Dark Pegasus Video Review: Clash of the Champions VII: Guts & Glory!

Clash of the Champions VII: Guts & Glory! by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 Ric Flair was able to recapture the NWA World Title at WrestleWar in one of the greatest matches ever, but immediately following the epic encounter with Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk went all “Kanye” on him and challenged Flair on the spot. Perceiving a brush-off, Funk became offended and enraged, piledriving Flair on a table and breaking his neck. Now, Funk has his sights set on the #1 contender for Flair’s title – Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat. June 14, 1989 Live from Ft. Bragg, N.C.. Your hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle Opening Match, NWA World Tag Title Tournament, Semi-Finals: The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Terry Gordy) vs. The Dynamic Dudes. The Varsity Club defeated the Road Warriors for the tag titles back at Clash VI and retained them at WrestleWar. The NWA was sick of their cheating ways, though, so they stripped them of the titles and held them up for this one-night tournament. The Dudes are current WWE Director of Talent Relations Johnny Ace and former ECW mainstay Shane Douglas. This is the debut of the New Freebirds with Jimmy Garvin teaming with Michael Hayes. The Freebirds attack but get atomic dropped into one another and bail. The Dudes target Jimmy’s arm, but Hayes stomps a mudhole. Caudle and Ross fire off facts about Ft. Bragg as Ace assumes the face-in-peril role. Shane gets the hot tag, and the Dudes open up a can of double-team whupass. Shane rolls up Garvin, but Hayes sneaks up and DDTs him for the win at 7:10. Tremendous heat for the opener. The fans seem somewhat reluctant to root for the Dudes, but they *hated* the ‘Birds. ** Ranger Ross vs. The Terrorist. Given that, as I write this, we’re only about a week removed from Maj. Nidal Hasan allegedly shooting up Ft. Hood, a show featuring “The Terrorist” at an army base was probably a bad choice to review. You go to war with the tapes you have, not the tapes you wish you had, though. Thankfully, Ranger Ross doesn’t screw around. He’s obviously HUGELY over on base. The Terrorist, btw, is generic-masked-man extraordinaire Jack Victory. Ross hits the Combat Kick for the win at 1:25. This would be Ross’ peak as he’d get squashed by Sid Vicious later in the year and never recapture his glory. The army man gimmick is always ultimately limiting anyway, I suppose. Now, if he were a fake Marine… 1/4* The Great Muta is scheduled to put on a martial arts demonstration against a couple jobbers — Trent Knight and Mike Justice, if you care. Muta refuses to waste his time on gaijin and calls out Eddie Gilbert. Eddie charges the ring and tries to throw a fireball in Muta’s face, but Muta pulls Knight in the way. Oops. Eddie is all broken up over torching the jobber’s face. The Ding Dongs vs. George South & Cougar Jay. Call me crazy, but I kind of want to see the Ding Dongs face the Halloween Creatures from Halloween Havoc ’91. The Ding Dongs are Jim Evans and Richard Sartain, who wrestled in Deep South as the Rock ‘n’ Roll Rebels. This is their cup of coffee with infamy. The Ding Dongs were one of Jim Herd’s silly ideas watered down into a couple of masked guys who wore orange sherbet bodysuits and bells taped to their legs. But they also carried a big bell with them to ringside and rang it whenever they were on the apron. Step Three: Profit! The Dongs hit a kneedrop/elbowdrop combo for the win at 3:40. Now let’s never speak of them again. 1/4* NWA World Tag Title Tournament, Semi-Finals: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) vs. The Samoan Swat Team (w/Paul E. Dangerously). The theme from “Halloween” makes great entrance music. Caudle wonders where Dangerously could have dug up the SST, “somewhere deep in the jungle.” If only we had some sort of hint as to where they’re from. Some yahoo tries to storm the ring and gets dragged away. It’s hard to get used to the Midnights playing the Rock-n-Roll Express role. Bobby does the honors of face-in-peril. The fans love them, btw. The Samoans go wild, turning the damn thing into a brawl, and that allows the Road Warriors to run in and destroy Fatu behind the ref’s back. Lane hops on top for the pin at 6:00. Whenever interference leads to the win, you can safely bet the wrestlers in the match will dog it, intentionally or otherwise. Another good argument for clean finishes. 3/4* Terry Gordy vs. Steve Williams. THE MIRACLE VIOLENCE CONNECTION EXPLODES! Actually, these two had some hellacious brawls in the UWF long before this. They start out hot with Williams clipping Gordy’s knee and Gordy coming back with a lariat. It bogs down after a few minutes, though, as they wander around trading power moves. They really need Bill Watts waiting backstage with a baseball bat ready to break their kneecaps if he didn’t sense effort. Some guys need that. Williams hits a STIFF flying elbow to knock Gordy over the top. Gordy takes a walk, so Williams gives chase for the double countout at 6:27. I’m a sucker for a good slugfest, but they’d be more at home in Japan the following year. ** Norman the Lunatic (w/Teddy Long) vs. Mike Justice. Norman the Lunatic is Mike Shaw, aka Makhan Singh, aka Aaron Grundy, aka Friar Ferguson, aka Bastion Booger. Norman avalanches Justice and squashes him with a splash at 0:47. The orderlies come down and strap him to the gurney to take him to the back. Necro Butcher needs to bring that back if he ever goes heel again. 1/4* Jim Ross, apparently the victim of a braineurism, says he can’t believe Jimmy Garvin would join the Freebirds. Yeah, it’s not like they’d been joined at the hip since 1983. The Steiner Bros. (w/Missy Hyatt) vs. Kevin Sullivan & Mike Rotunda. Scott looks weird in generic tights. The Steiners blitz the heels to start, drawing barks from the crowd. Scott is already approaching awesome with a Brock Lesnar-ish learning curve. Rick grabs a headlock on Rotunda to settle things down, but Mike drops him on his head with a suplex. I should point out that Ross sets the Shill Machine to “high,” pimping Pepsi, Dominoes, Coors Light and “Death Wish 2.” Rotunda haphazardly tosses Scott to the floor, and Sullivan tosses the steps at his knees. Insane. The double-arm suplex gets two for Rotunda, and he LEVELS Scott with a lariat. Did someone piss off Rotunda? He’s wrestling like… well, a Steiner. Scott gets the false tag but avoids a dropkick to get the real one moments later. Sullivan tosses a chair in as the match breaks down, so Rotunda suplexes Scott on it for the pin at 8:36. Wild match with all four guys throwing each other around with little regard for each other’s health. I like it! ***1/4 WCW TV Title: Sting vs. Wild Bill Irwin. Irwin keeps Sting at bay with his bullwhip until the ref can take it away from him. After that, it’s all Sting. Sting destroys him before taking a knee in the corner. Irwin has that clumsy Bradshaw-esque offense, but it works for him. Sting tries a crossbody but gets caught and planted. Irwin stops to pose, so Sting hits the Stinger Splash and rolls Irwin up for the win at 3:14. Energetic squash from Sting. Irwin, despite his awkwardness, made for a good opponent. **1/4 Scott “Gator” Hall video promo set to Billy Ocean’s “When the Going Gets Tough.” I get the feeling they were trying to remake him into the next Magnum T.A.. Who knew the pot of gold would be at the end of the faux-Pacino rainbow instead of the faux-Selleck one? Earlier, Jim Ross caught up with a convalescing Ric Flair who promises he will be back to defend the title. Flair explains that the NWA gave him an extension so he didn’t have to defend the title inside of 30 days. He’s concerned about life after wrestling, though. Yeah, I wonder how that will turn out for him when it happens. Vacant NWA World Tag Team Titles: The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Terry Gordy) vs. The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette). Before the match, Paul E. Dangerously cold cocks Cornette with a loaded tennis racket. The Dynamic Dudes, ever the sweethearts, carry Cornette to the back, setting up his stewardship of their careers and, by proxy, a feud with the Midnight Express. They probably should have turned heel on him and become “the Dangerous Dudes,” but it was not to be. The Midnights dominate with Lane enzuigiring Hays to the floor for a pow-wow session. The Freebirds knock Eaton off the apron, and he eats a mouthful of railing. Ouch. A sleeper follows, but Eaton just rams Garvin into the corner and tags out. Well, that was lame. Lane DDTs Hayes and tags Eaton back in. Come on, you need to pull your weight, Stanley. The Midnights make with the doubleteams, drawing Gordy in. He powerbombs Eaton behind the ref’s back, and Garvin covers for the win at 10:03. Disappointing match, although the Midnights gave good effort. The announcers bring up the fact that the Midnights couldn’t get it done without Cornette in their corner. Tease! * Terry Funk vs. Ricky Steamboat. Funk went crazy and nearly crippled Ric Flair after Flair regained the World Title from Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat came back to avenge his former rival and defend his contendership. Funk chops Steamboat in the corner, but that’s like tugging on the lion’s mane. Steamboat chops back and sends Funk out of the ring. Funk rolls over Steamboat with a pair of shoulderblocks, but a third one is met with a chop. Steamboat dropkicks Funk out, frustrating him further. Funk comes back with jabs and sends Steamboat out. They brawl on the outside, and Steamboat tosses him into the railing. Back in, Funk takes Steamboat down and hammers on him. A neckbreaker gets two. They trade blows — won by Steamboat. Funk goes over the top off a whip, so Steamboat comes off the top with a flying chop between the eyes. Steamboat charges to the corner but only finds a Funk boot. Funk gets two off a piledriver. Funk whips Steamboat into Referee Nick Patrick. With Patrick out, Funk whips Steamboat over the top rope and piledrives him on the floor. Funk rolls Steamboat back in but only gets two! Steamboat makes the superman comeback and gets a gutbuster. Steamboat hits him with a chop and sends Funk out with an enzuigiri. Frustrated, Funk grabs the ringside microphone and blasts Steamboat with it, drawing the DQ at 12:49. Funk’s amazing 1989 comeback continues here with a spirited performance against the top worker in the business at that point. Ricky’s emotional performance made the match that much better. The DQ finish didn’t really make sense with the storyline until… **** …Lex Luger saves Ricky from getting the same treatment Flair got. Luger says he gets a lot of flack for having a big ego and then BLINDSIDES STEAMBOAT! He grabs a chair and nails a helpless Steamboat (great job of begging off from Ricky). Finally, Sting makes the save for real. Normally, I’d have a problem with #10 Terry Funk losing to #1 Ricky Steamboat (even via DQ) because the whole point of the match was for Funk to defeat the #1 contender and earn a title shot. Luger’s attack changed the whole dynamic, though, as Steamboat forewent his title shot at Flair in favor of getting piece of Luger at The Great American Bash

The 411: The NWA was in the midst of a creative hot streak here, and this show is no exception. The main event scene was as hot as they come and the tag team mix was nearly as interesting. Granted, the show has tons of crap – the Ding Dongs, the New Freebirds, and Norman the Lunatic – but even that can't drag down a great show with a raucous live crowd. Thumbs up.
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]