A Look At Smoky Mountain Wrestling
Recently, music producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin was a guest on his former employee, Chris Jericho’s podcast. If you’re thinking Rubin produced a Fozzy album at some point, you’d be wrong. Rubin was technically one of Jericho’s bosses in wrestling; the producer was a financial backer for the short-lived regional promotion - Smokey Mountain Wrestling.
Related: 5 Things Jim Cornette Gets Right About Modern Wrestling (And 5 He's Wrong About)
Owned by the trio of Sweet Stan Lane, Sandy Scott, and Jim Cornette, SMW was very much an analogue to ECW the same way that it’s promoter is and was an analogue to Paul Heyman. The two companies were very diverse and gave a lot of opportunities to some people that have gone on to be cult heroes and legendary icons.
Jim Cornette Left WCW & Started Smokey Mountain Wrestling
For everyone who has paid a lick of attention to Jim Cornette over the past decade or two then you already know how bombastic the guy is. Now picture a company trying to keep him in their employ. Especially when the company was being run by promoters like Jim Herd driving him and everyone else batty due to either their ineptitude, out-of-touch booking style or complete cluelessness. Much like several others, including Ric Flair had left the company, Cornette as well felt he had no choice other to leave or run headlong into a brick wall, since he was getting nowhere to begin with. When he looked to start his own promotion he met Rick Rubin and got the funding to start SMW.
Rick Rubin Was Always A Wrestling Fan
As the founder of Def Jam Records and producer of practically half of every album produced over the last forty years or so, Rick Rubin is also just like the rest of us mere mortals. He’s a die-hard wrestling mark. He has even stated on several podcasts that he to his day watches eight hours of wrestling a week (Don’t hold that against him, the man has a job and can’t sit on the couch ALL day to watch).
Related: 9 Wrestlers We Forgot Were Managed By Jim Cornette
During the late eighties, as wrestling got more cartoonish, Rubin did what any fan with money would do - he forked over some money to Cornette to start a traditional territory like the ones they both had grown up with. There was one caveat - he wasn’t going to continuously invest in the product (and lose money). Cornette, Lane, and Scott had five years to try and earn the music maven some money.
Smokey Mountain Wrestling Gave Many Wrestlers Their Start
Similar to the promotion in Philadelphia that has now earned mythic status, Cornette and SMW were able to do many of the same things that Happy Heyman was able to pull off in ECW. Cornette took all he learned growing up on Memphis TV and brought his own southern-style to the masses of the region. Thanks to SMW, an eclectic mix of superstars were able to get their start. Sunny, New Jack, D-Lo Brown, Lance Storm, Chris Jericho, and more were able to first get noticed due to their time with Cornette. Legends like the Rock And Roll Express extended their runs as well as perennial Journeyman like Tony Anthony, one of the region’s hottest heels - The Dirty White Boy (WWE fans would know him as the Plumber, TL Hopper). Cornette was able to broker deals with both WCW and WWE, bringing talent like the highly understood Heavenly Bodies to both promotions to get a big look.
Related: 5 AEW Stars That Jim Cornette Hates (& 5 He Actually Likes)
Unfortunately, four years in, Smokey Mountain had to close its doors in 1995. But the southern style that Cornette grew up with and pushed forward with his promotion still lives on to this day. For a guy who sometimes feels some on his roster are “too southern,” at various points Vince McMahon employed an awful lot of guys who had plenty of experience wrestling along the Appalachian Trail.
Like many territories in a post Vince McMahon Jr. Era, SMW did exactly what it needed to do. It presented a great product for a particular region in the world and gave a place for many to work and hone their craft when there was only a few big promotions to earn a living in. After SMW folded, The Louisville Slugger, Jim Cornette went to work for WWE. Alongside his on-screen managerial duties, being the US spokesman for Yokozuna, Corny would start helping with the booking and he was able to help Vince McMahon usher in The Attitude Era before some other Vince came along to drive Cornette insane.
