Beach Brawl was the only live

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

event produced by

Herb Abrams Herbert Charles Abrams (July 9, 1955 – July 23, 1996), also known by the nickname Mr. Electricity, was an American professional wrestling promoter from Queens, New York, who founded the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) in 1990. Early life ...

' Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). The event took place on June 9, 1991 at the

Manatee Civic Center Bradenton Area Convention Center, formerly Manatee Civic Center, is a 4,000-seat multi-purpose arena and convention center in Palmetto, Florida. It was home to the Florida Stingers of the Continental Basketball Association and Florida Scorpio ...

Palmetto, Florida Palmetto is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was listed as 13,323. It is part of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. History A post office called Palmetto ha ...

. Eight

professional wrestling matches Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

were contested at the event. In the

main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

, Steve Williams defeated

Bam Bam Bigelow Scott Charles Bigelow (September 1, 1961 – January 19, 2007) was an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Bam Bam Bigelow. Recognizable by his close to 400-pound frame and the distinctive flame tattoo that spanned most ...

to become the inaugural SportsChannel Television Champion in the finals of a sixteen-man tournament. The inaugural Women's World Champion was also crowned at the event as Rockin' Robin defeated

Candi Devine Candace Maria Rummel (January 1, 1958 – February 9, 2022) was an American professional wrestler better known by her ring name Candi Devine. She won singles championships in several promotions, most notably in the American Wrestling Associati ...

to become the inaugural women's champion of the company. The event was widely considered a failure because of its extremely low attendance and pay-per-view buyrate of 0.10.

Event

Before the event aired live on pay-per-view,

Boris Zhukov James Kirk Harrell (born December 13, 1959) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Boris Zhukov ...

defeated Paul Samson in a

dark match Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of jargon throughout its existence. Much of it stems from the industry's origins in the days of carnivals and circuses. In the past, professional wrestlers used such terms in the presence ...

Preliminary matches

The opening match of the event was a tag team match pitting The Blackhearts (Apocalypse and

Destruction Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger * Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism * Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kind ...

) against Fire Cat and Jim Cooper. Blackhearts performed a bearhug and diving leg drop combination on Cooper for the win while

Luna Vachon Gertrude Elizabeth Vachon ( ; January 12, 1962 – August 27, 2010) was an American-Canadian professional wrestler, better known as Luna Vachon.Lisa S. Davis,Ex-wrestler Luna Vachon, 48, found dead", ''Tampa Bay Online'' (August 31, 2010). Over ...

strangled Fire Cat. A Street Fight was scheduled to take place between

Don Muraco Don Muraco (born September 10, 1949) is an American retired professional wrestler and podcaster. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation from 1981 to 1988, where he held the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Cha ...

and

Terry Gordy Terry Ray Gordy Sr. (April 23, 1961 – July 16, 2001) was an American professional wrestler. Gordy appeared in the United States with promotions such as Mid-South Wrestling, Georgia Championship Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim ...

but Muraco suffered an injury and

Johnny Ace John Marshall Alexander Jr. (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), known by the stage name Johnny Ace, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer. He had a string of hit singles in the mid 1950s. Alexander died of an accidental self-inflicted gunsh ...

substituted for him. The match ended in a double count-out after both men brawled with each other throughout the crowd. Masked Confusion (

Brian Blair Brian Leslie Blair (born January 12, 1957) is an American retired professional wrestler and politician. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name B. Brian Blair as one half of the tag tea ...

and

Jim Brunzell James Brunzell (born August 13, 1949) is an American retired professional wrestler. Best known for his successful tag teams, Brunzell performed for various wrestling promotions during his 21-year career. Early life The son of a navy pilot, Br ...

) took on The Power Twins (Larry and David Power). Near the end of the match, Brunzell tried to perform a sunset flip on David but David prevented it by holding the ropes and then Blair performed a sunset flip on David for the win. Rockin' Robin took on

for the inaugural

Women's World Championship The Women's World Championship was the first women's professional wrestling world title. History Cora Livingston defeated Hazel Parker in 1906. Though the contest was originally for the Featherweight Championship, from that point she was billed ...

. Near the end of the match, Devine missed a charge at Robin in the corner and Robin rolled up Devine to pin her and win the title.

Paul Orndorff Paul Parlette Orndorff Jr. (October 29, 1949 – July 12, 2021), nicknamed "Mr. Wonderful", was an American professional wrestler and college football player, best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Cham ...

took on

Colonel DeBeers Edward Wiskoski (born January 10, 1945) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the American Wrestling Association under the ring name Colonel DeBeers from 1985 to 1990. Early life Wiskoski was the fi ...

in a

Strap match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "Glossary of professional wrestling terms#Gimmick, gimmick matches" in the Glossary of professional wrestling terms, jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. So ...

. Near the end of the match, DeBeers tried to release himself by getting out of the strap wrangled around his neck by a back body drop but Orndoff countered that with a

spike piledriver Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

for the win. The match was followed by a Captain Lou's Corner interview segment hosted by

Captain Lou Albano Louis Vincent Albano (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009) was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor, who performed under the ring/stage name "Captain" Lou Albano. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1 ...

featuring The Blackhearts and

as his guests, but Albano said he disliked his guests, dropped the mic and left.

Bob Backlund Robert Louis Backlund (born August 14, 1949) is an American retired amateur and professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation from 1976 to 1984 and in the 1990s, wher ...

took on

Ivan Koloff Oreal Donald Perras (August 25, 1942 – February 18, 2017) was a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by the ring name "The Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff. He was the third wrestler to hold the WWWF Championship. Early life Perras was b ...

. Backlund pinned Koloff with a roll-up for the win after hitting a back body drop to a charging Koloff. The penultimate match of the event was a tag team match pitting Wet'N'Wild (Steve Ray and

Sunny Beach Slanchev Bryag ( bg, Слънчев бряг , en, Sunny Beach) is a seaside resort on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, north of Burgas. Created in 1958 as a weekend getaway for Bulgarian families, Sunny Beach has become the largest tourist an ...

) against Cactus Jack and

Bob Orton, Jr. Robert Keith Orton Jr. (born November 10, 1950), better known by the ring name "Cowboy" Bob Orton, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. He is the son of professional wrestler Bob Orton Sr., the brother of professional wrestler Bar ...

John Tolos John Tolos, nicknamed "The Golden Greek", (September 18, 1930 – May 28, 2009) was a Canadian professional wrestler, and professional wrestling manager. Professional wrestling career Tolos was born on September 18, 1930, in Hamilton, Ontario ...

was tossed into a shark cage suspended above the ring by Ray and Beach. Near the end of the match, Tolos interfered by throwing brass knuckles from the cage but they knocked out Jack, allowing Ray to pin him for the win.

Main event match

The main event was the final round match of a tournament for the inaugural SportsChannel Television Championship between Steve Williams and

. Williams

powerslam A Powerslam or simply Slam is a professional wrestling body slam move in which the wrestler performing the slam falls face-down on top of the opponent. The use of the term "powerslam" usually refers to the front powerslam or the scoop powerslam. ...

med Bigelow to win the match and become the inaugural SportsChannel Television Champion.

Reception

''Beach Brawl'' was a major failure as it was only able to generate a crowd of 500 people at the 4000-seat

with a low buyrate of 0.10. The event also received negative reviews from critics. Arnold Furious of ''411Mania'' gave the event a 5.0 rating out of 10, stating "most of the undercard is relatively inoffensive. I say “relatively” because the UWF was so bad at times that a passable show would be good by their standards. There were some UWF-isms creeping onto show though. The count out in the street fight is an obvious one but there are several completely non-competitive matches and their titles mean nothing. The booking never makes any sense." Adam Nedeff of ''411Mania'' gave a rating of 2.5 out of 10, citing "Underwhelming finishes (Tolos in the shark cage), nonsensical booking (Captain's Corner, the street fight, a seven-minute main event, Backlund squashing Koloff), and just-plain-disappointing matches."

Aftermath

UWF did not produce any other pay-per-view events due to ''Beach Brawl'' being a massive failure, but they produced a major television special called

Blackjack Brawl Blackjack Brawl was the first and only major live television supercard event produced by Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). The event took place on September 23, 1994 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and aired li ...

in 1994 that served as the promotion's final show.

Results

SportsChannel Television Championship tournament brackets

The tournament to determine the inaugural SportsChannel Television Champion began on April 7, 1991 and concluded with the tournament final at Beach Brawl. Pin-Pinfall; Sub-Submission; CO-Countout; DCO-Double countout; DQ-Disqualification; Ref-Referee's decision

References

External links

UWF Beach Brawl
on Cagematch *

on Pro Wrestling History {{Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams) 1991 in professional wrestling 1991 in sports in Florida Events in Florida June 1991 events in the United States Professional wrestling in Florida Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams)