If you’ve followed the careers of Cody Morton and David Morton for the last few months, then it should come as no surprise to see them, collectively known as The Smokin’ Budz, step up in a big way when indie juggernaut GCW came to Tennessee for the second time this year.
Back in July, The Carnies and the Budz put on an absolute banger at WOMBAT that literally tore up the arena. The ol’ Gypsy Joe Arena is still feeling the ramifications of that contest. Thankfully, they’ve fixed the barricade, but the larger point being that it was one of the best matches of GCW’s first weekend in Tennessee. In August, they got a crack at IFHY at Crux Wrestling’s Hey Jealousy, and stole the show. They’ve popped up at Paradigm Pro Wrestling, competed in the YEETFest at SUP’s You’re Next, and have made the most of every opportunity they’ve earned.
So, when WOMBAT returned to Tullahoma on Saturday, The Smokin’ Budz were given another opportunity to seize the moment. Booked against two guys who have become two of the most reliable well-liked wrestlers in the game (Blake Christian and Cabana Man Dan), the Budz absolutely showed out. Everything from their charisma from the moment they walked out into the arena to the victory over Christian and Dan just absolutely clicked. They followed that up with a big six-man tag, teaming with Adam Slade, to take on IFHY and Erron Wade in a fun match at Crux Wrestling’s Keep Art Alive.
But, for me, the kicker was the GCW debut that followed on Sunday. They took on SUP Tag Team Champions Violence Is Forever in a raucous environment in The Basement East. As they made their entrance, the fans erupted into a chorus of “blaze up.” It seemed like the Smokin’ Budz caught the attention of the GCW faithful back in July. In December, it sounded like they were ready to fully embrace their talent and personalities.
I caught up with Cody and David a bit to get their thoughts on everything that transpired this past weekend.
Stoney Keeley: You guys have quite the resumé under the WOMBAT banner. Between the matches against The Carnies and Blake Christian & Cabana Man Dan, what is special about WOMBAT to you guys?
Cody Morton: To me, it’s in Tullahoma, where we basically both started our careers and The Smokin’ Budz began! We haven’t been there in quite some time. After this year, and the previous WOMBAT show, we knew we had to be on our worst behavior!
David Morton: You honestly never know what to expect from it. But, it’s such a special show to me because it’s like literally in our back yard in Tullahoma, TN. We practically grew up there…from our dads wrestling there to us starting there as well. The Smokin’ Budz started here in Tullahoma and for GCW to come and let us be a part of it is awesome!
SK: You guys are a big part of Crux Wrestling’s Tuesday Night Twitter Fights. What’s it like to be involved in that project?
CM: The Tuesday night deal was something thrown together off a whim and it got over! It felt like we were on a set even on the first episode. Super dope.
DM: Man, TNTF are fucking awesome! I love it! It’s something that was kind of put together pretty quick we all just went with it, and it got over! It’s just a little internet show to work on character development, wrestling, psychology, etc..
SK: You’ve had several excellent matches on big stages this year. Which has been your most memorable so far?
CM: Shit, that’s a hard one for me! From the first WOMBAT to SCI weekend into Crux…it’s all been very memorable to me!
DM: Fuuuck this is hard! This whole year has been wild and definitely our best year so far! But, the most memorable match this year…that’s hard to choose because we’ve had so many. I’d have to say the match we just had vs. Violence Is Forever at GCW #LONGLIVEGCW in Nashville. I loved the match, but the experience from the show and the fans chanting “BLAZE UP” loud as fuck….it hit me in the right place and I felt like we belonged there!
SK: When did you guys get the news that you’d be wrestling Violence Is Forever at GCW? What was your initial reaction to that?
CM: Dave told me an hour before the doors opened that we were working Violence Is Forever. My initial reaction was, “ok this show’s gonna be nuts. We gotta do what we did last night!”
DM: Literally, I just got done helping set up the ring and bringing the doors in for them to use, and Brett Lauderdale comes up to me and asks me if me and Cody have our gear. I said, “hell yes we do,” and then he asked if we wanted to work Violence Is Forever, and I said, “hell yes we do!” It really caught me off guard because I didn’t expect him to ask us that, but then he did and I thought to myself, “we have to fucking kill this shit so people know who we are!” That’s what happened. We killed it!
SK: What did it feel like to walk out at a GCW show and hear their diehard fans chanting “blaze up” for you guys?
CM: When you see me running through the crowd as our entrance music was playing, that’s pure real emotion. That shit took me so off guard, I just wanted to run through the whole ass crowd. The only thing I say to David in the ring as Violence Is Forever is making their entrance…I turned, looked at him, and was like, “fuck, man…this is real! This is crazy!”
DM: Like I said earlier, that really hit me! Cody looked at me and said, “this is fucking real!” Hearing the fans yell, “BLAZE UP” loud as fuck like that made me feel like we made it somewhere. We have been busting our asses trying to get a spot somewhere, and I feel like the fans made a spot for us in GCW!
SK: Any big plans for 2020?
CM: To continue to improve, be on the road traveling. I wanna see New York and soo many other cities! We are working on some bangers of some merch as well.
DM: Wellll, we are going to be hitting the road even more than in 2019. I want to go to NY, FL, LA, Canada, Texas, everywhere! We have a big weekend already planned in April, but I wanna hit the roads, wrestle the best tag teams in the world, and sell the merch we’re making! 2020 is gonna be crazy because we are on our worst behavior! #BudzWorstBehaviorTour2020
Check out both of our Checks and Championships episodes featuring The Smokin’ Budz: Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.
Blaze up.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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