By Brian Hoops, PWTorch.com Specialist Contributor

On September 2, 1992, WCW held a historic Clash of Champions card, Clash of the Champions #20. Not only was this Clash of Champions held 15 years ago, it also marked the 20th anniversary of professional wrestling on TBS. The show opened with a great highlight reel of special historical moments that have been seen over the last 20 years on TBS. The show was held at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, which was noted has held professional wrestling tapings since 1989 for WCW. The arena only held 500 people, but it was a fun show from a historical standpoint. The show was shown free on TBS and drew a 3.7 rating. This rating was up significantly from the 2.8 rating that the June Clash of Champions drew.

Tony Shiavone and Missy Hyatt were outside Center Stage and were conducting interviews as the celebrities were arriving. Andre the Giant and Gordon Solie were also outside the building and gave a short interview. Ron Simmons, then WCW World Heavyweight Champion and his wife arrived in a limo and were interviewed. Another limo arrived and Bill Watts, VP of Wrestling Operations; Hank Aaron and Bill Shaw, President of WCW arrived. Considering why Bill Watts was fired in 1993, this was interesting to see them arrive together. Next limo to arrive contained Jim Barnett, Senior Consultant to WCW; Bob Dhue, Executive VP of WCW and Bruno Sammartino. Sting rode up on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and gave a short interview.

Inside the theater, Atlanta city councilman Robb Pitts presented Bill Watts a proclamation declaring September 2 as “World Championship Wrestling” day in Atlanta. Dusty Rhodes, the Masked Assassin, Thunderbolt Patterson and Magnum TA were in the background.

First match was for the WCW World TV Title. Prior to the match, they had someone sing the national anthem, making the event seem very important. Ricky Steamboat challenged Steve Austin for the title. The match was no DQ and Paul E. Dangerously, Austin’s manager, was suspended in a steel cage above the ring. Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura are the announcers and they do a great job of making this match feel like it will be the better man who wins and selling Steamboat’s broken ribs. Lots of mat wrestling early but enough athletic moves mixed in to make it interesting. Austin began to work on Steamboat’s broken ribs to gain control of the match. Around the 7:00 minute the match really started to pick up with lots of back and forth near falls. Finish came when Austin threw Steamboat over the top and Steamboat crawled under the ring to the other side and came off the top for a flying body press on Austin for the pin in 10:46 to become the new WCW World TV Champion. This was a strong match with a consistent build to the clean finish.

During commercial breaks, they showed highlights of wrestling on TBS over the last 20 years. When they came back from the commercial, an excellent video package of the best tag teams of the last 20 years on TBS aired.

Next match is Greg Valentine and Dick Slater with Larry Zbysko, who was selling a broken arm, in their corner against Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton with Michael Hayes in their corner. Zbysko had just been kicked out of the Dangerous Alliance and was feuding with his former stablemates. Hayes did a good interview to setup the match with the idea of the best tag teams of the 80’s joining forces to form a new tag team. (The Freebirds, the Midnight Express, and the Four Horsemen). Finish came when Zbysko went to hit Anderson with his cast, but Anderson moved and hit Valentine instead. Eaton came off the top rope with the Alabama jam and Anderson covered Valentine for the pinfall victory in 5:40.

Short interviews of Thunderbolt Patterson, Bob Armstrong, Mr. Wrestling II and Ted Turner came next. After another commercial break, Bill Watts stripped Brad Armstrong of the WCW World Light Heavyweight Title due to a knee injury. Brian Pillman came out to interrupt an interview Ventura was conducting with Armstrong. Pillman was supposed to wrestle Armstrong for the title on this show. Pillman called Armstrong gutless and said Armstrong made him sick and slapped him. This was another glimpse of Pillman’s slow heel turn and was a great segment.

When they came back from the commercial, another awesome video package of the best wrestlers of the last 20 years on TBS aired. Next, an excellent video package dedicated to World Heavyweight Champion Ron Simmons aired to build him up for his match with Cactus Jack.

WCW World Champion Ron Simmons pinned Cactus Jack to retain the title. Cactus used his brawling style to gain an early advantage on the champ. Action spilled out to the floor where Jack hit Simmons with a spinning neck breaker. Crowd got behind Simmons as he tried to make a comeback but Jack’s brawling style kept Simmons on the defensive. Finish came when Simmons hit Cactus with a sidewalk slam then a powerslam for the clean pinfall. Match was passable but very sloppy.

Next they showed clips of Rick Rude losing the NWA Title tournament final match to Masahiro Chono in Japan followed by an interview with Rude and an add plugging Halloween Havoc in October.

After a commercial break, Jim Ross interviewed Cactus Jack; Jack introduced Butch Reed to WCW, mentioning he and Ron Simmons were former tag team champions and Reed could take the title away from Simmons.

Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes against The Barbarian & Butch Reed are next. Windham and Rhodes were in the NWA tag team tournament finals in July, losing to Williams and Gordy, while Reed and Barbarian where in their first match together. However, Watts was pushing the Barbarian and Reed as they were old Mid-South mainstays with Watts. Cactus Jack joined Ross and Ventura on commentary and he was the best part of the entire match. Most of the match was spent working over Rhodes, which led to the Windham tag. Finish came with the Barbarian giving Windham the big boot to the face and the surprising clean pin for the Barbarian and Butch Reed. Boring in ring action but another clean finish.

The main event is next which is an eight man elimination match. Prior to the match, they did a tremendous video package building up the participants and the match. Team I consists of Rick Rude, Jake Roberts, Super Invader (Hercules), and Big Van Vader. Team II consists of Sting, Nikita Koloff and the Steiner Brothers. Big Van Vader and Rick Steiner are the first combatants in the ring. Vader uses his power to get the early advantage, but Steiner tries power moves of his own. Steiner hit an impressive over the head belly to belly suplex and Vader left the ring. Vader tags in Super Invader and Steiner brings in Koloff. Quick tags and lots of action dominate the middle portion of the match. First elimination occurred when Koloff threw Jake Roberts into the ropes and went for the Russian sickle but Rude kneed Koloff in the back and Roberts rolled up Koloff for the pin. Sting hit the ring and cleaned house and used a series of power moves to pin the Super Invader. Rick Steiner tried to lift Vader on his shoulders so Scott could give a top rope Steiner Line, but Rick couldn’t get Vader up. Scott came off the top rope for DQ. During this time period in WCW, Bill Watts had instituted a rule that anyone that came off the top rope would be disqualified. Action spilled onto the floor where Rick Steiner and Vader were brawling. Jake Roberts and Sting were fighting in the ring and Rick Rude gave Steiner a Rude Awakening on the floor and Steiner was counted out, leaving Sting to battle Rude, Vader and Roberts by himself. Rude and Sting were in the ring and Sting used a slingshot suplex on Rude, however Vader splashed both Rude and Sting off the top rope, disqualifying himself in the process. That left Rude and Roberts against Sting. Roberts drug Rude over to his corner to make the tag and Roberts came in to give Sting a DDT and pin the Stinger. Excellent eight-man elimination tag match. Match had good booking and psychology plus very good in ring action.

Show closed with all the “suits” from WCW gathered together thanking fans for watching.

Summary: This was a great Clash of the Champions, infact, it is one of my favorite all time Clash of Champions events. Bill Watts was booking WCW at this time and he was known for booking brilliant TV from his old Mid-South wrestling days and was hired by WCW to boost ratings and turn the falling house show business around. Watts proved he still could produce one of the most intriguing TV shows during 1992. Unfortunately, Watts would go on to promote some really poor PPV’s in WCW during 1992 as we will look at in future weeks. The history and nostalgia makes this Clash a must see and there was two of the five matches that are worth seeing as well. The clean finishes in all the matches was a big highlight for me as well. The amount and quality of the interviews added to the special feel of the wrestling program. An interview with Ricky Steamboat after he captured the TV Title would have added to the important feeling that you had just witnessed a special match on a special show.

Next week, we will go back 20 years and look at the NWA summer tour, The Great American Bash 1987. The NWA produced a commercial tape of the best of the tour, which I will review.

I hope you enjoyed this week's column. As always your questions, comments and thoughts are always welcomed, and you can contact me at bhoops@iw.net.

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