The WWF also began to run cards in these markets and made it clear that it wanted to be the only game in town. The established promotions were shocked, enraged, and also very worried. This was not some hand to mouth outlaw running a few towns and scraping together a TV show with a rag tag crew of wrestlers. This was an established promotion with big name stars and a good amount of capital. This was war! Promoters fought the WWF expansion in different ways. Some buried their heads in the sand and carried on as if nothing had happened. Others made attempts to update their TV programs and booking styles. All the promotions tried to cooperate more than in the past with often less than the desired results.  

Mid-South largely stayed the course at first. The promotion had a successful formula and did not want to mess with it. There were some subtle changes though. The TV set for tapings at the Irish McNeill Boys Club was given an updated look and flags were hung above the ringside area. The promotion also made greater use of new innovations like music videos to promote stars and feuds as well as to use slow motion instant replay. The theme song to the TV show was changed. The graphics were updated. Besides these minor but valuable aesthetic changes, Mid-South aggressively used the bully pulpit of its TV shows to attack the WWF and paint it as a second rate promotion. 

One way to combat the WWF was to undermine the status of the promotion and its wrestlers. Many WWF wrestlers had competed in Mid-South Wrestling in the past. Through the magic of videotape, they competed in Mid-South Wrestling again, sort of. When ever possible, Mid-South would show old matches featuring WWF wrestlers losing to Mid-South stars. King Kong Bundy, Tito Santana, The Iron Sheik, Jake Roberts, Nikolai Volkoff, Kamala, and especially Junkyard Dog all received the royal treatment. Mid-South didn’t just show these guys losing. The original match commentary was dropped out and replaced with newly updated commentary. To say that this commentary was a bit slanted in favor of Mid-South Wrestling and against the WWF was a vast understatement to say the least. The commentary was as harsh and bitter towards the WWF defectors as possible. Among the terms and phrases tossed around to describe the WWF guys were “weak”, “not tough enough”, “couldn’t handle the competition here in Mid-South”, “needed to go where it’s easier”, and so on.  

Bill Watts regularly commented during these bouts and his contempt for his former employees was obvious. No one came in for as much abuse in as harsh a manner as Junkyard Dog. While many former Mid-South wrestlers populated the WWF, few had come directly from Mid-South. One of the few who did leave directly from Mid-South was JYD and it was a harsh, harsh blow. For nearly five years Junkyard Dog had been the number one babyface and drawing card for Mid-South. In the summer of 1984 JYD departed without prior notice for the WWF. Hell hath no fury like a promoter scorned. JYD losses were shown with regularity and the commentary was particularly harsh. Biting comments were made branding JYD a coward and knocking his conditioning. During 1983 and 1984 JYD had begun to put on a noticeable amount of weight. When he was in the fold JYD’s excess pounds were put over as him bulking up for tougher competition. When JYD jumped to the WWF, the weight became a sign that JYD had lost his edge and become soft and lazy. No insult was too big in the name of protecting the business.  

Junkyard Dog’s switch to the WWF was no small thing. Some people only remember JYD from the end of his WWF career or from his WCW stints and final days on the independent circuit. At that time JYD was indeed overweight, unmotivated, and had lost his talent. However to judge JYD on that basis would be like seeing a washed-up 1960s rock group today and judging their talent and worth on that performance rather than the work of their prime. When JYD made the jump he was one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling. JYD had become a wrestler who could headline another territory as a special attraction like a Dusty Rhodes. Promoters needed only to show a few interviews or a few match highlights, such was JYD’s reputation. If JYD was a bit past his prime at the time of his WWF defection, he was nevertheless still very popular and talented. From his 1984 arrival to mid 1986 JYD was pushed as a top WWF star on a level with Steamboat, Snuka, Santana, and the other babyfaces who were just below Hulk Hogan in the pecking order. It was common for JYD to headline cards and while an Intercontinental Title run didn’t happen, it didn’t seem out of the question either.  

The WWF specifically used JYD to try to get a foothold in the Mid-South territory. To combat this Mid-South tried to run down JYD in the minds of the fans and make him seem like no one worth seeing. At the same time Mid-South desperately tried to replace him. The promotion wanted a Black babyface who was charismatic and talented enough to cut across racial lines. Despite various attempts with Master Gee, a babyface Butch Reed, and later Savannah Jack during the UWF era, the promotion never really replaced Junkyard Dog. Bill Watts tried to recapture the JYD magic later on when he booked Ron Simmons as WCW World Champion. This effort also never really caught on. 

Besides showing former Mid-South stars losing to current Mid-South wrestlers, the promotion used some other interesting television techniques. During 1985 the WWF garnered massive mainstream publicity from many TV news stories and magazine and newspaper articles. In these articles Kayfabe often was broken with details about how wrestling was “fake”. Mid-South was desperate to protect Kayfabe and in a few instances announcer/TV producer Joel Watts put together some unique video packages. These video segments showed wrestlers nailing each other with stiff moves and punches with the tape often slowed down to highlight the point of impact. Many of the featured bits were actually blown spots, but that was beside the point. The tapes were supposed to show that pro wrestling was not a carnival or magic trick, but that it was in fact very “real”. Another interesting segment involved Jim Ross as he hosted Power Pro Wrestling. As Jim sat in the studio between segments, he mentioned that he had seen Magnificent Muraco clobber Ricky Steamboat with a chair on WWF TV. Jim derisively noted that Muraco had barely hit Steamboat yet the chair broke apart and that the wooden chair appeared to have been sawed in half and clumsily glued back together (in fact all that was true). Jim felt cheated and basically accused the WWF of selling the fans short with such a tactic. Jim more or less promised the Mid-South fans that they would only see wrestlers get nailed full force with real, honest to goodness steel chairs! The condescending and downright smug tone of voice Jim Ross used when mentioning the WWF was rather melodramatic and is a bit funny considering his current WWF status. 

Another way that Mid-South fought off the WWF was to cooperate with other promotions. Mid-South had always had a relationship with World Class. As early as 1981 and 1982, well before the wrestling wars were raging, it was not uncommon for Dallas stars like Kerry Von Erich to appear in Mid-South. During 1983 there was quite a bit of crossover with Georgia. Dusty Rhodes and Andre the Giant visited often. Post 1984, the need to cooperate with outside promotions became more urgent. It led to a number of major names making appearances in Mid-South. Although the promotion had always cooperated with NWA affiliated promotions and was considered a part of the pro wrestling establishment, Mid-South had never been an actual member of the National Wrestling Alliance. During the wrestling wars that relationship changed. I don’t believe that Mid-South actually joined the NWA, but nevertheless Ric Flair began to regularly visit the promotion for NWA World Title defenses. In 1985 Sgt. Slaughter came in from the AWA for a series of bouts as well. Kerry Von Erich regularly wrestled shows in New Orleans and Tulsa at a time when he was one of wrestling’s biggest stars. Many promotions came together to promote cards under the banner of Pro Wrestling USA, however Mid-South’s participation in that venture was minimal. 

Perhaps the biggest change for Mid-South was the adoption of the attitude that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. In the spring of 1986 the promotion changed its name to the Universal Wrestling Federation. At first the changes were more cosmetic. The tag team and TV titles were renamed with Mid-South giving way to the UWF. The promotion’s main TV show left its long time home at the Irish McNeill Boys Club in Shreveport and began taping at the Tulsa Convention Center. Then things started changing in more dramatic fashion. After heavy cooperation with JCP and World Class over the past year, Watts isolated his promotion. He brought in a veritable treasure trove of recent former World Class stars, particularly The Fabulous Freebirds who had not competed in the promotion on a full time basis since the early 1980s. With these stars added to an already formidable roster, Watts invaded his former allies in World Class by running a show at Reunion Arena and regularly taping Power Pro Wrestling in Fort Worth. Both UWF TV programs were syndicated across the country. By the fall of 1986 the promotion had a higher national profile than ever before. Yet in less than a year the promotion as we knew it would be history and the promotion itself would be gone entirely in little more than a year.  

It was clear that Watts felt that staying regional was a path to failure in the long road. Mid-South had to become the UWF and go national and face the WWF and the increasingly national Jim Crockett Promotions head in order to succeed. In the end it never quite worked out. Despite great success in getting the TV shows on in major markets, the TV clearance did not guarantee fans at the gate and a national tour failed. Meanwhile a declining oil economy and to be frank a stale talent pool hurt gates in the home Mid-South region. When an opportunity to sell the promotion to JCP came up Bill Watts jumped at the chance. Who can honestly blame him? Why lose money when you could leave the business with a profit? The Mid-South/UWF had gone as far as it logically could. Only monetary losses and talent defections were in the future. JCP ran the UWF for less than a year before collapsing the promotion into JCP proper. It was the end of an era and without any glory or formal marking of the occasion.  The real losers of the wrestling wars were the fans that were deprived of their longtime promotion. Without outside promotions invading and failed attempts to go national, Mid-South Wrestling could have thrived for many more years. 

NEXT MONTH:

Forgotten stars. Great matches. Memorable Angles. Next time, rather than just concentrate on one star or feud, we’ll look at a variety of great people and moments from Mid-South history that should not be forgotten.