Great American Bash '88 (PPV)

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '88 (PPV)

July 10, 1988 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone

This is Jim Crockett Promotions' and the NWA's second attempt in '88 to expand their PPV calendar as part of their national expansion, again using an established tour as the basis. This one would end up a little better than the last one.

NWA World Tag Team Championship: Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (c) (w/JJ Dillon) and Nikita Koloff & Sting go to a 20:00 time limit draw- Koloff's hair is borderline out of control. Tony: "You know it's going to be a good night when the fans literally explode." LITERALLY. Quick, but legit post-bell, jump by the faces for a quick start and early bedlam. Koloff and Arn fight outside. Sting gets a small package on Tully but the ref's distracted. A Sting dropkick sends Arn outside. TOPE SUICIDA! Sting grounds Arn with an armbar, then tags in Koloff to ground things even more. Sting and Koloff are actually a very inspired tag team mix. Sting can hit his big stuff, Koloff comes in and puts a hold on for a few minutes so everyone can rest up, Sting comes back in for more high spots, rinse and repeat. Arn dodges a corner charge but Koloff stops himself before hitting the buckles and kills Arn with a Sickle. Arn catches a charging Sting with a knee. He goes up top, Sting tries to give him the Flair throw, but Arn eye gouges out. Sleeper! Sting runs Arn face first into the top buckle to get out. Sting flips out of a double team and dropkicks both heels. Koloff takes things down again with Tully. Tully's shoulder gets posted and worked on. He tries to tag out in the wrong corner, and the faces drag him away from other tag attempts. While Arn is jawing with the ref Sting and Koloff switch without a tag. Arn and Dillon are irate, shocked and appalled at such cheating! Lots more arm work but they also keep the parts moving so things stay interesting and don't bog down. Finally Tully physically drags Koloff across the ring and *just* gets his fingertips over to tag Arn. Arn and Koloff do a small reset with a lockup sequence. While in a Koloff full nelson Arn manages to lean over and get a tag. Koloff with a Cactus Clothesline on Tully! He suplexes Tully back in and covers but Dillon pulls him off. Koloff goes on the attack but Dillon dodges and Koloff Sickles the post. The Horsemen go to work. Koloff tries hulking up but Arn kills it with a DDT. Koloff just kicks out at 2. More arm work at the 3 minutes left call. Arn goes for a Vader Bomb but Koloff gets his knees up. Hot tag! Sting with a press slam. 2 minutes left. Sting sleeper on Arn with one minute left. Arn manages to work his way out, blind tags Tully. Tully tries a sunset flip off the top rope but Sting blocks it. Koloff Sickle on Arn. Stinger Splash! Scorpion Death Lock on Tully! The bell rings! Sting and Koloff think they won, take the belts and put them on. Dillon has a discussion with the ref. It's officially announced as a time limit draw. Tully held on and didn't submit. Absolutely fantastic. There was a little draw stalling but nothing that held the match down any. ***3/4

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) def The Fantastics (c) in 16:23- The Fantastics took the titles from the Express in May on weekly TV. If the Fantastics win they can give Cornette 10 lashes with a leather strap. Cornette is going to spend the match suspended above the ring in a cage *and* in a straitjacket. Why not put him in the Pandorica while you're at it? Cornette needs a hug before the jacket is put on. Then he complains the sleeves are too long. Fantastic. And this exchange with the ref while he's being tied up: "I'm gonna appeal to your baser instincts. Can you be bribed? 5000? (ref says not for 10,000) What about 15? What is this crackpot? He's an honest man!". Cornette was something special in his heyday. Too bad about today, but that's neither here nor there right now. Cornette screams for his mommy as the cage gets raised. According to JR he's scared of heights and claustrophobic.

Finally the match gets going. Fulton and Eaton start. Fulton slides under the legs but stops and tries for a roll up. Multiple flying headscissors from Fulton, almost .5 hurricanranas. Fulton and Lane do a quick test of strength, and Fulton uses an arm as a step to work around Lane's back for a takedown. Lane responds with karate kicks that send Fulton tumbling outside. Lane gets posted and eats a baseball slide kick. Eaton plants Rogers on the top and tries for a superplex, but Rogers slips out and gets a roll up for just 1. JR mentions the MD Athletic Commission is here and we see the officials' table on camera. Planting seeds for later in the show. The faces get a sneaky tag. Eaton tries a backdrop on Rogers, but Fulton is hiding behind Eaton to block it. Double backdrop on Eaton! Mid-match donnybrook! Lane accidentally backdrops Eaton. The Express go out to regroup while the Fantastics strut. Rogers flips out of a Lane backdrop attempt and rolls him up, but Lane tagged Eaton as he was going down and Eaton plants Rogers with a bulldog. Rogers goes face in peril. Lane kills him with a clothesline and mocks the Fantastics' strut. Eaton hits a big neckbreaker and covers but Rogers' foot is on the rope. A Lane kick in the back of Rogers' head send him into an Eaton backbreaker. Tiltawhirl backbreaker for 2. Alabama Jam! Lane sets Rogers up with a Russian leg sweep and the Express go for the rocket launcher, but Rogers gets his knees up and gets the hot tag. The Express shut Fulton down with double teams and he gets slammed on the concrete. A Rogers crossbody gets Tommy Young and he's down. Eaton gets out a chain, wraps it around his wrist, waffles Fulton, and covers for the 3. The Express retake the titles! Bit of a pop for the win too. After Cornette gets out of the cage the Fantastics attack him and try to give him the 10 lashes anyway but the Express save him. There's a lot of cool stuff in here and overall it was a good match, but it was also slightly off in that way that's hard to put your finger on. Not either team's A game. Fortunately they killed it in their match in Greensboro later in the tour. ***

Tower of Doom Match: The Road Warriors, "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin, Ron Garvin and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams (w/Paul Ellering) def NWA World Television Champion Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan, Al Perez, Ivan Koloff and The Russian Assassin (w/Gary Hart and Paul Jones) in 19:55- This is supposed to be the final blowoff of the long running Jimmy Garvin vs the Varsity Club/Sullivan messing with Precious feud with a lot of extra parts added. The Tower of Doom was spawned from the success of War Games, trying to come up with another match involving big cages. This is the same triple decker structure of smaller cages on top of each other that WCW would wheel out again from time to time, most notably at Uncensored '96 and a Nitro during the awful days of WCW 2000. Two guys start in the top (small) cage, then every two minutes each team sends another man in, and at the same time the refs unlock the trap doors, allowing wrestlers to descend a level. The goal is for every member of the team to leave the structure through the door at ring level. Precious is in the ring and is the "keeper of the key" for the exit door. She's dressed in all black, making her allegiance murky, or at least in theory. Tommy Young is up top controlling the top trap door and he does not look the least bit comfortable being up there. Ron Garvin and Koloff start and try to brawl in the tiny cage but have no space, and it doesn't help that the whole structure wobbles dangerously every time someone so much as nudges the sides in the top cage. They're so far up in the lights, how can the crowd even see them? When the horn sounds the end of the first two minute period Ron Garvin goes down to the middle cage by himself. It's a hell of a drop. He has to try to grab the wall with his feet and gradually work his way down. When the new wrestlers come in up top they look to be worried about keeping their balance more than anything else. Williams is in a 2 on 1 spot in the top cage, and gets run into the cage so hard the whole thing almost collapses. They won't try that again. At the next horn Williams and Koloff go to the middle. Ron Garvin goes to the bottom all alone and Precious lets him out. JR: "The floor is steel! The walls are steel! It's flesh on steel!" Bless him for trying. The horn sounds again. Animal and Perez go to the middle. JR continues in mega overdrive this is so awesome overselling mode. He knows it sucks. Another horn and the last guys enter the match up top. Perez and Animal go to the bottom and leave. So, what's the point of Precious exactly? On the next couple of horns Assassin, Koloff, Hawk and Williams all get down and leave. Again, Precious is doing nothing but opening the door for everyone. It's down to Jimmy Garvin vs Sullivan and Rotunda in the middle ring. At the next horn Rotunda gets down and out while Sullivan and Garvin prevent each other from escaping. A big brawl erupts on the floor. At the next horn the last two guys finally get down to the ring. Precious opens the door but for some reason Sullivan tries to attack her anyway. Garvin fights him off, hits a brain buster, and goes for the door. Precious opens it. As Garvin is exiting Sullivan jumps him from behind and pushes him out. The faces win the match, but Sullivan locks the door back up so he's alone with Precious. Garvin has to climb all the way to the top and go down again to save her. Hawk goes with him. Precious fights off Sullivan's half assed attempts at assault before he takes a piece of tape and starts choking her. Damn, now that's something that you'll never ever see again. Hawk gets down first and makes the save. Garvin gets Precious out and they leave together, all questions apparently settled. Well, they got a good crowd reaction, and there's a good number of people out there that like this feud so fair dos to them. This match, however, was absolute trash. Ill conceived, poorly thought out, horribly executed, and a giant waste of time. They could have (should have) gotten the exact same end result with a simple Garvin vs Sullivan match with Precious in the middle or on a pole or something. I have no choice. This match earned it. MINUS FIVE STARS

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Barry Windham (c) (w/JJ Dillon) def Dusty Rhodes in 15:55- Dusty's trying to get back a title he never officially lost. He was stripped in April for attacking NWA officials, and Windham won the subsequent tournament for the vacant title to give all the Horsemen gold. Dusty gets an armdrag out of the lockup and cocks the elbow but Windham backs off. Criss cross. Windham drops an elbow on Dusty. Dusty counters with a press slam and a DDT. Then he goes up top and comes off with a high crossbody for 2! Get the spatulas out to get Windham off the mat. Windham rolls out and takes a walk. Back in, Dusty no sells punches and floats around boxing style and hits a few of his own. Dillon gets on the apron and gets clocked as well. Windham kicks Dusty out of the ring and follows. Guardrail shot. Windham goes for a piledriver on the floor but Dusty backdrops out. Windham comes back in the ring with punches, but Dusty flips him back outside and slams him on the floor. Dillon distracts and Windham ambushes. He calls for the claw and puts it on. Couple of near falls. Dusty tries to boogie up but Windham tightens up and he goes down again. Dusty backs into the corner, climbs to the second rope, cocks the elbow.....and collapses again. Finally on the third try he elbows out. He goes for the figure four but Windham reaches out (loooooooong arms) and hooks the claw on again. Dusty backs onto the second rope again. This time Windham lets go and sets up a superplex. Dusty pushes out and on the way down Windham takes out Tommy Young. Dusty hits the big elbow drop but there's no ref. Ron Garvin randomly runs in. He pops Dusty with a Hand of Stone! Dillon gets Young back in. Windham puts the claw on an already unconscious Dusty and gets the pin. OK match that had to paper over the fact Dusty was severely breaking down physically. The Garvin turn was randomly out of left field, but completely shocking. **1/4

In the back, Dillon presents Garvin with a briefcase full of cold hard cash in exchange for his soul. I guess when you get used to the money a world champion makes you have to supplement your income somehow.

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair (c) (w/JJ Dillon) def Lex Luger in 23:13- Flair's main mission in '88, while holding the title the whole year, was to help develop Luger and Sting into stars. Bit of a pop for Flair from another non-normal Crockett city crowd. Flair gives us a WOOOOO and we're off. Luger throws Flair around a bit and no sells chops. Press slam. Flair rolls out and flops over the barricade! He calls Young over, has some words, they push each other, and Flair chases him back in the ring. A test of strength leads to another press slam. Bear hug. Flair rubs his arm into Luger's eyes and Luger backs into the ropes. Luger whips Flair, who grabs the top rope to stop and flops out between the ropes onto the apron. Luger suplexes him back in and gets a 2 count. Huge elbow drop for another 2. Flair begs off. He suckers Luger outside and gives him an eye rake, chop, and barricade shots. Flair gets rolling and cocky. Luger ducks a chop while running and hits a huge flying clothesline for a long 2. Flair goes up top. Luger shakes the rope and Flair drops down, gets crotched, and falls into the ring. Flair dodges a dropkick. Flair Flop! Luger sunset flip for 2. Flair gets a shot in on Luger's knee and goes to work. Figure four! Luger reverses out pretty quickly. Luger clotheslines Flair over the top and out but his knee is too hurt to follow up. Chops in the corner and Luger hulks up (he's even wearing yellow trunks tonight). Another press slam but Luger's knee buckles again. Flair throw! Flair flip! Flair dives onto Luger and they both fall into the ropes and are supposed to both go over the top, but they get caught up and take forever to maneuver themselves over. Luger's posted. Flair gets a chair, and while Young is stopping him Dillon posts Luger again. Luger's bleeding. The MD Athletic Commission official walks to ringside to look at it. Luger powerslam. He gets Flair up in the Torture Rack. Young is with the MD official. The bell rings. Luger thinks he's won and so does the crowd, HUGE pop. Sting and other faces run in to celebrate with Luger. Young confers with Gary Capetta. Due to a "severe laceration" (which wasn't even close, like maybe .2 Muta) the state athletic commission official has stopped the match and awarded it to Flair. "Bullshit" chant from the crowd. Kinda funny to hear JR run Maryland down. "Well, in a lot of other states they would have let that go but Maryland is so strict...." Run of the mill Flair vs big strong boi match with Flair taking the still learning Luger to main event school, and an atrocious finish. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Started great, fell off a cliff hard, then tried to rebound but couldn't quite recover. This was the last major Jim Crockett Promotions show before selling to Ted Turner.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

Great American Bash '88 Greensboro

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '88 (Greensboro)

July 16, 1988 from Crockett Home Base, the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC

No commentary as this wasn't a televised show

Like the two '86 GAB shows, this is a Hidden Gem on the WWE Network (thank you, more please!) for a recently found show and I'm reviewing it on my very first viewing. This is later in the '88 tour, after the GAB '88 PPV.

Tony Schiavone is handling ring announcing again. At the top we get the "presented in its most complete form possible" disclaimer, but it looks like all the matches are complete, only most of the entrances have been cut out.

Bugsy McGraw & Tim Horner def Rip Morgan & NWA Western States Heritage Champion Larry Zbyszko in 8:09- Morgan grabs the mic and speaks in Kiwi tongues to rile the crowd up. McGraw and Zbyszko start. Immediate slam by Zbyszko but McGraw dodges 3 elbows and gets a slam of his own. McGraw drags Zbyszko around in a headlock. Horner gets a sunset flip for 2. Zbyszko gets frustrated. Horner flips away from attempts at offense. McGraw goes mild face in peril. The "ref didn't see the tag" spot lets the heels double team. Morgan goes for a pin but McGraw's foot was already on the ropes before he even covered. Great ring awareness (/sarcasm). McGraw reverses a whip sending Zbyszko into the face corner but he doesn't tag out and goes down again. Morgan makes a lot of noise while hitting a lot of very crappy moves. McGraw dodges a dropkick and tags. A Horner crossbody gets the 3. *1/4

Ron Garvin (w/Gary Hart) def The Italian Stallion in 1:15- This is right after Garvin's heel turn. Garvin gets some heat by demanding to switch rings for no reason. He teases the towel throw to the crowd but throws it to Hart instead. Right after the lockup Garvin feigns an ankle injury, blindsides Stallion with a Hand of Stone, and gets the pin. Heel shenanigans to get the crowd invested in the turn. Unfortunately for them, Garvin would leave the next month after a backstage dispute, making stops in the AWA and Puerto Rico before kicking off his WWF run. 1/4*

Dick Murdoch def Gary Royal in 7:02- Murdoch chews Tony out about something or other. Murdoch does some tights pulling while in a headlock and has words with ref Teddy Long over it. He cranks a headlock of his own and pushes Royal to the corner, where he and Long have another argument over rulebreaking. Royal hits the ugliest 1 foot dropkick and Murdoch powders. Murdoch runs Royal into the scaffold support structure a couple of times and jaws with Long again. He tries to slam Royal back in but Royal reverses it for a 2 count. Murdoch gets serious, hits a very delayed brain buster, and gets the win. Extended squash. *

"Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) def Rick Steiner in 1:25- You'd be forgiven if you have to double check the roles here. Garvin is a face and Steiner is a heel, still with the Varsity Club. Steinerline ambush as soon as the bell rings. Garvin dodges a corner charge, fixes his hair, and goes to work. Kevin Sullivan runs in and tries to kidnap Precious. Garvin makes the save before she ends up laying on a stone slab somewhere in a white dress about to be sacrificed. Steiner ambushes again. As they get back it the ring Garvin wraps up a Paul Smackage and wins. Shame they didn't get more time. The crowd loved it though. 3/4*

The Rock N Roll Express def The Sheepherders (w/Rip Morgan) in 14:08- The Sheepherders are the pre-WWF incarnation of the Bushwhackers. You won't see any silly walks, face licking or comedy spots here, these guys are serious heel hardcore brawlers. The RNR returned to Crockett at the start of the GAB tour after leaving in January '88 and were still over (certainly got a big pop here) but not the near transcendent stars they were a couple of years ago. Lots of Spaceballs salutes going back and forth here. The Sheepherders take time to display the New Zealand flag. Luke takes the mic and taunts the crowd (I wonder if he realized calling a North Carolina crowd Yankees was a double insult?). Morton grabs the mic and offers a counterpoint, a G rated version of kiss our ass. *Another* flag display and the RNR finally attack and clear the ring out. Big RNR chant and more heel stalling. Gibson ends up in the heel corner and gets worked on a bit, before running the ropes full speed and getting a roll up for 2. 2 on 2 standoff. Morgan tries to ambush the RNR from behind but they duck and he takes the Sheepherders out instead. Stall and reset. Morton sells a bit, slides under the legs, hits a dropkick and gives the heels a bodyslam party. Gibson gets a crossbody but Morgan and Morton are fighting on the apron and the ref doesn't see it. Luke whacks him with the flagpole. Gibson goes full face in peril. Lots of double teams to keep Gibson in the corner, but Gibson also gets several good hope spots in to keep things interesting. Butch hooks in the loosest chinlock ever. Like Cena's STF. Gibson hits both heels with a crossbody and gets the hot tag. Donnybrook! Morgan and Luke post Morton, then double team Gibson. Gibson rams them into each other and Luke falls out. Morton hits a crossbody off the top rope to win. Once they finally got going it was decent. The RNR did their best with what they had to work with. But their disputes with Crockett were not done. Gibson left soon after the GAB tour over a pay dispute, and after hanging on and working some singles and random 6 man matches Morton would also leave in September. Neither would return until after the Turner buyout and formation of WCW. **1/2

Al Perez (w/Gary Hart) def Brad Armstrong in 11:18- Rough lockup standoff. Perez tries for a corner break cheap shot but Armstrong blocks it. Armstrong drags Perez all around the ring in an arm wringer. Perez is visibly holding himself back from cheating. Lots of arm work with Armstrong outwrestling Perez. Hart slaps Armstrong's thigh on a corner break and Armstrong goes after him. Hart hides in the scaffolding. Perez ambushes and slams Armstrong on the floor. Hart rams him into the scaffolding railing. Perez works the back. Helicopter slam! Perez puts Armstrong in a bow and arrow, but his shoulders are down and Tommy Young counts 2. Perez: "What're you counting me for?". That gives Armstrong an opening. A backslide and small package each get 2. Perez throws him outside again. Armstrong comes back and gives Perez a slam on the concrete. An Armstrong dropkick sends Perez over the top and out. Armstrong tries to suplex Perez back in but they do the Wrestlemania 5 finish (before WM 5 happened). Hart grabs his foot and holds it down while Perez pins him. Solid stuff. Armstrong was an underrated worker and, even though he did none of it in this match, could fly with the best of them. He's someone that I'd love to see today, he'd thrive in modern wrestling. ***

Handicap Bunkhouse Match: The Fantastics def NWA United States Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette in 15:10- Bunkhouse match so everyone's in street clothes except Cornette, who's in his usual wrestling bodysuit. Rogers gets the mic and wants Cornette to start. Cornette is just fine on the apron. Fulton and Eaton get the start and exchange straight rights. Eaton gets a cheap shot on a corner break and hits what looks suspiciously like a hip attack. I don't think that's in his moveset, but that's what it looked like. He'll be whipping out a Bumma Ye next. They crank it up a bit and Eaton takes a backdrop. Early donnybrook. Fulton gets posted. Cornette grabs a chair but Rogers takes it away. The Fantastics celebrate and strut in the ring while the heels huddle. Reset with Fulton and Eaton still legal. Eaton gets a chair but Fulton atomic drops him onto it. Another breakdown with fighting all over. Cornette gets his cardio in running away. Eaton takes a chair beating outside. The crowd is going ape shit for it. Back in, Lane takes a couple of hip tosses. He goes to the corner and reaches to tag Cornette, who bails off the apron. "Not me! Him!" Rogers skins the cat and dropkicks Lane. Again Lane goes to tag Cornette and Cornette runs away. Lane's had enough! He follows, yells at Cornette, and drags him into the ring. Cornette begs. Lane and Eaton discuss the situation. Rogers attacks them while Fulton gives Cornette a shot. While Rogers is running the ropes Lane hits him with an enzuguri as he's running by and Rogers flies out of the ring! That was awesome. Cornette throws a chair on Rogers from a safe distance. Once he determines it's safe, he sneaks in and drops an elbow. Lane chokes Rogers with a camera cable. Cornette rolls him back in. Lane hits a clothesline, and *now* Cornette tags in. He drops a couple of elbows. Rogers gets up. Cornette punches him. Rogers no sells it all and chokes Cornette, but back into the heel corner. Eaton gets an Abdullah the Butcher-esque spike out and hits Rogers with it. Cornette tags in again and now he has a chain around his fist and gives Rogers a couple of punches with it. I'm shocked there's no blood. Cornette goes to slam Rogers but can't pick him up. Eaton runs in behind Cornette, helps him pick Rogers up, slams him, and Cornette celebrates like he did it all himself! Oh man, I literally had to pause the show to stop laughing before I could continue. Just fantastic. The Express hit the Rocket Launcher almost all the way across the ring and Eaton covers for a sure 3. "BOBBY! BOBBY!" What?" "Let me do it!" Against his better judgement Eaton tags Cornette back in. Arrogant cover. Rogers kicks out! Hot tag! DONNYBROOK! Cornette gets powder out but misses and gets Eaton with it. Cornette's all alone. Double clothesline from the Fantastics, and it's all over. The Fantastics get a measure of revenge for losing the titles to the Express at the PPV. Absolutely phenomenal. Tons of fun, great storytelling, good wrestling, and a red hot crowd. ****1/4

NWA World Television Championship: Sting def Mike Rotunda (c) (w/Kevin Sullivan & Rick Steiner) by DQ in 10:16- Sting's face paint is a bit Warrior-esque tonight. It's the upward point in the middle. He gets a big pop too. Rotunda does some stalling before they even lock up, making me nervous about how this is going to go. Sting leapfrog spot and he hits one, two, THREE dropkicks on Rotunda! Dropkick for Steiner! Dropkick for Booker Man! Syracuse sucks chant from the crowd. Rotunda is actually making an effort to keep up with Sting. Sting his a legdrop a bit south of the border while Tommy Young is talking with Steiner. Varsity Club teamwork at its best. Sting with an enzuguri! Rotunda and Steiner keep Young occupied while Sullivan stalks around the ring. Steiner grabs Sting's foot. While Sting's reaching for him Rotunda pushes him out. Sullivan goes to town on Sting with an international pipe. Rotunda chinlock with outside leverage help. Rotunda goes up top but get the Flair throw. Sting throws him into ring 2, then hits the ropes and dives from ring 1, over both top ropes, and onto Rotunda in the middle of ring 2! Stinger Splash! He goes for the Scorpion Death Lock but Steiner runs in and draws the cheap DQ. After Sting leaves Rotunda and Steiner get in a shoving match and Sullivan has to make peace. Sting, again, looked like a megastar, and Rotunda did his part to make him look good. ***1/4

Scaffold Match: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def Ivan Koloff & Russian Assassin #1 (w/Paul Jones) in 5:34- Interestingly, from the scaffold the wrestlers can reach up and touch the bottom of the War Games cage. You know there'd be some crazy ass spot using that if it was today. Koloff throws powder on Animal. Hawk jumps and we pair off for the entire match: Animal and Koloff on one end, Hawk and Assassin on the other (staying within the railing because Assassin clearly doesn't much like being up there). Animal low blow on Koloff. Koloff and Hawk both tease falling. Koloff returns the low blow favor on Animal and he hangs from the edge a bit. If nothing else these matches sure got the kids screaming in terror. Animal with a dropkick! On the scaffold. That's nuts. So was Koloff's bump. Hawk tells Assassin #1 that he is #1, but not with the index finger. Assassin chokes Hawk. Koloff gets pushed onto the railing, goes under the scaffold and takes the dive. Hawk and Assassin are choking each other. Animal is content to watch and not help. Koloff climbs back up the cage with his chain and wraps it around Animal's neck. Animal fights it off. Assassin has had enough and starts climbing down the railing with no push at all from Hawk. Hawk kicks him and he takes the short bump from the railing to the mat and the LOD win. Paul Jones takes his bumps afterward. I'm not a fan of scaffold matches, when you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all (unless it's that atrocious "capture the flag" one from GAB '91 that no one should ever watch under any circumstances), but this one wasn't too shabby. **

War Games Match: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, "The Total Package" Lex Luger, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Nikita Koloff & Paul Ellering def The Four Horsemen (NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair, NWA United States Champion Barry Windham, NWA World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard & JJ Dillon) in 21:07- The Horsemen are at their absolute peak and are draped in gold. That, kids, is undisputed. Arn and Tully also have some sweet white Horseman jackets on.

P1. Dusty Rhodes and Arn Anderson- Arn taunts Dusty into his ring. Dusty responds with a Bionic Elbow. Arn wants a TO. Arn switches rings and taunts again. Dusty cautiously follows. DDT on Arn. Arn eats cage and is bleeding. He gets a kick on Dusty's bad knee, pulls out a pair of international pliers and uses them to bust Dusty open. Dusty responds with a Greco Roman Cock Punch (Something Joey Ryan needs. Not in his moveset, I mean done to him. Repeatedly.). Dusty figure four on Arn.

P2. Barry Windham- The heels win the coin toss! I'm shocked, I tell you. SHOCKED. Dusty fights both heels off with elbows until Arn gets him from behind. Windham locks the Claw in. We get a close up of Dusty gushing blood.

P3. Steve Williams- Huge clotheslines on both heels. Football tackles for everyone! Dusty throws Windham from ring 2 to ring 1. Windham rammed into the cage. Williams blocks a cage shot and gives Arn another one.

P4. Ric Flair- The champ is here. Williams no sells chops and Flair backs off. Arn and Windham work Dusty over. Williams takes a cage shot and Arn gives him a DDT. Flair taunts Luger.

P5. Lex Luger- He clotheslines Windham, then goes right for Flair. Luger powerslams on Flair and Windham. Luger either blocks or no sells a cage shot, can't tell from the camera angle. He rams Flair into the cage, Flair screaming the whole way.

P6. Tully Blanchard- Here's a strategery twist. Since both teams have managers wrestling, instead of using the last spot for the big closer, they're holding the potential weak links off until the end. Tully brings a chair in with him and goes to town on Luger with it.

P7. Nikita Koloff- The face team is also holding the manager off for the end. Otherwise Koloff would be the obvious closer. Flair attacks Koloff the second he's in the door. Koloff no sells. Sickles for Flair and Windham. Koloff puts a figure four on Flair! Tony: "One minute remains!....Well, a little bit more than one." Heh. Lots of paired off brawling but nothing hugely notable happening.

P8. JJ Dillon- Here's a thought: the Horsemen might be at a *disadvantage* winning the coin toss with this team, because it means Dillon will have to be in longer than Ellering. It's these little strategic wrinkles that make War Games so fun and interesting, and are lost a little in the modern version. Dillon joins with Windham for a double clothesline on Luger. That goes good, so he switches rings completely full of himself. He tries to choke Koloff, and that goes less well. Flair tries to Flair Flop but there's no space to do it. Williams gives Flair the cheese grater spot. Dusty with a double noggin knocker on Tully and Ellering.

P9. Paul Ellering- The Match Beyond begins. Ellering takes it straight to Flair. Williams is choking Dillon. Dillon and Ellering end up by themselves in a ring. Ellering gives Dillon an atomic drop. Dusty comes in and puts Dillon in the figure four while the rest of the team holds the Horsemen back. Dillon submits!

Solid but not spectacular, by War Games' high standard. It's one night of a long tour with a lot of these matches and some guys were dogging it a bit. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Once you get past some "eh" matches on the undercard the second half of the show is fantastic. The Fantastics/Midnights match is must see, and a so-so War Games is still a damn good match. Crazy hot crowd too, for, little did they know, one of the last major shows they'd see as the promotion's home crowd before the sell to Ted Turner and moving HQ to Atlanta.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

Survivor Series '88

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '88

November 24, 1988 from the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, OH

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura

WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior, The Blue Blazer, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, Sam Houston and Jim Brunzell def The Honky Tonk Man, "Outlaw" Ron Bass, "Dangerous" Danny Davis, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Bad News Brown (w/Jimmy Hart) in 17:50- Warrior's team all run in full speed with him. Commentary mentions Brown is a "loner" and say this is the first time they've ever seen him in a tag match. Foreshadowing. Former Dream Team partners Beefcake and Valentine start. Davis gets an early cheap shot in. Beefcake makes short work of him with the sleeper. Valentine works Beefcake's leg over. He goes for the figure four but Beefcake pushes out. Blazer (Owen Hart) whips out the flippydo. Valentine gets a sneaky tag to Brown. Brown and Brunzell go back and forth a bit, ending when Brown nails him with the Ghetto Blaster and eliminates him. Brown stays in and laughs off beanpole Sam Houston's attempt at offense. Houston does what he does best: take a beating. Brown stays in a long time without tagging out, but hey, it's only Houston. Finally he tags out to Valentine, but then wants right back in. They go to double team Houston, but Houston ducks and Valentine nails Brown! Brown has some words and storms off, taking the countout. Houston rolls up a distracted Valentine for 2. Bass gets in for some Texan on Texan violence and Houston does what he does best. Again. Houston gets a springboard reverse crossbody for 2 but doesn't tag out. He tries a monkey flip but Bass catches him, turns it into a powerslam, and eliminates Houston. Here comes the Warrior. All the heels go down. Warrior rocket launches Blazer onto Bass but it's only good for 2. Valentine and Blazer botch a leapfrog spot but quickly recover. Blazer goes up top but Honky pushes him off. Valentine hooks the figure four in and it's good night Blazer. Beefcake goes face in peril and is triple teamed by the heels. Honky goes for the Shake Rattle and Roll but Beefcake backdrops out. Sleeper on Honky. He dives through the ropes to try to get out. Honky and Beefcake brawl on the floor and both guys are counted out. Valentine and Bass double team Warrior until Warrior hits them with a double clothesline. Warrior hits both Bass and Valentine with double ax handles and eliminates them both to win. SOLE SURVIVOR: The Ultimate Warrior. Very abrupt ending. Perfectly watchable match. **1/4

The Powers of Pain, The Rockers, The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs and The Young Stallions def WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition, The Brain Busters, The Conquistadors, The Bolsheviks, and The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (w/Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart & Mr. Fuji) in 42:12- This is the proper, serious version of the Conquistadors, not anything like the Edge and Christian version. Same outfits though. Like last year there's guys wrapped all around the ring apron. They constantly have to move to make space for rope running. It's team elimination, so when one wrestler is eliminated his partner is also out. DBS and Uno start. Well I think it's Uno. He's the first guy in so, it's Uno. Wrestling logic. DBS press slams Jacques into Raymond. Shawn does his corner flip over Zhukov, a huge spot back in this day. Ax axes Janetty. Arn and Janetty are in together! The Rockers and Brian Busters were just starting their feud that would tear up the house show circuit and make the Rockers WWF stars. Janetty and Tully slugfest. Lots of quick tags happening. No one has been eliminated but almost everyone has cycled in at some point. Bret wraps up Raymond in a small package (with a little un-Bret like slippiness, he doesn't quite get Raymond's head locked in) to eliminate the Rougeaus so they can shower and get out of town before the Bulldogs legit kill them backstage (A rib gone wrong. A harmful rib, if you will. Old BTE references FTW.). Roma springboards to the TOP rope and gets a reverse crossbody from there for 2. Bret goes mild FIP for a bit. He and Tully have a quick sequence. Mid-'80s Tully vs mid-'90s Bret would be a hell of a dream match. Smash catches Shawn on a crossbody attempt and drapes him over the heel corner so they can all work on him. Arn with the World's Greatest Spinebuster on Shawn! But he hesitates to cover and Shawn kicks out. Janetty spins out of a hiptoss attempt and turns it into a slam. Monsoon: "I've never seen anything like that before". More quick tags on both sides. Ax and Warlord end up in together and the crowd eats it up. Anvil powerslams Tully for 2. Powers gets the 2nd rope springboard, but Zhukov reverses it to eliminate the Young Stallions. Quite the comedown from their performance in last year's match. Tully tags in, sees the Barbarian across from him, and skedaddles right out pronto. The Demos pound Barbarian down. Janetty gets a sunset flip on Zhukov for 3, and the Bolsheviks are gone. Janetty turns a backdrop into a roll up for 2. Now Tully doesn't want to get in with DBS, but uses the ref to heel 101 him down. The Harts hit a version of the Decapitation Device on Uno (Dos?) for 2. Dos (Uno?) gets confused and tries to tag out in the face corner. He's on the ropes (figuratively) but Barbarian gives him a headbutt that sends him into the heel corner. Demolition puts Barbarian in peril. After a tag the Rockers and Busters are at it again. Bret goes through the Five Moves of Doom on Tully. He gives Tully a German suplex with a bridge. The ref counts 3, but Tully got a shoulder up and Bret didn't. The Harts are eliminated. The Rockers and Busters go into full donnybrook mode, and the ref DQs all of them. They keep fighting all the way up the aisle.

It's down to Demolition and the Conquistadors against the POP and Bulldogs. Uno and Dos both fight off pin attempts. DBS gets a crucifix on Smash for 2. There's still a lot of back and forth and quick tags with all four teams involved, but this is the stretch of the match that goes on a tick too long. Dynamite gets a couple of near falls on Tres. Smash dodges Dynamite's headbutt off the top rope, clotheslines him and gets the pin to eliminate the Bulldogs. This is Dynamite's last WWF appearance. The Bulldogs would go back to Stampede for a bit before joining All Japan until Dynamite's forced retirement due to chronic back problems in '91 (which were already showing at the time of this match) and DBS's WWF return as a singles wrestler. Warlord posts his shoulder and goes FIP. Fuji gets on the apron to bark orders. As Smash runs the ropes, Fuji opens them up and Smash tumbles to the floor! WHAT? Smash is counted out. Ax confronts Fuji and they argue. As soon as Ax turns his back, Fuji whacks him with his cane! Ax body slams Fuji on the floor, and the Demos leave. Mass confusion. The Conquistadors try to wrestle, but the POP go out to help Fuji! What is going on here? Commentary is baffled and befuddled. Monsoon: "Something stinks here". Ventura: "Yeah, and it ain't Cleveland". The POP re-enter the match, and Fuji stays at ringside. Fuji hooks UnoDos's leg with the cane, and Warlord covers for the win. SOLE SURVIVORS: The Powers of Pain. The POP celebrate with Fuji until Demolition run in and fights them off. Double turn complete. For the second straight year, the tag team match steals the show at Survivor Series. It drug a little down the stretch, but the action was nonstop throughout with lots of interesting pairings, and the double turn helped elevate it even more. ****

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. Bad News Brown explains himself, saying his teammates were conspiring against him. Basic R-Truth conspiracy theory: see them everywhere. He also demands a title shot against Savage because he won the WM battle royale and promises to go straight to Jack Tunney. Meanwhile, Fuji explains that he dumped the Demos because they stopped listening to him, so he found a team that would. Mean Gene: "You can't trust this man!".

Andre the Giant, "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, "King" Harley Race and Dino Bravo (w/Bobby Heenan and Frenchy Martin) def Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Ken Patera, Tito Santana and Scott Casey in 30:03- First things first: who the smeg is Scott Casey? Well, he's that rare guy that you could call a super jobber. He'd lose to established names, but also get the occasional TV win against other jobbers. Perfect had just joined the WWF after dropping the AWA World title in May. He was still using his real name as his ring name. This is early on in the "Damien gave Andre a heart attack" Andre/Roberts feud that will run until WM 5. Rude and Patera start. Rude's tights tonight are....interesting. Women's hands right over his crotch and on his ass. Perfect legit runs into Duggan while running the ropes. Santana and Perfect have a nice high octane sequence. Bravo turns a Casey monkey flip attempt into an inverted atomic drop and the heels take turns beating on the super jobber. Duggan "clotheslines" Perfect, running full body into him. Payback for earlier? Perfect does a 360 corner sell over the top and out. Santana gets a glancing .6 flying forearm on Rude, who kicks out. Casey and Duggan are both looking rough tonight. Very sloppy wrestling. The Rude Awakening takes out Patera. Bravo's side suplex thankfully eliminates Casey. Duggan wanders by the heel corner and Andre, who hasn't been off the apron yet the whole match, pulls him in. Santana gets a couple of good near falls on Bravo. A Race piledriver on Santana gets 2. Flying empanada! Race is gone. Andre finally gets in and chokes the life out of Santana. Santana tries a sunset flip! on Andre, but Andre sits on him and pins him. Not the brightest idea. I bet Duggan told him to do it. Duggan comes in punching and Andre gets tied up in the ropes. The faces go to town on him a bit. Roberts and Rude renew their rivalry. Ventura wonders who Cheryl Roberts is cheering for. Roberts hits the buckles at 100 MPH and goes FIP. Bravo hits him with a huge jumping piledriver, but Roberts gets a foot on the rope. Roberts rolls away from Bravo diving elbows and gets the hot tag. Duggan cleans house, goes down to the 3 point stance, but Frenchy grabs his foot and drags him out. Bravo slams him on the floor. Duggan runs around, grabs his 2x4, and whacks Bravo with it. Duggan is DQ'd. Duggan: "SHIT!" (bleeped out of course) It's 4 on 1 with Roberts the last face standing. Roberts gets the upper hand on Perfect. A frustrated Perfect tags out. Bravo backdrops out of a DDT attempt. Rude tags in. Roberts is full of babyface fury and bushido but is wearing down. While Rude walks over to tag out Roberts pulls his tights down, turns him around for a DDT, and Rude is gone. Andre comes in, starts choking Roberts and refuses to let go. Andre is DQ'd. While the refs are getting Andre out Roberts collapses in the middle of the ring, absolutely done. Perfect runs in, covers him, and gets the win. SURVIVORS: Mr. Perfect and Dino Bravo. It had some moments but not enough to fill all the time it got. *3/4

WWF Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Hercules, Koko B Ware and Hillbilly Jim def The Twin Towers, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, The Red Rooster, and Haku (w/Bobby Heenan and Slick) in 29:10- The Mega Powers vs The Twin Towers was the big placeholder feud going on, using the usual "Hogan vs big guy" formula, while time ticked down to the Mega Powers explosion. Savage and DiBiase renew acquaintances to start. DiBiase runs away from Herc (the "DiBiase trying to buy Herc as a slave" feud was going). Poor Terry Taylor. Listening to how commentary is forced to talk about one of the most underrated wrestlers of the era is just painful. A Hogan/Jim double big boot on Haku gets 2. Rooster tries to slam Jim and that doesn't go well. Marty Scurll has a better chance of slamming Bad Luck Fale (I wish I could remember exactly which New Japan show they did that on, it was hilarious). Rooster remembers he's Terry "Flair Lite" Taylor for a minute as he and Ware have a nice speed sequence. The Savage elbow finishes Rooster off. Heenan berates him as he heads to the back. The faces celebrate like they've won the whole match while the heels have a strategery huddle. More quick tags with nothing really remarkable happening. Akeem and Jim shockingly have a pretty decent sequence, ending when Akeem pins him with the 747. Ware dropkicks Akeem from behind as he celebrates. The faces take turns trying to knock Akeem down. Vince Big Man Logic Rule 1: the bigger they are, the less they fall. The Boss Man Slam finishes Ware. Now they do the "won't fall down" sequence again with Boss Man. Hogan slams him but Boss Man gets right back up and hits Hogan with a spinebuster. Hogan goes in peril a bit before Hulking Up on DiBiase and tagging in Herc. DiBiase goes into super selling mode. Virgil grabs Herc's foot and DiBiase rolls him up and eliminates him. While DiBiase is still jawing with Herc Savage sneaks up, rolls DiBiase up, and eliminates him and the rest of the heel side workrate. Hogan goes in peril again. Haku locks in the Tongan Nerve Grip of Applied Mechanics +1. Boss Man plants Hogan with the Boss Man Slam but doesn't go for a cover. He tries to come off the top rope but Hogan dodges and tags. Slick whacks Savage with his cane while he's running the ropes. Then Slick gets in Elizabeth's face and tries to drag her to the back. Hogan saves her, but is ambushed by the Twin Towers. Boss Man is counted out. Was he even the legal man? They handcuff Hogan to the bottom rope and Boss Man goes to work on him with his nightstick. While all this is going on Haku is beating up Savage in the ring. Boss Man attacks Savage with the club, Akeem joins in, and Akeem is DQ'd. Hogan's still handcuffed and Slick taunts him with the key. Savage fights Haku off and goes to tag but there's no one there. Haku accidentally kicks Slick off the apron. Elizabeth runs around, finds the key and frees Hogan. Ventura: "She's going after Slick's wallet!'. Haku goes for a splash off the top but Savage dodges and tags Hogan. Big boot/slam/legdrop/good night. SURVIVORS: The Mega Powers. Hogan checks on Savage for about a second before he starts posing. Savage takes a while to recover from the beating Haku gave him. Hogan celebrates with Elizabeth and Savage joins in but does not look happy as the show goes off air. This is the kind of clusterfrell booking you get when everyone's protecting their spot and no one wants to eat a pin. *1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: A mostly forgettable show. The tag team match is must see and one of the best traditional Survivor Series matches ever but that's about it. The Mega Powers tension isn't even enough to watch here, as it's much more overt at the Rumble a couple of months later.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Bunkhouse Stampede '88

Legacy Review

Bunkhouse Stampede '88

January 24, 1988 from the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

After seeing the success of Survivor Series, this is Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA's first attempt to expand the PPV calendar past Starrcade. The Bunkhouse Stampede matches, which were battle royals with weapons and the wrestlers dressing in street clothes (my personal theory is Dusty loved to book matches that he could get away with wrestling in jeans), had been held annually starting in 1985. Each year would have a series of "preliminary" Stampedes with all the winners going on to compete in a final match. This PPV is the '88 final. And as part of Crockett's continued attempt at national expansion, after holding Starrcade '87 well outside their normal area in Chicago, this show goes straight into WWF territory, on the doorstep of New York City. To counter, WWF put a show on basic cable where they invented their own spin on the battle royale, a little thing called the Royal Rumble.

No real intro as we start right off with Nikita Koloff walking to the ring. Tony Schiavone is on ring announcing duty again tonight.

NWA World Television Championship: Nikita Koloff (c) and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Jim Cornette) go to a 20:00 time limit draw- Random tag team challenger = everyone knows there'll be no title change here. Eaton is also half of the US tag champs. Lockup standoff to start with a surprising clean corner break. The hard cameras tonight are strangely off center. Eaton with a slap in the corner, setting Koloff off. Koloff works tiny American puny arm. Eaton kicks out, sending Koloff all the way to the floor and they brawl outside a bit. Back in, Eaton grabs a headlock. They crank it up a bit, ending with Eaton running into a bodyslam. Outside again, Eaton gets posted and takes a bump off a cameraman. Koloff hiptosses him on the concrete. Eaton sells it for about 10 seconds and gets right back in. These guys are almost working reversed roles so far. Cornette makes up for it, getting heat by yelling at everyone and everything. So not unlike today then. Eaton starts working a hammerlock, which will be a bit of a theme the second half of the match. Eaton gets a missile dropkick off the top for 2. Cornette cuts a promo on Koloff while Eaton has him in the hammerlock. At the 4 minutes left call Koloff Russian bears up and hits a .5 Sickle. It was glancing enough that Eaton is up first and goes back to the hammerlock again. This thing is really dragging down the stretch, when it should be picking up steam. With 2 minutes left Koloff gets out, but Eaton wraps the hammerlock back in again. Eaton's doing a great job of keeping Koloff down, but what's the endgame here? The plan to actually win? He's not submitting to a hammerlock. At the 1 minute call Koloff is free again. Slugfest. Koloff with the mounted punches at 30 seconds left. Koloff hits the Sickle but the bell rings for the time limit right as Koloff covers. Stan Lane comes in and the Express beat Koloff down. The first half was almost serviceable, but it got worse down the stretch, not better, with questionable layout and some very obvious time limit stalling. *

NWA/UWF Western States Heritage Championship: Larry Zbyszko (w/Baby Doll) def Barry Windham (c) in 19:16- Baby Doll gets in Windham's grill before the match. Windham hits an armdrag, Zbyszko yells at the ref, and the stalling is on. Not as bad as it could be though. It's not '90s Zbyszko or Mike Rotunda levels. Windham runs Zbyszko over with some shoulderblocks. Zbyszko starts to work Windham's bum knee that had been hurt by the Four Horsemen but Windham powers out. He goes for a hammerlock instead, but Windham fireman carrys out of it. Zbyszko: "DAMMIT!". Some frustration shoving. Zbyszko gets a drop toe hold and goes to the knee again. Winham enzuguris out of it. Windham powerslam for 2. He goes for a senton off the top rope but Zbyszko dodges it. Back to the knee. Windham powers out with a one arm Saito suplex. Another drop toe hold and back to the knee. Windham gets out, tries for a suplex and gets Zbyszko over but his knee gives out as well. Windham with a sleeper. Zbyszko gets to the ropes. They go outside again. Zbyszko takes a table shot but manages to post Windham. WIndham recovers, drags Zbyszko down, and pulls him crotch first into the post. Zbyszko tried to cover his junk up with his hand before going in. Funny. Windham whips Zbyszko and tries the flying lariat, but Zbyszko just collapses and Windham flies out side. Hard midring collision and both guys are down. A whip reversal leads to a ref bump. Baby Doll hands Zbyszko her High Heeled Shoe of Extra Pointiness +3, Zbyszko nails Windham with it, the ref recovers, and we have a new champion. This is the only title change in this belt's barely 18 month lifespan. Call me crazy, but I didn't hate this. **1/2

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Road Warrior Hawk (w/Paul Ellering) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/JJ Dillon) by DQ in 21:39- Re: tag wrestlers challenging for singles titles, see above, and multiply by 100. Due to tape issues on the Network copy this match is JIP'd in the opening minutes. This is essentially your basic Flair vs. big man formula match (or alternately put, "Flair wrestles himself" or "Flair wrestles a broomstick" for 20 minutes). Flair bounces off of Hawk on a shoulderblock attempt. Hawk no sells chops. Flair has a think then another bounce off. Hawk with a press slam. Flair: "OH GOD!". Press slam 2. Flair sells it like he just took a baseball bat to the back. Flair Flop! Hawk stomps a mudhole in the corner. Flair powders again and gets suplexed back in. Bear hug. Flair leans back to get a couple of near falls out of it. He tries to come back with chops to more Hawk no sells. An eye poke leads to a guardrail shot, which Hawk (stop me if you've heard this one already) no sells. Hawk picks the wooden stairs up and throws them in Flair's general direction. Back in Hawk chokes Flair, and Flair uses the cover to get a low blow in. Hawk finally sells something. Multiple eye gouges from Flair, and he rams Hawk into the guardrail. Flair hits a double ax handle off the top rope. Yes, off the top rope! I'm as shocked as you are. Hawk counters a backdrop into a neckbreaker. Flair dodges a diving fist and Hawk hurts his knee on the way down. Make sure your lunches are packed kids, we're off to school. Flair takes advantage of the ref jawing with Ellering to get another low blow in. Ellering and Dillon stare off. Classic Flair knee work with a bit of playing around follows. Figure four! Flair continues to play the not Tommy Young local ref like a fiddle getting rope leverage. Eventually Hawk uses his power to drag Flair back to the middle of the ring and reverses. Flair goes up top and normalcy returns as he gets thrown off. Hawk charges out of the corner with a clothesline, but his momentum was go great he takes out Flair and the ref! Flair is clotheslined over the top and out. Post jobs, and Flair is bleeding. A little. Like .4 normal Flair bleeding. Hawk hits a superplex but there's still no ref. Dillon comes in and whacks him with a chair. Hawk no sells and goes after Dillon. Flair takes advantage and whacks Hawk in the head with the chair. The ref gets back in but Hawk still kicks out at 2. Flair with the delayed suplex and Hawk no sells, all together (EVERYONE: Hawk no sells). Mounted punches. Flair Flop 2! Flair recovers, picks the chair back up and whacks Hawk with it right in front of the ref for the cheap DQ. Ugh. That's house show level stuff, not PPV. But then so was putting Hawk in this match in the first place. This is pretty much Flair's late '80s floor. ***1/4

Bob Caudle reads off the credits while the cage is being erected. All of them. Every single one. Is there a reason we couldn't have promos instead? Wait, cage? Oh yeah, this isn't just a Bunkhouse Stampede. This is a STEEL CAGE Bunkhouse Stampede. To be eliminated to you have to go over the top of the cage to the floor, or out the door to the floor. Don't even try to work out the physics of how a wrestler is supposed to get an opponent over the top of the cage in any believable kayfabe manner without the guy going over giving any help whatsoever, it's not possible. Or that they might be taking the mickey out of WWF's escape rules cage matches by doing the reverse rules. The big drama here is Dusty Rhodes has won every Stampede final to date (they say two in a row on TV but it's really three), and Dusty got in at the last moment in a final chance wild card match trying to keep the streak alive.

1988 Bunkhouse Stampede Finals: Your participants are NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Dusty Rhodes, NWA World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, The Warlord (wearing a lifeguard tank top for some reason), The Barbarian, Ivan Koloff, Lex Luger (who had recently turned face and left the Horsemen), and Road Warrior Animal (who won the most Stampede prelims this year).

The bell rings and we're off.....with lots of standing, meandering around and generic battle royale brawling. Wait, no one brought weapons. I was promised weapons! About all there is are the leather weightlifting belts half the guys are wearing. Dusty tries to get Tully through the door. Arn makes the save. Koloff is the first bleeder, but far from the last. Koloff, Dusty and Barbarian fight near the top. Barbarian tries to power Dusty over the top but can't. Animal chases Tully across the top rope. There's lots of heel/heel and face/face alliances going on. There can only be one winner but they're not working the "every man for himself" angle at all. Another way the Rumble succeeded where this failed. And the cameras are missing half the action, like an NJPW show in the US using the AXS camera team. About 10 minutes in Dusty wakes the crowd up by getting Tully's leather belt off and awhoopin' and awhippin' all the heels with it. There's absolutely no attempt at a story or through line or any kind of hook in here. Just brawling. Koloff gouges Dusty's arm with the buckle of the weightlifting belt and opens up several gashes. That's where Dusty's arm scars came from. Animal tries to push Arn over, and at the same time Tully is trying to drag Koloff through the door. The tag champs haven't been working together much to this point. Dusty's arm is a bloody mess. FINALLY nearly 20 damn minutes in someone finally gets eliminated when Animal pushes Koloff over the top and out. A couple of minutes later Animal pushes Warlord through the door, but goes out himself when someone we can't see kicks him out. Luger puts Tully in the Torture Rack. Barbarian is biting the cuts on Dusty's arm. Arn and Tully finally get to working together. They try to push Luger out the door, fail, reposition, and after a couple more minutes the momentum sends all three of them through the door and out like an airlock being opened. It's down to the Barbarian and Dusty. Paul Jones slips Barbarian knucks. Barbarian hits Dusty with them and gets two headbutts off the top rope. He drags Dusty to the door but Dusty fights out. There's several long shots of the crowd looking bored to death. Or "enthralled" according to JR. More like euthanized. They go up top. Dusty pushes Barbarian over to where he's straddling the cage, hits him with a Bionic Elbow, and Barbarian goes over and is eliminated. For the 478th year in a row in the comeback story of the millennium, Dusty Rhodes wins the Bunkhouse Stampede. And the crowd goes mild. Very, very mild. This lasting for 30 minutes is almost a crime against humanity. For most of the time it was teetering dangerously into the dreaded MINUS FIVE STAR territory, but the end run saved it enough to at least be spared that. DUD

Or to put it another way:

While JR and Caudle do their wrapup there's some loud chants and I'm pretty sure it's "REFUNDS!". Down the road in Stamford, Vince McMahon is smiling. Oh, and this was also Earl Hebner's last NWA show before jumping to WWF. He probably walked out of the arena and straight to Titan Tower.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: It's disasters like this that caused Crockett to have to sell to Ted Turner before the end of the year. Meanwhile, old Bunkhouse Stampede was quietly shipped to the glue factory and never heard of again.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D

The Big Event

Legacy Review

The Big Event

August 28, 1986 from Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, the pre-Skydome home of the Blue Jays

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon, Ernie Ladd and Johnny Valiant. I don't get that combination either.

This is technically not a PPV, but a large stadium show that was recorded and released on Coliseum Video. However it's been in the PPV section of the Network since it started so we're doing it now. Plus, it's the only major show between Wrestlemanias 2 and 3 currently available.

The Network copy has a very brief one second title screen and we go right into in-ring intros for the first match.

The Killer Bees def The Funk Brothers (w/Jimmy Hart) in 6:53- The Funks are Hoss (Dory) Funk and non-Funk Jimmy Jack, who's wearing a mask. Not a wrestling mask. A classic robber's mask. Or Lone Ranger. On the first wide shot we can see that the stadium is legitimately almost full. They advertised it as "the largest crowd in wrestling history", probably as a warmup for Wrestlemania 3's "indoor attendance record". Also, even though it's August almost everyone is wearing jackets or sweaters. Canada. Hoss and Blair start. Blair with a bodyslam party on both heels. The heels get Blair into their corner but he fights out. Jimmy Jack tries to go over the top and out but fails and settles for rolling under the ropes instead. Hoss with some uppercuts, but Blair responds with a crossbody for 2. The Bees work Hoss' arm. Jack tags in and runs right into an armdrag and more arm work. Sleeper! Hoss gets a cheap shot to break it up. Brunzell gets slammed on the floor. Match is clipped here, which I'm glad they make obvious on this video instead of cutting stuff out but editing it to try to make it look seamless. I like to know when there's bits of a match missing. And that everything on the Network is uncut. Well, mostly. The Bees pull their masks out from under the ring to be able to swap without tags. One Bee gets an abdominal stretch on Hoss but Jack makes the save. The Bees make the twin magic swap, and Bee 2 gets a Paul Smackage for the win. I don't like rating clipped matches, I don't like it when there's things missing, but I'll do my best. The Bees tried but Dory Hoss was past it, and Jimmy Jack Not Funk pretty much never had it. *1/2

The Magnificent Muraco (w/Mr. Fuji) and King Tonga go to a 20:00 time limit draw- Tonga, AKA Haku, had just made his WWF debut by winning a Big John Studd Bodyslam Challenge. He's also in trunks. Some boos for Tonga, probably because he had worked some Canadian promotions as a heel. There's a clip right at the start. Tonga gets a couple of hiptosses and Muraco rolls out. Muraco with the insincere handshake offer. A dropkick sends Muraco over the top and out. Another clip. Tonga works the arm. Muraco tries to monkey flip out but Tonga hangs on. While Tonga's running the ropes Fuji gets him with the cane in the back, then gives him a couple more cane shots on the floor. Muraco locks in the Nerve Pinch of Double Fisting +2. There's another clip but Haku's still in the same hold. The ref drops his arm like 6 times but still doesn't call it. Haku gets up and chops out. Muraco dodges a corner charge and posts Tonga's knee. Kneebreaker. Figure four. Haku gets to the rope. Muraco goes up top but takes the Flair throw. Tonga climbs up top, hits a high crossbody, the ref takes his sweet time going over to count, and the bell rings for the time limit. Not as bad as I was expecting, but I'm sure the clipping helped. Haku did not work as a face and they'd soon realize that. *

Ted Arcidi def Tony Garea in 2:41- Garea was another name from the '70s just hanging on, and was a 5 time former WWF/WWWF tag champ with four different partners. Arcidi was the 1980s version of Bill Kazmir, a former strongman trying to transition to wrestling that would flame out after a couple of years. Arcidi throws Garea around out of lockups. Move, pose, move, pose by Arcidi. Garea gets some token offense in but runs into a bearhug and quickly submits. Garea would retire later in the year and take a road agent role. 1/4*

The Junkyard Dog def Adrian Adonis (w/Jimmy Hart) by countout in 4:15- There's a bit of a feud here as JYD had pantsed Hart a couple of times on TV. Take what you can get. JYD's entrance is clipped and we go right to him pounding Adonis with his chain. That's the first time JYD should have been DQ'd. Crawling headbutts. Adonis does the Flair Flip and gently lowers himself to the floor. JYD gives him one more crawling headbutt while he's outside. JYD keeps attacking Adonis as he's trying to get in and the ref is all over him. Finally JYD shoves the ref aside, the second time he should have been DQ'd. While the ref's down Hart sprays JYD with Adonis' purfume. Adonis with multiple kneedrops, including one off the second rope for a 2 count. JYD is thrown out and they go into a sloppy clusterfuck of a finishing sequence that ends with JYD just getting back in as Adonis is counted out. The wrestling really wasn't that bad considering who was in there, but the booking and layout were awful. 3/4*

"The Rebel" Dick Slater def Iron Mike Sharpe in 6:24- This is toward the start of Slater's only WWF run, which lasted less than a year. Sharpe is a longtime WWF jobber getting a rare big event payday. He's introduced as "Canada's Greatest Athlete". He's got two gimmicks: a black brace on one forearm, and he screams and grunts all through his matches. Slater with a hammerlock and Sharpe goes straight for the ropes. Slater stomps on Sharpe's fingers. That's no Pete Dunne or Marty Scurll joint manipulation but it gets the job done. Sharpe gets a few brace-covered forearm shots in. Clip. Slater gets a rolling neckbreaker, then an elbow off the top rope for the 3. 1/2*

King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd & Bobby Heenan def The Machines & Capt. Lou Albano (w/Giant Machine) by DQ in 7:49- Giant Machine is Andre the Giant. Andre had been feuding with Bundy and Studd. For reasons unknown Andre no showed a tag match and was suspended (the real life reason was to give him time off for back surgery and to film The Princess Bride). When he came back it was with the Dusty Rhodes Special, wearing a mask. With the gag being, how is a mask going to keep you from telling it's Andre. It's ANDRE. He tagged along with a couple of partners, who rotated in and out of the group. The Machine names were a play on Super Strong Machine from New Japan, where Andre had also just worked some dates around movie filming and the team was supposed to be from there. Also, if Heenan can unmask and prove Giant Machine is really Andre, Andre will be fired. Tonight, the Machines are being played by Blackjack Mulligan and Bill Eadie, future Demolition Ax. Studd starts with Ax Machine. Captain Lou's wrestling gear is exactly the same as his managerial gear. Studd ends up outside and gets a piece of Andre Machine. Bundy and Mulligan Machine have a shoulderblock standoff. The heels get the edge and Heenan directs traffic. Once the opponent is safely down Heenan tags in. He tries to get the mask off but Outside Machine comes in and shoos him away. Outside Machine becomes Inside Machine and the heels take over again. Heenan tags in, but turns his back to give directions and Tagging Out Machine tags out to Albano. Albano whips Heenan into the corner and Heenan flips into the Tree of Woe. An eye poke from Heenan allows him to tag out. Donnybrook Machine. Fezzik Machine (I am the brute squad) comes in to take some shots and ends up being DQ Machine. Heenan does a near 360 sell on the way out. That man could bump with the best of them. 1/4*

Snake Pit Match: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def Jake "The Snake" Roberts in 10:17- Roberts gave Steamboat a DDT on the exposed concrete floor during the spring SNME and Steamboat, not being John Cena, actually sustained injuries and needed time to recover (yes I'm still bitter about the end of the Summerslam '10 main event, why do you ask?). Snake Pit Match is just a fancy way of saying no countout or DQ. Roberts ambushes Steamboat as soon as he hits the ring. Steamboat fights him off and gives him a backdrop while both guys still have their robes on. Steamboat flips Roberts over with an arm wringer and works the arm for a while. The local ref is literally jumping up off the mat every time he counts. Valiant goes on some insane rant in the booth about a female dragon and I'm starting to wonder what kind of drugs are being passed around and consumed up there. Steamboat with a reverse hook kick to the gut. Roberts sells it like a low blow and falls out of the ring. Steamboat follows but eats a Roberts' spear that looked a bit south of Saskatoon. Roberts grabs a chair but Steamboat manages to get it and whacks Roberts with it. No DQ. The karate chop off the top rope gets a jumpy 2 count. Roberts reverses a whip and Steamboat flies over the corner and out. Roberts slingshots him into the post and Steamboat is bleeding a little. Vicious short arm clothesline from Roberts. He hooks in the DDT but Steamboat pushes him into the corner. Inverted atomic drop from Roberts with an A+ Steamboat sell. Gutbuster. Roberts goes for an arrogant cover. Steamboat rolls him over and gets the 3! This doesn't quite have the intensity that really sells a blood feud, but as you'd expect from these two it's still good stuff. ***

Billy Jack Haynes def Hercules Hernandez in 6:08- Monsoon is by himself for commentary for this one, and it sounds like it was recorded after the show in the studio. He says that Valiant might be away getting "libations". Yeah, I bet. It sounded like he didn't need any more. Basic start. Herc shows a little more spunk that usual. Haynes bell rings his way out of a bear hug. They collide near the corner and it's so powerful both guys go down. Lots of kicky punchy from Haynes. He does get an elbow off the second rope. He tries for the full nelson but Herc slips out. Herc gets a near fall but Haynes' foot is on the ropes. Herc think he won and celebrates. Haynes schoolboys him for the 3. Not that it's saying much, but their WM 3 match is better. 3/4* for the match, **** for Monsoon being by himself in the booth

The Fabulous Rougeaus def The Dream Team in 14:51- Valiant is the Dream Team's manager but he's, unfortunately, stuck in the booth. Early days for the Rougeaus as they're in red gear instead of their more well known fleur de lis tights. Suzuki-Gun attack by the heels. All four guys fight in the ring. The faces double team Valentine. Raymond with a sunset flip for 2. During an abdominal stretch Valentine JUST stretches out to tag Beefacke. Beefcake with a shot and a cover. The local ref for this match counts super slow. Like, super duper what the hell slow. He even checks the shoulders are down between each count! Valentine with an elbow off the second rope on Raymond, then he goes and takes out Jacques. Raymond counters with a crossbody for 2. Double dropkick. Valentine flop! The heels work Jacques over for a bit. He tries to fight out of the heel corner which leads to Donnybrook 2: The Wrath of Donnybrook. The heels are whipped into each other. The Rougeaus hit a finisher-like move on Beefcake that could easily be the finish, but Valentine makes the save. Valentine rams Raymond's head on The Hardest Part of the Ring (apron) outside and Raymond goes face in peril. The heels work his back for a good 5 minutes until Valentine's wind up elbow misses and Raymond gets the hot tag. Dropkick party! A slugfest pushes Jacques into the heel corner, but he counters with a dropkick that hits booth heels. Valentine dodges a kneedrop off the second rope and hooks Jacques in the figure four. Raymond saves and we have Donnybrook 3: The Search for a Finish. Valentine keeps working the knee. As he's hooking the figure four up again Raymond gets him in a sunset flip, and for some reason even though Raymond isn't legal the ref counts the pin. Valiant is livid and cuts a promo in the booth. Monsoon admits Raymond wasn't the legal man when he got the pin. The Raymond face in peril segment drug a bit, but otherwise this was damn good tag team wrestling. ***1/4

"Handsome" Harley Race def Pedro Morales in 3:23- Another dream match happening years too late: wrestling's #1 non-WWF star of the '70s vs WWF's #2 face in the '70s after Bruno Sammartino. There's no obvious edit like earlier in the show but I'm pretty sure the start of the match has been clipped off. Race flops out of the ring off a punch. He drags Morales out with him, gives him a couple of elbows in the throat, rams him into the ring bell, and posts him. After they get back in Morales reverses a suplex. Small package for 2. Corner assisted roll up for 2. While the ref is looking elsewhere Race gets a takedown in the corner, puts his feet on the ropes and gets the 3. Are those Canadians chanting "bullshit"? Nah, it's got to be Americans that snuck over the border for the show. *1/2

WWF Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) def "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (w/Bobby Heenan) by DQ in 11:05- Orndorff's face run did not last long. After palling around with Hogan for a few months he got tired of him, like people do, turned on him and hooked back up with Bobby Heenan to be Hogan's big feud for most of '86. Hogan/Orndorff gets lost a bit in history because it's bookended by Hogan's huge feuds with Piper and Andre but it was a pretty good moneymaker in its own right. Orndorff even came out to Real American to mock Hogan, including this match. It just keeps playing as Hogan makes his entrance. Hogan's got a tape job on the bottom of his left ear. Why? I don't know. The Ring Gearhead team just notices these things. As the ref is checking Hogan Orndorff ambushes him with a clothesline. They go toe to toe in a slugfest with Hogan eventually winning the exchange. Hogan with a headbutt! That's an unusual one. Orndorff gets a sneaky low blow in, and while Hogan is hunched over Heenan reaches up and slaps him! That wakes Hogan up. Atomic drop on Orndorff and Hogan chases Heenan around and through the ring. Heenan still has his wrestling gear on. Orndorff catches Hogan coming back in. They go out and Orndorff suplexes Hogan on the outside. He works Hogan over on the outside off and on while going back into the ring to play to the crowd in between. Eventually Hogan gets back in. OK, I have to say, I've never seen so many local refs with gimmicks. This one is jawing with both guys so much it's almost as if he wants to make it a triple threat. An Orndorff kneedrop off the second rope gets 2. He goes for a piledriver to finish it off but Hogan powers out. Hogan grabs a headlock but Orndorff side suplexes out. Arrogant cover. Hogan gets a foot on the ropes but Orndorff acts like he won. Hulk up! A high knee sends both Orndorff and the ref down. Hogan tries for a piledriver but Heenan hits him from behind with a chair. Orndorff covers for what could be a 3 count but the ref is still down. The ref slowly crawls over and taps Orndorff on the shoulder. Orndorff thinks he won. He and Heenan celebrate. Heenan puts the belt on Orndorff. Finally Fink gets in, milks the moment a little more, and announces Hogan wins by DQ. A livid Orndorff keeps beating Hogan down while still wearing the belt. Hogan takes the belt back and fights him off to send the crowd home happy. **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Meh.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-