SMW Ongoing Thread

[El-P]

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 enjoyed Scott & Steve back in 1999 when they would showed up in Nitro and Thunder randomly. The Dixie character is just cheese and the mask doesn't do Scott any favour, as I think it emphasize his bad teeth.

 

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.

I actually never saw the Stud Stable before, only saw Golden as Bunkhouse Buck in WCW and Fuller as a manager, which I always enjoyed.

[Mad Dog]

It can't be stated enough times how terrible Tim Horner is.

 

That's the toughest part about early SMW. The heels are just so much more compelling on the stick. You have Orndorff, Ron Wright, DWB and Cornette cutting great promos on a weekly basis vs. stuttering Tim Horner, Brian Lee and Robert Gibson.

[El-P]

You can add Landell.

 

Actually, Tim Horner doesn't bother me because he's in the "so bad it's funny" territory to me on the stick. Bobby Fulton is pretty good though, but yes, the face side is pretty thin as far as good promo goes, thankfully Bullet Bob gets things straight.

[Cox]

See, I had no problem with Horner's promos until he was pushed as the main event babyface. He's not a good promo at all, but he's passable if he's your midcard bland white meat babyface. It only becomes a problem when they tried to push him as the top babyface in the territory, and thankfully that doesn't last too long because Tracy Smothers started with SMW right around the time of Horner's big push.

 

And yeah, Bob Armstrong basically cutting Brian Lee's promos for him during all of the stuff with The Master definitely helps things a lot.

[El-P]

Saw Fire in the Mountains 92 which is the only big card I have from that year. Pretty good stuff. I enjoyed Orndorff vs Garvin the most, although the finish was kinda cheap, with no piledriver in a piledriver match. But the match itself was super solid and old-school, it could have happened just the same in 1984, and it's a compliment. Both guy over 40 showing how it's done. Landell vs Horner was a bit too much your-turn my turn, but the work was good. I love Horner's straight punches, they look really crisp. I thought The Rock'n Roll match was pretty much by the number, so pretty good but nothing special, not a big fan of the Stud Stable's work thus far. Brian Lee vs DWB was okay for what it was. Lee is a strange case, he's strong, he moves well, he works hard, but it really doesn't click. Cornette put it best when he said "He had all the tools but couldn't read the manual.". The Fans vs Heavenly Bodies was decent but this kind of cage match makes it hard to have a really good match. It's all about blood, which is funny when you think Corny was doing garbage stuff before ECW, although old-school garbage of course.

[Cox]

I really liked when Garvin popped through the territory, because he probably had the best looking offense out of all the babyfaces in the territory around this time. His matches with Orndorff are where I turned a corner on Orndorff, as before that I thought his work was inconsistent.

[FLIK]

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...

Forget whear but Tracy Smothers did an interview once talking about how SMW actually did have a big # of fans who were in the KKK and how much he hated them but had to pretend that he didn't to keep up his gimmick.

[Mad Dog]

I kind of feel bad for Brian Lee. He wasn't suited to being the ace but he got fucked by the booking a lot. You can really tell they didn't have faith in him the way he gets booked. Just a lack of decisive wins in key situations and not being treated like he was the guy.

[Cox]

Eh, I think it's hard to blame the booking for Lee bombing so bad. The booking was undoubtedly bad for sure, but at the same time, Brian Lee was never going to set the world on fire as a babyface ace. Lee's only assets were size and look, and those weren't going to help him in a territory where size and look weren't all that important. SMW was a brawling territory and he was a top babyface that couldn't brawl. Look at the top babyfaces that did work (Smothers, Dirty White Boy) and you see two guys who could brawl and who were much more successful than Lee. Granted, Smothers and DWB were also booked horribly at times, but still.

[Mad Dog]

I agree. It's just obvious that there was no faith in him when you really break down how he was booked on a weekly basis. I think stronger booking would've made him less of a disaster. He really just looks like a dope on a weekly basis and he never really gets any revenge on guys. Hell, he didn't even get to out Mantell away with his finisher to end their feud. If you can't beat the color commentator then who can you beat? And did Paul Orndorff really need to be protected in the final of the Heavyweight Title Tournament?

 

Like I said, he wasn't suited to the role but the booking completely exposed him and undercut him at almost every turn.

[Cox]

I just think Cornette didn't know how to book main event babyfaces. Tracy Smothers was booked pretty badly too. Dirty White Boy was mostly booked well, but Brad Armstrong was kind of a flop as their top guy (at least in part to being presented as a quasi-jobber in WCW for the past 4 years, but still). When Bob Armstrong is the best protected top babyface in the history of SMW, in a company that has great workers like Smothers, DWB, and Armstrong, you know Corny has a problem booking a strong babyface ace.

[El-P]

I'm in mid September. Some really good stuff at this time :

_Heavenly Bodies transitioning from the Fantastics to the Rock'n Roll Express, and it's really good from the get go. When did Ricky Morton began to slow down, because it's 1992 and he's as great as ever. Great chemistry with Lane of course and Pritchard as well.

_Ronnie Garvin vs Paul Orndorff is giving us good stiff old-school wrestling, and despite the relative silliness of having Garvin getting worker up about his towels (ah ah), this is really solid stuff in the ring.

_DWB and Tim Horner feud is much better than anything involving Brian Lee. Sure, Horner has no charisma at all, and cuts bad promos, but he's just so crisp and solid in the ring that it can only lead to good matches. I really don't mind Tim Horner working on top for a while. Ron Wright falling out of his wheelchair when Horner pins DWB on TV is pretty great.

 

I don't care at all about the Brian Lee stalker and bounty storyline though. Bring out Sullivan and let's have some bloodletting already.

[El-P]

After finishing 1992, I can safely say I was really pleasantly surprised after a rather cold first few weeks. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. There's not much in term of really great match, but there's a shitload of excellent promos every week, and I enjoy the veterans like Garvin and Orndorff a lot. The Heavenly Bodies are the clear highlight in term of work. Rock'n Roll Express reunited set a new fire under Ricky Morton after a last few disapointing months in WCW as a heel light heavyweight. I don't mind the Horner push, he's a terrible promo but there's something charming about his out of date bland southern babyface character, and DWB is excellent.

Didn't care at all about Brian Lee though. The only time he was useful to me was when he was stabbed to near death by Sullivan in a great angle. Killer Kyle is also a FF element to me. Too bad Bob Holly left so soon, as I'd liked for him to have competetive matches in this setting.

[Mad Dog]

Killer Kyle, no pun intended here, really kills me on a weekly basis. I've never seen a guy that wrestles the exact same match on a weekly basis where he gets outsmarted and looks like a raging dumbass at the hands of jobbers. I found him increasingly hard to take seriously as he jobbed week 1 and gave too much to nobodies every week.

[rainmakerrtv]

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...

Forget whear but Tracy Smothers did an interview once talking about how SMW actually did have a big # of fans who were in the KKK and how much he hated them but had to pretend that he didn't to keep up his gimmick.

 

The story I remember (from Cornette) is that , shortly after they ran the "DWB burns the Stars & Bars" angle, Smothers was working the gimmick table and the local Klan rep came up, gave him his card, and said "If you don't get the job done tonight, we will."

[WrestlingPower]

That was at Bluegrass Brawl that luckily was the night he was getting revenge.

 

I was a big fan & following it during the whole run of the promotion and I think they cut bait on Brian Lee as soon as they could. He was an "up & comer" type in Memphis that Cornette saw good size & look in & took a chance on him as the guy. Admittedly he kind of lucked into getting Smothers & having him get over as well as he did but if you follow Southern booking in that era, things don't move but so fast. The Sullivan & DWB feuds are all Lee had on top & then was kept strong after he lost the belt so his turn would mean something. Lucily they had Smothers at the time to take over as lead face. Lee didn't really wear out his welcome with the fanbase until he got lazy when preparing for the fake Undertaker thing, after the team with Candido ran its course. After the WWF thing failed, he had nothing left other than the brief ECW run.

 

And reading back a few pages, I think Cornette in 1995 realized just how lame & weak his "Union" gimmick was & the fact he needed to maintain the credibility/relevance of his character, he latched onto Snow & Unabom. You are right, they didn't need him at all but many territories over the years went thru periods where one manager pretty much managed all the important heels.

[Tim Evans]

Finishing up the SMW set and my opinion of Cornette has changed about two times. When I first started watching, I was a huge fan cause of what I've seen from other places. Then I started watching the matches and by 95 when he was beating up all the top faces and guys like D-Lo Brown and Bob Armstrong by himself, I was getting sick of him and kinda thought he might be overrated. Then I got to the extras and the interviews he did while bed ridden from Bob piledriving him and I became a fan again. When did Cornette go from Mama's boy to beating up babyfaces and acting equal to the wrestlers? Was it after the Bodies left the first time?

[goc]

Been watching SMW TV lately and am right about up to Volunteer Slam 92, last week was the tag title match between Bodies and Fantastics. I will agree that the babyface side is really weak, with the only one I particularly care for at this point being Hector Guerrero. Really don't like the all Fulton version of the Fantastics because I never really liked Bobby that much to begin with. I do have to say that I think Dutch Mantell is really good as color commentator. Sometimes he gets too wrapped up what he's saying and misses calls but other than that he's been really entertaining so far. He and Caudle work really well together too.

 

Oh and vignettes with Cornette going to meet the Heavenly Bodies were gold.

[El-P]

Early 1993 was okay but nothing special. Not a whole lot happening in term of good TV matches or angles. The beat the champ concept is nice on theory, but thus far they haven't done much with it with Smothers mainly beating jobbers. I'm also not that fond of Smothers in the Confed flag waving babyface role to be honest. I enjoy him much more as a heel. Still a really good worker though. Brian Lee vs Kevin Sullivan is good only for a few goofy Sully promos. The most fun stuff is the three-way feud with Cornette & Bodies vs Rock'n Roll vs Studd Stable, although Fuller & Golden don't deliver much in the ring, but as far as promo goes, this is really good. Orndorff departing leaves a void, as he was one of the best worker in the company. I need more Tim Horner in the ring too, I enjoyed his push more than most, as ridiculous as it was at times.

[El-P]

Well, the March 06 TV show was really good. A nice TV title match between Nightstalker and Tim Horner, probably the best match of Clarke thus far. Fun promo by Studd Stable, as always, I wish I would like their in-ring work more, but Golden really doesn't do anything for me. The weekly good Heavenly Bodies promo by Cornette & Co. And the best SMW match I've seen thus far, DWB vs Tracey Smothers in a bloody brawl that is all punch and selling, which culminated with a great spot that I was totally unaware off. It's nice to be totally ignorant of some territories, because I absolutely popped for that finish, that I will not spoil for anyone here. But it just put a smile on my face. Show ended with another really strong Smothers promo.

[Loss]

I'm anxious for you to get to Sullivan/Kanemura, which is one of my all-time favorite SMW matches/segments.

[El-P]

Well, I finally got to see it, nearly 14 years after hearing about it for the first time, when I was browsing through a list of tapes.

The previous week had a great angle with Rock'n Roll getting Arn Anderson as their mystery partner. I really didn't guess, and it was quite teh surprise. Cornette was great selling it, and Arn cut a great promo which made sense (how Eaton didn't call him when he got injured). Fun to see a serious Victor Quinones, as I always have seen him cutting goofy promos in WING/IWA/FMW before. Crash the Terminator vs Miguel Perez was a nice little match showcasing WING talent kinda like it would happen a few months later in ECW. It's odd to see how many things the two company would share, as Sullivan would then get in ECW too before the end of the year. Really the two sides of the same coin.

Ah, Kanemura vs Sullivan. Great bloodletting, as Kanemura bleeds like the fiery Onita Jr. he was then, and Sullivan comes off like a sick fuck. The best part is when Sullivan gets Kanemura on the barricades outside just near a bunch of kids, as the mom looks totally horrified and takes her kids away. The way Sullivan gets his spike from nowhere and blast Kanemura is pretty slick too. Nearly 20 years after the fact, it's still a really gruesome and efficient TV segment to put over Sullivan as a monster.

[El-P]

I don't have many SMW big shows, but I do have the Bluegrass Brawl. Well, it was decent but nothing special to me. And mostly it showed how much Cornette's criticism of ECW was a bit, if not hypocritical, at least a bit loony to say the least. Cornette booked three main events for this show which were :

_matches involving props

_gimmick matches

_brawls

_matches involving heavy juice

Not exactly what I would call good booking in that it makes the three matches have a similar feel, plus it really relies on blood and gimmicks which is what Cornette accused ECW of doing later in the decade. Sure, this was basically traditionnal southern blood and guts matches than the car crash ECW style, but still.

[Cox]

I really enjoyed the top two matches at the Bluegrass Brawl. The Dirty White Boy/Tracy Smothers chain match is one of my favorite matches of all time. I don't think they reinvented the wheel or anything with their chain match, but it was executed so well, with DWB the evilest, vilest man that ever lived beating the snot out of Smothers for a solid 10-15 minutes and Tracy doing a great job selling everything and firing back for his comeback. The finish is utterly predictable for anybody who's seen that type of match, but still made total sense and kept the issue open for rematches around the horn, which makes sense as this was a feud that was only getting started.

[El-P]

-The Rage in the Cage angle with Cornette's team destroying Bob Armstrong and the subsequent promos have all been awesome. They did a great job slowly building to the point where Cornette has a problem with Armstrong over Armstrong foiling all of Cornette's plans, building to Armstrong popping Cornette over calling Brian a deserter, and then Cornette getting revenge by destroying Armstrong 6 on 1 in the cage in Knoxville. Armstrong has vowed revenge and has resigned as commissioner of SMW to become a wrestler again.

The angle is pretty awesome, and Bullet Bob beatdown is pretty brutal (actually Cornette did break or bruise his ribs and hurt his neck during this, thanks to hard shots). The more I watch SMW, the more Cornette's rants and ECW and its mindless violence sounds a bit hypocritical to me. The "chairshot heard around the world" was less brutal than this. Anyway, the promos Cornette cut on Bullet Bob and Bob's responses from home have been pretty great. That being said, I'm afraid it won't deliver in the ring, as I'm not a big fan of Scott Armstrong's work thus far, and Steve was clearly the lesser Southern Boy too, so coming after the R'n'R feud, the in-ring action may be underwhelming (which kinda is the case anyway in SMW, the best parts are the angles and promos)

 

Now, I get that Cornette wanted to try to keep the Smothers/DWB feud going while another heel challenger was set up, but the finish came off to me as being really cheap and hurt Smothers' momentum a little.

Yep, truly a shitty and cheap finish. The one thing I don't like about Cornette's booking, is the overuse of gimmick matches and stipulations. That showed in WWF too when he was in the booking team. After a while it's just overkill, just let these guy have a match that isn't ampered by an awkward gimmick.

 

For that matter, I wonder if another tag team fell through before Cornette got the Bruise Brothers to come in to feud with the Rock 'n' Roll - he keeps talking about how his new tag team has been on TV, cable TV, network TV, etc, and as far as I know, the Bruise Brothers had not yet had a run with either WWF or WCW by this point.

Actually, the Bruise Brothers had been on WCW TV a few weeks before in squashes matches. They were hinting at a feud with the Cole Twins. Then they left after just one taping or two to get a try out with WWF. They work dark matches there, so technically they did work on WWF tapings too, although didn't make TV.

 

-I like the addition of Jimmy Del Ray to the Heavenly Bodies. I had forgotten how good of an athlete he was. It kind of felt to me like Stan Lane was going through the motions towards the end of his run (and don't get me wrong, going through the motions Stan Lane vs. the Rock and Roll Express is still good, but it also felt a bit stale). Looking forward to their matches with the Armstrongs.

Me too. The first one was pretty good (although like I said, Scott Armstrong doesn't strike me as very good). Del Ray was still rather lean at that point, he looked like he was fresh off FMW. But man was he sleazy looking ! It really added a different dimension to the team, as Lane was the pussy magnet he pretended to be. With Gigolo Jimmy, the Bodies really fall into pure sleazebags territory.

 

-Chris Candido and Tammy Fytch have done some promos on TV, and it reminded me of something said in the Yearbook threads about SMW being a promo territory. I think it's true, and as a result, both seem stilted on promos when they first come in, with all the great promos all over the territory. That said, I know from experience that both will eventually become pretty good promos, and I think that's because SMW was such a good promo territory, and there are so many good promos in the territory that it's almost impossible not to become better (well, if we pretend that Tim Horner is still a horrible promo). It will be interesting to track their improvement over the next few months.

I thought Candido was already quite good from the get go. He was also working ECW at that time in the Suicide Blondes tag team (which is the highlight of the very early ECW). Tammy I agree was still a bit shy on camera. She was what, 19 years old ?