The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (11.26.1994)

-Originally aired November 26, 1994.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Les Thatcher.

“Wild Eyed Southern Boy” TRACY SMOTHERS vs JAMES ATKINS
-Bryant Anderson sits in on commentary. Smothers keeps the jobber on the mat with armdrags while Bryant brags about getting a win over Tracy at a house show the night before this taping. I kinda like this. House shows matter.

-Hammerlock by Smothers as Bryant sounds more and more like his dad on the mike with every week of experience he gains. Smothers gets a suplex/pin combo that he’s never done before, and perhaps for good reason. Smothers gets the win but the jobber looks really shook up after the win and Smothers checks on him instead of celebrating the win.

-Jim Ross talks to Tracy Smothers after the bell. He’s a great athlete with a bad attitude!

-We look at highlights from last week’s strap match, and Ron Wright says it would take the rest of the TV hour to rattle off a list of all the weapons he’s bringing to the arena for his Thanksgiving Thunder match tonight, and he can’t describe what he’s gonna do with all that stuff anyway.

BEAT THE CHAMP TV TITLE: BRYANT ANDERSON (Champion) vs THE NIGHTMARE
-This is Bryant’s 5th title defense, so if he wins, he gets $5,000 and forfeits the championship. Anderson keeps the Nightmare on the mat with headscissors while Les says you can tell the masked Nightmare must be a seasoned veteran because of the way he wrestled. Yeah, getting your ass kicked by a guy who’s been in the business for two months is truly the mark of experience.

-Bryant switches from working the arm to just hammering and choking Nightmare. Armbar is clamped on, and Bryant rams him shoulder-first into the turnbuckle. Shoulderbreaker by Bryant, and one more armbar is enough for the submission. Bryant gets the cash and surrenders the title.

-Bob Armstrong is here with Scott & Steve, with JR wondering where the hell they’ve been for the past five months, and he’s not alone. The plan was for the boys to turn heel on their dad over the summer, hence the big push they were suddenly getting. And then they just randomly decided, “We’re going to Japan! Deuces, Jim!” and the angle just fell to pieces.

CONFRONTATION WITH JIM ROSS
-Jim Cornette has curiously requested a face-to-face conversation with Da Gangstas, and it’s a milestone week as Cornette is the one to finally acknowledge “Uptown D-Lo Brown” as the third member. Cornette is trying to be all chummy with Da Gangstas because they’re so committed to kicking the Rock & Roll Express’ asses and he’s in favor of that. Cornette tries to give Da Gangstas some constructive criticism about not being subtle enough when they try to cheat in their matches and offers a contract to Da Gangstas because the three of them with Jim Cornette in their corner are unstoppable. New Jack, being batshit crazy, interprets “white guy wants to tell me what to do” as a form of slavery and tell Cornette to go to hell.

BOO BRADLEY (with Tammy Fytch & Chris Candido) vs GEORGE SOUTH
-Boo is wearing a mask for shits and giggles, and Candido finds it so annoying that he rips the mask off before letting Bradley wrestle.

-South gets off to a good start but crashes on an attempted dropkick. Bradley hammers away. South mounts a comeback and goes for a slam, but he crashes under the weight and Bradley lands on top. Boo is so worried that George hurt himself that he forgets to go for a pin, driving Chris and Tammy crazy. Boo heads to the top rope and comes off with a splash for three, then tries to check to see if George is okay again, which earns him a scolding.

-Tammy tells Boo a story about Cactus Jack trying to hurt Boots the Cat to rile Boo up before his match at Thanksgiving Thunder.

-Cactus Jack shows up after the break, saying he doesn’t care about winning a title in SMW. He wants to win one man’s soul.

TAG TEAM TITLE: DA GANGSTAS (Champions) vs BRIAN LEE & LANCE STORM
-New Jack starts with Storm and beats him down in the corner. Storm fights back with a backdrop and an armdrag. Storm gets caught in the bad corner and then tossed out to the floor. Mustafa suplexes Storm back in for two. Powerslam gets another two. Mustafa applies a bearhug, but the referee gets all mixed up and Storm gets double-teamed while the ref is dealing with Brian Lee. Storm hits a superkick out of nowhere and finally gets the hot tag.

-All four men wind up in the ring. Referee gets distracted again as Chris Candido darts to the ring, KOs Brian Lee with a trash can, and hides under the ring to avoid detection while Da Gangstas get the three-count to retain.

-Cactus Jack shows up at ringside, wanting justice. Cactus picks up the trash can discarded by Candido and just waits at ringside for Candido to emerge. Candido FINALLY comes out, thinking the coast is clear, and Cactus immediately wallops him with the trash can. Weird messy end to the segment as Boo Bradley shows up, everyone just kinda mills around, then a half-assed brawl, and the heels take off. It felt like somebody totally forgot what was supposed to happen.

7.1

The final score: review Good

The 411

Good storyline-filled week, and nothing here that I found really dull. Bryant Anderson is improving by the week and it's starting to make me sad knowing that he just kinda fizzled out because you can see some real star quality emerging.