Tossing Salt Presents:
Wrestling Q&A
Jim Crockett Promotions Edition
July 28, 2017
DougMaynard.com

It’s time for another fun filled “Wrestling Q&A” and this one is a bit different than the norm. As someone who lives in North Carolina and grew up watching Jim Crockett Promotions as a youth, the Carolinas’ and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling is very important to me and holds a special place in my heart. And this Q&A is all about the incredible action and wrestlers of those glory days and that territory. I’m excited. Most of the questions come from the Facebook group, “Jim Crockett Promotions: A Great Era In Pro Wrestling”. Let’s do this…

Nivram asks, “Did Dusty Rhodes copy his mic style after Thunderbolt Patterson?”

Yes. Dusty copied his promo style after both Thunderbolt Patterson and Superstar Billy Graham. He’s admitted to this in several interviews and I believe also in his book.

Doug asks, “Who was the poorest fit in JCP? I would say Larry Zbyszko in his 1987 run, didn’t fit at all.”

Zbyszko could have been used better than he was. I admit that, but think about this. We (fans) still talk about Zbyszko and Baby Doll and whatever was in that manilla envelope thirty years later, so was it really a bad spot for Larry? The first character that comes to mind for me was Superstar Billy Graham. Not long after his WWWF run, he came to the Carolina’s and had shaven his head and was doing a martial arts gimmick, plus was placed with Paul Jones as his manager. I still scratch my head at that and wonder what were they thinking?

Joe asks, “Who do you think was the greatest manager in JCP? Mine was a tie between JJ Dillon and Jim Cornette.”

I love Dillon and Cornette and would even go so far as to say that Corny is one of my favorite managers of all time, but I’m going to go with Gene Anderson for managers who were solely Crockett. The man barely talked, but he was an “Anderson” and having Gene in your corner was instant credibility. I remember him managing Iron Sheik, Jimmy Snuka, Ray Stevens, etc and he was great in his role. Maybe he was never the “big star manager” that the others were, but he was damn good at what he did.

John asks, “In JCP, what matches never happened that you wish did happen?”

I would have liked to see Flair and Kabuki have a go at it. The Andersons versus The Briscos or versus Steamboat / Youngblood would have been fun to watch. And how about Blackjack Mulligan versus Ole Anderson in a wrestling ring (and not at the WCW Power Plant). That could have been great to see.

Lamar asks, “Road Warrior Hawk vs Road Animal in a Chicago street fight – who ya’ll taking? I’m taking Hawk!”

Well, they snack on danger and dine on death, but the dead man here would have been Animal as Hawk would have totally whipped the “big man’s” ass.

Lamar asks, “Best memory of JCP?”

Where do I start? Valentine breaking Wahoo’s leg? Valentine breaking Flair’s nose? The whole “Hat versus The Robe” feud with Flair and Blackjack Mulligan? The antics of the “Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant? Enforcer Luciano chewing on a light bulb during an interview. The Anderson Brothers trying to “sacrifice” Ray “The Crippler” Stevens to keep their tag team titles? The Battle Royals in 1981 where the eventual winner (Sgt. Slaughter) won a 1981 Cadillac? The Brisco Brothers turning on Jimmy Valiant and breaking his boom-box? Tully Blanchard’s search for his “Perfect 10”? Abdullah the Butcher coming out of nowhere and attacking Wahoo McDaniel? So many great memories to choose from here. I think though, I’ll go with the build towards Starcade 83 with Dick Slater and Bob Orton Jr. going after Flair and trying to collect the bounty placed on Flair’s head by then NWA World Champion Harley Race. That was a fantastic build for a truly historic event.

Josh says, “A while back, Jimmy Valiant told me that Crockett had all the talent to compete with an organization up north. He said the problem was Crockett didn’t know how to use or promote his talent on that level and that he tried to expand too fast. I agree with Jimmy. What are you thoughts and opinion on this?”

I think I agree. Crockett was fine being a big fish in a small pond and if he had kept Crockett Promotions in the south-east, I think things may have worked out a big better in the long run. But moving the company HQ to Texas and trying to go all over the United States was too much, too fast and the company wasn’t ready or prepared for that kind of expansion. Also, having Dusty as the booker probably didn’t help matters either because Dusty had big ideas, but couldn’t really get past the idea of maybe having others in the spotlight instead of just Dusty and his friends. If Dusty had been just a booker and not an active wrestler, things could have worked out better as well, but the “Dream” had to be at the top of the card and his act grew stale after a while. From what I understand, Jim Crockett didn’t want to run JCP and was selected by the family to run things after the death of their father and the original pick to run things, Frances Crockett’s husband, left the business. So maybe if David or Frances or some other member of the family had been the boss and making the decisions, things could have worked out differently too. But this is all speculation. Valiant was there though and part of the company at the end so I would guess he knows better than most of the rest of us. He’s probably right.

Larry asks, “If you were given the chance to induct an all JCP Class to the WWE Hall of Fame, who would be your picks?”

Well, if you take away the most obvious picks, who are already members of the WWE Hall of Fame, like Ric Flair, Dusty, Rick Steamboat, Blackjack Mulligan and Jimmy Valiant, I think you would still be able to have a really strong group of inductees. My choices would be Jim Crockett Jr., Wahoo McDaniel, Paul Jones, The Anderson Brothers, Baby Doll, Magnum TA, Baron Von Raschke, Nikita Koloff, Bob Caudle and referee Tommy Young.

And that’s all for now. Thank you for reading. Questions, comments and thoughts are welcome. Let me know what you think. I’m going to bed now. Have a great night.

Ubuntu!