Ah, Smokey Mountain Wrestling, the last true territory wrestling outfit.

Hello wrestling fans, Barry Allen here with your new SMW column. Wow, new writer, new column, and a new, yet old school way of looking at everything wrestling related today.

Vince asked me to write this column, and to make it different than the previous writer's columns before me. I took a look at some of his older work, and really realized that he had more or less covered everything really, yet, didn't get the detail that I would want in a column talking about one of my favorite territories (second only to Memphis). I decided the best thing to really do here, is at least start with a really well put together article about the main faces in SMW from 1992-1995.

Jim Cornette

Obviously the founder and promoter of the group, but also one of the best managers and talkers that ever came through SMW. Most all main even angles had something to do with James E., and you couldn't get away from the Louisville Slugger's promos on every episode of SMW. His continuing feud with the Rock N Roll Express, all the way to ridding SMW of the Gangstas and siding with everyone you never thought he would, into the less memorable General Jim days of the last 6 months of the fed.

The Heavenly Bodies

Whether it was Sweet Stan and Dr. Tom, or Dr. Tom and Gigolo Jimmy, it was still the best team in SMW, arguably of course. This team, always managed by Jim Cornette held the SMW Tag Team Titles a remarkable 8 times beating such teams as the Rock n Roll Express, The Fantastics, and the THUGZ. They were involved in feuds with those said teams, as well as a wonderfully cross promotional feud with a tag team of two nobodies called the....um Thrillseekers or something like that (Whatever happened to those two anyway?).

The Rock N Roll Express

Ricky Morton of course wasn't in the original lineup of SMW. Although Robert Gibson, if my memory serves was in the first SMW TV match, if not definitely the first taping. As a singles star Robert was excelling, but had been beaten on weekly basis by the Stud Stable. Ricky came in to help and bury the hatchet with his 'brother' and former tag team partner. From there to the bloody lengthy feud with both sets of Bodies, to Candido/Lee and The Gangstas, the Rock N Rolls continued to make their mark in the wrestling history books, until madness happened with Ricky, and he subsequently left the fold, leaving Robert again, with bad guy tendencies and a new manager, Gen. James E Cornette. The Rock N Roll Express did reunite the last night in SMW history.

Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony

The First and pretty well prominent SMW heavyweight champion. The Dirty White Boy, had a string of success in the old Continental fed in Alabama a few years earlier, and was a proven draw, and a great pick for Cornette to have on the roster. His feud with Brian Lee for his first SMW title was greatness. The angle was set so well that you really could have sworn that Anthony was going to lose it all, and he was such a good bad guy doing so, that while you wanted to see him lose everything, you would have probably felt sorry afterwards for wishing harm on him (especially after seeing his home on Down and Dirty with Dutch).

He came out of the match with the title, and held onto it until losing it to his future THUGZ partner Tracy Smothers. In a rematch, an insane finish was in the making, causing the title to be held up more or less, and then DWB went for it all again, only losing this time. He won the title BACK from Brian Lee, and held onto it, until coming across the path of the Snake. In a series of events that really, have to be told in a 3 hour story from Cornette, DWB won the title again and kept it for a little while before losing it to Jerry Lawler.