Welcome to another installment in my look back at SWCW, this time we are looking back at 1983. This was they year that made Southwest Wrestling one of the top independent wrestling organization, with them becoming the first show on the upstart USA cable network.

This exposure helped SWCW by bringing in many of the top names in pro wrestling, the top heels in the area at the time were: The Grapplers, Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard, Ali Bey The Turk, Bobby Jaggers, Tonga John, Adrian Adonis, Cocoa Samoa, Eddie Mansfield and the soon to arrive Sheepherders. The Faces were: Bob Sweetan, Scott Casey, Manny Fernandez, Al Perez, Buddy Moreno, Rick Mcgraw, and El Santo Negro.

The year began with Tully Blanchard as the Southwest champion but he was involved in a very brutal feud with Bob Sweetan, they were to exchange the title among themselves on four different occasions. This was one of the hottest feuds in all of wrestling.

On the tag team side The Grapplers were the tag team champions having defeated the departed team of Ken Lucas & Rick Morton, they defended their titles for over two months till in mid march they were defeated by Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard. There reign was short-lived as Tully turned on Gino after the match attacking him with one of the titles.

This was supposed to set up a great feud between two of the top stars in the area, but within two months Gino left the area to wrestle with World Class Wrestling.

A few months into the year The Sheepherders Jon Boyd & Luke Williams arrived in the area, having come from some successful stints in Portland and the Southeast the Sheepherders came into the area to wreck havoc on all competition.

The anti-American stand did not sit well with the fans, and the Sheepherders wanted to hurt every person who stood in there way. The Sheepherders were one of the most vicious tag teams to ever wrestle in the state of Texas.

As SWCW was gaining viewers and fans Joe Blanchard and Lou Thesz were looking for a way to make SWCW a major player in wrestling. They came up with an idea that they hoped would attract national attention. They decided to crown an undisputed world champion, a one night tourney was to be held to crown a new champion. This was announced in early April and the tournament was to be held in Houston in late May, invitations were sent out to all three world champions hoping one or all would participate. When none of the champions were signed the area was going to use nine of the top wrestlers in the area.