10 Things You Need To Know About The Original ECW Invasion

2. USWA Enters The War

The United States Wrestling Association (USWA) was a wrestling promotion based in Memphis, Tennessee that was founded by Jerry Jarrett in 1989 and taken over by Jerry Lawler and went out of business in 1997. Lawler would often headline their events and brokered talent exchanges between himself and Vince McMahon. USWA was also a developmental territory of sorts for WWE. The Rock, under the name Flex Kavana, worked there until he was ready for the big time and Glen Jacobs kept himself in in-ringshape until WWE was ready to debut the character, Kane. Raw on 6/16/97 featured what was called €œinter-league action€ between Brian Christopher of the USWA and Chris Candido of ECW. On commentary, Paul Heyman dropped the bomb that Christopher is Jerry Lawler€™s son. Lawler denied it, interfered in the match and got Christopher disqualified in the process. Tommy Dreamer ran in to make the save for Candido. This was the beginning an ECW vs. USWA feud that only took place only in the USWA. The storyline started when Tommy Dreamer trashed the USWA TV studio in response to Jerry Lawler€™s anti-ECW crusade. This led to several shows involving inter-promotional matches with increased attendance. Unfortunately, the angle was short-lived as fans predominantly cheered ECW, who were portrayed as the heels, failing to garner the desired result for the babyface USWA.