wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (11.18.1995)
Loading...Originally aired November 18, 1995.
-Your hosts are Les Thatcher & Chip Kessler.
THUGS vs. HEADBANGERS
-Tracy Smothers starts with Thrasher. Armdrag by Thrasher to start, and there’s a standoff shortly after. Smothers livens things up with dropkicks for both opponents, and in comes Dirty White Boy for some double-teaming. Mosh tags in for the first time and takes a beating for it. More double-teaming by the Thugs. Kind of anticlimactic, as you see two teams both heavily pushed wrestling on free TV and you’re totally expecting an angle, so then nothing happens and you don’t really feel satisfaction from seeing the faces win because it didn’t seem that simple.
-Headbangers go to the eyes and that helps turn things around. Smothers is down and Mosh heads to the top rope. Legdrop misses, Mosh has extremely literal butthurt, and suddenly a free-for-all erupts. Thugs Irish whip the Bangers into each other. They manage to avoid each other, but in the process, Mosh walks right into a cradle and the Thugs get the three-count.
-Post-match, the Thugs offer a hint about their mystery partner for Thanksgiving Thunder. It’s somebody who wants revenge on Jim Cornette, because he got his back stabbed once upon a time. Smothers unleashes a surprising torrent of unbleeped profanity to wrap up the segment.
-We look back at the surprise debut of Butch Cassidy a few weeks ago and the asskicking by Cornette’s Militia that followed.
-Les Thatcher is with Butch Cassidy, who has a gift-wrapped box for “Mr. Cornette,” because he doesn’t want any trouble and he hopes to smooth things over with Jim. He says that maybe they can call off the match if Corny really likes the gift.
-Corny comes out and opens the box. All he finds in there is an empty plastic bag, and Cassidy gets right to work smothering him with it until the Punisher runs out and Cassidy books it out of there.
-We look at Sgt. Rock’s debut last week.
TERRY GORDY (SMW Champion, with Sgt. Rock) vs. RON DAVIS
-Davis is billed as hailing “from 1313 Mockingbird Lane.” Wonder what he did to piss off Corny.
-Gordy gets a delayed suplex for two. Faceplant follows, and Gordy slams Davis into place. Gordy just keeps unloading and calls it a week with the power slam. Post-match, Sgt. Rock absolutely goes nuts on Davis with a leather strap. Wolfman stops her, which leads to Gordy laying a beating on him. Wolfman is rescued by Brad Armstrong, and the heels run for the hills.
KESSLER’S KORNER
-Buddy Landell shows us another Joe LeDuc clip reel, making sure the Militia knows what they’re in for at Thanksgiving Thunder.
-Les Thatcher talks to Robert Gibson, who proclaims himself the backbone of the Rock ‘N Roll Express and demands that Tracy Smothers come out to face him. Tracy jumps his cue and is already in the ring by the time Gibson finishes the sentence. Tracy has a full-blown airing of grievances and Gibson tries to shut him up with a punch, but Smothers dodges and manages to take Gibson down with ease. Jimmy Del Ray & Jim Cornette run in to assault Smothers, and the Dirty White Boy makes the save.
-Jim Cornette promises that Joe LeDuc is about to find out just how good the Punisher and Tommy Rich are.
TOMMY RICH & PUNISHER (with General Cornette) vs. BOBBY BLAZE & FLASH FLANAGAN
-Rich misses a charge and gets rolled up by Blaze for two. Punisher tags in and punishers Blaze with punishering moves, but Blaze keeps making comebacks. Rich comes back in and gets armdragged down. Punisher comes back in and clotheslines him down. Rich adds a little chicanery from the apron to keep Blaze down. Double-teaming by Rich & Punisher as it dawns on me for the first time in 22 years as a fan that “double-team” is a redundancy.
-Flanagan finally tags in and connects with a shoulderblock off the top. A charge misses and Flanagan goes sailing out to the floor. Blaze tags back in and gets choked out by Rich. Buddy Landell runs to the ring and takes the injured Flanagan’s spot on the apron, and the referee is okay with this for whatever reason.
-Blaze takes a beating in the heel corner, but a bodypress grounds the Punisher. Blaze is finally able to make the tag. Landell—not a legal man in this match, mind you—cleans house and clamps the figure four on Rich. Cornette runs in and attacks with the tennis racquet, getting his team DQed because Corny doesn’t belong in the ring. *Cough* And then a free-for-all erupts, Wolfman and Sgt. Rock run in, and it’s a huge brawl. Corny, I love you and still respect you and all you’ve done, but…you know who ELSE likes booking illegal men just adding themselves to matches and lots of free-for-all brawls?
-Team Landell finishes, saying they’re loaded up and ready to go at Thanksgiving Thunder.
