Through the Years: Clash of the Champions 1

 

It was a big day in wrestling, competition between the WWF and NWA hits another high point! Running a free show against WrestleMania IV was a ballsy move. It’s not like Crockett had much of a choice. I’m interested to see how Crockett’s live production holds up. They have had some big issues with that before. As per usual on these double card days, I review the free card. Today that is Clash of the Champions! Most everyone has seen the big Flair/Sting match, but the rest of this show is not something I’ve taken a look at before. I’m anticipating checking it out. It’s also nice to see that they didn’t run a show out of the core area. This is the Carolinas, this is where the promotion belongs. The attendance wasn’t great, but the crowd will be as hot as usual.

 

– March 27th, 1988, from Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina

 

The introduction is far better than some of the ones I’ve seen from this company on previous shows. I’m really amped up for this! Tony Schiavone and Bob Caudle are our hosts, and they’re talking about the Board of Directors reviewing the Dusty Rhodes/Magnum TA/Tully Blanchard incident. I just reviewed that! Anyway, they haven’t yet stated it, but Dusty Rhodes is going to be stripped of the United States Championship. Tony Schiavone will be joining Jim Ross on commentary, that’s good news.

 

Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) vs. Mike Rotunda (w/Kevin Sullivan) in an AMATEUR WRESTLING MATCH for the NWA Television Championship

Pre-Match Thoughts: This is a bit confusing. There will be three 5 minute periods in this match. Just like in an amateur wrestling match, a 1 count is all you need to get a pinfall. The Varsity Club theme OWNS, by the way. The entire concept of the Varsity Club was great, I think. I’m not too sure of the logic in having Jimmy Garvin in an “amateur wrestling match,” but that’s just my opinion and all.

Round #1: The match begins after a commercial, which is cool with me. The two guys lock up, and Rotunda is driven back into the ropes. They lock up again, and Rotunda goes for a takedown, as things tumble into the ropes once again. Rotunda takes Garvin down with an arm drag, then does some jumping jacks. This is more charisma than I’ve ever seen him show. Garvin returns the favor with his own arm drag, and follows that with a hip toss. After a bodyslam, Rotunda bails to the floor. Back in the ring, they exchange wristlocks, with Rotunda getting the edge after a hair pull. Garvin comes back with an elbow, and tries a pin which Rotunda has to immediately kick out of. So, the amateur aspect is merely the rounds and pinfall. Not actual amateur wrestling. Garvin pushes Rotunda to the canvas, and when Teddy Long tries to break the two up, Rotunda punches the challenger. He then drops Garvin throat-first on the top rope, and hits him with a clothesline. Rotunda goes for a pin, but Garvin rolls over. He continues to press for the pinfall, but Garvin’s shoulders never go down and that’s the end of the first round.

Round #2: During the rest period before this round, Rotunda walks over to clock Garvin in the face. The round begins, and Rotunda gives Garvin a bodyslam. Up top the champion goes, and Garvin slams him down. He gives Rotunda a backdrop too, and goes for the BRAINBUSTER! Sullivan gets on the apron, and Precious walks over there to stop him. Sullivan picks her up to do…something, I guess, and Garvin is so mad that he goes over to beat up Sullivan. While he’s doing that, Rotunda goes over, rolls him up for the 1 count, and that’s the win for Rotunda after 6:25 of action, counting the rest period. Haha.

After the match, Garvin walks over and gives Rotunda the BRAINBUSTER. Sloppy ass brainbuster at that. He beats up Sullivan too, until RICK STEINER shows up. Then Precious gets in the ring with a 2×4, and HAMMERS Steiner with it! Somehow a clothes hanger gets in the ring, and she grabs that too to choke Sullivan with! Garvin has to pull her away, and that was a crazy sequence of events.

My Thoughts: That was a hilarious finish. I love the idea of a heel being so cowardly that he needs a distraction simply to get a 1 COUNT. Like, what kind of loser does this guy have to be. Then on top of that, the BRAINBUSTER that Garvin gives him knocks him out for like 40 seconds or so. That’s just the match portion. How does a hanger get into the ring? How does Precious knock Steiner down for the count with a 2×4? Then on top of all that, she’s strong enough to basically choke Sullivan to death without her husband’s intervention. I loved everything about this segment. Wasn’t an amazing match but everything was perfect for me. Someone else may not like it as much. **1/2 and recommended. I can watch the finish time and time again, and best of all the crowd was on fire for all of that. None of that piped in sound shit. At the time I bet some people hated this because Precious was made to look so strong, but guess what? Everything she did was something a woman can do too. People just don’t like to admit it.

 

I’m very surprised to see Steve Williams being interviewed. I thought he was gone, and wasn’t going to come back for a little while longer. Maybe I should look at my checklist of matches to watch a little more often, because I’m sure he’s on there. I just forgot. Anyway, they’re going to pretend like he never quit the promotion, and was merely touring Japan. Which, he was touring Japan…but he did quit. His interview was straight out bad. Bad bad bad. He totally bombed it.

 

The Fantastics vs. The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) for the NWA United States Tag Team Championships

Pre-Match Thoughts: The Fantastics are Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers, and they were an amazing team. Many people who aren’t long time fans don’t know about them, but brother, they could go. Cornette’s introduction of his team is always excellent.

Match Review: Right from the start, the Midnight Express attacks. Everyone tumbles to the floor, and Lane gets thrown into the post. Eaton gets beaten up around the aisleway, and misses a chair shot attempt. He then gets nailed with a chair, as Lane is hip tossed. The Fantastics then give Lane a double backdrop, and things go to the outside again. Rogers gets thrown into a chair, Eaton hits Fulton with a table, and Fulton chases Cornette around the ring. This is amazing. Lane nails Fulton with a chair, and Cornette throws it on top of him as well. I guess Rogers nailed Eaton with a chair, and this finally normalizes to a wrestling match. That was great stuff. Fulton makes a blind tag, and after a dropkick by Rogers, Eaton is given a bodyslam. Lane runs into the ring like an idiot, and the Fantastics both throw the Express upside down into turnbuckles. Fulton pounds on Eaton in the corner, as Lane fights with Rogers on the floor. This is ridiculous! Lane tags in, and the Express hits Rogers with a great flying shoulderblock and clip combo. Lane rams Rogers into the mat, and nails him with a savate kick. Eaton tags in, and throws Rogers into a table that Cornette was holding up at ringside. Apparently Larry Zbyzsko vs. Shane Douglas and Ricky Santana vs. Rick Steiner are our stand by matches in case the other matches end early. Lane drops a few elbows on Rogers, and follows up with a headbutt to the back. Lane tags out, and Eaton dishes out a big powerslam. Up top Beautiful Bobby goes, and DOWN with a flying elbow! Lane makes the tag, and gives out a gutwrench suplex. This is quality tag team wrestling. Here comes Eaton again, and he flies off the top with an elbow after a Lane backbreaker of Rogers. Rogers tries to fight his way out of the corner, and gets nailed with stiff looking punches. In comes Lane, and here comes a Rogers sunset flip, but the referee can’t count it. Lane lands another kick to the head, and dumps Rogers to the outside. Fulton rushes over to his partner, but the referee has to usher him over to the corner. Fulton gets SLAMMED on the table by Eaton, then given…A FUCKING BULLDOG. ON A TABLE. Lane stomps Rogers until he gets back into the ring, and when Rogers does, Lane makes another switch. Drop toe-hold by Lane, and an ELBOW DROP to follow by Eaton. Great tag team wrestling. Rogers really needs to make a tag, and he does, but the referee never spotted it. Now Cornette climbs into the ring, and nails Rogers with the TENNIS RACKET. Fulton just can’t take this cheating anymore, so he throws referee Randy Anderson over the top rope. Fuck that referee. Cornette accidentally nails Eaton with the racket, Fulton knocks Cornette out of the ring, and then…the Fantastics follow with…THE ROCKET LAUNCHER. Tommy Young hits the ring, counts the pin, new US TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS at 10:19!

The crowd lost it for all of that, but it’s not actually over. Randy Anderson reverses the decision due to his being thrown out of the ring, so the US TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS ARE STILL THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS. The Express is, uh…mad, so they attack the Fantastics from behind. Rogers gets thrown into the post, Fulton gets nailed with the racket, and then both referees get hit with it too. The Midnight Express gives Fulton a double flapjack, and now they have a BELT! The Express WHIPS Fulton with the belt, and Cornette takes his turn doing it too. Eventually Rogers grabs a chair to chase everyone away, but who cares. It’s way too late.

My Thoughts: This is one of those things where the decision had to be reversed because it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Obviously the Fantastics were primed for a title change though. It’s obvious that they would get it, but in typical JCP fashion, they needed to milk that thing for all it’s worth. I’m cool with that too. Honestly, this is one of the best tag team matches that I’ve ever watched. No hyperbole. This was the business. Everything about it made sense to me. The weapon shots are typical. Fulton getting upset and tossing the referee was perfect. Why would any wrestler put up with that constant cheating shit that the referee was ignoring? It was ridiculous, Fulton had to save his buddy. There were only a few things keeping this from being a perfect match. One was the length. Two was the lack of hot tag and finishing sequence. I loved the finish they went with, but can’t have a perfect match with something like that as a part of it. The post-match was amazing. Jim Ross got it over huge, and it’s one of the best angles that can be used without blood being factored in. It can also get someone over big when they show no more remorse while doing it. ****1/2 is my rating for all of this, and I highly recommend it. On these shores, you can’t find many better tag team matches. I don’t know why it took me so long to watch it, but I guess that’s the point of these articles. Filling the gaps.

 

Oh dear. Some stuff from The New Leave It to Beaver is coming up. Well, this isn’t as bad as I expected! Jim Cornette is here! There’s a bunch of shit I don’t quite understand there, and after that’s done, Bob Caudle is with Gary Hart and Al Perez. Hart and Perez are there because Perez wants to challenge for Dusty’s United States Championship. Easy to see why Perez had a great mouthpiece. He needed one.

Lastly, we’re going to have the top 10 seeds of the Crockett Cup run down. #10 is Ivan Koloff & Dick Murdoch, #9 is Sting & Ron Garvin, #8 is the Varsity Club, #7 is the Fantastics, #6 is Barry Windham & Lex Luger, #5 is the Powers of Pain, #4 is the Midnight Express, #3 is the Road Warriors, #2 is the SuperPowers, and #1 is Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard. For assorted reasons, I am not reviewing this in full. The video tape doesn’t have anything in full. What I’m going to do is lift what I think is worth reviewing from it, if there is anything. That will go in my assorted column corresponding to the date of the tournament. I have not looked yet.

 

Powers of Pain & Ivan Koloff (NWA 6 Man Tag Team Champions, w/Paul Jones) vs. The Road Warriors & Dusty Rhodes (US Champion, w/Paul Ellering) in a NON SANCTIONED BARBED WIRE MATCH

Pre-Match Thoughts: This is a non-title match. Should be interesting to see how much, if any of that barbed wire gets used. Dusty is wearing face paint for this one. You know it must be serious. Animal’s wearing a face mask because of his orbital bone injury. That defeats some of the point of this being a barbed wire match. The Powers of Pain look very imposing, to nobody’s surprise. Warlord is HUGE.

Match Review: Koloff is so manly that he goes in first and gets raked with barbed wire, and here we go. The babyfaces take quick control, and Barbarian’s head goes straight into it. Barbarian and Animal leave the ring, and Barbarian gets thrown into the post. Back inside, Hawk clotheslines Barbarian, and Koloff has alrady done his gig. That didn’t take long! Barbarian goes into the wire again, as Hawk gives Koloff a press slam. Poor Ivan. Ivan comes back and tries to put Dusty’s face into that junk, but it hasn’t happened yet as far as I can see. I bet it has though. Now it clearly has, as the crowd is going crazy for this stuff. Dusty gives Barbarian a DDT, and Hawk climbs up top for a punch on Warlord. Barbarian gets bodyslammed by Animal, and kicked out of the ring by Dusty. Warlord gives Animal a bodyslam, but Animal comes back with a powerslam. Barbarian misses a flying headbutt and hits Warlord, which leads to a pinfall win for Animal and his team at 3:39.

The match is over, but the war is clearly not. Barbarian nails Hawk with some kind of chain, and kicks Animal in his head. The mask is off now, and Animal gets NAILED WITH A CHAIN. Hawk gets beaten with that chain, until Dusty makes the save and Ivan tumbles out of the ring.

My Thoughts: This didn’t do it for me. Sure, the inclusion of blood helped get the concept over, but there were a lot of things wrong with the match. The first thing is that the babyface team couldn’t or wouldn’t lose this match. Nothing would have worked better than them losing, but who would have done the job? None of them, and especially not to that crew. I also don’t think a barbed wire match should culminate in such a lack of violence. It defeats the purpose. Lastly, the Powers of Pain and Koloff basically had no offense. Why should anyone pay to see these guys face the Road Warriors again? 1/2*.

 

Now Nikita Koloff is being interviewed, and he has…HAIR. WHAT THE HELL? Nikita says this is his glasnost and perestroika. He’s hyping up an anti-drug program. Nikita is like Fatu now. He’s making a difference. He has a problem with Kevin Sullivan, who apparently likes drugs or something like that. Nikita wants the NWA Championship, and nothing else.

 

Lex Luger & Barry Windham vs. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon) for the NWA Tag Team Championships

Pre-Match Thoughts: This is much anticipated. It’s about time SOMEBODY gets revenge on the Horsemen for all that they’ve done. Is it going to happen now? Well, I know what happens, but yes, it should happen now. This match is a very big deal to me, based on all of the stuff I’ve watched over the last few months leading up to this. There’s a 30 minute time limit on the match, just in case it can somehow get that far. The theme used in the WWE Network version of this show for the white meat babyfaces is excellent.

Match Review: Luger and Tully lock it up, and Luger pushes Tully right back into a corner. Arn comes in for a double team, but Luger flies out of the corner with a clothesline on one, and then the other. Liked Arn’s mannerisms in ducking the first clothesline. Luger follows that with a powerslam on Tully, and the ladies in the crowd are going nuts. Luger puts Tully in THE RACK, but Arn sneaks in, breaks it up, and leaves the ring to make a legal tag. Arn goes to work on the left thigh, elbowing it and shit. Tully switches back in, and continues it. After a drop toe-hold, Arn can tag back in and try a figure-four. Luger kicks Arn into Tully, and makes a big early tag to Windham. Windham cleans house, and hits Tully with the LARIAT. He should have went for a pin, but he didn’t, and gives Tully another powerslam. That gets 2. Windham applies a sleeper, and Tully makes the ropes to cause them to tumble to the outside. Windham keeps the sleeper on, and eventually breaks it once he thinks Tully is out. Arn wakes his partner up, and his partner climbs up top on his way in. Windham heads over, stops him, and slams him down. He hits Arn with a punch for good measure, then puts Tully in an abdominal stretch. JJ distracts the referee, and once again, Arn breaks up a submission. He gives Windham a DDT, and covers for 2. Arn didn’t even make a tag! He gives Windham a SPINEBUSTER, that also gets 2. Windham has to power out of Arn’s repeated pin attempts, and does so by hitting him with a very low knee. Tully can tag in, but Luger cannot. Tully covers for 2 after a punch, and Windham comes back with a body press for another 2 count. These two then collide with each other, and the heat builds rapidly. Sad to see a lot of empty seats on the wide camera shot, but I guess that’s wrestling sometimes. Windham bridges out of a pin, into a gutwrench suplex. That’s unusual! Arn tags back in, gets kicked off of Windham, but Barry still can’t reach his corner. Arn misses a knee drop, and after both guys nail each other with punches, Arn falls towards his corner and tags out. Tully grabs a hold of Windham, and hits him with the SLINGSHOT SUPLEX. Over to cover, 1-2-and Windham kicks out! Windham gets up, lands one punch and FINALLY makes the tag.

Luger’s in, and he’s got a ton of wind left. He hits Arn and Tully with elbows, and follows with a few clotheslines on Arn. Luger rams their heads together too, and follows with a shoulderblock. Tully knees him in the back, but Luger gets up and powerslams Arn anyway. He picks Arn up, and Windham rushes in as well as Tully. JJ picks up a chair, and gets on the apron. I guess Arn is supposed to throw Luger into that chair, but Luger throws Arn into it! He goes to cover, and the Horsemen have lost their titles! Can’t believe it! Time of the fall was 9:33, and the pop was as loud as any you’ll hear.

My Thoughts: This was an amazing match, and exactly what it should have been. It was a sprint of the highest quality, and it finished with a champion getting pinned as cleanly as anyone gets beaten in this promotion. This was a great call, it was the right time for a switch, and they’ve made the crowd really happy with that. I loved Windham’s work as face-in-peril. Arn and Tully were great in control, and then they brought Luger in to finish the match off. It was really well structured. I don’t really have an argument against it, but there are reasons I don’t rate it the same as the previous great tag team match on this show. The Midnight Express had better control offense. Their match was a wild brawl. This had the great babyface payoff and showcased guys just doing their thing in the ring. So I’m going to give it ****1/4 and recommend it strongly. That’s two tag matches on one card that you can put up against any tag team match from any company in this country. I strongly suspect that this is one of those matches where, if you parked your butt in front of your TV to watch Crockett’s shows every weekend in 1987 and 1988, you’d think this was one of the best matches you’ve ever seen. You’d possibly also think this was better than Fantastics/MX. I don’t really have a problem with that opinion. Arn and Tully were so good at getting heat, and this match is one of the best examples at it, despite the lack of length.

 

Sting vs. Ric Flair for the NWA Heavyweight Championship

Pre-Match Thoughts: Few stipulations here. Probably more than a few, actually. JJ Dillon is locked inside of a cage that has been raised above the ring. The circumstances in the previous matches between these two have led to that. There is a time limit of 45 minutes. There are three judges who are supposed to judge the contest if the match reaches that time limit. There is supposed to be a winner, no matter what. Those judges are Gary Juster (NWA Board of Directors), Sandy Scott (former wrestler), and Patty Mullen (really hot chick). Ooookay. Then, the presentation gets screwed up, and it is announced that Ken Osmond (The New Leave it to Beaver) and Jason Hervey (The Wonder Years) are part of this. They aren’t, but that’s how it has been presented. JJ being locked in the cage is amazing, but if (haha) this goes to time limit, that’s an awfully long time to be stuck up there. This match is being presented commercial free, which is the best thing about it. All the commercials early between matches allowed for this.

Match Review: Sting is over huge. That’s made obvious from his entrance and continues to the start of the match. He plays to the crowd quite a lot early, and after Flair grabs hair, he kips up and forces Flair back towards a corner. Sting grabs a headlock, it gets reversed to a wristlock, and Sting powers out of it into his own. So basic, yet works so well. Flair reaches the ropes, and we’re back to square one. Sting wins a test of strength, but Flair gets out and chops, which is no-sold. Sting hip tosses Flair and dropkicks him, causing Flair to take a break. Ross brings up college basketball to draw an analogy, then Sting and Flair exchange hammerlocks. Flair reaches the ropes to break an armbar, then does some rope running, leading to a Sting press slam. That was great. Sting follows up with a flying head-scissors, and another hip toss. Sting takes Flair over with a headlock, which gets a really close 2 count. 5 minutes have passed. Back up, and Sting goes back to the headlock after a shoulderblock. Flair pushes him off, and gets shoulderblocked again. Flair tries a hip toss, and Sting gives him one of his own. Back to the headlock Sting goes with another takedown. This is nice match structure right here. Flair pulls the tights to get some near-falls, as the camera now shows that Sting is bleeding from his chest. One of the chops sliced him open. Now here’s a good bit. They go through the shoulderblock routine, and after Sting does it, he cuts Flair straight off. No more rope running, and back to the headlock as Flair ducks down. The commentators are key in managing a match of this length. After Sting gets chopped again, he climbs up the turnbuckle for some punches, but changes his mind. Now, on the canvas, he gets the better of Flair, and throws him across the ring again. Flair evades a dropkick, but he’s hurt or winded and falls down. Flair dumps Sting to the floor, but the challenger lands on his feet, and climbs back into the ring. Now he punches Flair in the corner, and follows with a hard knee. Back to the headlock again, and that’s a close 2 count. Flair does the tights trick again, but to no avail.

11 minutes have passed, and Flair gets up to land some chops. Sting doesn’t care about that, and press slams Flair again. He puts Flair in a bear hug, which is a really good move for somebody his size to do. Flair often gives too much in these matches, but it makes the matches so much better. Flair eventually collapses and Sting gets very near to a 3 count, as 15 minutes have elapsed. Flair’s selling is hilarious. Eventually Sting lets go of the bear hug, and tries an elbow drop, which he misses. He doesn’t sell the effects of missing it, but misses a huge charge to the corner. Don’t see many guys trying flying elbow drops into the corner. Flair tries to attack from behind, but gets thwarted, and has to resort to something different. He gives Sting an inverted atomic drop, and rolls out to the floor. Sting comes outside too, and Flair whips him into the rail. Those weren’t allowed in the WWF anymore, as they were a major liability concern. Back inside the ring, Flair starts laying in chops. He whips Sting into the buckle, and down Sting goes. Took a while for Flair to gain control, but he has it now. Once again with the whip, then a punt to the side. Flair also gives out two knee drops, and rakes the back. Don’t see that often enough these days. It’s such an easy move to get heel heat with.

20 minutes have elapsed, and Flair tries to blind Sting with the top rope. Sting gets tossed to the outside, and Flair follows to hit him with a chair. Tommy Young grabs that chair away from him, so Flair goes back to the whip into the railing. Sting enters the ring again, which is where Flair continues to punish him. Sting doesn’t sell the chops anymore, and fights back hard. He punches Flair over the top, but that’s not ruled a DQ. sting chokes Flair and tries a clothesline, but clotheslines the post instead. Big mistake. In the ring, Flair works a wristlock while simultaneously taunting Sting. WOOOOOOOOOOO! He pulls Sting down by his hair, but Sting kips up and goes back to work in the corner. Up for more punches in the corner, and another big hip toss. Sting clotheslines Flair for a 2 count as well. Flair crawls to the apron, but Sting suplexes him back in. Nice move. He goes for the SCORPION DEATHLOCK, PUTS IT ON, and Flair gets to the ropes very quickly. 25 minutes in, and that was the closest Sting has come. That actually felt like he was going to win the match. Sting chokes Flair now, and after a punch, covers for 1. Flair got his foot on the bottom rope. Yet another hip toss by Sting, and he tries for a clothesline, but flies over the top and to the concrete floor. The hip toss has brought so many different spots into play and Sting has used nearly all of the ones I can think of. Sting climbs up top, and flies off it with a body press for another close 2 count. Flair catches Sting and gives him a knee-breaker, which is one of his biggest offensive moves. Flair gives him another one, causing Sting to fall out of the ring. Sting heads back in, just to get beaten up. Flair continues to kick and work on that leg, and tells some fan that he’s going to take the guy’s wife home. Haha.

With 30 minutes gone, Flair gives Sting a back suplex. He goes for the FIGURE-FOUR, LOCKS IT ON, and if I were booking without knowing what their booking team had in mind, I think this would be the end of the match. I’m not booking though. Never will. Flair cheats by holding onto the ropes, and eventually Sting pulls Flair away from the ropes so he cannot cheat. Sting turns the figure-four over, and they roll into the ropes as a result of that. Back up on their feet, Flair continues to jab the knee with kicks. Now he goes for a try at suplexing Sting OUT OF THE RING, but of course, Sting reverses and suplexes Flair back into it. Sting goes for a big splash, but Flair blocks it. Sting puts Flair in an abdominal stretch, another case of him using wrestling holds. This is such a good match. At the 35 minute mark, Flair reverses it into a hip toss, and tries an elbow drop, which misses. Flair heads up top now, and slammed down to the canvas as usual. That looks like it hurt, and the cover gets 2. Sting rams Flair groin first into the post, and back into the ring he goes for who knows what. Sting twists the legs, and puts on his OWN FIGURE-FOUR! The crowd doesn’t seem to buy Sting winning with this hold, which is too bad. I think I get it, Sting should have used his own hold. Flair reaches the ropes again, as Sting taunts JJ, who can’t do a thing about this. Sting hip tosses Flair out of the corner again, and stomps on Flair’s knee. He works on Flair’s leg now, and then Flair does the bit with Tommy Young where Flair gets pushed down to the canvas. Sting whips Flair across the ring, into the turnbuckle and over the top to the floor. I just can’t believe he could do that at this stage of the match. Sting rams Flair into the railing, and the judges table as well. After Sting throws Flair into the post, he tumbles over the railing and nearly into the crowd.

40 minutes are gone, and Flair sunset flips back into the ring, with Sting blocking it. Looks like Flair is bleeding now. Sting hits Flair with more punches in the corner, and blocks flair’s attempted inverted atomic drop. After a clothesline, Sting covers, and Flair barely gets his foot on the rope in time. Sting goes for the STINGER SPLASH, but misses and takes a huge bump to the floor. He BASHED his head into the post on that, and the way he landed with his chest on the turnbuckles looked awful. Back in the ring, Sting and Flair trade bombs, until Sting gets caught in a sleeper. He ducks down and causes Flair to ram his head into the buckle, a smart move by the young challenger. Flair tries to toss Sting to the outside, but Sting springs right back up to the apron. He gets Flair and tries a sunset flip, but Flair grabs the ropes. What a cheating bastard. After he gets a 2 count, Young notices and removes Flair’s hands from the ropes. That gets 2 for Sting as well. Sting shoots Flair into the corner again, and he goes over the top of that turnbuckle again, and Flair runs to the other side of the ring. Up top, and down with a flying body press that Sting reverses for 2. The people bought that title change. They could have used that as a finish later, maybe they did. Sting now no-sells all of Flair’s chops and punches, and there’s 1 minute remaining in the time limit. Sting gives Flair more punches in the corner, and sets him up for the STINGER SPLASH, WHICH HE HITS! Into the SCORPION DEATHLOCK, and Flair has to hold on for 30 seconds. Into the countdown, and it’s over, after 39:14. It’s a time limit draw. That wasn’t 45 minutes, but it will certainly suffice. They did everything they could!

So, the judges decisions are in. Hot chick has scored the match for Flair. Gary Juster has scored it for Sting. Sandy Scott has declared the match a draw. Uh, what? More thoughts on that below.

Caudle, Schiavone, and Ross wrap up the show, and what a show it was!

My Thoughts: This was something. Honestly, the first time I watched it, I didn’t think it deserved the plaudits it has received. This was the second time I’ve watched it, and I thought it was unbelievable. It’s so close to being a perfect match. First, let’s say what they did wrong. They advertised that there would be a winner no matter what. The booking did not deliver. They should absolutely not have done that. They could have ran with an angle of the establishment judging the match for Flair and the young girl judging it for Sting. The solution to the booking and advertising quandry they had created was right in front of their face. It didn’t have to be changed at all, but I pointed out the obvious change because it was way too obvious, if that makes sense. I also think that there was a small lull in the 33-40 minute portion of the match. That’s a small critique, but it’s the difference between a full rating and not. Sting also used slightly repetitive offense. It was however nowhere near as repetitive as I remembered.

Now as for what’s right about it. This match MADE Sting. I’m relatively certain that this will be the best Sting match I watch. It’s one of the best Flair matches I’ve watched! Obviously, Flair called the match, so if you want to say he carried it, I guess he did. Other than Barry Windham, that match doesn’t work with other young wrestlers. None of them showed the charisma that Sting showed, Windham was the only one of them who had his cardio, and those two guys were the only ones with the credibility to pull it off. Barry Windham is a great worker, much better than Sting in fact, but he never had the connection with the fans that Sting had. There are a lot of reasons for that. His look, the way he talked, and the way he carried himself during his wrestling matches are what I’d say were the main contributors. Obviously the booking too. The smartest thing done with Sting as a result of this was to move him back down the card. I think the people in charge knew he wasn’t ready to have big matches with other guys, and they didn’t have other big singles heels at this time. There was really nowhere else to push him because the Luger payoff with Flair was necessary, even before the events that occured prior to the Great American Bash. As stated, the commentators had to be key. Ross and Schiavone did such a good job. In a 40 minute match they absolutely must carry the match through portions of it. I’m going to give this ****3/4, and obviously another recommendation, making it my 4th on the show. Sting looked so credible on offense, Flair made him look like a monster, and all that came off to as close to perfection as wrestling usually gets. I’m very happy I watched this match again, it was a classic. One of the best performances ever with an opponent who could carry their end of the bargain. What more can anyone ask for?

 

There were a few things on this show that got cut out. One was a commercial for Four Horsemen vitamins. VITAMINS.

 

Another was that the WWF bought commercial time for their 900 number which was advertising WrestleMania. Regardless of those two disastrous things, this was a hell of a show. I think it’s one of the best ever. Hot opening segment, two big tag matches, and an incredible main event. There was really nothing wrong with it. The booking worked for me, and other than one advertisment that wasn’t delivered on, it was great. The only match that didn’t deliver as I had hoped for was the barbed wire match, but that was a bad gimmick to run with. Very happy with this show, and there’s a lot of places to go from there. Interested in the direction that is taken. One thing I was wondering about was the effect that attendance had on the wrestlers pay. There were only 6,000 people in the building that night, and on previous occasions, the boys have talked about low pay for TV. Considering this was TV, it wouldn’t be surprising if they busted their humps like this for a small payoff. Now, contrast that to the next show, which is WrestleMania IV. According to Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan picked up a cool 3 million for that appearance. Don’t know if I believe that, but I’m sure he got paid big time. The boys on this card probably did not.

Wrestling Time: 1:09:10. That’s not as much time spent in the ring as you’d expect for a fantastic show. Only one match ticked over past the 11 minute mark.

Best: Sting vs. Ric Flair. Lot to choose from, but this took the cake.

Worst: Dr. Death promos. Please, somebody spare me. They’re SO BAD.

Card Rating: 10/10. Yeah, I went there. Find 5 better, you can’t. And it was on cable TV!