NWA Clash of the Champions #11 – Coastal Crush (6.13.90) review 

 

June 13, 1990 

 

We’re in Charleston, South Carolina. Hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle. This did a 4.1 TV rating, which is the second worst of the Clash shows to date. This may have been because they did Flair vs JYD on top. This is also Paul Orndorff’s first big match back since returning to the NWA. He’s been out since late 1987 but has worked in the bigger indies like Tri-State. 

Clash of the Champions XI: Coastal Crush is brought to you by… 

ROBOCOP INTENSIFIES!  

 

Interesting note on the setup here. The ramp goes straight to the ring, thus removing the need for ring steps. It’s a classic setup and one I often miss in modern wrestling. A ramp that goes straight up to the ring allows for different spots.  

 

“You thought the Civil War was something, check this out!”  

 

Southern Boys vs. Fabulous Freebirds 

The Southern Boys gimmick, that they thought the outcome of the Civil War (a war that concluded in 1865) was unclear, is somewhat problematic. Steve Armstrong was one of Bullet Bob Armstrong’s kids. He’ll be in and out of WCW between now and the company folding. His tag team partner is Tracy Smothers. Seeing a young(er) Tracy is always a hoot because he looked like an old man for half his career. He’ll be here for a few years before working SMW, WWF (as Freddie Joe Floyd) and then ECW.  

 

The Freebirds feel ancient already and would continue in WCW for another two years. Of course the Southern Boys are huge babyfaces in South Carolina. It helps that the Freebirds do nothing you could possibly cheer, unless you love headlocks and goofy dancing. The Southern Boys do a great job of getting over though. Tracy is an awesome babyface. He generates so much sympathy. The Southern Boys get the upset win and the crowd goes NUTS. **½ 

 

An excellent choice for an opener and having the new babyface team go over clean was a big winner for the fans. The Southern Boys felt like they were born to wrestle the Midnight Express. I can’t wait for that one. 

 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tommy Rich 

Bigelow feels like he’s killing time before his next NJPW tour. NWA have nothing for him and this is a nothing match. His next big televised match for WCW would be in 1998. I often think about Bigelow and what a missed opportunity he was. A great big man wrestler who could bump, sell and hit cool offence. He regularly carried lesser talents and was a great ‘go to’ guy if you needed someone to get something over. And yet he never seems to stick around any place.  

 

Despite this being a clear time-filler Rich is an over babyface and the crowd get into him. The Bammer starts throttling Rich and won’t let go so the referee calls it. If this was going somewhere, it never got there. Both match wise and angle wise.  

 

Video Control gives us shots of Big Van Vader, who’s “coming soon”. Vader would make a huge impact on WCW but not in 1990. When you think about Vader in WCW, you think about his killer run with Sting. His huge win over Sting and that Harley Race combination. All that happened in 1992. This is 1990. Vader would have a stop-start relationship with WCW for two years before being an overnight success. This run is doomed to TV squashes before a mixed bag run in 1991. We’ll get to that in due course.  

 

GMC announces another guy who’s about to make his in-ring debut; El Gigante!  

Look at how fucking huge he is! GMC interviews him in Spanish, which is pretty neat.  

El Gigante will make his debut at Great American Bash and he was just this huge, huge freakishly tall guy. 7’6”, 433lbs.  

 

Samoan Swat Team vs. Captain Mike Rotunda & Z-Man 

SST get ridiculous heat for their “pre-match ritual”. This crowd is red hot. An ideal situation for the boys. This is surprisingly brisk, and helpfully short, which prevents SST going into too many nerve holds. There are nerve holds, because of course there are, but less of them. When one emerges Caudle claims it’s like “hitting a mule in the head with a 2×4” whatever that means. Lay off the drugs, Bob! 

 

Zenk is obviously feeling the pressure of having to be interesting because he works his ass off here. Surprisingly Rotunda catches Tama in a roll up after the Samoans get confused as to who is legal. All these white devils look alike, brother. SST had a few months left in WCW. They’d go and work for UWA in Mexico after this.  

 

Mean Mark vs. Flyin’ Brian 

A fine demonstration of WCW’s newly found incompetence at naming wrestlers. This is great little match with Mark battering Pillman all over the place and Brian selling it all beautifully. It doesn’t make sense from a booking standpoint though. Pillman will be here for years, Mark will be gone in a matter of months. Although, I assume they didn’t know that at the time.  

 

Callaway is definitely green and whiffs on a few spots. He does look good 90% of the time though. When he does fuck something up, it stands out like a sore thumb because the rest of the match is nicely fluid. Mark wins by dumping Pillman throat first across the ropes and yells “Luger, take a good look” into the camera. Callaway would go on to work Luger at Great American Bash and then just fell off the face of the planet, never to wrestle again*. 

 

*Although some dude called the Undertaker stole his top rope gimmicks and got over. The business is a harsh mistress.   

 

NWA United States Tag Team Championship 

Midnight Express (c) vs. Rock n’ Roll Express 

Midnight Express were having a barnstorming 1990, probably because they were pissed off with Jim Herd and wanted to prove him wrong. You would think this is a no-brainer. Just stick these two teams together, give them 15:00 and just let them go. Especially with this hot crowd, who are very into RnR. They run through some basics, for them anyway, and its slick tag teaming.  

 

The idea of these two teams having a bad match is just odd. This is one of their lowest rated ones and it’s still good. The chemistry is delicious. It was rare in 1990 for everyone to pile into the ring and it not be a complete mess. Everything here works. Until an MXP double team where Stan Lane collapses in the middle of it. Ok, that looked bad. Everything else is good and I just kick back and enjoy the fluidity of it all.  

 

The finish on this sucks though, which is probably why the match has such a bad reputation. With Eaton pinned, Stan Lane blocks Nick Patrick’s three count and the ref disqualifies him for it. I’ve never seen that as a DQ, ever. Good match though. These two team could do three flakes in their sleep. ***¼. I docked a bit for the Lane fuck up and the shitty finish. Otherwise, yet another good MXP-RnR match.  

 

Doug Furnas vs. Barry Windham 

It’s a bizarre decision to debut Furnas against a guy as huge as Windham. At least Barry bumps around for him.  

JR starts to get very excited at the size of Doug’s thighs. Gee, I wonder who signed this guy*? They put on a good match, with both guys taking meaty bumps and smacking each other with big meaty hits. Furnas also throws Barry around for fun. It’s a real pity this is Furnas’ first big match because as a newcomer he needs a big win. Windham wins, albeit with his feet on the ropes, but Furnas looks like a chump. They tried to rehab him at GAB, but the damage is already done. Good match though. **¾ and would have easily cracked a bigger rating if they’d gone longer at the same pace. 

 

*Doug Furnas is from Oklahoma. I’d be shocked if Ross wasn’t directly responsible for him being here. It’s bizarre to me that Furnas died 12 years ago, and JR is not only still alive, despite his medical issues, but is still on TV doing commentary.  

 

NWA United States Championship 

Lex Luger (c) vs. Sid Vicious  

This is Sid’s first match back since getting a punctured lung at Clash of the Champions 9, waaaaay back in November 1989. I can only assume Sid has pissed someone off because this lasts about 20 seconds with Sid jobbing to a clothesline. The weird part is that Sid would go on to work either Luger or Sting for the rest of the year, so it makes no sense to have him get embarrassed here. I assume it’s punishment for missing shows as he’s got previous for it. 

 

NWA Tag Team Championship 

Doom (c) vs. Steiner Brothers 

This is a rematch from Capital Combat, where Doom won the belts in a shock upset. Scotty has learned how to do a backflip slam and is keen to show it off. How does he even find out he can do that? It seems like it shouldn’t be a thing.  

This is my kind of match. It’s four big powerhouse dudes, running into each other and throwing each other around. There are a LOT of lariats too. I love it. They give Doom slightly more to do here, and there’s a legitimate heat segment. The title switch involved Doom getting beaten up all match and still winning.  

 

The only criticism is the match feels so short, at 11 minutes or so, and that’s a good thing. Butch Reed gets a foreign object thrown to him and he whacks Scott with it to retain. Rick, who’s not the sharpest knife in the draw, attempts to pin Reed while Scott is in the process of losing. ***½. A really good tag match with beatings throughout. Arn approved action.  

 

Video Control gives us an interview with JYD. When Tony warns him about the Horsemen’s potential numbers advantage, he says he’s “not a cabbage, all head, no body” and will bring back up in the form of “dudes with attitude”. HBK and Diesel?  

 

Paul Orndorff vs. Arn Anderson 

The gimmick on this show is that all the Horsemen have singles matches and they can’t go 100% thanks to Sid’s failure. Orndorff showed up a few weeks ago as part of JYD’s group to offset the strength of the Horsemen. It’s Mr Wonderful’s first match on a major show since Survivor Series 1987. This will be a short return. We’ll see him at GAB and then he’ll come back again for a longer run in 1993.  

 

Double A had already been doing this for a while, but we’ll see more of him in singles now, as a guy who you have to wrestle before you get to Flair. Arn was a great worker. He was snug, reliable and could work with anyone to a high standard. He also made everyone look good and could bump and talk like a champion. I’m sure there’s a reality where he didn’t get tethered to Flair and won his own world title. 

 

Orndorff, on the other hand, doesn’t have what he used to have. He’s still athletic and mobile but there’s a missing X Factor that’s hard to explain. You either have it, or you don’t. Orndorff had it but he’s lost it and it ain’t coming back. The fact this run is so short is testament to that. The finish is an inside cradle reversal with Orndorff picking up the win. This was technically strong but flat. I blame Paul for being a dull babyface. Call it **½ 

 

 

NWA Championship 

Ric Flair (c) vs. Junkyard Dog 

This is obviously quite underwhelming compared to other potential options here, but something had to fill in between Luger and Sting. JYD is clearly out of shape and doesn’t belong in this spot, so we’re left with Flair trying to figure out what to do about it. I’ve never seen this match before, but it has a horrible reputation. It’s not that bad. Flair sells all over the place and faceplants on the new ramp, for a laugh.  

 

The crowd, which has been hot all night, continues to oblige us with heat. Flair has to resort to a lot of crutches, and I quickly lose count of the number of chops and begging off spots. JYD looks gassed after two minutes, which is quite funny. Six minutes in, Ole has seen enough and jumps in for the DQ. Hey, you fucking booked this shit mate. JYD looked in rough condition but this wasn’t a total disaster. It was a waste of prime Flair but what can you do. If you’re looking for a rating it’s around **, which is obviously not ideal. 

 

Post Match we get the rest of the Horsemen to beat JYD up. I’m pretty sure they didn’t need all the guys in here for that, he can barely stand. “The Dudes with Attitude” run in for the save, which includes Sting, Lex Luger and Paul Orndorff. One of those things is not like the others. Sting runs Flair clean out of the building to set up Flair vs Sting at the Great American Bash. 

 

After everything has cleared out JR jumps in to interview people and the first one is Rocky King? Rocky King? What the fuck? If you’re not familiar with Rocky King, he was in the NWA in the mid 80s and came back here as part of the Dudes with Attitude angle. Were they planning on having JYD pass the torch to him or something? I don’t know but he ended up managing the Freebirds under the name “Little Richard Marley” so I guess whatever was planned didn’t pan out.  

 

We also get Sting who demands a title shot at Great American Bash. He claims he’s better prepared to face Ric Flair now as he’s got backup and he’s ready for that title match NOW. He begs Flair to come out here now and the Horsemen attempt another run in. There’s a great shot of everyone just running past El Gigante like he’s not there. The dying seconds of the show has Sting beating Flair from pillar to post.  

 

The 411: 

You know what? This was a good show. They packed a bunch of stuff in here but almost all of it worked. Even stuff like Mean Mark vs Pillman achieved something. MXP-RnR and Doom-Steiners are both good matches and Windham vs Furnas isn’t far off it. Southern Boys-Freebirds and Orndorff-Arn aren’t far off either. The crowd was hot all night long and this felt like a good promotion, putting on a fun TV show to set up a big summer PPV event. Thumbs up*.  

 

*This is not an endorsement of Jim Herd’s business acumen nor the booking skills of Ole Anderson. Merely that I liked this show.  

 

NEXT: For the NWA it’s the Great American Bash. One of the tent pole PPV events. Is it any good? I don’t remember, so look out for that review soon. My next show is AJW Japan Grand Prix as we finally get some women’s wrestling going.