Clash of the Champions XXXI — Vader Turns Hero, Flair Blames Arn and Nitro Is Suddenly Three Weeks Away

The opener is memorable for all the wrong reasons. Sting is trying to organize a conventional tag match, Meng is throwing credible strikes, Kurasawa is still adapting to American television and Hawk appears determined to sell absolutely nothing. The strange chemistry creates moments of accidental excitement because every exchange feels slightly unstable. Sting finally helps restore order, Hawk catches Kurasawa and the babyfaces finish with a modified Doomsday Device. Then the real angle begins: Kurasawa attacks Hawk from behind and wrenches the arm badly enough to create the storyline injury. The match is messy, but the post-match attack gives it a purpose.

Diamond Dallas Page is still learning how to wrestle on national television, which makes Alex Wright an interesting mirror because Wright has more athletic polish and less character certainty. They trade arm work, roll-ups and increasingly ambitious counters while Page leans on timing and body language to hold the crowd. Wright's missile dropkick and German suplex create the best near falls, but his final dive misses badly and Page steals the pin. Nothing here is elite, yet both men look better leaving than entering. In retrospect, the fascination is watching DDP before the pieces fully click, already discovering how much personality can carry technique still under construction.

Paul Orndorff spends four minutes attempting the impossible assignment of making The Renegade look like a functioning television champion. The veteran stalls, bumps, cheats and feeds him simple offense, but Renegade's movements still look rehearsed a beat before they happen. Orndorff finally catches him with a piledriver and appears to have the match won before Jimmy Hart creates the distraction. Renegade recovers, hits a clumsy backslide-style counter and retains. The short runtime prevents disaster, but it also exposes how little confidence WCW has in letting the champion work. Orndorff does almost everything available to him. The act still feels like an imitation whose expiration date is approaching.

The wrestling is secondary to months of soap opera between Sherri and Colonel Parker, which means the match succeeds or fails according to tolerance for broad comedy. Booker T provides the speed, Stevie Ray and the Stud Stable provide the punching, and Sherri is the actual center of gravity. Hawk's injury earlier creates enough uncertainty around the tag-title picture that this six-person stipulation matters: a Harlem Heat win earns a Fall Brawl title match. The finish is pure WCW theater, with Parker hesitating over Sherri until she tackles him into a kiss and scores the pin. It advances the story, even if the wrestling feels incidental.

Vader's late WCW babyface turn should not work, yet his physical charisma makes the crowd accept it almost immediately. Arn Anderson does most of the labor, taking the punishment, clipping Vader's knee and repeatedly rescuing Ric Flair after Flair tags in only when the advantage looks safe. The structure is really about character: Arn is the Enforcer, Flair is the ego, and Vader is the wrecking ball exposing the imbalance between them. Flair's figure-four cannot hold him. Vader eventually runs through both men and powerbombs Arn for the pin. Then Flair blames Anderson, lighting the fuse for Fall Brawl and the Horsemen story that follows.