Brief History:
The term "outlaw" is commonly used when referring to anyone not affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance back when the NWA held it's infinite power. That label included promoters and/or wrestlers who refused to agree to the organization's statutes or were cast out for any number of possible violations. This could, in fact, include personal grudges. Members of the Alliance reveled in their lofty influence over the business, and although the Department of Justice tried to curtail their infamous actions, associates of the NWA continued to impose their will onto the vulnerable almost uninterrupted despite the pleas from the NWA President to follow the new guidelines. Amazingly, some independent booking offices were able to exist outside of the Alliance thanks to the impressive work of the individuals at the helm, but it was extremely rare. Most indy operations were short lived. The NWA did manage to co-exist with separate promotional bodies such as the World Wide Wrestling Federation, the American Wrestling Association, and the World Wrestling Association, but that decision was made from the Alliance down, not from the down up. In other words, an aspiring booker did not just form a coalition of promoters and form a working relationship with the NWA. There were other circumstances that figured in, and sometimes those factors played a crucial role in whether or not the independent operator sank or swam.
Florida:
Sun Belt Wrestling was incorporated in Florida on April 7, 1981. With financers behind them, television outlets in Florida and Georgia, and an assortment of colorful grapplers, the organization debut at an Armory in Jacksonville later that month. Spawned by Don Curtis and Louis Tillet after a falling out with Championship Wrestling from Florida owners Eddie Graham and Jim Barnett, the company had great aspirations, and ran several cities between April and August 1981. Among the wrestlers working for Sun Belt were Boris Malenko, his sons Joe and Dean (working as the Simms Brothers), Thunderbolt Patterson, Lars Anderson, Buddy Landell, and Austin Idol.
Interestingly enough, despite running mainly out of Jacksonville, Sun Belt had a mailing address of Atlanta. By August of 1981, Curtis was hired by the City of Jacksonville to manage the sports complex, incidentally, where CWF held their wrestling shows, and was effectively the end of Sun Belt Wrestling.
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