Volunteer Slam I
| Volunteer Slam I | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | Smoky Mountain Wrestling | |||
| Date | May 22, 1992 | |||
| Attendance | 1,000[1] | |||
| Venue | Knoxville Civic Coliseum | |||
| City | Knoxville, Tennessee | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
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| Volunteer Slam chronology | ||||
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Volunteer Slam (sequentially known as Volunteer Slam I) was the first Volunteer Slam professional wrestling event produced by Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW). It took place on May 22, 1992, at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event drew a crowd of 1,000 fans and was the first major supercard produced by SMW.
Nine professional wrestling matches were contested at the event. The event featured a tournament to determine the first-ever SMW Heavyweight Champion, with Brian Lee defeating Paul Orndorff via disqualification in the tournament final to become the inaugural Heavyweight Champion in the main event. Other featured matches on the undercard featuring The Heavenly Bodies defending the Tag Team Championship against Davey Rich and Johnny Rich, as well as Joey Maggs and Hector Guerrero taking on Rip Rogers and Barry Horowitz.
Production
Background
On the March 28 episode of SMW TV, the on-screen SMW Commissioner Bob Armstrong announced that SMW would be holding its first major supercard event, Volunteer Slam, on May 15, 1992, at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee.[2] On the April 11 episode of SMW TV, it was revealed that the event was postponed a week later to take place on May 22.[3]
Storylines
The event featured wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[4] Storylines between the characters played out on SMW's self-titled television program.
On the March 28 episode of SMW TV, the SMW Commissioner Bob Armstrong announced that a tournament would take place at Volunteer Slam for the new SMW Heavyweight Championship, with the inaugural champion being crowned at the event. He named the twelve participants who would be participating in the tournament and announced that three of the participants would be determined through qualifying matches taking place on television.[2] The qualifying matches took place as Brian Lee defeated Dutch Mantel on April 4,[5] Paul Orndorff defeated Hector Guerrero on April 11,[3] and Dixie Dynamite defeated Carl Styles on April 18.[6]
On the May 9 episode of SMW TV, The Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Tom Prichard) defeated The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Jackie Fulton) in the finals of an eight-team tournament to become the first-ever SMW Tag Team Champions after Heavenly Bodies' manager Jim Cornette hit Jackie with a tennis racket. The Heavenly Bodies attacked The Fantastics after the match,[7] which led to Jackie being injured. The following week, on SMW TV, it was announced that The Heavenly Bodies would defend the Tag Team Championship against The Party Patrol (Davey Rich and Johnny Rich) at Volunteer Slam.[8]
Event
Quarterfinals
The opening match of the event was a tag team match featuring Joey Maggs and Hector Guerrero against Rip Rogers and Barry Horowitz. Guerrero pinned Horowitz for the win.
Next, the first match of the quarter-final round of the SMW Heavyweight Championship tournament took place as Dixie Dynamite took on The Dirty White Boy. The Dirty White Boy avoided a dropkick by Dynamite by holding onto the ropes and nailed a Bucksnort Blaster for the win.
Next, Brian Lee took on Buddy Landel. Landel tried to apply a figure four leglock on Lee after Lee missed a diving knee drop, but Lee countered by pinning Landel with an inside cradle for the win.
In the next match, Tim Horner took on Paul Orndorff. Near the end of the match, Orndorff trapped Horner's leg in the ropes and pinned him to win the match.
It was followed by the fourth and last match in the quarter-final round of the tournament featuring Robert Gibson against Jimmy Golden. Gibson's knee was injured during the match, but he managed to nail a bulldog on Golden for the win.
Semifinals
The first semifinal match of the Heavyweight Championship tournament featured Brian Lee against The Dirty White Boy. Lee pinned The Dirty White Boy after avoiding a diving headbutt by The Dirty White Boy from the middle rope. The Dirty White Boy attacked Lee after the match by repeatedly hitting him with a chair.
In the next semifinal, Robert Gibson took on Paul Orndorff. Orndorff dominated most of the match by targeting Gibson's knee until Gibson made a comeback by hitting a bulldog, but got a near-fall. Then Orndorff hit a chop block on Gibson and pinned him by grabbing the tights for leverage to advance to the final round.
In the penultimate match, The Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Tom Prichard) defended the SMW Tag Team Championship against The Party Patrol (Davey Rich and Johnny Rich). Near the end of the match, Johnny had applied a sleeper hold on Lane, but Prichard kicked him from behind, allowing Lane to pin Johnny to retain the titles.
Final
The tournament final for the SMW Heavyweight Championship was the main event, pitting Brian Lee against Paul Orndorff. The referee was knocked out during the match after Orndorff hit a big elbow smash, which led to the Commissioner Bob Armstrong taking over officiating duties. The Dirty White Boy tried to interfere in the match, but Lee attacked him. Orndorff wore a pair of brass knuckles and hit Lee with them to gain a near-fall until Armstrong noticed the brass knuckles in Orndorff's hand and disqualified him for using them, which led to Lee being awarded the title and becoming the first-ever Heavyweight Champion.
Reception
Volunteer Slam received mixed to negative reviews. Bob Colling of Wrestling Recaps rated the event 4 out of 10, considering it a poor event, as he wrote, "Honestly, it’s a disappointing first big show for Smoky Mountain Wrestling. The positives were the Lee/DWB story advancement and Orndorff continues to be a great heel. However, the booking of the tournament final was confusing and just makes Lee look like he couldn’t have beaten Orndorff by pin fall. The action throughout was heavily on the brawling side with very little exciting action taking place."[9][10]
Adam Nedeff of 411Mania gave it an average rating of 6.3, writing, "Man, they were on a roll there and the show just ran out of gas near the end. It felt like a better-than-average Prime Time Wrestling and it's worth a look if you can find it."[11]
According to Garth Holmberg of Scott's Blog of Doom, "the finishes were strong and even the losers were protected well enough to be kept as reasonable contenders. There weren’t any show-stealing performances, but this was more about crowning Brian Lee and cementing him as the top babyface in the territory. The Tag Title Match was a nice bonus to break things up a bit, but it was one of those place-holder challenger situations where any reasonably intelligent fan could tell they were buying the Heavenly Bodies time for the return of the Fantastics. Nothing to blow you away, nothing that outright stunk, just a solid 90-minutes of rasslin’."[12]
Aftermath
Brian Lee continued his feud with Paul Orndorff and The Dirty White Boy after his SMW Heavyweight Championship win at Volunteer Slam. Lee and The Dirty White Boy had a match against each other on the June 13 episode of SMW TV, in which The Dirty White Boy was disqualified after hitting Lee with a pair of brass knuckles, and Orndorff joined The Dirty White Boy in attacking Lee.[13] Lee brought Ron Garvin to SMW as his partner against The Dirty White Boy and Orndorff on the June 27 SMW TV,[14] which led to a match between the two teams at Summer Blast, which Lee and Garvin won. Garvin moved on to feuding with Orndorff while Lee began a rivalry with The Dirty White Boy, leading up to the next big supercard, Fire on the Mountain, on August 8, where Garvin defeated Orndorff in a Piledriver match while The Dirty White Boy defeated Lee to win the Heavyweight Championship.[15]
The Heavenly Bodies moved on to a feud with The Fantastics after Volunteer Slam, stemming from The Heavenly Bodies having beaten The Fantastics, with the help of their manager Jim Cornette, in the finals of a tournament to become the inaugural SMW Tag Team Champions and having injured Jackie Fulton. At Fire on the Mountain, The Fantastics defeated The Heavenly Bodies in a barbed wire steel cage match to win the Tag Team Championship.[15]
Results
Tournament brackets
The tournament to crown the first-ever SMW Heavyweight Champion was held between April 9 and May 22, 1992.[16]
| Qualifiers | Quarterfinals | Semi-Finals | Finals | ||||||||||||
| The Dirty White Boy | |||||||||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||||||||
| The Dirty White Boy | |||||||||||||||
| Dixie Dynamite | |||||||||||||||
| Carl Styles | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Dixie Dynamite | 04:06 | ||||||||||||||
| Brian Lee | |||||||||||||||
| The Dirty White Boy | |||||||||||||||
| Brian Lee | |||||||||||||||
| Dutch Mantel | |||||||||||||||
| Brian Lee | |||||||||||||||
| Buddy Landel | |||||||||||||||
| Buddy Landel | |||||||||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||||||||
| Brian Lee | DQ | ||||||||||||||
| Paul Orndorff | 10:00 | ||||||||||||||
| Tim Horner | |||||||||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||||||||
| Tim Horner | |||||||||||||||
| Paul Orndorff | |||||||||||||||
| Hector Guerrero | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Paul Orndorff | 05:23 | ||||||||||||||
| Paul Orndorff | |||||||||||||||
| Robert Gibson | |||||||||||||||
| Jimmy Golden | |||||||||||||||
| Robert Gibson | |||||||||||||||
| Robert Gibson | |||||||||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||||||||
References
- ↑ "Volunteer Slam I". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bob Colling. "SMW TV 3/28/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bob Colling. "SMW TV 4/11/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
- ↑ Bob Colling. "SMW TV 4/4/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ Bob Colling. "SMW TV 4/18/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ Bob Colling. "SMW TV 5/9/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ Alfredo Esparza (April 28, 2019). "SMW TV #16 "Volunteer Slam Preview"". Retro Wrasslin'. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ Bob Colling (January 16, 2015). "Colling It In The Ring: SMW Volunteer Slam 5/22/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ↑ Bob Colling. "SMW Volunteer Slam 5/22/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ↑ Adam Nedeff (November 16, 2015). "The Name on the Marquee: SMW Volunteer Slam 1". 411Mania. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ↑ "SMW Volunteer Slam '92". Scott's Blog of Doom. June 23, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ↑ Bob Colling. "SMW TV 6/13/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ Bob Colling. "SMW TV 6/27/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Bob Colling. "SMW Fire On The Mountain 8/8/1992". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ↑ "SMW Title Tournament". ProWrestlingHistory.com.
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