Each August, Greg Price brings together legends from Jim Crockett promotions, Mid South, Texas and many other territories of yesteryear to present a unique experience for any old school wrestling fan. Though I’ve heard of these festivities for several years, it wasn’t until 2013 that I, along with my older brothers had the chance to experience this 4 day convention for ourselves. My brothers were the first ones to sit me beside them in front of a TV, back in 1985 as I got my first taste of old school ‘wrasslin’ and I’ve been hooked ever since. Lets take a look at one of the most unique, exciting, and nostalgic weekends of my life one day at a time.
Day 1
My brothers & I arrived at The perennial site of the FanFest, The Hilton Hotel in Charlotte. The hotel offers a great deal on rooms for the weekend and as we checked in it took less than a minute until one of the weekend’s featured guests was checking in next to us, WWE Hall of Famer, original 4 Horsemen Tully Blanchard gave us a friendly “How we doing guys?” and the weekend was underway. After checking in and settling into our luxurious room we wandered downstairs even more anxious than before to pick up our credentials. This was a flawless, effortless process as the FanFest staff member presented us our VIP lanyards, Souvenir T-Shirt featuring a classic shot from a Ricky Morton vs Ric Flair Crockett era matchup. Having the same idea, my brothers & I looked at our slip of paper which would tell us who in our pre submitted “wish list” we would have the chance to have Dinner with at night 2’s Hall of Heroes Banquet. As we browsed our letter, we saw the words “You will be seated at table 12 and joined by Bobby Eaton”
WOW! “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton!! All three of us being Midnight Express marks and appreciating Eaton as one of the most underrated talents in wrestling to this day. Excitement is not the word, we were elated and those 24 hours until we were joining Beautiful Bobby for dinner couldn’t pass quick enough. But before then we had much more in store! The highlights of night 1 were the Q & A sessions. First was “Inside the Cage” with Magnum TA & Tully Blanchard. Tully & Magnum discussed their intense feud from 1985 which lead up to one of my favorite matches in wrestling history, the “I Quit” steel cage match at Starrcade 85. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and both men mentioned that it would likely never happen again. The two legends detailed how they felt the match ended their great feud and answered some deeply personal questions including their current relationship, how far it has come, Tully’s tragic car wreck that effectively ended his career and much more. Words can’t describe how awesome it was to hear these two talk and personally address fans for over 90 minutes, if you’re an old school wrestling fan I highly recommend you check this out on the DVD set when it’s available. Once Tully & Magnum were done and the cage panels came down, one of the greatest managers in wrestling history took center stage. It was time for Uncensored with Jim Cornette!! The final Q & A of the night delivered huge and was aptly titled. Cornette, joined by moderator Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com and legendary referee Tommy Young told stories, answered fan questions and entertained a packed house for over two hours. Cornette discussed the “Dairy Queen” story from his SMW days(YouTube it), answered questions bluntly & honestly about Kevin Steen, his days as ROH booker, experiences with Vince McMahon, and of course the many men he managed over his career. This was my first opportunity to be live for a Cornette “Shoot” and as much as I enjoy them on DVD (that’s a lot!) this was even better. Night 1 came to an end after Cornette wrapped up & my brothers & I retired to our room, not yet fully prepared for the next 3 days but very excited.
“Inside The Steel Cage” Q&A w/ Tully Blanchard & Magnum TA
Late Night “Uncensored” Q & A w/ Jim CornetteDay 2
We quickly decided that day 2 would kick off with a visit to secure our photo ops for the rest of the weekend. As we looked over the various options, it was difficult to choose but each of us selected the ones we just couldn’t pass on and you’ll see some of those in this column. After this we entered the vendor area, several tables were set up including HighSpots w/ Vendor guest Tammy “Sunny” Sytch, a table of wrestling books which peaked my interest, Jim Cornette’s table (my brother Travis’ home away from home for the weekend) and an awesome display of historic championships from Dave Millican. We looked through the tables, took pics with some of history’s most famous title belts, & got some really great 2X6 photos for our autograph adventures that were yet to come.
IWGP Championships on display at The Millican Table
Me, posing with my all time favorite belt. The Mid 80’s NWA TV TitleSpeaking of which, I’ve never been a big autograph person but this was a baptism by fire as there were multiple opportunities all weekend with different legends of the past signing each day. We attended our first that morning and got started filling the awesome full color souvenir program we purchased after registering the night before. Another thing going on this weekend was the Dr. Tom Prichard Wrestling Seminar, which would end with presentation of the inaugural $2,500 Reid Flair Scholarship to allow one of the brightest students to continue his or her training. We sat in on some of the exhibition matches as the young talents were closely watched my Dr. Tom, Tully Blanchard, Les Thatcher and many other wrestling minds.
Reid Flair Scholarship Winner Michael Blais
As the first full day of the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Legends FanFest came to a close we had gotten the opportunity to meet many legends, it was time to adjourn to our room, dress up a bit and attend The Hall of Heroes Banquet! As we walked downstairs and found table #12 “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton chatted with two other attendees who would be joining my 2 brothers & I eating and chatting with one of the nights inductees. It was a thrill to see Bobby(I call him Bobby now) doing so well. The wear and tear of his recent health problems was prevalent but he was all smiles as we asked him about the scaffold match, his TV title reign and being part of The Dangerous Alliance and later The Blue Bloods with William Regal. Bobby isn’t the most talkative of the bunch but he was very friendly and it was very apparent that this man enjoyed every moment of his underrated, yet legendary pro wrestling career. The Hall of Heroes Banquet was a really great experience, as people like Jerry Jarrett, Gerald Brisco, and Tammy Sytch introduced and presented plaques to this year’s inductees.
Gerald Brisco speaking at the Hall of Heroes Banquet
Tammy “Sunny” Sytch helping with hosting duties at Hall of Heroes
The Rock N Roll Express & Midnight Express inducted in the 2013 HOHDay 3
We were becoming old pros by day 3 of the 2013 Fan Fest. We had more autograph opportunities and chances to chat with The Midnight Express, Rock N Roll Express, Manny Fernandez, & Gerald Brisco. I immediately told “Mr Brisco” I’d been conditioned to call him that, to which he replied “Mr MACK-Mahn” as only he could with a smile before telling me to call him Jerry. Another day of autographs and photo ops with legends such as Magnum TA, Tully Blanchard, Ivan Koloff & many more featured guests it was time for the first night of live wrestling.
Barry Windham, JJ Dillon, & Baron Von Raschke signing autographs for a huge crowd on Day 3.We were witness to a nostalgic, old school night of wrestling. Two matches in the Race for The Ring Tournament, an impromptu promo and challenge from half of the legendary Fantastics, Bobby Fulton. The challenge was answered by a legends Fest mainstay, the amazing 64 year old “Action” Mike Jackson. The main event for the evening saw Hall of Heroes inductees The Rock N Roll Express in action taking on D’Lo Brown & Luke “DOC” Gallows. This was a classic old school tag match with the RNR Express dominating early before D’Lo & Gallows took over on Gibson. The old school crowd was solidly behind Gibson & Morton. Morton finally made the hot tag & the two legendary tag wrestlers cleared Gallowa out of the ring & hit the double dropkick on D’Lo for the win. With that old school tag match over, the night was over for most but not for us night owls. “The Sinister Minister” James Mitchell hosted late night Karaoke which I attended for a short while and seemed to be a good time despite many technical difficulties. We retired to the room for our last night and listened to the latest podcast from my colleagues at www.TheDangerousAlliance.Com (cheap plug) to close out our final full day at the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Legends Fest.
“Action” Mike Jackson & The Rock N Roll Express headline night 1 of WrestlingDay 4
Sadly, we slept in on the last morning & missed the testimonial of Tully Blanchard at 8:30 that morning. I’ve heard Tully discuss his faith in the past and I’m sure it was a great message on this day as well. After checking out of our room, we went down to the vendor areas & revisited the amazing Millican table as well as some others, had lunch & some last day photo ops before spending the rest of the day chatting with other wrestling fans & taking pictures before the live wrestling that afternoon. As my brother & I waited for the matches we ran into our “old pal” Gerald Brisco, who asked us to watch he & Angelo “King Kong” Mosca’s bags as they checked out. A menial task? Maybe but still pretty cool. Mosca made it over & saw us with his bags, we explained the situation and Mr. Mosca stood and talked with us about his CFL career as well as his wrestling career. As we were rejoined by “Mr Brisco” the two thanked us & were on there way. The evening of wrestling started off with Dr. Tom Prichard, Les Thatcher, Beth Fliehr & others presenting the Reid Flair Memorial scholarship to this year’s winner Michael Blade. Blade graciously accepted & was told he’d be in action later. This was a more current Indy style show with a couple of the seminar guys getting matches, including Blade who took on “Action” Mike Jackson. The double main event was The Dojo Bros (Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards) taking on 7OH!4(Cedric Alexander & Caleb Konley) and TNA Superstar Gunner facing Luke “DOC” Gallows in a big man brawl. This was a good show to end a great weekend & as people started to go their own ways, we stopped by & paid respects to “Action” Mike Jackson(who I may have mentioned, but it bares repeating amazes me) and we were on our way with great memorabilia & souvenirs of our first Mid-Atlantic Legends Fan Fest.
I had the opportunity to get some professional photo ops done with The Rock N Roll Express, Midnight Express & Jim Cornette, The Mulkeys(who loved my t-shirt selection) and even have my hand raised by legendary referee Tommy Young!
Thank you to the organizer of the Mid-Atlantic Legends Fest, Greg Price (follow him
on twitter @nwalegends)for being so accommodating and putting on a great weekend that surpassed all the glowing reviews I’d heard from past attendees.
Also thanks to Adrian Rohr & Travis Polk for the great photos.
Check out www.midatlanticlegends.com for details on how to attend the 10th Anniversary of the Fan Fest next year or to get souvenirs & a DVD set of this years event.
Follow me @The1andonlyJer & if you have memories of fan Fest from this year or others feel free to post in the comments or chat with me on twitter.