BRM Reviews Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knockout

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knockout

Post by Big Red Machine » Jul 27th, '13, 21:25

WCW Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knockout (11/15/1989)- Troy, NY

THE ROAD WARRIORS (w/Paul Ellering) vs. THE FABULOUS FREEBIRDS (Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes)- 2/10
Apparently Hawk is very impatient. The Freebirds got in about forty seconds of offense in this five minute match, but that was too much for Hawk to take and he rushes into the ring to help Animal, throwing the refereeing across the ring and getting DQed in the process. Then Hawk and Animal continue to beat the crap out of the tag champs, making them look weak for their title defense against the Steiners on next week’s TV show which JR and Gordon Solie had been trying to hype up.

TERRY FUNK & GARY HART PROMO- Gary tells Terry that all of Texas is counting on him. Funk says that he won’t need anyone’s help.

AWARD CEREMONY- JR and Bill Apter present Sting with an award for being the most popular wrestler in the NWA, as voted by the fans. Sting then starts his promo by saying that maybe he should give the award back because someone else deserves it, rather than him. IT WAS A POLL OF THE FANS’ OPINION ON THEIR FAVORITE WRESTLER! If Sting got the most votes, how could anyone else possibly deserve it?!
Sting then says that he won’t give the award to anyone else because having the award feels so good. So what Sting is saying is that if he didn’t actually deserve the award, he wouldn’t give it away to someone who rightfully deserves it because he likes having it. What kind of babyface is he supposed to be?
Flair is then awarded a giant trophy for being the most popular wrestler of the decade and cuts a nice little promo.

WOMAN PROMO-bad. Apparently she rules the wrestling world and Doom is the best tag team ever. Oh. And she has a “big surprise” for Ric Steiner tonight. This would have been a good promo if her delivery hadn’t been so dull until the very end.

TOMMY RICH & EDDIE GILBERT vs. DOOM (w/Woman)- no rating. Good squash.
We got one or two spots that showed off how strong the Doom guys were, then they used that strength to destroy their opponents.

JIM CORNETTE INTERVIEWS THE STEINER BROTHERS- they tell a pointless story about how they came up with the name for the Frankensteiner, then we got some good hype for their match tonight. Then Rick Steiner says that they Steiners will bring their mother into WCW to counter Woman.

THE DYNAMIC DUDES vs. THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane)- 6.25/10
Apparently Johnny Ace finally decided to learn how to actually ride his skateboard so that he wouldn’t look completely stupid during his entrance. Jim Cornette had been advising the Dynamic Dudes recently as well as managing the Midnight Express, so he was in a neutral corner, but Ross and Solie both suggested that the Midnights were upset with Jim for this.
The Dudes worked over Stan’s arm a bit. Shane was great here. He really looked like a star. Anyway, despite trying to stop the Midnights from cheating earlier on, Cornette turns on the Dudes at the end hitting Shane in the back of the head with his tennis racket to give the Midnights the win.

THE SUPER DESTROYER vs. “DR. DEATH” STEVE WILLIAMS- 1.5/10
While this match was going on, Norman came down to ringside in a Santa Clause suit and gave out presents. Santa Clause? Really? It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!

THE STEINER BROTHERS vs. THE SKY SCRAPERS (w/Theodore Long)- no rating. Good segment.
They wrestle for a few minutes (mostly the Steiners being badasses), until Doom come out and attacked the Steiners. Woman hit Rick in the back of the head with her purse, and either it was supposed to be loaded but Rick no-sold it… or she thought that hitting him with a non-loaded purse would hurt him. Either way, it looked silly.
Rick corners Woman but some big guy comes out and protects her while Doom and Sky Scrapers beat down the Steiners until the Road Warriors come out to make the save.

STEINERS AND ROAD WARRIORS PROMO- Scott Steiner and Animal were barely intelligible. Then Hawk got a turn to speak and he cut what would have been a fantastic promo if he was a heel. Not caring about doing anything other than hurting people is not something that babyfaces generally do. Paul Ellering then cut a good promo that seemed to be building towards an eight man tag team match at Starrcade but for some reason WCW decided to do two four participant round robin tournaments IN THE SAME NIGHT.

NWA UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Lex Luger(c) vs. Brian Pillman- 5/10
At the last month’s Pay-Per-View, Luger beat Pillman clean to retain the title. For some reason Pillman gets a rematch here, and now not only does Luger need to use a chair to get the win, but Pillman had Luger down for the three count TWICE after a ref bump! Does this seem backwards to you?
To make matters worse, Luger would be US Champion for another ten months, and at no point during that time was this followed up on in any way whatsoever (despite Pillman also being in the company the whole time).
Luger goes to beat Pillman down with a chair after the match but Sting comes out and makes the save. Sting says that he always used to be able to overlook the fact that his friend Lex Luger was a an arrogant dickhead, but now Luger has crossed the line.
STING SLAPS LUGER!
They look like they are about to brawl, but Luger, being the heel, backs off. AWESOME post-match segment.

RIC FLAIR PROMO- okay

I QUIT MATCH: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk- 6.5/10
Yeah, Meltzer horribly overrated this one. They told a competent story and Funk going after Flair’s neck played in well with the rest of the feud, but that was about it. We saw Funk spend a lot more time in the Figure Four on the last Pay-Per-View in the Thundercage match and he didn’t show any signs of wanting to give up then (even when Sting was hitting him with Top Rope Splashes at the same time!). If they had kept going the way they were for another fifteen or twenty minutes, this would have been something special, but they didn’t.

Overall, another crappy show from WCW. That’s two in a row now, and it has all but killed my desire to see Starrcade 89 aside from the Sting vs. Luger match. That is not good, especially when you consider that the whole point of the Clashes was to get people to buy the Pay-Per-Views. Not only did a lot of the matches underachieve, but the Iron Man/Iron Team tournament set up for Starrcade 89 meant that the matches that should have resulted from the various segments on this show would have happened anyway, making the show as a whole less important.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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