Clash of the Champions III

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions III: Fall Brawl

September 7, 1988 from the Albany Civic Center in Albany, GA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

Ric Flair doesn't have a match scheduled, so he's joining Tony Schiavone in the hosting booth. Flair's playing it less in character and more straight down the middle, even putting the guy he's currently feuding with, Lex Luger, over as a "great talent".

NWA World Television Championship: Mike Rotunda (c) (w/Kevin Sullivan) and Brad Armstrong go to a 20:00 time limit draw- Usual mix of amateur takedowns and stalling at the start from Rotunda. He pops Armstrong with a chop and uppercuts in the corner. Springboard reverse crossbody from Rotunda, but Armstrong reverses it for 2. Rotunda powders. More uppercuts that Armstrong's doing some nice spit selling for. Shawn Michaels-esque. The first two rows will get wet. Armstrong gets a hiptoss and dropkick, and covers for 2. Rotunda slides out to think again. While both guys run the ropes Armstrong grabs a crazy armdrag. Rotunda kips up out of an armbar and uses tights to get Armstrong in the corner. He catches Armstrong with a knee in the gut while running the ropes, drops him over the top rope and throws him out. Sullivan gets shots in. Rotunda suplexes him back in for a 2 count. To the chinlocks! Ref Tommy Young catches Rotunda getting rope leverage. He pounds on Armstrong a bit while Armstrong tries to fight and stay on his feet. A diving clothesline kills the comeback attempt. Rotunda drops an elbow and covers for 2. Armstrong's thrown out again and Sullivan gets a couple more shots in. Armstrong sunset flips back in and gets a 2 count. Steve Williams comes out to ringside and tries to pump Armstrong up. Rotunda gets distracted by him and Armstrong wraps up a small package for 2. 3 minutes left. Rotunda does an airplane spin, but spins himself too much and can't follow up. 2 minutes left. Gutwrench suplex from Rotunda for 2. Small package for 2. 1 minute left. Rotunda half nelsons Armstrong on the mat and tries to get a pin with his foot on the ropes. Finally he covers Armstrong over and over again, with Armstrong kicking out every time until time runs out. Williams helps an exhausted Armstrong out of the ring. Solid stuff. Armstrong showed great babyface fire by refusing to be beat, but it would have been nice if he'd gotten some offense in the second half of the match. **3/4

JR says Jimmy Garvin will be out indefinitely with a broken leg and cues up footage from weekly TV of the attack from Sullivan and Rotunda that did the damage.

 

Nikita Koloff and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams def The Sheepherders (w/Rip Morgan) in 17:07- Fast start with the Herders immediately getting Williams into their corner and they pound on him until Williams fights out. Williams runs Luke over with a shoulderblock. Football tackles for everyone. Morgan gets in the ring, sees Williams in the 3 point stance pointed straight at him, sees his life flash before his eyes and bails out again. Butch dodges a Koloff corner charge and celebrates. Koloff, king of no selling, hits Butch from behind and has a bodyslam party on the heels. Koloff no sells a double team. A Williams clothesline sends Luke out. Williams suplexes him back in. Williams goes up top and hits a crossbody! Big guy flying alert. Butch breaks the pin up. Luke and Koloff have a moment while Young is jawing with Morgan where they look like they get lost and don't know what to do next. Luke does an eye rake to get going again. Koloff shrugs that off quickly and hits an armdrag and dropkick. Williams goes for another big football tackle, but Luke dodges and he posts his shoulder. The heels commence the beat down. Williams starts hulking up and no selling. An eye rake puts him back in peril. He dodges a double team, Butch hits Luke off the apron, and Williams gets the tag. Morgan hits Koloff with his flagpole. Fistdrop off the second rope by Luke for 2. Butch taunts and spits at Williams to bait him in and the heels double team. Luke locks on a sleeper. Koloff gets out but can't get the tag. He ducks under a clothesline and punches Luke 360 and out. Morgan hits Williams in the back with the flagpole to keep him from tagging. Luke tries coming off the top rope. Koloff dodges and tags out. Williams picks Luke up to press slam him. Butch clips him. Williams manages to tag out. Koloff comes in, immediately decapitates Luke with the Sickle, and gets the pin. Again, solid stuff. **1/2

 

No DQ Match: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes def Kevin Sullivan (w/Gary Hart) in 6:59- This is billed as a grudge match even though there hasn't been much of a feud, even though these guys had crossed paths in Florida before. Why Hart's managing Sullivan when Sullivan is already a manager himself, you've got me. Probably a "I hate Dusty" thing. Dusty no sells Sullivan offense, hits a bionic elbow and Sullivan goes out. Dusty smashes him into the announce table again and again and again then throws him into Hart. He pounds Sullivan with elbows in the corner over Young until Sullivan pops him with a karate thrust to the throat. They go outside again and Dusty takes a guardrail shot. Hart hits Dusty with his shoe. Who uses a shoe, honestly? Hart passes a spike to Sullivan. He jams it into Dusty's throat. Dusty gets out of a chinlock with a blatant low blow. Stick and move jabs. Another elbow makes Sullivan drop the spike. Dusty scoops it up and nails him with it. Cover, but Hart pulls him off. Dusty chases. Al Perez comes to ringside with the dog collars and chain to be used in a future Dusty/Sullivan dog collar match commentary has been hyping up and hits Dusty in the back with the chain. Perez and Sullivan beat Dusty down with the chain in the ring. They stretch it out to clothesline him, but Dusty dives on it to pull them into each other. Then Dusty grabs Hart, small packages him, and Young counts 3? The great googly left eyeball of the Great Mowjowl hell was that? Dusty celebrates in the crowd after. What a stupid finish. Not much of a match either. 3/4*

Former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman and former UWF commissioner John Ayers is in the hosting box with Tony and Flair. Ayers will be the special ref for a future Flair/Luger rematch. He tries to talk about it but Flair realizes Ayers is getting run over by Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor and Too Tall Jones simultaneously and jumps in to save him. That was bad. Like worst promos of all time bad.

The ring announcer Lillian Botches the intro for the next match and calls it a "Russian Chainsaw Match."

Russian Chain Match: Ricky Morton def Ivan Koloff (w/Paul Jones and Russian Assassin #1) in 9:52- Robert Gibson left the promotion again after the Bash tour due to a pay dispute. Morton was playing nice and working out the rest of his contract, but would also leave later this month. All Koloff to start with throat shots and chokes with the chain. Morton slides under Koloff and crotches him with the chain. Koloff recovers and hits two corners before Morton flips him out of it. JR covers for Ayers saying, "He's a big guy that doesn't do a lot of talking. Public speaking isn't his forte". Morton tries to work Koloff's leg, which is sound strategery. He tries to drag him and hit corners but Koloff quickly stops him. Koloff goes up top. Morton yanks the chain to pull him off. Koloff hangs Morton across his back with the chain. Koloff gets to 3 corners before Morton wraps up his legs and drags him down. Koloff tries the top rope again. When he comes down both guys and the chain collide. Morton recovers first. He gets to 3 corners. Koloff grapevines the rope and grabs Jones' riding crop to hold himself back. After a bit Koloff loses his grip on the crop and Morton falls into the last corner to win. Decent finish to a terrible match. This was not the kind of match Morton should be trying to work and it showed. 1/2*

After the match RA1 beats Morton down while Koloff and Jones argue in the ring, bringing long simmering tensions to a boil. Koloff punches Jones. RA1 hits Koloff from behind, and a brand new RA2 runs into the ring. The heels beat Koloff down. The plan for this was to turn Koloff face to team him back up with comrade nephew Nikita, leading to a Starrcade match against the Russian Assassins. But as luck would have it, Nikita took a leave of absence soon after this show to deal with a family emergency. The Starrcade match would still go on, but with the Junkyard Dog randomly teaming with Ivan.

JR has Ayers at ringside to give him a second chance to cut a coherent promo. Thankfully they keep it short. Ayers stays at ringside for the next match which I'm sure is not a setup in any way whatsoever.

 

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Sting def Barry Windham (c) (w/JJ Dillon) by DQ in 21:14- Huge yell from Sting and we're off. He hits a couple of armdrags and Windham's hot. Speed sequence. Sting lands on Windham's shoulders during a leapfrog and the way they shrug it off I'm not sure it was planned. A dropkick sends Windham outside. Big Windham back suplex out of a headlock. Sting pops right back up and hits more dropkicks. Sting offers Windham a free shot, but Windham wants a test of strength instead. It's a RUSE, as Windham uses it to give Sting a kick in the gut. Mounted punches from Windham. Sting counters it into an inverted atomic drop. Mounted punches from Sting and Windham does a wonderful super delayed flop out of the corner. He's learned from the best. Sting yells in Dillon's ear to annoy him. Windham dodges an elbow drop, takes it outside and beats Sting down on the floor. Slam on the floor. Big Windham suplex back in. Sting gets a sunset flip for 2. Windham powerslam. Desperation small package from Sting for 2. He dodges a corner charge and Windham files over the corner, across the top rope, and eventually to the floor. Sting posts Windham and he's bleeding. More great dazed selling from Windham, wildly punching the air and walking over the rail into the crowd. Back in, Sting bites the cut and does a couple of back rakes. Sleeper. Windham goes down, fights it, and tries to run Sting into the corner. Sting anticipates it, pushes Windham into the corner, then locks the sleeper back on off the ricochet. Windham finally uses a kneebreaker to get out. He works Sting's knee a bit and hooks on a figure four. Young breaks it up when he sees Dillon helping. Sting punches back and hits a suplex. Windham rolls through it and locks in that little known variant of the Claw, the Black Gloved Titty Twister of Extreme Torque +2. Sting runs Windham around and uses momentum to send him outside. Backdrop and elbow drops from Sting back in. They lose their spot for a second and have to maneuver around in a very obvious way, ending with Young taking a clothesline. Stinger Splash! Sting hooks the Scorpion in but there's no ref. Dillon comes in with a chair and Windham whacks Sting in the head with it. He covers and Young is back in to count, but Ayers comes in, pulls Windham off, and raises Sting's hand as winner by DQ. OK, did he have that authority for this match? What's his position anyway? Damn good show saving main event marred by another shitty finish. ***1/2

The show closes with Flair, fully back in character, cutting a killer promo on Ayers and Luger. "To be the man you've got to beat the man, and I'm THE MAN! Wooooooooooooooooooooooo". Tony runs down the NWA shows coming up on TBS this weekend and for every one Flair says "I'll be the star of that one too". Hilarious.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Windham and Sting is worth a look despite the finish, but that's about it. Dusty's creative juice was at a low ebb here and the promotion as a whole was in rough shape despite a pretty good Bash tour. It would turn out this would be the last major show under the Jim Crockett Promotions banner. The next Clash in December takes place just after the sell to Turner.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C