Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams)

Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) was an American professional wrestling promotion owned by Herb Abrams that operated from 1990 to 1996. The company aired nationally on SportsChannel America, and later on Prime Ticket and ESPN2.

History

Herb Abrams founded the UWF in 1990 to try to challenge Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation on a national level. He announced the promotion's formation at John Arezzi's Wrestling Fans Fantasy Weekend convention in August 1990. Despite having no experience in the wrestling business, Abrams was given a budget of $1 million by SportsChannel America to develop a weekly television series, which would become UWF Fury Hour.[1] The first Fury Hour tapings were held at Reseda Country Club in fall 1990 and featured established stars such as Billy Jack Haynes, Bob Orton, Jr., Brian Blair, Cactus Jack, Colonel DeBeers, Dan Spivey, David Sammartino, Don Muraco, Ivan Koloff, Ken Patera, Paul Orndorff, and Steve Williams.[2]

Programming

Fury Hour

Fury Hour was the company's weekly television show that aired Monday nights on SportsChannel America from 1990 to 1991. It was taped at various locations including Reseda Country Club, New York Penta, Universal Studios Florida, and War Memorial Auditorium. It was briefly revived as Thunder Hour in 1992 on Prime Ticket with episodes taped at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium.

Beach Brawl

Beach Brawl was the only pay-per-view event in the company's history and was held on June 7, 1991 at the Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto, Florida. The event was headlined by a match between Steve Williams and Bam Bam Bigelow, which was the final round match of a sixteen-man tournament for the crowning of the first UWF SportsChannel Television Champion. Williams defeated Bigelow to become the first SportsChannel Television Champion. The event was an overall failure with a low buyrate of 0.1 and a crowd of 500 in attendance at the arena.

Blackjack Brawl

The company aired a live television special called Blackjack Brawl on September 23, 1994 on SportsChannel America, which was UWF's last major attempt to secure a major television deal and survive in the professional wrestling industry. The event was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Like its predecessor Beach Brawl, the event saw very low attendance of just 600 fans and received negative response from critics and audiences for weak quality, weakly performed matches, nonsense booking and weak commentary. The event featured nine championship matches, with two vacant championships being decided at the event, and seven new championships being contested at the event. The event was headlined by a UWF World Heavyweight Championship match between defending champion Steve Williams and Sid Vicious. This would stand as the promotion's final event.

St. Valentine's Day Massacre (cancelled)

St. Valentine's Day Massacre was a planned live television special that would have been broadcast on Prime Sports Network on February 10, 1996. The event would have been held at Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, and featured the promised rematch from Blackjack Brawl between Steve Williams and Sid Vicious in a Steel Cage match for the UWF World Heavyweight Championship.

type	Private
fate	Assets acquired by Al Burke
foundation	August 26, 1990
defunct	July 23, 1996
founder	Herb Abrams
owners	NGK, Inc. (Herb Abrams)
area served	Worldwide
location	Marina del Rey, California
industry	Professional wrestling
products	Television, Merchandise

Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams)

History

Programming

Fury Hour

Beach Brawl

Blackjack Brawl

St. Valentine's Day Massacre (cancelled)

Championships

Home video

Awards

See also

External links

References