[1991-06-14-WCW-Clash of the Champions XV] Coming Attraction: Black Blood / Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

We start off with hype for Black Blood, Billy Jack Haynes under a mask. The clips of him in the ring look terrible.

 

Later, Ricky Morton, who is now RICHARD MORTON, comes out in a suit and has joined the York Foundation. Morton starts heeling it up right away, and Robert Gibson immediately comes out to ask what's going on. Morton says it's all about money and ends up decking Gibson and giving him a piledriver. I loved this, even though Morton is the quintessential babyface.

 

I give this promotion credit for trying lots of new things on this show, but most of their ideas were pretty bad.

[Childs]

Yes, it's hilarious that they couldn't even find a good 15-second clip of Black Blood.

 

Even better, Ricky Morton went corporate, yet could not be bothered to trim his mullet one iota. This Clash has been perversely entertaining.

[shoe]

I liked the Morton/Gibson angle . The crowd did not. Flair being gone soon adds to the RIP of the NWA.

[PeteF3]

A paunchy, out-of-shape, masked Billy Jack Haynes does some stuff. Blood was billed from (and I quote) "a little town in France," which is possibly the worst hometown ever given to a wrestler anywhere. Also, all French executioners come out to generic hard rock guitar riffs.

 

Richard Morton really needed to cut his mullet to add to the corporate takeover effect. Morton channels Jimmy Hart by declaring this the greatest day of his life. Morton's pretty good here but holy living shit was this rushed. I mean, I know that's the story of this Clash but actually watching all this instead of reading about it brings a whole new perspective.

[Kevin Ridge]

I expected a way bigger reaction from the crowd when Morton attacked Gibson. Long time like the Express having a turn down. This should have been a greater deal. Another rushed segment/match on the Clash.

[soup23]

One thing Ill give WCW credit was that the music for this clash and the YOrk Foundation is both really good.

 

The Black Blood clips looked dreadful.

 

Richard Morton was a cool idea and role but the crowd didn't really care. I liked that Robert had buzzed some design in his hair. he gets a piledriver for questioning Richard.

[PhilTLL]

That has to be one of the shortest segments in TV wrestling history. I have to think the heat might have gone up a bit if they had more than 10 seconds to milk it.

 

I do love Morton shouting "That's not in the contract!" It makes me imagine a series of vignettes where Morton applies the contract as indemnity to everything, like picking up the tab at lunch or not getting to ride shotgun, to increasing eye rolls and grimaces from Taylor and Hughes.

[garretta]

I think I might have liked this better if they'd at least tried to have Morton recruit Gibson before turning on him. A heel, corporate Rock 'n' Roll wouldn't have been the worst idea, since their days as a babyface act in WCW were definitely numbered. Instead, we gat a quick punch, a piledriver, then nothing. Not only does Morton still look like the same old Ricky, he still sounds like the same old Ricky. I realize he couldn't help his accent, but he could have at least tried to talk a bit more intellectually/snobbishly. I'd also like to have heard a bit from Terri as to why she chose Morton over a bunch of other guys to join the York Foundation. Then again, as bad as she is on the mic at this time, maybe I wouldn't have after all.

 

That brings us to Black Blood. Not only is Billy Jack a terrible choice to play this role, the gimmick itself is bad. Who the hell cares about a French executioner? This is nothing more than a bad Taker ripoff, an admission by Dusty that more should have been done with Mark Calloway before he jumped to Vince. If they had to do this, why not bring in a young guy with some physical stature for the role and see what happens when you apply some promotional elbow grease? To top things off, whatever gibberish Billy Jack spoke didn't sound the least bit like French, even under a hood.

 

People sometimes wonder whether Russo was secretly sent by Vince to destroy WCW during the Attitude Era, but after seeing some of Dusty's brainstorms, I'm wondering the same thing about him here in 1991.

[PeteF3]

Blood was supposedly BJH's idea, which of course is little excuse. Demolition was supposedly Randy Culley's idea, after all. (Culley was also Deadeye Dick, to answer an earlier question).

 

The good news is that Dusty was turfed from TV right after this taping cycle. I forget if it was Herd who dropped the hammer or someone else higher-up, but Dusty was yanked from commentary and from doing the Bull Drop Inn. I foresee completely smooth sailing for WCW going forward in '91!

[garretta]

Too bad about the commentary, as I really liked Dusty with JR. The Bull Drop Inn is no loss whatsoever. I guess Heyman's attack on Hervey at the Clash was Herd's way of getting rid of Hervey.

 

Thanks for the info about Deadeye Dick. Randy Culley had to be just about every character in wrestling at one time or another!

 

Black Blood being Billy Jack's idea makes me wonder if he didn't pitch it to Vince first. This seems like a total WWF gimmick that Vince would have flipped over. If he turned it down, I wonder if it was because Black Blood and Taker were too similar, as I suspect?