[9.0] "Going back and watching Mid-South Wrestling. Here is a year-by-year review. 1982: The best storytelling of any promotion. JYD was so over. Ted DiBiase's heel turn was terrific. Orndorff's face turn was great. Skandar Akbar's Stable was a great ensemble of villians. Bob Watts terrible on commentary, makes everything about himself. Wrestler of the Year: Junkyard Dog 1983: We open the year with DiBiase forming the Rat Pack & trying to expose the JYD/Stagger Lee conspiracy. The Rat Pack implodes with Duggan turning face, and DiBiase joining Akbar's Stable. They over push Mr. Wrestling II, and under utilized King Kong Bundy. Magnum TA easily the Rookie of the Year in the NWA. Love the much needed addition of Jim Ross to commentary. Wrestler of the Year: Ted DiBiase 1984: As much as I absolutley loath Bill Watts on commentary, I do appreciate the multiple storylines to follow in his promotion. I didn't realize Volkoff sang the Soviet anthem in Mid-South prior to heading to WWF. The best ensemble of tag team talent of the era with the Midnight Express, Rock n' Roll Express, The Fantastics, and PYT. Hilarious how furious Watts was that JYD headed to WWF, and took shots at him on Mid-South TV & bringing in Master Gee as his Walmartesc replacement. Great collection of talent including Magnum TA, Butch Reed, Buddy Landel, Terry Taylor, Dr. Death, Hercules Hernandez & Adrian Street. Wrestler of the Year: Butch Reed TBC"
[8.0] "EDIT/Preface: I will first review Mid South, rate it and will then add additional commentary about the UWF, rate it and then average the two results} MID SOUTH WRESTLING: Bill Watts leaves me constantly upset at his commentary and politics. I completely loathe his incessant misspelling and/or mispronunciation of names over the years - it all becomes so overwhelmingly nauseating that I can't get past it. If you like racism and football you would give this territory a 10 but I am in neither of those camps. That being said: the in ring action was mostly unparalleled and consistently so. The stories were usually hot, the angles usually fun. The talent that passed through or helped anchor the ship lists as a true who's who of 80's talent and in many ways: MidSouth was the WWF before the WWF was the WWF. Bucket list wrestling is the Mid South careers of Junkyard Dog, Butch Reed, Ted DiBiase, Hercules Hernandez and others - lest we forget the rise of Jim Duggan and Magnum TA, the birth (& rise) of the Eaton/Condrey Midnight Express. Mid South brought us the peak of Buddy Landel, gave the wrestling world Barry Darsow, contained some superb stuff via Mr. Olympia and there was always another new star around the corner. But when he's on commentary; I want to punch Bill Watts in the testicles, brain and throat simultaneously. Also, you need to watch this stuff if just to see what Boyd Pierce is wearing. 7.75 (shows with no Bill Watts on commentary are always the better shows). THE UNIVERSAL WRESTLING FEDERATION: Even the brightest of stars will always fade out. In the beginning this was THE place for wrestling, 1986 was a banner year for American Professional Wrestling and the UWF was the leader if the pack with little struggle. By 1987 the wheels fell off and the racist TRASH was more heavy handed than ever before. Bill Watts is a deplorable human. The UWF in 1986 was beyond words awesome but 1987 was a toilet flushing. another 7.75... which makes the math part of this easy. The great is godly - the bad is overtly racist garbage that deserves to be chastised, that's this territory in a nutshell."
[10.0] "UWF/MSW was one of the best promotions in history with good in ring product and innovative TV. Bill Watts is an excellent Booker. Ted DiBiase executed easily the best work of his career with Jim Duggan and JYD. Paul Orndorff got his career off to a great start here. It even started the careers of Sting and The Ultimate Warrior. The storylines were excellent and the TV development only enhanced it. Magnum TA even got his career a boost here."
[9.0] "Midsouth/UWF was the birthplace of episodic wrestling television. Despite Bill Watt's ruinous WCW run, he was a true genious in this territory/promotion. The shows still hold up great all these decades since."
"The UWF and its predecessor Mid-South Wrestling was in my opinion the best territory in the United States. Growing up in the midwest I read about how great the promotion was. Now with the advent of YouTube and the WWE Network I have been able to watch almost every TV show from this territory and I must admit it was better than I read about growing up. Mid-South produced some of the best talent in the 80s and 90s a few examples are Jim Ross, Junkyard Dog, Ted DiBiase Sr. (The Million Dollar Man), Jake "The Snake" Roberts, The Rock N Roll Express and the Midnight Express with Jim Cornette. Bill Watts ran the territory in an old school manner, if a wrestler went out to a bar at night and got beat up in a fight they were fired, the reason for this was if a wrestler was portrayed as a tough guy he was no longer believable as a tough guy if someone off the street could beat him up. The Heels and Babyfaces traveled separately and stayed in separate hotels, they were not to socialize with the other group. In the buildings they had separate locker rooms and sometimes they did two shows in one day on the weekends and the heels and babyfaces would go in separate vans to the next town. The stories above were directly from Jim Cornette's and Jim Ross' podcasts when they talked about their Mid-South days, they also said the territory prepared you for the big time and is why they produced so many stars. Jim also mentioned that it was more travel than any other territory, he went through a typical two week stretch in Mid-South as he kept logs that he still has to this day and he and the Midnight Express put over 4, 000 miles on their car in just the two weeks. They would have to get a new car almost every year! I am so glad I have been able to finally watch the territory and now hear some of the background stories from Jim's as well as Jim Ross' podcast, it gives me an even greater appreciation of what Mid-South and it's talent went through to earn a living and give entertainment to its fans."
[9.0] "Mit das beste Territorium in den 80ern. Wer nie Material von Mid-South gesehen hat, hat definitiv etwas verpasst. Watts war ein exzellenter Booker/Promoter."
