10 Super Rare Times WWE Promoted Rival Titles

5. Smokey Halls To The Survivor Series

Mickie James
WWE.com

A far more flexible WWE worked with both USWA and SMW in 1993 in order to boost domestic interest in a flagging, flailing product, with that year's Survivor Series uncharacteristically playing host to a Smokey Mountain Tag Team Championship match at the peak of the latter deal.

The whole thing (rather understandably with him as the SMW chief in real life and the Heavenly Bodies manager on screen) was drenched in Jim Cornette tropes and five people genuinely caring about belts WWE pay-per-view punters hadn't seen before nor would again.

Defending Champions The Rock & Roll Express continued their hundred years war with the 'Prince Of Polyester' and his newest Bodies iteration of Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray. The contest was a fabulously Southern style effort, almost by design to separate itself from the Sports Entertainment on the rest of the show, but concluded with the old faithful of somebody taking a tennis racquet shot before eating a loss.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett