Acronym UWF Founder Herb Abrams Defunct 1996 | Style Professional wrestling Founded 1990 | |
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Headquarters Marina del Rey, California, United States | ||
The Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) was an American wrestling promotion based out of Marina del Rey, California.
Contents
History
Herb Abrams founded the UWF in 1990 with hopes of returning professional wrestling back to its roots. He signed top stars such as Paul Orndorff, Steve Williams, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Bob Orton, Jr., Brian Blair, Danny Spivey, Billy Jack Haynes, Ken Patera, Colonel DeBeers, David Sammartino, Ivan Koloff, Bob Backlund, and Cactus Jack.
He trademarked the UWF name in June 1991 because Bill Watts never bothered to trademark his version of the Universal Wrestling Federation that was sold to Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987. Abrams was head booker of the company from 1990 to 1992. Zoogz Rift, a cult musician and manager in the UWF, took over as head booker in 1993. Zoogz Rift accompanied Abrams on several international business trips in 1993, where they managed to secure home video deals for the company. He quit in March 1994, leaving Abrams to book the September 1994 Blackjack Brawl card. In late 1995, Rift rejoined the company as vice president, helping to secure new television deals with both SportsChannel America and Prime Network. Abrams' death in July 1996, however, marked the end of the company. Blackjack Brawl would stand as the final UWF show.
It appears that Abrams had a son, named Herbert Abrams Jr. whose mother was a former employee of the Playboy Club in Los Angeles, CA. Abrams Jr. has made it clear that he plans to relaunch the company.
The UWF tape library was left in a storage maintained by former wrestler Al Burke in California when Abrams returned to New York. When Abrams died, Burke claimed the library as abandoned property. In recent years, he has partnered with Todd Okerlund of Classic Wrestling to repackage and license the library through DirecTV and ESPN Classic Canada.
Fury Hour
In 1990, the company signed a deal with national cable network SportsChannel America. A weekly program called Fury Hour debuted in October 1990 and ran until 1993. The program also featured matches from the Wild Women of Wrestling promotion.
In 1991, Herb Abrams was owed money by Steve Ray and wrongly suspected that Ray was sleeping with his wife. On May 10, 1991 during a television taping at Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, Abrams paid Steve Williams an extra $100 for the night to break Ray's nose during their match. The ensuing shoot aired in its entirety on an episode of Fury Hour.
In 1995, existing episodes were repackaged to a half-hour format and aired on ESPN2. Those same 24 episodes re-aired on ESPN Classic between January and March 2008. ESPN Classic started re-airing these episodes on February 4, 2009. ESPN Classic Canada reran original one-hour format episodes of Fury Hour in 2004.
Beach Brawl
Beach Brawl was the UWF's first and only live pay-per-view event. It was widely considered a failure because of its low attendance and pay-per-view buyrate of 0.10.
Blackjack Brawl
Blackjack Brawl was the UWF's first and only live television event that aired on SportsChannel America.
Championships
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".