Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams)

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This article is about the UWF run by Herb Abrams. For the UWF founded by Bill Watts, see Universal Wrestling Federation (Bill Watts).
Universal Wrestling Federation

Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) was an American

SportsChannel America, and later on Prime Ticket and ESPN2
.

History

Steve Williams.[2] The top homegrown talent included "Wild Thing" Steve Ray and "Cutie Pie" Louie Spicolli. Bruno Sammartino and Lou Albano
were hired as commentators.

The promotion held a taping in

New York Penta in January 1991 that became plagued with legal issues. The World Wrestling Federation sent cease and desist orders to the UWF after Honky Tonk Man and Rick Rude appeared on-camera.[3] Both had recently walked out of the WWF but were still under contract to the company. Honky Tonk Man would later explain that the check he received from Abrams for this taping bounced, and he filed a formal complaint with the New York State Athletic Commission to get reimbursed.[4]

Abrams hired Howard Brody, the owner of

Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto, Florida.[6] The pay per view was a disaster in both attendance and pay per view buys. Following Beach Brawl, Abrams ran one final television taping at War Memorial Auditorium before running out of fresh footage for Fury Hour. He struck a deal with Brody to use footage from Ladies Major League Wrestling to fulfill his content creation obligations to SportsChannel America, and the two parted ways in fall 1991.[7]

Abrams only ran three more shows after his SportsChannel America deal expired in late 1991. This included: a television taping at

Blackjack Brawl at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena, in September 1994. The latter show aired live on SportsChannel America, yet was a disaster in both attendance and critical reception. Abrams left for New York City to care for his ailing mother in December 1994, and wrestler Al Burke was put in charge of the promotion.[8]

ESPN2 aired old episodes of Fury Hour and Thunder Hour in 1995, albeit in heavily edited form.

A February 1996 card called St. Valentine's Day Massacre was scheduled to be broadcast live from

Prime Sports Network, but was cancelled.[9] Zoogz Rift worked for the company during this time and claimed Abrams' cocaine addiction drained the company of money needed to produce such events.[10]
Abrams died of a cocaine-related heart attack in July 1996 while still in New York.

Al Burke claimed ownership of UWF's tape library following Abrams' death.

ESPN Classic Canada
.

Dark Side of the Ring aired an episode focused on the promotion titled "Cocaine & Cowboy Boots: The Herb Abrams Story" in May 2020.[11] It was the third-highest rated episode in the show's history.[12]

Jonathan Plombon released a biography on Abrams and his promotion titled Tortured Ambition: The Story of Herb Abrams and the UWF in September 2021.[13]

Programming

Fury Hour

Main article: UWF Fury Hour

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

Main article:
UWF 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

Main article: UWF 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

Steel Cage match for the UWF World Heavyweight Championship
.

Championships

Main article: Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams) championships
New York Penta
in May 1991

Home video

In 1992, the UWF issued six VHS releases in the United States through Best Film & Video Corporation: Beach Brawl, Tag Team Tandems, The Best of Paul Orndorff, The Lumberjack Match, The Steel Cage Match, and Wrestling's Greatest Champions. In 1993, the UWF released six volumes of PAL videos in Germany through Summit International Pictures under the "Wrestling Super Champs" banner. They were all compilations of Fury Hour matches. The same six "Wrestling Super Champs" volumes were re-released in Germany through Jünger Verlag under the "Super Wrestling" banner.

Recent years have seen the emergence of UWF DVDs in Australia through Payless Entertainment. Each of the seven Region 4 DVDs contains one episode of Fury Hour. The DVDs include Body Slammin, Grand Slam, Grudge Matches, It's War, Tag Team Madness, The Main Event, and Wrestling Wars. In Germany, a Region 0 DVD titled "Wrestling Super 4 Champs" was released containing two episodes of Fury Hour. Also in Germany, the "Wrestling Super Champs" VHS compilations were re-released on DVD in six volumes as "American History of Wrestling - UWF".

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ Brody, Howard. Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling. ECW Press, 2009, p. 134.
  2. ^ Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.184)
  3. ^ Observer Staff (February 4, 1991). "February 4, 1991 Observer Newsletter: Pivotal week in the life of Dave Meltzer". F4WOnline.com. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved September 7, 2019. (subscription required)
  4. ^ YouTube, a Google company. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2020-04-28. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  5. ^ Brody, Howard. Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling. ECW Press, 2009, p. 149.
  6. ^ Brody, Howard. Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling. ECW Press, 2009, p. 156.
  7. ^ Brody, Howard. Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling. ECW Press, 2009, p. 163.
  8. ^ a b "UWF - Interview - al Burke".
  9. ^ https://i.imgur.com/UiRZ1W9.jpg [bare URL image file]
  10. ^ "UWF - Interview - Zoogz Rift".
  11. ^ "'Dark Side of the Ring' Producer on Gaining Unprecedented Access for Filming". 23 March 2020.
  12. ^ "Vice "Dark Side of the Ring" Viewership for Herb Abrams Episode". 6 May 2020.
  13. ^ "'Tortured Ambition' describes my work on Herb Abrams book too". Slam Wrestling (in Afrikaans). October 11, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2021.

External links

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