Tracy Smothers

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[soup23]

Smothers will require a tougher look. It could be a case where my favorite is clouding the judgement of the greatest. I think when put in a position to do serious stuff he was good. The match vs. the MX is of course a classic but their endless series of Freebirds while not exceptional, it also wasn't embarrassing which certainly was in play for the Birds in the 90's. His SMW stuff will require a closer look from me. He has been fun in hell in ECW and had some legit great matches amidst other feel good, crowd pleasing matches. I liked a good portion of his indy run in IWA-MS especially causing riots, wrestling barefoot, and having really good brawls with Bull Pain. I am really conflicted but leaning no right now. Either way, I will be examining him more.

[Dylan Waco]

Smothers was a bubble guy for me in 2006 that I snuck on in large part because he was a favorite. But after watching all the SMW and ECW to me he becomes a relatively easy pick. The big knock on him is that he never worked near the top of a big time fed, and really only worked on the top at all in SMW. But I think his resume makes up for that. For example Smothers was in three very different, but very good tag teams, where he was expected to play a very different role in each one (FBI, Thugz, Southern Boys). Smothers was probably one of the most consistent U.S. workers of the 90's, but was also versatile in the sense that he could work with anyone, and his best matches often see him working very different styles. One might argue that he is lacking in true classics, but I thought he got several of those under his belt in SMW in both singles and tag matches. If someone is all in on the idea that pageantry and clash of the titans style matches are required to get a guy on a list like this he's doomed, but I those things are secondary to me.

[goodhelmet]

I am with Dylan on this one. After watching the ECW and SMW footage, I can put him on without much hesitation. He won't be high on the list but he is safe.

[Loss]

Smothers feels like a guy who sort of made a living on potential. He's a charming wrestler and I like him a lot, but I think he's missing that one gimmick-free singles match where everything comes together and we have an all-time classic on our hands.

[El-P]

He did get one of RVD's best match in 2000 when I was at the point in my ECW watch where watching RVD was plain torture. That's a major feather in his cap.

[Grimmas]

For the Super Extreme Vault (former a sub series of the Pro-Wrestling Super Show) I have watched a lot of Smothers' ECW run. I went as far as naming Smothers as the second most valuable wrestler of '98 in ECW (while Marc and Glenn named him third). He had a great run there, making everything more entertaining. What a tremendous character, but if you look past that he is a great wrestler. His sequence with Candido in the FBI vs Storm/Candido handheld is tremendous.

 

What is out there of him outside of ECW on youtube/dailymotion? If his SMW work or other stuff is on this ECW level then he will make my list.

[shoe]

Just a great Southern Baby face. Good at everything. He can make you laugh as quick as pissing you off. He could work a brawl, he could work a technical match. Very fluid on the card. Could be counted on to work singles , tags, heel , face, . Don't sleep on him

[Loss]

I didn't realize until today that he was the New Jason The Terrible in IWA Japan. He might make my list just for being a Neoconfederate Italian horror film character turned Black Panther wannabe from Wyoming.

[Jingus]

Tracy's even better on little indy house shows, where he can dance and stooge and generally play around. He's still fun when he's shoehorned into a four-minute TV match, but he's one of those guys who really needs some time and space to find his groove and get his momentum. He's incredibly giving and generous, too; he'll sell for absolutely anyone and anything, despite being one of the legit toughest guys in the industry. And frequently when he's told to go to some bullshit non-finish when doing a one-night-match with a local indy kid (mostly because small-time promoters are too shy to ask any slumming stars to do a pinfall job), Tracy will just go "eh, fuck that, I'm not coming back anyway..." and put the local indy kid over clean.

[Parties]

Can anyone spot me your five best/favorite Smothers performances? I've seen scattershot SMW from him and enjoyed it, but nothing that would get him on my list. The FBI stuff I've seen is very fun, but again not transcendent in that way that gets someone in a top 100. (I find the double-team stuff like the cooperative elbow drop to be a double-edged sword, no pun intended.)

 

Otherwise I've seen the MX-Southern Boys tag, a handful of WCW singles (namely the '92 one with Pillman), and a couple 2000s indie outings. He's pretty awesome in the three-way with Sabu and Punk in '01 IWA-MS: really wild cool looking approach to flying and bumping where he almost looks like a European-Regal style worker, or a more frenzied Brisco brother. I always liked his kicking dropkick-enziguri looking thing where he clocks the opponent in the head with one foot.

 

He's an interesting candidate, but to the people who are saying he deserves consideration: what is his must-see work?

[Parties]

Only the finish of Smothers-Eaton from the 1990 Power Hour is readily available online, but that was good stuff. The ring break almost could have been an intentional spot the way it played into Smothers' high flying and Cornette's interference.

 

Smothers vs. Buddy Landel (WCW Saturday Night, 12/8/90): “Great ovation here for Tracy Smothers,” says Jim Ross, and he's right. Good brawling on the floor and some nice reversals on the mat, but Landel looked like he didn't want to take bumps. Buddy was wearing his kneepads, yet wasn't always cooperative with where Tracy wanted to take the match. Even when Buddy was in slow motion, the showdowns of trading punches and Smothers' fired up babyface offense were worth watching. Not a must-see, but another example of Tracy working hard – and probably harder than his opponent deserved.

 

Smothers vs. Austin (TV Title, '91?): This is the era where Young Austin still had Lady Blossom and looked like a Young HHH. Weird to see Austin doing Dolph Ziggler overselling. Okada should watch some Smothers matches to see how a tall guy can believably make a swift dropkick into his go-to offensive manuever. Austin fully botches his Stun Gun finisher in a five minute showcase that only highlights his early faults.

 

Smothers vs. King Cobra (USWA, January '97): This was Smothers as Shaquile Ali - one of the greatest gimmick names ever - in the Memphis wing of the Nation of Domination, w/ Miss Texas and Mo from Men on a Mission. I was curious to see what King Cobra looked like in 1997. Answer: solid if uneventful. Tracy plays stooge heel, berating the crowd and wearing a leather glove on each hand. Cobra dances, Smothers stalls on the floor and bumps big for Cobra's punches before a foreign object win and Brian Christopher run-in.

 

Smothers vs. Lawler (Power Pro, '98): This was for a Memphis-ECW feud. 1998 Lawler doing his 1982 shill with Dave Brown felt weird and hokey. I love Lawler, but dude's got a terrible bowlcut here, while plugging his softball game and a piece written about him in a Cleveland Indians fanzine. Both matter much more to him than this match or feud. Smothers comes out fired up and talking jive in a good, quick promo. The loser in this match appears to be women, who get trashed on the mic by both guys. Stacy Carter wins the match for the King in baffling fashion. Rare situation where it felt like Lawler was being carried, and this too short and half-assed to be what you'd want from these two names.

 

Smothers vs. The Barbarian (Worldwide, 1/29/00): Four minute match of two veterans making their returns to WCW for the first time in ages. Must have been really weird for them to go there and then have the company close like five weeks later. This has everything that's great about Worldwide: Tenay and Hudson selling this match as a big story that you need to see, the crowd giving huge reactions to the Barbarian yelling and shaking his fist, headbutts, butterfly suplexes, and Smothers using fancy mat counters and dropkicks at 100 MPH. The announcers seemed genuinely stoked to call this and rightfully so.

 

Smothers vs. Candido vs. CM Punk (IWC Big Butler Fair, 7/2/04): Solid ten minute match, but not as good as the Smothers-Punk-Sabu three-way from IWA-MS. Tracy's cast as dumb old man heel, which is kind of a waste as he's the most natural babyface of the three. Highlight of the match is Candido taking someone's cowboy hat from the crowd, wearing it while lariating Punk, then throwing up the Hansen-Longhorns sign. Punk wins with the worst Shining Wizard of all time, followed by a bad crossbody. There's nothing wrong with Smothers here, but considering how much better he looked in the aforementioned 2001 three-way, it looked like Father Time was starting to catch up to him.

[Dylan Waco]

I actually think it's weird that people would argue in favor of Jake, and against Smothers, even if the arguments against him are more of "I don't quite see it" slant than outright rejection.

 

I will say that I don't know that Smothers has any "must see" work in the sense that I don't think he has an all timer in his back pocket. That said he has a healthy dose of great matches, including him and Guido carrying The Eliminators to a legit great match, the Charlotte brawl with him and Anthony v. The Gangstas from Smoky Mountain, the Candido series from SMW, the great chain match v. DWB, et. I also tend to favor consistency and working to setting more than most.

 

I honestly think he's a genius at tailoring his approach to the crowd he is in front of, and that was especially evident during his early 00's indie run when he was working "workrate" guys one night, and old vets the next. Even as late as a couple of years ago I saw him have a legitimately very good match in NWA SAW against a young guy, where Tracy gave him nearly the entire match.

 

I don't know that I'd call him "transcendent," but I do think he is a guy that is synonymous with wrestling. And for a project like this that feels at least as important to me as anything else.

[Parties]

Watched the (TV?) Styles-called version of Guido/Smothers vs. Candido/Storm. Will look for the handheld. Good match, and I continue to love Tracy’s one-legged dropkick. Little Guido is also a guy I’d love to see more of as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad performance from him. Even his UWFi stuff is very good.

Couldn’t immediately find some of Dylan’s recommendations for Smothers online but will try to seek them out. He hasn’t connected with me as a top 100 worker yet, but he’s been so touted on the Exile shows and elsewhere that I have to give him a fair shake. I watched a singles from ’95 of New Jack vs. Tracy that I thought was OK, but gives you the understanding expressed on Exile about why SMW suffered from not having a super-over babyface ace. Tracy clearly works his ass off and is a great talent, but he never feels like a superstar. So far I’ve actually liked the 1998-2003 “indie veteran who’s way more agile than you’d expect” version of Smothers more than the WCW/SMW guy. That said, his SMW promos are really good, including the discussed one where he sits on a swing and explains why his heel turn was simply a means of defending his heritage from Turner executives.

One of the big takeaways for me from this GWE poll is that I don’t think I have the love for certain American promotions of the south that I thought I did. SMW hasn’t thrilled me in-ring yet, and as a promotion on the whole I find the promos to be a lot better than the matches. Maybe it's due to being a lifelong Yankee, but I feel like I'm missing the point of some of it culturally, and that it can come off as sort of low-rent and hokey in the bad way. Even a lot of Crockett stuff doesn’t hold the appeal for me that I thought it should. I love Memphis/Continental and even the Mid-Atlantic/Florida/Georgia/Houston of the 70s/early 80s that I’ve seen, but SMW feels way more like a Crockett show to me than it does an offshoot of Watts or Jarrett. But I also much prefer the late 80s World Class with scuzzy Memphis guys coming to the earlier Von Erichs-heavy stuff, so my taste on southern wrestling seems to stray from the gospel.

[NotJayTabb]

Smothers is someone who's gone from the outskirts of my list to comfortably sitting in the 80-90 slots. He's one of those guys who didn't really spring to mind when I first starting putting down names, but I'm very rarely let down by a Smothers match, and it's normally thanks to his presence. I really enjoy him as a lower card tag/singles worker in early 90's WCW, and I enjoy watching his indy work from IWA Mid South and 1PW from 15yrs later, and that's a testament to his consistency. In many respects, him getting so over in 1PW was a testament to his abilities, standing out and winning over a crowd who were sitting through over-inflated 4hr indy super shows every month. I'm going to steal a line from the Sabu thread, but Smothers is one of those guys who you can put against anyone, and I'm going to be intrigued.

[WingedEagle]

Wouldn't rank him based on SMW work and not enough Southern Boys to make my list.

[Eegah]

Really big Smothers fan. He will definitely make my top 100. There are few guys I enjoy watching more than Smothers. The guy can make chicken salad out of chicken shit and is always entertaining. He understands pro wrestling on a higher level than most. He can be carnie for sure but he always gets the most out of himself and makes opponents look good.

[NotJayTabb]

For a guy who finished #153 last time, I'm surprised there's been no Smothers discussion since GWE26 started. He made my top 60 last time and while likely to fall a bit, I still think he's a strong top 100 contender. Very versatile wrestler, good as a babyface tag worker in WCW, good as a comedic heel in ECW, always enjoyable on the indies in the 2000s. Maybe not a guy with a litany of big match performances, but someone who knew how to perform for the spot he was in and knew how to adapt to his audience.

[funkdoc]

Southern wrestling in general has drastically faded in terms of influence since the last GWE, you see more indie wrestlers taking elements from Bret than from Flair these days.  i actually think Smothers would be easier for younger fans now to appreciate than some of his contemporaries (largely due to his goofball side), but the promotions that gave him any decent push were ones that have largely been forgotten by mainstream history.

The people who'd already watched a ton of Tracy Smothers by the time of the previous GWE aren't going to have anything new to say about him, and he's not going to be on newer people's radars.