Wrestlers set for Night of 1000 Stars

MARION - Professional wrestlers Thunderbolt Patterson and Tony Atlas will be honored at this year’s Night of 1000 Stars, which is set for May 12 at 7 p.m. at Tri-Rivers Career Center at 2222 Mount-Mount Gilead Road.

Patterson, who retired from the ring in 1994, will receive the Madge Cooper Guthery Humanitarian Award, while Atlas will receive the Pioneer Award.

Patterson wrestled in the territories of Kansas City, Texas, California, Ohio, Michigan and Georgia in the 1960s and 1970s and was a part of the NWA and WCW in the 1980s until his retirement. He is now an ordained minister.

Atlas was a three-time Mr. USA bodybuilder who made his wrestling debut in 1974. He also worked the territories as well as WWF, AWA and WCW. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 and appeared in the WWE Network’s Legends House reality series.

The Martha Douce Dance Studio and The Dance Factory as well as Lisiecki Brothers singing will be part of the entertainment. At 8 p.m. Calssic Championship Wrestling will hold its Spring Brawl show where Atlas will face Mr. Fitness Slim Trimmons in a match where the loser gets a Twinkie shoved in his mouth. Several other matches are on tap.

Atlas and Patterson will be on WWGH Radio 107.1 FM on May 12 from noon to 3 p.m. Proceeds of the event will go toward the Educational Programming Fund for the radio station. Tickets are $10 and available at the studio in the Marion Centre Mall Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or at the door on show night.