On Sunday, May 12, 1946, the Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Mississippi) announced that wrestling and boxing was going to be revived in Greenville "after a long absence," beginning this summer. Jimmy Griffin of Memphis planned to hold his first wrestling show a week from Tuesday. He was a friend of Charles Rentrop, the Memphis promoter, and he planned to get wrestlers from the latter. The shows would be held at the National Guard Armory, sponsored by the Beppo Arnold Post of the American Legion. During the war, Griffin was a boxing coach at Oak Ridge, TN, and also taught at Tech High School in Memphis. Despite the plan for Griffin to run operations in Greenville, things didn't go as planned because the Delta Democrat-Times reported on Sunday, October 26, 1947 that wrestling still needed to be revived in the city. Memphis promoter Charles Rentrop wanted to get things moving if he could find a suitable location to stage the shows. He wanted Wilson Murrah, a former Memphis sportswriter and business manager of the Vicksburg Bills, to come in and run things. The newspaper noted that Greenville hadn't had wrestling "in quite a few years," and that shows would be staged on Tuesdays. Clarksdale reportedly held shows several months earlier, but it was unsuccessful after a few shows. On January 15, 1952, Billy Romonoff, a wrestling promoter from Jackson, Mississippi, sent a letter to Sam Muchnick, the NWA President in St. Louis. Romonoff was confirming their conversation from earlier that day about becoming affiliated with the Alliance, and wanted an application sent to him. He explained that he promoted in Jackson, and booked wrestlers into Clarksdale, Meridian, Vicksburg, and Monroe, Louisiana. He also had summer promotions in Greenville and Gulfport, MS. He wrote: "I want to become affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance because I realize it is my only assurance of exclusive promotion in this territory, and the only way in which I can secure top notch men." Corporations: Championship Wrestling of Mississippi, Inc. Incorporated: December 3, 1979 Incorporators: George Culkin, William F. "Bill" Watts Jr. Address: 1216 Mulvihill Street, Vicksburg, MS 39180 Reinstatement: April 21, 1981 Dissolution: October 24, 1983 Research by Tim Hornbaker |
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