SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: Approx. 1 Hour, 52 Min.
During the 1988 holiday season in the rough-and-tumble NWA (National Wrestling Alliance), it’s not about merely getting lumps of coal in your stocking – it’s just about getting lumps. From Chattanooga, TN at the UTC (University of Tennessee-Chattanooga) Arena, TBS aired the NWA’s Clash of the Champions IV: Season’s Beatings live on December 7, 1988.
The event’s ringside commentators are Jim Ross & Bob Caudle. After each match, Tony Schiavone and his guest, “The Total Package” Lex Luger, also briefly contribute supplemental commentary. Magnum T.A., meanwhile, conducts some of the interviews. Teenage actor Jason Hervey (of ABC-TV’s “The Wonder Years”) is present at ringside – he is referenced as the opening match’s ring announcer. This Clash is a prelude for that’s month’s NWA Pay-Per-View, Starrcade ’88: True Gritt.
Notes: It is repeatedly announced that these matches are alotted a half-hour time limit. With this show, the NWA also experimented with glimpses of an above-the ring camera angle. Let’s just say it doesn’t bolster the show’s viewing quality.
Match 1: “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert & Ron Simmons vs. The Fantastics (Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton) – U.S. Tag Team Championship Tournament Final (27:04). Approaching the time limit, both fan favorite duos contribute an excellent effort. Gilbert is valiant selling his injured arm during the bout’s latter half. Suffice to say, whoever chose this tournament final to lead off the show made a smart call. Rating: 7½ Stars.
- Ross interviews NWA World Television Champion Mike Rotunda and Kevin Sullivan. The ultra-snide villains ridicule Rotunda’s Starrcade ’88 challenger (and their ex-Varsity Club stablemate), Rick Steiner.
Match 2: The Varsity Club’s “Dr. Death” Steve Williams (with Kevin Sullivan) vs. The Italian Stallion (15:17). Instead of a predictable squash, The Italian Stallion somehow stays competitive against the now-heel Williams. While the finish is exactly what viewers expect, the bout is watchable TV filler. Rating: 6 Stars.
- With Luger looking on, Schiavone interviews Jason Hervey.
- Magnum T.A. interviews The Junkyard Dog (JYD). JYD has been recruited as Nikita Koloff’s replacement for a tag match with Ivan Koloff against Paul Jones’ Russian Assassins at Starrcade ’88.
- There’s a second replay of The Road Warriors’ recent bloody attack on Dusty Rhodes from an episode of World Championship Wrestling. The first replay was included in the pre-title segment.
Note: Nikita Koloff had recently departed the NWA on a personal sabbatical and would not return until early 1991.
Match 3: Ivan Koloff (with the stipulation of having one arm tied behind his back) vs. Paul Jones (8:21). Given these players, their bout is as near-unwatchable as it sounds. It’s no shocker that the masked Russian Assassins and JYD intervene to hype their upcoming tag bout. Rating 3½ Stars.
- Ross briefly interviews Sting, who is in at ringside in support of Rhodes (his tag partner at Starrcade ’88).
- Per Rhodes’ late arrival (planned or not), Magnum T.A. interviews “The Dog-Faced Gremlin” Rick Steiner, who is in full goofy mode.
Match 4: “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes (with Sting) vs. NWA World Tag Team Champion Road Warrior Animal (with Paul Ellering & Road Warrior Hawk (2:54). With the winner gaining control of the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, an eye-patched Rhodes seeks vengeance upon his ex-partners: The Road Warriors. In only a few minutes, it is the show’s most sadistic content and does little to justify its airtime. Rating: 3 Stars.
Notes: The NWA subsequently retired its World Six-Man Tag Team Championship in February1989. This bout (aside from Starrcade ’88) was evidently Rhodes’ last NWA TV match before jumping to the WWF in early 1990.
Match 5: The Midnight Express -“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton & “Sweet” Stan Lane (with Jim Cornette) vs. NWA World Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair & NWA U.S. Champion Barry Windham (with J.J. Dillon) (17:41). While the winners’ chicanery isn’t a surprise, the pre-match hype is justifiable. Specifically, this bout is tag team dynamite. With the Express mostly dominating the Two Horsemen, a reeling Flair & Windham play up this scenario for all it’s worth.
Considering Cornette’s now-popular Express three months before became the sole NWA team to simultaneously hold the U.S. and World Tag Team Championships, their star power now appears equitable to the remaining Horsemen. Including Cornette and Dillon’s wily contributions, this tag team showdown absolutely merits re-discovery. Rating: 8½ Stars.
Note: Having jumped to the WWF, then-NWA World Tag Team Champions Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson (the other half of The Four Horsemen) dropped the titles to fellow heels The Midnight Express on 9/10/88. In a bloody rout, Eaton & Lane subsequently lost the championship to the rampaging Road Warriors on 10/29/88.
- Schiavone interviews an irate Cornette.
- Ross & Caudle review some of the Clash’s highlights.
- Schiavone & Luger review the main event’s finish before closing out the show. Luger deems himself ready to claim Flair’s NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade ’88.
REVIEW:
Predictably, the NWA’s video quality isn’t as slickly-produced as the rival WWF, but the overall content is still more than sufficient. Ross and Caudle are an excellent ringside tandem that easily surpasses Schiavone & Luger’s bland screen time – which is mere filler by comparison.
With two outstanding bouts book-ending the show, the other three matches are skippable. That said, the rare Midnight Express vs. Flair & Windham bout is a welcome blast of Late ‘80s NWA nostalgia. If one should have extra time, the Simmons/Gilbert vs. The Fantastics title bout delivers a minor gem. Everything else in between often requires a fast-forward button.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 6½ Stars
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