[1992-11-28-SMW-TV] Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies feud recap

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Clips of the first two Four Faces of Fear matches, with a tag title change in both matches.

[Tim Evans]

Interesting to see them use handheld footage. Too bad USWA didn't do that much.

[PeteF3]

The overreliance on screwy finishes in SMW is at hand here. I also wasn't a fan of only having one referee in a tornado-style falls-count-anywhere match. These are the little details that Bill Watts would have been all over. And after that sterling backstage promo from Cornette it's a little disappointing to see the match types all changed around.

 

Does that ten-fall Texas Death Match exist anywhere?

[WingedEagle]

Fancam clips from a gym. Narrated from a studio like America's Funniest Home Videos. Clips of the first two matches in the series with title changes on both nights. I'm probably alone here, but I'm preferring Pritchard's mic work to Cornette's at this point. He's agitating and generating serious go away heat.

[GSR]

Les Thatcher has a special report on the tag team situation and the match ups between the Heavenly Bodies and the Rock & Roll Express.

 

We start with a hospital elimination match from Harlan, KY which took place a few days prior to the Thanksgiving Thunder tour. Unfortunately the Smoky Mountain Wrestling cameras weren't present at the event, but a fan using a camcorder in the bleachers was willing to give them their tape. With Stan Lane and Robert Gibson already eliminated through being busted open, Jim Cornette enters the ring and is about to hit Rocky Morton with the tennis racket when Gibson jumps in the ring and steals it off him. Gibson then hits Prichard in the head with it, splitting him open and the Express win the belts. The Bodies and Cornette go to work on the Rock & Rolls after the match, with Cornette and his tennis racket keeping everyone at bay and from getting in the ring to help. As more wrestlers come out, so does Killer Kyle to help his manager and it does into a pretty wild and crazy scene.

 

From here it is off to Hazard, KY for a falls count anywhere match in the first match of the Thanksgiving Thunder tour. Lane has Gibson in a sleeper inside the ring and this enables Cornette to use the ether soaked towel on Morton, who is outside the ring and outside the vantage point of Mark Curtis. Morton is knocked out from the ether and Prichard covers him on the arena floor for the win and title change.

 

Thatcher then informs us that there is no footage of the second match in the tour, the Texas death match from Welch, WV, however the Rock & Roll Express defeated the Bodies in the tenth fall to become the new champions.

 

I'll write more after the street fight, but Cornette is far too involved in these matches for my liking and wish he would stay out of them far more than he does.

[garretta]

The finish in the hospital elimination match stank. They much have had rent-a-cops doing locker room security if both Gibson and Lane could come back to ringside without anyone noticing. Also, the beatdown was far too long. Three-on-two is almost expected, but if Kyle's going to get involved you don't need Corny in there, and vice versa. Plus, Corny's punches shouldn't knock anyone down unless his fist is loaded. As I've said before, I'm willing to stand for more of his physicality because of SMW's behind-the-scenes situation, but punching out wrestlers straight up is just wrong for him.

 

The fall-count anywhere match was a little better, but I've seen enough of the ether for quite a while. Also, if Mark Curtis was counting Lane down in the sleeper, how did he get outside so fast to see Dr. Tom pinning Morton? We never saw Stan get out of the hold, so why did Curtis stop the count? Corny didn't drag him out that I could see. It seems to be a case of "Oops, the finish the booker wants is outside, so I better forget about this one and get my ass out there."

 

Neither one of these matches was SMW's finest hour. Hopefully the street fight makes up for them.

 

By the way, did anyone ever find out who Dutch whipped in Hazard, if anyone at all?