5 hours Ago By RobertLeightyJr
-We are getting closer to the end of this run in 1991. After this on the WCW side we have Halloween Havoc, one more Clash, and then Starrcade. For the WWF it’s just Survivor Series and This Tuesday in Texas.
For WCW they are still dealing with the loss of Ric Flair and trying to turn Luger in their next big heel Champion. We shall see how that is progressing. Let’s get to it! -Announce Team: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone -Sept.
5, 1991 -Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center, Augusta, GA -Attendance: 2800 -TBS Rating: 3.7 The Georgia Brawl: 20 Man Battle Royal -Participants: Z-Man, Thomas Rich, Bobby Eaton, Ranger Ross, Tracy Smothers, Oz, PN News, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, Steve Austin (w/ Lady Blossom), Dustin Rhodes, Terrence Taylor, Big Josh, Barry Windham.
One Man Gang, El Gigante -Man, Barry went from a cage match for The World Title to an opening match battle royal. Tony mentions that Z-Man and Austin have a match for the TV Title later tonight. The crowd is into it at least.
Gigante lifts Taylor off the mat with a choke which gets a good reaction. Gigante lifts Parker off the mat and puts him on the top rope but no elimination. The former Red Rooster and future Doink do battle in the corner.
Austin and Eaton get dumped to the apron to tease elimination. Gigante with a claw hold on Thomas Rich. Josh skins the cat and pulls Taylor out, but he hits the floor as well and Ranger Ross gets tossed right behind them.
Thomas Rich gets tossed off screen and there goes Parker. Austin, Gang, and OMG are set in the corner and Gigante squashes all three. Z-Man gets bounced off screen like a jobber and I don’t like his chances against Austin later.
Smothers is gone! Austin works over PN News which reminds me of their awful scaffold match. Thanks for that! Eaton takes a crazy bump as Gang backdrops him over the top and on the ramp, but he catches the cameraman on the way down. PN News is gone.
Yo! Windham and Austin eliminate each other and continue to fight on the floor. We have Oz, Gang, Dustin, and Gigante left in the ring. So Dustin against 3 Giants.
OMG with a splash in the corner on Dustin. Gigante fires up and runs Oz Gang into each other. Dustin gets dumped by the awesome force of Oz Gang.
Gigante then just clotheslines Oz Gang over the top for the win at 9:32. Winner: El Gigante via pin at 9:32 -This was a battle royal and I’ve seen worse. The crowd was into it at least and popped for the winner.
*1/2 1st Semi-Final Match: WCW Light Heavyweight Championship Tournament: Bad Street (w/ The Fabulous Freebirds) vs. Flyin’ Brian -This Tournament only had 7 men, Pillman was given a bye to the semis, which makes him the #1 seed. -Based on that here is what the bracket looked like: 1.
Pillman 4. Badstreet over 5. Joey Maggs 2.
Richard Morton over 7. Johnny Rich 6. Mike Graham over 3.
Terrence Taylor -The other semi-final is later tonight. March Madness has nothing on this Tournament. Anderson sends The Birds to the back which will make this match better as we won’t get them getting involved and causing any stalling.
Pillman hooks a side headlock but gets shoved off. He runs Street down with a shoulder. Street offers a handshake and Pillman stupidly accepts and gets kicked in the stomach.
Pillman back with a head scissors from the corner and then a victory roll for two. He takes Street down with an arm-bar. The weight class is 190 lbs to 235 lbs according to Schiavone.
Pillman springs off the top and gets a sunset flip for two. Dropkick sends Street to the apron. They tease a suplex from there and then Pillman says sure, let me take a suplex to the floor.
Maniac! JR and Tony cover the over the top rule noting Street wasn’t in the ring, so it’s allowed. They fight on the apron again and Street sends Pillman into the post. Pillman back in with a sling-shot crossbody for two.
Street with a neckbreaker for a two count. Slam and Street heads up top. Pillman up and hits a dropkick that knocks Street to the floor.
Nasty suicide dive as Pillman crashed into the railing. That looked great though. Pillman up top and both both men throw a dropkick which leaves them both down.
The crowd is rocking with them here. Street sets too early on a backdrop and Pillman slams him down on his face. Spin heel kick gets two.
Now he sets too early and Street plants him with a DDT for two. Another neckbreaker, but Pillman counters into a backslide for two. Pillman tries a crucifix, but Street slams him down for two.
They head up top and Pillman knocks Street down with a head-butt and gets the flying cross-body for the pin at 6:52. Winner: Flyin’ Brian via pin at 6:52 -This was pretty great and seemed so revolutionary at the time. The division was basically built for Pillman, so the winner was never in doubt.
Another match where this small crowd, was hot for everything. ***1/2 -WCW Top 10 -World Champion: Lex Luger 10. Bobby Eaton 9.
Z Man 8. Diamond Studd 7. One Man Gang 6.
Dustin Rhodes 5. Steve Austin (TV Champion) 4. El Gigante 3.
Barry Windham 2. Ron Simmons 1. Sting (US Champion) WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Sting (c) vs.
Johnny B. Badd (w/ Teddy Long) -Biggest match of Badd’s career to this point! JR notes that Badd is undefeated on TV, so he has lost on house shows and they aren’t lying about it? Sting win the US Title Tournament in August after Lex vacated the Championship following his World Title victory. We see footage of Abdullah The Butcher coming out of a box to attack Sting.
Badd throws some jabs to back Sting away and then we get a lock-up. Sting with a whip and then a series of leaps before hitting a backdrop. Sting comes off the ropes, but Badd gets the knees up and Sting just shakes it off.
He misses an elbow off the top. Badd off the top with a sunset flip for two. Sting with a sunset flip for two.
Both men slow things down and take in this hot crowd. Lockup and Badd offers a clean break in the corner. Another go and Sting goes to work on the arm.
Badd reverses, but Sting feeds off the crowd and does nothing. Okay! Badd with body shots in the corner. He misses a charge in the corner and Sting goes back to the arm and takes Badd to the mat.
I kind of miss that hot start! Suplex, but Badd is up quickly and Sting backs off as he wants to avoid the left hand. A box has been delivered on the ramp as the match is now secondary. Stinger Splash misses as Long helps Badd move.
Badd throws the left to fake Sting out and hits a body shot. Badd thinks the box is for him, which is dumb and Long has to get him back on Sting. Both men stare at the box and then decide to resume and Sting gets a sloppy small package for the pin at 6:09.
Winner: Sting via pin at 6:09 -Fun opening couple minutes and then nothing. The ending was really lame as even JR noted the match just stopped before a small package got the flash win for Sting. *1/4 -Cactus Jack rushes out of the box and DESTROYS Sting.
He hits the elbow off the second rope to the floor and hits the Cactus DDT back in the ring before Big Josh and Bobby Eaton are out to chase him away. 2nd Semi-Final: WCW Light Heavyweight Championship Tournament: Richard Morton (w/ Alexandra York) vs. Mike Graham -Winner faces Pillman for the Title at Halloween Havoc.
Graham gets a side headlock, gets shoved off, but hits a shoulder tackle. Popular spot at always. Graham back to the side headlock, but Morton counters with a head scissors.
Graham back to the side headlock and this time Morton shoves off and ends up hooking a Boston Crab. Graham sits back for two, and then they trade pin attempts. Morton is annoyed, so Graham shoves him and Morton bails to check with York and her computer.
The computer is old and apparently told Morton to go back to a headlock. Graham bridges out and gets a backslide for two. Tony notes this match has a different style than the earlier LH Match.
Yeah, that one was fun and exciting. Morton gets a knee up in the corner and gets a two count. Graham with a German Suplex into a pin for two.
Morton lands a right hand and rubs Graham’s face on the top rope. JR plugs that they will be heating from Florida State Head Coach, Bobby Bowden later. JR was probably giddy being able to pass that news along.
Graham looks for the figure-four but Morton gets to the ropes and this is the first time all night the crowd seems bored. Graham goes to a Spinning Toe-Hold and plays to the crowd. Morton catches him in the corner with a boot and then hits an inverted atomic drop.
Moron misses an elbow and Graham gets a half nelson for two. Slam followed by a roll-up by York has the ref. Morton kicks out and Graham goes face first into the buckle which lets Morton gets a roll-up for the pin at 7:40.
Winner: Richard Morton via pin at 7:40 -Technically this was okay, but boring and the opposite of the earlier LH Match. I understand they wanted to show the division had different styles, but skip that. You can be mat based and still be interesting.
* -Eric Bischoff is in the ring and brings out Bill Kazmaier to show how strong he is by setting another World Record. Bill is legit one of the strongest men in the history of power lifting. They don’t drag this out though as Bill bends a steel bar over his head and neck to set a World Record.
The Enforcers attack and use a weight plate to blast Bill in the ribs. Rick Steiner is out too late to save his partner. The Fabulous Freebirds vs.
The Patriots -The Patriots are Todd Champion and Firebreaker Chip! Super Bowl history tells us The Patriots have a solid record against The Birds, but are awful against The Giants. So I guess keep them away from Oz Gang! Even with this being a TV match, there still has to be stalling from Hayes as he starts with Chip. Hayes struts and hits The Moonwalk as JR compares the Patriots to the young Atlanta Braves and the Birds to The Mets.
Hey, I liked my NFL reference better! I mean, it’s in the name. In real life we know The Patriots take the land from the Braves and name sports teams after them. Sorry, we are 2:30 into the match without much happening.
Garvin is actually in now and Chip gets a dropkick followed by a sleeper. Hayes runs in and Chips catches him with a sleeper as well. Sunset flip gets two and that is followed by an arm-drag.
Roll-up gets two, but Hayes is there to land a left hand as Garvin kicks out. Ross: “The Freebirds don’t make a lot of mistakes.” Garvin misses a clothesline and sets too early on a backdrop which lets Chip slam him down by the hair.
Seemed like a mistake there! Champion in and he runs wild on Hayes, but Garvin breaks up the pin. Champion with a double clothesline to The Birds. Chip off the top with another double clothesline.
Double back elbow to Hayes and then a double team backdrop to Garvin. The ref forces Champion out so Hayes pretends to head his corner, but instead comes off the middle rope to break up a pin and Garvin rolls over for the pin at 5:43. Winners: The Fabulous Freebirds via pin at 5:43 -Well, the crowd was back into the show after the last match.
With that said, not a good match here as The Birds were dominated and then just found a way to cheat to win. This was all kinds of clunky with The Birds trying to keep the kids in line. * -Paul E Dangerously is in the ring with Cactus Jack and wants to know who the mastermind is behind the attacks on Sting.
Jack doesn’t answer and tells the fans to give Sting a round of applause as his career is over now. Another box is wheeled down to the ring and Cactus thinks it’s Abdullah inside, but it’s Sting and he is here to kick some ass. Great stuff as Sting is showing some great fire and Mick is more than happy enough to take years off his career bumping on concrete for Sting.
Jack throws a garbage can at Sting and this is easily the best thing on the show so far. I have a suspicion these two could tear the house down, say sometime next Summer. -JR and Tony show the footage of Ron Simmon’s jersey being retired at Florida State.
That is legit an amazing honor. I love the pop of the crowd when it was announced that Ron was 4-0 against Florida. That’s called local rivalries meaning something, but we don’t get much of that anymore in College Football.
I mean, we have Stanford and Cal in the ACC playing my Pitt Panthers while West Viriginia is in the Big 12 playing Arizona State. What are we doing? Sorry, too much sports talk in this review. -Bobby Bowden sends in a taped video and he isn’t surprised by what Ron is accomplishing in WCW.
The Diamond Studd vs. Ron Simmons -Studd yells he is The Bad Guy and throws his toothpick at the camera screen. Like that will ever get over.
Hey Yo vs. Damn! Studd attacks before the bell and fires off right hands. Simmons returns fire with kicks and right hands.
Studd goes to the eyes. Simmons tries a leap, but Studd catches him and choke slams him down. That was sweet and I spot you don’t see often.
Studd gets his feet up in the corner and comes off the second ropes with a bulldog. He goes for a cocky cover and Simmons reverses to a pin for two. Simmons avoids the boots in the corner this time and slides to the floor and posts Hall by his little razors.
Spinebuster! Shoulder Tackle finishes at 2:26. Winner: Ron Simmons via pin at 2:26 -Simmons was being pushed as a legit challenger to Luger, so this result isn’t surprising. Studd showed something here and it was a fun sub 3 minute match.
This would have been perfect for WWE Speed. It accomplished what it needed and I am sure someone in WWF was paying attention to Hall. **1/4 -Paul E is in the ring to interview Simmons and he wants Luger out there now.
Race and Mr. Hughes are out and Ron just blows them off and says he will find Luger himself. Terrence Taylor (w/ Alexandra York) vs.
Van Hammer -This is Hammer’s debut and Capetta messes up his nickname by calling him “Heavy Hitter.” JR is immediately there to reiterate he is Heavy Metal. I had friends in elementary school that swore Van Hammer was Warrior.
Taylor smashes the computer over Hammer’s back before the bell, so no DQ. Hammer shakes it off and gets a slam. Another slam and then a series of clotheslines.
Facebuster suplex! Hammer tunes up the band, but not in that way. He comes off the top with a knee to the back and that gets the pin at 1:08. Winner: Van Hammer via pin at 1:08 -That finisher looked awful and I think they ended up giving him something else.
I am all for letting new talent steamroll people as sometimes you have to take a chance. Now, you can be spectacularly wrong, as they were here, but such is life. SQUASH -Missy is in Luger’s dressing room and Ron wants a word with him.
Luger pushes him out, so Ron breaks down the door with a running shoulder. Security then has to break things up. WCW World Television Title: “Stunning” Steve Austin (c) (w/ Lady Blossom) vs.
The Z-Man -The TV Title still has NWA on it as I still can’t get straight who is in control of what Title at this point. They jockey for position around the ring and Z-Man gives Austin a clean break. No shock there! They go again and again, a clean break.
Austin gets a side headlock, but Z-Man counters into a hammerlock. Austin counters that which is they countered back into the hammerlock by Z-Man. Austin gets to the ropes to break and it’s another clean one.
Another lock-up and Austin again goes to the side headlock. He is shoved off by drops Z-Man with a shoulder tackle. Z-Man with a side headlock now and a shove off and he runs Austin down with a shoulder block.
Hey, how about another side headlock as Zenk is back in control. Shove off and another shoulder block. Austin lands a kick to the gut and then a side headlock which is countered with a head scissors.
They tie up in the ropes, so we slow down and start again. Say it with me, Austin with a side headlock that he takes to the mat. They are working this like they have all the time in the world.
Head scissors from Zenk and Austin is able to escape, but gets taken down with an arm-drag into an armbar. Z-Man continues to work the arm, but Austin lands a strike and back to the HEADLOCK. Please stop! Hey he’s another shoulder tackle.
Z-Man with a superkick and then a backdrop for two. Too much excitement I guess as Austin bails to the floor. Z-Man leaps over the top and hits a cross-body onto the ramp.
He heads up top, but Austin ducks and Z-Man crashes to the mat. Austin with a right hand and then a reverse chinlock. I mean, JR is saying Austin knows there is a time limit, so perhaps he is just stalling this one out.
He uses the ropes for leverage, but Patrick catches him and forces a break. Stun-gun from Austin, but he doesn’t go for the cover and Z-Man gets a small package for two. Sleeper from Z-Man but Austin gets to the ropes and Blossom puts brass knuckles on his hand.
He swings wildly and misses, but gets a second chance as Z-Man tries a belly to back. One punch to the head with the brass knuckles and Austin gets the pin at 9:18. Winner and Still WCW TV Champion: “Stunning” Steve Austin via pin at 9:15 -Just a super basic match with a lot of chin/headlocks and tackles.
The last three minutes got good, but took time to get there. ** -Video of Ron Simmons speaking to a local group of kids! -Luger is still stalling for the press conference, so here is another video of Ron working with kids as he rides a school bus with them. -Now we are ready for the Press Conference and it’s on the ramp instead of in the ring.
Eric Bischoff is the host and introduces Ron Simmons, who is at one table with his wife, and Dusty Rhodes is there as well. JR wonders why Dusty is up there with Ron. Lex Luger makes his introduction and Ron is the first to sign the contract.
Luger signs and says when he wins, Ron can work for him as a driver. Ron attacks and they have to be separated. Luger and his crew bail and leave in a limo as Ron tries to break through the window.
Thankfully, they didn’t have him smash the window as that usually doesn’t go well. Ask Goldberg! Unless you use fake glass! Something something cry a river. -We see The Enforcers attacking Kazmaier earlier in the show.
His status for the Main Event is questionable. If this was hockey, he would have an upper body injury. WCW World Tag Team Titles Tournament Finals: Rick Steiner and Bill Kazmaier vs.
The Enforcers -The Titles were vacated when Scott got injured and Rick has a chance to win them back with a different partner. Rick knows he has a compromised partner, so he attacks quickly as he wants to end this one as soon as possible. Powerslam to Arn gets a two count, but Larry breaks the count.
Larry with a slam and goes to work on the arm as he yells at Bill. Arn with the tag but Rick punches him in the face, but he can’t get away and the tag is made by Larry. Rick tries to punch his way to his corner, but Larry cuts him off and gets a suplex for two.
Arn back and he tries a suplex but Rick blocks and hits one of his own. Larry back in and he runs Rick into the corner. Again, Rick starts punching his way out of the corner and lands a kick to Larry.
Steiner-line to Arn! He looks for a middle rope belly to belly, but Larry stops that and Arn comes off the ropes with a clothesline. Kaz tags himself in and hits a series of slams. He goes to press Larry, but Arn punches him in the ribs and Larry falls on top for the pin and Tag Titles at 3:33.
Winners and New WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Enforcers via pin at 3:33 -Some tournament final, but it made sense with the injury angle. Just not the best sign in that they had to run the angle to protect Kaz from being exposed working a match. The finish made all the sense in the world after the attack on the ribs and Rick trying to do it by himself was good for the match and story.
* -Thanks for reading! 4.0 The final score: review Poor The 411 -There is a lot of nothing on this show with Pillman and Armstrong turning in a strong performance for just 7 minutes. The Cactus Jack/Sting stuff is fun, but didn't really go anywhere.
The Main program was the hard sell for Luger/Simmons which makes sense, but Luger defending against anyone here and getting a win would have helped. WCW was still falling after the Flair departure, but small glimmers of hope are on the way. As for this show, definitely not a good Clash and one you can watch once just because every once should be watched, but likely will never come back to.
legend 0 - 0.9 Torture 1 - 1.9 Extremely Horrendous 2 - 2.
9 Very Bad 3 - 3.9 Bad 4 - 4.9 Poor 5 - 5.
9 Not So Good 6 - 6.9 Average 7 - 7.9 Good 8 - 8.
9 Very Good 9 - 9.9 Amazing 10 Virtually Perfect.
