WCW Clash of the Champions XVI

WCW Clash of the Champions XVI
“Fall Brawl”
Augusta, GA
Augusta-Richmond Civic Center
September 5, 1991

This is definitely one of the biggest memory WCW events of all time. It’s been over 20 years since I saw this card, yet I remembered so much from it, crystal clear. After growing as a WCW fan over the summer and early fall of 91, this was the peak of my fandom until later in 92 when WCW Worldwide debuted on regular Canadian Saturday morning TV. Matt was also big into WCW and he and I planned to watch this Clash together, which was shown live on a Thursday night, right at the start of grade 5. Matt came over to my place, but I think he left about half way through the card since it was a school night. We both loved all of the surprises and goofy action. I continued to follow WCW up to around Halloween Havoc, but I think that’s when the TBS preview ended. I remember TSN showing WCW Power Hour, but it was on at strange times and most of the matches seemed boring, so I would only watch it once in a while. And of course I was a kid, so I would often lose interest in things, and it would seem like years would go by before I was back into it.

They finally spruced up the entrance way for this show, which featured extra lighting and a big silver curtain for a backdrop. I remember this display so well and I remember thinking how awesome it was that WCW had a ramp! Ross and Schiavone are on commentary and I’m still not really warming up to the them. As has become the norm, this Clash was jam packed with rapid fire angles and short matches. WCW was trying to get so much over in the era after Flair, and so much of it just wasn’t working.

This Clash was basically the “Ron Simmons Show” as this whole card was designed to get over Simmons as a top babyface challenger to the now evil Lex Luger. I’ve always wondered how Simmons rose to the top of WCW, but it’s still just as much of a mystery. He got the big win over Butch Reed at Superbrawl, beat Oz at the Great American Bash, and mows through the Diamond Studd on this card. He probably won matches steadily on TV and started getting over as a result. He doesn’t really get huge cheers here, so I’m really curious to see how the crowd reacts at Halloween Havoc.

1. El Gigante won a 15-man battle royal by last eliminating Oz at 9:32; Ranger Ross, WCW 6-Man Tag Team Champion Big Josh, and Terrance Taylor were eliminated when Josh tried to skin the cat and eliminate Taylor with a headscissors (4:31); Thomas Rich eliminated by WCW 6-Man Tag Team Champion Dustin Rhodes (4:56); Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker eliminated by Barry Windham (5:02); WCW 6-Man Tag Team Champion Tom Zenk eliminated (5:13); Tracey Smothers by WCW TV Champion Steve Austin (w/ Lady Blossom) via a backdrop (5:50); Bobby Eaton by the One Man Gang via a backdrop after Oz sent Eaton into Gang (6:56); PN News eliminated after missing a splash in the corner on OMG (7:17); Windham & Austin eliminated each other (7:27); after the elimination, they continued to trade punches on the floor, with Windham gaining the advantage; Rhodes by OMG & Oz (9:17); OMG by El Gigante via a double clothesline (9:30); Oz by Gigante via the same double clothesline

Holy crap what a HUGE memory this battle royal was! We loved every second of the action when we watched it as kids. It was the WCW equivalent of the future Wrestlemania X7 gimmick battle royal. Lots of funny characters in this one. It was a pretty standard battle royal, but the eliminations were nicely spread out and all made sense. It was awesome how the battle royal came down to the three biggest guys Gigante, Oz, and the Gang. Oz and Gang get a lot of offense in before Gigante gets the better of them. Just great and hilarious to see this again!

2. WCW Light Heavyweight Championship Tournament Semi-Finals: Brian Pillman pinned Badstreet at 6:52 with a crossbody off the top

The complete farce of the Yellow Dog angle ended out of nowhere for no reason. What the hell was the point of it? Why did Pillman need to leave in the first place on the last Clash? Talk about horrible planning and execution. The entourage of the Freebirds also seem to have disappeared. No more Big Daddy Dink or DDP with the group. Also ridiculous is that this match was a semi final match in the mess of the lightheavyweight title tournament. Brian Pillman, who’s been gone for a few months, returns “out of nowhere”, then suddenly gets inserted into this semi final match. Huh? Only in WCW. Now, with all that being said, this match was GREAT! That was always the thing with WCW, no matter how stupid their angles and characters were, there was still a ton of top talent putting on great matches. The action was non-stop and Pillman nearly kills himself as they wrestle full speed ahead. Pillman picks up the win and instantly sets this stupid lightheavyweight tournament on fire.

Up next that geek Eric Bischoff is in the ring with Bill Kazmaier, who is here to break some Guinness Book of World Records feat of strength by bending a steel rod over his neck. Oh, and Kazaimer is also in the tag team title tournament final later, teaming with Rick Steiner against the Enforcers – Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyzsko (more on them later). WTF! Sure enough as Bill is breaking the record the Enforcers appear and smash him in the ribs with a large weight. In typical WCW fashion this angle happens in 30 seconds and Kazaimer gets rushed to the back for medical attention.

3. WCW US Champion Sting pinned Johnny B. Badd (w/ Teddy Long) in a non-title match with a botched inside cradle at 6:12 after both men became distracted by a giant box placed on the ramp; after the match, Cactus Jack broke out of the box, attacked Sting, hit an elbow drop from the middle turnbuckle to the floor, and hit a double arm DDT

Nikita Koloff left WCW over the summer and his feud with Sting was never concluded. Instead we have the start of a new hot angle, which Matt and I absolutely loved at the time. A mysterious gift box showed up during a TV taping and Abdullah the Butcher burst out of the box and attacked Sting. The big mystery concerned who was behind the “gifts” to Sting. Here at the Clash, Sting is wrestling Johnny B Badd in a horribly sloppy match. I remember this so well from when I was a kid when I didn’t care about workrate, just Sting destroying Johnny and continuing on with the box angle. This match is just a mess, and the action comes to a complete stop when another box is wheeled out onto the ramp. Sting and Badd stand around before locking up again and Sting soon uses a horrible looking cradle to put Badd away. In true WCW fashion they don’t switch to the camera focused on the box and we miss Cactus Jack bursting out of the box. He destroys Long then attacks Sting. The angle is pretty awesome and Ross is losing his mind over the destruction. He screams about Cactus disappearing to Mexico and wonders what kind of a sicko would bring him in to WCW to destroy Sting. I remember this entire storyline so well, and I remember seeing all of the follow-up angles in the weeks after this card.

4. WCW Light Heavyweight Championship Tournament Semi-Finals: Richard Morton (w/ Alexandra York) pinned Mike Graham at 7:40 with a roll up and grabbing the tights for leverage after kicking out of a roll up and sending Graham head-first into the corner

I have no idea what the actual bracketing for this tournament was, but I recall reading that it was a mess from top to bottom. Mike Graham was a star in the Florida territory and he was in and out of NWA/WCW over the years. This match was all right, but seemed a little bland to me. It sure lacked the fire and intensity of the Pillman-Badstreet match. Morton wins this pedestrian encounter and moves on to face Pillman at Havoc.

5. WCW US Tag Team Champions The Fabulous Freebirds defeated The Patriots (Todd Champion & Firebreaker Chip) in a non-title match at 5:44 when Garvin pinned Chip after Hayes hit a double axe handle off the top onto Chip behind the referee’s back as Chip had Garvin covered

I remember The Patriots so well from this era, little did I know at the time how much they sucked. Just fucking terrible. The Birds are entertaining as always and control most of the action. I couldn’t stop laughing at the name Firebreaker Chip. The name ‘Chip’ alone is stupid enough for a wrestler. They seem to have been pushing the Patriots somewhat, but the Birds put them away relatively clean.

Up next was another rushed angle. WCW was like the Sesame Street of wrestling with so many rapid fire segments and goofy muppets. Paul E. Dangerously interviewed Cactus Jack in the ring about his return earlier on the show. Cactus rambled on about destroying Sting when suddenly a gift box was wheeled down the aisle. Cactus believed this was Abdullah and went out to hug the box. Whaaa? Of course STING burst out of the box and attacked Cactus, brawling with him back to the dressing room. Why would Sting bother to find a giant gift box? Why not just run down to the ring and attack Cactus? Was he trying to out psych Cactus? Why do I even question WCW’s storylines?

Next up was a whole series of Ron Simmons segments – him getting his college jersey retired, an interview with his old football coach, footage of Ron Simmons visiting a boys club in Atlanta (did the kids ask him about his match against Oz? I would have), and a clip of Simmons wrestling Luger in Atlanta (then what’s the point of this contract signing?). All of this hype was supposed to get Simmons over as a main event superstar in the eyes of the fans. I found this all boring. I guess they were trying to establish him as a legit sports star. Later in the show was a segment where Missy Hyatt was trying to interview Lex Luger in his locker room. Simmons was trying to get in to confront Luger about their contract signing later in the show. Simmons eventually tackled the door down (lol) and tried to get at Lex but was held back by other wrestlers who ran in approximately two seconds after Simmons broke down the door.

6. Ron Simmons pinned the Diamond Studd with a shoulderblock at 2:23; after the bout, Paul E. Dangerously conducted an in-ring interview with Simmons regarding his facing WCW World Champion Lex Luger at Halloween Havoc, during which Harley Race and Mr. Hughes appeared and Simmons walked out to find Luger himself

This was my favorite Diamond Studd match thus far, even though it’s only two minutes and he gets destroyed by Simmons. It’s action packed and exciting, and of course ends before it really gets going. Nice to see ya Studd. Funny how almost all of these mid 91 newcomers were being buried or fired (Black Blood) just months after their debuts.

7. Van Hammer pinned Terrance Taylor (w/ Alexandra York) with a kneedrop off the top to the back at 1:09 after a front suplex

This was another “big” debut, as Heavy Metal Van Hammer makes his WCW debut here. I remember being so excited about this character as a kid. I thought it ruled that he came out with a guitar. Why is Taylor a complete jobber? He gets obliterated by Hammer, who had the look but not the ability. At this point though he looked like a can’t miss prospect for WCW. He actually gets the small crowd in Augusta solidly behind him.

8. WCW TV Champion Steve Austin (w/ Lady Blossom) pinned WCW 6-Man Tag Team Champion Tom Zenk at 9:11 by hitting Zenk with a foreign object as Zenk had the champion in the air for a back suplex

Good match that was actually given time. Z-Man and Austin worked well and put on a good TV title match. Nice to see Austin win by cheating. I used to find these types of matches boring as kid since they didn’t feature ridiculous characters or goofy stipulations, but as an adult I really enjoy the work put into them.

Next was the segment this show was built around – contract signing between Lex Luger and Ron Simmons. They decorated the stage area and each wrestler was in a suit seated with an entourage. It’s kind of cool that Luger was aligned with Harley Race and Mr. Hughes even though it made no sense. Seated with Simmons was his wife (for real? not sure) and Dusty Rhodes for no reason. Once again, they hurried through this segment as Lex talked up Simmons like he was a legit star, then offered him a job being his driver once he lost. For some reason this made Simmons madder than anything and he tried to attack Luger, but all the officials and entourages held them apart. Pretty good angle, but geez did these segments ever need more time to fully build.

9, WCW Tag Team Championship Tournament Finals: The Enforcers (Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyzsko) defeated Rick Steiner & Bill Kazmier to win the titles at 5:34 when Zbyzsko pinned Kazmaier when Anderson hit Kazmaier in the ribs as he attempted a gorilla press slam on Zbyzsko

So after Scott was injured the Steiners were forced to drop the titles and some sort of tournament was held. I remember the Enforcers so well. I just HATED that team when I was younger because I found them so boring. Larry and Arn are wearing similar tights and I guess were a good team. Why the hell is Kazmier teaming with Steiner? This match stunk and was just all Rick and the Enforcers until Kazmier tagged himself in and 30 seconds later fell victim to some clever double teaming. The Enforcers are the new tag champs and this memory show comes to a close.