October 18, 2008
Matt Peddycord

WCW Clash of the Champions 29
November 16, 1994
Jacksonville, FL
Jacksonville Coliseum

The current WCW Champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hulk Hogan (7/17/1994)
WCW U.S. Champion: Jim Duggan (9/18/1994)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Pretty Wonderful (10/23/1994)
WCW World Television Champion: Johnny B. Badd (9/18/1994)

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Bobby Heenan.

Gene Okerlund brings out Col. Rob Parker and Meng to announce that the winner of tonight’s title match will face Arn Anderson & Bunkhouse Buck from Parker’s Stud Stable on the following weekend’s Saturday Night. Well, that kind of gives away the finish.

WCW World Tag Team Champions Pretty Wonderful vs. Stars & Stripes – Titles vs. Patriot’s Mask

That’s right, people. If S&S don’t regain the belts here tonight, Patriot will have to unmask. After Orndorff yells at some fan at ringside, he calms down and starts the match with Bagwell. Roma tags in and jumps off the ropes over Bagwell a few times before finally nailing him with a crossbody out of the corner. It looks a lot cooler than I can explain to you. Bagwell quickly comes back with a nice dropkick leading to S&S cleaning house on the champs. Tag to Patriot, Orndorff stalls with him a bit. He catches Patriot with a knee to the gut and tags in Roma for THREE consecutive backbreakers on the Patriot. Roma follows up with a Flying Fist Drop, but gets cocky and takes too long to cover for two. Patriot catches Roma off a leapfrog for an inverted atomic drop and delivers a Thesz Press for 1-2-NO! Bagwell tags back in for some arm wrench action. Roma whips Bagwell into the ropes and dumps him out with a little help from Orndorff for a SICK bump on the floor. Roma draws Patriot into the ring while Orndorff sends Bagwell into the guardrail and buries some knees to the gut. Back in, Orndorff gives Bagwell the Boogie Woogie Elbow Drop. Awesome. Roma tags and powerslams Bagwell with a lazy cover for 1-2-NO! Bagwell continues to be worked over by Pretty Wonderful with a few hope spots mixed in like a backslide and a sunset flip. Patriot comes in to stop Roma and winds up on the floor. Roma calls for the finish and heads up top as Orndorff gives Bagwell a suplex. Patriot hops up on the apron and shoves Roma down. With both Orndorff and Bagwell’s shoulders pinned to the mat, the ref starts to count and Bagwell gets his shoulder up at the count of two. Orndorff does not and Stars and Stripes have regained the tag belts. (10:08) Pretty Wonderful managed to make Bagwell look pretty decent here. On the other hand, I hate that finish. **¼

WCW World Television Champion Johnny B. Badd vs. Honky Tonk Man

This is another rematch from Halloween Havoc. Heenan tells a funny story about running his fingers through HTM’s hair. It’s actually not greasy! Badd works a hammerlock to start and messes up Honky’s hair. HTM bails to the floor and gets MAD. HTM cheapshots Badd to take over. Badd elbows out of a chinlock, but telegraphs a backdrop and gets kicked in the mouth. SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL is countered with a backdrop. Badd follows up with turnbuckle smashes and the ten-count corner punch. Knee-Lift gets two. HTM shoves Badd into the ref and grabs his guitar to KABONG Badd for the DQ. (6:13) Another rematch is scheduled for Starrcade, but Honky Tonk and WCW part ways before the show. Thank God. ¾*

The Three Faces of Fear (Kevin Sullivan, The Butcher, and Avalanche) try to scare Hulkamania. This trio would soon make up most of the Dungeon of Doom in 1995.

Harlem Heat vs. The Nasty Boys

Wow, this is the first time we’ve seen Harlem Heat since Superbrawl IV on any of the major shows. This looks to be the beginning of these two team’s year long feud. The Heat’s entrance graphic gives away their secret which would not be revealed until the finish of the match. The secret: Sensuous Sherri is their new manager. She’s the one they have been talking to on that cell phone on the weekend syndies. They don’t screw up the graphics just once, they show it again during the Nasties entrance as well. This leads me to believe that the WCW tech crew is actually more retarded than I thought. Lots of clubberin’ and splashing by the Nasties to start. Knobbs goes after Stevie Ray’s leg and actually starts WRESTLING when we get interrupted with a commercial break. I bet he put Stevie Ray in a surfboard and everything during that break too! We come back to see Booker T kicking Knobbs out to the floor. Stevie Ray does a little damage down there. Back in, Stevie Ray tags and bicycle kicks Knobbs square in the face. Booker’s back in and delivers a spin kick, but misses a flying fist drop. Hot tag to Sags, he gets rid of Stevie Ray and front powerslams Booker in the ring. Meanwhile, Stevie Ray tries to call somebody on his cell phone. Knobbs beats him down instead. Now Booker grabs the phone and tries to make a call while in the ring, the Nasties are splashing Stevie Ray. Sags delivers the FLYING ELBOW DROP on Stevie Ray as Sensuous Sherri makes her way down to ringside. Knobbs gets distracted by her while Booker comes off the top and lowers the boom on Sags for the 1-2-3. (8:00 shown) Well, there’s match #1 in their 345 part series. Sherri would lead the Heat to seven of their ten tag team title reigns before they fired her in the fall of 1997. **

Vader (w/Harley Race) vs. Dustin Rhodes

This is a match I’ve always wanted to see. Call me crazy, but I enjoy my Vader and Dustin Rhodes matches. Vader overpowers Rhodes and spits in his face to really piss off the guy. Rhodes charges and trips him up so he can lay into him real good. Vader takes a clothesline out to the floor where Rhodes continues with the right hands. He even levels Harley Race for no real justifiable reason. Back in, Rhodes beats Vader down in the corner. He follows up with a suplex and Vader takes another walk. Back in again, Vader sees Rhodes charging at him and runs him down. Vader corners Rhodes and that’s never a good thing. Rhodes catches Vader off an avalanche and slams him down. Dustin sets up Vader for a sunset flip and avoids the butt splash. The ref gets hit accidently as Vader counters the BULLDOG by tossing Rhodes off him and over the top rope. Insanity! Back in, Vader starts up the Pump Splashes. He delivers a pair of them, but every time Rhodes has his foot under the bottom rope to stop the pin. Vader comes off the middle rope and Rhodes turns it around into a slam. Rhodes can’t put Vader down after a SERIES of Lariats, so he delivers a Flying Lariat to finally lay out Vader for 1-2-NO! Dustin DDT’s Vader off the second rope for another nearfall. Rhodes gets the BULLDOG as Race gets in the ring. Rhodes goes to nail Race and gets splashed from behind to set up a wheelbarrow facebuster for the 1-2-3. (11:49) Don’t really see him do that move. Pretty solid match as Vader continues his banner year in WCW. Jim Duggan runs down to save Rhodes from a post-match Pump Splash and chases Vader away with the 2×4. ***¼

In the back, Gene Okerlund is standing by with the Hogan/Sting/EVAD team. They are united with red and yellow paint all over their faces!

WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Jim Duggan vs. Steve Austin

Yet another rematch from Halloween Havoc. No match really, Vader comes down for a 2-on-1 attack on Duggan. It doesn’t last long before Duggan chases them all away with the 2×4. (1:00) And that sets up the US title match at Starrcade. I don’t really know what else to say about that.

Hulk Hogan, Sting & Dave Sullivan (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Butcher, Avalanche & Kevin Sullivan – Special Referee: Mr. T

Mr. T wears a ridiculous zebra-striped sleeping cap as part of his referee’s outfit. But then again, it’s not like the man hasn’t been eccentric his whole celebrity career. Schiavone makes sure to inform us that Hogan wants Butcher. For real, Tony? The match starts out as a big pier-six brawl peaking with Dave Sullivan getting his arm and shoulder splashed by Avalanche to send him to the back. That leaves us with a wonderful 3-on-2 handicap match. Hulk plays face-in-peril for a while. After a few minutes of selling stomps and chokes, Hogan punches out of Avalanche’s bearhug. He gets tripped up by Butcher, but rolls away from a splash by Avalanche. Hot tag to Sting, he delivers Stinger Splashes to Avalanche and throws Sullivan into his arms. That just proves to be a bad idea as Avalanche corners Sting and squashes him with Sullivan. Sting becomes face-in-peril until he slams Sullivan from the top rope. Tag to Hogan and now he gets Butcher with the upper hand. Hulk punches them all away and whips Sting into Avalanche for a Stinger Splash. Meanwhile, Kevin Sullivan takes Jimmy Hart’s megaphone and takes it into the ring. Mr. T grabs it from Sullivan and whacks him in the face, so Hogan capitalizes and covers for 1-2-3. (10:59) That megaphone shot to Sullivan from T completes the “triple main event” for Starrcade. Felt like I was watching an old Saturday Night’s Main Event there. *½

Final Thoughts: Ultimately a pointless show. I can’t find any reason for you to check this one out. It’s shows like this one that explains why die-hard wrestling fans were raving over ECW at the time. Thumbs down for Clash 29. I feel like this was one of the worst Clashes ever.