The NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Belt

[endo]

Been a long time since I posted one of these, was actually surprised I hadn't already posted this one. So, here we go...

The Mid-Atlantic title belt:

In 1970, Jim Crockett Promotions established the Eastern Heavyweight Championship, a singles title in the promotion that was predominately focused on tag teams at the time.

In the fall of 1970 it was announced that The Missouri Mauler had defeated Pat O'Connor in New York to win the Eastern States title and brought the title to the Mid-Atlantic area to defend it. It was a fictitious title switch and served to give the title credibility as O'Connor was a former world champion.

At some point Jerry Brisco won the Eastern States title, and around 1972 Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) began actively promoting cards under the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling banner.

The Eastern States belt was made by Nikita Mulkavitch, who made many territory belts at the time and was also the maker of the Mid-Atlantic and Detroit versions of the U.S. titles and the WWWF title belt held by Sammartino, Stasiak, Superstar Graham and Bob Backlund. Pedro Morales held a version of the belt made by Mulkavitch as well.

On September 6th, 1973, reigning Eastern States Champion Jerry Brisco was awarded the first Mid-Atlantic championship belt and the title name officially switched.

At some point in 1975, current Mid-Atlantic Champion Johnny Valentine began wearing the old Eastern States championship belt again. The belt awarded to Brisco, and only worn by him, Paul Jones and Valentine, had apparently just disappeared. No word on whether it was lost, stolen or where it ended up.

So, from that point, the Eastern belt became the belt representing the Mid-Atlantic title.

In 1977 a new belt was ordered to replace the one that had disappeared. This is the belt most commonly associated with the title as it had the most holders. This particular version of the belt was made by George Levy, who I believe also made the version that disappeared.

The last person to hold this version of the Mid-Atlantic belt was Buzz Tyler, and in 1985 he left the promotion still the champion and kept the belt.

Another new belt was ordered, this time made by Reggie Parks and Khrusher Khrushchev defeated Sam Houston at Starrcade '85 to crown a new champion.

On December 27th, 1986, current champion Ronnie Garvin vacated the title after he and Barry Windham won the U.S. tag titles. Promoter Jim Crockett announced that a tournament would be held for the vacant title, but none ever took place and the title was never mentioned again.