Clash of the Champions XVI

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XVI: Fall Brawl

September 5, 1991 from the Richmond County Civic Center in Augusta, GA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone

This is the third Clash to carry the Fall Brawl moniker before the PPV of the same name was created. It'd also be the final Clash with a subtitle save one special one. A lot has happened in WCW since the last Clash, most notably Ric Flair leaving the company for the WWF while world champion. Lex Luger won the vacant world title at the Great American Bash, which meant he had to vacate the US title. Double champions, not a thing back then. That title was won by Sting for his first ever run with the US belt. Meanwhile, there were TWO (yes two) championship tournaments going on at this time: one for the newly created Light Heavyweight title, the other to fill the vacant world tag team titles after Scott Steiner's injury.

"Georgia Brawl" Battle Roayle- Your participants are Steve Austin, Barry Windham, El Gigante, One Man Gang, Terrance Taylor, Big Josh, Thomas Rich, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, Oz, Ranger Ross, Tom Zenk, PN News, Dustin Rhodes, Bobby Eaton and Tracy Smothers. Several of these guys will be doing double duty later tonight. Josh, Dustin and Zenk all wear their 6 man belts to the ring, proving they did exist at one point. The majority of the match is the usual battle royale wandering around and brawling, and it's about half the match gone before anyone's eliminated. Josh skins the cat, headscissors Taylor over to the floor but can't stop himself from going over, and Ross joins them in elimination because why not. OMG, Oz and Austin get triple squashed in the corner. OMG three quarters backdrops Eaton over the top onto the ramp, which counts as an elimination. News throws himself over the corner to the floor. Austin and Windham eliminate each other and keep fighting on the floor after. The final four are OMG, Gigante, Oz and Dustin. After a bit of fighting the heels dump Dustin over. While their backs are turned Gigante sneaks up behind and double clotheslines them over to win. Nothing special even by battle royale standards. 1/2*

Light Heavyweight Tournament Semi-Final: "Flyin'" Brian Pillman def Badstreet in 6:52- This is Pillman's "return" after the end of the Yellow Dog angle. Ref Randy "Pee Wee" Anderson makes the Freebirds vacate the ringside area before the match even starts. Smart. Badstreet begs off after a Pillman shoulderblock. Pillman flying headscissors and victory roll for 2. Badstreet flips Pillman over the top, who lands on his feet on the apron and comes back in with not just a sunset flip, but a *springboard* sunset flip for 2. Going the extra mile. Badstreet goes to the apron on the other side. Pillman hooks him up to suplex him back in, but after a lot of counters and teases Badstreet suplexes Pillman over the top down to the floor! The old Canadian Stampede Special. Pillman's run into the guardrail and knocks over someone's popcorn. While both guys are on the apron Badstreet pulls Pillman's tights and he goes back first into the post. Pillman comes back in with a slingshot tackle for 2. Badstreet neckbreaker for 2. Badstreet goes up top and Pillman dropkicks him to the floor! TOPE SUICIDA! MAMA MIA! Pillman went full freaking speed on that, he *crashed* head first into the guardrail. Pillman goes up top and goes for a dropkick off, but Badstreet also goes for a dropkick as a counter at the same time! Fantastic. After a little recovery time Pillman hits a spinning heel kick for 2. Badstreet counters a backdrop with the Freebird DDT for 2. Pillman wraps up a crucifix. Badstreet drops him down! He sets up a superplex. Pillman headbutts him off, hits a crossbody off the top, and that gets the pin! Damn that was fun. Not a second wasted. That was very much a New Japan junior heavyweight style match that hadn't been seen much at all in the US yet. They'd see a lot more of it when Pillman and a guy named Jushin Thunder Liger got together in a few months' time. This was Brad Armstrong's last major match playing Badstreet. After the Arachnaman disaster he'd finally get to go back to just being himself without any masks, and would end up being the last guy to carry the original Light Heavyweight title in the fall of '92. ***1/4

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Sting (c) def Johnny B Badd (w/Teddy Long) in 6:11- Badd is being billed as undefeated. Or in JR-speak "undefeated on TV". Um, Sting forgot the belt. Did Luger refuse to give it back or something? During the early part of the match we get footage of a recent incident involving Sting: recently on TV Sting was gifted with a giant present box by persons unknown. The box turned out to have Abdullah the Butcher inside, who took Sting out. This will be relevant later. Sting offers Badd the Code of Honor handshake despite Badd being a heel, and Badd takes it with no shenanigans. Speed start with a Sting backdrop. He goes for a Vader bomb but Badd gets his knees up. Badd sunset flip off the top rope for 2. Sting small package for 2. Pause to reset after a very high octane start. The crowd's really into it. Arm wringer tradeoff. Badd misses an elbow charge in the corner and Sting works that arm. Badd no sells a suplex and takes a couple of swings. Badd's legitimate background as a boxer was very much in play for his character. JR says another giant present box has been delivered on the ramp. Sting and Badd fumble around really badly in the corner, with Badd flat falling down at one point not knowing what he was supposed to do. Finally they get it straight and Badd dodges the Stinger Splash. Badd sees the box and thinks it for him. Long tells him it's not and to stay focused. Sting sees the box and the match stops. After another lockup Sting rolls up a really ugly Paul Smackage (Badd's fault, not his) for 3. Right after the bell Cactus Jack springs out of the box, runs Long over, and attacks Sting. Cactus Elbow off the second turnbuckle to the floor over the announce table! Jack plants Sting with the double underhook DDT in the ring and leaves. The match started good but fell apart in the second half. Badd was still pretty green and it showed. *1/2

 

Light Heavyweight Tournament Semi-Final: Richard Morton (w/Alexandra York) def Mike Graham in 7:40- Mike Graham is one of those guys that you can't expect a lot of personality from, but he'll always give you a solid to good match. He was mainly an '80s territory guy in the tail run of his career so the crowd either doesn't know or doesn't care who he is. Combine that with Morton's ill-advised heel turn and you have a pretty disinterested atmosphere. Nice basic counter wrestling start. Morton gets a double leg takedown into a Boston crab. Graham flips him over to get out and they have an exchange of quick near falls. Graham slaps Morton, who powders to think and check the computer. A headscissors leads to the bridge up spot. Tony points out how this match has stayed on the mat in contrast to the previous light heavyweight match, which is a good point and and a smart layout. Too bad no one cares. Graham German suplexes Morton off the second rope for 2! They trade blows with Morton getting the upper hand. Graham gets a leg takedown and hooks on a figure four. Morton immediately grabs a rope. Hair pull by Morton into a short arm scissors. Graham gets a drop toe hold and cranks Morton's knee. Morton with an eye rake and inverted atomic drop. York gets on the ramp to distract the ref. Graham rolls Morton up. Morton pushes out, sending Graham face first into the top turnbuckle, and rolls him up for the pin. Well that distraction was completely pointless. Morton and Pillman would go on to have a really disappointing match at Halloween Havoc in the tournament final. The whole Morton heel turn was just a disaster. This match was technically sound, but nothing else. **

The 1991 Guinness Book of World Records is used to show off the fact Bill Kazmaier is, in fact, the world's strongest man. He comes out to do world's strongest man things like bend a metal bar over his head. The Enforcers jump in and nail him in the ribs with a weight plate, those scoundrels.

 

The Fabulous Freebirds def The Patriots in 5:42- We've got more confusing pretaped show title shenanigans here. The Freebirds were officially the US tag champs, but the match where they dropped those belts to these same Patriots was in the can and would air on TV the weekend following this show, so they don't have the belts and aren't announced as champions. JR even mentions that these teams are wrestling again for the US tag titles on Saturday. We get the usual Hayes stalling start complete with moonwalk. Chip tries to moonwalk and it sucks as much as, well, his wrestling. After some rope running Hayes uses momentum to send Chip to the floor. Chip pops back up and hits the celebrating Hayes from behind. Garvin gets slammed off the top. After a Freebrids regroup Chip gets a sunset flip for 2 and a roll up for 2. Garvin's kick out sends Chip straight into Hayes' patented left hand punch. No time for a face in peril spot though, he tags right out to Todd "don't call me Dolph Lundgren" Champion, who cleans house. After a face double team Hayes works the ref to hit Chip in the back of the head with an elbow and Garvin covers for the win. Very not good. The Patriots sucked in general, and the Freebirds clearly didn't give a shit. As great as they were in their heyday, they were rapidly outliving their usefulness. 3/4*

Paul E is in the ring with Cactus Jack. Jack deflects the question about who hired him and Abby with the deftness of a politician and says Sting is done. Another giant box is brought to ringside and Jack assumes it's Abby. Goes to give it a hug. BAH GAWD IT'S STING! Sting gives Jack a backdrop on the ramp and hiptosses him to the floor for a classic Foley bump. They continue brawling all the way to the back. After that is the first video packaging highlighting Ron Simmons, who's scheduled to challenge Lex Luger for the world title at Halloween Havoc. This one shows Simmons' FSU jersey being retired, followed by a long speech from FSU coach Bobby Bowden, who seems to have gotten some bad direction about his eye line. Who's he supposed to be looking at?

 

"The All American" Ron Simmons def The Diamond Studd in 2:25- Studd pulls Simmons off the second rope during his entrance. Slugfest. Studd catches a Simmons jump and chokeslams him for 2. Bulldog off the second rope. Simmons slides under in the corner and hits the Greco Roman Split Legged Ram on the post. Spinebuster. The football tackle finishes it. Down the pecking order you go, Scott Hall. 1/4*

Paul E is back with Simmons. Simmons accuses Luger of hiding behind his entourage. Said entourage (Harley Race and Mr. Hughes) comes out and Simmons blows them off. 

 

Van Hammer def Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandra York) in 1:07- This is Hammer's WCW debut. He had only been wrestling a few months and only had a handful of matches under his belt. He dances around for a while so Taylor nails him from behind with the computer. So much for mid-match adjustments. Hammer no sells it. Lots of bodyslams and running clotheslines. Front suplex. Hammer gingerly goes up top and hits what's supposed to be a knee to Taylor's back but in reality it wasn't even in the same zip code. Hammer covers for the win. I've always said it's impossible to have a bad match with Terry Taylor. Van Hammer (and to be fair the limited time) found a way. Everything about Hammer screams that WCW was trying to build him up the same way WWF built The Ultimate Warrior. Spoiler: didn't work. DUD

Missy Hyatt is in Luger's locker room for an interview. Simmons interrupts, continuing the running "gag" (as in very loose definition of comedy) of Hyatt's locker room interviews always ending in disaster. The whole thing is horribly edited, like Kevin Dunn is directing it.

 

WCW World Television Championship: "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) (w/Lady Blossom) def "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 9:07- Cautious start with clean breaks. After a hammerlock tradeoff Austin pulls his hair out of its ponytail. Shit's about to get real. They continue to go through lots of basics with decent intensity, but it's forever before they get out of first gear. Okada and Tanahashi could get away with 5 straight minutes of headlocks in their recent G1 match, but they're 1. two legit legends who've had an era defining feud with lots of history so anything they do is dramatic, and 2. were working an almost 30 minute long match. Zenk hits a superkick and backdrop for 2. Austin rolls out to recover and wanders onto the ramp. Zenk hits him with a running crossbody over the top rope! He tries another crossbody off the top in the ring but Austin dodges. Austin catches a Zenk leapfrog and hits the Stun Gun, but is slow to cover. When he does Zenk rolls up a small package for 2. Zenk locks on the sleeper. Austin falls into the ropes and Blossom hands him knucks while Nick Patrick breaks the hold. They do the mid-'80s heel Randy Savage finish: Zenk lifts Austin up for a back suplex, Austin whacks him with the knucks and falls on him for the pin. Disappointing. *3/4

Next up is the contract signing for the Luger/Simmons world title match at Halloween Havoc. Luger's on Clinton Standard Time so we get more video packages on Simmons while we wait, this time highlighting his community work. When Luger finally shows up pen is put to paper. Luger offers Simmons a position as his driver after he beats him. Simmons jumps and the whole thing unshockingly turns into a brawl. Luger gets rushed to his limo and gets the hell out of town.

 

Finals of the Tournament for the Vacant WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Enforcers def Rick Steiner and Bill Kazmaier in 3:33- Kazmaier refused to go to the hospital and is here with taped ribs. Rick hits the ring hot, knowing he's basically going to have to wrestle a handicap match. Powerslam for Arn. A heel double team turns the tide. Textbook Anderson tag wrestling is used to keep Rick in their corner. Rick blocks an Arn suplex and hits his own, but still won't tag knowing Kazmaier can't wrestle. And that he's hurt. Zbyszko gets him in the heel corner and he fights out again. Steinerline! Rick sets Arn up for a belly to belly superplex. Zbyszko hits him from behind and Arn takes him down with a clothesline off the second rope. Kazmaier tags himself in. He hits a few power moves, but while he's trying to press Zbyszko Arn whacks him in the hurt ribs. Zbyszko falls on top of him, and gets the pin and the titles. *

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- As usual with recent Clashes there's not a lot to write home about wrestling wise, but unlike most of those other shows there's decent angle and story work going on here to at least make that part of it moderately entertaining. Pillman/Badstreet is a good match to watch as a warmup for Pillman/Liger.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+