Legacy Review
Clash of the Champions I
March 27, 1988 from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC
Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone
The
Clash, like the Royal Rumble, started as a direct result of the Jim
Crockett Promotions/WWF scheduling wars that started in the fall of '87.
Round 1 was WWF putting Survivor Series opposite Starrcade on PPV and
murdering their buyrate. JCP tried to recover those losses by putting
the finals of the '88 Bunkhouse Stampede on PPV, but WWF countered with
the first Rumble on basic cable USA at the same time. Now JCP is finally
firing their first salvo back, putting this new special on TBS directly
opposite Wrestelmania 4. This show also represents the beginning of a
deepening relationship between JCP and TBS parent company Turner, which
will directly lead to Turner buying the promotion when its finances
completely collapse later in the year.
One
good thing about this show right from the start: after experimenting
with holding big shows well outside their normal area for Starrcade '87
and Bunkhouse Stampede, tonight they're back in their home arena of the
Greensboro Coliseum. Another good thing- the intro. Title belts. Smoke.
Lightning. It's fantastic. One of the all time great show intros, PPV or
anywhere. They even use the correct belt graphics all through the show
for their respective title matches.
College
Rules Match for the NWA World Television Championship: Mike Rotunda (c)
(w/Kevin Sullivan) def "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) in 6:10- Both
Rotunda and Sullivan came over to JCP full time from Florida at the
start of the year. At the same time they formed a new heel stable, the
Varsity Club, along with former UWF wrestler Rick Steiner. The gimmick
was that everyone in the group had a legitimate amateur wrestling
background, and all repped their respective universities with their
gear. Most of them anyway, Sullivan always dresses like Sullivan.
Rotunda defeated Nikita Koloff for the TV title just a couple of days
after Bunkhouse Stampede. Of course Sullivan being Sullivan there's some
weirdness going on too, in this instance Sullivan seeming to have some
kind of fascination with Precious, a feud that will run through the
summer. Playing off the Club's gimmick, this match is amateur style
rules with three 5 minute rounds and one count pinfalls. That's right,
one. Lockups and Rotunda gets the first takedown. Garvin stays with him
pretty good on the mat. Garvin wants to GO and, of course, Rotunda goes
right into stall mode. Quick armdrag from Rotunda and he celebrates with
some mocking jumping jacks. Next lockup Garvin gets an armdrag, plus
hiptoss and slam. Rotunda slides out to break the momentum. Is that part
of amateur rules? Back in Garvin grabs a top wristlock and Rotunda
immediately pulls his hair to get free. Whip reversal and Garvin hits a
back elbow. He covers but Rotunda quickly kicks free since all it takes
is a 1. Garvin works a front facelock. Rotunda backs him into the
corner. A big shove from Garvin puts Rotunda down. Another corner break
and this time Rotunda hits a cheap shot over ref Teddy Long and drops
Garvin on the top rope. Clothesline from Rotunda. He tries to get Garvin
into a pining position but Garvin fights him on the mat, running out
the clock to end round 1. During the 30 second rest period Rotunda goes
over and gives Garvin a cheap shot. Bell for round 2 and Rotunda is all
over Garvin again. Slam and Rotunda goes up top. Garvin catches him and
slams him down. Backdrop from Garvin. Sullivan tries to get in the ring.
Precious runs over and grabs him. Sullivan grabs Precious by the
throat! And I mean for real. Garvin runs over to save his woman. Rotunda
comes from behind, rolls Garvin up, and gets the 1 count for the pin to
retain. This didn't really work. If they were going to do the silly
rules it needed more time to play out, but 1 count pins in the pros is a
terrible idea to start with. *
After
the bell Garvin hits Rotunda with the brain buster. Rick Steiner runs
in and attacks Garvin. Precious hits Steiner from behind with a 2x4! Jim
Duggan must have left that laying around. Then she chokes Sullivan with
a coat hanger! I guess that has something to do with their ongoing
thing, I don't remember.
After
commercial Bob Caudle welcomes back "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, back
from one of his All Japan tours and I guess over how horribly JCP booked
him as the last UWF World champ the previous year. Doc Death lives up
to his name by murdering his promo. Talking was never his strong suit.
The gist is he wants next for whoever wins the World title match.
NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The Midnight Express (c) (w/Jim Cornette) def The Fantastics by DQ in 10:15- The
Fantastics are also recent JCP signees after becoming near legends
across other southern territories. They participated in the first
Crockett Cup in '86 as a UWF team and pretty much stole the entire
tournament despite getting knocked out in the quarterfinals. When they
made their official JCP debut a couple of weeks prior to this they
defeated the Midnights in a non-title match, which is what led them to
getting the shot tonight. Cornette has a fan section ringside of what
looks like college age guys. Wonder if that was legit or if they were
plants for the show. As soon as the Fantastics hit the ring we're off!
Tom Miller has to bail before ever introducing the Fantastics. Fulton
and Eaton go to the floor while Rogers hits Lane off the top rope in the
ring. Eaton tries a wild swing with a chair and misses everything.
Fulton then gets the chair and nails Eaton with it. Double backdrop on
Lane in the ring. All four go back to the floor and a table gets
randomly thrown. Rogers gets thrown into a Cornette held chair. This is
CHAOS. But good chaos. Lane gives Rogers a chairshot. Cornette is still
tossing chairs all over the place. Ref Pee Wee Anderson finally gets a
semblance of control as Rogers and Eaton get in the ring and their
partners take their places on the apron. Blind tag from the Fantastics
and Fulton slams Eaton. So much for order, all four guys are right back
in there again. Both Midnights fly upside down into the corners. Fulton
mounted punches on Eaton. The Midnights finally manage to work Rogers
into a nice high/low double team to change the momentum around. Karate
kick from Lane. Eaton pounds on Rogers. Cornette lifts a table up and
Rogers is run into it! Legdrop from Lane. And an elbow drop. Rogers
fires back with a shoulder to Lane's gut. Eaton tags in and powerslams
Rogers. Elbow off the top rope from Eaton! That hurt him too and he has
to tag out. Gutwrench suplex from Lane. Decapitation Device style double
team from the Midnights. Rogers tries to fight back again on Eaton but
is cut off. Mounted punches form Eaton. Rogers flash sunset flip on
Lane, but the ref is distracted by Cornette and Fulton arguing. Thrust
kick from Lane to the back of Rogers' head, then he tosses him out to
the floor. Eaton slams Rogers on the table! It wasn't standing so it
doesn't break, but for '88 that's still a big hit. Then Eaton bulldogs
Rogers on the table! Sadly mostly off camera. Fulton finally manages to
go over and be a shield to help Rogers recover. Back in the Midnights
hit another double team as Rogers is so out of it he can barely move off
a whip. He does try to fight back again. He dives onto Eaton and gets a
tag! But Lane had the ref distracted and it's disallowed! Fantastic (no
pun intended) timing, much better than the usual telegraphed phantom
tag spots. Cornette comes in and hits a racket shot! Fulton sees and
it's DONNYBROOK CRAZY again. I think the ref went down at some point.
The whole show is being shot from tight ringside cameras so it's hard to
tell, and they're cutting so often they're missing stuff. Cornette
tries for another racket shot. Fulton ducks and Eaton takes it! The
Fantastics hit the rocket launcher! Backup ref Tommy Young comes in and
counts 3! The Fantastics win the titles! BUT WAIT! With the ref swap you
can smell the Dusty Finish coming. And yup, Anderson calls for a DQ for
an over the top rope throw at some point again there. After the
decision the heels whip the hell out of Fulton with Cornette's belt
until Rogers saves him. Crap finish aside that was a hell of a match,
absolute nonstop action from start to finish with a great balance
between classic tag formula and pure chaos. ****1/4
On
replay we see that Fulton deliberately threw Anderson over the top rope
in the end of match melee. The ref *was* the over the top rope throw!
OK, that was actually a justified DQ. Far from the worst Dusty Finish
I've ever seen. The Fantastics would manage to wrest the titles from the
Midnights at a TV taping in April, and the two teams would continue to
trade the titles between them the rest of the year.
After
commercial we get some TBS cross promotion symmetry, with a very weird
pretaped bit featuring Jim Cornette and a character from The New Leave
it to Beaver (a sequel to the original '50s sitcom Turner had just
picked up to pair with reruns of the original), with the actor playing
it as his TV character and not himself. After that Gary Hart and Al
Perez are with Caudle to lay down a formal challenge to Dusty for the US
title. We then get some promotion for JCP's next major event, the third
annual Crockett Cup, taking place in April right here in Greensboro.
The top 10 seeds for the tournament are revealed. I want to get into
that like I did the first two Crockett Cups, but the only copy available
in the WWE Vault or anywhere else I know of is the original VHS copy
with all the matches clipped and cut down. I hate reviewing clipped
matches if other options are possible so it's just going to have to wait
and hopefully we'll get a more complete release at some point. But it's
a story I'm eager to tell because the whole thing turned into a major
fiasco. Another signpost on the road toward JCP having to sell out to
Turner before the end of the year.
Barbed
Wire Match: NWA United States Heavyweight Champion "The American Dream"
Dusty Rhodes & The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def Ivan Koloff
& The Powers of Pain (w/Paul Jones) in 3:39- This was set up by a
famous weightlifting segment on weekly TV, where the POP "accidentally"
dropped a barbell right on Animal's face. Animal is wearing a full face
mask for this match because of the unspecified injuries he sustained.
Dusty's also got some Road Warrior style facepaint on. The heel team are
actually wearing belts on their entrance. I can tell you those are the
almost never seen on a major show NWA 6 man tag titles. True to form,
commentary doesn't even mention them. To make this a "barbed wire" match
the ropes all around the ring have been loosely draped with barbed
wire. I know if it was real barbed wire it wouldn't take much but still,
the visual looks pretty half assed. There's really not a lot to say
about this one, it's an all around three on three brawl with some barbed
wire gouging and bleeding that's thankfully kept very short. JR
actually does mention the 6 man titles in passing. Animal hits Warlord
with a powerslam, Barbarian goes for a headbutt off the top but hits
Warlord, and Animal gets the pin. Naturally after the bell the heels get
Animal's mask off and go to work on his injured face some more until
the others save him. Next. 1/2*
While
JR and Tony try to do a stand up some wild drunks hilariously walk
behind them and yell to try to steal the shot. After that Caudle is with
a "new look" Nikita Koloff, who's back after being out since losing the
TV title. Only difference I see is he's wearing a white suit. Nice to
see he's finally spending some of those American dollars he's been
earning since realizing the errors of the Party's ways.
NWA
World Tag Team Championship: "The Total Package" Lex Luger & Barry
Windham def Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (c) (w/JJ Dillon) in
9:35- Luger was a Horseman at the start of his JCP run, but after
his loss to Dusty for the US title at Starrcade blamed Dillon's screw up
in the match for his loss, was kicked out of the group and turned face.
Which was all part of the long term plan for him, he was only put in
the Horsemen in the first place so he could be an even bigger face when
he turned on them or vice versa. Windham was a natural partner as he'd
been butting heads with the Horsemen ever since his JCP arrival. All the
music on this show sounds like it's been dubbed over. I wonder if that
was by TBS on the original broadcast. Luger and Blanchard start. Luger
quickly shows his superior strength. The Horsemen run in and try to
double team Luger. Luger fights them off with clotheslines. Powerslam on
Blanchard and Luger calls for the Torture Rack already. He gets
Blanchard up in it! Arn breaks it up and tags in. He goes right after
Luger's leg. Typical smart strategery. Cut the big man's support off.
Luger pushes Arn with his leg and he runs into Blanchard! Tag to
Windham. Double noggin knocker on the Horsemen. Flying lariat on
Blanchard. Powerslam for 2. Sleeper on Blanchard! Blanchard steps all
the way to the floor but Windham keeps the hold on! Blanchard goes out
and Windham lets go. Arn runs over and tries to revive his partner.
Blanchard snaps Windham over the top rope, then tries going up top.
Windham slams him back down. Now Windham gets an abdominal stretch on
Blanchard. Dillon distracts ref Tommy Young complaining about a phantom
tights pull, allowing Arn to come in and hit Windham, then plant him
with a DDT. Cover for 2. World's Greatest Spinebuster! Windham kicks
out! Arn tries for a leverage pin and crotches himself on Windham's
knees. Blanchard just barely cuts a tag off. Blanchard hits some punches
and covers for 2. Windham gets momentum running the ropes and hits a
crossbody for 2. Midring collision! After recovering they do some mat
counters and work into the bridge up spot. Windham uses that to hit a
gutwrench suplex! Arn tags in while Windham is still clearing the
cobwebs and cranks Windham's arm. Snap mare from Arn. Windham dodges a
kneedrop. Simultaneous punches! Both guys slowly flop down. Again Arn
falls right and Blanchard just cuts off Windham from tagging. Blanchard
hits the slingshot suplex! Windham kicks out! Windham punches Blanchard,
then literally flops down in the right direction and reaches out to tag
Luger! Brilliantly done. Luger goes nuts on both Horsemen. Clothesline
on Arn. Another one. Double noggin knocker. Blanchard catches Luger with
a knee from the apron. Luger quickly recovers and powerslams Arn.
EVERYONE IN THE POOL! Dillon has a chair in the corner. Arn is run into
it! Luger covers and gets the pin for the titles! INSANE pop! The crowd
wanted to see the Horsemen get taken down so bad, and they got it. They
didn't get much time and had to rush their usual stuff, but they did it
brilliantly. Like the other tag match, nonstop though more traditional
action from start to finish aided by a nuclear hot crowd. ****
The
celebration would be short lived. Barely a month later Arn and
Blanchard would win the titles back in one of the best angles of the
year. During the match Windham shocked, I mean SHOCKED, everyone by
turning on Luger and joining the Horsemen, taking the spot that had been
left vacant by Luger's own departure from the group and forming in my
opinion the greatest and definitive version of the Horsemen. Soon after
that in May Windham won a tournament for the vacant US title (Dusty was
stripped for attacking Jim Crockett) to once again give the Horsemen all
the major gold in the company.
As
was and would not be uncommon for JCP and later WCW we have a group of
judges for this match because in the words of Tom Miller "there must be a
winner". If there's any kind of draw the decision is kicked to them. As
judges we have NWA official Gary Juster, former wrestler Sandy Scott,
and then a cavalcade of unqualified celebrities. First is Patty Mullen,
the 1988 "Pet of the Year". What, from Penthouse? On TURNER?! The
ultimate family channel? Besides The Family Channel of course. Yes that
was a real thing. That's.....something. She certainly does live up to
the billing though. Next up is Ken Osmond, the New Leave it to Beaver
actor that appeared with Cornette earlier. And finally is The Wonder
Years star Jason Hervey, making the first of what would be quite a few
WCW appearances as he was a legit fan. More than that, he'd actually end
up working backstage in later years for TNA. The real deal.
NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) & Sting 45:00 time limit draw- Sting
was one of the wrestlers JCP acquired when they bought UWF in '88. They
quickly knew they had something special, though still a bit raw and
needing a bit more development. He's been an instant hit with the crowd
as well. This is his first sniff of anything related to the main event.
And he's up against The Man at his absolute peak. Flair's got the crappy
synth version of his music again that he also had at Starrcade. I guess
that sadly lasted longer than I remembered. As part of the stipulations
for this match JJ Dillon is being suspended above the ring in a cage so
he can't interfere. Fortunately he doesn't argue too much as we need to
get going since we're on "TV time remaining", hence the time limit
being 15 minutes less than usual for a World title match. Bell ring,
Flair gives us a "WOOOOOOOO" and we're off. Lockup, corner clean break
and Sting gives us his yell. Flair cranks an arm wringer and pulls
Sting's hair. That tiny little mini ponytail dangling the back that was
somehow a trend in the late '80s. Sting kips right back up and Flair
quickly backs off. Top wristlock fight. Flair actually has the early
edge before Sting fights back up. Flair is very cautious getting back
into it. Sting wants a test of strength knucklelock and Flair goes for
it. That's an easy Sting win. Flair backs him into the corner. First
chop. No effect! Sting hiptoss and dropkick! Flair rolls out to rethink
things. Back in Flair does his hammerlock workaround. Despite his
efforts Sting reverses it and cranks on Flair's arm a bit. Long speed
run and Sting hits a press slam. Flying headscissors from Sting! That's
one he won't keep for long. Headlock takedown from Sting and he works
that a bit. Flair tries some escapes but keeps ending up back in the
headlock. Flair manages to back Sting into the corner and hits another
chop. Again no effect. Sting goes for mounted punches then decides
better of it. Instead he punches Flair across the ring. Another hiptoss.
Flair dodges a dropkick.....then Flair Flop! A fantastic one. Flair
tries to throw Sting out but Sting hops right back into the ring. This
time he hits some mounted punches, then back to the headlock. I'm just
noticing Sting has a cut on his chest. Might be from one of Flair's
chops, but it seems like it's on the wrong side. On a rope break Flair
hits a sneaky shot to Sting's ribs, which finally seems to hurt Sting.
More chops in the corner that this time do have an effect. Sting fires
back though. Another press slam with a phenomenal sell from Flair. Bear
hug! Flair, of course, sells it to the cheap seats. Flair slowly pushes
and gets close to the ropes, but then goes down and Sting gets a couple
of near falls. "OH GOD MY BACK!". Sting, maybe showing some
inexperience, lets go of the bear hug. He hits some ground and pound
punches, then goes for a big elbow drop. Flair dodges! Corner whip.
Flair dodges, almost flopping back down, and Sting crashes elbow first
into the corner. Sting still comes after Flair hurt arm or no and Flair
begs off. He tries more mounted punches. Flair counters with an inverted
atomic drop. He drags Sting out to the floor, an area Flair very much
has the advantage. Sting is whipped into the guardrail. More chops back
in. Hard corner whip and Sting goes down. Another one. Snap
mare/kneedrop combo. That gets some "WOOOO"s from the crowd. Another
kneedrop. Flair continues to slowly pick Sting apart, clearly thinking
he's got the kid pretty much taken care of. Another toss to the floor.
Flair gets a chair. Tommy Young takes it away! Flair settles for another
guardrail whip instead. Back in Flair pounds Sting in the corner. Sting
starts hulking up off chops! A punch sends Flair 360 over the top rope
to the floor! Flair dodges and Sting clotheslines the post! Second time
he's hit that arm hard. Back in Flair zeroes in on the target. Again
Sting uses the crowd to fire back up. Another hair pull and kip up.
Sting hits knees, chokes Flair in the corner, and gets another hiptoss.
Clothesline for 2. Big Sting yell and the crowd's going nuts for him.
Suplex from Sting. He stands over Flair. Scorpion Death Lock! Flair
quickly fights it and gets to the ropes for a break. Another Flair chop
that Sting barely notices. Punch and Flair Flop 2! Flair ducks a wild
Sting dive and Sting goes over the top rope to the floor! Coming back in
Sting goes up top. Crossbody for a long 2! Sting grabs another
headlock. Flair uses that to hit a kneebreaker! Here we go. Get your
jackets and head to the bus stop kids, we're going to school. Flair
kicks Sting's leg out of his leg as the work on it really begins.
Another kneebreaker. Sting falls out to the floor. Flair teases coming
off the top rope to the floor but Young stops him. More shots on the
knee back in. Back suplex. Flair, with much moment milking, slaps the
figure four on! With rope leverage. That gets a near fall. Sting fights
with all he has, then fires up and drags Flair away from the ropes!
Sting reversal! Flair is stuck there for a bit shouting in pain before
the hold is finally broken. Both guys limp back up. Flair gets the first
shot on Sting's knee. He gets on the apron and teases suplexing Sting
over the top rope all the way out to the floor! Sting blocks it and
suplexes Flair back in the ring! He tries a big splash but Flair gets
his knees up. Sting gets Flair in an abdominal stretch! We get the 10
minutes left call as Flair hiptosses out. He tries going up top and as
usual gets slammed back down. Cover for 2. Sting drags Flair over and
crotches him on the post! Sting puts on a figure four! Another
inexperience mistake, he should be going for his own hold instead of
Flair's. He does get a couple of near falls. Flair finally gets a rope
break. Sting gets back up and shouts "Do you know how to party or what?"
at Dillon, all kinds of fired up. More mounted punches and another
hiptoss. Flair begs off. Sting stays on him with more stomps on Flair's
bad leg. Flair shoves Young out of frustration and of course Young
shoves him back down. Corner whip and Flair Flip! He falls all the way
to the floor, right by the judges' table. Though not quite "over" as JR
tries to make it out as. Sting gives Flair a shot on the judges' table.
Post shot and Flair flops over the guardrail into the crowd. 5 minutes
left. Flair tries a sunset flip back in. Sting's having none of it.
Flair's bleeding a little bit off the post shot but way less than his
usual. More mounted punches. Flair tries an inverted atomic drop
counter. Sting blocks it and hits a clothesline! Flair barely gets a
foot on the rope before 3! Flair dodges a Stinger Splash and Sting flies
all the way out to the floor! 3 minutes. They trade shots back in.
Flair gets a sleeper on! Sting runs Flair into the corner! Flair Flop 3!
Flair grabs Sting and tosses him out again. Sting quickly comes back in
with a sunset flip. Flair tries to fight it. He drops down on Sting and
grabs the ropes for leverage. Young sees it and kicks him off! Sting
cradle! Flair just kicks out! The crowd bit pretty hard on that one.
Another Flair Flip! Flair runs across and gets a crossbody off the top.
Sting reverses it for another long 2! Flair hits shots that do nothing
to Sting. One minute left. Sting goes to mounted punches again. The
Stinger Splash hits! One last Flair Flop! The Scorpion Death Lock is on!
30 seconds left. Can Flair hang on? 20. 15. 10....the bell rings! Flair
might have gone out, but it was a tick too late. Time limit draw.
Absolutely amazing match that instantly made Sting a megastar. At this
stage of his career getting a hard fought draw with Flair was just as
good as a win. Sting's inexperience did show as he was still learning
and developing, but Flair ring generaled him absolutely perfectly and
you can easily see the potential for much more. We already know that
Flair's base "wrestling a broomstick" match in this peak period is
already really damn good, so he doesn't need much from the other side to
get into true greatness. He got that here, and for Sting it's just the
start. ****1/2
After
commercial Tom Miller announces the final decision of the judges. Two
for Flair, two for Sting, and somehow one of the judges managed to score
the match a draw. Is that even an option? So much for "there must be a
winner". The only reason for this was to keep people tuned in during the
last commercial break.
OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- After
a middling at best Starrcade and the epic disaster that was Bunkhouse
Stampede, this was a win JCP desperately needed. A true PPV level show
on cable TV. Put aside two short undercard duds, which is easy, and the
wrestling the rest of the show is incredible. Two fantastic tag title
sprints, and an absolute star making main event that will be talked
about for decades after. Off the success of this show the Clash will
immediately become a regular feature, with three more taking place just
over the course of '88.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A
v2.0 posted 8/20/26
