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RIP Tracy Smothers


PowerButchi

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Really gutted to hear the news this week, probably more so than for any other wrestler death in recent times because like a lot of the people on here I had first-hand experience of what a sound guy he was having met him a number of times through the indie scene in the 2000s.

There's one little story that always makes me laugh when I think of Tracy Smothers and I can't for the life of me remember where I heard it, just that it popped me at the time and stuck with me ever since. I can't find any accounts online so assume I either read it on here or some other forum many years ago, or heard someone tell it at a show once...

Back in the days when the internet wrestling community was really exploding, Tracy was booked on some show for a promotion with a bit of a growing smart mark following. He walks out for his match with a young boy by his side, holding a laptop computer in front of him. Tracy gets in the ring with the boy then explains to the audience that this boy is his 'Internet Assassin' and that if the fans continued to boo him then he's going to get the assassin to write a horrible review online burying the promotion and its fans.

Smothers was a grizzled old vet coming from the territory days and having worked all the big promotions, but still understood perfectly what it took to get himself over with an evolving fanbase and how he could still make Old School cool.

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12 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

Smothers was a grizzled old vet coming from the territory days and having worked all the big promotions, but still understood perfectly what it took to get himself over with an evolving fanbase and how he could still make Old School cool.

This is absolutely the beauty of Tracy Smothers. It's why I love Ricky Morton busting out Canadian Destroyers and suicide dives, or even to a lesser extent PCO's whole career reinvention.

We're so used to older wrestlers being bitter and complaining about how wrestling has changed, that to see an older veteran take all of that experience and use it to help people rather than bury them, let alone to be receptive to new ideas and ways of working themselves, is so refreshing. The sheer range of people who have spoken up about how helpful Tracy was to them early in their career, when he never needed to be, is a testament enough.

Olde Wrestling posted a photo of him sat in the locker room, intently watching the show on the monitors. To see a veteran that's still happy to sit back and watch the show, when I know guys who have barely been working five minutes and won't watch a match they're not in, is always going to put a smile on my face.

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I've sadly not really been exposed to much of his work in any company, maybe with ECW being the exception through VHS tapes a little later on but the bits I have seen he's nailed the character every time. Everywhere I look on Twitter there are pictures of indie/former indie guys posing with him and gushing over what a great person he was to work with.

Also, the biggest heel in Juggalo Championshit Wrestling history. I need to get a hold of the original TV episodes of that.

 

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This is a nice tribute from Jim Cornette. Mainly concentrates on his SMW career but does touch upon WCW, WWF and ECW. Some nice and funny stories.

 

Jim also make reference to this blooper tape of Tracy from an SMW video tape. It's quite funny and the reason why the first clip is included is because Tracy inadvertently gives out his home address on a promo that made it to air.

 

 

Edited by LSM
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