The SmarK Rant for Clash of the Champions III – 09.07.88
“Fall Brawl”
Live from Albany, GA, drawing 3700 during a period when things were a tad uncertain for Jim Crockett, to say the least.
Your hosts are Jim Ross & Bob Caudle. They initially teased us with Tony Schiavone & Ric Flair hosting, but it was just the weird Crockett thing where you had multiple layers of hosts, like a seven layer dip of wasted money.
The Clash redo project continues! This is another one I don’t remember anything about since first reviewing it multiple decades ago.
NWA TV title: Mike Rotunda v. Brad Armstrong
Oh boy another opener featuring Brad Armstrong! It’s like Crockett’s birthday gift to me. Rotunda gets some takedowns on Brad and beats on him in the corner, but he tries a bodypress and Brad rolls through for two. Mike bails to the floor to regroup, and back in for hiptoss on Brad, but Brad reverses to his own and dropkicks Rotunda to the floor again. Armstrong takes him down and works the headlock while Jim Ross reminds us 17 times in a 2 minute period about the TWENTY MINUTE TIME LIMIT that this TV title match has, and don’t forget it’s a TWENTY MINUTE TIME LIMIT in case you forgot while reading this sentence. Twenty minutes. That’s it. No more, no less. Anyway you can probably guess the finish.
Rotunda bails and stalls again and Brad works the headlock on him back in the ring, while Bob randomly brings up Magnum TA winning the Mid-South tag team titles in 1983 to demonstrate how young Brad is. Wasn’t Brad around Mid-South in 1983 as well? I mean, he’s fairly young, but he wasn’t exactly a rookie in 1988. Brad works the armbar and keeps Rotunda on the mat, but Rotunda tosses him for some cheapshots by Kevin Sullivan to take over. Did Jim Ross mention recently that it’s a 20:00 time limit? Because it totally is. Mike suplexes him back into the ring for two and goes to the chinlock, but Tommy Young catches him with his feet on the ropes. Apparently Tommy is “six times Referee of the Year” according to JR, which as usual leaves me with more questions. Who is giving out this award? Do you qualify by being able to withstand slight contact without falling unconscious? Does the winner get free Lasik surgery? Rotunda works more chinlocks and follows with a backbreaker for two before tossing Brad again for more punishment from Sullivan. Brad comes back in with a sunset flip for two, but Rotunda puts him down with a back elbow and a legdrop for two. But then Dr. Death joins us at ringside to cheer on Brad as the crowd absolutely loses their minds. This allows Brad to get a small package for two, but Rotunda goes back to the chinlock with 3 minutes left in the match. Really cranking up the intensity I see. Brad makes the comeback and slugs away in the corner, but Mike catches him in the airplane spin and they’re both dizzy. Rotunda gets two off that. Rotunda with a gut wrench for two. Small package gets two. Rotunda slugs him down for two. He works the count while keeping his feet on the ropes with time running out. He keeps trying for the pin but time runs out at 20:00. JR sells this as a huge accomplishment for Armstrong like he’s rookie Cena in 2002 or something but he was never really in a position to win in the first place. Match had some crazy heat though and was a good opener. ***
Meanwhile, we go back to World Championship Wrestling last week, as the Varsity Club attacks Jimmy Garvin and Kevin breaks cinder blocks on Garvin’s leg. I assume he suffered a broken leg because he yelled “OH GOD MY LEG IS BROKE!” but let’s be fair here, he’s not a doctor. He might just done his own research and assumed that it was a broken leg. Anyway this so-called “broken leg” kept him out of wrestling for nearly a year, at which point he returned as a Freebird. DAMN YOU MEDICAL SCIENCE!
The Sheepherders v. Steve Williams & Nikita Koloff
Well this is random. Doc gets double-teamed in the Sheep corner but fights them off and puts them on the floor with shoulderblocks. I should note that JR calls Luke Williams “Crazy Luke” which is a bit of a Freudian slip where he was probably thinking of Luke Graham. Over to Koloff and he cleans house with slams, although his muscle mass was completely gone at this point and he was understandably not particularly engaged as a wrestler any longer. He works the arm on Luke and the babyfaces get some double-teams in the corner, and Doc goes up with a flying bodypress for two. The faces cut off the ring and prevent Luke from tagging out, yanking him back down with an armbar while trading off, while JR clarifies that there’s no relation between Luke and Steve Williams. JR just won’t let go of this Crazy Luke thing tonight. No one calls him that! No ever did call him that! Doc finally misses a charge and hits the post, allowing the Sheepherders to take over as Butch drops elbows on him. Doc is face in peril for a bit but Nikita gets a hot tag and slugs away in the corner as this Georgia crowd is very forgiving to this very mediocre tag match. Rip Morgan nails Nikita with the flag behind the back of so-called six time Referee of the Year Tommy Young and the Sheepherders take over. Nikita gets run into the post to injure the arm, and back in Luke slams him and goes up with a flying headbutt for two. Luke drops a knee for two. Miller comes in for the DOUBLE CLOTHESLINE, which gets two. Oh man if they hit the Kangaroo Kick then Nikita is DEAD. Koloff tries to fight back and Luke chokes him out in the corner and follows with a sleeper and man this crowd just does not stop. Nikita runs Luke into the corner to break and slugs him out of the ring, but Rip annoys Dr. Death with the flag and draws him away to create even more heat. Dammit I didn’t want to like this match but it’s actually pretty good. Hot tag Doc and he beats on both of the Sheepherders and Rip Morgan, but he goes for the press slam and Butch clips his knee to cut him off. So we’re back to Koloff, who immediately hits Butch with the Sickle and pins him at 17:00. Yeah OK this was pretty good and Nikita was kinda feeling it again by the end. ***1/4.
Dusty Rhodes v. Kevin Sullivan
They immediately brawl to the floor and Dusty beats on Sullivan and Gary Hart, ramming them into the table repeatedly before heading back in. So Sullivan grabs a piece of metal and threatens Dusty with that while Gary denies everything to the commentators and claims to be a “choir boy”. Back in the ring, Dusty tosses Sullivan and beats on him with elbows back in the ring, but Sullivan gets a cheapshot to the throat and tosses Dusty for some shots to the railing. This allows Hart to take off his shoe and beat on Dusty with that. Honestly, who uses a shoe? Back in the ring, Sullivan goes to a chinlock while Bob notes that “Gary Hart never ties onto a loser”. Does the name Al Perez mean anything to you, Bob? Sullivan spikes Dusty with a piece of metal behind the ref’s back and gets two. I think Tommy Young should give back at least two of his Referee of the Year awards given the shoddy job he’s been doing of keeping order tonight. Sullivan works a chinlock, but Dusty goes low pretty blatantly and makes the comeback. He steals the international object from Sullivan and spikes him with it, but Gary Hart pulls out Dusty in an amazing feat of strength to break up the pin, and Al Perez runs in for what should be a DQ, but Dusty beats up ALL THREE GUYS and pins GARY HART at 7:00. IS THIS THE DECISION OF A SIX TIME REFEREE OF THE YEAR, I ASK YOU?!? 1/2*. Dusty would of course move into a drastically different direction soon after, both on TV and in real life.
Russian chain match: Ivan Koloff v. Ricky Morton
Ivan immediately touches the first corner, but Ricky goes underneath and crotches him with the chain before getting booted down again. Koloff touches two corners and Ricky yanks him back again, so Koloff tosses him. Morton uses the leverage of the chain to neck Ivan on the top rope and makes a brief comeback, but Ivan beats him down again. Koloff with two corners, but Ricky whips him with the chain to come back again. Koloff goes up and Morton yanks him down with the chain. But then Ivan chokes him out on the mat as they’ve managed to kill this molten crowd. Ivan beats on him with the chain, somehow managing to make even Ricky Morton taking a beating into something dull, and Ivan takes three corners before Ricky takes him down to cut him off. So Ivan beats on him again and drops a knee before going up to finish, but Ricky hits him with the chain on the way down to come back. Ricky touches three corners and they fight for the fourth one while Jones tells Ivan to use the riding crop, but then he lets go of it and Ricky falls back and wins at 10:40. *1/2. So Ivan is understandably upset about the poor managerial direction there, and turns on Jones for an ill-advised babyface run that was supposed to lead to the reunited Russians v. Russian Assassins at Starrcade before Nikita left. So the Russian Assassins lay out Ivan and bust him open with the chain.
US title: Barry Windham v. Sting
Interesting that this was really the only time they ever had a notable match together despite being around the same promotion together for years. Sting chases Barry to the floor with dropkicks repeatedly as Windham can’t get anything going. Back in the ring, Barry offers a test of strength and then beats him down to take over. Barry slugs away in the corner, but Sting hits him with an atomic drop and backdrops him before slugging away in the corner. He misses the elbow and Barry tosses him into the railing outside and they slug it out on the floor. Windham suplexes him back into the ring and talks some trash to special troubleshooter John Ayres at ringside. But that allows Sting to get a sunset flip for two. Windham goes for a backdrop and Sting doesn’t quite go up, so Windham just smoothly turns it into a powerslam instead because he’s awesome. That gets two. Kneedrop gets two. Sting with a small package for two. Windham misses a blind charge and takes a dramatic bump into the post before hitting the floor. So Sting follows him out and runs him into the post to bust him open. Back in the ring, Sting with a sleeper, but Windham gives him a kneebreaker to escape. Windham works the knee over in the corner and turns that into a figure-four. Sting fights out of that, and goes for a suplex, but Windham applies the IRON CLAW to Sting’s boob for the dreaded PURPLE NURPLE OF DEATH. Sting tosses him to escape that titty twisting predicament and then slingshots him back into the ring and makes the comeback. Sting with a hiptoss and they fight for a whip, which results in six time Referee of the Year Tommy Young taking a light bump and flying to the floor. Sting with the Stinger splash and Scorpion Deathlock, but JJ runs in with a chair and Sting goes after him. So Barry clocks Sting with the chair, but John Ayres runs in and informs Referee of the Year Tommy Young what happened, and Tommy calls for the DQ at 21:20. Whatever happened to you can’t call what you don’t see? I demand that Young give back whatever Referee of the Year awards he has left after this travesty of justice, because he’s no Referee of the Year in my eyes with that kind of shoddy officiating. Anyway, for me this one never got past “OK” and just kind of meandered around before the absolutely nonsense finish. I think I gave it **** in my original review years ago but I just wasn’t into it and I liked the Sheepherders match more tonight. The work was solid though, so we’ll go ***.
I don’t really remember much about this one but this was another solid show and it was pretty easy to watch, with a molten hot Georgia crowd. However, the booking was atrocious, with Dusty obviously beyond burned out at this point, and nothing made much sense or built to anything. So it’s a mixed bag.