Memphis in the Middle: The Time Both the WWF and WCW Simultaneously Worked with the USWA

Brian Damage

For years, the United States Wrestling Association aka the USWA had a strong working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation. For a very brief time, that partnership was in jeopardy of dissolving and it all had to do with the WWF’s rival WCW…

The United States Wrestling Association (USWA for short) was formed in 1989 by Jerry Jarrett and the Von Erich family after the Memphis based Continental Wrestling Association and the Texas based World Class merged. It was an attempt to form another national promotion to rival the likes of the WWF and WCW. When that idea failed, the USWA focused on being more of a regional territory. 

In 1992, Jerry Lawler joined the WWF and as a part of his agreement to sign with the company, allowed the USWA to become a developmental territory of sorts for the WWF. The WWF would also send established stars down to the USWA to help “spike business” for the promotion from time to time. The working agreement saw stars like the Undertaker, Papa Shango, Owen Hart and many other stars including Vince McMahon himself appear for the USWA.

While Vince and Lawler were satisfied with their arrangement, a new wrinkle was added in the Spring of 1995. Co Owner of the USWA Jerry Jarrett made a side deal to have the WWF’s main rival, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) be a working partner with the USWA similar to the WWF. WCW would send Power Plant trainees and other talent to work and gain much needed experience down to Memphis, Tennessee. 

When word got back to Vince McMahon, he was reportedly livid and threatened to pull out of his agreement with the USWA. Jerry Lawler was able to smooth things over and convinced Vince that there would be no interactions between WWF and WCW talent. McMahon backed down and continued to allow WWF stars to appear on USWA television. 

WCW sent a few low level wrestlers to work matches in Memphis, but nobody that significant. WCW management had just come to a verbal agreement with a 6’10 former basketball player named Paul Wight. After training at the Power Plant, WCW wanted to send Wight down to the USWA for further training and experience. Before Wight was sent to Memphis, WCW management stepped in and blocked Wight from going. The reported reason was Wight had yet to sign an official contract with the company. By sending Wight down to the USWA where the WWF had wrestlers and scouts, they feared the WWF would swoop in and offer him a deal.

The end of WCW’s agreement with the USWA happened a few months later when they sent one of their top stars in Big Van Vader to Memphis at the same time that the WWF sent down the Undertaker. Both wrestlers were used on the same show with Vader reportedly getting a bigger reaction from fans than the Dead Man. When the news got back to Vince, he was livid and decided to end his agreement with the promotion. Once again, Jerry Lawler stepped in and assured McMahon that the USWA would terminate their relationship with WCW. The relationship that the USWA had with the WWF was far more important to the USWA than their one with WCW.

In the end, ironically enough, it was the Monday Night Wars between WCW and the WWF that ultimately killed the USWA just a couple of years later. Traditionally the USWA had their biggest shows on Mondays and when both Raw and Nitro went head to head…it killed USWA’s business.