Grilling JR - Smoky Mountain Wrestling 08.14.94 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

To catch everyone up to speed, Jim Cornette started up Smoky Mountain Wrestling in October 1991.

He had done a little cross promotion work with WCW in early 1993, and then when he joined the WWF later that Summer, began a working relationship with them.

While you get your Peacock machine fired up to take a look back at this show let’s discuss some of Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Fire up season 3 - episode 33!

Observer 8/8/94:

“Smoky Mountain Wrestling - This promotion, which has been struggling of late at the box office, is expected to break its all-time record attendance and gate for its 8/5 "Night of the Legends" in Knoxville. The show is a variation of the Slamboree theme, the idea of which actually was even more successful on a regional basis for a similar show earlier this year in Memphis than it had been for WCW, since that area had its own regional stars pre-WWF expansion of 1984, that fans remember better than the stars from different territories brought into territories they didn't regularly work in as WCW did with Slamboree.

The situation is somewhat different in Memphis, as the city's Monday night wrestling tradition has gone unbroken almost going back to the origination of mankind. In Knoxville, promoter Jim Cornette is tracing back local wrestling history through numerous different promotions dating back to the late 1960s.”

When did you first hear about Smoky? Were you surprised your friend James E. Cornette would start a wrestling promotion?

Jim Cornette put together a fan fest…not far off of what Starrcast has turned into…where 50 fans..MOSTLY READERS FROM THE OBSERVER…would attend and travel the circuit and meet and greet the wrestlers.

Of all people Jim Cornette - who has yelled, screamed, cried at this point about wrestlers breaking kayfabe and all this - literally had a fanfest for Observer readers - obviously mostly from the internet - come and travel with the talent - and here he is all the years later!

“Cornette coincided the event, and a second major show in Johnson City, TN the next night, with "Fan Week," in which 50 fans, predominately readers of this publication, will be attending and travelling the circuit and having meetings set up with the wrestlers. I really wish I could have attended the first weekend because based on last year, the group really did a tremendous job in making the readers . The headline matches on the show are a Coward Waves the Flag match with Bob Armstrong & Tracy Smothers & Road Warrior Hawk with Ron Wright in the corner against The Funks & Bruiser Bedlam with Cornette in the corner, Dirty White Boy vs. Terry Gordy for the SMW title, Brian Lee & Chris Candido vs. Rock & Roll Express for the SMW tag titles and the return of the Heavenly Bodies in a street fight against The Thrillseekers. Knoxville City Coliseum holds about 6,500, with the group's all-time record being about 4,100 fans and roughly 3,950 paid for a show earlier this year.”

Jim - when you go to debut for SMW - what type of research do you do? Were you watching the shows at the time?

Observer 8/15/94:

“Paced by a tremendous job of hyping the show on television virtually all summer long, Smoky Mountain Wrestling set its all-time attendance and gate record on 8/5 in Knoxville for the "Night of the Legends," drawing 5,000 fans and $40,000.

As much as climaxing several major angles, the draw was inducting more than two dozen wrestlers and personalities, including some who couldn't attend and had passed away, into the Knoxville Wrestling Hall-of-Fame.”

Did you get to attend this?

“The show was Cornette's greatest success during what has to be by far the most stressful period he's ever had as a promoter and maybe has had in a lifetime. Coming into the show Cornette's territory, which had apparently sealed carving its niche into the local entertainment scene when they drew 4,000 fans to Knoxville in the spring, had fallen upon hard times when it came to both talent and drawing. While the alliance with the WWF had put money into Cornette's, and possibly the company's pocket, it had also exposed his manager character in a comedic way not conducive to helping his role as one of the prime draws and heat getters within his own territory which he'd receive much criticism for.”

How hard is it to maintain two different sets of characters while both being on TV?

At the time the WWF was signing wrestlers from SMW after using them in a talent exchange type gimmick, the Heavenly Bodies, Brian Lee, etc. Did it make sense?

“One idea after another continued to go out the window due to wrestlers leaving for no apparent reason, wrestlers getting opportunities with major offices and leaving for obvious reasons and inopportune injuries such as the one suffered this past week by Chris Jericho of the Thrillseekers, who suffered a broken forearm practicing the shooting star press in a ring before the show in Knoxville, but still worked the show against vehement doctors orders. After the matches he had two steel rods and six screws put into the forearm and will be out of the ring for about six weeks.”

Another gamble, the tag team of The Gangstas, has already become controversial before they've even made an impact on his territory. Entering the ring with their own security team, the duo of New Jack & Mustafa Saed paint "X" on the forehead of the wrestlers they beat and on a recent interview that hasn't aired on television yet mentioned how glad they were that Martin Luther King was killed. The Johnson City station ran a disclaimer over the weekend over their interview and bleeped out where they talked about putting the Reginald Denny on the white boys. A station in Tampa has already threatened cancellation of the show over the recent interviews. For years there has been debate on how far is too far in wrestling. Some have tried to argue that there should be no limits.”

…………

Jim, you were brought in as just a guest announcer for this “Night of the Legends” show, as you were in the middle of your brief second WWF run, that lasted from the end of June 94 until the end of August 94.

How did you end up getting the gig for what was at first just gonna be a one-time only deal?

You were fired for the second time from WWF at the end of Aug 94 - said to be because of comments made in an interview with Wade Keller from PWTorch that took place when you were not working for the WWF-but was printed when you back working there.

You started full-time with Smoky Mountain in October 1994 and worked there for about 3 months before getting rehired by Vince at the very end of 1994.

(From what is on the TV show):

JR welcomes us to Night of the Legends alongside Les Thatcher, from the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, taped on 8/5.

What are your memories of working with Thatcher on this night?

As this is only a 1-hour TV show, they only have time to bring the best of the action from that night.

(The full show was later released on home video)

Bob Orton Jr. & Dick Slater vs. Ron Garvin & the Mongolian Stomper - joined in progress

3. In a legends match, Orton & Slater, who were a top tag team in many Southeastern circuits in the late 70s and regarded as the best tag team in the world at one point in time, went to a double disqualification with Garvin & Stomper. The fans were into this match which was surprisingly good because of the work of Orton, who has lost a lot of weight. ***

When you see the legends in the ring - and it’s scary to hear this considering we just saw Ron Garvin at Starrcast…and this is all the way back in 1994 - how much has the business changed?

Interview with Gangstas:

included Ross conducting an in-ring interview with New Jack & Mustafa, along with D-Lo Brown, in which Ross said all their interviews would now have a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen and that they would be fined if they went over the line; New Jack ranted on the crowd, saying they wanted to silence Martin Luther King and Arsenio Hall and said if the fans didn't like it then they could train to become a wrestler so he could defeated him; New Jack then said the "negros" in the NAACP would ask how high if you told them to jump; Ross then asked who they were in SMW to face, with New Jack saying they had defeated down everyone they've come across but haven't had a chance against Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, who he said had defeated the Road Warriors, Steiners, and Doom

Does this make you uncomfortable Jim when this is going on? Did you know any of the backstory there with the issues between the Gangstas and television stations and arenas?

“5. Thrillseekers - Chris Jericho & Lance Storm beat Heavenly Bodies in a bloodbath street fight. Jericho worked this match with the broken forearm that afternoon but still worked because it was such a major show. He bled buckets (those there said he bled more than the famous Hase-Muta matches), with puddles all over the ring and the floor. Finally the referee stopped the match on blood, but Jericho begged for it to continue and ended up pinning Jimmy Del Rey with a roll- up. ***½”

What a match this is considering Jericho had broke his forearm earlier in the day attempting a shooting star press…could you see how good Jericho & Storm were at this point right?

How underrated looking back are the Heavenly Bodies?

Surprised Cornette still had the Thrillseekers go over even with Jericho’s injury?

Rock N Roll Express vs Brian Lee & Chris Candido - joined in progress

“4. Rock & Roll Express regained the tag team belts they would lose and regain again over the next three days in a match with Lee & Candido. In this match, Tammy Fytch was handcuffed to Rick Gibson. Lee even worked a spot with a police officer who got a big pop shoving Lee down. Candido accidentally hit Lee with a leap from the top rope and Morton scored the pin on Lee. After the match, Fytch and Candido blamed Lee for the loss and Fytch even slapped Lee. Lee grabbed Fytch but Candido separated the two of them and Lee walked out on his own, flipping the two of them off. ***¾”

My goodness JR the talent in this match. What a shame it is that Chris couldn’t be with us during this wrestling renaissance wouldn’t you agree?

Finally, Thatcher throws us to highlights from the following night’s show in Johnson City, TN….

“And finally, the day after his biggest success ever, his bait-and-switch tactics in major stipulation matches backfired during a Rock & Roll Express vs. Brian Lee & Chris Candido match where it was heavily and effectively promoted that either Ricky Morton's hair or Tammy Fytch's hair would be shaved bald depending upon who won the match. The end result was one of the biggest gates ever in Johnson City, but neither losing any hair.

Since Cornette started the territory a few years ago, most of his biggest houses have been drawn thanks to "either or" stipulation matches. Either one person leaves town or another. Either one person gets stripped or another. Either one person loses their hair or another. Either one person or team has to leave the territory forever or the other. While these matches have usually drawn well, the problem is that in several instances in the past, either or has resulted in neither. While Stan Lane left town, never to return, after losing a loser will never wrestle in the territory again, Bob Armstrong didn't. While the Heavenly Bodies left the promotion after the losing team is done for good in SMW match, they did work an angle for them to return (commonplace in wrestling and virtually nobody who must leave "forever" ever leaves for that long).

Cornette as a promoter has long held out the belief that if the heel loses the either or match, then the stipulation must be enforced. His belief has been if the face loses, since the fans really don't want to see the face leave town (thus they can return under a mask) or get embarrassed in some way, that if the face gets screwed, you don't have to honor the stipulation because the fans are happy it doesn't happen.

That game was played one time too many on 8/6 at "Fire on the Mountain '94" in Johnson City, which drew one of the larger crowds and gates SMW has done--1,800 fans paying $15,000.

The either or title match saw The Gangstas do a run in while the ref was distracted, and Saed ran Morton's head into New Jack's head and Candido pinned Morton to regain the titles. The crowd was initially shocked since nobody believed Morton would ever lose his hair. Unfortunately, they were right. Morton argued and asked the crowd if he should get his hair cut. The belief was, since Morton had been screwed and since he is the most popular wrestler in the territory and since Johnson City is the city he's most popular in, that the crowd reaction to this was a lock. Why it wasn't, one can only speculate, other than fans had seen too many either ors become neithers and were upset believing it was planned to happen again. While the younger girls in the crowd screamed for Morton not to submit to the haircut, they were quickly drowned out by the majority who even began a chant for Morton to get his head shaved. They stalled for several minutes and Morton finally got in the chair, and then as the planned scenario, sprung out of the chair and attacked Lee & Candido, including a double dropkick on Candido. Morton got three or four swipes with the scissors on Candido before he fled. At this point there were a lot of boos because fans hadn't seen a haircut. Morton & Gibson went to the back and brawled with Lee & Candido back into the ring and got a little more of Candido's hair, but after the heels ran off, the Rock & Rolls were booed as they were left in the ring and those involved with the promotion including Cornette were freaking out about the reaction talking about having killed the town, which may be an overstatement although everyone pretty well accepted that what happened wasn't a positive. Supposedly the original plan was to shave Candido bald and I'm not sure why it didn't happen although it was suggested the two couldn't reach an agreement on price.”

What a mess this is JR. Is this one of those things that you just hope you can deliver on and it just makes it worse?

“From Knoxville, not shown on the 1-hour TV show:

Honored in a 30 minute ceremony were announcer-wrestler Thatcher, announcer Phil Raney, deceased announcer Jim Hess, referees Tommy Weathers, Mac McMurray and Ron West; promoter Bob Polk; and wrestlers Corsica Joe, Sara Lee, Dandy Jack Donovan, Frank Morrell, Billy Wicks, Nelson Royal, Rick Gibson, Mongolian Stomper, Jim White, Doug Furnas, Don & Al Greene (the original tag team that called themselves The Heavenly Bodies in the early 70s), Ron Garvin, Phil Hickerson, Bob Armstrong, Dick Slater, Bob Orton Jr., late manager Sam Bass (represented by his widow) Caldwell (whose wife was given the plaque by Ron Wright, his greatest rival during his career), deceased promoter John Cazana (represented by grandson Joey Cazana, an occasional jobber for the group), Ron & Don Wright.”

What can you tell us about any of these gentlemen and your past experiences with them?