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SMW invading WCW: The version Eric Bischoff didn't want you to see

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In 1993, with his good friend Bill Watts running WCW, Jim Cornette decided to work with him to promote Smokey Mountain Wrestling, a territory he had started based out of Knoxville, Tennessee.  It started with WCW showing a tape of the Rock 'n' Roll Express beating Cornette's Heavenly Bodies team (Stan Lane and Dr. Tom Prichard) at an SMW show as a way of promoting the R&R's return to WCW.  What was supposed to put the angle over the top was an angle where Cornette, Lane, and Prichard (accompanied by WCW wrestler Bobby Eaton, the former partner of Lane and Cornette) invaded a taping of WCW Saturday Night, coming out through the crowd and then calling out WCW head Bill Watts, who made an impromptu Bodies-R&R match to happen immediately.  It went off as planned, but when it aired on TBS, there was a big problem: All of Cornette's heavier anti-WCW comments were cut out.

Star-divide

It seems that certain people in WCW (Cornette has blamed Eric Bischoff) wanted to undermine the angle, and cutting out the more overt interpromotional aspects (which they also wanted to do to keep the company from looking bad on their own show) was a good way to do it.  Still, the unedited version was sent to Cornette for airing on SMW TV, where the comments deleted from TBS were aired.  Below is the SMW version, complete with Cornette talking about WCW making the MX look like idiots before he and Lane quit WCW as well as the falling ratings of WCW programming, plus the bonus fun of Watts implying that Cornette has a special version of HIV that can be transmitted by touch.

Cornette got the last laugh, as Watts made sure that WCW began funding SMW before he resigned from his job  there.

0 recs  |  Comment 4 comments |

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It is still strange to me that Rick Rubin was funding SMW.

by Eric864 on Aug 28, 2009 4:22 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I loved it when Bobby Eaton and Lane started doing old MX double teams.

Do any of the SMW matches with Eaton and Lane vs the Rock and Rolls still exist?

by Victator on Aug 28, 2009 4:30 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

When did Rubin stop funding and WCW start?

by isaacduke on Aug 28, 2009 5:21 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Rubin was the main source but the WCW funding was to serve as developmental, I think.

by Bix on Aug 28, 2009 5:39 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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