WCW Saturday Night 1/14/1995

Written by: Bob Colling

World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 1/14/1995
From: Atlanta, GA

Matches:
1.) Jim Duggan defeated George South
2.) Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater defeated Mike Khoury & Gary Jackson
3.) Sting defeated Mark Kyle
4.) Bobby Eaton defeated Dave Sullivan
5.) Dustin Rhodes defeated Carl Fergie
6.) Kevin Sullivan & Avalanche defeated Bob Morgan & Al Phillips
7.) Harlem Heat defeated WCW World Tag Team Champions Marcus Alexander Bagwell & The Patriot to win the titles

Angle Developments/Notes:
1. Tony announces that Vader will challenge WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan at Superbrawl V. Nick Bockwinkel recently made the decision to book the match for the pay per view.

2. Duggan starts off 1995 a lot better than he finished off 1994. I wonder if he is looking to get his hands on Vader again. Anyway, Duggan took care of business hitting South with a running clothesline to earn the win. HOOO!

3. Buck and Slater didn’t have any problems in their match against Khoury and Jackson. Khoury runs into a double right hand shot and is pinned by Slater. Those two just look dirty.

4. Mean Gene hosts the Control Center to promote the Clash of the Champions taking place in eleven days on TBS. WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan teams with Randy Savage against the Butcher and Kevin Sullivan. Sting meets Avalanche with the Guardian Angel as the special referee. Stars and Stripes square off against Harlem Heat for the WCW World Tag Team Championships. WCW Television Champion Arn Anderson defends against Johnny B. Badd and Alex Wright competes against Bobby Eaton. By the way, Anderson won the TV Championship last Sunday on the Main Event.

5. Even with Hulk Hogan in WCW and as the champion, I wouldn’t consider him to the top baby face. No, that honor belongs to Sting who was in action against Mark Kyle. People who have two first names are usually cursed and that rang true here as Sting quickly won by submission with the Scorpion Death Lock.

6. Mean Gene conducted an interview with Sting regarding his match with Avalanche at Clash of the Champions on January 25th. Sting talks about the Guardian Angel being able to go the distance when it comes to officiating their match. Sting says last time he almost had Avalanche in the Scorpion Death Lock and he will put the hold on him at the Clash!

7. Eaton nearly wins against Sullivan following a top rope elbow drop but Dave Sullivan popped up and apparently got a second wind from the move. Kevin Sullivan comes down to ringside after Dave hits a back suplex. Kevin holds Dave until Eaton charges but accidentally hits Kevin. Dave tries for a suplex attempt from the apron but Kevin holds Dave’s food to trip him and allows Eaton to get the win. Since Eaton has a match at the Clash of the Champions it made sense for him to go over here. It was a bad match but the booking made sense.

8. Mean Gene interviews WCW United States Champion Big Van Vader and Harley Race. Gene says that Vader and Hogan will not be allowed to be near each other until Superbrawl. Vader believes it was done to protect Hogan from him. Vader has two tickets for the Clash of Champions and makes it clear that Hogan will see him at some point. He even says that he could go to Hogan’s house!

9. ‘The Natural’ Dustin Rhodes was in action against Carl Fergie this week. After a minute or so, Col. Robert Parker, Meng and the Blacktop Bully made their way down to ringside to scout Rhodes. They leave without any confrontation with Rhodes. Ten seconds after leaving, Rhodes gets the win following a running bulldog.

10. Jimmy Hart, Randy Savage and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan cut a promo regarding Clash of the Champions. Hart tells Vader that they want to know where he will be so they can get him a limo to come to the Clash! Hogan believes the only things on the line at the Clash are his relationship with Savage and the necks of the Butcher and Kevin Sullivan. Savage says he wants to be the special referee for Hogan vs. Vader.

11. Kevin Sullivan and Avalanche competed in tag team action. They dominated against their opponents until Sullivan got the pin on Bob Morgan following a double stomp.

12. The tag team championships are on the line eleven days before Clash of the Champions. I’m kind of surprised they couldn’t have had waited until the Clash for this to happen. There is a USA chant, but last time I checked all four men are Americans so the fans could be cheering for either team. Booker and Bagwell kick off the contest with Bagwell getting the better of Booker with a monkey flip, dropkick and an arm lock. Naturally, when he gets the advantage Bagwell tags out to Patriot who quickly gets worked on by Harlem Heat with right hands. Ray has entered and chokes the masked hero in the corner until he runs into a snap power slam by Patriot! Patriot turns Booker inside out with a left arm lariat and tags in Bagwell who kept the upper hand with arm control. Bagwell tries for a pin after a leaping cross body but that is prevented by Ray to allow Booker to regain control. Bagwell nearly pins Booker out of the corner with a roll up. Booker is being double teamed by the champs for a good amount of time, which is surprising to me since there is usually heel dominance. Ray clubs Bagwell over the head from the apron and Booker delivers a side kick to give his team the advantage. Now, Bagwell is being worked on with several blows mainly forearm shots and clotheslines by Harlem Heat. Ray is nearly rolled up by Bagwell after a sunset flip but only gets a near fall. Patriot got tagged in but the referee didn’t see the tag being made. Patriot enters anyway and cleans house with a scoop slam and clothesline. Ray rolls to the floor after colliding with Patriot. Booker rolls into the ring and pins Patriot after at least thirty seconds after the simply collision. It was a decent contest but the ending was ridiculous. The collision wasn’t all that impressive. Anyone in their right mind would know that Patriot could and probably should’ve kicked out of it. I’d imagine they are going into the Harlem Heat/Nasty Boys program really soon.

13. Mean Gene interviews the Faces of Fear, Kevin Sullivan, Avalanche and the Butcher. Avalanche warns the Guardian to stay out of his way at the Clash or he will get the Avalanche! Sullivan says he has made a deal with Randy Savage. Sullivan thinks that is the only reason the Butcher isn’t the champion. Butcher can’t wait for Avalanche to squash Sting. That’s it, folks!

Final Thoughts:
I’m not sure why they rushed the tag team title match, but it wasn’t all that spectacular. It was the only featured match on the show with everything else being squash matches. They tried to incorporate some kind of tension between Savage and Hogan heading into the Clash with Sullivan saying he made a deal with Savage at Starrcade. I would think Sullivan would’ve wanted Savage to come through on the deal at Starrcade. It doesn’t make sense, but the baby faces always have to be the underdogs, I guess.

Overall, I thought it was an underwhelming show, personally.

Thanks for reading.