NWA Clash of the Champions #4: Season’s Beatings (12.7.88) review 

 

December 7, 1988 

 

We’re in Chattanooga, Tennessee, home of the Chattanooga Choo-Choo at the UTC Arena (now the McKenzie Arena). It’s a college basketball venue known locally as the “Roundhouse”. The arena would go on to host Halloween Havoc in 1991 and the WWF’s IYH: Final Four in 1997. Hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle. This aired on TBS to a decent 4.5 TV rating. It’s not close to what the WWF were doing with SNME, but Clash shows were a success. This is a famous show for a different reason. This was Ted Turner’s first show as owner of Jim Crockett’s promotion. While it initially continued to run under the NWA banner, the company changed names from JCP to WCW. World Championship Wrestling begins here.  

 

NWA United States Tag Team Championship 

Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert vs. Fantastics 

The Midnight Express dropped these belts when they won the NWA tag titles a few months ago. The resultant tournament final was supposed to be Fantastics vs. Sheepherders, but the latter jumped to the WWF a few weeks ago and fucked that up. Simmons was late into the sport due to his football career and he’s already 30 at the time of this show. He played two years in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns after college and was playing USFL in Florida when he switched careers.  

Shout out to Jason Hervey at ringside. This is before he became pals with Eric Bischoff and formed a production company, churning out shlock. There’s a reality, I’m sure, where Hervey ran WCW.  

 

This match is great fun. Simmons, the powerhouse, gets to throw the Fantastics around. The Fantastics get to fly around and unsettle the other team. It’s strange to see a babyface-babyface match but it is really well received. Sometimes, when you get backed into a corner, you happen upon something beautiful. However, for some ungodly reason, they give this 27 minutes. For two teams who are not *that* over, it’s just too much time.  

It’s really fun for 12 minutes and then it just stops being so. Fantastics working an armbar for minutes at a time just doesn’t work. It does give us time to check out this wacky overhead camera angle. The NWA used an overhead camera before but this one is just way too high up. The weak link in the match is Eddie Gilbert, who makes the usual odd decisions. One of my pet peeves is a guy running the ropes and then hitting a move that doesn’t require any momentum. He does a knee thing here after running the ropes and he stops before delivering it. Why run the ropes then? I could say the same thing about the People’s Elbow but that’s an argument for another time. 

 

At least Gilbert is a good technician, most of the time, and makes a nice contrast with Ron’s power moves. He also has a decent wrestling brain and tells coherent stories. The shoulder injury angle in this one is designed to create a weakness. Tommy Rogers, who’s a blue-eye, doesn’t want to take advantage but Gilbert refuses to quit so the Fantastics go to town on the arm. It’s interesting that the crowd rally behind Gilbert, rather than blaming the Fantastics for the arm work. The sheer volume should be a clue to any promoter’s watching that face-face dynamics were doable in 1989.  

 

The Gilbert arm thing would have worked better if they’d not done the same arm work to Simmons beforehand. Gilbert does an excellent job of playing face in peril and selling the arm though. Gilbert tries to mount his own comeback but runs into the post and gets rolled up. Fantastics win the belts and go to check on Gilbert immediately. This was a nice wholesome time, but the finish was dumb. Gilbert grabbing his arm while he’s pinned to ‘sell’ the arm injury is just excessive and he did an Irish whip reversal on his bad arm right beforehand. Anyway, I had a nice time but the match could have been trimmed by 10 minutes and been better. Call it *** 

 

Video Control reminds us that Starrcade has switched to Boxing Day this year to combat the invasion of Thanksgiving by those bastards from New York. Tony Schiavone then interviews Flexi Lexi about his forthcoming match against Ric Flair at Starrcade ‘88. Luger isn’t a compelling promo. I can see why they didn’t trust him to be The Man.  

 

Italian Stallion vs. Steve Williams 

Doc just turned heel and joined the Varsity Club so everyone hates him. At least he’s a good fit for the group’s concept, although I’m still puzzled by Kevin Sullivan being the boss. Mike Rotunda stops off, pre-match, to call Rick Steiner “stupid” repeatedly.  

 

This match has a massive, massive issue. They expect us to buy into Stallion as a threat. He’s a jobber. According to Cagematch (and I’m not doing the research myself, this will suffice to make my point) his 1988 record was 15-98.  

JR claims Doc is being complacent and overlooking Stallion, but he bullies the guy, consistently. The match runs a staggering 15:00 and feels a lot longer. They have no chemistry and Doc sucks in 1988. You can see him positioning Stallion for spots and Stallion has developed a terrible habit of selling right into camera. Which would be ok if Doc was on him, but this is Stallion, on his own, on the floor, staring into camera like a puppy dog who’s been kicked.  

 

There are counters in this that remind me of Private Pyle trying to climb obstacles in Full Metal Jacket. It’s so long too. Every time it looks like Doc is about to finish it, they throw in more hope spots for Stallion. Finally, he finishes with the Oklahoma Stampede and thank fucking Christ this over. It should have been 2-3 minutes MAX. Giving it 15:35 was insanity.  

 

Video Control gives us Magnum TA interviewing Junkyard Dog.  

JYD cuts a more enigmatic promo here than he did in his entire WWF run. He just oozes charisma. It’s a shame he was so broken down by this point. His WWF run feels like a waste considering how much he had to give on the microphone. A Starrcade promo airs and it says “card subject to change”, on the bottom, as the Sheepherders name appears onscreen.  

 

Ivan Koloff vs. Paul Jones 

The last Paul Jones match I saw was the Tuxedo match with Jimmy Valiant. That sucked. Koloff has his arm tied behind his back, as Jones wouldn’t take the match otherwise. I’ve really enjoyed watching Ivan during this run, but he’s clearly finished as a top guy. 1988 has not been kind to him. He’s not even that old, by modern standards, turning 46 in the summer. Holy shit, I’m older now than Ivan Koloff was when he wrestled this match.  

 

The whole ‘arm behind the back’ gimmick makes this a particularly bad match. Jones uses a foreign object, not yet an International object, but he drops it and Ivan punches him out for the pin. The Russian Assassins jump Koloff afterwards and Nikita should make the save…only he’s left the promotion so JYD does it instead. Now there’s two guys who look like they have a lot in common. Ivan Koloff and Junkyard Dog. The match stank but at least it was shorter than Doc-Stallion.  

 

Video Control takes us to Flexi Lexi again who bemoans the Road Warriors actions in recent weeks. They tried to stab Dusty in the eye, they have my full support.  

Elsewhere, Rick Steiner is interviewed and his character is supposed to be an idiot but he’s not as good at playing one as Jim Duggan. He has, however, drawn a face on his hand, which he talks to. It’s called Alex. “Alex is his own man. He helps me out”. “Shhh. Shhhh. Shhhh. MIKE ROTUNDA I’M GONNA BEAT YOU TO DEATH”. Hahaha. What the fuck? Rick Steiner going from first gear to FUCK YOU in a matter of seconds there. 

 

Road Warrior Animal vs. Dusty Rhodes 

The Roadies and Dusty were six-man champions but got into a disagreement so they’re fighting each other to see who gets the belts. Whoever wins gets to select new partners. Dusty comes in with an eye patch, selling the spike attack. The ref gets bumped, Hawk and Sting run in. The ref, who Rhodes chopped out of the ring, eventually recovers and disqualifies him. There goes the six-man belts Dusty. The Road Warriors would name Genichiro Tenryu as their third man, but the belts disappeared a few months later and were forgotten about.  

 

Midnight Express vs. Four Horsemen (Ric Flair & Barry Windham) 

MXP have turned face, so have been chucked straight in with biggest bastards in the promotion. It’s a shame Arn & Tully jumped because it would have been fun to them, as heels vs. MXP as faces. It did happen but only to get the belts off the departing Horsemen. 

There’s no doubt MXP are better as heels. The use of Jim Cornette alone benefits from being heel. Eaton is also far superior as a heel, because he’s all no-nonsense. Stan Lane, karate kicks and all, seems to be enjoying himself the most. Barry Windham is in ‘the mood’ and bumps one of those kicks to the midsection by flying over the top rope.  

Windham is just awesome here. His timing, his bumping, his selling and his mannerisms all land beautifully. The Horsemen have been such jerks over the past couple of years that any match they’re in causes huge reactions. Flair goes through the motions but is generous in letting Eaton dominate him. A big issue with Flair is that he’s dropped into a certain formula by 1988 and doesn’t like to deviate from it. The match is more interesting when he’s not in there. 

 

The Cornette vs Dillon action on the floor is interesting as people are actually cheering Corny. It didn’t happen very often. JJ chucks his shoe in and Flair uses it on the back of Eaton’s head for the pin. For Cornette to be bamboozled by JJ Dillon rather exposes the babyface switcheroo. That wouldn’t have happened to a heel MXP. You can’t really job either Horseman here though, which is the issue with only having two of them at the moment. Great match, with some slow spots. ***½  

 

The 411: 

Hallelujah for the main event because it saved this show from being a stinker. The quality of the opening match is somewhat offset by the sheer length of it. The middle of the show is a fucking disaster. Doc-Stallion going 15 is insanity, Koloff-Jones was really bad and Animal-Dusty was odd. The main event did save the show though. Good performances all around, even if the Midnight Express are not the most natural babyfaces. Thus begins the WCW era. With Starrcade coming up, and 1989 being one of their best years for in-ring, it’s an exciting time to be an NWA/WCW fan. The changing landscape of the promotion would become even more noticeable in 1989 with the departure of Dusty Rhodes.