Tracy Smothers, a pro wrestling veteran who competed in WCW, WWE, ECW, and Smokey Mountain in the 1990s, has sadly passed away at 58 years old. He was diagnosed with stage III lymphoma last November and combated it with six rounds of chemotherapy. While receiving treatment, it was also discovered he had previously suffered a heart attack that he wasn’t aware of, and his heart had a reduced function of just 55%. In recent weeks he had sadly again been hospitalized and was pending hernia surgery.
Smothers’ big break came in 1990 when he and Steve Armstrong signed with WCW. The Southern Boys/Young Pistols, as they were known, feuded with The Fabulous Freebirds and worked a house show program with Steiner Brothers during this time. After departing WCW, his biggest career success came as part of Jim Cornette’s Smokey Mountain Wrestling between 1992 and 1995, where he twice was the SMW Heavyweight Champion and also won the SMW Tag Team Championship with Dirty White Boy. On one occasion, he teamed with our very own Chris Jericho getting a DQ victory over Brian Lee and Chris Candido.
After SMW folded, he worked as an underneath talent named Freddie Joe Floyd in WWE, notably getting a win over Bradshaw on Superstars and a count-out victory over Triple H on Raw. Due to WWE’s relationship with ECW, he wound up wrestling for Paul Heyman as part of the Full Blooded Italians, where he would be comically announced as being from Nashville, Italy.
In 1999 and 2000, he sporadically wrestled for WWE and put over the names such as Val Venis, Rikishi, and Tazz. After that, he predominantly worked independents, with his final match taking place on 5th October 2019.
Our thoughts are with Tracy’s family, friends, and fans at this sad time.
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