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Episode Zero: Clash of the Champions I
48 Plays5 years ago
Before we began our Starrcade series, we recorded a "pilot" episode of sorts - and now, we're releasing that for your listening pleasure. Take a trip back to the 1980s as we look at the first ever Clash of the Champions! Jimmy Garvin and Mike Rotunda face off in a college rules showdown! Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors seek revenge in a match that confusingly has two names! Ken Osmond may or may not be Eddie Haskell! Oh, and these two guys, Sting and Ric Flair, have a match you might have heard of. For all this and more, let's go to the ring...for the first time!
Music by Michael Gary Brewer at https://www.instantmusicnow.com/
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/letsgo2thering , or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LetsGo2theRing/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Sting's Beginnings
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, we've got a special episode for you today. This is what I guess you could call our pilot episode. Recorded before our Starrcade series began, this episode was our trial run to see how our show could work and just get used to the idea of recording a wrestling themed podcast. I would not then exactly call it... polished.
00:00:21
Speaker
But I think it's still a fun show, and I hope that it's one that you'll enjoy, particularly since in addition to being a look back at our beginnings, it's a look back at the beginnings of one of our favorite wrestlers, the man called Sting, facing his first big match against World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair in the early days of perhaps WCW's most famous rivalry at the first ever Clash of the Champions. So, for technically the very first time, let's go to the ring.
Clash of the Champions vs WrestleMania: A Strategic Move?
00:01:19
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to Let's Go to the Ring. I'm Bob Moore and I'm joined by Alec Pritchen and John Mullins. Here we'll take a look back at WCW's big events, series by series, to see what ties each series of shows together and what sets individual shows apart. In the process, we'll see what makes WCW such a memorable company, even 17 years after it folded.
00:01:44
Speaker
Most of our time will be spent on WCW's pay-per-views, but today we're taking a look at something a little different, the first ever Clash of the Champions, run by a pre-WCW Jim Crockett promotions.
00:01:56
Speaker
The Clash of the Champions was first created to go head-to-head with WWF's WrestleMania IV as payback for the WWF's airing of the first Survivor Series against Starrcade 1987 and the first Royal Rumble against Jim Crockett-Morosian's Bunkhouse Stampede earlier in 1988. It's kind of amazing to think that two of the greatest WWF match designs, the Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble, both originated in this period as attempts to sabotage the Jim Crockett promotion show.
00:02:24
Speaker
The WWF played particularly rough with the Survivor Series incident, delivering an ultimatum to pay-per-view providers that any of them who chose to host Starrcade that night wouldn't get future WWF events, a strategy that proved so successful that Starrcade was moved to December in future years to avoid further pay-per-view conflicts. Jim Crockett Promotions chose to create the first clash as an attempt to get some payback.
00:02:47
Speaker
airing a free TV show with special matches, including the first big shot at the big time for the man who would come to be one of their greatest success stories, the man called Sting, against the WWF's largest pay-per-view of the year in hopes of drawing away some fans.
WCW's National Competition with WWF
00:03:01
Speaker
Continuing through the years, though with less focus on scheduling conflicts, there are 35 different clashes across the run of Jim Crockett promotions and WCW, but we won't be covering all of them. The WCW pay-per-views are our main focus.
00:03:15
Speaker
There are some, however, that are particularly noteworthy or that match up well with the theme or other series that we're doing, so while we're not doing Clash of the Champions as a series, we will be looking at some of the individual episodes from time to time, starting today with the first ever Clash of the Champions.
00:03:31
Speaker
Now, according to their size, what is their viewership comparatively? I'm not sure on the full details of it, but I think they're honestly reasonably equivalent at this point in terms of size. They are definitely competitors. Vince of the WWF went national
00:03:52
Speaker
earlier and a little bit easier and more successfully. But Jim Crockett Promotions is trying to do the same thing. The Starcade that I mentioned that the WWF scheduled against was their first attempt at doing pay-per-view. The WWF had recently moved into as well. They're really kind of both kind of pushing themselves national and trying to get as big an audience as they can.
00:04:15
Speaker
When all these shows started, Starrcade, WrestleMania, all that, they were closed-circuit viewings. So the way we do it now were they do some theatrical event, they replay an old movie, and you go to theater. That's what WrestleMania was. We're going from closed-circuit to pay-per-view where you spend something like $30, $40 probably to buy this show as a big event for your family, friends, and all that for a party.
00:04:41
Speaker
Whereas this show, this is just on TBS. This is a channel you just watch all the time anyways. And hey, this company I'm aware of, suddenly they're on free. I should check this out. That's the appeal of the show. Yeah, they're scheduling a really, really big free show on the same night as the WWF's really, really big paid show.
First Clash of the Champions: TV Success
00:05:03
Speaker
The first clash of the champions was held on March 27, 1988, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, in front of 6,000 fans. It drew a TV rating of 5.8, covering about 2,561,000 homes. The main event, however, drew a 7.1 and was seen by 3,138,000, with the final 15 minutes actually going even higher, for a total of about 3,447,000 people.
00:05:32
Speaker
So, Jim Crockett promotions definitely got a lot of eyes that night. As for whether that hurt WrestleMania IV, well, the pay-per-view buys outdid the prior year's WrestleMania III, with $485,000 for IV compared to $400,000 for III. Closed circuit attendance was down though, $175,000 for IV compared to $441,000 for III.
00:05:52
Speaker
I'm not sure if that's more a result of the Clash of the Champions airing against it or just that closed circuit is kind of in decline at this point. It's hard to say, really, yeah. So it's hard to say, and I am not a TV analyst, so I could bid dead wrong, but
00:06:08
Speaker
I kind of look at this the same way that we look at Nitro and Raw later in WCW's run where I think it's more that Jim Crockett promotions attracted their own large audience for an exciting show rather than necessarily pulling people away from the WWF in the grand scheme of things. And that you see repeat in the Monday Night Wars era to some extent with Raw versus Nitro. They don't so much cannibalize each other's audiences as actually just grow the business because both are on a hot streak.
00:06:38
Speaker
Right. But, how's the show itself?
00:06:43
Speaker
Well, let's go to the ring.
Match Highlights and Storyline Developments
00:06:45
Speaker
Is Sting finally ready to knock Ric Flair off his throne and become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion? Question. With dusty roads at their side, will the road warriors take revenge on the men who brutalized them, Ivan Koloff, and the powers of pain? Question. Are wrestling's new breed of young gladiators equipped with what it takes to be victorious on a day when anything goes? There are so many questions.
00:07:13
Speaker
And the time has finally come to find out the answers. Now, Super Station TBS presents Clash of the Champions! So, we open with a video package that briefly goes over the Sting vs. Flare, Dusty and Road Warriors, and Lex and Wyndham storylines. It's hilariously highlighted by question marks flying by like they're the old Starship Enterprise or something.
00:07:36
Speaker
It does end on a terrific opening highlighting the various championship belts though. That looked really cool I thought. That was really neat with all the belts flying by and it's kind of this clash with the champions you know and that really I think drives home these are these are what it's all about these these titles I thought.
00:07:54
Speaker
It is a little bit funny to see the weird, uh, what is it? Western states heritage belt? Yes. Something like that in there. Yeah. WCW has a penchant for all these tiny little titles that you're like, why do you have it? This is just over-complicating things. Extremely, yes.
00:08:10
Speaker
After the video package, Tony Schiavone with Bob Cottle, welcome us to the Greensboro Coliseum. Tony throws to Jim Ross, who intros the World TV title match. It is, oddly enough, an amateur rules match with one count counting for a pinfall, three periods with the rest period in between.
00:08:29
Speaker
We were laughing about this, Al, entering John to old WCW wrestling shows. Yes. With a match that does not in any way resemble any other match in the history of WCW. Not even close. How do you win? Yeah, so you win with a one count pinfall, which is weird. Do they actually explain at all why this was happening this way? In January of this year, it might be 1988, not this year. This year.
00:08:57
Speaker
The title is won by Micro Tunde. He's defending it regularly. He's still a bad guy, so we'll cheat. He has Rick Steiner with him at all times, and Kevin Sullivan, who is the games master.
00:09:10
Speaker
It doesn't quite fit the included wrestling theme, given that he's dressed like he's some weird cult leader who skins goats in his basement, but apparently that connects somehow. Yeah, they're the varsity club, but he's like- There's- Yes. How is that not college? I guess people do play role-playing games oftentimes in college, so maybe that's what it is? Yeah, I mean, I didn't skin a lot of goats in my basement rather than college. I can't speak to your college experience. That's Ivy League. Is that okay? Little skull and bones kind of thing? Yeah, there you go.
00:09:41
Speaker
their big go-to move is they would take a coat hanger and wrap it around your neck. So you'd be in the middle where your shirt hangs on. I think that would hurt, but I don't think it's really deadly. It's just more of like a
00:09:55
Speaker
Inconvenience, I would say. Yeah. Not that I want to try it out, but it didn't seem like it's this deadly thing. So in the forex of buildup to this, we see a video package in the very first show about how they attacked Barry Windham doing this. But that doesn't matter all because Barry Windham is doing something else entirely by the time Clash comes around. It's just weird that's first thing I see is that.
00:10:16
Speaker
On second week, we actually get some storyline set up for this, where the same person who's harassing Goodnight, Jimmy Garvin, is also raising a microton of the title, and they cheat to make sure he doesn't win. And then in week three and four, they don't do anything about this whatsoever. There's really nothing on the shows I watch that says, oh, we're having collegiate rules match, because this is our strong point, this is gonna work to our advantage, or something, something.
00:10:44
Speaker
I was a surprise to see this situation as pretty much anybody else would. So yeah. The way these shows work is the big people don't fight each other. Yeah, there is no Sting Ric Flair matches on the television shows. How it works is the people you're gonna see in the show is fighting each other. They fight random weirdo jobber guys.
00:11:07
Speaker
in wrestling to when you lose the match is called doing the job. Yes. So they really paid to do the job. That's like local talent. Yes. Yeah, very much so. For a lot of guys, that's the first way they break into wrestling kind of you get into these shows and do the do the job or roll for a little bit. And then Oh, yeah, hopefully get noticed and
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, you watch late 80s, early 90s, WWF even, you can see Mick Foley doing it. The Hardy Boys do it a lot as well, you see the network. I think I actually went to a show and that's when they introduced the Hardy Boys for the first time. Oh, really? Yeah. That's cool. Because they're not big stars, their names alternate between being really boring sounding and overly workshopped.
00:11:53
Speaker
where I can see one person think of a good name and then five more people will add their own thing and it just gets kind of confusing. The first one to just show in here, he's in a tag match against, I believe it's Rick Steiner and Kevin Sullivan. One of the people they wrestle is the Italian Stallion. He is billed as the Italian
Unique Match Rules and Chaos Unfolds
00:12:12
Speaker
Stallion. That's all you need to know. Okay.
00:12:15
Speaker
So our first match then is Mike Rotunda versus Jimmy Garvin in a college rules match or amateur rules match. One count for a pinfall, three periods with the rest period in between for the television title. Jimmy Garvin was in the ring starting out. He wears some amazing sparkly pants.
00:12:33
Speaker
But for some reason, very, very quickly stripped down to white trunks, which had the side effect to me of making it look like he was stripping down to his underwear, which wasn't the best look. I'm not quite sure why he doesn't just wear the sparkly pants for the match. It's not like people don't wear those to wrestle in. That's true. You get a sink one in the eye. That could be very hazardous.
00:12:54
Speaker
The foreign object. Yeah, there you go. He's accompanied by his valet, Precious. Rotunda comes out to some college fight song music, accompanied by Kevin Sullivan, who, as you mentioned earlier, Al looks more like he should be summoning eldritch horrors in a basement than, you know, at college. I guess it's Miskatonic University. There you go. And the wrestling team, yeah. Mike Rotunda is announced as Mike Rotundo, but the graphic says Rotunda. They got it half right.
00:13:22
Speaker
I do want to take a moment before we start to highlight the match cards that they use to intro each of the matches with, again, like the title belt off to the side. It's very 80s, but I think it looks cool. Again, it's kind of an emphasis of, oh, this match is actually really important. We've got this really big image reminding us of the title belt. It looks very sports show, which I think is a strength of WCW during this period to me. I kept on waiting for lighting bolts to strike everything while it showed up. Yeah.
00:13:52
Speaker
Well, they have that all the time during, like, the intro, too, with that music. There's the thunder sound effects, and the logo has the thunderbolt in it, too. So, yeah, I can see that. Jim Ross declares the one-count stip as a very startling stipulation. I guess we're all kind of inclined to agree, since they said nothing about it in any of the shows leading up to it. Surprise the hell out of me.
00:14:18
Speaker
The match starts out looking like it'll feature a focus on amateur grappling, but very quickly goes to fisticuffs and standard pro wrestling moves, with clotheslines and elbow strikes later in the first round. John, you did wrestling in high school, right? Yes.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, were you allowed to punch people in the face? No, as long as the ref doesn't see it, no. No, you weren't. The closest thing you can do was a cross face, but you had to put your hand up against their face before applying pressure. Ah, okay. That's good to know. Good to know, cool.
00:14:50
Speaker
The first round does end with some mat work, as Rotunda can't quite manage to put Garvin away, and Rotunda gets a cheap shot in between rounds. Jim Ross confirms to us, by the way, that the rest period is indeed for resting, not for fighting. I wasn't sure on that time, but he threw that at her for me.
00:15:09
Speaker
Rotunda takes advantage at the start of the second round off of his cheap shot, but Garvin recovers, only for Sullivan to try to interfere. Precious tries to stop him, but Sullivan chases her, prompting Garvin to go after him, which lets Rotunda roll him up for the one-count pin. That's where it ends. You set it up as we're gonna have one-count pins, three rounds, and it's like a few seconds really into the second round where it closes up.
00:15:38
Speaker
That's by the way a problem with a match is that, well the action you get is good but there's too much going on just overall. Because I mean you have this collegiate rules thing, you have one count, and on top of that you have all this interference at the end. She went with the stick and all this stuff happens.
00:15:55
Speaker
But the one count thing really doesn't matter. This kind of thing where the good guy wrestler has to distract us to help somebody and just grab him over a pin happens all the time. And the difference is they do a full three count versus a one count. Yeah, you don't need this step to add anything in particular to this match. And it's like, it'd be one thing if they stuck to the entirely amateur wrestling style the whole way through.
00:16:20
Speaker
I was kind of hoping that would be the case because I'd be like, John, we could ask you all about this and be like, hey, how close were they sticking to the amateur rules? But I kind of think- Well, they didn't line up. They didn't line up to, like, you know, reset and everything. Yeah. So there's some stuff, but I can kind of tell, like, I'm pretty sure there's no, like, clotheslines, elbow strikes, you know, punches. They don't spend a lot of time doing any kind of, like, mat work other than the end of the first round.
00:16:47
Speaker
This isn't different than a normal pro wrestling match, really. Maybe they're just gauging how the audience was responding. And at some point, it looks like they were losing them. But let's do the one count. Skip that. Yeah, maybe. It's possible. It does happen. That does happen.
00:17:03
Speaker
So following the match, Garvin's all ticked off at losing and hits a brain buster, which doesn't, if I'm being perfectly honest, look anything like a brain buster. Rotunda's head comes nowhere near the mat, but does look like it connects pretty solidly with Garvin's own chest, which didn't look particularly pleasant. It might have just been a bad camera angle, though.
00:17:23
Speaker
Sullivan and Rick Steiner interfere, but Precious gets the drop on Steiner with a very, very large piece of lumber. Then basically Garrots Kevin Sullivan with a coat hanger, which you told me that so that's what they, the RC plugs been doing to people basically. Yeah, they attack people with the coat hanger before. So this is the point where I was most excited as soon as the lumber showed up, I knew it was gonna get serious. John can't wait for the hardcore matches, right? Nope.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, either this wouldn't do any damage or this would do really, really serious damage that should probably not be something that's being done at a sporting event, but it wouldn't be the first time and won't be the last time in wrestling that you see something like that happen. Right. Sullivan and company recover and end up going after Precious, but Garvin and Precious get away.
00:18:14
Speaker
So, yeah, like we said, it's a very strange match. It's set up to be like a collegiate wrestling match with a system of rounds and only a single count for pins. But the match progresses like your average pro wrestling match, except for the break between rounds for a return to get a cheap shot in on Garvin. It was strange and, if I'm honest, for me, not that interesting. Though it was decently, like I said, decently enough performed. The action's fine. There's nothing wrong with what they're doing. It's just confusing.
00:18:42
Speaker
The ending was decent enough for me, though the let's choke Calvin Sullivan with a coat hanger thing was a bit more than I was expecting to see. I do find it a little funny that when she comes out at the end, she runs in with the stick, hits one guy, and then just drops it like, you might still need that. There's more than one person there. But I didn't even see where the stick came from. I didn't see anyone bring it out. They kind of got thrown in the ring. Yeah.
00:19:05
Speaker
So I was trying to figure out, like, who brought that here? Knowing full well that Hacksaw Jim Duggan is not in this company yet. That's true. Right. Well, that's what I thought it was. You know, I mean, I knew that he would show up at some point. So that's sort of a signature thing, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I think he finally comes in in like 1994. Yes.
00:19:26
Speaker
Dr. Steve Williams, Steve, a tremendously successful tour in Japan. But I know you had to have heard about Dusty Rhodes and that incident with Dusty. Well, Bobby, I did have a great tour in Japan. I've been away for a while to hear a little things going on. It's like a war. You know, go on with your bad self, Dusty Rhodes. I don't blame you.
00:19:45
Speaker
Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA, good friends of mine.
Interviews and Rivalries: Building Tension
00:19:49
Speaker
Let me tell you something, Dusty, whatever you did and how you did it was so fine to me. And another thing, today we have the big match, Ric Flair and Sting. You know my predictions right now, I hope Sting wins the match, but it doesn't matter because I'm putting my name on the dotted line.
00:20:08
Speaker
for the challenger of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Look it, electricity's in the air, excitement's in the air. As you can see, the Greensboro. Let me tell you, Dr. Death's back, and I'm gonna be like a bullet. And there ain't a Superman in the NWA who's gonna stop me.
00:20:26
Speaker
I'm coming hard, I'm feeling good, and I'm as clean as I look because I've been in that way room pumping that iron, running, doing what it takes to be a champion. As you know, Bob, I am a true champion. And another thing, one more thing. Ric Flair, you've been walking down that gold, gold carpet.
00:20:49
Speaker
Well now, Dr. Death's back and he's knocking on the door. Let me tell you, everybody in the world is watching today, and I'm putting my name on that dotted line. Bye bye, take it here. Alright, Dr. Death, Steve Williams, and fans, we'll have our match for the United States Tag Team Championship. That'll be coming up next. Bob Cottle introduces Dr. Death Steve Williams for an interview. Dr. Death, I've noted, looks rather like Scott Steiner right now, but, uh...
00:21:18
Speaker
is not a particularly good promo. No, not really.
00:21:24
Speaker
I enjoyed his enthusiasm. He's definitely enthusiastic. He's definitely enthusiastic. He probably cuts a promo similar to how I would cut a promo in wrestling, not quite knowing what you're saying and stumbling over your words. I did love he tells Dusty to go on with your bad self. And whatever Dusty did with Magnum TA is so fine with him, which out of context sounds sounds interesting. He's a fan.
00:21:52
Speaker
I liked him also saying he's as clean as he looks, which we could unpack that statement for hours, I think. And that Ric Flair has been walking down a gold carpet. I wonder if this is when, if Ric's already doing the walk that aisle lines and he just got it wrong, or if he... It was a gold, gold carpet. Yes. Not one gold. Yeah, it's a super gold carpet. But now Dr. Death is knocking on the door. And I believe at the end there, does he actually say, bye bye, take care?
00:22:24
Speaker
It sounded like Bye Bye Take Care. It sounded like that for sure, yeah. That is not something a man named Dr. Death should ever say. Dr. Death here I think just comes off as really nice, enthusiastic guy. It's not a total disaster of a promo because I do actually like him after this promo. Sure. But his name is Dr. Death.
00:22:46
Speaker
This does not sound like Dr. Death. This sounds like this really nice kind of athletic guy that goes jogging by your house and says hello in the morning. Yeah. You know? It was lacking a certain Kevorkian-esque quality. Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. He's like your dad's friend who goes out for a drink every couple of months. We always see you tell him, let's go for a drink and hang out. That's Dr. Death, the man known for dropping Japanese people on their heads. Yes.
00:23:16
Speaker
We should put in a plug for the team name that I'm not sure ever fully shows up on WCW programming, but he has put one half of the best team name ever in professional wrestling, the miracle violence connection. That's just glorious.
00:23:33
Speaker
Next up, we have the Midnight Express, Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane, versus the Fantasticks, Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers. There's a Bobby on both teams. Didn't notice that, actually. It's a tag match for the Midnight Express's NWA US tag team titles, because WSW has two different tag team titles at this point, because they need them. I know they have three. That's right, three, because of the six-man tag as well. We'll get to that later.
00:24:01
Speaker
their names or their tag teams it sounds more like a battle of the bands it does yeah yeah it does the midnight express's normal rivals are the rock and roll express which sounds even more like a battle of the bands it does yeah but yeah the fantastics are kind of filling in as a substitute they play a video on lewis the second week of shows from a live event where the fantastics won a non-title match thus getting this title match on the third week of shows
00:24:31
Speaker
I believe it's the Fantasticks have a match against a bunch of jobbers, and they win, and that big fight breaks out in the area. Jim Cornette is like throwing chairs, small camera, they're like punching each other. It's where you see how weird the set is. It's just open TV studio, with a little house backdrop all the enemies are done in front of.
00:24:52
Speaker
And then there's a ring like 10 feet away. So people are like walking to and from these places. Normally you don't see the things in the same shots. You see the interview section or you see the ring. You never see them connected. But when it gets chaotic, they go to this sort of middle camera where you see all of it at once. And you realize it's just confusing open studio layout as a ring. And people start standing there like they don't see a ring 10 feet to the right.
00:25:18
Speaker
And the fourth bigger shows, they both wrestle separate jobber matches, but have no direct interaction, which is weird considering that, again, they're in this tiny building, you think they would have passed each other, but apparently I didn't. Yeah. They both got promo and they both have no matches. But yeah, basically, they won a match against the champion. So they get to have a title match. Okay. I do have a few drawers of note real quick from this. All right. We have Gene Ligon. Okay.
00:25:45
Speaker
Who I assume is the mix of a liar and a lion. Does that make sense? We have my favorite, which is Big Bear Collie. Big Bear Collie? Big Bear Collie. Yes. Is he big? He's fairly big. Oh, okay. He's a large blonde hair guy. And actually, weirdly enough, on the fourth biggest show, one of the jobbers is Kendall Windham, who is Barry Windham's brother. And there's like no mention that his brother's a random jobber at this point. Very odd.
00:26:14
Speaker
Oh, and he's actually called Kendall Windham? Yes. Yeah. That's strange. You'd think they'd mention that. I guess maybe worried about devaluing Barry by having his relationship to a job he mentioned, but you'd think they'd rename him for a bit, then. Yeah, I don't quite get it. It's a good name. No, it is, yeah. Yeah. It's just weird that Barry Windham's a big star, and his brother is nobody, and they don't try to disguise that anyway. Yeah. Or he mentioned it, just kind of there in the ether.
00:26:42
Speaker
supposed to not recognize that, I guess. Very strange. So the match graphic for Midnight Express versus the Fantastix features Stan Lane of the Midnight Express and some wonderful 80s sunglasses. The manager of the Midnights, Jim Cornette, does the intros for the Midnights who come out in some rather strange black and glittery gold. I don't know, I guess I call them togas? Kind of, yeah. They're like... There's a long one and a short one. Right.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah, they're like jacket coats with no sleeves on them. Yeah. Yeah, it looks kind of weird, but also I guess interesting gives them a look anyway. The Fantastix come out, but they didn't actually get announced in any sort of audible fashion, which was a bit weird, but the crowd at least seemed to know who they were. Overall erupts before the match proper can begin with the Fantastix getting the better of the Midnights for the most part.
00:27:35
Speaker
The Midnights take control as the match starts, however, with Lane and Eden isolating Rogers and keeping solid control. Rogers doesn't make many comebacks, but never quite stops trying to fight back. Fulton keeps trying to protect his buddy, but that just distracts the referee and lets the Midnights cheat.
00:27:55
Speaker
most notably by taking Rogers outside and bulldogging him down to a table. We're told the table will later be used for the judges in the Flair vs. Sting match, so is this one of the rare times we actually find out why there's a spare table lying around? It's probably one a few times, yeah. I can't think of too many cases
Humor and Character Interactions
00:28:12
Speaker
where it's explained. And if they broke it, would there not be any judges? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe not.
00:28:19
Speaker
I mean, we wouldn't want to do anything to devalue the judges that are very important to this show. They wouldn't want to risk that at all. Yeah, they're definitely an important part of things and we won't screw anything up with judges involving later. No, never. Eventually, Rogers does make the tag, but the referee doesn't see it and stops Fulton. Who chucks him over the top rope and gets in anyway? I get it. Pushing the ref out of the way. But he actually like bodily hurls the man over the top rope.
00:28:46
Speaker
I have a theory on that, actually. Yeah. Okay. So, with NWA and Layered WCW, there's a bunch of rules that are very, very strict and definitely never stretched or broken. One is that if you touch the ref, you're just qualified. Whether you intentionally punch him, throw him, whatever you do. That's the qualification. Another thing is throwing someone at the top of the outside is his qualification. Yeah. So maybe he thought, okay, if I touch the ref, I'm just qualified.
00:29:13
Speaker
And I thrift some of the ropes, I'm disqualified. But with all the ref over the ropes, that evens out. So, so you're telling me that his philosophy is that, in fact, two wrongs do make a right? Yes. Yeah, double negative. Exactly. Yeah. It's a wash. Yeah, I'm not not sure that that's the smartest philosophy, but I guess two strikes you're in. Exactly. There you go.
00:29:40
Speaker
Bolton and Rogers hit the rocket launcher for the pin by a second ref, but the first ref comes back in and disqualifies them, handing the belts back to the Midnights.
00:30:02
Speaker
Is it like with the robots where they keep them in like little things and you press the button to activate them and eat them? He's just in a tube somewhere, not watching the match. Oh, the ref's down, activate Randy Anderson. He wakes up, I will go walk out fall. He does know he's the spare one, right? Yeah, it's like you're being sent out here clearly because something happened.
00:30:21
Speaker
Otherwise, Randy Anderson is the ref for the match, and Tommy Young, you don't need to come to ringside. So, wouldn't you think naturally, hey, I wonder what happened here? But you see this all the time in wrestling. But with this case, it's particularly egregious that it's like, he's hurled bodily over the top rope. Well, it's like a Westworld thing. The only program someone's information, just what they need to know. Oh, okay. It's definitely not at all important for them to know that the referee was chucked over the top rope.
00:30:48
Speaker
You know, it's possible he just didn't like the ref. That's possible. That's possible. He's like, you know what? He got what's coming. I'm going to give this to all these guys for finally giving that guy what he deserves. Street justice. There you go. So it breaks down into another brawl, and Cornette nails people left and right with his racket, including, hilariously enough, Randy Anderson, the ref who ruled in his favor. Kind of ungrateful. They take turns whipping Fulton with Cornette's leather belt until Rogers rescues him with a chair.
00:31:15
Speaker
JR tells us that throwing the ref over the top rope is a disqualification in anybody's book. That is rather less debatable than some of WCW's other disqualification rules, especially their other over-the-top rope throw disqualification we mentioned earlier. I thought it was a pretty good match, honestly. Some weird moments like the hurl the ref over the top rope bit, but there's a lot of energy here.
00:31:41
Speaker
Yeah, there's two things, two approaches to me with this. There's another tag match we have later that I haven't talked about yet. Yeah. They both do a variation of this formula. What it comes down to me though is that this is a very, in both good and bad ways, a very extreme version of this. Where once the heals take charge like a minute to win, they control all of the match up until the very end when all this stuff happens.
00:32:07
Speaker
Yeah. Whereas it's usually there's a little more balance for like when you see the later match, we'll take control, then we'll be like section two of the match, where now the faces are back in charge, something else will happen, and there's even back and forth flow. This is almost an attempt to see how much they can sort of rile the crowd up for the big moment. And to be fair, it does get a good reaction. Yeah. So I can't fault them on that.
00:32:31
Speaker
Yeah, really, Rogers doesn't get a lot of offense at all. No. He doesn't get many hope spots. He just doesn't ever fully go down. Very one-sided match once it gets to the actual match proper. The Fantastic's offense is mainly in that opening brawl, but there's not much in the match itself. I always just transfixed the whole time looking at the back of that guy's jacket.
00:32:56
Speaker
Oh, a Cornet's jacket. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With the like the ping pong. I know it's rackets. The tennis racket coat of arms. That's just like, yeah, that's amazing.
00:33:08
Speaker
He has a pretty amusing bit of commentary. I think it's a second or third show. They have a match, the next press does, and he just goes on commentary the whole time because their free table is like three feet from where you're standing earlier, so it might as well. And he talks about how he wears like a yellow, he was like yellow and red and green and like blue and purple all at once. And he explains that that's all the rage in Europe. And he got the other commentary, you're just not in on fashion.
00:33:36
Speaker
You know, he's so convinced that I almost leave him. Yeah. Almost. Oh, yeah. Overall, the match was executed well. Yes. It just is like, is that kind of a slightly strange variant on the normal tag formula? Mm-hmm. Without a lot of comebacks, really. So instead of doing like a volley back and forth, you know, we build up on both sides. So if people are cheering for one or the other, they just basically snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory kind of thing at the end? Yeah.
00:34:06
Speaker
Basically. They do a good job building for it, and like Al said, it does get one heck of a reaction from the crowd when you finally have the appearance of that tag. But it feels a little bit off for me that it doesn't feel like Rogers gets in enough of kind of a hope spot where he's just kind of getting his butt kicked the entire time.
00:34:27
Speaker
It still works. Even though it's a bit of an odd idea for the screw job finish, it's done well. The timing on it is quite good. Everybody's where they need to be. All the parts of it work right. It's just, where do you get the idea of I'm going to hurl the ref over the top rope of all the things for the good guy to decide to do?
00:34:50
Speaker
They also had a few really, really wide shots in the match where it was kind of hard to tell exactly who was in the ring or what was going on, but it wasn't too many. It was fairly brief. Yeah. So in May, I believe it's another Clash of the Champions show. It's fantastic to actually do win the titles. They lose them in July. They hold them from May to July.
00:35:10
Speaker
The Midnight Express wins the World Tag Team Championships, which we'll see later in the show, in September, while still holding the U.S. Tag Team Championships. So the title is then stripped from them, because they actually can only hold one set of tag titles. So that creates a vacancy, which of course is filled the tournament, because WWE loves tournaments. Oh, God. So, oh, good news, good news. Smatastics win the titles again. They finally get the titles back.
00:35:40
Speaker
And they own it for 19 days. Yeah. It's like we're in the Attitude Era here with the short title reigns. Good gosh. Yep. We go to Bob Cottle, who notifies us that they're wrapping the ring in barbed wire, which is naturally a great time to segue into talking about the new Leave It to Beaver show, and throw to Ken Osmond, who plays Eddie Haskell, who talks to Jim Cornette.
00:36:03
Speaker
Talking about the big crowd, a number of celebrities also here. A lot of us remember the old Leave It to Beaver television program. Well, the new Leave It to Beaver stars Eddie Haskell. And we'd like right now for all you folks to meet Eddie Haskell.
00:36:17
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ken Osman of the new Leave it to Beaver, and I'm inside the Greensboro Coliseum, awaiting a man who I admire a great deal and who stands to inherit a great deal of money, Mr. James Cornette. Well, Osman, how you doing? Good to see you. You gonna stick around, huh? Yeah, hey, listen, that's a fine-looking tennis racket you have there. Well, thank you. Hey, you know, I fancy myself as quite a tennis player. Well, Letterman at Mayfield, you should be.
00:36:37
Speaker
Hey, your mom has tennis courts up at her mansion, right? Why don't I come up with you and we'll play a round of tennis? Well, I don't know. She's got time to put the ashtrays up. I promise she'll stay away from the silverware. James, you wound me. You're listening to the babblings of a senile old bat. Hey, let me tell you, she may be getting up there, but she's still loaded, so shh. Oh, listen, what I really wanted to talk to you about were those two...
00:37:20
Speaker
In you window?
00:37:23
Speaker
So, okay, there's a lot to unpack there. Number one, Bob Coddle throws to Eddie Haskell. We proceed to find that it is actually an interview conducted by Ken Osbund who plays Eddie Haskell. So he's not in character, except that then John Cornette comes in and they spend the rest of the time acting like he is in fact in character as Eddie Haskell. Discuss.
00:37:53
Speaker
I want to blame Vintarussa, but I know I can't. Yeah, it's a little early for that. Not yet. There's some drug use in that conversation. I don't know. I would also notice something else real quickly, which is that... So this is March, 1988, the show was airing. The... What is the actual show called? I think it's called Still the Beaver. Still, okay. Whatever it's called. It debuted 1986. Yeah. It was 1986-1989, called Wikipedia.
00:38:21
Speaker
So, it's not a new show, even by TBS standards. Yeah, it's just kind of weird that this is even combined with this, but then you combine it with, is he in character or is he not in character? It's funny, too, how little they actually discuss anything related to wrestling in the interview. They talk about the Midnight Express for, like, five seconds, and then it's all about Jim Cornette's mother's house.
00:38:47
Speaker
That's true. Yeah. Well, I think it's a little funny too, because they're trying to get what's supposed to be a natural conversation. Yeah, in character, then Dim Cranette once he's his rest of their names, he merely goes and do his default. I'm announcing that for a match description. It's like he can't help it. That's how he he talks all the time. So another Pavlovian response.
00:39:09
Speaker
I think they gave them a list, each of them a list of words and they had like, you need to cross off blender and ashtray. Silverware. Yeah. Got to get the silverware in there. Jacuzzi.
00:39:26
Speaker
All right, fans, right now we want you to meet Al Perez and this man right here. Haven't seen him in a long time. Gary Hart. But Gary, I know whenever you're around, it's two things you're after. Money and championships, which, of course, I guess championships bring money. The main reason we're here this evening
00:39:43
Speaker
is because we wanted to be a part of this live. A telecast going across the nation.
Challenges and Rivalries: Dusty Rhodes and Others
00:39:47
Speaker
We also want to take this opportunity live before a capacity house and on national television once again to make a legitimate challenge to the American dream dusty roads.
00:40:00
Speaker
You're gonna have to take Al Perez serious. You're gonna have to put the belt up because like it or not, he's a legitimate contender and we're here for you. One, Dusty Rhodes. Al, why are we here? Make it very clear. First of all, I want Dusty Rhodes to know I was watching the monitor when I saw him put up a baseball incident. Dusty, I want you to know when you train as long and as hard as I do for something as impressive as that US title,
00:40:29
Speaker
It's going to take a baseball bat to beat me. I want you to know that a gale storm cannot keep me from getting that title. Dusty, be ready because I'm coming after the US title around my ways. Let's just hope that they legalize baseball bats, Rhodes, because the only way you can put this man's shoulders down one, two, three to the mat is with a baseball bat. And remember, I invented the dirty deeds, brother.
00:40:56
Speaker
Well, okay. Yeah. So just to be clear, Al Perez says that the only way that Dusty Rhodes could possibly beat him is by using a baseball bat. Yes. Gary Hart then proceeds to generously put his vote in in favor of legalizing baseball bats so that Dusty could use one and defeat his guy. I guess, yeah.
00:41:16
Speaker
I think you pointed out at the time how it would be better if he said something like, so we know we can beat you even at- we can show we can beat you even at your best or even with an advantage, something like that. Yeah, your only chance is if you have these to use. So I want you to have them so when we beat you, you'll know you fully lost. Yeah. Absolutely. Something like that needed to be a part of that statement. This is not a night for particularly good promos.
00:41:41
Speaker
He had a good rhythm though in the beginning. Yeah, true. He had a nice cadence. He was like chugging along and, you know, amping it up. Yeah. Also with knowing this, the promo, cutting promo Dusty Rhodes to defend the US title, which he does have at this point, but he's not being defended in those as the Clash of the Champions. Yeah, true. Is this where you want to talk about the Magnum TA Dusty thing at all? Or is that? I can if you'd like, sure. Naimim TA was a wrestler. He was really up on coming on the rise.
00:42:11
Speaker
Basically thought he would be like the next English dingus basically now. But fortunately he was in a really bad car accident, which meant he could never wrestle again. His health degraded to pretty, it's pretty bad now. He's still around, but it's not great. To this point, it's pretty fresh. We want to keep him around anyways. So there's a bit they play as video package. I'm guessing it happened in the live event. They play as a video package on the fourth week of shows. Where he's ringside for a match.
00:42:41
Speaker
which we'll see version of later with Barry Windham and Lex Luger against the four horsemen. He brings out a bat to help stop Jada Dillon's interfering and then there's a whole sequence where Tully Blanchard grabs the bat during a sunset flip attempt being done to him and basically pulls the bat forward into himself so then he's hit by a bat and the ref disqualifies the other team thus making sure they don't lose the titles.
00:43:12
Speaker
So then they cut back to live, where Magnum TA is in the building. Basically saying he has no regrets about it, he's not a manager, he's just a guy who's really fierce. Which brings Charlie Blanchard out, who proceeds to air his grievance of apparently losing an I Quit Master to him like two years earlier.
00:43:31
Speaker
Apparently that's like been bugging him constantly. Like everywhere I go people say I quit, I quit. I don't know where. J.A. Dillon comes behind an MTA and grabs him and they do a bit where he's supposed to be punched and goes down.
00:43:45
Speaker
Which normally you do a dildo like Jim Crenette did where you do his big over the top way. But they don't want to actually throw this guy to the ground violently because he was any major car accident that can't wrestle. So basically, Team J. Dillon has him in like a hugging him from behind and they punch and they sort of lightly lay down to the ground while holding him.
00:44:04
Speaker
And they're like, oh no, he's down, he's hurt really bad. Which brings Dusty Road just running out with a bat. And he starts going to town, everybody in the area. Including hitting, I think it's James Crockett he hits, one of the announcers. He didn't typically attack him, it's just like his backswing hits him other than the bat. This all happens on the day before class of champions.
00:44:27
Speaker
And so it's this big event which is going to affect future storylines, but has zero impact on the match we are now going to talk about involving Dusty Rokes. Yeah. So it's really more of a distraction than actual buildup. Francis Crockett, who probably shouldn't have taken Ambium before coming on to broadcast, running down the top 10 teams in the Jim Crockett Senior Memorial Cup.
00:44:51
Speaker
I couldn't help but notice that one of the teams is Sting and Ron Garvin, which considering their hairstyles at the time had to be like super twins. I wonder if Ron Garvin wore the face paint too. I'm not sure you'd be able to tell them apart. I hope so. They both have this like wonderful bleach blonde flat top.
00:45:11
Speaker
The name scrolled up the screen strangely in this sequence, too. They kind of like pop into existence a quarter of the way up the allotted area for them and pop out of existence about a quarter from the end of it, which just looks weird. It's like someone didn't sync that up quite right. They also didn't sync it up particularly well with Frances Crockett's narration, so she'll be saying one name and another name will be on screen or won't have shown up yet.
00:45:35
Speaker
One other thing that's kind of funny is that we're holding a tag team tournament, but later tonight, the number one and number six tag teams are fighting over the title. Correct. Which is just, again, strange. It's a big joke. Yeah. Why are they number six in your list if they are literally challenging for the title?
00:45:55
Speaker
I guess there's no particular relation to the tournament bracket, but it just feels odd. Yeah. There's a promo on, I think it's this first second week, Jim Carnet gives out about the fact that, I guess the previous year's tournament, his team still had the same titles they held now, but they weren't ranked number one.
00:46:13
Speaker
Then in different year, they held the actual World Tag Team Champions. And then they also weren't seed number one. But the year they held the US Tag Champions, and this year as well, the World Tag Team Champions are seed number one. Yeah. But he just, there's a lot to do about how they go out of their way to change the rules so they'll be number one. And of course, they're still in number one this year. So yeah. Yep. Kind of right.
00:46:38
Speaker
So next up, we have the title card wonderfully reads, Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors seek revenge. So we have the Road Warriors and Dusty Rhodes versus the Powers of Pain and Ivan Koloff managed by Paul Jones in a barbed wire match. Dusty's music hits to bring him out, at least I'm assuming that was Dusty's music because it definitely did not sound like the Road Warriors way to Texan. It must be Dusty's, yeah.
00:47:05
Speaker
the crowd goes nuts. Dusty and the Road Warriors very, very over. Animal is wearing a hockey mask and Dusty has Road Warrior face paint, which is always a touch I like when an unaffiliated guy joins up with an established team. You have a tag team that has a specific look and then you have a third guy team up with him and he kind of like matches their look a little bit. That's always a nice touch. You see that sometimes even with
00:47:34
Speaker
Even with single wrestlers that have a particularly notable look, like when people team up with Sting, oftentimes they'll put on some face paint that's kind of Sting style or something too. Or we got the Sting and Davey boy wearing matching jackets. Yeah, true. Outside of actual wrestling, there was an injury to animals face and eye area.
00:47:57
Speaker
So they did an angle where the powers of pain attacked them in a gym and attacked their face. So they'd be being, oh no, they're gone. That's because that thing happened. Definitely not something else. It's just how wrestling works. The World Warriors come back, so you beat people up and say really crazy things.
00:48:16
Speaker
extremely crazy things. Dusty Rhodes is mentioned very briefly in week two in a promo, but he's covering like three other things. He casually mentions like with the reward, they had team together, but it's really not a big thing. Then abruptly in week three, they go, Oh, yeah, Dusty's teaming with them against Ivan Koloff. How are the pain like? Oh, apparently he is.
00:48:39
Speaker
Ivan Kolov has actually not seen the first two shows. Ivan Kolov and the powers of pain, the current holders of the, and he ended away six man tag team championships. Which they were the belts for, but are not mentioned by name the first two shows that abruptly, oh, here's a six man tag champion and here's Ivan Kolov. Like, oh, I don't know where he was the last two weeks. It's on vacation, I guess. Not getting injured. There you go. He was planning it out.
00:49:05
Speaker
And then after three weeks of that, none of them appear on the final show whatsoever. Huh. Also worth knowing Dusty is the US champion. And that title is not in the line. However, this is a six man match. And the six man tag titles are also not in the line. Well, you know, it is a barbed wire match.
00:49:25
Speaker
So technically, this is a clash of champions in that the six-man champions are facing two guys and the US champion. So I guess that does qualify in the... It is a clash of champions. They're just not fighting for the belts. Yes. I also have a few jobbers of note for this because there's a bunch of jobber matches between the Powers of Pain and the World Warriors. I have Bob Riddle. That's a nice name. That's a good one. I have Gary Steinborn. Not sure where he's from.
00:49:54
Speaker
We have El Negro, which is a pasty middle-aged white dude. I believe he's wearing red the first time I see him. Oh my gosh. He appears again on another show, at least wearing red mask and black trunks. But El Negro. Yeah. Why?
00:50:12
Speaker
and the pinnacle of all jobbers, Randy Hogan. WCW hired this jobber guy, gave him the Hulk Hogan to her horseshoe, bald spot look, and the mustache, and had him lose every match they possibly could. Because Hulk Hogan is currently the champion in WDF at this time, selling out arenas everywhere. So we're getting a revenge by him, because this loser guy has the same name as him. Applying he's like the weird third cousin that just sucks, apparently.
00:50:41
Speaker
I don't know what's more surprising that wrestling companies are that petty or that that's not the only time that happens. W.W.F. does it with Gilbert later on. It's just like
00:50:56
Speaker
But really, how petty do you have to be to be like, well, they've got a champion. We're going to name a guy similar to their champion and dress him kind of alike and give him a similar haircut just to walk him out and have him pinned regularly. What does that actually give you?
00:51:11
Speaker
Yeah. And this is a long run too. He's around from like 1985 to 1994 even. Off and on randomly. It's not like they did it one time. Like, okay, it was just a joke, but no, he's a regular appearance. He's on like three of the shows I watched. So he's a regular cast member on the show. They could have made more puns if they just gave him a different name every time. And yeah, Terry Bill Hogan. There you go.
00:51:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think I had a lot of fun with that. Just some dude named Randy Hogan. Yeah. You have to be that bad all the time. That is funny.
00:51:56
Speaker
Everybody out there's probably wondering why I have this mask on. That's because the National Wrestling Alliance and all the commission wrestlers in the world won't let me wrestle unless I wear some protective gear. Now, March 26th, Barbarian Walmart calls the pain. You thought you put me out of wrestling. You didn't.
00:52:21
Speaker
You think I'm bound by her mitts? It's gonna hurt this, huh? I've been throwing hockey pucks at him all day, and he ain't been bothered a bit. You know Tony Savani? There's a... Oh, excuse me, David. I've had a few turnbuckles in my day. I don't even know my own name sometimes.
00:52:41
Speaker
There's all kinds of jobs for all kinds of people. Some people are into snow removal. Some are into garbage removal. Some are even into wort removal. We'll be able to farm a new company. We're into hand removal. And we're gonna stick and remove some heads too.
00:53:05
Speaker
Stand up with the Burpee in the world and you can see it at home in your own house.
00:53:13
Speaker
On your own TV! March 27th, TVS 10th Turner never met the man! But they kinda like him, cuz they're putting us in the ring and he's gonna let us do what we do best. I'm happy my brother is back. You know what's up there, Compton? So this thing hurts a lot, but I've learned the channel that's hurting and that hates. Pause the pain. I hate you.
00:53:43
Speaker
That's right, the Legion of Doom, they're definitely back. Coming up! Good to know we found our moral center there.
00:53:56
Speaker
That's our first promo back, by the way. Yes, that is great. So Hawk has been hurling hockey pucks at Animal all day to test the mask, which I guess is a good thing that it worked. Yes. And it's also great him clearly not recognizing who's interviewing him at first. Oh, I'm sorry, David. Yeah, he takes a Tony Givani, apparently. Habits, I guess, die hard. I still don't know what to say.
00:54:28
Speaker
There's a lot of energy in that promo, at least. You definitely get a good sense of enthusiasm. And they sound more... See, that's more what I thought a doctor death promo would sound like. Right? Yeah. Very, very angry people shouting at me. Yeah.
00:54:43
Speaker
So that all leads up to our barbed wire match between the Road Warriors and Dusty Roads versus the Powers of Pain and Ivan Koloff managed by Paul Jones.
Barbed Wire Match and Wrestling Dynamics
00:54:52
Speaker
Now, there's something I didn't notice when we were watching this together, but noticed afterwards, and that's that the match graphic notes that this is a Chicago Street Fight match.
00:55:02
Speaker
and it also subtitles it a six-man Texas barbed wire match. Now, interesting note, that doesn't have anything to do with anything really, but there actually is or was, more accurately, a Chicago, Texas. It existed from 1889 to 1904.
00:55:23
Speaker
It was renamed Stemmons in 1904 and ultimately disappeared when its rival, Small Town of La Mesa, two miles south, probably butchered the pronunciation of that, and won a vote to become county seat, and basically everybody left and went to live there instead. I sincerely doubt that anyone was actually referencing that by calling a six-man Texas barbed wire match a Chicago street fight, but it's an interesting coincidence all the same. There you go.
00:55:49
Speaker
I also wonder what makes this a Texas barbed wire match specifically, but it's where they got the barbed wire. Oh, there you go. They're the supplier. Maybe Chicago made the ring and Texas made the barbed wire. I'll give you that. That might work. Lots of brawling. There's a good drop kick somewhere in there by Hawk. There's more brawling. Yeah.
00:56:12
Speaker
Animal and Dusty Road use the barbed wire and post more than the heels starting out, which is kind of interesting. Hawk impressively pressed Sam's Ivan Koloff. It's hard to really follow much in this match, at least it was for me, because everyone's fighting all at once. It's just like a mass of people in the ring. Yeah, it is. The heels do gradually turn things around, but Animal solves that problem by going around headbutting people with his protective mask.
00:56:38
Speaker
That leads to Dusty doing his punching combo and his really hilarious windmilling hands punch. Hawke hits a really awkward jumping punch off the top rope at one point and Warlord doesn't really seem to know how to take it. Ultimately, after quite a bit of brawling, Animal dodges Barbarian's big headbutt off the top rope and just pins him for the win.
00:57:00
Speaker
I have note on that, I did rewatch it after you mentioned you couldn't follow that very well. I think it's animal must be the one that slams warlord down. He's going to pin him. Barbarian who had been thrown out earlier thus to gain the whole barbed wire thing. Just kind of climbs back at the top rope and jumps in the headbutt. The deal being he's going to hitch.
00:57:20
Speaker
Animal while he's down there, but then animal move and he hits warlord. Okay does it I could not even tell that warlord was on the ground with the amount of people they had in the ring I had to rewatch it second time
00:57:33
Speaker
Not a particularly interesting match in my book, honestly. There's a lot of, it's pretty much just big guys punching each other and occasionally someone will do something a bit interesting with a good power move that they managed to highlight, but there's so much going on that I couldn't follow a wit of this. Do you think that's the camera work? I think partially camera work and partially it's just, it's a six man match with all six people in the ring at all times. It gives it a battle royale feel.
00:58:02
Speaker
And those outside of the Royal Rumble are always a bit hard to follow. Yes. There's too many people in the ring and if they're all trying to do something interesting, you can't decide what to focus on. Either one of two things happens. One, everyone does try to do everything interesting at once and it becomes a mess. Or two, like in this case, you get mostly large amounts of brawling and then occasionally someone decides to do something more interesting than that. So big brawl matches always sound like they'll be interesting, but
00:58:32
Speaker
In my experience, they tend not to be that good.
00:58:51
Speaker
you know, put on shirts. Because as a street fighter, you can sort of not be in a wrestling gear, which Dusty is. Dusty comes out in a like tank top at least. He's wearing a shirt, jeans, and he's wearing gloves more importantly. Literally, everybody else is wearing their wrestling gear as if they weren't aware they're going into a barbed wire match. Yeah. It's very strange. It's rather tame for a barbed wire match. I think there was some bleeding in it, but it's not like
00:59:16
Speaker
Yeah. A gusher. Not that I particularly wanted it to be because I'm not, I don't have that strong of a stomach, but still it's, you kind of expect more when you hear barbed wire brawl. The post-match I found much more interesting than the match itself. Oh sure. The heels attack after the match ticked off about losing and knock out all the faces with a chain.
00:59:38
Speaker
animal hilariously visibly helps his protective hockey mask slip off after he's hit in the post-match brawl. He just like gets kicked, tips his head back, and not particularly quickly rubs his hand up over the mask to pull it loose enough that it'll finally fall off. I'm not sure why one of the heels couldn't just take it off. It's like why does he have to remove that?
01:00:04
Speaker
The Heels go to beat up Animal afterwards to try to re-injure his eye, but Dusty and Hawk manage to save him and the Heels flee.
01:00:34
Speaker
Instead, it's just they're all fighting at the same time. The camera is just the hard camera place like 20 feet away, like stuck to a wall and doesn't move at all. Yeah. And you have to just look at a single shot and try to figure out what's happening all the times. Which really doesn't work for me, unfortunately.
01:00:49
Speaker
I did like if there's a favorite person in out of the six like you can watch them the whole time because you know like the camera angles do have most of the true people in there at all times so if you really rooting for one you could you could follow that match but to try to pick out things like the only thing that I think they accomplished they're like oh the hockey mask or protective mask works yeah yeah
01:01:15
Speaker
And they threw it away so it didn't get damaged. It was nice to see road warriors. I mean, we did, I've met one of them. We had them actually at our school and it was just nice to see them do how they were early on in their career. Yeah. Those two guys are just wonderfully nuts in the rings sometimes and wonderfully nuts on promos.
01:01:38
Speaker
WCW loves certain kind of gimmick matches. One they love to do at this time period is called a scaffold match. See if you can follow this. A scaffold match is a match where you climb a scaffold and fight on it. That's how the match ends when one or both people will fall off. They've done singles, scaffold matches, they've done tag team scaffold matches.
01:01:58
Speaker
It's most famous for Porgem Pernet being dropped off one. Big Bele was supposed to catch him, but doesn't. He lands all his body weight on one of his legs in the ring. And yeah, he doesn't either walk straight the same way ever since. Yeah. So with that in mind, that's the next step in this Powers of Pain Road Warriors feud. Like, we want you to do these matches next. This is our next big thing.
01:02:23
Speaker
Clearly, the powers of pain, I'm guessing, talked to Jim Crenette or watched one of these and said, uh, yeah, we're gonna not do that. Instead, we're gonna just, I don't know, let's go to WDF instead. So we'll just leave the company. We're literally just gonna leave here instead. So, the tiles were now vacant. It's rushing over here very many times going through the WCW history. Yeah. Tiles are vacated all the time, unfortunately.
01:02:49
Speaker
So good news, they do have a match later, sometimes it's that year, determine who will be the new six-man tag team champions. Ends up being Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors. So at least we have some flow from this match. Unfortunately, that story didn't take a turn. About a month or so into it, the Road Warriors turn heel and beat up Dusty Rhodes. So they're still the six-man tag champions with him, but they're not aligned anymore.
01:03:17
Speaker
This brings us to Class of Champions of December, which gives us a singles match between Road War Animal and Dusty Roads.
01:03:25
Speaker
And if the Road Warrior wins the match, they get to replace Dusty Roode officially as their third partner. So they can be healed together and fight for the titles and all that. Animal wins the match, and Dusty is now out of the tag team and is replaced by a Japanese person named Tenryu, who, come January, decides he'd rather not hang around America and wrestle with six-man matches anymore, because he wrestled in Japan. So the titles are just vacated completely and gone forever in January.
01:03:56
Speaker
So yeah, the illustrious WCW six band tag team titles. Yes. Technically the last of the end of the year, but just barely.
01:04:06
Speaker
Welcome back after an extended absence to Nikita Kolov. A different look, Nikita Kolov. I am Nikita Kolov, you see. I am different. There is nobody like Nikita Kolov. I am new, brave Russian, you see, in the Soviet Union. Well, this is Nikita Kolov. I wish I could say in the last two months that I have had a good time. Just take it easy, but it's not true, you see. I have had much trouble. I've talked to many young people in the past two months, and you know what I talk about? I talk about this right here.
01:04:37
Speaker
What is it? Get high on sports, not drugs. That's what I do see. I talk to young people about just how important it is to have good health for your life, you see. Because to me, life is very important, and health is very important. Somebody close to me, each day I see, fight for life. And when Kevin Sullivan come out here, when Dick Murdock come out here, Mike Rotondo come out here, and try to take my help from me and my love, then you see I become a fighter.
01:05:05
Speaker
And that's why I stand out here today, when you see Kevin Sullivan, he say, yeah, but Nikita, you don't have a belt no more. Well, that might be true, but you see, I don't need a belt to be a champion. That's right, Kevin Sullivan, I don't need a belt to be a champion. I have had a rectangle you can have in the NWA except for one, you know which one?
01:05:47
Speaker
I have a total pleasure of what is wrong with you. You not right up here, total pleasure. Something wrong up here to attack my friend, not your TA. Total pleasure, all I have to say to you is you are very lucky not to walk away. If you walk away, I hope you did not. But you see, there is one thing I want to say before I go, and that is I want to let all the people know
01:05:47
Speaker
The World Heavyweight Championship with you.
01:06:10
Speaker
Just like all of the current people right here in the Greenbark Coliseum. I want to let them know that the superpowers, Toshi Rhodes and Nikita Korov, are going to be at the Crockett Cup. And we are going to defend the Crockett Cup with pride. It's a pleasure to be back. Don't that clear where he's from?
01:06:34
Speaker
I will say he sounds a bit French when he's saying Ric Flair and Ron Garvin. Now, I know that everyone's supposed to ham everything up and have their own persona and everything, but about a third through the monologue, for whatever reason, all I could hear was Cookie Monster.
Promos and Tag Team Tactics
01:06:55
Speaker
And everything he was saying, I was just like, I'm just waiting for him to talk about cookies.
01:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, I can totally hear that now. Oh my god. I will never hear another Nikita Kolov promo in the same way. Thank you very much. No, you're welcome. I love him just like working in Glasnost and Perestroika twice like in the opening 10 seconds of his promo. He's just like out of nowhere. Just like Nikita Kolov, Glasnost, Perestroika, Nikita Kolov, Glasnost, Perestroika. Just like... What? Thanks. Okay.
01:07:28
Speaker
And he has so many topics he goes over. He's like the super Russian version of a Jim Cornette promo. He's just like talking at hyperspeed. He's also the second person tonight to declare that he doesn't need a belt to be a champion. Dr. Death declares the same thing. I don't think either of them quite gets how championships work. Yeah.
01:07:49
Speaker
It's a slight flaw in the argument. Yeah. Is that like a theme of the program? I guess so. It's Clash of the Champions, so I guess they want to declare themselves champions to be worthy of being on the show, I guess. Well, the thing with the kid at Coelop, you have to understand, is that as a Russian, he scores naturally a villain.
01:08:06
Speaker
Like Ivan Kolov is earlier. And in Kefei, we're wrestling logic, they were brothers. I believe that's how it works. I believe they were brothers. Yeah, I can't remember. Yeah. Well, they could be brothers, they could be cousins. Brothers, cousins, something around there. But yeah, so they were together for a while. There was a third Russian as well. Russian being an air quote because none of them are actually from Russia. In case you didn't get that from the voice. No clue. Yeah, no, it's seamless.
01:08:33
Speaker
But he's a good guy now, so suddenly he has to be super all of America. I say it's cool kids, don't do drugs. USA number one. Just so you deserve compensation for the fact that he's still Russian, air quote. So now he's super good, but don't worry. Yes, it's just so don't be threatened by him now. Okay.
01:08:54
Speaker
Yeah, and it's another promo on this show that doesn't really have a lot to do with what's on the actual show. It's kind of a weird theme where I guess this is a free TV one, not a pay-per-view, so they are trying to use it to build towards future angles too, but it is just kind of odd feeling like this is such a big event, but half the night our concentration is on something other than this event.
01:09:16
Speaker
It is also worth noting that there's several promos where they reference Dusty Origins with a bat I recapped earlier, but they don't actually show it on the cause of champions. Yeah.
01:09:26
Speaker
Next up, we have Lex Luger and Barry Windham versus Arne Anderson and Tully Blanchard, the Horsemen, with JJ Dillon in a tag match for Arne and Tully's NWA World Tag Team Championship. Al, you got any coverage of the story for this one? I do, I do. It's a little complicated, but I'll see if you can follow it. So, the Horsemen had the tag titles, and when Luger won the tag titles, so were him his match. Mind blown. Yeah. There really is no more than that, I see.
01:09:56
Speaker
Well, I'm still thrown that the guy's name is Horseman, or... Oh, they're the Four Horsemen. Yeah, they're two of the members of the Four Horsemen, which are a group that we'll see the establishment of over when we do the Starcade. But basically, it's a group of Heels that Ric Flair forms to help him defend his World Heavyweight Championship. They help him cheat in matches or, you know, do dastardly things to
01:10:23
Speaker
take care of his opponents before they become a problem for him. One of the earlier like big stables in wrestling that are no pun intended with the word stables, that are a larger group of wrestlers that all band together with a common purpose and really just kind of become a dominant force on the scene.
01:10:45
Speaker
You don't see them fully in that light tonight, but just know the Horsemen are an institution in WCW and a huge part of WCW history as we will see several versions of them just over the Starrcade run. Yes. Do they actually assign them names? Is he war? Sadly, no, they don't do the full apocalyptic thing, I don't think. Death in taxes.
01:11:08
Speaker
Which one would be war? Would that probably be Arne, I think, right? He's the enforcer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Arne's the enforcer, so yeah. Yeah, I don't know who I'd define for the other ones, but... Was it war, famine, pestilence? War, famine, pestilence, and death, I think. I thought it was death in taxes. It's not death in taxes. If it was death in taxes, Mycrotunda would be in there, but that's a whole other thing.
01:11:33
Speaker
Jabber's of note, I have Ricky King. It's kind of a fun name. Dale Laparoos. That is a complicated name. Isn't it? I kind of dig it. Not a bad name, which is very complicated for Jabber. And lastly, Dave Spearman. Okay.
01:11:50
Speaker
Al, I think you pointed this out when we were watching during the show, but yeah, it's weird. Lex and Arne are both wearing red trunks, but they're not the ones that are teamed up. You've got Lex teamed up with Barry and Arne teamed up with Tully, but Lex and Arne are matching colors, which is just a little bit odd. Courtney, make your colors, people. Yeah, it's very strange.
01:12:09
Speaker
Do they ever play into it where like one like say one of the tag team, you know gets blinded or whatever it ends up You know attacking his own teammate because he's wearing the same clothes or the same outfit I don't know that I've ever seen it from that angle. They there's definitely frequently points where teams will pull what people will often call twin magic Where to team element or
01:12:35
Speaker
No, they don't turn themselves to stone to block a hallway in a really depressing scene. Well, now I'm sad. Yeah. No, what it will be is two wrestlers that kind of looks usually a little bit similar and are dressed similar will switch places when the referee is not looking so that the injured one is outside and the non-injured one is lying down in what looks like a vulnerable position and can catch a quick pinfall on the unsuspecting enemy wrestler when he comes over. Yeah.
01:13:03
Speaker
But I haven't seen too often wrestlers being confused by someone who's dressed like their partner. I suppose there's some moments where that happens, but it tends to be some larger plot. The best twin matic is probably, I think, really is Bao's favorite. It's the killer bees that would show up in a couple of years. Like the SNL skit? Kind of. There are two white dudes that come out wearing black and yellow trunks.
01:13:30
Speaker
Not wearing masks. They kind of vaguely look like each other, but they wouldn't be wearing masks when they come out. Does one of them look like Belushi? No. No. Oh, that's unfortunate. Jabbers tend to look like Belushi at this point, but not actual wrestlers. But no, they come out wearing similar outfits and looking kind of similar. They almost need to put on masks before the match starts, so they can switch out. Yes. So as Bob likes to say, they literally announce in their referee they're playing cheat. Yes.
01:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, there's no reason to put the mask on because you weren't wearing them to begin with. So you're putting them on as a cue to the referee. Make sure to watch very carefully. We are definitely going to cheat. Yes.
01:14:11
Speaker
We start off with Luger Dominant, going right to the torture rack for what might have been an early win. Arne interrupts and Luger gets in trouble for a bit, but quickly manages to tag Wyndham, who beats up Tully until Arne manages to nail him with a DDT while the ref is distracted and carry on with his beautiful spinebuster. The announcers highlight that everyone is using their best moves and everyone is kicking out, which is pretty common today, but not so much in the 80s.
01:14:39
Speaker
Windom is reeling from Arren's big moves all the same. So Arren and Tully start trading off to keep him from getting to Luger.
01:14:47
Speaker
Both sides hit some major power moves. Wyndham takes a lot of punishment, but does get some very big moves in of his own. Meanwhile, Lex leads the crowd in cheering for Wyndham. Finally, Wyndham gets the tag, and Luger gets a monster pop when he finally comes in. He destroys Arne and Tully at first, but they fight back, and JJ Dillon pops up with a chair, only for Luger to shift his way and send Arne into the chair to get the pin.
01:15:14
Speaker
Oftentimes a interference spot, especially when it goes wrong, feels really contrived. Yes. But that one is just like JJ's up and like immediately Luger's just like shifts his weight and sends, uh, sends Anderson into the chair. It's really, really smooth. And you totally buy that JJ doesn't have time to realize the wrong guys headed there or even catch at first that he hit the wrong guy. It's so fast. Yeah.
01:15:41
Speaker
During this I also noticed I did not get this during any point previous or any earlier point in the commentary. But apparently Lex and Wyndham are either called the Twin Towers or the Two Towers or something like that. So I'm not sure if it's a reference to the World Trade Center or the second of the Lord of the Rings books, but one or the other.
Wrestling Styles and Team Dynamics
01:15:59
Speaker
Lex and Wyndham celebrate their win very, very briefly and just kind of stride on out of there. It feels really, really short considering the crowd's enormous eruption.
01:16:09
Speaker
of, uh, of celebration when Luger finally gets the tag. It felt like they should be pacing around the ring holding those belts up. And yeah, but this is another tag match on the show. And yeah, like you were saying earlier, I kind of, they do the same basic pattern, but this felt like a little bit more in the way of like, Wyndham gets some hope spots from time to time. There's a little bit more of a back and forth from time to time on this one. I thought,
01:16:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely a more balanced version of that for me anyways. I really love Arne Anderson. He's one of my favorite wrestlers. He oddly reminds me of my dad, I think, in terms of his general look. Sure, I can see that, yeah.
01:16:53
Speaker
he's one of those guys that I think for me when Arne's in the ring it feels just a little bit more real and it's not that he doesn't do anything cartoonish from time to time but he'll he does little things that just feel logical like if he gets knocked silly he'll kind of like
01:17:11
Speaker
try and punch at the guy a little bit to ward him off sometimes. I don't think we saw that in this match, but that's a common Arne spot and just his really serious kind of tough guy demeanor and everything. I know he's a heel, but I will always love Arne Anderson anytime he shows up. He's so great. I love Lex Luger too for different reasons. He's more variable, but that guy, there's just something endearing about Lex Luger.
01:17:38
Speaker
And in this match, he is undeniably super over. I mean, the crowd adores him here. Oh, yeah. Sure. He's not necessarily the best guy in the ring or all the best guy on promos. Sure. Yeah. But he has a really, really good look and he can have a lot of energy and really come in and kind of have a good synthesis with the crowd sometimes. So.
01:18:04
Speaker
Yeah, I enjoy Lex Luger. I was sad we don't get much in the way of Luger selling tonight. That's a real highlight of Luger matches. He's just a gloriously loud wrestler sometimes, and you don't get a lot of that in this match, but I'm sure we'll have other opportunities. Absolutely.
01:18:20
Speaker
Yeah, for me, everybody involved in this did a really good job. It's a hard-hitting match, but it feels a little more disciplined than the earlier tag match, I guess I'd say. And there's a really good build to Luger getting the hot tag and coming in, but Windom never looks like he's going down and gets a lot of good hope spots over the course of it. Does a good job of keeping rerouting for his comebacks, I thought. And also Arne and Tully are just terrific heals, doing a lot of really, really good just
01:18:50
Speaker
beatdowns and controlling the action and just some really nice hard-hitting moves and cheating when they can, you know, but not overdoing anything, which really felt good. They have a way of making things feel, you said, very natural. Yeah. So when they're in control or anything feels as coaster real fat as you want for us to feel, you know, obviously, you know, planned out and we're doing things they had in mind, but
01:19:15
Speaker
Some people make that look really transparent. Yeah. They go, okay, now I'm going to spot B and then spot C. Whereas Arne and Talia do nice little things that really make you feel like this is all natural. Not realize you're being led from point A to point B. It's not over the top and
01:19:33
Speaker
the guys that go out there and try to make it feel just that that little extra touch more real and to react to things like you would if this was actually a sport and this was actually a a match I think it really helps for me and you can still do some of the moves that really only work in pro wrestling but just that extra touch of
01:19:56
Speaker
When I watch an Arn Anderson match, I can often understand why for a long time people did think wrestling was real. He has this seriousness about him and this, like, this believability about what he does that for me just works really well. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, great match, never really seems to slow down. There's a sleeper hold in there, but it lasts a matter of seconds. Yeah, I really enjoyed this one a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they didn't drag it out. Yeah.
01:20:26
Speaker
Coming off of this show, very when I'm Alex Lugar now the world tag team champions of the NDA, they will go on to the next class champion to class two, defending them against Blanchard and Harrison again.
01:20:39
Speaker
Whereupon, Berry Windham turns heel and joins the Forestmen. Aww. Yup. So now, Tully Blanchard and Arneson are champions again. We're in April, May, I think it is. They go on a whole tile through September, where they lose them at a house show. The reason why they lose them at a house show up September is because Blanchard and Arneson go to the WWF. Ah, right. Yeah. I knew that was coming up at some point in the near future. That's in September. Yup.
01:21:07
Speaker
the company is kind of in a hot period now but also not actually doing that well financially. I think that's one of the signs you can kind of tell that we get towards September and two guys that were a huge, huge highlight on the show are gone. They're in the competition now. It's been a whole year over there. They're getting coached.
01:21:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's from what I understand of that one. It's part a we can make good money there and as part a the working environment here is not as good as it used to be. And we disagree with some of the things that are going on. So we're going to just try our luck over there and see if it see how it's how it works out.
01:21:47
Speaker
Next up is Ric Flair versus Sting in a singles match for Flair's NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This is Sting's first shot at the big time, really. He has actually... I'll go into this a bit later, but he's not been in Jim Crocket promotions too long. He's been in the company for less than a year at this point, actually.
01:22:08
Speaker
It's pretty quick. Yeah, he's at the top of the card here. They clearly have a lot of faith in this guy and really want to try him out in the big time, which is very impressive for a pretty young wrestler.
01:22:20
Speaker
So I don't know if this is explained more if I've watched this long term. I watched Four Weeks of Show leading up to this. In the Four Weeks of Show leading up to it, they've just said
Ric Flair vs Sting: Match Setup and Significance
01:22:31
Speaker
that Sting's fighting for the title and Sting wrestles four different matches, two which are pre-taped from live events, two which are live in the studio. But there's no storyline connection other than T. Sting and he's getting a world title match.
01:22:45
Speaker
Flair wrestles one match during the build-up, a six-man match. Otherwise, he wrestles live events because they're touring other than doing the show. But he has one promo on the very last show expressing issue with the match coming at that point tomorrow.
01:23:02
Speaker
and the world champion will be defending his title.
01:23:22
Speaker
Greensboro Park tomorrow night. You understand what I'm talking about? Tomorrow night, after Ric Flair successfully defends the world's heavyweight champion. Ladies and gentlemen, at Ludacrisis it might be they have set this up to have three judges.
01:23:43
Speaker
That's right, three judges outside the ring just in case Steve is fortunate enough to wrestle me the entire 60 minute timing. So what do I do? You know me to be a man way beyond his means. In every department, I said to myself, I said, what kind of a judge do I know beyond a shadow of a doubt will rule in favor of the nature of what?
01:24:11
Speaker
So I look around the country and who's available? The most beautiful woman.
01:24:18
Speaker
on the face of this earth, the pet of the year, Patty Mullen flies right in, woo, in the Learjet, in the Greensboro, she's gonna be styling, oh, Tony, get close to this baby, and profile it, it's all she can do, and I want everybody in Greensboro, I'm talking about all you punks that think you've been somewhere with a woman and never have been to look
01:24:46
Speaker
And what the nature boy is standing next to you. How about this? Tony, talk to her, brother. She's not only good looking, she can talk all night long. It must be quite a thrill being right here with the world champion and being part of the big event tomorrow. Oh, it is. I'm looking so forward to it. Oh, God. Oh, you can't beat that, can you? Staying you know how I like to show off.
01:25:11
Speaker
I'm the kind of guy that likes to tell you how it is. And when I've got something, woo, like Panama, standing 10 feet from me, you know for a fact, Luger, you gotta be beside yourself. You're that punk berry with him out there. When she saw you pop that shirt, Luger, five minutes ago, she said, nature boy, Luger's a lot like that punk stench.
01:25:40
Speaker
They think that running around doing this does it for women like myself. It doesn't, guys. They like clothes. They like airplanes. They like limousines. They like men of the world. Oh, baby. Come on! Greensboro! Whoo! The nature bar will ride high in the skies. Tony, you be there. She got a friend for you too, pal.
01:26:09
Speaker
That's good enough. Let's go to the ring. So kind of a lot to unpack in that promo, but one thing we're definitely, definitely clear on from that promo, I think, is that there's definitely three judges and it's definitely a match for 60 minutes. Yes, absolutely. He's very clear on both of those points.
01:26:39
Speaker
And that women like clothes and airplanes. Yes. John, when you were wooing your wife, did you make sure to go around in lots of nice clothes and fly in Learjets? No. Apparently, Ric Flair's methodism for everyone. No. I mean, he's got a better woo than others, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. He definitely can do the woo. You want to try your hand at a Ric Flair woo?
01:27:16
Speaker
Yeah, we were definitely really clear in that promo that this is a match with three judges for a 60-minute time limit. So it's important to note that this match has five judges and is for a 40-minute time limit.
01:27:31
Speaker
Uh, there must be a winner, so we've got a panel of five judges to ensure that. The judges are Gary Juster of the NWA board of directors, former NWA wrestler Sandy Scott, the pet of the year, who we heard reference in that promo, Patty Mullen. It was not a cat. I know it sounds like that from the name, but he's not a cat. I'm just sad that it's not Patty Mullen's. Yeah, right? We've got to give him so much crap, John. Yep. Ken Osman to leave it to Beaver fame.
01:28:00
Speaker
And Jason Hervey from the Wonder Years, who oddly gets introduced after Ken Osman but was standing before him in the order. That's a clear sign of the issue they're having, because they have the last two people and they get them announced in the wrong order, the standing. Yes.
01:28:15
Speaker
Well, it makes me think that they're add-ons. Like, you know, they needed to have some sort of, you know, sponsor to help do this free thing. So like, oh, well, these people, you know, their shows might need, you know, a little, a little boost. So we'll make it five judges instead of three.
01:28:32
Speaker
When also if you go back to the sort of weird promo with Ken Osman slash Eddie Haskell, he's asked by Cornette if he's gonna stay here and watch the show. And he didn't go, oh yes, I'm gonna be a judge in the main event of the show. That's true, yeah. So it's almost like it's decided between that promo and the main event. We're gonna add two more judges. Oh hey, we, you know, Jason Hervey was backstage for some reason. We invited him out here and, hey Ken, you want to be a judge for a wrestling match? Sure. Sure, I'll do that. Can I, can I finally decide whether I'm in character or not?
01:29:02
Speaker
Anyway, I'm sure that going from three judges to five judges definitely won't bite them later on. No. No. Sting comes out to a really great 80s rock tune with a wonderful white and gold robe on, black fringe on it, and a great gold scorpion on the back of it. It looks awesome. Mm-hmm.
01:29:19
Speaker
Like I said before, I need to note here that Sting at this point has been in Jim Crockett promotions for less than a year, and he's actually only been wrestling at all for about three years. He started wrestling in 1985, and he came over to Jim Crockett promotions in July of 1987 when they bought out the UWF. It's now March of 1988, so he's still very new in Jim Crockett promotions, and he's getting one heck of an opportunity. They clearly have high hopes for this man.
01:29:47
Speaker
So, when he starts into wrestling, they put another wrestler with him and think, hey, you guys are both a similar build, you're both really big, young, jacked guys, similar haircuts. We'll put the face paint on and you guys will be a tag team. Your partner's gonna be this Jim Hellwick guy. You know, he'll be good for you. And we'll call you the Blade Runners. Yeah. Is it like the movies? Are they replicants? That would've been a good story. They're big beefy dudes.
01:30:12
Speaker
Honestly, it was 85-86 that would be a good story to see the replicants that were on the loose. That's the one where they could be that big. I mean, how would you get that gigantic? Yeah, Jim Helbig, of course, is the ultimate warrior.
01:30:26
Speaker
Yeah, it goes on to become Ultimate Warrior over in the WWF who is also a rather muscular individual who paints his face multiple colors. He is slightly more insane than Sting in his ring persona and not quite as good in the ring overall but has a similar connection with the crowd of just people love him and he has a lot of energy.
01:30:49
Speaker
But yeah, so just a really good opportunity in any case for Sting as a very young wrestler and very early in his career.
01:30:57
Speaker
His opponent, Ric Flair, the champion, comes out in a white robe with super glittery silver star patterns on it. Very sparkly. It's not quite as ornate as some of Ric Flair's robes will become later on, but it's still a pretty darn good one. J.J. Dillon, as part of the match stipulations as well, gets put in a cage and hovered above the crowd, which honestly, the position of that felt a little dangerous. I hope they were really confident in their cables. As if that thing came down, it was killing somebody.
01:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's a real OSHA thing going on that really should have been addressed at the point. Yeah. JJ looks astonishingly calm up in that cage. I would be freaking out. I mean, even knowing it's all an act and everything, I- I- Heights in me, no.
01:31:37
Speaker
That is the one issue I do have with the previous match, sort of tying back to it. As good as that finishes, where his distraction backfires and his team moves the titles, that immediately leads up to a match where we have to make sure he put him in caves, that way he wanted to fear and cause Sting the match. Right, yeah, he just screwed up interfering. So maybe you should let him out there and he'll screw up interfering again. Yeah Sting should, yeah, here's a cheer, he didn't know it was cool.
01:32:04
Speaker
They intro Sting with what I think has to be my favorite wrestler introduction ever. Entering is his hide and wait and everything, but then ended with, this is Sting. I'm like, that always makes him feel so epic that he's the only guy that they do that intro with, the really emphasized name for him.
01:32:27
Speaker
Everyone else gets, you know, the normal Ric Flair or Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger. Sting always gets, this is Sting. It just feels so cool. The world's heavyweight champion, however, is a call I don't like quite as much. I don't know why they always do this in WCW, but they always are calling it the world's title rather than the world title. It's just a small thing, but it's like,
01:32:57
Speaker
I know I'm gonna harp on this all the time. Yeah, it's the same way for me that they will constantly say, you know, that's why I came back to the WCW. I mean, you came back to the World Championship Wrestling? Yeah. Which is really, I think it's just a care because a lot of people that say that were in the WWF. And that makes sense. Yeah, you were in the World Wrestling Federation. But right, you're that doesn't really work with WCW.
01:33:24
Speaker
Yeah. Also I have to note, further fashion notes tonight, Sting's tights, once he takes off the robe, have another really awesome scorpion logo on them. They're a black and gold color scheme and just like really highlights that logo. It's a great, I love anytime he has the big scorpion logos on in places and it's another thing that just makes him stand out. He's all about branding.
01:33:48
Speaker
Yeah. Sting is a wrestler throughout the years. You will always know when you're seeing him. You never fail to spot Sting.
01:33:57
Speaker
He stands out, he's got the face paint, he's got the robe, he's got the scorpion motifs all over the place. He always is so immediately recognizable. It's a really, really just great design, I think. There's surprisingly little flashy outfits at times in WCW. So, which I think helps Sting stand out even more, but yeah, it's amazing how well they knock it out of the park with his look regularly throughout the years.
01:34:27
Speaker
Do they capitalize or merchandise it? Does they sting the cologne and sting the Botox injection? He's got t-shirts over the years, and people always come to the shows with their face painted up like him. I don't know if they sell any official Sting makeup kits or anything, but if they didn't, they really should have. Absolutely. Yeah. Bonus glitter. Yeah.
01:34:54
Speaker
Sting also opens up with that super loud cry of his that he does so well. I never know exactly what to call that. I guess the stinger call just to get the motif of the rest of his moves. I love when he does that. He's so loud. Scorpions are known for being loud. Yeah, yeah. It's a bit of a rebel yell kind of thing, yeah.
01:35:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of, uh, sounds like a hawk cry almost, which, again, as you said, John doesn't really fit the scorpion gimmick, but, I don't know, maybe it's the noise someone makes when they're stabbed by a scorpion. Yeah. Not a pleasant experience.
01:35:28
Speaker
Sting is dominant to start, controlling for about the first half of the match with some big power spots and working around a headlock and later a bear hug. There's quite a bit of the headlock in particular, but they keep moving in and out of it and doing different things with it, with Flair trying to escape but Sting being one step ahead for a while. Rick sells the bear hug in particular mightily, yelling, oh god, my back!
01:35:55
Speaker
There's stage acting where you're in a play, and you know, you've got to make sure that person in the front row hears everything, as well as the person all the way in the back
Sting vs Flair: Performance and Potential
01:36:05
Speaker
row. And you could be in a Broadway and it'd be, you know, 50 rows. So that's basically what flair is doing. Flair is doing stage acting. He's dramatically yelling and shouting so everyone can hear him.
01:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, if you're in row 67 in the nosebleed section, you know that Flair's back is hurting right now. Right. And the way that it looks weird to us anyways, besides being a modern looking at modern context is because we're watching from a video camera that's like 10 feet away from him. So he's shouting with all his lungs and all his effort to make sure people in the back hear them. And we could hear him honestly whispering.
01:36:47
Speaker
Yeah. So it's a contrast, clear clash styles there. Yeah, I think I don't have any problem with it. I think it's I think it's great. I just it's a very funny. It's a very fun style that makes it very, very clear what's going on. You just got a clinician for why he does that. Yeah.
01:37:03
Speaker
Sting finally makes a mistake with a missed stinger splash, and Flare capitalizes, using the barricades and turnbuckles to hurt him more. They trade off control here and there, with Sting at one point going for the scorpion deathlock, his finishing hold, but Rick scrambles to the ropes immediately, a great way to sell fear of the move.
01:37:23
Speaker
Yeah, they make a point in a promo on one of the shows that at this point, there's no counter to the scorpion death lock. The only way to escape it is to get the ropes or stop them from putting it on there. So they've said that earlier.
01:37:36
Speaker
That's good, so yeah, it kind of demonstrates that really well that Rick immediately starts heading for the ropes as soon as it is being put on. They fight a little longer, Sting mostly using his power, and Flare using dirty tricks and targeting body parts, leading to Flare focusing on the knee and getting the figure four leg lock. Sting manages to turn it over eventually, and they fight on, with Sting eventually getting a figure four of his own on Rick.
01:38:02
Speaker
Stink gets increasingly aggressive as the match goes on, and with five minutes to go, that costs him again on a big, mist stinger splash that actually sends him tumbling out of the ring over the top rope. JR calls it the Pre-Scorpion Deathlock Splash in the Corner. I'm glad they came up with a better name for it eventually. It's an awkward acronym for sure. Yeah. PSDS. I-S-T-C. Yeah. This is just...
01:38:35
Speaker
Rolls up the tongue. The two fight for control, and Sting finally manages to hit the Stinger Splash and lock in the Scorpion Deathlock with 30 seconds left. Flare screams and struggles, but he won't give up, and time runs out. So before we discuss the judges bit, I think let's just do a little bit of discussion of the match itself. How did that feel to you guys?
01:39:00
Speaker
To me, I was worried that because so long that I might repeat itself. Because even with Flare, I've seen a couple matches where they're good, but they kind of repeat a little bit. There's one with him and Steam, but two of us watched where it's still good, but they definitely they wrestle like the same match twice in one match almost. Yeah. They repeat a little too much. With like alternate outcomes.
01:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, on that one, they kind of go over the same sequence a few times. Even to the point where Flair puts him in the figure four, and then does his cardinal mistake, which is slapping and or hitting the guy, which makes him mad enough to power out. Yeah. That happens at least a few times in that match. I think it does twice in the same match there, yeah, which was a little weird. This one's long, but doesn't feel too repetitive. There's a little bit much of the headlock maybe early on. Yeah. But they're always doing something different with it. Yeah, absolutely. Right, so.
01:39:52
Speaker
I actually thought it was repetitive, but again, I just don't know the characters well enough. But you can see the signature moves coming out and lead up to them. The constant pulling on the ropes and gaining power just kind of pulled me out of it a little bit.
01:40:11
Speaker
But I did really enjoy the points where Sting just shrugs it off. I think that he sailed on both sides. When it was his turn to deliver something, it didn't matter what was being dealt to him. He just went powered through it and I thought that was great.
01:40:32
Speaker
you know, the kind of Superman comeback, but his always feel like he doesn't totally invalidate what's going on in the match. It's just like my fighting spirits back and I'm still acknowledging what's happened before, but I'm able to kind of power through it and keep going and kind of get that intimidation factor of demonstrating, yeah, I can just shrug off your blow. I can do this. You can kind of see him brace for it a little more than normal sometimes and
01:40:59
Speaker
will himself into being able to take it, which is a really nice touch. There's a few wrestlers over the years, most notably Hulk Hogan, but a lot of babyface wrestlers over the years will do that Superman comeback and some do it really well, some do it really poorly. Sting, I think, is one that does it really, really well. And I like that Flair actually like cowers. Yeah, he's so good at that, isn't he? After like the second one, he's like, I'm just not gonna try.
01:41:28
Speaker
I think they're a great combo over the years. There are many many Sting versus Ric Flair matches and after this one you can kind of see why. There's points where you can tell that maybe Sting doesn't have a full arsenal yet where he can do a lot of different stuff but he already has that great connection where it doesn't matter as much. I think he stole my focus for the whole match pretty much.
01:41:53
Speaker
He's this larger-than-life personality that really, really... It's easy to pay attention to him, and it's easy to root for him, I think. Oh, yeah. He has that je ne sais quoi, as they say. There's a lot of wrestlers over the years that are babyfaces for a long time, and the crowd kind of eventually gets tired of it, and they, you know, they kind of freshen themselves up by becoming heels and stuff. Sting really doesn't ever suffer from that, I don't think. He has some character changes over the years, but
01:42:22
Speaker
Sting is Sting and Sting is, except for really rare periods in the latest, in the final stages of WCW, Sting is like always a good guy and always beloved. And you can really see why. I think you said this while we were watching Al, but like, yeah, you have to be a real cold-hearted guy to not like Sting. He's just so inherently likable and inherently just energetic, gets you charged up.
01:42:50
Speaker
So yeah, even for a really long match this early in his career, I feel like he does a terrific job. And Flair does a terrific job of kind of like finding different ways to cheat and finding different ways to play around with, you know, the match concept and what he's going to do. And like you said, John, just doing a terrific job of covering it before Sting when something doesn't work or something doesn't go right for him. It's just a really good relationship. They play off each other really well.
01:43:15
Speaker
I like the hidden run aspect of it, where clearly Sting's got more physical prowess. Even when he's doing this, we say he runs around the outside, gets on the turnbuckle, even then you think he's just going to leave. Yeah, absolutely.
01:43:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's really interesting. You get this feeling from it that Flair really would like to probably run. But that is something that he will try and do sometimes. I think you maybe can look at it as the reason that doesn't happen in this one is this is a judges thing. And I think that actually fleeing the arena would be a guaranteed way to get all the judges against you. Yeah. So except probably Patty Mullen based on that promo earlier.
01:43:57
Speaker
He wooed her with those really fancy jets and fancy clothes. Yeah, yeah. Put a big suit in the 747. That's a four. Yeah. I can't remember what the third thing was. I don't remember either, but I do like you working and he wooed her. So that's the match. And I think, for me, that was quite a good one. But there's one more part of it that we definitely need to discuss. And that's the judges.
01:44:23
Speaker
Judge Patty Mullen has scored the match for the Nature Boy, Ric Flair. Judge Gary Juster has scored the match for Sting.
01:44:50
Speaker
Judge Sandy Scott has declared the match a draw. The match is a draw, therefore still NWA World Heavyweight Champion, the Nature Boy, Rick Brown. Yeah.
01:45:25
Speaker
I don't know. The majority is sort of a thing. You got that too. And there's clearly some voices that could have been used. Yeah. Yeah. It still would have been an odd number, I think. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah, so. Maybe. If there's two draws and one of them likes staying. There's five judges. We get three results announced. One of those results is a draw. So they just declare the match a draw.
01:45:46
Speaker
I think there's a show called Win, Lose or Draw.
01:45:55
Speaker
without checking with the remaining two judges who presumably might have still changed things, which is just plain weird. All I can guess is we're probably right. This is like a last minute edition of Two Further Judges, and just somehow they don't actually get results cards for those judges to the guy doing the announcing, and he only has three.
01:46:21
Speaker
Because they were only originally planning on three. It's the strangest thing. It's like it's one of those places where WCW does such a good job of trying to sound like they're a legit sports show, but then they do something like this and it just gets you laughing. I like the response, you know, that there's a yay. Oh yeah, the crowd's like totally into it. And Sting, you know, you don't hear any boos, but it's not as loud as the interaction of the first one. Or that maybe that's just the audio.
01:46:51
Speaker
And then when they get to the draw, it's like, you just think the crowd is going to fight each other.
01:46:59
Speaker
Yeah, they're so angry. It's great. It's a great spot. You can see why they did the judges because they're getting a terrific reaction. And you can tell like it's a, it's kind of a, I think a live test of, Hey, does the, so is the crowd really interesting? Did they really, really want to see him win? And when, when they announced that one of the judges has ruled for staying, Oh my gosh, that pop is pretty huge. It's not quite Luger's tag in in the previous match, but it's pretty huge.
01:47:26
Speaker
But yeah, just announcing three of the five judges is definitely interesting.
01:47:31
Speaker
I don't like the way they got to the outcome, but I think it's the best outcome in that it solidifies Sting as a real contender. Because if he just got it after the first time he, you know, went for the thing, I think the crowd would be very appreciative. But I think that the fact that he lost on a technicality is going to just increase the fan shift for that guy. He needs to be acknowledged and solidify those feelings.
01:47:59
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a very good point. What do you want to see now? You want to see Sting win the title. You really, really want to see Sting win the title. It made Sting look really, really strong. He looks like he totally could have won that match. It's just time ran out, the judges ruled somewhat perplexingly, and he just doesn't get the actual belt.
01:48:24
Speaker
but you can definitely tell he's worthy of being at that level. Now, if you had any doubts about Sting going into this match, those are gone. That's what this match was set up to do, and this match does that extremely well. And if they weren't jazzed, you know, like weren't, you know, totally solo on Sting, I wonder if they would have gave Sting the win just because then, you know, now Rick's in that position where now they're going to focus on Rick. I can see that. That's what they want to focus on.
01:48:55
Speaker
Well, that is a tricky thing to, I will mention is that, so with the WWEF, whether it's in 1988 or now, ultimately, Vince McMahon is in charge. But Vince McMahon says, you're good enough, you should win the world title. No one supersedes Vince McMahon. You can try and change his mind, but if he's stuck in his way and says, so-and-so is coming to title, that's just there. You're gonna have to marry my daughter. Exactly.
01:49:21
Speaker
Now at this point though, this is the NWA, the National Westing Alliance. They're made up of, what, seven, eight, ten territories at this point? Yeah. It's increasingly controlled by Jim Crockett promotions at this point, but it's, uh... He has his vote kind of higher, but yeah. But they're still aboard that they even meet and go, okay, do we think so-and-so should win the belt? And if they side no, then he doesn't win the belt. Yeah.
01:49:45
Speaker
So, yeah, you really couldn't call an audible with that with them because of the way the system set up. I guess it's WDF and this happened, like, was like a Hogan, you know, Jake Roberts match. Vince Cotto said, yeah, yeah, just, just turn the finish and you can win the match. Yeah. It'd be very easy to see Vince, you know, whispering in the referee's ear.
01:50:02
Speaker
For this one, when Sting gets him in the death lock, tell Rick to give up if the crowd's reacting that well. But I think, like you said, it also works as just a great, great trial run for Sting at the top of the card. We got a good flow, I think, with some back-and-forth control and a pretty well-designed ending, I think, overall the judging weirdness aside with
01:50:24
Speaker
Sting really finally getting to hit his moves, and you really finally feeling like, yes, he's going to do it. And then time runs out. Like you said, it's that moment where you're like, oh, man, I know he can do it now. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It ran out with 20 minutes on the clock. Yeah, apparently. Match really good. The judges, though, come on.
01:50:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the best outcome they could have had with this, if they really just threw two judges on them, is just have one of them vote for Sting again, and one vote for Flair again. So it's two and two, and then the guy who's a draw is the last one. Inexplicably votes draw in a position where your entire purpose of your position is to prevent there from being a draw. Correct.
01:51:10
Speaker
That way, at least, it's five people, and you're like, well, it's two, four, two against. Well, I guess we can't decide. You should have done four judges, and then you can have two vote for flair, two vote for sting. Nobody has to vote for a draw, and it's still a draw, and that works. But yeah, instead, it's an uneven number of judges, so someone has to do a nonsensical vote to do it, and then you also don't count all the votes. They just kind of accidentally announced it that way, went with it, hoped nobody would notice.
01:51:38
Speaker
Everybody know this voted for one of the judges Mullen no, they could have like she when she's she's very attractive I Vote for her. Yeah, that probably be what's what's the kid's name? She's a Harvey. Yeah, probably Jason Jason. Her who wrote votes here for the attractive woman He's sitting next to and that there's a number off. No one votes draw. He would for her like you can't count that Yeah, there you go. Gosh darn teenagers. No, yeah
01:52:04
Speaker
The player is going to hold this title until February of 1989, where the most famous WWE show is the Chiatown Rumble, where he loses it to bring Steamboat, but will get it back eventually. Steam will finally get his day. His day will come in July of 1990.
01:52:20
Speaker
Yeah, so it's quite a distance from the show considering how hot he is here. Yes. But I think that's one of the good things about Sting is no matter how long they wait on him, he never seems to cool. Yes. He's always just such a big part of WCW. I think they kind of get this feeling with him of, yeah, we can go to him when we need to go to him. Yeah. You know.
01:52:42
Speaker
Tony JR and Bob Coddle wrap us up praising Sting's performance and highlighting the tag title change before hyping their future shows. Tony notes that the NWA is the Major League of Professional Wrestling and JR mentions the Rotunda Garvin match and happens to note that Kevin Sullivan is a deranged maniac before they sign off. Good to get that in. Yeah, quick plug, yeah.
01:53:05
Speaker
For me, it was pretty good overall, I thought. There's kind of some odd parts here and there, the barbed wire match, the college rules match, but...
01:53:13
Speaker
It had a really good energy most of the time. And it felt like there were definitely some big special matches. I felt like I could tell that they were going all out to try and pull the attention off of WrestleMania. And as a result, we get a really solid show. Even the matches that I didn't like as much, like the aforementioned barbed wire match and college rules match, they're not long. They're really fast paced things. They're, you know, in and out, nothing overstays us welcome.
01:53:41
Speaker
And for me, it was a pretty easy watch. Actually, I was afraid starting this that it'd be hard watching it a second time after watching it with you guys in order to take my show notes and everything. It was super easy. It was even more fun, actually, the second time. So I was really into this one. And of course, it's a huge, really important main event for the career of Sting, who's one of the most important wrestlers in WCW.
WCW's Strengths and Organizational Issues
01:54:02
Speaker
So I think it's a pretty easy one to recommend, in my opinion.
01:54:07
Speaker
Yeah, you mostly mirror my own thoughts. When they really try to be weird gimmicky, it doesn't work. Even like the, let's put the guy on the cage so he can interfere. It has very low impact on the match, thankfully. I didn't care for that. Yeah, it could drop that entirely. So it's really one that, yeah. No, none of the people.
01:54:26
Speaker
But no, when they're trying to be weird and gimmicky, it won't be a crying theme in these episodes. It's really when it doesn't work. It's when they're relying on the talented people to put a match together is when the shows work the best.
01:54:40
Speaker
I actually liked revisiting. I probably should have watched it again in retrospect, but when you played some of the audio clips, I actually picked up on some things that I didn't get to hear or for whatever reason, you know, understand like I didn't make the cookie monster association until if I had, it would have been much more amusing.
01:55:01
Speaker
But yeah, the gimmicky stuff with the cage just did nothing for me. If they had miked him or had some other interaction with him, other than, oh, they're panning out so I can't see what's happening, that would have been nice. I did like the level of energy for the six-man, you know, free-for-all, two-title named fighter, if you want to call it. Hello, Blue. The Chicago, Texas, Hello, Blue. Yes.
01:55:30
Speaker
I mean, I like the randomness of that. Sting and Flair was probably my favorite match out of everything there. And other than the appearance of the 2x4, which I got really excited about for some reason. I just thought something else was going to happen. And no, it was just used once and kind of tossed aside. Yeah, that was odd.
01:55:54
Speaker
The wardrobe was on point the whole time. I was very happy to see, not necessarily Golden Age, but I don't know the term, but it had a lot of weird nostalgia for people I've never even met or seen. Yeah, sure.
01:56:09
Speaker
I thought it was a good era. And I think it was a good representation of a little bit of everything that WCW has to offer. Yeah, this is a good show for showing both what's really, really good about WCW and what's really, really not bad, but weird about WCW sometimes. They have really excellent wrestlers, some great matches, some great concepts.
01:56:37
Speaker
and it's generally on the same show with some amazing weirdness or just weird screw-ups that are then messing up something that shouldn't be that hard. Unforced errors. You know, announcing the proper number of results from your judges should not be that complicated, but
01:56:59
Speaker
It is for WCW for some reason. Do you think they're just half f***ing in or they just are just disorganized? They I think are just generally fairly disorganized at times and this is again I've listened to Tony Schiavone's podcast a fair bit and one of the things he's fairly open on is there's a lot of cases in WCW where the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing
01:57:20
Speaker
and different people are in charge of different things and don't talk to each other. So it's entirely possible that one guy is writing the ballots for the judges that they're going to use in this final announcement and another guy has decided to insert two more judges and no one has actually told anyone that there are in fact five judges sitting at the table now.
01:57:39
Speaker
So I hope we find out there are last-minute sponsors. Yeah, I really hope it would make sense Clash is a really good show. It has its moments of oddness. The promos are strangely disconnected from everything else on the show But it's a really good one for me. It's one that if you're a wrestling fan and you haven't seen this show it's one to go out of your way to watch I think and
Event Highlights and MVP Selection
01:58:05
Speaker
Before we wrap up then, how about we choose our match of the night and MVP? So, Al, why don't you go first? Yeah, it's a tough one. I mean, I'm kind of torn between the World Tag mode and the main event. I kind of lean slightly more in favor of the main event. Judges aside, I think that as a whole experience worked the most for me. MVP?
01:58:27
Speaker
Yeah, again, this tricky one. I would probably go Sting just because he really had to prove himself, and he did. Because by this point, Flair has been a big top guy here for like six, seven years almost. He's, you know, for in this dark cave we're gonna watch next. That is like real coronation as a top guy. And we're five years out from that. Yeah. He really just has to not screw up, and he doesn't. But Sting has to prove himself, and he really does. Cool. John?
01:58:56
Speaker
match of the night in MVP. I'm just going to go for the six man chaotic brawl just for the match of the night because I haven't seen anything like it before. Perfectly, perfectly acceptable reason. Yeah, that's fine. And I really want, for MVP, I kind of just want the game messed or whatever. Kevin Sullivan. But I'm going to have to give it the sting. Just because, like Al said, this is his first shot, you know, and I think he delivered really well.
01:59:26
Speaker
I really can't really critique his performance of how to do an exceptional job. And I wish I was the third judge. Or the fourth or fifth. Went for my match of the night as a draw. No.
01:59:42
Speaker
Oh no, my match of the night, yeah, I was, like you Al, I was really, really torn between the Sting versus Flair and the Arne and Tully versus Luger and Wyndham. Really close call for me. The tag match is maybe, maybe a little better worked overall. There's a couple things in the Sting and Flair match that I can notice as signs that Sting is still kind of new or that they flubbed something a little bit here and there or
02:00:07
Speaker
go to repeat a spot here and there so so maybe the tag match is a little better worked or maybe just faster paced so it's a little easier for it to constantly maintain that energy but at the same time even though the sting vs player one is a long match it never loses me it never lost me one bit i'm into it the entire time it's really easy to get behind sting and even now he's already doing such a great job keeping the crowd with him
02:00:35
Speaker
So yeah, ultimately with that and just the raw importance of this moment for Sting, it's Sting vs. Flare for me. Sting vs. Flare is a contest that had to be epic, and it was.
02:00:51
Speaker
And for my MVP, yeah, I'm gonna go with you guys. It's Sting. I mean, like you said, Flair has to be good for this match, but Flair's established. We know he's good. He can do this. He's not... It doesn't feel like he's got all the pressure on him or anything. He's there to be the dependable one that Sting can lean on a little bit. But Sting has to prove himself here. He has to be at his best. He has to prove that he can hang at this level. And he does.
02:01:21
Speaker
He absolutely just nails that match, has the crowd eating out of his hand, and gets terrific reactions and does everything he has to do to get terrific reactions. So, yeah, there's some really exceptional performances on the card that I could mention. You know, there's Flair, of course we shouldn't discount, Arne and Tully are terrific in their tag match. Luger, honestly, I...
02:01:46
Speaker
was totally sold on in this match. If this was the only Lex Luger thing that I had ever seen, I'd be like, oh my gosh, this guy's one of the best performers out there, honestly. He's really good tonight. But it's Sting. Sting has to be great tonight, and he is great tonight. I'd like to see more of the 2x4. All right, you will get your wish, and it's Darkade 94. Yep.
02:02:08
Speaker
Well, that'll do it for our review of Clash of the Champions 1. I hope you've had fun listening to us, and if the show sounds interesting, you can find us along with most of the rest of WCW shows on the WWE Network. Many thanks to OSW Review for attendance figures and TV ratings. We'll be back next time to cover the first ever Starrcade from 1983, under Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA. This is Bob Moore for John Mullins and Alec Bridget, signing off. Good night everybody!
02:02:49
Speaker
Thanks for listening, everyone. I hope you've enjoyed this look back at our beginnings, and I hope that you'll join us for our next episode, Munkhouse Stampede 88. Look forward to it coming in June.