SMW Thanksgiving Thunder 1993 11/28/1993

Written by: Bob Colling

Smoky Mountain Wrestling presents Thanksgiving Thunder
Date: 11/28/2993
From: Johnson City, TN

Opening Contest: SMW US Junior Heavyweight Champion Chris Candido vs. Bobby Blaze in a loser gets tarred and feathered match: Blaze chases after Candido on the floor and takes Candido down with an arm drag and dropkick upon their return to the ring. Blaze wrenches on Candido’s arm until Chris goes to the corner and breaks the hold. Blaze continues to focus his offense on the left arm of Candido using very basic offense. Candido drops Blaze gut first across the top rope and taunts the fans as he finally gets some momentum in his favor. Blaze drops Candido gut first across the top and sends Candido back first into the railing with a baseball slide. Blaze leaps off the top and hits a cross body on the floor. On the floor, Candido sends Blaze into the guard railing and demands the referee start a count. Blaze rolls back into the ring as Candido continues to work over Blaze with strikes.

Candido plants Blaze with a vertical suplex for a near fall. Candido had a sleeper hold on Blaze for a few moments using the ropes for an illegal advantage. The referee eventually sees that and forces Candido to break the hold. Candido runs into a big boot and Blaze hits a spinning heel kick. Blaze attempts a dropkick but Candido avoids it and locks in the Boston Crab. Candido prevents Blaze from reaching the ropes and has the hold in the middle of the ring but Blaze crawls to the ropes to break the hold. Candido takes Blaze out with a springboard cross body to knock Blaze off the apron to the floor. Chris gets another near fall following a scoop slam. Candido takes Blaze down with a snap suplex and signals for the end by heading to the top rope. Blaze manages to get up and dropkicks Candido in midair.

Blaze backdrops Candido and delivers an elbow strike in the corner. Blaze nearly wins with a German suplex but only gets a near fall. Candido plants Blaze with a swinging neck breaker and both men are down. Candido continues with a swinging neck breaker and taunts the fans as Blaze is laid out. Blaze counters a neck breaker with a bridging suplex for a two count. Blaze runs into an elbow strike as Candido heads to the top rope. Candido gets stopped by Blaze who hit a handstand kick. Candido stops Blaze and hits a top rope power bomb! Candido doesn’t go for the cover as Blaze is laid out. Candido kicks Blaze to the floor for some reason and taunts the fans. Candido gets out of a sunset flip by Blaze and uses the ropes for leverage to pin Blaze. (**. Alright, the finish should have been right after the power bomb. The dragging out of the match for Candido just to cheat was not needed whatsoever. The match was about twenty minutes and you could have cut the match in half and it would have been much better. I like that Candido actually went over since he has far more upside and can’t be embarrassed much more moving forward to be taken seriously.) After the match, Blaze accepts the stipulations because he is a man of his word and he is tarred and feathered.

Second Contest: SMW Beat The Champ TV Champion Tim Horner vs. Prince Kharis: Kharis is a 4,000 year old mummy. Yeah, you read that correctly. Kharis chokes Horner for the first several minutes and that’s all he does. Horner trips Kharis and dust comes off of Kharis. Kharis sits up and locks in a bear hug to control Horner. Horner begins to fight back with a dropkick and an eye poke before going to the top rope hitting a missile dropkick to knock Kharis down briefly. Darryl Van Horn distracts Horner to allow Kharis to hit Horner with a loaded forearm it appears. The referee checks on Horner and the referee deems that Horner is knocked out. (DUD. This is probably the worst match I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life. Kharis is the worst character ever created.) After the match, Kharis chokes Horner out because he can. SMW security enter the ring help Horner but that doesn’t help very much.

Third Contest: Kevin Sullivan vs. The Bullet in a Singapore spike match: Sullivan tosses powder into Bullet’s face and uses the ring bell on Bullet on the floor to get the early advantage. Sullivan whacks Bullet several times with a metal bar that is used to ring the bell. Bullet rams Kevin face first into a table at ringside. Bullet crotches Sullivan across the railing, as well. Sullivan looks in the first box but there isn’t anything there and comes up short on the second box. Bullet hammers away on Sullivan in the corner as Killer Kyle comes out and he finds the spike. Bullet turns around and strikes Kyle. Sullivan tries to use the spike but Bullet knocks Sullivan down too. Kyle accidentally spikes Sullivan from the apron and Bullet pins Sullivan. (DUD. Yeah, that sucked too.)

Fourth Contest: Rock N’ Roll Express vs. The Moondogs: Rex and Spot are at ringside during the Express entrance and they waste no time brawling with the former champions on the floor. Gibson is worked over in the ring as they break a 2×4 across the midsection of Gibson. Rex accidentally breaks wood over Spot’s head and the Express are back in business. Rex breaks a stick over the back of Gibson. Morton has a trash can lid and hits Spot over the head a few times. Spot gets a chair and hits both Gibson and Morton. The Moondogs continue to have control over Morton and Gibson until Gibson pummels Rex with a trash can lid. Gibson and Morton regain control with various weapon shots. The referee gets knocked down by a Moondog with a strike with a metal object. The bell sounds as the match has been thrown out. (1/2*. There was zero wrestling involved here as it was simply brawling and weapon shots. It wasn’t an enjoyable brawling match, either.) After the match, Jim Cornette comes out to use a stop sign on the Express to continue the segment for whatever reason.

Fifth Contest: SMW Heavyweight Champion Brian Lee vs. Dirty White Boy: White Boy brings Lee into the ring from the apron with a vertical suplex and White Girl slaps Lee on the floor. White Boy goes after Lee on the outside before returning to the ring. Lee runs into a big boot in the corner and White Boy leaps off the middle rope to hit a leaping clothesline for a near fall. White Boy knocks Lee into a corner and chokes Lee with his chain it appears. Lee is sent into the ropes and is met with a clothesline knocking the champion to the floor. On the floor, Tammy appears to give Lee something from her purse. Lee returns to the ring and hammers away on White Boy managing to only get a two count. Lee drops White Boy with a big boot and chokes the challenger on the canvas to keep control in his favor.

Lee stomps White Boy while standing on the apron and slings White Boy over the top rope into the ring. Lee plants White Boy with a power slam for a two count. Lee hits another power slam on White Boy to maintain advantage. White Boy gets a second wind and hammers away on Lee followed by a big boot. White Boy plants Lee with a DDT and drops a leg for a two count. White Boy atomic drops Lee and they collide heads knocking both men down. Lee hits White Boy with Tammy’s purse and that brings in White Girl to attack Lee, which the referee sees and calls for the bell. After the match, White Girl gets her hands on Tammy briefly while White Boy knocks Lee to the floor with his boot. (*1/2. Well, the theme of the show is that the matches have sucked and that continues here. This felt like more of an angle development match as they must be wanting to drag this feud out longer with a stipulation, which seems to be the norm in SMW. I was hoping this would have been a good one, but that wasn’t happening.)

Main Event: SMW Tag Team Champions The Heavenly Bodies vs. The Bruise Brothers in a non-title gang fight match: The Bruise Brothers have chains and a door as they send Del Ray through the wooden door in the corner. Pritchard is knocked down following a double clothesline. Del Ray is sent head first through the wooden door. Ron uses a chain on Del Ray hitting a clothesline while Don and Pritchard brawl on the floor. They are brawling all around the arena but we can’t see anything that is going on. Ron gets the stop sign and whacks Del Ray over the head with the stop sign. Pritchard has been busted wide open as he gets hit with the sign. Jim Cornette continues to runaway from the Bruise Brothers. Del Ray nails Don with a trash can lid and hits Don with a stop sign. Pritchard whacks Ron over the head with a steel chair as the champions try to fight back. They continue to brawl around the arena and the cameras can’t see what is going on.

Pritchard and Del Ray appear to have the advantage in the crowd hitting the Bruise Brothers with weapons. Del Ray is busted open as he is back in the ring. Don is bleeding as well. Cornette holds Don on the apron but Del Ray accidentally punches Cornette off the apron! Del Ray uses a tennis racket on Don several times. Pritchard uses a stick on Ron as the champions have control. Del Ray sets a table up in the corner and rams Ron into the table, but it doesn’t break. Del Ray is sent onto the table as well, but it still doesn’t break. Jimmy is sent to the floor where Ron continues to pummel him. Del Ray super kicks Don from behind and the Bodies double team Don. Del Ray misses a moonsault and hits the referee on accident. Don plants Pritchard with a piledriver but Cornette enters to choke Don. Ron sends Cornette into the table in the corner and uses an ether rag on Pritchard, which Cornette used on Don moments earlier. The referee counts and Pritchard isn’t able to get up before the count of ten. (*1/2. It’s a brawl with weapon shots over and over again. It gets old really quick.) After the match, the Moondogs enter the ring and help the Bodies attack the Bruise Brothers. The Bruise Brothers are left laid out.

Final Thoughts:
I went into the event not expecting much and thats exactly what I got. For a guy who doesn’t like hardcore wrestling, Cornette booked several hardcore matches here and they all felt the same. The crowd seemed to turn on the show as they weren’t making much noise following the Horner/Kharis match. This is one of the worst major events for SMW that I’ve reviewed thus far.

Thanks for reading.