WCW Clash of the Champions XIV: Dixie Dynamite
Date: January 30, 1991
Location: Georgia Mountains Center – Gainesville, Georgia
Announcers: Jim Ross & Dusty Rhodes
The Setup
Fresh off regaining the NWA title from Sting at a house show in New Jersey, Ric Flair defended the NWA title against Scott Steiner. Although never a regular singles wrestler in WCW by 1991, Scott was someone really getting over as a potential star in the tag team with his brother. It should be noted that Dusty Rhodes was officially brought in as booker right before this show. It was believed he did some ghost booking for WCW while finishing up his WWF in-ring run, but this show was originally announced as Flair vs. Brian Pillman for the NWA title in the main event. Poor Brian descended all the way down the card to Buddy Lee Parker.
The Business
This Clash had a 3.9 cable rating, the second-lowest ever to date, behind Clash VII in June 1989. This did not bode well for Scott Steiner, who seemed to legit see his star fall after this event, either due to the quality of the match, the TV ratings, or both. This event was originally to be held at the CNN Center, but was moved due to security concerns related to the Gulf War. They sold out the Mountain Center.
The Results
WCW World Tag Team Championship Match: Lex Luger & Sting defeat Doom (Butch Reed & Ron Simmons) (c) by DQ (10:33) **1/2
WCW World Television Championship Match: Tom Zenk (c) defeats Bobby Eaton by pinfall (7:08) **
The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes) defeat Tommy Rich & Alan Iron Eagle by pinfall (5:53) DUD
Sid Vicious defeats Joey Maggs by pinfall (1:11) NR
Terry Taylor defeats Ricky Morton by pinfall (11:53) **1/2
Ranger Ross defeats El Cubano by pinfall (3:05) *1/4
The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Barry Windham) defeat The Renegade Warriors (Chris & Mark Youngblood) by pinfall (7:30) ***1/4
Brian Pillman defeats Buddy Lee Parker by pinfall (3:17) *1/2 Intergender Arm Wrestling Contest: Missy Hyatt defeats Paul E. Dangerously
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Ric Flair (c) vs. Scott Steiner ends in a Time Limit Draw (24:25); Flair retains the title *1/2
Notable Happenings
The main event went to a TV-time-limit draw, marking one of the most heatless final minutes of a big world title match you’ll see in this era. This strongly below-average match (and easily the worst Flair match we’ve seen on a Clash) kicked off a real-life personal feud between both men, as Steiner blamed Flair for tanking the match on purpose. Each man was on separate teams in the upcoming War Games at Wrestle War, but this feud was never really even hinted at again in this era of WCW. In fact, Scott lost a lot of steam as someone people talked about as a future star for years. People didn’t see him as a future star until he inflated his biceps further and bleached his hair.
Not only was this Dusty’s first Clash back as the booker, but he did commentary and was a lot of fun with Ross.
Danny Spivey interfered in the tag team title match to attack Lex Luger to get some heat for their US title match at Wrestle War. The angle was fine, but also way too similar to what they did with Stan Hansen at Clash XII, as the company became too formulaic with Luger and the US title. The tag title match itself here was pretty good, but the finish made no sense, as Spivey’s interference, which wasn’t a DQ, but the lame ass over the top DQ happened.
This show was also Doom’s last Clash appearance since they broke up the month after this. I understand why they thought they should push Simmons, but they deserved a longer run as a team.
El Gigante faced off with Flair before the title match to tease the upcoming house show series they had planned.
Even though the Zenk-Eaton match was for the TV title, Zenk had already dropped the title to Arn Anderson, but it hadn’t aired on TV yet. The match itself was very average, as Tom just sucked the life out of Bobby with a thoroughly mediocre performance.
Barry and Arn were fucking amazing as a team here, probably having the best Renegade Warriors match I’ve ever seen. They didn’t have much time, but all four worked at a brisk pace. Barry and Arn were another team I wish had more time together. They could have been a short-term version of Arn & Tully, but Barry was all over the place in 1991 under Dusty.
Terry Taylor joined the York Foundation, replacing Michael Wallstreet, who left to become IRS. They teased the reveal of the new York member, then put on the graphic before the commercial that Taylor was up next. The match was a little too long and went through a break. It wasn’t necessarily long, but late in the match it felt like, “why the hell are these two locking up again?”
Allen Iron Eagle was the worst performer on this show by a wide margin, and killed the tag match he was in. Poor Tommy Rich’s first Clash was the best match on the show at Clash VIII, and he never got a prominent position again.
The Gulf War just started, so we got Ranger Ross and Dusty cutting a pro-USA promo for the live crowd. I have no idea why Dave Sierra couldn’t be the Cuban Assassin and had to mask up for this, but why not, I suppose.
Missy and Paul E did an arm-wrestling contest that Paul E lost because he got distracted by Missy’s breasts. It was funny for the time for what it was, and both performers were entertaining.
Poor Pillman beat Parker in a showcase match instead of headlining with Flair. Maybe they put the match on before the main event to make him feel better.
The Rating: 4.0/10.0
The entire show was built around something that was unfortunately a miss. Not only was it the main event and Scott’s breakout moment, but it also got over 30 minutes of TV time, including intros and post-match. There were a couple of decent matches, and Arn and Barry pulled off a small wrestling miracle, but there was too much filler here that we didn’t need. At least it moved fast before the main event, and Dusty’s commentary helped.
The Video
