Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shootout

Oh Glory Days..... time to continue my little project-o.

Match #1: Steve Williams v. The Samoan Savage

This was pretty decent for like the eight minutes or so it got. Freaking early Rikishi is great. You can most definately see the inspiration for the Umaga gimmick is in this guy. Seriously, watch the mannerisms and tell me it's not.

Anyways, I hate Williams as a babyface around this time. WAAAAY too vanilla-ish and thankfully he would team with Terry Gordy soon to crush eye-sockets and whatnot. Lots of smash mouth-ery going on here between these two. Power slams, lariats, punches and manly posturing make this an average/enjoyable affair. *3/4

Match #2: Tom Zenk & Brian Pillman v. The Mod Squad

Holy fuck someone make this match stop. The Williams match got eight minutes. Hell, this match went longer then the MAIN EVENT MATCH which was a cage match no less. Pillman are the ultimate "California Dreamin'" gooey good boy tag team, but haven't we been down this road with the Dynamic Dudes? What's with WCW around this time and their intense desire to push a babyface tag team of oiled up men wearing neon pink? And why are the guys they're facing dressed up like cops? Is there some sort of subtle joke i'm not getting here?

No seriously, this was awful. It's an extended version of the extended squash WCW up to this point, worked well. THis though, is brutally horrible stuff. Zenk would go on, as you will see in many more Clash Reviews, to be mixed and matched with like nine million partners. God I hate this stuff. 1/4*

Match #3: Mil Mascaras v. Cactus Jack

This is really short but really freaking good stuff as everyone comes away looking good. Mascaras looks smart and good, and while Cactus Jack comes off looking uber retarded, he comes off looking super-sick tough, taking a lot of big spots from Mascaras. In particular, his back plop (not drop) onto the bare concrete was pretty awful and Jim Ross and Jim Cornette's shreiking like school bitches being banged in the bano makes it all the more enjoyable. Cactus comes off like a great wild man heel, where it's obvious he's not, nor should he, overly concerned with the whole winning matches and belts thing. He just likes to fight. That and Mascaras rules.

After the match is even better as Cactus almost turns himself babyface by attacking the super crappy band that's playing the WCW theme song on the outside of the ring. The best is Jack chasing the guy playing guitar around and the guitarist hitting the whammy bar as he runs away from the wild man. Seriously though, this is pretty entertaining for five minutes. That's how you do a semi-squash. *3/4

Match #4: Falls Count Anywhere Match: Norman the Lunatic v. Kevin Sullivan

God, Vince must watch a lot of WCW from this period because I see inspiration for characters everywhere. Norman, who'd later become Bastion Booger in his WWF years, plays the loveable retard here who wrestles in scrubs. Kevin Sullivan is a stubby legged 'rat' as Norman calls him who won't leave him alone.

Great pre-match promo from Norman, whose talking about pinning Kevin Sullivan in a hot dog stand so he can mow hot dogs while punching Sullivan. Then there's a video clip of him in a zoo talking to a pig as if it's Kevin Sullivan while a girl looking on is looking at him like he's on drugs. Then Norman comes out to 'shout' with a Teddy Bear around his neck.

Here's another really fun match, this time of the comedy-type. Sullivan starts off angry and serious but then remembers he's wrestling a retard and takes the whole tough guy who likes to play magic cards down like 20 notches and starts bumping around for the big guy like a goof. They brawl into the crowd, on tables, on the steps, on the guard rail and then up the ramp.

The ending is particularly wild and silly as Kevin Sullivan retreats from Norman into the girl's bathroom. Norman doesn't want to go in and waits for all the girls to leave before pursuing Sullivan in there. About 20 seconds later Norman re-emerges from the bathroom with a toilet bowl in one hand, a roll of TP in the other, all while the referee is in tow. Norman wins. Or at least that's what we're led to believe.

They keep with the stip, make it fun but you don't feel the intensity of a typical Falls Count Anywhere match, which is A-OK for it's spot on the card. Pops the crowd in all the right ways and even though there's not.. like a whole lot to this... it's still a lot of fun. *3/4

Match #5: The Road Warriors v. The Sky Scrapers

Fuck YES. The sky scrapers and baby Undertaker look fantastically bad ass and the Road Warriors are pulling apart a car before the match so this will be a good brawl and all. Someone call the cops, the ambulance.. call em all.

This is worked kinda backwards from what they put over as being the major angle before the match, as the Sky Scrapers are looking to prove themselves as equal brawler to the Road Warriors, yadda yadda. The Scrapers are not exactly brawling early on. Instead, they're using their agility, which when Marc Calloway is on your team is a good thing, which makes them look surprisingly smart.

The Warriors on the other hand, are, um... themselves. They just wanna smash faces. The Scrapers though use that against the Warriors in a way as there's tons of goading going on throughout the match. Finally, once the Warriors gain the upper hand, they connect with a doomsday device, but the ref's knocked out. Calloway comes flying off the ropes with a big old steel chair and wild antics insue from there. Spivey and Calloway spike pile drive Animal onto a chair and leave, using their smarts as a way to prove their brawn.

For like the millionth time tonight, i'm surprised I liked this as much as I did given the time. They don't give fans the satisfaction of watching these two fight. Instead the scrapers more or less prance around as best they can, frustrate the Warriors and prove their worth as physical equals to the LOD. That's after surviving the Doomsday Device. A pretty nice way to get the young team over while not making the old team look bad. That's not to mention a nifty piece of booking not giving the fans the smash-face killing spree they wanted and teasing it for the pay per view. All around good effort. This isn't top 10 stuff and fuck me if it's top 20, but it's a solid piece of pro wrestling. **1/4

Match #6: Titles v. Masks: World Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers v. DOOM

Here's the run-away match of the night. The stip is simple: If the Steiners win, Doom sheds the masks. If Doom wins, they get the belts. Nothing complicated and these two teams keep it nice and simple-stupid for all.

The story through the match is real easy to follow, which is a good thing for mind-blowing retards like myself. Doom dominates, but the masks, which are supposedly their asset, end up becoming their biggest vice, at least in terms of this match. Every time Rick or Scott touch one of their masks or try to rip it off, Doom gets thrown off their game and it allows the Steiners to put some offense together.

The whole match is built simply and the pay off is great with Reed finally losing his mask. He's humiliated and mad and goes to whine to Doom #1 (who we find out later is Ron Simmons) only to get shoved into him and rolled up for the win. So we get a glorious taste of simple irony here with the bad guys strength being used against them.

The Steiners are in this match too, btw, and Scott is especially awesome here, bumping like a crazy man and letting the two brothas put a nasty beat down on whitey. They smash his face (literally his eye is like seven shades of purple afterwards), drop him on his head and do all sorts of mean nastiness to him. In fact, Scott's ability to garner sympathy are what really carry the body of the match and allow the fans to really buy into the babyfaces.

Great tag match that while it's not exactly the Shakespeare of wrestling, it's pretty good. It's more like Dr. Seuss without the rhyming. **3/4

Match #7: Steel Cage Six Man Tag Match: The Great Muta, The Dragon Slayer & Buzz Sawyer v. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Ole Anderson

This really isn't much of a match rather than a big angle to end the show on.

Earlier in the night, Sting was expelled from the Four Horseman for taking a contract to face Flair for the belt at the Bash. Ole called him a bitch and they beat him down. Basically, if Sting ditches the contract, he walks away safe, if he doesn't, well then........

Anyways this match goes on and it quickly becomes an afterthought as soon as Muta and Anderson exchange some silly not so sexy stuff. Sting comes running out and that's that. Save for some pretty sick cage shots that Sawyer takes, no one really seems to give a crap that the match is gonig on and is wholely more conscerned with how Sting is going to rape Flair and take his manhood from him.

So yeah, there just isn't anything in this to really give it much more than a star and a half for some cute action in an angle. *1/2

Overall: So i've basically not rated a match at *** on this entire card and i'm ok with that. DESPITE that you squirly fuckers should be fine with it too. This really is a better show than the ratings might indicate. Most of the matches are just too short to go much higher but really, that's all ok. This is worth a pick up to see for a fun, quickie wrestling show. Doom-Steiners is really good stuff but other than that, there ain't much worth going TOO out of your way to see.

Clash of Champions On Going Top 10 (Through Clash X)

1. Ricky Steamboat v. Ric Flair, World Hvt Title, Clash VI *****
2. Ric Flair v. Terry Funk, I Quit Match, Clash IX ****1/4
3. Ricky Steamboat v. Terry Funk, Clash VII ***3/4
4. The Midnight Express v. Ric Flair & Barry Windham, Clash IV ***3/4
5. Sting v. Ric Flair, World Hvt Title, Clash I ***1/2
6. Ric Flair & Sting v. Great Muta & Dick Slater, Clash VIII ***1/2
7. Midnight Express v.The Fantastics, US Tag Titles, Clash I ***1/4
8. Sting v. Barry Windham, US Title, Clash III ***1/4
9. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard v. Barry Windham & Lex Luger, World Tag Titles, Clash I ***
10. Lex Luger v. Tommy Rich, US Championship, Clash VIII ***

Clash of Champions VIII: Fall Brawl '89

It's Fall Brawl time again. Oh joy of joys.

Match #1: The Road Warriors v. The Samoan SWAT Team

These two teams work best in short-shot quickie brawls. Anything more than 10 minutes, for either team, usually falls apart. Here's a case of a well booked, basic match capitalizing on the heat on both teams and card placement. The crowd is bat shit hot for this event and these are the first two teams out of the gate. The Warriors potato the Samoans, the Samoans potato back, the Warriors drop the whole state of Idaho on their heads and that's it. Nothing more, nothing less. *3/4

Match #2: World Tag Team Championship: The Fabulous Freebirds v. The Steiner Brothers

This is a classy little match. If people are looking to get into tag wrestling and want to know how to put on a great match with a less experienced team, grab a notebook for this one. This is essentially the first crack at the tag belts for the Steiners, who by this time, are pretty much noobs in the tag ranks.

The early part of the match is basically The Steiners running through their flashy stuff and the Freebirds sell their asses off for them. Of course, that eventually comes to a head when the more experienced Rick gets in there with Hayes. The match briefly stalls a bit before Hayes grabs the advantage and we're into the face in peril piece of the match.

Rick is awesome in this role, period. His character at the time was so loveably stupid and believable, that it was just a magnet in this type of a match up for good old babyface sympathy. Scott's offense during this period was a lot more fast paced and energetic so when the hot tag hits, it comes off really well and again, the birds do some floppin', but to the degree where it doesn't come off as overly ridiculous. They keep the sequence nice and tight, as to not over expose Scott and it gets cut off as Scotty literally stumbled into a Hayes implant DDT to end the match.

The ending is left more or less shrouded in mystery though as the question arises as to whether Woman, whose supposedly one of their valets, tripped him up or not. Either way you go, whether Scott's showing his inexperience by being prone to mistakes or that they were screwed out of the titles by a slutty bitch, you get something good. The fact that the commentators and the Steiners seem willing to allow that ambiguity works even better.

This is a nicely worked, tight match that went exactly as long as it should have and everyone comes away looking good. **3/4

Match #3: The Z-Man Tom Zenk v. The Cuban Assasin

Here's a squash I didn't really dig all that much. They seemed like they were GOING to go for something more compedetive, but shyed away from it with head locks and arm bars, which don't really fit into a squash-type match. The spots are timed awkwardly with Zenk doing little to capitalize on the initial pops and keep the momentum going strong throughout the eight-nine minutes this went. This is a pretty easy skipper match. 1/4*

Match #4: Sid Vicious v. Ranger Ross

Not much here. Vicious literally blows through his four or five signature moves, Ross tries to not get totally murdered, and they go home. Really, there ain't much to say here. 1/4*

Match#5: Brian Pillman v. Norman "The Lunatic"

Now THIS is a good squash match. Pillman is being billed as a wily, spry, thinking man's wrestler and even though Norman has no shot of winning here, his power spots are placed well and initially, Pillman really struggles to find a way to keep the big man at bay and pin his shoulders to the mat. Eventually Pillman thinks his way to a win with a nice crucifix.

I was actually surprised at how much good psychology they were able to pack into the four-five minutes they had. Norman looked surprisingly buy-able as a viable lower mid card big man here while Pillman didn't look like he was totally trampling him, and that there was more of a legit struggle for him to think his way to a win over a much bigger and very unpredictable opponent. This is what it is, but for my only giving it *3/4, this is pretty decent.

Match #6: Steve Williams v. Mike Rotundo

Of all the matches i've watched so far in the Clash set, this is probably the most dissapointing thus far. If you really put things into context, this should have been billed as a lot bigger deal than it was. Williams came into the NWA as a babyface and was more or less the corner man for Rick Steiner when he broke away from the now defunct Varsity Club. He turned on Steiner and he and Rotundo dominated the tag division for the first half of 89, winning both the US and World Tag belts. Of course Williams eventually turned again, broke the group up, and this should have been the culmination of all that. The feud was about Williams going over big, and this fell short of expectations for me in a lot of ways.

My major issue here is that Williams plays the babyface role way, way too hard. Williams is a dominating big man and should be billed as such. Rotundo is a smarmy, smart heel who thinks his cheating out and figures out how to win matches. Williams dominates, Rotundo is more of a survivor.

Here, as I just said, Williams goes for the hard babyface and simply put, gives Rotundo way, way too much offense here. Williams was always a pretty good babyface, but he's not the type of face that attracts sympathy and that's what they seemingly went for here. It improves as the match goes along, with Williams FINALLY finding ways to overwhelm Rotundo with his power, but the power stuff doesn't have the maximum impact and Williams is forced to pander to the crowd way too much here, especially down the home stretch, where by that point he shouldn't have to do that.

Rotundo is perfectly fine here pulling off some fun eye gouging and holds, but taking the two as characters into account, it's kinda all for nothing. Even the ending is kinda silly with Williams going for the stampede, but Rotundo rolling through for the pin attempt, only to have that reversed. So Williams wins, gets attacked afterwards but reacts like he doesn't really care.

As I said, the structure doesn't fit the feud and Williams having an uphill battle against anyone is sort of tough to buy. Again, this is dissaponting. A lot of people liked this, but i'm a little baffled as to why, other than the fact that it's Williams and Rotundo in a match. *3/4

Match #7: Lex Luger v. Tommy Rich

Luger, in my opinion, is an underrated worker in the ring. Some of his stuff, well most, was increibly mediocre, but during this time period he was really strong and given the right opponent could be downright awesome at times. This is one of those cases where Luger works a really smart match with a super motivated Rich and the result is a darn good US title match.

They play up Rich's temper early on and his tendancy to get overzealous at times. He goes hard at Luger initially, but the whole time, despite his being in total control, you get the sense that he's wrestling Luger's match and eventually it'll catch up to him, and as you guessed, it does.

That's not before Rich puts on a hell of a performance. Rich eventually grabs his composure and works a smart match, keeping the bigger man grounded and on the match. Luger is forced to adapt and tries his mat stuff, but that doesn't work before going to the slugging, but still, Rich doesn't take the bait and is able to still keep the upper hand. Eventually though, as said earlier, things catch up to him and the match opens up. Rich gets fired up a bit and Luger's able to snap mare his head off the ropes and sneak away with a clean win.

Rich comes off looking nothing like the slouch you'd expect him to in this match and looks plucky and game for the match, but his usual tendancies lead to his undoing and Luger's able to catch him off guard and escape with a solid win and still look strong. This is a very solid, if not flat out good match. Hell with it. It's really good. ***

Match #8: Sting & Ric Flair v. The Great Muta & Dick Slater

This is a sensational heat-filled tag main event. Flair, of course, is embroiled in a feud with Terry Funk and Gary Hart. Sting gets involved due to his dislike for the Great Muta and saved Flair from a nasty beat down at the Bash. Slater is Funk's replacement, whose supposedly injured. The whole match builds to Funk's inevitable run in.

Flair and Sting are a dream team here and look every bit the part, dominating the early going. Flair looks exceptionally sharp with his offense and he and Sting seem to have everything in hand in the early going. Muta though, is the real stud here and works both Sting and Flair well and comes off as an uber credible threat to both.

Slater brings his wild Slater-like stuff here with the stoogie bumping. This is run of the mill tag stuff until about eight minutes in where it breaks down into a total brawl, with Muta and Slater eventually getting the better and taking the opportunity to lay a nasty beat down on Sting.

This is a huge elevational piece of the match as Sting comes off looking super-resilient, surviving a lot of Muta's best stuff AND a Gary Hart coin shot. Muta eventually has had enough so Slater comes in all wild goes nuts on Sting but a little too nuts and we lead into the hot tag.

The match totally breaks down in a good way as all four men go at it and we've basically got a melee, Sting and Flair are hitting multiple revenge spots and eventually we get the ref bump and Funk comes rumbling down to the ring and sticks a bag on Flair's head and we get the imfamous plastic bag angle to end the match, as the heels walk away with a clear upper hand, totally outsmarting the babyfaces.

While this doesn't have a lot of traditional tag structure stuff, they manage to work enough of it in to keep it a real, legit tag match while mixing enough wild crap to build heat and pop the crowd. The ending angle is one of the all time great ones.

I really like this and it's a ton of fun on a lot of levels, all building towards a big moment. In the end, it comes off as much like a supurbly built angle as it does a well worked match, and that's not something that comes easily. See this one. ***1/2

OVERALL: This is a pretty a-typicial Clash show. You get a hot main event, some total garbage, a let down and a surprisingly good match. The last two matches are worth going out of your way to see and the tag title match is as text book experienced heels beat inexperienced babyfaces as you get. This isn't the most memorable Clash card i've seen, but it's pretty well rounded. B- sounds good.

Clash of Champions On Going Top 10 (Through Clash VIII)
1. Ricky Steamboat v. Ric Flair, World Hvt Title, Clash VI *****
2. Ricky Steamboat v. Terry Funk, Clash VII ***3/4,
3. The Midnight Express v. Ric Flair & Barry Windham, Clash IV ***3/4
4. Sting v. Ric Flair, World Hvt Title, Clash I ***1/2
5. Ric Flair & Sting v. Great Muta & Dick Slater, Clash VIII ***1/2
6. Midnight Express v.The Fantastics, US Tag Titles, Clash I ***1/4
7. Sting v. Barry Windham, US Title, Clash III ***1/47
8. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard v. Barry Windham & Lex Luger, World Tag Titles, Clash I ***
9. Lex Luger v. Tommy Rich, US Championship, Clash VIII ***
10. The Fantastics v. Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert, US Tag Titles, Clash IV **3/4

Dropping Out
9. Road Warriors v. The Varsity Club, World Tag Titles, Clash VI **3/4
10.The Fantastics v. The Sheepherders **1/2, Clash II

Clash of Champions VI: Ragin' Cajun! Review

It's almost embarassing for me, as someone whose been a wrestling fan for many-a-year and has seen almost everything once, that despite the number of times i've watched this main event, i've yet to see ANYTHING else from this card. Not one other match. That, my friends, is about to change.

Clash of the Champions VI: Ragin' Cajun
Superdome, New Orleans, LA
April 2, 1989


Match #1: The Midnight Express v. The Samoan Swat Team

I wasn't overly wild about this, which is a little difficult for me to say, as I love both teams quite a great deal, especially the Paul E. Dangerously version of the Swat team. This is a REALLY flat tag opener considering the participants. In fact, i'd say the match they have at the NEXT Clash show is leaps and bounds ahead of this one in terms of quality.

Here, they just seem to be aiming to establish the Samoans as the latest stooges that Dangerously will use to get Jim Cornette. The ending to this is pretty great and lays the ground work nicely for the rest of the 'feud', but to be honest, this is pretty bleh for the most part. The Midnights do their thing, the Samoans theirs. Hot tag cooled off in a big way with a dirty finish which is a good thing. Just relaly formulaic and no one is particularly eye popping in this other than the sheer amount of time they gave this. *3/4

Match #2: The Great Muta v. Stevin Casey

This feels like it should have been on the last show. It's a pretty straight forward Muta exhibition of his creepiness. The bell doesn't even ring before he spits the good ole green mist in Casey's eyes and pretty much puts a major league beat down on the youngster from there on out. There's a great commentary job on the part of Ross here, putting him over as a unique act unto himself, which is really appropriate, considering just HOW different Muta was from anything else on the card at the time. Other than that though, this is a pretty basic extended squash. *1/4

Match #3: Butch Reed v. The Junkyard Dog

Ah, the midsouth goodness is revived! Unfortunately for us, this ain't Mid South. This is probably what a few thousand fans saw during their touring days together. Not that it's bad on any level, just VERY a-typical JYD-Butch Reed stuff. JYD interacting a lot with the crowd while Butch does his cocky heel stalling for three quarters of the match. Again, nothing dreadful here by any stretch of the imagination but I feel like i've seen them go with this formula six hundred times or so in the past. *3/4

Match #4: Cowboy Bob Orton, Jr. v. Dick Murdoch

Of all the matches I saw on this card, this was the one I was probably looking the most forward to. Now granted I knew it wouldn't be mind blowing or anything like that. Given the place these guys were given on the card, it'd be unrealistic to expect that. Regardless, it's these two in a match so it's got to be fun on some level.

This runs around ten minutes or so, and basically ,we get a fun old school headlock fest. JR keeps repeating constantly that these two are mirror images of each other and on a certain level, he's right, and for the purposes of this match, he's very right. They counter in and out of headlocks early on before going to each other's arms. Then we're back to the headlock struggles again before going for a solid old school finish. Murdoch hoists Orton up to give him a suplex and the dastardly Gary Hart snags his leg long enough to trip him up, then holds it as the official counts to three. The execution is reasonably good here, the selling is fun and the offense though basic, is still fun.

My beef with this match is the crowd they're playing to. That kind of stuff, while good for what it is, just totally lost the crowd. Extended headlock sequences and armbar sequences are good if you're going broadway, but in the middle of a REALLY big crowd in a dome and wrestling the fourth match of the card, it's kind of awkward. Sometimes you just need to be cognisant of the crowd you're working in front of. Despite all that though, this is fun mid card, old-school stuff. *3/4

Match #5: World Tag Team Championship: The Road Warriors v. The Varsity Club

I liked this match a lot. Like probably a lot more than I should have, given the fact that they don't do a whole heck of a lot differently from the last match, but the incredible levels of heel douche bag-ness in this match rule to a point where they can't be ignored.

Teddy Long has been the subject of storylines recently and how appropriate is it that this is his first real piece of character development. These two teams are full of bullies. The Road Warriors don't wear the belts, Paul Ellering, their bitch does. They also wear spikey shoulder pads. Steve Williams looks like everyone's worst nightmare at a truck stop. Mike Rotundo is the all american bully. Kevin Sullivan is looking especially evil tonight, because he's wearing his wrestling tights and a turtleneck sweater. Fuck yeah for turtleneck sweaters. I need me some.

This is just a total slug fest from bell to bell and the kind of smash mouth, kick a puppie stuff you'd expect from these two teams. There's a great close up of Williams brigning the hate with a stomp right on Animal's jaw. Rotundo looks slightly overmatched here as he's the fourth potato in the ring, but there's nothing really wrong with that when you're in a fist fight with Hawk, Animal and Steve Williams.

The slow Teddy Long turn evolves over the course of the match as he botches some calls just enough so you believe that it's all just a mistake on his part. After that, he increasingly becomes distracted more and more with the Road Warriors, who aren't really willing to play by his rules. Eventually Animal vaults him across the ring, and that doesn't sit to well with Long, who not only allows himself (literally) to be distractred and cause interference, but he also fast counts the final fall and costs the Road Warriors the belts. Wicked fun stuff here as we get good character role playing made better by throwing a third story in there to mess the whole world up. I MIGHT be a little high in rating this, but it just really clicked for me. **3/4

Match #6: US Tag Team Championship: The Varsity Club (Sullivan & Dan Spivey) v. Eddie Gilbert & Rick Steiner

This is another one that's fun for what it is. To be honest, it's worked REALLY well, considering the crowd they're playing to and whose involved. The bulk of the match is built around Gilbert and Spivey. Spivey's easily the worst worker in this group so you might as well let him run through his power spots and let the best seller (Gilbert) flop all over the ring for you and make you look like a million bucks. Basically that's all we get here with some brief hot exchanges between Sullivan and Steiner, who still don't like each other very much. Jumble that altogether and you get a fun match.

The ending takes it out of the totally average category though and bumps it up slightly as Missy Hyatt involves herself in the proceedings and we get a nice purse shot to Sullivan's face to send the fans home happy. **

Match #7: The Iron Sheik v. Ranger Ross

Here's a little filler before the main event. Sheik is always fun on some level and totally carries this guy to a fun USA v. The World short shot. Sheikie jumps him at the bell and does a pearl harbor job on him for a while before Ranger Ross makes the comeback. Things look like they're in hand before Rip Morgan, designated anti-american flag bearer, comes in and whacks Ross with a flag to cause the DQ. The heels put a nasty beat down on Ross before JYD comes out and makes the save and everyone cheers. Basic, filler stuff here. *

Match #8: World Heavyweight Championship, 2/3 Falls: Ricky Steamboat v. Ric Flair

I'm not going to go into a lengthy review here because everything about this match has been said a million times over by people who could speak to it far better than I could. This MIGHT be the best match in North American Wrestling history, or at least that there's footage of. In fact, this whole series is beyond great, but I think this is just the one that everyone walks away from going 'wow' once they go back and watch it again.

The energy these guys have is just different and something that's really impossible to create, you just have to be kinda lucky. Rock-Austin had that sort of energy and Misawa and Kawada did, but I can't think of any other tandem that came close. Whether you're a casual fan, a MOVEZ~ guy, or a guy who just genuinely enjoys wrestilng, you'll like this. Heck, if you don't like wrestling I don't get how you'd dislike it.

This goes roughly an hour and there isn't a down spot, or if there is, it doesn't come off FEELING like a downspot. The struggle for every little piece of ground is great, Flair is stoogie when he needs to be, an assassin at other times. Steamboat kind of gets knocked off his feet in the first part of the match, not excpecting Flair to be coming at him so hard. Then Steamboat 'settled down' a little bit, gets an advantage and just begins tearing Flair to pieces in a way Flair has been worked over. The end of the second fall is exceptionally shocking, as Ric Flair rarely, if ever in a major storyline to that point, submitted. It was one thing for Steamboat to come back from losing the second fall, but it's another thing to completely squash and steamroll the guy who is the greatest on the planet at the time. The third party is even steven down the line to a controversial finish that sets up the third match where Flair finally wins his belt back.

The selling is the best i've seen in a wrestling match. The strikes are intense and you can feel the compedetive hate between the two. While the first match is really sort of a big dick jousting contest between the two, this is more of the respectful top this kinda ting. This is as good as it gets. I've given four matches this rating, ever. *****

Overall: This is a must own if for nothing more than the main event, which is probably the best match to ever take place on this side of the pond, if ever. The rest of the show though, is a real mixed bag and even the better stuff won't be for everyone. Even I had a hard time getting through this show which REALLY seemed like traveling through a swamp up to your knees. This is a good show for what it's worth, but it's certainly not going to be an edition of the Clash that's for everyone, save for the final match of course.


Clash of Champions On Going Top 10 (Through Clash VI)
1. Ricky Steamboat v. Ric Flair, World Hvt Title, Clash VI *****
2. The Midnight Express v. Ric Flair & Barry Windham, Clash IV ***3/4
3. Sting v. Ric Flair, World Hvt Title, Clash I ***1/2
4. Midnight Express v.The Fantastics, US Tag Titles, Clash I ***1/4
5. Sting v. Barry Windham, US Title, Clash III ***1/4
6. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard v. Barry Windham & Lex Luger, World Tag Titles, Clash I ***
7. The Fantastics v. Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert, US Tag Titles, Clash IV **3/4
8. Road Warriors v. The Varsity Club, World Tag Titles, Clash VI **3/4
9. The Fantastics v. The Sheepherders **1/2, Clash II
10. Mike Rotundo v. Brad Armstrong, TV Title, Clash III **1/2

Dropping Off The List:
9. Ricky Morton v. Ivan Koloff, Russian Chain Match, Clash III **1/2
10. Dusty Rhodes & Sting v. Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson **1/2, Clash II