As you’ll notice from the Clash of the Champions V review, a whole lot has changed since Starrcade 1988 in December, with the biggest being Dusty Rhodes gone from WCW.
Would that change the direction of the company going forward?
Let’s jump right in with Blake’s Clash of the Champions V review.
- Date: February 15, 1989
- Location: Cleveland Convention Center in Cleveland, OH
ANNOUNCE BOOTH: Jim Ross and Magnum TA welcome us and hype the big title matches for the evening.
The Russian Assassins (w/Paul Jones) vs. The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette)
Good to see my tag team of the year in ’88 starting off the new year with a match against a quality opponent. Yeah, not really. If you go straight from watching any NWA event the previous year to watching this one, the first thing you’ll notice is the presentation changes. Billionaire Ted wanted his product to look a wee bit better.
Express in control in the early going. That’s no surprise since they are a zillion times better than the Assassins. We get a cut-in interview with Paul E. Dangerously hyping the upcoming Chi-Town Rumble match. Cornette and Jones get ready to go at it on the outside but Lane pops Jones to stop that. Paul E joins commentary and he’s confident. Meanwhile Cornette pops one of the Assassins with the racket and then struts.
The Assassins take control and go into a long work over sequence on Lane. Really long. They finally miss the Russian missile and Lane makes the tag to Eaton. Double noggin knocker and double bulldog gives the Midnight Express control. Then they finish it off with the Rocket Launcher at 13:10. This wasn’t great.
• Rating: **
INTERVIEW: Bob Caudle is with Ricky Steamboat. As you probably know by now, Steamboat left the WWF after WrestleMania IV and now he’s here to challenge Ric Flair for the title at Chi-Town Rumble. Steamboat has little dragon in hand and says don’t do drugs. True. Don’t do them.
Steve Casey vs. Butch Reed
Well this should be a total squash. Minutes into the match and WE CUT TO THE CROWD WHERE TWO HUMAN BEINGS ARE MAKING OUT. Only in WCW. And then we see a kid wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers sweatshirt. Poor kid.
This match is dragging right along. There’s some jacked up dude in the crowd that is absolutely losing his shit over this match. Meanwhile, I’m just bored. Every time Jim Ross says Hacksaw Butch Reed, I’m just waiting for Hacksaw Jim Duggan to come out of the crowd and decapitate everyone with the 2×4.
We’re now over 10 minutes in this match and I have no idea what’s going on. This is in no way selling me on wanting to see Chi-Town Rumble. THEY ARE NOW IN THE 17TH MINUTE OF THIS THING. Are we about to get an hour broadway from BUTCH REED AND STEVE CASEY? Thankfully we’re not as Reed hits the flying shoulder block for the win at 17:34. Absolutely horrendous. Even more horrendous that Casey was being hyped as undefeated prior to the match.
• Rating: DUD
IN THE RING: Flair is here and he’s got five dime pieces with him. He’s wearing a phenomenal coat as well. He calls out Steamboat and sure enough here comes the Dragon. They go back and forth until Flair tells Steamboat to go help his wife with the dishes. IT’S GO TIME. Full-on brawl now with Steamboat ripping Flair’s shirt and pants to shreds. Steamboat hits the flying cross body and pins Flair as the fans count. But then Flair’s manager Hiro Matsuda attacks Steamboat. Finally, Steamboat regains the upper hand and starts kicking Flair’s ass into the crowd.
The Blackmailer (w/Hiro Matsuda) vs. Lex Luger
If the Blackmailer looks a lot like a Russian Assassin, it’s probably because it is. Jack Victory worked his second match of the night here. So now he’ll get squashed by Luger.
Except for that he’s not getting squashed by Luger. In fact, this Blackmailer fella is hanging with him. WHERE’S MY SQUASH? More back and forth with Luger even tossing himself on the outside. Then Blackmailer knees Luger on the apron and sends him into the rail.
This goes on for way too long until Luger uses Barry Windham’s superplex off the top for the win at 12:53. If it took Luger over 12 minutes to beat a random dude named Blackmailer, it may take him three hours to beat Windham at Chi-Town Rumble.
• Rating: *
The Fantastics vs. (c) The Varsity Club (w/Kevin Sullivan) – US Tag Team Titles
Steve Williams and Kevin Sullivan won the titles from the Fantastics at Starrcade ’88, but we’re getting the team of Williams and Mike Rotundo here. Rotundo starts off with several technical moves on Rogers. Clevelanders chanting “Syracuse sucks” while Syracusers are probably somewhere chanting “Cleveland sucks”.
Cut-in to Rick Steiner hyping the TV Title match with Rotundo at Chi-Town Rumble. Rotundo still working over both Fantastics members with Williams offering a little help occasionally. Fulton finds some offense and does some work on Rotundo in the corner until Williams comes over and cheap shots Fulton to the outside.
Fulton keeps getting destroyed and then makes the hot tag to Rogers. He takes down Williams but then gets slung outside by Rotundo. This allows the bad guys to go for the double team on Fulton. That doesn’t work. BUT TEDDY LONG IS NOT OUT THERE TO LET THIS MATCH HAVE A CLEAN FINISH. So he occupies himself with Rogers, which allows Rotundo to hit a stomp on Rogers and Williams covers him for the victory at 13:25. This was just kinda there and was nothing special at all.
• Rating: **
Bob Bradley vs. Ricky Steamboat
PLEASE LET THIS JOBBER GET SQUASHED. Never mind. Not happening. This fucking Bradley guy is actually getting in offense on the top challenger for the World Heavyweight title. Stop this madness.
Thankfully it does after Steamboat hits the judo chop off the top rope and then lands the flying cross body for the pin at 6:23.
• Rating: *
Rip Morgan vs. Rick Steiner
Damn this has been a brutal card. Rotundo cuts in early with a promo and says he’s gonna win back his title. Steiner makes Morgan look silly early. Then he makes himself look silly by bashing his own head into the turnbuckle.
This goes on for several minutes and then Steiner hits the belly to belly to win it at 4:40. This show has been a mess.
• Rating: 1/2*
BACKSTAGE: Michael Hayes, Sting, and Junkyard Dog walk into a bar…..just kidding. They actually just stand and talk. Then they walk downstairs to their dressing room, and Kevin Sullivan strolls in and locks them in there. Well, there goes the main event.
The Varsity Club vs. (c) Road Warriors and Genichiro Tenryu – World Six-Man Tag Titles
So obviously the story is that Hayes/Sting/Dog are locked in and can’t make it out for the match. So for no apparent reason at all, the Varsity Club hit the ring and start brawling. We get a live camera on them still locked in and trying to get out. What a great use of Sting this was. He goes from being made to look like a star thanks to Flair to being made to look like a complete buffoon.
The backstage cam continues with the BOLT CUTTERS now making an appearance. Sure enough that works and here comes the original participants. Sting/Hayes/Dog run in and we get the immediate DQ at 5:53. At least the crowd was hot for this brouhaha.
• Rating: 1/2*
SHOW SUMMARY
My goodness was this show dreadful. It wasn’t a great start to 1989 for the NWA, and it certainly didn’t do much to get anyone excited about Chi-Town Rumble. The Flair/Steamboat brawl was the best thing on the show, and as we all know by now, that would prove to be the case with those two over the next several months.
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