"Clash of the Champions '88" Discussion A New Board Feature.

Just to clarify... You watch whichever PPV is chosen on the Network or VCR tape (he-he), and then discuss it here. You got two weeks till a new show is picked.



And PJ if nobody is interested, you can delete this and proceed to throw rocks at me. Just not in the face, cause that's all I have going for me.

Ahh the 1st Clash which I still have the original broadcast recording of on VHS. My thoughts...

Rotundo vs Garvin in an ''Amateur Rules'' match was nothing special but the crowd was hot for the post stuff with Sullivan/Precious so points there.

Midnight Express vs The Fanatics for the US tag belts. Just great tag team wrestling all around even with a Dusty finish it's still an excellent match.

Road Warriors/Dusty vs Powers of Pain/Koloff. Nothing of note here as the barbed wired was barley used since the match doesn't even break 5 minutes.

Arn/Tully vs Windham/Luger for the World tag belts. Again great tag wrestling as was the norm with NWA in the 80s. Windham/Luger win the belts to a HUGE pop. You'll never hear pops like that during a tag title match again I can guarantee that.

Flair vs Sting for the NWA World Title. What can I say about this classic that hasn't already been said? It's the match that put Sting on the map and is a must see for any old school wrestling fan.

Overall if you're a classic NWA fan (like myself) I highly recommend checking this out.

First I will say I was an assistant manager at Burger King in West Caldwell NJ when this PPV aired and I watched this over at the restaurant manager's house. He was a huge Road Warriors fan.

Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin vs Mike Rotunda with Kevin Sullivan. It was a nice little change of pace with the whole amateur wrestling rules. Because you knew Rotunda would break them every chance he got.
That was a fun match. Although I could see how people wouldn't like it. But I always liked Mike Rotunda (and Garvin) And I thought both delivered an entertaining opening match.

Midnight Express with Jim Cornette.vs the Fantastics. I wasn't a fan of the Fantastics back then. But I can appreciate them now. The match was very good. And of course the controversy at the end was always fun. But Midnight Express and Jim Cornette always worked well together. Beautiful Bobby I always felt was under appreciated for how good he really was. I thought Cornertte wore himself out with the belt at the end.

As much as I loved LOD and Dusty and enjoyed Ivan and Powers of Pain that 6 Man barbed wire street fight was painful to watch. That was just ugly. It was chaos and not in a good way. This match could have tore the roof off, but I saw to many botches. They didn't have any chemistry that night.

Nikita Interview- 29 years later and I still don't fully know what he was saying. lol

Windham and Luger vs Arn and Tully with JJ Dillion for the tag team championships was a fast, fun and enjoyable match. But it was to be expected because Windham, Arn and Tully always put on great matches. They had the crowd from start to finish.

Sting vs Flair Iron-Man match.
First off I didn't care for the celebrity judges back then and they look more cheesy being there watching it now. Every time they looked over at them only the Wonder Years kid looked interested. While JR tried to tell us how into they were. It just looked bad back then. It would have been much better if the judges were all past wrestling legends. I did love the stipulation of JJ Dillion suspended above the ring in the cage. And even with the botched drop kick to Flair in the corner it was nice to see Sting being able to hang with Flair. And this match like the prior one had the fans on the edge of their seats for the whole match. Sting and Flair had them eating out of their Hands.

For a free TV show the whole show was almost PPV quality. And honestly even though it was an ugly match that didn't really deliver how I remember it back then on paper the Road Warriors/Rhodes vs Ivan and PoP six man tag could have been a PPV Main Event just like Horsemen vs Windham/Luger and Sting vs Flair. Three PPV caliber main events on one free TV card. This card really delivered.

Glad we're getting some steam. The people in charge of the Network are probably confused as to why these old events are suddenly getting attention.


Crowd was crazy into this event!

Loved Jim Garvin & Precious.

Varsity Club was a great stable. Kevin Sullivan was the least intimidating guy ever.

Fulton & Eaton could have been brothers. Both had dad bods and lots of hair. Midnight Express are the coolest team ever.

Tag team wrestling will NEVER be better than it was in the 80's.

The Powers of Pain were the most blatant rip-off in wrestling history. Yikes!

Forget the haters... Luger was awesome!

Barry is the smoothest wrestler I've ever seen. He makes it look easy. But Windham's best days are just around the corner.

Even when he was still green, you could tell Sting was going to be a star.

Thanks PJ.

I remember watching this in lieu of Mania, and was not disappointed. Once i actually saw Mania a few days later on a friends taped VHS,i was convinced i made the right choice. So many great talents on this card. Although not everything came off perfectly. I was 10 so i bought into the Varsity Club/Garvins,Precious thing. I had saw Sullivan much earlier in Florida as the Satanic guy ,so in my mind ,he was still that guy. Lol. I always thought the Fantastics and Midnights had great chemistry. This was no different, although the ending had been seen enough even by 1988 standards. The Warrior and Dusty vs. Koloff and Powers of Pain did not age well.....BUT....i was around 10. So my view on good match/bad match didnt exist. All i knew was this was a battle to be excited for. I truly loved the world tag title match. Edge of my seat the whole time....and torn at that because i liked all 4 participants. Which would be a sentiment that played HEAVILY into the main event for me. I loved Flair already and thought Sting was very cool. By the end of the match, i loved Flair even more and Sting was elevated ,in my eyes, as every bit the star as Ric.....in short, they did their job PERFECTLY. Great show, and great idea for a thread guys!

I love this concept PJ and marino13!!!

The great thing about this reflecting on how everything came across to me as a kid (when kayfabe and Apter mags were all I knew) to now, 29 years later, living in a global world with all our behind-the-scenes knowledge.

I was 10 when I watched this PPV, honestly didn't know it ran alongside WrestleMania IV until months later. See, back then we got our wrestling fix from video stores that usually got VCR tapes in a week after the event. Since I was a hardcore NWA fan, I picked up the Clash I tape over WMIV because I could watch that the following week. It's only maybe by the March edition of PWI mag the following year did I learn these two events ran against each other. But if I had to choose all over again it would still be Clash of The Champions I for me.

Sting matches for me back then where always edge-of-my-seat stuff, and Flair played his role so well. He was the dastardly heel that always sneaked away with a victory. All I can remember is feeling exhausted watching these two go to a 60 minute draw. I think Sting later in life said that was the match that put him on the map.

Luger/Windham was as cool as a tag team as there could be, NWA's two heart-throbs - compare that to old man Tommy Rich who apparently had girls running wild in '80...look how athletes have changed

Another thing that struck me is the fact that it was only what? 3 years prior Rotundo & Windham lost the WWF tag team championships to Shieky baby & Volkoff at WM1 and here they are, one guy was the curtain-jerker (no offense to Rotundo's wrestling ability) and the other guy was a main-eventer.

I am so into this!! Gonna watch this show after work tonight and get back at this thread

I wish I could take credit, but this was all marino13's idea.

I know I've never stolen any of your ideas, because I only steal good ideas.