Paul Jones
Posted on 04/18/2018 8:12:12 PM PDT by massmike
“No. 1” Paul Jones, one of the most popular stars in the Mid-Atlantic wrestling territory during the ‘60s and ‘70s, passed away earlier this week near his home in Atlanta at the age of 76.
Jones, whose real name was Paul Frederik, enjoyed phenomenal success in the Carolinas and Virginia, Georgia and Florida, where he was the only wrestler to simultaneously hold that state’s two major titles, the Florida heavyweight championship and the Southern heavyweight title. He won the Florida title belt four times and the Florida TV title twice. He also held the Georgia heavyweight title.
Jones achieved legendary status in the Mid-Atlantic region, where he was a seven-time NWA world tag-team champion with four different partners, two-time United States heavyweight champion, two- time Mid-Atlantic heavyweight champion and four-time Mid-Atlantic tag-team champion, pairing with such stars Nelson Paul, Wahoo McDaniel, Ricky Steamboat, Baron Von Raschke (Jim Raschke) and The Masked Superstar.
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Paul Jones
RIP. Seems a lot of wrestlers are passing away lately.
They keep dying. People keep dying. When will it end?
Bruno could bench 600.
Tough week for wrestlers! First Johnny Valiant,now Bruno and Jones.
Never heard of him til now, sounds like an interesting rassler, though.
I imagine different parts of the country had their regional wrestlers that were local stars from the 1950s-70s.
The 60s was a big era for local wrestling , at least in my neck of the woods in the Upper Midwest. One of the big draws was “The Crusher”, ya had to love the guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULHvxEtkoO0
Rest in Peace, Paul Jones.
If he didn’t ever wrestle in Windsor, Ontario or Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, I probably never saw him.
One thing that is impressive about this wrestler and a few others who died recently, he lived a normal life span, till 75 years. That tells me he didn’t (over) use very many steroids at the peak of his career.
I only remember him as a manager in the mid-80’s. Being from the Boston area,we never saw any of the NWA wrestling before cable tv.
“I only remember him as a manager in the mid-80’s. Being from the Boston area,we never saw any of the NWA wrestling before cable tv.”
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Never watched any cable rasslin’, I’m not really a fan in general - but I enjoyed the simple 60s stuff, though. Fun stuff.
Did watch sometimes watch this on a local UHF station in the late 80s-early 90s, tho -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUvyIWerhk
RIP.
Can't believe King Kong Bundy is still alive.
Kong lives, but he’s in pretty bad physical shape.
Those were the days. Ric Flair, The Andersons, Wahoo, Dusty Rhodes, Steamboat. It remained somewhat local until Superstation TBS picked up the weekly broadcast with Turner eventually buying them out and forming WCW.
RIP Paul Jones. Thanks for the memories.
Rickydozan died back in ‘63.
“Jones was a native of Port Arthur, Texas, where he attended high school with future rock legend Janis Joplin and played football with future college and NFL coach Jimmy Johnson.”
They probably all were in the same home room together in high school. Johnson used to tell stories about how he would have fun with Joplin back then.
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