Dirty White Boy © vs Jerry Lawler – SMW
SMW Heavyweight Title Match
01/28/1995
Smoky Mountain Wrestling was on its last legs. The fact that what was effectively a territory managed to exist, and even flourish at times, during this era of wrestling was testament to the booking of Jim Cornette and the hunger of the guys who came through the promotion. Either overlooked for bigger things, old veterans with something still to give, or newcomers looking for a shot at the big time, SMW’s roster helped to put the exclamation point on storylines that were ground breaking for the time period.
This meant little if the numbers weren’t good, and SMWs were plummeting. Forced into relying heavily on multiple shows being taped at once and using highlights from bigger shows to pad out television to save money, the writing appeared to be on the wall. In his time of need, Cornette turned to a wrestler who had name value enough to perhaps revitalise the product he was offering. After a punt on Jake Roberts failed the previous year, Cornette decided to turn to Memphis’ favourite son.
Jerry Lawler fit the SMW style of territory like a chain fits snugly around his fist. A promotion that was not shy to utilise gimmick matches and over the top angles, Smoky Mountain shared more than a little in common with the Memphis territory. By deciding to put the belt on Lawler, Cornette sought to add a sense of name value with the wider wrestling community that Dirty White Boy didn’t necessarily offer. A Smoky Mountain face could then get over with the fans by vanquishing the easily dislikeable King. Smoky Mountain’s biggest issue had always been its abundance of heels and a relative scarcity of faces. Dirty White Boy was well loved by the fans, but never had that feeling of being the type of face you could build a company around – he was usually better as a heel.
A fancam of the match exists online, but the end of the contest would be shown on an episode of SMW television a couple of weeks later. In true Lawler style, the walk down to ring was peppered with barbs aimed at many of the fans in attendance, drawing heat and a smattering of involuntary laughs from the crowd. After DWB received a raucous reception, Buddy Landell was invited down to the ring to be the guest timekeeper – a development given more importance by the scheduled Lights Out Match scheduled with DWB for later in the evening.
From Lawler’s arrival to first lock-up goes almost thirteen minutes; just an ordinary day in the ring for the King of wrestling. The heat is such that not only are the crowd never bored by his shtick, the first punches by DWB gets a huge reaction, not least from a granny at ringside who Lawler singled out for abuse earlier on. Claims of hair pulling on two Irish whips and back body drops would continue to milk the heat on Lawler with limited physical exertion.
The stalling never ends. Teases surrounding a test of strength and Lawler playing ‘hide the chain’ do end up seeing the chain eventually used upside Boy’s head, finally kicking the match into second gear. Lawler would continue to use the referee’s positioning to use the chain at will in a methodical beatdown of his opponent. Periodically, the match was punctuated by Landell keeping us aware of the time left in the contest.
After nine head smashes in the corner, Boy blocked the tenth and dished out his own to allow him to work his way back into the match. A chokeslam seems to have Lawler beaten, but as the ref got down to count, Landell rang the bell to declare an hour draw! Mark Curtis restarted the match, only to get bumped off of the apron, allowing Landell to piledrive DWB and allow Lawler to pick up the victory.
Lawler would only hold the belt for less than a month, however. By the time an SMW and USWA angle saw Lawler return, SMWs days were numbered.
