| Smoking Gunns | |
|---|---|
 The Smoking Gunns at aWorld Wrestling Federation event in 1996 | |
| Statistics | |
| Members | Bart Gunn Billy Gunn |
| Name(s) | Smoking Gunns Long Riders Sunny and her Gunns |
| Combined billed weight | 534 lb (242 kg; 38.1 st)[1] |
| Billed from | Austin, Texas |
| Debut | May 1993 |
| Disbanded | October 1996 |
| Years active | 1993–1996 |
TheSmoking Gunns were aprofessional wrestlingtag team ofkayfabe brothersBilly Gunn (Monty Sopp) andBart Gunn (Mike Polchlopek). They portrayedcowboys in theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1993 to 1996, where they held theWWF Tag Team Championship three times.
Polchlopek and Sopp began teaming as the "Long Riders" in the International Wrestling Federation out of Orlando, Florida (not to be confused withthe similarly-named promotion run byKiller Kowalski).[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 theWorld Wrestling Federation.[3]
The Smoking Gunns made their WWF debut on April 5, 1993 on the day afterWrestleMania IX, defeatingjobbersBarry Horowitz andReno Riggins.[4]Vignettes began airing on the WWF television promoting the debut of Smoking Gunns, beginning with the April 25 episode ofWrestling Challenge. Gunns made their televised debut in WWF on the May 15 episode ofMania asfan favorites by defeatingDamian Demento andThe Brooklyn Brawler. During their televised debut, Brett Colt was renamed Bart Gunn and Kip Winchester was renamed Billy Gunn. Their first pay-per-view appearance was at theKing of the Ringevent in an eight-man tag team match, in which they teamed withSteiner Brothers to defeatThe Headshrinkers andMoney Incorporated when Billy pinnedTed DiBiase.[5] Their next big match came atSummerSlam, when they teamed up withTatanka to defeatBam Bam Bigelow and The Headshrinkers.[6]
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 afeud with theHeavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard andJimmy Del Ray). The Bodies attacked the Smoking Gunns and destroyed theircowboy hats. In return, the Gunns grabbed the Bodies' robes and tore off the wings.[7] The teams had a series of matches athouse shows,[8] but the feud did not end with ablow off match. Instead, the teams faced off as part of a 5-on-5 elimination match at the1994 Survivor Series. Billy and Bart became a part of Guts and Glory (Lex Luger,Mabel, andAdam Bomb) in a loss to Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Team (King Kong Bundy, Tatanka, Bam Bam Bigelow, and The Heavenly Bodies).[9]
The Gunns were scheduled to compete in a tournament for the vacantTag Team Championship afterShawn Michaels andDiesel, the champions, began feuding. Injuries prevented the Gunns from entering, however.[7] One day after their replacements,Bob "Spark Plug" Holly and the1-2-3 Kid, won the belts, the Gunns returned to win the title on January 23, 1995 episode ofMonday Night Raw.[10][11] By 1995, Billy and Bart both shaved their mustaches and cut their long hair off. Gunns successfully defended the titles against Holly and Kid,The New Headshrinkers, Heavenly Bodies, and Men on a Mission. AtWrestleMania XI, the Gunns facedOwen Hart and a mystery partner, who was revealed to beYokozuna and lost the belts.[12][13] Smokin' Gunns received a rematch for the titles againstOwen Hart and Yokozuna at theinaugural In Your House event, but failed to win. Gunns would then briefly feud withThe Blu Brothers, defeating them atSummerSlam.
On the September 25 episode ofRaw, Gunns regained the Tag Team Championship from Hart and Yokozuna, beginning their second tag title reign.[11][14] Gunns enjoyed a lengthy title reign, defeating challengers likeRazor Ramon and 1-2-3 Kid atIn Your House 4, andThe Bodydonnas at the1996 Royal Rumble. On February 15, 1996, the Smoking Gunns forfeited the titles when Billy was forced to undergo neck surgery.[11][14]
Billy recovered quickly. Around this time, the Gunns began to show signs of a heel turn and they won their final championship three months later by defeatingThe Godwinns atIn Your House 8: Beware of Dog.[11][15] During the match, Billy distractedPhineas I. Godwinn by kissingSunny who came to the ring with the Godwinns.[15] After the match, Sunny became The Gunn's manager and the team became tweeners with Billy acting more like a heel and Bart acting more like a face.
Sunny manipulated the Gunns, causing the brothers to argue. Sunny and Billy had anon-screen relationship, which bothered Bart.[1] Meanwhile, Gunns continued their successful Tag Team Championship reign, defeating Godwinns in a rematch atKing of the Ring. Gunns would then lose to Sunny's former clients Bodydonnas in a non-title match atIn Your House 9: International Incident. AtSummerSlam, Gunns successfully defended the titles against The Bodydonnas, The Godwinns andThe New Rockers in afour-way elimination match. Gunns eventually lost the titles toOwen Hart and theBritish Bulldog in September 1996 atIn Your House 10: Mind Games.
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,Clarence Mason did become their manager replacingJim Cornette).[16] Billy, frustrated with losing both the title and Sunny, began having miscommunications with Bart. Gunns failed to regain the Tag Team Championship fromOwen Hart and British Bulldog in a rematch atIn Your House 11: Buried Alive. On the October 27 episode ofSuperstars, Billy eventuallyturned against Bart by walking out of a match against New Rockers. Bart, still managed to win the match. This led Gunns to implode and feud with each other.
Billy and Bart competed in opposing teams in aSurvivor Series elimination match at theSurvivor Series'Free for All. Following that, on the December 16 episode ofRaw, the two competed in a match. During the match, Bart hit Billy with a botchedhangman on the top rope that gave Billy a neck injury. It was then rumored that atWrestleMania 13, the Gunns were supposed to face against each other but the match did not happen. The two former partners had a decisive match on the June 9, 1997 episode ofRaw is War, where Billy, who had changed hischaracter to "Rockabilly", defeated Bart.
Soon after, Bart went to wrestle for theNational 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 theBrawl for All tournament, which he won. AtWrestlemania XV he lost toButterbean in a boxing match. At the1998 King of the Ring, Billy and Bart faced each other in a tag team match between theMidnight Express and theNew Age Outlaws with the Outlaws winning. Bart was released in April 1999, before he could have anotherangle with Billy.
After the breakup, Billy was given the newgimmick of Rockabilly being managed byThe Honky Tonk Man. It failed to catch on, however, and he became "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn and later won theWWF Intercontinental Championship, theWWF Hardcore Championship twice, and the1999 King of the Ring tournament, in addition to eight more tag team titles. He formed theNew Age Outlaws withRoad Dogg. Gunn became a ten-time World Tag Team Champion with Road Dogg andChuck Palumbo. He was released by the company in November 2004 after serving 11 years.