[1994-07-09-SMW-TV] Interview: Tracy Smothers & Bob Armstrong / Interview: Jim Cornette

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Bob Armstrong wanted a Coward Waves The Flag match with Cornette, but Cornette refused unless Bob Armstrong agreed to his terms. They cut to a taped promo from Cornette. Since they are keeping their third man a mystery, Cornette will only sign on for the match if he also gets the match he wants - a Texas Death 6-man. Armstrong and Smothers reveal Ron Wright as the man in their corner who will hold their flag of surrender. Ron Wright is out on his own two feet and he's wearing a really pimp tuxedo. They show a clip of Cornette falling from the scaffold at Starrcade '86, saying this will top that as the worst night he has ever had. This is to set up Armstrong and Smothers announcing their teammate -- Road Warrior Hawk! Cornette is livid. I love pro wrestling.

[Kevin Ridge]

Check out Cornette's computer. His mouse is bigger than my current keyboard. Twin six man matches are announced. Ron Wright makes an appearance and he is well dressed. He's not planning on waiving the flag at all. I always cringe at the Starrcade footage when Cornette blows out his knee. And there is reason for showing this as Hawk will be their tag team partner. Great reaction to this by Cornette.

[Exposer]

Everything about this was great. All of the promos, the set up, and the delivery. Excellent stuff.

[soup23]

All of this was awesome. Cornette can pitch a great fit and Wright dressed to the nines got the best reactions out of me.

[El-P]

Excellent segment. This is how you promote a main event, get over the stips and a mystery partner. Great promos by Cornette, Armstrong, Wright. The Starrcade footage is still brutal to watch, worst catch ever by Bubba.

[PeteF3]

Cornette has now reinvented himself as a union boss, head of the Federation of International Thugs & Eliminators, or FITE. This whole set-up with THREE mystery men (counting Armstrong's successor as commissioner, which I believe was planned to be Bill Watts) sounds convoluted as hell, but everyone involved is so good at getting all these stips over that it all works. And all the payoffs work, from the announcement of the match stipulations to the announcement of the babyface cornerman to the announcement of the mystery partner. Between Cornette, Wright, and Bullet Bob there are way too many classic lines to even recap. Suffice to say I'll never look at a baseball bat again without thinking of it as a "Smoky Mountain toothpick." Wrasslin' as southern as a country-fried steak.

[GSR]

Armstrong & Smothers along with a mystery partner will be facing the Terry & Dory Funk Jr. & Bruiser Bedlam, with Jim Cornette in their corner, at the Night of Legends. Bob has some stipulations for this match, but as usual so does Cornette. He did wants a ‘coward waves the flag’ match, but Cornette said he wouldn’t do that unless they agreed to something in return. Les Thatcher says that they have a videotape from Jim Cornette and plays it so everyone can hear what he has to say.

 

Cornette is sat in his Union headquarters and has finally got what he wanted as Bob Armstrong has resigned as Commissioner of SMW, and effective of 8/5 he’ll no longer be Commissioner as he wanted to get back in the ring and get his hands on his Union. He received some communication from Armstrong in the post that he wants to take Tracey Smother as his partner and face the Funks and Bruiser Bedlam. When he questions that would be 2 vs 3, they said how he wants a mystery partner to be his third person, so he started thinking that Armstrong must have something up his sleeve. The contracts arrived and ‘Bullet’ Bob wants it to be a ‘coward waves the flag’ match, but says that he wasn’t born yesterday and Jim Cornette has conditions on everything and Jim Cornette gets what he wants. He then put a clause in the contract and the only way he’ll agree to it is if there are two six man tag team matches and not just the one, because if Armstrong gets the kind of match that he wants, he also wants to get a match of his choosing, that’s the only way he’ll agree to things without knowing who their partner is. On 5/8 at the Night of Legends in Knoxville, TN it’s a ‘coward waves the flag’ match and he doesn’t know who they’ve got waving their flag, but he doesn’t care about his men’s health so he’s certainly not going to wave the flag because he doesn’t want to lose. The next night, 8/6 it’s Fire on the Mountain in Johnson City, TN and it’s going to be a ‘Texas death’ match; the Funk family invented it, there are no rules, you fight with everything you’ve got and the only way to win is to beat your opponent down so bad they can’t continue and they have to wave it off. This way he gets what he wants and Bob Armstrong gets what he wants, but he still wants to know who he’s turning the Commissionership over to and who this mystery partner is?

 

Back in the studio and Thatcher wants to know who is going to be in their corner and waving the flag for them? Armstrong says he thought about who they needed and it turns out Tracey and he were thinking of the same person. Tracey says he’s the toughest, meanest man the Lord ever put on the earth and even if their arms were cut off he wouldn’t wave that flag. Bob says that his man has put knots on his head, scars on his face and is the meanest man to come out of the Smoky Mountains, Mr Ron Wright (who is looking rather dapper in his white tuxedo!). Ron says they can guarantee they’ve picked one of the meanest men in the world with the worst temper, and they better not get in that ring and think he’s going to wave the flag for any reason, as they could take their heads off and he still wouldn’t wave it. In fact he’s going to take the flag, dip it in concrete and it’ll be wrapped up so solid that it will be impossible to wave, although if Jim Cornette gets involved in the match he may wrap it around his head!.

 

Thatcher says that it sounds like they are planning on making this one of the worst nights in Jim Cornette’s life, but they have some video of what may very well be one of the worst nights in his career. That night is Starcade ’86 ‘Night of the Skywalkers’ and we see the awful bumps that the Midnight Express and Cornette take from the scaffold (hint, hint!). Armstrong decides that it’s about time they told everyone who their third man is, and it will be Road Warrior Hawk. Cornette and Bruiser Bedlam are watching from the dressing room and they head straight to the ring on the announcement. Cornette is irate and besides himself banging on the ring saying that they can’t do that!

 

Excellent segment and although I’d had enough of the Cornette and Armstrong feud, this and the previous week’s promo where Bob relinquished the Commissionership has got me interested, in these matches at least. Great to see Ron Wright back and cutting promos as I’ve missed him, whilst Cornette and the Bullet are tremendous as you would come to expect from these two by now.