83 Weeks - Clash of the Champions XXXIV [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Last week we discussed DDP turning down the nWo. We are 8 days removed from that, but there was a Monday Nitro that took place between then and this show so we’ll be discussing that while we watch along!

We’re live from the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee in front of 5,696 paying fans drawing $88,466. We’re going to open with a match that was scheduled to be Jushin Liger vs. Ultimo Dragon but instead it was Dean Malenko replacing him. It’s reported in the Observer that it was a VISA issue. Is that how you remember it?

“These two guys are incredible and this match was off the charts. Malenko won by submission with the Texas cloverleaf after doing a Tiger driver. Psychology was awesome, moves by both were awesome. Even more impressive is that about 5:00 in, Dragon kicked Malenko in the back and it basically hit the spine and numbed his entire lower body and he did the rest of the match with no lower body feeling, and collapsed basically as he went across the curtain after the match. ****½”

Is Dean going over because as the old saying is when there’s a replacement you need to put them over? Did you subscribe to that theory?

I only ask because the night before on Nitro Dragon beat Dean. Did you know at that point Liger wasn’t going to be there and this was the setup?

This is a great match and as Meltzer mentions Dean gets hurt during it. Do you remember checking in on him and how hurt was he?

Now while this is going on let’s discuss what happens the night before on Nitro. It’s from Chicago at the United Center which sets again a new company attendance record with a gate of $189,206 topping the Superdome gate we talked about last week. What was it about Chicago that made it a hot bed for wrestling then and now?

You also get $107,000 in merchandise sales and it’s the 4th largest gate in company history. Is this when it hit you that … man we’re fucking over?

Eric - and one of the reasons we love you - you don’t miss an opportunity to take a shot. Now WrestleMania 13 the same year is going to happen at the Rosemont Horizon which is a smaller building. You note on the show that Nitro will be the largest crowd to see pro wrestling in Chicago in 1997. You just couldn’t resist the shot could you?

On the Nitro the night before Randy Savage made his return to WCW for the first time in 3 months and attacked Chavo Guerrero, Maxx Muscle, Chris Dickinson & Doug Dillinger. Savage sits in the ring and refuses to move and claims he’s been blacklisted by you Eric. Where does this idea come from? Is the plan known at that time that he would end up in the nWo?

Sting comes down from the ceiling and gave Savage his bat to signal they’re together and they walked off.

If the plan wasn’t for Randy to be in the nWo - was there a long term plan for Sting and Savage to be aligned together?

Mark Curtis ringing the bell and reacting that way is a real thing of beauty by the way.

Next up we have Scotty Riggs vs. Mike Enos.

“2. Scotty Riggs pinned Mike Enos with a flying forearm in 2:26. Riggs didn't get over, but he worked hard and Enos was actually quite good given the time limitations he was under. *”

Is Riggs just kind of dead in the water after the break up of American Males?

“They did the requisite Horseman interview minus Ric Flair (both Flair and Hogan were in all the advertising both live and on television as doing interviews on this show and neither were there). The latest story is they had a meeting and were a cohesive unit once again, but after they all left, Debra McMichael ran down Woman again.”

Were you happy with where this program was going between the Horsemen? Did you know what the payoff was going to be? What did you think of Debra and Woman’s chemistry and ability to work off each other?

I’m sure you don’t remember why Hogan and Flair weren’t on the show but is that something you think in the long run hurt you with house shows and live events were the no-shows?

Speaking of Horsemen…it’s reported in the Observer: “Don Frye was interviewed recently on a Texas radio station and asked about the rumors of him replacing Steve McMichael in the Four Horseman and he said he's been talking regularly to Ric Flair about it and hopes it happens.”

Was this ever on the table? Is this just Ric blowing smoke up Frye’s ass? Or did you have a legit interest?

“3. Chris Jericho & Super Calo & Chavo Guerrero Jr. beat Konnan & La Parka & J.L. in 5:27 when Jericho pinned J.L. with a Super Frankensteiner off the top rope. Real hot fast paced excellent match climaxing with five consecutive dives. Crowd was really into this match which says something considering four of the guys have no television credibility and there was no issue involved and the crowd started the match hating Jericho big-time but his work and finisher won them over. ***½”

I know it seems like Jericho doesn’t fit here but it’s not like he didn’t spend a lot of time in Mexico previously so he’s familiar with some of these guys. How hard is it to transition to this style and work it fluently?

Obviously we got some thoughts and prayers going out to Konnan after what he’s been going through. Have you made any head way in getting Konnan for an AdFreeShows.com follow-up?

It’s crazy to think just a few years later Lynn would be a top guy in ECW while Jericho is a top guy in the WWE and here we are today and La Parka is a top guy in Mexico!

It’s reported in the Observer that at Nitro the night before La Parka’s bag never made it off the plane and he couldn’t work because he didn’t have his gimmick. Do you ever get frustrated at talent when that type of thing happens or is it just shit happens?

4. Harlem Heat beat Renegade & Joe Gomez in 3:44 when Booker pinned Renegade with the heat seeker. 1/4*

Less said about this the better. Why did you hang on so long with Renegade & Joe Gomez? Did you really think there was anything there? Or at this point are they just bodies that can lose?

5. Masahiro Chono pinned Alex Wright with a Yakuza kick in 4:30. This was a backdrop for the Nick Patrick heel ref angle. Wright dominated but Patrick kept counting slow as he had Chono pinned. Finally Chono hit the kick and Patrick counted fast as Wright was pinned. Crowd hated Wright and cheered Chono big-time which was funny. Wright worked real hard and carried it to a decent match. *½

This is just a complete styles clash let alone without the heel ref gimmick. Chono is a top guy in New Japan…is it the styles holding him back here? The disconnect with the audience?

Hey look it’s when Nick Patrick actually knew how to do a slow count…

You’re getting a lot of mainstream pub as Rey Misterio & the Giant appear on Regis & Kathy Lee and the day before Hulk, Hall & Nash are on the show. At the time how did these appearances get booked and did you have to sign off on them?

6. Eddie Guerrero pinned Scott Norton in 5:36. After Patrick was bumped, Diamond Dallas Page did a run-in and gave Norton the Diamond cutter and Guerrero scored the pin after a frog splash. *¼

It’s surreal to see DDP sprinkling the dust on Eddie here but the pop here is really something isn’t it?

To follow-up on our Nitro episode regarding Robin Hood - it’s reported in the Observer that “apparently everyone in WCW was under the impression the two clips of the Hogan-Giant match would air in the first two commercials breaks and not be strung out until nearly 40 minutes into the show.”

Is that how you remember it?

7. Chris Benoit pinned Kevin Sullivan in 5:04 in a falls count anywhere match. They worked real hard but it lacked something because they did the same exact match as the previous night but with the other guy winning. They brawled into the bathroom, came out of the bathroom, Benoit took a bump down the stairs, and they got in the ring and did the finish. Woman hit Sullivan with a chair to set up the pin. Benoit then broke a chair over Sullivan's head after the match. Hitting someone with a chair is against TBS guidelines, and Sullivan also bled, although it was probably hardway after juicing the previous night. ***

So were chairshots against TBS guidelines?

Did these two do the same match too much? I mean it did happen the night before on Nitro - here it is again - it’s not that it’s not great…but a common complaint now regarding WWE TV is its the same matches over and over again and this falls into that does it not?

Also from the Observer regarding this: “Sullivan and Benoit are taking their angle to the extreme so to speak. After the Nitro on 1/13, there was a brawl where Sullivan punched Benoit twice at about 12:30 a.m. at Hightoppers, a bar near the Superdome, and they had a major pull-apart after Benoit was making out with Nancy. This is similar to the Pillman deal in that the only ones in on it are probably Kevin, Nancy, Chris, Bischoff and a few others and they are trying to pass it off to the boys as legit since most of the wrestlers were there. Because of the Pillman deal, almost none of the wrestlers buy it but there are a few who thought it was legit. There were only a few people at the bar that weren't WCW personnel.”

So tell me Eric…what’s real…what’s fiction…what really is going on here?

8. Steiners beat The Lazy French Canadians in 6:55 when Scott pinned Oulette after a DDT off the top rope. It was Scott's first match back. His new ring outfit has a weightlifting belt underneath to give his back added support. He didn't take any bumps or show anything requiring agility and he's got to be close to 300 pounds. 1/2*

Scott obviously has to get back into ring shape but he’s gigantic here.

What do you think of Meltzer calling Jacques & Pierre the Lazy French Canadians? Did you think Jacques was taking it easy?

Steiners finally get their win back from 1993 when they dropped the WWF tag team titles to them on Raw.

9. Lex Luger beat Scott Hall via DQ in 10:29 when Kevin Nash and Syxx interfered. Not a good match. It was funny because these two are pushed like crazy and both are really over, but this match itself didn't get anywhere close to the crowd reaction that Dragon and Malenko got earlier. It wound up in a six-way brawl with Steiners saving Luger. Hall & Nash vs. Steiners not selling for each other didn't bode well for Saturday. There was a time cue problem as they went to the match finish early, thus started the brawl early, stretched it out too much and ended it early. Then they had to re-start the brawl again because too much time was left. *¼

During this match Tony has this weird bit where he throws out birthday wishes to “long time fan and WCW supporter Brian Hildebrand” which is Mark Curtis who is actually the ref of this…wtf?

How does this time cue issue happen? From gorilla? The producers? What do you remember of this?

Did Lex and Scott just not have chemistry in the ring as a singles? This is rough and Meltzer does point out the crowd was the loudest at the beginning of the show for two guys not as heavily pushed.

The show gets a 64.1% thumbs up from the Wrestling Observer readers. This is the second to last Clash of the Champions before the concept is dropped. It draws a 3.5 with 2,486,000 homes watching which matches the last Clash with Flair vs. Hogan but the share is down almost 1 full point from 6.2 to 5.3. Do you account that being a smaller main event attraction?

Was Clash at this point a glorified Nitro and a dead concept?

Next week Eric we’ll be doing another Nitro Watchalong as this will be on Monday Nitro from January 27th where you fire Randy Anderson coming off Souled Out…speaking of Souled Out tomorrow - January 25th - you’ll be on AdFreeShows doing a live Watch Along of Souled Out so make sure you go to sign up at adfreeshows.com to take part in that!