The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (11.4.1995)

-Originally aired November 4, 1995.

-Your hosts are Chip Kessler & Les Thatcher.

MIKE SAMPLES vs. FLASH FLANAGAN
-I have to wonder how far in advance Corny knew he was going to shut down the promotion, because it seems weird to have a debut when your company won’t survive through the month.

-Samples works the arm and tries a backslide. Flanagan counters, but runs into a shoulderblock. Flanagan manages to hiptoss Samples over the top and meets him on the floor with a right hand off the ropes. Samples goes back in the ring first and brings Flanagan back in with headscissors. Flanagan responds with headscissors that take Samples right back out of the ring.

-Back in, they trade arm wringers and Flanagan connects with an elbow. Missile dropkick dazes Samples long enough for Flanagan to roll him up and get a three-count. Huh.

KESSLER’S KORNER
-We go to house show action with Buddy Landell & Tommy Rich doing battle in a barbed wire match. Referee gets KOed long enough for Buddy to get his hands on Corny’s racquet and he takes out Tommy long enough to get the three-count. Punisher & Jim Cornette head inside and maul Landell as an act of vengeance. They beat the crap out of referee Mark Curtis while they’re at it, to avenge Curtis punching out Cornette in a previous match.

-We get comments from Buddy Landell, taped in a used car lot next to a storage building. Landell wants a rematch. Joe LeDuc’s whereabouts have been determined, and he’s coming down to team up with Buddy Landell at Thanksgiving Thunder to face off against Tommy Rich & The Punisher. And it’s a lumberjack match, too, but with one lumberjack: Commissioner Bob Armstrong and his baseball bat. And we finally establish why the promo is taped at a used car lot. This is a tag team match with a prize at stake: a 1992 Ford with only 30,000 miles on it. But don’t worry, if that prize is too good for you, I’m sure we can round up some crap instead.

-We take a look back at the legendarily violent career of Joe LeDuc in Memphis wrestling. We see him dragging cars and buses, breaking bottles over his head, and carving his own arm with an ax.

-Chip gets comments from Cornette’s Militia and everybody is freaking the hell out because they REALLY aren’t sure they can handle LeDuc the way they’ve been handling Buddy Landell.

-We go to house show action with Brad Armstrong & Wolfman preparing to face off against Terry Gordy & Thrasher in another Trick or Treat Tag Match…but before that, Jim Cornette argues with Sandy Scott in the locker room. If Gordy loses the match, he has to take ten lashes AND he loses the belt, but Brad Armstrong isn’t gambling anything. Corny actually has a reasonable complaint, so Scott agrees that Armstrong has to take ten lashes if he loses.

-So we go to the match, where Mark Curtis gets bumped while Mosh offers a little interference and then gets the pin himself because Curtis is so dazed that he can’t tell the difference. Armstrong gets handcuffed to the ropes and takes one or two lashings until Wolfman reveals that BOTH Headbangers were at ringside, so Curtis insists that the lashings stop. The heels are like “No, that’s okay” and knock out Mark Curtis again, and the beating goes on.

-We get words from Armstrong, who promises that the lashings and humiliations will stop.

TERRY GORDY (SMW Champion, with Colonel Cornette) vs. RON DAVIS
-Gordy squashes Davis while Corny gratefully declares that at long last, a REAL man has the championship belt. He’s looking forward to Gordy defending the belt against Armstrong in a strap match, and again in the Badstreet Death Match in the coming weeks. Corny promises that a bomb is going to be dropped when Sgt. Rock is revealed next week. Speaking of bombs, a powerbomb gets the win for Gordy.

-We look back at Butch Cassidy kicking Corny’s ass last week.

-Corny promises that Sgt. Rock will arrive next week. He declares that Wolfman’s future is very dim. Les Thatcher surprises Corny by revealing that he’s been booked to get in the ring at Thanksgiving Thunder, and his opponent will be Butch Cassidy. Thatcher tells Corny that he needs to take his tights out of the mothballs for this one, and Corny tells him “Leave my balls alone!” and storms off.

PUNISHER (with General Cornette) vs. COMET CHRIS MICHAELS
-When hiring a ring announcer, it’s important to make sure he has the proper skill for careful enunciation of his announcements. Case in point: Punisher seems considerably less intimidating when the crowd is led to believe that he hails “from the underwear.”

-Punisher throws Michaels all over the place and chokeslams him. Legdrop off the top rope gets three. Punisher got some amazing air for a man of his size, too.

-We go to the double-chain match between the Thugs and the Heavenly Bodies, with Robert Gibson acting as guest referee. Corny steps in the ring with his tennis racquet, but Gibson snatches the racquet out of his hand…and then KOs the Thugs with it. Heavenly Bodies get the win, and then Gibson destroys the forces of good with Corny’s racquet while Corny cackles approvingly.

-Butch Cassidy’s crazy ass is excited about the chance to stomp Corny’s head through the floor of the Coliseum at Thanksgiving Thunder. He keeps calling himself “the meanest midget wrestler,” even though he looks like a normally developed person who happens to be short.

-Corny & Tommy Rich come out and Corny talks about how he hates the taste of shrimp, so Rich & Corny pour sauce all over his head.

WOLFMAN vs. TOMMY RICH (with General Cornette)
-Buddy Landell arrives at ringside and tells Wolfman to leave, so Landell takes his place and proceeds to unload on Rich with right hand after right hand. Rich gets the advantage just as it’s time to fade to black, so we’ll bring you the conclusion next week.

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

Not a bad week, but we're getting close to the end and it's weird how knowing that impacts your enjoyment of some of this.