Tracy Smothers

Tracy Stanton Smothers (September 2, 1962 – October 28, 2020) was an American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Smothers was born in Springfield, Tennessee, on September 2, 1962, and graduated from Springfield High School, where he played football, golf, and wrestled.

Smothers was the first person in Springfield High School history to go to the state championship in wrestling.

Smothers started his career in 1982 after being trained by Steve Keirn and Stan Lane.

He later appeared in the combined promotional effort Pro Wrestling USA, making his televised debut at a taping on September 18, 1984, that was held in Memphis.

A month later, Smothers traveled to the Continental Wrestling Association, spending 1985 as an enhancement talent appearing on Saturday morning television.

For the first time in his nascent career, Smothers, a natural babyface, began to receive a noticeable push, gaining wins over the likes of Danny Davis, Gypsy Joe, Ron Sexton, and David Haskins.

Smothers would become a two-time NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Champion during his time with the company.

While in Continental, Smothers wrestled an unmuzzled bear that was announced as 550 lbs; Tracy took the bear to the mat several times.

The bear, incapable of understanding the situation, thought they were playing.

Smothers joined Championship Wrestling from Florida in February 1987 and immediately formed a tag team with Steve Armstrong as "The Wild-Eyed Southern Boys".

On February 21, The Southern Boys defeated The New Breed to gain their first ever championship, the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship.

Smothers and Armstrong held the belts until March 15, when they were defeated by The MOD Squad.

In June, they unsuccessfully challenged for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship, losing to The Midnight Express (Stan Lane & Bobby Eaton).

The Southern Boys (originally without Armstrong) also spent time in Japan to work for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

Afterwards, he returned to CWA, which was now the renamed United States Wrestling Association.

Smothers teamed with John Paul to win the vacated CWA Tag Team Championship from Action Jackson and Robert Fuller.

Armstrong eventually joined up with Smothers and reformed the Southern Boys, and they became embroiled in a feud with The Stud Stable.

Smothers reunited with Steve Armstrong and made their debuts for World Championship Wrestling on April 23, 1990, in a dark match at a Main Event/WCW WorldWide taping in Marietta.

Wrestling as "The Wild-Eyed Southern Boys", their first television appearance came on May 12 at a World Championship Wrestling taping, where they defeated Kevin Sullivan and Cactus Jack via disqualification.

The Southern Boys defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes) on June 13 at Clash of the Champions XI.

They gained revenge by defeating the Pistols on the June 16, 1990, episode of WCW Worldwide.

Smothers and Armstrong started a feud with The Midnight Express, culminating in a match between the two teams on July 13 at the Great American Bash, which the Midnight Express won.

It was considered the best match in the U.S. of that year and one of the all-time classic tag team matches of the era; it was also high in virtually every match of the year poll.

On September 5, they defeated Hayes and Garvin at Clash of the Champions XII.

On February 24, 1991, at WrestleWar, they defeated The Royal Family (Jack Victory and Rip Morgan).

A few days earlier, they were renamed The Young Pistols.

On May 19, they lost to The Freebirds at SuperBrawl I in a match for the vacated United States Tag Team Championship after "Badstreet" (a masked Brad Armstrong) interfered.

On June 12, The Young Pistols and Tom Zenk defeated Hayes, Garvin, and Badstreet at Clash of the Champions XV.

The Young Pistols soon turned heel, and on the December 15 episode of WCW Main Event, they defeated The Patriots (Todd Champion and Firebreaker Chip) to win the WCW United States Tag Team Championship.

On December 29 at Starrcade, Smothers and Hayes lost to Marcus Bagwell and Garvin in a Lethal Lottery tag team match.

On the February 16, 1992, episode of WCW Pro, they lost the titles to Ron Simmons and Big Josh.

In April, Armstrong left WCW, leaving Tracy to soldier on as a singles competitor.

He remained as a heel, and on May 17 at WrestleWar, he lost to Johnny B. Badd.

At Beach Blast on June 20, he, Ricky Morton, and Diamond Dallas Page lost to Junkyard Dog, Big Josh, and Tom Zenk in a six-man tag team match before leaving the company in August.

Three months after departing World Championship Wrestling and following a very brief period in the United States Wrestling Association, Tracy Smothers resurfaced in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion which was based out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

It would be here that Smothers achieved his greatest singles success.

Now billed as "The Wild Eyed Southern Boy" Tracy Smothers, he made his debut on the October 31, 1992, episode of SMW television, defeating Paul Lee.

Competing as a top babyface, he remained undefeated for the remainder of the year, defeating Robbie Eagle, Dutch Mantell, Jimmy Golden, Killer Kyle, and The Nightstalker.

In December, he won a tournament to be crowned the inaugural SMW Beat the Champ Television Champion.