Lars Anderson's Universal Wrestling Alliance
The short-lived opposition group to Ole Anderson and Georgia Championship Wrestling.
I’m searching through some newspaper archives trying to learn more about pre-1980 Georgia Championship Wrestling when I find an interesting article from the October 22nd, 1978 edition of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
It’s a full length article by Diane C. Thomas on the “Blue Collar Opera” known as Georgia Championship Wrestling. It features a lot of the familiar coverage of the time, talking about how popular wrestling is while also making sure to point out that it’s pre-determined.
“We don’t cover it because it’s a feature event. It’s a set script. The promoters know what the outcome will be,” said Atlanta Constitution executive sports editor Paul Bodi, echoing the policies of numerous newspapers.
I think I’m going to keep reading about Georgia Championship Wrestling but instead, they talk about local fans getting six hours of TV wrestling per week - three from the NWA (Georgia Championship Wrestling) and three on Channel 36 WATL from the “newly established Universal Wrestling Alliance.” What is this promotion? What is the UWA?
I keep reading through talk of Dusty Rhodes, The Assassins, the familiar story of Mr. Wrestling II and President Carter’s mother, Ole Anderson, Andre The Giant, and more. I’m hoping there’s more on this other promotion. They speak with fans about why they watch and talk about the influx of female fans for Tommy Rich.
“All I do is wrestle, “ complains Ole Anderson. Yep, that sounds like Ole. Oh great, there’s now talk about how wrestlers blade themselves in detail. Again, it’s 1978 in a major newspaper. Don’t worry, though, they make sure to point out that wrestlers have died in the ring even though it’s all fake!
Did you know that Judy works at a taco factory and goes to five wrestling shows per week? Apparently she used to be married and her husband would go to wrestling without her! I’m starting to lose hope that there’s anything more about this Universal Wrestling Alliance. There’s a nice tidbit about how the Georgia wrestlers would come back in on Tuesdays to film promos for the local markets. I find the logistics of territory wrestling to be interesting.
Now finally it comes back around to more on the Universal Wrestling Alliance! The article states:
At the taping, Ole Anderson wears doubleknit slacks and a Banion shirt and carries a vinyl attache folder. It seems a strange thing for a wrestler to be toting around.
"Ole runs Georgia Championship Wrestling,” said his brother, Lars, later. “They don’t do a thing without consulting him.”
Ole says he isn’t speaking to Lars, since the latter defected from the NWA this spring and joined the new Universal Wrestling Alliance for a much-publicized $2.3 million contract. According to Ole, “Lars has joined the minor leagues of wrestling.”
Ole rants for a bit and then gets back to more about the UWA.
His quarrel with brother Lars, he says, is that he is “making a mockery out of professional wrestling in lending his name to the Universal Wrestling Alliance.”
According to Lars, however, something closer to the converse is true. He is out to challenge the NWA’s show biz techniques and restore dignity to the sport of kings. It is the likes of Ole who persist, perhaps unwittingly, in playing the clown.
Ouch! Ole and the NWA is too phony! I don’t think there’s any point in pro wrestling history where someone wasn’t saying that it used to be better.
The UWA will, say its promoters, have five weight classes and stress dignity and professionalism in the ring.
“I was a collegiate wrestler and an alternate on the U.S. Olympic team in 1964,” says Lars, who holds a masters in counseling psychology. “It seems that somewhere out there, there should be wrestling to follow this. With the Universal Wrestling Alliance, I’ve left blood-and-guts mainstream wrestling behind for a more refined approach. The wrestlers I’m training are not going to end up in 10 years with their foreheads all cut up.”
Now we’re getting somewhere interesting.
UWA founder Vince Costelli is a former Miami insurance whiz kid with enough charm to carry him a long way. Costelli emcees UWA matches over Atlanta’s WATL-TV, Channel 36, interviews fans and does “personality profiles” of wrestlers, rather than NWA-style hype interviews.
Lars is not only the top UWA wrestler but also founder of two wrestling academies, one in Atlanta and the other in Aspen, Colo., where he makes his home. Tuition in Atlanta is $500 per month. After three months of training, each student is expected to have sufficient mastery of wrestling skills to become a full-fledged member of the UWA and participate in televised matches.
Currently the UWA has a dozen wrestlers in Atlanta. The rest, says Lars, are “TV bodies, people who show up and tell their friends they’re going to wrestle on television.”
Matches currently are held at the College Park City Auditorium. (Paul) Jones and (Jim) Barnett’s contract with the City of Atlanta stipulates that no competing matches will be held in the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium. The Fox and the Civic Center are not adaptable to arena seating and the rent is much higher than it is for the auditorium. College Park is somewhat off the beaten track, but crowds are beginning to pick up.
It sounds like Lars is able to secure a backer, a TV deal, and set up two training centers. However, Paul Jones and Jim Barnett have a contract with the city blocking them out from the main arena! That checks out…
On a recent evening, a tag-team match ended with all four members battling it out illegally in the ring.
“It may not look like we’ve changed the rules, but you have to wait ‘til you have enough people who can adapt,” Lars Anderson explained apologetically.
During intermission, Anderson’s young tow-headed son passed through the audience selling wrestling photographs.
“What kind of pictures you got there?” asked a man in the audience.
“Bloody, very bloody,” grinned the boy.
Will Lars Anderson, Vince Costelli and the Universal Alliance succeed in their attempt to “become a major force in professional sports in the United States”? Will they achieve their stated goals of dignity and professionalism and see them prevail against the “shoe biz” techniques of the powerful NWA? Or will they knuckle under to economic factors or the pressures of their own fans to give them bread and circuses?
I search for more in the archives and find two ads. The first is in May 1978 of Lars looking for wrestlers and the second is in December 1978 with Lars seeking investors.
I can’t find much else beyond the one poster at the top of this post with a match card. There are no results listed on Wrestlingdata or Cagematch. I can only find a few brief mentions on old message board posts.
The only reference I can find is in this 2019 piece "Heiniemi reflects on pro wrestling career“ that states: “Heiniemi retired from wrestling at one point in 1975, but then returned a couple years later and started his own promotion in Georgia where he had promotions in the southern U.S. as well as foreign countries. He then returned as a wrestler in Ted Turner’s programming before he took a job promoting in Hawaii.”
I listen to a few long form interviews with Heiniemi (Lars Anderson) but they never talk about the opposition to Ole.
Lars reemerges in Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1980 alongside Ole to fight The Russians but later in the year, Ole turns heel while Lars stays face.
Vince Costelli pops up a few years later in the May 2, 1982 edition of the Atlanta Journal Constitution in an article about the explosion of videotape. Costelli starts Take 1 Productions which primarily produces low-cost commercials for cable TV.
What else do people know about the Universal Wrestling Alliance?
