The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (4.1.1995)

-Originally aired April 1, 1995.

-Your hosts are JR and LT. Not that LT.

BEAT THE CHAMP TV TITLE: KILLER KYLE (Champion, with Da Gangstas) vs KENNY ARDEN
-Arden is a MASSIVE jobber with some fascinating pink and black polka-dotted tights. I’m semi-tempted to ask Jim Cornette about him because he just looks like a guy that Cornette would have at least a short anecdote about.

-Kyle just hammers the jobber and whips him across the ring. Side suplex by Kyle, and he has a chat with the referee so the rest of the Gangstas can take some free shots. Spinebuster by Kyle, and it’s an easy win.

-Boo Bradley is anti-racism, but also anti-bad people, and Da Gangstas are bad people.

-Rock & Roll Express warns Al Snow & Unabom that they’re here to stay, not to play. It’s actually been a while since Ricky said that.

-DWB has his logging chain already for his match against Buddy Landell. All of a sudden, Wolfman strolls out and says he hasn’t won a match in SMW and asks to be trained by DWB. DWB says that preparing for a chain match isn’t really the best time to take someone under his wing for training. Wolfman thanks him and walks away, and DWB and JR just look at each other, a little taken aback by how weird that was.

-We recap the Buddy/Bobby saga, which has led to some odd stipulations at Fright Night: Buddy Landell is putting up $10,000 for a title shot against Bobby Blaze. If Buddy wins, he gets the SMW Title, and Bobby has to return his Mercedes and his Rolex.

-We also take a look at a house show with Buddy fighting Dirty White Boy in a “steel” cage (it-a look-a like chicken wire) and the finish is kind of neat, as the “keeper of the key” for this one is the local sheriff, Kim Birchfield. Referee gets bumped, so the police chief comes in to take over. Buddy makes use of brass knuckles to knock out DWB. Sheriff counts to two but then notices the fans at ringside are freaking out about something, so he stops the count to ask what happened. Landell shoves the sheriff, the sheriff gives him a right, Buddy gets schoolboyed and the sheriff gives him a fast count. Landell gets pissed and attacks the sheriff, who actually takes some decent bumps.

-Sheriff Birchfield announces he’ll be the guest referee for the rematch in Johnson City on April 8. He’s willing to let Buddy’s assault slide ONCE, but if Buddy gets out of line in any way during the match in Johnson City, he’s spending the night in jail.

-We go to Da Gangstas at a cemetery. This is a pretty damn funny skit. The idea is they’re trying to cut a badass promo in a graveyard, but Da Gangstas are actually genuinely frightened and none of them, not even New Jack, can cut a decent promo in there. New Jack has a shovel and wants to do the most badass thing ever and dig up graves just to prove that they don’t get creeped out easily…and he keeps talking, and talking, and talking to stall for time instead of digging, and then D-Lo says he heard a noise and Da Gangstas all take off running in terror. Camera zooms in on a bush to reveal that the scary noise D-Lo heard was a stray cat.

-Jim Cornette is feeling REALLY cocky about Fright Night now.

-We get a video profile of Bobby Blaze recapping his unlikely rise to SMW Champion. This is great, as it’s actually pretty antithetical to typical pro wrestling stuff. It’s a very straightforward biography of Bobby, who developed a passion for wrestling as a kid and helped put up the rings as a teenager so he could get face time with some of the wrestlers, which led to getting to train with Professor Boris Malenko, which led to some matches during his rookie year in SMW. He got a freak upset win over Dirty White Boy to win the TV Title out of nowhere, and we get clips from DWB now laughing off the loss and saying he was stupid to underestimate his opponent like that.

TRACY SMOTHERS (with Jim Cornette) vs NEW JACK (with Da Gangstas)
-Cornette escorts Smothers to the ring, then disappears to the locker room and returns with a new friend, Boo Bradley. Without looking it up in advance, I feel like the payoff to this is going to be a lumberjack match at somewhere-or-other in May.

-Tracy hiptosses New Jack and dropkicks him. Armdrag gets two and JR and Les have a really intricate conversation about what constitutes a good armdrag, and that leads to JR shitting on WCW for not appreciating what they had when Ricky Steamboat was there. New Jack turns the tide and gets two off a belly-to-belly. Irish whip by New Jack, but he runs into a boot. New Jack gets frustrated and resorts to choking. Chinlock clamped on as JR and Les make their picks for Wrestlemania tomorrow, and both of them call it for Lawrence Taylor.
-New Jack goes for a backdrop, but Tracy counters with a DDT. Enziguiri by Smothers, and the jawjacker looks to finish, but now all hell breaks loose as everyone on the floor picks a dance partner and starts brawling, and in all the confusion, Mustafa sprints in, and helps double-team Smothers to allow New Jack to get the three-count. After the bell, Gangstas rally and destroy everyone in sight, and Cornette gets buried under the Gangsta flag.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Gangstas were the stars of the hour all the way around, and the Bobby Blaze video profile is something that ALL wrestling promotions should do more of, just in general. Good week.