11 Great Moments From WCW Clash Of The Champions
Shocking debuts, swearing and five-star classics: The Clash had it all...
On September 25th of this year, World Wrestling Entertainment will present Clash of the Champions. If that name sounds familiar then don't check your mental health, as there have actually been 35 Clashes to date. There hasn't been one since August 1997, however, as the company that ran the shows went out of business in 2001.
WCW Clash of the Champions actually started out as NWA Clash of the Champions, with the first one coming under the Jim Crocket banner on March 27th 1988. The Clash was introduced in an attempt to dent WWE's WrestleMania buyrate. This may seem petty, but WWE began this petty feud by introducing Survivor Series in order to counteract Starrcade, offering pay-per-view providers a sweet Series/'Mania package as part of the deal.
Clash of the Champions soon became a frequent staple of the WCW calendar, and the shows themselves ranged from genuinely fantastic to 'holy sh*t this is bad'. The memories from the Clash are too many to count, but here at WhatCulture we're pretty darn good at counting.
You may (and probably will) disagree with a few of these choices, of course. You may (and probably will) think that the introduction of the Frankensteiner, the debut of Jesse Ventura or Lex Luger's constant turns are more memorable.
Either way, here are 11 memorable WCW Clash of the Champions moments...
11. The World's Strongest Man
Clash of the Champions XVI was another pretty terrible show, headlined by the final of the WCW Tag Team Championship tournament between The Enforcers (Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko) took on Rick Steiner and Bill Kazmaier in the final, in a match that went all of three-and-a-half minutes.
The reason it went so short was because Kazmaier wasn't actually a wrestler. Younger fans may not be aware, but Big Bill was actually a past winner of the World's Strongest Man competition and WCW was trying to capitalise on his newfound celebrity status. He definitely wasn't a wrester though, so Arn and Larry made short work of the team to pick up the straps.
The Enforcers also put the boots to Kazmaier earlier in the show, as the American strongman was performing feats of strength in the ring. Bill bent a bar around his neck, which is pretty impressive albeit fairly pointless on a wrestling show.