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.
Opening Contest: D’Lo Brown beats Brian Logan after a moonsault at 10:05:
Brown was just starting in the wrestling business, breaking in the previous year in New Jersey and then coming to SMW as the head of security for the Gangstas. He also wrestled as a jobber under his real name A.C. Connor for the WWF at this time. Logan was trained by Tim Horner and was also new to the business, wrestling his first match in 1993. Action moves slowly as Brown stalls between Logan’s offensive flurries and takes his time to lay in offensive moves at the halfway point. Brown misses a splash off the top to trigger a Logan comeback, which is pretty devoid of the fire you should see out of a babyface, and Logan hits a splash off the top rope for two before Brown gets his foot over the bottom rope. The end comes after a blind charge, with Brown capitalizing with a nice moonsault for the pin. Both guys had the right ideas for executing the match, it just did not flow as well as it could have. Rating: *½
Before the match, NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo is introduced by Tammy Fytch and he gets big heat after telling the crowd to shut up and challenging Fytch’s suspension. He also holds a court order demanding Boo Bradley’s return to a mental institution. Referee Mark Curtis does not buy that and orders Coralluzzo and Fytch to leave lest Boo Bradley be awarded the NWA World Championship.
Boo Bradley (2-0) beats Chris Candido (w/Tammy Fytch) (0-1) after hitting him with a loaded purse at 16:24:
The match carries a lot of heat as the crowd loves Bradley’s simple nature and hates Candido for treating him so badly over the previous months. And the action is interrupted at the beginning and middle by promos, with Candido demanding an apology from Bradley for his recent actions and Bradley promising to make the crowd happy. The match is also filled with comic spots, with Candido left alone in the ring during a crisscross spot, Candido crotching himself on the guardrail trying to get away from Bradley, and each man doing a muscle pose for the fans. When Bradley gets the upper hand, Candido uses the ring bell and chinlocks become his primary tool for keeping his larger opponent in check. The Suicide Blonde (a divide headbutt) misses and Bradley gets a second wind, taking off his t-shirt during his comeback, only to get crotched on the top rope. Bradley kicks out of a super hurricanrana, causing Fytch to run out dressed as an older woman. Curtis pulls off her wig as a loaded purse flies into the ring. Bradley decks Candido with it and although Curtis figures the purse was used, he concludes that it is fine that Candido was done in by his own medicine and counts the fall anyway. Despite some slow spots, these two did an excellent job working the crowd and getting heat. Rating: **½
After the match, Fytch sprays a substance in Bradley’s eyes and Candido beats him up with the ring bell. Bradley only temporarily sells that, though, and superkicks Candido out of the ring, forcing the heels to flee.
SMW Tag Team Champions the Rock N’ Roll Express were booked to face Eddie Gilbert & Unabom in the next bout. However, Gilbert no showed the card so Unabom offers to wrestle a handicap match. However, Mark Curtis will not allow that, so we get a Ricky Morton-Unabom match instead.
Ricky Morton (w/Robert Gibson) (0-1) beats Unabom via disqualification when Unabom tosses Morton over the top rope at 5:07:
The fan camera recorders immediately point out that Unabom looks a lot like Sid. And just like if Morton was wrestling Sid, this follows the classic big man-little man template as Morton struggles to do anything against the taller guy. Unabom’s offense is limited, relying too much on basic strikes. Morton tries to bring him down with a sleeper three times, with Unabom escaping each time. His last escape though sends Morton over the top rope, so Morton wins via disqualification. That is a weak finish but the issue between these two is far from over. Rating: ½*
Number One Contender’s Match for the SMW Championship: Buddy Landel (3-0) pins Tracy Smothers after hitting him with a chain at 15:33:
Smothers was a well-traveled veteran by 1995, popular in the Southeastern section of the country due to his work in Memphis, Florida Championship Wrestling, and the Continental Wrestling Federation. He was also a national name, wrestling for WCW between 1990 and 1992 as the Southern Boys and Young Pistols with Steve Armstrong. By this show he had already been a two-time SMW Heavyweight Champion and three-time Beat the Champ Television Champion, thereby securing his spot in this match against Landel to see who will face the Dirty White Boy at an undetermined time. The crowd is really engaged in the match and Landel has a big cheering section even though he is the promotion’s biggest heel. Stalling dictates the first ten minutes until tempers flare on the floor, with Landel getting the worst of it when he charges into the ring post. Smothers presses his advantage with clotheslines and roll ups but Landel keeps kicking out. Landel pulls out a foreign object, only to lose it when Smothers hits him coming off the ropes. Smothers and Curtis tussle over the object, allowing Landel to get a chain and deck Smothers to prevail. That is an awesome ending of a heel using their backup plan to still come out ahead and is worth ½* extra. Rating: **½
Before the next match, Jerry Lawler riles up the crowd by telling them to kiss his feet and picking on the looks of a few ladies at ringside. His best dig is at an old lady, telling fans she was a waitress at the Last Supper and that she needs to put her false teeth in backward and eat herself to death.
SMW Championship Match with Buddy Landel as Guest Timekeeper: Jerry Lawler defeats the Dirty White Boy (Champion) (0-1) after Landel piledrives the White Boy at 16:25 shown:
There is very little sustained action in this match, as Lawler prefers to work the crowd. The phantom object trick lets Lawler slowly work over the White Boy with fists and fist drops, all while Lawler continues to argue with the elderly woman at ringside. Landel also gets involved, giving Lawler the SMW title to use as a weapon behind Mark Curtis’ back. The White Boy stops selling once he is taken to the corner turnbuckle nine times and he plants Lawler with the Bucksnort Blaster (a chokeslam). However, Landel rings the bell, saying that the sixty-minute time limit expired despite only fifteen minutes of action. The fans with the camera think that is hilarious and referee Mark Curtis fires Landel as timekeeper. When the match gets restarted, though, Curtis is knocked off the apron and Landel piledrives the White Boy, puts Lawler on top, and then rolls Curtis back into the ring to count the winning fall for Lawler and give him the championship. There was not enough action to make this higher than * but Lawler’s pre-match antics were incredibly entertaining and kept the crowd engaged. Rating: *
“Lights Out” Match: The Dirty White Boy (1-1) defeats Buddy Landel (4-0) with a crucifix roll up at 3:19:
Having already been punished by Lawler for the better part of sixteen minutes, the White Boy cannot mount any offense and the fresher Landel takes his time pounding and choking away. Landel drops two elbows but is lazy on a cover and the White Boy rolls him up for a fluke victory. This never played to the “lights out” stipulation so this was a bait and switch on Smoky Mountain’s part, necessitating a DUD rating. Rating: DUD
After the match, Landel beats up the White Boy some more and gives him a DDT so that the crowd knows this feud is not over.
The Gangstas (w/D’Lo Brown) (1-0) wrestle the Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) to a double disqualification at 14:46:
Even though the match is a standard encounter, the Bodies are allowed to use pieces of wood to wear out the Gangstas in the early going and Cornette gets involved by whacking anything that moves with his tennis racquet. Mustafa ends up getting hung with a strap over the top rope, a rather uncomfortable image considering the racially charged promos in the lead-up to this bout. The Bodies dominate the in-ring action until Jimmy del Ray misses a moonsault. An ensuing Gangstas heat segment is less entertaining because their offense is largely strike based. New Jack does use a nice belly-to-belly suplex for score a near-fall on del Ray, though. A rocket launcher misses, and the Bodies make their comeback, with Dr. Tom Prichard holding New Jack in place for a del Ray flying leg drop. A cover is interrupted by Brown, who is intercepted by Cornette, and then causes the match to get thrown out. This was a fun brawl to keep the feud between these two teams going, although it was unclear why wooden boards could be used as weapons in a match that allowed for disqualifications. Rating: **½
After the bell the brawl continues as the Bodies take turns whipping the members of the Gangstas into a wooden table propped up in the corner. Both teams then fight to the locker room.
$10,000 K-Town Rumble: Ricky Morton wins, last eliminating Unabom at 6:26 shown:
Other Participants: Buddy Landel, Tracy Smothers, Chris Candido, Boo Bradley, Brian Logan, Jerry Lawler, D’Lo Brown
The match is joined in progress, with Smothers, Logan, Candido, Bradley, and Landel battling it out. Smothers gets some revenge from earlier in the evening by tossing Landel. Candido and Smothers knock each other out and brawl in the crowd, while Unabom establishes himself as a force just like he did on television, quickly eliminating Logan and Brown. As he does so, though, Morton dropkicks him in the back right after Morton tosses Lawler and that sends Unabom over the top rope. Rating: *
Following the match, Unabom gives Morton a unabomb and then rubs his face with sandpaper until Robert Gibson makes the save.
The Last Word: The crowd was really into this show after the opener, which enhanced several of the matches, notably between Jerry Lawler and the Dirty White Boy. Giving Lawler the SMW Championship is likely a short-term move since Buddy Landel looks to be the star on the rise within the promotion. Fans were loving his act and he was getting cheers at various points on the show.
Backstage News: The Super Saturday Night Fever match between Ricky Morton and Unabom was supposed to be the Rock N’ Roll Express against Unabom and Eddie Gilbert but was changed when Gilbert left the promotion. According to Jim Cornette, Gilbert left him a message on his answering machine that he would be in Knoxville so as not to burn a bridge with another promotion, but when Cornette tried to reach him in Puerto Rico his phone number was disconnected. SMW is not likely to tell fans that Gilbert is gone because he is going to appear in some non-wrestling segments on future television broadcasts.
*After New Jack was arrested last week one of the officers at the Morristown police station wanted his autograph, so Jim Cornette is laughing off the ordeal and does not think it will hurt the promotion going forward. A fan camera seems to show fans pushing New Jack before he reacted so the charges might be dropped against him.
*In talent relations news, SMW is in discussions with Al Snow since they need a babyface to push for their February television tapings.
*Backstage news is courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for February 6.
Up Next: Smoky Mountain TV for February 4!
