Clash of the Champions XXXV

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXXV

August 21, 1997 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

Welcome to the very last Clash of the Champions. The Clash started back in 1988 as a direct basic cable counter to Wrestlemania 4, during the months when Jim Crockett and WWF were constantly playing scheduling games with each other. In large part thanks to the Ric Flair/Sting match that cemented Sting as a main event player and made him an overnight star the Clash stuck, becoming an important fixture on the calendar in the days when PPVs were scarce. After the Turner buyout of Crockett to create WCW the Clash stayed, remaining a major show to one degree or another during the tenures of Jim Herd, Kip Frey and Bill Watts despite the increasing number of PPVs. Things changed after Eric Bischoff took over. Bischoff wasn't a fan of the Clash concept as he felt it took away from PPV buys, and after the start of Nitro to kick off the Monday Night Wars the Clash became completely redundant. The past few years it's been little more than a contractually obligated C show. After tonight, the contract is over.

As for tonight, we're smack in the middle between the last PPV, Road Wild, and the upcoming Fall Brawl. We get a clip from this past Monday's Nitro of JJ Dillon demanding Sting finally give him an answer between now and the Clash on what exactly he wants. Sting comes out and points to a bunch of "Sting vs Hogan" signs that were in no way planted in the crowd. Tony seems to think that was a satisfactory answer. No word yet on if Dillon got the message or not. The NWO has also declared tonight will be the one year birthday celebration for the group. More like a year and a month but whatever. It's like someone in the office realized they didn't do this at the real one year anniversary back at Bash at the Beach.

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Steve "Mongo" McMichael def Jeff Jarrett (c) (w/Debra) in 8:07- To recap: Jarrett stole Mongo's wife, won the US title and got kicked out of the Horsemen after no one really wanted him there in the first place. Mongo is all business heading to the ring. After the lockup Jarrett slides under, hits a slam, struts and brags. Jarrett outdodges Mongo and hits him with his own 3 point stance chop block, then chills in the corner. Mongo is understandably a bit pissed off. Jarrett bails, lets Mongo turn around and attacks from behind. Mongo hits a clothesline and Jarrett powders. Commercial. We come back with Jarrett throwing Mongo into the stairs. Jarrett does some choking in the ring with a Debra assist. Suplex from Jarrett. Sleeper! After arm drops Mongo slowly fights up. Mongo with a sleeper! Debra gets on the apron. Eddie Guerrero runs out. He takes the US belt and gets on the top rope. Mongo dodges and Jarrett gets it! Mongo tosses Guerrero out, covers, and gets the pin for his first ever title. Lord help us. Jarrett's good heel work threatened to make it interesting at the start, but ultimately it's a Mongo match. Guerrero also 100% won that match for Mongo, it was all Jarrett up until then so I'm not sure how that was supposed to do Mongo any good. 1/2*

After the bell hussy Debra tries to cozy back up to Mongo. Mongo tells her to piss off. Alex Wright comes out with Mean Gene and drops some German in a very awkward promo. After commercial Mean Gene does some cross promotion with the TBS Dinner & A Movie guys and drops an awful "jerk chicken" joke.

 

No DQ: Raven def Stevie Richards in 5:01- This is both guys' official first WCW match after coming in earlier in the summer from ECW as outside invaders. Commentary says Raven still doesn't have a WCW contract. Raven comes in from the crowd, assumes promo position in the corner, takes a mic and demands this match be no DQ. It's all Raven to start and he tosses Richards out. Corkscrew plancha! Back in Raven snap mares Richards around until Richards counters with a backslide for 2. Once again it's all Raven and Richards gets tossed out again. Raven hits a couple of Cactus Jack style elbows off the apron, then tosses a chair in the ring. He drop toe holds Richard's face into the chair. Bulldog into the chair! Raven sets the chair up in the corner. Richards reverses and Raven goes into the chair! Raven is still up first. Richards slugs back and hits a flying forearm. Side suplex for 2. Richards tunes up the band. Raven blocks the superkick. Richards maneuvers him into a roll up for 2. Raven clothesline for 2. He plants Richards with the DDT and it's over. An extended squash, but it's not a horrible true introduction for Raven to the WCW audience. It's about all Richards deserves anyway. *1/2

Mike Tenay introduces a short biographical piece on Ultimo Dragon. He's been in WCW for a good two years, so I guess now is as good a time as any. This is also when WCW finally stopped all the "Ultimate Dragon" nonsense and started using his proper name again. I've been calling him Ultimo Dragon all along in these reviews, because that's always been his correct name. Of course this means Dusty spends half of the next match stumbling over trying to say "Ultimo".

 

WCW World Television Championship: Alex Wright def Ultimo Dragon (c) in 13:55- Wright had just dropped the Cruiserweight title back to Chris Jericho and is now getting a shot at the next belt up. Tenay joins the booth for this one. After a cautious start Wright strikes first with an armdrag out of a lockup. Next sequence he manages to outwrestle Dragon again. They do an extended sequence where both guys grab arm wringers with the other escaping. Wright eventually takes a rope break, and uses the opening for an eye poke. He stomps on Dragon a bit. Shoulderblock standoff. On the second try Wright goes down. He begs off. Dragon hits some chops. The corner handstand and kick leads into a classic Dragon rapid fire kick combo, followed by the stiff PKs to the back. Wright jawbreakers out of a chinlock. He powerbombs Dragon! Instead of covering he wastes time, which Heenan gets all over him for. Backbreaker and a very slow cover for 2. European uppercut and another backbreaker for 2. Gutwrench suplex for 2 and we go to commercial. Then there's a super important NWO promo flogging Syxx's shirt, then we finally come back with Wright holding a half chinlock half sleeper. They have a great speed sequence and Wright hits a clothesline. Setup slam. Wright gets HUGE height on a stomp off the top rope. There's more than a few Golden Age ROH venues where his head would have been through the ceiling. Speaking of, I've got some Golden Age ROH DVD sets I really need to get around to reviewing sometime. Wrestler compilations, not full shows, probably why I haven't done it yet. One day. Wright gives us some of his awful dancing then puts the chinsleeperlock back on, with some rope leverage help. Dragon fights free, hits the ropes, ducks, ducks again, slides under, flips out of a backdrop, and puts on his own sleeper! Wright tries to back suplex counter but Dragon flips over and hits his own. Chop exchange. Wright gets another European uppercut and a back suplex. He gets on the apron to climb up top. Dragon springboard dropkicks him to the floor! Wright dodges a plancha. Asai moonsault! Dragon sets Wright up top. Wright fights and goes for a superplex. Dragon counters midair and Wright drops down face first. Magistral cradle for 2. Wright counters the handspring elbow with a back elbow. He tries a leverage pin for 2. Standing switches, Wright blocks the tiger suplex, and both guys trade cradle counters. Wright hits the German suplex, and that gets a clean pin for the title! Good cruiserweight style match for the TV title. Wright will never be particularly good but is clearly a more natural heel, while Dragon continues to very quietly be one of the best in-ring workers on the WCW roster. Maybe the best. ***1/4

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) def Eddie Guerrero in 6:41- As mentioned, Jericho is freshly on Cruiserweight title reign #2 after taking it back from Wright. Guerrero's strangely been off the big shows for most of the year. I'm not sure he was injured, just hasn't been booked, which I would call a misfire. Guerrero jaws a lot after the bell. He goes out of the lockup into a hammerlock and snap mares Jericho, then says "That all you got?". Jericho plays to the crowd a bit. Takedown from Guerrero. Jericho spins into an armdrag, then hits another one and a dropkick. Guerrero immediately does the hair pull bitch to the ref. Jericho hits a shoulderblock, then catches Guerrero leapfrogging and press slams him! You don't usually see Jericho break out pure power moves like that. Guerrero quickly crawls on his knees to the ref and tries to hide, then slides out. More stalling. Guerrero sneaks around and jumps Jericho from behind. Leg lariat. Slingshot senton. He puts Jericho up top and hits a hurricanrana for 2. Guerrero walks the top rope and goes for another hurricanrana, but Jericho blocks it and hits a powerbomb. Giant swing! Both guys need time to recover. Jericho hits a spinning heel kick. Guerrero goes to the floor. Jericho tries for a springboard crossbody but slips off the top rope and falls to the floor. Hope that was deliberate selling still being dizzy from the swing. They get on the apron. Jericho suplexes Guerrero out of the ring to the floor! Back in Guerrero hits a superplex for 2. Long crazy counter sequence. Jericho hits a HUGE release German for 2. Another series of counters and cradle counters. Jericho manages to get on top of Guerrero while he's completely stacked up and gets a 3 count! After the bell Guerrero lays Jericho out, puts the belt on top of him, and hits a frog splash. The slow first part of the match would have been good groundwork laying if they were going 20 minutes on PPV, I'm surprised they did that knowing how little time they had, but it got good as you'd expect from these two after that. They definitely need that 20 minute PPV match. ***

 

Psychosis, Villano IV, Villano V and Silver King (w/Sonny Oono) def Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza, Lizmark Jr and Super Calo in 4:52- Lucha, er, quados (trios plus one) rules here so tagging and selling are optional. Tenay checks in again for this one. It's an 8 man lucha match barely getting 5 minutes, I'm not going to spend a bunch of time on this because you can probably work out how it goes. Calo and Villano IV open with some extended back and forth. Garza and Silver King get crazy flippy with each other. Psychosis knocks Juvy around before it's everyone run in time. EVERYBODY DIVE! Heenan: "It's like 8 cabbies in Mexico City fighting over a fare!". Fantastic. Oono helps out Psychosis to counter a Calo move, Psychosis hits the legdrop off the top and that gets the pin. Fun condensed lucha spotfest. ***

Mean Gene is back with the Dinner & A Movie guys. Things get suspicious when all their dishes are named after Savage or the NWO, except for the cream puffs, those are WCW. Heel turn! Savage comes out, stops Okerlund from leaving and says this is the kickoff of the NWO's birthday celebrations. A giant NWO birthday cake appears, with the hands of stagehands hilariously coming into frame to light the sparklers on the cake. Vince is tossing his headset at a monitor right now. The D&M guys call DDP out and get their wish. DDP trashes the whole set and lays one of the guys out with a Diamond Cutter. Harmless TBS cross-promotion fun.

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Curt Hennig def Konnan and Syxx in 5:09- Konnan and Syxx look like two drunks trying to get each other home from the bar after closing on their entrance. I'm probably not far off from the truth. Konnan and Hennig start with Konnan taking a gum spit. Hammerlock standoff. More surprisingly spunky counters and stalemate. Hennig gets stuck in the heel corner. Syxx wraps up an arm wringer. Hennig uses that to drag him to his corner and tag Flair. Syxx hits a shoulderblock and gives Flair some ground and pound. Chop from Flair. Syxx hits a backdrop. More Flair chops. He hits the snap mare/kneedrop combo for 2. Syxx takes a backdrop. Hennig kneelift on Syxx. Konnan tags in and Hennig jumps him while he's coming through the ropes. Hennig ends up in the wrong corner again. Flair runs in and it's donnybrooking time. He goes for the figure four on Konnan. Hennig tosses Syxx, but accidentally right into Flair's leg. Henning gets the Perfectplex on Konnan and gets the pin. They had a ton of energy but not much time to do anything with it, and the finish was a bit of a mess. *3/4

Mean Gene joins the winners in the ring, determined to once and for all to get an answer from Hennig on whether or not he's a Horseman. Hennig's answer? "No". "No you're not a Horseman or no you won't answer tonight?" "That's right". Flair looks put out and they both leave.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Scott Hall and "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) (w/Elizabeth and Kevin Nash) def "The Total Package" Lex Luger and Diamond Dallas Page in 9:55- The whole NWO (minus Hogan of course, he doesn't show up for C shows) comes out as white and black balloons pour down to continue the birthday celebrations. As they're all hanging out in the ring Nash says this match is now a tag title match with Savage defending in his place. I didn't think Nash had the book yet. Wait, he's not world champion. Dead giveaway he doesn't yet. After being champs 7-8 months they just now invoke Freebird Rules. I'd question that, but of course WCW let them get away with anything. After the challengers make their entrance most of the NWO group leaves. There are balloons popping EVERYWHERE. It's like 5 straight minutes of pyro going off sound. After much discussion Luger and Hall start with a rough lockup. Luger eventually powers Hall down. Hall tights pulls Luger to the floor. Nash runs up and hits Luger from behind. Former evil ref Nick Patrick tosses Nash out! Luger gets double teamed for a bit, until he dodges an elbow drop and gets a tag. DDP takes everyone out. Clothesline on Savage. Hall trips DDP, then Savage hits him with a clothesline. Hall hits the fallaway slam for 2. More double teams follow. DDP tries to fight out of the heel corner but the tag is cut off. Savage tosses DDP to the floor INTO THE BALLOONS! Double ax handle off the apron from Savage. Hall corner clothesline back in. He ties DDP up and slaps him on his back in a very humiliating way. DDP ducks a Hall clothesline, hits his own clothesline, and tags. Luger has clotheslines for everyone. He tosses Savage out. Torture Rack on Hall! Savage breaks it up, then gives DDP a thumb in the eye. Blinded DDP Diamond Cutters Luger! Hall slowly crawls over, gets an arm over, and gets the pin. Solid enough. Like most of their title defenses the Outsiders/NWO team spent 90% of the match on offense. **1/2

The whole NWO gang comes out again, this time with Bischoff, to cap off the birthday celebration. Bischoff says for birthday presents he still wants an NWO only show and Hogan wants more limos and jets. Dark music starts playing. The lights flicker. Sting is here! He's up in the rafters with a vulture. A child voiceover talks about light fighting against darkness. All the lights go out. For a long while. When they come back up the vulture is on the top rope. Bischoff is scared of it and slowly takes a note it's holding. The camera zooms in on the vulture and end show. Eh. It kinda works. I've seen worse.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The Clash doesn't go out with a bang, but it's a solidly average show and that's the best it's been in a while. Crazy symbolism to have the final shot of the last Clash be a vulture.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+