| The History of IWA Mid-South - Part Two: The Start of Something Big |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Adam Lash | |||
| Thursday, January 03, 2008 | |||
 Ian Rotten They were not the only group running weekly in Louisville though. The United States Wrestling Association ran every Tuesday night at the Louisville Gardens, just 17 miles away from the Derby Sports Arena. The USWA was formed after Jerry Jarrett, owner of the Continental Wrestling Association, purchased World Class from the Von Erich's. Jarrett merged the CWA and WCCW to form the USWA in 1989, which now controlled the Memphis and the Dallas/Ft. Worth territories. The merger was short lived though as the Von Erich's, who still had minority ownership, pulled out and began running under the World Class banner again. World Class would cease operations months later, while the USWA continued it's successful Memphis territory operations. By 1997 though things were bad. The territory mentality still used by the USWA was just not working, and the towns just weren't drawing. The USWA's weekly Monday night events in Memphis, which were their biggest shows and were a continuation of a Memphis wrestling tradition, had been devastated by the Monday Night War between RAW and Nitro. Something would have to change, so instead of the Mid-South Coliseum, a building synonymous with Memphis wrestling and Memphis wrestling legend Jerry Lawler, shows were run at the Big One Flea Market and the Memphis tradition of Monday night shows would cease to exist, instead being held on a variety of different days for the rest of its existence. The Mid-South Coliseum would now only be used for larger shows, and it became clear the USWA was on borrowed time. Ian Rotten, never one to shy away from saying what's on his mind, was vocal about how far the USWA had fallen, and was often critical of the wrestling they put on. Soon Rotten's goal had become about beating the USWA. The animosity though wasn't one sided, as the USWA didn't like a promotion running weekly in an area they'd dominated for decades. Louisville was USWA territory and they didn't take kindly to competition. Rotten though didn't back down, and soon those in the USWA had to be asking themselves "who does this ECW reject think he is?" A ECW reject who would begin to outdraw the USWA, that's who. The weekly shows began what I would consider to be the IWA's most successful period. Almost every week at least 200 fans, often times more, would come to the Derby Sports Arena for IWA action. The shows were booked with an old school flavor, with intense feuds that would span many months, sometimes even longer. The wrestling though was anything but old school, and was as diverse as it was insane, and at that time it was insane. Hardcore was obviously a integral part of the IWA formula, and at that time was very much new territory inside the United States.  Mad Man Pondo There was one slight problem though: the fans loved Pondo. It was hard not to. Pondo was like a cartoon character. Here was this goofy looking guy, with a rat tail haircut that looked as though he had cut it himself after a heavy night of drinking, and a goofy grin that was plastered on his face before, during and after the match. The fans could tell just by watching him that he was doing what he loved and was living a dream, and even against Ian Rotten, perhaps the most popular wrestler in the promotion, it was hard not to like the guy. Rotten would need another antagonist, and it would soon become clear that there was no shortage of them. In the next chapter we will cover the IWA/USWA war and it's consequences, the early feuds, wrestlers and the events from the first couple months of 1997. I will also begin posting show reports and other things I've kept over the years, some of which to my knowledge are no longer available on the internet, on IndyWrestlingNews.com. These show reports date back all the way to 1997. Thanks for reading!
|