SMW 03-22-88 Kingsport TN

[Mickey Yarber]

Kingsport Times-News
Sports Section
Thursday March 23, 1988
By K. Fabin

(also syndicated in the Johnson City Press, Bristol Herald Courier, Knoxville Sentinel, Coal Fields Daily, and the Virginia Mountaineer newspapers)

ORNDORFF TOPS TAYLOR TO RETAIN SMOKY MOUNTAIN TITLE

Smoky Mountain Wrestling presented a full card of wrestling action last night at the Civic Auditorium in Kingsport, TN that saw Smoky Mountain kingpin Paul Orndorff retain the Heavyweight Championship over challenger Terry Taylor in a best two out of three falls main event.

Taylor captured the first fall after 14:10 of fast paced action when he caught Orndorff with his patented “Fivearm” move and pinned him. The champion showed resiliency and rallied to take the second fall after 7 minutes of action when Taylor was counted out of the ring.

The third fall was decided when Taylor once again connected with his “Fivearm” move knocking Orndorff to the mat, but also knocking the referee down and out when Orndorff flew into him from the force of the move. With the referee unable to call the action, Orndorff used an illegal low blow on Taylor, and then delivered his piledriver hold to put Taylor down. He covered Taylor and referee Mark Curtis came to and counted the deciding pin fall at 9:30.

The piledriver move is illegal in the state of Tennessee, and Orndorff would have disqualified is Curtis had saw him apply the move.

After the bout, Orndorff attempted to give Taylor another piledriver, but was stopped by “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan who came to Taylor’s aid. Duggan and Orndorff engaged in a brief tangle that saw Duggan get the better of it and run Orndorff from the ring.

Before the bout, Taylor had vowed to leave the Smoky Mountain circuit if he did not defeat Orndorff. I was unable to speak with Taylor after the bout to confirm if he does indeed intend to follow through with that promise.

In other action…

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan defeated Lord Jonathon Boyd in a “Flag Match” in 12:44. Duggan brough his American flag to the ring, and Boyd brought his New Zealand flag. The two flags were placed in opposite corners of the ring and the first man to capture his opponents flag was declared the winner. Boyd put up quite a fight, but Duggan leveled him with three consecutive flying tackles and captured his flag to win the bout.

Ole Anderson defeated Sam Houston by pin fall after 15:10 of action. Houston bounded off the ropes and leapt at Anderson, attempting a flying cross body block. Anderson dropped to the mat and Houston sailed over him and crashed into the ropes throat first, after which the veteran Anderson pinned him.

The Bullet made a successful return to northeast Tennessee, teaming with Scott Armstrong to defeat Joel and David Deaton in tag team action in 13:59.

Vladimir Pietrov, the nephew of Ivan Koloff, made his debut in the Smoky Mountain rings and pinned Mark Starr after a double axe handle blow to the chest in 2:03.

Johnny Rich pinned Rip Rogers in 8:55 with a sunset flip from the middle rope.

All the action was taped for Smoky Mountain Wrestling’s television show that debuts this Saturday night at 11:30 after the local news. The half hour show can be seen on WKPT TV-19 in the Tri-Cities, WATE Channel 6 in Knoxville, WKPZ Channel 4 in the coal field region, and WKPI TV-24 in the Pikeville KY area.

Smoky Mountain Wrestling will return to the Kingsport Civic Auditorium next Wednesday night, with an 8:00pm bell time. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Civic Auditorium ticket office, the customer service desk at Singletons, and Big Johns on Hwy 11W. Tickets are $5.00 in advance, or $6.00 at the gate.

[grigs]

Orndorff will have his hands full if Duggan decides to make an all out effort for the belt.

[jeepguy]

With Taylor finished, Duggan makes a good opponent for Orndorff and puts the champ in jeopardy of losing the belt.

Solid card with a Southern/SMW feel to it. Good stuff going on here.

[thecommish]

A star-studded card for sure, but my favorite bit was seeing The Bullet and Dixie Dynamite teaming up. Bob Armstrong, err The Bullet, was always one of my favorites - he had so much charisma and even in '88 was a really good in-ring performer.

Paul Orndorff vs Terry Taylor is a very good main event during this period. Duggan's a natural opponent for Mr. Wonderful going forward.

[Mickey Yarber]

You should expect to see more of Orndorff and Duggan coming to blows I would imagine.

commish....The Bullet did indeed have plenty of charisma, and was still good in the ring in 88 indeed. Maybe it was the charisma, but he had the ability and star power to still draw big crowds to smaller building in this area IRL...I have first hand knowledge of this. A small show in somewhere like Bristol TN would draw 200-250 average, but when the Bullet was brought it, it was up to 800 or so. Much like the Rock and Roll Express would later do in SMW, the crowds loved those guys and filled high school gyms with 1000 people to see them. So I feel that using Bullet in a role here in my SMW would do about the same. I'm not running The Omni or anything, but small building in 88 with The Bullet, Rock and Rolls, Duggan, Orndorff and such on the card would sell out in this area. Kingsport Civiv Auditorium holds maybe 1200 people at capacity, so I think it's a good building for what I'm doing. It had weekly wrestling every Wednesday night throughout the 60's and part of the 70's, so there is a history there of the city supporting the weekly shows. Using the Bullet just makes it worth their money.