Tom Zenk
For close to a decade, professional wrestling fans loved Clash of the Champions, a series of supercards that aired on TBS, featuring the biggest stars of first NWA and the WCW. Over the course of 35 events from 1988 through 1997, fans were treated to championship contests, grudge matches, and spectacular moments. Many of these matches have never been released on home video until now. The Best of the Clash of the Champions, hosted by 3-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion and WWE Hall of Famer, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, will highlight some of the greatest matches in the event’s ten-year history and features fan favorites Ric Flair, Sting, The Road Warriors, Lex Luger, the Four Horsemen, the nWo, and so many more.
He’s one of the most accomplished Superstars in the history of sports-entertainment, with a resume that includes six WWE Championship reigns, three Royal Rumble victories, a King of the Ring Championship, and an unprecedented run of raising hell throughout WWE. The Legacy of Stone Cold Steve Austin gives fans young and old the opportunity to relive the greatest matches and moments from the career of one of WWE’s most popular, and controversial, personalities.
Slamboree 1993: A Legends' Reunion was the first annual Slamboree professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by WCW. It took place on May 23, 1993 at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. A "Legends Ceremony" occurred at the event, and introduced several legends. The WCW Hall of Fame induction ceremony also occurred, and Lou Thesz, Mr. Wrestling II, Verne Gagne, and Eddie Graham were the inductees. The PPV also saw the reformation of the Four Horsemen, now consisting of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and new member Paul Roma. The main event was Big Van Vader defending the WCW World Heavyweight Title against Davey Boy Smith. Barry Windham defended the NWA World Heavyweight Title against Arn Anderson and The Hollywood Blondes defended the NWA & WCW World Tag Team Championships against Dos Hombres in a steel cage match.
Halloween Havoc 1992 took place on October 25, 1992 from the Philadelphia Civic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The main event was Jake Roberts versus Sting in a Coal Miner's Glove match. A second main event was a title defense of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship by Ron Simmons against The Barbarian. Steve Williams and Terry Gordy were to challenge the NWA & WCW Wold Tag Team Champions, Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes, however Gordy no-showed the event which led to Steve Austin subbing for him. Another substitution occured when Rick Rude chose not to wrestle twice and defend his WCW US Heavyweight Championship. This led to Big Van Vader defending Rude's title against Nikita Koloff.
WCW Saturday Night was a weekly Saturday night TV show on TBS produced by World Championship Wrestling. The program existed through various incarnations under different names before becoming WCW Saturday Night in 1992. Although initially the anchor show of the Ted Turner-backed wrestling company, the September 1995 premiere of WCW Monday Nitro airing on sister station Turner Network Television usurped the show's once preeminent position in the company, as the primary source of storyline development and Pay-Per-View buildup. The show's place in the company was further devalued by the advent of WCW Thunder in 1998, airing on TBS and providing the secondary wrestling and storyline development that WCW Saturday Night had produced in the wake of Nitro's burgeoning three-hour long format. Once the cornerstone of the WCW wrestling empire, WCW Saturday Night ended its run in 2000 as the company struggled creatively to meet the demands of producing over six hours of new broadcast material on a weekly basis. The rights to WCW Saturday Night now belong to WWE as a result of that company's 2001 purchase of WCW.
WrestleWar 1992: WarGames took place on May 17, 1992 from the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida. The main event was Sting's Squadron (Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and Nikita Koloff) versus The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, and Larry Zbyszko) in a WarGames match. Also on the card was Brian Pillman defending the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship against Tom Zenk, and the Steiner Brothers versus Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka for #1 contendership for the IWGP Tag Team Championships. 5 other matches took place on the undercard.
SuperBrawl II took place on February 29, 1992 from the Milwaukee Theatre at the MECCA in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lex Luger defended the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Sting, Rick Rude defended the WCW US Heavyweight Championship against Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton defended the WCW World Tag Team Championships against the Steiner Brothers, Ron Simmons fought Cactus Jack, Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes wrestled Steve Austin & Larry Zbyszko, and Jushin Liger defended the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship against Brian Pillman.
WrestleWar 1991: WarGames took place on February 24, 1991 from the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. This was the first PPV after WCW left the NWA. The main event was The Four Horsemen and Larry Zbyszko against Sting, Brian Pillman, and The Steiner Brothers in a WarGames match. Also on the card was The Freebirds challenging Doom for the WCW World Tag Team Championship, Dan Spivey challenging Lex Luger for the WCW US Heavyweight Championship, Stan Hansen vs Big Van Vader, Dustin Rhodes vs Buddy Landel, and five other matches.
The Great American Bash (1991) took place on July 14, 1991 at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. The card was originally to be highlighted by a Steel cage match between Ric Flair and Lex Luger for the WCW World title. Two weeks before the show, WCW Executive VP Jim Herd fired Flair over a contract dispute, stripping him of the title. Flair took possession of the WCW World title and brought it to the World Wrestling Federation with him. A new belt could not be readied in time for the event, so the company was forced to improvise. A Championship Wrestling title belt that was in the possession of Dusty Rhodes was used and a metal plate with "WCW World Heavyweight Champion" was attached to the front. The main event ended up being WCW US Champ Lex Luger vs Varry Windham for the WCW World Title. On the undercard was a match featuring Steve Austin & Terry Taylor versus Bobby Eaton & P.N. News in a Capture-The-Flag scaffold match, which was Austin's first PPV match.
Halloween Havoc 1991 took place on October 27, 1991 from the UTC Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The main event was Lex Luger defending the WCW World Heavyweight CHampionship in a two out of three falls match against Ron Simmons. Other matches included The Enforcers defending the WCW World Tag Titles against The Patriots, the WCW Halloween Phantom vs Tom Zenk, Brian Pillman vs Richard Morton for the first WCW Light Heavyweight Championship, WCW TV Champ Steve Austin defending his title against Dustin Rhodes, and El Gigante, Sting, the Steiner Brothers, versus Abdullah the Butcher, The Diamond Studd, Cactus Jack, and Big Van Vader in a Chamber of Horrors match.
Starrcade '91: Battlebowl: The Lethal Lottery was the ninth annual Starrcade professional wrestling pay-per-view event. It was the fourth Starrcade event produced by WCW, and it took place on December 29, 1991 from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. The event solely featured the Battlebowl battle royal and its qualifying matches. Forty wrestlers were chosen at random to form ten pairs of tag teams. Each pair competed in a match, and the winning team advanced to Battlebowl. This was the first Starrcade event to not feature Ric Flair.
WCW/New Japan Supershow I (known as Starrcade 1991 in Tokyo Dome in Japan) took place on March 21, 1991 from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It aired in North America in April 1991. The main event was Ric Flair defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Tatsumi Fujinami. Other matches included The Great Muta vs Sting, El Gigante vs Big Cat Hughes, Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki defending against The Steiner Brothers for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, Arn Anderson & Barry Windham vs Masa Saito & Masahiro Chono, Jushin Liger defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight CHampionship against Akira Nogami, and several dark matches.
The Great American Bash (1990) took place on July 7, 1990 at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. The main event was Ric Flair defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Sting. Mark Callous challenged Lex Luger for the NWA US Championship, Doom defended the NWA World Tag Team Championships against the Rock 'n' Roll Express, The Four Horsemen fought Paul Orndorff, Junkyard Dog, and El Gigante, and The Steiner Brothers wrestled The Fabulous Freebirds. Other matches included Big Van Vader vs Tom Zenk, Mike Rotunda vs Iron Sheik, and 4 other matches.
The American Wrestling Association holds an 18-man over-the-top-rope Battle Royale to determine a new AWA World Heavyweight Champion in St. Paul Minnesota!
The Major League of Professional Wrestling, The AWA presents another all-star card from Rochester, Minnesota!
Pro Wrestling's first all-Cage Match event! featuring King Tonga, Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie & The Masked Superstar vs. Jerry Blackwell & Sgt. Slaughter, Greg Gagne & Verne Gagne vs. Mr. Saito & Nick Bockwinkel and The Road Warriors vs. Larry & Curt Hennig for the AWA World Tag Team Championship and much more!
April 19, 1985 at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
January 13, 1993 in Milwaukee. This was the last Clash for announcer Jim Ross who shortly after this event was fired by WCW and joined the WWF. Originally, it was scheduled to be Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Ron Simmons, and Van Hammer against Big Van Vader, Barry Windham, The Barbarian, and Rick Rude; due to injuries, Hammer and Rude dropped out and Orndorff took Rude's place. Earlier on the show, Vader's team got rid of Barbarian, and Vader injured Simmons. Cactus Jack came in during the match, siding with Sting and Rhodes, thus turning face. Johnny B. Badd replaced Erik Watts, where the storyline was that he was suspended from WCW, due to an altercation with Arn Anderson. Tony Atlas replaced Hammer in the arm-wrestling contest.
