[2000-01-29-MPPW-TV] Tracy Smothers vs Ali

[soup23]

Smothers still has his street clothes on. I have never noticed Ali much and his gimmick is kind of weird here but he has good crowd support. It seems like Ali started really late if cagematch is correct in that he is 48 years old now. Pretty basic action throughout but the match gets thrown out with Cornette involved. Randy Hales comes out to take care of him. Brandon Baxter is a heel again I guess as he uses the deadly cloth to smother Ali. Smothers continues the beatdown and this all feels pretty hollow overall. I did like Dave Brown cutting Smothers off at the end. *1/2

[Loss]

Matches in street clothes are all the rage this weekend on Memphis television. This time, it's Tracy Smothers. In terms of promos, carrying guys and getting over as a heel, based on this and previous match, Tracy Smothers is still one of the best guys in the country and should be on a bigger stage. Sure, maybe he didn't fit the bill for being a headliner in this era, but there's no reason he couldn't have worked programs to get lower card guys over in WCW. It's hard to keep track of Brandon Baxter from segment to segment, but it sort of makes sense and the announcers fill in the blanks. I loved Dave Brown cutting off Tracy going into his T-H-U-G routine once again.

[Moonsault Marvin]

Smothers has the same clothes as the previous match. I thought wrestlers were always supposed to carry their trunks. Not much of a match. The old ether rag strikes again. I'm still not sure why Baxter turned on Ali.

[GSR]

Smothers is in his street clothes again and now has Jim Cornette and Synn in his corner. Ali pulls out another pescado, but makes the mistake of chasing after Corny and Synn. Cornette rolls into the ring to try and escape, but is met by a Smothers heel kick. Corny continues to show his worth by distracting the referee when Ali has Tracey in a small package. Ali with a big splash in the corner followed by a powerslam. As he covers him Cornette is in the ring and cracks Ali in the back with his racket for the DQ. Cornette and Smothers put the boots to Ali post-match and the referee tries to stop them but gets nailed with the racket himself for his troubles. Randy Hales is next out to try and put a stop to all this, but Synn grabs him and Cornette then starts attacking him. Hales ducks out the way of a racket shot and Corny ends up hitting Synn with it instead. The three of them fight to the back and Smothers comes off the top turnbuckle to Ali, who catches and plants him with a belly to belly. He goes for the ‘Ali Driver’, however Brandon Baxter is in the ring with an ether soaked rag that he starts to smother Ali with until Tracey gets hold of it and takes over. Baxter then goes to Dave Brown and says that this is what happens when you mess with Brandon Baxter!

 

Cheap DQ finish to the match which was not that exciting as it was. Of the five Power Pro matches for the month, Smothers has been involved in my two least favourite. Enjoyed Corny accidentally nailing Synn post-match, and another Corny staple with the ‘ether soaked rag’ making its return!

[Tim Evans]

Jim Cornette is almost single handily killing Power pro for me like he did OVW around this era. A ether rag finish in 2000? Really? Best part of this was Smothers not giving a shit and wrestling in his street clothes. The Baxter heel turn makes no sense but i'm not surprised. He was a better heel anyways. Thrilled that this is leading to a Randy Hales vs Jim Cornette match. This was pretty bad. You know you do too many ref bumps when the fans are silent during it. They just don't care anymore.