1991 was an interesting year for World Championship Wrestling. With Jim Herd in charge, the company was collapsing into chaos. Ric Flair left in August to jump to the World Wrestling Federation (with the NWA heavyweight title belt), but he was just one of many wrestlers flooding out of the company like Stan Hansen and the Road Warriors.
One of those who left was Jim Cornette. Cornette, who’d worked as the manager for the Midnight Express as well as a booker, found himself Herd’s scapegoat. Cornette finally tired of dealing with Herd and left the company with Stan Lane (one-half of the Midnight Express). Tim Horner and Sandy Scott also left WCW and Cornette saw an opportunity.
Cornette met with famed music producer Rick Rubin and he agreed to bankroll a new company. Cornette reached an agreement for the rights to the old Knoxville booking office and he was set.
The new company Cornette founded along with Lane, Horner, and Scott was called Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Cornette had a different view of wrestling than the WWF or WCW – he wanted to focus on a more traditional style of wrestling with clearly-defined good guys and bad guys (which would prove to be much different than where wrestling was heading due to ECW’s influence). Cornette also shied away from the cartoonish gimmicks which were filling the WWF and WCW at the time.
To fill his roster, Cornette turned to some other veterans who’d left WCW. His play-by-play man was Bob Caudle. Caudle was well-known for his tenure with WCW and the Crockett family’s NWA affiliates.
Cornette’s color announcer was former CWA star Dirty Dutch Mantell. Mantell had begun doing commentary for WCW in 1990 and 1991 saw him join a trio of bumbling cowboys named the Desperadoes, who were in search of Stan Hansen. When Hansen saw the vignettes, he immediately left for Japan and never wrestled in the United States again. The Desperadoes were released later that year.
The roster was also packed with veterans. Wrestlers like Pat Rose, Robert Gibson, Scott Armstrong, the Fantastics, Ivan Koloff, and Hector Guerrero signed on.
Cornette also signed some new faces. His rookies included young men like Brian Lee, Bob Holly, and Jack Victory.
Cornette held a TV taping in October of 1991. However, he struggled to find a television deal. Finally the deal was made and his footage began airing in February of 1992.
That will be our next destination. Get your grunge clothes ready and pull out your Right Said Fred and Kris Kross tapes. Starting next week, we’ll be in 1992 Knoxville, watching week by week to see what happens through SMW’s first year. We’ll see you then.
