When wrestling fans think of "Cowboy" Bill Watts, it's inevitable that Watts' failure as the Executive Vice President of WCW comes to mind. For good reason, because it was an epic failure, with dumb decisions in the product (banning moves from the top rope, and introducing the world to his son, Erik, as a wrestler) and out of the product (making racially insensitive remarks in the media). It was a train wreck of a year, and it is what he is most remembered for. That means that fans do not remember Watts for his promoting and booking of the Universal Wrestling Federation and Mid-South Wrestling. He is the man responsible with weekly "episodic" wrestling programming, introducing week-to-week storylines with clearly defined characters. His success with Mid-South was tremendous, as the events he promoted often reached attendance levels of 30,000 people, and saw the highest-ratings on TBS for the MSW shows. Names like Sting, "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, "Dr Death" Steve Williams, Ted DiBiase, Jim Duggan, and Rick Steiner all saw some of their biggest early successes under Watts. Whether or not all of that Mid-South success balances his WCW struggles out isn't the question. The fact of the matter is that Watts was a very successful promoter long before any of his negatives with Ted Turner's promotion, and that deserves to be talked about, too.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
