Andrew Lutzke
Ric Flair’s reveal as the Scorpion at Starrcade only served to re-ignite he and Sting’s off and on again feud. They headlined numerous house shows after Starrcade until Flair beat Sting with a scant bit of cheating to earn his 7th World title.
Flair’s cohorts in the Horsemen continued their turf war with DOOM. This included several bouts held inside of steel cages. The battles would continue up to and past the Clash. WCW TV showed a segment where DOOM was referenced as former champions, indicating that WCW booked them to lose originally at Starrcade and forgot to edit the tape.
Bobby Eaton teased a babyface turn when he saved Ricky Morton from an attack from the Freebirds after a Morton/Eaton match. Eaton then laid out Morton anyway. Eaton would also wrestle fellow heel Arn Anderson but they shook hands after their duel.
Paul E. Dangerously started to expose a misogynistic streak and focused on Missy Hyatt primarily. She ended up slapping him after he called her a whore.
NFL great Lawrence Taylor was interviewed several times to help promote a New York house show he would be seconding Lex Luger to.
The house shows seem to generally be a random mess of matches, with little in the way of feuds or even a consistent pairing of talent in December. Once Ole is removed and Jim Ross played the transitional booker between Ole and Dusty Rhodes, they seem to streamline a bit.
The Juicer was fired after it was revealed that he had a past incidents of statutory rape.
Clash of the Champions: Dixie Dynamite
Gary Michael Cappetta botches his first line, asking us to stand and honor “Our men and woman” serving in the armed forces.
Dusty Rhodes (fresh off of a WWF Royal Rumble appearance 11 days earlier) and Jim Ross call the action.
World Tag Champions DOOM vs. Sting and US Champion Lex Luger
Teddy Long is AWOL. Sting and Reed start us off. Feeling out process until Lex tags in. Luger wounds Reed with a neckbreaker and Simmons tag in. The two ex-football stars trade shoulder tackles in a manhood test. Luger wins that duel but is caught with a stun gun and endures some hard-hitting DOOM offense.
A flying shoulderblock looks to end the match but Reed wastes time and Sting is tagged in. Luger is attacked by Dan Spivey as soon as he tags out. Sting explodes on both members of DOOM but the heels collide. They toss Sting over the top rope to save their titles. The faces clear the ring after. This was fine.
Missy Hyatt announces Tom Zenk as “WCW’s Sexiest Wrestler”.
TV Champion Tom Zenk vs. Bobby Eaton
The audio goes wonky and the P.A. plays a recording of fans chanting “Bobby”. I have no idea what happened there. One google search later tells me that was actually Eaton’s theme at this point. As a heel. Oh WCW…
Grappling basics to start. Slow going until Eaton attempts a top rope move and is drop kicked off and to the floor. Zenk uses his strength advantage, so Eaton just punches him right in the face. Awesome.
Eaton tries another top rope attack and is slammed off. Zenk tries to up the tempo after that and eats a big elbow to the jaw. A knee from the top rope hits its mark on Zenk’s chest. Bobby is pinned out of know where with a backslide soon after. Perfectly acceptable wrestling.
Tommy Rich and Allen Iron Eagle vs. Michael Hayes and Jimmy “Jam” Garvin
The Birds injured Eagle a few months back, but I kind of doubt they booked this with that in mind. Rich and the ‘Birds had issues regarding them injuring Robert Gibson as well. I wonder if I put more thought into this than the bookers did? JR and Dusty didn’t say a word regarding the past injuries.
Eagle gets spunky babyface offence early but the Freebirds grind him to a halt. Eagle is nailed with Hayes’ big left hand, but doesn’t sell it, forcing JR to cover for him. The Indian then blows a corner spot with Garvin, and they repeat it.
Allen is beat down in and out of the ring until Rich makes a tag behind the refs back. Rich and the ref argue while the ‘Birds nail Eagle with a double DDT for the win. Just a glorified squash.
Dusty Rhodes implies Paul E. Dangerously is gay, then warns him that he’s going to get on his hinny. Heyman quotes Martin Luther King Jr. as he rips on Missy Hyatt and women in general.
Joey Maggs vs. Sid Vicious
Vicious chokes away and blasts Joey down with a clothesline. Sid clubs away for a little torture fun and powerbombs Maggs for the easy win. Sid knocks Maggs off a stretcher after the fact, just to be a dick.
Ricky Morton vs. Terry Taylor
Taylor is very close to officially turning heel here. Gary Michael Cappetta announces him as “the computerized man of the 1990’s” even though the heel turn w/ The York Foundation wouldn’t occur until DURING this match. WCW everyone.
Good technical work early on, as they work reversals and fight for positions. The friendly fire continues with both men using armlocks to test the others mettle. Taylor finally gets frustrated with Morton winning exchanges and slugs Morton. Taylor visibly looks upset by Morton’s success over him.
Alexandra York comes down and a video insert reveals Taylor has joined the York Foundation. Almost on cue, Taylor takes the heeling up a notch and claws at Ricky’s face. They start to toss big punches at one another. Taylor whacks Morton from behind and manages to snag the win after Morton misses a dropkick. Good match.
Taylor and booker Dusty Rhodes had heat, so Terry busted his ass here.
PWI Editor Bill Apter awards Sting the 1990 Inspirational Wrestler of the Year and Wrestler of the Year. A short and unimpressive video package follows.
Dusty cuts a pro-troops promo.
Ranger Ross vs. El Cubano
Oh boy. Generic masked heel to give the U.S. patriot an easy jingoistic win. Cubano jumps Ross to start and controls far more than I anticipated. It appears Cubano is David Sierra.
This thing drags on as the crowd doesn’t really care and Ross hasn’t been pushed in almost two years. Armbars and hip tosses build to a roll up that ends it. Yawn.
The Renegade Warriors vs. Arn Anderson and Barry Windham
The faces clear the ring to start. Windham bumps all over the place for the Indian’s double team moves. Windham has little luck, so he lets Arn come in and work his hard-hitting style.
Dusty tells us all to lock our wives in front facelocks to see how much they hurt. Arn lands on Chris’ knees and the crowd doesn’t even pop. All four men go at it at once until Anderson tosses one Youngblood to the floor and the other is drilled with a lariat and a superplex by Windham for the pin. Glorified squash of sorts.
Footage of Vader vs. Stan Hansen from Japan is shown. Hansen is live and cuts a promo to build for their rematch at the Wrestle War PPV.
Brian Pillman vs. Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker
Pillman shows off his balancing skills early as he bridges out of a test of strength. Parker is flipped to the floor by a head scissors. When he tries to flip Pillman, Brian lands on his feet. Parker takes a walk on the ramp to set up Pillman springing on him. That was a tad contrived. A flying crossbody ends it almost right after. Just an enhancement match.
Arm Wrestling: Missy Hyatt vs. Paul E. Dangerously
Heyman hams it up gloriously during his entrance. The clashing hairstyles of Paul and Missy gives us a terrifying glimpse into the 90’s. Missy removes her jacket to reveal her ample bust flowing out of her spandex outfit. Heyman is so flummoxed that he is beaten right away. Then Dusty and Ross make a bunch of breast jokes as Missy jumps around and we get a gratuitous slow motion replay of her enhancements. Silliness.
World Champion Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner
El Gigante is at ringside to harass Flair a tad. Steiner and Flair have a pose off. Scott out muscles Ric and Flair has to take a breather to re-evaluate his strategy. Ric and Flair trade wrestling holds but Flair keeps things slowly paced to his liking. A Steinerline sends Flair into retreat yet again.
Flair goes low, as one would expect from the dirtiest player in the game. He dumps Steiner to the floor, but Scott lands on his feet and goes right back on the attack. Flair gets a cheap shot and tries to use the ropes to steal a pin.
We come back from commercial to see Flair trapped in a figure-four. He escapes and both men flip over the top rope and Scott’s leg is wounded. That prompts Flair to go on the attack. After doing sufficient damage, Flair locks on a figure four. Scott escapes but is entrapped in another. He reverses the lock again.
Scott delivers a neck breaker to buy himself from time. Flair is tossed over the turnbuckle and crashes onto the cement. Flair is nailed with a Steinerline – however, Flair doesn’t bump for it, but staggers and Flair Flops onto the concrete.
Flair gets another cheap shot and attempts a figure-four but Scott escapes with a small package. Steiner, with a bum leg, applies a sleeper hold to try and end this. Flair gets the ropes, so Scott clotheslines him to the floor. Back in, Flair tries and uses the ropes again to steal another pin.
Steiner bridges out of another pin attempt and nails a Tiger Bomb. With one minute left, Flair lays on the cement as Scott stands in the ring and lets time tick away. Scott wastes more time even as the P.A. tells him he has less than 30 seconds to win. Scotty nails a belly to belly but TV time expires as he attempts the pin.
I was underwhelmed here, as Scotty seemed to remove much of his high impact moveset and Flair made this a Flair match, with stooging, leg work and his usual spots. Not a bad match, but not exactly the classic that was probably potentially held within. Flair also was positioned as a bit of an underdog here, as Rick Steiner was at ringside as was El Gigante. The Horsemen never made an appearance.
Final thoughts:
This felt a lot like an episode of WCW Saturday Night, rather than a Clash. The only match here that I wouldn’t have expected to see on regular TV was the Sting/Luger vs. DOOM bout. Not a bad show overall, but nothing worth going out of your way to see.
