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From the Archives: Looking Back at Live Wrestling Here on WDEF

Submitted by Collins Parker on February 14, 2008 - 10:27am. BONUS Video

Comments Below: 12

We recently posted several stories from our 50th Anniversay special in the "Inside WDEF" section of the website.

Digging up the history and the stories for that show four years ago was a lot of fun.

But my favorite story is the last one on Live Wrestling.

Long before Pay-Per-View and the W-W-F, wrestling was a staple on local television.

It began here when Nick Gulas and Harry Thornton got together to promote matches at Memorial Auditorium.

They decided the best way to sell more tickets was to promote the wrestlers on TV.

Their first show was on Channel 3 in the sixties.

But soon, Harry Thorton and Nick Gulas brought the show to WDEF, where it remained until Harry retired in the 80s.

The show was live in the same studio where we did the news.

And it featured a live audience on some bleachers.

Quite often, "Wrestling Time" (as Harry called it) ran right up to the weekend news.

So they would actually tape a bout before they went on the air, and play it back at the end of the show.

That gave them time to move everybody out and set up the cameras for the news.

But Nick Gulas kept a close watch over any tapes of his product and now they are lost to time.

So we had to recreate the experience from scraps and eyewitness accounts.

We even brought some of the wrestlers back to the same studio where we do our news today.

Here is what we came up with:

Like I said, we don't have any of the origional material from those wrestling matches.

But one of our employees did have an old tape he recorded at home of a program in 1980 (Thanks, Waymon Benson).

So for the next few weeks, I'm going to show you some of the matches from that show.

This was recorded on a V-H-S tape, sat around for years and then transfered.

So it's very rough.

But it should still stir a lot of memories.

This week, we'll start you off with a bout between Rick Craven and Jimmy Powell.

And, as always, Harry Thornton has the play-by-play.

Next week, we'll show you the Manchurians Tag Team with their manager, Sir John.

And if you have a WDEF wrestling tape sitting around the house, we'd love to see it.

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wrestling shows in this area

Submitted by Tommy Gage (not verified) on October 18, 2009 - 10:15am.

well the first thing i would like to say is thanks for taking the time to hear this there are alot of shows in this area i help run one in dalton its called dcw dixie championship wrestling its been growing for two years and only getting better they have guys there that put it all on the line just for a small crowd we hope to get bigger but its not that easy to get notice anymore like getting on tv take a lot of money and some of these shows barely stay open if we had the right help we could such as your channel maybe doing a story on loc. pro wrestling maybe it would help i've gave you my e-mail and hope to hear from you i think people would realy be interested in hearing about some of these guys story thank you again for your time
yours turely
the insane Tommy Gage
p.s. my real name is tommy evans and i hope you take the time to aleast read this it could be something great for this area like what wrestling use to be not like the wwe

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David McInturff

Submitted by Sandra Cooper (not verified) on October 8, 2008 - 5:16pm.

My first husband wrestled for Harry Thornton back in early 60's. David S. McInturff played football for UTC, wrestled for Harry and then later played for the Chattanooga Cherokees. David coached football and wrestling at Rossville High School and went on to Carrollton, Georgia as head coach and then Head Coach at Norcross High School for five year. When he was head coach at Calhoun High School, he suffered a massive stroke. After being in a coma for 4 months he resided in various health care facilities until his death in 2000. I would really like information from his wrestling days to share with his grandchildren. If anyone has any information, please respond.

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Wrestling Match

Submitted by Phil Dyar Sr. (not verified) on February 19, 2008 - 4:16pm.

Somebody said Terry West AKA Unknown Bookie wrestled under a mask from unknown parts but I think it was Ringgold Ga.

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Butch Thorton

Submitted by Pat Rose (not verified) on February 17, 2008 - 12:51pm.

Butch Thorton was a good wrestler and worked hard. I wrestled him many times and had good matches each time. His timing was good and that is key...

Pat Rose

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Butch Thornton

Submitted by wabu (not verified) on September 28, 2009 - 12:23am.

Just wondering is Butch Thornton, Harry Thornton's son and if so what happen to Butch?

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Saul Winderoff and his Germans verses Jackie Fargo

Submitted by Stephen A. Pettyjohn (not verified) on February 16, 2008 - 10:27pm.

I enjoyed wrestling on WDEF for may years. I am curious as to what happened to Saul Winderoff and the Germans and to Jackie Fargo. The were my favorite opponents on the show. Thanks.

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Wrestling

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on February 15, 2008 - 9:08pm.

My favorites where the Fargos. Jackie and Don..

Thanks for sharing this story.

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Gypsy Joe

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on February 15, 2008 - 6:34pm.

Is it true that Tojo put a bounty on Gypsy Joe and some local thugs didnt realize it was just part of a show and beat Gypsy Joe up on Market Street?

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LIVE WRESTLING

Submitted by JOHN MINCEY (not verified) on February 15, 2008 - 2:14am.

I GREW UP WATCHING HARRY AND NICK. DIDN'T THEY BOTH HAVE SONS THAT WRESTLED ON THE SHOW?

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Wrestling Sons

Submitted by Collins Parker on February 15, 2008 - 1:01pm.

Butch Thornton did try some wrestling, but didn't go far with it.

But George Gulas did a lot more. Nick paired him up with Tojo Yamamoto to get him started. But he would go on to team up with Bobby Eaton and was a member of the Fabulous Ones.

George didn't exactly have the prototypical wrestlers body. He was tall and lanky.

Here is some video of George Gulas in action back in the day.

My source here is our TV 12 wrestling guru David Moore, who got his start in TV by manning one of the studio cameras during our wrestling shows.

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