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

Clash of the Champions IV took place on December 7, 1988 at the UTC Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There were 8,000 people in attendance but Meltzer said with comps, those who paid probably was below 4,000. The show drew a 4.5 rating on TBS which means about 2.1 or 2.2 million homes.

This is the fourth Clash of the Champions event that year. The first, March 1988, did a 5.8. The second in June did a 4.8. The third, in September, did a 5.4. Now we’re at a 4.5.

Still a good number. By comparison, Raw in 2020 does less than 2 million homes each week. But. Was there concern about the falling ratings or possibly overexposing the event?

After the show, we will break down the ratings for each match in more detail.

This show set up Starrcade '88: True Grit, which happened 19 days later at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. It was headlined by Luger and Flair.

This was the first Clash of the Champions following the sale of Jim Crockett Promotions to Turner Broadcasting and the subsequent company name change to World Championship Wrestling.

Is this why some of the production issues seemed to come up? (More coming later)

Meltzer wrote I should point out this was the first time a TBS crew covered the show, rather than a crew hired by Jim Crockett promotions. There was a lot of finger—pointing after the show, because the production itself was subpar, particularly at director Tony Edwards, although some claim Edwards was' made a scapegoat for problems due to lack of preparation. The lighting was awful, looking even worse than most of the syndicated shows .

I didn't realize until after the show was over that they had any kind of a crowd in the building, as I figured the darkness was to hide the fact they had a small crowd. When I found out the place was almost full, the lack of lighting made no sense and made it 100k cheap, particularly in comparison to the competition. There were many technical glitches (occasionally directions coming from the headsets were nearly audible on the air; too many crowd shots during the matches; use of an overhead camera from the ceiling which simply doesn't work in covering pro wrestling --I've seen it used before at the first Starcade and also once or twice on big shows in Tokyo and it never works) .

It was on this show that TBS/WCW experimented with a top down camera angle, which did not catch on. This is comparable to the "refer-eye" camera from Halloween Havoc '91.

Why doesn’t this work?

This was the finals of the tournament to crown new United States Tag Team champions, the titles were vacated when the Midnight Express won the NWA World Tag Team titles in September. Ron Simmons and Eddie Gilbert had originally lost to the Sheepherders in the semi-finals but the decision was reversed when the Sheepherders signed with the World Wrestling Federation (to become the Bushwackers). Ivan Koloff pinned Paul Jones after hitting him with Jones’ own illegal object. Koloff had one arm tied behind his back during the entire match. The Russian Assassins attack Koloff after the match only for the Junkyard Dog to make the save. Dusty Rhodes was disqualified for hitting Road Warrior Animal with a chair. Both Hawk and Sting had already interfered in the match. The Road Warriors chose Genichiro Tenryu to be the 3rd champion on the December 10th edition of NWA World Championship Wrestling

News and Notes

Dusty Resigns As Booker

On TV, as Meltzer wrote, it started with the True Grit angle with Dusty on THanksgiving afternoon and it aired on TBS Saturday.

It was pretty transparent in that they’ve never formatted two interviews in a row without either a match separating them or a commercial. The Road Warriors did an interview, then Dusty immediately came out for an interview and got in the ring to challenge the Warriors (which got very little reaction from the studio crowd) and Animal pulled the spike out of his spiked shoulder pads and stuck it in Dusty’s forehead and then in Dusty’s eye. The announcers called the eye (since that was the angle) the first time. It was hardcore with heavy juice and the Warriors, well at least Hawk, did a tremendous job on two interviews attempting to be heels. In the Southern cities they are complete heels but in the Northern cities the reaction is mixed in come places and in others they are still baby faces. This angle was originally planned for the 12/7 card but it was moved up because Dusty has to get himself tied into a major thing as fast as possible for job security reasons. Dusty will work with a patch over his eye, basically playing the role John Wayne did as Rooster Cogburn in the movie True Grit…

What were your thoughts on the spike angle?

In mid-December, Dusty Rhodes officially resigned as booker of the NWA. From all accounts, this was a forced resignation ordered by the TBS hierarchy based on several episodes over the past few weeks. The next day, Jim Crockett was officially informed that he would no longer be running the day-to-day operations of the company starting January 1st.

How long had this been brewing?

Herd Coming In

Officially, the Universal Wrestling Corporation will be handled day-to-day by James Herd - currently an executive with Pizza Hut. Herd’s official title will be Executive Vice President of the company with Jack Petrik acting as President and overseer of the operation. Around the same time, Pizza Hut was being purchased by Pepsico, which may have influenced his decision.

The new booker in the NWA was, at press time of the above report, Jim Crockett, But that was also expected to change in January.

What can you say about the atmosphere within the company during this time? A lot of uncertainty and worry? Or were people happy to see fresh faces coming in to run things?

Meltzer: Expect changes under Jim Herd

In mid-December, Meltzer reported numerous changes were likely with Herd coming in. Among those:

1. Wrestlers will be getting weekly paychecks rather than getting paid by the gate and having so-called balloon payments at the end of the year.
2. Wrestlers will have their hotels taken care of on the road
3. TBS, not JJ Dillon, will handle travel arrangements and wrestlers will fly from their home town, not all from Atlanta

Wait. You guys had to travel into Atlanta to fly out?

1. All TV tapings, both for TBS and the syndicated package, will emanate from a mid-sized arena in the Atlanta area
2. The announcers on the syndicated package will remain pretty much the same. TBS will have JR and Tony Schiavone doing the PM show without David Crocket, however, Crockett will do a solo act on the AM show without Ross & Schiavone. Early speculation is this is either giving Crockett a bone, since the Crocketts are still in a position of some power within the company, or that the company wants to do away with the AM show and putting David on solo is setting up a ratings drop
   Any insight on this speculation from Meltzer? Was the goal to pull David Crockett off of TV?
3. Crockett, Rhodes, and JJ Dillon have had to move to smaller offices in Dallas
4. There will be attempts to improve syndication, particularly in the major markets like New York, San Fran, and Los Angeles.
5. The TV shows will be post-produced so the production quality should improve

Are you hearing about these potential changes and what do they mean to you? Any you were happy or not so happy about?

Herd’s first taping

Jim Herd showed up for the first time at the TBS taping on 12/8 (for 12/17 air). Herd takes over on 1/3/89. Most I've talked with feel that it will be Jim Crockett, and not Flair, who will be the power behind the booking decisions come the new year but nobody really knows for sure.

Dusty Rhodes will surely stay through Starrcade but nobody expects him to stay for the long haul. The current booking power is Crockett, Kevin Sullivan, Barry Windham, and JJ Dillon but those names or at least some of them, will likely change during the new year.

Was Herd getting a lay of the land, so to speak? Did you get to know him at any of these tapings he showed up to? Was he approachable?

Big Botch Leads to Firing

An enhancement wrestler, Big Bear Collie, apparently made some huge mistakes during a Saturday show on TBS that were so bad, it cost him his job right there. Collie screwed up the finish badly, which Meltzer said partially wasn’t his fault. But he was blown up badly, and then, was given a suplex by Eddie Gilbert on the floor - but forgot to go up and landed on his face before being pinned. It busted his face up. Then he was fired.

Do you remember a bad day for Big Bear? Any stories come to mind of someone messing up so bad in a match, they were fired on the spot?

Indy Wrestler Murdered

Independent pro wrestler Medardo Jim Leon, 29, of Baltimore, was killed in his home by gunshot wound to the chest during the week. Leon, who worked NWF shows as the Cuban Assassin, and was better known as Ricky Lawless, answered a knock at his door at approximately 11 PM , saw his assailant, then quickly tried to slam the door on him. The assailant shot through the door and knocked the door off its hinges. One shot went through the door into Leon’s chest, which turned out to be the fatal blow. A second shot hit Leon’s hand. Police were given a description of the assailant, however, there is no apparent motive nor are there any suspects in the case.

Police eventually determined he’d been shot by Raymond Michael Swartz, the husband of the woman Lawless had reportedly had an affair with. Three months later, Swartz was arrested and charged with murder (we don’t have court records to know the outcome).

Leon's murder, specifically focusing on the aspect of his death at the hands of an irate husband over an extramarital affair, would later appear as an exposé by Hustler ("Shotgun Justice: A Pro Wrestler's Final Fall") in May 1991. At the time of his murder, he was still the reigning heavyweight champion for Star Cavalcade Wrestling. The title was declared vacant immediately afterwards and won by his former student Axl Rotten after defeating The Psycho in Thomasville, Georgia.

It’s a lesser known horror story in the world of pro wrestling but it did get some coverage in the early 90s. Did you ever hear about this case?

Brody Case

The trial of Jose Gonzales, accused of voluntary manslaughter in the Brody case, is scheduled to begin in two weeks. Right now it is pretty well expected that Gonzales will plead guilty to the charge and the deal has already been worked out where Gonzales will receive a lengthy probation but serve no prison time. Gonzales is booking for Carlos Colon’s World Wrestling Council but has yet to return to active wrestling. This is the last as far as criminal penalties go but I expect civil suits regarding the death and possibly even the police handling of the investigation to follow. I also expect we never will know the true reason for the killing.

The murder of Bruiser Brody is a much more well known criminal case from the wrestling world, now. But at the time, were a lot of people within the industry following the story? What was the feeling about there being a plea deal without any prison time?

PPV concerns

A report at this time in the Observer said that the closest anyone was going to be able to go, from Greensboro, to see Starrcade...was Durham, NC. Major PPV problems were lowering the odds of success for the company’s 1988 Starrcade offering, planned on Dec. 26. First, most cable companies were closed 12/24 through 12/26 so the late orders - of which 90 percent of PPV is - may be unable to be served. That’s why the company hyped the show as “order by 12/23,” with lots of concerns about if that might work. Also, Rogers cablevision, which has affiliates nationwide, won’t be carrying the show as planned due to a dispute over whether or not fans will order the show, then default payment on the bill because all of the wrestling on PPV and Christmas bills.

Did the company not consider all of the problems it would have for a pay-per-view show on the day after Christmas?

Was there concern among cable companies about too many wrestling PPVs in December for customers to handle?

Card Subject to Change

With one week to go, the next event in the oversaturated world of PPV wrestling will be Starrcade '88, from the Scope in Norfolk, VA. The card hasn't sold out as Of press time,

although it is expected that it will as the only tickets remaining are the GA seats.

I should point out the Bunkhouse Stampede event, which will be held at the live show, probably

last on the show, will not be part of the PPV package which gives them three hours for seven

matches which guarantees the matches will be given adequate time, unlike last year where it

seemed they had to rush the main event because of a two-and—a-half hour time limit for the

card.

The card is subject to change, but no changes have been made since last week .It was feared by many that Bam Bam Bigelow was history with the NWA and that Eddie Gilbert would

take his spot against Barry Windham at Starrcade, but lo and behold, Bigelow returned and wrestled Sunday night in Richmond after missing shows from Tuesday through Saturday.

Do you remember what happened that caused Bigelow to have issues during this time? Why might he have returned so quickly - did he cool off?

TBS talks to Gordon Solie

A story in the Observer said that TBS had talked to Gordon Solie about returning and doing the Sunday show. The current plan, as of early December, was to use Solie with JJ Dillon as co-host.

What happened that caused Gordon Solie to have issues with TBS?

Speaking of JJ Dillon...

The current plan is also to drop several managers early next year and they are trying to make sure Dillon stays. That seems like part of the reason they are holding Dangerously and Cornette from going to the arenas, in order to make it seem like Dillon is the No. 1 manager and assure his spot. It may work and it may backfire completely…

Was the company trying to appeal to JJ Dillon here to keep him?

Changes to Saturday TBS show

Beginning in January - the month after this - the Saturday TBS show was moved back one hour to 7:05 Eastern because of the Olympic anthology program TBS will carry. But the show would continue to run two hours and Meltzer said it actually felt beneficial to those inside since both hours will air in prime-time. During the summer, it may cause a lot of problems because of the Braves home games starting at 7:35 on Saturday nights which either means an abbreviated format or a split-up show. There is even talk of not running as many Saturday night Braves games since the ratings for wrestling are a lot higher than baseball ratings on Saturday nights and Turner now owns both.

So the NWA was affecting the schedule of the Atlanta Braves here? Also what can you say about the schedule changes? Good news?

AWA’s Death Throes

Also in December of 1988, the AWA would be winding up it’s Superclash III event. By all accounts, it was a disaster production-wise and the match quality was all over the place. But it was also a sign of how much trouble the company was in. 1,700 fans attended, drawing a gate of $26,000. They gave away nearly 3,000 free tickets and most of those clearly didn’t show up anyway. The first reports on the buyrate were around a 0.8 which would have been the lowest of any wrestling PPV at the time.

In the main event, Jerry Lawler won the unified AWA and World Class title (now one championship) when the referee stopped the match due to Kerry Von Erich bleeding in 18.53. Meltzer wrote yes, they used the same finish as in Flair vs. Luger in Baltimore although the finish was executed better and looked more believable here. So they promised a clean-cut winner and didn’t deliver. The truth of the matter is, both Lawler and Kerry came to Chicago having been promised that they were going to win this match and Kerry nearly refused to work the show when he found out he’d been double crossed. I don’t know if this was the original finish although I do assume that it was, but it may have been a last minute compromise to keep Kerry happy. Really, the few fans in attendance mainly came to see this match and Kerry in particular as he was the heavy crowd favorite although he heard a substantial amount of boos and Lawler got some cheers before the match. Lawler played heel during the match…*** ¾

Was the terrible shape of the AWA on your radar at this time? Would an NWA/AWA alliance have worked or was it too late for Verne’s company?

Negative National News Related to Blading

A big story in the December 5, 1988 edition of the Observer was about Portland Wrestling. Specifically…

The Oregon State Athletic Commission this past week closed down Don Owen’s Big Time Wrestling Promotions for violations of several regulations. The two sides had been battling for months but the issues came toa  head this past Saturday night, which led to an emergency hearing on Tuesday, with the result being that Owen had his promoter’s license pulled by the commission and was ordered to close up shop.

The story actually starts on 11/5 when Matt Borne was doing his interview to plug his match against Steve Doll for the 11/12 card in Portland. Borne guaranteed there would be blood in the match which is something the commission had adamantly opposed since Billy Jack Haynes gave commissioner Bruce Anderson the facts-of-life, so to speak-about the wrestling business. Not only did Borne guarantee there would be the first blood on a Portland wrestling show in many moons (I believe during a February cage match there was hardway blood and I believe the commission announced afterwards that would no longer be tolerated either and when Haynes opened up and got hardway blood on two shows he was fined both times) but also said “the commission had better be here because there will be blood all over the place.” Another heel wrestler also referenced blood on the card.

At the show, Borne bladed and made good.

Three days later, the commission had an emergency meeting and Big Time Wrestling was the target. The argument was not just about the blood, but about the company not having guardrails to separate fans from the action (they had some cable barriers). However, Don Owens' attorney argued that Matt Borne had been busted open for real. The commission claimed that a security guard acquired his blade and brought it to them. They rescinded Owens’ license and he had to cancel shows. The story ended up making national news in the AP, especially focused on the topic of blading.

Do you recall this story showing up in any newspapers you might have seen? When negative news like this comes out, is there extra pressure on the wrestlers not to, in this case, “blade”?

The Event Itself

Clash Of the Champions IV: Seasons' Beatings, took place live from Chattanooga as a two—and—a—half hour TBS special on 12/7.

The Wrestling Observer straw poll (margin of error 100 percent) gave it mainly negative reviews, with

60 thumbs—downs (66.7 percent)

18 thumbs ups (20.0 percent) and

12 who thought it was so—so (13.3 percent) .

For the most part, those who thought it was bad were pretty vehement about it but those who

thought it was good were also pretty strong. But this was the lowest rate of the four Clashes and also got the worst reviews from readers, and personally I also felt it was the worst of the four TBS specials. Actually,the lower rating was expected by TBS, which predicted a four rating because the show would compete against first—run network programming for the first time including hot shows like "Head of the Class," and "The Wonder Years.”

1. Fantastics (Tommy Rogers Bobby Fulton) captured the U.S. tag team title winning the tournament final over Ron Simmons & Eddie Gilbert in 27: 04 . The timing wasn't perfect with Simmons in early, but everything was solid. Really, for Simrnons, this was probably the first time in his career he was in a babyface match of this type and it had to be hard, especially considering the length of the bout . Although both teams were supposed to be faces, the crowd wound up booingFantastic s. The match had a steady pace early and they started turning it on around the 14 minute mark and the heat and intensity of the wrestlers and crowd picked up around the 17 minute mark. At this point, it was a tremendous old—style match, with the peak moment when Simmons caught Fulton, who did a flying bodypress off the top rope, and turned it into a powerslam. The turning point came when Gilbert had Tom in a reverse cradle, Fulton kicked him into the corner and Gilbert 's bad arm(a legit CWF injury still hasn't recovered) went into the post. They dropped the arm on the guard railing and started working the arm with nice moves. They did a good job of keeping the intensity up and sympathy for Gilbert as they worked the arm, using moves that work in Japan (arm—bars, short arm scissors, etc.) but U.S. fans aren't educated to. The truth is, the match went about five or six minutes too long for the live crowd, and really the TV crowd as well as the bout lost its intensity at the end. They were shading time on the announcements and were at around "one minute to go" in the 30 minute time limit when Fulton once again sent Gilbert's shoulder into the post, and cradled him coming off for the pin. The Fantastics were booed when they won, and no belts were presented as apparently somebody forgot to bring them. ** ½

Did someone forget to bring the belts?

How did you like the match?

2. Steve Williams pinned Italian Stallion in 15:17 with the Oklahoma Stampede. Unless this match was designed to "kill" Williams, it failed. Because of the time, Williams was unable to be as aggressive as he needs to be to get over. There was no heat and this one put me to sleep. I don’t want to start picking on the new booker this quickly, but I can’t figure out the rationale behind this. -*

Do you agree with Meltzer’s low rating on this match?

3. Ivan Koloff, with one arm tied behind his back, pinned Paul Jones in 8:21. This was as bad as any match televised in any country in any year. I don' t understand the purpose of having a gimmick match when the gimmick was never hyped previously on television. Wasn't it Jones who said he could beat Uncle Ivan with one hand tied behind his back? So why did Ivan have his hand tied behind his back. It was way worse than awful and I hope they realize nobody cares about this feud. No heat at all and a definite strong candidate for next year's worst match of the year award. Jones pulled out a foreign object, Ivan got the object away, and got the pin after a punch. The Russian Assassins jumped Ivan (Why were the Russians dressed up? To do a run—in? They can't exactly go to Burger King dressed like that) and beat on him until Junkfood Dog made the save.It would have been slightly more effective to have made JFD’s entrance a surprise, which was ruined by him doing an interview right before the match started and giving away the fact he’s teaming with Ivan at Starrcade. By the way, JFD’s interview set the Civil Rights movement back about 30 years. He used to be so articulate in Mid South but that was decades ago, JFD time. I swear if I hadn’t been told who it was, I’d have thought he was Rufus Jones, the interview was that bad. -***

May we please have your reaction to this review?

4. Road Warrior Animal won the NWA six—man titles for himself, partner Hawk and Paul Ellering by beating Dusty Rhodes via DQ in an official time of 2: 54. The fans cheered Dusty, which is a surprise, although the Roadies are over as heels in most of the Southern towns. Dusty wrapped the leg around the post, then brought him in the middle of the ring, hit the ref, and put on the figure four which brought Paul Ellering to interfere at the 90 second mark. I still can't figure out why someone would hit the ref On purpose just before going for a winning move. Does that make sense? Anyway, Animal went after the eye (which had a patch on it because of the injury two weeks earlier on a TBS taping), Dusty used a low blow on Animal and went after his eye, Hawk then interfered and what a surprise—Sting ran in afterwards (even more of a shock since they interviewed Sting before the match started). Dusty pounded on Animal s leg with a chair before the thing ended. *

(It wasn't any kind of a match at all, and the interference was terribly predictable, but it was all action).

Did you enjoy the match? What did you think?

5. Ric Flair & Barry Windham beat Jim Cornette’s Midnight Express in 17:41.

There was a lot of pressure on these four going into the match because expectations were so high. Earlier in the show, Jim Ross told viewers to stay tuned because this match had the potential to be the greatest tag team match in the history of television (which covers quite a lot of ground). and really I'm not sure that was all that much of an overstatement. Flair did all his regular spots, and the heels took tremendous bumps. The stupidest thing, possibly of the entire show, was about 10 minutes in, with nothing but big moves and spots, they cut to an interview with Paul E. Dangerously. Nobody wanted to see an interview in the middle of a match of this caliber, especially since the heat had already been turned up. The finish saw Eaton do probably the greatest legdrop off the top ropes I’ve ever seen onto Windham, JJ Dillon jump on the ring apron to interfere, Cornette hit Dillon with the tennis racquet and JJ dropped his trusty shoe, which Flair picked up and hit Eaton with which led to the pin. **** (would have been higher except the shoe finish ranks just below the megaphone finish and the Dusty ref bump finish in the most overused finish department. By the way, this match ended several minutes early because they had to do an unscheduled interview with Jim Cornette and had to stretch at the end as Eaton had the wind knocked out of him when Windham did a powerslam just before the finish and he couldn’t get his breath and they had to finish).

You ended up being right about this being one amazing tag team match. How did you enjoy it looking back?

The Ratings

The opener (Fantastics vs. Ron Simmons and Eddie Gilbert) drew a 3.7. It built up to a 4.9 midway through the Steve Williams vs. Italian Stallion match. But then - TV sets tuned out en masse and the show dipped below a four for the rest of the Doc match, the Koloff-Jones match, and they really didn’t come back strong for Dusty-Animal either. They got the viewers back int he main event, however, which immediately popped back up to a 5.1 a peaked at a 5.2 and an eight share. This was the first TBS special which didn’t consistently build from start-to-finish, although part of the problem, besides the weakness in the middle of the show, was powerful competition from the networks which were running first-run programming for the first time in competition with a Clash. The show boosted the NWA’s weekly syndicated ratings to a 6.9 (but in reality without the Clash, they would have been a 4.6 which is still poor; while you may blame outside factors for NWA’s syndicated ratings performance just as time of the year or whatever, that doesn’t hold up since WWF’s syndicated ratings have improved of late even though its Prime Time Show has shown a drop.

What does it mean when a wrestling show’s ratings continue to grow throughout, peaking at the main event...vs...a wrestling show that peaks in the middle and then begins to fall?

Overall

Meltzer would say, As for Jim Crockett’s performance in his first big show as booker, we did get four pinfalls in five matches -- a plus from Dusty’s open-ended finishes. The first match was excellently booked (it wasn’t “supposed” to go that long, but these things happen) the second match was a loser to begin with, made worse by them having to go so long so that was bad booking. Match no. 33 was a mistake in even having it take place in the first place (that’s dusty’s fault for booking it) and nobody, not the participants nor Crockett had a prayer of saving it. The fourth match was totally predictable, and the last match was the opposite of the third in that it almost couldn’t have been ruined unless they had atrocious booking (like having them work a five minute main event).

How’s this for a great idea for a finish for the PPV event if they get Ricky Steamboat to wrestle Flair in February (provided, of course, Flair is still champion)? Flair could say he doesn’t want JJ to interfere but as Steamboat has Flair pinned, JJ runs in and hits Steamboat with the shoe. Flair gets mad because he didn’t want interference, so JJ hits Flair with the shoe. Then JJ covers Flair and Steamboat at the same time and gets a double pin. Just kidding.

Give us your thoughts on Clash of the Champions IV?

Questions

Mr Perfect Fan Canada asks...What are your favorite formats and styles for show intros? I loved the way the opening of the Clash shows evolved. After graphics and video packages we see you telling us how many matches & titles were on the line. It made it feel more like a real sport.

The 5th Horsemen asks...The 6-man tag title never had consistent TV time but was there a plan/hope for Tenryu to appear in the future?

Kurt Zamora asks...How good were the Road Warriors as heels and should the company have tried harder to keep them heels? Or was it just too obvious the fans wanted to cheer them?

The Rosencoaster asks...Did the exit of Arn and Tully throw things off from a booking standpoint when it comes to this particular show?

Jeremy Priest asks...I always liked Varsity club. Some people have mixed reactions. What say you?