[1992-01-21-WCW-Clash of the Champions XVIII] Tracy Smothers & Terry Taylor vs Brian Pillman & Marcus Bagwell

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

What you have here is a bunch of guys who really wanted Frey's $5000 bonus. Good Lord. This is way better than it had any right to be through sheer will. Pillman, Smothers and Taylor are all terrific, and Bagwell shows good timing on some things and is sloppy on others. They got this crowd super hot in less than 10 minutes and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I don't think I'd seen it since it aired.

[Tim Evans]

Yeah Bagwell was horrible at times. Looked like Taylor was getting pissed towards the end. OK match but doesn't match up to some other tags on this set.

[shoe]

I thought everyone worked their asses off. Smothers was awesome as was Pillman. These guys for sure wanted that bonus. Cause if they didn't give a shit about it Bagwell would have been FIP. Like others have said Bagwell looked good in spots and clumsy in others. I also thought the finish was cool and could have easily been fucked up by less than stellar workers.

[El-P]

Bagwell was green as hell but he had potential. All the other three were there to *work* and make the best out of random pairings. A little sad the York Foundation is no more though. Good and fun match.

[MikeCampbell]

This looks totally thrown together, but it's better than it has any right to be, in spite of Bagwell screwing things up quite often. But, Pillman, Tracy, and Taylor are determined to push through, and that's what happens. I think

[WingedEagle]

Not much to add. These four were thrown together and put on a great, short, fast match. Things fell apart a bit during Bagwell's hot tag but fortunately it didn't go that long. Hats off to the other 3 for putting this together.

 

***1/4

[PeteF3]

What an oddball heel team, the Wyoming cowboy teaming with the Taylor-Made Man. Did Steve get shitcanned or was he hurt? It's a meaningless tag match with two teams completely thrown together, but you have two elite workers in Pillman and Tracey, a perfectly serviceable worker in Taylor, and Bagwell...well, he's kept out of the way. What you get is a fucking awesome tag match. In a way it's just as much of a spotfest as the opener, but instead of big bombs it's based on high-flying, strikes, and great intricate tag sequences. The chain of moves from Pillman's spinning headscissors to the double dive to the floor is absolutely goddamn gorgeous tag wrestling, from all four guys. Bagwell shows some fire but also blows a few things--still, he's definitely someone with potential and I don't think he was overpushed at this point. This is as good as Taylor has looked since the Arn series, working in a completely different style.

[BruiserBrody]

WCW TV was building up a Zenk/Pillman vs. Pistols match and RSPW says this was suppose to be US Patriots/Pillman vs. Pistols/Diamond Studd, not sure what happened here.

 

Did The Taylor Made Man gimmick get any vignettes?

[skipps04]

Taylor Made Man just seemed like Ted Dibiase light here, but I liked the fast paced action in this one, Bagwell is definitely green here, but Pillman carries this match for his team so it was alright. A fun little match though

[Hawkeye12]

WCW TV was building up a Zenk/Pillman vs. Pistols match and RSPW says this was suppose to be US Patriots/Pillman vs. Pistols/Diamond Studd, not sure what happened here.

 

Did The Taylor Made Man gimmick get any vignettes?

That six-man was mentioned on TV. I think Hall was hurt and just never ended up coming back. I know he was out of Battlebowl at Starrcade (although he appeared with his arm in a sling), but maybe he'd already taped some TV to set up a Pillman angle and it just fizzled out. Pistols and Patriots were feuding over the US belts. And Taylor didn't have any vignettes, I think he just changed his name in one ringside interview with his new attitude.

[garretta]

This is the type of match that the Lethal Lottery should have featured. Most of the other commenters have said what I thought, so I'll say that Buff didn't look too bad here. He was probably carried, but not too noticeably, and he and Pillman looked like a team that could have gone somewhere. So did Smothers and Taylor, whom I really didn't expect much from. Is this version 2.0 of Rock 'n' Roll/MX? Not by a damn sight, but the fact that it's as watchable and entertaining as it is counts as a wrestling miracle, considering what it could have been.

 

Nice advice by Tony about Buff staying out of Sting's feud with the DA, but it's about a month too late.

 

We all know JR loves to talk football, but was it really wise of him to bring up that Pillman was a second-team All-American when the first-teamer was Refrigerator Perry? By '92, the buzz had long since worn off of him and his career was just about to grind to a halt; in fact, he was seen as a joke by most serious football fans and experts.

[Childs]

[quote name="garretta" post="5714914" timestamp="

We all know JR loves to talk football, but was it really wise of him to bring up that Pillman was a second-team All-American when the first-teamer was Refrigerator Perry? By '92, the buzz had long since worn off of him and his career was just about to grind to a halt; in fact, he was seen as a joke by most serious football fans and experts.

Fridge was a great college player, a first-round pick and one of the most famous stars of his era, so I don't think it was odd at all for Ross to make that association, especially given the size difference between Pillman and Fridge. Seemed like a fine way to highlight what an overachiever Pillman had been, which was no bullshit.

[soup23]

I have always liked this match as kind of a hidden gem secret type match that doesn't look like much at all on paper or reading the results but really projected into a fun affair. Tracy doing his little dance pose after gaining the advantage always makes me smile and the heels were able to get some good FIP work on Pillman with him being thrown into the guardrail jaw first. The finish is clever and makes Bagwell look like a fine prospect. Bagwell did well enough here even though he had a couple of sloppy moments. *** (6.2)

[dawho5]

I thought that sequence of teamwork between Pillman and Buff was incredible for how green Bagwell was here. Good tag with a lot of energy and it seems like we're using these 3 to get Bagwell over.