Universal Wrestling Federation

Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) is the name of three former, independent wrestling organizations from the United States, respectively. Japan.

UWF (Bill Watts)

In the 1950s, Leroy McGuirk founded a wrestling promotion called NWA Tri-State Wrestling .

One of the most successful wrestlers in this league was "Cowboy" Bill Watts . Watts had finally gained some influence in the entire wrestling business by the mid-1970s and in 1979 McGuirk bought the NWA Tri-State league from. He reorganized the league into the new promotion Mid-South Wrestling and left the umbrella organization of the NWA. Nevertheless, the reigning NWA champion appeared regularly at Mid-South.

Watts achieved in the following period a cooperation with the Texan wrestling promoter Paul Boesch, which enabled him to expand his influence. In the early 1980s, Mid-South Wrestling shows reached several thousands, or tens of thousands of viewers at major events.

In the mid-1980s, Mid-South Wrestling was renamed the Universal Wrestling Federation and Watts began to establish this league nationwide. Ted Turner has now made it possible for the UWF to distribute its show format nationwide via its "SuperStation TBS" station and to present it as an alternative to WWF , which is slowly rising to become the wrestling market leader .

Jim Crockett Jr. eventually bought the broadcasting rights, which meant the end of the UWF's television presence. In 1986 Bill Watts tried one last time to save his UWF from ruin. But on April 9, 1987 he had to cede his league to Jim Crockett, who incorporated it into his promotion, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling , in December of the same year . The employees of this doctorate were later transferred to the WCW and integrated there.

UWF (Herb Abrams)

After the end of the Universal Wrestling Federation established by Bill Watts, the promoter Herb Abrams founded a wrestling organization of the same name in California in 1990 . This was possible because Bill Watts had failed to protect the naming rights at the time. The headquarters of the new UWF were in Los Angeles .

Abrams knew how to sign big names for his league. He performed with Paul Orndorff , Mick Foley and Terry Gordy, among others . The deliberately brutal feud between “Dr. Death “Steve Williams and Paul Orndorff, in which Foley and Gordy also regularly intervened.

The league was represented with its TV format “Fury Hour” on national television and was also reasonably successful there, but a pay-per-view scheduled for 1991 flopped. The league had become over-indebted and was slowly becoming insignificant, especially since the big names stayed away.

In 1994 the last major event of the league, the "Blackjack Brawl", was held, which, however, should develop into a disaster for the league. Herb Abrams went into private debt for this event and intended to restore his league with this event. But after hardly any spectators came to this event, Abram had to file for bankruptcy and close his doctorate that same year.

On July 23, 1996, the meanwhile heavily drug addict Herb Abram died of an overdose .

UWF Japan

In 1984, Japanese wrestlers who had just separated from New Japan Pro Wrestling , founded a new promotion, which was also called the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF Japan) and which stylistically followed a new path. The new league especially favored Asian martial arts . In 1986 this doctorate was discontinued.

In 1988 the league was reactivated under the name Reborn UFW and continued for two years. In 1990 the wrestling promotion was again discontinued.

After a one-year break, the league was reactivated in 1991 as UWF International (UWFi) and continued until 1996. After that, this doctorate was finally discontinued.