The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (9.17.1994)

-NWA-style opening, with the cameras frantically running out to the parking lot to see a brawl erupting between the Rock & Roll Express and Da Gangstas. Express gets the better end of it, with Mustafa taking a lamp post to the head and New Jack being rammed into a car and setting off the alarm.

-Originally aired September 17, 1994.

-Your hosts are Bob Caudle & Les Thatcher. Les dedicates this week’s program to Professor Boris Malenko, who died earlier in the week.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs DA GANGSTAS
-We go to Johnson City, TN for this one.. Express surprises Da Gangstas by showing up with nightsticks and just going nuts on them before the bell. Gangstas fight back but the Express fights back and takes it out to the floor. Great visual: the timekeeper at ringside, a dude in a backwards cap and blue jeans who appears to be using a small crowbar to sound the bell.

-Da Gangstas hang Ricky Morton from the top rope, but Robert Gibson makes the save. Morton and New Jack take it to the floor again and before long, both guys are bleeding. Gibson gets the nightstick back and opens up Mustafa. Mark Curtis is desperately trying to get order because the match still hasn’t officially started yet, and Morton lobs him over the top rope and goes back to brawling.

-The brawl keeps going, and jobber The Hornet finally recognizes how out-of-hand this is and gets in the ring to plead for some sort of sanity, and bodies just keep hitting the ring to break it up until we have a battle royal on our hands. Things finally calm down until Gibson just thwacks New Jack again and reignites the riot.

-The brawl very gradually makes it through the crowd and Ricky Morton finds a 2×4, and “Robert Gibson’s got a mop!” which just sounds so funny with the intensity the commentator says it. They make it to the parking lot, and the fight goes on.

-Da Gangstas promise that the war has just begun.

BRUISER BEDLAM (with Jim Cornette) vs. STEVE SKYFIRE
-Bedlam attacks before the bell, but the referee decides that for THIS match, he can go ahead and ring the bell anyway, so it’s an official match. Headbutt and a kneedrop by Bedlam. Bruiser clubbers him. Skyfire surprises him with a dropkick that leaves Bedlam dazed, but he goes to the top rope and Bruiser recovers in time to get out of the way and let him faceplant. Stomach claw gets the win.

-Cornette talks about the upcoming Apple Brawl ’94 featuring Rage in a Cage (WarGames with one ring). Dirty White Boy, Tracy Smothers, and Rock & Roll Express vs. Chris Candido, Bruiser Bedlam, and Da Gangstas. Cornette is already complaining because Da Gangstas hate white people so much that they won’t even speak to their teammates or take phone calls from Jim or Tammy. He’s confident anyway, but makes no secret of how irritated he is with Da Gangstas for not being team players for such an important match.

-Your complete card for Apple Brawl ’94 on Friday September 30 in Paintsville:

Lance Storm vs. Chris Candido
Dirty White Boy vs. Bruiser Bedlam
Rock & Roll Express vs. Da Gangstas
And Rage in the Cage! Tracy Smothers has a ridiculous advantage in this match.

-We go back to Tracy Smothers and Dirty White Boy burying the hatchet by way of getting their asses kicked together by FITE.

PERSONALITY PROFILE
Bullet Bob Armstrong has signed a match for next week’s TV show, a handicap match against Bruiser Bedlam and Jim Cornette. He wants to tear up Cornette so much that he’s willing to take everything Bedlam can dish out to get to him. DWB promises to pull Jim Cornette’s pants down and leave blisters in the near future. I’d get that checked, dude.

DIRTY WHITE BOY (SMW Champion) vs. MIKE MURALDO
-Jobber throws punches while Jim Cornette shows up to complain about having his personal safety threatened in the previous match. Headbutt and a turnbuckle shot by the white one. Big suplex, but just as DWB looks to finish, Cornette and Bruiser Bedlam arrive on the scene to dish out some assault. DWB surprises them by grabbing the tennis racquet, and Bedlam runs for his life out of the building.

-We look back at Chris Jericho being injured last week. Lance Storm is here to announce that Chris has gone back to Calgary to recover for the moment, but right now, he needs a tag team partner to face Chris Candido and Boo Bradley, and Lance makes a poetic choice, Brian Lee.

“Suicide Blonde” CHRIS CANDIDO & BOO BRADLEY (with Tammy Fytch) vs LANCE STORM & “Prime Time” BRIAN LEE
-Storm and Candido lock up to start while Tammy is trying to teach Boo Bradley on the fly about how tag team wrestling works. Storm tries to do a flying headscissors, but they bungle it and Caudle covers it as Candido being too quick for him. Brian Lee tags in and Candido immediately tags out and gets away. Bradley just barks like an idiot at Lee, so Lee beats on him. Bradley doesn’t fight back, but absorbs everything Lee dishes out while Candido gets frustrated by what an idiot he is.

-Storm tags in and Bradley shows his first flash of brilliance, tying up Storm’s arm in wrestling hold-type fashion, but then just bites him and tags out. On the apron, Bradley shows some brains, jerking down the top rope to force Storm tumbling out of the ring. He chokes Storm with a broom before stopping to eat part of the handle.

-Candido with Shattered Dreams on Storm. Bradley tags back in and connects with a superkick. Chinlock by the untamed Wildman. Candido tags back in and applies one of his own. Storm gets double-teamed while Lee protests. Storm’s assessment of Bradley’s abilities: “He’s Orthodox one minute, unorthodox the next.”

-Hot tag Brian Lee, and they clean house, but it spills out to the floor and Tammy takes out Brian’s knee with her loaded purse, so Candido and Bradley end up taking the win by count-out.

6.4

The final score: review Average

The 411

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's interesting to me how tag team booking always seemed to be Cornette's strong suit, as once more the tag team stuff carried the hour.