Flash Flanagan

What the World Was Watching: SMW Thanksgiving Thunder ’95 (Cookeville) – Last of the Series!

3rd March 2021 by LScisco

This event – the last in Smoky Mountain Wrestling’s history – took place at the Cookeville Community Center in Cookeville, Tennessee on November 26, 1995.  Attendance for the show could not be found, but there are lots of empty seats and a generous estimate of the crowd might be 150 people.  Like the Thanksgiving Thunder show in Johnson City, this event was recorded by a fan.

Fans do not take kindly to the announcement that Terry Gordy is not in attendance because of a “concussion.”

Continue reading →
Rants →

What the World Was Watching: SMW Thanksgiving Thunder ’95 (Johnson City)

24th February 2021 by LScisco

This show took place at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee on November 25, 1995.  It drew a crowd of 550 fans, a decline from the 800 fans who attended the Halloween Scream card there on October 28.  Footage of the show is provided by a fan recording.

Ring announcer Tommy Noe tells fans that Terry Gordy has a concussion and cannot compete, covering up for Gordy’s inability to show due to a prior commitment in Japan.

Buddy Landel walks into the ring and tells fans that Jos LeDuc has no showed because of a family issue.  Landel says that he is willing to face Tommy Rich and the Punisher in a handicap match until Commissioner Bob Armstrong comes out and says he will help Landel find a partner.

Continue reading →
Rants →

OVW Television Report – December 29, 2012

30th December 2012 by Scott Keith

by Logan Scisco

Since the review of the December 22nd show got
a good reception, I’ll continue on with some more OVW shows as the weeks
progress.  I will also make sure to point
out details about the roster, since many readers may not be familiar with the
talent.  As a reminder, you can stream
these shows on the OVW site (http://www.ovwrestling.com/tv)
and that’s a great thing that the promotion is doing since TNA fans can see
what is happening in developmental and get invested in some of the guys before
they make the main roster.  Shows are
posted every Thursday.  As far as
scheduling these reviews, they will likely go up very early Sunday morning
since OVW’s show airs on Saturday’s. 
Episodes are posted earlier than their air date, but by posting them on
Sunday’s I can avoid spoilers.
– Dean Hill,
Gilbert Corsey, and Michael Titus are doing the announcing duties from the
Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky.  To
break a couple of these guys down, Hill has been with the promotion since its
early inception when Jim Cornette was running it for WWE.  Corsey reminds me of the role that Corey
Macklin used to play in the USWA, minus the ring duties, which means that he
hypes house show cards and that type of stuff. 
Titus is the heel color commentator and he tries to do the Bobby Heenan
shtick of making lots of jokes about the faces. 
Some are good, but many fell flat in the first episode that I
reviewed.  Titus is also known as the
“Rocky Mountain Mouth.”

–Eddie Diamond,
Timmy Danger, and Bobbi Bordeaux come out to some rap music and dance to
celebrate Christmas.  Since Eddie and
Timmy are white they remind me of PG-13, but they are more street and have a
better physical build.  Eddie and Timmy
discuss who has been naughty and nice, which is slow and dry, but the Coalition
comes out and Crimson says they are terrible. 
The segment goes downhill with some stereotypical gay and women bashing
until the Coalition begin a beat down that is interrupted by James Thomas and
the Mascara Mafia.  Paredyse proposes an
eight man tag between James Thomas, the Mascara Mafia, and a mystery partner
against the Coalition’s Crimson, Jason Wayne, Doug Williams, and Joe Coleman
and the Coalition accept.  This sets up
the main event, but everyone was trying to take shortcuts to get heat and
everyone just looks cheap as a result.
–James Thomas asks
Johnny Spade if he has his back and Spade tells him no because he has his own
problems.  James seems to take rejection
rather well from the guy who saved him last week.
–Opening
Contest:  Dylan Bostic (w/Taeler Hendrix)
defeats Stephon J. Baxter III with a double knee backbreaker at 3:24
The running gag with Bostic seems to be that no one knows
what his moniker of “The Justin Bieber of Professional Wrestling” means.  Baxter is a black guy playing a nerd gimmick.  Bostic spends the entire match slapping
Baxter around, not taking him seriously, and when Baxter tries to “nerd up”,
Bostic just ducks his punch and finishes him. 
This squash took entirely too long for what it was, but I suppose the
point was to make Bostic look like a big bully.
–Randy Royal meets
up with a trainer starts getting in shape for a return to the ring after a
heart attack.
                          
–Our next scheduled match is for the OVW Television Championship, but
when Elvis Pridemoore, a white guy sporting a street/rap gimmick (how many “street”
gimmicks are in this company?) makes his entrance he is attacked by Cliff
Compton, the “Vigilante of OVW.”  Compton
gets on the house mic and says that he’s the true OVW Television Champion, but
that brings out OVW Television Champion Jamin Olivencia, who runs him off.  Olivencia says that he is the champion and he
challenges Compton to a match, but Compton says he hurt his injured foot and
can’t compete.  Olivencia says that he’ll
give Compton a title shot next week. 
Compton’s mic work is carrying this program, but I’m more into this feud
than anything else happening.
–BTE (The Best Team
Ever) of Jessie Godderz and Rudy Switchblade and they make fun of the OVW
Southern Tag Team Champions Alex Silva and Sam Shaw.  The humor is lost on me since I haven’t
followed Silva and Shaw outside of one show, but it elicits little in the way
of crowd reaction.  After some painful
minutes, Silva and Shaw show up and make the BTE run away.
–The Mascara Mafia
talks to some of the OVW knockouts, Epiphany, Jessie Belle, and Heidi Lovelace
and ask them if they will use their “assets” to convince Johnny Spade to team
with them and James Thomas tonight.  The
knockouts seemingly have no problem doing this and they talk Spade up, but are
interrupted by Taeler Hendrix, who turns the women against each other.  Hendrix proposes that Epiphany and Belle face
each other in a number one contender’s match and Spade just walks away.
–Nick Dinsmore
hypes his wrestling class in OVW.
–Josette Bynum
appears and says that she petitioned the OVW Board of Directors after last week’s
show to let Flash Flanagan have a warm up match.  She calls Flanagan on her phone, who shows up
shortly thereafter.  Trailer Park Trash
tries to rush the ring, but OVW officials hold him back.
–Flash Flanagan (w/Josette
Bynum) beats Jace King with a neckbreaker at 4:12:
I was surprised to find out that Flash Flanagan was still
competing when watching last week’s show. 
This squash is meant to show that Flanagan is a great wrestler that does
not need weapons in order to win a match. 
Flanagan yells a lot at Trailer Park Trash during the match and Bynum
works in a few slaps on King before Flanagan finishes him.  This is a squash where the angle overwhelmed
the match, but this is the second match we’ve had tonight where a jobber was
just slapped around for more than three minutes.  It hardly makes for captivating television.
–After his squash,
Flanagan taunts Trailer Park Trash about his overweight daughter, which causes
Trash to be held back by OVW officials when he wants to charge the ring again.
–James “The Moose”
Thomas, the Mascara Mafia & “Smooth” Johnny Spade defeat “The General”
Crimson, Doug Williams, Joe Coleman & Jason Wayne when Thomas pins Wayne
after Spade superkicks Wayne at 9:19 shown:
Wayne does a great job introducing his team, continuing a
great run of mic work from last week. 
Spade decides to be part of the face team, but I think they played this
wrong by having him show up during his team’s entrance and not later in the
match.  The Mascara Mafia has a
gay/flamboyant gimmick and is made up of Paredyse and Brandon Espinoza.  Paredyse has a disturbing move called “Say No
to Crack” whereby he puts his opponent in a headscissors near the corner and pulls
them to his rear end.  The Mascara Mafia
spend time in peril as this match builds a better story than last week’s six
man tag.  The Coalition really needs to find
more team maneuvers if they are going to be booked in tag matches like this
because the only cooperative move they have is to pound on an opponent in the
corner.  Thomas eventually gets the hot
tag and everyone trades moves with each other until it comes down to Thomas and
Wayne.  Wayne puts Thomas in a full
nelson, but Thomas gets out of it and Spade drills Wayne with a superkick to
send the Coalition down in defeat.  Rating: 
**¼
The Final Report Card:  The main point of this show was to hype
matches taking place at the Saturday Night Special on January 5th
and a lot of the angles to get to that stage are running out of steam.  The main event was okay, but much of the
first three quarters of the show was a chore to sit through.
Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Down
Rants →