The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (6.20.1992)

-Originally aired June 20, 1992.

-We’re in Spartanburg, SC.

-Your hosts are Bob Caudle & Dutch Mantell, with Barry Horowitz.

“Nitro” DANNY DAVIS vs. “Hustler” RIP ROGERS
-Davis is billed “From right here in the USA.” Did he forget his own address?

-Hard chop by Rogers to start. Kneelift knocks the wind out of Davis. Davis fights back with the same and tosses Rogers across the ring. Dropkick and an armdrag while Mantell tells Barry Horowitz to pay attention to this match because either of these men could be his next opponent and he needs to study them. He then immediately says he needs some paper and tells Barry to leave and go get it for him. Dutch Mantell is severely underappreciated.

-Davis works the arm and Rogers breaks it with a knee to the midsection. Corner charge misses and Rogers hurts his arm even worse because of that, and Davis is able to capitalize. He works the arm further, but Rogers gives him a hard chop. Bodypress can’t put Davis away, so Rogers tries a DDT. Davis holds the ropes so he doesn’t go down with it, and he goes for the H-Bomb (neckbreaker) for the win.

-Tim Horner wants a piece of Buddy Landell, whether it’s in the ring or the parking lot at Krogers. He says that if he can’t beat Landell in their next match, he’ll retire.

“Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL vs. JUMPIN’ JOEY MAGGS
-Landell actually has quite a few fans at ringside and has some fun with them before the match. Landell and Maggs lock up, Landell says that Maggs is pulling his hair, and the fans at ringside are all over Maggs for cheating.

-Landell gives Maggs a chop and so far this week, there seems to be some competition to see who can throw the loudest chop. Maggs fights back with a dropkick, and Dutch sends Barry Horowitz out for coffee.

-Landell works Maggs’ arm, pulling the hair to keep him on the mat. Referee blocks Landell from using a closed fist, and then Maggs connects with his own closed fist and the Landell fans at ringside are damn near ready to jump in the ring themselves.

-Maggs throws punches, but Landell gets him back down on the mat and clamps on the figure four, using the ropes for leverage. Great ending, as Maggs is trying to get the referee to turn around and see what Landell is doing, but finally gives up when he realizes the referee can’t catch it.

-Landell accepts Tim Horner’s challenge and says he’s shopping for a house in Morristown, TN, just to annoy Horner and his entire family. “Before long, I’ll have you so frustrated that nothing will be going on in your bedroom and your old lady is gonna come to my place!”

-Jim Cornette is with “the only SMW stars who matter,” the Heavenly Bodies. They didn’t win their belts by being nice guys, shaking hands, or patting backs. They do it by kicking your teeth in.

DIXIE DY-NO-MITE vs. PAUL LEE
-They’re now bringing down the lights for Dixie’s entrance, and he comes to the ring with sparklers, drawing a complaint from Dutch asking for the fire marshall to step in.

-Dixie gives Paul Lee hard chops, causing Lee to do a Flair flop that’s actually better than Flair’s Flair flop. Lee is actually a straight rip-off of Flair, not only mimicking his offense (walking a few steps before a kneedrop) but even his bumping (he flips over the turnbuckles, walks across the apron, and gets chopped down).

-Dropkick by Dixie and Lee goes to the corner to beg off, but Dixie London bridges him back in the middle of the ring. Slam by Paul Lee, and he heads to the top rope. Surprisingly, he gets crotched on the top instead of slammed off, and the Confederate kick finishes.

-We go back to action from last week, with Brian Lee vs. Dirty White Boy. DWB uses a foreign object to bust Lee wide open. Hector Guerrero comes to the ring and argues with DWB about it. Lee sneaks up, reaches into the back of DWB’s tights, and takes out the weapon, and goes completely nuts on DWB with it. Paul Orndorff comes in the ring and attacks with a chair, and it turns into a brawl among Orndorff, Guerrero, Lee, and DWB. DWB manages to hang Guerrero by his necktie as TV time runs out.

-Lee says he’s ready for Orndorff and Dirty White Boy, and he won’t be coming to the ring alone.

DOWN AND DIRTY WITH DUTCH
-Dutch has his own interview segment now, and his guest this week is “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff. Orndorff lays out the evidence that SMW is against him—SMW asked Paul Orndorff come here wrestling and then they banned the piledriver, the same move that he used to defeat Tito Santana (he really says this). And somehow, Brian Lee is SMW Champion even though the tournament ended with a DQ, and supposedly, a title can’t change hands on a DQ. You can’t explain that! Brian Lee shows up ready to fight, and Bob Armstrong and Dixie Dy-no-mite hold him back.

-Dutch thanks Barry Horowitz for holding him back in the previous segment, because he might have severely injured Brian Lee if Barry hadn’t been there.

-Bob Caudle talks to the Batten Twins and the Party Patrol. They’ve agreed to put their scheduled title matches with the Heavenly Bodies on the backburner because the Fantastics are coming back, and what the Heavenly Bodies did to them was so inexcusable that they want the Fantastics to have the first crack at the belts.

-The ring announcer has a special announcement to make: As the Heavenly Bodies are walking to the ring, female fans are asked not to touch, grope, or feel them in any way. Any woman who touches the Heavenly Bodies will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Men in attendance tonight are asked to keep the women under control.

SMW TAG TEAM TITLE: HEAVENLY BODIES (Champions, with Jim Cornette) vs. “White Lightning” TIM HORNER & “Rock ‘N Roll” ROBERT GIBSON
-That’s actually quite the main event for the hour.

-Stan Lane backs into the corner to stall, and Gibson hilariously gives him a hard kick in the ass that sends him out to the apron. Enziguiri by Gibson and Lane goes out to the floor in a daze. Corny signals for a time-out and Mantell yells “TIME-OUT!,” explaining that it’s a little known rule that each team is allowed one.

-Pritchard tags in and promptly walks to the wrong corner and gets punched down. Drop toehold by Gibson, and Horner comes in and stomps Pritchard. Faces are working with a bit of a heel edge,which is neat; they know that the Bodies will fight dirty and they won’t even give them an opening by being “nice guys.”

-Case in point, the Bodies attempt double-team moves and Horner is ready for every one of them, backdropping Pritchard and sweeping Lane’s leg in one fluid motion. Corny distracts the referee and that gives the Bodies a chance to do a little cheating to turn the tide. They switch without tagging and Pritchard suplexes Horner for two. Russian legsweep by Lane, but Pritchard misses an elbow, and in comes Robert Gibson, who can’t help feeling that he’s been in this situation before.

-Gibson starts to clear the ring but misses a corner charge and hits the post shoulder-first. Gibson winds up on the floor and Corny decks him with the tennis racquet. Back in, Gibson manages to tag out, and now Horner gets to clean house. Pier sixer erupts and Buddy Landell shows up at ringside. He hooks Horner’s leg, brings him out to the floor, posts him, and shoves him back inside, where the Bodies pin him with no trouble.

-Bob Armstrong shows up and says that if Buddy Landell shows up at ringside for another match that he’s not scheduled for, he’s suspended. Also, The Fantastics are returning next week, and Armstrong warns that he’s giving The Fantastics “a LOT of leeway” for their upcoming matches.

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

SMW was really firing on all cylinders this week, with competitive squashes and a couple of hot angles scattered throughout the hour. Thumbs up!