38-637: The GCW Heavyweight Championship is the major title in the Georgia Championship Wrestling professional wrestling promotion . It started in 1964 and was unified in 1981 with the NWA National Heavyweight Championship . The title was picked back up in 1998 by NWA Georgia, which became NWA Wildside in September 1999 when it merged with National Championship Wrestling . Along with this change,
76-434: A business, and you put money in it, why shouldn't you be able to discriminate? It's your business... That's why I went into business, so that I could discriminate... Who's killed more blacks than anyone? The fuckin' blacks." Watts claims that when he was hired by WCW, he had explained the situation to Turner president Bill Shaw , apparently to his satisfaction. However, a year later wrestling journalist Mark Madden brought
114-592: A discussion with general manager Jim Finks , who wanted him to quit his wrestling career, Watts left the Vikings having decided he could make more money back in Oklahoma. As a professional wrestler, he famously feuded with WWWF 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 (AJPW). During these periods, Watts challenged for both
152-644: A lengthy interview on wrestling, Watts commented on Lester Maddox , a 1960s restaurant owner and segregationist Governor of Georgia ) who refused service to black customers. Watts supported the owner's position, illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , that he had a right do discriminate as did Watts in his business. Watts further expressed his view that slavery was beneficial for bringing slaves to America. He also made numerous other controversial statements pertaining to race and sexual orientation, including using numerous highly offensive slurs: "If you want
190-508: A match booker , who also wrestled as Ole Anderson . This move set the stage for an important move in wrestling history, involving another regional promoter: Vince McMahon . In July 1984, the Brisco brothers sold their stock in GCW to McMahon for $ 900,000. In return McMahon received GCW's television time slots on WTBS, which McMahon then claimed for his WWF, which was in the midst of expanding into
228-620: A national promotion. McMahon also guaranteed jobs with the WWF for the Briscos; Gerald Brisco remained with the WWF/WWE for decades before retiring in 2009. After working out a few prior commitments, Georgia Championship Wrestling ceased to exist. GCW announcer Freddie Miller was the only member of the original GCW on-air cast who neither quit in protest nor was replaced by the new owner. McMahon had underestimated two major factors, however. The first
266-505: A satellite-distributed superstation in 1976, and change its call letters to WTBS in 1979, ultimately becoming the national TBS cable channel. The new television deal would be one of Gunkel's last decisions. Ray Gunkel died of a heart attack later that year after a match versus Ox Baker in Savannah, Georgia . The death set off some internal problems, with Ray's widow Ann, who had worked closely with Ray and expected to get her share of
304-540: A significant amount of weight, and had to put it back on, despite the coaches at the time preferring their players to be small and quick, which Watts had struggled with before the accident. Former Sooners teammate Wahoo McDaniel (then of the Houston Oilers of the AFL ), introduced him to professional wrestling for the first time, something McDaniel did in the off-season. Watts turned professional in 1961 and joined
342-500: A trouble-shooter was called in: Jim Barnett , who had owned promotions in Indiana , Michigan , Ohio , Colorado and Australia . (The Australian promotion was called World Championship Wrestling .) At this point, Ann's promotion went downhill, being locked out of arena dates, with wrestlers defecting to Mid-South, and finally Ann Gunkel's All-South Wrestling Alliance folded in 1974. When WTCG became distributed via satellite in 1976,
380-567: The Class of 2009 . Watts has five children. From his first marriage, he has a son, William III (nicknamed Biff), and from his second marriage, he has three sons, Joel, Erik , Micah and a daughter, Ene. In March 2006, Watts released his autobiography The Cowboy and the Cross: The Bill Watts Story: Rebellion, Wrestling and Redemption through ECW Press . The book chronicles his upbringing, his career as first
418-820: The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and American Wrestling Association (AWA) versions of the World Title . Watts also had a successful run winning tag belts with Buck Robley in the NWA Tri-State / Mid South Wrestling before he became head promotor in the Oklahoma / Louisiana areas. Watts is perhaps even more famous for being a pioneering promoter in the Mid-South area of the United States, with his base of operation being in
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#1732783661538456-608: The WWE Hall of Fame . Watts played as a linebacker for his high school football team, the Putnam City Pirates . Bud Wilkinson recruited him to play for the Oklahoma Sooners , where he played as a guard during his sophomore and junior years. However, his junior year was marred by a near fatal car accident involving him and his mother, resulting in him going into a coma. When he came out, he had lost
494-602: The ring name Bill Watts , is a retired American professional wrestler , promoter and former American football player. Watts garnered fame under his "Cowboy" gimmick in his wrestling career, and then as a promoter in the Mid-South United States, which grew to become the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). Watts also worked under the ring name Doctor Scarlett which was sometimes stylised as Dr. Scarlett . In 1992, Watts
532-776: The Atlanta Heavyweight Championship in June 2015 or retired in February 2016. Under the resurrection of Georgia Championship Wrestling, an announcement was made that the Georgia Heavyweight Championship would be revived and a new champion crowned on April 24, 2021. Georgia Championship Wrestling Georgia Championship Wrestling is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Atlanta , Georgia . The promotion
570-762: The Oilers, but did not last long there, and according to a shoot interview, he left after knocking out a coach. Through McDaniel's friendship with defensive coach Bob Griffin , Watts played for the Indianapolis Warriors of the United Football League , while also being able to wrestle for NWA Indianapolis. Watts then had a try-out with the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL), but after
608-721: The Shreveport, Louisiana area. His promotion was known as 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 is 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
646-568: The Universal Wrestling Federation) in 1987. When JCP ran into financial difficulty, Turner Broadcasting took over the promotion in November 1988 to keep the programming on its network, naming the new subsidiary World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after the title of its then-flagship program. In 2001, the WWF purchased the assets and trademarks belonging to WCW, including the entire tape libraries of GCW and JCP. While
684-450: The WWF purchased the tape library in 2001, the trademarks owned by businessman Grady Odom still remain active. After several reunion-style events, the intellectual property of Georgia Championship Wrestling was transferred to promoter Chris Nelms in 2020, and the resurrection of GCW began as events have been held across central Georgia. General Specific Bill Watts William F. Watts Jr. (born May 5, 1939), better known under
722-484: The WWF-produced series, which garnered lower ratings than previously, Turner began giving time slots to other southern wrestling promotions. Ole Anderson continued to operate on a smaller scale in the territory, promoting Championship Wrestling from Georgia out of Atlanta, which briefly aired on TBS Saturday mornings. Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling , which operated in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi,
760-527: The World Wrestling Federation . Georgia Championship Wrestling was formed in Atlanta in 1944 by promoter Paul Jones (retired wrestler Andrew Lutzi, not Paul Frederik who later was given the name) as ABC Booking. ABC held its matches at Atlanta's Municipal Auditorium on Friday evenings. Jones operated ABC for thirty years until his retirement in 1974, though from about 1970 until 1972 he was assisted by his booker Ray Gunkel . Jones
798-523: The business from such fans. After losing over half a million dollars, Watts sold the UWF to NWA Mid-Atlantic's Jim Crockett Promotions , who kept many of their stars, such as Sting . Instead of having UWF as a separate organization, Crockett sent his mid-card wrestlers to the UWF and had them quickly win their titles. Eventually, the UWF folded, and Crockett would be bought out by Ted Turner in 1988. In April 1989, after firing George Scott , WCW offered Watts
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#1732783661538836-562: The championship became known as the NWA Wildside Heavyweight Championship . The title continued until Wildside ceased operations on April 30, 2005. In 2012, NWA Action (later renamed NWA Atlanta) picked up the title and restored its original name. Cru Jones won the reactivated title by defeating Steve Stiles on June 23, 2012, in Stockbridge, Georgia , and vacated it in 2013. It was either unified with
874-456: The chance to book , but he declined the offer and WCW instead decided to go with a booking committee, which included Ric Flair and Kevin Sullivan . Watts became Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (succeeding Kip Frey) in 1992. He took many of his old-school values with him, such as banning moves from the top rope and the babyfaces and heels separation. His tenure
912-526: The interview to the attention of Hank Aaron , himself a vice president in the Turner organization with the Atlanta Braves , who then pushed for Watts' removal. While Madden takes credit for Watts getting fired, Watts himself disputes this account, saying he was not fired for the comments but quit his position out of frustration over "backstabbing" by Shaw and (unbeknownst to Shaw) had already resigned by
950-559: The programming offered by other territories, including the Northeast-based World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE ). GCW's main show, which aired on Saturday evenings, was complemented with a Sunday evening edition . Many of the NWA's regional promoters were unhappy, but Barnett claimed since he was only using Georgia-based wrestlers, that there was no harm. Whether or not Barnett was in fact taking
988-604: The promotion being shut out in favor of Bill Watts , with the promotion being renamed "Mid-South Sports." Ann Gunkel decided to start her own promotion outside of the National Wrestling Alliance , which she named the "All-South Wrestling Alliance." Mid-South Sports's longterm prospects were not good at that point, most of their wrestlers had gone with Ann, and Ann's promotion had gotten Mid-South's television time slot, though both promotions aired on WTCG. (Ted Turner and Ann Gunkel had both attended Brown University and were rumored to be romantically involved.) After two years of strife,
1026-497: The promotion national is a matter of dispute. Some wrestlers, such as Roddy Piper , say that he was in fact doing so, but was prevented by fears of crossing organized crime figures involved with the sport. Throughout the 1970s, Georgia Championship Wrestling was one of the main shows that kept the Superstation alive. In 1982, Georgia Championship Wrestling changed its main programming name to World Championship Wrestling at
1064-563: The renamed Georgia Championship Wrestling became the first television program produced by an NWA-affiliated promotion to be broadcast nationally. This program was hosted by Gordon Solie and was recorded in the studios of WTCG in Midtown Atlanta . Shows were taped before a small (yet enthusiastic), live in-studio audience, as were most professional wrestling TV shows of that era. The show featured wrestling matches, plus melodramatic monologues and inter-character confrontations—similar to
1102-479: The request of Ted Turner. GCW also expanded its reach into parts of Ohio and Michigan which were considered "open territory" at the time. A January 1983 show in Dayton, Ohio, was the first show held in that city in five years. A power struggle in late 1983 forced Barnett to sell most of his shares in GCW to a consortium consisting of wrestlers and brothers Jack Brisco and Gerald Brisco ; Paul Jones; and Al Rogowski,
1140-479: The time Aaron got the newsletter. Watts was replaced by Ole Anderson . Watts later went on to a position of booking power in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). His tenure there was short, as he stated in later interviews that he was only there on a three-month contract and had no interest in staying long-term. On April 4, 2009, Watts was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a part of
1178-403: Was affiliated with what had been the world's top sanctioning body of championship titles for decades before, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) , and ran live wrestling shows throughout its geographic "territory" of Georgia. The company was also known for its self-titled TV program , which aired on Atlanta-based superstation WTBS from the 1970s until 1984 when its timeslot was purchased by
NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
1216-607: Was given the Sunday evening time slot previously used by GCW that the WWF did not take. Eventually, on March 30, 1985, McMahon sold the Saturday night time slot to Jim Crockett, Jr. , a Charlotte, North Carolina –based promoter who ran NWA-branded shows in the Mid-Atlantic states. Jim Crockett Promotions took over production of the Saturday television show using the same set. JCP purchased Watts's promotion (by then renamed
1254-497: Was hosted by Ed Capral, and featured ring announcer Charlie Harben and referee Leo Garibaldi, and included interviews with wrestlers pertaining to their upcoming matches. The promotion underwent some big changes in 1972. Firstly, it started promoting matches at the then-brand-new Omni Coliseum . Secondly, it switched its television outlet from its original home, then- ABC -affiliated WQXI-TV (now WXIA-TV ) to UHF independent station WTCG, then owned by Ted Turner . WTCG would become
1292-421: Was mainly used as a re-cap show, featuring matches which had previously aired on the WWF's main programming such as WWF Championship Wrestling and WWF All-Star Wrestling . This angered WTBS owner Ted Turner, who believed McMahon reneged on a promise to have live matches originating from Turner Broadcasting System 's Atlanta studios. As a result of dissatisfaction by the audience and Ted Turner himself with
1330-578: Was not long, nor were his ideas overly embraced. According to his autobiography, Controversy Creates Ca$ h , Eric Bischoff (who worked under Watts at the time) felt Watts would intimidate anyone he was talking to and was only interested in taking the WCW product back to 1970s standards, with poorly lit arenas and house shows in remote rural towns. The circumstances of Watts' departure in 1993 are controversial. Prior to 1992, Watts had given an interview to Wade Keller for his newsletter, Pro Wrestling Torch. After
1368-618: Was so infirm by this time (he died in 1988) that Gunkel effectively ran the promotion. On December 25, 1971, Georgia Championship Wrestling made its television debut with a special Christmas program. Beginning in late January 1972 the promotion's regular series, Big Time Wrestling , began airing on Saturday afternoons on WQXI-TV in Atlanta; the show was recorded for later broadcast over WJBF in Augusta and WTOC-TV in Savannah , stations located in two of GCW's major cities. Big Time Wrestling
1406-483: 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 insensitive interview, he resigned. He was subsequently replaced by Ole Anderson . In 1995, Watts briefly worked as a booker for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE). In 2009, he was inducted into
1444-509: Was the differences in tastes between fanbases of different geographical regions. The WWF's style of wrestling sharply differed from that of GCW, with the WWF featuring cartoonish characters and storylines and squash matches and GCW featuring more athletic competition. Secondly, Southerners resented the symbolism of a " Yankee " company coming down from the North and "taking over" their wrestling. In addition, WWF World Championship Wrestling
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