Grilling JR - Clash of Champions 6 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Clash of the Champions 6

Clash of the Champions 6, "Ragin' Cajun", took place on April 2nd 1989 from the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. They had sold less than 900 tickets the day before the event happened. There were just 1,300 paid attendance for a house around $15,000. There ended up being about 5,300 there

It did a 4.3 rating on TBS, which up to that point was the lowest rated Clash, and went head to head with WrestleMania 5, which featured Randy Savage vs Hulk Hogan in the main event from the Trump Plaza. The Clash went from 3:30 to 7pm. In fact, this day was called Super Sunday 2. Super Sunday 1 was the before when Clash 1 went head to head with WrestleMania 4

We're coming off of the Chi-Town Rumble pay per view, where Ricky Steamboat finally defeated Ric Flair to win the NWA World Title and it set up a huge rematch between the two, which we'll see at this Clash in a 2 out of 3 falls match

Leading up to the show, Meltzer gave some thoughts on it - The Ultimate Secret--the less said about the finances the better. They picked the wrong city. The wrong building. I don’t even want to get into how badly the thing has been hyped. But, this is a TV special and TBS has garnered good ratings for every Clash, with a lot weaker line-ups and limited on-air promotion. With the right hype, this

is still the best day of the year for the NWA to run a TV show for ratings purposes because nobody is going to forget the day of the show by accident and go fishing. They may want to watch Wrestlemania, but those interested in the NWA will watch both. 

Last year’s show drew what is still the largest audience ever to watch an NWA telecast, even with competition from both Wrestlemania and the NCAA tournament (which this show will again buck as well). Just because the show hasn’t been well promoted (well, it actually has barely even been mentioned), I don’t see them doing the kind of ratings they did last year, although with the main event they had scheduled, they did have the potential. 

Perhaps the late hype from the Friday night special will help the ratings a tad. 

They’ve got a weak undercard and three-and-a-half hours, which could mean trouble in maintaining the audience, but I can’t see people tuning out before the main event. But the NWA is lacking momentum altogether. At the same time, if there is anything TBS has shown, it is since they have taken over this group, while almost everything has gone down, they have put together two great PPV shows. Despite all weaknesses, this could be a good show as well.

It's interesting that Dave said how they picked the wrong building. Jim Cornette has said that they didn't promote this show really at all, because George Scott, who the booker at the time, replacing Dusty Rhodes, because They were doing Flair/Steamboat on house shows and he thought it would kill their house shows by putting that match on TV. Jim said the Superdome looked like a piss hole in a snow bank and after that, George Scott was fired

Let's get to news heading into the Clash

Paul Boesch passed away on March 7th. Do you have any stories about him?

Meltzer reported- Heavy pressure has been put on everyone to sign contracts and just about every key main eventer has re-signed a new deal with the exception of Jim Cornette & Midnight Express (deal runs out I believe around April). Ric Flair and Sting have agreed to terms, while the Road Warriors and Luger are still locked in through the remainder of 1989 through existing contracts. Not sure of Windham’s status although talk is he’s close to signing as well.

The crew like Paul E. Dangeously, Dr. Death, Rotunda, Sullivan and Steiner have all either signed or agreed to a certain price and are working out the details.

There's been much said over the years about the reign of Jim Herd during this time. There was some regulations that he ordered -

1. All wrestlers,managers, referees and other officials must be in the building one hour before the start of the card

2. Babyfaces and heels can’t be seen mixing in public together;

3. No profanity on the mic at house shows or on TV, including using of the word butt, ass or whatever, also no off-color gestures either on television or in the ring; 

4. Wrestlers or managers are not allowed to use the house mic before intermission

5. No low blows

6. No using chairs, tables or the guard railing

7. No more than one man on the floor at a time before intermission

8. No touching referees;

9. Wrestlers must dress in collared shirts while entering and leaving the arena

10. No spitting at any time on either TV or house shows;

11. No pulling down tights

12. Wives, girlfriends, children and pets aren’t allowed backstage; and

13. No long distance phone calls from the WCW office phones in Atlanta by wrestlers.

Meltzer reported - Brian Pillman was given an early April starting date and three different names have been mentioned as possible tag team partners for

him, one of whom works here and it would be a disaster, two of whom would be welcome newcomers.

What's your memories of Brian's early days in NWA and what role did you play in helping him get in?

Meltzer reported - Michael Hayes will team up with Jim Ross on the Saturday TBS show starting this weekend so Magnum T.A. won’t be around. It’s a cold business.

Michael also turned heel during this time, because they wanted him to be a heel commentator. What's your memories of doing commentary with him?

Speaking of commentary teams, Bob Caudle and Kevin Sullivan started to do commentary together on the NWA Pro show. Sullivan: The problem with Sting is he’s too nice a guy. Bob, who would you rather meet if you were alone in a dark alley, Sting or Dr. Death? Caudle: Sting, because he’s a nice guy. He’s the kind of guy you’d like dating your daughter. Sullivan: You’d want your daughter bringing home a guy with a painted blue face and a spiked hair cut? Would you then give him the keys and let him drive your car?

Speaking of Sting, he won the TV title from Mike Rotunda on March 29th, but the match was said to be bad, so they re-did it the next night, with Sting again winning the title, and that was the match that was aired on Saturday Night

Meltzer wrote - Ranger Ross debuted on TBS this weekend and looked a lot better than I expected. He’s really working hard to make his big break work. Only problem is the guy he’s feuding with will make it impossible to have good house show matches and the gimmick is four years late of super-patriot. Keiji Muto also debuted as the Great Mota, and starting this coming week on TV will also be said to be the son of Kabuki and blow the green mist. 

I still can’t figure out why they don’t make him a babyface as he’s got the looks and certainly his moves would get him over (the moves you don’t see him doing, the guy does the hottest moonsault press in wrestling and he’s now winning his matches with a Kabuki-style thrust kick). Didn’t last week’s TBS show seem like nothing but two hours of super-patriot ga-ga and xenophobic commentary by the announcers? To say it got tiring is an understatement.

Some big news happened right before the Clash, when Jim Cornette and the Stan Lane left NWA. However, Bobby Eaton would end up sticking around.

Meltzer reported - What almost seemed like an inevitability the past two months turned into reality this past Tuesday when the Midnight Express and manager Jim Cornette officially gave notice that they were quitting the NWA. 

The official corporate word is that the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement on a new contract, but of course the real story goes a whole lot deeper than that and has caused a genuine lack of confidence from many both within the corporate end and talent end of the World Championship Wrestling office with the direction the promotion is going creatively.

The seeds of this split actually began prior to the TBS takeover of the NWA. The Turner brass felt that the $225,000-per-year contract that Cornette, Eaton and Lane all had signed with Jim Crockett was too high given the amount of revenue the company was producing.

In fairness, the contracts of the Road Warriors, Paul Ellering and Lex Luger were also considered in the same boat. When TBS, and specifically Jim Herd took command of the company, contracts started being paid on a weekly basis which meant that each pay period, the sizable nature of this and the other contracts, combined with small houses, became a constant concern.

Even before George Scott came in as booker there had been not so quiet whispers that had come our way that those in power felt that when the contract expired on April 15th, that the money they would offer would be such a major cut that the trio would leave, so therefore the company actually started preparing for the departure some months back. The trio was almost never booked on the major cards, and when they were, it was low on the card to downplay their position. Even at Starrcade, the Midnight vs. Midnight match took place before the Russian Assassins vs. JYD & Ivan Koloff match, and the men involved in the match had to appear in the Bunkhouse Stampede later in the show, which none of the wrestlers in the “important” matches had to do.

When Scott arrived as booker, things got worse. Their TV time was cut way down. Cornette was no longer allowed to commentate during his team’s television matches, which had been his trademark for years. They even cut down on Cornette’s interview time, which was a strange decision on the surface (without knowing about the direction things were going) since Cornette is generally

acknowledged as being the best interview in the business. The team was booked almost exclusively on small spot shows in the Carolinas, which made no sense since that made it even harder to justify their big salaries since they were working on shows in cities too small to draw houses of any size to begin with. 

The writing on the wall became apparent on the nights when no spot shows were booked, and they were simply given nights off instead of being put on the “major” card to spruce it up on most cases. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes heat as well, as apparently there was trouble nearly a decade ago between Scott and Bobby Eaton when Scott booked Georgia and the two never spoke during this tenure. The word had hit the streets that TBS would try to sign Cornette, but that Eaton & Lane would be history because it was felt they were no longer marketable. It was also fairly common knowledge within the industry that Cornette wasn’t willing to break up the act. Because of that, all three were offered contracts to remain on board for a figure between $100,000 and $125,000 for next year, but their position would primarily be to put the Samoan Swat Team over and for Cornette to put Paul E. Dangerously over and little thought had been given to their role after that job had been completed.

Jim said George Scott didn't like them and Scott booked them to lose every night. He said they were putting the Samoans over every night, which they did at this Clash. Jim said they put their notice in and was supposed to finish up in April but they fired Scott first, on April 1st

After he was fired, a booking committee was put in place, consisting of of Eddie Gilbert, Kevin Sullivan, Ric Flair, yourself,Jim Herd and Jim Barnett,

After Scott was fired, Jim said that you came up to them and asked them to stay. Jim said no, because they wanted to take a break because of how much they were getting beat and they had taken some dates in May for Continental because they thought they were already going to be gone by that time

Jim said they were resigned & they'd take 6 weeks off, so Bobby could heal his injured knee, and they could take the other dates that they had committed to. So they'd take the time off and come back and get a renewed push so the people would get the bad taste out of their mouth about how they were getting beat after their feud with the Original Midnight Express ended. They would return a few months later in the World Tag Team title tournament

What's your memories of all of this?

That brings us to the Clash of the Champions 6

You and Michael P.S. Hayes are the hosts as the show kicks off with a nice video package of WCW executive Jim Herd talking to such legends of the game like famed promoter Sam Muchnick, Lou Thez, Terry Funk, etc. They also played the National Anthem on air so it felt like this was a major event much like Wrestlemania. 

The Samoan Swat Team downed the Midnight Express in 20:32 when Fatu hit Bobby Eaton with the telephone and got the pin.

They put these guys on first because they wanted a hot match in the first 30 minutes and wanted a “hot” action sequence going at the hour so people didn’t turn off to another station. The stuff was solid but it wasn’t a s good as it could have been (I thought their Sunday main event match of a few weeks back was a better match). The crowd was arriving as the match went on which kept the heat from being good early. 

There were a few spots where it looked like they were going to the finish but didn’t. The heat came up good at 17 minutes as they were doubling on Lane and getting several near falls. Eaton got the hot tag at 19 minutes and used a neckbreaker and the rocket launcher while Cornette decked Dangerously outside the ring, the phone wound up in Fatu’s hands and he hit Eaton and Samu pinned him. ***

The F-----’ Great Muta pinned Steven Casey in 8:11 with the moonsault press. The opening entrance was great. Muta blew the green stuff in Casey’s eyes at the start and then proceeded to do every great move in the back, including a backward dropkick, a handspring elbow dive (outside the ring, no less). With the right way of using Muta, he can be the Jimmy Snuka of the 1990s, as he’s actually a tons better worker than Snuka was in his prime. A few too many nerve holds in the middle and they needn’t have gone this long (especially in hindsight when they had to can matches with Sting & Luger because they ran over on time). ***1⁄4 (for an incredible one man show)

Junkfood Dog pinned Butch Reed in 9:56. Dog missed something like eight shows in a row and was said to have been fired, but returned on Monday in Chattanooga and they wanted him on this show because they thought he’d draw fans in New Orleans. If it was 1983, he would have, but this isn’t the same wrestler. Nor is Reed. JFD’s ring entrance was a time consuming complete and total disaster. Match was horrible, saved only by Michael Hayes’ smart-ass commentary. 

Lots of stalling and both guys still blew up within four minutes. This belonged at Wrestlemania IV. Long restholds to get the wind back, but JFD still didn’t get his wind back. Reed did the flying shoulderblock, but Dog got to the ropes instead of being pinned. Finish saw Dog whip Reed into Hiro Matsuda and was supposed to cradle him coming off but Dog blew the cradle and just got a pinfall. -*

Bob Orton pinned Dick Murdoch in 9:33 when Murdoch went for the brainbuster, but Gary Hart tripped Murdoch and Orton fell on top for the pin. This match was awful, but there was a reason. Apparently they were supposed to go 15-16 minutes, so they started out slow. The first seven minutes were horrible, then all of a sudden they got the signal to go home early and had to go right to the finish. Still, Murdoch looked bad. 1⁄2*

Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda captured the NWA tag team titles from the Road Warriors in 11:40 when Williams pinned Hawk in a screw-job finish from new heel ref Teddy Long. This finish sounded a lot better the day before the card than it looked when they actually did it. It cracked me up because Jim Herd, as the show began, paid tribute to guys like Sam Muchnick and swore to uphold the credibility of the NWA, then pulled a heel ref bit that Sam would have rather had a heart attack than have done. 

Animal did a nice high spot early, landing on his feet after an attempted double back suplex, then giving a dropkick to each guy at the same time (one foot to each guy). Animal was doubled on for a while with Dr. Death using bearhugs and Rotunda using abdominal stretches. Hawk made the hot tag and they put Rotunda on Animal’s shoulders and Hawk came off the top with the finishing clothesline. Teddy Long had been bumped and stood there and refused to count, fainting a bad back. 

Then Williams ran into the ring and cradled Hawk from behind with a fast count. For the record, it was the Roadies’ first pinfall loss since the fall of 1985 to Jim Garvin & Steve Regal. ***1⁄4

The heel ref is something that the WWF did in 1987 with Danny Davis, who ended up becoming a heel wrestler after that. How did this idea for Teddy Long come about?

A few weeks after this, apparently Hawk and Steve Williams had a confrontation in the locker room and had to be separated. Any memories of that?

Ranger Ross downed the Iron Sheik via DQ in 1:56. TGFSM (Thank God for Short Matches). Ross came down from the ceiling as his entrance. Sheik didn’t sell Ross’ early martial arts moves. He quickly did the combat kick and Rip Morgan, the Sheik’s flagholder, interfered for the DQ.  JFD did the run-in, er walk-in, for the save. -1⁄2*

Eddie Gilbert & Rick Steiner retained the U.S. tag team titles beating Dan Spivey & Kevin Sullivan in 3:51 when Gilbert pinned Sullivan after hitting him with Missy Hyatt’s Gucci purse. This match was so short since they were running so late on time by this point. I should point out that this was a rematch of a match held on television the day before when Sullivan & Spivey won a non-title

match pretty much clean when Sullivan pinned Gilbert. Ironically, in a rare hype mistake by Ross, they never acknowledged on TV about the titles on the Saturday show, and didn’t even make a single comment about it being a title or non-title match, and when Gilbert & Steiner lost, didn’t mention the match here or how the non-title makes the Varsity Club top contenders or anything. Spivey basically annihilated Gilbert early. 

Steiner tagged in and they went to the finish. The cameras missed the finish. *3/4

Rick Steamboat retained the NWA title beating Ric Flair in a two of three fall match which went 55:32. This was an “old-style” match with lots o f time; drama, working holds, perfectly timed spots, etc. Actually in truth, it was better than the best matches in that style as well. Both guys did more actual wrestling than you would normally see today. Really, these guys have taken today’s style and yesterday’s style and combined it to take this stuff to a new level. The only comparisons you can make are Flair and Steamboat against other Flair and Steamboat matches. 

In comparison with Chicago--there was more “magic” to Chicago because of the drama and the title change. It had a lot more heat but it’s easier to get heat in a nearly packed building rather than an almost empty building. 

Both guys worked much harder here than in Chicago and did a lot more actual stuff, but they had so much time to do it. Flair won the first fall in 19:35 when he went for the figure four, Steamboat reversed it to an inside cradle (same finish as Chicago) and then Flair reversed it one more time. 

Steamboat won the second fall in 15:26 BY SUBMISSION (when was the last time you heard a major star submitting?) with a double chicken wing. 

Steamboat took the final fall in 20:31 when he went for the double chicken wing submission, but his legs, which had been worked over much of the match, gave out, but he still managed to turn it into a double cradle type pin. The ref counted three and we weren’t sure who had won, or if it was a double pin draw, but they ruled Steamboat the winner. The main camera on replay didn’t show conclusively that Flair’s foot was on the ropes but a second camera angle, showed during Steamboat’s post-match interview, clearly showed Flair’s foot on the ropes for the “controversy” that leads to another match. 

For those who like the actual art of wrestling with lots of subtle ties, selling moves and wrestling-based moves, this was the best match in this country in a few years. By today’s standards, some may have found the match a little slow-paced because 

they had to pace themselves for such a long match. Even though Flair has proven himself in these matches of late that he is still beyond compare with any modern-day wrestler, the combination of having these nightly great efforts plus the addition of booking may eventually take its toll. 

At least it would with a normal human, wouldn’t it? Still, in every standard of comparison, this was a lot better than last year’s Flair-Sting match of the year. Also, the surprise pinfall was a nice touch because I’m sure everyone in America “knew” they were going the full 60 to a draw. *****

Where do you rank this match out of their trilogy in 1989? This was match #2

Meltzer wrote - I don’t know how they did it, but just after the Flair-Steamboat match concluded, Titan Sports had a TV ad for their 900 number telling people to call in and hear the live Wrestlemania reports. They got this commercial through last year and there was hell to pay. How they ever got it through this year is beyond me. A further embarrassment was that Ted Turner’s own Cable News Network sent a film crew to Atlantic City and gave a ton of coverage to WM, but never once mentioned the Clash. 

It should be pointed out that those at the top should never try and keep a news organization from covering a legit story because it involved a competitor’s product or influence the nature of the coverage. At the same time, it is still embarrassing for the NWA itself that a “sister” company ignores their big show and never mentions when Steamboat beat Flair for the NWA title. USA Today did a story on Friday mainly on WM with all the familiar hype, but did mention Clash and did have quotes from Steamboat and Hogan somewhat negative toward the other organization. 

There was some heat in the NWA about Hogan calling the NWA a “small outlaw group” but it appeared from the article that Hogan wasn’t happy when Steamboat said the WWF doesn’t have as much wrestling as the NWA. 

For the record, Sting did pin Rip Morgan and Lex Luger beat Jack Victory in the two title matches which took place after the television time ran out and both matches will air on TBS this coming Saturday. Back to the USA Today story, I found one thing unintentionally humorous. The story talked about 135 closed-circuit locations, and then had an ad from Titan listing the locations, and they listed 64 sites.

RATING FOR THE CLASH

• Thumbs Up 446 (97.4 percent)
• Undecided 3 (0.6 percent)
• Thumbs Down 9 (2.0 percent)

RATING FOR WRESTLEMANIA

• Thumbs Up 78 (17.4 percent)
• Thumbs Down 371 (82.6 percent)

WHICH CARD WAS THE BEST OVERALL?

• Clash 390 (91.7 percent)
• Wrestlemania 30 (7.1 percent)
• About the same 4 (1.2 percent)

WHICH CARD DID YOU ENJOY THE MOST?

• Clash 397 (93.6 percent)
• Wrestlemania 26 (6.1 percent)
• Enjoyed both the same 1 (0.2 percent)

WHAT WAS THE BEST MATCH OF THE DAY?

Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat 409 (96.5 percent)

Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage 5 (1.2 percent)

Midnight Express vs. Samoans 3 (0.7 percent)

Rockers vs. Twin Towers 3 (0.7 percent)

Great Muta vs. Steven Casey 2 (0.5 percent)

Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude 1 (0.2 percent)

Road Warriors vs. Varsity Club 1 (0.2 percent)