- Edward Pardue

In 1995, Smoky Mountain Wrestling put on some of the best wrestling of any federation. While the WWF was too busy having Jerry Lawler kiss Bret Hart's feet and WCW was letting their guys fall off tops of arenas, Jim Cornette and his crew were still the local boys at the neighborhood bar you could count on for a good, old school brawl or two.

At the start of 1995, things weren't looking so good for the company. The top indy worker at the time, veteran " Hotstuff " Eddie Gilbert, having just arrived in SMW barely a month before passed away of a heart attack in Puerto Rico. This was NOT a good thing, because Eddie Gilbert was a booking genius, and Cornette could've desperately have benefited from Gilbert helping with the book. When only a thousand fans showed up for SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY II in Knoxville, Tn. Cornette started to get a little bit nervous, having drew well over three times that the past year. Still, SMW boasted a great crew and bravely pressed onward into its final year. 

Cornette at this point was helping Bob Armstrong, and The Gangstas were the hottest heels to hit the territory. The Rock and Roll Express were feuding with Al Snow and Unabomb ( Kane, from the WWF ) for the SMW tag team titles. 

" Nature Boy " Buddy Landel was battling Bobby Blaze for ten grand, a rolex, a car and the top spot in SMW. The Undertaker (!) was about to make his SMW debut even... SMW may have been down, but it was far from out.

Terry Funk returned to help Bob Armstrong defeat the Gangstas, Tracy Smothers and Tony Anthony formed The T.H.U.G.S (to find out what a T.H.U.G is, see my column from a few months ago...) and Cornette turned on Armstrong and formed his " Militia ", which would grow to include Barry " The Punisher " Buchannan, Tommy Rich, Snow and Unabomb, " Freebird " Terry Gordy, SMW Champion Buddy Landel (who walked out on Cornette), Sgt. Rock (Jackie, from the WWF) and the returning Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray).