Clash of the Cahmpions IV

September 3, 2014

Clash of Champions IV was dubbed Season's Beatings and took place Dec. 7th in Chattanooga, TN. It was the Clash event to promote Starrcade 88 "True Grit". The show drew 8000 people live and a 4.5 rating on television. The gate was way up from the 3700 they drew at the previous Clash but the rating dropped a fair bit from the previous 5.4. Apart from the main event this was not a very good show.

The Fantastics vs. Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert (US Tag Title Tour. Final): Both of these teams were baby faces, which didn't help this match any. This was a last minute switch. Simmons and Gilbert had lost in the semi finals to the Sheepherders, but the Sheepherders signed with the WWF and jumped ship, so they were pretty much forced into doing this baby face tag match. They teased a time limit draw going a few seconds shy of the 30 min. time limit and because of that this match really dragged. With no heels they just went back and forth for a long time, eventually working over Eddies shoulder. The finish was the old, charge the guy in the corner and hit your shoulder on the post into a roll up, which would have been fine if they hadn't done that spot 3 times previously in this match. Fantastics won the US Tag Titles and the crowd reacted pretty big for the finish. Super long match by today's standards.

Steve Williams vs. The Italian Stallion: Steve had just turned heel and joined the Varsity Club, which was a fairly strong group, and Stallion was just a little above JTG level in the company so this was basically a squash match that was way too competitive and went way too long. They went over 15 minutes until Williams just picked the guy up and hit his finish. At the time this may not have been bad but considering their respective pushes at the time, in today's world this match would have lasted 1 min. We were less than an hour into this show and already had 45 min of wrestling.

Ivan Koloff vs. Paul Jones: We got the break up on the last Clash and here was the match. Since Jones was a manager Koloff had his one arm tied behind his back. They told a good story and had a fairly entertaining match for the 8 minutes they had. Koloff won, the crowd was happy and then the Russian Assassins ran in to attack Koloff, setting up a JYD save. The whole segment was just an effective angle to promote the tag match at the upcoming Starrcade PPV.

Road Warrior Animal vs. Dustry Rhodes (World 6 Man Titles): You read that right the 6 Man Titles were on the line. The Road Warriors and Dusty were the reigning 6 Man Champs when the Road Warriors turned on Dusty. Since they wouldn't defend them together now, it was determined that the winner of this match would get all 3 belts and could pick his new partners. They also had a Titles can change hands on a DQ stip in this match. After a 2 minute fight Dusty for no reason just turns and throws the ref to the ground, setting up a Hawk run in. Sting runs in for the save. Sting and Hawk brawl to the floor, and Dusty grabs a chair and starts whacking Animals leg. The ref comes to at this point and DQs Dusty for using the chair (not sure why he didn't DQ him for throwing him to the ground) The Road Warriors get the win and the belts, and we are set for a tag match at the PPV. Crowd was insanely hot for the run ins and the brawl.

Ric Flair & Barry Windham vs. The Midnight Express: While the show was not very good up until this point, my God did these guys save the show. This match was fantastic. The story of this match, which was told to perfection was that The Midnight Express were the greatest Tag Team in the world (They had recently held both the World and US Tag Team Titles) and Flair and Windham were the 2 greatest singles wrestlers in the world (They were the World and US champions respectively) so in a tag setting who would prevail. This match was absolutely everything I love about wrestling. The Midnight were baby faces at this time and while that wasn't their usual role, they were awesome at it. Flair and Windham were in their primes here so this match was just 10 levels of greatness. They went nearly 18 minutes, and after Bobby hit the Alabama Jam on Barry, JJ Dillon tried to get involved for the distraction allowing Flair to hit Bobby in the back of the head with JJ's shoe leading to a near unconscious Windham pinning Eaton. Everyone looked awesome in this match, Cornette got to do a post match promo that was awesome, and I was left thinking Pro Wrestling is the greatest sport/form of entertainment in the world.

Lance


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