WCW Clash of the Champions XXV 11/10/1993

Written By: Matt Peddycord

WCW Clash of the Champions #25
November 10, 1993
St. Petersburg, FL
Bayfront Center

The current WCW & NWA Champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Big Van Vader (3/17/1993)
WCW International World Champion: Rick Rude (9/19/1993)
WCW U.S. Champion: Dustin Rhodes (8/30/1993)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys (10/24/1993)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (9/19/1993)

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura. Plus, it’s Mean Gene’s first big show! He’s here to hype the WCW hotline. Imagine that.

WCW International World Champion Rick Rude vs. Road Warrior Hawk
This one’s going to be very limited due to Hawk’s recent knee injury he suffered in Japan. I would probably booked Regal/Badd for the opener instead. They announce Animal is supposed to be at Hawk’s side, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Lot of talking between the two to begin things. Rude stalls to prevent having to lock-up in a test of strength and then cheapshots Hawk to take over. Hawk NO-SELLS a turnbuckle smash and delivers a few to Rude instead. Wow, he gives Rude a suplex. Rude goes to the eyes and gives Hawk a backbreaker. Rude comes off the top and eats a boot. They head out to the floor and brawl until they’re both counted out. (5:39) The crowd’s not cool with that at all, but what are you gonna do? ½*

The Shockmaster vs. The Equalizer
Oh gosh. Let’s just get this over with. Equalizer beats up Shockmaster for two minutes and then runs into a big boot. That sets up the BEARHUG DROP for the finish. (2:29) Why? CRAP

Mean Gene is standing by with Col. Parker. He explains that he dropped Sid Vicious like a hot potato and picked up Steve Austin. Parker even went as far as to get a restraining order against Sid. Probably isn’t a bad idea considering the guy stabs people with scissors. Gene informs Parker that he saw a six foot nine inch tall guy with blonde hair in the men’s room earlier. He acts he’s not sure if it was really Sid or not though. Well, he sure was precise with those measurements. Anyways, Col. Parker walks away worrying about Sid because he has no protection. WCW still wasn’t positive what to do with Sid since they had already decided that he would be the one to dethrone Vader of the WCW world title at Starrcade. It wasn’t until the locker room revolted and said they wouldn’t show up to Battlebowl if Sid wasn’t fired considering he was the one who attacked Arn Anderson in the first place.

WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) vs. Johnny B. Badd
If you’ve seen their great Fall Brawl ‘94 match, don’t get excited because this is not the same. This is headlocks and armbars all the way with Badd in control. The crowd makes sure to let WCW know what they thought of this match from the “boring” chants. Badd hits the KISS THAT DON’T MISS (left hook) out of nowhere, but Sir William distracts Badd and Regal rolls him up with a handful of tights for the three-count. (6:34) As you can see, this never got going before it was over. ¾*

Steve Austin (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Brian Pillman
So Col. Parker takes Austin under his managerial wing and splits up the Blondes. Oh, it’s a sad state of affairs. Jesse says he might even shed a tear during this match. Pillman’s wearing red HB trunks while Austin wears the black HB trunks. Big brawl to start as expected. Pillman chases Parker around the ring and runs around into an Austin clothesline. Back in, Pillman backdrops and chops away in the corner. Pillman snaps off a headscissors and Austin wants a handshake. He kicks Austin in the face and they head out to the rampway. Austin wants a piledriver out there, but we know that never works. Pillman backdrops him and comes off the top, but Austin’s boot meets Pillman’s face on the way down. Austin shoves Pillman off the rampway into the guardrail for the chest-first bump. Austin charges at Pillman once he’s on the apron, but runs into a slingshot crossbody for two. Pillman charges right into a hotshot and Austin covers for two. Austin grabs a half-crab and uses the ropes for leverage, which doesn’t make any sense. Pushing *against* the ropes would give you leverage, not pulling. The ref finally catches him cheating and Pillman chops back. Austin whips Pillman in the corner, but he catches himself and leaps back on Austin with a back elbow. Austin gets crotched up on the top turnbuckle, but throws Pillman down when he tries a superplex. Austin flies down and Pillman catches him with a dropkick. Cover, 1-2-NO! Pillman ranas out of a piledriver for two. He tries for that slingshot crossbody from the apron again, but Austin catches him for a powerslam. That gets two. Pillman avoids a Bossman straddle and hits a DDT for 1-2-NO! Pillman wants a crucifix, but Austin falls back on him. Austin misses a flying splash and gets rolled up by Pillman for 1-2-NO! Austin reverses a whip and tries for the STUNGUN, but Pillman counters and lands on the apron. He goes for AIR PILLMAN, but Parker grabs Pillman’s leg and sends him crashing to the mat. Austin covers for 1-2-3. (9:11) Good match, but I feel like they could’ve done more. Sad to see such a great tag team split up like this. ***

We now go to Mean Gene who is in the Battlebowl Control Center. No matches signed, just random tag matches. Yeah, everyone will buy this PPV. In all fairness, it is a neat concept – it was just never executed correctly.

WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Dustin Rhodes (w/Dusty Rhodes) vs. Paul Orndorff (w/The Assassin)
There’s two issues in this match: Dustin Rhodes brought back the “Paula” chants seven months earlier, so Orndorff wants some revenge for that. Then there’s Dusty Rhodes and The Assassin who have been at each other since Slamboree. St. Petersburg FL is the best place to wrap up the Rhodes/Assassin feud where Dusty is pretty much god. Dustin works a headlock in the ring while Assassin tries to sneak over and attack Dusty. Ventura wants to know how the Assassin can possibly “sneak” around anywhere. He’s right. Assassin looks FATTER than Dusty at this point in his life. They trade armbars for a while. A LONG while, actually. Rhodes fights out of a chinlock and gets a backslide for two. Orndorff begs off and yanks Rhodes into the corner before reverting to the chinlock. Rhodes punches out and hits the Lariat for two. He goes for the BULLDOG, but they botch it real bad. Sunset flip for Rhodes gets two, but he’s nailed with a clothesline. Orndorff calls for the PILEDRIVER, but Rhodes backdrops out. Orndorff comes off the top for a knee drop, but Rhodes moves and a small package gets the win. (12:14) Post-match, Orndorff clotheslines Rhodes out for Assassin to post him. That brings Dusty around to BIONIC ELBOW Assassin into the ring to send the crowd into a frenzy. Orndorff stops him from unmasking the Assassin and blasts Dusty with the US belt. Assassin wants him to give Dusty a PILEDRIVER, but Dustin runs and Lariats Orndorff off his daddy. Another match that never got past the armbars and chinlocks. *½

Mean Gene has heard that Davey Boy Smith has challenged Rick Rude for the WCW International World title! Oh yeah, and call the Hotline to vote for ‘manager of the year’!

WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys (w/Missy Hyatt) vs. Sting & Davey Boy Smith
Davey Boy and Sags take it up the rampway while Sting and Knobbs brawl in the ring. Meanwhile, Rick Rude sneaks down the side of the rampway and comes up behind Davey Boy Smith. He spins him around and gives him a RUDE AWAKENING! Road Warrior Hawk runs in to scare Rude away and check on Davey Boy. It’s turned into a handicap match now. The Nasties and Missy celebrate with the belts while Sting goes over and brings Davey Boy to the apron. Sting ducks a double-clothesline and returns the favor to the Nasty Boys. He gets rid of Sags and concentrates on Knobbs for a while. Sting checks on Davey Boy every now and then, which is just a huge distraction from the match. Sags gets a tag and Sting continues to dominate until Knobbs shoves Sting off the top rope. Missy distracts the ref while Sags throws Sting over the top to the floor. Knobbs gives him a suplex back in for two. Sting counters a bearhug with a belly-to-belly throw as Davey Boy Smith finally gets to his feet and wants a tag. Sting gets tossed out to the floor again as Knobbs chokes away. Back in, Sting falls back on Knobbs to escape a chinlock and makes the HOT TAG TO DAVEY BOY! He goes nuts on the Nasties, including a double face slam and a double DDT! Sting gets pressed onto the Nasties before Davey Boy delivers the RUNNING POWERSLAM to Knobbs. The ref is busy getting Sting out of the ring while Sags lowers the boom on Davey Boy during the cover. Knobbs turns him over and and covers for three. (8:30) Ugh, do they have to do that finish in every Nasty Boys match? Everything between the hot tag and the finish was fun, but the rest was pretty lame. *

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) vs. Ric Flair (w/Fifi)
Right before Flair makes his entrance, Col. Parker stops by to make it clear that his man Steve Austin will challenge the winner of this match. He says he hopes Flair wins, because he’s sure Austin can beat him. Flair takes offense to that and pops Parker in the mouth! They make their entrances and go to commercial. During the break, Race was talking junk to Flair, so he puts Race in the FIGURE-FOUR! Vader runs in and splashes Flair to break that up. He takes Flair into the corner and beats the crap out of him. Vader gives him a press slam to set up a Pump Splash. He keeps up the trash talking, so Flair spins Vader around and starts chopping away. Flair runs into Vader and then receives an elbow drop in between the legs. Vader whips Flair into the corner for the Flair Flip, which sends him flying out to the floor for Harley Race to throw him into the guardrail. Vader tries a splash off the apron, but Flair moves and Vader lands on the guardrail. Flair flies down from the top with a single sledge and chops Vader back into the ring. He runs into a boot though, which gives Vader the control again. Vader wants a flying elbow drop, but Flair gets out of the way. FIGURE-FOUR! Race reaches in and rakes the eyes to cause a break. Vader delivers a suplex and a splash for two. Vader dives at Flair from the middle rope, but Flair armdrags him down for two. Flair comes off the top with a single sledge and then Flair Flips successfully for another flying single sledge! Vader charges at Flair out of the corner, but Flair ducks and the ref Randy Anderson gets decked. Flair comes off the top again, but this time Vader catches him and delivers a superplex! Race wants to see a moonsault, so Vader gives him what he wants. Oops, Flair moves out of the way and covers for three! (9:15) Turns out the ref was just walking on his hands and not actually making a count. Flair wins by DQ because Vader clotheslined the ref by accident, so no title win. Col. Parker and Austin do a run-in to quadruple team Flair, but Dustin Rhodes and the Shockmaster save the day. Flair makes a challenge to Austin and Vader in a tag match with his partner – the six foot nine inch Sid Vicious. I’m not sure your pal Arn Anderson would be happy with that, Ric. This was just to test the waters for a Flair title win anyway and nothing more. **½

Final Thoughts: Sid’s actions screwed up the direction of the company during the month of November whether you agree with Sid being on top or not, so they went with old reliable Ric Flair. Aside from the Austin/Pillman match, it seemed like a Sid Vicious protest show where the talent wanted WCW to make a decision already and fire Sid for what he had done. Thumbs down for Clash 25.