Clash of the Champions I

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions I

March 27, 1988 from Crockett home base, the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC

Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone

 

The creation of Clash of the Champions was a direct result of the scheduling wars between the NWA/Jim Crockett Promotions and the WWF. WWF put the first Survivor Series on at the same time as Starrcade '87 (and strongarmed cable companies into carrying it), then aired the first Royal Rumble on USA opposite Crockett's first ever non-Starrcade PPV, the disastrous Bunkhouse Stampede, in January '88. The Clash was the first shot to be fired back at Vince, airing on TBS at the same time as Wrestlemania 4.

The original Clash intro is still one of the best, with all the NWA title belts panning across the screen accompanied by a thunderstorm motif. Just fantastic. They even use the appropriate belt graphic for each title match.

College Rules Match for the NWA World Television Championship: Mike Rotunda (c) (w/Kevin Sullivan) def "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) in 6:10- We're in the early days of the Varsity Club vs Garvin/Kevin Sullivan vs Precious feud that would end in the awful Tower of Doom cage match at Great American Bash '88. College rules means it's three 5 minute rounds, and a pin only takes a one count. Round one opens with Rotunda immediately stalling. Shocker. Garvin gets fired up and shoves ref Teddy Long out of the way. Rotunda hits an armdrag and celebrates. Garvin strings a few moves together and Rotunda powders. Garvin reverses a headlock and hits a back elbow for a quick near fall. Rotunda gets a cheap shot on a corner break and drops Garvin's throat on the top rope. He amateur rides Garvin trying to get a pin before time expires. Between rounds Rotunda takes a cheap shot. Round two starts all Rotunda. He goes up top but Garvin slams him off. Garvin loads up the brain buster but Sullivan gets on the apron. Precious tries to get him off but Sullivan grabs her by the throat and pulls her up to the ring. Rotunda uses the distraction to roll Garvin up and gets the one count pin. After the bell Rick Steiner comes out but Precious fights all of them off with Hacksaw Jim Duggan's Sullivan's own 2x4 and chokes Sullivan with his own coat hanger (being able to use a coat hanger as a weapon means she's fully prepared for any Birdemic that may happen). Eh. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. **

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams is making his NWA return after a tour in Japan, and lives up to his name by brutally murdering a promo. He challenges the winner of 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- This is the start of a longrunning feud between these two teams over the US tag titles that will last through the summer and include several title changes. The Fantastics recently pulled a shock upset win over the Midnights in a non-title match on weekly TV in their territory debut. Cornette has his own fan section at ringside. The Express pull the Suzuki-Gun as soon as the Fantastics hit the ring and we're brawling all over. Eaton takes a chairshot on the floor. The Fantastics double team Lane in the ring. All four guys brawl on the floor again. Rogers takes a chairshot. Eaton's out here dropping tables on top of people. Finally the ref gets some control with Eaton and Rogers in the ring....for about 10 seconds and they're all donnybrooking again. Eventually the Express hit Rogers with a high/low double team and things settle in a bit. Lane breaks out the karate kicks. Cornette holds up a table and Eaton rams Rogers into it. Rogers fires up and tries to come back. An Eaton powerslam cuts it off. Eaton hits an elbow off the top rope. Express Decapitation Device-like double team. Fulton keeps trying to run in. Rogers gets a sunset flip but the ref is distracted. Lane breaks it up. And they're back on the floor. Eaton bodyslams Rogers on the table. Bulldog on the table! Fulton goes out to try to help Rogers recover. More Express double teams. Rogers fires up in the heel corner, dives over Eaton and tags, but the ref didn't see it. Cornette comes in and we're donnybrooking again. He loads up a racket shot but Rogers dodges and Eaton gets it. The Fantastics hit a rocket launcher, and get a 3 count! The crowd goes nuts. But, the count was made by Tommy Young. The ref's original ref, Randy Anderson, was thrown over the top rope during the last melee. He waves the finish off and declares the Express winners by DQ. The fight continues. Cornette takes out both refs and the Express lash Fulton's back with a belt. Rogers chases them off with a chair. The first of many classics these two teams will put on during the course of the year, but I've gotta knock it down a tad for the Dusty Finish. ****

Jim Cornette helps out with promoting sister TBS show The New Leave it to Beaver, acting with one of the show's stars in character. The seeds are also announced for the 3rd (and last until its 2019 revival) Crockett Cup.

Barbed Wire Match: The Road Warriors and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes  (w/Paul Ellering) def The Powers of Pain and Ivan Koloff (w/Paul Jones) in 3:39- The heels attacked Dusty and the Roadies "last night" on weekly TV and dropped a barbell on Animal's face, injuring his eye. Animal's in a very pseudo-Retribution mask for protection. The POP have belts on but no one on TV mentions them. My crack research staff (well, me) say it's the rarely seen and seldom heard of NWA World Six Man tag belts, which the POP and Koloff had taken from Dusty and LOD about a month before. Barbed wire is loosely wrapped around all the ring ropes for this match. It's one of those pure chaos, all six guys fighting the whole time deals and hard to recap. The heels take some wire grazing first and Koloff is bleeding. Hawk press slams Koloff. Dusty gets busted open on the wire because no way in hell was Dusty getting through this match without bleeding. Animal hits headbutts with the mask. He hits Warlord with a powerslam, and dodges Barbarian's headbutt off the top rope, to win. Afterward the heels beat Animal down, take the mask off and work the injured eye some more before they're chased off. 3/4*

NWA World Tag Team Championship: Lex Luger and Barry Windham def Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard (c) (w/JJ Dillon) in 9:35- Luger had just left the Horsemen, a slot that was still vacant. More on that later. Tully and Luger start. Luger shockingly wins the lockup. Arn tries to jump him from behind but Luger fights them both off. Powerslam on Tully! Torture Rack! Arn clips Luger's knee, tags in, and goes to work on it. Luger pushes both Horsemen into each other and gets a tag. Windham hits a flying lariat and powerslam on Tully but doesn't try for any covers. Sleeper! Tully goes through the ropes, but Windham hangs on all the way to the floor! He lets go to prevent a countout and Arn comes over to revive Tully. Tully goes up top and gets slammed off. Abdominal stretch. Dillon distracts the ref, and Arn comes in to break it up. Arn with a DDT. World's Greatest Spinebuster! Windham kicks out! Windham gets a crossbody on Tully for 2. Midring collision. They do the bridge up spot, but Windham flips the script and turns it into a gutwrench suplex. Arn prevents a tag. Tully hits the slingshot suplex, and Windham *just* kicks out of it! Windham recovers, flops down, and uses his super long arms to get the tag! Luger cleans house. Powerslam on Arn. Donnybrook! Dillon sets up a chair, but Arn is run into it! Luger covers, and gets the pin and the titles! HUGE pop. Fantastic sprint of a tag match. Luger and Windham would only hold the titles for a few weeks, dropping them back to Arn and Tully on weekly TV when Windham turned on Luger and joined the Horsemen. ***3/4

In case there's a draw in the world title match we've got the not uncommon NWA gimmick of judges at ringside, a mix of actual wrestling business folks and celebrities.

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) and Sting go to a 45:00 time limit draw- JJ Dillon is suspended above the ring in a cage for this match. Flair gives us a WOOOOOO and we're off. Sting throws out his own yell. Flair tries a hair pull. Sting kips up and has none of it. Arm counters end in a test of strength that Sting wins despite Flair's attempts at mind games. Chop no sell. Sting gets a hiptoss/dropkick combo and Flair goes out to have a think. Back in Flair gets a cheap shot on a rope break. A speed sequence ends with a Sting press slam. Sting with a flying headscissors! Headlock work. Flair does the usual tights pulling to try to roll Sting into a pin. He gets up and gets Sting to the corner and chops again. Another Sting hiptoss. Flair grabs the top rope to keep from walking into the dropkick, but then Flair Flops! He throws Sting out but he pops right back in. Sting with mounted punches. Back to the headlock. Sting's bleeding on his chest from one of the early chops. Back in the corner, Flair gets a hard punch in Sting's gut and more chops. Sting counters with press slam 2. Bear hug! Flair fights it and tries to reach out for the ropes, but Sting cranks it and Flair falls down. Near fall! Flair's selling this thing out to the cheap seats and maybe even to the buildings next door. Finally Sting lets go and tries an elbow drop. Flair dodges but Sting no sells again. Flair dodges a corner charge and Sting elbows the top turnbuckle. Flair Flop 2! More mounted punches. Flair counters with an inverted atomic drop. He drags Sting out and whips him into the barricade. Big chops. Sting collapses after a corner whip and Flair starts to get rolling and get cocky. Kneedrops. More chops. He throws Sting out again and grabs a chair but Tommy Young takes it away. Back in Flair hits chops and clubbing blows, but Sting starts hulking up. A Sting punch sends Flair 360 over and out. Sting follows. Flair dodges and Sting clotheslines the post! Flair starts working the arm. Sting tries to hulk up again. Hiptoss and clothesline for 2. Suplex. Scorpion Death Lock! Flair quickly gets to the ropes. Another chop, another no sell. Flair Flop 3! Sting covers but Flair gets a foot on the rope. Flair dodges a corner charge and Sting flies over the top and to the floor. He recovers, goes up top, and hits a crossbody off the top rope that Flair just kicks out of. He grabs another headlock but Flair counters with a kneebreaker. Sharpen your pencils kids, we're going to school. Flair picks the knee apart, hits a back suplex for variety and hooks in the figure four. Cat and mouse rope leverage game with Young. Sting slowly pulls together, drags Flair away from the ropes, and reverses it. It takes Flair a bit of time to get out of the hold. He goes back to the knee. Flair rolls to the apron, hooks Sting up and teases suplexing him to the floor! Sting reverses it. He goes for a big splash but Flair gets his knees up. Off a whip Sting reverses a Flair move and hooks in an abdominal stretch. 10 minutes left. Flair hiptosses out but misses the follow up elbow. Flair goes up top and gets slammed off. Sting drags him to the corner and crotches him on the post. Sting hooks in a figure four! Flair fights it a while and finally gets to the ropes. Sting stays on the knee. Flair jaws with Young and sells a Young shove. Flair Flip! The knee gives out on the apron and he falls to the floor. Sting gives him a guardrail shot and a table shot. Flair's posted and he falls over the guardrail. He's also bleeding. Not normal Flair bleeding, just a little bit. 5 minutes left. Flair sunset flips back in. Sting says screw you, then blocks another inverted atomic drop attempt. 4 minutes left. Big Sting clothesline and cover, but Flair has a foot on the rope. Flair dodges the Stinger Splash! Sting flies out to the floor again. 3 minutes left. Flair hooks in a sleeper. Sting rams him into the top turnbuckle. Flair Flop 4! Sting with a sunset flip. 2 minutes left. Flair drops down, covers Sting's shoulders with his knees, and grabs the rope for leverage. Young sees it and kicks his hands off. Sting reverses into a cover! Long 2 count! The crowd bit that one. Flair Flip 2! He gets across the apron. goes up top, and gets off with a crossbody! Sting reverses it! Flair JUST kicks out! More Sting no sells and he goes into full crazy ass Sting hulk up mode. 1 minute left. Sting mounted punches. Stinger Splash! Flair Flop 5! Scorpion! 30 seconds left. Flair manages to fight it, not give up, and the bell rings for the time limit. Sting is officially a made man. His inexperience showed as this was by far his biggest and longest singles match to date, but that closing stretch was absolutely tremendous. ***1/2

Somehow despite there being an odd number of judges, they still manage to score the match a draw. I think the only point of this was to hold viewers through the last commercial break.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: After the disaster that was Bunkhouse Stampede, this was an absolute triumph for the NWA that was 100% worthy of standing toe to toe with Wrestlemania (aided by the fact it was a pretty weak WM). Sting getting put on the national map is a match every fan should see at least once, and both tag title matches are must sees as well.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A