The Universal Wrestling Federation was owner Bill Watts' attempt at taking his Mid-South Wrestling promotion to a national level in 1986. The attempt failed and in 1987, Watts sold the promotion to Jim Crockett Promotions and it became part of what would later be known as World Championship Wrestling. The promotion had started out as an NWA Territory known as NWA Tri-State founded by Leroy McGuirk in the 1950s. Tri-State promoted in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the same area that Watts's Mid-South wrestling ran in before attempting to go national. In 1990, Herb Abrams started an unrelated wrestling promotion with the same name.

History

NWA Tri-State

A former territory wrestler who was blinded in a 1950 auto accident, Leroy McGuirk eventually took over promoting a wrestling circuit that covered Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi. Until 1973, Watts had been a fan favorite for Tri-State Wrestling. After a short break in Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida, he returned to Tri-State in 1975.

UWF may refer to:

The original Japanese-based Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion from 1984 to 1986, formed by wrestlers who had left New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was a pioneer in the shoot-style of pro-wrestling, which emphasized realistic moves. It was revived as the Newborn UWF in 1988. Newborn UWF lasted until 1990. It was revived again in 1991 as Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWF International or UWFi), which in turn lasted until 1996.

Original UWF

The original roster included Rusher Kimura, Akira Maeda, Ryuma Go, Mach Hayato, and Gran Hamada. Soon, however, they were joined by Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, Satoru Sayama (the original Tiger Mask) and Kazuo Yamazaki, and this changed the orientation of the UWF's wrestling from the traditional style to a more martial arts oriented style. Maeda, Fujiwara, Takada, Sayama and Yamazaki had been martial artists before joining New Japan Pro Wrestling, and they began incorporating realistic moves, including submission holds and kickboxing-style kicks, which created a new form of wrestling called shoot-style. Kimura, Go, and Hamada, unable to cope with the new style, decided to leave and join All Japan Pro Wrestling instead.