the Dirty White Boy

Chip Kessler and Les Thatcher are in the booth and they are still covering action from the Jellico, Tennessee tapings.

Chip Kessler and Les Thornton are doing play-by-play duties, with this being Kessler’s first broadcast in that role.  Thatcher tells fans that Jim Ross is no longer handling television due to his growing WWF responsibilities.  They kick off a new round of tapings from Warrensville, North Carolina that took place at Northwest Ashe High School.  According to prowrestlinghistory.com, the tapings on April 13 drew 350 fans.

Chip Kessler tells the audience that today’s broadcast will recap the events of the Bluegrass Brawl where fans were turned away in Pikeville, Kentucky.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are in the booth and they are concluding the television tapings in Council, Virginia.  Tonight is the big Fright Night card in Johnson City, Tennessee, so Ross spends a lot of the match hyping it.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are doing commentary and they are still in Council, Virginia.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are in the booth and they are taped from Council, Virginia.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are handling commentary and are wrapping up the television tapings in Lenoir, North Carolina.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are in the booth, with today’s show still part of the Lenoir tapings.

Like Super Saturday Night Fever, this card was taped from a fan in the crowd.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew 1,100 fans to Knoxville’s Civic Coliseum.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher provide commentary for today’s matches, which are still airing from Lenoir, North Carolina.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher do commentary and they are at a new taping location in Lenoir, North Carolina.  According to prowrestlinghistory.com, the taping at the Mulberry Street Recreational Center drew 375 fans.

(So I actually did have a copy of this show sitting in my home office, so we got a little ahead of ourselves in the SMW reviews by doing the February 4 television show.  We will rewind to review this big event and then move to February 11 next week)

Smoky Mountain Wrestling never put out a VHS release of Super Saturday Night Fever so existing footage is from a fan cam.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show, which took place at the City Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee, drew 2,000 fans and a $16,000 gate.

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.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher oversee commentary and they are still taped from Sevierville, Tennessee.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are in the booth and they are still taped from Sevierville, Tennessee.

Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are calling the action and they are taped from Sevier County High School in Sevierville, Tennessee.  According to prowrestlinghistory.com, the taping drew 400 fans.

While Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) paved the road for wrestling’s future by the end of the decade, Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) was a product yearning for the past.  Started by former Midnight Express manager and Louisville native Jim Cornette, and bankrolled by record producer Rick Rubin, in 1991, SMW billed itself as “professional wrestling like it used to be and the way you like it.”  Running shows in the Appalachian areas of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and the Carolinas, the promotion’s presentation and booking mirrored the territory days, with a traditional babyface-heel alignment and the adoption of Southern wrestling customs like disqualifications for wrestlers who tossed their opponents over the top rope.  SMW relied on older NWA talents to boost houses, reviving the careers of the Rock N’ Roll Express and Buddy Landel, but it also became a haven for new acts that would later make their mark in the big time as Chris Jericho, Chris Candido, Tammy Sytch, Boo Bradley (the future Balls Mahoney), D’Lo Brown, the Gangstas, Lance Storm, and Unabomb (the future Kane) spent time in the company.