Gene Anderson
He spent the spring of 1963 wrestling for Sam Muchnick and appeared in televised matches on "Wrestling at the Chase". His loss to Dick the Bruiser at the Kiel Auditorium, on 1 February 1963, signalled the start of Muchnick's "push" to make Bruiser one of the top stars in his promotion. Two months later, Hrstich met NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz in St. Louis on 20 April 1963. Hrstich later travelled the road with Thesz and headlined together in tag team matches. He also had a brief stint in Jim Crockett Promotions that summer. On 25 July, he fought Pat O'Hara to a 20-minute time-limit draw in front of 3,437 fans at the Greensboro Coliseum. Nearly three weeks later, the two men teamed up against, and lost to, the Tolos Brothers in Lexington, North Carolina. Hrstich moved on to Georgia Championship Wrestling, then run by promoters Don McIntyre and Steve Manderson, where he and several other NWA stars including Lou Thesz, Eddie Graham, and The Mighty Hercules appeared for the next three months. In the first week of October, Hrstich defeated Felix Godo at the Municipal Auditorium in Atlanta, Georgia, wrestled Tarzan Tyler to a draw at the Fort Gordon Sports Arena and beat Marcus Godo at the William Bell Auditorium in Augusta. Hrstich wrestled The Mighty Hercules to a draw at that same venue the following week and scored victories over Hercules, Tyler, Ivan Zukoff, The Outlaw, Lenny Montana and Gene Anderson.