The SmarK Rant for When Giants Walked Here

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a documentary by anyone outside of the WWE/Vice groups. This is a history of wrestling at the Dorton arena in Raleigh, NC, presented by PBS North Carolina.

https://video.pbsnc.org/video/when-giants-walked-here-5h4njs/

First up, we meet Brad Stutts, who explains why pro wrestling is awesome. A local superfan declares it to be “better than the circus”, and they tie that into the origins of the sport in the carnivals, with the toughman contests.

Wrestling was the main sports attraction in the Carolinas for decades, before the major sporting leagues came there. We of course meet David Crockett, son of famous promoter Jim Crockett Sr., who came into the area in the early 60s and thought he could make money off wrestling. He first partnered with Joe Murnick, and they started running the Dorton Arena in the 60s as we get some classic radio promos from Buddy Rogers to hype a show back then.

The Dorton Arena was part of the State Fair grounds, and we get some actual architects talking about how it was designed with all kinds of futuristic vision, making it into a symbol of North Carolina as envisioned in the 1930s. Due to the death of the main architect, it took until the 50s to complete, but then all it needed was a circus to bring in the fans.

So every Tuesday night, you got WRESTLING, with $3 tickets and regular groups of people and old ladies who always claimed their seats at ringside. Jimmy Valiant, still alive and looking the same as ever, pops in to talk about how much he loved working there. Also Bobby Fulton, looking rough after his battle with cancer but still hanging in there.

Earl Hebner talks about how brutally hot the arena was, with guys slipping off each other while trying to grab a hold. But people still went because Jim Crockett Promotions was their home territory and they considered the WWF to be the cartoon wrestling.

Next up, we move onto WRAL-TV, which was the local TV station that hosted Crockett wrestling for decades, and they talk about the basic formula of hyping up the Dorton Arena cards on the Wednesday TV shows, talking people into coming to the matces. George South talks about how Buddy Landel, who wasn’t really sentimental, only had one picture in his house: A match with himself against Ric Flair in Raleigh.

The interviewer asks David Crockett “Why was Ric Flair important?” and David cracks up and we get into a brief history of Flair and why he was the larger than life super-worker who carried the territory on his back. The guys talk about how talented that Buddy Landel was and their feud in 1985 where Buddy almost won the title in July. It was in the middle of a brutal thunderstorm and they still sold out. And Flair made sure to suplex Buddy while lightning was flashing through the windows, and then dropped him when the thunder hit. Unfortunately there is no footage of this because Bruce Mitchell makes it sound AWESOME.

George South tells the story of how Buddy Landel was going to then get his revenge and win the title so Ric can take some time off, but Buddy decides to drive to the arena and do a shitload of drugs, despite Jimmy Valiant’s attempts to talk him out of it. So Buddy shows up for the TV taping hours late and stoned out of his mind, at which point Dusty fires him. George South notes that Buddy never blamed anyone for his own mistakes, because he was a country boy from Tennessee and what else was he gonna do with all his money?

David Crockett discusses the golden age of Mid-Atlantic, with talent like Magnum TA and Dusty Rhodes, and Crockett started doing 3 towns per night and touring way outside of the region, which of course backfires on them. Jim Crockett sells to Ted Turner once the money runs out. And then the promotion becomes a national touring attraction like the WWF, rather than a weekly show in Raleigh. Fans hated the new WCW and they went from selling out Dorton Arena in the 80s, to drawing maybe a few hundred by 1993. And they stopped running the city at that point, which kind of killed off the arena for a long time.

Jumping ahead to 2016, we meet CW Anderson, who looks mostly the same as he did in 2000 but thinner, and talks about a company called Big Time Wrestling contacting him about doing a show at Dorton. This turns out to be Shane Helms promoting his own stuff after going to the arena as a kid.

And we get some footage from the show, and the doc finishes by noting that although independent groups continue to run the arena, none of the national companies has run Dorton since 1993.

And there’s still no air conditioning.

What a wonderfully specific and charming documentary about my favorite topic: Jim Crockett Promotions in the heyday of the 80s. Now I’m kinda shocked that AEW hasn’t jumped in there and run Dorton Arena before. Anyway, this is a wonderful look at the golden age of awesome wrestling and I highly recommend taking the hour and checking it out.