WTWWW USWA — page 3

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth and they are broadcasting from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth and they are broadcasting from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.  Russell begs for the PG-13-Tommy Rich/Doug Gilbert feud to end and announces that there will be a cage match between the two teams at the next Memphis Coliseum show.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in charge of commentary and they are at WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.  They hype a new look for today’s broadcast.

The end of last week’s USWA Unified World Championship match between Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee is shown.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are sad to inform Memphis fans that Eddie Gilbert passed away in Puerto Rico of a heart attack.  A video package to the tune of Garth Brooks “The Dance” honors Gilbert’s career in the region.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Highlights of the 1978 Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl are shown.

As per usual, Lance Russell and Dave Brown call the action and they are from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.  Brown lets fans know that Jerry Lawler is the new USWA Unified World Champion.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown call today’s action from WMC-TV 5 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dave Brown and Corey Maclin call today’s action from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis.  Macklin usually served as the ring announcer on these shows, but he would stand in for Lance Russell when Russell was absent.  He was WMC-TV’s sports reporter.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown call today’s action from the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth and they are broadcasting from WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

While Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) was a nostalgic look at wrestling’s past, the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) stubbornly fought for its existence, casting itself as a major promotion that was on the same level as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) or World Championship Wrestling (WCW).  Based in Memphis, Tennessee, a classic wrestling hotbed and arguably the only place to successfully fend off Vince McMahon’s territorial expansion in the 1980s, the USWA was created from a merger of the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) and World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in 1989.  The promotion tried to run shows along the East Mississippi and Texas in the early 1990s, but the venture proved unsuccessful.  By the middle of the decade the USWA was back to running its weekly shows in towns such as Louisville, Kentucky and Evansville, Indiana, as well as holding weekly supercards on Monday nights at the Memphis Coliseum.  These events were heavily promoted on USWA TV, filmed at the WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis.  While that may have made USWA TV seem second rate, the company had a talented core with owners and bookers Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler, as well as announcers Lance Russell and Dave Brown (who had a full-time gig as WMC-TV 5’s meteorologist).  They were supplemented by older territory stars such as Tommy Rich, Doug Gilbert, and Bill Dundee and a crop of new talent that included Lawler’s son Brian Christopher, PG-13, and wrestlers that the WWF and WCW sent for seasoning as the USWA had a working agreement with both.