Mid-South Wrestling
originally aired on TBS
The Universal Wrestling Federation was a 1986 re-branding of wrestler-turned-owner Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling promotion. Watts' goal was to elevate his promotion from a relatively smaller, regional-level business, to a national-level rival of the World Wrestling Federation. The promotion began as an NWA territory, NWA Tri-State, founded by Leroy McGuirk in the 1950s.