Autistic Dragon

Pardon me if this has already been discussed but I stumbled across this fact while online and thought I'd bring it up. Apparently Eric Bischoff's main rival for executive producer was Jim Ross with Tony Schiavone also angling for the job. How does WCW change under Ross or even Schiavone?

Honestly after those two shows, I don't blame you for taking a breather. I always had a feeling Buzz would be a great fit for The Asylum. Now they've got a new leader to create even more chaos. Nikita is focused on Sarge but Jumbo has the title in his sights as well.

Smoky Mountain Wrestling TV. From the Paintsville High School Gymnasium in Paintsville Kentucky. Taped 10/1/96 before originally airing on 10/13/96. On Commentary: Bob Caudle & Dutch Mantell Ring Announcer: Kevin Noe Interviews: Michael St John After the usual Smoky Mountain intro, we cut to the booth where SMW owner Bert Prentice is joining Caudle and Mantell. After Caudle welcomes the audience to the episode he turns things over to Prentice. The boss says that after the controversial finish to the Smoky Mountain Heavyweight Championship match at the Big Apple Grapple, the Smoky Mountain Championship Committee has agreed that not only will Duggan get a rematch in Halloween Scream, it will be in a Trick or Treat match where they'll be "Halloween goodies" spread throughout the arena for the two of them to beat each other senseless with. Dutch is flustered at first but recovers his usual bluster and promises Duggan a "holiday scare he'll never forget." Match #1 Flash Flanagan vs Mr #1 It's all Flanagan as he vents his frustration on the masked man before finishing him off with a move Caudle calls the "Whip Flash" (blockbuster). Flanagan joins St John after the match and he informs Flanagan that Wolfie D has sent in a tape to be shown. We see Wolfie D with the two men from last week rolling dice in a seedy looking alley. He introduces the shorter man as his "real main man JC Ice" and the bigger man as Cash Flo. Says it's good to be surrounded by "real homies" again and warns "lil Flashy boy" that if he sticks his nose in their "biddness" again he'll learn the real meaning of street justice. JC Ice finishes by saying all the parents watching are on notice that from now on, Smoky Mountain Wrestling TV is rated....PG-13! After the tape ends a fuming Flanagan says not only is he not afraid to stick his nose in their business, he challenges any of them to meet him in the ring next week! Match #2 "Sweet Music Man" Billy Joe Travis vs Rollin' Hard RH shows plenty of heart and a willingness to take risks as he gives Travis a fight the veteran clearly didn't expect. Still he takes one risk too many allowing Travis to score the win via the "Just a swingin" neckbreaker VTR- A camera makes sweeping shots of a graveyard at night before settling on a lit bonfire. From the surrounding darkness emerge the figures of James Mitchell, Bruiser Bedlam and The Moondogs. Mitchell says a great darkness is coming to Smoky Mountain Wrestling and it shall spread to every corner of the land. He and his men are the harbingers of this darkness and shall insure none escape. He vows to rid SMW of the Rock n Roll Express and his "Hell Hounds" will do just that at Halloween Scream in a double dog collar match, if the Express have the nerve to accept that is. Speaking of challenge people's nerves, he throws out an open challenge to see if anyone on the SMW roster has the courage to face his "engine of destruction" Bruiser Bedlam. Mitchell says at Halloween Scream his Disciples of the New Church will drive a stake through the heart of Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Mitchell cackles while Bedlam and The Moondogs roar/howl their accent. -end VTR. Match #3 "Primetime" Brian Lee vs The Kentucky Killer A basic squash match with Lee claiming the win with the "Primetime Slam" Lee joins St John and reveals that since he and Chris Candido are tied 1-1 in the new era of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, he decided they needed a tie breaker. He took his idea to the matchmakers and they gave him his treat but also a trick as it Brian Lee vs Chris Candido at Halloween Scream in a Prince of Darkness match. Main Event. Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka) vs The Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard & Jimmy Del Rey) The Heavenly Bodies promised a big surprise and they delivered when they walked through the curtain accompanied by none other than.....Jim Cornette! The live audience erupted with boos when they realized the "Louisville Lip" was amongst them once again. The match that followed was a classic display of tag team wrestling with both teams getting a chance to show off. Diamond goes for a move off the top but a distracted ref doesn't see Cornette jump up and grabbing Diamond's leg crotching him on the top turnbuckle. The Bodies take advantage of his positioning to hit "Starfall" for the tainted win. Mantell: Ya see that Caudle? First match back and Cornette's already righted the ship. The man's a genius I tell ya. Caudle: Well he's certainly something Dutch. Well fans that'll be it for this week, we'll see you next week and until then so long for now.

I think we can all agree that Chikara was one of the most unique wrestling companies in American wrestling history. From it's colorful characters to storylines which could last years, it certainly wasn't like anything else in Indy scene in the 2000s and 2010s. I've never seen a full card but the more I research it, the more fascinating I find it. For those of you who did see it, what did you think? What did you like? What would you have done differently? And what did you think when its doors closed in 2020?

There's a channel called Armstrong Alley that has entire playlists of obscure wrestling from the 90s and earlier.

Good for them. The NWA is making some serious progress lately.

If i were running a wrestling company, i would jump at the chance to sign Salina. She's got a great look and kills in the role of the megalomaniacal bitch. I agree MLW has had a bumpy ride. To be fair, there's evidence of WWE sabotaging them at certain points but there certainly seem to be some problems with booking and distribution. Reelz always struck me as a weird home for wrestling. From what i remember of it, it mostly focuses on celebrity stories. Still i watch MLW every week and find it a fun watch. Alex Kane is really winning me over as World Champ and i am a huge fan of The Calling, though sadly they seem to already be sewing the seeds of a breakup.

I was mindlessly searching the internet when I came across an article saying that the NWA was restarting the territory system starting with EC3's Exodus Pro or as it will now be known, NWA Exodus Pro Midwest.

The combination of Savage and Heenan may be too much for even Hogan to overcome. The Rougeau Brothers vs The Rockers. Honestly can't go wrong either way. Muta vs The Warrior? I'd tune in to see it.

PCW is coming to Calgary with 3 big matches announced.

Flair's opening promos are unsurprisingly becoming a weekly highlight. Storm gets the win but Barry is there to avenge his brother's honor. All hail Bobby Duncan Jr, The new King of Extreme! The Windhams really seem to have a bone to pick with the FBI. Hope Guido can focus on his title shot next week. 911 & Crush with a surprise win. Taz and Benoit put on a clinic with the Human Suplex Machine coming out on top. The Faces of Fear were, in hindsight, really underused by WCW. I think they could carve out a place here. If it was Flair's plan to get on Arn's good side, it didn't work.

Fall Brawl is looking red hot!

I vote for this.

(I'll think I'm gonna keep the format from last week until the Starrcade Series ends. Keeping the blocks straight in my head is kinda sapping my creativity for the rest of the show.) From the Memorial Auditorium in Greenville SC. Previously recorded airing on 10/7/88 on the USA Network. On Commentary: Gordon Solie Ring announcer/Interviews: Sean Moony Starrcade Series Block B matches. "The Ace" Bob Orton w/JJ Dillon vs "The Gatekeeper Jimmy Golden w/"The Mastermind" Ron Fuller Orton and Dillon ooze arrogance as the enter the ring whereas Fuller and particularly come out looking like a bull ready to stick their horns in the nearest rodeo clown. Despite both men's tendencies towards rule breaking, they do manage to put on a solid technical display. Orton seems to be closing in on a victory when out of nowhere, Fuller wipes out Dillon with a big boot. Orton goes to the ropes and gets in a shouting match with Fuller while the referee tries to keep them separated. During this fracas, Golden is able to come up behind Orton with a low blow followed by a Piledriver to finally get his first win in the Series. "Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez vs The Super Destroyer w/"Number One" Paul Jones A much more hard-hitting offering which saw both men rocked by the stiff blows rained down by their opponent. Super D goes for a lariat which Fernandez ducks under and comes off the ropes to catch the masked man with the "Flying Burrito" for the 1,2,3. "The Doctor of Desire" Tom Prichard vs "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin w/Precious The long awaited battle of the Freebirds is here and it doesn't disappoint. Precious and Michael Hayes are both at ringside. Precious cheers her man while Hayes is more neutral, cheering both his brothers. Prichard fires off a Superkick only for Garvin to catch it, spin Prichard around, double him over with a boot and attempts a Brainbuster only for Prichard to counter into a inside cradle for the pin just as TV time expires. Hayes and Precious enter the ring and the show ends with the four in a group hug. The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) vs The Beasts of Burden (Rip Morgan & Nord the Barbarian) w/"The Notorious" Ox Baker All out brawl as soon as the Beasts hit the ring. Things break down several times and eventually Randy Anderson reaches his wits end and throws the match out. It takes the entire security team and a few lower card wrestlers to separate the two teams. As Ox and the Beasts are being corralled to the entrance, Hawk grabs the mic and challenges all three of them to a Chicago Street Fight at Fright Night! It takes only a shared look before Baker bellows "you're on!" Starrcade Series Leaderboard Block A: Kamala 6pts, Robert Fuller 5pts, Ron Garvin 5pts, Joe Lightfoot 4pts, Wahoo McDaniel 2pts, Wendell Cooley 2pts. Block B: Bob Orton 6pts, Manny Fernandez 6pts, Jimmy Garvin 4pts, The Super Destroyer 4pts, Tom Prichard 4pts, Jimmy Golden 2pts. Block A will conclude next week with... Robert Fuller vs Wendell Cooley Wahoo McDaniel vs Joe Lightfoot Ron Garvin vs Kamala

Oakland. Regal gets a chance to flex. Hennig continues a Perfect roll. The Diamond Exchange finally gives their motive, resentment against the legacies. I buy it. Albright is positioning himself as a major obstacle on Haynes road to the title. Scotty gets caught with his hand (or foot) in the cookie jar and Rose gets punished. San Francisco. Stormfront and The Can-Am Express take each other to the limit. Looks like Cornette is washing his hands of the younger Steamboat. The Dragon slays the King. The Exchange continues to make a profit. In the battle of shovel vs tennis racket, my money is on shovel. Windham;s firm grip on the title holds. Fresno. Neidhart blitzes Brookside. Spicolli's dry streak is over and even Lynn is happy for him. Adams crushes Candido. Chono does Tenryu proud. Albright goes the distance with Severn. Azul proves he has what it takes to be champion, if not tonight then someday.

Night 2, Let's go. After their behavior tonight, i think The Olympians might just be one of the biggest hell acts in the AWA. Dream's loaded mask backfires. I was waiting for The Glamour Boys to snap and tonight was the night. Adias' obsession with his shades costs him his gold. SuperClash 3! Ah yeah! Blackwell crushes Oliver. The Sheik played with fire and got burned. The Rich's decide if they don't win any titles, then The Rose's can't either. The Sarge is here to rescue the World Tilte from that Godless commie Nikita. ....Wait. Amazing level of detail i Wargames. I like Kerry getting the win after the early distraction by Gordy. I'll be interested to see what happens with The Asylum after Jumbo plants the leader.

Flair making a calculated move but it could blow up in his face.

Providence. Solid wins for the Steiners and Bad News. Rotundo with the all-American win over Ivan. Muta continues to shine. Bad night for the Russians. ST find out who's Boss. Honky gets caught with El Kabong. The Powers take down the big boys. Hogan has an OMG moment in Rhode Island. Baltimore. Warrior goes 2-0 against the Nasties. Duggan vs Shiek, a classic. Rude with a huge win over the Superfly. Miscommunication costs the Heenan Family. Taylor escapes with the win and his hair. I imagine things were tense between Scott and Rotundo. Savage and Studd get a cheap win but Andre & Roberts make them pay. Albany. Rockers endure the Pain. Muta can not be stopped. The Towers win the Battle of the Biggun's. An all-star team topples the Hart Foundation. Takes more then a little Bad News to derail the Hulkster.

Miss Kentucky brings in a Moondog to help Bruno get the tag belts. Bert isn't impressed at first but i think that showing in the ring brought him around. DJ and the champs still aren't sweating them though. The Renesto's have a bone to pick about being left out of the tag title tournament and take it out on Rocky & Weiss. Honestly the whole show highlighted the tag scene.

Night 1 in St Paul. Let's go! Brandi wins by a hair and Putski doesn't take it well. Vinnie spares his boys a pinfall loss but The Bruisers make him pay for it. Without the Vin Man to worry about, DJ puts Kelly down for the count. Poffo gets caught up putting on a show and Orndorf catches him. Terry Gordy is a huge get for the AWA and he immediately puts the resident Von Erich on notice. Venomous show who the best masked tag team really is and take the Bee's masks as proof. The Rich's literally trip over each other allowing Los Guerrero's to retain. Double J take his long awaited trip to Larry Land. After a hard-hitting affair, Nikita still stands on to of the mountain. Bring on night 2!

Smoky Mountain Wrestling TV. From the Paintsville High School Gymnasium in Paintsville Kentucky. Taped 10/1/96 before originally airing 10/6/96. On Commentary: Bob Caudle & Dutch Mantell Ring Announcer: Kevin Noe Backstage interviews: Michael St John We see a series of still shots of the action at the Big Apple Grapple before the usual Smoky Mountain intro. We cut to Caudle Mantell (the SMW Heavyweight Title over his shoulder) at the booth joined by SMW owner Bert Prentice who has the SMW Tag Team Titles with him. Caudle: Hello wrestling fans and welcome to another exciting week of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, pro wrestling the way it used to be and the way you like it. I'm Bob Caudle alongside my tag team partner and the man who is, by hook or crook, still your Smoky Mountain Heavyweight Champion "Dirty" Dutch Mantell (Mantell holds the title proudly while Prentice rolls his eyes) and joining us right now is the owner of Smoky Mountain Wrestling Mr Bert Prentice and Bert I understand you have a few announcements for us today. Prentice: I certainly do Bob. First of all I want to thank everyone who came out to join us for the Big Apple Grapple and helped make it a tremendously successful night for Smoky Mountain Wrestling. And for those of you who for whatever reason couldn't make it, well don't you worry cause before too long the Big Apple Grapple will be available on Smoky Mountain Wrestling home video just like Rebirth. And I also wanna announce that the next big event for Smoky Mountain Wrestling will come on October 28th when we present Halloween Scream from the Freedom Hall Civic Center in Johnson City Tennessee. All the biggest stars of Smoky Mountain Wrestling will be there and Dutch (the champ looks at Prentice a little surprised to be singled out) I'll have a announcement as to how you'll be spending that weekend but that's for next week. Right now I want to introduce to everyone your brand new Smoky Mountain Wrestling Tag Team Champions, Tracy Smothers and The Dirty White Boy... The Thugs! *The Thugs come out to their theme "Tuff Enuff" by The Fabulous Thunderbirds and a huge pop from the live crowd.* Prentice: Gentlemen it is my privilege to award you these titles and I think I speak for everyone here when I say congratulations to you both. Smothers: Thank you very much Mr Prentice. You know I've been representing Smoky Mountain Wrestling since November of 92 and my man the Dirty White Boy was here basically from the beginning and we're both so proud to be the tag team champions again but also show a whole new crop of fans what being a Thug is all about. DWB: Hey Mr Prentice, it just hit me you're pretty new around here, do you know what Thug stands for yet? Prentice: Well, can't say that I do. Can you explain it to me real quick? Smothers: *big grin on his face* with pleasure boss man. *Clears throat" T is for Terrible! DWB: H is for Hell! Smothers: U is for Ugly! DWB: G is for Jail.... Both: Cause Thugs can't spell. (Caudle sends us to break while the crowd pops and Prentice just about dies laughing.) Match #1 George South vs Wolfie D Wolfie D has a little extra bite in everything he does as he takes it to the journeyman South before finishing him with a spinning crucifix bomb. Wolf D joins Michael St John and immediately starts running down Flash Flannigan calling him "dead weight who was crimping my style". Says he teamed with Flanagan cause he felt bad for him only to be let down when it counted. After some more of this, Flanagan runs down and a brawl breaks out between the now former partners. Just as Flanagan seems to take the advantage, two men dressed similar to Wolfie D run down and jump on him. One is short with a mohawk while the other is about 6'4 with long brown hair. The three men beat down Flanagan until security finally gets between them and the trio retreat laughing and high-fiveing the whole way. Match #2 Bobby Blaze vs Bart Sawyer A solid if unspectacular TV match. Sawyer shows plenty of craftiness and manages a couple of near falls but the former SMW Heavyweight Champion is able to seal the deal with the "Blaze Blaster"(northern lights suplex) We see footage of the chaotic ending to the match between The Moondogs and The Rock n Roll Express at the Big Apple Grapple. Caudle announces that the two teams will meet again in today's main event. Match #3 Nick Dinsmore vs "No Gimmicks Needed" Chris Candido Dinsmore once again shows considerable promise as a wrestler but Candido is just on another level right now. After several engaging exchanges Candido takes the win with the "New Jersey Jam"(top rope leg drop) Before the main event, Dutch says he spoke to The Heavenly Bodies earlier and they told him they have a big surprise in store for next week when they take on Badd Company. Main Event. The Rock n Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) vs The Moondogs (Rex & Spot) w/"Father" James Mitchell The Moondogs jump the Express just before the bell to take the early advantage. As tends to happen, Morton is isolated for a good chunk of the match and plays "face in peril" as only he can. Finally Gibson gets the tag and is a house of fire. Things break down near the end but Gibson is able to get Rex in a sunsetflip and just barely hold the wildman down for the 3. The Moondogs aren't finished yet and the two teams are still fighting when time runs out. Caudle: My word it is utter chaos in there right now. We'll try to get this under control fans. But that'll do it for this week, we'll see you next week and until then, so long for now.

Great promo at the start of the show. I'm really liking Flair as the guy at the top of the mountain daring anyone to knock him off. I've been a little confused as to where the FBI stand but this week places them firmly as faces. And I can see that, from what I know of them in ECW they were basically a comedy act anyway. A k.o win in wrestling is pretty big already but a k.o win over Terry Gordy makes Windham a made man. The Harris Brothers are, if nothing else, convincing bruisers. A big night for the "Loose Canon". First he scored the win over Storm and then he storms the main event. Double A does the right thing and sends the invader packing. Between Flair's boasting, Paul E's politicking and Pillman's disrespect Arn is a ready made hero.

Heyman may be slick but he can't deny Arn forever. Storm vs Pillman really stands out to me, though Gordy vs Windham should be a fun hossfest.

I like using Korakuen Hall for these smaller cards. Creates a nice B-show setting between your major shows.

Baxter might be a little bruised but he's a winner tonight. Miss Kentucky claims to have found a team, huh? Well I hope she checked their credentials cause Jamie and Papa-san are on point. The Assassin was fiddling with his mask you say? ....Eh, I'm sure it's nothing. Reno has the CA in trouble until Sierra comes down to bail his comrade out. Luckily Baxter hadn't left the building yet and they send the Cubans into retreat.