The Smoking Gunns

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The Smoking Gunns
The Smoking Gunns in 1996.jpg
The Smoking Gunns at a WWF event in 1996
Statistics
MembersBilly Gunn
Bart Gunn
Name(s)The Smoking Gunns
Long Riders
Sunny and her Gunns
Combined
billed weight		534 lb (242 kg; 38.1 st)[1]
Billed fromAustin, Texas
Former
member(s)		Tatanka Faarooq Asad (Bodyguard)
DebutMay 1993

The Smoking Gunns were a professional wrestling tag team of kayfabe brothers Billy Gunn (Monty Sopp) and Bart Gunn (Mike Polchlopek). They portrayed cowboys in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1993 to 1996. As a team, the Smoking Gunns won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times.

History[]

Polchlopek and Sopp began teaming as the "Long Riders" in the International Wrestling Federation.[2] Polchlopek wrestled as Brett Colt, while Sopp was known as Kip Winchester. They won the IWF World Tag Team Championship together twice before signing with the World Wrestling Federation.[3]

The Smoking Gunns made their WWF debut on April 5, 1993 on the day after WrestleMania IX, defeating jobbers Barry Horowitz and Reno Riggins.[4][5] Their first pay-per-view appearance was at the King of the Ring 1993 in an eight-man tag team match. The Gunns and the Steiner Brothers scored the win over The Headshrinkers and Money Incorporated when Billy pinned Ted DiBiase.[6] Their next big match came at SummerSlam 1993, when they teamed up with Tatanka to defeat Bam Bam Bigelow and The Headshrinkers.[7]

From their debut until January 1994, they would fire blanks in the arena with real guns, but then they received complaints from families that they were scaring children, which caused them to stop firing guns in the arenas.

Although they continued to wrestle as a team, they did not appear together again on a WWF pay-per-view for over a year. In the fall of 1994, the Gunns began a feud with the Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray). The Bodies attacked the Smoking Gunns and destroyed their cowboy hats. In return, the Gunns grabbed the Bodies' robes and tore off the wings.[8] The teams had a series of matches at house shows,[9] but the feud did not end with a blow off match. Instead, the teams faced off as part of a 5-on-5 elimination match at Survivor Series 1994. Billy and Bart joined forces with Lex Luger, Mabel, and Adam Bomb in a loss to Ted DiBiase's team of King Kong Bundy, Tatanka, Bam Bam Bigelow, and The Heavenly Bodies.[10]

Bart Gunn in his cowboy attire

The Gunns were scheduled to compete in a tournament for the vacant tag-team title after Shawn Michaels and Diesel, the champions, began feuding. Injuries prevented the Gunns from entering, however.[8] One day after their replacements, Bob "Spark Plug" Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid, won the belts, the Gunns returned to win the title on January 23, 1995.[11][12] At WrestleMania XI, the Gunns faced Owen Hart and a mystery partner, who was revealed to be Yokozuna and lost the belts.[13][14] They regained the title from Hart and Yokozuna on September 25 of that year.[12][15]

By October 1995, Billy shaved his mustache and cut his long hair, but Bart kept his mustache and long hair until March 1996.

The Gunns held the title until February 15, 1996, when Billy was forced to undergo neck surgery, and The Smoking Gunns had to forfeit their title.[12][15] Billy recovered quickly, the Gunns won their final championship three months later by defeating The Godwinns at In Your House 8: Beware of Dog.[12][16] Following this victory, Sunny left the Godwinns to manage the Gunns later the team was called "Sunny and her Gunns".[16] Sunny was a heel manager and manipulated the Gunns, causing the brothers to argue. Sunny and Billy had an onscreen relationship, which bothered Bart, then on Superstars October 27, 1996 Billy walked out Bart then On Folllowing October 28, 1996 episode of Raw Sunny finally Caused The Gunns to implode, which lead to 4-on-4 a Classic Survivor Series elimination match on The Survivor Series's Free for All then following that on December 16, 1996 episode of Raw Bart Gunn hit Billy with a Botched Stun Gunn on the Top Rope that Caused Billy a Neck Injury it was Rumored During WrestleMania 13 that the Gunns were supposed to face of 1 0n 1 against each other but the match didn't happen In addition to Sunny the team began to act more like heels, wrestling more aggressively, acting more arrogantly and teaming with other heels,

Split[]

Sunny eventually caused the team's downfall, as she became the source of infighting between the two.[1] When the Smoking Gunns lost their tag team title to Owen Hart and the British Bulldog in September 1996 at In Your House 10: Mind Games,[17] Sunny left the team because she only wanted to be a manager for title holders (although she did not become Hart and Bulldog's manager).[18] Billy, frustrated with losing both the title and Sunny, turned against Bart. Billy briefly feuded with Bart. After facing each other in tag team matches, the feud culminated in a one-on-one battle. During the match, Bart accidentally injured Billy's neck, forcing Billy to take some time off and drawing their feud to an abrupt halt.[8] On June 9, 1997 Billy as Rockabilly defeated Bart on Raw Is War. Afterwards Bart left the WWF.

Soon after, Bart went to wrestle for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and when he returned to WWF in 1998, he was mainly involved in storylines with other NWA talent, and his opponents in the Brawl for All tournament, which he won. At Wrestlemania XV he lost to Butterbean in a boxing match. At the King of the Ring (1998) Billy and Bart faced each other in a tag team match between the Midnight Express and the New Age Outlaws. Bart was released in April 1999, before he could have another angle with Billy.

After the breakup, Billy was given the new gimmick of Rockabilly being managed by The Honky Tonk Man. It failed to catch on, however, and he became "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn and later won the Intercontinental Championship, the Hardcore Championship twice, and the 1999 King of the Ring tournament, in addition to eight more tag team titles. He formed The New Age Outlaws with Road Dogg. He was released by the company in November 2004 after serving 11 years.

Championships and accomplishments[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-7566-4190-0.
  2. ^ "Tag Teams". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  3. ^ "Kip James". SLAM! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  4. ^ The Smoking Gunns vs jobbers in a tryout, WWF 1993, retrieved 2021-08-24
  5. ^ "Yearly Results: 1993". Archived from the original on 2007-06-16. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  6. ^ "King of the Ring PPV Cards". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  7. ^ "SummerSlam PPV Cards". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  8. ^ a b c "Bart Gunn". Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  9. ^ "House Show Archives - 1994". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  10. ^ Cawthon, Graham (2013). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 2: WWF 1990 - 1999. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ASIN B00RWUNSRS.
  11. ^ "The Smokin' Gunns' first reign". WWE. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  12. ^ a b c d "WWF World Tag Team Title History". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  13. ^ "Owen Hart and Yokzuna's reign". WWE.com. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  14. ^ "Wrestler Profiles: Yokozuna". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  15. ^ a b "The Smokin' Gunns' second reign". WWE. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  16. ^ a b "The Smokin' Gunns' third reign". WWE. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  17. ^ "Owen Hart and British Bulldog's reign". WWE.com. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  18. ^ "Wrestler Profiles: Tammy Lynn Sytch". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  19. ^ "Raw Television Specials". WWE Millennium. Archived from the original on 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
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