Clash of the Champions XX

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XX: 20th Anniversary

September 2, 1992 from the Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, GA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

No, they're not trying to claim the Clash has been around for 20 years. They're using the 20th Clash to also celebrate the 20th anniversary of wrestling being broadcast on TBS, and so this show is as much celebrity nostalgia as it is matches. The Center Stage Theater was the regular home of WCW's flagship weekly show in the pre-Nitro years, WCW Saturday Night, and was revisited by Triple H in early 2018 for a series of NXT weekly show tapings, back when NXT was still NXT.

 

The show opens with Tony Schiavone and Missy Hyatt doing the red carpet thing. Gordon Solie and Andre the Giant are here. This was Andre's final US TV appearance before he passed away in January '93. A bunch of limos roll through with a clown car full of WCW execs, world champ Ron Simmons, Bruno Sammartino (who takes a shot at the WWF) and Ted Turner buddy Hank Aaron. Sting shows up on a motorcycle. JR and Ventura open up saying there's a "problem" with Brad Armstrong's scheduled Light Heavyweight title defense against Brian Pillman tonight, more details to come.

No DQ Match for the WCW World Television Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 10:43- Save a 26 day cup of coffee by Barry Windham in the spring of '92, that TV title belt has been bolted to Austin's waist for almost a year and a half. Paul E is being suspended in a cage for this one. Love the "Paul E/Perot '92" sign in the crowd. Steamboat's ribs are padded up from damage he got during the NWA tag title tournament. Austin goes right for it. Steamboat chops back, hiptosses Austin and works a headlock. They do a speed run. Steamboat slides under Austin's legs and does a drop toe hold. Austin counters whips and gets a hiptoss of his own. More Steamboat headlocks as the opening part of the match is super slow. This would be fine groundwork laying if they were going 25-30 minutes, but they're not. Austin tries to back suplex out but Steamboat flips out of it. Finally Austin pulls Steamboat's hair. He throws Steamboat off the second rope and his ribs are hurting again. Austin tears the pad off. Backbreakers for 2. Steamboat tries to come back, Austin cuts it off with a clothesline. Abdominal stretch. Steamboat starts going down then manages to make it to the ropes. Steamboat crossbody off the second rope. Austin rolls through it and gets a 2 count. Steamboat slingshots Austin into the corner for 2. Austin tries a leverage pin the corner for 2. Steamboat hooks up a tombstone, they counter each other, and Steamboat hits it for 2. Austin goes for a superplex but Steamboat blocks it and drops Austin. Steamboat tackles for more near falls. Austin pushes Steamboat over the top rope. He tries to skin the cat but Austin elbows him and he falls to the floor. Steamboat crawls under the ring, comes out behind Austin, and hits the crossbody off the top rope for the win and the title! This match reeked of Bill Watts' artificial handcuffs. Both guys were capable of so much more. Austin was originally only dropping the title to move on to bigger things (a US title run), but those plans were quickly Meltzered and he'd be thrown into a tag team with Brian Pillman you may have heard of. **1/2

We get a video package of great tag teams that have wrestled on TBS the past 20 years, followed by an ad for Halloween Havoc and "Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal". The huge "OOOOOOOOOH" from the biker gang when the wheel starts spinning is Rifftrax level unintentional hilarity.

Arn Anderson and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Michael Hayes) def "Dirty" Dick Slater and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/Larry Zbyszko) in 5:42- Hayes is retiring from wrestling and moving toward managing and commentating. He says this unit is a combination of three of the greatest teams ever: the Midnight Express, Four Horsemen, and Freebirds. Both teams are still heels but Arn and Eaton had gotten into a beef with Zbyszko and broke his arm. The crowd doesn't care for anyone in the ring. Valentine and Arn start. Eaton gets a quick cheap shot in and soon all four guys are in the ring. After they settle down Slater cheap shots Arn and everyone goes in the pool again. Reset. Slater gets a Russian leg sweep on Eaton and tries a leverage pin. Eaton and Arn get Slater in their corner. Valentine hammers (see what I did there) Arn in his corner and hits a suplex for 2. Slater snaps Arn's knee on the apron and Valentine hooks in the figure four. Eaton breaks it up. World's Greatest Spinebuster! Slater breaks the pin up. Zbyszko tries to get a cast shot in but Valentine eats it. Eaton hits the Alabama Jam from the second rope because Bill Watts stupidity and that's that. As messy a tag match with Arn Anderson involved as you'll ever see. Everyone was on autopilot here. *3/4

Bruno comes out and runs down the WWF some more. More legends parrot Watts' talking points about WCW going back to wrestling "the way it should be". Tony is with Watts himself, who's holding the Light Heavyweight belt. Watts says Armstrong hurt his knee wrestling The Great Muta in Japan, and as a result they must strip him of the title. He says a tournament for a new champion will take place "at a date and time to be announced". That tournament never happened, and this was the end of WCW's original Light Heavyweight title. Afterward Armstrong is with Ventura. Pillman comes out and runs Armstrong down as a pathetic coward and slaps him, officially turning heel. After that is another video package of legendary singles wrestlers that have been on TBS. Several current WWF stars are included, including Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper, and the biggest wresting star TBS, the NWA or WCW ever had, Ric Flair.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "The All American" Ron Simmons (c) def Cactus Jack in 8:51- This is Simmons' first major title defense after pulling a massive upset on Vader on weekly TV in August to become the first black world champion in wrestling history. Ole Anderson is reffing. Great. Simmons flashes his power. Jack hits a flying forearm. Both guys go to the floor, Jack's territory. Simmons dares Jack to dive off the apron. Jack backs off. Back in Jack takes over with back rakes and bites. Ole pulls him back at one point. Simmons lifts Jack up on his back and backs him into the corner, then does a little ground and pound. Cactus Clothesline! Jack hits a swinging neckbreaker on the floor. He goes for the double underhook DDT but Simmons runs him into the corner again. Simmons powers out of a chinlock and they exchange headbutts. Simmons faceplant off the second rope for 2. He hits two 3 point stance tackles but Jack kicks out. They go back outside. Jack slams Simmons on the floor and hits the Cactus elbow. Simmons sells it for about .75 seconds, gets back in and hits his spinebuster. Simmons powerslam and it's done. *1/4

We get footage of Masahiro Chono winning the revived NWA World Heavyweight Championship (they got the Big Gold Belt back from Flair) by winning the 1992 G1 Climax. We also get a few highlights of the finals between him and Rick Rude. Cactus Jack then joins commentary and re-introduces Butch Reed back to WCW. Because he's Ron Simmons' old tag partner he holds the key to victory over him for the world title. If he did, shouldn't you have gotten all that info before your match with him earlier tonight?

 

The Barbarian and Butch Reed def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham in 8:13- Dustin and Barbarian start. The faces hit a sunset flip/lariat combo. Barbarian tries to press slam Windham. Windham slips out and rolls him up for 2. Reed dodges and Dustin flies through the corner down to the floor, and goes face in peril. The heels work a lot of power moves on Dustin. He keeps trying to fight back to keep it moderately interesting. Reed swinging neckbreaker for 2. Dustin backdrops out of a piledriver. Double clothesline. Hot tag. Windham runs wild. Superplex on Barbarian, with that sweet floatover into a seamless cover. He sees Reed about to come off the top rope to break the pin up and slams him off. After getting Reed out Windham turns around into a Barbarian big boot and gets pinned. Gotta keep Barbarian looking strong here because, against all sanity and logic, he's getting a world title shot at Halloween Havoc. The whole Reed giving up Simmons' secrets angle would fizzle out as Reed left WCW again in short order. Probably didn't want to deal with Bill Watts again after working for him so long in Mid-South. **

 

Elimination Match: WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Big Van Vader, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and The Super Invader def Sting, Nikita Koloff and The Steiner Brothers in 15:57- Survivor Series comes to WCW. Super Invader is Hercules with a red stocking on his head. It's so thin on this show you can clearly see his face in close up shots. Vader and Rick start. Hell yes. Vader goes right to the potato shot to the headgear. Great back and forth stiffing. Vader hits a short clothesline and an avalanche. Rick with a belly to belly suplex! Vader slides all the way to the floor. Koloff crossbody on Invader for 2. After Rude tags in Koloff tries to pull his arm out of its socket. Scott double underhook powerbomb and belly to belly on Invader. He goes for the Frankensteiner, but Invader got a blind tag to Rude, who clips Scott's knee while he's in the air mid-move. Nice. Vader pounds Scott down in the corner. While Roberts has his back turned on the apron Scott legit knocks him off while hitting the ropes. Roberts pops back up and looks like he's laughing about it with his teammates. Scott tiltawhirl slam on Rude. Tags. Koloff pillar to post beating on Roberts. Rude knees Koloff from the apron and Roberts rolls him up to eliminate him. Sting beats Invader around like a jobber and pins him with zero fuss or fanfare. Rick with a huge Steinerline on Vader. RICK GERMAN SUPLEXES VADER! He tries coming off the second rope but Vader catches and powerslams him. Vader big splash off the second rope. Rick kicks out! Rude works a front facelock on Rick. Rick pushes him into the corner and tags, but the ref was distracted and didn't see it. Vader gives Rick another stiff punch in the headgear and comes off the second rope again. Rick catches and powerslams him! Rick tries to lift Vader up for a doomsday device. He can't quite hold him up, but Scott still hits it. No cover because the ref's getting Scott out. Rick with a Cactus Clothesline on Vader! Scott gets DQ'd for coming off the top rope. Weak sauce. Rick backdrops Vader on the floor. While Roberts and Sting fight in the ring Rude gives Rick a Rude Awakening on the floor. Rick is counted out. Sting with a sunset flip on Vader, and dodges the counter. Stinger Splash on Roberts. He starts to hook in the Scorpion but Rude clotheslines him from the apron. Sting and Rude do some placeholder moves while Vader slowly works up to the top rope and Roberts distracts the ref by putting his cobra handling glove on. Sting with a slinghsot suplex on Rude. Vader comes off the top and splashes both Sting and Rude! The ref still saw it and DQ's Vader for a top rope move. Super weak sauce. Roberts pulls Rude into the corner to tag, plants Sting with a DDT, and gets the win for his team. WCW wasn't counting but the survivors were Roberts and Rude. The end stretch was pretty messy and bleh but everything before that was fun, especially Vader and the Steiners tossing each other around like sacks of potatoes again. Never gets old. ***

JR gives us the results of the fan poll on the Hotline about eliminating the off the top rope ban- 88% want it gone. No shit. The other 12% were probably paid off by Watts. After that is the full Halloween Havoc mini-movie promo for the Sting/Roberts Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match. Once again, it's mostly Rifftrax level awful fun. Roberts is really and truly a good actor. Sting, not so much. Roberts' "Sting, I KNEW YOU'D COME" is hilarious in this post-BROKEN Universe world.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Seeing a whole bunch of legends at one show is fun in an era when it was rarely done, but the wrestling itself is buried deep in Bill Watts' crap.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-