WCW Clash of the Champions XXV

WCW Clash of the Champions XXV
St. Petersburg, FL
Bayfront Center
November 10, 1993

I know 1993 WCW gets shit on a lot, and rightfully so, but I really have been enjoying these events. These were dire times in WCW’s history and I’ve been reading about how close to going out of business the company was. How much of that is exaggerated I don’t know, but things certainly were looking bleak for the company. They had cut pretty much all house shows, minus their international tours by this point, and were running TV tapings pretty much exclusively in the Southeastern US. There were ugly incidents that further tarnished the image of the company like the Sid-Arn bloodbath in the UK hotel and a sexual harassment charge and lawsuit from Missy Hyatt in December. Word is that when the Turner execs looked at the books at the end of the year and saw that they had lost something like over $20 million dollars, there was very real talk about putting an end to things. Until Eric Bischoff guaranteed them that he would be able to lure Hulk Hogan into the company in 1994. Crazy to think that WCW almost didn’t last until the arrival of the Hulkster.

With all that in mind, it’s really fun to watch what they were presenting as a televised product. Fans tuning into Clash 25 would only see a packed arena of fans going nuts for WCW. They had no idea that almost 5000 of these tickets were freebies. Ignoring all the turmoil, the injuries, the transient nature of the company, there’s actually some great wrestling buried in these events.

In what was a huge shock at the time – MEAN GENE OKERLUND opens this Clash of the Champions. I remember being furious when Mean Gene suddenly appeared in WCW in the fall of 1993. He was a deeply ingrained member of the World Wrestling Federation from the moment I first laid eyes on the product in 1986. It’s crazy how both Mean Gene and Bobby Heenan would make the jump to WCW when all signs were pointing to a sinking ship. But after years of the punishing WWF schedule, it certainly made sense for them to head down south.

Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura are on commentary and are extremely excited that Mean Gene is here in WCW. I’ve enjoyed listening to Tony and Jess so much on these shows. Their chemistry was just perfect at this point, and I love how Tony would get in his own quips on Ventura.

1) Road Warrior Hawk fought WCW International World Champion Rick Rude to a double count-out at 5:38 when both men began brawling on the floor

This feud has been going on since the summer. Apparently, Hawk was supposed to be the fourth man on the good guy team in War Games, but due to injury, was replaced by the Shockmaster. This was a good fiery brawl to start, but kind of fell apart quick, as do the majority of Hawk’s singles matches. Still though, pretty fun brawl until this spilled to the floor leading to a really cheap and early double countout. Most interesting, throughout this whole event they were hyping up an impending British Bulldog – Rick Rude feud over the now branded “International World title.” That certainly would have been a cool feud, but it’s only a matter of weeks before the Bulldog is gone from the company.

2) The Shockmaster pinned the Equalizer at 2:29 with the bearhug into a slam

LOL a battle of two of the worst wrestlers in the company. For whatever reason, they’re still pushing the Shockmaster and he’s still pretty over with the fans. He also has the weirdest entrance ‘music’. It sounds like there’s something wrong with it, like it’s guitar practice. He had a good first theme, no idea why they replaced it with this hilarious garbage. There’s a hilarious Youtube clip of a Shockmaster Worldwide match where Jesse calls it “the sorriest entrance music he’s ever heard” lol. Both of these guys totally suck and this mercifully ends fast, with Shockmaster looking like he’s about to start humping the Equalizer lol. Yet another big win for the Shockmaster who never seemed to lose!

3) WCW TV Champion Lord Steven Regal (w/ Sir William) pinned Johnny B. Badd at 6:35 with a roll up and grabbing the tights for leverage after Badd grabbed for William when William put Regal’s foot on the bottom rope during a cover

When watching through these cards, I’m surprised that there is actually quite a bit of consistency in WCW despite things going off the rails. Lord Steven Regal was a solid TV champion, even though I still find his matches to be boring as dirt. There’s so much more appreciation now for Lord Steven’s mat based offense, but I still find it hard getting into his matches. This was at least wrestled at a faster pace thanks to Badd and was kept under 10 minutes. Stupid ending though, as Badd seemingly knocks out Lord Steven with a punch, riling up Ventura over Badd’s flagrant cheating, but instead of covering, Badd decides to tangle with Sir William, leading to a cheap rollup. I love Jesse cheering on Lord Steven! Best part of this match.

Next up is the sad end of the Hollywood Blondes. Ventura is making borderline shoot comments about how upset and heartbroken he is over the Blondes splitting up. Him and everyone else. The decision to break up the hottest heel team of the year was incredibly stupid, though it did inadvertently plant the seeds for the eventual growth of Stone Cold. Mean Gene interviews Col. Rob Parker, the new manager of Stunning Steve Austin, and surprisingly they’re still talking about Sid Vicious, claiming that Parker filed a restraining order to keep him away from WCW. From what I’ve been reading, they still weren’t sure what to do with Sid yet and he was currently on suspension. His actual firing would come in a couple weeks.

4) Steve Austin (w/ Col. Rob Parker) pinned Brian Pillman at 9:11 when Parker pushed Pillman as he attempted a springboard clothesline into the ring, with Austin then throwing Pillman face-first to the mat

Fucking rights!!! This is a 5 star classic!! Even though it’s terrible that they made this team implode, Austin and Pillman tear the house down, never letting up in this high intensity match. The only negative is that the fans are pretty quiet, as both Austin and Pillman had been despicable heels for the past year. Still, the former Blondes never left high gear and are just ruthlessly beating the shit out of each other. Austin looked particularly vicious, really laying in the attack on Pillman. The ending is tremendous as Austin viciously counters the springboard clothesline and drives Pillman face first into the mat – looked so painful. Damn fucking great match.

5) WCW US Champion Dustin Rhodes (w/ Dusty Rhodes) pinned Paul Orndorff (w/ the Assassin) at 12:15 with an inside cradle after avoiding an elbow off the top

The story of this match was more about the big return to ringside of Dusty Rhodes, opposing his former nemesis – the Assassin. Dusty and Dustin get a massive pop from the fans, and Dusty is still hugely over in the former home base of his Florida territory. I loved hearing Tony and Jesse acknowledge this history on commentary and talk about Dusty’s popularity in the area. I’ve been a huge fan of Orndorff’s 93 run so far, but this match doesn’t rank so high on the list. It’s a totally boring, entirely mat based battle. Ventura seemed to love it, as he enthused over what great wrestling we were seeing, as Dustin and Mr. Wonderful slowly ground it out on the mat. The match really lacked aggression and was just too plodding. And most of the focus was on Dusty and Assassin. Dustin wins with a really cheap small package, but gets beaten down by Orndorff and the Assassin. They beat on Dusty Rhodes with the title belt, until Dustin makes the big save for his poppa. All the after match stuff was much better than the actual battle in the ring.

6) WCW Tag Team Champions the Nasty Boys (w/ Missy Hyatt) defeated Sting & Davey Boy Smith at 8:41 when Brian Knobbs pinned Smith after Jerry Saggs hit the elbowsmash off the top behind the referee’s back as Smith had Knobbs covered following the running powerslam

All show they kept hyping and building up the brewing tension between Rude and the Bulldog in the backstage area. As Sting and the Bulldog brawled with the Nasty Boys prior to the bell, Rude hilariously snuck down and attacked the Bulldog from behind, laying in a beating and planting him with the Rude Awakening on the ramp. Man that was great! What a great match this could have been. Most of the match was Sting fighting the Nasty Boys alone, with the Bulldog slooooowwwwllllyyy getting back to his feet and insisting he was fine. After a lengthy beating, Sting finally made the hot tag to the Bulldog who proceeded to destroy the Nasties. He drove Knobbs into the mat with the running powerslam, but as the ref was busy with Missy (“he’s asking her for a date Schiavone! he won’t leave Missy alone!”), Sags flies off the top rope and nails the hurting neck of the Bulldog allowing Knobbs to score the pin. Hard to believe that Sting and the Bulldog lost by pinfall to the fucking Nasty Boys! I get the storyline reason behind it, but of all matches that could have just had a screwy ending.

7) Ric Flair (w/ Fifi) defeated WCW World Champion Vader (w/ Harley Race) via disqualification at around the 9-minute mark; the finish saw Vader miss the moonsault and Flair made the cover, with referee Randy Anderson then crawling over to make the count and slapping his hand against the mat as he crawled over; however, the referee disqualified Vader for accidentally hitting him just prior to the moonsault

This is the moment WCW fans had been waiting for since February, FINALLY Ric Flair was back in the main event, world title picture. Flair gets a huge pop for his entrance and is ready to square off with his toughest test yet since returning. Prior to the match, Flair got into an altercation with Col. Robert Parker in the back, leading to Jesse questioning his focus against Vader. This is another pretty damn great match, with Flair giving it his all and withstanding the onslaught from Vader. It’s all action, as Flair tries to chop down the big man and goes to the air a couple times. They both get in some impressive super moves and there’s teasing that Flair might just be able to pull off the win. Unfortunately we get a stupid finish as the ref goes down with Vader on the attack. The big man goes up for the moonsault, but misses and the ref starts to count. After Vader kicks out, suddenly the ref has called for the bell, declaring Vader DQ’d. Well why the fuck count the pin then? Really good match with a stupid finish. But more excitement follows as Vader, Harley Race, and Steve Austin all attack Flair and lay in a beating. Suddenly Dustin Rhodes and the SHOCKMASTER run down and clear the ring. Okay that made me laugh my ass off! Mean Gene interviews Flair, and he says he’s bringing Sid Vicious to face off against Vader and Steve Austin. Weirdly that match ended up happening because it was taped BEFORE this Clash and the stabbing incident. Classic WCW!