Survivor Series '95

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '95

November 19, 1995 from the Capitol Centre in Landover, MD

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Mr. Perfect

After reviving the 5v5 format last year we're back to 4v4 for the traditional Survivor Series matches. The show opens with Mr. Perfect's introduction, his first WWF appearance since Wrestlemania 10. He would serve as a commentator for the rest of his WWF run as his chronic back problems were still playing up.

The BodyDonnas (Skip, Rad Radford, The 1-2-3 Kid and Dr. Tom Pritchard) def The Underdogs (Marty Janetty, Hakushi, Bob Holly and Barry Horowitz) in 18:45- Hilariously, all of the face team runs in instead of Hakushi, who can't be bothered and sticks with his slow walk. Kid is a surprise last second entrant into this match. Jean-Pierre Laffitte was originally scheduled to be on the heel team, but DiBiase bought his spot to get his newest hire in. Kid had turned on Razor Ramon the week prior on Raw to finally complete the heel turn that had been simmering for months. After Kid's intro Ramon runs out supremely pissed off at him. Officials have to drag him back to the locker room. Pritchard and Janetty start. Janetty gets stuck in the heel corner and knocks them all off the apron. Holly gets a hurricanrana on Radford (called a Frankensteiner by Vince even though the Steiners had been gone a long while). Radford tries a hurricanrana of his own but Holly blocks it and powerbombs him. Radford hits a nice spinebuster on Hakushi. Kid follows up with a splash off the top for 2. Skip tries a back superplex. Hakushi rolls over on him in midair and tags out. The crowd starts chanting "Barry" for Horowitz, the only guy that hasn't been in the match yet. Holly dodges a Pritchard moonsault, then hits a crossbody off the top to eliminate Pritchard. While Holly's celebrating Skip grabs him in a flash roll up for 3. Hakushi rolls through some flippy kicks. Skip gets his knees up on a Hakushi Vader bomb. Skip top rope hurricanrana on Hakushi! But Skip landed wrong (kayfabe) and he delayed flops down too. Kid comes back in and gets booed out of the building. Hakushi hits the handspring elbow and top rope tackle on Kid. Kid dodges a springboard splash and tags out. While Hakushi's back is turned Kid wallops him with a spinning kick in the back of the head and Radford covers to eliminate Hakushi. Horowitz finally gets in the match and is instantly in peril. Radford pulls Horowitz out of multiple pins because Skip wants him after Radford's worn him down a bit, remembering their Summerslam match. Radford gets a northern lights suplex for 2. He does some arrogant push ups (his whole gimmick at this point was he was trying to get into the Bodydonnas stable but he didn't quite have the body for it). Horowitz crawls up and cradles him for 3. Skip is furious and goes face to face with Horowitz again. That mistake would cost Radford Bodydonna membership. After a blind tag Kid knees Horowitz in the back and legdrops him for 3. Janetty dodges Skip in the corner. Skip counters a backdrop. Janetty tries a German suplex, Skip does a standing switch, tries a powerbomb, but Janetty rolls it over into a sunset flip for a long 2. Janetty hits the Rocker drop and goes up top. Sunny shakes the rope. Skip joins him. Janetty hits an avalanche powerbomb! That's it for Skip. It's down to Janetty and Kid, former tag champ partners. Kid hits a legdrop off the top for 2. Janetty dodges a senton off the top and gets some rapid fire offense. Sid comes out to support his new Million Dollar Corporation teammate. Janetty hits another Rocker drop but Kid gets a foot on the rope. While DiBiase's distracting the ref Sid pops Janetty and Kid covers to win the match. Afterward Kid and Sid celebrate in the ring while Ramon smashes a monitor in the back. The match was mostly a spotfest, but a good one, showing off the athletic high spot style wrestling was slowly trending toward. SOLE SURVIVOR: The 1-2-3 Kid ***1/4

 

Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka def WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa and Chaparita Asari in 10:01- Thank goodness JR is here to call this one, and to his credit Vince lets him take over most of the match. Perfect has zero interest other than making the occasional "man watching women's wrestling" joke. Asuka and Asari start. Asuka gives her a giant swing. Blayze and Asuka can't get on the same page on a whip spot, and Asari's standing there the whole time waiting for the cue to hit her big spot. She does, nailing Asuka with a sky twister press! Blayze hits Asuka with a German with a bridge to eliminate her. Watanabe misses a moonsault and rolls to the floor. Blayze dives off the top rope onto her on the floor! Hasegawa rolls through multiple butterfly suplexes. That temporarily wakes the crowd up. Watanabe hits a vertical splash off the top for 2. Kong comes in and swings in Hasegawa's general direction. She flies across the ring to sell it anyway. Hasegawa gets an exploder suplex on Kong for 2. Kong kicks Haegawa in the gut coming off the top rope, hits a suplex, and Hasegawa is gone. Little Asari (think Riho's size) tries to crossbody Kong and bounces off a figurative brick wall. Fantastic. Kong hits a splash off the second rope and Asari is gone. Blayze hits an enzuguri and tags Inoue in. Inoue tries a sunset flip but Kong sits on her and gets a pin. Thanks for coming Inoue-chan. Blayze is the only one left on her team. All three heel women back her into the corner and pound on her. It settles down with Blayze hitting a suplex on Watanabe and getting a near fall that it looks like should have been a pin. Blayze piledrives Watanabe and pins her for real. Faye finally gets in for the first time and hits an avalanche. Faye and Kong collide and Blayze Germans Faye for 3. Down to Blayze and Kong. Blayze flips over in the corner and goes up top. Kong joins her and superplexes her for 2. Blayze hits a hurricanrana that Kong barely gets over on for 2. Standing moonsault for 2. Kong body blocks Blayze down a couple of times, hits the spinning back fist, and that wins the match. Kong gets the old Orient Express music. Blayze vs Kong was supposed to be the next big women's feud. However, Blayze didn't want to work with her, which was one of the reasons for her WWF departure soon after this and reemergence on WCW as Medusa, where she famously dropped the WWF Women's title belt she still had possession of in a trash can. After that WWF put the whole women's division back on ice for a few years. The match itself swung wildly between solid and sloppy. It doesn't hold a candle to the Jumping Bomb Angels' '80s WWF performances. SOLE SURVIVOR: Aja Kong **1/4

The Bill Clinton impersonator is here again. Bigelow's pyro goes off and a bunch of "secret service" guys dive in to protect the president. It's worth a chuckle.

 

Goldust def Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:18- It's still early days for Goldust, at this point he's still just spouting famous movie lines and acting generally weird. That would change soon after this. After taking foreeeeeeeeever on his entrance Goldust beats Bigelow to the punch, literally. Goldust goes to the floor a couple of times, dragging Bigelow down with him the second time. Bigelow dodges and Goldust clotheslines the post. He doesn't bother selling it shakes it off and clotheslines Bigelow 360 and over to the floor again. Every time Bigelow tries to go on offense Goldust shuts it down. He tosses Bigelow out again and gives him a stair shot. Bigelow finally gets a back suplex but Goldust dodges the follow up falling headbutt. Bigelow electric chair slams out of a chinlock. Slugfest on knees. Goldust with a flying lariat and kneedrop for 2. Bigelow back suplexes out of another chinlock and hits a series of clotheslines for 2. Goldust dodges an avalanche, hits a bulldog, and gets the pin. Another indication it's early days for Goldust, he's still using all of Dustin Rhodes' big moves. Way too long for what they were offering. Bigelow had already mentally checked out, negotiating his release after getting sick of Kliq politics running everything backstage. This was his last WWF match. 3/4*

The Clinton impersonator and potential '96 presidential candidate Mr. Bob Backlund have a very lackluster debate exchange. It almost makes a Biden/Trump debate look good by comparison. After that is a recap of the Undertaker/Mabel feud.

 

The Darkside (The Undertaker, Fatu, Savio Vega and Henry Godwinn) def The Royals (King Mabel, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Issac Yankem DDS and Hunter Hearst Helmsley) in 14:21- Taker is making his big return after having his "face crushed" by Mabel and Yokozuna, and this is the debut of Facemask Taker. After the heels scurry away from Taker Fatu gets a hot start on HHH. HHH sets up a Pedigree after a backdrop attempt and Fatu squeaks out. Godwinn tags in and HHH runs away. Lawler and his gold lamê tights come in, but he's not interested and tags right out to Yankem. Yankem wears Godwinn down and now Trips wants in. Classic HHH high knee for 2. Godwinn comes back with a press slam. Lawler and Vega trade dance moves. Lawler dropkicks Vega in the back, but it sends him into the face corner. On a whip reversal Lawler runs Fatu into Yankem's knee. Fatu dodges a Mabel avalanche. Vega runs into a Mabel rock bottom and goes in peril for a while. Triple choke in the heel corner. Lawler hits him with a piledriver, but is slow to cover and Vega kicks out. Vega gives HHH a rock bottom. Lawler cuts the tag off and hits another piledriver, but the bounce sends Vega into the corner and he tags Taker! Nicely done. Lawler tries to tag out but all his teammates jump off the apron or, in Mabel's case, hide behind the post. Tombstone and Lawler's done. Flying clothesline on Yankem. Tombstone and he's done. HHH skedaddles. Godwinn cuts him off with the slop bucket. Taker choke slams Trips off the apron into the ring and he's done. Mabel comes from behind on Taker with a belly to belly suplex. Legdrop. Mabel taunts and Taker does the zombie situp. Mabel collapses in terror and runs off. Mo takes a choke slam as Mabel is counted out. Dull match, but the Taker elimination run was fun. Also a small slice of history here as Taker shared the ring for the first time on a major show with future long term rivals Kane (Yankem) and Trips. SURVIVORS: Undertaker, Fatu, Vega and Godwinn. *1/2

 

"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and Sycho Sid def WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, "The King of Harts" Owen Hart and Dean Douglas in 27:24- This is the "wild card" match promised by WWF President Gorilla Monsoon, teaming up faces and heels Lethal Lottery style. Ahmed Johnson is making his big WWF PPV debut after already slamming Yokozuna to start a massive push. No mention of the first man to slam Yoko, of course. After much discussion on both sides Shawn and Owen start. Yes please. Unsurprisingly it's a very quick start. Shawn skins the cat and headscissors Owen to the floor. He teases a plancha but lands on his feet, ducks a Cornette racket shot, kicks him away and spanks him with the racket. On another speed run Owen comes back with a belly to belly throw. Douglas hits a brain buster on Shawn. Shawn with a flying forearm and double ax handle off the top for 2. Commentary talks about the IC title drop at the last In Your House and Perfect says "I don't think Shawn was hurt that bad, he just didn't want Douglas to beat him". I'll take shoot comments that weren't meant to be shoot comments for 100, Alex. Or maybe it was. Shawn with a moonsault! Owen breaks the pin up. Johnson takes Owen and Douglas out, then tries to slam Yoko again but gets jumped from behind. Yoko pounds away as Johnson goes in peril. Ramon joins in a corner beatdown. Johnson comes back with a powerslam on Douglas, then press slams Shawn into Douglas! Douglas sees the superkick coming and bails. Ramon and Douglas fight on the floor and apron. Shawn takes advantage and rolls Douglas up to eliminate him. Owen and Bulldog are in together, both heels now. Bulldog offers a handshake and they both try a cheap shot! Owen spinning heel kick for 2. Both sides tag and now Shawn and Ramon are in. JR: "Do they know how to wrestle each other without a ladder?" After some stalling and shrugs they dive in and run through their usual (good) spots. Ramon hits the Razor's Edge! Johnson breaks the pin up. After a midring collision Shawn tags Sid's back. Sid's here to kill the match and chew bubble gum, and he's all outta bubble gum. Slow beatdown on Ramon. Yoko hits Sid from behind. The ref gets him out and they continue like it never happened. OK then. Sid goes up top and Ramon slams him off. Sid hits a choke slam but doesn't cover. Instead he tags Shawn in and holds Ramon. Ramon dodges and Sid gets superkicked. Shawn doesn't care. Ramon covers. Bulldog breaks it up. Ramon ignores it, covers again and Sid's gone. OK then. Pissed off Sid powerbombs Shawn on his way out. Ramon crawls over and covers. Shawn kicks out! Owen and Yoko work Shawn over. Vince turns to the bar attack incident in Syracuse again and says it was "nine thugs" that took Shawn out. He's like a drunk Klingon, the story gets bigger every time it's told. Next it'll be a whole platoon of Jem'Hadar he fought off. Shawn dodges an Owen headbutt off the top and tags Johnson. Pearl River Plunge and Owen's gone. Ramon wants to hit Johnson with the second rope bulldog but Johnson wanders too far away. Ramon says "screw it", drops down and hits a regular bulldog. Shawn and Bulldog run in and get knocked around. Johnson hits a spinebuster. He goes up on the turnbuckles to brag, but it's a very obvious setup for Ramon to hit him with a Razor's Edge, which he does. But Bulldog tagged Johnson while he was in the corner! Sid and the 1-2-3 Kid wander out. Kid grabs Ramon's boot. Ramon pops him, but the distraction allows Bulldog to hit him with the powerslam and Ramon's gone. That groan you heard was Yokozuna realizing he's going to have to work the rest of this match alone. Shawn plays weebles wobble with Yoko for a bit before eating a legdrop. Yoko goes for the Banzai Drop but Shawn dodges and tags Johnson. Johnson slams Yoko again. Bulldog breaks up his teammate's pin! Shawn and Johnson have had enough and take Bulldog out. Shawn superkicks Yoko, Johnson hits a splash and it's over. There was a lot of great wrestlers working hard out there and the wild card format was a neat idea, but for whatever reason the whole was less than the sum of the parts. SURVIVORS: Michaels, Bulldog and Johnson **3/4

 

No DQ Match for the WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def Diesel (c) in 24:54- These two have had two prior WWF Title PPV matches, both with non-finishes: heel Diesel won by DQ over then-champ Bret at King of the Ring '94 after Jim Neidhart attacked Bret to continue the Bret/Owen feud, then they had a no contest at the '95 Rumble after Owen, Bob Backlund and Jeff Jarrett all interfered. It's still face vs face but both guys show that "walk the heel line" edge, especially with the no DQ stips. While they're in their corners right after the bell Diesel pulls the top buckle pad off. Bret says "OK, I see how it is" and does the same in his corner. Bret waistlocks Diesel into the corner. Diesel pounds on Bret's back to turn it around, then hits corner elbows and knees. After a lot of punishment in the corner Bret escapes to the floor. Diesel follows and drops Bret on the guardrail. It's a very, as JR says, methodical pace early on with Diesel in control. Punches send Bret out again. Diesel whips Bret into the stairs and posts his back, then nicks Mark Yeaton's chair to whack Bret with. He hits him with the padded side but whatever. Back in Diesel hits a short clothesline and calls for the jackknife to a 50/50 reaction at best. Bret grabs a leg to block it, then bites Diesel's elbow! He jumps on Diesel's back trying to hook on a sleeper, but can't and does a huge face rake instead. Bret then once again targets Diesel's knee. After some softening up he hooks on a figure four. Diesel uses his long arms to get to the ropes. After some more knee work Bret goes for the Sharpshooter. Diesel rakes Bret's eyes then pushes him back into the corner. The back of Bret's head hit the exposed turnbuckle! Bret drops down and wraps Diesel's knee around the post. He then grabs a mic cable, ties it around the post, and then ties Diesel's foot up! Diesel is trapped in the corner. Bret hits an elbow off the second rope for 2. He grabs a chair and gives Diesel a shot back with it, and unlike Diesel uses the correct side. Then he rams the point of the chair into Diesel's knee. Bret goes to the top rope with the chair, but Diesel knocks him down and Bret gets crotched, then he slams Bret off. Diesel finally gets his foot untied and the match can get out of the corner. That's pretty much the end of the knee work, but Diesel does a good job of selling the knee the whole rest of the match. Diesel side suplex for 2. Bret bump into the exposed buckle! Snake eyes into a padded corner. Diesel goes for it again to an exposed buckle, but Bret slips out and rams Diesel's head into it. Bret diving clothesline for 2. Bulldog off the second rope for 2. A clothesline sends Diesel 360 and out. Diesel dodges Bret's plancha! Bret climbs up on the apron. Diesel pushes the rope and Bret FLIES OFF AND GOES THROUGH THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! HOLY SHIT! That, dear readers, is the first ever Spanish announce table spot in WWF history. It will not be the last. If holy shit chants were a thing in 1995 there'd be a huge one happening right now. Diesel rolls Bret back in and calls for the jackknife again to even more boos than before. Bret sandbags and Diesel hesitates. He reaches for Bret again. PAUL SMACKAGE! 3 COUNT! BRET WINS THE TITLE! Diesel goes off and buries Bret with a jackknife, fights off a group of refs, hits a second one, and drops the belt on top of Bret as he leaves. Bret joins Hulk Hogan as the only 3 time WWF Champions to date. Diesel's title reign ends at just 2 days short of one full calendar year, business wise one of the worst in company history and didn't exactly set the world on fire creatively either, but the title loss would spark an attitude shift that would lead him to becoming one of the first true tweeners in mainstream wrestling and generally way more interesting. The show ends with Bret still laid out on the canvas. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- WWF continues to slowly crawl out of the hole they spent most of 1995 digging themselves into. They got the title back on arguably their biggest star (Shawn Michaels was quickly catching up, and would soon be in the title picture again), and found a new edge in what had been a rather generic babyface character for Diesel. Too bad he was already planning his WCW departure.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-

Clash of the Champions XIX

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XIX

June 22, 1992 (taped June 16) from the McAlister Field House in Charleston, SC

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

This is the first Clash of the Bill Watts era, coming off a wonderful Beach Blast PPV that continued WCW's hot 1992 started under Kip Frey. Watts decided to rekindle WCW's alliance with the NWA, so this show has a singular focus- the first round of the tournament to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions. Interestingly, this would be the only Clash not to air live.

The show opens with Tony Schaivone, Missy Hyatt and Magnum TA in front of the giant bracket board. I've read the dirt sheets so I know that no man that wants to stay disease free should go there, but still, what Hyatt is wearing is.....yum yum. She mentions that New Japan will be hosting the tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion, more details to come. Watts joins the team because he had to get himself on TV at least once every show and makes it clear that tonight's matches are all under NWA rules, which is code for you can actually do moves off the top rope.

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Nikita Koloff def Joe and Dean Malenko in 9:50- The future Man of 1000 Holds is making not only his WCW debut, but his first appearance for any major company. Even though the Malenko family had been in the US at least two generations they were billed as representing Hungary because WCW was desperate to call any team international. Joe and Steamboat start. A really good chain wrestling standoff leads to a test of strength. They maneuver around on the mat still knucklelocked until Steamboat hits a DEEP armdrag. Dean blind tags in and walks into more DEEP armdrags. Koloff tosses Dean around. Dean comes off the top rope. Koloff catches him. Joe runs in and dropkicks Dean in the back, dropping Dean on top for 2. Koloff no sells a suplex. Dean blocks a rollup but gets planted by Koloff. Joe pummels Steamboat with European uppercuts in the corner. Koloff and Dean get into it on the apron. Steamboat goes for a flying headscissors but Joe drops him down into the top turnbuckle. The Malenkos finally get some sustained offense and some near falls. Dean hooks Steamboat in hold #562. Joe hits a Rainmaker style short clothesline (he even did the spin) for 2. Steamboat and Joe badly mistime a backdrop coutner, with Joe going down before Steamboat pushes him. Tags. Koloff runs wild and hits the Insert Current Home Country Here Sickle for 3. Rock solid. **1/2

 

"Ravishing" Rick Rude and "Stunning" Steve Austin (w/Medusa) def "The Z Man" Tom Zenk and Marcus Alexander Bagwell in 7:54- The Dangerous Alliance still existed as a going concern, but Watts clearly didn't care about it nearly as much as Frey did. Rude and Austin are still the US and TV champs respectively. The old silver NWA TV title belt has finally been replaced with the gold WCW version. They open up with Rude instantly demolishing Bagwell, taking the rookie to school. Bagwell comes back with a double ax handle off the second rope to Austin. Zenk and Austin have a headlock/headscissors standoff. Rude forearms (one of the most underrated forearms in the business too) and dropkick on Zenk. Huge Rude suplex for 2. Zenk desperation small package for 2. Bagwell tags in and immediately starts getting his ass kicked again. Rude piledriver on Zenk for 2. The heels keep Zenk cut off in their half of the ring. They get a huge double clothesline behind the ref's back. Zenk gets a superkick and manages to tag out. Bagwell crossbody for 2. He hits a sunset flip on Rude. Medusa distracts the ref. Rude drops Bagwell, hits the Rude Awakening, and good night. A near dominant performance from the Dangerous Alliance guys. **

Gordy and Williams are with Eric Bischoff. They want everyone to know they want the Steiners again and don't really care about anyone or anything else.

 

The Miracle Violence Connection def Larry and Jeff O'Day in 2:35- Larry is the father and had been wrestling since the '60s, Jeff is the son and had been wrestling about a year. The MVC are billed as representing Japan thanks to their dominant run in All Japan. Larry and Gordy start. Larry looks his age. It's not pretty. Gordy drags him around by his leg, puts on a single leg crab and tags. Larry dodges Williams in the corner and tags out. It's Bill Watts rules rookies get their asses kicked, so Jeff gets his ass kicked. Gordy with a corner clothesline. Jeff gets a sunset flip for 2. Larry comes back in and eats a huge Saito suplex from Gordy. He dropped Larry right on his head. Larry comes off the ropes and thinks he's going to hit both MVC guys with a double clothesline, but they say "fuck that" and just flat run him over. The Oklahoma Stampede from Williams finishes it. I'm rating this way higher than I should only because the MVC clearly not giving a shit about anything Larry O'Day wanted to do was absolutely hilarious. *

 

Ventura is in the ring for an interview with WCW world champ Sting. Sting's all gussied up in a tux for some reason. His feud with Vader was starting, with a title match scheduled for GAB. Sting tells a nice but short "David and Goliath" promo and that's it. Vader would end up winning the match and the title due to an overzealous mistake by Sting in the first of many classics between the two.

"The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham def Arn Anderson and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 10:23- Former Horsemen teammates Windham and Arn open things up. Nice back and forth until Windham SMACKS Arn with his still taped up right hand. Arn gets a knee up in the corner and goes up top, but Windham dropkicks him to the floor! Arn limps around a bit. He might have legit tweaked his knee on the fall. It's almost like there should be pads out on the floor to help keep guys from getting hurt or something. He's Arn Anderson so he shakes it off on the apron and keeps going. Eaton stuttersteps a Dustin leapfrog and punches him in the gut. Dustin responds with bionic elbows and big boots Eaton to the floor. Paul E loudly complains about two over the top throws so far to the ref's dead ears. Dustin atomic drops Arn and he and Windham ricochet him around a bit. When Arn gets back to his corner Paul E calls for Plan B (not as in barricade). While Windham's running the ropes Eaton kicks him in the back of the head. Plan B. Eaton backdrop for 2. Windham counters an Arn backdrop and tags. Dustin with a diving lariat on Arn. He goes for a backdrop. Arn hooks up a DDT. Dustin blocks it, but Eaton pops him with a hard right. Great sequence. Eaton dodges a crossbody and Dustin flies to the floor. Paul E gets a phone shot in and soaks up the crowd's hatred. Eaton knee off the top rope for 2. Dustin jawbreakers out of an Arn chinlock. Eaton cuts the tag off and hits a bulldog for 2. He goes for a second but Dustin pushes off. He tags but Arn has the ref distracted. Donnybrook! World's Greatest Spinebuster! The heels have to swap since Eaton was legal and that gives Dustin enough time to kick out. Eaton goes for the Alabama Jam but Dustin dodges it. He hits the bulldog for 3! These four guys could have a good match in their sleep. ***1/2

Missy Hyatt is back and rolls off some dates and locations for the NWA World title tournament. You might know the name that tournament went by in Japan- the 1992 G1 Climax. After that the MVC storm the stage and say there's a massive wreck outside and there might be some Puerto Ricans in it, with Gordy providing some funny visuals. The Steiners were scheduled to face the Puerto Rican team in the first round. Williams pretty much says they caused it so they could have the Steiners tonight.

 

The Fabulous Freebirds def The Silver Kings in 6:28- The Silver Kings have numbers instead of names but aren't in masks which I'm sure is a violation of some portion of the lucha code. Lucha history is not my strong suit, but one of the team is the "real" Silver King, who also wrestled as Black Tiger at one point, with the other is El Texano. They look extremely similar and, again, lucha history isn't my wheelhouse so bear with me here. The Freebirds jump and gets one King to missile dropkick the other. After some arm wringer counters the Kings get advantage on Garvin. Decent speed/counter run and Garvin dodges a senton off the top rope. The Kings double team a slingshot senton and eblow off the top on Hayes. Hayes and King 1 (?) stop the match to play to the crowd. Lots more fumbling around with the occasional move. Missile dropkick on Hayes. Garvin breaks the pin up. The Freebirds, who were still faces here, start getting a bit heelish as everyone jumps in the pool. The Freebirds get dropkicked to the floor. The Kings do a 619 swerve but the Freebirds anticipate the plancha and are ready for it. The Kings take each other out again on the floor. Hayes rolls the legal one in and Paul Smackages him to win. Total clash of styles and the Freebirds looked like they really didn't care about trying to make it work. 3/4*

Ole Anderson joins Tony and TA with a bunch of bracket sheets trying to figure out how the Steiners' forfeit is going to work. Um, it's a single elimination bracket, it shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Jushin Thunder Liger and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman def Chris Benoit and Biff Wellington in 11:30- Another big WCW debut, this time for Chris Benoit, who had already made a name for himself in Stampede and New Japan. JR even mentions he's a former IWGP Junior Heavyweight champ and his battles with Liger over that title. It's cool to see him in his Pegasus Kid gear in a WCW ring. Speaking of gear, Liger is rocking a pretty sweet almost all while outfit tonight. Anime Jesus. Wellington was a Stampede mainstay who didn't work much outside of Canada, and teamed with Benoit there for years so they were familiar. Liger and Benoit start. Both guys flip out of arm wringers. Benoit gets a fireman's carry takedown. Liger suplexes out of a test of strength and hits armdrags. Both guys dodge dropkicks and reset. If the crowd had any idea who these guys were they'd be applauding right now. New Japan tape trading not a big thing in South Carolina in 1992. Both teams swap. Wellington hits a tackle. Pillman gets a monkey flip and dropkicks Wellington to the floor. Wellington gets on the apron and Pillman dropkicks him off again! He charges but Wellington cuts him off with a slingshot clothesline. He throws Pillman out and tries to suplex him back in, but Pillman blocks and suplexes Wellington to the floor. You knew two old Stampede guys were going to work that spot in. Benoit with big chops and a clothesline on Liger. After another speed run Liger hits an enzuguri. Wellington scoops Liger and tosses him over the top to the floor. He goes for a plancha that Liger casually sidesteps. Back in they have trouble coordinating a corner monkey flip. Pillman uses momentum to fling Benoit to the floor. They both go to the top rope. Pillman hits a back superplex! He follows it up with a dropkick off the top rope. Benoit goes to the floor and Pillman hits him with a crossbody off the apron. Liger dodges Wellington and he tumbles over to the floor. Liger with a dive off the top to the floor! He tries a crucifix but Wellington drops him. Benoit sets Liger up for a back superplex. Liger twists and falls on top of Benoit! Wellington breaks the pin up. A Liger spinning heel kick sends Benoit back to the floor. Liger with a springboard moonsault to the floor! Pillman tries a roll up but runs right into a Wellington kick. Wellington misses a splash off the top and everyone's in. Pillman and Benoit murder each other with chops on the floor while Wellington and Liger visibly stall in the ring. Liger hits the moonsault and Pillman holds Benoit back while he gets the pin. Just a small sample of what at least 3 out of these 4 guys were capable of, no offense to Wellington. I bet Watts *hated* this match. ***3/4

 

Akira Nogami and Hiroshi Hase def The Headhunters in 5:19- The Headhunters are your typical generic one night masked team, and are billed from the Dominican Republic because why not. Sadly, neither one is Jack Victory. Their mask design look at lot like the famous black/white aliens from the Star Trek TOS ep "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". Hase was a megastar in New Japan while Akira was a rising star. Akira takes corner clotheslines from both Hunters, then twists out of a suplex and kicks one in the back of the head. Hot shot on Akira. Spinning heel kick from Akira and tag. Hase knocks a Hunter around. Akira splash off the top rope, but Hase's kneedrop off the top is dodged. The Hunters double suplex Hase. There's a mini-donnybrook and Akira and Hase hit a German and belly to belly with bridges and get a stereo pin. Horrible layout with the Hunters getting almost all the offense and the New Japan guys getting no chance to show what they could do. 1/2*

Ventura is in the ring for another interview, this time with Ron Simmons, who's already being groomed to be the first black world champion in history, one of Watts' few good ideas during his WCW run. Harley Race and Super Invader interrupt. Race gives his (in)famous "When I was world champ a boy like you was carrying my bags" line and it's on. Simmons fights both guys off. Race could still bump like a maniac. After commercial it's Tony and Watts in the ring. Watts makes the NWA sound like the bad guys, even going so far to claim the NWA president was going to resign in protest, but because of the forfeit the second round of the tournament starts TONIGHT.

 

Quarterfinals: The Miracle Violence Connection def The Steiner Brothers in 15:01- These teams went to a 30 minute time limit draw for the Steiners' WCW world tag titles at Beach Blast. Gordy and Rick start with some feeling out mat wrestling. Gordy hits a forearm and tries to wrap up a single leg crab. Rick gets to the ropes. Gordy blocks Scott's belly to belly suplex. They have to have a few goes at the bridge up spot. Williams and Scott also go amateur for a bit. Rick hits a belly to belly on Williams that flings him across the ring to signal the feeling out is just about over. JR actually mentions Rick and Williams were in the Varsity Club together. A Williams slap in the corner sets Rick off. He does a double leg takedown and ground & pounds Williams. Williams responds with a huge clothesline that Rick 360 sells. Gordy corner clothesline. Rick reverses a belly to belly. Scott hits a double underhook powerbomb. Gordy dodges the Frankensteiner and hooks in an STF. Scott gets a questionable rope break. Gordy drops Scott down right on Williams' knee. Williams backbreakers for 2. Gordy hits a powerslam and grapevines Scott's leg. Double tackle from the MVC. Scott kicks Williams in the face with an enzuguri-like move and tags. Rick Steinerlines Williams 360 and out. Slugfest with Gordy. Williams comes from behind. Rick powerslams Williams but the ref refuses to count because he didn't see the tag! Scott is still legal. All four guys brawl on the floor. Williams clips Scott's knee. Back in Williams presses Scott, then flips him over into a powerslam! That's freaking impressive. Scott kicks out! Rick and Gordy won't stop fighting. The ref gets Rick out. Scott hooks up a belly to belly on Williams, but Gordy comes in and clips his knee again! Williams covers and gets the pin. Fantastic, very physical match from two teams that liked getting physical and working stiff, and with pretty airtight psychology to boot. The MVC would again take advantage of hurting Scott's knee to take the WCW tag titles from the Steiners the week before GAB. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The last high of WCW's great first half of '92 run before Watts started to wear the roster down with his bad ideas and worse attitude. Another all time great Clash and a must watch for any fan of tag team wrestling.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-

In Your House 4

Legacy Review

In Your House 4: Great White North

October 22, 1995 from the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross

 

After a little Canadian national anthem the show opens with interim WWF president Gorilla Monsoon announcing that due to a severe concussion, Shawn Michaels is not medically cleared to wrestle tonight. This stemmed from an incident in Syracuse, NY a few days prior when Shawn mouthed off to, depending on the storyteller, a Marine or group of Marines and got taught a lesson physically. Shawn will hand the belt over inside the ring to Monsoon, who will then give it to Shawn's original opponent Dean Douglas. After that, Douglas will defend the title against Razor Ramon.

 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley def Fatu in 8:06- I had honestly completely forgotten about this "make a difference" hip hop motivational speaker gimmick for Fatu. They were recycling the old "heel sprays face with cologne/perfume" angle for this one, done previously with Adrian Adonis and Rick Martel. When HHH gets in he tries to spray Fatu again. Fatu grabs the bottle, throws it away, and gives HHH a big backdrop while he still has his riding jacket on. Trips flip in the corner! While he's on the floor he finally gets his jacket off. Classic HHH sell of a stair shot. Buckle shots on Fatu, as always, go nowhere. HHH uses Fatu's momentum and he gets twisted up and hung by the neck in the ropes. HHH piledriver. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Long HHH chinlock. Huge HHH clothesline with a 360 Fatu sell. Fatu gets a desperation roll up for 2 and backdrops out of a Pedigree attempt. HHH DDT that Fatu no sells. He hits a superkick and goes into full comeback mode. Headbutt off the second rope for 2. Running cutter from Fatu! That should be a finisher. He goes up top and HHH dodges the headbutt. Pedigree and good night. And a pop from the crowd for the win. Welcome to bizzarro world, AKA Canada. After the match Henry Godwinn tries to slop HHH during a postmatch interview with Lawler. He hides behind Lawler and runs away. *3/4

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Smoking Gunns (c) def Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid in 12:46- Ramon and Kid are in matching colors, showing they are absolutely completely 100% on the same page after their recent issues. Both teams are faces but the crowd is about 90/10 for Ramon and Kid. Mostly Ramon. Ramon and Kid offer handshakes then pull back with some Slick Ric. Kid and Billy start. After some feeling out and a speed run Billy gets a hiptoss. Ramon and Bart do some back and forth, but I'm too distracted by some late arriving guy arguing with everyone in the front row about if they're in the right seats or not. Thankfully everyone gets where they're supposed to be. Kid pulls the top rope down on Bart and he tumbles to the floor. Bart goes cowboy in peril for a bit. Kid gets rapid fire kicks in the corner and a spinning heel kick. Ramon fallaway slam on Bart, then he fallaway slams Kid into Bart! Nice. Bart counters a Ramon backdrop. Midring collision. Tags. Billy cleans house. Slam and huge elbow drop on Kid for 2. Bart gives Kid a triple backbreaker and now he's in peril. The Gunns hit a nice suplex/dropkick double team. Kid dodges in the corner and Billy flies face first into the post. Behind the ref's back Bart pulls Billy onto Kid. Then when the ref's on the other side Ramon turns them over so Kid's covering! Billy just kicks out! The crowd thought that was 3. Kid tag. Ramon punches everyone. Razor's Edge on Billy! But no cover, because Kid wants in to do it himself. Ramon tags him in. Kid covers....and Billy crucifixes him and rolls him over for 3! Kid is furious with himself. He dropkicks Bart in the back! Kid takes the tag belts. Ramon comes back in, takes the belts from Kid, and gives them back to the Gunns. The slow burn heel turn for Kid continues. Good angle work and a good match to boot. ***1/4

 

Goldust def Marty Janetty in 11:15- This is Goldust's big debut after weeks of video promos. Dustin Rhodes was still getting comfortable with the character but it was obvious from the off that after a truckload of failed gimmicks over the past couple of years they had finally hit on something special here. Janetty was also just returning to the WWF. As soon as he pulls his wig off Goldust tries to jump but Janetty was ready for him. A clothesline sends Goldust 360 and out, then he 360 sells a Janetty clothesline on the floor. Goldust stalls getting back in. When he does we get a midring staredown. Standing switch and roll up by Goldust for 2. Janetty slips out of a slam and hits a flying headscissors. They trade leapfrog counters and it's Janetty's turn to 360 sell a clothesline. Slow Goldust offense follows for a bit. Janetty gets thrown to the floor. Janetty snap mares Goldust from the apron over the top rope and to the floor! Goldust whips Janetty and he leaps up and sells the hell out of a post shot. Suplex back in. Janetty flips over a Goldust backdrop attempt and pulls Goldust down, but Goldust didn't look like he was expecting that. Not sure what happened there. Another dodge and Janetty flies over the corner. Goldust DDT for 2. Janetty hits a fameasser. He goes up top, anticipates a dodge and lands on his feet, and elbows Goldust in the back for 2. Janetty goes up top again. This time Goldust gets a boot up. Goldust hits a front suplex and gets the pin. Way too long for what they were doing, but Janetty had his selling boots on. A quick squash would have been a better debut for Goldust, but it was still a good first step on getting the character over. Goldust would turn out to be one of the key players that transitioned WWF from the New Generation era to the Attitude Era. *1/4

We get footage from a recent Raw where Yokozuna and Mabel attacked the Undertaker and "crushed his face" despite none of the hits apparently going anywhere near his face. This is where faceguard Taker came from. As punishment Monsoon made a match between Yoko and Mabel tonight.

 

King Mabel (w/Sir Mo) and Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) double countout in 5:12-

Vince just couldn't resist. Obviously both guys are heels. I know this will shock you, but they aren't exactly in a hurry to get going. Midring slaps turn into a slugfest. A Yoko clothesline sends Mabel to the floor. More stalling. There's a whip reversal that looks like it's being done underwater it's so slow. Mabel hits a diving clothesline and knocks Yoko to the floor. Mabel avalanche. He goes for another one. Yoko comes out of the corner with a clothesline to a decent sized pop. Mabel dodges a legdrop. Yoko dodges an elbow drop. Mabel bulldogs Yoko and Yoko does absolutely NOTHING. I mean just stood there hunched over sucking in oxygen from half of Manitoba. Then he tumbles down to the floor again for no reason. Good lord. While they're on the floor Mabel gets posted, and Yoko's had enough so he falls on top of Cornette. Both guys get counted out. After the match they stare down again but eventually hug it out. As awful as you'd expect. DUD

Next up is an ad for Survivor Series. Undertaker's return vs Mabel and Bret Hart challenging for the WWF title are already booked. JR and Vince also tease traditional Survivor Series matches with a twist: teams that will consist of faces and heels on the same side. Almost a Lethal Lottery. After that, Monsoon is in the ring for the IC title forfeiture. Douglas comes out first, then Shawn. Shawn takes forever but finally hands the belt over without a word. Douglas snatches it out of his hands before Monsoon can take it. Word came out after that Shawn really wasn't hurt that badly, he just used the bar fight as an excuse because he didn't want to drop the title to Douglas, as was the plan. Almost as if he'd lost his smile.... And if that wasn't proof enough the Kliq was running things behind the scenes, wait until this next match.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon def Dean Douglas (c) in 11:01- Once again Ramon charges and we're right into it with an all Ramon start. Lots and lots of arm work from Ramon the first half of the match. Douglas punches out of a corner break and finally gets a little offense. Ramon says "screw that", catches a running Douglas and gives him the fallaway slam. A clothesline sends Douglas over and to the floor. Ramon suplexes him back in. They go back outside. Ramon grabs a water bottle and pours it on Douglas. Douglas backdrops out of the Razor's Edge. He comes off the top rope but Ramon catches and chokeslams him. Douglas back elbows out of the back superplex. He stays on the top rope and hits a crossbody. Ramon rolls through it for 2. Ramon hits a back suplex and they pretty obviously position themselves on the edge of the ring. Ramon drapes an arm over Douglas and the ref counts 3 despite the fact Douglas' leg is completely out of the ring. Ramon becomes the first ever four time IC champ, and Douglas the shortest ever. There were zero fucks given from either side in this match. This political screwjob was the first of the dominoes to fall leading to Douglas' acrimonious departure from the company in early '96 and return to ECW. *

Bret Hart joins commentary for the next match as, mentioned previously, he'll be facing the winner at Survivor Series. Thankfully he runs Lawler off.

 

WWF Championship: "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (w/Jim Cornette) def Diesel (c) by DQ in 18:14- Diesel wins the initial lockups and Bulldog runs into an elbow. Diesel catches and slams Bulldog. Bulldog rolls out to regroup. He tries to pull Diesel down in the corner, but Diesel pulls with his legs and posts Bulldog. Back in, Diesel hits corner clotheslines and vintage Nash corner elbows. After a roll up block Bulldog dropkicks Diesel to the floor. Bret stops Diesel from running into the commentary table. Diesel thanks him by pushing his face. As they jaw Bulldog comes in and clips Diesel's knee. After that the majority of the match is Bulldog working Diesel's "leg area" (specifying the knee is too generous) in a very bland and uninteresting way. There's a hilarious bit where Cornette drops an elbow on Diesel's leg when he's laying on the floor. Diesel tries to come back by blocking a suplex and hitting his own, then hitting a back suplex, but Bulldog gets back on the leg. Bulldog puts the Sharpshooter on. Bret: "He should learn how to put it on right". Still better than the Rock's. Diesel powers out. Bulldog cinches up the powerslam. Diesel pushes Bulldog into the ropes and hits a big boot. Cornette gets flipped in and Bulldog accidentally takes him out. They go to the floor again and Diesel gets posted. Bulldog swings at Bret. Bret has enough, charges into the ring and pummels Bulldog. That gives Bulldog the win by DQ. What a shit finish. After the match Bret and Diesel get in each other's face and go into epic brawl mode. The usual gaggle of officials and eventually a good chunk of the face locker room come out to break them up but they're still going at it as the show ends. After the show went off the air Vince reportedly dropped his headset berated them from the commentary table for how awful the match was. Nash said years after that was the first sign to him that his time in WWF was coming to an end. *1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Yet another horrible '95 WWF show in a whole ocean of them. The tag title match is fine but not worth the time to dig up. The main reason to watch this show would be if you were taking a graduate course in Kliq Politics.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Clash of the Champions XVIII

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XVIII

January 21, 1992 from the Kansas Expo Center in Topeka, KS

Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone

Following WCW's second joint show with New Japan in the Tokyo Dome (and New Japan's first January 4th Dome show, the start of a tradition that would become Wrestle Kingdom) Jim Herd is out, and Kip Frey is in. Shiny. The increase in energy and motivation from everyone involved is immediately noticeable. We're also in the middle of the Dangerous Alliance's run, one of WCW's hottest angles ever.

The Steiner Brothers def Big Van Vader and Mr. Hughes (w/Harley Race) in 9:02- We got a Steiners/Vader aperitif when Rick and Vader were on opposite sides of a Lethal Lottery tag match at Starrcade, now this is....well not enough for a main course. More an appetizer. But a large one, one of those family sized sampler platters of every appetizer in the restaurant. Sadly it's Hughes that starts out with Scott. Scott gets an amateur leg takedown and fireman's carry on the big man. Hughes tries to take momentum with the heel 101 eye poke. Scott gives him a belly to belly suplex! After Hughes rolls out to regroup Scott gets trapped in the heel corner. Rick comes in and we're donnybrooking early. The Steiners are thrown to the floor. They pop right back up, go to the top rope and double Steinerline the heels! Reset with Rick and Vader. Vader hits a quick back suplex. After a regular suplex he lays in the first couple of potato shots. Press slam on Rick. Avalanche! He goes for another one. Rick pops out of the corner with a Steinerline! Rick belly to belly suplexes Vader! Another Steinerline sends Vader 360 and out. Rick dives onto him off the apron, almost ending up in the second row! Vader catches him and posts him. Back in Vader with a huge clothesline. He goes up top but Scott shakes the rope. Rick meets him up there. Belly to belly superplex on Vader! Good God almighty. Vader blocks a Scott German suplex attempt. He gets too close to the ropes, Rick pops him a couple of times, and Scott hits the German! Suplex city, bitch. Scott goes up top. Vader catches and powerslams him! Scott tries a sunset flip but Vader squashes him. Vader tags out. Boooo. Scott powerslams himself and Hughes tries to make it look like he did something. Scott dodges a Hughes avalanche and tags. Huge Rick backdrop on Hughes. Match end donnybrook! Scott dodges a double team and Vader takes Hughes out. Rick hits Hughes with a bulldog off the top rope and that gets the pin! Keep Hughes parked on the apron and I would have loved another 10 minutes of this. ***1/2

 

"Flyin'" Brian Pillman and Marcus Alexander Bagwell def "The Taylor Made Man" Terry Taylor and Tracey Smothers in 7:49- Random teams FTW. Taylor had just caused the dismantling of the York Foundation but was still a heel. Taylor and Pillman start with some shoving, jawing and a slap. Chop exchange in the corner. Pillman gets a flying headscissors. Taylor grabs a backbreaker for 2. Pillman with another tiltawhirl style headscissors. Smothers runs in and Bagwell goes wild on both heels. Pillman with a slingshot clothesline over the top rope on both heels! Dropkicks send the heels to the floor. Double plancha! Man, what a difference getting someone in charge that actually knew how to positively motivate your wrestlers makes. Reset with Smothers and Bagwell. Smothers hits a superkick as the rookie was distracted by Taylor. Taylor hits a big corner clothesline and neck snap. Bagwell gets his knees up on a Smothers splash attempt and tags. Pillman gets a spinning heel kick. Taylor breaks the pin up. The heels double team and Taylor suplexes Pillman from the apron to the floor! Pillman must have loved doing that old Canadian Stampede spot. A Smothers double ax handle off the apron sends Pillman into the guardrail. Taylor gutwrench powerbomb for 2. Smothers hits a flying back elbow that sends Pillman off the apron into the guardrail again. He comes back in with a springboard clothesline! Tag to Bagwell. He hits an ugly backdrop on Smothers and we're donnybrooking. Bagwell gets a sunset flip on Smothers, Pillman dispatches Taylor, and Bagwell pins Smothers. Nonstop action. ***

 

Footage of Jushin Thunder Liger winning the Light Heavyweight title from Pillman on Christmas day in WCW's home arena, the Omni in Atlanta. JR says Liger is signed to defend the title at Superbrawl, but his opponent is to be determined.

 

Johnny B Badd def Richard Morton in 3:20- Badd plays to the crowd forever. Morton lays right in with the heel 101 hair pulls. Badd takes some wild swings and Morton hides in the ropes. Badd double ax handle off the top for 2. Morton hits an inverted atomic drop and sends Badd to the floor. Badd's posted but comes back in with a sunset flip for 2. Powerslam for 2. Morton tries some fisticuffs and Badd responds in kind. Morton gets a crossbody, but Badd rolls through it, has to legitimately untangle himself from the ropes, and gets the 3. Lots of back and forth but this never gelled. Morton was a phenomenal wrestler, half of one of the greatest tag teams of all time, but as much as he tried to play the hand he was dealt he didn't work at all as a heel. *1/2

Badd and Pillman are with Eric Bischoff. Pillman cuts a super serious promo on Liger for the Light Heavyweight title with a lot of stuff about Japanese companies taking over the world while Badd goofs off and gurns for the camera. After Pillman's done Badd puts a kiss sticker on his cheek, so Pillman kisses Badd with his fist. And this was *face* Pillman. What a loose canon. Pillman and Liger went on to have an all time classic at Superbrawl II, a match that was the first to really showcase the New Japan junior heavyweight style to a wide US audience.

 

PN News def Diamond Dallas Page in 3:25- "Young" DDP made his in-ring WCW debut at Starrcade, starting his transition from manager to wrestler and eventually to legend. DDP jumps News during his shitty rap and tries to slam him without success. Criss cross. DDP dodges a backdrop but then goes down from the power of hitting News' ass. Seriously. News with an avalanche and he rolls over DDP a couple of times. DDP comes back with an avalanche dodge, clothesline and elbows. Russian leg sweep for 2. He tries to slam News again and News falls on top of him for 2. DDP slingshot crossbody for 2. He runs into a News belly to belly suplex. News hits the splash off the top rope and it's over. Greener than green DDP is already carrying matches. 3/4*

Tony joins us and announces the man of the hour, day, week and month, the new man in charge of WCW, KIP FREY! Frey has a contract for Lex Luger's next world title defense at Superbrawl, but before he announces that match, he has another huge announcement. Just signed to WCW: Jesse "The Body" Ventura! Ventura had been out of wrestling since leaving WWF soon after Wrestlemania 6 in 1990. He says it's been too long, and he'll be back to announce the whole show at Superbrawl. After that Frey lets Tony make the big announcement of who will be challenging Luger at Superbrawl: Sting! Kip Frey, not messing around.

 

Falls Count Anywhere: Cactus Jack def Van Hammer in 10:08- Jack and Hammer had been feuding since their match at the last Clash, while Jack had also turned against his former partner in crime Abdullah the Butcher. Jack catches some pyro from Hammer's guitar in the face and Hammer charges with a crossbody over the top rope for a 2 count. Hammer with a bulldog off the second rope and legdrop to the back of Jack's head for 2. He tries coming off the second rope again but Jack *kills* him with a clothesline. Cactus Clothesline! Jack covers on the floor for 2. He pulls the mat up and faceplants Hammer on the concrete. He goes up to the second rope looking for the elbow, but Hammer gets up so he does a sunset flip instead, splatting right on the bare concrete! Damn. Hammer is very slow to roll over for it. They move to the entrance ramp. Hammer powerslam for 2. Jack goes for a suplex. Hammer reverses it into a small package for 2. Who does a small package in a falls count anywhere match, honestly? Jack gets hiptossed off the ramp to the floor for Foley Bump #2 tonight. Hammer comes off the ramp with a diving clothesline for 2. They move to the stage area and go through to the back. The crowd boos as they lose sight of them and JR cuts to commercial as they "need to get some cameras back there". Back from commercial the wrestlers are in the parking lot with a broken barricade. Jack throws a traffic cone onto Hammer! That's hardcore. They brawl over to a rodeo pen, complete with live cows. Hammer chokes Jack with a rope. Somebody in a red flannel and cowboy hat wanders in. It's Abby! Abby tries to hit Jack with a shovel but gets Hammer instead. Jack covers him for the 3 count. Afterward Abby and Jack keep fighting until commercial. The first inkling of what Mick Foley could do when allowed to do his thing. **3/4

There's a WWE Network/Peacock cut here of the Freebirds introducing their new entrance song "I'm a Freebird (And What's Your Excuse?)", likely for rights reasons. Normally I'm not a big fan of cuts, but then again even entertaining the thought of replacing Badstreet USA was stupid, and the new song is massively inferior, so call it a wash. Maybe somebody could put a copyright claim on PN News' rapping so that could get cut too.

 

The Fabulous Freebirds def Brad Armstrong and Big Josh in 3:03- Armstrong goes against the Freebirds after teaming with them under a mask for most of '91 as Badstreet. It's face vs face so Hayes and Armstrong do some respectful back and forth basics. Hayes rolls Armstrong up and tags when Armstrong's kickout sends him all the way into the corner. Garvin shows a little more intensity. Crossbody off the top for 2. Armstrong dropkicks Garvin into a Josh slam and he does the log roll. The Freebirds try to outmaneuver Josh but Hayes also gets slammed and log rolled. Garvin and Josh work back and forth but seem to have trouble getting on the same page. Armstrong comes in with a hot tag like run until the Freebirds knee him in the gut. The Freebirds hit a double DDT on Armstrong behind the ref's back and that gets the pin. Once heels, always heels. *

Video package on the Steiner Brothers, which runs through a list of all the teams they beat that are now in the WWF. Hilarious.

 

Vinnie Vegas def Thomas Rich in :56- Oz was a complete and utter bomb so Kevin Nash has once again been repackaged, this time as a cocky casino high roller. He uses someone in the crowd to distract and blindside Rich, almost literally walks him through a few moves, and hits his new snake eyes finisher to complete the squash. I don't know what was up with Rich there but he looked completely out to lunch, dinner, supper and second breakfast. NR

Paul E does what he was born to do, cut awesome wrestling promos. He lists off all the guys the Alliance is facing in the next two matches and promises at least one of them will be hurt badly. Nice reference when he puts up four fingers and says Barry Windham couldn't cut it with a certain other group. "Magnum TA Retirement Home" is also fantastic heel work.

 

"The Natural" Dustin Rhodes, "The All American" Ron Simmons and Barry Windham def WCW World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson & "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 9:28- Arn and Eaton had just defeated Dustin and Ricky Steamboat for the tag titles at a house show a few days before this. The faces are all fired up and the heels stall. Eaton tries to jump Windham at the bell but Windham was ready for him. Eaton grabs a swinging neckbreaker outta nowhere. Superplex on Windham! Windham pops right back up! Huge lariat on Eaton. Now Windham superplexes Eaton! Damn they're not messing around. Arn breaks the pin up and everyone jumps in the pool. The faces hook up figure fours on everyone. Well, not the ref. That'd be illegal. The Alliance team fights out and we jump right into Simmons and Zbyszko in with no pause at all. Simmons Japanese armdrags Zbyszko and Arn simultaneously and hits a double tackle on them. Dustin tags in and wants Eaton for title loss revenge. After some back and forth Dustin tosses Eaton over the top rope to the ramp. Dustin with a flying clothesline over the top rope! Windham comes in and wants Zbyszko. For some reason he still hasn't gotten over Zbyszko crunching his hand in that car door all the way back in October. Zbyszko dodges a flying lariat. Windham backdrops out of a piledriver. Eaton goes up top and Windham dropkicks him off and all the way down to the floor! Zbyszko dodges a Dustin crossbody and Dustin flies all the way to the ramp. Paul E gets a phone shot to Dustin's gut. Arn World's Greatest Spinebuster! That gets a 2 count. Dustin counters Arn coming off the second rope but Arn recovers and hits a DDT! Both guys are down. Arn drapes an arm over and Dustin just kicks out. Eaton goes up top but opts for an elbow drop instead of the Alabama Jam. Arn comes off the second rope and Dustin gets his boots up again, with a tremendous sell from Arn. Dustin rolls around the whole ring dodging Eaton like a kick returner looking for an opening (I can do football references too JR!) and gets a tag to Windham. Arn cheap shots Windham and it's DONNYBROOKING time. Windham punches Eaton right in the face as he's coming off the top rope and covers him for 3. They slammed on the gas right from the start and didn't let up the whole match. ***1/2

Sting and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def WCW World Television Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin and WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 11:21- Ventura replaces Tony in the booth to commentate his first WCW match. He and JR have instant rapport. The guys in this match are all ranked #1-4 in the current WCW top 10 rankings so this really is an all star tag team match. Not that you needed the rankings to tell you that with these names but hey, it's a data point. Steamboat and Austin start. Austin punches in the corner and Steamboat fights out with crazy rapid fire chops. Steamboat blocks a hiptoss and turns it into a backslide, setting off the Steamboat quick pin attempt run. He gives both heels reverse kicks and they go outside to regroup. Paul E wants a TO. Rude tags in and slaps Sting, then hides in his corner after Sting tags in. Sting ducks a clothesline and nails Rude with atomic drops. Rude gives it the classic Rude hurt ass sell. Sting back rakes rile Ventura up. He lifts Rude up in a gutwrench, but doesn't turn him over and drops him down face first. Not sure if that was the plan or if something happened. Sting locks in a double chinlock and gets up to mock Rude's hip swivel. While Nick Patrick is jawing with Paul E the faces swap without a tag, really setting Ventura off. After Steamboat gets some hip swivel mocking in they do it again! Ventura: "Illegal tag again!" JR: "Well he was the legal guy, I thought that's what you wanted?". Man, it's like they've been working together for years already. Sting tries to drop on Rude's back but Rude flips over and Sting's nether regions find Rude's knees. Sting goes face in peril. Quick tag work by the heels. Austin with a back suplex. Sting gets a sunset flip, dodges Austin's counter punch, and tags. Steamboat fights both heels off. Victory roll on Austin! Patrick is distracted again and Rude breaks the pin up. Paul E does some awesome taunting while Steamboat's being worked over. Steamboat chops back and tries to roll Austin up. Austin blocks it. Steamboat grabs a small package instead. Sting and Rude run in. Austin lifts Steamboat up. Sting comes off the top rope with a crossbody and both he and Steamboat are covering Austin. Patrick counts the 3! I'm with Ventura on this one, that was a very questionable pin with both guys covering. The Alliance team are furious at the decision. Rude gives Steamboat two Rude Awakenings while Austin dodges a Stinger Splash and Sting crashes all the way to the floor. Rude gets a belt and whips Steamboat with it until security runs them off. Four of the best ever doing what they do, though with a little more of a traditional layout than the other tag matches tonight. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It's amazing what competent leadership can do for you. Top to bottom, this is easily one of the best Clashes of all time. The Dangerous Alliance was one of those magic everything was clicking times in the sport's history. Sadly it's the only Clash that would be run under Frey. By the time the next one came around he had been replaced by Bill Watts and the Dangerous Alliance was already no more because it's WCW and we can't have nice things.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-

In Your House 3

Legacy Review

In Your House 3: Triple Header

September 24, 1995 from the Saginaw Civic Center in Saginaw, MI

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross

Welcome to the first WWF PPV to officially take place during the Monday Night Wars. Nice to see JR back in the booth. He's very much the third wheel but at least he's working his way out of the doghouse. This is the first time he'd be in the booth with Lawler so a bit of history there. This is also one of a small run of shows in '95 that former Mid-South and WCW head Bill Watts was brought in as a booker.

Savio Vega def Waylon Mercy in 7:06- Mercy is Dan Spivey in another infamous mid-'90s WWF gimmick. The character was based on Cape Fear (released in 1991 but Vince probably just got around to watching it) and serial killers in general, and was also a heel that didn't know he was a heel. After a handshake Mercy charges and Vega dodges. Arm work by Vega. Mercy reverses a whip and knees Vega in the gut. Mercy's got some seriously shiny pants on. They go to the floor, with Mercy laying in chops and slamming Vega on the floor. Back in Mercy gets a hot shot for 2. Dok Hendrix cuts in with immediate can't wait breaking news: Owen Hart is not in the building and no one knows where he is. Film at 11. Mercy locks on a sleeper, which is his finisher. Vega starts to go down then runs Mercy into the top turnbuckle. Mercy hooks it on again and Vega back suplexes out. Slugfest. Vega headbutt and big boot. Reverse kick for 2. Mercy hits a brain buster for 2. Saito suplex for 2. Vega does a standing switch and gets a German suplex for 2. The spinning heel kick finishes it off for Vega. Vince calls it an upset. I'd dubious. Spivey's body was quickly breaking down and he'd be out of the WWF and retired by October. 3/4*

Hendrix is in the heel locker room where Jim Cornette and interim WWF President Gorilla Monsoon are having a heated debate. Cornette says Owen is in......Michigan, and promises he'll be here. Monsoon says the main event is on no matter what.

 

Sycho Sid (w/Ted DiBiase) def Henry O. Godwinn in 7:23- DiBiase rejected Godwinn's application for Million Dollar Corporation membership, after Godwinn had already done a bunch of dirty work for him of course, so Godwinn slopped him and turned face. JR gets in his "this won't be a technical masterpiece" code for this will likely suck balls, and makes Vince and Lawler laugh getting "slobberknocker" in. After some back and forth Godwinn gets the edge and throws Sid to the floor. He tweaks his back (still smarting from a Sid powerbomb on weekly TV) suplexing Sid back in, then has his back give out completely when he tries to slam Sid. Sid works on the back. Then doesn't. It's Sid. Camel clutch. After some more slow Sid offense Godwinn dodges a corner charge and counters Sid coming off the second rope. Flying tackle. Slop drop! DiBiase pulls Godwinn out of the cover, then trips him running the ropes. Sid hits a legdrop and the powerbomb and good night. After the match Bam Bam Bigelow and Kama come out to scrape and in the confusion Godwinn dumps slop on DiBiase again from behind. 1/2*

In the back Cornette and Monsoon are still arguing. Monsoon gives Cornette a proposal: either Yokozuna defends the tag belts alone, or Cornette wrangles up a temporary partner for tonight. Cornette runs off to go scab hunting.

 

"The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def Bam Bam Bigelow in 12:00- On the last Raw before Summerslam Bulldog turned heel for literally the first time in his career by attacking Diesel. He also joined Jim Cornette's camp, but Cornette's too busy trying to find a replacement for Owen to be out with him. Bigelow wins the early (nicely stiff) shoulderblocks so Bulldog rolls out for a think. We go picture in picture to see Cornette offering Sid Owen's spot in the main event. Bulldog dodges a Bigelow elbow drop and stops what had been a promising start with a chinlock. Bulldog suplex. Bigelow no sells it and hits clotheslines. Bulldog ducks a charge and Bigelow goes over the top to the floor. Bulldog tries to suplex him back in but Bigelow blocks it and drops Bulldog on the top rope. Headbutt off the top for 2. While Bigelow's arguing balls and strikes with the ref Bulldog clips his knee. Knee work follows. Another clip of the knee. Bigelow fights back and hits an enzuguri! Bulldog gets up first and goes back to the knee. Single leg crab. After cutting off another comeback Bulldog forgets the knee and goes back to the chinlock. Bleh. He tries a slam and Bigelow falls on him for 2. Bulldog with the Dynamite Kid shoutout headbutt off the top for 2. On a corner whip Bigelow bounces face first off the turnbuckles, then Bulldog catches and powerslams him for 3. Solid. Bulldog looked like he was still trying to find his comfort zone as a heel. **1/2

 

Dean Douglas (w/Bob Backlund) def Razor Ramon in 14:53- This feud started when Douglas had some notes Ramon didn't like about Ladder Match II at Summerslam. Backlund is still doing the '96 presidential run gimmick and gives a promo letting loose his verbose lexicon for the masses. He's anuspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctious to cause the audience such pericombobulations. His pairing with Douglas is just a one shot deal but it makes sense, they should have continued with it. The build to this also saw Douglas causing some dissension between Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid. Ramon charges the ring and it's on. A clothesline sends Douglas 360 and out. They do a bunch of headlock into headscissors spots until Ramon has enough, punches, and hiptosses Douglas out to the floor again. We go picture in picture again to see Cornette and Yokozuna talking to Mabel about their open spot. Dear God no. Reset lockup in the ring, followed by some hammerlock swapping. Douglas flips over and gets a leg takedown. Ramon catches Douglas on a run and hits the fallaway slam for 2. Ramon works the arm bit and dives Douglas some humiliation head slaps. Douglas fakes a reverse crossbody and does a sunset flip that triggers some rapid fire near falls. Ramon gets momentumed over the top to the floor. Douglas gives Ramon a running knee in the back sending Ramon into the stairs, but Ramon's not interested in hitting them hard at all. Barely nudged them. Douglas double ax handle off the top for 2. He keeps working the back and hits a springboard splash off the second rope for 2. Double chinlock. As usual Ramon doesn't do much to sell a hold, he just kind of lies there until powering out and dropping Douglas. Ramon with a unique double knucklelock suplex for 2. He goes for the back superplex. Douglas elbows out and hits a reverse crossbody. Ramon rolls through it for two. Douglas pulls Ramon into the ref. Ramon dodges a splash and hits the Razor's Edge. The Kid runs in and counts the 3 himself! Ramon thought it was the ref and gets pissed when he sees it's Kid and throws him out of the ring! Douglas uses the distraction to roll Ramon up, grab a handful of tights and get the 3! After the bell Ramon and Kid have to be separated by the usual gaggle of officials. The match was never overtly bad, but it was awfully slow until the stretch run. The Ramon/Kid angle was good stuff. The Kliq guys always tried extra hard for each other. **1/4

 

Bret "Hitman" Hart def Jean Pierre Lafitte in 16:37- Lafitte is the former Pierre of the Quebecers, and is still currently wrestling in Ring of Honor as PCO. This all started when Lafitte, as a pirate does, stole Bret sunglasses from a kid at ringside and even Bret's jacket. He's wearing Bret's jacket to the ring for this match. Bret launches with a massive TOPE SUICIDA while his music is still playing! He rips his jacket off Lafitte. A Lafitte eye rake kills Bret's momentum and he pounds down Bret in the corner. Bret wraps up a crucifix for 2. Lafitte blocks a hiptoss and hits a clothesline, followed by a series of gut stomps. Bret slips out of a slam and rolls Lafitte up for 2. Lafitte dodges in the corner and Bret RAMS his shoulder into the post. I mean the post almost legitimately physically moved on that one. I will always be amazed how Bret could do things like that and never get hurt. Speaking of, Bret bump! Lafitte charges but Bret backdrops him onto the floor. Lafitte lands on his feet! He drags Bret out and whips him hard into the stairs. Back in a Bret comeback is cut off by a spinebuster. Lafitte legdrop for 2. Bret gets a sunset flip for 2. Lafitte side suplex and legdrop off the top rope for 2. He goes up top again for his cannonball finisher. Bret just dodges! He hits an inverted atomic drop and diving clothesline, then tries to hook up the Sharpshooter. Lafitte pushes him out to the floor. He gets a run up and goes for a somersault plancha! Bret sidesteps and Lafitte splats on the floor! That was a Foley level bump. Now Lafitte eats a stair shot. Bret goes into the full Five Moves of Doom run until Lafitte cuts it off by getting his boots up to counter the elbow off the second rope. Bret tries another crucifix. Lafitte blocks it and hits a rolling slam. He tries a leverage pin in the corner but Bret kicks out. Bret hits a desperation dropkick. He tries a bulldog but Lafitte pushes him into the corner. Another Lafitte dodge and Bret flies into the ropes. Bret dodges a top rope splash and we have a midring collision. While both guys are down Bret does the Summerslam '91 finish, hooking in the Sharpshooter while laying down, turning over, and Lafitte gives it up. Fantastic match, and another textbook example of how great Bret Hart was at adapting to the style of whoever he was in the ring with. His time in midcard purgatory was finally about to come to an end. ***1/2

With the feeling that we've been played this whole time, Cornette introduces the British Bulldog as Yokozuna's one night tag partner. Monsoon give it his OK. Afterward Alundra Blayze comes out to model the event shirt on sale. Great use of the women's roster there.

 

All Titles On The Line: WWF Champion Diesel and WWF Intercontinental Champion "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels def WWF Tag Team Champions "The King of Harts" Owen Hart "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) in 15:42- The stips for this are actually less convoluted than they appear. If Bulldog or Yokozuna get the decision, they win the title of whoever they pinned or submitted. If Diesel and Shawn win, they win the tag titles. After a little rock paper scissors, Shawn starts out with Bulldog. Standing chain wrestling turns into a great speed run. Shawn backdrops Bulldog, then Cactus Clotheslines him while skinning the cat. Yoko runs in and the faces take him out also to clear the ring. Yoko tags in. Shawn refuses to tag out and instead challenges Yoko to a sumo match. After too much stalling Yoko accepts. Shawn slides under him but runs into a back elbow. Yoko goes for the big elbow drop. Shawn dodges and tags. After a clothesline exchange a Diesel big boot sends Yoko to the floor again. Bulldog hits Diesel from behind and the heels swap behind Hebner's back. Bulldog badly fucks up a delayed suplex, resets, and hits it properly. He goes for the powerslam but Diesel pushes out. Vintage Nash corner elbows and corner clotheslines. Shawn hits a splash off Diesel's shoulders for 2. Bulldog presses Shawn and drops him crotch first over the top rope. Yoko knocks him off. Corner whip and Shawn flip. Shawn does his mile high backdrop and Bulldog covers for 2. Shawn sunset flip for 2. Crossbody for 2. Bulldog suckers Diesel in and the heels double team. Yoko wears down Shawn and goes for the Banzai drop. Shawn dodges! Hot tag! Diesel backdrop and snake eyes on Bulldog. Donnybrook! The heels are run into each other. Yoko falls on top of Bulldog! While Shawn's taking out Cornette (who got on the apron) Yoko blocks Diesel's jackknife attempt on Bulldog and gives him a Samoan drop. Shawn superkicks Yoko to the floor. Bulldog hits the powerslam. Shawn breaks the pin up with the elbow off the top rope! OWEN HART IS IN THE BUILDING! He tries coming off the top rope but Diesel catches him. Jackknife on Owen! Diesel covers and for some reason Hebner counts the 3. New tag champs! The image of Shawn and Diesel with literally every belt in the WWF is the perfect on screen reflection of what was happening behind the scenes during this time- the Kliq ran the show. But because Owen was pinned and he officially was not in the match, the next night on Raw Monsoon overturned the decision and handed the tag belts back to Owen and Yoko. Who promptly lost them for real later that same night to the Smoking Gunns. Fun match though. You couldn't expect much of anything out of Yoko at this point, but the other three guys were on it enough to make up for it. It would have been even better if it had played up the heels going for the singles titles angle better, especially if they argued a bit about being in the match to get the decision. Despite the stips it mostly felt like a standard tag title match. ***1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: After an extremely difficult year, this is one of those shows that has a "turning the corner a bit" feel about it. There's still some crap for sure, but the top matches delivered enough to make this, dare I say, decent? Maybe even a bit good?

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-