[1994-01-27-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXVI] Ric Flair & Sting vs Rick Rude & Vader (Elimination)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Joined in progress. Vader is putting the hurt on Flair in a big way and throws some great punches at him. He hits a top rope superplex which the announcers sell like crazy and the crowd doesn't respond to at all for some reason. Vader and Flair get eliminated after some excessive Vader brutality. Vader says "SHIT!" on camera when learning of his elimination! And we're left with Rude and Sting.

 

Rude is pretty done by this point, but that doesn't stop him from playing pinball for Sting, including getting insane height off of a back body drop. The fans are distracted by something and aren't really responding to anything happening in the ring, even though for the late stages of this feud, it's not bad stuff. Sting getting the Rude Awakening on Rude finally woke the crowd up, which was followed by Rude missing a Stinger Splash! They fight over a tombstone, which always gets over with every WCW crowd ever, and Sting nails it before getting in a frog splash and sealing the deal. Pretty good.

 

Hogan foam fingers in the crowd this early?

[Kevin Ridge]

Top rope Suplex by Vader looked real good. What was the deal with Rude being done? I am not familiar with WCW at this time and he didn't look too bad here as was bumping around. Though I did see him grimace a bit running the ropes. I thought his career ended due to a spot in a match.

[Loss]

Just that I thought he looked pretty weak in '93 after having a tremendous '92. I suspect he was working hurt.

[Exposer]

Rude just didn't perform at a high level by this point. He's so slow. The Vader-Flair stuff was okay. Not my favorite segment so far.

[soup23]

The Vader/Flair superplex getting no reaction was a head scratcher. Even if Brodus Clay did that next Monday on Raw I would expect the reaction to be a lot bigger than it was here. Bobby/Tony gelled well for this being their first night. I also thought Rude looked pretty bad in his segment with Sting and Sting looked lost at times. Nice splash for the finish.

[El-P]

Good match to end a disapointing Clash. I miss Jesse Ventura, Heenan just isn't as good. Too excitable for me. The Vader squashing Flair sequence was pretty good, although Flair's selling looks kinda overdone with "acting", and I think he may have influenced Shawn Michaels on this. The finishing sequences between Sting and Rude are pretty good, but for all the talk about Bret or Flair being predictable and formulaic, Rude is way worse at this point on that matter, you can just predict every move and counter in advance.

[flyonthewall2983]

Flair looks so strange being the cheerleader on the apron.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Watched the whole thing this morning. Pretty disappointing, but I will say Flair looked awesome here. He looked wicked energetic and was definitely supplying the most energy of the 4. I agree with everybody that Flair lost a step somehwree in 1990. But up until his shoulder injury in 1996, I still think Flair was a very, very good worker. It is after his return in 1997 that I feel I see a precipitous decline in his work.

 

I like the battle of the hip swivels early, but I feel like I watched a whole different match than some of you. Rude looked tired and I remember he badly botched one back body drop and I think he botched something else. Rude looked awful to me out there and then he just slapped on the reverse chinlock. It was sad because you know Rude wanted to be better, but his body wouldnt let him. I like Sting using the splash a finisher I didnt know he used it as frequently.

[PeteF3]

We pick up with Vader on the verge of ending Flair's career, as the announcers put it--and you can buy it. He kills Ric with a superplex off the top and is about to dive off the top onto him when Sting pulls Flair to safety. Vader goes after Ric with a chair on the floor, but Commissioner Bockwinkel steps in. While that's going on, both guys are counted out. This is a hugely dramatic moment that Flair sells great. Rude does his best to kill this with an endless camel clutch, but he and Sting recover to put together a nice finishing sequence. The tombstone reversal never fails to be awesome. Hard to say how good this was as a whole but the Vader/Flair climax was masterful and Ric really looks like a guy who's completely fucked going into the Thundercage. WCW, against all odds, suddenly feels very hot again.

[garretta]

This is three times in a row that Flair's been pulverized by Vader. How anyone can seriously believe that Flair's any sort of threat to Vader long term, champion or not, is beyond me. Starrcade looks like either the fluke of all time or Flair demanding to be put over in his hometown or else, depending on how smart a given viewer is to the business.

 

I didn't catch Vader swearing on camera, but I did ​catch him appearing to threaten Bock until Harley stopped him. Actually, I thought Harley was going to deck Bock for a minute. Heenan had a bit of a point about him getting involved so drastically, but who else was there? Sting still had to deal with Rude.

 

Are we sure that the apparent no-reaction by the crowd to Vader's superplex wasn't stunned silence? Sometimes we expect too much out of crowds on this board. They don't need to pop or boo loudly for every move the wrestlers make.

 

I liked the back and forth between Heenan and Bock, and it's too bad that Tony felt that he had to interrupt. He was definitely in "Will you two shut up and let me call the damn match?" mode. Actually, there was a way around that: Have Sting pin Rude first, then do the double countout with Vader and Flair. That way, Sting pinning Rude is able to be the big deal it should be without being overshadowed by Flair being decimated yet again. It makes sense now that Bock wanted to postpone the SuperBrawl match; how many times can you allow the greatest wrestler in the history of your promotion to be destroyed?

 

I thought Rude looked good for the shape he was in. He was never about the in-ring work as much as his character, even in his best year of '92, and he can still act the part of the gigolo heel whether he can wrestle or not.

 

So this was Bock's first day as WCW Commissioner. Talk about getting into things right away! I can buy him saying that he never approved of chairs, because as big a heel as he was in his day, he almost never used them. I can think of maybe one time I've seen him use a chair, and I'm not even sure about that. He'll definitely be an asset to the company as long as they watch how often they use him. He doesn't need to be as seldom seen as Jack Tunney, but he shouldn't be on every week like Bob Armstrong was (and will be again) either, especially since he's fully retired.

[The Russian Daydream]

I thought, while nowhere near his best, Rude looked much improved here compared to his 1993 form and I enjoyed the last few minutes with Sting. I was reall surprise see a clean finish too.

 

The Flair - Vader angle was good in that they really made it look like Glair's Starrcade win was a fluke and he would kill Flair and take the belt back at SuperBrawl.