Remembering the USWA - A Tennessee Favorite

[Trill Co$by]

As a child, I grew up in the once small but now somewhat decent sized town of Clarksville, Tennessee... In the early 90s, being from a very wrestling loving family, I watched promotions from WCW to WWF from NWA Main Event to USWA... and with all of my love for wrestling, there is still one promotion that to this day, I believe was the best promotion of all time... is it by a bias standpoint? Yes, I'll admit to that... but at the same time, USWA showed me what true wrestling was about while the likes of WWF and WCW showed me what flashing lights were all about.

The United States Wrestling Alliance was, in my opinion, one of the most exciting territorial promotions in its time. Maybe this comes from a prejudice standpoint because of the fact that I grew up in Tennessee, but even still I enjoyed flipping on my television sets every Saturday Morning, sit through some good ol' FOX cartoons and Power rangers and then right around 10am I would grab my bowl of cereal and my dad would flip to UPN (later WB) because wrestlers like Jeff Jarrett, Jerry Lawler, Robert Gibson, Ricky Morton, and even Ms Texas were going to give me a show that I would never forget... hell even the now big name players such as Steve Austin, The Undertaker (as The Punisher), and The Rock (as Dwayne "Flex" Johnson) made their first appearances on my television screens courtesy of USWA.

I enjoyed going to the shows held in Memphis, and every so often even at the Clarksville Fairgrounds where we finally had something interesting come through and give us the live wrestling events we craved.

Now I get it, I was a kid when USWA was dying out and thinking back, I can't remember too much about the shows to really give a history lesson. But what I do know, is that it was guys like Rock and Roll Express and Brian Christopher who initially sparked my interest into loving the sport of wrestling much like Bret sparked my interest even more in WWF and women like Ms Texas (Jacqueline/Jackie Moore) and Uptown Karen fought tooth and nail just so that they wouldn't have to lose their hair.

And I'm pretty sure that even though is was really popular in Tennessee, it was also popular or at least watched in other places... I know this because at one point top WWF and WCW guys like Owen Hart, Big Van Vader, and even Lunah Vachon came through on my Saturday morning television station of choice. And I want this to be the topic thread where people come and talk about what they enjoyed most about USWA.

If you were a fan:

What is your one greatest memory of USWA?

Could USWA succeed as a promotion in today's society?

 

[jbwphoto1]

Hi Straight Line. Where you're living right now in Cola, SC, we got USWA through the 10ft fiberglass dish, but we saw the Texas side of things always from the Sportatorium. Sometimes they would show clips out of Memphis to give you an idea of who was coming into the area.

When my husband, who never had a dish or anything beyond regular cable, first saw the DVDs from Texas, he was most mystified by Jerry Lawler. The bell would ring and Lawler would immediately ask for a mic. He would insult his opponent, the referee and always some fat lady at ringside. Not the same fat lady, just whichever one happened to be there. The King used the ring as his own stage for a stand-up comedy bit.

At the time I could not have been happier to finally see Jeff Jarrett. I always read about him in the mags, but now I could see for myself. When CWA wrestling was still coming to Columbia, Jeff made an appearance for photos and autographs. Yes, I was probably giggling like a school girl when I got to hug him while taking the photo. I didn't get to actually see him wrestle live until a year ago.

Do you remember Terry Garvin? He was like a parody or Gorgeous George and Exotic Adrian Street. I just loved him on commentary with Marc Lowrance.

Don't forgot manager extraordinaire the late Gen. Skandor Akbar. Although he was not a member of the commentary team, whenever he was at ringside he was kind enough to stop and offer a few words to the fans at home.
And as you mentioned, it seemed that almost everyone who was young, had a good look and at least a passing amount of talent finally got to the big leagues.

 

[JasonSensation]

My favorite moment(s)? When "The Colorado Kid" Mike Rapada had a series of memorable matches against Terry Taylor and Jerry Lawler that helped escalate him to become the Rookie of the Year as well as future USWA Unified Champion and NWA World Champion. Rapada got the raw deal late in his career. Dude had talent and connected with fans. They went nuts for the guy. WCW did wrong by him.

 

[dmac]

Almost all the greats of yesterday and most from today came thru Memphis and/or Dallas at one time or another. That was when wrestling was wrestling. A lot of the types of matches and angles of today originally came from the old territories like Memphis. I could write an almost endless list of stars of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s that started out or came thru Memphis, Dallas, or the Carolinas before making it "big". Can't wait til Memphis Heat comes out on DVD for purchase so those who don't know about wrestling then will discover how truly great it was.

 

[mrhexum]

I loved watching USWA back in the day. Awhile back I made a thread about the WWE/F invasion angle you mentioned.

Don't have too many real stand out memories other than the wrestlers themselves. Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett, Bill Dundee, Eddie Gilbert, "Ice Man" King Parsons, the Lightning (123) Kid, Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer), Austin Idol, Eric Embry...

I remember watching it after school on ESPN, was always a solid show. Say what you will, but Jerry Lawler has/had a good mind for the business.

 

[Metalcrack]

Up here in NE Ohio, I USWA on the same local station as the good ol' ECW. I can't remember too much offhand, but the "Gangstas" (New Jack and Mustafa) which was pronounced "Gangsters" by one announcer, and I'm pretty sure Unabomb (Kane) was there as well.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

As a child, I grew up in the once small but now somewhat decent sized town of Clarksville, Tennessee... In the early 90s, being from a very wrestling loving family, I watched promotions from WCW to WWF from NWA Main Event to USWA... and with all of my love for wrestling, there is still one promotion that to this day, I believe was the best promotion of all time... is it by a bias standpoint? Yes, I'll admit to that... but at the same time, USWA showed me what true wrestling was about while the likes of WWF and WCW showed me what flashing lights were all about.

The United States Wrestling Alliance was, in my opinion, one of the most exciting territorial promotions in its time. Maybe this comes from a prejudice standpoint because of the fact that I grew up in Tennessee, but even still I enjoyed flipping on my television sets every Saturday Morning, sit through some good ol' FOX cartoons and Power rangers and then right around 10am I would grab my bowl of cereal and my dad would flip to UPN (later WB) because wrestlers like Jeff Jarrett, Jerry Lawler, Robert Gibson, Ricky Morton, and even Ms Texas were going to give me a show that I would never forget... hell even the now big name players such as Steve Austin, The Undertaker (as The Punisher), and The Rock (as Dwayne "Flex" Johnson) made their first appearances on my television screens courtesy of USWA.

I enjoyed going to the shows held in Memphis, and every so often even at the Clarksville Fairgrounds where we finally had something interesting come through and give us the live wrestling events we craved.

Now I get it, I was a kid when USWA was dying out and thinking back, I can't remember too much about the shows to really give a history lesson. But what I do know, is that it was guys like Rock and Roll Express and Brian Christopher who initially sparked my interest into loving the sport of wrestling much like Bret sparked my interest even more in WWF and women like Ms Texas (Jacqueline/Jackie Moore) and Uptown Karen fought tooth and nail just so that they wouldn't have to lose their hair.

And I'm pretty sure that even though is was really popular in Tennessee, it was also popular or at least watched in other places... I know this because at one point top WWF and WCW guys like Owen Hart, Big Van Vader, and even Lunah Vachon came through on my Saturday morning television station of choice. And I want this to be the topic thread where people come and talk about what they enjoyed most about USWA.

If you were a fan:

What is your one greatest memory of USWA?

Could USWA succeed as a promotion in today's society?

A lot of what you're reminiscing about is the later days of the USWA promotion owned by Jerry Jarrett, Jerry Lawler, and Randy Hales. And yes, with the influx of talent from the WWF/E, it made for entertaining TV back in the day... but I can go further back than that.

We're talking early 80's and back. The days were Lawler was a GOD in Memphis Wrestling. Anyone that came into the Mid-South Colosseum didn't get a clean win against him. I think it happened just a couple of times... Harley Race was one of them possibly and there could be another... but I'm not aware of him.

We're talking Austin Idol, Superstar Bill Dundee, Jimmy Hart, The Fabulous One's managed by the original king of Memphis wrestling Jackie Fargo... The Stud Stable with Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller. Tojo Yamamoto and others. Back in the older days, the NWA champion at the time would tour the major promotions and territories across the country and the world. Memphis was a hot bed and the NWA Champion ALWAYS put the strap up against Lawler. Harley Race, Terry Funk, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and others put the NWA title against him. Tully Blanchard and Ted Dibiase put the NWA National Heavyweight title up against him. Despite Lawler never winning those titles, he always managed to keep the fans happy.

Lets not forget Lawler's run in with Andy Kauffman, too.

The later years of what became the USWA are great... but they don't hold a candle to the early days of Memphis Wrestling.

To answer your question and to avoid spam, my fave memory of Memphis wrestling was when Stan Hansen came in, and won the TV title, which was a trophy on his only appearance on TV... he beat Dr. Tom Pritchard and eventually wrestled Austin Idol in a Bunkhouse match and even wrestled Lawler in a tag match.

And would Memphis wrestling make it today? Given some decent TV time, it could rank up there with ROH as far as awesomness is concerned. Wrestling back in those days were as old school as they could get. They'd find a niche and be moderately successful, but nowhere near as big as WCW or the WWE.

 

[dmac]

Good post Lariat. I remember all those name you mentioned as well. Your post is a great example of the impact Memphis wrestling had on the wrestling world, and you're correct that it started way before the USWA. My started watching it with my granddaddy when I was just a little kid. I saw the late days of Jackie Fargo and earliest days of Jerry Lawler up until Memphis wrestling basically shut down, and the impact it wrestling in Memphis had on today is so much bigger than today's younger fans realize. Those days were truly the golden age of wrestling.