Was he really that bad? I know his "old school values" had become backward by 1992; such as getting rid of the babyface/heel divide and banning ropes off the top rope. But he did do some positive as well.
He was one of the first (if not the first) to give African-American wrestlers a real push such as 'The Junkyard dog', Ernie Ladd (both wwe hall of famers) in Mid South Wrestling and 'Ron Simmons' (Former Worl Champion in WCW and wwe hall of famer) in WCW.
Also making making off the top rope moves illegal, although it wouldn't work in the modern era, meant that people could cheat behind the refs back giving the wrestlers heat/praise from the fans.
I guess I'm just saying this because he has received a lot of heat from people but would you say this is fair or just a tad unfair?
I actually quite like him and like listening to him but yes, wcw was horrible when he was in charge. Also as much as I like Ron Simmons and it was good to have a black champ.....his run was awful
No of course not, sadly it will probably be another decade before his contributions overshadow his current legacy. Plus we tend to forget he was a darn good wrestler in his day.
We tend to think in terms of the last run. He had plenty of critics then and it was somewhat justified. He was guilty of simply becoming outdated. He was fabulous with Mid-South and the UWF but his booking style did not change while the wrestling world did. This is the downfall of many a coach, manager, or promoter. He also was guilty of a little nepotism which in the wrestling world has always been kind of accepted, but it gets downright ugly when the "son" is not talented. You don't have to know the sport well to know that nepotism cost Verne and more obviously Nick Gulas dearly. Erik Watts was just not talented. Watts also fell into the trap of being obssessed with size and often booked larger men to the detrement of any in ring talent. This did not hurt him in the territory days as many guys just kicked, punched, threw a clothesline, and bodyslammed, but by 1990 that style was out the door. He was also notorious for being hard on the guys backstage, giving fines and not being open to suggestions. Also a trait aceptable when their were plenty of other places to work across the country but not in the WWF/WCW two party era.
However his contributions of an earlier era, like evening the playing field for African Americans, his own great in ring career, innovative shows, and creative angles will probably not be remembered as well until a few years down the road when people look at the sum of a career and not his WCW booking only.
Last edited by Greenlawler : 10-10-2012 at 01:02 AM.
He didn't have a bad wrestling mind, he just got ran over by Father Time and it conveyed real badly on the actual product. But yeah, during that run, he was pretty much as bad as it gets.
I remember hearing that Watts made a racist remark in an interview prior to booking in WCW, tried to cover his tracks by giving Simmons the belt but when Hank Aaron found out about the interview, he pushed for Watts to be removed.
Watts putting over black wrestlers as stars proves that he is smart. With a black champion, you can attract a black audience, which in turn equals bigger profit for the company. But, I've often heard that he was the typical old school, southern bigot.
Watts was a great worker and talker in his day, heres a cool match with him against Jack Brisco, Watts is also on commentary(which is absolute gold), really great heel work
He was a good booker at times, but was too inflexible to deal with the changes that the 90s brought on. I'm not saying he needed to make whole sale changes, but you do have to adapt.
He also created the Ding Dongs, right ? lol
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He was a good booker at times, but was too inflexible to deal with the changes that the 90s brought on. I'm not saying he needed to make whole sale changes, but you do have to adapt.
He also created the Ding Dongs, right ? lol
Nope. The Ding Dongs happened under Ole Anderson's booking not Bill Watts's.
As far as the OP's original question goes personally I think he was worse. Bill Watts wasn't just as a racist who only gave a half-hearted push to Rob Simmons because of a lawsuit involving a former employee but he was and still is considered by many today to be to this day the biggest bully the wrestling industry has ever had.
Based off some of the horror stories I've read and watched in various shoot interviews I think it's miracle that he's still alive today based of his run in WCW.
Nope. The Ding Dongs happened under Ole Anderson's booking not Bill Watts's
Ding dongs happened under Jim Herd, the worst booker of all time. Remember it wasnt just Watts, he had to push his ideas past a corporate machine that didnt no whether his ideas where good or bad.
Rascist bully who didn't fit into Turner's Corporate Culture and didn't keep up with the changes in the business while he was away. WCW did get better while his run went on but damaged Wrestler morale to a great degree.
Was Bill Watts really that bad?
Was Bill Watts really that bad?
