UPDATED: WWE NETWORK ADDING TWO NEW CLASSIC WRESTLING PROMOTIONS

[Big Red Machine]

Source: PWInsider

By Mike Johnson on 2015-12-01 00:02:17
The WWE Network has started to add a number of TV episodes from Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling and Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling.

Watts' Mid-South Wrestling, which later changed it's name to UWF, was founded in the late 1970s when Watts took over that territory. By the early 1980s, the gritty, realistic, hard-nosed style of the company became must see television for the region and took on a near legendary status among fans of that era, with Mr. Wrestling II, Magnum TA, Ted DiBiase, Hacksaw Duggan, The Midnight Express, The Rock N' Roll Express and The Junkyard Dog being just a few names who found stardom in the territory.

SMW, which ran regularly from 1992-1995 and for a period of that time, had the best episodic wrestling TV. The promotion, which at the time was backed by music producer Rick Rubin, was created as an attempt to bring back the old school Southern style territory, running in Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and other states in that region. SMW featured a bevy of names including The Heavenly Bodies, The Rock N' Roll Express, Chris Candido, Tracy Smothers, Buddy Landell, Bob Armstrong and was the initial regular TV exposure for a number of talents including Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Kane, Al Snow, Tammy Sytch and Brian Lee.

[badnewzxl]

Didn't know Rick Rubin was involved in SMW

[Big Red Machine]

Didn't know Rick Rubin was involved in SMW

According to either Cornette or Vandenberg, he was the one behind the few cartoony gimmicks that SMW had.