The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (4.22.1995)

-Originally aired April 22, 1995.

-Your hosts are Les Thatcher and Chip Kessler. They give a surprisingly straightforward reason for the change in personnel, with Les explaining that JR is moving to Connecticut and he got his job back at the WWF.

BOBBY FULTON vs GEORGE SOUTH
-Side headlock by Fulton leads to a good chain wrestling sequence. South catches Fulton in a slam, but Fulton uses the position to his advantage, catching South in legscissors and flipping him. South backs Fulton into the corner and hammers him, but scissors holds just keep working for Fulton so he keeps going back to them. Slam by Fulton as we learn that Fulton returned to SMW after learning that Buddy Landell is the new champ and he wants to personally knock Landell down a peg.

-Front facelock by Fulton. South fights free but gets a fist right between the eyes. Spinkick by Fulton. Really nifty finish as Fulton tries to go for an atomic drop, South blocks it by trying to grab his ankle, but Fulton just grabs South’s wrist, flips him over, and rolls him up for three.

-Bobby Fulton gives a rather interesting backstory, explaining that Buddy picked a fight in the locker room once years ago and when Fulton started getting the upper hand, Buddy pulled a gun on him!

-Chip is with Bob Armstrong and Jim Cornette. Bob Armstrong is wearing a Cinemax t-shirt, so I guess he and I have similar interests to discuss if I ever meet him. Jim Cornette says he signed a contract for a match against the Da Gangstas at Volunteer Slam. Volunteer Slam was the event two years ago where Cornette hospitalized Bob Armstrong and he thought it would be poetic justice if he made it up to Bob. He signed a Texas Death Match against Bob and—wait for it—A Mystery Partner.

-Tracy Smothers reveals that he and Dirty White Boy are now calling themselves “The Thugs.” That’s really kind of a heel name.

THE THUGS vs LARRY SANTO & WOLFMAN
-Tracy Smothers starts with Santo. Double-team move early on , followed by frequent tags to show that great tag team continuity on the part of The Thugs. Wolfman tags in and gets tripped and taken down. Chip Kessler mentions that Wolfman recently approached Buddy Landell and asked for help with training, but Landell wasn’t interested. Wolfman gets rammed into DWB’s boot and DWB stomps away at him.

-Thugs work the arm of the Wolfman. All four men wind up in the ring for a brawl. Jobbers get Irish whipped into each other. Thugs unleash their finisher, DWB propping up Santo for Smothers’ jawjacker, and that gets three.

CONFRONTATION WITH LES THATCHER
-The Dynamic Duo show off the fancy new wood coffin they’ve built for burying Ricky Morton’s career. Al Snow delivers a eulogy and asks the fans to put their hands on their TVs like everybody in Tennessee does when they watch TV on Sunday morning, encouraging them to put it on the back of the TV to REALLY feel the power. Duo fills the coffin with Rock & Roll Express merchandise, plus the negligee that Ricky liked to wear when he wasn’t wrestling. Robert Gibson finally gets fed up enough to come out and fight them by himself. Al grabs a chair and lands a devasting blow on Gibson’s forearms one foot away from his face, and then puts him in the wood coffin and nails the lid shut, and all the babyfaces run out to pry it off. This had nowhere near the impact of the Undertaker/Ultimate Warrior angle they were cribbing from, owing largely to the fact that the casket lid was made of the most pliable wood I’ve ever seen in my life AND there were three massive slats cut down the middle of it. I was honestly expecting the payoff to be Gibson bursting through the casket.

BEAT THE CHAMP TV TITLE: KILLER KYLE (Champion, with D-Lo Brown) vs MIKE MASON
-Kyle hammers the challenger and gives him a side suplex with authority. Kyle chokes him out. Mason fights back with right hands and a dropkick, but he takes too much time going to the top rope, and when he comes off, Kyle just catches him and makes it a spinebuster for three.

-Boo Bradley challenges Killer Kyle to a dog collar match at Volunteer Slam.

SMW TITLE, $10,000, A MERCEDES, AND A ROLEX WATCH vs. $1: “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL (Champion) vs BOBBY BLAZE
-Blaze armdrags Landell as the commentators explain the dollar as a brilliant psychological ploy because if a dollar is all this match is worth to Buddy, Blaze must take that to mean that’s all his own skills are worth. That’s…an interesting interpretation.

-Blaze works the arm and hiptosses Buddy for a two-count. Buddy counters a corner charge with a big elbow. Buddy keeps dishing out elbows and applies a chinlock. They’re ridiculously close to the ropes and Blaze is making me crazy by fighting the hold instead of just straightening his arm to break the hold.

-Blaze manages to kick Landell out of the ring. Landell grabs his title belt and manages to whack Blaze right in the face without the referee noticing. Landell gets the pin, retains the title, and crams Blaze’s dollar down his throat.

-Buddy Landell vows to fight accusations of being a closet champion and grants a title shot to Bobby Fulton next week.

5.9

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Kind of a good angle on paper, marred by awful execution and a poorly-built crate...and to be honest, I'm just kind of sick of the Rock & Roll Express and the predictability of it all at this point. There's no way they aren't getting those belts back. Blaze and Buddy are having kind of a fun program though, so it's not a total loss.