William F. Watts Jr. (born May 5, 1939), better known under 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 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 an interview in which Watts supported a business owner's right to refuse service, he resigned. He was subsequently replaced by Ole Anderson.
In 1995, Watts briefly worked as a booker for the WWE (WWF; now WWE). In 2009, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Football career
Watts played as a
linebacker for his high school football team, the Putnam City Pirates.
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 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 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 Montreal Beavers 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 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.
Professional wrestling career
Wrestling career (1962–1979)
As a professional wrestler, he famously feuded with
WWE Championship 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 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.
Booking career (1979–1995)
Mid-South Wrestling / Universal Wrestling Federation (1979–1987)
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 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 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 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.
World Championship Wrestling (1992–1993)
Watts became Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling, succeeding short-tenured Kip Frey in 1992. He took many of his old-school values with him, such as minimizing action outside the ring and banning moves from the top rope and the babyfaces and heels separation among other series of rules that he reportedly detailed in a memo to wrestlers. His tenure 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 taking the job with WCW, Watts had given an interview to Wade Keller of the Pro Wrestling Torch. After a lengthy interview on wrestling, Watts commented on Lester Maddox, a 1960s restaurant owner and segregationist, as well as a former Governor of Georgia, who refused service to black customers. Watts supported the owner's position, illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that any business owner had a right to discriminate as did Watts in his business. Watts further expressed his view that slavery was beneficial for bringing black people to America. He also made numerous other controversial statements pertaining to race and sexual orientation, including using numerous highly offensive slurs:[Pro Wrestling Torch Summer Annual 1991]
"If you want 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."
Around the same time, Watts was already tired of the way WCW was going. February 1993 saw the company decide to take management of pay per views and programming entirely out of his hands and stated that he would be part of a large booking committee. Watts left prior to SuperBrawl III. In a letter he wrote in April 1993 addressed to Aaron, Watts contended that he resigned for his own reasons from WCW while arguing his comments were taken out of context and that the interview “was in the possession of TBS executives prior to my hiring in WCW; and I had already responded to that very allegation prior to being hired.â€
World Wrestling Federation (1995)
Watts later went on to a position of booking power in the
WWE (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 the Class of 2009.
[Jimmie Tramel, "WWE Hall of Fame to induct 'Cowboy Bill'", Tulsa World, April 3, 2009.]
Personal life
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 Watts, 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 a wrestler, then a promoter, along with events in his personal life.
Watts served as co-host of a sports talk radio show on KYAL-FM in Tulsa, Oklahoma until late 2008. He was a longtime resident of Bixby, a Tulsa suburb.
Championships and accomplishments
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American Wrestling Alliance
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AWA United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
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Cauliflower Alley Club
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Championship Wrestling from Florida
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NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
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NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time)
-
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
-
Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling
-
NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
-
Japan Wrestling Association
-
NWA International Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Tarzan Tyler
-
Mid-South Sports
-
NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
-
NWA Tri-State / Mid-South Wrestling Association
-
Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
-
Mid-South Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Buck Robley
-
NWA Louisiana Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Buck Robley
-
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (7 times)
-
NWA Tri-State Brass Knuckles Championship (2 times)
-
NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (5 times)– with Jerry Kozak (1), Billy Red Lyons (1), Greg Valentine (1), Billy Robinson (1) and Buck Robley (1)
-
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
-
Southwest Sports, Inc.
-
NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
[*]
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World Wide Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment
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WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Gorilla Monsoon
-
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2009)
[
]
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Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
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Most Obnoxious (1992)
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Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
- Notes
- Bibliography
External links
