- Chuck Merkich

When it came to the caliber of competition Southwest Championship Wrestling was 2nd to none. Some of the biggest stars in the sport called the promotion home & many future stars began their careers there.  Titleholders are the easiest way to judge the talent of an area so that's where we'll start. 

The top title in the territory was the Southwest Television title. Al Madril would be the first champion of the fledgling promotion having "won" a fictitious tournament for it in June, 1978. The area was known as All-Star wrestling then and one of it's top stars was the future Four Horseman Tully Blanchard. As the son of promoter Joe Blanchard, Tully was a shoo-in as the top man in the company. While not the initial champion he soon defeated Al Madril for the Southwest television title in July,1978. Tully would enjoy a 5 month reign until dropping the title to Dale Valentine (Dale Hayes) in
December. Valentine is better known to most fans as Freebird Buddy Roberts.

Valentine and Blanchard would trade the title 5 more times during the course of 1979, during that time the title was renamed the Southwest Heavyweight title as the the promotion became known as Southwest Championship Wrestling. Tom Jones upset Blanchard for the belt near the end of that year. Jones wouldn't hold the title long however as Tully would win it for the fifth time in February,1980. After a 5 month reign Ed "Wahoo" McDaniel would defeat him on August 23rd in San Antonio,Tx but Tully would regain it once again and remain champion until April, 1981 when he would vacate the title. Terry Funk would win a tournament for the title but would soon drop the belt to McDaniel. Wahoo would also vacate the title and Manny Fernandez won a tournament in Corpus Christi, TX. to become the new champion. Dick Slater (Van Richard Slater) defeated Fernandez near the end of '81 and would enjoy a lengthy title reign before dropping the belt to the Mongolian Stomper (Archie Gouldie) during July, 1982. Slater would regain the belt in November but vacate it a month later when he left the area.