Cox Posted February 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 There's also the lack of clean finishes. I understand wrestling was different in those days and it wasn't so much a case of screwing fans out of a winner and loser. But that's partially a copout, because Mid South had plenty of clean finishes, probably proportionately way more than SMW. The matches often times felt overbooked, with too many ref bumps and run-ins. I mind screwjobs much less than most, but I still thought it was excessive.I totally agree on this. There are at least two times when SMW announced a stip match where they had no intention of following through on the announced stipulations. They booked Dick Murdoch vs The Bullet with Cornette's hair vs. Bullet's mask, and when Bullet lost, he pulled off his mask only to have another one underneath. Any fans who bought a ticket to that show hoping to see one or the other had to feel completely jipped. Then, eight months later, Cornette pulls the same thing, advertising a Lee/Candido vs Rock 'n' Rolls match with Morton's hair up against Tammy's, and in the end, Candido gets his head shaved. That one killed Johnson City (their #2 town) and helped speed the decline of SMW. It's bait and switch tactics; advertise that the fans will get to see one thing or the other, and deliver neither. It just shows a contempt for the audience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted March 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 I'm zipping past a lot of this and not updating here as much as I should, but I'm now into April of '94 (right before the Bluegrass Brawl) so feels like as good a time as any to chime in with new thoughts, especially since the promotion is about to undergo another change in the guard. -Dirty White Boy vs Brian Lee is winding down, and really feels at this point like a feud that's a bit too long in the tooth. I mean, they started building towards this in August '93 and here we are in April '94, White Boy has already won the heavyweight title, and it just feels like they're killing time until DWB's next feud. That said, it was a fun, entertaining feud, probably the 2nd best heavyweight title feud in SMW history behind Smothers/DWB. I haven't seen any of their major matches yet (the SMW set, which arrived yesterday, will help fill in some gaps for me, as I don't appear to have any major SMW shows from late '93 into '94) but I've heard good things and I'm looking forward to seeing the Lee/DWB chain match, since I loved DWB in the chain match with Smothers from the previous year. -Speaking of feuds winding down, the Heavenly Bodies are about to go full-time to the WWF (well, for a year or so), and they will have their last ever match with each other at the Bluegrass Brawl. Funny, I suspect they probably figured they'd wrestle again at some point, as I'm pretty sure the idea was always to bring back the Bodies for part-time shots here and there, but unless I'm mistaken, I don't think they will have another match with each other ever again. Kind of sad that this is really the end of Rock 'n' Roll vs Jim Cornette, but I guess it had to happen at some point. -Really enjoy the week to week progression of Chris Candido and Tammy Fytch. Every week they get better and better. As I've said, it's sad knowing that this is as good as they'll ever get, but it doesn't keep me from enjoying them here. The Candido/Smothers feud has been really fun, with Candido's promo about how Tracy Smothers is really Vito Marinara from Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania got a real laugh out of me (and broke Brian Matthews, the backstage interviewer, whose expression almost never changes, so props for that). Also, both their performance and Brian Lee's performance in the Tammy training video for her mixed tag matches with the Dirty Whites (Boy and Girl) was hilarious. How they managed to convince people that Tammy Fytch, clearly somebody who works out and keeps in good shape, is a non-athlete is pretty remarkable. Looking forward to the Lee/Candido feud with the Rock 'n' Roll over the next few months. -The Thrillseekers are here, and so are their amazing videos. In all seriousness, I think these videos are great - yes, they are cheesy as hell, but they are well produced, establish characters for both Storm and Jericho, and make them seem likable and fun, not an easy task considering one guy is an aloof prick and the other is a sloppy drunk douche (tm David "Bix" Bixenspan). I have to say, I think I enjoy Storm here more than I have anywhere else. He actually shows decent fire in the ring, shows a little bit of personality, and his work looks decent in squashes. I like to think that, in some alternate timeline out there, Lance Storm stays in SMW until it closes, learns to work southern style, and improves greatly at it like Candido did, and becomes a much less boring, uninteresting black hole than he became. Alas, he's merely an aloof prick now. -Prince Kharis is the shits. Not sure what Cornette was thinking in a territory where he tried to strive at least a semblance of believability to have a dude doing a 3,500 year old mummy gimmick. As far as I'm concerned, anytime he talks about how wrestling needs less goofy gimmicks or more realism, somebody needs to tell him, "Dude, you had a guy doing a 3,500 year old mummy gimmick in your territory, go fuck yourself." Kinda makes him bitching about having to be at ringside for the Undertaker/Yokozuna spectacle at the Royal Rumble in '94 ring hollow. And Daryl Van Horne...I'm just not seeing it here. He seems to do promos based on getting the boys to pop for saying stuff like "felching" and to get in the Observer for mentioning porn stars, than he cares about getting himself or his guy over. I know he has a good rep in some circles, but I'm not seeing it at all, and it's not just that he's stuck with the anchor that is Prince Kharis. -Bob Armstrong is no longer The Bullet and is back in the commissioner's chair. I know he doesn't go away completely, and he'll still be around to cut awesome promos about Scandanavian snake feces, but it's kind of disappointing that he'll no longer be portrayed as a main event player for the rest of the run (unless he has a main event run that I'm not aware of). Sure, the guy is old, but he's still decent in the ring and cuts a hell of a promo. Got some cool stuff on the horizon (Lee and Candido vs Rock 'n' Rolls, Randy Savage coming in for a few shots) and some not so cool stuff (the Prince Kharis/Dirty White Boy program, the Jake feud that sadly never gains momentum) so I'm looking forward to seeing how '94 plays out. The rep I've heard is that '93 is pretty great but '94 starts the slow decline with a lot of things that Cornette had planned not really working out, so it will be interesting to see when the decline kicks in and how it tracks until the end of the TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB8 Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 So I've started on Will's SMW set. Just been watching bits from a couple of the extras discs so far, and am I being really hyperbolic by calling Buddy Landel an all-time great promo guy? If nothing else he's a guy that doesn't seem to get a ton of pimping as an interview, when he REALLY should. Shit, I must've been guilty of it myself. I've seen enough Buddy footage to know I like him a lot, but I never thought as highly of him as a promo until now. Not sure why...maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 You are not being hyperbolic in the slightest. I really think Buddy Landell's promo in the build to Superbowl of Wrestling is a GOAT candidate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted April 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 My momentum has stalled temporarily as sometime between moving from my parents' place four years ago and moving to my current place two years ago, I seemed to have misplaced my mid '94 to the end SMW discs. I'm either going to have to find the rest of the discs or buy new ones to replace them, but I do have Will's SMW set to tide me over in the meantime, and that's worth a hearty recommendation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 I've also been watching the set in between USWA 97 and Monterrey Lucha and I think Dutch Mantell might be my new favorite color commentator. He's a heel but he's not overbearing like a lot of heel commentators. Plus he calls the action with respect and doesn't try to make jokes the whole time. Oh and the Tracy Smothers/DWB feud is so great. Ron Wright going from a nazi sympathizer in 1988 to a New York Yankee in 1993 is a hell of a switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Oh and the Tracy Smothers/DWB feud is so great. Ron Wright going from a nazi sympathizer in 1988 to a New York Yankee in 1993 is a hell of a switch.Wait, when was he a nazi sympathizer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Oh and the Tracy Smothers/DWB feud is so great. Ron Wright going from a nazi sympathizer in 1988 to a New York Yankee in 1993 is a hell of a switch.Wait, when was he a nazi sympathizer? He managed a guy named the Stormtrooper who I think was Bill Dundee. Didn't last very long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 9, 2012 Report Share Posted May 9, 2012 First two weeks of TV. Well, this is southern. It has its charm. Ivan Koloff could still work at 50. Decent match with Bobby Fulton, and decent tag match against the Fanatstics, although Vlad is worthless, and Jacky's face always freaked me out for some reasons. He looks like an alien from Babylon 5 (yeah, since it's SMW, I can drop some dated references). Glad to hear Cornette again after he left WCW. The Ron Wright character is pretty compelling. Holy shit, Tim Horner *cutting a promo*. He makes Lance Storm look like Onita. It's painfull. I'm glad Caudle has strong color men like Dirty Dutch and Cornette, because he's pretty boring. I'm curious to see how Ross will sound like in SMW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted May 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2012 The first two weeks or so of SMW TV are completely different from what the rest of the shows will look like. The taping aired in February of 1992 but had been taped in October '91, so the Koloffs are gone pretty quickly and Dutch starts taking less of an in-ring role. The basics are there (Ron Wright, Jim Cornette, Brian Lee, Robert Gibson, and the Fantastics were the top heels and faces in SMW until the summertime) but other guys were just used for a taping or two and never used again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 10, 2012 Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 Good to know I wont have to go through much more Koloff (I can tolerate a really old Ivan so much). Too bad Dutch doesn't work much more. I think I'll hate Bob Caudle before too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted May 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 I think the opposite will happen, he grows on you after a while. There is a sense of earnestness that I really appreciate about Bob Caudle. I think he and Dutch work really well together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 11, 2012 Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 I'm at the Rip Rogers does squat episodes, and you're right, I'm a bit unfair with Caudle, but I have bad recollections of him in WCW with Ross. But Dutch Mantell is a perfect foil for him, and Caudle is pretty good in an old-school territorial way. I'm loving Ron Wright, and the angle with Bob Armstrong wheeling him out was hilarious. Too bad Bob Holly doesn't stick around, he's much more promising as a heel that he ended up being for years saddled with a shit gimmick in WWF. The Hollywood monicker is a but goofy though, as Holly sounds southern as hell. Nitro Danny Davis... Well, Davis was a good worker but does he look like a complete jobber in this attire. And he looks really small there. This is not Memphis, you have some pretty big guys. Glad to see Horowitz get some more offense, but he's still basically a jobber, which is too bad, you get the feeling SMW would be a place for him to get a push. I don't know who Carl Styles is, but he sure sucks, and Brian Lee on top just doesn't work with me. He was good only for kicking the shit out of Tommy Dreamer in my books thus far. Nice way to developp the Orndorff turn organically. I'm beginnning to get into the groove after the first few very underwhelming weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted May 11, 2012 Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 Can't say I ever had a problem with Caudle and Ross. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 11, 2012 Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 There's this old lady in the front row of almost every tv taping and she FUCKING LOVES Brian Lee. I mean fucking loves him. There's one main event where you can hear her screaming the entire time for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted May 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2012 Her name was Beulah and she was legendary among SMW circles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 15, 2012 Report Share Posted May 15, 2012 -The Heavenly Bodies won a tag team tournament that I'm guessing was all sorts of fucked up. First, the Koloffs missed a TV taping, which meant that in addition to the Fultons/Koloffs feud never getting a proper blowoff, they had one show with no tag team title tournament matches and another show with two (since Cornette was saving the debut of the Bodies for last). Then, I'm guessing the Fultons got pulled from the Volunteer Slam by AJPW (after Cornette had already moved the date once because of what he claimed were Japanese commitments) so instead of the tournament finals being at the Volunteer Slam, they were held in an impromptu match on TV which the Bodies won, and then they "injured" Jackie Fulton to keep them out for a while. Oh welll, at least they got the belts on the Bodies, even if the Volunteer Slam tag title match went from Bodies/Fantastics to Bodies/Rich Cousins, which is a lower marquee title match. Nice little TV match, but the Fantastics 2.0 are a far cry from the first version. I always liked Fulton, but Tommy Rogers was the über worker of the team. And Jackie still looks green. No idea if he became anything in the ring either, as I haven't seen their AJ work. I think Jackie worked there for a while, at least until the early 00's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 16, 2012 Report Share Posted May 16, 2012 -Lee/DWB was probably the best match that they showed, with Gibson/Golden second. Gibson/Golden was good but not anything special, but I liked Lee/DWB, and thought it was a good brawl. Agreed, it was decent, and Brian Lee bled buckets, which really brought an old Mid-South feeling to the match. -The finish was a total clusterfuck, though. First, Brian Lee wins the SMW heavyweight title on a DQ? What the H? They're pushing Lee as their top babyface and he can't win the tournament final by pinfall? Second, when Orndorff and DWB jump Lee after the match, Bob Armstrong runs in and pretty much singlehandedly clears out the ring and starts beating up pretty much everybody, I'm pretty sure I saw him take out Joey Maggs for absolutely no reason in the post-match brawl. Why is the commissioner coming out of this show looking stronger than the guy they were planning on building around? I'm not the biggest Brian Lee fan, but he deserved better than this. The poor guy needed all the help he could get, and this show did him no favors. No wonder he never got over as the top babyface. And I get that they probably wanted to protect Orndorff so they could do rematches, but if that's the case, beat Orndorff in the semifinals and let Lee pin DWB to end the tournament. I dunno, this left a bad taste in my mouth. Agreed too. DQ and screw-job in the final of the major tournament. Wrestling the way it used to be and wrestling the way you like it. I also think it's somewhat ironic that Cornette choosed a big blonde guy who couldn't work very well as the ace of his promotion. Meanwhile, Ric Flair and Randy Savage were trading the WWF title and Rick Rude, Vader & Sting were having super matches in WCW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 26, 2012 Report Share Posted May 26, 2012 I'll have more thoughts about various stuff later, but I just love how at one of the TV tapings, they have a wrestler flat-out wearing a swastika called "The Stormtrooper" and neither Bob Caudle nor Dutch Mantell find this particularly heinous. He's just casually a Nazi wrestling for Smoky Mountain Wrestling doing job work. Between this, "White Ligntning", Dixie Dy-no-mite with the confederate flag all over his face, how close was SMW from having a bunch of Klan members ? Woops, the Harris Boys and their SS tatoos are coming soon, nevermind... Seriously, WTF was Cornette thinking having a nazi jobber ? I'm really enjoying the Heavenly Bodies vs Fantastics feud. Tons of great brawl sequences, really feels like Mid-South. With the barb-wire cage match coming up at Fire On the Mountain, that feeling will only get stronger I guess. Bob Armstrong is a great TV character, and superb talker. I also really warmed up to Caudle, and Dutch Mantell is just hilarious and a tremendous color man. Why was he not given a good role in WWF or WCW is beyond me. Brian Lee is clearly not doing much for me as the ace of the promotion. He's okay but not very good at anything. Can't wait til we get more of DWB, I'm enjoying him more each week. Tim Horner is a guilty pleasure. Such a horrible promo, but such a solid worker in the ring. Dixie Dy-no-mite is an annoying gimmick, and I feel like the lesser of the Armstrong is under the mask thus far. Ditto Killer Kyle, I just don't care for the guy at all. Jobber doing a third rate Mr. Hughes gimmick. Danny Davis is still a good worker, but his looks is just bad, again, looks like a jobber with these thights. I wish they would do more with him though. I did not care one bit for Jimmy Golden vs Robert Gibson, but turning this into a tag feud will get things better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 26, 2012 Report Share Posted May 26, 2012 Well, "White Lightning" doesn't refer to Horner's skin color. It's a nickname that means he's quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 26, 2012 Report Share Posted May 26, 2012 Between this, "White Ligntning", Dixie Dy-no-mite with the confederate flag all over his face, how close was SMW from having a bunch of Klan members ? Woops, the Harris Boys and their SS tatoos are coming soon, nevermind... The Confederate flag isn't necessarily a racial thing when you're dealing with more southern states. And this was 1992. Bo and Luke weren't even a decade removed from General Lee antics to the delight of everyone. And the Nazi gimmick was pretty common up until that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 26, 2012 Report Share Posted May 26, 2012 Between this, "White Ligntning", Dixie Dy-no-mite with the confederate flag all over his face, how close was SMW from having a bunch of Klan members ? Woops, the Harris Boys and their SS tatoos are coming soon, nevermind... The Confederate flag isn't necessarily a racial thing when you're dealing with more southern states. And this was 1992. Bo and Luke weren't even a decade removed from General Lee antics to the delight of everyone. And the Nazi gimmick was pretty common up until that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted May 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2012 I'll have more thoughts about various stuff later, but I just love how at one of the TV tapings, they have a wrestler flat-out wearing a swastika called "The Stormtrooper" and neither Bob Caudle nor Dutch Mantell find this particularly heinous. He's just casually a Nazi wrestling for Smoky Mountain Wrestling doing job work. Between this, "White Ligntning", Dixie Dy-no-mite with the confederate flag all over his face, how close was SMW from having a bunch of Klan members ? Woops, the Harris Boys and their SS tatoos are coming soon, nevermind... Seriously, WTF was Cornette thinking having a nazi jobber ? I'm really enjoying the Heavenly Bodies vs Fantastics feud. Tons of great brawl sequences, really feels like Mid-South. With the barb-wire cage match coming up at Fire On the Mountain, that feeling will only get stronger I guess. Bob Armstrong is a great TV character, and superb talker. I also really warmed up to Caudle, and Dutch Mantell is just hilarious and a tremendous color man. Why was he not given a good role in WWF or WCW is beyond me. Brian Lee is clearly not doing much for me as the ace of the promotion. He's okay but not very good at anything. Can't wait til we get more of DWB, I'm enjoying him more each week. Tim Horner is a guilty pleasure. Such a horrible promo, but such a solid worker in the ring. Dixie Dy-no-mite is an annoying gimmick, and I feel like the lesser of the Armstrong is under the mask thus far. Ditto Killer Kyle, I just don't care for the guy at all. Jobber doing a third rate Mr. Hughes gimmick. Danny Davis is still a good worker, but his looks is just bad, again, looks like a jobber with these thights. I wish they would do more with him though. I did not care one bit for Jimmy Golden vs Robert Gibson, but turning this into a tag feud will get things better. The era of Brian Lee as the ace of SMW is coming to a close quickly. I actually think he was a LOT better in the feud with Sullivan, but by the time I thought he had kind of turned the corner as a babyface, they wound up turning him heel, since they had Tracy Smothers. Oh well. I liked Scott Armstrong a lot more once he dropped the Dixie Dynomite gimmick. He cut some good promos without the hood and he and his brother Steve were a good undercard team. I think they felt like they had to have him masked while Bob was commissioner, so we get the gimmick, but I don't think playing a character like that played to his strengths. I actually really liked the Golden/Gibson feud, but I'm an unabashed mark for the Fuller family, so that is to be expected out of me. That said, Robert Gibson isn't much of a singles wrestler and Ricky coming in helped him out a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 26, 2012 Report Share Posted May 26, 2012 I love the idea of "White Lightning" being a race-based nickname. Makes me smile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Well, "White Lightning" doesn't refer to Horner's skin color. It's a nickname that means he's quick. The Confederate flag isn't necessarily a racial thing when you're dealing with more southern states. Well, I know. But I thought putting all of these next to one another produced a funny creepy effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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