wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: Smoky Mountain Wrestling (2.27.1993)
Loading...-Originally aired February 27, 1993.
-We’re in Jellico, TN.
-Your hosts are Bob Caudle & Dutch Mantell. Dutch selects Larry Santo to be the challenger in this weeks Beat the Champ match, and does a double-take when he sees the name.
KILLER KYLE (with Jim Cornette) vs TED ALLEN
-Corny grabs the mic just to let Ted Allen know “I wouldn’t be you for anything.”
-Kyle doesn’t bother taking his coat & tie off or even unbuttoning the coat. Backbreaker, side suplex, legdrop. Kyle just keeps beating on Allen while Dutch Mantell calls Cornette a wimp for even needing a bodyguard in the first place. Spinebuster finishes.
RENO RIGGINS vs “Hustler” RIP ROGERS
-Rip Rogers is back, everyone!
-Hustler attacks Riggins from behind and chokes him out before either man has their jacket off. He tosses Riggins to the floor and gives him a hard, HARD chop. Back in, Riggins connects with a forearm off the ropes and mirrors Rogers’ offense, strangling him with his jacket and tossing him out to the floor. Riggins tries to finish with a bodypress, but Rogers rolls through. It only gets two.
-Rogers tries a high risk move, but Riggins shakes the ropes before he jumps off, so Rogers crotches himself (which gets a terrific bug-eyed reaction from Mark Curtis). Rogers wants revenge and takes the match out to the floor for an attempted piledriver. Riggins reverses and Rogers lands right on his head—damn! It’s a basketball court!
-Back in, Rogers gets his turn at crotching Riggins on the top rope and goes for a superplex. Riggins shoves him off and connects with a bodypress to finish him off. Good little battle.
-Commissioner Armstrong is looking for a way to cut off Kevin Sullivan’s medical bills because he’s slowly killing the company’s finances. He still hasn’t figured out a solution to that, and still hasn’t figured out how to deal with the Heavenly Bodies three-man unit. He announces a supercard coming to Pikeville, KY on April 2, the Bluegrass Brawl! Details coming soon!
-Tracy Smothers says that the Dirty White Boy burned his flag and cost him his belt, and now DUES ARE GONNA BE PAID in Barberville, KY. The Rock & Roll Express is bringing a mystery partner to their match against the Heavenly Bodies, and they promise it’ll be someone that Jim Cornette knows real well.
-We go to Dr. Phillips and another examination of Kevin Sullivan. Dr. Sullivan shows him some inkblots, all of which look to Kevin Sullivan like various babyfaces being violently murdered. Nurse Cratchett performs a cranial massage while Sullivan cheeses at the camera and thanks SMW for picking up the bill. These skits are coming off way, WAY too corny for a promotion that was trying to position itself as WWF/WCW antidote. They feel like the story part of the porn.
“The Master” KEVIN SULLIVAN (with Night Stalker) vs LEN FIELDS
-Sullivan murder-kills another jobber. He sends Fields over the top rope to get himself DQed, and Stalker wraps the cloth around Sullivan to relax him.
-Bob Caudle asks Sullivan what the hell is going on and why he keeps getting mail from somebody named Tommy Starr. Kevin refuses to talk about it and says that on March 21 in Knoxville, he wants to wrestle in a Russian Revolver match. But he doesn’t want to tell Brian Lee what the rules of a Russian Revolver match is.
DOWN AND DIRTY WITH DUTCH
-We get comments on location from Tracy Smothers in his backyard. He’s still outraged at the torching of the Rebel flag. Confirmed what I said last week: The Tennessee crowd is totally sitting on their hands in the flashback to last week’s show. Things get stunningly timely as Tracy says he knows a lot of people don’t like the Confederate flag these days. For a lot of people, the Confederate flag means a lot of bad memories. But the Confederate flag reminds him of where his family came from. He’s not a dumb backwoods hillbilly. He’s just proud of his home. Dirty White Boy tried to take that pride away from him, and he’s gonna do something about it, because a Southern man treats people however they treat him.
-Dutch is back live with Mr. Ron Wright and Dirty White Boy. Mr. Wright is sick of how much stress Tracy Smothers is causing them. Commissioner Armstrong strolls in, notifies Dirty White Boy that he has a title match against Smothers next week, and strolls out. Mr. Ron Wright is so sickened, he renounces his citizenship and says he’s moving to New York to become a Yankee. He pops a big pill to settle his heart down after he’s made his point.
BEAT THE CHAMP TV TITLE: NIGHT STALKER (Champion) vs LARRY SANTO
-Stalker attacks at the bell and goes right to work with a gutwrench and a dropkick. Powerbomb finishes and Stalker collects his $1,000 bonus, no sweat.
-Tim Horner and Brian Lee are ready for the Stalker and for Kevin Sullivan. A Russian Revolver, whatever it is, is no match for a .45 fist.
-Next, here’s the Rock & Roll Express. They’re bringing a surprise tag team partner to Knoxville and Johnson City, TN for a six-man tag match with the Heavenly Bodies. No hint aside from being somebody who hates Jim Cornette. OMG, it’s Starmaker Bolin!
-Jim Cornette says he’s tired of giving Rock & Roll chance after chance, as the single match in Knoxville has been spread out to an entire weekend of house shows in three towns.
-Bob Caudle is talking to the Bodies and Jim Cornette and says any one Body can beat any one Express member any time, and having a six-man tag doesn’t magically make them better just because there are three of them. The Express comes out to take them up on the challenge and demands a one-on-one match now. Everybody agrees to Eaton vs. Morton, while Bob Armstrong, who strictly enforces rules against obvious booking, has security come out and escort the remaining guys out of the building.
RICKY MORTON vs BOBBY EATON (with Jim Cornette)
-Fisticuffs before the referee has even made it into the ring. Morton beals Eaton to take control, but Eaton rakes the eyes and chokes Morton out. Dutch Mantell is missing right now, notes Bob Caudle.
-Side headlock by Morton as this matched has reached seesaw-match-up-back-and-forth proportions. Morton hurts his knee and Eaton pounces with a toehold. Figure four is applied, with Cornette offering himself and the tennis racquet to give Eaton extra leverage. Morton rolls and reverses, Eaton makes the ropes.
-Morton tries to make a comeback, but Eaton snake eyes him, and Morton is too dazed to get back up so Eaton goes back to the toehold. Morton escapes and punches him out to the floor. Eaton staggers back in and Morton connects with a bodypress, but before they can finish, here comes the Stud Stable, taking full advantage of the security measures earlier in the show and attacking Eaton AND Morton while they have an opening. And then it’s Jim Cornette’s favorite bit of booking so far, every wrestler runs in one by one to break up the fight and takes a bump. WE ARE DESPERATELY OUTTA TIME!
