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Rasslin' Makes History

Posted: Jul 16th 2007 By: mikeiles

Everyone at the old Lafayette Sports Center knew that it was all over when Waldo Von Erich clamped his famous claw hold on an opponent. Or when Dirty Dusty Rhodes got his dander up. Rasslin's been a crowd-pleaser here for a half century or more.

Cowboy Bill Watts, a popular wrestler turned promoter, was responsible for some of the shows that packed the 300-seat center, even in the heat of summer in pre-air conditioning days.

The wrestlers who came to Lafayette during the 1950s and 1960s were part of the National Wrestling Alliance that called itself "national" even though it operated almost wholly in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The forerunner to the NWA was Tri-State Wrestling, begun by Tulsa businessman Sam Avey about 1930. His promotions began to expand especially in the 1950s, when he hired Leroy McGuirk to run things, and when television began to help bring the shows into our homes.
In 1958, Tri-State became part of the NWA, and in the 1970s, Watts, who had become Tri-State North American Champion, and another popular wrestler, Danny Hodge, began to take over the promotions in the 1970s. They eventually formed the Mid-South Wrestling Alliance.

In 1986, Watts attempted to take his Mid-South promotion nationwide, but eventually had to sell it to Jim Crockett Promotions and it became part of World Championship Wrestling.