Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
‘Cowboy’ Bill Watts was a wrestler turned promoter who found great success running his Mid South territory based in Oklahoma. The Mid South territory became so successful, Watts attempted to take his promotion and expand nationally. He’d change the name to the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), but unfortunately it came at a time when the wrestling business was down and he ultimately sold his promotion to Jim Crockett Jr. Watts would have a run in WCW controlling things creatively, but would be let go after racially insensitive comments were deemed inappropriate by Turner executives and was fired in favor of Eric Bischoff. In 1995, he received a phone call from Vince McMahon and soon, he joined the World Wrestling Federation as the number two man behind Vince. The partnership didn’t last long.
By 1995, Bill Watts had every intention of staying retired and remain completely out of the wrestling business. The thing was, Watts was going through a bitter divorce and felt he needed something to distract him from that. McMahon promised that Watts would be in total control of creative, so Vince could focus his intentions on the corporate side of the company. Watts made his WWF executive debut the night of the In Your House 3 pay per view in Saginaw, Michigan. It was there that McMahon introduced Watts to the talent and informed them that he was now in charge.
Watts would move from Oklahoma to Connecticut, where he would work until they went on the road for house shows or television tapings. Vince wanted Watts to individually sit down with each member of his executive team and let them tell Watts how they truly felt about him being put in charge. Watts claimed that this was Vince’s way to test Watts and see how he would react to differing opinions about him. Mostly all of the executive team praised Watts for being hired including Bruce Prichard, who Watts said was just an “ass kisser” who was angry that Watts was hired to the position.
Despite a few wrestlers and executives negative feeling towards him, Watts was now in charge and would have full authority over the content. Watts wanted to bring back an aura of toughness to the roster and maintain kayfabe in and out of the ring. He sent a memo to the staff that forbid the talent to play cards together in the locker room. Instead, he wanted the wrestlers to talk to each other about their matches and pay attention to the shows. He wanted heels to stay with heels and babyfaces to stay with other babyfaces. Watts wanted an old school feeling for the WWF….even though he knew that wasn’t exactly what Vince believed in.
As most know, Watts was very vocal about things and was never afraid to speak his mind to the talent or staff. Jim Ross said that Watts got into a screaming match with the head of WWF Human Resources…Lisa Wolf. She was so shaken by the conversation, Wolf said she hasn’t been spoken to by anybody like that since she was a child being scolded by her father. Watts would also have a run in with Kevin ‘Diesel’ Nash, who told Watts that he was high up the food chain and didn’t have to take orders from him. The heat between Nash and Watts stemmed from a confrontation the two had while employed by WCW. Ross said the issue Watts had with the talent, was that the wrestlers knew they could circumvent Watts and go directly to Vince with complaints.
McMahon and Watts also butted heads a few times with each other. Watts recalled a story where Vince got lost on his way to the arena and arrived an hour late to the TV tapings. McMahon was so angry, that he snapped at everyone during the production meeting. Watts allegedly looked directly at Vince and said, ‘Don’t yell at everybody because you got lost….next time, bring a map.’ Watts claimed that Vince, who was angry at first, respected Watts for standing up to him. He also told Vince to back off during tapings because Vince who vowed to stay away…remained hands on with every aspect of the shows.
Jim Cornette said that Watts saw great potential in a few wrestlers and wanted to heavily push guys like Ahmed Johnson and Bret Hart. Watts was also responsible for hiring a young Vince Russo because he loved his eagerness, energy and passion and brought in his son Erik who teamed with Chad Fortune to form the team Tekno Team 2000.
The main issue Bill Watts had with his brief tenure with the WWF, was his insistence that Bret Hart be made the WWF champion instead of Shawn Michaels. While Watts loved Michaels in ring work, he felt that Michaels was unreliable and according to him…”a pussy.” Vince and Watts argued often about who should be the face of the WWF. The final straw that broke Watts was when McMahon approached Watts before a television taping and told him that he could no longer sit on the sidelines and just focus on announcing and corporate business. Vince needed to be hands on with the product.
It was then that Watts told Vince that he understood his decision and was going to resign from the position after just three short months. Watts claimed that Vince’s wife Linda urged him to stay on, but Watts would reject her plea and said that there is only one titan at Titan sports and that was Vince McMahon. He says he had no bitter feelings towards Vince or his time in the WWF. Watts was simply not given the position he was promised. Add to that, he hated living in Connecticut which was a far cry from Bixby, Oklahoma. It was the very last position Cowboy Bill Watts took in professional wrestling.
David Fullam
So he was responsible for hiring his son, his son’s best friend, and Russo. Ugh. Kudos to Kevin Nash for putting him in his place.