Don't call it a comeback (unless you really, really want to)
Clash of Champions
(Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC - 3.27.88)
I'll eventually get around to recapping all of the Clashes, since I now own all of them. Seems logical to do them in order. Most people already know the backstory behind this show, as Turner decided to cut into Wrestlemania IV's buyrate by programming this opposite. On free TV, no less. The gambit paid off, as they did some great ratings for the show.
"Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) v. Mike Rotunda (w/"Gamesmaster" Kevin Sullivan) - NWA Television Title -
This is being fought under "amateur" rules, which in this instance, means that we have three 5 minute rounds and that falls will be scored after a one count. Match opens with a bit of matwork, which Rotunda controls handily. Garvin is fired up, popping up with his fists clenched, ready to brawl. They lockup again, and Rotunda takes him over with an armdrag before breaking into a set of jumping jacks. Garvin comes back with an armdrag of his own, then follows with a hiptoss. He slams Rotunda, who quickly rolls to the floor rather than risk the pinfall. He rolls back in, but looks wary to lockup. Garvin grabs a top wristlock, but Rotunda takes him down by the hair. He slaps on a side headlock and shields the ref while punching away at Garvin. He goes for a whip, but Garvin reverses it and drops him with a back elbow. He goes for the cover, but Rotunda kicks out immediately, then rolls into the corner.
Garvin grabs a side headlock of his own, but switches into a front facelock. Rotunda backs him into the corner. Clean break? Nope. Garvin shoves him down. Rotunda is now the one looking to trade punches, but quickly backs down when Garvin obliges him. They lockup and Garvin backs Rorunda into the corner. Ref steps between them to force a break, allowing Rotunda to slip in a cheapshot. He lifts Garvin for a slam, but drops him throat first across the top rope. He stomps on Garvin for a bit, then whips him into the corner. Garvin rebounds out and gets leveled by a clothesline. Rotunda hesitates before making the cover, allowing Garvin to roll to his stomach. Rotunda tries to roll him to his back as time runs out for round one.
During the rest period, Sullivan distracts referee Teddy Long, allowing Rotunda to nail Garvin. The bell rings for round two and Rotunda charges, kicking Garvin in the gut. He sends him into the corner and slams him. Rotunda heads up top, but gets cut off and slammed. Rotunda learns from Garvin, rolling to his stomach to avoid the cover. Garvin sends him into the ropes and backdrops him. He sets up for his brainbuster and Sullivan climbs onto the apron. Precious tries to stop him, but ends up being throttled. Garvin releases Rotunda and attacks Sullivan. Rotunda quickly rolls him up and gets the win. (1:10; Round two)
Postmatch, Garvin hits the brainbuster on Rotunda and attacks Sullivan. Rick Steiner comes out, but Precious hits him with a 2x4. Sullivan drops a coat hanger and Precious picks it up and starts choking him out. Garvin pulls her to safety before the Varsity Club can killify.
-Bob Caudle interviews Steve "Dr. Death" Williams. Doc isn't the most well spoken guy out there, but manages to let everyone know that he's challenging the winner of the Sting/Flair match later tonight.
-Most of the commercials are edited out of this, but there is one for something called the 4 Horsemen "Top Performing System." The Horsemen shilled vitamins. VITAMINS! How the hell did I ever forget about that? The WWF also tries to parlay this show in it's favor, running a spot for the Wrestlemania IV results hotline.
Jim Cornette introduces the Midnight Express. Every mother's nightmare and every schoolgirl's dream, don't you know?
Midnight Express (w/Cornette) v. The Fantastics - NWA US Tag Titles -
Dare I say YES, YES and YES! The crowd is pretty rabid for the Fantastics here. They roll into the ring and attack the MX before the bell. Eaton and Fulton pair off and trade punches in the corner. All four of them quickly end up on the floor and the war is on. This just turns into a crazy brawl, with Lane going into the post. Chairs eventually figure into the mix. Eaton swings for the fences, but Fulton ducks it and takes it from him. He nails Eaton. Back in the ring, Lane tackles Rogers. He crisscrosses the ropes, but Rogers pops up and hiptosses him. Fantastics send him into the ropes and take him over with a doubleteam backdrop. They try to pull Eaton in, but he fights them off. Back to the floor we go.
Eaton chucks a table at Fulton. Cornette picks up a chair, holding it so that Lane can ram Rogers into it. Referee Randy Anderson is distracted ,allowing Eaton to hit Rogers with a chair. Fulton runs over to protect his partner, but Lane nails him with a chair as well. Cornette adds another. He tosses the chair at Fulton, who catches it. Cornette and Lane scatter. The ref finally tries to get this under control, escorting Lane and Fulton to neutral corners. Rogers whips Eaton into the ropes and makes a blind tag. He leapfrogs Eaton, who manages to stop short of Fulton. When he turns, though, Rogers catches him with a dropkick, sending him into a slam from Fulton. Lane runs in, but Fulton is waiting. Fantastics end up whipping both members of the MX into separate corners.
Fulton punches away at Eaton while Rogers and Lane continue to brawl on the floor. Lane rolls him in and they make a blind tag as Eaton goes for a whip. MX hit a brutal Double Goozle (sort of a precursor to Total Elimination, I guess. Lane clips the legs while Eaton simultaneously adds a clothesline). Nasty. Lane grinds Rogers' face into the mat, then pulls him up and slams his face into the mat again, just for good measure. Rogers is up...superkick! A Stan Lane superkick is a thing of beauty. He tags Eaton, who comes in swinging with some big right hands. At ringside, COrnetter picks up a table and holds it near the ropes. Fulton tries to come in, distracting the ref. Eaton rams Rogers into the table and tags Lane.
He drops a eg, then follows with an elbowdrop and a JYD-style headbutt to the back. Rogers tries to mount a comeback, but Lane tags Eaton, who cuts him off with a kick to the gut. He powerslams Rogers, then climbs up top, connecting with a big elbow. Tag to Lane, who drops Rogers with a gutwrench suplex. He draws Fulton into the ring, allowing the MX to get in some doubleteaming. Lane rakes at Rogers' face and makes the tag to Eaton. They hit Demolition's old backbreaker/elbowdrop finisher (can't for the life of me remember if they had a name for it). Fulton grabs Eaton by the hair from the apron, preventing the cover.
Rogers comes back once again, but Eaton cuts him off with a knee to the gut. He punches away at Rogers in the corner and tags Lane back in. He sends Rogers into the ropes and ducks his head for a backdrop. Sunset flip. Ref is distracted once again, allowing Eaton to come in and break up the hold with a kick. Lane measures Rogers and scores with a superkick right to the back of the head. Awesome. He tosses Rogers to the floor. Fulton runs over to protect him, but ends up distracting the ref once again. Eaton takes advantage, slamming Rogers on a table that's laying on the floor. Camera cuts to Cornette, who's practically dancing a jig. He's still pretty svelte at this point, so that's not as ugly as the mental image might indicate.
Rogers comes back punching, but takes a bulldog on the table from Eaton. Ouch. Lane pulls him in and tags Eaton. He takes Rogers down with a drop toehold, followed by an elbow from Eaton. Rogers again fires back. He charges into his corner, but the referee is distracted and misses the tag. As the ref tries to escort Fulton out of the ring, Cornette sneaks in and repeatedly jabs Rogers in the ribs with his tennis racket. Fulton has had enough. He tosses Randy Anderson over the top rope and starts cleaning house.
Eaton grabs Fulton, holding him for Cornette. He swings the racket, but Futon ducks and Eaton takes it right in the face. Fulton nails Cornette as Rogers heads up top. Rocket Launcher onto Eaton! Tommy Young runs in and counts the fall! New champions! But wait! Anderson comes back in and DQs the Fantastics. Crowd says BOO. The Express attack the Fantastics and Cornette goes wild, attacking anyone within reach with the racket. Flapjack to Fulton! Cornette takes off his belt and hands it to Lane, who whips Fulton. Cornette gets in some licks as well, but Rogers makes the save with a chair. (10:15)
This is a brilliant match. Possibly one of my two or three favorite of all time, actually. Midnight Express (either version, though I'm talking about Eaton/Lane right now) are everything that is good about tag wrestling. I wish there was a team out there right now that had one tenth of their chemistry as a team. Great, intense, believable brawl that segued into an awesome heat segment on Rogers. Got to see some of the nifty double team work that the Express were so known for. Also, a Dusty Finish, which might be the one thing that keeps this match from going full monte. At any rate, I don't do star ratings too often, but this one is worth ****1/2 in my book.
-They're stringing up barbed wire in the ropes for the next match, so Bob Caudle cuts to a pre-taped segment with Ken Osmond, better known as Eddie Haskell from Leave it to Beaver. Or the New Leave it to Beaver in this case, which is the show he's here to hype. Anyway, he interviews Cornette and tries to skeeze his way into mama Cornette's inheritance
-Back to Caudle, who interviews Gary Hart and Al Perez. Perez challenges Dusty Rhodes for the US title.
-Frances Crockett runs down the top ten seeds for the Crockett Cup:
10. Ivan Koloff & Dick Murdoch
9. Sting & Ron Garvin
8. Varsity Club
7. Fantastics
6. Barry Windham & Lex Luger
5. Powers of Pain
4. Midnight Express
3. Road Warriors
2. Nikita Koloff & Dusty Rhodes
1. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard
Dusty Rhodes & The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) v. Powers of Pain & Ivan Koloff (w/Paul Jones) - Texas Barbed Wire Match -
Animal is wearing a hockey mask here, as a result of an attack from the Powers of Pain. Anyway, there's not much to recap in this one. Lots of random brawling with faces being raked into the wire. Eventually, Animal powerslams Warlord. Barbarian is waiting up top and goes for a diving headbutt. Animal moves and Warlord takes it instead. Animals covers and gets the win. Postmatch, Barbarian nails Animal with a big boot, knocking off the mask. Powers of Pain work him over with Ivan Koloff's chain, but Hawk and Dusty quickly make the save. This lasted all of three and a half minutes. Ho hum...
-Bob Caudle interviews Nikita Koloff. He tells the kids not to do drugs , then points out that the only title he's never won is the NWA World Title. He promises that he and Dusty would defend the Crockett Cup.
Barry Windham & Lex Luger v. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon) - NWA Tag Titles -
Lex and Tully start. They lockup and Luger shoves him down. Arn runs in and jumps him from behind. Horsemen send Luger into the corner, but he rebounds out with a clothesline. Arn ducks the first, but Luger catches him with the second. He whips Tully into the ropes and powerslams him. Signal for the Rack. He lifts him into position, but Arn clips his leg. Tully tags Arn, who drops a pair of elbows to Luger's leg, then repeatedly drops his knee. Tag to Tully. Arn stretches the leg out and Tully scores with a kneedrop. He ties the leg in the ropes and splashes it. Luger fires back, but Tully takes him down with a drop toehold and makes the tag to Arn. He sets up for the Figure Four, but Lex kicks him away, causing him to collide with Tully in the corner. Luger reaches his corner and tags in Windham.
Windham cleans house, ramming the Horsemen's heads together. He sends Tully into the ropes and levels him with the Lariat. He follows up with a powerslam, but can only get two. He locks Blanchard in a sleeper. Tully reaches the ropes, but Blanchard hangs on and both guys end up on the floor. Windham finally releases the hold and rolls back in. Blanchard climbs onto the apron. He drives a shoulder into Windham's gut, then snaps his throat across the top rope. He heads up top, but Windham slams him. He knocks Arn off of the apron, then locks Tully in an abdominal stretch. Dillon distracts the ref, allowing Arn to run in and break the hold with a punch.
Illegal switch by the Horsemen. Arn DDTs Windham, but can only get two. He follows up with a spinebuster, but despite repeated covers, he can only get two. He goes for a splash of some sort, but lands groin first acrss Windham's knees. Great facials by Arn as always. He manages to tag Tully, who cuts off Windham from doing the same. He nails him with an elbow to the head, then punches away at him. Cover gets two. He whips Windham into the ropes and lines up a back elbow. Windham ducks it and scores with a crossbody for two. Tully whips him into the ropes once again, but this time they end up cracking heads.
Tully is up first. He takes Windham down with a side headlock, but it's quickly countered into a headscissors. Tully floats into a cover, but Windham bridges up and comes back with a gutwrench suplex! Blanchard tags Arn. He works Windham over in the corner and grabs an armbar. Windham rolls though and kicks him away. He crawls toward Luger, but Arn cuts him off. Snapmare by Arn, but his kneedrop misses. They simultaneously connect with punches and both go down. Tully tags in and hits the slingshot suplex. Cover...Windham escapes at two! Ross puts over that all four guys have hit their finisher with no success.
Windham mounts a comeback. Blanchard tags Arn, but it's too little, too late. Windham collapses into his corner and makes the tag! Lex comes in with clotheslines for everyone! He rams the Horsemen's heads together, but Arn cuts off his offense with a knee to the gut. He sends Lex into the ropes, but gets tackled. Luger bounces off the ropes, but Tully is waiting with a knee to the back. Arn loos for a corner whip, but Lex reverses it and powerslams him. He signals for the Rack once again. Arn cuts him off and everyone is in. Dillon climbs onto the apron, holding a chair. Arn pulls Luger up, but gets shot into the chair! Luger makes the cover and we have new champions! Crowd goes absolutely apeshit. (9:35)
Another great, great tag match. This was pretty much an all out spring, simply because they only had ten minutes to play with. Everyone looked incredible here. It's easy to forget that, once upon a time, Luger was actually a decent worker. Windham, of course, is probably my favorite worker of all time, so I have nothing but good things to say about his performance here. Another legit ****1/2 match that holds up perfectly 17 years later.
I've already recapped the Flair/Sting match elsewhere, so cut and paste it is. Huzzah!
Ric Flair (w/J.J. Dillon) V. Sting -
This is from the first Clash of the Champions. Dillon is locked in a cage, and suspended above the ring. Just for reference, Flair is a 5-time champion here. There are several judges, including Jason Hervey, in case the match should go to a draw. You know what that means...
Flair starts with an armbar, and uses Sting's hair to take him down. Sting nips up though. They lockup, with Sting getting a side headlock. Flair reverses into a top wristlock, but Sting powers out. They have a test of strength, which is easily won by Sting. Flair pushes him into the corner, but Sting no-sells a chop. Sting hits a hiptoss, and a dropkick. Flair bails.
Back in the ring, Flair locks a side headlock, then turns it into a hammerlock. Sting reverses and grabs an armbar. Flair backs him into the ropes to break, and slips in a cheapshot. He goes back to the headlock, but Sting whips him off the ropes. Flair tackles him. After several leapfrogs, Sting press slams Flair. He takes Flair over with a headscissors, and follows with a hiptoss, and headlock takedown. For the next few minutes, Flair keeps breaking the hold, with Sting always managing to lock it back in.
Flair backs Sting into the corner, but Sting doesn't sell the chops. He reverses, putting Flair into the corner. He goes for the corner punches, but Flair gets out. Sting blocks a chop, and punches Flair, sending him to the opposite corner. He hiptosses Flair out of the corner, but misses a dropkick. Flair does his first "Flair flop" of the night.
Sting stays in control, hitting the punches in the corner. He then goes back to the headlock. Flair forces a rope break, and cheapshots Sting. Flair hits a series of chops, but Sting fights back. He press slams Flair, and locks in a bearhug. He takes Flair down, getting several two counts. He releases the bearhug, and misses an elbowdrop.
Flair begs off, and gets whipped into the corner. Sting misses a Stinger splash, injuring his arm. Flair continues to beg off, and gets backed into the corner. Sting again goes for the corner punches, but Flair counters with an inverted atomic drop. He pulls Sting out of the ring, and whips him into the railing twice.
Back in the ring, he snapmares Sting, and drops the knee twice. He then rakes Sting's back, and gouges his face. He lays in another chop, and tosses Sting out of the ring. Flair picks up a chair, but referee Tommy Young takes it from him. Back in the ring, Flair hits more chops, but Sting starts no-selling everything.
He hits Flair with a series of punches, knocking him over the top rope. He chokes Flair on the floor, but misses a clothesline, catching the ringpost instead. Flair immediately goes to work on the arm, but Sting keeps coming back. He punches Flair, who does his 2nd "Flair flop." He biels Flair out of the corner, but misses a crossbody, sending himself over the top rope. Flair snaps his neck on the rope, but Sting goes to the top and hits a crossbody for two.
Flair hits a kneebreaker, and FINALLY starts to work on Sting's leg. He hits a second kneebreaker and Sting rolls to the floor. Flair continues to work on the knee, and he hits a backdrop suplex. With 15:00 minutes remaining, he locks in the figure four. He uses the ropes for leverage, but Sting pulls *himself* away from the ropes, just so Flair can't reach them. He turns the figure four, but Flair makes it to the ropes.
Flair tries to suplex Sting from the ring to the floor, but Sting reverses. He goes for a splash, but Flair gets his knees up. Sting stays in control though, putting Flair in an abdominal stretch. Flair escapes with a hiptoss, but he misses an elbowdrop. He goes to the top rope, but Sting slams him off.
Sting then crotches Flair in the ringpost, and locks in his own figure four. Flair manages to make it to the ropes. Sting continues working on Flair's knee, and Flair has his typical shoving match with Tommy Young. He gets whipped into the corner, and does his flip over the ropes to the floor. Sting rams Flair's head into the judges’ table. In the ring, with 5:00 minutes left, Flair tries a sunset flip, but Sting escapes. He rakes Flair's eyes along the ropes.
Flair counters, hitting another inverted atomic drop, which Sting doesn't sell. Sting hits a clothesline, and whips Flair into the corner. Sting again misses a Stinger splash, sending himself to the floor. Sting gets back in the ring, and they brawl back and forth, with Flair eventually putting a sleeper on Sting. Sting rams Flair into the corner to break the hold, causing Flair to do his 3rd "Flair flop" of the match.
Sting gets tossed out of the ring. He tries a sunset flip as he's getting back in the ring, but Flair grabs the ropes. Tommy Young kicks his hands away, allowing Sting to get a two count. Flair again bumps over the ropes, this time landing on his feet. He climbs the ropes, and *hits* a crossbody. Sting rolls through though, getting a two.
Sting no-sells more Flair chops, and hits a Stinger splash with :45 seconds left. Flair does his 4th "Flair flop," and Sting locks the Scorpion Deathlock. Flair holds on for the final :30 seconds for the 45-minute draw. Judge Sandy Scott calls the match a draw, so Flair retains the title.
Another great match to close the show. I think it's a fair statement to say that this is the match that made Sting. Having seen these two wrestle probably at least a 100 times, it's pretty easy to see that this match is the template they use for the rest of their matches. Everything you see here, you'll see in the rest of the matches. My only complaint, as always, is Sting's penchant for no-selling most of Flair's offense. Otherwise, the psychology, selling and transitions in this match are top notch. I'd call this ****.
Overall, I'd call this one of the better shows in wrestling history, but oddly enough, I never hear it talked about in such conversations. Three **** matches is nothing to sneeze at. Definitely worth tracking down, for both wrestling *and* historical value...
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