Shining a Spotlight 3.27.08: Clash of the Champions

Perhaps I’ve underestimated my own talents as a writer. I did my best to take part in the Wrestlemania Countdown by highlighting the worst Mania ever. It was received by several comments, which I usually like. I would have liked it a bit more if people hadn’t taken one off hand comment at the beginning about Wrestlemania XIX being a poorer one and talked as if that was the focus of the entire piece. Ah, well, still liked writing it out.

This week’s piece is another anniversary one, a piece that I’ve been wanting to get to for a while. It’s a notable one in the wrestling war between WWF and the old NWA as it marks pretty much the one time in that battle that Vince actually got taken down, if only temporarily. It was also a night that saw the launching of one of the biggest stars in wrestling history and the beginning of a great tradition.

I know I’ve talked about this in my Survivor Series and Royal Rumble spotlights but bear with me while I recap the situation to set the stage. By late 1987, it was becoming clear to everyone that the classic territory system was dying out under the wake of Vince McMahon’s expansion of WWF. The places not falling to him were instead being absorbed by Jim Crockett, whose own promotional arm was becoming the public face of the NWA, with the long-time Florida territory his latest claim and his “partnership” with the UWF about to become another acquisition. The AWA was on a spiral downward, World Class and Continental were holding on, as was Portland but it was obvious things were working into a two-promotional field.

It was also obvious that pay-per-view was the future of the business after the massive success of Wrestlemania III. Crockett was the first to take advantage, aided by his connections with Ted Turner as he prepared for Starrcade ’87 to be his foray into PPV. Unfortunately, Crockett made some very bad decisions that shot himself in the foot. His biggest was assuming Vince would simply allow him to push into this field and respect how Starrcade had become a Thanksgiving tradition. Instead, Vince decided to put the first Survivor Series on the same day and upped the ante by telling the PPV companies that anyone who carried Crockett’s show could forget about the next Wrestlemania. The result was that 95% of the companies went with McMahon and Crockett took a bath. That was hardly helped by his idiotic decision to move the show from its traditional home of Greensboro to Chicago. The Greensboro fans, who believed themselves a key part of the show’s success were insulted. It cost Crockett goodwill not to mention money from closed circuit broadcasts. In Chicago, Crockett had to deal with a smaller arena, higher costs for travel and unions and an audience not quite attuned to the NWA style of wrestling.

Despite that massive failure, Crockett was still determined to show he could work in both PPV and the North. So in January of 1988, he decided to hold a “Bunkhouse Stampede” PPV in New York. Once again, McMahon countered by getting the USA Network to give him two hours against the Bunkhouse for the first ever Royal Rumble. The irony is that Vince needn’t have bothered as the Stampede was a complete mess of a show. Thanks to a printing error, hundreds of fans showed up to realize the card had started a full half hour or even hour before the time printed on their tickets. The matches were all messes with Ric Flair defending the NWA title against Road Warrior Hawk and the goofy cage battle royal main event won by Dusty Rhodes. The crowd completely crapped over the show and it was a huge money loser so it looked like Crockett was through with competition.

But Jim Crockett Jr could have a stubborn streak just as big as Vince McMahon’s. He was determined to do whatever it took to keep himself going and prove to everyone he could play in that same arena. With Wrestlemania IV coming up, Crockett decided to take a page from McMahon’s book and talked Turner into giving him a live two-hour show to run directly against Mania. It was a big gamble as WM IV had a lot going for it with the big one-night tournament for the WWF title among other anticipated matches. While Crockett did have support via TBS, it just didn’t seem likely he could steal much away from McMahon.

But to the shock of most everyone, Crockett actually managed to pull it off and, at least for one night, put one over big-time on McMahon.

This time, Crockett was smart enough to decide to put a big show in front of his key base as the first ever “Clash of the Champions” took place at the Greensboro Coliseum on March 27th, 1988. While it wasn’t sold out (a little over 6000 people in an arena that could seat nearly 25,000), it was still a good and hot crowd. Tony Schivone was doing commentary with Jim Ross (a very unlikely pairing to imagine today) along with Bob Caudle, a great old-time commentator who sort of vanished from the scene a year or two later. The crowd, I should mention right now, was hot to the point of molten lava which added to the heat of the card.

The show kicked off with Mike Rotunda defending the TV title against Jimmy Garvin. Rotunda was part of Kevin Sullivan’s “Varsity Club,” one of the goofier heel stables where the guys all had collegiate wrestling backgrounds and came in old-style wrestling attire. It was a bit off to see Sullivan, a man well known for his demonic characteristics, doing something so old-style and presenting it as heels. Then again, it was tons better than the Dungeon of Doom would be. Garvin was actually a face back then, a surprise given his time as a great arrogant heel. The match was contested under “College Rules” which basically meant a series of three minute rounds and that only a one-count would achieve victory. It was mostly stalling with Rotunda constantly rolling away from Garvin to the outside to avoid being taken down. Precious would come down to cheer Garvin on as, after a break between rounds, he hit Rotunda with a brainbuster. Before he could cover him, Sullivan came down to attack Precious, her slapping him back as Garvin went to help only to get rolled up by Rotunda. This was pretty much a set-up for a future match at the Great American Bash although it seemed a waste of a stipulation.

The next match more than made up for any problems of the previous one as the Fantastics challenged the Midnight Express for the US Tag Team titles. I’ve long been in the camp that the Bobby Eaton/Stan Lane Midnights were the better combo than the Eaton/Dennis Corderay version and this is a great reason why. The match kicked off with a wild brawl between all four men that tore around the ringside area. As always, Jim Cornette was in a frenzy trying to help his charges, throwing chairs around, a couple of which broke. It finally settled into the ring with incredibly fast-paced action, the Fantastics briefly in control until the Midnights managed to double-team Rogers. In a move pretty wild for 1988, Cornette set up a table so Lane could throw Tommy Rogers into it. Eaton would hit a powerslam and diving elbow before teaming with Lane on a Decapitation clothesline. Rogers was turning into a second Ricky Morton with all the punishment he took, which included Eaton hitting him with a bulldog outside through the table, another move a good six years before it became fashionable. Rogers finally made the comeback, nailing a roundhouse and leaping to tag in Robert Fulton. However, referee Randy Anderson was busy pulling Eaton out of the ring and didn’t see the tag so pushed Fulton out so Fulton tossed him out of the ring. He and Rogers double-teamed Eaton, hitting him with their Rocket Launcher finisher so Fulton covered him and Tommy Young ran in to make the three-count. The place went completely insane but this was 1988 so naturally, there had to be a Dusty finish as Anderson recovered to announce he had disqualified the Fantastics for tossing him out. So a terrific battle of old school tag team wrestling marred by a bad finish.

Speaking of bad, the next bout was a match that on paper sounded great but turned out to be not that good. A few weeks earlier, the Road Warriors and the Powers of Pain had been doing a weightlifting challenge when the Powers attacked the Warriors, smashing Animal’s head into the weights so hard, it supposedly cracked half his face. Naturally, the Warriors were out for revenge, enlisting Dusty Rhodes to help them out against the Powers and Ivan Kolloff. Just for fun, it was made a barbed wire match but the wire was only loosely hung around the ring ropes and never really played into things. In fact, the match itself was a squash for Dusty and the Warriors, not even going four minutes before the Barbarian accidentally hit the Warlord with a flying headbutt to allow the Warriors and Dusty to win. This would actually be one of the last appearances by the Powers as instead of the expected big feud with the Warriors, they would soon jump ship to WWF.

In a quick segue, while the wire was taken down, they did a bit on Lyle Alzado at ringside. Alzado was about to star in a new TBS comedy series Learning the Ropes where he played a college professor by day/masked pro wrestler at night. Yes, it was as dumb as it sounds and even appearances by Flair and the Roadies in a few eps couldn’t salvage it.

Once again, a poor match was offset by another great tag team title match. This time, it was the World titles on the line as Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard defended against Lex Luger and Barry Windham. As most everyone knows, Luger had left the Horsemen a few months earlier, teaming up with perennial Horsemen foe Windham to challenge for the titles. Luger kicked it off with clotheslines on Blanchard and Anderson, powerslamming Tully and getting him in the rack before Arn broke it up. Windham tagged in to get his flying clothesline on Blanchard with Blanchard coming back with a sleeper to the floor. After Tully was slammed from the top, JJ Dillon distracted the ref so Arn could run in and DDT Barry. So Windham spent a few minutes being beaten down with a double KO spot on Tully before Blanchard recovered for his slingshot suplex (and how come no one does that move anymore?). Finally, Windham managed to tag in Luger who basically destroyed his former teammates with punches, kicks, double-noggin-knocker headbutt and powerslams. While Windham and Blanchard fought, Dillon put a chair up in a corner so Arn could whip Lex into it but Luger reversed it and rammed Arn into the chair, setting him up for the pin. The crowd exploded as Windham and Luger celebrated with the belts. Of course, just two weeks later, Windham would turn on Luger in a rematch, allowing Blanchard and Anderson to regain the belts and join the Horsemen himself.

As you can tell, the card had been a bit short in match times but there was a reason for that. They wanted to give time to the main event and that was a terrific decision. It was definitely a big battle with Ric Flair defending the NWA World title against Sting in a 45-minute time limit match with a trio of judges to decide a winner in case time ran out and JJ Dillon suspended above the ring in a cage so he wouldn’t interfere. Sting had been one of the rising stars of the UWF when it went under and was breaking out in the NWA. Flair saw something in the young man and decided to give him the rub with this match-up. I know I gave Flair some flack in my column a month back but this truly was one time where he gave the rub big time to someone and it paid dividends.

That this match has yet to be collected on DVD is a damn shame and a big reason I hope Sting decides to work with WWE in the future. True, a lot of it is obviously killing time to stretch it out and there were a lot of the moves Flair repeated ad naseum in bouts over the years but there are still some great moments and chemistry between the two workers. It is intriguing to go back and see Sting as such a young and raw performer, the amazing energy he had within him which the crowd fed on and vice versa. Yes, he was really raw here and frankly, not quite ready for a title match but Flair in his prime was a master at carrying most anyone to a great bout. Sting controlled the first ten minutes with bearhugs, headlocks, a missed dropkick but recovered for a great press slam that had Flair howling and holding his back. A missed elbow allowed Flair to take control and go to his usual chops and punches. Sting missed a lunge into the post but came back to slap Flair into the Scorpion Deathlock, the first real showcase for the move. Flair did a great job selling the pain before managing to get to the ropes. Sting would come back with a flying crossbody but Flair struck back with a kneebreaker and then moved to his typical time-killing move of getting Sting into the figure-four and doing a little bit where he’d grab the ropes for leverage, letting go just before Tommy Young looked at him while Sting held on, eventually reversing it.

Flair took Sting down and tried to suplex him to the floor but Sting reversed it and hit an abdominal stretch. We then get the classic “Flair goes up top but gets slammed off” spot and it was Sting’s turn to work on Flair’s leg, setting off several minutes of cat and mouse moves between them. After Sting missed a Stinger Splash and fell to the floor, it was announced only four minutes were left so things picked up big-time. Sting sunset-flipped Flair but Flair grabbed the ropes to sit on him, Young seeing him doing it so he stopped the count. After another Flair move, the old “run into the turnbuckle, flipped over, running down the apron and mounting the other turnbuckle,” Flair actually managed to get off the top rope and hit Sting with a crossbody only for Sting to reverse it for two. By this point, Sting’s makeup had been sweated off and when Flair chopped him, Sting just shrugged it off, building up and letting out his wild cry as the fans went wild for him. Another Stinger Splash followed and the Deathlock again as time ran out, Flair refusing to quit before the bell rang. The crowd cheered in appreciation for the great battle as the judges decided: One for Flair, one for Sting and the final one…a draw. Yes, all that build-up on how big the judges would be in the match decision and one was allowed to call the whole thing a draw. Still, the match stood on its well-earned merits as Sting was instantly a star, over big-time in the eyes of the fans.

The card was a great creative success, completely blowing away Wrestlemania’s overly bloated four-hour show with its dull tournament and less than thrilled crowd. Even better was when the ratings came in and the Clash had gotten a 5.7, a huge cable rating for its time. Crockett was naturally quite happy, finally being able to crow over something he’d done that had beaten Vince. His good mood did not last long, however as he was called to the carpet at the Turner offices. It seems the PPV companies were not at all happy about seeing Crockett steal a free audience against a big PPV wrestling show. This despite the fact that Vince had done the exact same thing only months earlier with the Rumble. Nevertheless, Crockett was told in no uncertain terms to never pull that stunt again.

But Crockett did know he was onto something and soon the Clash, meant to be a one-day thing, turned into an event that took place every few months. It would turn out to be one of the great legacies Crockett would leave as it would go on years after he sold to Turner and the company became WCW. The Turner execs would try the same thing in 1989, pitting Clash V against Wrestlemania V, again scoring big with a Flair-Steamboat classic and again told not to do it anymore.

Looking back, the show has lost some of its “must-see” luster. Yes, the tag matches and main event were great but the barbed wire was rushed and the TV title bout nothing special. Even the main event is a bit rough to watch now as it’s clear how much Flair carried a green Sting and it was a lot of time wasted rather than non-stop action. Still, it was the real supercard that took place that day, proving to everyone that the WWF was not that perfect or unstoppable and that, as much as Vince likes to pretend otherwise, he doesn’t know everything that the fans would like to see. Say whatever else about Jim Crockett but twenty years ago, he was able to say, at least for one day, that he was the true winner in the wrestling world.

Also around 411mania:

The Wrestlemania Countdown continues as Julian counts down the top 50 Mania matches, Tim does his Take on the event, Mike Campbell looks at the importance of the event, the Shimmy analyzes MITB, High Road/Low Road takes on the battle royal, Ari looks at Flair’s Mania history, a special Evolution Schematic of celebrity involvement in the show and Way I C It examines the card too.

Also, Scott Slimmer writes an absolutely beautiful piece on Wrestlemania XX and while I can’t quite agree with his statements on Benoit, it’s still an utterly magnificent read.

Truth B Told has a very nice piece on how fans feel about wrestlers who take early exits from the business.

Seventh Dimension talks potential tag teams.

Evolution Schematic continues its great look at WWE video games.

Don’t forget Column of Honor, Triple Threat, 3 R’s, Fact or Fiction, Ask 411 and the rest.

For this week, the spotlight is off.

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