SMW August 1996 - 8/3

[jackknight]

Chito said:

SMOKY MOUNTAIN WRESTLING


Saturday, August 3, 1996
2pm to 3:00pm

Taped earlier in the day at the Garden High School in Oakwood, Virginia

Broadcast on these local stations:
WBIR-TV 10 covering East Tennessee
WCYB-TV 5 covering northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia
WYMT-TV 12 covering southeastern Kentucky
WHKY-TV 14 covering the Hickory/Lenoir market
WLOS-TV 13 covering western North Carolina








"Don't change that channel, all that flippin' around! You're about to see the hottest show in town. The biggest stars and the biggest brawls. The biggest hits and the biggest falls. Non stop action, no messin' around, pretty soon we're comin' to your town. The way you like it, the way it used to be...Smoky Mountain Wrestling's on TV"





---LES THATCHER and LANCE RUSSELL open the show in the broadcast area, in front of a large SMW banner, and welcome us to Oakwood, Virginia for very final episode of Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

THATCHER says that today is bittersweet for him and his broadcast partner, Lance Russell. It’s the final episode of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, as it, along with all the other regional NWA shows, is being replaced by NWA Total Non-stop Action on Friday nights on TNT. He says that it’s sad to see this show come to an end, but on the other hand, it means that now fans all across the country will be able to see the kind of wrestling that made the Smoky Mountain area such a hotbed as of late.

RUSSELL says that they’ve only got one match signed for today’s show, but it’s a bound to be a real barnburner, as NWA TV Champion Chris Candido challenges Terry Funk for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship! SMW also has standby matches ready to go if the Candido – Funk match doesn’t go the length of the show.


A video airs, spanning several minutes, highlighting the action from Smoky Mountain Wrestling, some of it from 1992 and early 1993, prior to the start of WrestleWars, and the rest from December ’95 until now.


THATCHER and RUSSELL are joined at the broadcast area by NWA President JERRY JARRETT, who calls the match with them.




MATCH #1
NWA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP:
NWA Champion TERRY FUNK VS. CHRIS CANDIDO (w/ Dutch Mantell). Candido’s TV title is not on the line for the match.

The match nearly runs the entire length of the show, not including commercial breaks, the actual match runs about 28 minutes. The action is fast and furious, Candido wants the belt, and is willing to try every dirty trick in the book in order to get an advantage. Funk shows that, while the fans have been cheering for him, he has no problem fighting fire with fire, which is evident when he jabs a thumb into Candido’s eyes, stopping the TV champ in his tracks.

As the match progresses, Funk finds himself on the receiving end of some brutal punishment. The battle moves to the arena floor, and Funk ends up getting his head slammed into the ring apron, and then Candido slams the Champion on the arena floor. Funk just misses getting counted out, rolling back into the ring as the referee counts to 9.

Back inside, Candido continued the onslaught, getting several nearfalls. Candido drops Funk with a DDT that gets him a VERY close nearfall, but Funk somehow manages to kick out at the very last possible second. Candido pulls Funk up, then slams him back down to the mat, and heads for the top rope.

Once on the top rope, Candido takes a moment to taunt some of the ringside fans, and that proves to be his undoing. As Candido attempts his New Jersey Jam legdrop off the top, Funk rolls out of the way and Candido crashes to the mat. Funk gets his second wind, and puts the boots the challenger. Candido eventually fights his way to his feet, and the two men trade punches in the middle of the ring. Funk ducks a haymaker from Candido, then spins him around and delivers an atomic drop, causing Candido even more pain after missing the top-rope legdrop moments earlier.

Candido staggers around the ring, holding his backside, and Funk kicks him in the gut, then cinches him up for a Piledriver. Funk drops Candido on his head with the Piledriver, and that’s all she wrote as Terry Funk gets the 1, 2, 3 to retain the World Heavyweight Title!



After the match, Funk takes the mic from ring announcer Mike McGuirk, and says that, despite Candido’s ego, he proved here today that he’s one the top wrestlers around, and Terry says that this was one of the toughest matches he’s ever wrestled. He says that the young man proved a lot to him today.

Funk then drapes the World Title belt over his shoulder . . . and offers his hand to Candido!

Chris looks at Funk, looks down at his hand, looks at Terry again . . . AND SPITS IN THE CHAMPION’S FACE!!!!

Candido, smiling from ear to ear, turns to leave the ring, but Funk, now enraged, attacks him from behind and the two end up on the mat, both men wailing away on the other until security and several wrestlers hit the ring to break it up.


THATCHER, RUSSELL and JARRETT talk about what just happened, when they’re joined at the broadcast area by TERRY FUNK.

FUNK says that in all his years as a pro wrestler, he’s had some despicable things done to him, and he’s done some despicable things to other people, but he’s never had someone disrespect him like Candido just did!

FUNK asks Jerry Jarrett to sign a rematch between him and Candido, he doesn’t care where it is, just as long as he can get his hands on Candido.

FUNK then looks directly into the camera, and tells Candido that he’ll get his hands on him again, and when he does . . . he’s going to break every bone in Candido’s body! He says Candido had better have his medical insurance paid up, because he’s going to need it!

THATCHER says that at some point, some where, Terry Funk and Chris Candido are going to cross paths again, and he would not want to be Chris Candido when that day comes!


STANDBY MATCH:
BRAD ARMSTRONG beats JEFF HARDY via pinfall. Hardy puts up a good fight, and it’s clear that he’s improving each and every time he’s in the ring. Both men are just as comfortable wrestling on the mat as they are going to the air, and the fans get a little bit of everything in the 7 minutes or so that this match goes on for. Armstrong eventually gets the win with a slingshot Sunset Flip from the apron into the ring.




---LES THATCHER and LANCE RUSSELL wrap up the final episode of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and hype next Friday night’s debut of NWA Total Non-stop Action, live on TNT at 8pm