Smoky Mountain Wrestling

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Smoky Mountain Wrestling
Details
Acronym SMW
Established 1991
Style Rasslin'
Location Knoxville/Morristown, Tennessee
Founder(s) Jim Cornette, Tim Horner,
Stan Lane and Sandy Scott
Owner(s) Jim Cornette

Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that held events in the Appalachian area of the United States from October 1991 to December 1995, when it was run by Jim Cornette. The promotion was based in Knoxville, Tennessee, with offices in Morristown, Tennessee.

Contents

Cornette formed the promotion in 1991 upon leaving World Championship Wrestling with Stan Lane, one half of the legendary Midnight Express, Tim Horner and Sandy Scott. The promotion was backed financially by music producer Rick Rubin. [1] The first events and TV tapings were held in October and November 1991. Matches from these shows were first shown in March 1992. The first Smoky Mountain Heavyweight Champion, "Primetime" Brian Lee, won the championship in a tournament held at Volunteer Slam on May 22, 1992, in Knoxville, TN. The first Smoky Mountain Tag Team Champions were crowned in a tournament final on April 23, 1992, in Harrogate, TN, when The Heavenly Bodies defeated The Fantastics.

Cornette had initially envisioned a territory reaching from Kentucky into as far as South Carolina and Georgia. Those plans, however, never materialized. With the promotion's biggest towns being Knoxville, TN, and Johnson City, TN, most of the stops on SMW tours included high school gyms and fairs in cities such as Pikeville, KY; East Ridge, TN; Lenoir, NC; Saltville, VA; and Bluefield, WV.

The promotion featured some of the most popular wrestlers in wrestling entertainment and served as a platform for young talent, including Bob Holly, New Jack, Al Snow, Balls Mahoney, Chris Jericho, Kane, Lance Storm, Chris Candido, Tammy Lynn Sytch, Brian James (B.G. James / The Road Dogg) and D'Lo Brown, but ultimately like most independents was not financially successful. Cornette eventually signed a working agreement with the WWF to trade talent, manage and serve as an on-air talent for that company.

Brian Hildebrand was a Smoky Mountain mainstay, occupying such myriad roles as Head of Merchandise, referee (under his alter-ego Mark Curtis) and sound director.

Cornette, a traditionalist, catered to fans that Mick Foley described as "old-time fans...who still believed in good guys and bad guys, and to whom cheating was still reason to get upset." This was in sharp contrast to Extreme Championship Wrestling and the WWF, in which edgy angles, "tweeners" and anti-heroes increasingly took precedence over clearcut heroes and villains. Smoky Mountain was, however, the birthplace of the controversial "Gangstas" gimmick, where black wrestlers New Jack and Mustafa would cut promos about activist Medgar Evers, use fried chicken and watermelons as props and win matches as a result of a two count (rather than the conventional three count). In addition, an alleged race riot broke out at an SMW event in Wise, VA, in 1993, allegedly instigated by remarks Cornette made to black fans at ringside. .

Though the promotion was highly thought of, it struggled to get a profitable television deal, and operated throughout a wrestling recession that would not end until 1997. After years of operating in red ink, Cornette shut the promotion down in December 1995 to work full-time with the WWF. The last SMW show was on November 26, 1995. Several SMW wrestlers would soon obtain work in the WWF, including Tracy Smothers, The Dirty White Boy, and Boo Bradley.

World Wrestling Entertainment now owns the SMW tape library.

Championship Final champion(s)
SMW Heavyweight Championship Jerry Lawler†
SMW "Beat The Champ" Television Championship Bobby Blaze
SMW Tag Team Championship The Heavenly Bodies
(Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray)
SMW United States Junior Heavyweight Championship Bobby Blaze

† Lawler won the belt on a USWA show after SMW closed. The final champion as recognized by the promotion was Tommy Rich.

  1. ^ Meltzer, Dave (12-22), "WWE", Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 11

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoky_Mountain_Wrestling"
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