WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV

WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV
Daytona Beach, FL
Ocean Center
August 18, 1993

Man am I ever enjoying some 1993 WCW action! Clash XXIV comes to us late in the summer, as WCW was starting to settle some old feuds and ignite new ones for the upcoming Fall Brawl PPV. This takes place from one of WCW’s classic cities – Daytona Beach, FL – home to many a Clash and PPV throughout their history. Attendance was so bad for WCW shows that they were pretty much giving away almost all tickets for free. The trick seemed to work for these events, as the building looks full and the crowd is pumped for this card.

WCW was definitely going off the rails at this point, with an influx of terrible mid-carders and an increasingly weak main event picture. Ric Flair’s return was huge earlier in the year, but he was pretty much an upper mid-carder at this point, focused entirely on the NWA title, which was secondary to the WCW world title. Flair was also tied in with this terrible incarnation of the Horsemen, and things would not improve for him until late in the year. Sting and the British Bulldog were awesome on the memory front, but weren’t exactly packing crowds into the building at this point. As nostalgic as I am for this era, the booking was just all wrong and was a confusing mess. Flair should have been the top face, the returning hero. Instead, it lead to one of the worst turds of a surprise in wrestling history, Paul Roma, which would be topped by one of the most hilariously bad moments in wrestling history on this card.

As a kid, I loved all these goofy newcomers and the main guys they were pushing, but WCW had no read on their actual audience. A lot of the wrestlers they were bringing in and pushing were truly fucking awful – the Colossal Kongs, Big Sky, the Cole Twins, Chief Charlie Norris, Ice Train, the Equalizer, Yoshi Kwan, etc. Just awful! Yet I loved reading about them in PWI and watching them stink up Worldwide every week. I definitely love this era, even for all its terribleness.

Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura are handling commentary as usual. I’ve been reading a lot of criticism about Jesse’s work during the latter half of 93 and it’s hard to disagree. He was starting to give less of a shit on commentary, and it seemed and was often confused and just spouting random nonsense.

1) Arn Anderson & Paul Roma defeated WCW/NWA Tag Team Champions Steve Austin (w/ an injured WCW/NWA Tag Team Champion Brian Pillman) & Lord Steven Regal (w/ Sir William) to win the titles at 9:51 when Anderson pinned Austin with a roll up and grabbing the tights for leverage after Austin collided with Sir William on the apron as William held Pillman’s crutch, with intentions of using it on Anderson

This was certainly far shorter than their snoozer at Beach Blast. I’m surprised they waited a month before taking the titles off of the Blondes. The main problem here is that the heel Blondes were loved, while the babyface Horsemen team sucked and had no support from the fans. Seriously, Paul Roma and Arn Anderson – what a fucking shitty tag team. The storyline here of course is that Brian Pillman is injured and Lord Steven is a last minute replacement. Austin and Regal were a real clash of styles, which I guess was the point. The match wasn’t anything special and is pretty sad, as it was the angle that kickstarted the demise of the Blondes, thanks to WCW’s shitty booking. Wacky miscommunication ends this one, as Austin crashes into Sir William and the crutch on the apron and is rolled up by Anderson to lose the tag team titles. Damn, I knew this was coming but it still sucks to watch. The end of one of the greatest teams of the early 90s, two guys thrown together who got over huge and had phenomenal matches throughout the year.

2) 2 Cold Scorpio pinned Bobby Eaton with a spin kick and the 450 splash at 5:26

Always great to see 2 Cold in action, especially without that doofus Bagwell! Bobby Eaton had a weird 93, just kind of drifting around and being in a lower card tag team with Chris Benoit. This was a good basic TV match, and it was disappointing to see such an NWA legend like Eaton only be given 5 minutes. I would have loved to see this go longer. Still, it was an impressive win for Scorp who was big time over. His 450 splash looked absolutely killer.

3) Johnny B. Badd pinned Maxx Payne after avoiding a splash off the middle turnbuckle at 2:41; due to pre-match stipulations, Badd won possession of Payne’s guitar, Norma Jean; had Payne won, Badd would have had to unmask and show the scarring caused from Payne shooting him in the face with the Badd Blaster

What the shit was this?! So the big blowoff to a feud that had been going on for months was essentially a two minute squash – as in Payne squashing Badd. It made no sense why this was so short, but they raced through this match, and it just ended out of nowhere with Payne missing a splash and getting pinned. Wow that sucked. Johnny wins Payne’s guitar and says he’ll unmask anyway this coming weekend. This was all stupid and too short to mean anything.

Next was one of the most infamous and comical moments in WCW history. All show they had been hyping that Sting and the British Bulldog would be on a Flair For the Gold to reveal their surprise team member for the War Games match at Fall Brawl. Flair’s dopey talk show was underway, with Sid, Vader, and newcomers Harlem Heat – then known as Kane and Kole – waiting on the big surprise. Sting and the Bulldog hyped and threatened their opponents that their surprise partner would SHOCK all of them. A shitty explosion went off, then a big clumsy oaf in a glittery Stormtrooper helmet fell through the wall of the set. I’ve watched and laughed at this moment for the past 20+ years and it’s STILL laugh out loud hilarious! The SHOCKMASTER had arrived in WCW! First off – what the fuck were they even thinking with this gimmick?! Say he didn’t trip out of the wall. You still had a repackaged Typhoon wearing a furry vest and Stormtrooper helmet magically cutting a promo in the Black Scropion’s voice. This is legendarily bad and somehow even worse when you watch it in context. Sid and Vader have to pretend to be upset, and Sid rants and raves at the Shockmaster like it still matters. This was an unbelievably shitty surprise! Just fucking painful to watch, but so so funny. There’s tons of great stories and shoots on the whole incident. It’s one of the most fascinating car wrecks in wrestling history.

4) Ricky Steamboat pinned WCW TV Champion Paul Orndorff to win the title at 8:32 by reversing a bodyslam into an inside cradle

Jesse Ventura is openly laughing and making jokes about the Shockmaster’s debut. He keeps up making jokes throughout the rest of the show and is clearly enjoying the ridiculousness of it all. This was a good match for the TV title and a big win for Ricky Steamboat who has been aimless in the mid-card since the departure of Shane Douglas and the loss of the tag team titles. It’s amazing when you look back at the depth of talent WCW had in the early 90s, yet couldn’t book worth shit and had dwindling audiences. What a shame. Anyway, this was an enjoyable match. I’ve loved Paul Orndorff’s 93 run and his TV title reign comes to an end here. His feud with Simmons was completely dropped because of booking issues and so the title is hastily transitioned over to Steamboat. Pretty good match that sees the Steamer get a quick reversal for the win. I liked Orndorff beating on him after the match with a solid piledriver on the stage.

5) Sting & NWA World Champion Ric Flair defeated the Colossal Kongs (w/ Harley Race) at 2:14 when Sting scored the pin with a Stinger Splash in the corner and splash off the top

Man the Colossal Kongs are a memory from this era. Two more pieces of shit that couldn’t work and stunk things up. The Kongs had been hyped for weeks and Harley Race promised that they’d destroy Sting and Flair. Nope. This was a two minute squash. Flair and Sting were invincible and just destroyed the Kongs who never even stood a chance. It wasn’t even really a match, as Flair just brawled with one Kong on the floor, while Sting destroyed the other in the ring. OH! And the funniest part was that they had that goofball Michael Buffer do the ring introductions for these last three matches. What a waste of money!

6) Dustin Rhodes & Road Warrior Hawk (mystery partner) (w/ Road Warrior Animal) defeated Rick Rude & the Equalizer when Rhodes pinned the Equalizer at 7:42 after Hawk came off the top behind the referee’s back with a shoulderblock as Equalizer held Rhodes up for a bodyslam

Dustin Rhodes’ mystery partner was hyped throughout the show. A Camaro drove out from the back and out came Road Warrior Animal to a monster pop! But he wasn’t the real surprise, it was Road Warrior Hawk, emerging from the crowd! The crowd was losing their minds, chanting LOD! at the reunited Hawk and Animal. This being WCW, of course the Road Warriors don’t stick around and Animal was gone right after this show, still collecting insurance money for his injured back. Hawk sticks around intermittently, but fans no doubt wanted the actual Road Warriors. Once this match got going it kinda sucked, as the Equalizer was just pure awful, and Hawk looked really rusty. This continued the ongoing Rhodes and Rude storyline, but something bigger was brewing for Rude as he had his eyes on the NWA title. The crowd reaction was great when Rodes pinned the Equalizer (what a shitty fucking name) thanks to assistance from Hawk. And that was it for the Road Warriors for another couple years.

7) WCW World Champion Big Van Vader (w/ Harley Race) pinned Davey Boy Smith at around the 11-minute mark when Race tripped Smith as he had Vader in a delayed suplex, with Vader falling on top for the win

I’ve really enjoyed the British Bulldog’s main event run in WCW, which sadly was coming to an end. I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews on the internet, as many feel he never really fit in with WCW and certainly not in the main event picture. His matches with Vader were all really good, and this was no exception. This had the added stipulation that Vader could lose the title on a DQ, so he had to be far more cautious. I really liked how they matched up power wise and Vader did tons of great selling for the Bulldog. Despite the Bulldog’s best efforts, it was the cheating of Harley Race that cost him the match, as Race helps Vader retain, much to the crowd’s disappointment. In a huge surprise, Cactus Jack – no longer lost in Cleveland – comes racing down the ramp in his big return and brawls with Vader. Wow! Huge ending to the show, as the fans have been dying to see Cactus return, concluding this classic car wreck of a Clash.