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The History of the
Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title
by Justin Murphy
Justt79623@aol.com
Nashville promoter Roy Welch had purchased the
Mobile-Pensacola end of Leroy McGuirk's
Tri-State Wrestling. Unlike McGuirk, who only
promoted
in the Mobile-Pensacola area on special occasions
called spot shows. Welch decided to make
promoting in Mobile-Pensacola a regular weekly
attraction.
However, due to his obligations in
Nashville, his son Buddy Fuller (Edward Welch) was
made booker for Mobile-Pensacola, and Fuller
eventually expanded the territory into
Mississippi-Louisiana as well.
At this point, the territory didn't even have a
name, its own belts, or even its own wrestlers
(aside
from members of The Welch Family of course). They
often relied wrestlers and champions from Buddy's
Uncle Lester Welch's territory that he ran in places
like Tampa, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia (which
would
eventually become Championship Wrestling from
Florida
and Georgia Championship Wrestling), as well getting
help from his father in Nashville, Tennessee, and
some
occasional help from his Uncles Herb and Jack.
That would all change with the help of his cousin
Lee
Fields who would take part in a 14 man tournament to
crown the first ever The Gulf Coast Heavyweight
Champion.
The tourney would span several months with several
bloody matches all over the Gulf Coast area with the
winner not only becoming the first Gulf Coast
Champion, but also the proud new owner of a 1957
Gold
Cadillac. The final of the tourney saw Lee Fields
duke
it out with Eduardo Perez in a match that was the
best
two of the three falls, much like all the other
tourney bouts. Perez beat Fields senseless with
illegal tactics to win the first fall with Fields
making a strong comeback in the second, but to no
avail as Perez took the third to win the belt and
drive off in a brand new gold Cadillac which pissed
the fans off!
The three most influential wrestlers to ever hold
The
Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title were --
Cowboy Bob Kelly, The Wrestling Pro, and Ken Lucas.
Cowboy Bob Kelly was a former rodeo champion from
the
state of Mississippi who was brought to book the
Mississippi end of Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling
(which Lee Fields had long since purchased from Roy
Welch), after Bobby and Don Fields had ran it into
the
ground. The Mississippi end of the territory became
so
popular with him booking that he was also made
booker of the Mobile-Pensacola end while the
previous
booker of that end Rocky McGuire was made booker
of the newly created Dothan-Panama City end.
His 10 reigns as champion were met with feuds with
some very colorful characters such as
The Mysterious Medic Tony Gonzales, a
very memorable feud with The Wrestling Pro
Leon Baxter that saw him actually cut Cowboy Bob's
hair on a TV Taping in which they feuded over not
only
the Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title, but the
Mississippi
State Heavyweight Title as well.
Another notable feud Kelly had over The Gulf Coast
Title was with The California Hippie Mike
Boyette who would later team with Cowboy Bob, Sweet
Daddy Watts, and The Mysterious Medic in The
California Rumble against Murder Inc. -- a stable
consisting of Duke Miller, The Wrestling Pro,
Gorgeous George Jr, and Billy Spears.
He also had a very heated feud with Donnie Fargo
over
The Gulf Coast Title which involved Fargo getting
Cowboy Bob suspended. An NWA official happened to
be
present, and Fargo was taunting Kelly with the NWA
official getting in the way, and then Kelly
assaulted
the official which resulted in Kelly’s suspension
and Fargo getting awarded the title. However, Fargo
eventually no showed for a re-match between the two,
Kelly was awarded the title back.
The Wrestling Pro was one of the most accomplished
Gulf Coast champs began his career by wrestling all
over the south under the name Tarzan Baxter.
During this period, he did have a short
stint in the Gulf Coast area that was met with very
little success, and for a brief time, teamed with
Juan
Sebastian as The Masked Guachos for both Fred Ward
in
Georgia and Jim Crockett in The Mid-Atlantic. His
most
fruitful experience during this point was his feud
with world renowned junior heavyweight Danny Hodge
for
the NWA United States Junior Heavyweight Title.
He soon returned to Gulf Coast Championship
Wrestling
teaming with Tim Tyler as The Masked Wrestling Pros
with Joe Powell serving as their manager,
but Tyler soon unmasked with Joe Powell
forcing him to go it alone under the mask. In
addition
to the aforementioned feud with Cowboy Bob Kelly, he
also attracted heat from Donnie Fargo much like
Kelly
when he slated as a potential contender for Dory
Funk
Jr.'s NWA World Heavyweight Title when a suspended
Fargo entered the #1 Contender's Tourney under a
mask using the name Mr. D. Fargo beat The
Pro to get the title shot.
In addition to that, he also had a short feud with
another NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jack Brisco,
and he actually captured the NWA World Junior
Heavyweight Title from Ken Mantell. However, the
match
ended with a dusty finish, so The Pro was forced to
relinquish the title back to Mantell per the request
of NWA President Sam Muschnick.
The Pro was soon awarded the Gulf Coast version of
the title, and
various NWA bounty hunters most namely
legendary World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz, who
he defeated to retain the title. He eventually lost
the Gulf
Coast version of NWA World Junion Heavyweight Title
to
Ken Mantell, who was once again the undisputed
champ.
Ken Lucas was a Mesa, Arizona native that always
went
back and forth between Nick Gulas' territory in
Tennessee and the Gulf Coast. He was never the
biggest
guy in the ring, but he was a damn good worker
nonetheless! He remained very popular several years
after The Knoxville Invasion when Ron Fuller took
over the
Gulf Coast area.
Much like Cowboy Bob Kelly and The Wrestling Pro,
Ken
Lucas also had troubles with Donnie Fargo, but when
he
was the Gulf Coast Heavyweight Champion or having
success elsewhere, he usually wrestled in the
opening
matches or during the middle of the card. The
schedule
for Ken Lucas in the Gulf Coast area was usually a
main eventer in Mobile, a jobber in Pensacola,
mid-carder in Mississippi, but he was never a main
eventer in Dothan-Panama City since the only main
eventers in Dothan-Panama City were The Wrestling
Pro
and Dick Dunn who were always built up as these big
stars for 10-12 weeks before being squashed by
wrestlers would come to Dothan-Panama City from
Championship Wrestling from Florida or Georgia
Championship Wrestling.
Ken Lucas ended up being the last ever Gulf Coast
Heavyweight Champion when Knoxville promoter Ron
Fuller purchased the Gulf Coast territory from his
cousin Lee Fields. He continued wrestling for Ron
Fuller well into the early 1980's when a serious car
accident derailed his career. The Gulf Coast
Heavyweight Title after Ron Fuller started promoting
his Knoxville, Tennessee based Southeastern
Championship Wrestling outfit in the Gulf Coast
area.
There were three ends of the Gulf Championship
Wrestling territory, one end promoted in Mobile,
Alabama and Pensacola, Florida , another in the
Mississippi-Louisiana area, and eventually in
Dothan, Alabama and Panama City, Florida . When Ron
Fuller brought his Southeastern Championship
Wrestling
to the Gulf Coast area, he was ironically abandoning
the very title his father Buddy Fuller had created
in
1957.
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