Great American Bash '86 (7/5)

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '86 (7/5 show)

July 5, 1986 from Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, NC

This a commentary free show as it was never shown on TV

For the first time in a Legacy Review I'm reviewing a show having never seen it before. This is the first of two Bash shows from '86 recently uploaded as Hidden Gems on the WWE Network. Thanks, guys!

We open the show with......skydivers? Yeah, skydivers. National champions apparently. Gold medalists in something or other and world records holders in something that escapes me completely. They're going to have a Fatal Four Way match! No, wait, they're doing some 4 way rotating thingy. I guess. Just looks like guys with parachutes to me. This is definitely the kind of thing ESPN would be showing at 3 PM on a weekday afternoon in 1986. All four guys manage to land on the target, so no one will be yelled at by their Pilotwings instructor today.

NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship: "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal and Denny Brown (c) go to a 15 minute time limit draw- Despite what Wikipedia might try to tell you, Regal is *not* William/Steven Regal. He's an American wrestler that was a low level champion in the AWA before jumping to Crockett earlier in '86. He would go on to be a jobber in WWF for about two months before becoming the face of Windy City Wrestling, a little known territory in the post-territory days. Not so much a big fish in a small pond, more a guppy in a Ziploc bag. Regal stalls getting his entrance gear off. Lots of "one move, stall, reset" in the first few minutes. Brown takes charge with 3 consecutive bodyslams, accompanied by a very high pitched pop. Regal complains about hair pulling to stall. Long headlock from Brown, including running up the ropes for a flippydoish headlock. Regal goes to the hair/tights pulling heel 101 playbook and denies everything, Baldrick. Regal goes to counter a backdrop attempt with an elbow and Brown starts falling back to sell it well before contact. The 10 minute call is the cue to pick up the pace. Regal gets a couple of two counts, beefs with Hebner, then shoves him and, of course, Hebner shoves right back. Regal kills some more time with a chinlock. A Brown right hand and legdrop gets 2. As Brown is hitting Jake Roberts style short punches the bell rings for the time limit. Brown keeps going and Hebner has to stop him. Slow and paint by numbers basic. *1/2

Robert Gibson def NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Black Bart- Ricky Morton is in the main event later so this is to get Gibson on the card. The Rock 'N' Roll Express were arguably Crockett's top draw at this point. At the very least they were right there with Flair and Dusty. Gibson plays dodge the bigger guy to start, and manages to get Bart down with a Thesz Press. Flying headscissors! Bart tries to handstand out but Gibson uses his legs to drive his head back down into the canvas. Bart slips out and kills Gibson with a clothesline. Gibson is in super selling mode, almost flying out of the ring off simple punches. Bart drops him on the guardrail. Bart hits a Boom Drop style legdrop (both legs to the midsection) for 2. Gibson blocks some punches and gets a reverse crossbody off the second rope for the win. Gibson was trying but they didn't mesh well. *

The Minnesota Wrecking Crew II def Sam Houston & Nelson Royal- Arn is in his first of many runs as the NWA TV champ. Some scattered boos for Houston. Both teams argue over who's going to start, eventually settling on Arn and Houston. Arn: "Are you kidding me?". Arn schools Houston and tries to trap him in the heel corner but Houston squirts away. Ole and Royal hoss it up a bit. The Anderson get both Royal and Houston isolated, work the arm and drive both their shoulders into the top turnbuckle, but the faces still manage to make tags. Finally the arm work starts to pay off and the Andersons get Royal beat down enough for him to go face in peril. Ole wraps up the armbar and grabs a handful of pectoral muscle with both hands at the same time. Arn makes the mistake of trying to come off the second rope and Royal catches him. Hot tag to Houston. Houston hits a bulldog but Ole breaks up the pin. Donnybrook! Houston rolls Arn up, but the ref is getting Royal out. Ole comes off the top rope and nails Houston in the external occipital protuberance. Arn falls on him to get the 3. Perfectly acceptable Anderson tag team wrestling. **1/2

Bunkhouse Match: "Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez def Baron von Rashke (w/Paul Jones)- Jones is dressed like 1991 Sgt. Slaughter as we're in the middle of the "Paul Jones' Army" era. As is tradition for Bunkhouse matches both guys are in jeans and t-shirts. Rashke jaws with the crowd for a while and Fernandez jumps him. While Rashke is down Fernandez and Jones play peek a boo in and out of the ring a bit. Fernandez misses a dive. Rashke works him over with an international object. Fernandez is bleeding. Rashke takes off his belt and gives Fernandez the government mule treatment. I'm thinking Rashke should have left that belt on though. His pants are falling down. For real. Now Rashke takes of his boot and uses it as a weapon. Fernandez counters by stepping on his toe. Smart. Rashke tries to run the ropes but his pants have fallen down so far he can't run. They're practically down to his knees. Fernandez dishes out some boot shots and Rashke is bleeding. Fernandez misses a flying clothesline and goes over the top and out. At least it's grass and sod outside instead of concrete so there's some padding. Rashke takes advantage to hitch his pants back up. He picks Fernandez up off the apron to slam him, but Fernandez counters it into a Paul Smackage for the 3. Fernandez was one of the more underrated guys of the era and was especially good in hardcore style matches (as hardcore as this era got) but this didn't entirely come together. Rashke's side match with his pants is unintentional comedy gold. *3/4

Indian Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel def "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious)- Garvin stalls like crazy with his gear and Precious so Wahoo whips him to get his attention. Garvin tries to walk but Wahoo pulls him back in with the strap and whips him ten ways to Sunday. Garvin manages to work in a headlock, but Wahoo pulls the strap up into his crotch. They get into a tug of war with Wahoo on the outside, and he ends up crashing through the guardrail (and on top of a cameraman in the wrong place at the wrong time). Garvin leaps at the opening and busts him open. Wahoo fights back with some stiff chops but Garvin stays in control. Garvin goes for a pin and has to be reminded of the rules by Hebner. Garvin drags Wahoo around for 3 turnbuckles, but Wahoo fights out. More stiff chops. Wahoo spits on Precious! Wahoo gets 2 buckles but Precious trips him. Garvin goes to the top rope but Wahoo snaps him off by the strap. Wahoo ties him up and gets to 3. Precious gets on the apron and tries to stop him again. Wahoo completely ignores her and gets the win. For a strap match, this was pretty durn good. Garvin was a fantastic chickenshit heel, but was also a good enough wrestler to be legit when things got serious, and Wahoo was a good no nonsense straight man foil for him. ***

Taped Fist Match: Ronnie Garvin (w/Wahoo McDaniel) def NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon)- "Taped fist match" means the guys' fists are taped (obviously) and it's boxing style rules. 10 3 minute rounds, 30 second rest periods between rounds, no wrestling moves, no pins, win by a boxing 10 count KO. Garvin is driven in on a golf cart like a conquering hero on a chariot. I'm not 100% sure but I think that's young Dustin Rhodes driving the cart. Tully tries to charge while he has still his robe and belt on but Garvin backdrops him and lays him out with a punch. Dillon is livid. Tully takes a while to recover. When the bell rings it's all Garvin. The first time Tully goes down Dillon revives him with smelling salts. Tully goes down several more times before the bell sounds to end round one (in what I think was way more than 3 minutes). Tully tries another sneaky charge between rounds and gets laid out again. Dillon argues with Tommy Young for more rest time. The bell rings for round 2 and Tully gets up at 8. Garvin goes for a couple of headbutts and gets told off by Young. No wrestling, only boxing. Tully's down again at the end of round 2 (which I'm 100% certain was much shorter than round 1) so Dillon dumps a bucket of water on him. Round 3. Garvin pushes Young out of the way to beat on Tully while he's down. Tully manages to pull Garvin into the corner and post his shoulder. Garvin falls outside. Tully follows and posts him again. Round 3 ends (again shorter) with no bell at all, just the ring announcer's call. Round 4. Garvin gets wobblelegged (TM Dusty Rhodes) but recovers and starts to no sell. Tully bodyslams him and drops and elbow. He covers for a pin but Young refuses. Boxing rules only. Garvin gets dragged outside again. Tully tries to take a shot at Wahoo but gets atomic dropped for his trouble right into a Garvin right hand. After round 4 Dillon retapes Tully's hands. Round 5. Tully grabs a headlock. Garvin side suplexes him. Tully goes to the top rope. As he comes down he and Garvin hit each other and they're both down. Young counts them both down to 10. There must be a winner so we're doing the old "first guy to get to his feet wins". Dillon comes in and waves his towel to try to revive Tully. Wahoo has a much more effective method: while Young's back is turned he dumps a whole bucket of water on Garvin. Garvin crawls up and wins. Afterward Dillon points out all the water in the ring and argues to Young. Young claims he didn't see it and doesn't know anything about it. That's the ref equivalent of "my monitor went out". Dillon threatens to have the whole arena thrown out and to have Young's job. I'm not much of a boxing guy so working under these rules isn't really my thing. The first couple of rounds were a bit dull, but it got better as it went and in the end turned out pretty good as they told a solid story and worked their asses off to execute it. Tully is at his peak, selling like a champ and playing his heel role to perfection, while this style of match played well to Garvin's strengths. ***1/4

Double Russian Chain Match: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def The Russian Team- I think we're over egging the gimmick pudding here. There's two chains. Animal is attached to Ivan Koloff, Hawk to Nikita Koloff. The LOD joined Crockett in April and immediately won the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament and were clearly destined for big things. All four guys are in the ring tornado style with no tags. It's a wild and chaotic brawl from start to finish and hard to recap. There's lots of choking and crotch shots with the chain. Animal yanks the chain to post Ivan while he's outside. Tommy Young takes a ref bump and falls outside. Nikita removes his strap and hits Animal with the Sickle. Young is still outside, so Ivan goes up to the top rope instead of pinning. Ellering pushes him off and Ivan gets crotched on the top rope. Animal covers him and Young gets back in to count the 3. A bit of a mess, but thankfully it was short. 1/2*

Hair vs. Hair Match: Jimmy Valiant def Shaska Whatley (w/Paul Jones)- After rewatching all of Valiant's Starrcade matches it goes without saying my hopes aren't high here. The intros (if there are any) are clipped and we jump right in to Whatley ambushing Valiant. Valiant immediately goes into his "spasm" selling. Whatley gets caught trying to get his feet on the ropes on a pin attempt. Valiant keeps trying to boogie up (his hulk up) but Whatley keeps shutting him down. Valiant doesn't so much run the ropes as take a weird half dancing discombobulated stride to them, flops on the ropes, and bounces off. Whatley jaws with the crowd for a good 30 seconds before a pin attempt then shouts out "DAMMIT!" when Valiant kicks out at two. Well son, it's your own damn fault for taking your time. Jones gets a couple of shots in. Valiant gets tied up in the tree of woe and Hebner has to get him out. Valiant does a blatant spot call then gets a small package for 2. Whatley goes for an arrogant cover with just one knee, and Valiant forgets to kick out! Hebner stops at 2, pauses for a few seconds, *then* Valiant gets a shoulder up. Whatley backs up and does some.....dancing? Not sure what that was supposed to be but it was ugly. He misses an elbow drop and Valiant finally fully boogies up. He hits the wide rotating windmill punches that make The Rock's punches seem subtle. Valiant locks in the sleeper, but Whatley smartly pushes Hebner out of the ring as he's going down. Baron von Rashke runs in (thankfully with his belt reattached and his pants stabilized) and puts on the Loaded Glove of Titaniun Knuckles +2 to nail Valiant with it. Manny Fernandez also runs in to make the save. Valiant picks up the Loaded Glove and nails his other arm Whatley with it to get the 3 count. The face locker room charges in as Vailiant shaves Whatley's head. Exactly what you'd expect it to be, for better or worse. DUD

Steel Cage Mixed Tag Team Match: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA & Baby Doll def NWA World Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette (w/Big Bubba Rogers)- I guess we're counting Cornette as a woman here. The Express and TA were continuing a rivalry that had started in Mid-South. Baby Doll, Tully Blanchard's former manager, turned face and joined up with Dusty soon after the official formation of the Four Horsemen. Cornette wants Baby Doll. Er, Cornette wants to *fight* Baby Doll.....well, in Cornette land I might be saying the same thing anyway. Eaton tries a charge but Baby Doll armdrags him down. The Jim Cornette of 2019 would do a 20 minute rant on how that was killing the business. After a cool down we reset with Eaton and TA. TA press slams Eaton. Condry runs in and TA tries to press slam him but can't get him all the way up and just drops him. The heels pause to confer again. Eaton eats cage and blades. TA pushes him into his corner and Baby Doll slaps him. Dusty hits stereo punches on both Midnights. Cornette considers departing the ringside area but decides not to. Condry takes a cage shot and is also bleeding. Baby Doll gives him a cheese grater spot in the corner. The heels manage to turn it around against TA. TA counters a piledriver attempt by doing a handstand. Nice. The Midnights double team and pummel him. Cornette tags in when he thinks it's safe but misses a diving elbow by half a ring. TA tags in Baby Doll and Cornette retreats. TA goes face in peril. Eaton hits a fist drop off the top of the cage. He goes for it again but TA catches him. (2 on 2) donnybrook! Baby Doll runs over and drags Cornette in. The faces clean out the Midnights and trap Cornette in a triangle. TA punches him out and Baby Doll covers for the pin. Afterward Dusty and Rogers exchange words. Dusty goes out and gets ambushed by the Midnights. They hold him as Rogers beats him down. This was pretty much all killing time until Cornette got his expected beat down. Dusty practically took the night off. *3/4

The ring announcer reminds us to stick around for FIREWORKS immediately after the main event. It is 4th of July weekend.

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Ricky Morton- Flair gets the HELICOPTER entrance, with a red carpet rollout. Amazingly cool. This was the entrance Charlotte was emulating at WM 35. Pretty big pop for Flair considering he's well into his heel run. Morton's wearing a face guard. I don't recall the specifics but given that and the way the match is laid out I'm fairly certain that Flair and/or the Horsemen broke Morton's nose at some point during the build. Some local radio/TV sports guys handle the ring announcing, and surprisingly it's not too bad. Flair gives us a WOOOOO and we're off. Flair gets inadvertently poked in the eye during a lockup and flops like an NBA player. It's unusual to see Flair in there with someone noticeably smaller than him. Flair tries to climb out but Morton pulls his trunks down and gives the audience a bit too much Flair. Morton gives Flair the ten punches in the corner. Flair Flop! A Morton backslide gets 2. Flair gets mad at Tommy Young and pushes him. Young pushes back and Flair sells it! Morton starts working on Flair's nose, playing into the injury. Flair sells a punch like he ran nose first into concrete. "Ah shit!" Flair gets frustrated with Morton for all the punching. After some more nose work Flair gets Morton's face guard off. While he's trying to throw it away Morton rolls him up and gets 2. Flair begs "not the nose". Flair gets a kneebreaker while in a headlock but Morton hangs on to it. Morton misses an elbow drop and Flair finally gets some momentum. He removes the face guard again and gives Morton a cage shot. Morton's bleeding. Flair tries the guard on for a bit before throwing it out of the cage. Flair targets the nose and Morton sells the injury. Flair goes into a good 7-8 minute sequence where he's like a lion playing around with its next meal. He pushes Morton's face into the cage to pose for the photographers. While raking Morton's face in the cage he shouts "Tell them your name!". An arrogant cover gets 2. Flair encourages some Rock N Roll chants from ringside fans. A guy in the crowd yells "Give him a chance!". Flair hooks in the figure four and plays rope leverage cat and mouse with Young. Young eventually catches him and breaks the hold. Morton gets a desperation small package for 2 and starts to hulk up and come back. Flair finally eats cage and I'm pretty sure the camera catches him blading. Morton works the nose some more and gives Flair some cheese grater spots. Flair's screams of agony can be heard all the way at the top of the stadium, and I mean legit blood curdling screams. A Morton cross body off the top gets 2. Flair tries to climb out again, Morton follows him. They trade fisticuffs while straddling the top of the cage until Flair falls all the way down to the mat. Another cage shot. Flair: " FUUUUUUUUUUUUU AH SHIT!". A missile dropkick gets 2. When Flair kicks out Morton lands on top of Young. Flair takes advantage of the distraction, picks Morton up into atomic drop position and crotches him on the top rope. Flair drops down, gets his feet on the ropes for leverage, and Young counts 3! 10 seconds after the bell, the ring announcer reminds us again that the fireworks begin momentarily. I think they already happened. Just another night at the office for the greatest there's ever been, and Morton is pretty damn awesome too. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: You can't expect too much in terms of match quality from large stadium shows of this era, and since it's only one show in a multi-week tour there wasn't going to be much angle wise here either. The main event is must see, the two good matches in the middle are worth a look, and as bad as Valiant's matches are they're like a Rifftrax movie: bad in an amusing way and fun to mock. You can take or leave the rest.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C