Dark Pegasus Video Review: Clash of the Champions VIII: Fall Brawl

Clash of the Champions VIII: Fall Brawl by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 The NWA was hot off the stellar Great American Bash show which saw Ric Flair get a bit of revenge on Terry Funk for breaking his neck all those months ago. Evil manager Gary Hart had his other charge, the Great Muta, attack Flair and try to cripple him, which led to Sting making the save and setting up tonight’s PPV. Unfortunately for J-Tex, Ric Flair broke Terry Funk’s arm with a branding iron just before this show, so Funk’s designated mini-me, Dick Slater, is subbing for him. September 12, 1989 Live from Columbia, S.C.. Your hosts are Jim Ross and Jim Cornette. Gary Hart assures us that there are NO PROBLEMS with the J-Tex organization. Opening Match: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) vs. The Samoan Swat Team (w/Paul E. Dangerously). The crowd is ON FIRE for this show, and the Roadies’ entrance nearly blows the roof off the place. Animal destroys the Samoans with a powerslam and a lariat, so they seek guidance from Paul E.. This continues until Hawk misses a charge and falls all the way to the floor. Fatu returns the favor from earlier with a powerslam on Hawk. A false tag leads to double headbutts from the Samoans. Samu comes off the top right into a boot from Hawk. That leads to the hot tag, triggering a donnybrook. In all the chaos, Hawk steals Dangerously’s phone and waffles Fatu. That sets up the Doomsday Device at 6:43. Hot and action-packed for the most part. Can’t complain about that. **1/2 After the match, the Samoans fire Paul E. and leave him alone in the ring. Dangerously would take a hiatus from managing until Mean Mark Callous arrived. The Z-Man vs. The Cuban Assassin. Z-Man is Tom Zenk, making his NWA debut after runs in the WWF and AWA. I’m pretty sure they’re using Danny Elfman’s “Batman” theme for his entrance. Z-Man throws a lot of dropkicks and armdrags. No wonder they had to pair him with Brian Pillman. The Assassin misses a diving headbutt, and Zenk catches him in a sleeper for the win at 3:36. A less-than-awe-inspiring debut for Zenk. 3/4* “The World According to Theodore R. Long.” Teddy was a cool heel manager. He hypes NWA appearances while making fun of all the babyfaces. South Carolina Governor Campbell declares September 12 “Ric Flair Day” for his accomplishments in the areas of stylin’ and profilin’. No really. He said that. Then he said he had to go hike the Appalachian trail. Sid Vicious (w/Danny Spivey & Teddy Long) vs. Ranger Ross. Sid looks rather jacked up at this point. He clobbers Ross and drops him on the guardrail. Ross hits the Combat Kick, but Sid no-sells. That’s not a good sign. Sid DDTs him and finishes with a Helicopter Slam at 1:08. This was the end of Ross’ flirtation with the midcard as he’d be relegated to JTTS status soon after. Vicious immediately got over and never looked back. 1/4* Missy Hyatt goes shopping with “Robin Green”. Robin uses the Steiner Bros. line of credit to “buy one of everything.” The production values in no way resemble a bad 1980s porno flick. “Robin Green” is, of course, Nancy Benoit finding her niche in the NWA after playing then-hubby Kevin Sullivan’s satano-masochistic honey in Florida. WCW World Tag Team Titles: The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Steiner Bros. (w/Missy Hyatt & Robin Green). The backstory behind “Robin Green” is that she was a huge Rick Steiner fan in much the same way Annie Wilkes was a huge Paul Sheldon fan. She hung out at shows and wore Rick Steiner shirts. He took a liking to her and invited her to be in his corner despite the fact that the Steiners already had Missy Hyatt as their manager. Missy took Robin under her wing in much the same way Phoebe Cates took Jennifer Jason Leigh under her wing (yes, I’m in a pop-culture metaphor mood). Robin went from nottie to hottie but began to take the spotlight away from Missy. Hmm. Perhaps the more apt metaphor would be the Alicia Silverstone-Britney Murphy dynamic. Oh well. Can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. The Steiners toss the Birds around like ragdolls, which is par for the course. I get the feeling that no one wanted to wrestle the Steiners at this point. Rick powerslams the crap out of them… perhaps literally. Finally, Rick misses a wild charge which allows the Freebirds to take over. Now that I think about it, Cher was a virgin, so there’s no way that would work with Missy Hyatt. The production crew misses the hot tag because they’re panning the crowd. Scott demolishes the Birds with Frankensteiners but stumbles coming off the ropes. Hayes capitalizes with a DDT, and the Birds get a somewhat clean win at 10:27. The angle doesn’t give us a clue as to who tripped up Scott Steiner. Scott and Missy blame Robin Green, but Rick blames Missy. The angle tends to overshadow this match, but the Steiners were just awesome here, showing little-to-no regard for the lives of the Freebirds. Hey, it’s the Freebirds in 1989. Who cares? *** A replay doesn’t shed any light on the culprit. Norman the Lunatic (w/Teddy Long) vs. Brian Pillman. This is Pillman’s debut on a major show. He brings a gaggle of cheerleaders with him and blitzes Norman early. I think these two probably wrestled a handful of times in Stampede, but I can’t think of any specific match. Pillman grabs the key from Teddy Long but plays to the crowd, allowing Norman to avalanche him in the corner. To the floor, Norman avalanches Pillman against the post but goes for a second one and posts himself. Pillman comes off the top with a missile dropkick and slams the big guy. Norman catches him on a crossbody and powerslams him for two. Pillman recovers and surprises Norman with a crucifix at 3:38. They went balls out and made the most out of their four minutes. Stampede guys have good chemistry, I guess. **1/2 Gary Hart says there’s nothing wrong with Terry Funk ::dabs sweat off brow:: and he doesn’t know why Gordon Solie insists on spreading these vicious lies. You’re being inappropriate, Gordon. Steve Williams vs. Mike Rotunda. Williams briefly joined the Varsity Club, killing the babyface heat he’d generated. It made sense on paper, though. Then, just before this show, he broke away from the group and went face again. Speaking of face, Rotunda nearly rips Williams’ off with a lariat. Rotunda slows things down with a rope-assisted chinlock, but Dr. Death powers up and makes with the pummel. Rotunda goes up but gets slammed all the way across the ring. Insane strength from Williams there. Rotunda blocks the Oklahoma Stampede by grabbing the ropes, so the ref kicks his hand away. Rotunda lands on top of Doc, but Doc rolls through for the win at 7:04. Despite the fact that neither guy was going anywhere in the NWA, they both fed off the crowd’s energy and put on a nice little match. *** U.S. Title: Lex Luger vs. Tommy Rich. Rich was well beyond his prime at this point, but damned if *he* doesn’t give it a go too. Must be something in the water. It ain’t Lipton Instant Iced-Tea. The story is that Lex is bigger, faster, younger, and just overall physically imposing, but Rich is a crafty veteran who knows when and where to pick his spots. Luger misses a clothesline and sends himself over the top. Rich tries to bring him back in but collapses under his weight for two. Luger blocks a rollup and hits the superplex, but he’s late covering and only gets two. Rich hulks up and pummels Luger with rights. The fans’ sustained heat is amazing. It’s not that they’re popping for much, it’s just a constant scream. Rich with the fistdrop. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! THESZ PRESS BY RICH! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Luger bails, and Rich misses a punch, clocking the ringpost. Rich improvises and kicks at Luger before grabbing a sleeper on the apron. Luger snaps Rich’s throat on the top rope and gets the pin at 10:36. Rich was on fire (WILDfire!) here, and he actually carried Luger – who was at the point where he didn’t need carrying – to a match that was much better than it had any right to be. *** Finally, Gary Hart reveals that Terry Funk can’t wrestle tonight. We see Funk in the hospital cutting a bitter promo about the fans laughing at his injury. “Now wipe my ass! And don’t you look at me!!!!” Funk promises to be at the Clash to get revenge on Flair. Ric Flair stands by to gloat. Sting talks about the titanic battle at Clash I, but now they’re on the same team. Ric Flair & Sting vs. Dick Slater & The Great Muta (w/Gary Hart). As usual when Slater replaces Terry Funk, Funk is barely missed. Insane heat for this one, despite the main villain being absent. Flair and Muta go at it for the first time ever, making me wonder why they didn’t just build Muta up for Flair at Starrcade instead of destroying his reputation in one night. Cool spot as Flair flips up the corner runs to the adjacent one and chops Muta off the apron. The faces clear the ring to a huge pop, but Slater catches Flair with a neckbreaker. Corny talks about Flair’s broken neck to amp up the psychology, and then he and Ross engage in a colloquy regarding the purpose of Muta putting his fingers in his mouth before a nerve hold. Sting gets the hot tag and puts Muta in the Scorpion Deathlock. Tommy Young gets distracted by Flair and Slater brawling on the floor, so Hart sneaks in and blasts Sting in the back of the head with a roll of coins. Sting plays face-in-peril but powers out of a Slater piledriver. HOT TAG TO FLAIR! IT’S BREAKIN’ LOOSE! Muta busts out the YELLOW MIST on Sting, which was heretofore unseen, but Ross conveniently mentioned it was the most dangerous of the mists. Sting falls to the floor, blinded, and the ref gets tossed. That gives Terry Funk a chance to run in and SMOTHER FLAIR WITH A BAG! Insane! Sting tries to fight back, but Slater smashes his leg with the branding iron. The heels walk out and leave the faces laying to end the show (19:16). Crazy good match that is forgotten in all the 1989 classics involving Flair, Steamboat and Funk. Hot crowd, hot action, great booking to make the heels look dominant. Not a lot more to ask for. ****1/4

The 411: Outside of a few necessary squashes in the middle, this is a fantastic show from top to bottom. The main event is just the capper on a show where wrestlers not only excelled but overperformed. Kudos for the effort on this one. Highly recommended.
Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]