Ron Simmons vs Tracy Smothers (WCW, 8-22-1992)

WCW Pro, Atlanta, GA

Simmons’ first WCW world heavyweight title defense on TV comes against Tracy Smothers, whose Young Pistols tag team, fka Southern Boys, split up in early ’92, when Steve Armstrong left WCW for a huge future in the WWF as Lance Cassidy.

In the wake of that enormous, foundation-shaking move by Armstrong, Smothers was left mainly as a singles JTTS, constantly dropping matches to Johnny B. Badd at house shows, plus the likes of Big Josh, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Brian Pillman, and so on. He also teamed a bit in losing efforts with Ricky Morton, Tommy Rich, and DDP. This would also be Smothers’ last WCW match, as he made his way back to Memphis in September and then Smoky Mountain as a star attraction in October.

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So it’s a big chance for Smothers. Tony Schiavone calls Smothers “one of the great light heavyweights,” which is pretty funny now. I think he did meet this WCW light heavyweight division of the early 90s limit, which I think was 235. The later cruiserweight division limit was 225. But it’s funny to me because I’ve seen Smothers in person next to a lot of guys who have been top stars in this generation — CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, many others — and the physical difference between Smothers and those guys was incredible. They all got a little bigger over the years once they hit the big two, and Smothers was bulkier by the early 2000s than he was in ’92, but the comparison was ridiculous. He was huge next to pretty much everyone on those shows. I mean, the same thing happened when I saw Matt Hardy at a Ring of Honor show in ’05, and nobody has ever considered Matt Hardy a “big guy.” To think that guys like this were “the light heavyweights” in 1991-92 WCW is wild.

That light heavyweight title is also meeting its demise as we speak during this match. Brad Armstrong, who holds the belt, was injured in Japan, and they’ll strip him at the upcoming Clash, and that’s the end of the belt. They talked about another tournament but it never happened. Partially to blame there is Bill Watts being the booker and banning top rope maneuvers. It’s amazing how good in-ring WCW was under Watts’ direction despite some of the wildly antiquated ideas he tried to force, a case where you can go, “See? You don’t need that,” but he’s still wildly out of touch and making a mistake.

Simmons bulls Tracy into the corner but gives a clean break and Tracy claims his hair was pulled. This is the Chicago version of the Pro, so it’s Tony and Larry. Larry reckons that to pull the upset, Tracy has to go 100 percent offense here, just throw what he’s got at Simmons. Instead, it’s Smothers bullshitting and corndogging like he loved to do.

That doesn’t work so great. Simmons shoves him on his ass and Tracy cowers in the corner with Nick Patrick standing between the wrestlers. Smothers tries a shoulderblock, no. Smothers goes for something else off the ropes, Simmons just forearms him down like nothing, then press slams him and Smothers rolls out of the ring.

Smothers walks and talks a little, then decides he’s just gonna leave. Simmons tracks him down and brings him back, though. Smothers off the ropes, there’s the powerslam that beat Vader, and it beats Smothers.

There’s nothing much to this as a match, it’s just showcasing Ron’s dominance against an also-ran, showing the TV audience, at least in Chicago, his status as the new world heavyweight champion. Smothers doesn’t get a lick of offense in unless you’re counting a little shove, which is met with him being shoved right the “H” over. But it’s what it’s meant to be.

And y’know, Tracy got a world title match in The Omni. All things considered, not a lot of wrestlers can say that.

NR