Dark Pegasus Video Review: Clash of the Champions XXII

Clash of the Champions XXII by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook Examiner.com January 13, 1993 Live from Milwaukee, Wis. Your hosts are Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura. We open with Bill Watts* who announces that his son Erik was “arrested” after an altercation with Arn Anderson. As a result, Erik is suspended. * – In my Starrcade review, someone objected to my saying that Watts was fired immediately following Starrcade. This is true but somewhat misleading. He was still with the company through February, but by most accounts (including Watts’), WCW’s labyrinthian power structure had taken over by this point and forced him out. Bischoff would take over a few weeks after this and make history (before failing miserably for a year or so). Opening Match: Cactus Jack vs. Johnny B. Badd. Short match. Johnny is subbing for Erik Watts. That’s fine because Jack and Badd have bad blood from Starrcade. Johnny does his dazzling moves on Jack, but he misses a cannonball off the top. That allows Jack to drop the elbow to pick up the win at 2:45. Big babyface pop for Jack, which would be important later in the show. 3/4* 2 Cold Scorpio shows some young hooligans how to do the 2 Cold Strut all the way to school. This has become an IWC Youtube staple. 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Scotty Flamingo. It’s like an ECW main event two years early! Scorps does a silly handspring butt bump that probably would have been better if he had paid attention to where Flamingo was. Scotty dropkicks him to the floor and hits a running plancha. Scorpio slugs his way back and hits a spinning splash. To the corner, Scorpio misses a charge but hits a superkick. That leads to the 450-splash at 4:14. Flamingo would go downhill as a worker soon after, but he found a moneymaking gimmick, so it worked out for him. **3/4 Earlier on WCW Main Event, Harley Race set up a match between Paul Orndorff and Cactus Jack to determine a replacement for Rick Rude. During that match, Race kept shoving Cactus back into the ring when he’d fall out. Cactus got sick of it and attacked Race, triggering a beatdown from Vader, Orndorff and Race and sending Orndorff to the Thunderdome match by default. Chris Benoit vs. Brad Armstrong. This would be Benoit’s non-exhibition singles debut. No one knows him, and they know that Brad is a JTTS, so there’s not a lot of heat for this match. This was light years ahead of most of the WCW roster at the time, though, so by the end, the fans are starting to get interested. Benoit wins everyone over (even Jesse) with a springboard clothesline. The fans start to get into Benoit, even though he’s working heel. He misses a diving headbutt but catches Armstrong with the Dragon Suplex at 9:13. Spiffy. A good example of a great worker starting from scratch and winning over the crowd on work alone. *** Jim Cornette announces an agreement between WCW and SMW to allow the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express and Heavenly Bodies to do battle at Superbrawl III. Now, Jesse Ventura hosts an arm-wrestling contest between Tony Atlas and Van Hammer Vinnie Vegas. Vegas is wearing poofy pink pants, but he wins, so it’s hard to make fun of him. Afterward, Vegas challenges Van Hammer to an arm-wrestling contest. Thrilling. Vader pops up to challenge Sting to enter his White Castle of Fear. Recap of the U.S. Title Tournament to crown a contender for Rick Rude’s title. Since Rude is already injured, the finals between Ricky Steamboat and Dustin Rhodes become a match for the vacant title. The Wrecking Crew vs. Johnny Gunn & The Z-Man. The Wrecking Crew are Rage and Fury, a couple Road Warrior wannabes – played by Mark Laurinitis (brother of Road Warrior Animal and Johnny Ace) and Al Green (of “Dog” fame). Zenk is the bitter IWC legend formerly of the Can-Am Connection and “Sexiest Man in WCW” fame. Gunn would go on to be Salvatore Sincere in the WWF. The pretty boys do okay for themselves, but WCW had hopes of turning the Wrecking Crew into the next Road Warriors, so it’s just a squash. The Wrecking Crew hits the Wrecking Ball (Dominator with an elbow off the top) at 6:07. *1/2 Harley Race brings out the heel contingent and fires Barbarian for being associated with Cactus Jack. The heels lay the beatdown on Barbie. Unified Tag Team Titles: Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. The Hollywood Blonds. This would be the Blonds’ ascent to greatness. Steamboat starts with a bunch of quick nearfalls on Austin. Pillman works in the knee trick, but it backfires when Douglas is ready for it. Austin plays heel-in-peril, and they do another series of nearfalls between he and Douglas. Awesome! Pillman gets the tag, and the Blonds isolate Steamboat. Steamboat is a better Ricky Morton than Ricky Morton was, he’s just known for singles wrestling. Pillman keeps coming in at the wrong time and distracting the ref. *I’m* getting pissed at the Blonds at this point and I’m rooting for them! That’s good heel work. Douglas gets the belly-to-belly, but the ref is out of position. Austin finally gets frustrated and nails Douglas with the belt for the DQ at 13:44. The Blonds try to whip Douglas, but Steamboat dives on him to protect him. Awh. His own personal Jesus. The match was the usual fantastic stuff from these four. This match would set of a series of great matches around the circuit, leading to the Blonds taking the titles before WCW had the brilliant idea of breaking them up. **** Thundercage Match: Vader, Paul Orndorff & Barry Windham (w/Harley Race) vs. Sting & Dustin Rhodes. The heels took out Ron Simmons before the match, so it’s a three-on-two. The faces do fine until Vader hits Sting from the back. The NUMBERS GAME eventually overwhelms the faces as Dustin gets caught in the bad-guy corner. Aaaaaannd CUE CACTUS JACK! Jack runs down and cuts open the cage door. He starts beating the heels to death with his shoe to cement the face turn. Awesome! Orndorff tries a piledriver, but Cactus comes off the top with his boot and nails him in the back of the head. Cactus on top! ONE, TWO, THREE! The faces send the fans home happy at 11:26. Rushed main event, but Cactus’ turn would set up his feud with Vader, which is one of the few entertaining things from 1993 (yes, even “Lost in Cleveland” is perversely entertaining). **3/4 Cactus Jack explains his face turn and picks a fight with Vader and his crew. Well, that was a bad decision in retrospect.

The 411: A great tag team match and a solid debut from Chris Benoit highlight an unusually good 1993 show from WCW. It would be downhill in a hurry, though, before they crashed and burned in the Fall and looked for Flair to pick them up again. Thumbs up.
Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]