The second Clash of the Champions begins with a United States Championship Match, the titleholder Barry Windham (who had only recently joined the 4 Horsemen) defending against Brad Armstrong. I had high expectations for this match as Armstrong is a fantastic worker, just a bit too bland for me to really get behind him. Windham is excellent and his moments of heel shtick add some much-needed color to the proceedings. In the final few minutes, this match finally feels like it has hit the second gear and reached the right level of intensity, but it took awhile to get there. I really like the finish too, as it makes Windham's Claw look not only deadly, but also that he has the ability to apply at unpredictable times in unpredictable ways. (3/5)
In the parking garage, JR interviews Lyle Alzado, a former football player who starred in the ridiculous wrestling-based sitcom, Learning the Ropes, in 1989. This is a wormhole worth traveling down as it is 100% fromage.
At ringside, the Rock n' Roll Express make their return to NWA/WCW after a bit of a sabbatical. Not a great promo from them, but the crowd loves seeing them anyway.
Cut to a mega-yacht where Lex Luger and Ric Flair, accompanied by the Horsemen, sign a contract setting up their next fight at the Great American Bash shows in July (one of, if not the only, remaining NWA/WCW pay-per-views I have not watched and reviewed on this blog). Both guys say their piece but nothing else really happens.
...Until we're back in the garage and Ric Flair and the Horsemen show up. They taunt Luger and, minutes later, when Luger shows up, they jump him and leave him bloody on the ground.
Back in the ring, The Sheepherders (with fellow New Zealander Rip Morgan) challenge The Fantastics for the United States Tag Team Championships. The Fantastics had an all-time great tag bout against the Midnight Express at the previous Clash, but the Sheepherders are much more limited in what they do both offensively and with their bumping and selling. Rip Morgan is also no Jim Cornette, though, he does get involved. I like how the Fantastics' gimmick is that they're two Chippendales but that they're unafraid to engage in wild brawls. This one runs a bit long and there's a touch too much silliness - including one sequence in which the Fantastics take turn making pin attempts on both guys and the referee counts them despite the confusion over who is actually the legal man - but its still an above-average tag match that I've seen some people give a whopping 4 stars too. (3/5)
At the previous Clash, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams delivered one of the worst promos ever recorded so I'm not sure whose idea was to put him back out on TV and have him actually help call a match, but that's exactly what we get for the Varsity Club vs. The Garvins. As was very common in the NWA in 88', someone is locked in a cage for this match - namely "The Gamesmaster" Kevin Sullivan. The story coming into this match is that Sullivan had secret documents that would humiliate "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin's girlfriend/valet Precious. Researching this match I learned something I never knew - that Ronnie and Jimmy weren't brothers at all, but that Ronnie was Jimmy's stepfather (though I'm not sure for how long Ronnie was actually married to Jimmy's mom). Anyway, the focus of the match is on the action going on outside, which is a good thing because Mike Rotunda tends to bore me to tears no matter what era I see him working in. On the flip side, I've come around to liking Jimmy Garvin more than I used to and he does have undeniable chemistry with Precious (who was his real-life wife). Anyway, the match ends cleanly I think and I write "I think" because the camera is really focused on Precious trying to retrieve the documents from Sullivan (who ends up grabbing the key from Precious and unlocking the cage from himself). Sullivan chokes out Precious, which gets a massive reaction and then, in a wonderful twist on the expected, Dr. Death rescues her only for Precious to storm out of the ring away from both Williams and Garvin. Great cliffhanger as the audience is shocked by Precious' actions. Not much of a match, but the post-match is worth at least a half-point. (2.5/5)
After this, the announcers hype too ridiculous matches - first, a scaffold match between the Road Warriors and the Powers of Pain and then the even-more-outrageous Tower of Doom match being proposed by Kevin Sullivan. I've not seen the 88' Tower of Doom match, but I did witness the one held 7-8 years later pitting the Horsemen and Dungeon of Doom (collectively known as the Alliance to End Hulkamania) against Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in a match that I awarded 0-out-of-5 stars.
Back in the ring we go for Al Perez vs. Nikita Koloff. Perez was a journeyman in the 80s but never felt like a big deal despite having a good physique and some natural charisma. Koloff, meanwhile, also had his peak behind him at this point after feuding with Horsemen a year prior. This is a competitive match, but it does neither guy any real favors. Koloff, not necessarily a master of playing the sympathetic babyface fighting from underneath, was the wrong opponent for Perez, who was coming in as an unlikable Latin Heartthrob (but was not firmly established enough to seem like a real threat to Koloff). What we end up getting is an overly long match that doesn't highlight Perez's heelishness or Koloff's strengths as basically a one-man Road Warrior. Larry Zybysko shows up and, along with Gary Hart, destroy Koloff with a chain to further their feud. Maybe this was a big deal in 88', but I just didn't get into it and even the crowd seemed a bit less interested than they were during the previous segment. (1.5/5)
Main event time - Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson defending the NWA World Tag Team Championships against Sting and Dusty Rhodes. The crowd is hot for this as both sides were really, really over in their respective roles. After the last Clash, Sting had not only ascended to main event level status but, as we see here, was developing his own persona even more, coming out with a much more colorful presentation than he'd had just a few months prior. Dusty Rhodes is Dusty Rhodes, never the world's greatest in-ring technician but undeniably popular and able to get a huge reaction off the littlest swivel of hips or most basic elbow smash. Anderson and Blanchard are in contention for being the best tag team of all-time and this match is an example of how they could mix it up with just about anyone - power wrestlers, showy "entertainers," fellow technicians, classic underdogs - and always make it work. As expected, this match is more about two sides who hate each other trying to put a hurt on each other rather than being about the World Tag Team Championships, but that's fine. The final few minutes turn into an all-out brawl with JJ Dillon getting involved and Barry Windham eventually showing up and applying the Claw on Dusty Rhodes (which Rhodes sells with a blade job!). A solid show-closer but not a "must see" match. (3/5)
Like at the first Clash of the Champions, one of the elements that makes this show so enjoyable is how hot the crowd is. Even if you're like me and don't really know or care too much about a guy like Al Perez or the Varsity Club/Garvins feud, the heat of those matches carry them into at least average range. Compared to the audiences of today (well, not today today, but, y'know, 2019 or whatever), these fans are invested in every match from the opener to the main event and, at least on these shows, fervently in support of the babyfaces over the heels (this was not always the case, even back then, as Halloween Havoc 89' shows). A little bit more variety in term of match lengths would've made this an even better watch, but, then again, later installments often featured more variety but the variety wasn't necessarily good so those shows could be harder to sit through if you're looking for quality action. With a Kwang Score of 2.6-out-of-5, this show doesn't hold a candle to the first Clash of the Champions, but its got its moment if you're a fan of this era. If you're not a fan of this type of 'rasslin', though, there's not much on the show that will you draw you in or have you second-guessing your tastes, hence the somewhat "low" final rating...
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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