The Medic and I had several matches after that and the crowd was getting bigger each week. We were headed toward a Gulf Coast Championship match and neither one of us saw it coming. The Gulf Coast Title had been stripped from the previous champion for not defending it in the proper amount of time. The belt had not been defended in over a year-and-a-half. Everyone had forgotten about the belt.

Lee Fields brought the belt to TV and said it had been stripped from the previous champion and was up for grabs. He said instead of having a tournament, he would book his two top contenders in a match in Mobile and the winner would be declared the new Gulf Coast Champion. The winner would have to defend it right away and against all comers. Everyone was wondering who Lee would consider his top contenders, after all there were some very good wrestlers here at the time, such as:   Ken Lucas, Dick Dunn, The Wrestling Pro, Rip Tyler, Bobby Fields, The Blue Yankee, Greg Peterson, Rocket Monroe, The Intern and Bob Boyer, just to name a few.

Lee began to read off the rules of the match. It was a one hour time limit or until one man could not continue, after a one minute rest period between the falls. The man with the most falls at the end of the hour would be the new Gulf Coast Champion. Lee then called me and the Medic out and had us sign the contract. I couldn't believe what was happening, me in a Gulf Coast championship match. The Medic's experience proved to be too much for me.  He took advantage of the rules. I won the battle but lost the war. I learned a big lesson from The Medic that night. I also knew The Medic had to defend the belt the very next week. I made sure I was the first to make a challenge. At that time I had kind-of long hair, so I told him I would put up my hair against the belt. The Medic had such an easy time with me the week before, so to speak, I think he just wanted to humiliate me, so he gave me a return match, hair vs. belt.