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Where the Big Boys Play #78 - Clash of the Champions XIX


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http://placetobenation.com/where-the-big-boys-play-78-clash-of-the-champions-xix/



Chad and Parv review this mostly forgotten Clash from 1992.


[0:01:15] Review of Clash of the Champions 19: No Meltzers this week, but Chad and Parv do their best to answer all the burning questions … Dean Malenko – Dory Funk Jr of the 90s?; Z-Man still under contract?; who is Larry O’Day and why was he flown over from Australia?; why can Dr. Death only think about “queers”?; who was the team from Puerto Rico?; why has Barry Windham still got his hand taped up?; why does Jesse Ventura hate Mexicans?; Beef Wellington: the Robbie Brookside to Benoit’s Regal?; who was facing Hase and Nogami under the hood?; and why does everyone think this is the best Steiners match ever?


[1:30:19] End of show awards


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I haven't gone back and examined the Headhunters yet, but if you watch the Masked Man at the Iowa Clash with the big Hogan kneecap angle during the final run-in, that's CLEARLY Arn just by his mannerisms and body language. I have a hard time believing Arn would be able to successfully disguise himself even under a mask 2 years earlier.

 

Edit: Oh Christ, I'm called out by name literally as I'm typing this up. I've developed a rep!

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Re: Hercules...there's the MSG match with Sid (shortly before WM8) where he basically no-sells everything. He goes up for the power bomb and stays down for 3, but then immediately rolls out of the ring after that. Is that what was being thought of? I'm not sure if that led to Herc being canned or if he was already on his way out.

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The announced Puerto Rico team had been Miguel Perez Jr. and the masked El Boricua. I remember on WCW programming they had the control centers talking about the tournament, and when they got to the Puerto Rico team they had no pictures of them. It was two black silhouettes. The reason given was that the Puerto Rican government, due to the importance and seriousness of the tournament, had declared a gag order on information about the two wrestlers. It was mentioned as part of the strategy for the tournament so they couldn't be scouted by their opponents. Not even photos were being allowed. Thus, the only information given out on the program was the names of the two wrestlers and the black silhouettes.

 

Eleven year old me was ecstatic at hearing that a Puerto Rico team was competing. My first thought after the initial excitement was "OH crap, they've got Williams and Gordy as their opponents. We're in trouble."

 

My second thought: "Great move by the commission not wanting information being given out, this may be the edge we need."

 

My third and final thought: "Wait, who the heck is this El Boricua they have teaming with Miguelito? There's no one who is wrestling here going by that name!"

 

I remember watching this Clash as it aired, excited to see the tournament and to cheer for our local team. And I'd finally get my answer as to who this mysterious El Boricua actually was. But then that interview segment with Doc and Gordy happened and eleven year old me was livid. "How dare these two jerks do that to the Puerto Rican team! There should be fines and suspension for this! C'mon, it's obvious they're behind this attack, somebody do something! How bad are they hurt?"

 

To say this dampened my enthusiasm for the rest of the show is an understatement. Was rooting for the Steiners to take it to them, but Gordy and Doc won and I was just mad at that turn of events.

 

That weekend I watched WWC tv, and they were running down the coming cards. During one of the interviews, someone made reference to an occurrence during the week (which was the same day as the Clash airing) about a match they had that day with Miguelito. I started thinking: Hey, Miguelito is okay, that's good. Wait, wasn't that the day of the Clash? Wasn't he supposed to be over in the states for the tournament. But it looks like he was down here. Hey, wait a minute...!"

 

One last thing. For years I wondered who the heck that El Boricua guy was supposed to be. There never was anyone wrestling here by that name, so I always wondered who it was supposed to be. Eventually, at some point after being online, I read that it was supposedly Ricky Santana. He apparently wrestled under that identity in Mexico. That answer makes the most sense and accounts for the mask (since Santana was active here at the time but is not Puerto Rican). But that was a mystery that had me baffled for quite a few years. At least it wasn't Joaquin Victoria.

 

And when the time came that I decided to stop lurking due to Dylan doing the Puerto Rican wrestling thread, I stared at the registration screen for a few minutes having no idea what to put as my user name. But then I thought of that mystery wrestler who had long stymied me, and hey the name fits, so why not. And with a slight smile, I typed in El Boricua. Because why not.

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A few other notes on this show that I found interesting:

 

- The bringing back of the NWA was mostly Kip Frey's doing, and he got to his Executive VP position partly by being one of the Turner lawyers who were working on getting the Big Gold Belt back from Ric Flair. Frey actually wanted to dump the "WCW" name and re-brand the promotion again entirely under the NWA banner. This also explains why Watts was so keen on burying the Alliance--he essentially walked into this position with no quick and easy way out of it.

 

- From a WrestlingClassics post: "As a point of interest, the O'Days from Australia were included in the tag tournament as a political favor because father Larry was on the NWA board and reportedly cast the deciding vote (after some prodding from Jim Barnett) that allowed the WCW contingent of Herd, Jim Crockett, and Gary Juster to strip Flair of the NWA title."

 

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I haven't gone back and examined the Headhunters yet, but if you watch the Masked Man at the Iowa Clash with the big Hogan kneecap angle during the final run-in, that's CLEARLY Arn just by his mannerisms and body language. I have a hard time believing Arn would be able to successfully disguise himself even under a mask 2 years earlier.

 

Edit: Oh Christ, I'm called out by name literally as I'm typing this up. I've developed a rep!

From the Observer...

 

 

Hiroshi Hase & Akira Nogami beat the imposter Head Hunters (Bob Cook & Joe Cruze) in 5:10. The real Head Hunters no-showed, with the reason being given that since they work for WING in Japan, for political reasons they didn't want to do a job for a New Japan team. Nogami did a Ninja gimmick similar to Great Muta. He really didn't look good here and it didn't matter anyway because the crowd wasn't into this match at all even though all four guys kept it moving and it was never actually bad but the crowd didn't want to see it. Hase pinned one masked guy with a Northern Lights suplex while Nogami did a german suplex on the other (called simultaneous german suplexes by Jim Ross which came off bad because even if you don't know the names of the moves, it was obvious the two guys were doing different moves).

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