Jim Ross and Les Thatcher are in the booth, with today’s show still part of the Lenoir tapings.
Opening Contest: The Dirty White Boy (2-2) beats Brian Logan (0-2) after the Bucksnort Blaster at 1:37:
The problem of doing long television tapings is that Ross and Thatcher cannot make a lot of specific comments about what happened at Sunday Bloody Sunday II. The White Boy makes short work of Logan, beating him down before hitting the Bucksnort Blaster to get above .500 for the year.
Ross interviews the White Boy, who is looking forward to March Madness, the next big SMW show, because he gets to face Buddy Landel in a cage match. A cage match is a curious choice for this feud because Landel has not needed interference to wrestle the White Boy to this point. If anything, he has just taken cheap shots throughout the feud.
The Gangstas and D’Lo Brown are the next group to visit Ross. New Jack that the “X” flag is going to bury everyone in SMW. A video shows a local project as profane rap music plays. The Gangstas pull up in a car and are greeted as heroes. After the video, Jack brags about buying a condo from the money he made when the Gangstas were tag champions. He finishes by saying he is the new majority and the fans are a bunch of dogs. New Jack’s promos are without a doubt one of the best thing about these shows on a weekly basis.
Ross announces that the third annual Bluegrass Brawl will take place on Friday, April 7 in Pikeville, Kentucky at the Pikeville College Gymnasium.
Beat the Champ Television Championship Match: Billy Black (1-0) beats Boo Bradley (Champion) (8-0) after a flying bulldog to win the title at 4:51:
Bradley is in need of a new character arc now that he has driven rival Chris Candido from the company. The promotion’s need for new heels is also why Black is suddenly thrust into a title match after only appearing on one television broadcast. Both men have a short brawl until Black misses a moonsault. Bradley’s loving nature backfires as Black feigns a knee injury and then bulldogs Bradley from the second rope when Bradley turns to face the referee to win the title. Rating: *½
After footage of last week’s impromptu tag team match between the Rock N’ Roll Express and the Dynamic Duo airs, the Express do a taped promo where Ricky Morton discusses a tag team elimination match happening at March Madness for the tag team titles. Morton says there is no way the Duo will win that match because the Express have been together far longer than Al Snow and Unabom.
Ross interviews the Duo. Snow says in an elimination match there is no way he loses and even less of a chance that Unabom loses so the tag team titles will definitely change hands.
The new Beat the Champ Television Champion Billy Black makes a jackrabbit analogy to explain how he won the title from Boo Bradley earlier in the show.
Buddy Landel (5-2) beats Anthony Michaels via submission to a figure-four leg lock at 1:33:
Landel mows through the bigger Michaels, taking him to the mat, dropping a corkscrew elbow, and locking in the figure-four for a quick submission win.
Ross interviews Landel, who remains tired of getting the shaft in the SMW title picture. He complains about the cage match and how there is a special keyholder who will make sure no one can get into the cage. Landel recommends that the Dirty White Boy kill himself before March Madness.
The Gangstas (w/D’Lo Brown) (2-1-1) defeat the New Wild-Eyed Southern Boys (1-1) (w/Jim Cornette) when New Jack pins Scott Armstrong after Brown interferes at 8:40:
Ross tries to frame the Gangstas as a big heel group that only cares for themselves and not the racial issues they expose, but it is hard to take that seriously when the team they are fighting proudly waves the Confederate flag and sports it on their tights. Tracy Smothers get color after Jack blasts him with a blackjack and then does Abdullah the Butcher on him with a sharp object to the skull. The heat segment would be helped if the Gangstas had better double teams since Smothers never seems on the verge of being pinned during it. After Scott gets the hot tag he goes to suplex Jack, but Brown hits him in the leg with the blackjack and Jack falls on top for the win. Rating: **
After the bell, the Gangstas lay waste to the Southern Boys and Cornette, focusing most of their energy on Armstrong’s leg. Bob Armstrong ties to make the save but he is missing a baseball bat and is overwhelmed. Jack delivers a flying headbutt to Bob and the Gangstas drape the “X” flag over Bob’s body. However, Smothers gets Cornette’s tennis racquet and clears the heels out of the ring.
After a commercial break, Les Thatcher comes into the ring and Bob says that the Gangstas have started something they cannot finish.
The Last Word: This show had more feature matches than usual, so it had that going for it. The Gangstas continue to get a lot of heat, but having Bob Armstrong be the guy to lead the charge against them is weak when that focus could be put on a much younger star in the company. There was also no mention of Bobby Blayze as the new SMW champion, a weird development since this was the post-Sunday Blood Sunday II show. The company really needs some bigger draws too because outside of the Gangstas and Buddy Landel, there are not a lot of acts that are over with the fanbase.
Before doing another television taping on March 6, SMW ran a couple of house shows at various schools. Here are the results of some of those shows (courtesy of prowrestlinghistory.com):
Harlan, Kentucky – Cawood High School Gym – March 3, 1995 (200): Boo Bradley pinned D’Lo Brown…SMW Tag Team Champions the Rock N’ Roll Express defeated the Dynamic Duo…The Gangstas beat Tracy Smothers & Boo Bradley…The Dirty White Boy beat Buddy Landel.
Chilhowie, Virginia – Chilhowie High School – March 4, 1995 (600): Boo Bradley pinned D’Lo Brown…SMW Tag Team Champions the Rock N’ Roll Express beat the Dynamic Duo…The Dirty White Boy beat Buddy Landel via disqualification…Mustafa beat Tracy Smothers.
Backstage News*: SMW is reeling from a few departures as Scott Armstrong and Billy Black are no longer with the company. Boo Bradley took Armstrong’s spot on cards over the weekend. And SMW will use the Undertaker to fill in for the Gangstas feud for its Bluegrass Brawl show in Pikeville, Kentucky in April. Black’s reason for leaving, despite winning the television title on the March 4 television program, is that he did not like Snow. To replace Black, SMW will be using Killer Kyle and then have Kyle feud with Bradley.
*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for March 13.
Up Next: Smoky Mountain TV for March 11!
