The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (7.1.1995)

-Originally aired July 1, 1995.

HEADBANGERS vs MIKE MASON & WOLFMAN
-Mosh and Mason begin. Most catches Mason in mid-air and slams him to thunderous silence from the crowd. Thrasher headbutts the Wolfman and the Bangers get to double-teaming. Stage dive finishes quickly.

-Mosh steals Les Thatcher’s eyeglasses. Running gag in their promos is that they can’t maintain a train of thought through their promos and they keep trying to do things to gross Les out.

-Rock & Roll Express is here, and they reveal a brilliant bit of maneuvering. Last week, Bob Armstrong handed them a legal order to turn over the stolen tape recorder and cassette tape to Al Snow. This week, Ricky reveals that he simply went out and bought identical models of the tape recorder and dubbed copies of the tape, so he still actually has the original tape recorder and the contents of the embarrassing mystery cassette.

-So with that, Ricky finally hits the play button on the incriminating tape, and it’s the sound of Jim Cornette plotting a parking lot assault in the parking lot. Cornette comes to the ring and announces that, yeah, technically, they’ve got him caught, but really, it’s not all that embarrassing for him to reveal that Al Snow and Unabom are members of the Militia. Rock & Roll Express, who were smart enough to hatch this scheme involving the duplicate tape recorders, are dumb enough to go to the ring to try to attack Cornette, but sure enough, Snow & Unabom follow them out there, and it’s a beatdown on the Express until the Thugs show up to break it up.

BRAD ARMSTRONG vs LARRY SANTO
-Elbows and a dropkick by Armstrong. Slam and an elbow get a two-count. Russian legsweep for an easy victory.

-Brad completely loses his train of thought while threatening Cornette’s Militia.

PERSONALITY PROFILE
-Chip Kessler welcomes NWA Champion Dan Severn. Dan shows off his NWA Title belt and his title belt from UFC 5. Dan breaks down the difference between Ultimate Fighting and pro wrestling. Dan sort of anticipates changes afoot by noting that in the UFC, “There are no rules…at this time.”

-Tommy Rich dares Bob Armstrong to bring his entire stinking family along with the Thugs, because Cornette’s Militia is ready.

-Mark Curtis cuts a promo about his background, training for wrestling with Dominic DeNucci with a lot of guys like Cactus Jack who became big stars, but because of his size, Curtis admits that his own career never took of. But he’s pretty sure he’s more cut out for wrestling than Randy Hales.

-We go to house show action with The Thugs against PG-13, with Mark Curtis and Randy Hales both in the ring as officials. It’s non-title, but with a $10,000 check on the line. Smothers cradles JC Ice. Hales does a slow count while also tugging on the legs to reverse the pinfall. Mark Curtis catches him and breaks the pin. Smothers schoolboys JC Ice seconds later, and Curtis does a fast-count so fast that Hales can’t break the pin, so The Thugs win $10,000. PG-13 attacks Curtis after the match, with Curtis taking a super-bump from a backdrop that should give you an idea of how much this guy could have done if he didn’t have the size stigma working against him.

-July 8 at Freedom Hall, it’s a Thunderdome cage match between the Rock & Roll Express and Al Snow & Unabom. To make it interesting, the keys to the handcuffs will be on poles at the top of the cage, so you can actually free your partner during the match.

-Buddy Landell is ready to face ANYBODY on August 4, whether it’s Jeff Jarrett, Shawn Michaels, or Vince McMahon himself, and he’s already counting the money he’ll make as a champion of two promotions.

-Boo Bradley and his boo bear are ready for Terry Gordy.

BOO BRADLEY vs TERRY GORDY (with Jim Cornette and The Punisher)
-Bradley attacks Gordy as he enters the ring and is all over him. Gordy ducks a charge and Bradley accidentally sends himself over the top and out to the floor. Gordy pounds away and sends him back into the ring. Suplex and a fistdrop get two. Another fist drop, another two. Bradley reverses an Irish whip and backdrops Gordy to get his comeback started.

-Bradley slams Gordy to the mat and heads to the top rope. Punisher distracts Bradley long enough to give Gordy a breather and Bradley ends up crashing on the mat. Gordy with a scary near-botch on the powerbomb, but it gets three. 3-on-1 assault on Bradley after the match, AND they destroy the teddy bear, which gets the biggest reaction of the entire hour. Bob Armstrong comes in to break it up, which brings out the rest of the militia. Brad Armstrong shows up and Armstrong shocks everyone by clearing the entire militia from the ring all by himself.

-UFC 6: The Superfight! Shamrock vs. Severn!

-The Armstrong family is ready for Summer Blast! And that’s all!

6.8

The final score: review Average

The 411

Fun angles this week, with a referee taking an impressive ass-kicking and the audiotape actually having a payoff, plus the Headbangers doing to really different and new type of heel character for 1995.