Bobby Blaze v. Timothy Well

 

I am a fan of house show stalling, but Timothy Well's house show stalling is terribly uninteresting. Having said that, I really liked Blaze's highspots as they all looked really clean, quick and sufficiently flashy to woo an East TN audience. When they finally got going this was pretty good as Blaze and bumped well and Well has a nice variety of offense that he utilized. Well smuggles a towel into the ring and uses it to choke out Blaze. Sunset flip nearfall and spike DDT from Blaze was a really good teaser spot. Well rolls through on a crossbody and steals a pin. This is one of those matches where you really wish SMW didn't feel the need to run every opener fifteen minutes plus, as it would have been a very good seven or eight minute match, but the excessive stalling hurt it at a lot.

 

Kendo The Samurai v. Dirty White Boy

 

This was a lot of fun. DWB is just blatantly fucking with Kendo here, using Curtis as a vehicle to cheat, to get in cheap shots, et. Kendo bails to the ring and almost gets into a fight with a four hundred pound fan in the front row. God damn Anthony was charismatic and had a real connection to the crowd as they go bananas for all of his bullshit. Love karate expert guy losing every strike exchange/standoff and having to resort to foreign object assisted throat thrust to take control. DWB sells his ass off and bumps well for Kendo's karate act and then fights to the ropes to break up a Scorpion Deathlock. Kendo heat section really goes on too long and sort of loses me though Anthony does some cool hope spot work. Finish with Kendo going for some fireman's carry variation only get crucifixed and pinned was either really cool or really stupid - I'm still not sure yet. Post-mach Kendo beats down DWB. Overall this was another good Anthony match, but I think it falls short of a nomination.

 

Tracy Smothers v. Bruiser Bedlam

 

Lots of early stalling and semi-exchanges and then Tracy grabs the mic and says he is going to knock Bedlam on his ass. Then he runs the ropes and Bedlam knocks him on his ass. Tracy slides between Bedlam's legs and opens up with a series of dropkicks and a baseball slide. Bedlam throws a chair into the ring in frustration so Smothers sits in it. Tracy tries to bash Bruiser's head into the corner, but he no sells it and knocks Smothers down. Smothers takes a really big bump into the corner to set up for Bruiser's pedestrian offensive run. Really good spot with Bruiser sitting down on a sunset flip but Tracy pulling him down for a nearfall before eating a sharp clothesline. Smothers eats a nice powerslam after another headlock segment. Bedlam is shockingly good at taking Tracy's comeback offense, even eating his reverse headkick way better than most. Cornette comes in and gets decked, which of course leads to the Smothers loss via foreign object. I'm of the mind that there aren't very many Bedlam singles matches better than this, but I can't see this holding up as a top level match for the set at the end of the day.

 

Brian Lee/Chris Candido v. Rock N Roll Express

 

Whereas every other match on the show suffered from being needlessly long, this was too short. Heels were really fun early in this as they were bumping around huge for the babyfaces who were typically great working at a rapid fire pace. Lee in particular took a sweet leaping bump off of a Morton dropkick after eating some sweet punches. Morton FIP gets going after Candido stabs him in the head with what looks to be a spike. This is followed up by a spot where Lee cheapshots Morton running the ropes to prohibit him from making a comeback. Morton FIP is short but solid and leads to a crazy finish with Morton going batshit on the heels with some foreign object that looks like a Tiki Torch though I'm sure it wasn't. Ref gets distracted and Ricky eats a purse shot for the finish. This may not hold up, but house show sprints were rarities in SMW and this was a good one so I'm putting it through.

 

Battle Royal

 

This was actually a really fun, spirited battle royal that Smothers won by climbing up the pole to claim the big check after only he and Timothy Well were left in the ring.

Timothy Well vs. Bobby Blaze (5/7/94)

 

Yeah this went way too long as both men were fine working at a fast pace but when it slowed down it almost died.

 

"Dirty White Boy" Tony Anthony vs. Kendo the Samurai (5/7/94)

 

DWB is awesome here kicking Kendo's ass and the fans eat it up as they sympathize with a redneck beating a Jap's ass. Kendo was fine here taking punishment but when he was on offense it went way too long even with DWB doing a solid job of selling everything building to his comeback. The finish was weird as Kendo was trying a fireman's carry but DWB rolled over into a cradle and pinned him out of nowhere. Kendo then attacked DWB after the match before DWB made his own save. DWB was really good here but another match that was too long and Kendo not being good on offense.

 

Bruiser Bedlam vs. "Wild Eyed Southern Boy" Tracy Smothers (5/7/94)

 

This is like the previous match where one guy was really really good and the other one was bad and in this case really really bad with the match going way too long. Too bad they didn't have better opponents.

 

SMW Tag Titles: Chris Candido & "Primetime" Brian Lee © vs. The Rock n Roll Express (Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton) (5/7/94)

 

We had some matches that were too long on this show and now of course the best match of the night is too short but these guys bust their asses here and this is a fun sprint. The heels pinball around the ring early on which was fun and then we got the Morton FIP section off of Candido using what looked like a spike and then Morton did his usual solid job although it didn't last too long before Morton grabbed some weapon and started using it which started a 4-way brawl ending up with Morton getting whacked by Tammy's purse by Candido. This was like it was on fast forward but it was fun and moves forward.

 

Pole Battle Royal won by Tracy Smothers and this was worked better than most battle royals.