Clash of the Champions XV

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XV: Knocksville USA

June 12, 1991 from the Civic Auditorium in Knoxville, TN

Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone

 

Missy Hyatt and Paul E Dangerously "I didn't know we were starting already" hijinks open things up. We're live, pal.

The Young Pistols and "The Z Man" Tom Zenk def WCW United States Tag Team Champions The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Big Daddy Dink) in 4:49- This is the short lived three man Freebirds unit with Badstreet (Brad Armstrong under a mask). They've got a whole entourage on their entrance: Dink, Diamond Dallas Page and a Diamond Doll. After a one show break the Freebirds and the former Southern Boys are opening again, the fourth time in the last five Clashes. Garvin and Zenk start. Zenk has hiptosses and dropkicks for everyone. The Pistols hit Garvin and Hayes with crossbodys off the top and the heels regroup. Hayes and Smothers go back and forth for a bit. Garvin gets slammed off the top rope. Zenk with a slingshot double clothesline on Hayes and Garvin! The heels get Smothers running and take him out at the end of it. Badstreet knocks the other faces off the apron to allow the other Freebirds to work on Smothers on the floor. Once they get back in we're all donnybrooking! The heels throw the faces out a couple of times. After the second time the face team hits a triple sunset flip, and ref Bill Alphonso works his way down the line counting one on each of them for 3! They did what they could with the time they got. *1/2

We get an ad for a contest to meet Ric Flair at Great American Bash '91. Yeah, about that....I wonder what the winner ended up getting.

Oz (w/the Wizard) def Johnny Rich in 1:29- This is Oz's second major appearance after his woeful Superbrawl debut. They've still got the castle backdrop but fortunately the rest is toned down. The match is a total destruction squash. Oz finishes it with the helicopter slam. Awful gimmick aside, Nash looked pretty good. 1/4*

 

"Dangerous" Dan Spivey def Big Josh in 2:49- Commentary tries to make Josh sound like a rookie even though it's veteran Matt Bourne. Slugfest start. Spivey hits a corner clothesline. Josh with a .5 spinebuster and some ground and pound. "Just like at the logging camp!" JR says. Really? Do loggers spend a lot of time pounding away on beavers or something? I'm taking about actual beavers, that wasn't a euphemism. Spivey gets a Japanese armdrag and big boot. Josh dodges a corner charge and hits a Saito suplex. Kevin Sullivan comes to ringside, sans Wizard mask. He whacks Josh with a crutch. Spivey clotheslines Josh from behind and German suplexes him for 3. Sullivan's attack was on behalf of a gentleman he was managing by the name of Black Blood, who was actually Billy Jack Haynes in a mask. Haynes and Bourne had feuded back when they first broke into wrestling up in the Portland territory. 1/2*

Paul E is back for a Danger Zone segment with The Wonder Years actor Jason Hervey, an avowed WCW superfan who had appeared on shows before (in fact he'd go on to take a backstage job with WCW in its later years, and later on even work for TNA so he was the real deal). Hervey was supposedly dating Missy Hyatt at the time. Real or kayfabe, I have no idea. I will say that, if Wiki is to be believed, Hyatt was 28 at the time and Hervey only 19 so draw your own conclusions there. Paul E does the old heel trick of not letting the guest talk, talks about Hervey's new house and new car, and even seems to channel Brother Love's cadence at one point. When he gets to talk Hervey throws Paul E losing matches to Hyatt back in his face. Paul E responds with "If everything in your life is new, why is your girlfriend damaged goods?" Oh snap. Paul E's read the dirt sheets. Hervey gets pissed and leaves, but when he turns his back Paul E gives him a shot with his phone. Hyatt runs out screaming to check on him. And scene.

 

"The Natural" Dustin Rhodes def Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandra York and Mr. Hughes) by DQ in 4:27- This is a rematch from Superbrawl, a Rhodes win. Taylor comes out shoving and Dustin gets hot. Dustin corner clothesline for 2. Taylor rechecks the computer. Back in Dustin hits a couple of atomic drops. Taylor dodges and Dustin posts his shoulder, falling to the floor. Taylor suplexes him back in. Gut wrench powerbomb for 2. Dustin sunset flip for 2. Backslide fight. Dustin wins for 2. Dustin gets a boot up in the corner and cranks up the comeback. Bionic elbow and mounted punches. Bulldog! Hughes distracts the ref. While Dustin's taking care of him Ricky Morton comes out. Morton attacks Dustin! Well, I guess we know who the advertised new York Foundation member is. Big Josh runs out and fights the heels off with his ax handle. Even with the time constraints and booking, it's almost impossible to have a bad match with Terry Taylor. **1/4

 

Sting def Nikita Koloff in 9:33- Koloff had targeted Sting since his early '91 return, and attacked him while Sting and Luger were having an all time classic tag title match with the Steiners at Superbrawl. Sting charges in but Koloff is waiting and ready, taking over from the start. They go outside and Sting gets run into the guardrail. Back in Koloff brags to the crowd. Sting takes the opening and hits a piledriver. Koloff no sells! He takes back over targeting Sting's hurt ribs. Koloff with a tombstone. Arrogant cover, and Sting kicks out! Koloff punches out of a sunset flip, but stalls after and Sting gets him rolled over for 2. More Koloff offense targeting the ribs. Sting looks like he's trying to hulk up so Koloff tosses him out again. Sting reverses a whip and Koloff eats guardrail! But Sting's too damaged to follow up. Koloff goes for another tombstone. Sting reverses and hits it! Sting comeback with chops and kicks. Koloff dodges the Stinger Splash. Sting ducks the Russian Sickle, Koloff bounces off the corner, and Sting rolls him up for 3! After the pin Sting gets the hell out of town. Damn solid stuff, with a good layout of Koloff beating the hell out of Sting, but Sting taking advantage of one mistake to beat him. They'd blow off the feud with a Russian Chain Match at GAB. ***

PN News does rap things. Johnny B Badd and Teddy Long interrupt and they have an enlightened discussion on the merits of early rap versus the stylings of Motown.

 

Loser Leaves WCW Match: Barry Windham and Arn Anderson def "Flyin'" Brian Pillman and El Gigante in 3:08- Dusty's back on the book so you can already see how this entire angle is going to play out. Only the loser of the fall has to leave WCW, not the whole losing team. This had all been simmering since the War Games match at Wrestle War. Pillman and Arn start. After a good back and forth Pillman gets a backslide for 2. While in a Pillman headscissors Windham pops him with a hard right and hits a DDT for 2. Arn goes up top. Pillman dropkicks him off! Modified plancha! That was kind of like SANADA's plancha, how he hits more with the arm than body and always lands on his feet. Arn gets in the wrong part of town and Gigante chokes him. Pillman with a powerslam on Windham. He goes up top....no, that's not good enough. He gets on Gigante's shoulders, and jumps off with a crossbody onto Windham! It's only good for 2. He goes up top again but Windham trips him off. Windham nails Pillman with a hard kick to the face, almost like a Randy Orton skull punt, and gets the pin! Pillman is out of WCW. He would show back up almost immediately under a mask with the awful name The Yellow Dog. Dusty booking this is almost as cliche as Gene Roddenberry writing an original Star Trek series script about a god-like alien or a society run by computer. Stick with what you know, I guess. Match was fun for the insanely short time it got and benefited greatly from Gigante staying parked on the apron the whole time. **

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) def Masahiro Chono and Hiroshi Hase in 8:14- The Steiners were also the WCW World tag champs but that's not on the line in this one. They defeated the team of Hase and Kensuke Sasaki for the IWGP titles at the Tokyo Dome show. Hase and Scott start with some feeling out mat wrestling. Scott gets a leg takedown. He goes for another but Hase rolls through and kicks Scott to the floor! Back in Scott gets a hot shot for 2. They fight for leverage on the mat and Hase bridges up. Another spinning kick to Scott's head. Hase cinches Scott in, but as soon as he does Scott snaps a northern lights suplex of his own! Tags. Rick and Chono turn up the stiffness that was already at about a 8 or 9. Chono kicks Rick so hard right in the head it splits his headgear in two! Rick wrestles the rest of the match with it dangling off. Steinerline! Scott hoists Chono on his shoulder like a Canadian backbreaker and Rick drops him with an elbow off the top rope! Chono responds with a spinning back fist. Rick German suplexes Hase. Hase hits him with a delayed northern lights. Chono with a flying tackle off the top rope. He Samoan Drops Rick and Hase comes out of frame with a kneedrop off the top. Chono hooks in the STF while Scott and Hase fight. Scott suplexes Hase on the floor, then goes up top and....misses Chono completely. A legit whiff. Yeesh. Scott recovers to double ax handle Chono in the back to break the STF up. Chono/Rick double clothesline. Tags. Scott Steinerline on Hase. Tilt a whirl slam. Double underhook powerbomb. Scott puts Hase on the top rope. Belly to belly superplex! Chono breaks the pin up. Hase slips out of a slam and plants Scott with a dragon suplex! Rick breaks that pin up. Double clothesline on Scott after Rick's knocked to the floor. Scott hits a Frankensteiner outta nowhere for the pin. That was your usual Steiners/NJPW stiff fest, but it didn't get enough time to hit that upper echelon. The NJPW team didn't get much offense, probably because they knew the crowd wouldn't care. Shame. That's one thing I love about modern wrestling, thanks to everything being internet accessible now you can put an IWGP tag title match on, say, an AEW show and the crowd would go apeshit for it all. ***1/2

After the match the Hardliners (Trevor Murdoch and Dick Slater) run out and attack everyone. They use Murdoch's boot on Rick's arm to try to injure it. Ironically, at some point during this attack Scott suffered a torn biceps that would put him on the shelf for a while. They'd have to relinquish the WCW tag titles, but New Japan let them keep the IWGP belts until Scott healed up. And the Hardliners' push disappeared. Punishment for hurting Scott?

The Diamond Studd (w/Diamond Dallas Page) def "Wildfire" Tommy Rich in 1:59- Rich gets some token offense in as he's a former world champ and all, but this is pretty much another squash. The Diamond Death Drop (Razor's Edge) ends it. 1/2*

JR brings out the winner of a kid's Sting look alike contest, then brings out the real deal to make the kid's night. They have matching face paint which is pretty cool. While they're enjoying themselves Nikita Koloff sneaks in and nails Sting with his chain-wrapped arm again. No blood this time sadly. Koloff makes for the kid but his mom jumps over to cover him, then security gets him out. Moms are tough.

 

#1 Contender's Match: WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "The Total Package" Lex Luger def The Great Muta in 3:43- The winner of this match gets a world title shot at GAB. Muta is coming off a win over old rival Sting at the Tokyo Dome show. He lets off some green mist and we're off. Feeling out start. Headlock/headscissors exchange. Luger hits a shoulderblock and no sells a chop. He ducks a Muta spinning kick and hits a back suplex for 2. Muta dodges an elbow drop. Luger with a press slam. Muta responds with a spinning back kick. Luger dodges the handspring elbow and Muta flies down to the floor! Luger tries to suplex him back in but Muta slips out. He shoots off the green mist. Luger blocks it with his arm! Powerslam! That gets the pin. Man, these guys got royally screwed for time. It was OK for what they could do. Luger continues to lurch toward "I don't give a shit anymore" status. *3/4

 

"Stunning" Steve Austin (w/Lady Blossom) def "Jumpin'" Joey Maggs in :25- Bell, Stun Gun, done. The match where Austin defeated Bobby Eaton for the TV title had been taped but didn't air until the week after this show. In one of the few good moves of the era, they knew they had a special talent in Austin and pushed him hard right away. NR

Richard Morton, with a new business professional first name and in a suit, formally joins the York Foundation. Robert Gibson comes out, says he's been cleared to wrestle after his injury and what the hell's up with his tag partner not returning his calls? Morton says it's all about the money, pops Gibson and piledrives him. Thus ends the biggest tag team breakup practically no one remembers today.

2 Out Of 3 Falls Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) def "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton in 14:26- Officially Eaton is still the TV champ, but he doesn't have the belt and isn't announced as it because of the title change already being in the can.

FIRST FALL- After a clean corner break Flair gives us a WOOOOOOO. Back to the corner again. Flair shoves and Eaton slaps! Flair backs up and falls down in shock. Chops lead to a slugfest. During a speed run Flair drops down. Eaton stops and plants an elbow on him, then clotheslines him 360 and out. Flair stays out for a while to slow things down. Back in Flair hits forearms and chops. Eaton chops back. Flair Flop! Flair begs off. Eaton gets a hiptoss and locks on a short arm scissors. Flair tries to roll out but Eaton rolls through it. Finally Flair grabs a rope. Eaton stays on the arm. Flair drop toe holds out of a hammerlock. Flair chop, Eaton straight right hand. Flair backs off all around the ring and catches Eaton coming back in. A chop catches Eaton in the nose. Flair whips Eaton into the ring post! Snap mare/kneedrop for 2. Flair double underhook suplex. He tries for a leverage pin but ref Nick Patrick catches him. Flair goes up top and gets slammed off. Flair Flip! Eaton punches him off the apron. Backbreaker from Eaton. Running swinging neckbreaker! Eaton goes up top. Alabama Jam! That gets a pin!

SECOND FALL- Eaton pummels Flair with vicious rapid fire open hand slaps in the corner. Flair kicks back and there's another chop/right hand punch exchange. Flair Flop 2! Eaton backslide for 2. Flair tries for a slam but Eaton falls on him for 2. Another swinging neckbreaker. Flair's selling the neck big time. Eaton goes up top again. Flair shakes the rope and Eaton falls to the floor! He hurt his knee on the landing. Uh oh. Eaton can't get back in and Patrick counts him out.

THIRD FALL- Eaton gets back in and tries to chop back. He gets Flair up top and hits a superplex! Both guys are down with hurt body parts, Flair's neck and Eaton's knee. Eaton crawls over and covers. Flair kicks out! Flair goes for a kneebreaker but hits a kind of back suplex on the knee instead. Figure four! Flair reaches all the way to the top rope for extreme leverage and Patrick easily catches him. He goes for it again and Eaton wraps up a small package for 2. Flair clips the knee. Figure four in the middle of the ring. Eaton fights while Flair gradually maneuvers toward the ropes. He grabs one again for leverage. Eaton's shoulders go down and Patrick counts the pin. A great match that could have been even better. Put this on a PPV and give them 30 minutes and you'd be talking about an all time classic, and probably a very different late career trajectory for the always underrated Eaton. This would turn out to be Flair's final major appearance for WCW before his disagreements with Jim Herd finally convinced him to take Vince up on his offer to jump up north, taking Big Gold along for the ride. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It's not great, but it's certainly the best Clash in a good while. Take out all the quick squash matches Herd and Dusty were determined to get on Clashes and give more time to the matches that mattered and you probably would be talking about a truly great show. The company had a bit of momentum following a run of solid shows (Wrestle War, Tokyo Dome, Superbrawl) but that would all completely collapse, along with wrestler morale, after Flair's departure and they'd go on to put on possibly the worst major company PPV of all time, Great American Bash '91.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-