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50-541: William F. Watts Jr. (born May 5, 1939), better known under the ring name Bill Watts , is a retired American professional wrestler , promoter and former American football player. Watts garnered fame under his "Cowboy" gimmick in his wrestling career, and then as a promoter in the Mid-South United States, which grew to become the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). Watts also worked under

100-724: A political science degree. Ritter signed with the Green Bay Packers in April 1976. He was placed on injured reserve after suffering a knee injury during the offseason. He was waived from injured reserve in October 1976. Ritter debuted in 1976. He initially wrestled for NWA Tri-State , the Continental Wrestling Association , and Southeastern Championship Wrestling under his real name. In late-1977, Ritter moved to Nick Gulas 's NWA Mid America promotion and adopted

150-704: A booker for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE). In 2009, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame . Watts played as a linebacker for his high school football team, the Putnam City Pirates . Bud Wilkinson recruited him to play for the Oklahoma Sooners , where he played as a guard during his sophomore and junior years. However, his junior year was marred by a near fatal car accident involving him and his mother, resulting in him going into

200-432: A business, and you put money in it, why shouldn't you be able to discriminate? It's your business... That's why I went into business, so that I could discriminate... Who's killed more blacks than anyone? The fuckin' blacks." Watts claims that when he was hired by WCW, he had explained the situation to Turner president Bill Shaw , apparently to his satisfaction. However, a year later wrestling journalist Mark Madden brought

250-504: A coma. When he came out, he had lost a significant amount of weight, and had to put it back on, despite the coaches at the time preferring their players to be small and quick, which Watts had struggled with before the accident. Former Sooners teammate Wahoo McDaniel (then of the Houston Oilers of the AFL ), introduced him to professional wrestling for the first time, something McDaniel did in

300-680: A feud with Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight Championship. After gaining disqualification and non-title victories in house show matches, JYD defeated Flair by DQ on June 13 at Clash of the Champions XI . JYD was then part of the short-lived Dudes with Attitudes faction along with Sting , Paul Orndorff , and El Gigante . In the fall he feuded with Television Champion Arn Anderson , defeating him in non-title matches in less than 10 seconds on three house shows in September. He finished

350-462: A few others, their real name. One notable exception was made for David Otunga because of his real marriage to singer Jennifer Hudson at the time, which gave WWE some mainstream exposure. Low Ki used the alias "Senshi" during his second TNA stint to reserve his primary ring name for other use. A similar example is the team known as The Dudley Boyz in ECW and WWE and Team 3D elsewhere. WWE trademarked

400-635: A lengthy interview on wrestling, Watts commented on Lester Maddox , a 1960s restaurant owner and segregationist Governor of Georgia ) who refused service to black customers. Watts supported the owner's position, illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , that he had a right do discriminate as did Watts in his business. Watts further expressed his view that slavery was beneficial for bringing slaves to America. He also made numerous other controversial statements pertaining to race and sexual orientation, including using numerous highly offensive slurs: "If you want

450-516: A son, William III (nicknamed Biff), and from his second marriage, he has three sons, Joel, Erik , Micah and a daughter, Ene. In March 2006, Watts released his autobiography The Cowboy and the Cross: The Bill Watts Story: Rebellion, Wrestling and Redemption through ECW Press . The book chronicles his upbringing, his career as first a wrestler, then a promoter, along with events in his personal life. Watts served as co-host of

500-616: A sports talk radio show on The Sports Animal in Tulsa, Oklahoma until late 2008. He was a longtime resident of Bixby , a Tulsa suburb. Ring name Ring names are much more common in professional wrestling than any other sport; famous examples include Terry Bollea becoming Hulk Hogan , Michael Shawn Hickenbottom becoming Shawn Michaels , Roderick Toombs becoming Roddy Piper , Dwayne Johnson becoming The Rock , Christopher Irvine becoming Chris Jericho , and Phillip Jack Brooks becoming CM Punk . A number of wrestlers adopted their real name or

550-467: A steel cage dog collar match. Other notable feuds involved Ernie Ladd , Ted DiBiase , Kamala , King Kong Bundy , and Butch Reed . The 1982 feud with DiBiase was particularly notable as DiBiase, once JYD's friend and tag-team partner, turned heel and subsequently won a loser-leaves-town match against JYD with the help of the loaded glove, which was a DiBiase calling card, at the time forcing JYD to leave town for an extended period of time. In 1982, JYD

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600-751: A variation of it, sometimes modifying the spelling to better fit their gimmick , such as Dave Bautista becoming Batista (later reverting to his real name for his Hollywood acting career), Patricia Stratigeas becoming Trish Stratus , Jonathan Good becoming Jon Moxley , Bryan Danielson becoming Daniel Bryan (when he wrestled in WWE), Richard Fliehr becoming Ric Flair and Randall Poffo becoming Randy Savage . Others simply use part of their name, such as Bill Goldberg using Goldberg , Nicole Garcia-Colace using Nikki Bella , Mike Mizanin using The Miz , Cody Runnels using Cody Rhodes , and Michael Wardlow using Wardlow . Many female wrestlers go solely by their first name such as. It

650-637: Is a highly respected tradition in Mexican lucha libre for performers to hide their true identities, usually wrestling under masks, and revealing a luchador's identity without their permission is considered a serious offence with real-life consequences. Professional wrestlers are often referred to by their contemporaries by their ring name. In interviews, Bret Hart regularly referred to Mark Calaway, Curt Hennig, and Kevin Nash by their ring names ( The Undertaker , Mr. Perfect , and Diesel ). Ring names are often trademarked by

700-448: Is also common for wrestlers of all genders to use a nickname in addition to their real name for marketability and other reasons. Ricky Steamboat is an atypical instance of a wrestler adopting a ring name to sound less intimidating, as his legal name of Richard Blood was considered unfitting for his babyface persona. Some (mostly independent ) wrestlers still go to great lengths to ensure that their real names are not publicly known. It

750-558: The Fabulous Freebirds where they blinded him with hair cream. At the peak of the feud, his wife gave birth to their first child, which was made part of the storyline. It was explained that JYD could not see his new daughter, something that increased the heat on the Freebirds to the point where they needed police escorts in and out of arenas. The feud ended with the still-blinded JYD and Freebird leader Michael "P.S." Hayes wrestling in

800-781: The Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL), but after a discussion with general manager Jim Finks , who wanted him to quit his wrestling career, Watts left the Vikings having decided he could make more money back in Oklahoma. As a professional wrestler, he famously feuded with WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartino , but was unable to win the title. In the 1960s, he wrestled in many areas, such as San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, and even Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). During these periods, Watts challenged for both

850-779: The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and American Wrestling Association (AWA) versions of the World Title . Watts also had a successful run winning tag belts with Buck Robley in the NWA Tri-State / Mid South Wrestling before he became head promotor in the Oklahoma / Louisiana areas. Watts is perhaps even more famous for being a pioneering promoter in the Mid-South area of the United States, with his base of operation being in

900-482: The promotion that creates a character or gimmick for a performer. It is common to see one performer use a variety of ring names throughout their career, even if their overall persona remains similar. This is especially true in WWE , which has largely forced most wrestlers that have debuted since 2006 to use a WWE-owned ring name instead of a ring name that they used on the independent circuit or, such as with Daniel Bryan and

950-833: The ring name "Leroy Rochester". In December 1977, he won the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship with Gypsy Joe . In late-1978, Ritter moved to Stu Hart 's Stampede Wrestling as "Big Daddy Ritter", where he captured the Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship twice. He wrestled for Stampede until August 1979. In April 1979, Ritter toured Japan with International Wrestling Enterprise as part of its Big Challenge Series. Wrestling as "Big Daddy Ritter", his opponents included Isamu Teranishi, Great Kusatsu, and Mighty Inoue . In September 1979, Ritter moved to Mid-South Wrestling , where booker "Cowboy" Bill Watts gave him

1000-728: The "Dudley Boyz" name, leading them to have to change their name when they went to TNA. The members' individual names were also trademarked by WWE, forcing them to have to change their names. WWE partially repealed the policy in 2015, allowing wrestlers who were well known in other promotions such as Samoa Joe , A.J. Styles , Shinsuke Nakamura , Austin Aries , Bobby Roode , and Eric Young to use their long-standing ring names (or, in Nakamura's and Roode's cases, their real names) as well as wrestlers who sign "Tier 2" NXT brand contracts such as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa , who wrestle both on NXT and

1050-686: The Champions VI in New Orleans. Before the match he was accompanied to the ring by a jazz band. On May 7, 1989, JYD no showed the PPV, Wrestlewar 89 and was promptly fired. A year later at the Capitol Combat PPV, he made a surprise appearance after being hired by then Booker, Ole Anderson. JYD began a main event run in May 1990. On May 20 he defeated Mean Mark Callous in 39 seconds. He quickly became embroiled in

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1100-515: The Dog in chicken feathers. The two had a series of matches, many of the bouts were for the prized North American Heavyweight Championship. These matches were also notable for their brutality, which included "ghetto street fights", "dog-collar matches", two-out-of-three pin-fall matches and steel-cage matches. JYD was lured to the WWF at the peak of the feud with Reed. In the summer of 1984, Ritter left Mid-South for

1150-561: The Dust ," JYD often headlined cards that drew large crowds and regularly sold out the Louisiana Superdome and other major venues, becoming "the first black wrestler to be made the undisputed top star of his promotion". WWE author Brian Shields called Junkyard Dog one of the most electrifying and charismatic wrestlers in the country, particularly during his peak in the early 1980s. JYD was most known for his headbutt and upper body strength,

1200-655: The Funk Brothers ( Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk ), Adrian Adonis , Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and "Outlaw" Ron Bass . He lost to Rick Rude by disqualification at the inaugural SummerSlam . He left the company in November 1988. Ritter made his debut for the National Wrestling Alliance on December 7, 1988, at the Clash of the Champions IV . He appeared during an altercation between The Russian Assassins and Ivan Koloff , saving

1250-715: The Shreveport, Louisiana area. His promotion was known as Mid-South Wrestling. He is often credited with creating the current and popular "episodic" style of TV wrestling, building solid creative storylines week-on-week, with an emphasis on solid in-ring action with dependable wrestlers like "Dr. Death" Steve Williams , The Junkyard Dog , Ted DiBiase and Jim Duggan . He is an outspoken critic on breaking kayfabe and "smart" wrestling fans . A Watts-run promotion always had face and heel wrestlers dress in different locker rooms and to have faces and heels not meet publicly. He has also been known to revamp his booking plans in order to protect

1300-553: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he was a mid-card wrestler but still a heavily over face. JYD debuted on a Georgia Championship Wrestling taping held at the Kiel Auditorium on August 10, 1984, when he defeated Max Blue. While in the WWF, JYD made a habit of interacting with the growing number of young people in attendance, often bringing them into the ring after matches and dancing with them. He wrestled at

1350-520: The business from such fans. After losing over half a million dollars, Watts sold the UWF to NWA Mid-Atlantic's Jim Crockett Promotions , who kept many of their stars, such as Sting . Instead of having UWF as a separate organization, Crockett sent his mid-card wrestlers to the UWF and had them quickly win their titles. Eventually, the UWF folded, and Crockett would be bought out by Ted Turner in 1988. In April 1989, after firing George Scott , WCW offered Watts

1400-451: The chance to book , but he declined the offer and WCW instead decided to go with a booking committee, which included Ric Flair and Kevin Sullivan . Watts became Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (succeeding Kip Frey) in 1992. He took many of his old-school values with him, such as banning moves from the top rope and the babyfaces and heels separation. His tenure

1450-399: The inaugural WrestleMania I , defeating Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine by countout, but did not receive the title. Ritter won The Wrestling Classic tournament by defeating Randy Savage by countout in the finals, as well as beating Moondog Spot and The Iron Sheik in earlier rounds getting to the final. JYD's most notable feuds in the company came against King Harley Race ,

1500-477: The independent circuit to keep their ring names (or, in Gargano's case, his real name). Gargano and Ciampa have since signed exclusive WWE contracts. "In-house" WWE wrestlers still use WWE-owned ring names. In rare cases, the rights to a wrestler's ring name may be owned by a company with little or no connection to professional wrestling, such as Marvel Comics ' ownership of the name Hulk Hogan until early 2003, which

1550-515: The interview to the attention of Hank Aaron , himself a vice president in the Turner organization with the Atlanta Braves , who then pushed for Watts' removal. While Madden takes credit for Watts getting fired, Watts himself disputes this account, saying he was not fired for the comments but quit his position out of frustration over "backstabbing" by Shaw and (unbeknownst to Shaw) had already resigned by

Bill Watts - Misplaced Pages Continue

1600-514: The latter of which saw him regularly bodyslam such large wrestlers as the One Man Gang , Kamala , and King Kong Bundy . The word "thump," which referred to JYD's powerslam, was prominently displayed on his wrestling trunks. Ritter played football at Fayetteville State University , twice earning honorable mention All-American status, and is a member of the Sports Hall of Fame. He graduated with

1650-477: The latter. His first match came shortly after in a television taping in Atlanta against Trent Knight. JYD finished the year winning a $ 50,000 bunkhouse battle royal on December 26, which was held as a dark match after Starrcade '88 went off the air. He spent the first few months of 1989 teaming with Ivan Koloff and then Michael Hayes against The Russian Assassins. On April 2, 1989, JYD defeated Butch Reed at Clash of

1700-416: The name and gimmick Junkyard Dog, as he would wear a long chain attached to a dog collar, and white boots. He originally came to the ring pushing a cart filled with junk called the "junk wagon" and lost most of his early matches before his character caught on and became the top face in the company. While on top he feuded with some of the top heels in the company, including a now infamous angle with

1750-489: The next few months. In April and again in June, JYD faced former Six-Man Championship partner Ricky Morton, defeating him on each occasion. He also formed another tag-team, this time with The Big Cat . They feuded with The Vegas Connection ( Diamond Dallas Page & Vinnie Vegas ) the rest of the summer. In April 1993 he formed a new tag-team with Jim Neidhart and began a feud with Dick Slater and Paul Orndorff that would last

1800-453: The next few months. After defeating Slater on July 28, 1993, he left the promotion. After WCW, JYD went to the independent circuit where he wrestled for NWA Dallas. In 1995 he wrestled for National Wrestling Conference in Las Vegas where he had matches with former WWF stars; The Iron Sheik , Mr. Hughes , and The Honky Tonk Man . Ritter had stayed active in professional wrestling until

1850-580: The off-season. Watts turned professional in 1961 and joined the Oilers, but did not last long there, and according to a shoot interview, he left after knocking out a coach. Through McDaniel's friendship with defensive coach Bob Griffin , Watts played for the Indianapolis Warriors of the United Football League , while also being able to wrestle for NWA Indianapolis. Watts then had a try-out with

1900-602: The prefix "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Numerous boxers have used ring names or nicknames as their mode of identification during their professional boxing careers, particularly during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The ring name "Kid" was particularly popular, indicating the boxer's comparative youth. Since the mid 20th century, ring names for boxers have typically been less common, although nicknames have become more popular in recent years. Famous examples of boxers who used ring names include: Junkyard Dog Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 1, 1998)

1950-476: The ring name Doctor Scarlett which was sometimes stylised as Dr. Scarlett . In 1992, Watts was the Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) but after clashes with management over a number of issues, as well as feeling pressure from Hank Aaron over a racially insensitive interview, he resigned. He was subsequently replaced by Ole Anderson . In 1995, Watts briefly worked as

2000-525: The time Aaron got the newsletter. Watts was replaced by Ole Anderson . Watts later went on to a position of booking power in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). His tenure there was short, as he stated in later interviews that he was only there on a three-month contract and had no interest in staying long-term. On April 4, 2009, Watts was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a part of the Class of 2009 . Watts has five children. From his first marriage, he has

2050-632: The time of his death, appearing at Extreme Championship Wrestling 's 1998 Wrestlepalooza event , just one month prior. He was the founder of the Dog Pound stable in an independent Mid-South promotion, based in southern Louisiana . Ritter died on June 1, 1998, at the age of 45, in a single-car accident on Interstate 20 near Forest , Mississippi, as he was returning home from his daughter LaToya's high school graduation in Wadesboro , North Carolina. Among Ritter's last contributions to professional wrestling

Bill Watts - Misplaced Pages Continue

2100-634: The title until June 3, when they were defeated by The Freebirds in Birmingham, Alabama. He left the promotion in August. After dropping a significant amount of weight to improve his conditioning, Junkyard Dog returned on February 29, 1992, at SuperBrawl II . During a segment where Abdullah the Butcher was attacking Ron Simmons , JYD came out of the crowd to make the save. He found himself wrestling in tag-team matches with Ron Simmons, Barry Windham , or Big Josh for

2150-455: The wrestler's gimmick changes, either subtly or dramatically. After debuting in WWE as the " Connecticut Blueblood " Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Paul Levesque's character later morphed into Triple H . A more drastic change sometimes occurs when a wrestler turns heroic or villainous , such as when Hulk Hogan joined the villainous nWo (New World Order) and became "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. His new attitude

2200-483: The year defeating Moondog Rex, The Iron Sheik, and Bill Irwin on the house show circuit. On February 17, 1991, he won his first WCW title, teaming with Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich to defeat Dr. X , Dutch Mantell , and Buddy Landel and gain the WCW Six-Man Tag-Team Championship. He also began a short feud that month with The Master Blaster , winning each encounter. JYD and his partners held

2250-556: Was an American professional wrestler and college football player , best known for his work in Mid-South Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as the Junkyard Dog (or JYD ), a nickname he received while working in a wrecking yard . He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004 . Entering the ring with his trademark chain attached to a dog collar, to the music of Queen 's " Another One Bites

2300-596: Was due to Hogan being advertised as " The Incredible Hulk Hogan" early in his career, while Marvel owned the trademark for their comic book character. Sometimes, a wrestler will buy the rights to their own ring name; for example, Steve Borden owns the rights to the name Sting and licenses it to the musician of the same name . The wrestler formerly known as Test took this one step further and legally changed his name to "Andrew Test Martin". Jim Hellwig, known as The Ultimate Warrior , had his name legally changed to simply "Warrior". In many cases, ring names evolve over time as

2350-549: Was enhanced by changing his costume color scheme from his famous red and yellow to nWo's black and white. Steve Williams adopted the ring name Steve Austin to avoid confusion with the then-more established performer "Dr. Death" Steve Williams . Austin would wrestle under that name for several years before signing with the WWF and being given the name "the Ringmaster". This gimmick failed to catch on, and Austin reverted to his established name, reaching his greatest level of success with

2400-566: Was in fact JYD, they were unable to unmask him to prove their suspicions. Stagger Lee disappeared once the loser-leave-town clause in the JYD-DiBiase match had expired, and JYD returned and reclaimed the North American Heavyweight Championship. The feud with Reed was notable in that Reed, a protégé of JYD, had turned heel. Reed with the help of Buddy Landel attacked the Dog many times. On a couple of occasions, they covered

2450-407: Was involved in a cross promotional Match for NWA and AWA against Nick Bockwinkel that aired on NWA Mid South Wrestling and AWA programming which he won by pinfall. A masked man physically resembling JYD, known as "Stagger Lee", subsequently appeared in the region and began to defeat the competition, one by one, including DiBiase. Though DiBiase and the other heels strongly suspected that Stagger Lee

2500-575: Was not long, nor were his ideas overly embraced. According to his autobiography, Controversy Creates Ca$ h , Eric Bischoff (who worked under Watts at the time) felt Watts would intimidate anyone he was talking to and was only interested in taking the WCW product back to 1970s standards, with poorly lit arenas and house shows in remote rural towns. The circumstances of Watts' departure in 1993 are controversial. Prior to 1992, Watts had given an interview to Wade Keller for his newsletter, Pro Wrestling Torch. After

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