Bill Watts
| Bill Watts | |
|---|---|
Watts in 2005.
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| Born |
May 5, 1939 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States |
| Residence | Miramar Beach, Florida, United States |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Bill Watts |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
| Billed weight | 297 lb (135 kg) |
| Debut | 1963 |
| Retired | 1993 |
William F. "Bill" Watts Jr. (born May 5, 1939) is an American former professional wrestler and promoter. Watts was famous under his "Cowboy" gimmick in his wrestling career, and then as a tough, no-nonsense promoter in the Mid-South United States, which grew to become the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF).
In 1992, Watts was the Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) but after clashes with management over a number of issues, as well as feeling pressure from Hank Aaron over a racially sensitive piece of correspondence, he resigned. He was subsequently replaced by Ole Anderson who was then succeeded by Eric Bischoff.
As a professional wrestler, he famously feuded with WWF Champion Bruno Sammartino, but was unable to win the title. In the 1960s, he wrestled in many areas, such as San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, and even Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling. During these periods, Watts challenged for both the National Wrestling Alliance and American Wrestling Association versions of the World Title.
Bill Watts is perhaps even more famous for being a pioneering promoter in the Mid-South area of the USA, with his base of operation being in the Shreveport, Louisiana area. His promotion was known as the Mid South Wrestling. He is often credited with creating the current and popular "episodic" style of TV wrestling, building solid creative storylines week-on-week, with an emphasis on solid in-ring action with dependable wrestlers like "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, The Junkyard Dog, Ted DiBiase and Jim Duggan. He's an outspoken critic on breaking kayfabe and "smart" wrestling fans. A Watts-run promotion always had face and heel wrestlers dress in different locker rooms and to have faces and heels not meet publicly. He has also been known to revamp his booking plans in order to protect the business from such fans. When a newspaper mentioned a wrestling event being the last one Jake "The Snake" Roberts would wrestle in Watts' territory and talked about the tradition of a wrestler jobbing in his last match to put his opponent over and to expect the finish to be in that fashion, Watts changed it so Roberts actually won the match and got put over on his way out of the territory.
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