Steve Armstrong

Steven James (born March 16, 1965), better known by his ring name Steve Armstrong, is an American professional wrestler.

He is the son of fellow wrestler "Bullet" Bob Armstrong, and has three brothers who also wrestled: Scott, Brad, and Brian.

Steve Armstrong started wrestling in 1983 in the Alabama-based Southeast Championship Wrestling promotion.

He formed a team called the "Rat Patrol" with Johnny Rich and they feuded with Ron Fuller's Stud Stable (Jerry Stubbs and Super Olympia).

After Tracy Smothers joined Championship Wrestling from Florida in February 1987 he was immediately paired with Steve Armstrong as the "Wild-Eyed Southern Boys".

Their first match came on February 17 in Tampa, Florida, where they lost to The New Breed.

However four days later The Southern Boys defeated The New Breed to gain their first ever championship, the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship.

Smothers and Armstrong held the belts until March 15, when they were defeated by The MOD Squad.

In June they unsuccessfully challenged for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship, losing to The Midnight Express (Stan Lane & Bobby Eaton).

The Southern Boys would make a stop in the CWA, where they faced Rough & Ready in October 1987.

During this time they feuded with The Stud Stable.

After a brief stop again in the CWA without Armstrong, the Southern Boys went on tour in New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Smothers first match for the promotion was as a singles wrestler, where he defeated Osamu Kido on July 15, 1988 at the NJPW Summer Fight Series 1988 event.

As a team the Southern Boys experienced success, beating Kantaro Hoshino and Osamu Kido, Kuniaki Kobayashi & Norio Honaga, Kensuke Sasaki and Norio Honaga, and Seiji Sakaguchi and Tatsutoshi Goto.

Their final match came on December 9, 1988 at the NJPW Japan Cup Series 1988 – Tag 21 television show, where they lost to Kotetsu Yamamoto and Yoshinari Tsuji.

During the tour they worked in the main event against the legendary Antonio Inoki.

Following a January 1990 tour of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Smothers reunited with Steve Armstrong.

The duo made their national debuts for World Championship Wrestling on April 23, 1990 in a dark match at a Main Event/WCW WorldWide taping in Marietta, GA. Wrestling as "The Wild-Eyed Southern Boys", their first television appearance came on May 12 at a World Championship Wrestling taping where they defeated Kevin Sullivan and Cactus Jack via disqualification.

On May 20 on the Main Event the new team upset WCW United States Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express in a non-title match.

Later that month they entered a house show series against WCW World Tag Team Champions Doom, but were unsuccessful in their efforts.

On June 13, 1990, they faced off against The Fabulous Freebirds at the Clash of the Champions XI "Coastal Crush" show and were victorious.

Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes were able to gain a measure of revenge by defeating them on the June 16, 1990 episode of WCW Worldwide after holding the tights.

An appearance by the Midnight Express' manager Jim Cornette would transition the Southern Boys to their first feud.

This led to the first PPV showing for Smothers and Armstrong, as they fell to The Midnight Express on July 13, 1990 at the Great American Bash 1990.

Smothers and Armstrong would continue to feud with the Midnight Express before transitioning to a series against the self-declared "Southern Champions" The Fabulous Freebirds.

In August they engaged in a "best of three" series against The Freebirds, and on September 5, 1990, they defeated Hayes and Garvin at Clash of the Champions XII "Fall Brawl: Mountain Madness".

On the September 22, 1990 episode of World Championship Wrestling the Southern Boys fell once more to The Midnight Express in a match where the winner received a United States Tag Team Championship shot.

On the October 6 episode of The Main Event, the duo fell to the newly arrived Nasty Boys.

Their televised slump continued at the Halloween Havoc 1990, where they were defeated by The Master Blasters after Jim Cornette interfered in the match.

Cornette and Stan Lane departed from the promotion immediately afterwards, and there was no resolution to the Southern Boys/Midnight Express storyline.

They moved instead to a house show series with the Blasters (Al Green and a rookie Kevin Nash).

1991 saw an immediate reversal of fortunes for the young team.

In January they opened the year with several wins over The Master Blasters, and on February 24, 1991 at WrestleWar 1991 they beat The Royal Family (Jack Victory and Rip Morgan).

A few days earlier at TV taping in Montgomery, Alabama they were renamed The Young Pistols.

In March they began a house show series against Moondog Rex and Dutch Mantell, the latter who would ultimately become The Desperados.

On May 19, 1991, their televised win streak came to an end when they were defeated by The Freebirds at SuperBrawl I in a match to claim the vacated United States Tag Team Championship after "Badstreet" (a masked Brad Armstrong) interfered.

This began a renewed feud with the Freebirds, and on June 12, 1991, they teamed with Tom Zenk to defeat Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin, and Badstreet at Clash of the Champions XV.

That summer an injury to Scott Steiner led to the WCW World Tag Team Championship being vacated.

On August 3, 1991, the Young Pistols participated in a tournament to crown new champions; they were defeated by The York Foundation.

On September 21, 1991, they received a non-title match against the eventual winners of that tournament, The Enforcers (Arn Anderson and Larry Zybysko but were unsuccessful. That fall, the Pistols continued to face The York Foundation on the house show circuit.