Clash of the Champions XXI

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXI

November 18, 1992 from the Macon Coliseum in Macon, GA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

We've got a new graphics package for this Clash. It looks like someone in the Turner graphics department thought the show was just "Clash of Champions" then after realizing shoved a "the" in there with no thought of rebalancing the whole image.

 

The show opens with footage of the weigh in for the "Battle of the Sexes" match. To no one's shock it ends in a brawl before a quick cutaway. Bill Watts does his mandatory TV hit and says absolutely nothing important. Jesse Ventura is with Brian Pillman on a crutch. Irony of ironies, the last Clash it was Brad Armstrong with a hurt knee, now it's Pillman. Armstrong comes out with a "WTF bro?" look on his face. Pillman offers a public apology for running Armstrong down for his knee injury the last Clash and offers Armstrong a free slap. While Armstrong's making up his mind Pillman attacks his knee with his crutch! IT'S A RUSE! The ref argues with Pillman and he says "You can't DQ me, the match hasn't started!". Inarguable point. Armstrong crawls onto the apron and insists the ref ring the bell.

"Flyin'" Brian Pillman def Brad Armstrong in :25- Armstrong fires up with punches and gives Pillman the slap he offered to take. Pillman begs off, as soon as Armstrong lets his guard down he clips the bad knee, and gets the pin. Good piece of business to get Pillman over as a heel. NR

Recap of the Paul E/Medusa feud following her firing at Halloween Havoc. Sadly we don't get the "the other hooker I had in mind for your job was otherwise engaged" line again. There's a funny bit where Paul E has a training session with a jobber in the ring. He punches the jobber, then when he turns around Steve Austin punches the jobber again behind Paul E's back to actually knock him down, and Paul E turns around and celebrates like he did it. After that is a live interview with Paul E. Said jobber shows up again and complains he was never paid for the workout. Won't be the last time Paul E stiffs a wrestler on a paycheck.

 

Kensuke Sasaki and Erik Watts def Arn Anderson and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Michael Hayes) in 6:06- Erik Watts is of course the son of Bill Watts, who had no business being on any TV for any wrestling promotion but was the son of the boss. Paul E has a bounty out to take him out of wrestling that Arn and Eaton are trying to collect. Eaton schools Watts a bit. Watts slaps back and armdrags out of an Eaton abdominal stretch. Eaton dodges and Watts files over the top but lands on his feet and springs back in. OK, good athleticism. Then he completely ruins it by horribly mistiming a sunset flip off the second rope. He tackles Eaton and starts throwing some pretty straight looking punches. Dial it back a bit, kid. If Watts saw any other rookie doing that to a veteran he'd probably punch him out himself as soon as he got to the back. Sasaki land on his feet on an Eaton monkey flip and hits a dropkick. Big Sasaki chops in the corner. Eaton dodges and Sasaki crashes in the corner. Hayes gets a couple of shots in. Eaton runs into a Sasaki powerslam. Tag. Watts monkey flip and ground & pound on Eaton. Donnybrook! Watts punches Eaton as he's coming off the top rope, hooks in the Chono-taught STF, and Eaton submits. 3 guys that knew they were only there to get the boss' talentless son over and couldn't care less. 3/4*

 

Boxing Match: Scotty Flamingo (w/Diamond Dallas Page and Vinnie Vegas) def Johnny B Badd (w/Teddy Long) in 3:01- Flamingo is the future Raven. Badd is reuniting with his old manager Long but is still the face here. The only reason I can think of for this to be a boxing match was Badd's legit Gold Gloves background. Round one, Badd comes out firing with quick jabs and Flamingo falls to the floor. Badd avoids Flamingo's punches and knocks him down. Vegas distracts the ref and Flamingo eye rakes and clotheslines Badd. Hard shots from Flamingo. Badd jabs back. These punches are miles away from actually hitting anyone. Flamingo goes down again as the round ends. Between rounds the heels fill Flamingo's glove up with water. As the bell rings for round two Flamingo can barely stand. DDP distracts the ref and Flamingo hits Badd with the water loaded glove. Badd can't get up and it's over. 1/4*

Preview for the Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl returning for Starrcade '92. In the ring the drawing is held for the first match's pairings: Cactus Jack and Johnny B Badd vs Dan Spivey and Van Hammer.

 

Handicap Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion "The All American" Ron Simmons and 2 Cold Scorpio def Cactus Jack, The Barbarian and Tony Atlas in 5:52- Simmons and Scorpio charge in and jump the heels before their intros are barely started. Commentary has no idea who Scorpio is, not even his name. As the heels are on the floor regrouping Scorpio hits them with a plancha! They settle in with Simmons and Barbarian. Simmons runs through the whole heel team. Scorpio slips out of a Jack suplex, springs up to the top rope, and unleashes a moonsault that completely misses. Jack sells it anyway. JR covers by saying Scorpio hit him with his foot. Atlas grabs Jack to keep him from running into a Simmons dropkick. Simmons goes face in peril. After some very not interesting heel offense Simmons gets a boot up on Jack coming off the second rope and tags. Scorpio unleashes dropkicks and everyone gets in the pool. Simmons dodges and Barbarian big boots Atlas. Scorpio goes up top and hits Atlas with a 450 splash! That gets the pin. Huge pop for a move no one had ever seen before. JR goes absolutely nuts calling it. Nothing match, but botch aside an electric debut for Scorpio. *1/2

Ventura grabs Simmons and he introduces 2 Cold Scorpio to the world.

 

Medusa and Paul E Dangerously (w/Michael Hayes) go to a 5:00 time limit draw- Paul E is supposed to have an arm tied behind his back for this match but it doesn't actually happen. While a Medusa graphic is up someone blonde runs in and Paul E nails them with his phone. Everyone thinks it's Medusa. Paul E says he wants a kiss while "she's" unconscious. He pulls and the blonde wig comes off. It's the workout jobber! The real Medusa runs out and kicks Paul E from behind. Body slam by Medusa! She hits knees in the corner and Paul E falls to the floor. Paul E tries to walk. Medusa chases, they go behind the curtain, and come back out with Medusa carrying Paul E back to the ring. Hayes trips Medusa as she's getting back in. Paul E hits a double ax handle off the second rope. He gloats to the crowd and Medusa hits him from behind with a clothesline. Missile dropkick off the second rope. She pulls Paul E's pants off. OK then. Ventura gets miles of lines out of that. Paul E runs to the back again as the time expires. If you're going to do this crap there could at least be a definitive finish. That's five minutes of my life I'll never get back. DUD

Ironically both of them would leave WCW soon after this. Medusa headed to the WWF to be the face of the revived women's division, while Paul E took a position with one of the few remaining NWA affiliated promotions, a little company in Philadelphia called Eastern Championship Wrestling.

Because King of Cable is a single elimination tournament WCW has their usual gimmick of judges lined up to decide the next match in case it's a time limit draw. They're mentioned so often by commentary during the match it's pretty telegraphed what's going to happen. The judges are Larry Zbyszko, Ole Anderson and Hiro Matsuda.

 

King of Cable Tournament Semifinals: Sting def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude by judges' decision in 20:00- Rude goes right for an eye rake and hits some measured shots. Sting reverses a whip, they mess up the gutbuster spot, so they change direction and do it again. Sting goes after Rude's ribs and mocks the hip swivel. Two front suplexes from Sting. He works a chinlock then hooks on an abdominal stretch. Rude hip tosses out and does another eye rake to get some space. Forearms to Sting's back. Sting blocks a suplex and drops Rude over the top rope. Rude dangles from the ropes and Sting kicks him in the abs from the floor. Rude dodges the Stinger Splash on the floor! Sting crashes into the guardrail. Back in Rude hits an ax handle off the top rope. Rude works a chinlock with some more measured shots as the match resumes it's *ahem* methodical pace. Rude hits a delayed suplex. Sting dodges and Rude plants his ass on the mat. He goes for a slam but his back gives out and Rude falls on him for 2. Sting gets whipped around the corners. 5 minutes left. Rude with a bear hug. 4 minutes. He rams Sting into the buckles. Sting fights out of another bear hug with 3 minutes left and hooks in a sleeper. Rude jawbreakers out. 2 minutes. Rude goes up top. Sting springs up and slams him off all the way across the ring. Atomic drops and Rude does his classic sells. Faceplant for 2. One minute left. Sting hits a crossbody off the top. Rude kicks out! Sting goes up again. This time Rude counters. Stall, stall, and he goes for the Rude Awakening. Sting blocks it. Stinger Splash! As he's hooking the Scorpion in the bell rings for the time limit. It goes to the judges, and they decide 2-1 for Sting (Matsuda and Anderson for Sting, Zbyszko for former Dangerous Alliance teammate Rude). The match was fine, but they were capable of so much more. The time limit stalling was obvious from the start, and for most of the match it felt like they were going in slow motion. I smell Bill Watts shackles again. Sting would go on to defeat Vader in the tournament final at Starrcade in another legendary match between the two. **1/2

 

Unified WCW and NWA World Tag Team Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Shane Douglas def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham (c) in 15:52- This is face vs face. Dustin and Steamboat were tag champs together earlier in the year, now they're on opposite sides. Dustin and Douglas start. Flash Douglas small package for 2. Dustin backslide for 2. Armdrag exchange. Really good intensity early here. Dustin ducks a clothesline and gets a roll up for 2. Simultaneous armdrag and dropkicks spots! Both sides tag. More intense back and forth between Windham and Steamboat. They keep blocking each other's hiptosses and end up falling to the floor! It breaks down into shoving and their teammates run in to calm things down. Windham/Steamboat chop exchange in the ring. Steamboat with an atomic drop and DEEP armdrag. Quick tag work on Windham. He tries to fight back but keeps getting shut down. Double backdrop. Windham ducks a dive and Douglas flies into the top rope throat first. Tag to Dustin. Now Dustin and Windham roll through double team near falls as Douglas is in trouble. Windham back suplex for 2. Lariat for 2. Douglas runs Dustin into the corner and hits a springboard reverse crossbody for 2. Dustin cuts off a tag. Douglas dodges a dropkick and finally gets the tag. Rapid fire Steamboat pin attempts. Dustin stops the momentum with a hiptoss and rolls through rapid fire covers of his own. Steamboat leapfrogs and Dustin accidentally headbutts him in the groin! Steamboat's down in just a small amount of pain. Dustin wants to let him recover instead of going for a pin and Windham screams at him from the apron. Windham tags himself in and covers. Steamboat kicks out! Dustin and Windham continue to argue. Windham hits inverted atomic drops and a lariat. Dustin pulls him off a cover! Windham punches Dustin! While that was going on Steamboat tagged out. Douglas with a belly to belly on Windham! He gets the pin and the titles! Dustin is furious with himself. He congratulates Steamboat on his way out. Fantastic, high intensity nonstop action match. The great angle work turning Windham heel is just icing. ****1/4

Windham screams at Dustin and Dustin comes back to the ring. They argue for a bit and Windham turns his back on Dustin. He turns back around with a kick to the gut! DDT! He superplexes Dustin! After commercial Ventura is in the locker room with the new champs. Windham attacks them with a chair! Heel turn complete.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- When your most hyped match is Paul E Dangerously vs Medusa you should know you need to have a serious re-think about the direction of your company. The great match and angle in the main event saved this from being one of the worst Clashes ever.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C