Charting The Territories

 Welcome to Chapter 9 of The McGuirk/Watts Wrestling Almanac, an in-depth data-driven look at the wrestling territory run by Leroy McGuirk (and later, Bill Watts). The territory is most commonly known as Tri-State Wrestling and/or Mid-South Wrestling, though neither of those names were actually used until September 1979 when Watts split from McGuirk.

Here’s a look at the McGuirk wrestling territory in August 1972: the unlikely team of Ken Mantell & Tom Jones wins gold, Tarzan Tyler and Jim Valiant come to the territory & more!

Here's a look at the McGuirk wrestling territory in August 1976: Murdoch moves back up to the top of the cards and gets a few shots at the Funker, Pat Barrett turns heel & more!

While my posts at Charting the Territories are usually focused on the McGuirk/Watts territory, behind the scenes I have been compiling data for other territories as well. Included among these is the two-year run of George & Gil Culkin's Mississippi territory, which operated as International Championship Wrestling from October 1977 to October 1978, at which point it was renamed AWA Championship Wrestling. The promotion folded in August 1979, after which the Culkins' worked with Bill Watts as the local promoters for Mid-South Wrestling in the state. With the sad news of the passing of James "Kamala" Harris, I have put together a listing of all of his known matches in the Culkin territory, which appears to be the first full-time territory Harris worked for. He started out in late June 1978 as a babyface named Sugar Bear Harris. ----- 6/28/78 Jackson, MS - Full card not listed in ad; Harris is mentioned “plus 3 other bouts including Sugar Bear Harris and Verlon Biggs

Here's a look at Mid-South Wrestling in August 1980: JYD returns to face Michael Hayes in the Superdome in front of 28,000 fans; they then battle throughout the rest of the loop with major stipulations & more!