• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Mid-South Wrestling, Junkyard Dog Left An Indelible Mark On New Orleans

Posted: Apr 6th 2014 By: Gene Guillot

If World Wrestling Entertainment hopes to put on the best wrestling show in New Orleans history this Sunday with WrestleMania XXX at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, it certainly has its work cut out. That?s because in the late 1970s and for much of the 1980s, Mid-South wrestling, with New Orleans as its marquee town, was one of the hottest and most popular wrestling territories ever.

The promotion told good stories, developed future Hall of Fame talent and thrilled audiences at smaller venues like the Municipal Auditorium and St. Bernard Civic Center and big-time places like the Superdome.

?We had the toughest guys in wrestling,? said Mid-South promoter and long-time star in the area Bill Watts, now 74. ?They (other promotions) had formula TV. Superstar against nobody. But to me, that was so boring. I hated it. We started putting the superstars against the superstars on our TV. That?s why our TV was so exciting.?

Mid-South, which also covered Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and parts of Texas, ran shows in New Orleans every Thursday and did a total of 21 supershows at the Superdome from 1979 to 1985. Watts renamed the territory after buying it from Leroy McGuirk, who had been in charge of Leroy McGuirk Championship Wrestling since the 1950s.

?We got to where we were renting the Superdome four times a year,? said Watts, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009. ?It was always exciting. You had to build to the Superdome event, and you had to build past it, so it would boost your business.?

Said Watts? right-hand man Jim Ross, who started in wrestling in 1974 and became the most famous announcer of all-time: ?New Orleans was our New York City. New Orleans was the biggest city in the territory, and we drew the biggest crowds there. The first wrestling events in the Superdome were Mid-South promotions. It was a special city.?

In its heyday, Mid-South wrestling aired on Saturdays at 5 p.m. on WGNO and was a great ratings success. WWL outbid WGNO for the rights at the end of Mid-South?s run.

Stars who were featured in Mid-South included Andre the Giant, Dusty Rhodes, Jim Duggan, Ted DiBiase, Dick Murdoch, Jake Roberts, Butch Reed, Ernie Ladd, Paul Orndorff, who was taken by the New Orleans Saints in the 12th round of the 1973 NFL Draft, and Dr. Death Steve Williams, who was once piledrived on the concrete at the Lakefront Arena by the Fabulous Freebirds.

The bark of JYD

But the biggest star in the history of New Orleans wrestling was undoubtedly The Junkyard Dog. Born Sylvester Ritter, JYD played football at Fayetteville State University before becoming a professional wrestler.

When Watts took over the territory, he was determined to build an African-American wrestling star, which no promotion had at the time. Grizzly Smith, a former wrestler who assisted Watts, informed Watts about JYD, who was working in Calgary, Canada. In the 1970s, Watts said, promoters never booked a black wrestler against a white wrestler. He went against that grain.

?I hate racists,? Watts said. ?And it was a changing era. To condemn a person because of race just didn?t make sense to me. I was proud to change the culture of wrestling.?

The Junkyard Dog had a natural charisma, and the fans of Mid-South, especially in New Orleans, immediately flocked to him. In fact, the Municipal Auditorium became known as ?The Dog?s Yard.?

?The thing that stood out about Dog is that he had more charisma and radiated more than just about anybody I?ve ever seen,? said Ross, who said Watts took a lot of heat from his fellow promoters for making an African-American his top star. ?And he appealed to all ethnicities, male and female, adults and children. Everybody gravitated to the Dog because he had that effervescent personality.?

Said Rhodes: ?Dog was something else. He had a flamboyance about him that was just amazing to watch. He had his common man theme, and they thought he was one of them. They believed they could take him home that night and sit at the table and eat with him.?

By no means was JYD the best wrestler in the business, or even in the territory. When he first arrived in Mid-South, he was really green, but he eventually developed a solid skill set. His finisher was a running power slam called The Thump, and ?thump? was written on the back of his trunks. His most memorable move was when he got on all fours like a dog and drove his head into his opponent?s head.

What mattered most of all, though, was that charisma. When the villainous Freebirds blinded JYD with hair cream and prevented him from seeing the birth of his daughter, fans rallied around JYD. On August 8, 1980, 31,000 fans showed up to cheer JYD against Freebirds leader Michael Hayes in a steel cage dog-collar match, which JYD won.

?It drew like crazy,? Ross said. ?It was a great good versus evil. Everything you want in a storyline. Odds against hero. People joined in the cause. It was a fantastic storyline. It set the territory on fire. It was red hot.?

On that same card, a little known Hulk Hogan, a heel at the time, went to a double count out with Andre the Giant. Less than seven years later, those two had the biggest match in wrestling history at WrestleMania III. The two fought all over the country in 1980, but Hogan said he had a tough time that night.

?I didn?t fare too well in that one,? Hogan said. ?I remember that was a tough night for me. I didn?t get any momentum at all. Andre squashed me like a grape that night.?

Who dat say?

Perhaps the most significant rivalry to come from Mid-South was JYD against Ted DiBiase, who as the ?Million Dollar Man? would become one of the all-time great villains in WWE.

The two were really close friends. JYD was the best man in DiBiase?s wedding. When fans were asked who should vie for the vacant Mid-South North American title, they answered with the always popular JYD and DiBiase, who ended up holding that title five times. It was supposed to be a clean and fair battle of good guys.

But during the match, DiBiase, who had been wearing a glove to protect a previously injured arm, loaded the glove and knocked JYD out cold for the title victory. It was a shocking turn and energized the fans as they yearned for JYD to gain revenge.

?When I turned on my best friend, it was one of the hottest things that was ever done in Mid-South,? DiBiase said. ?I hit him with one punch, and he just falls like a brick. I became an instant villain.?

DiBiase, who credited Watts for designing the long-term angle, said the first match he had with JYD after that was special. He loaded his glove again and cheated to win. But it was the fans? reaction that told him that the feud was ?exploding.?

?The first time we wrestled in New Orleans, the Auditorium was packed,? DiBiase said. ?I told Grizzly Smith, ?I?m not driving my car down there because if I do, when I walk out, it?ll be on blocks.? (After the match), Grizzly is disgusted.

?I said, ?What?s wrong?? He says, ?They slit my tires.? The people that saw me come into the building with Grizz went out and just punctured all four of his tires. We had to wait for Triple-A. That?s how serious people were back then.?

DiBiase said JYD carved a unique place in New Orleans culture in the 1980s.

?JYD was so popular,? he said. ?They did a survey, and the favorite athlete in the city was Junkyard Dog. The famous New Orleans chant ?Who Dat,? well, the first time I heard ?Who Dat? was when I was standing across the ring in the Auditorium after we shot this angle, and JYD and I are going to have our first match.

?And when I got in the ring, the crowd stood to its feet and started chanting, ?Who Dat! Who Dat! Who Dat say they gonna beat that Dog? Who Dat!??

After JYD was forced to leave the territory, he returned wearing a mask and went by Stagger Lee, and on November 25, 1982, Lee got his revenge by defeating DiBiase to win the Mid-South North American championship at the Superdome.

?The excitement of the night and to be in front of a crowd that size and have a match of that magnitude, it?s memorable,? DiBiase said. ?Those are days I?ll never forget. I?m excited they chose New Orleans for WrestleMania XXX because it?s always been a tremendous wrestling town.?

The Junkyard Dog left Mid-South for the WWF later in 1984 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. He was killed in a single-car accident in June 1998.

The champ floats, stings at Dome

The most famous name every associated with Mid-South wrestling was Muhammad Ali, who was brought in as an enforcer for a Superdome event. Ali also was an enforcer for the main event of the first WrestleMania.

Ross went to Ali?s home in Los Angeles to film promotional material for the Mid-South TV show. Ross then took Ali around New Orleans the week before the scheduled event on June 1, 1985. Ali entertained school girls with a magic act and kissed babies that week. Watts, Ross and Ali went to Dooky Chase?s, and Watts said the whole restaurant lit up when Ali entered.

?We were actually roommates at the Hyatt across the street from the Dome,? said Ross, who said Ali didn?t have an entourage and it was just the two of them for the week. ?We got to sample a little bit of everything on the menu that she made for us. He always wanted to go back to Dooky Chase?s. My week in New Orleans with the champ was awesome.?

Ali was brought in to be in the corner of The Snowman as he faced Jake Roberts for the Mid-South TV title. When Roberts and his backup tried to cheat, Ali got up on the apron and landed five rights to Roberts and others. Ali?s actions helped Snowman to victory.

Ross came away impressed by Ali, a three-time heavyweight champion.

?His intellect was amazing,? Ross said. ?He said he realized he could make more money from fans paying to see him get beat than win. So he became brash. In time, he became almost a deity.

"He became beloved and embraced around the world. It was an amazing experience.?

On that same card, NWA heavyweight champion Ric Flair, in the midst of a two-year run as champion, successfully defended his title against Terry Taylor in a 40-minute match. In the WWE produced ?Legends of Mid-South? DVD, Taylor recalled that Flair showed up to the Superdome hung over from a wild night of partying in New Orleans, but Taylor was the one who ran out of gas first in the match.

?Ric Flair was amazing,? Taylor said. ?He?s not from planet Earth. He couldn?t walk when he got there, and an hour later, he went 40 minutes.?

What kind of match?

Pushing all the right buttons as Mid-South rose to one of the most respected and successful territories ever was Watts. DiBiase said Watts? psychology was on another level, and Rhodes said Watts was a great entertainer.

?Bill was an amazing entrepreneur,? Ross said. ?Really approached the business as a business. He managed his company with an iron hand. A variety of rules and regulations that the talent had to adhere to. He had great vision and great creativity.

?He was very demanding. I learned how to book the big picture, long-term planning. He was so far ahead of his peers in that respect.?

Some of that creativity led to some interesting gimmick matches. The best one involved DiBiase and Duggan, who also went on to a Hall of Fame career in the WWE.

The two were the main cogs in Mid-South?s ?Rat Pack,? and DiBiase was known as ?The Big Cheese.? When Duggan turned face and broke away from the pack, it started an all-out war. The only way to settle the score was to have a match in which the loser would be forced to leave town.

But that?s not the only gimmick that was part of their match on March 30, 1985, at the Superdome. For some reason, the two also were wearing tuxedos.

?That match was probably the gimmick match of all gimmick matches,? said DiBiase, who came out the loser. ?It combined several different elements. This match was all of those combined into one. We were in a steel cage, and there was a glove attached to the top of this pole in the corner (called a Coal Miner?s glove). A culmination of a feud that had gone on for a long time.?

On November 22, 1984, one of the most storied tag team rivalries in wrestling history had a scaffold match, where the competitors fight on a scaffold above the ring, in the Superdome. The Rock ?n? Roll Express, who will be in action tonight at the Mid-South Legends Fan Fest at the Sigur Center in Chalmette, defeated the Midnight Express.

Midnight Express manager Jim Cornette, who also will be on hand at today?s Fan Fest, said the storied feud started in Mid-South.

?That was the fourth time Mid-South was in the Superdome that year.? Cornette said. "We still did over $100,000 gate, which on Thanksgiving night wasn't too shabby. The New Orleans crowd was always rowdy, but at the Superdome, fans would travel from around the South, so it was a big event. Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton did some ridiculous things on the scaffold. It was a very entertaining match."

And above all, the workers always had a lot of fun when Mid-South rolled through the Crescent City, especially the beloved Andre the Giant.

?We eased into a tag team,? said Andre?s longtime friend Rhodes. ?We would headline the Superdome. He loved to go to Pat O?Briens. He?d have nine or 10 bottles of wine. It was a great experience for me. New Orleans meant a lot to us.?