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The Universal Wrestling Federation was a regional professional wrestling federation founded by Leroy McGuirk, and later owned by Bill Watts.

Tri-State Wrestling

A former territory wrestler who was blinded in a 1950 auto accident, Leroy McGuirk eventually took over promoting a wrestling circuit that covered Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Up until 1973, Watts had even been a fan favourite for Tri-State Wrestling. After a short break in Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling Florida, he would return to Tri-state in 1975.

Mid South Wrestling

In 1979, Bill Watts bought out the Tri-State Wrestling circuit from McGuirk, and renamed the circuit Mid South Wrestling. One of his first acts as owner was to withdrawal from the NWA, though MSW would still remain loosely aligned with the organization and continue to have the NWA World Champion defend his title on MSW shows. MSW began adding shows in Arkansas to its circuit. In 1982, the promotion grew to include Oklahoma when Leroy McGuirk shut down his Oklahoma-based promotion. He also formed an alliance with Houston promoter Paul Boesch to feature Mid-South talent on the cards at the Sam Houston Coliseum, in one of the largest cities in America and one of the most fabled arenas in professional wrestling, as well as other parts of southeastern Texas.

Bill Watts was seen at the time as one of the best promoters in America, and his show was garnering high ratings. Instead of focusing on cartoonish characters and cheesy interviews, Mid South Wrestling focused on energetic matches, and characters whose personas blurred the lines between good and evil.

The promotion ran shows in a mix of small venues and gigantic arenas. Its finest hours came during the shows at the Louisiana Superdome. A 1980 card pitting a "blinded" Junkyard Dog against Freebird Michael Hayes in the main event drew nearly 30,000 fans for a show presented by a promotion less than one year old. In 1984, Watts came out of retirement to team with a masked JYD (under the name Stagger Lee) to face The Midnight Express to cap an angle in which the Express and manager Jim Cornette beat Watts to a bloody pulp on TV. The latter card also featured a showdown between Magnum T.A. and Mr. Wrestling II in one of the hottest feuds of the early 1980s. The 1984 show drew 22,000 fans.

Rumors began circulating that MSW was going national. In 1985, those rumors were proven true when Ted Turner invited Watts to air his Mid-South Wrestling program on SuperStation TBS as an alternative to the WWF programing that ran on Saturday nights. Turner was angered with Vincent K. McMahon and the WWF because McMahon reportedly promised Turner a studio-produced program and instead presented a two hours of highlights from other WWF programming. MSW quickly became the highest-rated program on TBS, and Watts positioned himself to take over the two-hour Saturday block occupied by the WWF. His luck ran out when former Georgia promoter Jim Barnett helped broker a deal that allowed NWA promoter Jim Crockett, Jr. to buy the slot from McMahon and become the exclusive wrestling promotion for TBS. The deal, however, forced the elimination of the Mid-South Wrestling program from the TBS schedule. Watts made one more attempt at going national the following year under the auspices of the Universal Wrestling Federation.

Universal Wrestling Federation

In March 1986, MSW went national and was relaunched as the UWF. From that point, many newcomers (mostly from World Class Championship Wrestling) joined the federation, as did former WCCW co-promoter Ken Mantell. However, despite the federation's success, it could not compete against Jim Crockett Promotions and the then-WWF. Watts was also harmed when the Oklahoma economy went into a severe recession in the fall of 1987, effecting all businesses and cutting down on fans able to pay to see the shows. Watts would end up selling the UWF to Crockett on April 9, 1987, and many of the federation's top names went on either to the NWA, WWF or World Class. Despite promises at the time, Crockett basically buried the UWF, letting its various title die out and, with the prime exception of Sting, the Fabulous Freebirds, Shane Douglas, and Rick Steiner, none of its various stars made headway into Crockett's promotion.

Crockett's circuit would be sold to Ted Turner and eventually become WCW. In the early '90s, Watts would find himself with a run as WCW President. UWF's tape library is now controlled by WWE (see WWE Tape Library).

Stars of the UWF & Mid-South

UWF/Mid-South Titles

See also

External links

Professional wrestling promotions | Jim Crockett Promotions

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Universal Wrestling Federation (United States)".

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