WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV 8/18/1993

Written By: Matt Peddycord

WCW Clash of the Champions #24
August 18, 1993
Daytona Beach, FL
Ocean Center

The current WCW & NWA Champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Big Van Vader (3/17/1993)
NWA World Champion: Ric Flair (7/18/1993)
WCW U.S. Champion: vacant (5/15/1993)
WCW/NWA World Tag Team Champions: The Hollywood Blondes (3/2/1993)
WCW World Television Champion: Paul Orndorff (3/2/1993)

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura.

WCW/NWA World Tag Team Champions Steve Austin & Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William & Brian Pillman) vs. Arn Anderson & Paul Roma
Here is where the months of Disney MGM tapings completed in one week screwed WCW real bad. Because of said tapings and because Bischoff decided to hold off on their title win instead of giving them the belts at Beach Blast, Anderson and Roma had to become the tag champs here in order for them to be the champs in the string of Worldwide shows where they were called the champs before the Nasty Boys won the belts in September. Sorry if this information spoils the match for you, but this show is nearly fifteen years old, people. Anyways, Brian Pillman was injured prior to the show and now he can’t compete in the match. He’s seriously injured – he’s really not kidding this time. So Austin needed a partner and Lord Steven Regal was their choice. Complete opposites when you consider Austin and Regal, but I don’t know that they had much of a choice here. Can you think of another upper mid-card heel wrestler for Austin to team up with in 1993? Me either. Pillman ~ “THIS IS A CONSPIRACY!” I absolutely agree, Brian. He’ll hang around ringside leaning on his crutches. After a stiff tie-up, Austin nails AA with a clothesline and catches him with an elbow off the ropes for two. Anderson catapults Austin onto the apron and catches him charging at him with a backdrop over the top to the floor. Jesse wants a DQ for that, but the ref was with Regal. Austin cowers back in the ring and slides over to Regal for a tag. Tag to Roma, he unloads in the corner and hits a dropkick. I always loved Regal’s selling. He always seems repulsed at the pain he was enduring. Austin decks Roma as he comes off the ropes to turn the tide. Austin tags back in and hits a suplex. Pillman chokes Roma in the ropes just because he’s there, so he might as well do it. Tag to Regal, he delivers a somersault senton for two. Gutwrench suplex gets two. Austin tags and tries a turnbuckle smash, but Roma avoids and smashes Austin’s face instead. Austin goes low with the knee and hits a flying elbow for two. Roma gets an inside cradle while the ref is busy trying to get Anderson back to his corner. Austin turns around and takes a shot right to the face from AA. Nice. Roma hits Austin’s own STUNGUN, leading to a false tag spot. Roma gets a Jack Brisco rollup on Regal for only one. Enziguri kick to Regal sets up a HOT TAG TO ANDERSON! He goes for the DDT, but Regal breaks it up from behind. Roma takes Regal to the floor and Pillman gets up on the apron to distract the ref while Sir William’s on the apron with the crutch. AA reverses a whip from Austin into Sir William and rolls him up for 1-2-3. (9:51) Crowd erupts, giving Roma no doubt the biggest pop of his WCW career. **½

Too Cold Scorpio vs. Bobby Eaton
Man, seeing Bobby like this makes me pine for the Midnight Express days. This was supposed to Regal instead of Eaton, but as you can see, that had to be changed. Plus instead of a styles clash, we get a flyer vs. flyer match. They do some back-and-forth stuff until Eaton misses a corner charge and Scorpio comes off the top for a flying bodypress for 1-2-NO! Scorpio misses a crossbody, so then Bobby chokes him in the ropes. Scorpio elbows out of a hammerlock and sets Eaton up in the turnbuckle for a dropkick that takes him to the floor! Well that was kind of cool. He brings Eaton back in after a pescado where Eaton catches Scorpio out of nowhere with a swinging neckbreaker. Eaton heads up top and comes down with a flying elbow drop! Only Savage hits it prettier. That gets two. Scorpio comes back with a spinning heel kick and finishes Eaton off with the 450 SPLASH. (5:27) Pretty much a decent Worldwide main event. **
Johnny B. Badd vs. Maxx Payne – Johnny’s mask vs. Payne’s “Norma Jean” guitar
I think this might be it for the Badd/Payne feud. If Johnny loses, he must unmask and show his “disfigured” face after being shot in the face with his own Badd Blaster, but if Payne loses then Badd gets his guitar. Payne attacks Badd at the opening and elbow drops him with his feathered boas still on. Jesse seems quite offended by this! When Badd starts to punch Payne back, he whiffs on a crossbody. Payne pulls off the mask, but Badd has another mask on. I mean, it’s just proper mask etiquette to wear two masks if there’s a chance you might have to unmask at the end of the match. Badd snaps off a headscissors, but Payne NO-SELLS and nails him with a clothesline. Payne delivers the Hammerlock Slam and goes for the PAYNE KILLER, but Badd slips away and cradles Payne up for 1-2-NO! Payne hits another clothesline and drops a pair of elbows. He wants a splash off the middle rope, but Badd moves out of the way. Cover, 1-2-3. (2:40) Well this was way more fun than their Beach Blast match. Johnny says afterwards that he’s going to take the mask off anyway this weekend on Saturday Night. He must’ve just really wanted a free guitar! *½

Yes announcer guy, this is a special edition of ‘Flair for the Gold’. Man, Fifi is smokin’ hot by the way. Flair brings out Sting and Davey Boy Smith. They start hyping up their mystery partner for the Wargames at Fall Brawl. Sid and Harlem Heat come by to tell them to shut up and demand to know who the heck this mystery guy is. Sid is just plain hilarious. Anyways, Sting says their mystery guy is going to shock the world! Explosions go off and a guy in a glittery purple storm trooper helmet crashes through a wall, trips, and off comes the helmet to reveal Typhoon! He tries to recover by putting the helmet back on as quickly as possible, but lets face it – this segment and this new character has lost ALL credibility. Ahh the pitfalls of live TV. Ole Anderson does some bad voiceovers while Sid barks at the Shockmaster. Could this be anymore embarrassing?

WCW World Television Champion Paul Orndorff vs. Ricky Steamboat
After the break, Tony and Jesse try to keep their composure. You can tell they had been laughing during the entire commercial break. At least they don’t try to pull it off and act all serious about it because that would make them look really dumb. You have to hand it to Orndorff – he does an excellent job getting over the “Paula” chants by acting like they are calling him something actually vulgar and offensive. Michael Buffer does the ring introductions to give this the “big match feel”. Not sure why, but I guess they thought they needed to get all they could out of his paycheck. Oops, they seem to be having trouble with the lights too. Despite the in-ring action has been pretty good, this has NOT been a good night for WCW. Steamboat sticks with a headlock for a while. He misses a crossbody and flies out to the rampway for the momentum change. Back in, Orndorff hits a flying elbow and hits the chinlock. When Steamboat breaks loose, Orndorff slams him and makes several attempts to get a pin on Steamboat. Orndorff dumps Steamboat out, but Steamboat blocks a turnbuckle smash from the apron and comes back in with a Flying Judo Chop! Cover, 1-2-NO! Steamboat hits a back suplex, but cracks his own head from the impact. Delayed cover gets two. Steamboat chops Orndorff to the floor and follows up with a plancha! Back in, Orndorff shoulderblocks Steamboat from the apron through the ropes and flies in for the cover for two. Now Orndorff uses the ropes for leverage and gets two. Ref Randy Anderson stops the count, but Orndorff thinks he’s won. He grabs his TV belt and raises it high in the air, but here comes Steamboat up behind with a rollup for 1-2-NO! Orndorff goes for the PILEDRIVER, but Steamboat backdrops out into a backslide sequence. That gets two for Steamboat. He comes off the top with a FLYING BODYPRESS, but Orndorff rolls through for 1-2-NO! Orndorff goes for a slam, but Steamboat does his WrestleMania 3 counter and rolls up Orndorff for the 1-2-3! New champ. (8:34) Good match. Afterwards, Orndorff gives Steamboat a PILEDRIVER on the belt! ***¼

Sting & Ric Flair vs. The Colossal Kongs (w/Harley Race)
I don’t know who thought a half-ton of no-talent was a good idea, but that’s what the Colossal Kongs are. They are two 500 pound white guys with black masks and black wrestling gear. Michael Buffer is even doing the ring introductions for this one as well. MMMMAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! Once the bell rings, Sting slams the Kongs one-by-one. Race ~ “Impossible!!!” He’s so unintentionally funny. It breaks down as one Kong goes on the floor and brawls with Flair while the other gets clotheslined like no tomorrow by Sting. Stinger Splash! Flair goes over and chops away on Race as Sting hits a flying splash for 1-2-3. (2:14) It’s okay, Harley. You still have Vader. As fun a squash as this could possibly be. ½*

Rick Rude & The Equalizer vs. Dustin Rhodes & ???
Dustin Rhodes has had more mystery partners in WCW than anybody else I know. The Equalizer is a guy more commonly known as Dave Sullivan, the Hulkamaniac “brother” of Kevin Sullivan during the early days of the Dungeon of Doom. If you still don’t know who he is, then that’s really okay. You’re probably a better person for it. The mystery partner will be driving down to the ring in a new Z-28 Camaro that you could possibly win! Now who could be driving that car? Why, it’s ROAD WARRIOR ANIMAL! Rude grabs the mic away from Capetta and says that he knew it was going to be Road Warrior Animal all along and that he and the Equalizer are prepared. Animal mentions about how Dusty used to walk around with the LOD and now it’s Dustin’s turn. Wait. The last time they teamed up, Animal was jabbing a spike from his shoulder pad into Dusty’s eye socket! But that’s all forgotten now, right? I guess time really does heal all wounds. Anyways, Road Warrior Animal swerves Rude and says Hawk is the one he’s really going to have to face tonight. “LOD” chants go up all through the Ocean Center. Hawk wins a test of strength and stomps Rude’s hands. Equalizer tags in and takes a dropkick out to the floor. Equalizer baits Hawk around the ring and then puts the boots to him. He telegraphs a backdrop and Hawk tries a reverse neckbreaker, which is badly botched. Hawk hits the fist drop instead, but runs into a boot in the corner and takes a clothesline. Rude tags and pounds the back of Hawk to set up a chinlock. Hawk powers up and lifts Rude up in position for a DOOMSDAY DEVICE! Rhodes delivers! Rhodes goes crazy on Rude and Equalizer with elbows, but Rude shoves off a monkey flip and comes off the top with a forearm. The heels take turns beating on Rhodes until Equalizer clotheslines Rude by accident. That’s what happens when you have an idiot for a partner, Rick. False tag spot occurs. Hawk really doesn’t pay any attention to that and press slams Rude onto Equalizer. He hits a double-clothesline and dumps both heels out to the floor. As Hawk looks to suplex Rude back in the ring, Equalizer runs up behind Hawk and dumps him out. Equalizer tries to slam Dustin as Hawk heads up top and shoulderblocks Dustin on top of Equalizer for the win. (7:42) Pretty bland formula stuff, but the crowd seemed way into it because of the return of the Road Warriors. *½

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) vs. Davey Boy Smith – DQ rule waived
Meaning if Vader gets disqualified, Davey Boy Smith wins the belt. They brawl on the rampway to start – peaking with a Davey Boy Smith hourglass suplex. Davey Boy tries a slingshot splash on the way in, but Vader brings the knees up. Vader puts him in the corner and fires away, which is always bad for the other guy. They go to the floor where Vader tries a splash up against the guardrail, but that never works for anybody. Back in, DBS delivers a fireman’s carry slam for two. Vader comes back with a clothesline and starts up the elbow drops between the legs. Another clothesline rocks Davey Boy. A fireman’s carry slam from Vader sets up a flying splash for 1-2-NO! DBS tries a sunset flip and avoids the butt splash. Vader reverses a whip and sends DBS flipping into the corner. Davey Boy comes back with a crucifix – the move that got the pin on Vader at Beach Blast – for 1-2-NO! Vader takes DBS to the corner and unloads again. Vader heads up top, but Davey Boy crotches him with a dropkick. Now it’s Davey Boy Smith’s turn to pound Vader down into the corner. Davey Boy runs into a boot though to set up the Pump Splash. Cover, 1-2-NO! Vader comes off the middle-rope, but DBS catches him for a powerslam! Whoops, the ref got in the way and gets sent to the other side of the ring. Davey Boy goes for another suplex, but Harley Race runs in and clips Davey Boy, causing Vader to fall on top. The ref crawls over and counts 1-2-3. (11:11) Vader starts to head to the dressing room when all of a sudden, Cactus Jack comes running down to beat the heck out of him! They would show us more, but we’re outta time! Another good Vader match, but I still think I liked the Slamboree match a tad better. After Fall Brawl, Davey Boy Smith pretty much stays in the mid-card until he runs back to the WWF. ***

Final Thoughts: So WCW had some new stuff going on here – new champs, a couple guys made their returns. But one person shocks me more than anyone else, and that’s the debut of the Shockmaster. I’ve seen that entrance I don’t know how many times over the years and it never gets old. It’s always strangely entertaining. I’m going to go with thumbs in the middle for this show. The crowd was the most awake I’ve seen them since Superbrawl and the action was good. Not great or anything, but it’s inoffensive and I would prefer this over Beach Blast. You know, the show that people had to pay to see.