KICK IT OUT OF GEAR.......

Anyone that ever worked for Georgia Championship Wrestling knows what a joy the trips were. Our longest trip was Savannah and it was about 265 miles one way. We were home every night and most trips were around 125 miles give or take a little. The only bad days we had were Saturdays. We taped Atlanta TV on Saturday Morning starting at 10:00 am. For anyone who does not know about TV tapings they never start on time. For those of you that watched WTBS out of Atlanta you are well aware that there were two hours of wrestling each week. We taped this each and every week. We were lucky to get out of Atlanta TV by 1:00 or 1:30 and I have even gotten out as late as 2:00 PM. This within itself doesn't sound bad, but consider this; Columbus TV!!!

Columbus TV was broadcast at 4:00 pm LIVE. I put the emphasis on live. At 4:00 o'clock you were on the air. You had to be there, dressed and prepared  to be in the ring. I speak as a referee. I had to be familiar with all matches scheduled for that show. I had to know the time frames we were working within and also to be ready if there was a glitch or some last minute change. It doesn't sound like much of a problem, but Ralph Freed who produced the show probably still has nightmares about guys showing up late or not at all. The Columbus Sports Arena was approx. 125 miles from the WTBS Studios. The best you could do it in was two hours. That was providing there was no Ga. Tech football traffic or a concert, or baseball game, or well you get the picture..... It was a pain to get there on time. I have actually walked in, dropped my bag in the aisle and jumped into the ring.

This story happened one Saturday afternoon on the way to Columbus TV. Sir Dudley Clements (Steve Clements) and Don Kent were riding with me. We were in a hurry as always on Saturday and it was a normal day until we went through Fayetteville, Ga.. We had slowed to almost a crawl as the local law enforcment had a keen eye for the boys because they knew we came through there every Saturday. As we were driving along we noticed a house on fire off to our left. The fire engines and flashing lights had everyones attention. I looked back ahead as I was driving and I saw a man about twenty-five feet up in the air. This poor fellow was doing everything he could to fly, however as we all know what goes up must come down and he did with a thump.   More...