Today’s show features some of the matches that took place at Super Saturday Night Fever in Knoxville, Tennessee on January 28. Les Thatcher does commentary on the matches.
The closing stages of the Buddy Landel-Tracy Smothers match are shown where Landel became the number one contender to the SMW Championship. Smothers tussles with referee Mark Curtis over a foreign object that Landel drops in the ring, allowing Landel to wrap a chain around his fist, hit Smothers, and pin him.
Footage from Morristown, Tennessee’s “Motown Rumble” airs, with Tracy Smothers taking out the Gangstas to win. Afterward the Gangstas do a beatdown until Scott Armstrong makes the save. D’Lo Brown comes out to give the Gangstas a three-on-two advantage, but as Dave Meltzer noted in The Wrestling Observer, Brown did not follow instructions as he was supposed to take out Scott’s leg and instead he beat up Smothers and worked over Scott’s shoulder. Since commentary runs over the beatdown you cannot hear Smothers and Scott yelling that the angle is not going according to plan.
Thatcher interviews the Gangstas about the New Wild-Eyed Southern Boys. New Jack talks about Scott’s leg was snapped, even though the previous angle showed none of that, and makes Civil War analogies of how the North will defeat the South yet again.
Thatcher interviews Chris Candido. Thatcher announces that at Sunday Bloody Sunday II Candido will face Boo Bradley in a dog collar chain match. Candido complains that SMW is trying to kill him before vowing to finish his old ally off for good.
The Gangstas (w/D’Lo Brown) (1-0) wrestle the Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) to a double disqualification when Brown and Cornette get involved at 6:10 shown:
There is only one stationary camera to show the highlights of this match from Super Saturday Night Fever and it is far away from the ring. The Bodies hit the ring with boards to beat up the Gangstas and Cornette gets involved several times to whack the Gangstas with his tennis racquet. They dominate most of the action shown and then choke Mustafa Saed and Brown with ropes, and Jimmy del Ray hits a flying leg drop on New Jack. Brown rushes in to break up the fall and Cornette rushes in to meet him and the match gets thrown out. The clipped nature of the match made it tough to evaluate but it looked like a good brawl. Rating: **
After the bell, a table is set up in the corner by Del Ray and the Bodies whip each of the Gangstas into it. The fighting goes to the locker room, where a homemade camera shows all six men doing some garbage brawling. Language is censored as the Gangstas are driven from the arena and onto the street.
Thatcher interviews the Bodies and Jim Cornette. Cornette says that the Gangstas do not know how to handle a team that can cheat as good as they can. He throws out some racial jokes and complains that New Jack would say that his comments were racist before moving on and saying that the Gangstas cannot take responsibility for their actions without alleging discrimination. Cornette hypes a Smoky Mountain street fight on February 25 in Johnson City at Brawl in the Hall, a match that the Bodies have never lost, and Sunday Bloody Sunday II on February 26 in Knoxville where a six-man tag between Bodies and Cornette will face all of the Gangstas. He vows that his team will end the legacy of the Gangstas once and for all.
Footage of Unabom winning last week’s Smoky Mountain Rumble airs – with Eddie Gilbert’s portion wiped out – along with Ricky Morton winning the K-Town Rumble at Super Saturday Night Fever. After that match, Unabom attacked Morton and rubbed sandpaper on his face. As this happened, referee Mark Curtis could not help Morton because Jerry Lawler held him back. Eventually, Robert Gibson saved his partner.
Thatcher interviews Ricky Morton, who has a bandage on his face. Morton tells Unabom that he is about to find out that you do not mess with the Rock N’ Roll Express.
Unabom cuts his own promo holding sandpaper. He is mad that Morton cost him $10,000 in the K-Town Rumble and he is not afraid of the Express.
SMW Championship Match: Jerry Lawler defeats the Dirty White Boy (Champion) (0-1) to win the title after Buddy Landel interferes at 2:45 shown:
The camera zooms in better for this match from Super Saturday Night Fever where Buddy Landel was guest referee. When the White Boy had Lawler beat after a Bucksnort Blaster, Landel prematurely rang the bell during the pinfall, alleging that the one-hour time limit expired. When the match restarts, referee Mark Curtis is knocked off the apron and Landel hits the White Boy with a piledriver, rolling Curtis in so he can count the pinfall and award the title to Lawler. According to arena reports, the match was nothing to write home about as Lawler stalled before the finishing sequence began.
Quick highlights of the Landel-White Boy “lights out” match air, showing the finish where the White Boy scored a fluke schoolboy roll up to win after Landel beat him down for much of the bout. After the match, Landel DDT’d the White Boy to still come out on top.
Thatcher interviews SMW Champion Jerry Lawler. Lawler gloats about his title win at Super Saturday Night Fever, saying that the belt was made for him because it has a crown on it. He denies that any assistance helped him beat the Dirty White Boy.
Thatcher announces that Lawler will defend the SMW title against the White Boy on February 25 at Brawl in the Hall. Buddy Landel will then face the winner at Sunday Bloody Sunday IIbecause he is the number one contender. Landel complains about SMW management is still ignoring him, which is why he gets the second title shot instead of the first.
To end the show, Thatcher gives a rundown of the current Brawl in the Hall card for February 25. Announced matches include the Rock N’ Roll Express against Eddie Gilbert & Unabom (which is not happening because Gilbert left the promotion), the Heavenly Bodies against the Gangstas in a street fight, Chris Candido against Boo Bradley where the loser (spelled “looser” in the match graphic) eats dog food, and SMW Champion Jerry Lawler defending the title against the Dirty White Boy.
Matches for Sunday Bloody Sunday II in Knoxville so far include the Rock N’ Roll Express against Eddie Gilbert & Unabom, the Gangstas vs. the New Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, the Heavenly Bodies & Jim Cornette against the Gangstas & D’Lo Brown in a lights out match, Chris Candido against Boo Bradley in a dog collar chain match, and Buddy Landel will face the winner of SMW Champion Jerry Lawler against the Dirty White Boy.
The Last Word: Les Thatcher did his best on this broadcast, but he was not the person to carry a one-hour wrestling show alone. The interviews were good, though, and the promotion was smart to make Unabom’s promo against Ricky Morton short because he was still learning the ropes.
SMW went into Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky as part of its house show circuit. Here were the results of a few of those shows courtesy of prowrestlinghistory.com:
Hurley, Virginia – Hurley High School – February 3, 1995 (450): Boo Bradley pinned Chris Candido…Ricky Morton beat Unabom via disqualification…Tracy Smothers & Robert Gibson beat the Gangstas when Smothers pinned New Jack…The Dirty White Boy defeated Buddy Landel.
Barbourville, Kentucky – Knox Central High School – February 4, 1995 (275): D’Lo Brown defeated the Nightmare…Boo Bradley pinned Chris Candido in a “loser eats dog food” match…Unabom pinned Ricky Morton…Buddy Landel defeated the Dirty White Boy in a no disqualification, no time limit match…The Gangstas defeated Bob Armstrong & Tracy Smothers.
Backstage News*: The scheduled matches between the Gangstas and the New Wild-Eyed Southern Boys did not take place at house shows this weekend because Scott Armstrong is going to WCW to work at the Disney tapings. As a result, Robert Gibson and Bob Armstrong had to fill in.
*Barbourville usually draws a crowd of 550-600 fans, but attendance was down due to poor weather.
*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for February 13.
Up Next: Smoky Mountain TV for February 11!