The Devil Went Down to Georgia: How Deep South Was Deep Sixed

Posted on November 16, 2021 by bdamage1

Brian Damage

If any of you are sports fans, in particular the NFL, you may recall how the Baltimore Colts packed up moving trucks in the middle of the night and moved to Indianapolis back in 1984. It left many fans in shock because it was so sudden and unexpected. The closest comparison in the world of wrestling involved a WWE developmental territory called Deep South Wrestling. It happened in the evening, was sudden and moving trucks were used. This is that story…

‘The Assassin’ Jody Hamilton had a great career as a wrestler, but once retired from active competition…Hamilton had a burning desire to train and develop new talent. He had previously opened Deep South Wrestling back in 1986 and was used as a feeder system for Verne Gagne’s AWA promotion. DSW lasted for two years until 1988, when Hamilton shut down operations. Hamilton eventually became one of the architects of WCW’s training facility called The Power Plant. He remained the director of WCW’s Power Plant until the company ceased operations and was sold to WWE.

Jody Hamilton had remained friends with WWE executive John Laurinaitis (Who was formerly an executive in WCW). Hamilton kept in contact with Laurinaitis and eventually convince Johnny to talk to Vince McMahon about restarting Deep South and make it a developmental territory for WWE. John Laurinaitis was able to broker a deal between Hamilton and McMahon and Deep South Wrestling was once again open for business starting in 2005.

DSW was located in McDonough, Georgia and Hamilton oversaw the entire day to day operations of the promotion and assisted in booking. Former WCW star Bill DeMott was named head trainer, booker, as well as doing color commentary for DSW TV shows which were aired locally. Deep South seemed to be in trouble almost from day one of operations. Developmental wrestlers began complaining about DeMott’s favoritism for certain wrestlers and his rather rough and unorthodox training methods.

One of those developmental wrestlers who complained was none other than Kenny Omega. He cited poor treatment by the trainers DeMott and Hamilton. After only a couple of months under a WWE developmental contract, Omega requested and received his release. That started to shine a light on DSW and what they were doing on an everyday basis.

DeMott was eventually fired from Deep South Wrestling and replaced by Dr. Tom Prichard. While Prichard was more likeable and seemed to stabilize the training aspects of DSW, there were still internal issues. Hamilton supposedly ran DSW like the Power Plant and that was not what Vince McMahon wanted. McMahon wanted more uniform training for all of his wrestlers under contract. Hamilton and McMahon apparently butted heads on that issue and several others. Soon, WWE officials began showing up to DSW training sessions and shows.

According to referee Nick Patrick and son to Jody Hamilton, the WWE officials would constantly stop sessions and dictate to Jody how Vince wants things changed. Nick Patrick said the favorite saying from the WWE officials that visited was…”Vince is livid!” Jody Hamilton agreed to work differently, until the officials left and went back to his own philosophy.

Despite all the strife, which included some staff and talent unhappy with the territory’s location, DSW was able to produce some talent which included the Miz, Kofi Kingston, Heath Slater, Matt Cardona, Angelina Love and Tyson Kidd. Aside from their television tapings and house shows, they also ran bigger scale shows at Six Flags amusement park in Austell, Georgia.

While DSW was beginning to grow as a territory…it all changed on the evening of April 18th, 2007. The wrestlers had already had one training session that day, when they were informed by Deep South talent development manager Mike Bucci that John Laurinaitis was headed down to Georgia for an emergency meeting. Because Laurinaitis was coming to town, all of the WWE contracted talent were obligated to dress business casual as per WWE’s rules.

That night at around 6pm, the wrestlers all filed in to the training facility and were met by John Laurinaitis. With a stern voice, Laurinaitis instructed the developmental talent that tonight was the last night in Deep South and to pack up their things and move out. He also threatened the talent by stating anyone caught here after we move out will be immediately terminated. No reason was given for the shut down. Laurinatis then looked at the wrestlers and ordered them to start tearing down the ring and other WWE licensed items.

Matt Cardona was the first wrestler to get up and ripped down a large WWE banner. The rest of the wrestlers followed and completely dismantled the entire facility while in their dress clothes. Meanwhile, Laurinaitis and Bucci approached a completely shocked Jody Hamilton who was not informed earlier of the dissolving of Deep South Wrestling. According to Bucci, Hamilton was stunned and asked why and who else knew about this before hand? Laurinaitis allegedly got angry and yelled at Hamilton for not doing things the right way and how he stuck his neck out for Hamilton to get DSW off the ground and was screwed in the process.

After gutting the DSW facility of everything, Bucci recalled the last image of Jody Hamilton standing alone in that completely empty room. Bucci said he felt awful for Hamilton, but knew that Hamilton did this somewhat to himself. The moving truck drove off headed to Tampa, Florida where WWE had already made an agreement to start Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). All the wrestlers were then taken out to dinner at a local Hooters by Laurinaitis.

The end result had many of the contracted talent go to OVW to continue training until FCW was up and running. Jody Hamilton took WWE to court and sued the company for breach of contract, stating that he was not given a 90 day notice. WWE attempted to have the case dismissed, but failed. WWE and Hamilton eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.