Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong made their debut for World Championship Wrestling on April 23, 1990 in a dark match at a WorldWide taping in Marietta, Georgia. 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 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 16th, 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 pay-per-view 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.
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 Main Event, the duo fell to the newly arrived Nasty Boys. Their televised slump continued at 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 (Steel and Blade).
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. A few days earlier at a television taping in Montgomery, Alabama, they were renamed "The Young Pistols". In March they began a house show series against Moondog Rex and Dutch Mantel, 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 Zbyszko, but were unsuccessful. On the November 17, 1991 episode of WCW Main Event, Smothers challenged "Stunning" Steve Austin for the WCW World Television Championship. That fall, the Pistols continued to face The York Foundation on the house show circuit.
At Halloween Havoc 1991, the Pistols began to show the first signs of an attitude change, stating that they did not care who was the "WCW Phantom" (eventually revealed that night as Rick Rude), but were instead waiting for a United States Tag Team Championship title shot against The Patriots. On the December 8, 1991 episode of Main Event, they finally received their shot. After initially being declared the winners, the match was restarted and the Patriots won. The following week, they declared that they were unconcerned with what the fans thought, confirming a heel turn. Later that night, the Pistols defeated the Patriots to win the United States Tag Team Championship.
The Young Pistols entered 1992 as champions and defeated The Patriots in another rematch on January 18 episode of WCW Pro. On January 25 on WCW WorldWide, they beat former champions Tom Zenk and Brian Pillman. However, their run with the titles ended on the February 16 episode of Pro, where they lost the championship to Ron Simmons and Big Josh. In February, the Young Pistols moved to a house show series against The Steiner Brothers. They were scheduled to team with The Vegas Connection (Vinnie Vegas and Dallas Page) in an eight-man tag team match against El Gigante, Big Josh, Johnny B. Badd, and Mike Graham at SuperBrawl II on February 29; however the match was cancelled.
In April 1992, Smothers' partner Steve Armstrong left WCW, leaving Tracy to soldier on as a singles competitor; Tracy departed that August.