EVENT REVIEW: WCW Clash of the Champions XIX

 

 

June 16, 1992
McAllister Field House, Charleston, South Carolina

Taped on June 16th before a capacity crowd of 4,600 and airing on TBS a week later, WCW Clash of the Champions 19 revolved almost entirely around a tournament to crown new National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Tournaments.

Over the proceeding few years, the relationship between World Championship Wrestling and the NWA had been tenuous at best, but with old-school stalwart Cowboy Bill Watts now in charge of WCW, the two brands were gung-ho about giving that relationship one last shot.

Of course, it wouldn't last, but until then, shows like tonight would at least provide us with some quality wrestling.

 

Here's what went down on that fateful night in South Carolina.

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The Best in the World Converge on WCW

Our show tonight began with a short promo for the NWA World Tag Team Title tournament that would dominate this show.

 

 

From there, we quickly went to the trio of Tony Schiavone, Missy Hyatt, and Magnum TA.

Between Tony and Magnum putting over the magnitude of tonight’s event, Missy Hyatt informed us that New Japan Pro Wrestling was going to be hosting a tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Missy would be bringing us more details about that later in the show, but first, Schiavone gave us a brief interview with then-WCW boss Cowboy Bill Watts, who put over both the NWA’s rich sense of tradition and the upcoming tournament’s number one seed, The Steiner Brothers.

 

 

Finally, we got comments from our announcers, Jim Ross & Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura, before heading to the ring for our opening contest.

Joe Malenko & Dean Malenko (Europe) vs. Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat & Nikita Koloff

First off, hell yeah! Dean Malenko!

 

 

Here, the future Man of 1,000 Holds and his brother Joe Malenko represented Europe as they went up against Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff in a tremendous opening match.

Steamboat and Koloff dominated most of the contest, but the Malenko brothers certainly looked impressive too.

In fact, if I were booking WCW back then, I’d absolutely sign those boys up and push them into a feud with The Steiner Brothers.

Alas, as impressive as they may have looked, tonight wasn’t to be Joe & Dean’s night.

The two lost the match when Koloff hit Dean with the Sickle for the pinfall.

Your Winners: Ricky Steamboat & Nikita Koloff

After a quick commercial break, it was back to the action.

The Z-Man & Marcus Alexandra Bagwell vs. The Dangerous Alliance (WCW US Champion ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude & WCW TV Champion ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin w/ Madusa)

Our second match of the night was nowhere near as good as the first, but if you ever wanted to see Steve Austin and Rick Rude just demolishing their opponents, this was the match for you.

 

 

Marcus Alexander Bagwell and The Z-Man stood no chance here. The duo’s offense was brief and ineffective compared to that of a Dangerous Alliance team who controlled 99.95% of the match.

After around seven minutes, this glorified squash match ended with Rude drilling Bagwell with the Rude Awakening for the three count.

I read from multiple sources that the babyface’s burial was all due to Booker Bill Watts having a problem with pretty boy babyfaces.

Whatever the reason was, it sure didn’t look good for Bagwell and Zenk.

Your Winners: The Dangerous Alliance

Backstage, Eric Bischoff recapped the results of the show far before turning his attention to an interview with Terry Gordy and Dr. Death Steve Williams.

Both men seemed to fluster their way through an awkward promo. 

To begin, Gordy ranted that nobody cared about Australians (their upcoming opponents, The O’Days, were from Down Under), insisting that all anybody wanted to see was Gordy & Williams against The Steiners.

 

 

This didn’t make Dr. Death too happy as he next claimed that he was so sick of hearing about Rick & Scott that it gave him a headache.

To wrap things up, Williams called The Steiners a homophobic slur that I won’t repeat here, then said “I know I can’t say that on TV,” but apparently he could as it’s still shown on the Peacock version of this event.

The O’Days (Larry & Jeff O’Day) vs. Terry ‘Bam Bam’ Gordy & Dr. Death Steve Williams

I don’t know much about the father-son duo of Larry & Jeff O’Day, but I do know that they were doomed from the moment they stepped through the curtain.

 

 

Father Larry looked like a college art professor who had never seen the sunlight, and son Jeff couldn’t have looked less like a star if he’d tried.

Unsurprisingly, the Aussies were pulverized by Gordy and Williams in two and a half minutes.

Your Winners: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams

Up next, Jesse Ventura conducted an in-ring interview with a tuxedo-clad WCW Champion, Sting.

Well, I say interview.

 

Ventura basically goaded Sting about Big Van Vader hurting him and coming after the title. In response, Sting likened his story with Vader to that of David vs. Goliath, insisting that since he had the fans on his side, he felt like Goliath and was ready to take on Vader.

This was followed with a quick commercial for Great American Bash ‘92 where the two would meet, and then it was back to the ring.

‘The Natural’ Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Beautiful Bobby & ‘The Enforcer’ Arn Anderson w/ Paul E. Dangerously)

I’m writing this just days after it was announced that Barry Windham had suffered a heart attack and was in ICU.

 

 

I sincerely pray that we’ll all have heard more positive news on Windham’s situation by the time you read this review.

Tonight, he and Dustin Rhodes went at it in a solid match with Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton.

There was nothing fancy or elaborate about this one. It was just good, old pro wrestling the way it’s meant to be done.

After a strong performance, Rhodes moved out of the way of Eaton’s Alabama Jam attempt and took him out with a match-winning bulldog.

Your Winners: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes

A plug for the WCW poster book led us into a commercial break, after which we went back to Eric Bischoff, Missy Hyatt, and Missy’s gorgeous legs.

 

 

Missy told us that not only would the NWA World Heavyweight Championship tournament be taking place in Japan that August, but also that all four members of The Dangerous Alliance would be competing in that tournament.

She then left as Gordy and Williams returned to talk about a ‘terrible accident’ that had happened backstage involving The Steiner Brothers’ upcoming Puerto Rican opponents.

Fired up and incredibly animated, Bam Bam and Dr. Death told us that the accident was so awful, The Steiners would have to get a bye to the next round as a result of a forfeit and ultimately go on to face The Miracle Violence Connection in their next match.

This being wrestling, neither Eric nor anyone else seemed concerned with checking on the validity of Gordy & William’s claim and simply accepted it as fact.

The Silver Kings (Silver King 1 & Silver King 2) vs. WCW United States Champions The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael ‘P.S’ Hayes & Jimmy ‘Jam’ Garvin)

The Fabulous Freebirds’ US tag team titles were not on the line here as they went up against the Mexican duo of The Silver Kings.

 

 

If you’re wondering, The Silver Kings were Juan Jauregui, who was better known as El Texano and Cesar Gonzalez, who was the guy who you may remember wrestling as Silver King later on in WCW.

The company didn’t care enough about either man to use their names, so they were simply referred to as Silver King 1 & Silver King 2.

That’s a shame, really, because both Jauregui and Gonzalez had some pretty impressive offense to deliver.

The problem was that their way of wrestling was completely at odds with the way Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes wrestled, resulting in a clash of styles that made for a really messy match.

After stumbling awkwardly through a six-minute contest, The Silver Kings pounced on The Freebirds outside the ring but couldn’t follow up.

Immediately after, Hayes rolled up one of the kings in the ring and this one was over.

Your Winners: The Fabulous Freebirds

Post-match, Ross & Ventura confirmed that The Steiner Brothers’ opponents really were unable to compete, and thus we’d be seeing The Steiners vs. Gordy and Williams at The Great American Bash.

Elsewhere in the arena, Tony Schiavone and Magnum T.A. also confirmed this. Ole Anderson showed up, too, though all he did was triple-confirm what had happened.

Flyin’ Brian & Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger vs. Chris Benoit & Beef Wellington

Yes, Canadian grappler, Biff Wellington was known as Beef Wellington here, and I personally found that so funny that I had to take a break and compose myself before watching this match.

 

 

Anyway, I’m glad I was able to settle down and eventually pay attention because this tremendous contest turned out to be the best thing on the show so far. 

As some long-time fans may recall, Wellington and Chris Benoit had been tag team partners in Stampede Wrestling, Weirdly, they both later died on the same day, but let's not get bogged down into all that right now because this was a damn fine match.

Benoit and Jushin Liger kicked things off with a fine display of wrestling before Benoit tagged out to his beefy partner for an exchange with Brian Pillman.

From there, things got better and better. All four men bust their asses, whipping the crowd into a frenzy in one hell of an exciting match.

After 11 minutes of action, Liger caught Wellington with a moonsault to put his team through to the next round.

Your Winners: Jushin Liger & Brian Pillman

Up next, this:

The Head Hunters (Head Hunter 1 & Head Hunter 2) vs. Hiroshi Hase & Akira Nogami

The Head Hunters were not the huge guys you probably know from Japan, ECW, and their appearance at the 1996 Royal Rumble, but rather Arn Anderson and Bob “Masked Superstar #2” Cook wearing generic masks.

 

In fact, I'm entirely certain at least one of these masked was used by Rick Rude when he debuted back at Halloween Havoc 91.

 

 

Their match with Hiroshi Hase & Akira NoGami was…well…let’s just say that in all the time I’ve been watching pro wrestling, I’ve never seen a match have less heat.

The two teams wrestled to absolute silence, and even the announcers found other things to talk about, like this gem from Ventura:

Ross had mentioned the phrase ‘agony in defeat,’ to which Ventura replied:

“What are you talking about, agony in defeat? You have your shoes on, you don’t have agony in the feet.”

I spent the rest of the match laughing at that and paying almost no attention to the lifeless excuse for pro wrestling going on in the ring. 

It was a shame, because I like Hase & Nogami, but this match was incredibly boring.

The Japanese team won with synchronized bridging German suplexes shortly after the five minute mark.

Your Winners: Hiroshi Hase & Akira Nogami

After the break, Jesse Ventura interviewed Ron Simmons about Simmons' quest to become the first black world champion.

After vowing to overcome all the odds, Simmons was interrupted by the arrival of Harley Race and his charge, Super Invader.

 

 

In a promo with heavily racist overtones, Race wanted Simmons to be an errand boy and tell Sting that Vader was after him.

Big Ron refused, so Harley told him that when he was a seven-time champion, he had a boy like him carry his bags.

From what I’ve read elsewhere, Race actually used the word “negro” here, but someone at WWE did a nifty job of replacing it with the word “boy.”

Anyway, Simmons destroyed both Race and the useless Super Invader and that was that.

 

 

After that, Bill Watts told Tony Schiavone that we’d be starting round 2 of the tag team tournament right now with Steiners vs. Gordy & Williams

Dr: Death Steve Williams & Terry ‘Bam Bam’ Gordy vs. WCW World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner)

I was really looking forward to this match, but, to be honest, it was a bit of a letdown.

 

 

Things started with both teams trading amateur wrestling moves and a couple of stiff shots. I can’t say for certain that they were shooting at each other, but it certainly looked that way and made for boring viewing.

Then, Dr. Death turned Rick Steiner inside out with a clothesline, signaling a turning point in the match in which the action picked up and we got the kind of quality match I’d been expecting.

Then, it all kind of ended when Scott Steiner, Steve Williams, and Terry Gordy all collapsed in a heap on top of one another and Williams pinned Steiner.

Your Winners: Steve Williams & Terry Gordy

The duo would go on to The Great American Bash ‘92 to face Steamboat and Koloff. This is one of the rare instances where I’ve reviewed shows out of order, so you can go right ahead and read my Bash ‘92 review here.

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Things may have deteriorated for WCW in the Bill Watts era after this event, but there’s no denying the cowboy’s reign started strong.

The opening match and that excellent Pillman/Liger vs. Benoit/Wellington match more than made up for the lackluster action elsewhere on the show, and while the resulting match was disappointing, the storyline running through the night of Williams & Gordy wanting The Steiner Brothers was well played out.

Not the best Clash of the Champions ever, but certainly a decent show by all accounts.

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Other Clash of the Champions Reviews:

 

• NWA Clash of the Champions 1 
• WCW Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shootout 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XI - Costal Crush 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XII - Fall Brawl '90: Mountain Madness 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XIII - Thanksgiving Thunder
• WCW Clash of the Champions XIV - Dixie Dynamite
• WCW Clash of the Champions XV - Knocksville, USA! 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XVI - Fall Brawl '91
• WCW Clash of the Champions XVII
• WCW Clash of the Champions XVIII

Other 1992 pro wrestling event reviews

1. WWF Royal Rumble 1992
2. WCW Superbrawl II 
3. WWF UK Rampage 1992
   
4. WWF Wrestlemania 8
5. WWF Summerslam 1992
6. WCW Great American Bash 1992
7. WWF Survivor Series '92
8. WWF 1992 - The Year in Review 

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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PPV REVIEW: WCW Superbrawl II (1992)

February 29, 1992
Miller High Life Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Suprbrawl II came at a time when the company's unfortunately short-term president, Kip Allen Fry was doing his damnedest to get WCW out of the creative and financial pit it had fallen into over the past several years of horrible management.

As the story goes, one of Fry's initiatives to turn WCW around was awarding a $5,000 bonus to the wrestlers who put on the night's best match. 

Suddenly incentivized and sufficiently motivated, many of the company's stars began upping their game between the ropes, leading a sharp uptake in match quality.

Personally, that gets me pretty excited. 

I've always loved the Superbrawl Pay Per View, and I may have mentioned in the past that it often felt more prestigious and important than WCW's marquee PPV, Starrcade.

I've never actually seen Superbrawl '92 before today, so combine that with the fact that this was my favorite WCW PPV and the promise of some good quality matches, I honestly can't wait to dive into it.

Welcome to Superbrawl II

Our show tonight began with one of WCW’s better opening videos which did a fantastic job of selling marquee matches, including Brian Pillman vs. Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, Rick Rude vs. Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, and Sting vs. Lex Luger.

 

Already I’m pumped for this show. Surely there’s no way a card featuring such an awesome line-up could possibly fail, right?

The video segued into a live shot of the crowd as pyro exploded and Tony Schiavone welcomed us to tonight’s event.

Remember what I said about Superbrawl feeling like a bigger deal than Starrcade?

This exciting opening certainly made it feel that way.

Anyway, Schiavone and broadcast colleague Eric Bischoff were both equally as geared up for tonight’s event though the duo couldn’t agree on who would win tonight’s tag team title match.

Eric’s money was on The Steiners, while Schiavone backed the duo of Bobby Eaton & Arn Anderson.

 

In the back, Missy Hyatt was so giddy about her role as a backstage interviewer that she promised her interviews would be better than the matches themselves.

I’m only a few minutes into this, but somehow I doubt it.

Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura Debuts in WCW

Out in the ring, Jim Ross welcomed his broadcast partner for the evening, none other than the one and only Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura.

 

Last seen calling the action (I think) at Wrestlemania 6, Ventura made his WCW debut by riding a motorcycle to the ring and then eliciting a huge pop for name-checking Harley Davidson.

He and Ross then ran through tonight’s card before the promo finished with The Body saying, “you know, if you wore a cowboy hat, you’d look just like JR Ewing.”

Ventura then turned to the camera and smirked, “which is funny because his initials are JR.”

So there you have it, Jesse Ventura came up with Jim Ross’s cowboy hat gimmick.

Finally, we got a little bit more rambling from Bischoff and Schiavone, and then it was down to our opening contest of the evening.

World Championship Wrestling World Lightheavyweight Champion Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman lol

A precursor to many of WCW’s fondly remembered Cruiserweight classics, Brian Pillman and Jushin Liger tore it up here in a tremendous opening contest.

 

The two spent the early part of the match trading the advantage on the mat, occasionally picking up the pace to pop the crowd with some aerial attacks before returning to submission holds again.

As things progressed, champ and challenger upped the ante, battling back and forth towards a crescendo of dramatic near falls and victory for Pillman.
Your Winner and New Lightheavyweigh Champion: Brian Pillman

Out in the back, Missy Hyatt was super excited to be interviewing Tailor-Made Man, Terry Taylor.

 

Cosplaying as Ted Dibiase in a shiny black and gold suit, Taylor cut a confident promo deriding his upcoming opponent, Marcus Alexander Bagwell, for not taking him up on his offer to become Taylor’s protege and promised to make an example out of the future Buff Daddy.

Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs. The Tailor-Made Man Terry Taylor

I mean, seriously, the only difference between Taylor’s pre-match attire and Dibiase’s famous suit is that the latter always had dollar signs on it.

Speaking of attire, our guest ring announcer was a young man from Syracuse University named Barry Abrams, who had won a contest to do the introductions for this match.

 

Curiously, Abrams looked to be wearing a tuxedo until the camera pulled out to reveal that he was wearing a tuxedo on the top half and basketball shorts on the bottom.

I can’t say for certain, but I wonder if his outfit choice was why a large portion of the audience booed the crap out of him.

Whatever you’re doing these days Barry, I hope you’re doing well!

On another note, JR mentioned that Taylor and Greg Valentine were the new US tag team champions, but those belts were apparently so insignificant that Terry didn’t even bother to bring his with him.

 

As for the actual match, I’ll be honest that I wasn’t really expecting much from it, but it soon turned into a decent veteran vs. rookie bout.

Other than Taylor capsizing off the top rope with a poor-looking splash, the action was solid enough, but you got the feeling that the fans didn’t yet care enough about Bagwell to really root for him as the underdog.

As such, when -after he’d spent most of the match getting his ass whooped- he pulled a flash pinfall out of nowhere, few people seemed to give a damn.
Your Winner: Marcus Alexander Bagwell

Post-match, Taylor beat up on Marcus, though Ventura reminded us that even though he was dead in the middle of the ring, M.A.B would still be headin’ to the proverbial pay windah.

Lex Luger Is Going to Be The Champion Because He is The Champion

Yes, I know that subheading sounds dumb, but that’s exactly what Harley Race told us in our next backstage interview with Missy Hyatt.

 

Race told Wyatt (and all of us) that his man, Lex Luger, was in the best shape of his life before finishing his short promo with the sentence, “Lex Luger is going to walk out the champion tonight and he’s going to be the champion tomorrow because he is the world heavyweight champion, Lex Luger.”

So there you have it.

Cactus Jack vs. Ron Simmons

Though it was slow in parts, the clash of styles between Ron Simmons and Cactus Jack made for an enjoyable match.

 

During one lull, the camera panned to the crowd where Junkyard Dog was seen chilling out in a white tuxedo with a face that bore all the emotion of a catatonic brick.

Back in the ring, Simmons got the early advantage by attacking Cactus after getting his head stuck between the ropes, prompting Jesse Ventura to rightly call out the supposed crowd favorite for using such underhand tactics.

Jack eventually made his comeback and pulled out the rest of his usual repertoire, including a big-time elbow from the corner to the outside and a bunch of DDTs, but that wasn’t enough to put away the man who WCW had been pushing pretty heavily since he split from Butch Reed.

Somewhat predictably (at least if you follow this period of WCW history), Simmons picked up the win with a power slam.
Your Winner: Ron Simmons 

Afterward, Abdullah The Butcher came down to start the next phase of his on-again-off-again alliance with Cactus Jack as the two beat up on Simmons.

Eventually, JYD took his sweet time sauntering through the crowd, casually head-butted two security guards, and then sent Cactus and Abby packing with some fake-looking tights and lefts.

You have to wonder if this angle would have been more effective had Junkyard seemed in a hurry about saving Big Ron, especially when Jim Ross told us that the two were friends.

After some quick post-match analysis from Bischoff and Schiavone, it was onto our next contest.

There’s No Money in Bodybuilding

As Van Hammer and Z-Man made their way to the ring for our next match, Jim Ross pointed out that Zenk and Ventura were both Minnesotans.

“That’s right,” said Jesse. “In fact, Z-Man was a former Mr. Minnesota who came over from body building to pro wrestling because we all know there’s no money in body building.”

After a beat, he continued:

“In fact, the big guy Vinnie probably knows there’s no money in bodybuilding.”

If you don’t know why that jab was hilarious, you need to leave this review immediately and go Google something called The World Bodybuilding Federation.

Vinnie Vegas & Richard Morton vs. Van Hammer & The Z-Man

This match kinda sucked.

Given the crowd reaction and the comments in another Superbrawl 2 review that I read, I may be in the minority as far as my assessment goes, but I certainly didn’t have a good time watching this one.

 

Sure, the brief exchanges between Zenk and Richard Morton were terrific, but despite those two being the better workers, Vinnie Vegas and Van Hammer spent 90% of the match working exclusively with each other.

Vegas certainly oozed charisma and was over with the audience, but it took him and Hammer a good while to gel, and their early exchanges looked horrible.

Though I’m genuinely a fan of Kevin Nash, I can’t deny that in the early moments, at least, he looked like he’d never taken a bump in his life.

Things got better towards the end, but by that point, watching Vinnie Vegas wrestle Van Hammer for the better part of 10 minutes had completely killed any interest your writer had, and it was a relief when Z-Man came in for the hot tag followed by a match-winning roll-up.
Your Winners: Van Hammer & The Z-Man

Up next, Schiavone and Bischoff took us back to Halloween Havoc 1991, when Arn Anderson and Larry Zybysko destroyed Barry Windham’s hand as he arrived for the show with Dustin Rhodes.

Tonight, we were told Windham was out for revenge in our next contest.

The Dangerous Alliance (WCW TV Champion Stunning Steve Austin & Larry Zybysko w/ Madusa) vs. Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham

Though I personally preferred Rhodes & Steamboat vs. Zybysko & Anderson from the previous month’s Clash of the Champions, this was still a solid match.

 

The longest bout on the card so far, things started fast and furious as Windham dove straight for Zybysko in front of a hot crowd.

Things slowed down somewhat in the middle, but even then, all four men gelled beautifully to deliver a smooth, compelling performance.

After a very good outing, Windham destroyed Zybysko with a big-time flying lariat and got the win.
Your Winners: Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham

As the victors made their exit, Ross and Ventura sent us over to Schiavone and Bischoff.

 

Wearing a Michigan State jacket, Eric marked out hard for The Steiner Brothers and couldn’t wait to see them win their next match.

Before we got to that, however, there was this.

Ricky Steamboat’s Ninja Bodyguard

Backstage, Missy Hyatt attempted to get an interview with Ricky Steamboat.

On arrival at his dressing room, she was greeted by a grunting ninja who I guess was Steamboat’s…I don’t know…bodyguard or something. 

 

The ninja bodyguard opened the dressing room door, but when it revealed Steamboat meditating with some candles, he quickly shut it again and shooed Missy away with yet more grunting.

Hyatt wasn’t away for long, as she bumped into Madusa who also wanted a word with The Dragon.

The ninja flat-out refused, so Madusa slapped him but then ran off when he chased after her.

I honestly have no idea what I’ve just watched.

World Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Championship
WCW World Tag Team Champions The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson & Beautiful Bobby w/ Paul E. Dangerously) vs. The Steiner Brothers

Prior to the bell, Garry Michael Capetta informed us that WCW boss Kip Allen Fry had banned Paul E. Dangerously from the ringside.

 

The Dangerous Alliance boss had already been banned from the upcoming US title fight, so naturally, he was pretty pissed about this, but he reluctantly went anyway after being ushered out by a gaggle of referees.

Maybe they should have gotten Steamboat’s ninja to help them.

Once the bell rang, the match was almost as good as you’d imagine it would be.

After an excellent wrestling display by Scott Steiner and Bobby Eaton in the opening moments, both teams traded the advantage before Scotty succumbed to his opponents and did a great job as the face-in-peril.

I say this was only almost as good as you’d imagine because of the convoluted finish.

Arn Anderson threw powder in Rick Steiner’s eyes. The referee apparently didn’t see that but did see a now-blinded Dog Faces Gremlin coming towards him, mistaking him for Anderson and blasting him with a suplex.

With the official referee down, a second one ran to the ring to count a pinfall after Scott hit Bobby with the Frankensteiner, even though Eaton wasn’t the legal man.

The bell rang. The Steiners grabbed the title belts, only for Nick Patrick to officially declare the result as a disqualification victory for The Dangerous Alliance due to Steiner hitting the referee.

That was kind of messy, but everything before it was great.
Your Winners via DQ and Still Tag Team Champions: The Dangerous Alliance

After a quick commercial for the upcoming WrestleWar PPV, Ross and Ventura recapped the controversial finish to the tag team title match.

Backstage, Missy Hyatt watched as a stoic Ricky Steamboat left the dressing room and headed towards the ring for what Hyatt promised would be “the best US title match ever.”

World Championship Wrestling United States Championship
WCW United States Champion ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude vs. Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat (w/ The Ninja)

Paul E. Dangerously is banned from ringside

Meeting for the first time on PPV since the 1988 Royal Rumble, Rude and Steamboat gave us a strong match that started slow but got better and better as it went on.

 

Rude was so despised by the fans that it took him a good while to get through his usual pre-match shtick, with every fan interruption riling up the champion more and more.

Steamboat then came out with his ninja in tow as Ventura questioned why that was allowed, but Paul E. Dangerously had to stay backstage.

If you know anything about pro wrestling, you’ve probably already learned that the masked ninja was a member of The Dangerous Alliance and would inevitably turn on Steamboat.

That was obvious from the opening bell, but despite a predictable finish, it was still a damn fine match that built up from a lot of mat-based offense into a dramatic closing sequence.

In the end, Steamboat looked to have the match in had. He scaled the ropes, but the ninja whacked him one with a suspiciously-familiar cell phone.

The interference allowed Rude to get the cover, the count, and the fall.
Your Winner and Still US Champion: Rick Rude

After some post-match analysis, we went backstage to Missy Hyatt who burst into Rick Rude’s lockerroom to find -quell surprise- Paul E. Dangerously wearing the ninja outfit.

World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship
WCW World Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger (w/ Harley Race)

Lex Luger was on his way out of the door here and didn’t seem too concerned about leaving on a high note.

 

As such, his lackluster did dampen things and drag the match down at certain points, but it was still an enjoyable contest for what it was.

The match started hot, dragged in the middle as the unmotivated champion worked over his opponent’s knee, then picked up the pace again towards the finish.

After being dumped on the outside, Sting reversed a Harley Race piledriver attempt, and back-body dropped the former NWA champion on the mat. He then scaled the ropes and flattened The Total Package with an awesome flying crossbody off the top to regain the world title.

Yes, I know, in an age where we see wrestlers doing multiple flips and all kinds of ariel wizardry, a simple crossbody may not sound all that impressive, but trust me, this one was a thing of beauty.
Your Winner and New World Heavyweight Champion: Sting

As Luger disappeared from view and went off to focus on bodybuilding, Sting grabbed his newly-won title and celebrated with the audience while Jim Ross and Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura called time on what had been a mostly great show.

I mean sure, the Vegas/Morton vs. Zenk/Hammer match wasn’t good, but it was the only match on the card that I didn’t enjoy.

Even the likes of Taylor/Bagwell and Simmons/Cactus delivered in their own way, while the opening Liger/Pillman match, the two tag bouts and the US title matches all helped to make Superbrawl 2 one of the best WCW PPVs you’re likely to see from this time period.

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Other 1992 pro wrestling event reviews

1. WWF Royal Rumble 1992
2. WWF UK Rampage 1992
   
3. WWF Wrestlemania 8
4. WWF Summerslam 1992
5. WCW Great American Bash 1992
6. WWF Survivor Series '92
7. WWF 1992 - The Year in Review 

Other WCW Superbrawl reviews:

WCW Superbrawl I (1991)

WCW Superbrawl VI (1996)

WCW Superbrawl VII (1997)

WCW Superbrawl VIII (1998)

WCW Superbrawl IX (1999)

WCW Superbrawl 2000

WCW Superbrawl Revenge (2001)

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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EVENT REVIEW: WCW Clash of the Champions XVIII

 

 

January 21, 1992

Topeka, Kansas

As World Championship Wrestling headed into 1992 with Clash of the Champions 18, the company must have surely been hoping for a turn in fortunes after a horrendous 1991.

During that year, the oft-reviled Jim Herd had taken the helm and ultimately ostracised many old-school NWA stalwarts.

Among the many stars who had departed WCW after getting tired of Herd's ignorance of pro wrestling, the most damaging was none other than Nature Boy Ric Flair.

Flair was long gone, taking the Big Gold belt with him and leaving the company in a state of turmoil.

Yet by the time this first Clash show of 1992 came about, so too had Jim Herd himself.

In his place was a new boss, Kip Frey, a man whose tenure at the top was far too short lived given the promise he showed.

Here's a look at what went down at Frey's first big show in charge.

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Paul E. Dangerously Hates WCW

Our show tonight began with an opening video which was surprisingly good by WCW standards.

It focussed on Paul E. Dangerously -at the time the hottest commodity in the company- ranting and raving about how much he hated World Championship Wrestling and wanted to ensure the company's demise. 

 

 

To do that, he'd assembled "the baddest of the bad" to form The Dangerous Alliance who we would see in action tonight.

Dangerously looked great here and the video did a stellar job of creating hype for tonight's show.

One thing I personally find cool is that, as regular RPW readers may know, I'm also slowly working my way through early ECW and Paul E. has pretty much the same "Anti-WCW" gimmick which I think is pretty good commitment.

With that video out of the way, we went live to the arena where Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone welcomed us to the show. 

One thing I will say here is that WCW shows were looking great as of late. The company had upped the production values and the way the arenas looked was starting to look good with every show.

 

 

Anyway, Ross and Schiavone talked us through tonight's big matches before sending us down to Eric Bischoff and the ever-lovely Missy Hyatt.

The two promised to bring us lots of great interviews tonight before handing over to Garry Michael Capetta for the introductions to our opening contest. 

Big Van Vader & Mr. Hughes (w/ Harley Race) vs. The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner)

Rick Steiner had faced Vader and Mr. Hughes as part of the Lethal Lottery at Starrcade 1991, and his exchanges with Vader were the best part of that match. So it was nice to see that WCW booked them together again, this time bringing Rick's regular partner Scott Steiner into the equation. 

 

 

The match was even better than the Starrcade encounter.

Given plenty of time to do their thing, all four men threw each other around and roughed each other up with aplomb.

It was hugely enjoyable to watch and only came to a head when Vader accidentally drilled his own partner, leaving Hughes open to Rick Steiner's match-winning bulldog.

Your Winner: Rick Steiner 

Folks, call the WCW hotline and talk to Ricky Steamboat! 

Young Pistol Tracy & Taylor Made Man vs. Flyin' Brian Pillman & Marcus Alexander Bagwell

I don't know where Young Pistol Tracy Smothers' regular partner Steve Armstrong was for this match, but I do know he left the company a few months later, so this was the beginning of the end for that team.

 

Speaking of leaving companies, The York Foundation was pretty much done and Terrence Taylor had struck out on his own using the Taylor Made Man gimmick.

Anyway, this was another good match. Not great, not the best thing you'll ever see, but a solid effort from four undercard wrestlers who worked hard to deliver. 

The action was solid, the crowds were into it, and the whole thing was as entertaining as you could hope for from these four.

After a very good effort, Marcus Bagwell picked up the win for his team by catching Smothers with a sunset flip.

Your Winners: Marcus Bagwell & Flyin' Brian Pillman

Before the next match, we got a look at Jushin 'Thunder' Liger who had defeated Brian Pillman for the Light Heavyweight Championship. 

JR promised us that we'd see Liger defending the title at the upcoming Superbrawl show. 

Richard Morton vs. Johnny B. Badd

Johnny B. Badd had this gimmick as part of his entrance where women would stuff dollar bills into his garter. There's nothing wrong with that, but it was pretty disturbing to see a young girl who couldn't have been older than 8 or 9 waving a dollar around ready to shove it in Badd's garter belt.

 

I won't lie though, I laughed pretty hard when the girl accidentally dropped the dollar on the floor and looked crestfallen.

I'm probably going to hell for that.

Anyway, this match was OK.

Richard Morton had been incredibly boring as a heel during his singles run as he usually spent most of his time on the mat sucking the life out of the whole show, but he came to work here. 

Not that he got to do much. 

This was a short match that was just kind of "there" and ended when Morton hit Badd with a flying crossbody but Johnny B. rolled over and caught him with a three count.

Your Winner: Johnny B. Badd

After the break, Eric Bischoff stood by with Pillman and Badd with the idea being that he would interview both men about their success here tonight and the state of the Light Heavyweight Division. 

 

 

Instead, a fired-up Pillman went on a rant about Japanese companies building skyrise towers in local communities and buying up American companies which cost his friends their jobs. This uncharacteristic rant was all about setting up his match with Jushin Liger and making it more personal than being simply about "armdrags and hiptosses."

As Pillman got fired up about how much he hated Japanese people, Johnny B. Badd grinned and gurned and blew kisses to the camera, even planting a glittery pair of lips on Bischoff's face.

When he did the same to Pillman, the angry young man took exception to it and socked Johnny right in the mouth.

Pillman wouldn't fully turn heel until later in the year, but this promo was the most personality he'd shown since joining WCW. 

As he stormed off, Badd sat on his bum clutching his jaw and looking utterly confused at what had just happened.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. PN News

Yo baby, yo baby, yo! 

Its funny that they gave PN News a "rap master" gimmick when he was so bad at rapping. To be fair, he wasn't much better at wrestling either.

 

Here, the big man went up against Diamond Dallas Page, who had only just begun to compete in the ring over the last couple of months and still wasn't all that great at it.

The result was that this match didn't have much to offer. I won't say that I hated it or that it was terrible or anything, but there wasn't a lot going on worth writing about.

After about three minutes, News won the match with his "Rapmaster Splash" which wasn't a splash in the typical sense but basically involved him climbing to the top rope and falling off it onto his opponent.

Your Winner: PN News 

The coveted WCW Top 10 followed, putting Sting as the second-ranked competitor behind US champion Rick Rude.

That made Sting the number one contender, and we'd see him right after the break.

Big Kip Has Some Surprises

Following the commercial break, we went live to Tony Schiavone who was standing by with a group of nerds.

 

One of the nerds looked angry to be there. Another looked haplessly confused about where he was and weirdly reminded me of a 90s version of Steve Carrell's character from Anchorman. 

The third nerd was none other than Kip Frey, who Tony told us was the new Executive Vice President of WCW.

Taking to the microphone, Frey's first order of business was to put over the Sting/Lex Luger world title fight at Superbrawl II, and, to his credit, he made it sound like a huge deal.

Frey also told us that there was only one man capable of calling such an event, and promptly introduced us to a debuting Jesse 'The Body' Ventura.

Big Kip's run as WCW boss may not have been very long, but if he gave us more Jesse Ventura, he's alright in my book. He would also be responsible for the wrestlers getting bonuses depending on who had the best match on the card, but we'll talk more about that when we cover Superbrawl.

Anyway, Jesse was as charismatic as ever as he revealed that he would be calling Superbrawl from start to finish and looked forward to "telling it like it is." 

He was, as usual, awesome.

Sting Signs the Contract

Once Ventura had said all he had to say, Schiavone brought out Sting.

The man from Venice Beach hi-fived The Body and posed for the fans before standing by with the others as Tony played us a prerecorded interview from Lex Luger.

 

Sounding half-asleep, Luger told us that his recent absence was all down to his "champion's prerogative," that he was taking a step back to prepare for Sting but would definitely crush him at the PPV and prove himself to be the most dominant athlete in the world. 

Sting then signed the contract and posed for the fans as this long and enjoyable segment came to an end. 

That was all good fun and got this writer pumped for Superbrawl. 

Falls Count Anywhere
Cactus Jack vs. Heavy Metal Van Hammer

This was a pretty good Falls Count Anywhere match and the credit for that was all due to Cactus Jack and his willingness to take some sick bumps onto the concrete.

 

Of course, this could have been much better had Foley been working with a more capable opponent than Van Hammer, but Cactus managed to get him through a reasonably entertaining bout anyway.

The first half of the match saw the two brawling in and around the ring before making their way up to the curtain, with Foley's bumps being the sole highlight.

From there, the two disappeared behind the curtain and the crowds booed loudly because, obviously, they couldn't see anything.

Conveniently, that led us to a commercial break. When we returned, the two were in a parking lot with Cactus throwing random traffic cones at Van Hammer while Missy Hyatt yelled at Nick Patrick to do something.

I read somewhere that this part of the match was pre-taped, and though I don't know how true that is, I do know that our two fighters made their way to a random horse stable thing at the back of the arena where Hammer choked Cactus with some rope before The Man from Truth or Consequences got his own back by grinding his opponent's face with a longhorn skull.

At that point, Abdullah The Butcher turned up in cowboy gear and blasted Hammer over the back with a shovel, but Cactus kicked his former partner away before scoring the pin.

Your Winner: Cactus Jack

Post-match, Abby and Cactus continued to brawl. The Butcher tried to drown Jack in a trough of water before picking up poor Missy Hyatt and dumping her in. 

The brawling continued, but WCW clearly felt it was best just to leave them to it, so the show returned to the arena with Cactus and Abby still going at it.

That wasn't the greatest thing ever seen, but it was still pretty fun. 

The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael 'P.S' Hayes & Jimmy 'Jam' Garvin) vs. Brad Armstrong & Big Josh

We joined this match just as it was commencing. I presume (though can't confirm) that this was because Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin were using a new theme song called I'm a Freebird, What's Your Excuse that the WWE don't have the rights to use on the Network.

To be honest, that's probably a good thing because the song is pretty terrible.

Tonight, Hayes and Garvin were locking up with Big Josh and Brad Armstrong, the latter of whom had just been working under a mask as their ally, Badstreet, a few months earlier.

That was never mentioned, nor did anyone bring up the fact that Armstrong had also recently played Arachnaman, though to be fair, if you've seen the Arachnaman character, you'll agree that it's just best not to talk about it.

As for this match, it was OK. 

Not great. Not terrible, just a fairly generic tag match in which Jim Ross made a bigger deal out of the Freebirds' new ring attire than anything they did in the ring. 

In the end, the referee got distracted, allowing the babyface team of Hayes and Garvin to hit a sneaky double DDT for the win.

Your Winner: The Steiner Brothers

After the break, we got a video package highlighting how awesome The Steiner Brothers were. 

The video made sure to mention that Rick & Scott had beaten The Road Warriors and The Nasty Boys, both of whom had been doing their thing in the WWF as of late.

 

 

This led us to Eric Bischoff interviewing The Steiners as they gave us a decent promo in which they reminded everyone that they'd never officially lost the WCW tag team titles and were coming to reclaim them.

The whole thing ended with Scott Steiner quoting Alice Cooper and promising that from now on, it was no more Mr. Nice Guy.

Thomas Rich vs. Vinnie Vegas

This was the WCW debut of Vinnie Vegas and the announcers tried their best to convince us that this was the first time we'd ever seen the man on WCW TV.

 

 

This was pretty dumb and insulting as anyone who had been watching even just a month earlier would clearly recognize him as Oz with dyed hair and a new suit.

The match was nothing. Vegas hit Tommy Rich with a couple of knees then dropped him on the turnbuckle with the Snake Eyes.

I kid you not, I've been a wrestling fan for 30 years and it was only today, while watching this show, that the move was called Snake Eyes because it fit with the gambler gimmick of Vinnie Vegas.

Your Winner: Vinnie Vegas

After the break, Eric Bischoff interviewed Paul E. Dangerously who cut another amazing promo in which he promised beyond a shadow of a doubt that one of the men facing his Dangerous Alliance in our final two matches would be put out of action forever.

 

 

He didn't say who it was, but did promise that one of them would end up in the "Magnum T.A Memorial Retirement Home." 

Ouch. 

Six Man Tag Team Match
The Dangerous Alliance (Larry Zybysko WCW World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton w/ Paul Heyman) vs. The Natural Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Ron Simmons

There's not a lot to say about this match other than that it was entirely solid and hugely enjoyable. 

 

 

The babyface trio started off strong, even doing the fun spot where they got all three heels in simultaneous figure fours before Paul E.'s men assumed control and cut Dustin Rhodes off from his corner.

All the while, the big story was Barry Windham trying to get revenge on Larry Zybysko for slamming his hand in a car door back at Halloween Havoc. 

 

Windham never quite managed to get his hands on Zybysko properly, but did win the match for his team when Eaton jumped off the ropes and Big Bad Barry simply punched him upside the head for the three.

That was awesome.

Your Winners: Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Ron Simmons

Outin the back, Tony Schaivone interviewed Windham. With Simmons and Rhodes watching on, the former Horseman cut a strong and convincing promo in which he swore to get revenge on Zybsyko one way or another.

With Tony still in the back, Jesse Ventura joined Jim Ross for some pre-main event banter before sticking around to call the match with him, giving us a taste of what to expect at Superbrawl.

The Dangerous Alliance (WCW TV Champion Stunning Steve Austin & WCW US Champion Rick Rude w/ Paul E. Dangerously) vs. Sting & Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat

Jesse gave us the line of the night here when Sting took a shot to the crotch and the announcer said "I bet the next time he sings Roxanne, it'll be in soprano."

 

 

I don't care, that was funny.

All jokes aside, this was a tremendous main event with a lot of stellar action.

A highlight saw Sting and Ricky Steamboat cutting Rude off from his corner and blatantly cheating behind the referee's back just to give The Dangerous Alliance a taste of their own medicine, flipping the standard heel/face formula for tag team matches.

With that over, the match continued to be fantastic until Steve Austin had a hold of Steamboat. At that point, Sting leaped off the top rope onto both men and stayed on top of them for the cover, the count, and the fall.

Your Winners: Sting & Ricky Steamboat

Post-match, the heels got their revenge and destroyed the babyfaces until security broke it up.

Jesse and JR then signed off, and that was Clash of the Champions 18 in the history books.

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The Clash of the Champions series was an upwards trend as 1991 turned into 1992, the previous event had a lot to enjoy about it, but Clash 18 was even better.

Sure, matches like Vegas/Rich, the Freebirds match, and Page/News were never going to be anything special, but the opening big man bruiser was a lot of fun, the Falls Count Anywhere match was excellent and helped establish Cactus Jack as a valuable commodity for WCW, and the two final matches were as goood as you could possibly ask for.

Kip Frey didn't stick around as the head of WCW for very long, but his run was off to a wonderful start. 

 

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Other 1992 pro wrestling event reviews

1. WWF Royal Rumble 1992
2. WWF UK Rampage 1992
   
3. WWF Wrestlemania 8
4. WWF Summerslam 1992
5. WCW Great American Bash 1992
6. WWF Survivor Series '92
7. WWF 1992 - The Year in Review 

Other Clash of the Champions Reviews:

 

• NWA Clash of the Champions 1 
• WCW Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shootout 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XI - Costal Crush 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XII - Fall Brawl '90: Mountain Madness 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XIII - Thanksgiving Thunder
• WCW Clash of the Champions XIV - Dixie Dynamite
• WCW Clash of the Champions XV - Knocksville, USA! 
• WCW Clash of the Champions XVI - Fall Brawl '91
• WCW Clash of the Champions XVII 
  

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