Dark Pegasus Video Review: Clash of the Champions IV: Season’s Beatings

Clash of the Champions IV: Season’s Beatings by J.D. Dunn December 7, 1988 Live from Chattanooga, Tenn. Your hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle. Opening Match, Vacant U.S. Tag Titles: The Fantastics vs. Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert. The titles were vacated when the Midnight Express defeated Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard to win the big boy titles. This was supposed to be the Fantastics versus the Sheepherders in the finals, but the Sheepherders double-crossed Crockett and jumped to the WWF. The NWA responded by reversing the decision in their match and sending Simmons & Gilbert to the finals. Simmons was just a powerful green guy at this point, but he could still move in the ring. Gilbert is the speed of the team, and it seems odd having him as the babyface. The fans are still on the side of the heartthrob team of Fulton and Rogers. The match is pretty good for character dynamics if not action. Simmons tosses around the smaller Fantastics whenever he gets in, but being green, he’s easy to outsmart and topple because he doesn’t know how to use his weight. Gilbert and Fulton have a cool little mini-story going where they do some counter wrestling and then glare at each other like there’s some sort of underlying anger there. It’s tiny little things like that that can make an otherwise average match interesting. This is a long match, considering one of the teams is practically thrown together. It’s nearly 20 minutes before Eddie gets posted on the outside to give the Fantastics and opening to work over his shoulder. The Fantastics go almost heelish, a definite change from their earlier role in the match. The Fantastics aren’t really doing anything wrong, but the fans just feel so sorry for Gilbert that they start to lose patience with Rogers and Fulton for targeting his arm. Gilbert starts to make his comeback with only a few minutes left in the time limit, but he misses a charge and posts himself again. Fulton is able to roll him up for the win at 27:05. There is a fair amount of boos from the crowd for the Fantastics’ win. The match went on a bit long for what the story they were telling. Simmons was too green to do much, so it was up to Gilbert to carry the action. He did his best, but they just had too much time to fill. **3/4 Steve Williams (w/Kevin Sullivan) vs. The Italian Stallion. Williams spent months feuding with Sullivan’s army only to turn around and join them. You’d think this would be a big mismatch, but like the opener, it goes a lot longer than I anticipated. That’s not to say it’s good, or even a close match, it’s just that Doc seems content to methodically work Stallion over without ever going for the win. Stallion fires back with a powerslam, but Williams catches him with the Oklahoma Stampede at 15:16. Way too long, especially for what amounted to a cat pawing around an injured bird before eating it. * Ivan Koloff vs. Paul Jones. They turned Ivan babyface in order to revive the magic of the Russians and feud them with Paul Jones’ evil Russian Assassins. Good idea in theory, but Nikita left the promotion to take care of his ailing wife. That left Koloff to take on Jones’ army with the Junkyard Dog in Nikita’s place. Not exactly an ideal situation. Anyway, Koloff has agreed to wrestle with one arm tied behind his back. As if that wasn’t enough of a handicap, Jones starts using a foreign object. That goes on for a minute or so before Koloff steals it from him and nails him for the win at 1:22. Still way too long. Ha ha. For reasons that should be obvious if you read the intro to the match, this whole angle flopped. 1/4* Six-Man Tag Titles: Dusty Rhodes vs. Road Warrior Animal (w/Paul Ellering). Oy. Speaking of feuds that took place because someone left the promotion – the NWA had been hyping the Powers of Pain versus the Road Warriors and Dusty as a big feud. The POP left for the WWF, though, so Dusty decided to turn the Roadies heel so he could feud with them. This led to them trying to cut his eyeball out on national TV, an act that led to Dusty’s firing as booker. Sting, still being dumb, thought he was still cool with the Roadies, but then they turned on him too. That made Dusty’s choice of a partner pretty clear. Unfortunately, Dusty and the Roadies were still the useless Six-Man Tag Team Champions, so this is to decide who gets custody. Dusty uses the elbow a lot, and Animal sells for a change. Ellering gets involved and takes an elbow between the eyes. Finally, Road Warrior Hawk runs in and attacks Dusty for the 3-on-1. That brings out Sting to make the save. Dusty grabs a chair and nails Animal in the back of the knee for the DQ at around 2:00. Nothing match. It was just to set up the tag team match at Starrcade. 1/2* Ric Flair & Barry Windham (w/JJ Dillon) vs. The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette). Hey, what a concept. The Midnights beat Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard for the World Tag Titles and sent them packing to the WWF. This is for a little revenge from the Horsemen, but it also matches up the two top singles stars against the top tag team. The Midnights are the babyfaces here, having been turned face when Paul E. Dangerously’s “Original” Midnight Express of Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose invaded and declared themselves the real thing. Flair gets in Eaton’s face and pays for it with a slap. The Midnights are ahead every step of the way as this immediately assumes the Corny formula. For those who don’t know, Cornette basically has a tag team formula (actually, I think Dusty claims credit for it) where the babyfaces absolutely destroy the heels for about the first quarter of the match. This makes the fans think the faces are going to win in a walk. Then, the dastardly heels do something to cut off their momentum – like kneeing them in the back or yanking down the ropes. From there, they go into the face-in-peril sequence where the babyface gets caught in the wrong corner and desperately tries to make a tag. In this case, Barry Windham runs in and clocks Eaton from behind as he has Flair rolled up. Eaton plays face-in-peril as all the Midnight’s dirty tricks get used against them. Finally, Eaton punches Flair right in his beak and dives into a tag. Lane cleans house, and the Midnights hit the Double Goozle. That sets up the Alabama Jam from Eaton, but the ref is distracted by Lane going after Dillon. Flair steals Dillon’s shoe and nails Eaton with it for the win at 17:42. Great tag formula. All four guys were just fantastic at this point, and they could probably do a **** match blindfolded. The match is over 15 minutes, but it was so action-packed that time flew by, and it felt more like five. Great stuff. ****1/4

The 411: The tag team match salvages this one. The undercard is just horrible outside of the Fantastics title win. This was Dusty's second-to-last big show as booker, and it was clear he was burned out. I know he's much-maligned, but he really did prop up the NWA with great shows throughout the middle of the decade. It wasn't until his stuff got overused (the "Dusty" finish, the Midnight Rider) that fans started to get less enthused. Oh well, it was a hell of a run while it lasted. Thumbs slightly up for the tag matches.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]