WCW Clash of The Champions XXXI

Leon Allen White better known by his ring names Big Van Vader or Vader, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. White is best known for his time with New Japan Pro Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, WWE and All Japan Pro Wrestling in the 1990s. A super-heavyweight wrestler capable of aerial maneuvers such as the moonsault and the dropkick, White was both a face and a heel in several professional wrestling promotions. During his career, he became an eight time world champion, having won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship three times, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship three times and the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship twice. Vader returned to Japan, wrestling at a NJPW Wrestle Land show. He also worked in the independent circuit as Big Van Vader, including a tag match against Samoa Joe and Dan Maff in Jersey All Pro Wrestling with Mike Awesome as his tag team partner. On May 12, 2007, Vader faced Brutus Beefcake at Spartan Slamfest, a World Wrestling Coalition charity show. The match was held at the Kingston Armory in Kingston, Pennsylvania. After wrestling his last match in 2007, White began working as a high school football coach. O April 29, 2010, White made a return to wrestling under his Vader ring name at the event Vader Time 5 Return of the Emperor. At the event, he teamed with his son Jesse and former tag team partner 2 Cold Scorpio to successfully defeat Makoto Hashi, Tamon Honda and Tatsumi Fujinami in the main event. In May 2016, Will Opsreay and Ricochet faced each other during the NJPW tournament Best of the Super Juniors. During the match, both wrestlers performed a high flying, fast paced sequence. When Vader saw the sequence, he complained in social media about the current direction pro wrestling is taking. During the following weeks, Vader and Ospreay feuded in Twitter, so England-based promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) booked a match between them. The match took place on August 12, 2016, where Vader defeated Ospreay. Two days later, he made an appearance in Colchester, England for the XWA Wrestling (XWA) promotion, where he defeated "Savvy" Sid Scala. On April 20, 2017, Vader made an appearance in Japan at Korakuen Hall as part of the Dradition show to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the debut of Tatsumi Fujinami. Following a six-man tag team match, Vader collapsed due to being dropped on his head during the match, but he was able to walk backstage under his own power and he remained in Japan as he was scheduled to work two more shows in Fukuoka and Osaka.[On April 22, Vader, Takuma Sano, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara lost a six man tag team match to Koji Kanemoto, Shiro Koshinaka and Tatsumi Fujinami. On April 23, Vader, Riki Choshu, and Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Shiro Koshinaka, Takuma Sano, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. The final match of his career took place May 25, 2017 at WrestleJam V, where Vader defeated The Ironman. Return to AJPW (2011–2012) In the aftermath of the 2011 natural disasters in Japan, Vader and his son Jesse wrestled on special tribute cards for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Zero1. On December 7, 2012, Vader returned to AAJPW, teaming with Keiji Mutoh and Kenso to defeat Bambi Killer, Franz Dynamite and Mazada in a six-man tag team match.

Richard Morgan Fliehr, known professionally as Ric Flair, is an American professional wrestler. Regarded by multiple peers and journalists as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair has had a career that has spanned almost 50 years. He is noted for his tenures with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Much of his career was spent in JCP and WCW, where he won numerous titles. Since the mid-1970s, he has used the monikers "The Nature Boy" and "Slick Ric". Flair is also a founding member of the original Four Horsemen stable alongside Tully Blanchard and The Andersons, managed by JJ Dillon. A major pay-per-view attraction throughout his career, Flair headlined the premier annual NWA/WCW event, Starrcade, on ten occasions, while also co-headlining its WWE counterpart, WrestleMania VIII (8), in 1992, after winning that year's Royal Rumble. PWI awarded him their Wrestler of the Year award a record six times, while Wrestling Observer Newsletter named him the Wrestler of the Year (an award named after him and Lou Thesz) a record eight times. The first 2-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee, first inducted with the class of 2008 for his individual career and again with the class of 2012 as a member of The Four Horsemen, he is also a member of the NWA Hall of Fame, and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. Flair is officially recognized by WWE as a 16-time world champion (8-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, 6-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and 2-time WWE Champion), although the number of his world championship reigns varies by source, ranging from 16 to 25. He has claimed to be a 21-time champion. He was the first holder of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (which he also held last). As the inaugural WCW World Heavyweight Champion, he became the first person to complete WCW's Triple Crown, having already held the NWA\WCW United States Heavyweight and NWA\WCW World Tag Team Championships. He then completed WWE's version of the Triple Crown when he won the WWE Intercontinental Championship, after already holding the WWE Championship and the WWE World Tag Team Championship on previous occasions.

Martin Anthony Lunde better known by his ring name Arn Anderson, is a former American professional wrestler and author. His career has been highlighted by his alliances with Ric Flair and various members of the wrestling stable, The Four Horsemen, in the NWA/WCW. He currently serves as the senior producer for WWE's Raw brand. On March 31, 2012, Anderson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fameas a member of the Four Horsemen.

Booker Tio Huffman, Jr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and commentator currently signed with WWE. He is better known by his ring names Booker T and King Booker. Booker is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), WWE, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), holding 35 championships between those organizations. Regarded as one of the greatest stars in WCW's history, he is also the most decorated wrestler in that company's history, having held 21 titles including a record six WCW World Television Championships, and a record ten WCW World Tag Team Championships as one half of Harlem Heat with his brother, Lash "Stevie Ray" Huffman and an eleventh reign in the WWF with Test. Booker headlined many pay-per-view events in WCW, the WWF/E and TNA from the early 1990s to the late 2000s and is a six-time world champion, having won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship five times (four in WCW and once in the WWF) and a World Heavyweight Championship in WWE. He has also gained notable success as a tag team wrestler, being a fifteen-time World Tag Team Champion between WCW (eleven times), WWE (three times), and TNA (once). Additionally, he was the winner of the WWE King of the Ring tournament in 2006, the sixteenth WWE Triple Crown Champion and the tenth WWE Grand Slam Champion. As the ninth (and final) WCW Triple Crown Champion, Booker is the most recent of four men in history to achieve both the WWE and WCW Triple Crown Championships. Booker was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6, 2013, by his brother, Lash Huffman, better known by his ring name Stevie Ray.

Lash Rushay Huffman is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Stevie Ray. Stevie Ray is best known for his seven year tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1993 to 2000, where he was one-half of the tag team Harlem Heat, with his younger brother Booker Huffman ("Booker T"), winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship a record ten times.

Sherri Martel was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by her ring names, Sherri Martel and Sensational Sherri. Martel began her professional wrestling career in the Mid South after training in Columbia, South Carolina. She joined the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the mid-1980s and held its AWA World Women's Championship three times. In the late 1980s, she joined WWE, where she held the WWE Women's Championship. Also in WWE, Martel continued to act as a manager to wrestlers such as Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, and Shawn Michaels. She appeared in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1990s. In the latter, Martel acted as the manager for the tag team Harlem Heat. After leaving WCW, she made few wrestling related appearances until her death in 2007. She also appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in September 2006 as a manager for Bobby Roode which ended up being her last televised wrestling appearance. By 2003, she and her husband Robert Schrull lived in Tennessee, where she helped him renovate homes. She was married and divorced at least twice during her life, and Booker T gave her away at one of her weddings. She had one son. Death On June 15, 2007, Martel died at her mother's residence in McCalla, Alabama, near Birmingham. She was 49 years old. On September 11, 2007, homicide investigators in Tuscaloosa, Alabama released the toxicology report stating that she died of an overdose with multiple drugs in her system, including high amounts of oxycodone. She was cremated after her death

Richard Van Slater better known by his ring name "Dirty" Dick Slater, was an American professional wrestler who wrestled in the 1970s, 1980s, and mid-1990s for various promotions including Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Slater began wrestling with Mike Graham at Robinson High School, in Tampa, Florida. He attended the University of Tampa with Paul Orndorff. From there he began wrestling in Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling. He worked as a booker in Knoxville, Tennessee after Ron Fuller sold his promotion to Jim Barnett. He wrestled in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (later World Championship Wrestling), where he appeared on the first Starrcade. He also worked in Mid-South Wrestling Association, where he was managed by Dark Journey. Slater made some trips to the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. He wrestled briefly in WWE as a babyface under a "Rebel" gimmick, but soon returned to WCW. He wrestled there until receiving his back injury that ended his career. In June 2004, Slater was convicted for the stabbing of his former girlfriend Theresa Halbert. He was sentenced to one year of house arrest and two years of probation. He blamed the incident on influence from painkillers.

Robert Welch is a professional wrestler and manager better known by his ring names Robert Fuller and Col. Robert Parker. Robert and his brother Ron co-owned Continental Championship Wrestling for a time. Fuller started wrestling in 1970 in the Alabama and Tennessee regions. He often teamed with his cousin Jimmy Golden and they won many tag team titles. He spent some time in the American Wrestling Association with Golden in 1988, and they feuded with The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson). He also wrestled in the Texas area where he teamed with Jeff Jarrett. In 1993, Fuller went to World Championship Wrestling as manager Col. Robert Parker, a takeoff of Col. Tom Parker of Elvis Presley fame. He managed Sid Vicious and teamed with manager Harley Race and his protege, Vader to form "The Masters of the Powerbomb". They feuded with Sting and Davey Boy Smith. In 1994, he managed "Stunning Steve" Austin before reforming his "Stud Stable" with Golden as "Bunkhouse Buck", Meng, Dick Slater, Terry Funk and Arn Anderson.They feuded heavily with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. In 1995, Col. Parker courted Sherri Martel to the dismay of both the Stud Stable and Sherri's charges, Harlem Heat. Parker and Sherri went to get married and Sherri was attacked by Madusa, who was supposed to be Parker's wife. Parker and Sherri split and feuded and then made up again, with Parker leaving the Stud Stable to help Sherri manage Harlem Heat. While with Harlem Heat, Parker's official title was "promoter", while Sherri retained the "manager" designation. One trademark of Parker's managing would be his fanning himself during matches. In October 1996, Harlem Heat fired Parker after he cost them the WCW World Tag Team Championships. He quickly started to manage The Amazing French Canadians (Jacques Rougeau and Carl Ouellet), trading in his gray suit for a French Foreign Legion uniform.[1] Harlem Heat and The Amazing French On June 2, 2006 in Irondale, Alabama, Fuller managed Shannon Spruill against El Mexico for the NWA Wrestle Birmingham Junior Heavyweight Championship. With the help of Fuller (who referred to Spruill as his "Million Dollar Baby"), Spruill defeated El Mexico to win her third wrestling title. On September 14, 2006, Fuller was seen, once again as Col. Parker, being interviewed by Robert Roode on TNA Impact!. On February 8, 2018, Fuller made a return to professional wrestling as Col. Robert Parker, a manager for Major League Wrestling. He reactivated The Stud Stable with the Dirty Blondes as his first signees. Personal life Robert Fuller comes from a wrestling family: his father Buddy Fuller and his grandfather Roy Welch were wrestlers, as were his brother Ron Fuller[3] and his cousin Jimmy Golden ("Bunkhouse Buck"). He has been married four times: Joyce Logan, who he has his oldest daughter Kimberly by; Sylvia Wilson (Miss Sylvia), who he has Katie and Charlotte by; Susan Lostraglio, who he had no children with; and his current wife Laverne Stewart. He has 7 grandchildren. Fuller currently resides in Seminole, Florida.

Paul Parlette Orndorff Jr., nicknamed "Mr. Wonderful", was an American professional wrestler and college football player, best known for his appearances with WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). After seven years working around the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Orndorff became a star in the 1980s WWE wrestling boom, and featured with manager Bobby Heenan and champion Hulk Hogan extensively, including in the main events of the first WrestleMania and Survivor Series. With an untreated neck injury, he left WWE for WCW in early 1988, where he won the WCW World Television Championship and the WCW World Tag Team Championship with Paul Roma (as a team called Pretty Wonderful). Arm atrophy from a nagging injury led him to retire in 2000 and he was treated for cancer in 2011. After retiring, he trained aspiring wrestlers. Orndorff was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame in 2009.

Alexander "Alex" Wright is a German-British former professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. He wrestled professionally in Germany and Japan before signing with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994. He became known for his distinctive pre-match dancing as well as his technical in-ring ability that would ultimately lead him to WCW championship gold. He remained a prominent mid-card performer during his seven-year tenure with WCW, including reigns as a one time Cruiserweight Champion, a one time World Television Champion and a one time World Tag Team Champion with Disco Inferno. He was the Owner, Founder and CEO of New Sport Entertainment GmbH which is the company that owns New European Championship Wrestling.

Page Joseph Falkinburg, Jr, better known by his ring name "Diamond" Dallas Page (DDP), is an actor and retired American professional wrestler. In the course of his wrestling career, which spanned two decades, Page has wrestled for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), WWE, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Page first broke into the wrestling business in 1988, as a manager in the American Wrestling Association, where he worked for nine months before signing with WCW in 1991. There, he continued as a manager until late 1991, when he became a wrestler. Over nearly a decade in WCW, Page became a three-time World Heavyweight Champion, a two-time United States Heavyweight Champion, a four-time World Tag Team Champion, and a Television Champion. After WCW was sold in the summer of 2001, Page signed with WWE, where he won the WWE European Championship and the WWE World Tag Team Championship. He was released from the company in 2002. He worked for various independent promotions, as well as TNA, from 2004 to 2005. Page is now an actor in small-budget films, as well as a fitness guru and motivational speaker.

Steve Borden, better known by the ring name Sting, is an American professional wrestler and former bodybuilder, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as the mentor of Darby Allin. He is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, having cultivated a legacy over a career spanning five decades. Throughout his career, he won a total of fifteen world championships. Sting is widely known for his time spent as the public face of two major American professional wrestling promotions: the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which was bought by the WWE in 2001, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, now Impact Wrestling). Although the WWF had purchased WCW, Sting did not sign with them at that time. Prior to WCW, he also wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), and Mid South. Sting's 14-year association with WCW and its predecessor, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), began in 1987. He quickly rose to main event status and has been described as the WCW counterpart to the WWF's Hulk Hogan. Dubbed "The Franchise of WCW", he held a total of 14 championships in the promotion – including the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on six occasions, the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship on two occasions, and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on one occasion – and made more pay-per-view (PPV) appearances for the company than any other wrestler. Against Hogan, Sting headlined the highest-grossing PPV event in WCW history, Starrcade, in December 1997. Upon the acquisition of WCW by the WWF in March 2001, Sting and his long-term rival Ric Flair were chosen to perform in the main event of the final episode of Nitro. Sting would later face Hogan and Flair in their last televised matches, defeating both. Following the expiration of his contract with WCW's parent company, AOL Time Warner, in March 2002, Borden held talks with the WWF, but ultimately did not join the promotion and instead toured internationally with World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) – winning the WWA World Heavyweight Championship – before joining the then-upstart TNA in 2003.[1] Over the following 11 years, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on one further occasion and the TNA World Heavyweight Championship four times. As a result, he became the only wrestler to have won the NWA, WCW, and TNA World Titles in a career. He was also the inaugural inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2012.

Michael James Hegstrand was an American professional wrestler. He is best remembered as Road Warrior Hawk, one half of the tag team known as The Road Warriors (WCW) or The Legion of Doom (WWE), with Road Warrior Animal. ) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known as Road Warrior Hawk, one half of the tag team known as The Road Warriors (The Legion of Doom in WWE), with Road Warrior Animal. Outside The Road Warriors, Hawk was a sporadic challenger for world heavyweight championships on pay-per-view from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. He headlined the 1993 edition of ECW's premier annual event, November to Remember While the Road Warriors never officially broke up, Animal started making an increasing number of solo appearances after they left WWE as Hegstrand struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and generally did not appear at many wrestling shows during this time. In 2001 Hegstrand was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that stopped him from wrestling for a short while. He was able to overcome its effects and returned to a regular working schedule later on. On June 22, 2002 International Wrestling Superstars, Road Warriors Animal & Hawk defeated The Headshrinkers for the World Tag-Team Championship. That victory also led to Team USA winning the Animal and Hawk made a surprise appearance on Raw on May 12, 2003 when they took on Kane and Rob Van Dam for the World Tag Team Championship. Although Hawk and Animal came up short in their attempt to become three-time champions, it was clear that Hawk had defeated the demons that had once kept him from competing, and The Road Warriors had hopes of returning to WWE. Later in 2003, Hawk made an appearance with the All World Wrestling League, a take-off of the 'original' Big Time Wrestling that was owned by The Original Sheik who died earlier that year; it was run by the sons of The Sheik, Eddie and Tom Farhat. They decided to book Hawk for an event in Holt, Michigan; that event was the second to last time Hawk wrestled. Two weeks before he died he wrestled his final match with Ted DiBiase in Oshawa, Ontario against Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Marcus "Buff" Bagwell. Death and legacy Hegstrand died on October 19, 2003 in the early morning in his home in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. He was 46 years old. His friends said that he and his wife Dale had recently bought a condominium near their current home and were packing their boxes the night before. Hegstrand said that he felt tired and went to take a nap. When his wife checked on him at about 1 a.m., he had died of a sudden heart attack. At the time of his death, Hawk and Animal were working on a book about their careers. Animal returned to WWE in mid-2005 and decided to dedicate his entire run to Hegstrand, including his tag team title victory with Heidenreich at The Great American Bash. On the March 28, 2011 episode of Raw, it was announced that the Road Warriors would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2011. On April 2, 2011, the night before WrestleMania XXVII they, along with Paul Ellering were inducted into the Hall Of Fame by Dusty Rhodes. Road Warrior Hawk was included, along with his tag team partner, Road Warrior Animal, in the Attitude Era, in the game WWE '13.

Tonga 'Uli'uli Fifita is a Tongan professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Haku. He is also known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he wrestled under the name Meng. In WWE, he also wrestled under the names King Tonga and King Haku. Fifita headlined multiple pay-per-view events for WWE and WCW and is a former WWE World Tag Team Champion along with Andre the Giant as one-half of The Colossal Connection.