First, a little personal history… Houston Wrestling was the best. I was raised on Channel 39 every Saturday night from 10:00 to 11:30 P.M. The Sam Houston Coliseum was a dark, dingy, smelly old municipal building in downtown Houston used mostly for heavy metal concerts, religious revivals, second rate circuses, and pro wrestling. The city tore it down several years ago. Paul Boesch was a promoter who would bring in just about any wrestler if the guy could draw money. I remember seeing Jose Lothario, Mil Mascaras, Ernie Ladd (a hero in his hometown of Houston, a mega-heel everywhere else), the Funks, and the Briscos. Other stars who came into the area were Brute Bernard, Harley Race, the evil Playboy Gary Hart, Red Bastien, Ivan Putski, Superstar Billy Graham, the late, great Gino Hernandez, Andre, Tony Atlas and Al "don't call me a Mexican, I'm an Indian" Madril, just to name a very few. So many stars, all with different styles. Boesch would have the Mexican wrestlers do their interviews in Spanish and in English, and while it might seem condescending today, it certainly drew a large contingent of Mexican-American fans to the arena. Boesch did the announcing and interviewed the wrestlers himself and since he was a big man (about 6'5", 300 lbs.), no wrestler would ever try to intimidate him. He would hold events with AWA, WWWF, NWA,Southwest Championship and independent stars on the same card. Mr. Boesch was aligned with Mid-South during its glory days. In 1984, apparently Boesch got tired of trying to coordinate all the work himself so he let Watts send in the talent and he promoted it himself. Thus, the alliance between Mid-South and Houston Wrestling was formed.

Bill Watts is one of the truly legendary characters of modern pro wrestling… colorful, innovative, aggressive, shrewd, intriguing, controversial, you can pick many adjectives to describe the man in and out of the ring. Watts began promoting in his home state of Oklahoma in the 1970's, but eventually split from partner Leroy McGuirk and formed what would eventually become Mid-South Wrestling. The promotion covered four states initially: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma, with Texas added as an area later.  More...