wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (6.27.1992)
Loading...-We open the show in a parking lot, where a cameraman has rushed out to catch a brawl between the Fantastics and the Heavenly Bodies.
-Originally aired June 27, 1992.
-We’re in Cumberland High School in Cumberland, KY, in front of the biggest crowd you will ever see in a high school gym. It seriously looks like a WWF Poughkeepsie taping.
-Your hosts are Bob Caudle & Dutch Mantell. Dutch says that the Fantastics probably instigated the brawl in the parking lot, and he thinks he saw the Fantastics in some of the footage of all the looting in Los Angeles.
DIXIE DY-NO-MITE vs. “Golden Boy” JOE CAZANA
-Crowd is HOT for Dixie, too. They should have just done all of their TV tapings here.
-Cazana shoulderblocks Dixie. He goes off the ropes and Dixie leapfrogs him, and just a leapfrog gets a big pop from this crowd. Damn, I already know I’m going to enjoy the next few weeks of this show.
-Shoulderblock and a hiptoss by Dixie while the commentators tout SummerBlast, a supercard coming up at some point in mid-July.
-Dixie works the arm while a bunch of kids in homemade wrestling masks cheer him on. Dutch rants about what an awful role model Dixie is because his outfit teaches kids to rob 7-11s.
-Cazana tries a backdrop, but Dixie lands on his feet and takes Cazana out with the Confederate kick for the win.
-Bob Caudle talks to Brian Lee in the middle of an empty arena, which is always great atmosphere for an interview. Brian Lee is confident of his abilities as a wrestler, but no matter how good he is, he can’t fight two men at the same time, and trying to battle Paul Orndorff & Dirty White Boy over and over again is becoming overwhelming for him.
-To drive the point home, we get a LOOOOOONG montage of every ass-kicking Brian Lee has ever taken from Orndorff and Whitey. Back to the empty arena, Brian says he’s been offered help from guys like Tim Horner and Robert Gibson, but those guys are dealing with their own feuds right now and Brian says he wants a partner who doesn’t have anything on his mind except being in Brian Lee’s corner.
-We see an extreme close-up of a closed fist, and we pull out to see the smiling face of Ron Garvin. He had fun wrestling in the Smoky Mountains years ago, and he’s excited about coming back and knocking people down to size. Yes, he’s in his 40s, but so is George Foreman, and Ron Garvin can still get the job done just like George. He’ll be seeing YOU at SummerBlast.
-Phil Rainey talks to Hector Guerrero. He’s proud to have the opportunity to wrestle in America. In comes Tim Horner with his lightning bolts and promise that a storm is coming to any town where Smoky Mountain Wrestling is scheduled. Brian Lee knows a belt around the waist comes with a target on the head, but he loves competition and he loves the Smoky Mountains.
-Mr. Ron Wright’s heart is failing because Ron Garvin is coming to town. Orndorff and DWB give him some pills to calm him down. Orndorff says Garvin is old, gray, and past his prime, and promises that it won’t be a problem. DWB says that Garvin can’t knock anybody out with one punch, and Orndorff says that Garvin’s “stupid 1948 piledriver” can’t finish off anybody in the 1990s.
-We go to an SMW live event from Sunday. Bob Caudle explains that SMW cameras always come to live events so that there’s documentation in case of a title change. The Fantastics and the Heavenly Bodies had already battled to a DQ and the camera crew had actually shut down their equipment and got ready to leave when a brawl erupted in the hallway, so they turned everything back on and recorded the brawl.
-And it’s a wild one, with Corny taking two table bumps, and a trash can and a broom getting involved. Phil Rainey, who’s with the crew, explains that nobody else in the building realizes this is happening, which is why no attempts are being made to break this up. The brawl goes into the parking lot, and Corny pulls up in a getaway car. Bobby Fulton manages to totally shatter the rear window with a crowbar before they speed off. Fultons are a bloody mess.
-Commissioner Armstrong fines every man in the brawl $1,500 and scolds The Fantastics. He said he was offering a lot of leniency to The Fantastics but didn’t think they’d go THIS far with it. He says he’s signing a no-DQ match for SummerBlast so these guys can do whatever they want, get it all out of their system, and just end this thing.
DOWN AND DIRTY WITH DUTCH
-Dutch welcomes the Heavenly Bodies and Jim Cornette. Tom has a stitched up forehead because of the Fantastics, and says that while wrestling has some real low-life scum, he’s never dealt with a criminal element like the Fulton family. The Heavenly Bodies were getting offers to do roles in movies and TV shows because they’re so good-looking, but the Fultons attacked their faces and destroyed their livelihoods.
-Corny says shattering a rear window has NOTHING to do with trying to win Tag Team Title belts, so he knows what the Fultons are really trying to accomplish, and he warns that the Heavenly Bodies are gonna do it first.
-Tim Horner says he’s going to peel Buddy Landell like a stinking onion at SummerBlast.
“Nitro” DANNY DAVIS vs. PAUL LEE
-Caudle calls 40-year-old Danny Davis “youngster.”
-Davis takes Lee down and then spins on top of him repeatedly just to clown him. Hiptoss sends Lee to the corner to beg off. And then he struts. Lee backs Davis into the corner and chops him a few times, and the crowd “woos” with every chop, before ECW made that a thing. Lee is just aping Flair so blatantly that the fans are doing it to show that they’re in on the joke.
-Kneedrop by Lee. He goes to the top rope and comes off with a legdrop, but Davis rolls out of the way. Lee tries going to the top rope again and gets slammed off. Frankensteiner by “young fella” Davis follows, and the neckbreaker finishes to a big pop.
-Buddy Landell brags about costing Tim Horner a championship, just because he specializes in making people’s lives miserable.
SMW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: “Prime Time” BRIAN LEE (Champion) vs. “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL
-Landell uses the belt to check his hair before the match. Nice, Buddy.
-Lee goes right to work on the arm. Landell does his own arm work and uses the hair to bring Lee down to the mat. Referee accuses him of chicanery, and Landell does a big exaggerated “MEEEEEE?!” in response. Landell backs Lee into the corner and chops away, and again, the crowd woos for every one of them.
-Lee tries to make a comeback, but charges right into an elbow. It looks like it’s caused an eye injury, so the referee checks him. Landell takes the opportunity to pull out some brass knuckles and winds up, but Tim Horner sprints to the ring and yanks the knuckles right off. Landell goes after him, and Lee sneaks up and rolls Landell up to retain. Shortish, but Landell was a hell of a lot of fun.
-Phil Rainey talks to Buddy Landell and Dirty White Boy. They say they attended high school together. DWB was a headhunter, while Buddy Landell was on the look-out for girls…which one could also call a “headhunter.”
