The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (4.23.1994)

-Originally aired April 23, 1994.

-Your hosts are Bob Caudle & Les Thatcher.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS (Tag Team Champions) vs DARK SECRET & KILLER KYLE
-Kyle hammers away at Robert Gibson to start, but Gibson gets a sneaky tag and Ricky Morton connects with a dropkick. Kyle blames Dark Secret for the dropkick, which is pretty funny. Secret talks through his mask and he’s pretty unmistakably the Road Dogg.

-Donnybrook breaks out and Secret wipes out his own partner with a high knee, and Secret falls victim to a double dropkick to finish it.

DOWN AND DIRTY WITH DUTCH
-Dutch has mailed in a tape from South America. He’s surrounded by two guys and explains that he won’t give a location more specific than South America because he doesn’t want to disclose any specific information about his whereabouts due to “a late night phone call” a few weeks ago. His bodyguards Paco and “Joo-lio” see somebody, so Dutch ends the segment without any details.

-Volunteer Slam is coming on May 20th. A major wrestling star has asked for a match against Dirty White Boy. We’re not going to disclose his identity until details are finalized. Also, because of Jim Cornette’s legal maneuvering, yes, it’s true, Bob Armstrong is prohibited from wrestling which means he can’t get another match with Bruiser Bedlam. So he’s signed another star to get in the ring and wrestle Bruiser as a proxy.

-RANDY SAVAGE. Big pop for that, too. We get a Randy Savage highlight reel from the WWF production team and OH MY GOD HE’S RAPPING. So…much…nineties…And we even get a cameo from Vladimir the superfan.

BEAT THE CHAMP TV TITLE: BRUISER BEDLAM (Champion, with Jim Cornette) vs BOBBY BLAZE
-Damn, I wore out the B on my keyoard.

-Bedlam suplexes Blaze and takes his head off with a clothesline. Kneelifts by Bruiser, followed by an elbow. Blaze is getting nothing this week. Actually, scratch that because Bedlam misses a diving headbutt and Blaze mounts a comeback. Missile dropkick connects, but he goes to the well once too often. SLICK finish sees Bedlam catch Blaze off the top rope, with Blaze landing right on his shoulder, and Bedlam drops to his knees to turn it into an instant backbreaker. Stomach claw gets the submission. For the second straight week, he refuses to release after the bell, and Smothers comes to the rescue.

-Post-match, Smothers demands a match against Bedlam for the honor of the south.

PERSONALITY PROFILE
-Rock & Roll Express recaps their issues with Tammy Fytch and her men. They wanna teach Tammy what it’s like to be around a real man.

“Prime Time” BRIAN LEE & CHRIS CANDIDO (with Tammy Fytch) vs. ANTHONY MICHAELS & CHRIS HAMRICK
-Commentators are really, really hammering home the “Chris hides and makes Lee do all the work” part of the story. And so is Chris, who generously lets his partner start the match. Lee hammers away at Michaels while Chris Candido ducks out and heads over to do guest commentary for his own match.

-Lee takes on both opponents by himself. Minor thing that I’ve been waiting for, Brian Lee’s hair is oily and darker than normal, as the makeover for you-know-what is finally starting.

-Lee chokes Hamrick but chooses not to pin him just yet. Knee off the second rope gets the finish while Candido brags about teaching Lee everything he needs to know.

SMW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: DIRTY WHITE BOY (Champion) vs PRINCE KHARIS (with Darryl Van Horne)
-Kharis lumbers around. DWB evades him and connects with some rights, but gets mowed down by a clothesline. Kharis throws DWB across the ring as the commentators continue the “we know this character is stupid” tack, saying Kharis deserves bonus pay for sitting there in the locker room week after week and letting Van Horne wrap him in bandages.

-DWB makes a comeback with a bodypress from the corner. Right hands take Kharis off his feet. Van Horne distracts the referee while Kharis twists his wrist a little bit and sneaks up. DWB sees him coming and forces Kharis to hit himself with his own forearm. Kharis knocks himself out, and DWB gets the pin.

-Kendo the Samauri, a masked wrestler, steps in and blinds DWB with a mouthful of green mist, and DWB’s left lying on the mat. Darryl Van Horne promises that this is the beginning of the end for him.

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Bedlam is getting a pretty good push and it's good to see a new star because we're right at the point of reaching staleness with this company's tiny roster. Other than that, pretty meh week.