By Brian Hoops, PWTorch.com Specialist Contributor
PW Torch.com Fire on the Mountain 1992 Review
Published August 31, 2007
In this week’s look at nostalgia, we turn back the clock 15 years to August 8,1992 and look at Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Smoky Mountain Wrestling was formed and run by Jim Cornette in 1991. The promotion was based in Knoxville, Tennessee with an office in Morristown, Tennessee. The promotion was in existence from 1991 through the end of 1995 and was considered one of the last true territorial promotions. SMW was highly thought of in the industry, focusing on “old school” style wrestling of using angles and mixing young and older in ring talent. The company was unable to secure a major television deal and used limited access TV to draw fans to their house shows. The company’s main income stream was house show income and primary stops on the company tours were Tennessee, Kentucky, the Virginias, the Carolinas and Georgia.
I was fortunate it enough to have a satellite dish in 1992, one of the huge dinosaurs, not the small DirecTV dishes they use now; and a channel called Sports Channel America would air one hour of wrestling Monday through Friday nights from 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. central time. On Wednesday nights, the SMW TV show would be shown. It quickly became one of my favorite wrestling TV shows and in fact, it was voted as the number #1 Best TV show in the 1992 PW Torch readers poll.
One of the first main event level house show cards was called Fire on the Mountain. It was held on August 8, 1992 at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee. The crowd was estimated at 1,500.
I have a DVD of the event and will review those matches only. Matches that did not air on the DVD were Danny Davis over Joe Cazana; Dutch Mantel beating Hector Guerrero; and Killer Kyle over Dixie Dynamite.
In the first match on the DVD, Tim Horner defeated Buddy Landell in an “I Quit” match in 23:24. The match was edited down on the DVD, which may have taken something away from the match. The ring work was decent but unspectacular, however the booking and psychology was excellent. Story was Buddy Landell, who called himself “The Nature Boy” and used the figure four as his finisher; got Horner in the figure four and hurt Horner’s knee. Horner was able to escape and “on one leg” able to get the submission victory by using a form of the STF. Decent match with solid booking.
In the next match, Ronnie Garvin defeated Paul Orndorff by reverse decision in a “Piledriver” match in 19:16. Orndorff spent a small amount of time in SMW before heading to WCW for his last run of his career on a national scale. Garvin was on the downside of his career at this time. Lots of stalling early by Orndorff to generate crowd heat. Match was slow and not very exciting. Finish came when Orndorff hit Garvin with “a foreign object”. Referee Mark Curtis saw Garvin lying on the mat and called for the bell. Danny Davis ran to the ring to explain what happened and Orndorff pile drove Davis. The referee reversed his decision and awarded the match to Garvin. I love Cornette’s booking, but this match made zero sense. How can a match that has to be decided by the first man to use a piledriver, end on a referee’s decision being reversed? Lame match and booking.
In the next match, the Rock & Roll Express reunited to defeat Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller in 15:41. The crowd popped for the reunion of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson as they had not teamed together for several months. Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller would soon leave SMW for WCW where they would become Bunkhouse Buck and Colonel Robert Parker. Ricky and Robert jumped Golden and Fuller before the bell. Most of the match saw Fuller and Golden work over Morton, building to the hot tag to Gibson. The finish came as the R & R Express double drop kicked Golden and knocked out Golden out. However, Fuller hit Gibson from behind and Golden fell on Gibson. When the ref put Fuller out of the ring, Morton put Gibson on top of Fuller and the ref counted the pin. Solid match.
Next up is Brian Lee vs. The Dirty White Boy, Tony Anthony for the SMW Heavyweight Title. TDWB was wrestling with the stipulation that if he lost, he would have to leave SMW. TDWB had his manager, Ron Wright with him at ringside. Lee was the first every SMW Heavyweight Champion. At the finish, Lee had TDWB pinned after his cancellation finisher, but Ron Wright had the ref distracted. Someone came outside the ring to hit Lee and TDWB pinned Lee to win the title in 13:18. It was a decent match, but the finish was lame.
Final match of the night saw the Fantastics (Bobby and Jackie Fulton) defeat the Heavenly Bodies (Dr. Tom Pritchard and Stan Lane) with Jim Cornette to win the SMW Tag Team Titles in 13:10. The match was a barbed wire cage match with Bob Armstrong as the special referee. The Heavenly Bodies were the first ever SMW Tag Team Champions as they won a tournament final in May of 1992. The match was fought under Tornado rules, meaning all four men were in the ring at the same time and there were no tags. At the 10 minute mark, Jim Cornette threw powder in Jackie’s eyes and Commissioner Bob Armstrong banned Cornette from ringside. As they went to the finish, Cornette ran back out to ringside and threw his tennis racket into the Pritchard. Armstrong saw the racket and grabbed it away from Pritchard before he could use it and Jackie rolled up Pritchard from behind for the pin. Best match on the card.
Summary: Overall it was a decent card, but not a must see. If you enjoy old school wrestling with solid booking and no lame gimmicks, you need to watch Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s column. As always your questions, comments and thoughts are always welcomed, and you can contact me at bhoops@iw.net.
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