Sage Cortez
I didn’t review anything between this and Halloween Havoc, because I couldn’t put together an article with such little material. However, things from the period between the two shows will be in my next column. WCW was running a King of Cable tournament, which would culiminate in semifinal matches at this Clash and on WCW Saturday Night. Maybe I’m wrong to do this, but I will review those matches to see if they’re any good, of course. Apparently only 700 people paid to see this show, and many tickets were just given away. WCW was sure to stick their foot in their mouth once more, but they always did that. For a while, they had promoted a “Ghetto Odds” match where Cactus Jack, Tony Atlas, and the Barbarian would face Ron Simmons and a new guy named Robbie Walker. Ghetto odds in reference to a black champion having less members on his team and his only teammate being a new guy, something about that sounds quite wrong to me. In any case, Walker was fired by WCW before the Clash, because he found out he was going to do the job. Simmons would have to find a different partner. I wonder who…
– November 18th, 1992, from Macon Coliseum in Macon, Georgia
The opening video hypes our tag title match, where Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas challenge Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham. In addition, Sting and Rick Rude face each other in a King of Cable Semifinal. Paul E. Dangerously faces Madusa! Johnny B. Badd and Scotty Flamingo box with each other! Sounds, uh, interesting. Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura are on commentary for this too.
Before we get to any matches, there was a weigh-in with Paul E. and Madusa for their match together. Paul weighed in at 188 pounds, then took his robe off and started posing. Haha. Madusa weighed in at 100 something, and went to attack Paul only to get tackled. Well, damn
Now we have the usual segment where Bill Watts puts himself over. Why did anyone need to know he was in charge, anyway? Teddy Long was with Michael Hayes to talk about the show, and Hayes said he may collect a bounty that was put on Erik Watts.
Brian Pillman vs. Brad Armstrong
Pre-Match Thoughts: The angle here is that Pillman is injured and on crutches at ringside. I didn’t care to see another match between these two, so that’s okay. As Jesse pointed out, at the last Clash, Armstrong was the one who was hurt. Armstrong walked down to the ring, and it looks like he has the problem this time. Pillman said if it would make Armstrong feel any better, go ahead and slap him. Before that can happen, Pillman takes his crutch and HITS ARMSTRONG WITH IT. HE’S A DIRTY SCUM. A LIAR. A THUG. YOU CAN’T DISQUALIFY HIM BECAUSE THE MATCH HASN’T STARTED.
Match Review: So, Pillman gets in the ring, and waits for the willing yet unable Armstrong. Armstrong climbs in there, and Pillman attacks him. Armstrong tries to fight back, and Pillman begs off. Eventually Armstrong gets in his slap, but he turns his back and plays to the crowd. So, Pillman clips his knee and pins him after 28 seconds.
My Thoughts: This was great for what it was, finally something that firmly established Pillman as a heel threat. I’m very happy with what I just saw. I mean, what a scumbag. Good way to start the show, even though the match was a DUD. Definitely worth checking this out if you like Pillman. He made Armstrong look pretty bad, too.
It’s funny that they aired the Halloween Havoc segment that Paul and Madusa had. It was too awesome to air only one time, I suppose. They showed some video of Madusa training, and SHE’S HAD ENOUGH OF PAUL E. This is surreal. They showed videos of Paul working out too. When he hit someone, Austin followed with a punch, and Hayes said LOOK WHAT HE DID. Paul dropped an elbow on the guy and covered for 3, too. HAHA. Paul and Madusa had a confrontation, with all Paul’s friends walking off on him when he was talking bad about women. I liked the look on Arn’s face. Madusa chasing Paul through the studio crowd made for a funny visual.
Paul was with Michael Hayes for an interview, and apparently Paul was going to have his hand tied behind his back during the match. They had the guy from Paul’s workout segment show up, and apparently Paul hadn’t paid him. I like this.
Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton (w/Michael Hayes) vs. Erik Watts and Kensuke Sasaki
Pre-Match Thoughts: It’s funny that they introduced an interesting wrestler and paired him with Erik Watts. I mean, that’s quite unfair. Arn and Eaton were there to claim a stupid bounty. I don’t understand what the point of all this really was. It’s a much worse version of Dustin Rhodes being pushed at all costs. At least Dustin was good. Watts looked like such a dope.
Match Review: Watts and Eaton will start this off, and Eaton paintbrushes the dope around for a bit. Watts gets up and slaps Eaton, but gets put in an abdominal stretch. Watts counters with an arm drag, then charges at Eaton and flies over the top. Watts gets back in quick, takes Eaton down with a shitty shoulderblock, and forces Eaton to tag out. Sasaki tags in too, and trades wristlocks with the Enforcer. Eaton quickly tags in, and takes Sasaki down with a monkey flip, only to be given a dropkick. Sasaki chops Eaton for a little bit, but misses a charge to the corner. Eaton throws him out of the ring, and Hayes puts the boots to him. Watts runs over to hit Hayes after he punches Watts, but the referee stops all that. Arn and Eaton choke Sasaki for a little while, but Sasaki drops Eaton with a powerslam. Watts makes the tag in, monkey flips Eaton, and mounts him for some punches. Watts follows up with a backdrop, then beats up Arn too. All four guys are in there, right as Watts takes Eaton down with a fireman’s carry for 2. Sasaki chops Arn in the corner for a bit, then Eaton heads up top. He gets punched in the face on the way down, and Watts turns him over for an STF that gets the victory at 6:07.
My Thoughts: This Erik Watts push is the worst thing ever. It’s not only that he didn’t have talent, but because they made him a prominent part of the show when he didn’t deserve to be there. The match was genuinely terrible in concept if not execution. I just can’t accept Watts beating up old professionals like Bobby Eaton and Arn Anderson. And this was 23 years ago! In contrast to Dustin’s push, this is so much worse because they built Dustin up quite a bit more slowly before putting him over top guys. 1/2*.
Scotty Flamingo (w/Diamond Dallas Page & Vinnie Vegas) vs. Johnny B. Badd (w/Teddy Long) in a BOXING MATCH
Pre-Match Thoughts: These are never good, so after an promising start to the show, things have gotten much less interesting. Why is Teddy Long with Badd? They’re pretending like everything with Teddy Long in it over the last two years didn’t happen. I can’t stand that. Nash’s promo was awesome, I recommend watching this show if only for that. Just look at the talent they had buried on the bottom of the card. DDP, Raven, and Kevin Nash. I mean, damn. They never understood that the way to use Nash and get him over was to have him stand there looking menacing. Look how tall the guy is! The ring card girl they picked was hot.
Round #1: Two minute rounds, can’t figure out why. They do some terrible jabbing, and Flamingo gets jabbed out of the ring. Oh boy. Badd knocks him down again, but FLAMINGO BEATS THE COUNT. Flamingo rakes the eyes thanks to Vinnie Vegas distracting the referee, then he clotheslines Badd and stomps a mudhole in him. Badd beats the count, but Flamingo picks him up for some right hands. This is actually funny, I have to admit. Badd knocks Flamingo down, but he gets SAVED BY THE BELL.
Round #2: Between the rounds, DDP LOADED FLAMINGO’S GLOVE UP WITH WATER. Flamingo took a long time to get up, with water dripping out of his glove. Eventually he hits Badd with a big right hand, and that’s going to be it after 3:05 of hilariousness.
My Thoughts: This hit the “so bad it was good” territory during the pre-match promo and never left it. I actually liked this. This definitely exposed the business to whatever degree you think it did, but I thought it was funny. The guys did their best to put together a good comedy match and it worked. I can’t bitch about this. **.
Awesome, a Starrcade 1992 hype video. I have no idea why they’d do Battlebowl again. They showed clips from the match where Sting and Abdullah the Butcher were partnered together.
Missy Hyatt was supposed to draw the first two teams. One is Cactus Jack and Johnny B. Badd. The other is Van Hammer and Dan Spivey. Wow, that really makes me want to order the show.
Tony Atlas, Cactus Jack, and the Barbarian vs. Ron Simmons (WCW Champion) and 2 COLD SCORPIO in a GHETTO ODDS MATCH
Pre-Match Thoughts: This stipulation is a bit problematic. I can’t figure out why they would do a jobber entrance for the heels in tandem with the WCW Champion not introducing his partner. Instead, Simmons and Scorpio ran straight to the ring. This could be a fine match, given Scorpio’s ability to do crazy shit. They needed someone like that in WCW. To build this match up, they had Tony Atlas make racial comments towards Ron Simmons. Of course.
Match Review: Simmons and Scorpio clear everyone from the ring, as Ventura and Ross act like they don’t know who this is. After clearing them from the ring, Scorpio decided to introduce himself with an insane plancha over the top onto all three men! Simmons and Barbarian will keep things going, and they trade bombs for a little bit. Simmons hip tosses Barbarian, then dropkicks Atlas. Simmons drops Cactus with a spinebuster, then tags out of there. Scorpio and Cactus are in there now, and Cactus goes for a suplex that Scorpio counters with a clothesline in the corner. Scorpio then goes up top and tries a damn springboard moonsault, but misses and wipes out. Scorpio dropkicks Cactus, then gets out of there. Simmons beats up Cactus for a while, then blocks a charge to the corner and drops Cactus with a facebuster. Simmons misses a dropkick, so Barbarian drops some elbows on him for a 2 count. Atlas tags in for the first time, wearing gym pants and a tanktop. Something wrong with that. He tags right out of there, and Cactus goes to knock Scorpio off the apron. After some double teaming, Atlas tags back in for some terrible offense. Barbarian tags back in, backdrops Simmons, and covers for 2. Cactus tags back in for a flying nothing, with Simmons kicking him in the face. Scorpio tags in, as does Atlas, and Scorpio hits everyone with some big kicks. All five guys are in there now, and Atlas throws Scorpio over the top. We get some shitty triple teaming, and Barbarian loads his boot only to kick Atlas in the face. Simmons clotheslines Cactus over the top, then Scorpio comes off the top with a FUCKING 450 SPLASH on Atlas for the pinfall at 5:57.
After the match, Simmons and Scorpio were with Jesse Ventura. Simmons said that handicap matches don’t matter to him, basically. Simmons also said his partner was named 2 Cold Scorpio. Bah gawd.
My Thoughts: This should have been a brawl rather than what it was, but in any case they made Scorpio look really good. It’s weird to see the champion playing face-in-peril for a new guy that hadn’t done anything in North America at this point. The offense the heels provided was pretty much terrible, and other than some bursts from Scorpio, this match was not very good. *3/4. Anyway, Scorpio’s finisher was awesome, and it would turn out he could do a lot more than that. It makes no sense that he wasn’t a big star in this country.
Next up, we have an extremely lame music video featuring Johnny Gunn and Tom Zenk. This was the single most ridiculous thing on the show. I can’t find it on YouTube, which is too bad. I’d love to share it.
Rick Rude is with Tony Schiavone, talking about his match with Sting. He says it’s time for him to get another victory over Sting. We’ll see. So weird seeing Rude without his mustache.
Jesse Ventura was hosting an arm wrestling tournament on Worldwide every week, I have no idea if it was legitimate or not. I may review the final, but probably not. They showed quite a few of the matches on this video, so I didn’t have to go looking for them.
Paul E. Dangerously (w/Michael Hayes) vs. Madusa WITH ONE HAND SUPPOSEDLY TIED BEHIND PAUL’S BACK
Pre-Match Thoughts: It’s not a bad idea to have Hayes out there. Not a bad idea. Paul is wearing a helmet, this has been so well done. Hard to believe they were allowed to do this, even with WCW being a company that often did the offensive. The time limit on this match is five minutes or less. Hilariously, someone who looks nothing like Madusa runs down to the ring at the start, and Paul hits “her” with his cell phone, knocking “her” unconscious. Hayes then unties Paul’s hand, at which point Paul cuts a ridiculous promo. He wanted a kiss from Madusa, but…IT WASN’T MADUSA. He rips off a wig, and turns “her” over, only to find out “she” was a dude.
Match Review: Madusa runs out from the back after that, so here we go. She kicks Paul in the head, then the ass. Haha. Paul has both hands, but Madusa picks him up and slams him. After more kicks by Madusa, Paul bails out to the floor to regroup. Hayes goes up on the apron and gets kicked off it, so Paul decides to try walking to the back. Madusa gives chase, and meets Paul in the back. We see nothing for a little bit, but Madusa picks Paul up and carries him back to the ring. Hayes trips Madusa and she falls on her face, so Paul goes up top for a double axehandle. Madusa comes back with a clothesline, then drops some knees on Paul’s head. Madusa goes up to the second rope, and down she comes with a dropkick. Madusa tries to rip Paul’s helmet off, and succeeds in doing so. PAUL IS BALDING. Then, she rips Paul’s pants off, and he had another pair on. Lucky guy. After that, the 5:00 time limit runs out.
My Thoughts: This was so bad it was good for some time, but that eventually petered out. First problem was that the fake Madusa was too big, so everybody knew it was fake. Sadly, the novelty of this didn’t last forever. A cursory search shows me that they did house show matches where Madusa would beat Paul E., but not giving the TV audience any payoff was idiotic. That’s why everyone tuned in. Anyway, to have this match paired with another, far superior comedy match on the show was probably not a great idea. DUD.
King of Cable Semifinals: Rick Rude (WCW US Champion) vs. Sting
Pre-Match Thoughts: I’m totally down with another one of these matches. Their match at least year’s November Clash of the Champions was very interesting, but it wasn’t followed up on with anything bigger. I suppose it was time at this point. WCW had done a shitload of tournaments on TV so I don’t know why I was supposed to care about this one. At this particular point, there was far too much wrong with WCW. Rude beat Barry Windham to get here, and Sting beat Brian Pillman. Big Van Vader had a promo before the match, it was amazing. If there is a 20 minute draw, there are three judges at ringside. They just gave the shit away didn’t they? Larry Zbyszko is one of those judges, Hiro Matsuda was another, and Ole Anderson was the last.
Match Review: After a long, time killing stall, the match starts with Rude raking the eyes. He rams Sting into the buckle a lot, then swivels his hips after some elbows. Sting comes back with a nice flapjack, then picks Rude up for a gutbuster. Sting kicks the ribs for a while, then drives his shoulder into Rude a few times. Sting does his own hip swivel, then drops Rude with a front suplex. Don’t see that much. Sting dishes out another one, then continues to work the ribs. The style here is a little weird. Sting goes to a chinlock, sitting on the back while doing so. Next, it’s the abdominal stretch. Rude hip tosses his way out, rakes the eyes, and slowly lumbers over to Sting for some punishment. Ross and Ventura are talking about the judges so much that you know this is going to be a draw. Rude goes for a suplex, but Sting blocks it and drapes Rude on the top rope. Rude winds up caught on the ropes and Sting kicks him in the gut a few times, then they go out to the floor. Sting misses a STINGER SPLASH and wipes out into the rail, so he’s screwed. Rude puts Sting in the ring, then lands a forearm from the top rope for 2. Rude slams Sting, and follows with an elbow smash for 2. Rude applies his own chinlock and sits down on Sting, then does his hip swiveling and hurts himself. Rude slams Sting again, and covers again for 2. Rude goes back to the chinlock, then goes for a suplex again, this time getting it. Rude slams Sting again, then sits back down with the chinlock. Rude tries to jump on Sting’s back, but Sting moves out of the way and lands some punches. Sting goes for a bodyslam, but Rude falls on top for 2. Rude keeps attempting to cover Sting, but Sting isn’t going to stay down. Rude throws Sting hard into the corners a few times, then the time limit says we have five minutes left. Rude puts a bear hug on Sting, then continues using the corners for help with his offense. Back to the bear hug, with Sting getting out and going to a sleeper. Rude gets out with a jawbreaker, then lets out a snot rocket on Sting. That’s gross. Rude goes up top, but Sting gets in place to slam him down on his chest. Sting follows with an inverted atomic drop, and an atomic drop after that. A Sting facebuster gets 2, then he goes up top for a cross body that gets 2. Sting goes up top again, and Rude hits him on the way down. Rude hits Sting with some knees, then goes for the RUDE AWAKENING only for Sting to elbow his way out. Sting hits Rude with the STINGER SPLASH in the corner, then puts the SCORPION DEATHLOCK on Rude as the time runs out at 20:00.
The judges turn in their scores, and it turns out that there’s a split decision. Matsuda scores the match for Sting. Zbyszko scores it for Rude. Lastly, Ole scores it for Sting, sending him to the final. Rude rushes at Sting to attack him, but Sting hits him with an atomic drop to get him out of there.
My Thoughts: The finish of this was far too predictable, and the match was quite slow. However, the work was perfectly average, and there was nothing wrong with it. I think Sting and Rude could have better matches than this, and that this just didn’t work out for whatever reason. I suppose this was the proper booking, to have Sting go through the tournament. **1/2, oddly enough the best match so far. Something wrong with that given the talent on the payroll.
Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas vs. Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes for the NWA/WCW Tag Team Championships
Pre-Match Thoughts: I’m mystified by the way they would wantonly book matches where babyfaces would face each other, or heels would face heels. In some ways, it’s a good thing. In theory, if people are challenging for titles, it should be the best challengers in those spots regardless of their alignment. The problem is that the fans don’t know who to cheer. Douglas wound up being a good partner for Steamboat, but at the time I bet a lot of people were confused. Quite a few empty seats in the crowd too. No idea why Douglas had tassels on his boots. I may not have ever voiced this, but I REALLY dislike Shane Douglas. I associate him with boredom. I like how Windham grew a heel’s goatee.
Match Review: Douglas and Rhodes start this one, and Douglas tries a headlock. Dustin gets out, but a Douglas small package gets 2. Dustin comes back with a backslide for 2, and Douglas takes him down with a headlock. Dustin gets out of that, and they wind up in the ropes. Douglas takes Dustin down with an arm drag, and Dustin comes back with one of his own. Douglas gives out another one, and so does Dustin. This is an interesting start. Dustin rolls Douglas up for 2, then they both go for dropkicks and miss. Steamboat and Windham tag in, the two old pros. Windham takes Steamboat down with an arm drag, Steamboat counters, gets up, and hip tosses Windham to the outside. They both wind up on the floor, and Windham starts shoving. The partners go over to separate them, which is kind of weak. Steamboat and Windham get in the ring now, and they trade chops for a little bit. Steamboat takes Windham out with an atomic drop, then arm drags him again. Douglas tags out, and there’s some double teaming with a double elbow for 2. Douglas goes back to the wristlock, then suplexes Windham for 2. Windham misses a charge to the corner, so Douglas tags in his partner for a kick to the chest that gets 2. Steamboat keeps the arm barred up, tags out, and Douglas comes in for a double backdrop that gets 2. Douglas goes for a cross body, and wrecks himself on the top rope. Dustin tags in and elbow drops him for 2, then tags again, hitting a double dropkick on the way out. Windham makes a tag, suplexes Douglas, and Dustin drops an elbow for 2. Douglas gets a sunset flip for 2, so Dustin tags out. Windham grabs Douglas, tags back out, and Dustin lands an elbow from the second rope. Dustin goes to a hammerlock, and Windham tags in for a heavy chop that gets 2. Dustin tags in for a double clothesline which gets 2, then he goes to a chinlock. Douglas fights out of that crap, and a cross body gets 2 for him. Dustin cuts off the tag, brings in Windham, and Windham takes Douglas down with a big back suplex. Windham hits Douglas with a clothesline for 2, and Windham has a problem with Steamboat getting in there and nearly breaking up the covers. Dustin takes Douglas down with a headlock, transitions to a wristlock, and gets driven into the corner. Douglas has a springboard cross body get 2, then he causes Dustin to miss a dropkick.
Steamboat makes the tag in and levels Dustin a few times, getting 2 counts. A cross body gets 2, then Dustin hip tosses him. A Dustin dropkick is good for 2, and so is an inside cradle. Dustin takes Steamboat down with a shoulderblock for 2, then they do a sequence where Dustin accidentally headbutts Steamboat in the nuts on a leapfrog. Windham demands that Dustin work on him, but he’s not. Oh boy. Windham pushes Dustin, then forces his way in on a tag. Windham elbow drops Steamboat for 2, as the partners keep arguing. Windham works on Steamboat with an inverted atomic drop, getting 2 on the cover. Windham picks Steamboat up for another one of those, then clotheslines his ass. Now Dustin keeps Windham from covering, what a stupid dick. The crowd starts booing, and THEY GET TO SLAPPING. Windham and Rhodes trade bombs for a bit, as Steamboat makes a blind tag to Douglas. Douglas sneaks in, takes Windham over with a BELLY TO BELLY, and we have new tag champions after 15:54! Windham is PISSED, because Dustin is over there hugging those dudes. The crowd wants Windham to beat Dustin down, can’t make any bones about that. Dustin tries to leave, but Windham demands he come back. They argue for a while, and eventually Windham decides that he’s through with the young man’s shit. He kicks him in the gut, then takes him down with a DDT. Some of the crowd likes this and some don’t. Windham shoves down a referee, then he takes Dustin over to the corner and FINISHES HIM with the SUPERPLEX at 15:54.
We get a commercial, but very smartly, it was decided not to let that be the end of the events on this show. Ross took things to the back, where Jesse was standing with Douglas and Steamboat. After Jesse starts talking to them, HERE COMES WINDHAM WITH A CHAIR. HE POTATOES STEAMBOAT WITH ONE, THEN DOUGLAS TAKES SOME CHAIR SHOTS TOO. YES. WINDHAM RAMS DOUGLAS INTO THE LOCKER, THEN STEAMBOAT GOES HEAD-FIRST INTO ONE TOO. SHOW’S OVER!
My Thoughts: I’ll start by talking about the match to get it out of the way. This was a pretty good one, they worked a nice style. Douglas worked so well that he wasn’t clearly the worst worker in the match as one would expect. They kept things moving quickly the whole time, with the real negative of the whole thing being that the crowd didn’t care at all about the match due to the alignments of both teams. ***1/4 for the match, I liked it. Now, as for the angle, this was a bad concept, typical of a booker that didn’t really understand their fans. They very nearly heeled Dustin Rhodes, he was getting booed a fair bit. Dustin breaking Windham’s cover was dumb and wrong. Windham was justified in his anger, he was trying to keep his titles, the things that were the most important. He also saw Dustin over with Steamboat and Douglas and just lost it. Again, bad concept. The workers did their best with it. What saved it, was Windham going into the new champions locker room and destroying them with a chair. Saved the whole thing I think. The best thing is, I think I wouldn’t have seen any of that coming if I didn’t know better.
This show had very little good and a whole lot of bad. The angle in the main event saved the show on some level, but otherwise it was a giant disappointment. I find it hard to believe that they booked some of those things, and even harder to believe that Ron Simmons was their world champion. Absolutely nothing about the booking could make someone believe in Simmons at the champion. He was upstaged by a guy who was in his first WCW match! I didn’t see this part, but I read that WCW aired an advertisement that talked about Windham and Rhodes breaking up. Typical WCW right there. Hard to be excited about their stories ahead, but the lineups I found do make it seem like there are good matches ahead. Of course, I’m going to watch up to Starrcade next. I’ll do a little backtracking too.
Wrestling Time: 53:26. I didn’t count the boxing match either. Two of the matches comprised about 36 minutes of the wrestling.
Best: Windham turning on Rhodes. Gave things a spark that they needed. That Vinnie Vegas promo is up here too.
Worst: Two words. Erik Watts.
Card Rating: 3/10. This show was horrible, it can’t be sugarcoated. The good things on it don’t make up for what was bad. If I didn’t know better, I’d think WCW didn’t have a champion at that time.
