What The World Was Watching: Smoky Mountain TV – April 8, 1995

Reviews, Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

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.

Opening Contest: Boo Bradley (10-3) pins Mike Sampson after a splash off the top rope at 1:26:

Bradley is sporting a bandage on top of his head to sell the beating he took at the hands of the Gangstas, D’Lo Brown, and Killer Kyle on the last episode. Sampson thinks targeting that area can help him win but taking Bradley to the buckle wakes up his opponent and Sampson is finished shortly thereafter.

Ross interviews Bradley, who is busted open again from the squash match. Bradley pulls out a dog collar on a chain, vowing to use it against Kyle at Fright Night.

Beat the Champ Television Championship Match: Killer Kyle (Champion w/the Gangstas & D’Lo Brown) (3-2) beats the Wolfman after a spinebuster at 2:32:

Kyle toys with the Wolfman since the Wolfman has not won a match in the SMW. The jobber does score a near-fall with a sunset flip, but it is not enough to turn the tide and Kyle successfully defends the title for a second straight time. That also earns him $1,000 but the commentators have forgotten that part of the championship. After the match, the heels put their flag over the Wolfman.

Non-Title Match: Bobby Blayze (SMW Champion) (6-0-1) beats Larry Santo after a Northern Lights suplex at 2:34:

The booking of Blayze as a weak champion continues as Santo dominates a lot of the match even though he is a jobber. A blind charge turns the tide for Blayze, who rides a weak superkick and splash in the corner to victory.

Buddy Landel is interviewed by Ross. He calls special guest referee Kim Birchfield a drunk and discounts his ability to take him to jail if he cheats at Fright Night. The Wolfman stops in and asks for training so he can win a match. Landel has the Wolfman try to touch his toes and attacks him. Then, he closes the promo by saying he will finally win the SMW title tonight.

Birchfield delivers an unenthusiastic promo about how Landel is going down at Fright Night. So much for the guest referee being impartial.

Thatcher interviews SMW Champion Bobby Blayze and the Dirty White Boy. Blayze hypes his guts and perseverance, which will help him win $10,000 from Landel in Johnson City. The White Boy mocks Landel, saying he looks forward to Landel going to jail.

After showing footage of the end of last week’s main event between Tracy Smothers and New Jack, Jim Cornette, Smothers, and Bob Armstrong cut a taped promo. Smothers puts over the Undertaker as the biggest force in wrestling. Armstrong says the Gangstas and D’Lo Brown are going to be hurting in the six-man, “I quit” match at Fright Night.

Ross interviews the Gangstas, Brown, and Killer Kyle. New Jack says the Undertaker will have to go through his entire faction before he can get to him and all three of his allies will tire the dead man out. He admits that he is not looking forward to the match, which is unusual for him.

Ricky Morton (w/Robert Gibson) (1-1) pins Al Snow (w/Unabom) (1-0) after hitting him with a loaded glove at 11:22:

Due to when this show was taped, the Dynamic Duo do not appear with the tag team titles. Snow dominates the match after using a foreign object in the early going to bust Morton open. That allows Morton to play his usual role of babyface in peril in a singles match. Morton gets a second wind get Snow misses a springboard moonsault, with Unabom trying to cheat again by giving Snow a loaded glove. Morton and Snow fight over it, leading to a small ref bump, and Morton eventually smacks Snow in the face with it to come out on top. The lack of back-and-forth brought this match down a notch, but it was a serviceable TV main event. Rating: **¼

After the match, Unabom lays waste to the Rock N’ Roll Express and referee Mark Curtis. All three are shown the worse for wear in the locker room and when the Duo talk to Ross, Snow is knocked silly and talks about fighting off a bunch of people with weapons. The Express come out for another confrontation and Snow screams as the two teams brawl to close the show.

The Last Word: The tag team brawl at the end of the show was a nice way to end it and the main event also gave fans another reason to attend Fright Night because Smoky Mountain television had been hyping other programs for weeks. Bobby Blayze is just not working well in his role as the promotion’s champion, though, and they need to get the belt off him soon. A big challenge, though, is getting more top tier talent into the company because switching the belt to Buddy Landel will present the problem of no major babyface challengers outside of the Dirty White Boy. At least the promos will improve.

Here were the results of the Fright Night card at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee. According to prowrestlinghistory.com, the show drew 1,800 fans, an increase of 1,250 from the previous month’s March Madness card.

-Al Snow (1-1) wrestled Robert Gibson (0-1) to a draw

-Killer Kyle (4-2) beat Boo Bradley (11-3) in a no disqualification match

-The Dirty White Boy (6-2) beat Buddy Landel (7-6-1) in a Tennessee chain match where police officer Kim Birchfield was the special guest referee.

-Unabom (1-1) pinned Ricky Morton (2-1) in a coal miner’s glove match after Al Snow interfered and piledrove Morton a chair. After the match, Morton did a stretcher job.

-Buddy Landel (7-7-1) defeated SMW Champion Bobby Blayze (7-0) via referee stoppage to win the SMW Championship. Landel had put $10,000 up against Blayze’s title, Mercedes, and Rolex watch.

-Bob Armstrong, Tracy Smothers & the Undertaker defeated the Gangstas & D’Lo Brown in an “I quit” match when Armstrong forced Brown to submit.

Backstage News*: The Undertaker’s appearances at Bluegrass Brawl and Fright Night drew big houses, with the Bluegrass Brawl resulting in a sellout crowd of 2,000 and several hundred fans were turned away.

*The reason that Bob Armstrong did not wrestle at Bluegrass Brawl was because he was ill.

*The Ricky Morton injury angle got over big in Johnson City, with an ambulance backing into the arena to get him and Morton’s girlfriend coming into the ring to comfort him. Fans in attendance were said to be crying.

*Jim Cornette and the Gangstas were going to appear on The Jerry Springer Show on April 10 but their appearance was scrapped.

*Backstage news provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for April 17.

Up Next: Smoky Mountain TV for April 15!

Logan Scisco has been writing wrestling reviews for Inside Pulse since 2005. He considers himself a pro wrestling traditionalist and reviews content from the 1980s-early 2000s. Most of his recaps center on wrestling television shows prior to 2001. His work is featured on his website (www.wrestlewatch.com) and he has written three books, available on Amazon.com.