10 Promotions That Have Rivalled WWE

4. UWF

Active: 1990-1996

Herb Abrams brainchild was set up with the intention of combating the WWF (and WCW) and their shift towards increasingly cartoony programming by returning wrestling back to its roots.

In other words, they signed a bunch of old guys from a bygone era who were well past their primes. Names such as Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Bob Orton Jr., Ivan Koloff and Ken Patera.

The UWF ran it’s only pay-per-view in June 1991, Beach Brawl, headlined by a match between Bam Bam Bigelow and ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams. The event was a colossal failure, drawing fewer than 500 fans in the building and an all-time low pay-per-view buy rate.

Abrams continued with UWF but it quickly became a joke. Nobody took it seriously, from the fans to the industry commentators to the wrestlers who worked there.

When Abrams died in 1996, UWF died with him. It never came close to rivalling WWE in any way.

• lists
• WCW
• All Elite Wrestling
• AEW

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