Smoky Mountain Wrestling
| Smoky Mountain Wrestling | |
|---|---|
|
|
| shape | promotion |
| Establishment date | October 1992 |
| Location | Knoxville, Tennessee |
| founder |
Jim Cornette Tim Horner Sandy Scott |
| management | Jim Cornette |
| Branch | Pro wrestling |
| Further information | |
| Closed since | December 1995 |
| Taken over from | United States Wrestling Association |
Smoky Mountain Wrestling , or SMW for short , is the name of a US wrestling promotion that was based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Promoter was Jim Cornette .
history
The history of the promotion begins in October 1991. Since Ted Turner's Promotion World Championship Wrestling began in August 1991 to separate from the National Wrestling Alliance and to organize it under its own banner , Cornette resigned there in the fall of 1991 from his post as a booker .
Together with Tim Horner and Sandy Scott , he set up the NWA banner Smoky Mountain Wrestling in Tennessee , which should now succeed the former WCW.
Beginnings
Cornettes SMW began recording the first TV shows in October 1991. But since there was no active TV contract with a broadcaster, these were not broadcast until March 1992. But the new NWA project Smoky Mountain turned into a financial failure. The promotion did not have any lucrative TV contracts, although it had a large number of prominent wrestlers and talented young wrestlers. So were, among others, Terry Funk , Cactus Jack and Chris Candido to at SMW.
Co-operation with World Wrestling Federation
Since 1993 there was strong competition to the NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling , which at that time was one of the most famous sub-organizations of the National Wrestling Alliance. There was also the mutual dislike of Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman and the fact that the ECW had slowly poached the big names from the SMW.
In order to be able to stand up to the Pennsylvania-based doctorate, SMW needed a strong partner.
Cornette believed to have found this in the World Wrestling Federation . In 1993 he entered into a co-operation with the Connecticut-based doctorate.
SMW now became an unofficial development territory of the WWF and so the then reigning SMW tag team champions The Heavenly Bodies , consisting of Stan Lane and Tom Prichard , appeared in WWF shows. But since Cornett's booking style was considered out of date by the public, this measure remained ineffective for the SMW.
The doctorate did not succeed in asserting itself against the big two, the WWF and the WCW.
End of doctorate
On August 27, 1994, a tournament was held in the ECW for the vacant NWA World Title , at the end of which the promotion from the NWA followed.
So SMW organized a new tournament on the again vacant championship , which Chris Candido could now win. But the days of SMW were finally numbered. In December 1995 Cornette and Sandy Scott sold the heavily indebted promotion to the United States Wrestling Association operated by Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler .