RIP Terry Landell

[devilfish]

It was announced today that Terry Landell, The infamous Knoxville Tennessee wrestling promoter, has passed away. He was 58 years of age. There was a lot that I can say about this man, and A great deal more that I want to say, but common decency forbids me from doing so. Honestly right now is not the time nor the place

[Mozenrath]

Well, that's not a name I've thought about in a while.

Requisite, "whaddya know, who won the pony?"

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Well, I don't wish death on people, and I didn't know the man personally.

Professionally, as a wrestling promoter, no one did more damage to wrestling in the city of Knoxville. I include the group that broke away from Fuller and ran opposition in that statement.

[devilfish]

That’s not even the half of it. Allegedly, he would run charity shows for toys for tots but keep the best donated toys for his own personal use. He would also run shows in direct opposition to fundraisers they were trying to raise money for juvenile diabetes. And on top of that he did his best to bury the pro wrestling in East Tennessee. We went from Smoky Mountain wrestling, the hottest territory in the country, to him doing public access shows I would show old matches from five years ago interspersed with video of some teenage girls singing country music karaoke.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

I went to one of his legends shows, despite online warnings. I should have listened.

It was billed as a live show with the opportunity to meet the legends, some of whom would be in action.

Announced for the show were "Bullet" Bob and Brad Armstrong, Robert Fuller, Jimmy Golden, the Mongolian Stomper, Ron Wright (who rarely ventured out of east TN/KY, but was a top guy there for 15 years or more), Robert Gibson (no Ricky Morton, as apparently he and Landell had heat),Dirty White Boy, Johnny and Davey Rich, and Buff Bagwell because apparently Landell just booked him sometimes.

Before we even get into Chilhowee Park, we see signs stating that Robert Fuller will not appear.

The ring was set up on stage, and ringside tickets cost extra. Like more than the few bucks extra you expect. The rest of the seats were bleachers across a bit of a field from the stage.

The show started 45 minutes late, and we heard the same few Hank Williams Jr songs on a loop the whole time.

Not all of the legends even appeared at the gimmick tables. Notably absent were Wright, Stomper, and Golden. No announcements were made, so we missed the Bullet and just caught Brad, who was great. That conversation was probably the highlight of the show.

The opening match featured 2 locals who could basically only throw chops well. Everything else looked like shit. But hey, that happens on indie shows sometimes.

What usually doesn't happen is 2 to 3 minutes of music playing before the guys make their entrance. There also isn't usually 5 to 10 minutes of dead air between matches.

Landell and his entourage, which this night included Johnny and Davy Rich, came out 2 or 3 times for promos. Their entrance music was "I'm Coming Out," which I assumed to be an attempt at cheap heat due to the homosexual connotation of the phrase "coming out."

During one of these appearances Landell approached a plant in a wheelchair, took the plant's glasses and stepped on them. He then pulled the plant from the wheelchair and kicked him a few times. This went nowhere.

He also grabbed the mic away from one of the Rich boys mid-sentence to call out a rival promoter in the audience. He challenged the guy to come down to the ring before spouting some stupid rhyme about doing the guy's mom from behind. Rich then continued his promo like nothing happened.

Buff faced some guy painted up like a European metal singer. Nothing offensive about the match, but Buff, in his overalls-but-shorts attire, started stomping his foot and clapping his hands, prompting someone in the crowd to ask, "What's he trying to do, start a hoe-down?"

Buff won, and stayed in the ring for Polaroids. This took 45 minutes or more, not because the line was that long but because he just stayed out there until people stopped trickling in.

It was during this that we ran into Robert Gibson and had a brief conversation. This was also a positive on the night.

The Armstrongs faced the Rich boys. Fine wrestling from Brad, fun nostalgia from Bullet, and Johnny and Davy were fine in their roles. No complaints.

Stomper appeared as a heel manager. He interfered in the match a few times. That was it for him.

Ron Wright came out and sat at the end of front row ringside for a couple of matches. That was it for him. Not even an introduction that I recall.

The main event was Jimmy Golden and Robert Gibson against the Storm Trooper (the guy from Continental with the swastika mask and Aryan nation flag) and some guy wearing Florida Gators stuff for the cheap heat in Knoxville. Fine wrestling from Golden and Gibson, but the Nazi stuff was disgusting.

And that was it. That was a loaded nostalgia show (which should have been enough for a good house and a fun show) from the man whose obituary called him the best wrestling promoter in Knoxville.

My condolences to his family and friends, I know how it feels to lose someone and it's something awful that I don't wish on anyone.

But he was an awful promoter and there's no telling how long it will take Knoxville to recover, if it ever does.

[chazraps]

I'm all for this thread becoming Terry Landell stories. If he didn't want us sharing these kind of stories about him, that's on him for not living a better life.

[Wardlow on Wardlow 54]

Feb 28, 2022 5:18:34 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Well, that's not a name I've thought about in a while.

Requisite, "whaddya know, who won the pony?"

Oh, OK, NOW I know who this was lol

[NickGemini12]

I got to attend his wrestling shows for about a decade. I got alot of great stories about him. Mainly good ones.

Bummed to hear of his passing. I know alot of people have different opinions of him. But I enjoyed the hell out of his shows. Going to them was always a blast. His heel antics were hilarious.

One good memory i have of him was he did the first ever Wrestling Match during a parade, With a custom made ring on a truck & a match taking place on it while it was going on. That was actually an innovative concept. He also had a short-lived but awesome wrestling store in Knoxville from 2012-2015.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Oh, I forgot: on the above mentioned show, Terry "wrestled" the Dirty White Boy. This was probably around 2008 or 2009, so White Boy wasn't exactly in his prime, nor in the best of shape, and Terry was Terry.

It was about as bad as you'd expect, but at least it wasn't the main event.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

I also somehow forgot that Ronnie Garvin was there as the special ref for Landell-DWB. No sign of him at the gimmick tables.

Part of me now thinks Bob Orton Jr. may have been there, but I can't think of what he did if he was.

[NickGemini12]

One not-so good moment i remember from his shows was that he allowed a heel wrestler to scream loudly in the face of a child with autism, Which led to the angry parent confronting the wrestler & almost came to blows over it.

I witnessed it happening & it was a very crazy situation.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

He came up on one of Ron Fuller's podcasts. Ron, Robert, and Jimmy Golden were all talking about the history of wrestling in Knoxville, from Ron's promotions through SMW and beyond.

Ron asked Robert if he had any good stories about Terry Landell and Robert replied, "Does it have to be something good?"

Jimmy was asked the same thing, with it being pointed out that he had worked for Terry the most. Jimmy replied that he had in fact spent the most time around Terry, and had even been to a BBQ at his house that weekend. He concluded, "I suppose if I was to say anything good about Terry, it's that he got out of the wrestling business."

[Mozenrath]

You know someone's a piece of work when Jim Cornette openly admits to attempting to murder him due to double jeopardy, and that in any list of gripes about Jim, no one really seems to point to "he tried to kill this guy" as one of his morally objectionable acts.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Mar 2, 2022 21:34:24 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

You know someone's a piece of work when Jim Cornette openly admits to attempting to murder him due to double jeopardy, and that in any list of gripes about Jim, no one really seems to point to "he tried to kill this guy" as one of his morally objectionable acts.

True. He gets way more flak for the outdated "bucket of chicken" joke than he does for trying to run over Terry Landell.

I remember seeing photos and reading an account of Jim showing up at an indie show in Knoxville several years ago and telling the live crowd, "If I get a 'f*** Terry,' everybody gets free Wendy's tonight, I ain't kidding!"

My dad and I attended a local indie show up the road from Knoxville in Caryville, TN not long after the legends show I mentioned above. It was a new promotion that actually had good local talent and had brought in Rick Steiner as part of the triple threat main event.

It was a good show, and at the end, the promoter came out and cut a promo putting the company over, saying in part, "You don't have to drive 45 minutes down the road and watch a bunch of dumbasses pretend to wrestle." My dad shook his hand after that.

We went to 2 or 3 more shows by that group, and there was even talk of a local TV show for a bit, but like most groups around here, it just disappeared after a while.

I think I actually have several DVDs I bought at one of the shows, and I think the Caryville show with Steiner is one of them. I'll have to dig into my stuff one of these days and see.

It's sad that there hasn't been consistently good local wrestling since SMW closed.

Terry Landell doesn't get all the blame for that, but he certainly owns a significant share of it.

[jason1980s]

I just googled him because I've only ever heard of him on this board. I guess I got one of those "fake" sites because it said his net worth was over $4 million because his work with WWE made him very rich.

[moonpies88]

R.I.P.