Burning Hammer DVD Review #15
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SMW: Night Of The Legends 1994
(Wrestling Gold: Volume 6)
August 05, 1994
-- SMW stands for Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and it was a promotion run out of the Tennessee area in the early 90's by Jim Cornette. It was really one of the best promotions in the 90's for the short amount of time it was around, regularly putting out great matches and great angles.
--Taped from Knoxville, TN
--Your hosts are Jim Ross & Les Thatcher, who bares an unhealthy resemblance to Al Wilson, on the original show, and Jim Cornette & Dave Meltzer on the new insider commentary
--Doug Furnas V. Killer Kyle. Furnas grabs a Headlock and holds onto it for close to four minutes. Furnas gets the pin at 8:46 with a messed up Hurricanrana. 1/2* Not exactly a hot opener, and a bad example of what good power wrestling can be.
--Bob Orton Jr., Dick Slater V. Mongolian Stomper, Ronnie Garvin. Match is a no-contest at 11:54 when the referee disqualifies both teams. 1/2* Not a good match, Orton & Slater were game, but Garvin & Stomper, who weren't that good in their primes, weren't up to the challenge here and really brought down the match.
--SMW Tag Team Championship Match: Rock 'N' Roll Express (W/Ricky Gibson) V. Brian Lee, Chris Candido (W/Tammy Fytch). Ricky Gibson is the older brother of Robert, and he was a real good wrestler in the 70's before his career was slowed down and eventually cut short by various injuries. Fytch is the future Tammy Lynn Sytch & Sunny from the WWF, who's scorching hot at this point in her career. To prevent interference Ricky Gibson & Fytch are handcuffed together at ringside. Lee jaws with a teenage girl at ringside, and she proceeds to use the word "fuck" more times in thirty seconds than I have in my entire life. Candido goes to the top & Robert Gibson sends him crashing to the cement outside by Dropkicking him off the turnbuckle. Lee goes all Memphis, and stalls a hell of a lot. Candido Catapults Morton into the corner where Lee comes of the top-rope with a Clothesline in a SWEET~ move. Morton gets the pin on Lee to capture the titles at 12:50 after Robert Gibson tosses Candido off the top-rope and into Lee. **1/2 A good match that was really hurt by Lee, anytime he got into the ring the match took an immediate nosedive. He was off his mark on a lot of moves and his movements in the ring were awkward and very loose looking.
--Heavenly Bodies (W/Jim Cornette) V. Thrillseekers. Bodies in this match are the Jimmy Del Ray & Tom Prichard version. The Thrillseekers are a couple of young Canadians by the names of Chris Jericho & Lance Storm in one of their first matches in America. The Bodies had been banned from SMW following a controversial match against the Rock 'N' Roll Express and had actually been wrestling a lot more in the WWF. The Thrillseekers were the hot new babyface team in the region, but the Bodies manager, Cornette, didn't think they were worthy of all the attention they were getting. Cornette confronted the Thrillseekers about this and they mocked Cornette and shoved his face into a cake. Shortly after that the Thrillseekers were attacked by a couple of masked men and Cornette. The Thrillseekers knowing that it was the Bodies who attacked them got SMW to reinstate the Bodies for one week, and starting with this match they were supposed to have a series of matches. Jericho comes into the match with a broken right arm, due to him legitimately breaking it earlier in the day attempting a Shooting Star Press. Thrillseekers come out of the crowd and attack the Bodies from behind culminating with Jericho giving Storm a Rocket Launcher to the outside on top of both Bodies. Storm flips out of a Double-Team Wristlock by the Bodies and hits a SWEET~ Double Armdrag. Bodies finally take over after some nice teamwork leads to a Bulldog by Prichard on Storm. SWANK~ double team by the Bodies, as Prichard picks up Del Ray for a Backdrop Driver, but instead he flips Del Ray so he lands on top of Storm with a Moonsault Press for a 2 count. Another SWANK~ double team by the Bodies sees Del Ray pick up Prichard for an Atomic Drop, but instead he comes down with Prichard who delivers a Legdrop to Storm for a 2 count. Storm finally gets the tag to Jericho who makes a one armed comeback, including a one armed Bodyslam. Prichard sends Jericho face first into the steel railing and Jericho provides an awesome bladejob. Within seconds Jericho's face is covered in blood. The Bodies work over Jericho's head, beating the shit out of him to worsen the cut. Prichard nails Jericho right in the cut with three stiff Kneedrops, but amazingly Jericho manages to kick out at 2. Jericho is gushing blood all over the place, so at 14:43 referee Mark Curtis after checking over Jericho, and covering his palms in gobs of Jericho's blood, stops the match. Jericho pleads with Curtis, covering Curtis' blue ref shirt in blood in the process, to restart the match, so Curtis gives in and restarts the match. Jericho gets the pin on Del Ray with a Rollup after a Storm Superkick at 15:35. **** Awesome, intense, and bloody southern tag match. The Bodies were always a great heel tag team and they worked a perfect match to get the Thrillseekers over as the new exciting babyfaces. The Thrillseekers wrestled a smart match, with Storm doing most of the wrestling early on and Jericho taking an absolute shitkicking once he got into the match. Jericho provided one of the bloodiest bladejobs I've ever seen. His entire face was caked in blood, with new blood pouring out of his forehead in a steady stream. His hair turned red from all of the blood in it, and his chest and most of the referee were covered in blood to go along with all of the huge puddles he left on the arena floor and the ring mat. Unfortunately Jericho would have to have surgery on his broken arm the day after this and that would put him out of action for months, end his stint in SMW, and effectively break up the Thrillseekers.
--SMW Heavyweight Championship Match: Terry Gordy V. Dirty White Boy. Gordy is a famous wrestler who spent most of his career in Dallas and Japan, but at this point his days as a good wrestler were behind him. Boy is Tony Anthony, or Grappler II without the mask. Ref bump allows Chris Walker to come in and attack Boy, but the ref gets up to see it and calls for the disqualification win for Boy at 10:26. *1/2 Match didn't really seem to go anywhere, they worked at a real slow pace and seemed to be buying time for the run-in.
--Coward Waves The Flag Match: Funk Brothers, Bruiser Bedlam (W/Jim Cornette) V. Bob Armstrong, Tracey Smothers, Hawk (W/Ron Wright). The only way to win the match is to have your opponents corner man wave a white flag and surrender the match for his team. Hawk is indeed the same Hawk from Road Warriors & Legion Of Doom fame. Bob Armstrong & Jim Cornette had been feuding for over three years, since the inception of SMW. Armstrong was the trouble shooting Commissioner who constantly spoiled the cheating efforts of Cornette and had been involved in many wild brawls with Cornette and his henchmen during their feud. Armstrong had resigned his Commissionership for the chance to get in the ring and end his feud with Cornette once and for all. All six men brawl all over the place to start. Smothers gets busted open on a chair shot from Terry. The Funk Brothers hit a Spike Stuff Piledriver on Smothers on the cement on the outside. Terry gets a pair of Neckbreakers on Smothers. Cornette gets into a fight with Wright and tries to fend him off with a white flag when the ref turns around and sees him waving the flag and calls for the bell declaring Armstrong, Smothers & Hawk the winners at 9:23. *** A nice little brawl with the two weak links, Hawk & Bedlam, not doing very much and not detracting from the match as a result.
--Final Flash: Wrestling wise only Bodies/Thrillseekers is really worth seeking out, but you add in a good brawl to end the show and more great commentary from Cornette & Meltzer and you end up with another good wrestling product from Wrestling Gold.
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