The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (4.2.1994)

Originally aired April 2, 1994.

-We’re in Dungannon, VA.

-Your hosts are Bob Caudle & Dutch Mantell. Brimstone of the Infernos gets drawn for Beat the Champ.

-The Rock & Roll Express pop in and explain that the Bluegrass Brawl has already happened at the time we’re seeing this, but SMW’s TV shows are pre-taped. So, apparently, we’re going to spend this week building to a house show that already happened. We go to Rock & Roll Express taking a beating last week at the hands of Candido & Lee.

-We go to Tammy Fytch and her men. They joined forces last week as a favor to Jim Cornette, but they’re going to stay a tag team now and go into business for themselves.

THRILLSEEKERS vs LARRY SANTO & MIKE SAMPSON
-Really nice flying elbow by Jericho, followed by a DDT. Kick off the second rope and everybody tags. Well Dunn comes to ringside to watch the match, with Caudle speculating they’re trying to learn something from watching the Thrillseekers.

-Storm does an amateur takedown on Sampson and gets some stunning air with a clothesline. He press slams Jericho on top of Sampson, and Caudle accidentally calls that the finish and apologizes for making a mistake the way that he does “every five years or so.” Awesome finish with Jericho going to the top rope in moonsault position, Storm going to the second rope, and powerslamming Jericho onto Santo, and that’s it.

THE THRILLSEEKERS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
-Thrillseekers sit in their hotel room and just talk off the cuff about their backgrounds, and it’s really not any sort of character or storyline stuff, they give totally legit stories from their lives and just come off as two normal guys who happen to be really good at pro wrestling.

-We go to the Armstrong Family Reunion house show, with Joe Pedicino presenting Bob Armstrong with a trophy for all of his hard work as a goodwill ambassador for the city of Marietta.

-Bob Caudle is live with Bob Armstrong, and again, we acknowledge that the show is pre-taped and Bob Armstrong hypes the match against the Mystery Man…a match that happened last night.

-Cornette comes out and offers a rebuttal. Again, Cornette was kind of onto something in the first few months of SMW, where the episode immediately after a big house show was a gimmick match that gobbled up most of the hour.

BEAT THE CHAMP TV TITLE: MIKE FURNAS (Champion) vs BRIMSTONE
-Brimstone attacks from behind and rips off Furnas’ football jersey. He snapmares Furnas, but Furnas comes back with a clothesline. The two opponents stare at each other for a moment and do nothing, and Furnas just slams him. Three point stance wins.

DOWN AND DIRTY WITH DUTCH
-Tammy says she’s tired of Dirty White Girl demanding a one-on-one match and says she can have it IF she wants it right now. Dirty White Girl takes the bait and storms down to ringside. Tammy says “I never said it was a one-on-one match with ME” and in comes a mystery woman who kicks the shit out of DWG. Dutch tries to talk her out of backing off, but the unknown woman slams Dutch and the crowd is shocked!

-Tammy introduces her new friend, Peggy Lee Leather.

PRINCE KHARIS (with Darryl Van Horne) vs BOBBY BLAZE
-Kharis clubbers away at Blaze while Van Horne treats us to dirty puns on commentary. Blaze comes back with kicks and connects with a top rope bodypress. Kharis goes down but manages to kick out at two. Kharis twists his wrist a little bit, then swings his arm and knocks out Blaze with one shot for the win. Caudle wants to know what the deal is with Kharis’ arm, but Van Horne leaves without answering him.

-Dirty White Boy isn’t worried about wrestling 300 pounds of toilet paper, and Dirty White Girl isn’t worried about Peggy Lee Leather.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs CHRIS CANDIDO & BRIAN LEE (with Tammy Fytch)
-Heel side is being repackaged somewhat now that they’re a tag team. Candido’s fake titles have disappeared and Lee is adopting a bit of a dirtball look.

-Candido punches Ricky Morton in the corner. Morton comes to life with a backdrop. Gibson comes in for some double-teaming. Gibson and Candido trade moves until Gibson manages to get Candido down to the mat for a side headlock. Brian Lee tags in and takes a series of clotheslines, and he’s so dazed he goes to the wrong corner to try to tag. Express punches him into the right corner and Candido gets tagged but looks like he doesn’t really want to come in.

-Morton dropkicks Candido. Gibson tags in behind Candido’s back and mows him down with a clothesline, then tosses him to the floor. Brian Lee tags back in and demands a test of strength. Morton takes the bait and is easily outmuscled by Lee, but Gibson sneaks in and pops Lee right on the nose to break it. Referee gets distracted and Candido gives Morton a knee to the apron that puts him in prime position for a lariat. Lee’s lariat connects, but the referee suspects that cheating happened so he refuses to count. Gorilla would be all over that.

-Candido goes for a backdrop, but Morton turns it into a DDT and gets the hot tag. Gibson cleans house and we have a pier sixer. Tammy tries to interfere but Morton kisses her (“Sexual battery!” yells Dutch). Candido grabs the loaded purse and knocks out Morton, and Candido & Lee get a big win by pinfall.

6.6

The final score: review Average

The 411

Good on them for #1, finding a way to make that damn wrestling mummy interesting, and #2, pushing a new woman in a way that was treated as revolutionary when the WWF did it three years later. So that I liked. The hype segments for a house show that already happened (and again, they were even acknowledging that during the promos) seemed just bizarre, and Mike Furnas continues to be a bad experiment.