WCW Clash of the Champions XXII (January 1993)

Original Airdate: January 13, 1993

From Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura.


Opening Match: Cactus Jack v Johnny B. Badd: Badd tries to control with a hammerlock, but Jack counters by simply throwing elbows in his face, and dodging Badd's Golden Gloves routine. Jack hammers him with headbutts, but misses a blind charge, and Badd schoolboys him for two. Dropkick sets up an armdrag/armbar combo, but again Jack is quick to simply punch him to break the hold. Badd tries a pair of turnbuckle smashes, but Jack keeps coming, so Badd cradles him with his small package for two. Flying sunset flip looks to finish, but Jack sidesteps him, and drops an elbow for the pin at 2:53. This never really went anywhere, but it was fun seeing Cactus absolutely destroy Badd to the crowds delight. ¼*

2 Cold Scorpio v Scotty Flamingo: This immediately follows an awesome vignette where Scorpio hangs out with inner city kids (see: black kids) and teaches them to dance. Flamingo is less impressed, however, and hooks Scorpio in a side-headlock. Scorpio breaks, and it's spot blowing time (!) as Scorpio starts blowing moves left and right until he sort of throws a dropkick (kinda the way you might have on your bed when you were eight), and Scotty bails to the floor. Scorpio dives out after him, only to have Flamingo show him a proper dropkick for his troubles. Scotty follows with a dive of his own, then rolls him in with a snapmare for two. Snap suplex gets two, and Scotty works a chinlock. Scorpio powers up with a hiptoss followed by a (much better) dropkick, and a visually impressive twisting splash gets two. Scotty fires back with a cradles for two and a clothesline for two. He misses a charge into the corner, however, and Scorpio hits a corkscrew legdrop before finishing him with the 450 splash at 4:14. Scorpio was exciting, but as usual, he was blowing spots left-and-right. Thankfully, this didn't go on too long, because outside of the highspots, they looked completely lost out there. ¼*

Brad Armstrong v Chris Benoit: Armstrong controls with a standing side-headlock early on, and dodges Benoit's attempt at a powerbomb with a dropkick, then armdragging Benoit into an armbar. Chris tries to bridge to break but Brad holds him firm. A criss cross ends in Benoit taking control with a kick to the gut, and following by viciously dropping Armstrong across the top rope. Benoit follows with a well executed springboard clothesline (taking a risky bump to the exposed concrete in the process), and he takes Brad's head off with a clothesline on the way back in. Snap suplex gets two, and a backbreaker follows. Bodyslam sets up a flying headbutt, but Brad dodges, and Benoit eats canvas. Brad capitalizes with a swinging neckbreaker for two, but Benoit counters an Irish whip with a Dragon suplex for the pin at 9:15. Much slower than you would expect from these two - with lots of focus on armbars in the early going - but both guys looked crisp, and you could already see Benoit's potential, as well as the influence of the Dynamite Kid. *

Arm Wrestling Match: Vinnie Vegas v Tony Atlas: I almost skipped over this, but any opportunity to see Kevin Nash in his pre-Diesel days needs to be properly documented. Here, we get to see him hilariously try to 'sell' arm wrestling, before picking up the victory over old man Atlas.

The Wrecking Crew v Tom Zenk and Johnny Gunn: Rage starts with Tom Zenk, and ends up in a standing side-headlock. He tries to break with a whip into the ropes, but Zenk holds tight, and grounds him with the headlock before Rage powers up - only to get caught by Zenk with a flying bodypress for two. Dropkick sends Rage to the floor to regroup with Fury, but Gunn breaks up their strategy session with a dive. Back in, Gunn with a 2^nd rope axehandle and a rollup for two on Rage, so he passes to Fury to take Gunn's head off with a clothesline. Backbreaker, but Gunn dodges a backdrop and tags Tom. Zenk gets caught with a gutwrench suplex quickly though, and a sidewalk slam hits before he passes back to Rage to hit a powerslam. The Wrecking Crew cut the ring in half on Zenk until Fury misses a 2^nd rope axehandle of his own, and Gunn gets the tag. He's a house of arson to trigger a four-way brawl, and a cheap shot from Fury allows the Crew to finish Johnny with a powerbomb/flying forearm combo at 6:07. This was the Crew's debut, and it served the purpose of making them look good - if unspectacular. ¼*

NWA & WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas v The Hollywood Blonds: Speaking of new tag teams, this was not even a month into the Blonds' run (not even named as such yet), as Steve Austin and Brian Pillman had recently forged an alliance, and the rest is history. Steamboat starts us off against Austin, and Steve hammers, but Steamboat cradles him a couples of times for a few near falls. A big criss cross triggers a four-way brawl, and the Blonds end up on the floor to regroup. Austin comes back in offering Steamboat a handshake, but the veteran knows better, and slaps him away. Tag to Pillman to unload a few chops, but Steamboat blasts him with a dropkick, and takes him down for an armbar. Tag to Douglas to help work the arm in a great sequence that basically sees Steamboat and Douglas taking turns dropping flying axehandles on Pillman's arm - about ten times in a row. Shane with a powerslam for two before Brian bails to Steve, but an over-eager Austin ends up caught in a droptoe-hold. Tag to Steamboat to help work Steve's arm with a hammerlock-slam, but Shane gets too cocky (I'm shocked too) and ends up in a pinfall reversal sequence with Austin ending in Douglas nailing him from the 2^nd rope. Steamboat helps out by press slamming Shane onto Steve, and then following by press slamming Brian onto him! With Austin now thoroughly dazed, Steamboat goes to cut the ring in half again, but Pillman fires a cheap shot from the apron, and tags. Brian with a bodyslam for two, and he distracts the referee to allow him to dump Steamboat over the top rope for Austin to slam on the exposed concrete. That's enough to allow the challengers to cut the ring in half (brilliantly cutting off Steamboat's comebacks with cheap double-teams), until the Dragon dodges a springboarding Pillman and teases the crowd before making the tag. Douglas is a house of arson ahead of a four-way brawl, and Austin nearly gives the crowd a heart attack by finishing Douglas and putting Pillman on top for a near fall. That's enough to piss Austin off though, and he whacks Douglas with the title belt, but this time the referee sees it, and the Blonds are disqualified at 13:44. Really well paced, FUN tag team match - the Blonds working their heel magic, and the champs right there hanging with them with all sorts of (maybe not quite innovative, but certainly unconventional) offense. *** ¼

Main Event: Thundercage Six-Man Tag Team Match: Sting, Dustin Rhodes, and Ron Simmons v Vader, Barry Windham, and Paul Orndorff: Well, that was the plan, anyway. Unfortunately for Simmons, Vader beats the shit out of him before the match, and leaves Sting and Rhodes to go it in a handicap match. After a big melee at the bell, the dust settles on Rhodes and Windham, and Dustin dominates with closed fists and clotheslines. Tag to Sting for a bulldog and a press slam sends Barry scurrying to tag the monster Vader. Sting makes a go of it with jabs, but Vader quickly shrugs him off, and starts unloading forearm shots. Sting fires back with an inverted atomic drop and a DDT to set up the Stinger Splash, followed by an insane sequence where he just unloads about fifteen unanswered closed fists in the corner until Vader takes a Flair Flip (which the camera helpfully misses). Vader fires back with a flying bodyblock, but a 2^nd rope splash misses, and Sting dumps him to the floor (the Thundercage covers ringside, like the Hell in a Cell). He gets too worked up to notice Orndorff coming in to beat him down, and Windham joins the fun with a flying axehandle. Suplex gets two, and Vader comes back in with an avalanche as the heels methodically destroy the Stinger. Press slam/gutpunch combo hits before Windham tags back in for a superplex, but Sting blocks from the top turnbuckle, and tags Rhodes. That immediately draws all the heels in to triple-team Dustin (Sting still too battered to help), but here's Cactus Jack to save the day! He uses  bolt cutters to break into the cage, and it's a six-way brawl with Jack unloading with his cowboy boot. In the chaos, Orndorff tries a piledriver on Rhodes, but Jack blasts him with the boot from the top rope, and gets the pin at 11:23. Not a classic, or anything, but this was good fun to end the show. The cage was completely pointless though, as no one so much as climbed it, let alone used it as a weapon. * ¾

BUExperience:  You could do worse. Sure, there are no classics here and it’s not historically significant at all, but it’s an inoffensive card with a really good tag match, and a super fun main event. Worth checking out if you’ve got a couple of hours to kill, but certainly nothing to go out of your way to see, or anything. **