Mid-South Wrestling was a hot territory for virtually its entire existence covering the area of Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas region, as well as Mississippi. The promotion was also the home of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title, which allowed the smaller workers to have a platform of their own.

 

     The high point of the lighter weight division was when it showcased the legendary amateur wrestler Danny Hodge - also the first pro wrestler to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. While himself a cruiserweight and a former holder of the title, the promoter,
Leroy McGuirk ran a successful operation from the late 1960's well into the 1970's.

     The unfortunate effects of his becoming blind and his despair in coping with it saw him lose his passion for the business. He sold the company to Bill Watts in 1979. 
      

     Watts, who as a big man himself, preferred to push bigger athletes ended up focusing more on the dynamics of the feuds in the storylines he created and the Junior Heavyweight Title ended up more in the background until its placement in the territory of Jim Crockett Promotions.

  

     Regardless, the cruiserweights still played a major role, especially when Jerry Jarrett from Memphis sent in some of his guys, like Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Bobby Fulton, and Bobby Eaton among
others, who lit up the tag-team division with some legendary feuds. The Midnight Express managed by Jim Cornette had classic matches with the Rock 'n' Roll Express and also the Fantastics which
spilled into other areas, like the World Class and later the NWA Mid-Atlantic and Georgia feds.
      

     Before the legendary tag-teams worked their magic, Bill Watts did something that no other promoter did. With ugly racism having the most promulgation in the southern U.S. he decided that
his top star and main attraction was going to be an African-American, and it was a move that gave him the best business ever. Having created a unique star in the Junkyard Dog, the Mid-South
promotion had adopted a more violent style of work and his leading face character did phenomenal business in the South. The strong booking and great television that Watts was producing saw them
selling out the Superdome in New Orleans on a regular basis.
      

     In time, Watts was given a short run on the TBS cable network as the company was in the planning stages of touring nationally in direct competition with the WWF. They were beating them in the ratings, and a deal was on the table with Ted Turner that would have solidified the time slot. In anticipation of the territory's expansion, the company was renamed the Universal Wrestling Federation, and the championships shed their regional identities. At the last minute, however, Turner gave the time slot to Jim Crockett Jr. and Watts was shut out.

     The UWF then intensely concentrated on its strong syndicated network, and raided the World Class promotion of its booker, Ken Mantell, and champion, Chris Adams, as well as others before running
shows in the traditional WCCW market. As is usually the case in wrestling, the high cost of a regional territory expanding nationally took its toll financially due to the added expenses of travel and lodging.

 

     Bill Watts blames the oil industry going bad in the region as the reason the company falling, eventually selling the company to Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987. With the exception of a stint as head boss at WCW in 1992 and head booker in the WWF for the duration of a blink of the eye in 1995, he has been a missing ingredient in professional wrestling.
      

     The UWF failed under Jim Crockett, as the anticipated NWA vs UWF feud never materialized and the UWF guys were used to immediately put Crockett's talent roster over just to show that one
company was inferior. Stupid booking, of course blamed on Dusty Rhodes, that pretty much was a money printing machine that they threw away.

 

     The WWF repeated this years later upon absorption of
the remnants of WCW and ECW. The UWF roster, and its syndicated network, were absorbed into the Crockett territory and the end of the " old " UWF has been lamented ever since.