Clash of the Champions XXX

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXX

January 25, 1995 from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

Ever since its inception by Jim Crockett Promotions in May of '88 there's been at least four Clashes every year. Current WCW boss Eric Bischoff wasn't a fan of the Clash concept however. He felt it took away from potential PPVs, and likely also because he already had the idea for Nitro cooking away somewhere. So, starting this year the number of Clashes per year was cut from four to two, and would stay that way until they were phased out completely following the final '97 Clash. To fill the gaps WCW would be introducing new PPVs during the course of '95.

WCW World Television Championship: Arn Anderson (c) (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) def Johnny B Badd in 7:38- After being an impromptu replacement for the Honky Tonk Man against champion Badd at Starrcade, Arn went on to win the title in a rematch on weekly TV for his 4th TV title reign. Now we get the rematch of the rematch, which is part of WCW's "fan voting" initiative. Fans vote on the Hotline for matches they want to see, and in this case demanded Badd get a rematch. There's a reason initiatives to let fans book by vote always end up in the rubbish bin (see Taboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday for another example). Sluggy start. Badd fakes Arn out with a punch and hits a kneelift. Arn gets some beatdown in and goes up top. Badd dropkicks him off down to the floor! Plancha! He got Arn and Parker with that one. Ax handle off the top back in for 2. Arn grabs a kick, mockingly slaps Badd, and Badd nails him with an enzuguri! Now Badd grabs one of Arn's kicks. Arn tries an enzuguri but Badd ducks it. Magistral cradle for 2. Badd tries the same corner counter too many times and Arn grabs him and drops him over the top turnbuckle. He tosses Badd out and Parker gets a kick in. A Badd comeback is cut off with a knee to the gut. Arn gets a back elbow in the corner. He comes off the top rope, sees Badd get a boot up in time, adjusts and drops an elbow. Arn grabs a leg but Badd pushes him into the corner. Badd comeback with a backdrop and clotheslines. Flying headscissors. The Tutti Fruiti punch hits but Arn rolls out to the floor. Parker grabs a pitcher of water and dumps it on Arn to wake him up. Badd stalks Parker around and into the ring, but walks right into an Arn DDT! That gets the pin. Solid. **1/2

The new Alex Wright music video plays. There's not enough bleach in the world to scrub my eyes out with.

 

"Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright def "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton in 7:38- Wright's having a spasm in the ring....oh wait, he's just dancing again. So hard to tell the difference. Wright opens with an armdrag and some arm work, with a shoulderblock/slam/tackle combo in the middle. Eaton hits a gut punch and some of his patented straight right hands. Wright moonsaults over in the corner and gets a flying headscissors. He wants to get punchy and Eaton begs off. European uppercuts from Wright. Eaton ducks a charge and Wright dives into the ropes. Wright counters a backdrop with a suplex. More European uppercuts and a spinning kick. Missile dropkick for 2. Eaton goes to the old eye poke. Wright gets a springboard reverse crossbody off the top rope for 2. Eaton hits the swinging neckbreaker. Alabama Jam! Wright kicks out! Man, Wright's already kicking out of finishers? That's a big German engineered rocket ship they've got strapped to his back. Another Wright springboard crossbody hits and that gets the pin. Eaton walked Wright through a serviceable match. *1/2

Vader comes out to promote his upcoming title match with Hogan at Superbrawl. He's got ringside tickets for he and Harley Race tonight, accuses Hogan of ducking him and says he can show up "anytime, anywhere". Might as well put a giant sign next to him that says "I'M RUNNING IN DURING THE MAIN EVENT TONIGHT". In the middle of intros for the next match Ric Flair's music hits. The Man is here! With some women of course. That forced retirement from losing at Halloween Havoc sure didn't last long (he's got alimony to pay), and certainly isn't mentioned at all on TV. Flair also takes a seat in the crowd. Heenan comes up to say hi and Flair says something that sounded a lot like "Check out the bitches!".

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Harlem Heat (c) (w/Sister Sherri) def Stars & Stripes in 9:45- Harlem Heat defeated Stars & Stripes for the titles a couple of weeks prior on weekly TV (as shown, in reality the match had been taped weeks before Starrcade), the first of their record 10 title reigns. Booker and Bagwell start. Booker slaps and Bagwell snaps. Booker gets a knee up in the corner and gives Bagwell some knees on the ropes. Bagwell ducks a heel kick and dropkicks Booker over the top to the floor. Ray runs in and gets double dropkicked. Bagwell backdrops Booker back in. S&S double hip toss. Booker works Patriot into his corner and tags. Ray catches a Bagwell crossbody and powerslams him. Booker bicycle kick. Bagwell gets a rolling cradle in the corner for 2. Patriot and Booker do some suplex counters, fumble around a little, and Patriot hits a belly to belly suplex for 2. Bagwell tries a monkey flip but Ray blocks it from the apron. Booker big boot and tag. They sucker Patriot in for some double teams. Booker flying forearm. Bagwell and Booker do a crossbody collision! Sherri and Ray both distract and the ref doesn't see the S&S tag. As usual Patriot completely ignores the ref trying to get him out and everyone's in the pool. Sherri gets on the apron with her Loaded Purse of Hard Hitting +1. Bagwell fraks up the spot by whipping Booker into the corner. They reset, do the counter and Booker eats the purse. While Bagwell has Booker rolled up Ray nails him with a kick, Booker reverses the cover and gets the pin. Another classic WCW badly executed tag match finish. It's practically their signature. S&S would fall to being more of a jobber team after this before disbanding in the spring and Patriot leaving WCW soon after. *3/4

Mean Gene is with the MONSTER MANIACS. I suppose "Mega Powers" was still a WWF trademark. Heenan accidentally called them "Mega Maniacs" earlier in the show, which was the name for the Hogan/Beefcake team in WWF in '93 but I guess the lawyers didn't like the look of that one either. After that we go to Mean Gene in the Control Center for an update on Superbrawl, normally a weekly TV segment. Random thought: WWF Update was always my favorite part of WWF weekly TV from the pre-Raw days. The home for breaking news and PPV hype.

 

Sting def Avalanche in 5:22- Another Starrcade rematch. The Guardian Angel is the guest ref for this match. Sting tosses his jacket at Avalanche and charges in. It doesn't go so good and Avalanche pounds away in the corner. Angel makes him back off. Sting dodges in the opposite corner and a couple of dropkicks send Avalanche to the floor. Now Angel cuts Sting off from attacking on the floor. Reset back in the ring. Commentary notices Flair is gone and wonders where he is. Maybe he had to go to the bathroom. Maybe he took one, or both, of his women to the bathroom. Or a janitor's closet. Sting tries a slam and Avalanche falls on him for 2. Big elbow and leg drops. Sting's squashed in the corner. Powerslam for 2. Midring collision. Avalanche goes down, and Sting does the "accidental" falling headbutt south of the border. Sting dodges an elbow drop. Stinger Splash. Another one. And another. And another. He slams Avalanche. The Scorpion Death Lock is on. Avalanche is clearly saying yes but Angel is still asking him. Nick Patrick runs in and orders the bell to be rung, saying Avalanche submitted. Angel is mad at......Sting? What did Sting do? He shoves Sting. Sting punches back. Angel clothesline and he beats Sting down. Avalanche joins him. Some of the face locker room runs in to break it up. That was as nonsensical a turn as I've ever seen. 1/4*

Okerlund stops Angel and name drops "Big Bubba Rogers", which was Angel's name back in his pre-WWF heel days in Jim Crockett. Angel tears his shirt off, says "ass" which was a huge no-no in Turnerland, and confirms that Big Bubba Rogers is back. The real story: the Guardian Angels organization was unhappy with the way Rogers' character was being portrayed, so he once again had to change names and gimmicks (after WWF thought The Boss was too close to the Big Boss Man). It was executed in a very dumb way, but going back to his roots wasn't the worst idea. At least they knew this time the name should stick.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Jimmy Hart) def The Butcher and Kevin Sullivan in 11:04- Vader is still at ringside (shown), and commentary says Flair is back from his bathroom/nookie break (not shown). Hogan and Butcher start with some lockup games. Hogan quickly goes into pillar to post beating mode. Butcher gets points for a delayed flop after a corner clothesline. Savage hits a double ax handle off the top rope and takes Sullivan out as well without even breaking stride. Hogan high knee for 2. Butcher ducks a clothesline. Sleeper! Hogan goes down. Butcher lets go. No arm drops, the ref didn't call it for Hogan being out, nothing, just lets go. The ref says it's not over while the heels celebrate like idiots. Savage tries to slap Hogan awake. No dice. Savage goes to the top rope. He hits Hogan with the elbow off the top! Hogan wakes up! Savage hit Hogan with his finisher to make him Hulk Up! That's freaking hilarious. I know a lot of people get upset about that, it's very fourth wall breaking, but I can't help but laugh at it. The setup was moronically stupid with the heels thinking the match was over for no reason though. Both heels are atomic dropped to the floor. Hogan resumes his Butcher beatdown. Double big boot. Butcher runs Savage into Sullivan's knee now that we have a face in the ring that will actually sell. Savage is backdropped over the top to the floor and run into the rail and post multiple times. Hogan keeps interfering with the ref which only allows the heels to get away with even more. Savage is selling like a, no pun intended, maniac, stumbling around ringside and walking into the rail all over the place. Back in Savage gets put in the tree of woe for what seems like an eternity. Finally Butcher puts the sleeper on. Savage jawbreakers out and fights over to tag. Hogan easily dispatches both heels. Big boot, Savage elbow, legdrop good night. 1/2* for Savage's selling

Vader, to the shock of no one, gets in the ring. He takes Savage out and stares down Hogan. Vader powerbombs Hogan! Hogan, I kid you not, pops right back up. I sure hope Vader has a different finisher to bring to the PPV because Hogan just completely destroyed that one's credibility. Hogan and Savage run Vader off and the show closes with a solid 5 minutes of Hogan celebrating. Egomania is running wild, brother!

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It started out passably but fell off a cliff the last two matches. A lot of people point to the main event of this show as the encapsulation of Hogan's ego being unchecked by anyone backstage and running roughshod over the entire company. It also foreshadowed the difficulty he and Vader would have working together the next couple of PPVs. Much like WWF, 1995 was a very difficult year for WCW. This is only the beginning.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D