[1993-02-27-SMW-TV] Interview: Tracy Smothers

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Tracy Smothers does a promo about what the Confederate flag means to him -- being able to say hello to people in a nearby store, being able to leave your house unlocked and not lose anything, being able to have your kids join a church instead of a street gang. This is a great promo, but holy culture war!

[benj]

Loved the church or street gang part, Tracy Smothers rules.

[shoe]

Just a really good Southern Fried promo.

[El-P]

Man, this promo almost sold me on Tracey Smothers the confederate flag waving babyface. The "joigning a street gang" line was kinda iffy to me, but this is Tracey's best promo that I've seen thus far, and I like the fact it's outdoor too.

[Kevin Ridge]

Smothers really needs to read up on the Civil War and why the Confederate Flag may not be all that baby faced to everyone.

[PeteF3]

"For some folks, the Rebel flag brings back a lot of bad memories." Understatement of the Decade. "But for me, it brings back a lot of good memories." Well, I guess that's what's important. This promo is effective for the audience it's directed towards, I guess.

[WingedEagle]

So odd for the confederate flag to be a babyface accessory. He's coming for DWB.

[soup23]

I get some of the reactions on this and I hope at some point I could have a poignant podcast discussing race in wrestling but this was absolutely a promo that would present Tracy as a face in the promotion of SMW while not being overly offensive to get the "fringe" people to go against him.

[GSR]

Smothers says that everyone saw what the Dirty White Boy did to him last week, he cost him $5,000 and cost him the TV title. He says that he has carried the rebel flag since he started in professional wrestling and a lot of people don't like it. To him, the confederate flag brings back good memories, it reminds him of where he came from, where his father came from and his father before him. Some northerners always try to make them look like dumb, backwards hillbillies, but we're proud of our home and by carrying that flag it was a message to those who knock them that we're proud of where we're from and we love where we're from. There is no place on earth that he would rather be than here in the South and the Dirty White Boy tried to take that away from them. He then tells the White Boy that Southern people will treat you like you treat them and that he's messed with the wrong man.

[garretta]

Air this on WWF TV and you'd instantly have the number one heel in the company, particularly after the line about Southern kids joining churches instead of street gangs.

 

We should all remember that these promos weren't supposed to be seen any farther north than the part of West Virginia that borders Virginia and Kentucky. In other words, there were still most likely plenty of people for whom this was a true babyface promo.

 

The mistake Tracy almost made is that he got so hyped up about defending the Southern lifestyle that he forgot about his issue with Tony. Fortunately, he recovers in time to deliver a very strong warning to the newest of the blue-blooded Yankees.

 

By the way, whether it's coincidence or not, both Tracy and Steve Armstrong use "The South's Gonna Do It Again" as their theme music these days. I heard it in the match where Steve teamed with Wendell Cooley from USA Wrestling.