Welcome Smokey Mountain Fans, in the month of May, we always had Volunteer Slam, So this month
I will trap you all in the glory of SMW's Showcase event, locked in my hometown of Knoxville, Tn.

Volunteer Slam, was of course the first 'big' blowoff show SMW held. It featured the Heavyweight Title Tournament as the centerpiece. Held May 22nd, 1992, we were promised our first champion for the group when the night was over. The Tournament held names like 'Dirty White Boy' Tony Anthony, Dixie Dy-No-Mite, Brian Lee, Buddy Landel, Robert Gibson, Jimmy Golden, Tim Horner, and Paul Orndorff.

The first round saw Anthony beat Dy-no-mite, Lee pin Landel, Ordorff defeat Horner, and Gibson beat Golden. Second round Lee beat Anthony, 
and Orndorff beat Gibson.

The Tag Titles were also up for grabs that night, with the reigning champs, The Heavenly Bodies, defending and retaining, against hometown boys, The Party Patrol of Davey and Johnny Rich.

Now, honestly none of the matches were really anything to write home about, but I have to say the finals of the tournament was a great southern old school clinic. Brian Lee (whom at this point
was a terrific wrestler) and Paul Orndorff (who I ALWAYS felt was underrated) had a terrific 9 or 10 minute match, with Brian Lee coming out on top, and winning the SMW championship.

Now the only problem I ever had with this tourney was, there were no interlaced angles in it. No biggie at the end, I sorta always felt that it would have been better to have had Lee and Anthony in the finals, 
little more build on the Gibson/Golden end of things. It wasn't a disappointing event, I remember being hyped up the 2 or 3 weeks before, and I still remember going to the show anyway. I guess I'm just a fool for a story in there as well.

The second Volunteer Slam, in 93 had the stories. Now I guess one could mention the fact that the group had only been around about 3 months (technically) at the time of the first event. Now with a year under their belt, Cornette didn't get bashful
giving me what I wanted from the first Slam. The event was basically all buildup for the "Rage in the Cage" main event. TV had all these guys conspiring to get one or the other...sorta like, the older Survivor Series buildup. You had the Rock N Rolls, and Bodies Feud.  You had the aftereffects of Brian Lee, and the bounty from Kevin Sullivan. You had The Studd Stable, Killer Kyle, and The Tazmaniac (whom I am pretty sure later became TAZ...but it could be his cousin, who did the gimmick as well)

Anyway, the event had several individual matches, before the Rage In The Cage ending. Robert Gibson defeated The Tazmaniac. Killer Kyle beat Robert Fuller. Brian Lee pinned Stan Lane. Kevin Sullivan defeated Jimmy Golden. And Dr Tom Pritchard beat Ricky Morton. Between these matches you also had a nice title match. A Coward waves the flag match between defending champ, Tracey Smothers, and Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony. This match was grueling, but in the end the white boy's Volunteer Slam curse stuck around, and he lost. The Rage In The Cage was won when Ricky Morton made Stan Lane submit.

Volunteer Slam 94 was held in the PEAK of the SMW's popularity. I still remember the line at Gooney Golf to buy tickets, and meet the Macho Man, and Cornette. Tracey Smothers, beat Jake Roberts personal ninja, Kendo The Samurai (who was that masked man?)... he was White Lightning fast I tell you). The Thrillseekers more-or-less ended their feud with visiting team Well Dunn. The thing I remember most about this match was, Jericho going like soooo incredibly fast, and Well Dunn just doing everything they could to keep up, then when Lance would get in, everything would go to a more traditional southern style. He would do little
things to get Jericho to slow down, and get breathers in for Well and Dunn. It was an awesome match, The Seekers, were bringing stuff in from Japan and Mexico, and truly doing insane stunts at that point. Tag Team Title match was between the champs, Candido, and Lee (with Ms Tammy) against the Rock N Rolls.  Now where this match was still good, the downside was you could tell at this point this was going to be the next really long feud. With the Bodies out of the way, The Rock N Roll needed some new stories, new matches....and 4,792 title changes later, we got to go on. The upside was, at least it wasn't ANOTHER Rock n Roll/Bodies match (not that that's a bad thing, just too much of any good thing is..enough).  More...