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.
Opening Contest: Boo Bradley beats Scotty McKeever after an elbow drop off the second rope at 1:38:
Bradley began wrestling at the age of fifteen in Puerto Rico as part of the World Wrestling Council (WWC) promotion. He came to SMW as a heel in 1994, aligning with Chris Candido and Tammy Fytch and suffering their abuse until he stood up for himself at Christmas Chaos, so this is his first match as a babyface. McKeever was a West Virginia-based enhancement talent, appearing in a few matches for WCW in 1992 and 1993. Bradley makes short work of McKeever, pummeling him with strikes before coming off the second rope with an elbow drop. After the match, Bradley helps McKeever up and peeved McKeever goes to the locker room rather than congratulate the man who beat him.
In a taped segment, Cactus Jack gives Bradley a certificate that says that he is sane and says he has the heart of a beast. Bradley says he now knows the value being good. “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by the Hollies plays as both men walk down the street, spliced with black and white images of what happened to Bradley’s cat Boots at Christmas Chaos and Boots’ grave.
The Heavenly Bodies cut a promo backstage in the WWF. Jimmy del Ray has a case of Super Saturday Night Fever as Dr. Tom Prichard implores Commissioner Bob Armstrong to let them come back to SMW to take on the Gangstas.
Ross interviews Jim Cornette, who is using a cane to hold himself up. The Gangstas interrupt and New Jack tells Cornette that they would be happy to face the Bodies. When a three-on-one beatdown appears likely, Bob and Steve Armstrong come in to even the odds and the Gangstas flee. Cornette admits he is a jerk and gives Bob an emotional appeal to bring the Bodies back. Bob agrees to it because he believes that every man has a constitutional right to defend himself. To end the segment, Cornette quotes Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young” chorus and says that the Gangstas will die young at Super Saturday Night Fever.
Beat the Champ Television Championship Match: Buddy Landel (Champion) defeats George South via submission to the figure-four leg lock at 2:41:
A Boris Malenko trainee, Landel started his career in Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling and worked his way into Jim Crockett Promotions. He billed himself as “the Nature Boy” and mimicked a lot of Ric Flair’s gimmick, using the figure-four leg lock as a finisher and wearing nice robes to the ring. Pegged for superstardom in the mid-1980s, Landel became his worst enemy, having a falling out with Crockett and acquiring a bad drug habit. SMW offered Landel an opportunity to rehabilitate his career and he seized the opportunity, becoming one of the promotion’s major acts. South was a journeyman wrestler who was known as a good preliminary worker in the NWA and WWF and in the mid-1990s was working as the top heel in the Carolinas-based Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF) against the Italian Stallion. This match marked Landel’s second title defense, and he comes to the ring with techno version of Flair’s WCW theme song. Landel outwrestles South on the canvas, drops a corkscrew elbow, and locks in the figure-four for a relatively easy win and $1,000.
Ross interviews Landel, who is booked to face Tracy Smothers in a number one contenders match for the SMW title and the Dirty White Boy in a lights out match at Super Saturday Night Fever. He vows to go through Smothers “like wind through a goose” and that his agent Robert Q. Harmon is looking for a contractual loophole to get him a title match when he faces the White Boy.
Jerry Lawler does a taped promo that builds on last week’s work insulting Knoxville, Tennessee fans. Lawler says that the White Boy cost him the NWA title in a tournament last year, so he is coming to Super Saturday Night Fever to get revenge and take the White Boy’s SMW title.
A video package to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Glory Days” puts over Lawler, although all of the footage is from Memphis in the 1970s and 1980s.
SMW Heavyweight Champion the Dirty White Boy tells Ross that he is not sharing his title with anyone and that after he takes care of Lawler at Super Saturday Night Fever he is going to stomp a mudhole in Buddy Landel and walk it dry.
The current card for Super Saturday Night Fever is as follows: Tracy Smothers against Landel in a number one contender’s match for the SMW Heavyweight title, Boo Bradley against Chris Candido, the Dirty White boy defends the SMW Heavyweight title against Jerry Lawler, the Heavenly Bodies face the Gangstas, a lights out match between the White Boy and Landel, and a sixteen-man K-Town Rumble where the winner will receive $10,000.
Ross interviews Chris Candido, who gloats about what he did to Boots at Christmas Chaos because it destroyed Bradley’s soul. After losing his place in the promo, Candido concludes by saying that he will put Bradley away once and for all at Super Saturday Night Fever.
Call 1-900-73-SMOKY to vote on whether SMW should have suspended Tammy Fytch!
Eddie Gilbert shows up, disturbed by what he has seen in SMW. He is angry that his father, Tommy Gilbert, was not invited to last year’s Night of Legends event. Ross says that he was called, but Gilbert says that was not true and rants about Ricky Morton’s father, Paul Morton, being honored. Ricky comes out and challenges Gilbert to an impromptu match. Gilbert was awesome at getting under the crowd’s skin in this segment.
Eddie Gilbert defeats Ricky Morton with a Flair pin at 5:04:
Gilbert was well-known to Southern fans, wrestling in the Alabama-based Continental Wrestling Federation (CWF), Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF), and the United States Wrestling Association (USWA). He also served as a booker for JCP in the late 1980s and Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) in Philadelphia and is thought to have done the first shoot interview with Bob Barnett in 1994. Gilbert’s microphone work was top notch but what held him back was his inability to get along with others behind the scenes for long periods of time, which led to him leaving Global, ECW, and the USWA. Morton also well known to fans for his work with Robert Gibson in the Rock N’ Roll Express, with the duo winning the NWA Tag Team Championship three times. After a brief singles run in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the early 1990s, Morton reformed the Express with Gibson in SMW in 1992 where they feuded with the Heavenly Bodies for more than a year. There is not a lot of action in the match, but the crowd is hot throughout due to Gilbert’s cheating. Morton knocks Gilbert over the top rope with a punch and when Gilbert re-enters the ring, he knocks Morton down with a shoulder thrust and then pins him with the help of the ropes. Rating: *½
Gilbert tells Ross that Lou Thesz taught him how to finish the last match. He antagonizes the Rock N’ Roll Express and when they approach him, he challenges them to a match next week where he will pick a partner.
The Last Word: This was a fun show, with Eddie Gilbert getting under the crowd’s skin and building to an interesting match next week against the Rock N’ Roll Express. Buddy Landel also excelled on the mic, which made his segments of the show good as well. Even the midcard feud between Chris Candido and Boo Bradley carried good comedy with the Cactus Jack video segment at the beginning of the broadcast.
Here were the results of several house shows, held in Kentucky and Tennessee (results courtesy of prowrestlinghistory.com):
January 13, 1995 – Whitley County Middle School – Williamsburg, Kentucky (250): Tracy Smothers pinned Bryant Anderson…Boo Bradley defeated Chris Candido…Buddy Landel beat SMW Champion the Dirty White Boy via disqualification…SMW Tag Team Champions the Rock N’ Roll Express defeated the Gangstas.
January 14, 1995 – Freedom Hall – Johnson City, Tennessee (707): Bryant Anderson beat the Nightmare…Tracy Smothers beat D’Lo Brown…Chris Candido pinned Boo Bradley…SMW Champion the Dirty White Boy pinned Buddy Landel in a no disqualification match…SMW Tag Team Champions the Rock N’ Roll Express defeated the Gangstas in a “lumberjacks with tennis racquets” match when Ricky Morton pinned New Jack…Boo Bradley won a Smoky Mountain Rumble, last eliminating New Jack.
Backstage News*: Earlier reports that Tammy Fytch was going to be leaving the company were inaccurate as she returned to the road this weekend. Even though she was suspended on television she came to the ring with Chris Candido when he faced Boo Bradley and had to be forced to go back to the dressing room by referee Mark Curtis.
*Edgier angles like the Gangstas accusations that Smoky Mountain was racist and the cat killing angle cost the promotion its television slot in Atlanta on WTLK, a religious network.
*Backstage news is courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for January 23.
Up Next: Smoky Mountain Television for January 21!
