Clash of the Champions XXXII

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXXII

January 26, 1996 from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

This is the second straight year the January Clash has taken place at Ceasar's Palace. Apparently there was a business reason as there was some big TV executives convention taking place in Vegas at the same time. The show opens with footage from the previous night's Nitro (also in Caesar's) of Randy Savage defeating Ric Flair to take back the world title just a few weeks after dropping it to Flair at Starrcade. The hotshotting between the two was well and truly on, and not done yet. After the match Savage chastised Hulk Hogan for celebrating too much. "You're celebrating like you won the match. *I* won the match." Years of pent up anger at Hogan being unleashed right there. After that we also get a clip of Sting and Lex Luger culminating their "we're on opposite sides but we're still friends" angle by defeating Harlem Heat for the tag titles. Naturally Luger won by cheating, exploding a roll of coins over Stevie Ray's head to pin him, leaving Sting to wonder exactly how Luger ended up winning while he was out on the floor.

During their usual intro Tony and Heenan mention that both the returning Miss Elizabeth and the Super Bowl bound Kevin Greene of the Steelers (who would lose to the Cowboys the following Sunday) would be in the corner of Savage and Hogan tonight. After that we cut to Mean Gene at A Little White Chapel in Vegas, a famous shotgun wedding location. The wedding between Col. Robert Parker and Sherri will be taking place there tonight.

The Nasty Boys and Public Enemy double DQ in 4:00- ECW legends Public Enemy had made their WCW debut the week prior (after also apparently getting overtures from WWF) and made a statement by putting one of the Nastys through a table because that's what ECW people do. Ugh, the crowd chants for the Nastys. Don't do that, all you're going to do is encourage them. Fortunately, both these teams were proficient at precisely one thing so maybe the similarity in styles will help. Jawing at the start leads to slugging. All four guys continuously fight the whole short match, it never stops. Knobbs kills Grunge with a clothesline. Sags and Rock take turns whipping each other into the barricade. Grunge dodges in the corner and does the last thing you'd expect to see in this match- a wrestling move. In this case it's a back suplex on Knobbs. Rock stands on the barricade to try to hit something on Sags, but Sags kicks the rail and Rock gets crotched on it. Sags walks back up the aisle. Kobbs pulls the top rope down and Grunge crashes to the floor. Sags is back, and he's got a table with him. A very large and very thick table that doesn't look to be made for easy breaking. He slides it in the ring and sets it up in the corner. Sags tries to run Rock into the table but Rock counters with a bulldog. Rock moonsault on Knobbs for 2. Knobbs knocks Rock off the apron, who does a weird and nasty looking straight down fall. Sags piledriver on Grunge. The Nastys set the table up. Ref Nick Patrick, clearly an old school guy, does a preemptive call for the bell because things have already gone too far. PE get Knobbs on the table and Rock moonsaults him. As expected, the table cracks a bit but doesn't break. Sags takes one of the pieces broken off the side and uses it as a weapon. After that Sags lifts the whole table up and throws it on top of Grunge on the floor! Shit. The table does break after that and Sags chases Grunge to the back with the small piece as we head to commercial. *1/2

 

Dean Malenko def "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright in 5:29- Malenko recently signed with WCW full time, and was already known as both The Iceman and The Man of 1000 Holds. On a recent WCW Saturday Night he held a Texas cloverleaf on Alex Wright a bit too long and hurt Wright's leg, so Wright is out for revenge. Basic but intense start. Both guys escape from headscissors. Mat stalemate. A good speed/counter run follows, ending with Wright hitting a dropkick and flying headscissors that sends Malenko to the floor. Back in Malenko dodges an enzuguri and drops an elbow right on Wright's hurt leg. Malenko starts to pick it apart. Dragon screw! Wright sold that horribly, I'm surprised he didn't hurt his leg for real doing that. Wright hits a back elbow in the corner and does a springboard crossbody that wasn't 100% on target. European uppercuts. Shotgun dropkick. Hey, the leg is just fine I guess. Malenko hits a Saito suplex. He goes up top but Wright dropkicks him and hits a superplex. What hurt leg? German suplex from Wright for 2. Malenko dodges a dropkick and hits a clothesline. Wright flips over in the corner, but Malenko uses the opening to hit his hurt leg again with a basement dropkick. Jackknife cover. Wright clearly kicks out but the ref says it was 3 anyway. Another one for the botched WCW finishes file. Decent match with Malenko looking great, but it was really hurt by Wright's spotty at best selling of the hurt leg that was supposed to be the focal point of the whole match. **

Kevin Sullivan comes out for a scheduled match against Disco Inferno. Inferno's music hits, but a real Elvis impersonator comes out instead. He says he's here to deliver a singing telegram from Inferno. No, really, that's OK oh hell he's singing......oh God it's awful. The Elvis impersonator on that Red Dwarf episode sang so much better. Apparently the telegram says Inferno's blowing the match off to be at the wedding but we need Tony to translate that for us after. After the cats are scraped off the ceiling Sullivan attacks "Elvis" and gives him the double stomp. The bell rang to start a match but never rang to end it so I'm not counting it.

Back to Okerlund at the chapel. Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater arrive but they have no idea where Parker is. Last they saw him he had "1000 1s" and was sitting at a craps table.

Eric Bischoff brings out new tag champs Sting and Luger. After a bit of bragging from Luger the WCW returning Road Warriors come out. Animal had finally been cleared to wrestle again after being out nearly 4 years with back problems. Sting is thrilled to see them. Luger less so. The Roadies want a shot at the belts. Sting says hell yes anytime. Luger says now wait a minute, there's a lot of other teams in line, these guys need some warm up matches and maybe they'll be ready in time. Hawk takes issue with that, saying the LOD have a beatings quota that needs to be met. Bischoff pulls the mic away right before Hawk starts to say "WHAT A RUSH" and afterward Hawk looks at him like he's ready to kill him.

After that is a pretaped interview with Paul Orndorff, who says the injury he suffered at the hands of the Four Horsemen is likely career ending, but they still haven't seen the last of him. It turns out they had, as he really would retire after this.

Back to Mean Gene. Parker arrives in a cab, then tries to hit Okerlund up for the fare. That's not good. Parker says he's really done it this time, those Vegas thieves took all his money! He also gets a call on his '90s cell phone from someone that's asking if he's really going to go through with the wedding. He promises he is. Everyone assumes it's Sherri on the other side of the call.

 

"Flyin'" Brian Pillman def Eddie Guerrero in 5:59- This would be a tremendous match if given time on a PPV. Pillman is fully 100% into his loose canon phase now. Every police captain in the country is trying to take his badge and gun away, that's how loose canon he is. Pillman loses it with the crowd before the bell. More mind games stalling follows. Guerrero shoves and Pillman goes out again, giving Tony a little shove as he goes by. Remember, in these days WCW had the announce table literally touching one side of the ring. Back in Pillman finally locks up. Guerrero cranks a headlock and hits a shoulderblock. He blocks a Pillman roll up and dropkicks him back out to the floor. Pillman gets up and for some reason goes after Heenan, pulling Heenan's jacket off. Heenan shouts "What the fuck are you doing?", throws his headset off and gets away jacketless. I'm honestly surprised that's still on there unbleeped on the Network. Guess they don't care if it's WCW. Not that I'm complaining. A clearly very pissed off Heenan takes a long walk to compose himself while the match completely stops. I think Pillman realized he pushed a bit too far. When Heenan makes his way back around Pillman kneels down in front of him, maybe apologizing, then offers a handshake to Guerrero. Heenan gets back on and apologizes for swearing. Tony sounds pretty clear that it's all good. The match gets back going with Guerrero hitting a tiltawhirl backbreaker. Pillman with an eye poke and bite, then he chokes Guerrero. More dropkicks from Guerrero. Pillman goes out again. Back in they go back and forth a bit. Guerrero hits a DDT off the second rope for 2. Pillman gets a corner takedown and puts his feet on the ropes but Guerrero still kicks out. Pillman argues with the ref and Guerrero rolls him up for 2. More speed, Pillman hits a crossbody, grabs a handful of tights and gets the 3. After the bell Pillman apparently can't help himself and slides out of the ring to the point his feet are on the announce table. Heenan bails again. The match was fine once they finally got going. **1/4

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting and Lex Luger (c) def The Blue Bloods in 7:47- Sting and Regal start. Regal flexes an arm and Sting is unimpressed. Sting mocks Regal's bow which Regal has a hilarious reaction to. They finally make contact with an arm wringer tradeoff. Sting shoulderblock that Regal sells the hell out of. Dropkick from Sting after an uppercut dodge. Sting does the bell ring clap around Regal's ears and he *really* sells the hell out of that, wobbling around like his equilibrium has been completely shot. The Sting/Regal interactions this whole sequence have been fantastic. Eaton eye pokes Luger and tosses him outside. Luger backdrops Eaton on the floor! Reset as Eaton recovers. Regal tags back in and he's MAD. Servant flogging mad. Lockup and Luger gets Regal into the corner. Regal gets his face right in the camera and shouts "Unhand me!". He gets a cheap shot in over the ref. Luger tries to fight out of the heel corner but gets eye poked. Eaton swinging neckbreaker. Luger goes face in peril and gets beat down a bit more. Eaton kneedrop off the top rope. Regal puts on the Regal stretch! Sting breaks it up. Luger tries to catch Eaton coming off the top rope but legit drops him. They recover and do a midring collision. Hot tag to Sting. DONNYBROOK! Eaton comes off the top rope but hits Regal! Scorpion Death Lock! Eaton submits. Fun house show style stuff. **1/2

Sherri arrives for her wedding and is not impressed with the setup. Parker shows her his "last dollar". Sherri is very unhappy, partially because she didn't know that Parker gambled at all. They argue for a bit. Parker takes her over to show her the wedding RV Buck and Slater got for them and that doesn't help any.

Bischoff brings Pillman out for an interview. Pillman's got an unzipped fly to go along with the nipple exposing cutout on his shirt. He says "This is live TV Bischoff" and threatens to say the seven words you can't say on TV. Bischoff cuts the interview off quick. I wonder if Pillman genuinely surprised him with that, I wouldn't be surprised. What a loose canon.

 

Konnan def Psicosis in 5:26- Professor Mike Tenay joins us for this match. Psicosis is making his WCW debut. Tenay rightfully points out that Konnan had previously wrestled in WCW, back at Starrcade '90 as part of the international tag team tournament on that show, where he teamed with Rey Mysterio Sr. Konnan is also billed as the "Mexican Heavyweight Champion" and this is called a title defense, but I have no idea what belt that is and there's no record of this being any kind of sanctioned title match so I'm skipping right over that. Konnan has the AAA logo on his tights. A quick armdrag from Konnan sends Psicosis to the floor but he jumps right back in. Konnan literally kicks Psicosis in the ass and Psicosis does some kind of weird leap off the top rope off of that. Konnan wraps him up in a submission hold. Psicosis gets to the ropes. A pair of German suplexes from Konnan. He slingshots Psicosis onto the mat then puts on an STF like hold before another rope break. Psicosis hits a spinning heel kick. He wraps Konnan up in a headcissors like hold. Konnan escapes into a single leg crab. Konnan shrugs off chops and hits an armdrag off the top rope. Flying headscissors. Basement dropkick/DDT combo. Psicosis hits a shotgun dropkick off the top rope. Konnan goes to the floor and Psicosis hits him with a tope. Back in Konnan sets Psicosis up top and plants him with an avalanche German suplex. He hooks Psicosis up in a kind of trapped arm/paradise lock hold crossed with a cloverleaf and Psicosis submits. This never really came together. *3/4

Back to the wedding scene and Sherri is changing in the limo with her feet sticking out. Parker is still begging for money. After commercial we're ready to begin the festivities. Okerlund walks Sherri down the "aisle" to the drive thru window, which is all they can afford now. Okerlund mentions the phone call Parker got earlier to Sherri. Sherri says she doesn't know anything about a phone call, she didn't make it. The drive thru receptionist starts proceedings. Sherri is clearly freezing in the nighttime January weather in her thin dress. Before anyone can say "I do" a woman comes out of the RV. It's Medusa! She attacks Sherri! Right into the table! There goes the wedding spread. They have a roll around cat fight before Heat get Sherri out and off to safety. Guess we know who made the phone call now. Disco Inferno nicked all the champagne bottles and runs off with them.

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair and The Giant (w/Jimmy Hart) def WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan (w/Miss Elizabeth and Kevin Greene) in 9:52- Savage and Hogan have a bunch of women with them on their entrance, including former Flair manager Woman. Elizabeth gets her own entrance for her big return to wrestling, the last time she was seen was at Wrestlemania 8 in '92, right before she and Savage divorced in real life. Who was Savage feuding with and wrestling then? Ric Flair. Flair and Savage start with Flair mocking Greene. Greene gets in, teases a tackle and Flair bails. Flair gets a mic and says he doesn't want to be responsible for Greene missing the Super Bowl because Flair hurt him. Lockup and Flair chops. Savage hits a backdrop and clotheslines. Flair Flip! Right onto the corner cameraman! Flair walks into a Hogan big boot. Savage slap and Flair begs off, takes the opening and gets a kick in. More chops. Giant gets a shot in. Savage gets a backslide for 2. Jabs put Flair down. Flair's had enough and tags out to Giant. Hogan wants in and does. Giant wins the lockups. Hogan goes down from the gentlest shoulderblock ever. He tries to slam Giant but of course fails miserably. Tony brings up the Wrestlemania 3 match and Heenan is still arguing the early cover after Hogan couldn't slam Andre was a 3 count. Fantastic. Pillar to post Giant beating with what little he could do. Hogan dodges an elbow drop and gets the slam, but he's still hurt. Tag to Flair. Delayed suplex on Hogan. Mini Hulk up. Hogan backdrop and clothesline. Eye rake trade off. Flair, the expert, wins that one. Hogan gets trapped in the heel corner. Giant gets Hogan out to the floor but doesn't seem to have much idea what to do with him. Hogan no sells Flair chops back in. Flair cuts off the corner clothesline with a back elbow. Hogan slams Flair off the top rope. Tag to Savage. Double ax handle off the top. Everyone in the pool! Hogan clothesline Giant 360 to the floor. Savage elbow on Flair! Hart distracts the ref. Flair gets his usual knucks out, waffles Savage, and gets the pin. After the bell both the Zodiac from the Dungeon of Doom and Pillman from the Horsemen run in. Hogan gets help from Greene in tossing them out. That was all Greene was going to do considering he had an f'n Super Bowl to play in the following Sunday. It's amazing the Steelers let him show up at all. Not that they had any chance against the '90s dynasty Cowboys anyway, even if it was that meathead Barry Switzer coaching Jimmy's team by then. The match was OK enough thanks to Flair and Savage. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The Nitro the night before having two major title changes tells you all you need to know about how much of a priority the Clash was by this point. None at all. Still, this wasn't terrible. Most of the matches and the whole long wedding arc were all watchable enough. With Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Konnan and Psicosis all on the same card you can see the first pieces of what would be WCW's legendary cruiserweight division being put together.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-