The REAL Reason The MID ATLANTIC Title Disappeared In 1986

On December 27, 1986, Ronnie Garvin handed the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship to Jim Crockett Jr. and walked out of the office. That belt was never seen or mentioned again. It was the second time a Mid-Atlantic title belt disappeared, and nobody in the company went looking for it either time. Between 1970 and 1986, four different physical belts represented the top prize of the Carolinas and Virginia. One of them was built on artwork borrowed from the 1966 Florida Heavyweight Championship with the state name swapped out. One of them went missing in 1975 with no angle and no explanation, forcing the office to pull the retired Eastern Heavyweight belt back into service. And the most famous version of all, the belt Ric Flair and Greg Valentine carried across the late seventies and early eighties, was never gold at all. It was hand painted, white background with the states in alternating blue and red, doing an impression of treasure for a television camera. This documentary tracks all four belts and the men who bled for them. Johnny Valentine setting the standard for toughness before a plane crash ended his career in 1975. Wahoo McDaniel and Ric Flair, the hair versus title match in Hampton, the table leg with the nail in it, and forty stitches. Greg Valentine breaking Wahoo's leg in the WRAL studio and then selling a t-shirt about it. Ken Patera and Tony Atlas bending steel on television. Roddy Piper walking out of a taping with the belt and refusing to return it for anything less than ten thousand dollars in cash, money Jack Brisco had to borrow from Ricky Steamboat and Wahoo McDaniel. And Steamboat's night in Richmond in 1980 that completed the Crockett Grand Slam. Jim Crockett Promotions preserved the date, the building, and the finish of matches from fifty years ago. It never recorded the name of a single man who built these belts. Dave Millican is often credited with the classic 1977 design, but the record only credits him with a later replica. The territory era ended with a handoff nobody filmed. This is the full history of the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship belts. Sources: the Mid-Atlantic Gateway and the championship research of Dick Bourne. Which forgotten rivalry should we take apart next? Which belt should we track down? Tell us in the comments. Watch next: The Intercontinental Title, The Belt That Saved Wrestling. Subscribe to The WrestleVerse for wrestling documentaries built on research instead of rumor. 02:20 THE TERRITORY THAT NEEDED A PRIZE 05:23 THE KNIGHT HEAD 08:30 THE LOST YEARS 12:19 THE ONE YOU ACTUALLY REMEMBER 15:29 THE BELT AS A WEAPON 17:19 THE TITANS 21:28 THE GHOST AND THE LAST HANDOFF