Jim Cornette Reviews The First Clash Of The Champions - March 27, 1988
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- From Episode 337 of the Jim Cornette Experience
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
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"Steiner who's a maniac and Sullivan who's a lunatic" Lol!
So glad I got USA, ESPN, and TBS on cable as a kid. I was able to see NWA, WCCW, AWA and WWF.
J.D. don’t forget USWA in late 80s.
J.D. i uses watch AWA NWA WCCW WCW WWF I loved everyone of them
Me too bro
ME TOO
Same here!
I’m back for another listen, 2 years later!
I liked all the matches on this card. The crowd was into everything they did. I miss the 80's pro wrestling.
i was i was alive in the 80s :(
i would love to go to these shows
it was real to be live great story line not to many mistake go out there and wrestle i wish i could go back in time where blood and sweat that what make real wrestling so special nwa wrestling forever
wwe to many mistake wack story line you can question the moves not good wrestling
I remember that Sting/Flair match. Amazing match. I remember Sting in UWF prior when he was aligned with Eddie Gilbert & Rick Steiner. That match with Flair made me a fan of Sting to this day.
I was a huge fan of Sting, Steiner and Eddie Gilbert in the U.W.F. , and was so stoked when Sting came and got such a great push with Crockett Promotions.
WCW's answer to Saturday Nights Main Event.
I can see that
Ummm no
This card was in retaliation for a couple of stunts the WWF did. The WWF threatened cable companies that showed StarCade 87 by withholding WrestleMania IV. THEN the WWF did the 1st Royal Rumble on USA while JCP had the Bunkhouse Stampede on PPV. So in retaliation JCP put the first Clash on TBS against the WWF and WrestleMania on PPV. JCP did the same thing the next year.
I had just watched the first Clash just before this came up in my feed, and it was just ASTOUNDING how into it the crowd was. They absolutely LOST IT when Lex and Barry took the belts from Tully & Arn, it was electric! It totally did tear the house down. During the Broadway with Ric and Sting, no one was seated the whole damn time. How great the whole show was. It was the best time to be a wrestling fan.
Keeping old school alive.. We need much more Jim Cornettes in our wrestling universe
U damn right
There's only one Corny though!! 😉
29:03 I feel like damn near crying. Finally Luger gets the respect for that period he deserves.
You should cry for the girl he helped OD
@@mattellis3297 that wasn't no girl!! That was Miss Elizabeth!! 😁
Luther deserves NO respect. Miss Elizabeth would still be alive if it wasn't for that scumbag.
Watch OSW Review ( you’ll thank me later if you haven’t already discovered it ) they put Lex over well.
@@mattellis3297 Wasn't she trying to keep up with him when it came to recreation drugs and performance enhancing drugs and he outweighed her by at least 150lbs? Miss Elizabeth was a Grown Adult and had to take responsibility for her own actions.
"And then people creamed their jeans again." Lmao. Another award winning saying.
JJ Dillon tripping over the ropes as he jumps in the ring to prevent t Lugar's pin looked pretty good.
I miss the old Georgia wrestling Championship/ Wcw..I watched Raw the other night and it made little or no sense..
You need to do more of these "supercard" reviews
I just got done watching this on UA-cam. I had to remind myself of this show. Yes I was watching NWA when I was 12 or 13 lol. Rest in peace Dusty.
I luv hearing Jim talk back-in-the-day wrestling; he's a living history legend.
You must be very young cause this stuff ain’t been that long ago it’s not history if everyone over 30 knows about it 😂! Now 50-100 years ago sure nobody remembers what it was like except really old people! But heck I’m 42 and I grew up around Jim’s neck of the woods in Ky! Smokers mountain did charity shows for my footballs team we got to hang out with Jim and set the chairs and stuff up he would buy us pizza and shoot the shit and talk wrestling with us! I was 6’3” and 220lbs of muscle so he liked me, I looked like I may could get huge he probably thought 💭! 🤔 And I wrestled, played basketball, and football, and done MMA training with some of the football players family! I looked like I could whip half the guns wrestling 🤦🏼♂️😂
You sound like quite the handful, Tammy.
This Tammy person is quite the ignorant type.
@@tammyforbes2101 Lies
@@tammyforbes2101....Are you a t-r-a-n-s-w-o-m-e-n?
"For this event, there must be a winner" Ring announcer before the Flair-Sting match that ended in a draw.
Bad booking was around in the 80s too. Just need to dive deep to find it. Now a days you could throw a stone with a blindfold on and hit 6 instances of bad booking or 8 different mudshows.
Ric was the winner. He retained the title.
@@leeherring8880 um draw
It's always fascinating how wrestling fans regress with age, becoming dumber every year...or they were morons to begin with.
I watched this as a 9 year old and instantly understood that "for this event there must be a winner"" referred to the judges. I'd already been watching real fighting for years and knew that draws still happened, that judges were meant to ensure there was a declared winner after the "time limit"...but it didn't always work out. It was easy to grasp that the NWA and Jim Crockett promotions added this stipulation to take one of Flair's "escapes" away...but he still could have had JJ get him DQ'd or simply lose by count out and keep the title. I was 9 and "got it"
It’s a way to get people to keep coming back.
I have been watching professional wrestling for 32 years I am 36 years old. You are great
I forgot about Schiavone having the 'stache.
Ron Jeremy
one of the best play by play caller of all time
That's odd because sometimes it's the only thing that I remember :\
Now THIS! This is what the show needs, this is what Cornette needs to do on a more regular basis. Review old school wrestling. Great. Tremendous.
i wish Jim cornette get back in wrestling he will be new owner of the new wcw he would have the best talent great roster he know eat breath live wrestling cant pull nothing over cornette
Jim reviewing a Historic show from top to bottom and a watch along. THIS is "such good shit"! PLEASE DO MORE!
Rewatched Sting vs. Flair a few days ago. Sting improved SO much from the end of his UWF days to this match. He could barely put together a match in the UWF (granted he was primarily a tag team wrestler) but he got so much better in such a short period of time.
That was Stings prime for sure!! He would never get no better than that. He is just a horrible worker to fans like myself that enjoys really stellar ring work. Now he was miles above&beyond his old partner The Ultimate Douche.. AKA The Dingleberry Warrior but we all knows thats not saying too much either. 😂
Tht being said I must make it clear tht as a kid, and it being early into my wrestling fan days I did love Sting as much as everybody else, but as I got older and many more years of being a fan under my belt I just realized his spark for good ring work was very short lived before somebody blew his wick out. Not to mention I became a bigger fan of the heels overall as well.
I say this a lot but I could never say it enough. I could listen to Jim Cornette talk all day long about wrestling. I grew up on the NWA/WCW in the eighties and early nineties and to hear him break down stuff that I watched at the time is just awesome.
I couldn't agree more!!!
Glad to hear a little defense of Lex Luger - from 1987-1989 he was my favorite wrestler. He looked great and he was nowhere near as bad a worker as the perception is now. I didn't like him as much as he continued on - but take a look at the NWA matches from this era, he is really not that bad. A lot of guys that looked as good as Lex usually couldn't work at all.
You gotta remember this was the era where you needed to be able to sell ..he was green but he was a hard worker.. luger got better at selling even though he was hilarious with his sound effects
There were a lot worse workers. He was a little stiff but that's because he was flexing the entire time. I'd have put him in a mask and made him a psycho heel from the git go.
I think it was his selling people had a problem with, but he was great on the comeback.
@@anthonywilliams2754 WCW should have sent Lugar to All Japan Pro Wresting during that era, he certainly would have learned to sell if he had to work with The Wrestlers on that Roster.
I remember watching it live when I was in ninth grade. My friend at the time wanted me to watch Wrestlemania IV with him. I said no I’d rather stay home and watch Clash for free rather then paying to watch Wrestlemania on closed circuit tv. Besides in my eyes Clash had a better card. Well this caused a disagreement between him and I . But I stood my ground.
When the show aired I was glued to my tv. The Flair/Sting match left me breathless. Simply a clinic. So the next day I ran into my friend and asked “ how was Mania ?” He replied “ it sucked,it was too long the matches were boring and my sister fell asleep” plus he hated the fact that Savage went over as champ ( he was the biggest Hogan mark) . So yeah needless to say still a great show for JCP .
Difference between a wrestling fan and a sports entertainment fan. Hogan was rubbish and completely non-credible.
Frankenhooker. Classic.
"Are you from Jersey?"
I'm so glad that the cult classic film Frankenhooker came up. Awesome as always Corny..
I remember when Sting was breaking into WCW from UWF teaming with Eddie Gilbert.
Who's listening in May 2024
June
I could watch Sting vs. Flair for the next 5,000 years.
The following day on The Today Show I remember Bryant Gumbel started to talk about the big Mania show but he said he was more enthralled with the Flair-Sting match and he couldn't wait to see more from both of them.
TBS It was NOT available in the Philadelphia market (despite the syndicated world wide wrestling was on UHF local) BECAUSE cable wiring was NOT yet installed entirely in Philadelphia homes. It did reach our demographic area by the winter of 1988. Though they were not finished installation until March 1990
Interesting. I had it, loved TBS JCP, that’s what made me go to Halloween Havoc at the Civic Center.
This was an excellent event! Thanks Corny...I cover this on the ole #Twitter Machine @bigdaddyGOC🔥
Could listen to Cornette talk for hours on hours about wrestling!
Sting is a legend
If I recall wasn't Sting vs Flair supposed to go an hour originally?
It sure was, they billed it as an hour long all the way up until the show itself. I’m pretty sure it was to guarantee they wouldn’t go over 2 hours for the whole show.
It is much better to here Cornette loving wrestling than hating it. We need more stuff like this.
Me and you can have a wrestling match, no clothes on though, just to show him some more good wrestling. Are you down? Ive got a good sleeper to put on you
Jason Hervey...now there’s some star power.
It was 1988 and the show was getting popular but Fred Savage was the star on that show.
Missy wasn't in JCP/WCW at the time, she was in the CWA in Memphis with Mr Missy, Eddie Gilbert, feuding with Lawler. That was about the most sinister version of Missy, laughing sadistically as her hubby fireballed the King.
Didn't he end up working for the business years later?
Well, they also had Corney doing an interview with Mr. Eddie Haskell himself to help promote The New Leave It To Beaver (or was it Still The Beaver?)
I could listen to Corny 24/7
What I love most about listening to the "Mr. Jimmy Crack Corn-ette & The Great Brian Last I Don't Care Show." Is that it feels like going to a buddy's house and talk the breeze about wrestling.
esp at a time when you *can't* go round a buddy's house.
Dr Tom By God Miller. His call of Dusty beating Flair lives in my head full time. Rent Free.
This was such a good program I forgot about the judging botch lol
Funny Corny compared Nikita to Drago, since he almost got the part of Drago. Also, it was funny that Ivan (a Canadian) and Nikita (an American) who were supposed to be Russian AND related both spoke with two different accents. Ivans was more non-descript European/Eurasian and could have made him from anywhere and Nikitas sounded like an American trying to do Russian.
The first CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS THE MATCH WITH RIC FLAIR AND STING WAS AWESOME
Also a good thing about these PPV's back then was that their running time of a show perfect. 2 hours for a show is a good amount of time without burnout. These WWE more recent PPV'S run 6-8 hours. Good God that is just too much BS. Too much meaningless stuff going on.
I love these old stories!
Such a great memory. I remember this so well.
Back when TBS had actual wrestling on it, good wrestling at that
Listening to this was really cool! I was 12 years old sitting in the second level watching this show. This was the coolest show live! Jim is correct. You won’t see quality wrestling like this anymore.
Being a pretty good state level wrester in Georgia back whenever Jimmy Garvin did it is sure a whole other thing than being Captain Mike Rotundo, lettering at Syracuse at Defensive End and as an All American heavyweight wrestler.
Also if that same tag match was in ECW or AEW he would absolutely bury it for being chaos
remember this well, watched it on TBS, remember the Mello Yello cans with the wrestlers. loved this stuff as a teenager.
Please keep doing these old school reviews I grew up on these brought back great memories ...of when wrestling was wrestling.not the teenage dance recitals we get now
I think this is the best clash ever... I remember my grandparents recorded it for me on vhs ... if this came out March 86 I was 7 yrs old... this is the best sting vs flair ever in my opinion
It was March of 88. I was not quite 4yo.
My best friend and I watched SOOO MUCH great wrestling at his grandma&grandpa's house!! They had all the cable ANDDD 2 tv's ANDDD a vcr in each room so we recorded EVERYTHING!! My classic wrestling library just from their house alone is pretty impressive from WWF/WCW/NWA/WCCW(one of my favorite classics) AWA and even ECW too!! I miss those days of wrestling and enjoying it with my best friend ( who passed in 07')
@@awojhoski84 that makes more sense. I thought I was older than 7
@@danielwilson9724 sorry Bout your loss. My grandparents used to record these Clashes for me. Along with lots of other wrestling too. I'm in indianapolis so we used to watch dick the bruiser promotion here as well but it went off the air long long ago. I was very young
@@RicGagger dude!! Im in Indianapolis too!! 😂 small world.. Southwestside " The Hill" close to " the valley"
Jim nailed everybody with the racket in the Midnight Express match - even Bobby gets a shot
I had wondered how five judges wound up casting three votes.
Lmao
Did the watch along on the Midnights vs Fantastics . Jim's walk through the match was fascinating. I'm glad Jim is doing his own thing and under his own conditions and doing well . But the Pro Wrestling World would be so much better off if Jim was still involved hands on .
One thing I’ve always wondered was what was that kid from the Wonder Years connection to wrestling? Jason Kirby or Hirby, Herpes? Whatever his name was
The way Dusty booked Sting’s rise to the title. Should be put in the hall of fame like Belichik’s defense
Belichik was allowed to cheat, c'mon man.
My favorite Clash of the Champions is the first Clash of the Champions. Flair vs. Sting, a big title change, and crazy brawls.
This was a great show in my book. I saw it live as a 16 year old kid on TBS. A young and excited Jim Ross was incredible in commentary during this time...
I was just a few months from 14 at the time and couldn’t have loved this stuff more. So many great memories are tied to this time period in the business...good times indeed.
@@subgrappling805 wrestling is the only thing in my life ( I started watching at 7yrs old) that has great memories/feelings and nostalgia tied to it tht makes me feel a certain way like music!! I been a drummer in original metal bands( meaning not a cover band) since basically exact amount of time as I been a wrestling fan ( which im just now realizing as I was typing this) and amazingly enough they both can spark the greatest memories just from a certain match of ppv/events etc .. Its seriously a beautiful thing. 💪
@@danielwilson9724 …it sure the hell is. Although I can’t play a lick, music has always been that thing for me too, I definitely get you there. Not many things in life can bring me to the places that the feelings and nostalgia of good music and those early days of the wrestling business do…it truly is a special, unique and beautiful thing. Thanks for sharing that bro…I needed that reminder this morning. Take care of yourself, my friend.
@@subgrappling805 completely agree man, and no problem about sharing glad I could help 😁 Cheers!!
Hey Jim, do you still have that red blazer with a pair of tennis rackets on the back? Where would you get a jacket like that? Just wondering.
Flair vs Sting was like Race vs Flair in 83 you could FEEL this guy (Sting) was the next stud up. Flair picked him and picked wisely
The Clash began right at the peak of my young kid days of its still real and I just liked babyfaces and I didn't know anything about bookers and work rate and ratings and etc... This was the best time of my "wrestling fan" part of my life!
I remember how mad I was that our cable company didn't have ppl yet so I couldn't watch mania. That was until I saw Sting vs Flair. I still haven't seen a better match.
@@coachmikesfilmroom3111 serious question here.. Did u stop watching wrestling after that match maybe? Just asking cause as classic a match as it was I don't know how u havent caught handfuls of classics better than, or at least just as good as Sting VS Flair.
@@danielwilson9724 no, I watched wrestling through the WCW days, didn't watch much after Benoit. Got back into it with TNA. watched WWE again when I was taking care of my dad up to his passing 3 years ago. There's alot of great matches of course.
"What time does the bus get here?"
yes I remember Jim Cornett when he had to dodge the crowed js when he was younger lol
I think a lot of fans turned up in Greensboro for a chance to get on TV
When you hear cornette saying wrestling is an art i envision the big pictures with every characters in the paintings being at their place, difficult methods of paintings, requiring patience and control but in the end everything is beautiful. When i hear omega talking about it as an art, i envision a guy painting a picture with a pencil stuck up in his ass for the sake of the performance no matter of how stupid it might looks and how ugly the picture might be in the end
Listening to Cornette review the midnight match is like listening to Picasso teaching a painting class
holy cow, cornette was spot on that steve williams is like scott steiner in that promo. once he said that I couldn't unsee it. loved that opening match too, they need to do that more one fall matches, then again if they do I'm sure they'll ruin it and run it into the ground like everything else.
Jim Ross' call for the tag title change is incredible. "The Twin Towers! A new era in tag team wrestling has begun!"
Gotta love old school wrestling. What great memories and all those blazers Corny would wear. What fun. I miss those days.
You are amazing Jim I am from Pittsburgh
Nikita wasn't a Dolph Lundgren Rocky IV rip-off, he was actually considered for the role, but he was so much bigger than Stallone he didn't get the part.
6:55- My dad could not STAND Teddy Long! Lol!! I don’t know what it was. I was too small to grasp it at the time, but for whatever reason whenever my father saw Teddy was reffing, he would spit at the TV, and say, “Oh shit!” Lol!
Lmao 😂 sometimes in wrestling you just despise someone with no real explanation or ability to explain why. 😂
My take on the matches:
1.) Mike Rotunda vs. Jimmy Garvin, College Rules Match. Sorry, but I just don't care for either of these guys, and the College Rules stipulation was goofy at best. I thought it stunk. 2/10.
2.) Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics, US Tag Team Championship. Another infuriating Dusty Finish, but don't let that spoil the exciting match they had. Bonus points for Corney going to town on Bobby Fulton by whipping him like a dog with his belt and then clubbing Tommy Young with the racquet. "Woooooo!!! They just got, the lesson of their lives!!!" 7.5/10.
3.) Road Warriors and Dusty Rhodes vs. Powers if Pain and Ivan Kollof, Barbed Wire Match. Great spectacle but the match was boring. Because of all the beef in the ring and the barbed wire on the ropes, they couldn't do much besides punch-kick. They couldn't move around for nothing. After the match, Animal was a little too obvious with his face flop, trying to garner sympathy by throwing his face mask off. 3/10.
4.) Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard vs. Barry Windham and Lex Luger. Fast paced match in which both teams crammed all their best moves into the first few minutes of action. The finish was stupid, but that doesn't diminish the match. The crowd ate it up when the Twin Towers held up the belts at the end. 7/10.
5.) Ric Flair vs. Sting. I was a huge Sting fan in 1988. Sting was the complete package, with power, speed, aerial ability, and just enough technical mat wrestling. Ric Flair brought a maturity out of him and carried him for 45 minutes. Sting dominated the match, and it was disappointing to see the judges call it a draw. It's still a classic and remains one of my very favorite matches over 30 years later. 9/10.
Really good assessment of the card. Agree with you about all the matches. Though, I did like Jimmy Garvin & Mike Rotunda myself, especially when Mike Rotunda was teaming with Steve Williams in the Varsity Club. That was a very underrated heel tag team in my opinion. As far as Jimmy Garvin goes, I wasn't the biggest fan of him in this era as a babyface. I thought he was great in World Class as the pretty boy, chicken shit heel though. But definitely agree that the college rules match was a horrible idea. The two of them could have had a very good, 10-15 minute, opening match that got the fans excited. The college rules thing was silly to me and took away from them in my opinion.
The first clash of the champions was a damn good show and the match between Ric flair and sting was awesome
Good shit
I disagree about the attendance. Watching a live event in person is a lot better than watching it on tv . Cornette is wrong about Nikita Koloff being an Ivan Drago ripoff because Nikita debuted in 84' and Rocky 4 wasn't made until 85.
I know he’s saying 2x4 but it sounded like tubafor.
I was just going to comment on this. His accent makes some mundane words funny. The mental image of a wrestler whipping another wrestler with an actual tuba kills me.
When I was 14 and I first saw the 2x4 mentioned in one of Eddie Ellner's columns in PWI, I thought it was called a "two times four". Couldn't work out why they would name a piece of wood after a sum from primary school maths.
What's a tubafor? Blowing
Such a brilliant BW heel turn because unlike Orange Goblin you didn’t see this coming. Orndorff,Andre and Savage heel turns were blatantly obvious (then Sid🤦♂️🤦♂️). Even though Barry was teased BOOM in the rematch the unthinkable. Windham says “fook it”. You get the belts and I join up cause I can’t count on Lex, JJ is right. All in mid match. Again brilliant as opposed to months of ego postering causing friends to “turn”.
I wish they would have talked about that more rather than cornette tell Bryan ..whatever lol...the heel turn was great!!
Last is nuts if he thinks 88 wasn't loaded with great matches and moments. It's just that it being Crockett's last year has shaded it in people's memories.
I remember watching this with my 2 big brothers. I was a way bigger wrestling fan than them.
Just finished rewatching Cade #1. I realized that, if aew wrestlers went and imitated every move, every illegal object, every act of obvious cooperation…and there were many…that every wrestler did in first 3 matches Cornette would be snapping lol
Shit, I was a real life Eddie Haskell. Lmao.
Brian's Nikita impressions🤣
This is a perfect review
I never stopped being a “little Stinger” .
This is what he needs to stick to. This is the Corny we can love and respect.
Everything he talks about on wrestling rules! My favorite wrestling " podcast" going
Jim and brian, keep up the great work!!!👍
I always thought if Tommy Rogers was 4 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier, he could have been a contender for the world title.
Pretty sure Royal Rumble 88 had a higher cable rating than this. The Main Event 88 (free TV) definitely did and is still the highest rated wrestling show ever. 33 million.
Brian Last had to have watched Joe Bob Briggs on TNT and TMC in the 80s and 90s, based off his Frankenhooker talk
Even with the crappy wwe of today, there's no replacement for live events. Back in the day, even more so. Come on, Jimmy.
March 27, 2 years later on the day I was born! 👌😅
The difference between Sting and Luger and The Ultimate Warrior careers is one thing more than anything else and that is Ric Flair. Sting and Lex both went on the record in interviews and Barry, Arn and Ric himself all have confirmed this that Flair walked them both through their matches with him and sold and had them no sell and taught Sting how to be Sting and taught Lex how to Flex ;) Warrior had Andre who got real tired of Jim real quick and nearly punched his lights out one night when Warrior tried to hit him with a train wreck clothesline in the twilight of his career with all the pain and injuries that Andre had and this Johnny come lately gets the keys to the kingdom and has no respect for who Andre was to the company and industry. That and that fact that Lex and Sting were open to learning and respectful of the other people in the business while Jim saw it as a way to make money and not for the artful endeavor it was. I really miss these types of matches. Bobby Eaton was incredible and years ahead of everyone. Best in ring worker I think I ever saw and back then I was twelve and he was my favorite wrestler and Bret Hart was my favorite WW(F)E wrestler.
Lol Dr Death, Ricky Morton, Scott Steiner, and Kerry Von Erich. HORRIBLE on the mic 😂😂😂😂
In the 80s being in the business for 3 years means probably 900 matches mostly against veterans. Today 3 years could mean 350 matches mostly with other neophytes. Huge difference.
Ma, I forgot how much I liked Sweet Stan's kicks. They looked smooth.
Was the night that sting became a main event star
WATCH as Dusty Rhodes goes to his knees and remains there for minutes while Ivan Koloff stands over him waving his hand over Dusty’s forehead over and over and over and over again til he finally broke through the scarring and juice was achieved lol. BOTH spent the ENTIRE MATCH taking turns rubbing their foreheads on wire and blade wire and blade, throw a punch, wire and blade lol.
I preferred Captain Mike Rotunda