Cox

One thing I don't like about the way Bryan and Dave are running the site is that they don't seem to have any concept for how to run a successful website in the year 2011. Forget for a minute that they paywall such random stories. They have no idea, for instance, the best times to post their daily news updates or their newsletters. I know there's some East Coast bias at work here, but most "normal" folks on the East Coast work 8 AM to 5 PM, and sometimes you'll see daily news updates go up at 6, or newsletters that go up at 8. People like to surf the internet at work, but because Dave and Bryan post their updates so late in the day, folks on the East Coast can sometimes completely miss out on a daily update and a newsletter because it goes up after they leave work, and by the time they get back to work the next day, it's buried underneath stuff like "Joe Babinsack reviews Women's Extreme Wrestling" or the latest audio show. I know not everybody works on East Coast time (heck, even I don't and I work on the East Coast) but there should be some sort of content that goes up around 9-10 AM every day for the East Coast folks, and maybe something else that goes up around 2 that keeps people on both coasts occupied throughout the day. Posting newsletters as late as Dave does is counter-productive. For that matter, I'm not even sure the concept of a newsletter in this day and age works on the internet. I am guessing that Dave and Bryan probably don't write everything the night before the newsletter is due. Some things, sure, but not everything. Why not release certain news and tidbits throughout the week in subscriber-only updates? When Dave started the WON 30 years ago, it made sense to have a news section that recapped a week's worth of news in one shot, but that's passe now with the internet. A lot of the scoops Dave is reporting in the WWE section of the WON can sometimes be up to a week old thanks to other reporting. If, say, Randy Savage dies on a Friday, and if the obituary is completed by Monday, why not post it as a subscriber-only update on Monday instead of waiting until Wednesday when it goes up with the rest of the WON? Why does the F4W site need three Raw recaps (Todd Martin's on Monday, Bryan's on Tuesday as part of F4W, Dave's on Wednesday as part of the WON)? I understand that Todd's serves as a free update for those who don't subscribe, but a WON subscriber can read three similar takes on the same wrestling program over the course of three days if they chose to (granted, I don't really read Todd's recaps or Bryan's recaps, and I've started skimming through Dave's as well). The execution of their site could be so much better than it is, and it just reeks of people who don't understand how the internet works in the year 2011. Granted, they seem to be making money regardless, but I suspect they're leaving money on the table as well.

Babinsack reviewed two DVDs for UWC. His reviews resulted in a net purchase of 0 DVDs. It brings up the point of if all of his reviews for things he's received for free are positive, that means none of them stand out over the other since he likes everything that he watches, not to mention the inherent credibility problem of a guy who writes positive things about every free wrestling product he receives, which means he will keep getting more free stuff.

Did you know that Brian Lee was (varying what promo you're watching, 6'6", 6'7", or 6'8") and 280 pounds? He even mentions this in his first post-spiking promo when he's selling his injuries.

Cornette does some tremendous local promos ripping on the coal miners and mountain folk and what have you.

I loved the piledriver angle, and really this whole thing did a lot to turn Paul Orndorff. The only thing that kind of bugged me is that most of the job crew that he piledrove was back on TV the next week like nothing happened (though Hector did sell the neck injury for a few weeks). Other than that, this was excellent.

The Hogan feud at Survivor Series '89 was with Zeus, not Ted. Ted was the nominal captain of the Million Dollar Team, but it's not like he was wrestling Hogan around the horn - the big match they were pushing at that point was more Hogan/Beefcake vs Savage/Zeus in the cage for the No Holds Barred: The Movie, The Match PPV. Ted was feuding with Jake at this point (and Jake was on Hogan's team accordingly).

I thought this was awesomely bad, especially since the only one they did was for Horner. The singing never fails to make me laugh.

I enjoyed all of these and they were a great way to introduce Cornette's team by making him more and more irritating every week.

I think this is pretty much the end of Holly's run as he went back to working his "stupid welding job" (tm David Bixenspan). I'd have liked to have seen how Holly grew into his role here as he was being positioned as a big deal.

One thing SMW did pretty well was the asshole babyface thing. Tim Horner is pretty clearly a dick for kicking the chair out from Rip Rogers, but because Rip Rogers is an even bigger dick for doing squats for an entire hour for no real reason, it makes Tim Horner the babyface.

What about ECW? I know you've stated a preference for later ECW, but ECW in '95 still had Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, and Scorpio tearing it up for all or part of the year, and the Gangstas carried TPE to probably their best ever brawls and Cactus carrying Sandman to some good brawls too. Plus, for whatever shit Raven deservedly gets for being lousy, '95 was probably his best year. As you've said, wrestling domestically wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire in '95, but ECW was a much fresher promotion than death knell era SMW, even if SMW had some gems at the end of their run.

Sorry man - one of the selling points for the summer shows is to show matches that I haven't already aired. Let me know if there's anything else that's been taped (I started taping back in September) that you wouldn't want to air during your week. Basically that boils down to the three CB4 matches and two Mind and Muscle matches. EDIT: And a Staten Island Crew match from January, but I didn't love the finish on that one.

Quick update on some recent TVs: Episode 19: (2nd annual Browns Mills Rumble)Episode 20: (Biggie Biggs vs Twiggy Ramirez, probably the best match in the UWC in 2011)Episode 21: (Slayer vs Fierce Fuego, Adam Aces vs Andd Bivians)Episode 22: (profile on new UWC heavyweight champion Geoffrey Bravo, features Bravo vs Peter Cross and Bravo vs Justice Garrison)

I'm looking forward to seeing this '95 greatness. The only SMW show I've really seen from '95 was the Superbowl and a couple of early TVs before Candido left, but I too have heard the reputation that '95 SMW wasn't that great, so now I'm intrigued to look at it with a new outlook. Then again, I think most of what I have for '95 is TV, so I might miss out on some of that.

The first wild show-ending brawl to end an episode of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, but it won't be the last. I think Vladimir had been teaming with Ivan for a year or two in North Carolina indies before they came to SMW, so I assume they were a package deal. He looked real clumsy in the ring in the few matches of his that I have seen, and was constantly out of position. Plus, he lacks the charisma and aura of Nikita too.

Good point. Plus, Ron Wright had a 20-25 year history in this particular area for being a pretty nasty heel, so complaining about being in a wheelchair after being the type of wrestler he was has some meaning in East Tennessee.

Sadly, he doesn't stick around long, but his promos and squashes are pretty awesome. Wait until you get to the "Daddy says sell!" promo, that's pretty awesome.

I've watched through Thanksgiving Thunder now. Some more comments: -I gave Orndorff a hard time earlier, but I'm really digging him now as he is pretty great at being a pissed off asshole. Ron Garvin and Danny Davis are almost being booked like heels. They taunt him by calling him Paula, they stole his robe and cut it up to bits, Davis is clearly a huge pussy for being out of action for six weeks after one piledriver (Ben Jordan took a piledriver from Orndorff a few months back and he was back doing jobs the next week), and then they started working a handicap match program around the horn, but Orndorff does a great job at making himself such an asshole that nobody could possibly root for him. Doesn't hurt that Garvin remains pretty awesome, and once again I have to ask, how did he not get a random WCW run in the mid to late 90's? All the shitheads they signed and they can't find a spot for Ron Garvin? -The Rock 'n' Roll/Heavenly Bodies stuff is all great. It really feels like the first truly hot feud since SMW opened up, even hotter than the Bodies/Fantastics feud, which was good, but didn't have the long history of Rock 'n' Roll vs Cornette, and the Fantastics just aren't as charismatic as the Rock 'n' Roll (not an insult, few wrestlers are as charismatic as Ricky Morton). Hot matches, hot angles, some great brawling...probably the first feud that got SMW on the map. -Somebody must have felt that the Horner/DWB program would have problems drawing, because they really seemed to go all out to put Horner over. First, they did back-to-back big heat injury angles to make him sympathetic, first hanging him with a noose from a ringpost, and then the very next week, DWB hits him with a beer bottle. Then, when Horner comes back after selling for maybe a week, they resort to making DWB into a wimpering pussy by having him run away from Horner at every turn. I mean, I get that Horner is a good worker but bland as hell, and he speaks in cliches, but it still felt like they were trying a little too hard. -Oh, and Brian Lee was spiked a few weeks ago, and that is still violent and bloody as all hell. There's no way anything this violent could air on non-cable television today. This also felt like a bit of an extreme way to get over a top babyface by having him butchered to hell, but if it means having awesome Kevin Sullivan promos, I can ignore some stuff. Speaking of promos, can Brian Lee go one promo without mentioning his height and weight? And can he at least keep the height consistent? When SMW opened up, all his promos would mention how he's "6'7, 280 pounds." Then around Volunteer Slam, he'd mention how he's "6'8, 280 pounds." Now, after getting butchered by Sullivan, he's "6'6", 280 pounds." Did Kevin Sullivan somehow beat him so badly, he lost two inches of height? And can't he have a better catchphrase than his height and weight? C'mon Brian, I want to like your stuff but you have to work with me here.

I love all the early Ron Wright stuff as it seems to be built around him being a poor old crippled man, and they somehow make him a heel out of all this.

I think you're thinking of Billy Black and Joel Deaton. I haven't seen Slinger in any of the '92 SMW I've watched.

Get used to this promo, you'll hear different versions of the same promo throughout the year on SMW TV. Also, I wonder if they got the white sheet from the background from Cornette's closet...

I watched this today and it was as bloody and as violent as I remembered. Sullivan butchers Lee to a disgusting degree. What's shocking to me, and maybe this is with 19 years of hindsight, but it seems amazing that they ran a match (really a storyline as the match never gets started) this bloody and violent in front of kids. Like I said, that might be my 2011 frame of reference talking about something from 19 years ago, but they ran this in a school. Great angle and all but not for the squeamish.

Dylan (or anybody else), interested in hearing your thoughts on this one: Dirty White Boy or Tracy Smothers?

I think that was in their SNME rematch (or was it TME?).

I've trudged on without them, I'm a little disappointed I missed the first Bodies/RNR match, but lord knows I have enough of those on this set. Man, Tim Horner pretty much speaks in cliches. His interviews can be painful to watch. Fortunately, Tracy Smothers just arrived and will help the top of the cards in the charisma department. Can't wait until his program with the Dirty White Boy starts up. It's strange, in that it feels like at this point (late October/early November) that they started phasing out the Stud Stable, moving them down the card to a feud with the Fantastics with the Rock 'n' Roll feuding with the Bodies. I had thought the three way program started up immediately, but I guess they thought they'd have the Fantastics around longer than they did. Speaking of helping out the top of the cards, while there's nothing wrong with the Fantastics in the ring, they definitely pale in comparison to the Rock 'n' Roll. Big leap in quality, particularly in interviews and charisma, from Brian Lee, Tim Horner, and the Fantastics to Tracy Smothers and the Rock 'n' Roll Express. The Orndorff/Garvin program is starting to heat up. How did Ron Garvin never get a random WCW Saturday Night run in the late 90's? He can still go here. I mean, it feels like a crime that we never got a Ron Garvin/Finlay match on WCWSN sometime in 1998. I know folks talked about him in the Fall From Grace thread, but in the ring, he can still bring it as late as 1992 here in SMW. It's kind of a shame this wound up as his one big run in SMW. Maybe he didn't want to work a full schedule, but it'd still be cool to see Tracy Smothers or Dirty White Boy bring him in once a year as their special tag team partner against the various top heels in the territory. Oh well.