It is arguable that 1991 was the lowest point in World Championship Wrestling’s 12 year history as a company (with the exception, obviously, of its final closure). During the year, WCW had gotten themselves into all kinds of internal strife, lost its figurehead star and its main singles title in the process, and seen live attendance figures collapse on the back of an attempt to compete with WWE by adopting some of its more cartoonish and bombastic traits at the time. WCW executives had failed to understand that the main people watched WCW was precisely because they wanted an alternative to Vince McMahon’s superhero based juggernaut. The man steering the company back then was the infamous Senior Vice President, Jim Herd, a Turner executive who knew little about pro-wrestling other than it did good ratings on TBS, and who clashed with practically every proponent of old-school wrestling in a very old-school wrestling promotion- the list of names driven away by Herd included Jim Cornette, Stan Lane, Stan Hansen, The Road Warriors and, most famously, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair who clashed with Herd throughout his tenure as the company head-honcho, while still occupying the position of the company’s main star and biggest draw.
The discord between Flair and Herd came to a head in June of 1991 when Flar, as champion, was fired from the company because he refused to drop the title to Lex Luger. It wasn’t the first time Flair had baulked at the prospect of putting Luger over for the belt- the same thing had happened the previous year when Flair refused to so based on the fact that he had promised to drop the title to Sting. Sting had gotten injured at about the time Flair was due to pass the torch, and so Herd wanted Flair to lose to Luger. On that occasion, Flair managed to get his way and remained champion until Sting returned later in the year however in 1991, things went a little differently. This time around Flair, who was back as champion, wanted to lose the belt to Barry Windham instead of Luger, and being on the booking committee, he was ideally placed to make sure it happened. However, 2 weeks away from the Great American Bash pay-per-view, with Flair apparently under the impression that he’d gotten his way again, Herd fired his Champion and was this time determined to put the strap on Luger. The only problem was that Flair still had the big old NWA/WCW World Title belt in his possession…
At the time, the NWA ran a system whereby the Champion would put down a $25,000 deposit to carry the title around (to stop them from selling it, or melting it down for gold) and Flair had not been given his money back. So when Flair arrived in WWE, he brought with him the big-gold belt (as discussed in my review of WWE’s This Tuesday In Texas pay-per-view). At the Great American Bash, WCW were left in the embarrassing position of having to tape the words ‘World Champion’ onto the belt they did have, as it wasn’t ready yet! (WCW were creating a new belt after crowning Flair the first ‘WCW’- as opposed to ‘NWA’- World Champion in January). That night, Flair’s absence loomed large as the crowds chanted “we want Flair”, while Luger and Windham fought in a match for the vacant title, which culminated in Herd finally getting his way and crowning ‘The Total Package’ as champion. With the dip in popularity and loss of prestige due to Flair’s arrival in WWE, things didn’t get much better for Herd over the rest of his run in charge of WCW and in the New Year he was duly replaced in his position as Senior Vice President by another Turner executive with little knowledge of pro wrestling, Kip Frey.
In the last few months of Herd’s stewardship, the foundations of a turnaround for WCW had started to be put in place, with the on-screen product becoming dominated by the manager Paul E Dangerously and his Dangerous Alliance faction. The Dangerous Alliance consisted of Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko and ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin and were fast becoming the focus of the entire promotion due to their combination of established stars, the hot prospect of Austin and the mouthpiece, Dangerously, leading it all. Lex Luger was still the heel World Champion at the time (though was also not far away from a move to Titan Towers, albeit as the main star of Vince McMahon’s new venture- the World Bodybuilding Federation), and was being pursued by Sting with a title match set for Superbrawl 2 in February. Prior to that pay-per-view, WCW presented their regular TV special, Clash of the Champion 18, in late January. In addition to a duo of tag encounters between Dangerous Alliance members and the top babyfaces, that would headline the event, WCW chose this broadcast to unveil Kip Frey publicly as the new Senior Vice President and also announce the signing of long-time WWE colour commentator, Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura.
The card began with a tag contest featuring The Steiner Brothers up against Big Van Vader and Mr Hughes. This was an excellent way to kick off the show, and reintroduce the Steiners after an injury to Scott’s bicep had precluded them from teaming up for much of the previous year. In order to ramp up the push of the Steiners right off the bat, they were put in there for a hard hitting and big bumping contest with two big men willing to, and capable of, throwing themselves all over the ring, despite their size, to make the Steiners look great in the process. Fans of Brock Lesnar’s now-signature style of match in 2016 will love this display of stiff clotheslines and suplex heavy offence which included the awesome sight of Rick Steiner executing an overhead belly to belly suplex on the 400 pound plus Vader, from the top rope. The Steiners took the victory after Vader, aiming for Scott, instead hit Hughes with a lariat and then Rick followed it up with a bulldog for the pin. Rating 7/10. In terms of putting together both an exciting and legitimate looking wrestling match, while accomplishing the aim of re-establishing the Steiner Brothers as a force to be reckoned with instantly upon their return, this hit all the right notes.
The advertised contest for match number 2 had been set to see The Diamond Studd (Scot Hall) & The Young Pistols take on Brian Pillman and The Patriots however, an injury to Studd and the decision by Steve Armstrong to leave WCW in early 1992 meant that it would now feature Brian Pillman & Marcus Alexander (Buff) Bagwell against Tracy Smothers of the Pistols and Taylor Made Man (Terry Taylor). In fairness to these 4 men, they still managed to put on a relatively decent contest which was fought at a high tempo, but really had no reason to be teamed up in the way they were. Having only turned pro 18 months prior to the show and at just 22, it was assumed that Bagwell had a promising career ahead of him, unfortunately a combination of slow progress, injuries, bad timing and gaining a reputation for disruption meant that it never blossomed into the success story that was hoped for him at the time- it wasn’t as if Bagwell didn’t have his admirers after all, Bagwell was kept in WCW by Bischoff while the likes of Austin, Foley, Pillman and others were either released or allowed to move on. Bagwell is the one also, who secures the victory for his team in this one with a sunset flip on Smothers. Rating 6/10.
Another one of WCW’s promising youngsters was up next as Johnny B Badd, who would later go on to be Marc Mero in WWE, took on former member of the Rock N Roll Express, Ricky Morton, known at the time as Richard Morton having previously been renamed as part of the York Foundation that had been managed by Alexandra York (Terri Runnels). It was billed as a Light-Heavyweight match in conjunction with the launch of the WCW Light-Heavyweight title the previous December, where Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger had become the first champion at Starrcade when he defeated Brian Pillman. While Pillman and Liger’s battles were some of the most exciting seen in the US at the time, the rest of the division was light years behind and this is a poor, disjointed contest which ends in equally messy fashion when Morton’s own momentum after hitting a crossbody meant that Badd was able to roll him over for the pin, despite both men essentially being wrapped up in the ropes. Rating 4/10. They weren’t helped by the fact that highlights of the match between Liger and Pillman had been show prior to their bout.
The hype surrounding the Light-Heavyweight division wasn’t about to end there however, when Eric Bischoff welcomed both Pillman and Johnny B Badd upto the stage area where Bischoff was based for the entire broadcast, for an interview. Pillman cut a promo where he blamed America’s stagnant economy at the time on manufacturing job losses brought on by Japanese multinational companies, while Badd acted oddly stood next to him. The segment finished when Badd placed a sticker of a pair of lips on Pillman’s cheek and Pillman decked him for it. Needless to say this was both terrible and bizarre at the same time. Things didn’t get any better in match 4 which featured PN News whose gimmick was that of a white rapper (picture John Cena mixed with Brodus Clay), who rapped his way to the ring, against ‘Diamond’ Dallas Page. This of course was in the embryonic stages of Page’s career and at this point he was nowhere near the popular, over, accomplished performer he would go on to become as his career progressed. Eric Bischoff has commented in interviews that the advice he gave to Page in order to help get him over was to drop some of his gimmicks- and here you can see what Bischoff was talking about- Page is a mess of accessories, with far too much going on at once. After just 4 minutes of sloppy looking action, News takes the pinfall after a splash from the top rope. Rating 3/10.
In an inexpertly executed segment, Tony Schiavone next introduces the crowd to WCW’s new Senior Vice President, Kip Allen Frey and also unveils Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura as the company’s newest colour commentator. After Ventura talks up WCW, Schiavone makes one last announcement, which is that Sting will face WCW World Champion, Lex Luger, at Superbrawl 2. They then cut back to a pre-recorded promo from Luger talking about how he is in the finest shape of his life, and then back in the arena, Sting walked to the ring and signed the contract for the match. All of this made WCW look amateurish- from the set up, with all involved on the elevated entrance ramp, to the personnel involved, which included a faceless bunch of men in suits out there in an attempt to capture the official nature of all that had been announced.
Next up was a falls count anywhere match between Cactus Jack and Van Hammer which was thankfully an improvement on the previous 30 minutes of the programme, though far from brilliant. The crowd however were not particularly interested in what was happening, which doesn’t stop Foley doing his best to rustle up some excitement for it by taking a couple of really painful looking bumps. Firstly there is a poorly executed sunset flip that Foley does on a part of the floor around the ring where the concrete had been exposed and then there is a hip toss that he takes from the entrance way all the way to the concrete floor below. As the match goes backstage, the fans begin to boo (unsurprising really given that there were no big screens to show fans what was going on) while Jack and Van Hammer brawl out of the building and across to a barn on the other side of the road from the arena. All of a sudden, Abdullah The Butcher turns up and, when attempting to hit Jack with a shovel, he misses and catches Van Hammer instead, allowing Cactus Jack to get the pin. Rating 5/10. After the match, Abdullah and Cactus continue to fight, Abdullah only stopping briefly to dump ‘roving report’ Missy Hyatt into a pig trough, before resuming hostilities with his rival.
The Freebirds were out next for a match with another oddball pairing- Big Josh and Brad Armstrong. The Freebirds were by this time past their best, and were made up of Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin (rather than the classic trio of Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts) but this was actually a fun little match with enough zip about it to keep the crowd’s energy up, and a pretty cool finish when the Freebirds hit Armstrong with a double DDT allowing Hayes to get the pin. Rating 5/10.
After a brief video package that added further hype to the Steiner Brothers, including footage of them defeating the likes of The Road Warriors, The Samoans, The Nasty Boys and others in the past, followed by an interview in which Rick Steiner made it clear that he and his brother were gunning for the tag titles held by Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton, we got match number 7 of the evening. This one featured Kevin Nash dressed up in a shiny diner suit, going under the name of Vinnie Vegas up against former NWA World Champion, Tommy Rich. Rich had won the big one back in April 1981 and held the belt for 4 days before dropping it again back to the man he’d defeated, Harley Race. Race would later suggest in an interview with RF Video that the only reason the title change had come about was to boost the live gate for a rematch at a time when Georgia Championship Wrestling promoter, Jim Barnett, needed a business argument for keeping hold of his influence over the NWA title’s booking. Unfortunately for Rich following that brief run as ‘the man’, he had fallen pretty far and, after a being a part of the York Foundation, had been left to fend for his self in early 1992 when the faction disbanded. Here he is treated no better than a jobber, booked to lose to the still green (and not at all over with the audience) Vinnie Vegas in under a minute. Rating 1/10.
It was finally time for the main two bouts of the evening, the first of which would feature Dangerous Alliance members Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko against Dustin Rhodes, Ron Simmons and Barry Windham. This was another high-paced contest set in front of a hot crowd and featured a number of highlights including Ron Simmons escape from a double hammerlock from Anderson and Eaton by flipping up and over them, the impressive sight of the burly Dustin Rhodes flying over the top rope to the entrance way with a clothesline, a series of stiff lariats from Barry Windham and the typically perfectly executed spine buster by Anderson. The end came when the match broke down and all 6 men were brawling in and around the ring, Eaton came off the top rope at Windham but the big man took Eaton down with a right hand and covered one half of the tag team champions for the victory. Rating 7/10. This was a fine match with the only drawback being it could have gone on beyond its 9 minutes in length. All 6 men in the match contributed to the whole but Windham, Anderson and Rhodes in particular stood out.
Prior to the main event, Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura replaced Tony Schiavone at ringside to share commentary duties with Jim Ross for the match that would pit ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin and ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude opposite Sting and Ricky Steamboat. The pace that had been set in the previous encounter doesn’t fall here, and the crowd are no less invested in this one either making for another really enjoyable match. After a very tidy early exchange between Austin and Steamboat, which included Steamboat hitting a flurry of Martial Arts chops before attempting a backslide pinfall which Austin managed to kick out of, Rick Rude and Sting get in with Rude immediately slapping ‘The Stinger’ and raising the anger of his opponent. Rude’s selling of two subsequent Atomic Drops are magnificent both for how convincing they are, and how hilarious his facial expressions are during them. Eventually the heels take over with Rude delivering a low blow to Sting and the pair wearing him down before Sting made the hot tag to Steamboat and all 4 men went at it. In the middle of it all, Austin goes for a slam on Steamboat, but Sting jumps off the top onto Steamboat and both babyfaces then fall on top of Austin after which the referee counts 3. Rating 7/10. It has a bit of a silly ending, and again could have gone longer, but this was another very good slice of mat action.
And that, as they say, was that- after the opening contest, WCW Clash of the Champion 18 falls away badly throughout the middle of the show but picks up for two very good encounters to end the night on a high. Despite the obvious troubles the company were facing, there was still a good crew of quality wrestlers on the roster, a number of which were undoubtedly over with their fan base. What’s more, in Sting, Vader, Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, The Steiner Brothers and The Freebirds the company had the experience and stars that, combined with the hot prospects on the roster, could have made the company a success. What’s striking is just how many of the men that would revolutionise the business in the late 1990s were on hand at this show –Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Brian Pillman, Jim Ross and Dustin Rhodes all played hugely significant roles in either shaping, pioneering or inspiring the late 90s boom across 3 different promotions- one wonders how different things might have been had they been allowed to reach their full potential in WCW.
The barriers to that potential were firstly Frey’s lack of understanding of the wrestling business and secondly, his successor Bill Watts’ preoccupation with less urgently required change- instead of updating the dilapidated look of the on-screen product, he reinstated archaic rules such as banning wrestlers from jumping off the top rope (just as wrestling was about to see more top rope action than ever before), and insisting everybody stayed at the arena until the final bell. While Bischoff sought instantly to upgrade the production values of WCW, he was unimpressed with the talent at his disposal and spent millions of dollars on bringing in the likes of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and many others who had made their name in WWE, to the promotion, in the process he let many of the talents that would go on to play such an important part in the future of pro wrestling slip through his fingers. History tells us now that while both Frey’s and Watts’ approaches were flawed, so was Bischoff’s, and while Bischoff would go on to lead WCW to the most successful period in its history, he did so making the business completely unsustainable, even in the mid-term. Perhaps what is on show here, is that the tools were in place for somebody to come along and run with a new generation of exciting young talent that could have led WCW to at least moderate success. But had Bischoff allied his procurement of big name talent to developing those already in the company, maybe things would have turned out entirely differently for everybody concerned.
Overall Rating: 6.45
The Random Wrestling Review 