WCW Clash of the Champions #26
January 27, 1994
Baton Rouge, LA
Riverside Centroplex

The current WCW & NWA Champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Ric Flair (12/27/1993)
WCW International World Champion: Rick Rude (9/19/1993)
WCW U.S. Champion: Steve Austin (12/27/1993)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys (10/24/1993)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (9/19/1993)

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan, making his WCW debut! YES! The fun begins!

• Too Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell (w/Teddy Long) vs. Pretty Wonderful (w/The Assassin)
  

Winner of this gets a tag titles shot on the next episode of Saturday Night. This feud began a month before at Starrcade where Pretty Wonderful cheated, a second match on the syndies where some cheating backfired, and now we have the rubber match. Orndorff schools Scorpio to start with headlocks and hammerlocks before we go to break. During the commercials, Scorpio and Bagwell got a near-fall after a double-team jumping shoulderblock. Back to live action, Bagwell gets a Jack Brisco rollup for two. Roma drills him with a clothesline, but misses an elbow drop. Tag to Scorpio, who goes to work on the arm. Scorpio goes for a random superplex, but gets shoved off. Roma drops a pair of sledges and tags Orndorff. He hooks on a rear chinlock. From there, Orndorff grabs a front headlock. Scorpio starts to make his way over to Bagwell, but Roma comes in and pulls Scorpio back. They do the same spot again. Pretty Wonderful deliver a double backdrop and drops some elbows for two. Orndorff comes off the top and eats a boot to set up the HOT TAG TO BAGWELL! He knees Orndorff out and hits a crossbody on Roma for 1-2-NO! Missile Dropkick from Bagwell gets 1-2-NO! It breaks down into a pier-six brawl. Scorpio misses a crossbody on Orndorff and flies out to the floor. Assassin sneaks a foreign object in Orndorff’s knee pad. Roma looks to smash Bagwell’s face on Orndorff’s knee, but Bagwell blocks and smashes Roma’s face instead. (9:59 shown) The match was standard stuff, but what a retarded finish. That’s the worst case of heel miscommunication I’ve ever seen. Why would Orndorff leave his knee out there for Bagwell to smash his partners face into it? Makes no sense. **

• Ron Simmons vs. Ice Train
  

This was a student vs. teacher type match. Ice Train starts the match knocking Simmons down all over the place until he runs into the ringpost. Simmons takes over with some power moves of his own. Ice Train slam dunks Simmons when he tries a FLYING SHOULDERBLOCK. Ice Train hits a powerslam, but misses a corner charge as Simmons rolls him up for 1-2-3. (3:31) Simmons would stay pretty low-key for the next several months before leaving WCW for good. ¾*

Mean Gene meets up with Robert Parker (Fuller) and Col. Steve Austin dressed as Parker. Parker has a shirt that says “Col. Parker Rules The World” as a jab to Sid. Parker talks about feeling pretty down lately, but he beat his dog Bubba the other day and now he’s feeling much better. Wow.

Next up, Nick Bockwinkel has been chosen as the new WCW commissioner. That’s pretty much it.

• WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) vs. Dustin Rhodes
  

Gordon Solie replaces Tony Schiavone for this match. Rhodes seems to want to turn this into a brawl to start, but Regal knows he can’t hang with Dustin when it comes to brawling. He heads to the floor to find out how much time remains from Sir William within the first minute of the match. Back in, Rhodes flips out of a three-quarter nelson and hits a shoulderblock to put Regal back on the floor. Back in again, Rhodes clamps on a headlock. Regal finally gets Rhodes in the corner where he sneaks in a European uppercut. He grounds Rhodes and grabs an overhead wristlock. Rhodes looks to break free, but Regal snaps him over with a gutwrench suplex. Regal goes back to the mat and GRINDS his elbow in the side of Dustin’s head. Yeah, ouch. Rhodes flips Regal over to escape a bow-tie lock and hits a Lariat. Regal rolls out to the floor to kill more time with three minutes remaining. Rhodes blocks a sunset flip and pounds away. He connects with another Lariat for 1-2-NO! Rhodes flips out of a suplex and hits a dropkick for two. Regal rolls Dustin over into the ropes and since he can’t even get a one-count, he decides to just head out to the floor again. They brawl on the rampway, but Rhodes backdrops Regal back in and splashes him from the rampway for 1-2-NO! Regal heads out to the floor again with 45 seconds left. Dustin delivers a DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! Back in, Rhodes hits an elbow off the top and delivers the BULLDOG as the time limit expires. (15:00) One thing you can say about these Regal time limit draws: they do tell a great story. Regal’s style is so different from the US style that if he was to face a brawler like Rhodes, he would just ground you until time runs out or stall out on the floor if you happened to get back up on your feet. Either way, Regal is holding on to that title. **½

Aaron Neville is here! Not sure why for any other reason than he’s from Louisiana and we’re in Louisiana.

• WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys (w/Missy Hyatt) vs. Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne – non-title match
  

Huh? I thought Missy was fired after Starrcade when her boob popped out on-camera. Anyways, Cactus and Payne enter the ring through the crowd and a huge brawl erupts. It’s a taste of what we’ll be seeing over the next few months. Once the action calms down a bit and a regular tag match is put in place, Payne plays face-in-peril. He delivers the PAYNE KILLER on Knobbs out of nowhere, but Sags breaks it up. Payne takes a couple chair shots down on the floor unbeknownst to the ref. The Nasties cut off a tag to Cactus, but then they duck low and Cactus gets the hot tag. He sends the Nasties to the floor with Cactus Clotheslines. Back in, Cactus hits the DOUBLE-ARM DDT on Knobbs! Sags saves Knobbs from being pinned with an elbow drop. Once Sags is out of the ring, Payne comes by and drops an elbow on Knobbs. Cactus rolls Knobbs over and covers for 1-2-3. (6:49) See, this is how I like my Nasty Boys – battling it out in short brawls, not thirty minutes trying to wrestle. **¼

• Brian Pillman vs. Col. Robert Parker (w/Steve Austin) – Loser Wears A Chicken Suit Match
  

This is what this feud has come to now: a chicken suit. Pillman pulled off a non-title win over Austin on Saturday Night a week before and Parker tried to put the chicken head on Pillman before Dustin Rhodes ran down to save him from real embarrassment. When I say “chicken head”, I don’t mean ‘a bird you take home and wear out’. I mean, a chicken head you might see a mascot wear. I love Austin dressed as Col. Robert Parker. Cigar, handkerchief, big white hat, and everything. Before the match, Pillman passes out some KFC to the crowd. Pillman chases Parker all around the ring to start until Pillman runs into Austin. Parker controls momentarily as Pillman delivers an atomic drop that puts Parker out on the floor. Parker and Austin decide to leave, but The (Big) Boss(man) comes out to keep them at bay. Meanwhile in the ring, Austin delivers a STUNGUN to Pillman! Parker makes it back in the ring and starts to choke Pillman in the ropes. He comes off the top, but Pillman catches him in the gut and goes to town on Parker. Austin shoves Pillman off the top rope and Parker covers for 1-2-NO! The Boss chases Austin back to the dressing room. Parker’s waving for Austin to come back and gets rolled up from behind for 1-2-3. (5:43) Now Col. Parker has to wear the chicken suit on the special 2 ½-hour episode Saturday Night. Heenan feels Parker’s pain of having to wear an embarrassing animal suit on TV. *½

• Ric Flair & Sting vs. Rick Rude & Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) – Tag Team Elimination Match
  

Its odd hearing Heenan talk negatively about Flair here. At the start of the match, Sting and Rude have a hip swiveling contest. Kinda weird. From there, Sting works the arm. Rude knees Sting away and tags in Vader. Holy crap, from a press slam position, Sting gets dropped throat first on the top rope. Not sure why, but that looked cooler than it usually does. Vader tries a sunset flip from the middle rope, but Sting holds his ground and sits down on Vader! The tables have turned! Rude comes in and nails Sting to return the advantage right back to Vader. Out of nowhere, Sting delivers a German suplex and makes the tag to Flair. He’s got chops-a-plenty for Vader! We take a break as Sting tags in again. After the commercials, Sting is stuck in a bearhug courtesy of Rude. Sting ear-claps out and hits an inverted atomic drop before tagging in Flair. He delivers a flying double-sledge (because he’s face) and an inverted atomic drop, but misses a corner charge. Tag to Vader, he hits an avalanche. Vader follows up with a Vader Bomb, a superplex, and then a TOP-ROPE superplex! Vader heads up again, but Sting has enough and drags Flair away. Sting gets nailed from behind by Rude as Vader and Flair go to the floor. Vader grabs a chair and goes after Flair. Lucky for Flair, new WCW Commish Nick Bockwinkel stands in Vader’s way. Race even seems to fear the new commish! They stand there and talk long enough for Vader to get counted out. Flair gets counted out as well, leaving us Rude vs. Sting. (12:16 shown) Meanwhile in the ring, Sting hits a flying clothesline. He tries another inverted atomic drop, but collapses for some reason when he has Rude in the air. Rude hits a forearm off the top and goes to work on the back like he always does. Sting stands up out of the sit-down chinlock and takes Rude over for the electric chair drop. Sting tries a splash, but hits knees. Rude goes for the RUDE AWAKENING, but Sting holds on to the top rope and slips away. He hits a Rude Awakening of his own for 1-2-NO! Rude’s foot is on the bottom rope. Now Rude hits an inverted atomic drop and tries for a Stinger Splash, but Sting moves away. Rude kicks Sting in the gut and goes for a tombstone piledriver, but Sting reverses and KO’s Rude. Sting comes off the top with a splash for 1-2-3! (18:52 shown) Not sure I like the way Flair and Vader were eliminated. I think Vader should have been DQ’ed using the chair and Flair stretchered out or just been rendered unable to continue instead of a cheap double-countout to put over the new commish. The double-countout this way makes them look stupid in a way. Especially Vader, who really looked awesome up to that point. Anyways, right now Flair does look vulnerable going into Superbrawl, which is what needed to be done here. As for Sting and Rude, they had done way better matches in Clashes past. ***

Final Thoughts: The Clashes continue to deliver in the main events, but the undercards suffer. It might have been a fun show at the time, but now it’s just completely meaningless. Thumbs down for a passable Clash.