PPV Poster of the Week

Starrcade 1987

Chi-Town Heat

Tag Team Match of the Day (Road Warriors vs The Funks)

October 19th 1985

Tokyo, Japan

The Road Warriors

vs 

Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr.

(the Warriors were Gods in Japan at this time)

NWA Superstars on the Superstation 1986

This is the NWA (Crockett Promotions) first attempt at a nationally televised supercard that was taped Feb. 2nd 1986 and aired on WTBS Feb 7th 1986.

The card stacked up like this:

World Tag Team Title Match
The Rock N Roll Express (Champions)
vs
The Midnight Express w/Jim Cornette

The Road Warriors vs The Koloffs (Ivan and Nikita) w/Baron Von Raschke

NWA National Heavyweight Title Match
Tully Blanchard vs Dusty Rhodes (Champion)

NWA World Heavyweight Title Match
Ron Garvin  vs  Ric Flair (Champion)

Your Tag Team Match of The Night

AWA World Tag Team Title match

Road Warriors vs. Harley Race & Stan Hansen 

09.02.1985

Sundome, Tampa FL

Good old fashioned brawl that went all over the place
 (Gordon  Solie on the mic to make it a true classic)

NWA-AWA Star Wars

In February 1985 the NWA and AWA decided to join forces to put together a Super Card for the New Jersey Meadowlands.  This was, sadly, a desperate attempt to stem the tide of the WWF and Vince McMahon who was raiding the talent and the regions of the AWA and NWA.   They went to the heart of the WWF, New York City/NJ area, to try and promote themselves as a better alternative to the "cartoonish"  style the WWF had adopted in its spread across the US.

here is that first card from 1985 with the biggest names of the NWA and AWA.  Sadly this was ignored by the US wrestling press and television.  However, Japanese fans got to see the card and all the talent on display and that is why we have the japanese commentary.

Star Wars was held 3 more times with the only card to draw more than 10,000 fans was on December 29th 1985, well below the 18,500 fans for the first show.   All in all it was a money loser for both promotions and the small crowds finally convinced them to steer clear of the New York area for good.

If you notice Sgt Slaughter winning the Battle Royal in a nod to his recent departure from the WWF, they knew he still had a huge following in the NY/NJ area.

The scheduled matches

1. Ivan & Nikita Koloff beat Steve Keirn & Jimmy Valiant when Ivan pinned Valiant.
   
2. Jimmy Garvin beat AWA World Champion Rick Martel via DQ.
   
3. AWA World Tag Champs The Road Warriors beat Jerry Lawler & Baron Von Raschke when Raschke was pinned.
   
4. NWA World Champ Ric Flair pinned Harley Race (25:00).
   
5. Sgt. Slaughter won a "tag team battle royal." Slaughter's partner, Jerry Blackwell, was injured and could not compete, forcing Slaughter to wrestle alone. Also in the match were: The Road Warriors, Ivan & Nikita Koloff, Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell, Kamala & Billy Robinson, Mark & Chris Youngblood, Jerry Lawler & Baron Von Raschke, Bob Backlund & Jimmy Valiant, Mr. Saito & Masked Superstar, Nick Bockwinkel & Dory Funk Jr., Jimmy Garvin & Larry Zbyszko, and Steve Keirn & Jerry Oski.

Best of WCW Clash of Champions DVD Set

Reported by: Colin Vassallo, on Apr 30, 2012 - 10:20:01 AM
 

On May 22, WWE will be releasing a new home video titled The Best of WCW Clash of the Champions on both DVD and Blu-Ray.

The three disc DVD version will contain a total of 24 full matches while the two disc Blu-Ray release will have three extra matches.

Superstars such as Ric Flair, Sting, Ivan Koloff, Terry Funk, Macho Man, Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, Rick Rude and a ton of others are all featured in this must-have release.

Sting and Ric Flair got the nod to grace the artwork of the video and you can see both the artwork and the full list of matches below.

Click here to go to the Amazon store to purchase the Blu Ray

Click here to go to the Amazon Store to purchase the regular DVD

DISC 1

The Real Story

NWA World Heavyweight Championship Match
'Nature Boy' Ric Flair vs. Sting
Clash of the Champions - 27th March, 1988

NWA World Tag Team Championship Match
Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs. Lex Luger & Barry Windham
Clash of the Champions - 27th March, 1988

Why Wait a Whole Year?

NWA World Tag Team Championship Match
Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs. Sting & Dusty Rhodes
Clash of the Champions II - 8th June, 1988

Russian Chain Match
Ricky Morton vs. Ivan Koloff
Clash of the Champions III - 7th September, 1988

"I Quit" Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
'Nature Boy' Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk
Clash of the Champions IX - 15th November, 1989

Mil Mascaras vs. Cactus Jack Manson
Clash of the Champions X - 6th February, 1990

NWA World Tag Team Championship Match
Midnight Express vs. Rock & Roll Express
Clash of the Champions XI - 13th June, 1990


DISC 2

To Be The Man, You Gotta Beat The Man

NWA United States Championship Match
'Nature Boy' Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger
Clash of the Champions XII - 5th September, 1990

The Young Pistols & Z-Man vs. The Fabulous Freebirds
Clash of the Champions XV - 12th June, 1991

15-Man Battle Royal
Clash of the Champions XVI - 5th September, 1991

WCW United States Championship Match
Sting vs. 'Ravishing' Rick Rude
Clash of the Champions XVII - 19th November, 1991

Other Stars On The Rise

2 out of 3 Falls Match
'Nature Boy' Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. The Hollywood Blonds
Clash of the Champions XXIII - 17th June, 1993

Brian Pillman vs. 'Stunning' Steve Austin
Clash of the Champions XXV - 10th November, 1993

WCW Television Title Match
Lord Steven Regal vs. Dustin Rhodes
Clash of the Champions XXVI - 27th January, 1994

Elimination Tag Team Match
Sting & 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair vs. 'Ravishing' Rick Rude & Vader
Clash of the Champions XXVI - 27th January, 1994


DISC 3

Here we are Again

Championship Unification Match
Sting vs. 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair
Clash of the Champions XXVII - 23rd June, 1994

WCW United States Championship Match
'Stunning' Steve Austin vs. Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat
Clash of the Champions XXVIII - 24th August, 1994

Hulk Hogan & 'Macho Man' Randy Savage vs. 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair & The Giant
Clash of the Champions XXXII - 23rd January, 1996

Medusa vs. Bull Nakano
Clash of the Champions XXXIII - 15th August, 1996

Match for the BattleBowl Ring
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddie Guerrero
Clash of the Champions XXXIII - 15th August, 1996

I'm gonna watch this

WCW World Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match
Harlem Heat vs. The Steiner Brothers vs. Sting & Lex Luger
Clash of the Champions XXXIII - 15th August, 1996

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match
Ultimo Dragon vs. Dean Malenko
Clash of the Champions XXXIV - 21st January, 1997

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match
Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Guerrero
Clash of the Champions XXXV - 21st August, 1997

Diamond Dallas Page & Lex Luger vs. Scott Hall & 'Macho Man' Randy Savage
Clash of the Champions XXXV - 21st August, 1997

35th and Final Clash


BLU-RAY EXTRAS

'Nature Boy' Ric Flair and Barry Windham vs. Midnight Express
Clash of the Champions IV - 7th December, 1988

Sting and Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat vs. 'Ravishing' Rick Rude and Steve Austin
Clash of the Champions XVIII - 21st January, 1992

Thunder Cage Match
Dustin Rhodes & Sting vs. Big Van Vader, Paul Orndorff and Barry Windham
Clash of the Champions XXII - 13th January, 1993 

1st Annual Crockett Cup Tournament

Today in 1986 the NWA held the 1st annual Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Tag Team Tournament at the Superdome in New Orleans Louisiana.  The heavily favored Road Warriors made it to the finals where they met the team of Magnum TA and Ronnie Garvin.
The Warriors would "win" the "Million dollar prize"  and the Crockett Cup trophy.



  The tournament featured 24 teams. The results were:
First round:
- Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood defeated Bobby Jaggers and Mike Miller
 - Sam Houston and Nelson Royal defeated The Batten Twins (Bart and Brad).
- The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) defeated The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn and Stan Lane).
- The Sheepherders (Butch Miller and Luke Williams) defeated Chavo and Hector Guerrero.
 - Manny Fernandez and Jimmy Valiant defeated The Barbarian and Baron Von Raschke.
- Terry Taylor and Steve Williams defeated Bill Dundee and Buddy Landel. - Buzz Sawyer and Rick Steiner defeated The Italian Stallion and Koko Ware.
- NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Black Bart and Jimmy Garvin defeated D.J. Peterson and Brett Wayne.
Second round:
 - The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk) defeated Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood.
 - NWA World Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton) defeated Sam Houston and Nelson Royal.
- The Fantastics defeated NWA World Television Champion Arn Anderson and NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard.
- The Sheepherders defeated The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton).
 - NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Ivan and Nikita Koloff defeated Manny Fernandez and Jimmy Valiant.
- Terry Taylor and Steve Williams defeated Dino Bravo and Rick Martel.
- Ron Garvin and NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Magnum T.A. defeated Buzz Sawyer and Rick Steiner.
- Giant Baba and Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) defeated NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Black Bart and Jimmy Garvin.
Quarterfinals:
- The Road Warriors defeated NWA World Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express.
- The Fantastics and The Sheepherders were both disqualified, giving The Road Warriors a bye to the final match.
- NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Ivan & Nikita Koloff and Terry Taylor & Steve Williams fought to a draw.
 - Ron Garvin and NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Magnum T.A. defeated Giant Baba and Tiger Mask to advance to the final match due to the previous draw.
 Finals: -
The Road Warriors defeated Ron Garvin and NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Magnum T.A.

Non-tournament matches
 - Mid-South North American Heavyweight Champion Jim Duggan defeated Dick Slater to retain the title.
 - NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes by DQ to retain the title.

Match of the Day

From August 1985, the AWA World Tag Team Champions take on the #1 contenders, The Irwin Brothers (Bill and Scott Irwin).
The Irwin Brothers were in my opinion one of the best teams to hit the AWA in many years after the Road Warriors but they just became fodder for the Warriors.  Having them beat the Warriors and trade the belts would have made for a possibly legendary feud but sadly Verne wanted to keep the Warriors happy and didnt let the Long Riders get another shot at the belts.


Sadly Scott "Hogg" Irwin died from a brain tumor in September of 1987.

Your Match of the Night

From the first AWA Superclash, held at Comiskey Park on September 28th 1985


The AWA World Tag Team Champions, The Road Warriors face The Fabulous Freebirds


ENJOY!

Ric Flair vs Road Warrior Hawk 1986

first the set up



then the match in Philadelphia at the Great American Bash on Tour

Match of the Day

From SummerSlam 1992 in London England


 The Legion of Doom vs Money Inc (Ted Dibiase and Mike Rotunda)

Great American Bash 1989

Today in 1989 WCW held its annual Great American Bash PPV.   This year it was held at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore MD.

Some of the Hightlights

The night got started with a 2 ring "King of the Hill" Battle Royal


The WCW/NWA debut of Scott Steiner



The NWA Television Title was put on the line as the champion, Sting faced off with The Great Muta


A WarGames match was also part of the card, with the Road Warrior, Midnight Express and Steve Williams against the Freebirds (Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) and Samoan Swat Team.




The Main Event of the night was a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Title.  The champion, Ric Flair went against old rival Terry Funk that ended in a wild brawl.

Your Match of the Night

Tonight's Match is from the first Clash of Champions, March 27th 1988.   This is the 6 man tag team match featuring the World Six Man Tag Team Champions, Dusty Rhodes and The Road Warriors vs the Powers of Pain with Ivan Koloff.
You will notice Animal is wearing a "mask" to protect his eye that was actually hurt in a match with the Powers of Pain when the Barbarian dropped all his weight on Animals head.  This broke his orbital bone, fractured his skull, broke his cheek bone and his nose.  After surgery and time off he came back with the mask and it was the focus of most of his matches for several weeks including this one.  He didnt actually have any physical contact until he completely healed and the mask was just a prop for buildup in his matches.

The Road Warriors

I am in the process of reading the new book by Road Warrior Animal (Joe Laurinitas) about the "Life and Times of the Road Warriors"
He details all of his career along with stories of his long friendships with Rick Rude, Barry Darsow (Krusher Kruschev), Nikita Koloff (Scott Simpson), Scott Norton and Nord the Barbarian.
One of the more interesting things is the details of some of the many thousand matches they have had over the years including their first trip to Japan when they became Gods of Wrestling to the fans.
Their first match there was against the big rugged team of Animal Hamaguichi and Killer Khan.  All 4 men loved to work stiff and made it look real and rough.
Here is there first match in Japan from March of 1985

Match of the Day

The Match of the Day is from April 2nd 1989 and the Clash of Champions 6 (Rajun Cajun).  Its for the NWA World Tag Team Titles.   The champions, The Road Warriors are defending against the Varsity Club (Dr Death Steve Williams & Captain Mike Rotunda).

Held at the Superdome in New Orleans Louisiana and televised on Superstation TBS.

The video starts with the end of the previous match involving Dick Murdoch facing Cowboy Bob Orton.

The referee in this World Tag Team Title match is Teddy Long.

Match of the Day

From WCW Monday Nitro, its the Steiner Brothers vs The Road Warriors.

This is also a fine example of terrible color commentary with Steve "Mongo" McMichael.

Clash of the Champions 5

Depending on which site you believe the 5th Clash of the Champions was held either today or the 15th of Feb 1989.

Subtitled "St. Valentines Day Massacre" in Cleveland Ohio, here are the results:

1989 - Clash of the Champions V was held in Cleveland, OH at the CSU Convocation Center and was nicknamed "St. Valentine's Day Massacre". Here are the results from the show, which was aired live on TBS:
- The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) defeated The Russian Assassins when Eaton pinned Assassin #1.
- Butch Reed defeated Steven Casey.
- Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat had an in-ring confrontation, with Flair making fun of Steamboat's family and home life, while bragging about his wild party life and women. Steamboat ended up ripping off Flair's clothes and running him out of the ring.
- Lex Luger defeated The Blackmailer (Jack Victory).
- United States Tag Team Champions Mike Rotunda & Steve Williams defeated The Fantastics when Williams pinned Tommy Rogers.
- Ricky Steamboat defeated Bob Bradley.
- Rick Steiner defeated Rip Morgan.
- NWA World Six Man Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan & Steve Williams ended in a double disqualification. The original match was scheduled to have Sting, Michael Hayes & Junkyard Dog challenging the Warriors & Tenryu for the belts. However, a ridiculous backstage angle was done where Sullivan locked a gate over a stairwell, keeping Sting, Hayes and JYD from being able to get to the ring. Sullivan and company went to the ring and took the match and after six minutes, Sting, Hayes and JYD hit the ring for a big brawl, ending the cluster in a double DQ. The entire scenario was such an embarrassment that All Japan Pro Wrestling broke off relations with the NWA and wouldn't send Tenryu back to defend the belts. The six-man title was soon forgotten and abandoned.

Survivor Series 1990

The fourth annual Survivor Series was held on Thanksgiving night, November 22nd 1990 at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford Connecticut.
Memorable for several reasons but in the grand scheme of the future of the WWF/WWE was the debut of The Undertaker. Formerly known as "Mean" Mark Callous, the wrestler WCW journeyman wrestler Mark Calloway would become legend in the WWF and is still performing today.
This years Series had 5 Survivor Elimination matches and a Grand Finale with each "babyface" survivor teaming up to meet the "heel" survivors. The Undertaker would make his debut as a member of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase's team "The Million Dollar Team" which also consisted of Ted Dibiase, and Rhythm & Blues (Honky Tonk Man & Greg Valentine).


The first Survivor Series elimination match of the night saw The Warriors (Ultimate Warrior, Kerry Von Erich and The Legion of Doom) vs The Perfect Team (Curt Henning and Demolition (Ax, Smash & Crush) with Bobby Heenan in their corner.

Here are the promos building to the Survivor Series (You dont see promos and buildup like this anymore)





Here is the elimination match



The Grand finale was the "babyface" team of Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and Tito Santana facing the heel team of Ted Dibiase, Rick "The Model" Martel, The Warlord and Power & Glory (Paul Roma & Hercules).

Flashback Match of the Day

From SummerSlam 1991, Madison Square Garden August 26th.

The WWF Tag Team Champions, The Nasty Boys vs Legion of Doom (The Road Warriors).

The Road Warriors would be the first team to win the AWA, NWA and WWF Tag Team titles.

The Hellraisers

From 1996 in the Tokyo Dome its The Steiner Brothers and Scott Norton vs The Hellraisers (Road Warriors Hawk & Animal and Kensuke Sasaki). This is the kind of main event Wrestlemania should have.