Fire in the Mountains Volunteer Slam & SMW TV 17-18

[DownNDirtyTN]

 

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/ricky-whittenburg/fire-in-the-mountains-volunteer-slam-and-tv-episodes-1718

 

This week we go over the Volunteer Slam card as well as TV shows 17 & 18 of Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Highlights include:

 

 

- How did Justin react to Lee getting the strap
- Rebooking the VS card
- Mountain Mayhem battle royal fun
- Stan Lane's weave
- R Budd Dwyer reference

 

As always feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

[DownNDirtyTN]

Since the proverbial cat is out of the bag I would absolutely like to thank Brad and Chad from the PTBN for bringing Fire in the Mountains into the Place to Be Nation family of shows. I only started really listening to a lot of wrestling podcasts in late 2014 and it was from finding Where the Big Boys Play and absolutely loving every second of it. I never dreamed in a million years that I would want to do a podcast at all. I have 16 years in the radio business and figured my "side gig" on radio was enough for me. But after getting into these podcasts and really rekindling my love for wrestling it sparked something in me that made me want to go out and have a little fun myself.

If you are a fan of Smoky Mountain Wrestling I encourage you to rewatch this with us and experience SMW once again. To me, it was the last great regional territory. And I have absolutely been having a blast going over these shows with Andy Waddell and Justin Edgell. Poor Justin is from Cincinnati and while a wrestling fan he was never really exposed to much Southern "rasslin" so this is really a culture shock for him. Andy and myself were firmly entrenched in the SMW hot area (between Knoxville and Johnson City). So the dynamic is pretty solid having Justin watch all of this organically.

 

One thing I want to do with this show is give an oral history as we see it as we go through the shows but I also want the show to be entertaining to anyone that listens. We absolutely have no problem with tweaks and if there's something that you want to hear on the show let us know and I will see what we can do. At the end of the day we want to convey our love for this project while also providing decent insights and a little bit of humor. We have a few running jokes through the show already and Killer Kyle and his "mystery case" as well as our buddy Carl Stiles have provided a lot of humor to us so far. And how can we forget Nitro Danny Davis exploding all over everything weekly?

 

I will continue to post new topics for each show so they will be self contained and we can discuss anything. From this show I would be very interested to hear if you all liked the Volunteer Slam or not and if you are like us (and mostly didn't) what you would have done to change things up. We go over a couple of scenarios in this episode.

 

Thanks again for taking the journey through SMW with us and hopefully a couple of years down the road when we wrap this up you won't be completely tired of us and we may tackle another venture when the time comes.

[Bigelow34]

Welcome aboard, bud! Glad to have you on the site.

[SomethingSavage]

Agreed.

 

It's cool that you're open to suggestions and feedback, regarding the format of the show going forward. I get a kick out of your chemistry and free-form reaction to things. The awards are always a nice touch, too.

 

I'm backlogged on the most recent episodes, so I can't offer much in terms of immediate feedback at the moment. But I'll be listening and catching up as I can.

Definitely appreciate the video uploads to go along with the pods, by the way.

[GSR]

I will continue to post new topics for each show so they will be self contained and we can discuss anything. From this show I would be very interested to hear if you all liked the Volunteer Slam or not and if you are like us (and mostly didn't) what you would have done to change things up. We go over a couple of scenarios in this episode.

 

Here is what I wrote about the main event from what I posted in the Yearbook forums. I wasn't enamored one bit with their first title being awarded on a DQ and Bullet Bob playing Superman one bit!

 

 

 

Lee had defeated Tony Anthony in the semi finals of the tournament and had bled fairly profusely during the match. The introductions are being made for the final and Bob Armstrong is in the ring with Paul Orndorff. Armstrong says that Lee lost a lot of blood, has a shoulder injury and as a result has no other alternative but to award the belt to Orndorff. Lee comes out all bandaged up, carrying his shoulder and says that he's come too far to let some doctor tell him he can't win the belt. The action is okay and Lee works hard, but the finish is something else. Referee Mark Curtis get KO'ed from a very contrived Orndorff elbow and then Bob Armstrong gets in the ring to try an revive him. Behind his back the Dirty White Boy comes out and throws some knux to Orndorff. He ends up trying to punch Lee with them but he blocks it, they start fighting over the knux, Armstrong turns round sees them on Orndorff's fist and DQ's him awarding the belt to Lee. Anthony and Orndorff attack Lee after the match at which point Armstrong gets physically involved, dropping Anthony and then Buddy Landell and Barry Horowitz who both come out for some reason. The locker room empties to try and separate everyone. In the dressing room Orndorff says that there has been a conspiracy against him ever since he arrived, and next time Bob Armstrong sticks his nose in his business he's going to piledrive him as he's sick and tired of all this.

 

So SMW awarded their first Heavyweight championship on a DQ finish. When I saw Lee come out I was expecting Orndorff to take the whole match and Lee to get almost a 'fluke' roll up win, but what we got was far worst. Despite coming out for the match all beaten up, the finish made Lee look weak and no idea what they were doing having Armstrong playing Superman against everyone. At least Orndorff's post match interview was great, but this was one terrible ending. If Pete's guess was correct and Orndorff didn't want to job, just DQ him against Horner in the first round and let someone else do the clean finish in the final. Completely ass backwards booking.

[DownNDirtyTN]

 

I will continue to post new topics for each show so they will be self contained and we can discuss anything. From this show I would be very interested to hear if you all liked the Volunteer Slam or not and if you are like us (and mostly didn't) what you would have done to change things up. We go over a couple of scenarios in this episode.

 

Here is what I wrote about the main event from what I posted in the Yearbook forums. I wasn't enamored one bit with their first title being awarded on a DQ and Bullet Bob playing Superman one bit!

 

 

 

Lee had defeated Tony Anthony in the semi finals of the tournament and had bled fairly profusely during the match. The introductions are being made for the final and Bob Armstrong is in the ring with Paul Orndorff. Armstrong says that Lee lost a lot of blood, has a shoulder injury and as a result has no other alternative but to award the belt to Orndorff. Lee comes out all bandaged up, carrying his shoulder and says that he's come too far to let some doctor tell him he can't win the belt. The action is okay and Lee works hard, but the finish is something else. Referee Mark Curtis get KO'ed from a very contrived Orndorff elbow and then Bob Armstrong gets in the ring to try an revive him. Behind his back the Dirty White Boy comes out and throws some knux to Orndorff. He ends up trying to punch Lee with them but he blocks it, they start fighting over the knux, Armstrong turns round sees them on Orndorff's fist and DQ's him awarding the belt to Lee. Anthony and Orndorff attack Lee after the match at which point Armstrong gets physically involved, dropping Anthony and then Buddy Landell and Barry Horowitz who both come out for some reason. The locker room empties to try and separate everyone. In the dressing room Orndorff says that there has been a conspiracy against him ever since he arrived, and next time Bob Armstrong sticks his nose in his business he's going to piledrive him as he's sick and tired of all this.

 

So SMW awarded their first Heavyweight championship on a DQ finish. When I saw Lee come out I was expecting Orndorff to take the whole match and Lee to get almost a 'fluke' roll up win, but what we got was far worst. Despite coming out for the match all beaten up, the finish made Lee look weak and no idea what they were doing having Armstrong playing Superman against everyone. At least Orndorff's post match interview was great, but this was one terrible ending. If Pete's guess was correct and Orndorff didn't want to job, just DQ him against Horner in the first round and let someone else do the clean finish in the final. Completely ass backwards booking.

 

 

I couldn't agree more. When doing these shows I try to remember the time period, the area, etc. So I always lean towards knowing that my 2016 eyes are way different than my 1992 eyes - or just the way things were perceived in 1992. I kind of touch base on it in the podcast and do a little on the fly rebooking of the SMW Title Tournament but as a more coherent thought here's what I would have done looking back:

 

Definitely had all of the tourney save the finals on TV. I don't like 1 night tournaments mostly anyway. I would have had these pairings for the SMW Title:

 

Brian Lee vs Paul Orndorff

Buddy Landell vs Tim Horner

Robert Gibson vs Jimmy Golden

Dirty White Boy vs Dixie Dynamite

 

In the first round have Orndorff get frustrated with Lee during the match and piledrive him and leave him laying for a DQ. Hector Guerrero comes out and makes the save and runs off Orndorff but Lee has to be stretchered out.

 

Landell beats Horner by underhanded tactics in a good TV match

 

Gibson over Golden clean

 

DWB smears Dixie Dynamite pretty easily

 

Semifinals the week leading up to the VS show have Lee overcome all odds and beat Landell. Have Buddy just unmercifully work over the neck and really just beat Lee down. But at the end Lee prevails and overcomes the adversity. I would actually have DWB beating Gibson earlier in the show in a competitive matchup mostly but DWB really getting smashed over as a monster heel. Then after Lee somehow beats Landell I'd have DWB come out and he and Landell double team him until Tim Horner comes from the back and cleans house. But at this point Lee will be left in a pool of blood as well as having a damaged neck.

 

Then for the VS show itself I'd have these matches:

 

1. The Battens vs Joe Cazana & Barry Horowitz - Give The Battens a win over a thrown together team but setting them up for some matches against the Bodies.

 

2. Robert Gibson vs Jimmy Golden - I'd have Gibson go over in about 10 minutes keeping him semi-strong.

 

3. Rip Rogers & Buddy Landell vs Tim Horner and Dixie Dynamite - Have Rogers/Landell go over after Buddy gets a handful of tights on Dixie about 12 minutes in.

 

4. Carl Stiles vs Dutch Mantell - during TV's leading up to this I would have had Stiles finally have enough of Dutch's shit and lay into him. Then I'd put Stiles over Dutch in a short match ending the feud and his relationship with Mantell.

 

5. Hector Guerrero vs Paul Orndorff - Mexican Death Match. I'd have Orndorff go over but not after getting a real fight out of Guerrero and having about a 20 minute brawl.

 

6. Heavenly Bodies vs Party Patrol - SMW Tag Titles. Basically the same match they had. I can't think of anyone better to fight them given the Fantastics were out.

 

7. Brian Lee vs DWB - SMW Title. I'd have DWB get the win by underhanded means and then have Bob Armstrong, Danny Davis, and Tim Horner run out and make the save assisting Brian Lee and running off the newly crowned champion.

 

I would have inserted Doug Furnas above but figured he was in Japan at this time and not available anyhow. I just think a well booked card with only the finals of the SMW Title on that night would have worked better in the long run.