The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (3.4.1995)

-Originally aired March 4, 1995.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross & Les Thatcher.

DIRTY WHITE BOY vs BRIAN LOGAN
-Dirty White Boy has added a shirt to his wrestling gear, which isn’t such a terrible idea. DWB attacks Logan’s face and slugs away at him. Headbutts by DWB, and the Bucksnort blaster ends it easily.

-JR announces the main event of SMW March Madness at the end of the month: DWB vs. Buddy Landell in a cage. DWB is gonna use Buddy’s head like a piece of cabbage against the walls of that cage. They hint that a special “keeper of the key” will be appointed to prevent any chicanery.

-Da Gangstas are out next. New Jack wants to know why they have to keep coming to Tennessee to wrestle matches when all these white folks don’t have the nerve to come to where Da Gangstas live for a match there.

-We go to footage of “Da Gangstas’ neighborhood, and Cornette is damn lucky that this stuff flew under the radar in 1995 because it’s literally just black people walking around and hanging out, and they have gangsta rap music playing and acting like it’s the scariest thing ever.

-Bluegrass Brawl ’95 is coming up on April 7!

BEAT THE CHAMP TV TITLE: BOO BRADLEY (Champion) vs “Bad Boy” BILLY BLACK
-JR plugs the WWF Hotline in a weird moment as Boo and Black slug it out. Billy tries a go-behind and Boo just pries his arms apart and butt-butts him. Black tries another tack, ramming Bradley’s head in the turnbuckles, but Bradley completely shakes that off and clotheslines him over the top, going out with him.

-On the floor, Black counters an attempted bulldog and sends Bradley into the post. Back in, Black surprises the commentators with a handspring elbow, then applies a rear chinlock. Boo fights back, whipping Black back and forth and clotheslining him for two. Black catches him with a boot and goes for a moonsault, but Bradley gets out of the way and Black crashes.

-Black clutches his knee in agony and retreats to the corner. Boo is worried because he didn’t mean to injure his opponent, and he turns to the referee, asking if there’s anything they can do, and Black springs right up to the second turnbuckle and bulldogs Boo, then pins him to take the title. Nice finish, and they can totally make that a feud if they want.

CONFRONTATION WITH JIM ROSS
-JR talks to the Dynamic Duo. We go back to the Duo/Rock & Roll impromptu match from last week, followed by pre-taped words from the Rock & Roll Express, who announce that at March Madness, they’re defending the belts in an elimination tag team match. Back in the ring, Al Snow clarifies that HE demanded the elimination stipulation because they would have won last week if the Express hadn’t got desperate and introduced a chair into the ring.

-Billy Black credits his TV Title victory to jackrabbit hunting.

“Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL vs ANTHONY MICHAELS
-Landell backs Michaels into the corner and just hammers him, then chokes him out. Landell puts the boots to him and dropkicks him. Michaels fights back with right hands, but eats a forearm, and NOW we go to how-to tutorials on YouTube, WOOOO! Figure four finishes.

-Buddy Landell tells that “twelve-sandwich and four-liter bottle of Pepsi-eating” Dirty White Boy that he won’t show any mercy in the steel cage.

NEW SOUTHERN BOYS (with Jim Cornette) vs DA GANGSTAS (with D-Lo Brown)
-Katie doesn’t even have a chance to bar the door before all four men end up brawling in the ring. Southern Boys clear the ring and knock D-Lo off the apron for good measure. Fans dust off an old chestnut, “Bald Headed Geek!” for taunting New Jack. They clear the ring a second time and Cornette adds a tennis racquet shot on New Jack for good measure.

-New Jack regains his bearings and gives Tracy Smothers a hard knee to the torso. D-Lo passes a blackjack to New Jack while the referee is distracted. Smothers is bleeding, but the referee gets distracted again, and New Jack gets all stabby with a Kevin Sullivan-style spike. Smothers is a mess as Saad comes in and chokes him out. Saad goes for the pin and JR is begging Smothers to stay down and take the loss so he can get some medical attention, but he’s a fighter!

-Headbutts by New Jack, but Smothers cradles him out of nowhere for two. Smothers suplexes New Jack, but he recovers in time to cut off the hot tag. Belly-to-belly by New Jack, and Mustafa Saad heads in. Moonsault misses and NOW Smothers makes the hot tag. Scott Armstrong cleans house. Armstrong fights off both men until Smothers recovers and they make it a four-man brawl again, but D-Lo still has the blackjack, so he knocks out Armstrong and Da Gangstas get the pin.

-Post-match, Gangstas kick the crap out of Cornette and he’s out cold. Smothers gets cleared from the ring too. Gangstas focus their attention on Scott Armstrong and all three men try to break Armstrong’s leg until Daddy Bob shows up to rescue his son…and then Da Gangstas assault him and they drape the X flag over Armstrong’s unconscious body. Smothers gets his hands on the tennis racquet and finally clears the ring with it, but Da Gangstas definitely made their point this week.

-Les Thatcher talks to everyone in the ring and Bob Armstrong warns Da Gangstas that they’re about to bite the Bullet.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Now THIS was a good use of a depleted roster, a good, long main event, with some added gravity to it with an entire segment devoted to building the main event, and a competitive title match underneath. That's how you make the most of this kind of situation.