black curtain.  As I stated earlier there was a concrete block wall two inches behind that curtain. Those boy scouts were hitting that wall and piling up like ants on a hill. The funniest thing was that scout leader who said it was all a show and remain calm was the first leaper into the wall and was on the bottom of the pile. It looked like something you would see on a road runner cartoon.

That scout leader was struggling to get up and boy scouts kept landing on top of him. They were killing each other trying to get away from The Sheik and that snake. 

We got things calmed down and resumed the show. The Sheik at least twice more that day did the same run in with the same results.