Until I added the label of his name to this entry, I truly thought that this may have been the first time that Tracy Smothers was mentioned in the decade plus of this blog's existance. It isn't, but if it were it certainly wouldn't have been due to my lack of fandom for the man. As just about anyone would tell you, Tracy Smothers was the man. It seems generic, but there's no other way to put it. His passing last month was sadly not a surprise due to his health issues, but still very much a shock due to the unbreakable spirit that the man had.
I've always felt that Tracy Smothers was the last true territorial wrestler, especially seeing as that he was reportedly still wrestling as of a year ago. He began in 1982, the year that I was born, and wrestled virtually everywhere. He may not have had huge runs everywhere he went, but I honestly don't think that mattered to him. If you recall Randy The Ram's line of "I just wanna wrestle," in the film The Wrestler, I think that summed up Smothers fairly well.
And despite runs in WWF, WCW, ECW, and various other territories, I would bet money that Smothers had some of his best times working the indy circuit in the 2000's. We in the Pittsburgh area were lucky enough to have Tracy prioritize our local independent group, IWC, as one of his top spots. Often with "Southern Comfort" partner Chris Hamrick, when Tracy was on the card you were guaranteed a great, hard-hitting match mixed with a bit of Southern-style entertainment as only Tracy could provide. During this run Tracy was also usually the veteran of the locker room. I know for a fact that many then up-and-coming wrestlers were more than honored to sit under his learning tree and even more thrilled if they were listed on the booking sheet opposite "the wild-eyed Southern boy."
One thing that Tracy did not have a lot of was merchandising. His other appearance here on the blog was actually one of a few posts documenting the top wrestling stars who never had an action figure. He made it into several trading card sets and sold a lot of self-produced merch at his ubiquitous gimmick table. If his rights can be obtained he would be an amazing fit into the Figures Toy Company Legends of Professional Wrestling Line. For a company that loves producing variants, he's a gold mine.
It's actually his table that reminds me of my favorite Smothers story. There was a time when WWE was heavily cracking down on individuals selling the footage that they owned. Conventions were frequently raided, albeit silently, due to unauthorized DVD's being sold. Once at an event I purchased two NWA shows on DVD from Tracy. They were very bootlegged, but in the days before WWE Network it was how a fan obtained this old footage. Tracy, for whatever reason, signed both of the actual discs for me. Think about that. I don't think that I even realized it at the time. All I can say is that it was a very Tracy Smothers thing to do, and that's a great thing. He seemed very care-free.
It was probably that way of thinking that guided him through his health issues. It probably also allowed him to enjoy a lot more of life than most in his fifty-eight years. He was a wrestler's wrestler, loved the business, loved entertaining the fans, and loved the fans. We loved him, too.
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