Eddie Gilbert & Ron Simmons vs. The Fantastics - This is for the vacant U.S. Tag Titles and it is a face vs. face matchup. It was wierd but the crowd was actually more for Gilbert & Simmons than for the Fans. The biggest problem with this match was that it went nearly 30 minutes but felt like an hour. Seriously, I watched alot of half hour matches from Portland but because they are 2/3 falls, it is easy to digest and each fall has its own story. This match had quite a few dead spots and was a chore o get through. Nothing actively horrible but not a match I will nominate.

 

Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. The Italian Stallion - Were they thinking of elevating Stallion? It takes Doc 15 minutes to put him away and I don't understand the booking. This is Dr. Freaking Death against a guy who jobs to Magnum TA in 15 seconds. The match was ok but pretty boring. It almost seemed like a sprint after watching the tag match. Sad to watch as Doc didn't do any of his power moves or show any fire.

 

Interviw with Junkyard Dog

 

Ivan Koloff vs. Paul Jones - Ivan has one arm tied behind his back. One-armed Ivan is better than 75% of the wrestlers out there but this sucked.

 

Sting Interview

 

Rick Steiner Interview (w/ Magnum TA) (EXTRA) - Magnum mentions the Belly-to-Belly and how it used to be his finisher and Rick plays dumb.

 

Road Warrior Animal vs. Dusty Rhodes - This lasted 3 minutes before Dusty was DQed for using a chair on Animal's leg. The Roadies pick Tenyu to be their new six-man partner.

 

Midnight Express vs. Ric Flair & Barry Windham - Flair & Windham were such an awesome team. It is too bad that Dusty was booking at the peak of the Windham turn so he could feud with Windham because they should have put Flair and Windham together long before this. Hell, they could have done variations of Luger & Sting vs. Windham & Flair for the entire summer and Bash tour. I actually like faux-face Midnight Express since Stan Lane has fan-friendly offense and Eaton was never a guy you hated anyway. Condrey & Eaton couldn't have pulled it off but it works just fine here. I do have a couple of gripes in this match. During the Flair flip corner run, Flair ran right to the MX corner and Lane just stood there. Lane should have shook the ropes or pushed him off or grabbed a leg... anything. Also, Eaton had Flair pinned for more than a three count but Tommy Young stopped counting becasue Lane entered the ring and it took Windham forever to knock Eaton off of Flair. Still, there was too much good stuff here not to nominate it. Jim Cornette Interview (include with the match)

Decision Match for the vacant US Tag Titles: The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers) vs. Eddie Gilbert & Ron SImmons

 

This is what happens when The Sheepherders go to the WWF and yes this is a babyface vs. babyface match. The Fants were at the stage of their JCP run where the fans were starting to get tired of seeing them which happened to them a lot for some reason. We get a Jason Hervey crowd shot which was great. The action early on was fast paced with both teams looking really good and the fans were hot for everything. I really dug the early part of the match because everyone was moving and grooving and not relying on working restholds. Lots of nearfalls from both sides and whenever you would get a handshake the fans booed but tempers would start flaring as Gilbert & Fulton who were the two hot heads in the match started having issues. Simmons though was the x-factor in the match because of his size and strength and the Fants knew that so they started working over his left arm trying to weaken him but he would tag Gilbert back in and we are back to a stalemate. Simmons did get to use his power game on Rogers and now along with Gilbert they have Rogers where they want him and start working him over hard. Again though this doesn't last long and the ebbs & flows of this match is really fun to watch as it's just non-stop action. Gilbert injures his left arm going to the floor and he really sells it hard with Rogers being tentative to believe if he is hurt or not so he goes to work on it to make sure he's hurt. Both Fants really wrench at his arm and the fans are solidly behind Eddie who was awesome at getting over his issues. They start counting down by the minute and it looks like a time limit draw is in play as Gilbert goes to the floor but Fulton rolls him back in the ring only to get met by a desperation Hot Shot with 1 minute left on the clock. Gilbert makes a comeback but he rams his shoulder into the ringpost and gets schoolboyed by Fulton to win the match. The fans booed the Fants winning but everyone appreciated the match. I thought this was a really damn good match and I'm pushing this forward as a fairly easy nomination.

 

Lex Luger is Tony's co-host on this Clash and it's amazing that Lex hadn't worked a Clash since the first one....

 

Jim Ross interviews Mike Rotundo & Kevin Sullivan next.

 

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs. Italian Stallion

 

This was Jim Crockett's first show as the sole booker here and this match was extremely questionable to book. Doc definitely should've been in against someone better and this match went WAY too long. It made Doc look worse because Stallion had nothing but a jobber on TV for years and the fact that he hung with Doc as long as he did was ridiculous.

 

Magnum TA is out next and he introduces Junkyard Dog who is coming into town as he has replaced Nikita Koloff.

 

"Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff vs. "Number One" Paul Jones

 

So odd seeing Ivan getting cheered and he has one hand tied behind his back here so yeah this probably won't be very good. These guys are smart though and they work a match that the fans could get into and lucky for them they did. The Russian Assassins run out after the match to attack Ivan until JYD made the save with his chain.

 

Tony & Lex then talk about what just happened and the situation with Dusty and the Roadies.'

 

Magnum then interviews Rick Steiner next and he is playing stupid.

 

Road Warrior Animal vs. "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes

 

Lots going on behind the scenes here with Dusty and they are working a gimmick where he "arrived late." Dusty finally shows up with his eye bandaged up and he hits a bionic elbow on Paul Ellering. The fans are red hot here for Dusty and he is wild taking it to Animal along with the referee. Dusty is beating down Animal until Hawk runs out and the Roadies beat down Dusty until Sting runs out to run wild on the Roadies. Dusty then brings a chair into the ring and he bashes Animal's left leg with it for the DQ. This was a hot ass segment here and extra material.

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair & Barry Windham vs. The Midnight Express ("Beautiful" Bobby Eaton & "Sweet" Stan Lane)

 

This matchup felt so fresh at the time and it was a natural progression from the MX going from Arn & Tully now to Flair & Windham plus you never got to see Flair work against MX. Eaton jacking Flair's jaw with the right hand was fucking beautiful and set the tone for the early part of the match as the MX were rolling here frustrating the Horsemen. Eaton definitely looked like a major player in this as Flair & Windham didn't know what to do with him. It's always fun watching Flair & Lane go at it because you know that Lane was trained by Flair and he will tell you that every chance he gets. They cut to a Paul E. inset promo during the match and right as Flair is working Lane over. Lane would press slam Flair off the top rope though and got the tag to Eaton who is just taking it to Flair who to his credit bumped and sold his ass off for the MX. Eaton would get an O'Connor Roll on Flair but Windham just nailed him from behind with the black glove and the Horsemen are now in full control. Eaton takes a lot of punishment inside and outside the ring especially from Flair who fires off some fierce chops. Lane got the hot tag and cleaned house on the Horsemen before Eaton would join the fun hitting the double goozle on Windham before Eaton just nailed him with an Alabama Jam. Corny nails Dillon with the tennis racket but as that happened Flair hit Eaton with Dillon's shoe and Windham rolled over for the win. Corny then cuts a great promo afterwards.This was a total blast to watch and just so fresh at the time. Easy nomination.