Mike Reviews NWA Clash of the Champions #9

Happy Clashin’ Friday Everyone!

I’ve already reviewed Starrcade 1993, so we don’t have a 1993 WCW to show review this time out (this is an unlucky day after all), hence why we’re watching Clash of the Champions #9 instead. I’ve chosen Clash #9 to review this week as I’ve never seen it all the way through and who knows what’s going to happen with the archives when WWE moves over to Netflix, so let’s get Clash #9 watched whilst I still can.

The big match is Terry Funk and Ric Flair battling in an I Quit match, but we’ve also got The Midnight Express and The Dynamic Dudes going at it as well, so there should be plenty to look forward to!

You can view the full card for Clash #9 by clicking below;

NWA Clash of the Champions #9 Card

Clash of the Champions #9 is emanating from Troy, New York on the 15th of November 1989

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Gordon Solie

The announce team hype up the big matches later on.

Opening Match
The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy “Jam” Garvin and Michael “PS” Hayes) Vs The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) w/ Paul Ellering

New York likes big scary dudes, so The Roadies are way over here, as you would expect. The Freebirds bump around for The Road Warriors to start, which is the only way this one could really go because you’re not going to buy Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin as physical threats to Hawk and Animal in a fair fight. It’s actually quite an entertaining babyface shine for The Roadies, with their offence looking good and The Freebirds doing a good job of selling it all. Eventually Animal misses a charge in the corner, and that allows The Freebirds to double up on him for the cut off, which again plays into the idea that The Freebirds are outmatched in a fair fight, but if they bend the rules then they might just have a chance. Hawk eventually gets sick of seeing his partner getting beaten up and shoves the referee aside so that he can make the save, which causes the match to end in a DQ.

WINNERS BY DQ: THE FREEBIRDS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This one looked like it had potential to be an entertaining match, but the ending was very abrupt and thoroughly unsatisfying

Jim Ross interviews Terry Funk and his manager, Gary Hart, at ringside. Funk says that he’s not a quitter, whilst Hart implores Funk not to let Texas, and Hart, down. Funk says that he won’t. This was a decent promo, although Funk was a bit subdued compared to some of his other promos during this period.

Bill Apter is with Jim Ross at the entrance ramp, and announces that the most popular wrestler in the NWA via fan vote is Sting. Sting joins us to receive his trophy, and thanks the little Stingers for voting for him. Apter then declares Ric Flair as the wrestler of the 80’s, which leads to Ric Flair joining us in order to collect his trophy as well. Flair gives a humble celebration speech. This was a nice segment, although I’m not sure why they put it on Clash #9 instead of a regular TV show. They could have used that time for more wrestling.

Woman gives a backstage promo, saying that she is the most powerful person in wrestling because she manages DOOM. She adds that she’s got a big surprise for Rick Steiner later on.

Match Two
The Tag Team Combination of DOOM (DOOM #1 & DOOM #2) w/ Woman Vs “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert and “Wildfire” Tommy Rich

DOOM are Ron Simmons and Butch Reed under masks, who had been brought in by Woman to take out The Steiner Brothers after Woman had previously been a big fan of Rick Steiner. Gilbert as a babyface is always a bit jarring to me as my first real exposure to him was seeing him as a snide cowardly Heel who threw fire at people. Gilbert and Rich struggle to shine on DOOM to start due to DOOM being so big and scary, but they do eventually manage to put the Heels on the back foot for a little bit. Reed manages to catch Gilbert with a side slam though, and that’s the cut off.

I do like how DOOM are so physically imposing that they don’t even need to cheat for the cut off. Heels not requiring cheating to gain the upper hand always makes them look extra dangerous, and if it’s done correctly it doesn’t do it at the expense of making the babyface look weak either. Rich eventually gets the tag and manages to bump Reed around a bit, with the idea being that the bigger Rich is coping better with the scary Heels. However, things break down following that and DOOM cheat for the one and only time in the bout, as they catch Rich with a double team clothesline move whilst the referee is trying to get Gilbert out of the ring, and that’s enough for three.

WINNERS: DOOM
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: This was bordering on a squash, but it was just competitive enough to be a “real” match. This did an effective job of making DOOM look big and scary without burying the babyfaces, but it wasn’t much of a match prior to that

Louisville Slugger
Jim Cornette hosts The Steiner Brothers

Scott officially names the Frankensteiner as such (it was Scott’s version of a rana) and The Steiner’s think that Scott can deliver that move to any opponent. They’re going to defeat The Skyscraper’s tonight, and then they’ll deal with DOOM following that. Scott also implies that he might attack Woman if she pushes her luck, with Rick suggesting that they’ll bring their mum in to deal with her. This was a pretty rough promo from The Steiner’s, although Cornette did his best to hold things together.

Match Three
The Midnight Express (Beautiful Bobby and Sweet Stan) Vs The Dynamic Dudes (Johnny Ace and Shane Douglas)

The story here is that Jim Cornette was managing both teams but Bobby and Stan got jealous and demanded that Cornette only manage them. Cornette didn’t like that, so this match has been booked here to settle things and Cornette isn’t going to favour either of his tandems. The Dudes came about because a focus group revealed to WCW that the two most popular words with kids were “dynamic” and “dude”, so they made Ace and Douglas lame skateboarding goofs. The more serious hardcore fans of course hated them with a passion, and both of them came across as phonies in the role. Douglas especially, because Ace can at least use the skateboard a little bit, whilst Douglas just jogs to the ring whilst holding it. You’d think you’d at least TRY to learn how to use the bloody thing if it was your gimmick wouldn’t you? One of Douglas’ first gimmick names in wrestling was Troy Orndorff, and now here he is wrestling in Troy, New York at the Clash. I bet it felt like rain on his wedding day.

The Dudes are clearly being positioned as the babyfaces in this one, with them doing the more traditional babyface offence during the opening exchanges, but the majority of the crowd seems to prefer The Midnight’s. Cornette seems to be leaning more towards The Dudes though, as he grasses on Bobby and Stan when they try to cut corners and pull hair etc. Douglas eventually gains some respect from the crowd for getting an impressive dive to the floor on Bobby, but The MX fans are soon cheering on their team once everyone gets back into the ring. The action here has been decent for the most part, with the crowd reactions adding an extra level of entertainment to things due to them not following the script the wrestlers are wrestling to and just reacting how they want to. I seem to recall Ace being a passible mid-card wrestler in All Japan, but he’s by far the worst of the four here, with his movements being awkward and sloppy.

Eventually The MX cheat to seemingly get the heat on Ace (although the crowd cheers it wildly) but Ace quickly tags out to Douglas, leading to things breaking down and all four wrestlers going at it. The referee gets distracted by Stan and Ace going at it, which seemingly leaves the door open for Bobby to clean Douglas’ clock with a hidden chain. However, Jim Cornette comes into the ring and disarms Bobby, seemingly officially going with The Dudes as his full time clients. It’s all a SWERVE though, as Cornette clatters Douglas with his tennis racket and Bobby makes the pin for the three count as the crowd cheers this supposedly horrible villainous act WILDLY!!

WINNERS: THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was good fun, with the crowd reactions giving it an unusual dynamic (pun not intended) for a bout from the 80’s, as normally fans played along a lot more back then and cheered the Faces whilst booing the Heels. However, a group of stubborn fans decided to cheer for the Heels instead, and that gave the match a really fun atmosphere. The Wrestling was mostly decent, with Bobby, Stan and Douglas all entering solid performances, whilst Johnny Ace also existed

Match Four
The Super Destroyer Vs “Doctor Death” Steve Williams

Super Destroyer is masked enhancement guy Jack Victory, who often got roped into doing matches like this under a series of different names. You can usually tell that it’s Victory due to his demonstrably distinctive derriere. Norman The Lunatic is watching from ringside for this one, dressed as Father Christmas, whilst Super Destroyer actually does okay for the first 30 seconds or so in the bout itself. Super Destroyer stupidly stops to celebrate too early though, which allows Williams to fight back with his usual array of scary power moves. The Oklahoma Stampede Powerslam ends things soon after for Doctor Death.

WINNER: STEVE WILLIAMS
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: This was an energetic squash that the crowd responded well to

Norman gives Williams a gift post-match, whilst Williams calls out The Skyscrapers, as they attacked him on an episode of television prior to this.

Match Five
The Skyscrapers (Dan Spivey and Sid Vicious) w/ Teddy Long Vs The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott)

This is two big slugger teams going in there to slug. The Skyscrapers are using the music that they later recycled for Sid’s solo WCW run in the late 90’s, and it suits them about as much as it suited him, which is not at all. The first 30 seconds somewhat work, but then it starts sounding like something from an 80’s soap opera montage and it doesn’t suit these guys at all. Rick is making his entrance through the crowd Sandman style here, although you can replace beer with popcorn, whilst Scott walks down the ramp looking bemused at the whole thing. Jim Ross is of course utterly fit to burst at the prospect of four HOSSES getting in there to do HOSS things with one another. Rick suplexes Danny Spivey mere seconds into the bout and then clotheslines Spivey over the top rope to the floor for good measure.

I mean, they probably could have spent time building to The Steiner’s doing that sort of stuff to the massive Heels so that it felt more special when they finally did, but then The Steiner’s were usually a team that just headed straight for the fireworks factory and it was part of their charm in all honesty. Scott almost immediately Frankensteiner’s Sid early on as well, so now we’ve already answered the “can The Steiner’s do their usual stuff to the monster Heels” question, so I guess we’re just going to see more of it until it’s time to take the bout home. The Skyscrapers eventually double up on Scott in order to cut him off, with Sid turning Scott inside out with a clothesline whilst Spivey kicks Scott in the FACE with a Big Boot.

Scott somehow survives that and tags in Rick, who hits Spivey with possibly the stiffest clothesline of 1989, which leads to Rick then suplexing Spivey for what looks to be the three count. However, DOOM runs down to the ring before the pin can be counted, and that gives us a DQ finish. Honestly I’m not sure why they even bothered to protect The Skyscrapers with a DQ finish there. The Steiner’s had essentially already dispatched them relatively easily, and a DQ did nothing to hide that fact.

WINNERS BY DQ: THE STEINER BROTHERS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: Both of The Skyscrapers were pretty awful here, but it was fun seeing two huge wrestlers get flung around with such ease, so if you’re into that style of wrestling then there’s a good chance you might rate it higher

Woman brings out a really tall man following that, and he protects her from revenge by Rick Steiner, whilst The Road Warriors run down to save The Steiner’s from the combined forces of The Skyscrapers and DOOM. All four teams go at it and the crowd LOVES it, so we of course go straight to a commercial just as something exciting is happening. Because WCW NWA.

When we come back from the ads, Jim Ross is with The Steiner Brothers, The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering, who look to be aligned. Today is the first time that young Scott Steiner has given me young Austin St. John vibes, and now I can’t unsee it.

Match Six
NWA United States Heavyweight Title Match
Champ: “The Total Package” Lex Luger Vs Flyin’ Brian

These two wrestled at Halloween Havoc 89, with Brian pushing Luger close, so we’ve got a rematch here. The early exchanges are really good here, with Brian being an excellent tenacious babyface looking to use his aggression as a way to overcome Luger’s superior size advantage. Luger does a great job of selling trepidation at Brian’s abilities, because he’s already had a tough match with him back at Havoc. However, Luger decides to get cocky and taunt when he dodges a Brian attack rather than following up, and this allows Brian to skin the cat back into the ring and put Luger down on the mat. That’s great character work from both wrestlers and tells you everything you need to know about their respective personalities. Brian keeps Luger on the ropes with quick paced offence and strikes, with the crowd really getting into the action.

Brian targets Luger’s arm, even slamming it into the ring post and metal railings at ringside in an almost heelish manner, but the cynical New York crowd here at the Clash seems to enjoy it. Luger eventually manages to catch Brian with a big back suplex inside the ring however, and that’s the cut off, with Luger back to being an arrogant jerk now that he’s managed to gain control of the bout. Luger’s 89 Heel act is an absolute joy, as his work inside the ring was good and his Heel antics were genuinely tremendous. Brian sells the heat really well, so both wrestlers are playing their respective roles fantastically here, and the crowd is responding in kind. Brian keeps fighting back in a gutsy manner with some chops and a couple of quick pinning holds, with Brian eventually managing to take Luger down with a big clothesline before making the proper comeback.

Brian comes off the top rope with a cross body, but he wipes out the referee at the same time, which gives us a visual pin fall for the challenger. Brian gets another one from an O’Connor Roll, but there is still no referee to count. Luger uses the downed referee to clock Brian with a metal chair, and that gives Luger a three count from the now revived referee.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: LEX LUGER
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was an excellent match, with Luger being a tremendous jerk and Brian being a brilliant gutsy defiant good guy. Brian clearly had it won twice, but Luger also looked resourceful and cunning in the way he won, so we got a pin fall finish and both wrestlers came out of the match looking good for different reasons. That’s how Pro Wrestling can be when you do it correctly!

Luger does the Heel beatdown with the chair following the match, with Sting running down to make the save. Luger of course flees when it looks like things with Sting are going to get physical, because he’s still a Heel at the end of the day. Man, it’s such a shame they had to turn Luger back babyface in 1990 due to Sting getting injured prior to Wrestle War 1990, as this Heel character was some of his best work.

Ric Flair cuts a fired up promo ahead of the Main Event here at Clash #9. Flair really gets across how definitive it is to Quit to your opponent, which makes the match feel like it has really big stakes. An excellent promo.

Main Event
I Quit Match
Terry Funk w/ Gary Hart Vs NWA World Champ “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair

Funk was a commentator for Flair’s match with Ricky Steamboat back at Wrestle War 89 and had attacked The Nature Boy after the bout, leading to a bloody and violent feud between the two, with this match tonight designed to end things for good. Sadly Funk’s awesome theme from this timeframe is dubbed out, which is a real shame as it’s fantastic stuff that suits Funk’s crazed Heel character perfectly. Funk gives Flair a chance to quit before the bout even starts, but Flair of course isn’t going to do that and the match is on. The way to win this one is brutally simple. You keep fighting until you make your opponent quit. There are no DQ’s or Count Out’s, which means it’s not long before the two start brawling both inside and outside of the ring. Flair tackles Funk down early doors and tries to outright just choke him, which is a great way of showing just how heated this feud had gotten at this stage, with this resembling a fight in a prison yard more than a wrestling match.

Some of the chops Flair throws here are incredible, with the sound of skin on flesh reverberating through the arena. Flair could be one heck of a stiff chopper when the mood took him (and I’ve just realised how that reads). We of course get some moments where a microphone gets involved so that Funk can yell into it and demand that Flair quits whilst Funk beats him up, which is something all the best I Quit matches have. Flair fires up following that, showing some great intensity, as he was a very believable brawler during this feud despite being perhaps known more as a technician and entertainer than a fighter. However, when the occasion called for it, Flair could fight with the best of them, as this feud displayed. Flair even does some yelling on the mic of his own at one stage, getting across the idea that Funk has pushed Flair to limits he very rarely reaches in normal combat.

Funk gives Flair a chance to quit before he Piledrives the World Champ on his previously injured neck, but Flair refuses so Funk delivers the move and continues to target the neck area of Flair with another Piledriver, this time out on the floor. Flair is too gutsy and filled with hate to quit though, so the match continues, with Funk continuing to target the neck. Flair keeps coming though, and eventually tackles Funk into the metal railings at ringside before clocking Gary Hart for good measure. Funk gets dropped crotch first onto the railings at one stage (well, he is Tommy Dreamer’s mentor…) and Flair then takes Funk to school back inside the ring by targeting Funk’s left leg to soften it up for the Figure Four. Funk almost seems to try and run away at points, or at the very least catch a breather, but Flair ruthlessly keeps chasing his hated foe down and keeps attacking the leg until he can finally lock in the Figure Four. Funk fights it as best he can, but eventually he realises there is no escape and he has to quit.

WINNER: RIC FLAIR
RATING: *****

Thoughts: This match was the perfect combination of hardcore brawling and dramatic storytelling, with both wrestlers giving the impression that they were fighting for their lives out there in a effort to make their opponent do the impossible and actually surrender to the other in one on one combat. The crowd was entranced by the spectacle before them, and the intensity of the brawling was off the charts, whilst the storytelling was engrossing from start to finish. It always baffles me that Flair supposedly hated playing babyface because he thought he wasn’t any good at it, because he was one of the best gutsy never-say-die babyfaces that you’d ever see in this one, and when matched up against a tremendous psychotic villain in Funk, the matches were only ever going to be magic. This match at Clash #9 was yet another classic to add to both wrestler’s respective collections. It was also the rare totally decisive result in an I Quit match, as there was no getting around the stipulation here. Funk straight up yelled the two words after an acting masterclass when he sold the Figure Four, going as far to say that he could feel his leg breaking in order to get across the idea that Funk had no choice but to quit

Funk agrees to shake Flair’s hand following the match, whilst Gary Hart is furious that Funk let him down. Hart cheap shots Funk following that, which leads to Flair coming to Funk’s aid. However, Hart clients The Great Muta and Dragon Master run down to attack Flair, which leads to Sting running down to make the save for Flair, as the two were aligned at the time. Lex Luger then enters the scene though, and hits Sting with a chair, leading to Luger and Flair going at it. Muta hits Flair with the chair though, which leads to Flair, Sting and Funk all getting beaten up by the combined forces of Hart, Muta, Dragon Master and Luger. Wow, the show ending with the babyfaces getting decimated for HEAT, you’d think this was an NWA show or something…

In Conclusion

The last two matches are enough to make Clash #9 an easy thumbs up, with the fun Midnight Express Vs Dynamic Dudes match on the undercard being the icing on the cake. Definitely seek those three matches out if you’ve never seen them, as they’re all well worth watching.

Recommended Show!