Great American Bash '90

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '90

July 7, 1990 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

Welcome to what is by far the biggest and most important show put on so far under the WCW banner, featuring the injury-delayed coronation of Sting as the Next Big Thing.

Tonight is the PPV debut of the famous early '90s WCW raised platform entrance ramp. As many awful ideas as Jim Herd had, I've always kinda liked that.

Flyin' Brian def "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel in 9:29- If Terry Taylor is Ric Flair Lite as a wrestler, Landell is Flair Lite in appearance with a fraction of the talent. Pillman's music doesn't start until he's halfway down the ramp. Landell tries to intimidate Pillman but he has none of it. Chop exchange in the corner. Pillman with a springboard reverse crossbody off the second rope for 2. A couple of dropkicks send Landell out. Landell: "You want some more of me, boy?" and he poses badly for the camera. Heel 101 hair pulls and taunt & hide spots from Landell. Pillman tries another springboard crossbody but Landell catches him in midair and gives him a backbreaker. Most of the second half of the match is Landell in control, Pillman gets some hope juice in, Landell shuts it down. Pillman gets a jumping crossbody but Landell reverses it for 2. Pillman goes up and hits the crossbody off the top rope for the win. Way too much Landell to be good, but at least Pillman got enough in to keep it almost interesting. It's a slightly better version of Pillman's match with Bill Irwin at GAB '89. *1/2

"Captain" Mike Rotunda def The Iron Sheik in 6:46- Sheiky Baby with the usual ISIS-Gun ambush with the flagpole before the bell. He works his early '80s heel offense until Rotunda comes back with a sunset flip. Straight up chop exchange. Rotunda gets a face full of boot spike. Sheik gutwrench suplex for 2. Sheik goes through a bit of a suplex showcase, albeit a very slow one, for more near falls. Rotunda blocks a move and gets a backslide to win. If I hadn't been staring at a clock the whole time I'd have thought that was 20 minutes long. 1/2*

Doug Furnas def "Dirty" Dutch Mantel in 11:18- Furnas was another in the line of powerlifters/strongmen turned wrestlers, but unlike guys like Ted Arcidi or Bill Kazmaier he actually had some athletic ability instead of just being a giant muscle. Mantel walks Furnas through some basic sequences, bumping big off shoulderblocks. Loooooooooong delay press slam from Furnas. He goes for mounted punches on Mantell then backflips off the top rope onto his feet just because. Mantell dodges a splash attempt of the top rope to take over and works some basic holds. JR starts talking about football more than usual, a sure sign he's checked out. Furnas with a couple of big strong boi kickouts that Mantell flies across half the ring on. Mantell uses one arm to hold a sort of armbar, and has a handful of tights in the other. Not sure what the leverage advantage is there. Furnas comes back with a powerslam. A belly to belly suplex gets the 3. Way too long for what they were doing. Furnas wouldn't do anything of note in WCW, but would go on to form a tag team with Philip Lafon that would become huge in All Japan and ECW. *

Harley Race def "Wildfire" Tommy Rich in 6:32- This is Race's return to WCW to kick off his farewell tour, starting off with this rematch of the infamous 1981 NWA world title changes in the Georgia territories. Race is still wearing the King gear made for his WWF run. JR jokingly asks if he's a fan of the Sacramento Kings. Fast start. Rich hits some shoulderblocks, Race stops it with a clothesline. Race's shoulder is posted. Rich works him over a bit before Race counters with the classic Harley Race high knee. Or as well as he can do it by now anyway. Rich does a crazy oversell of a piledriver. The Rock is watching that and thinks that was too over the top. Race suplexes him on the entrance ramp. Back in Race obviously positions himself and Rich sends him over the top and out. Rich suplexes him back in. Race counters with a belly to belly and a swinging neckbreaker. Rich scoops him up for a slam, but they're by the ropes and both go tumbling over and out. Getting back in, Rich hits a crossbody off the top rope, but Race reverses it to win. Race was clearly trying, but it's a textbook example of a wrestler hanging on too long. He'd continue to wrestle on the house show circuit and weekly TV through the fall until a shoulder injury finally forced him to hang it up for good and move on to managing. 3/4*

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The Midnight Express (c) (w/Jim Cornette) def The Southern Boys in 18:14- The Southern Boys came into WCW as a house on fire after cutting their teeth in what was left of the Florida and Tennessee territories. They were certainly talented, but are generally not remembered today because there was little to differentiate them from other southern, smaller guy tag teams that had already become stars the previous decade. An ill advised Jim Herd brilliance heel turn in '91 (after changing their name to The Young Pistols) didn't help any. The Midnights, meanwhile, were practically molten lava at this point, dropping 4+ star matches with regularity for nearly two years running, so this should be great. Suzuki-Gun attack by the Express. All four guys brawl on the outside. The Boys recover and get a double backdrop and double tackle on Eaton. Boos from the crowd. Baltimore is not the Southern Boys' home territory. Reset with Eaton and Armstrong. Eaton goes up top early and eats a Flair throw. Armstrong seems to lose his place for a second before hitting Eaton with a clothesline off the top. Sneaky tag by the faces. Double arm wringer on Eaton. Smothers sets up for a powerslam. Eaton counters out of it but eats a superkick. After a second superkick Eaton finally tags out. Lane and Smothers go full Karate Kid for a bit. Lane gets the first shot to a big pop from the crowd but Smothers gets the upper hand. The Express go out to regroup again. Lane tries some mat wrestling but Smothers is one step ahead the whole time on that too. Lane finally eye pokes and tags, but Eaton runs into an armdrag. Smothers flips over the top rope from the apron to the ring then kicks Eaton while he's on the floor. The Express try to work the ref to double team. Smothers dodges them, and both heels walk right into an Armstrong crossbody off the top rope! Quick covers. Double cover! After a double noggin knocker the Express are outside recovering again. Cornette is furious. Smothers tries a roll up but Eaton gets a blind tag to Lane, who throws Smothers over the top and gives him a couple of barricade shots. The crowd is 50/50, leaning toward the Express. The Express start working their patented double teams. Smothers looks to tune up another superkick so Eaton stops it with a clothesline. Alabama Jam! Desperation sunset flip from Smothers for 2. Eaton hits a neckbreaker to another noticeable pop. Smother flips Eaton out of the ring but Lane is ready to cut him off with a clothesline. The Express try a double backdrop, but Smother sunset flips *both* of them, rolls and gets the hot tag! Donnybrook! The Boys hit their finisher (kind of a Hart Attack/Doomsday Device combo, but with a dropkick off the top rope), but the ref chooses trying to restore order over counting. Eaton pushes Armstrong off the top rope. Rocket launcher! But again the ref is slow to count and Armstrong kicks out! The Boys outright cheat and swap without tagging. Smothers rolls Eaton into a small package but Lane breaks it up. The crowd is going nuts. As Smothers runs the ropes Lane kicks him in the back of the head, and Eaton rolls him into a Paul Smackage for the 3! Yup, that was great. The Express could do no wrong in this period, and the Boys held their end up well. ****1/2

Gordon Solie is with the Fabulous Freebirds, who are wearing a disturbing amount of makeup and glitter tonight. It's like they're a test run for Johnny B Badd.

Big Van Vader def "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 2:16- Smart card placement here after the tag match tore the house down. This is Vader's big WCW debut. He was already a megastar in Japan. In fact (not mentioned on TV), he was at this time the reigning, defending, undisputed IWGP Heavyweight Champion, in the middle of a year long reign with the belt, his second of three runs as champion. Vader appearing here is the continuation of the loose NJPW/WCW alliance that started with The Great Muta's excursion, and would soon blossom into a full blown partnership. Vader's got his cool steam shooting headgear. After dropping the US tag belts and splitting from his team with Pillman, Zenk's already fallen to JTTS status. Vader starts pounding away as soon as he hits the ring. Avalanche! Short arm clothesline. Even with the crowd on the comedown after the last match Vader's getting awesome reactions. As good as you could ask for on a big debut. Zenk ends up on the ramp and Vader lifts him up by the head over the top rope back into the ring. Zenk gets one token dropkick that Vader no sells. Press slam. Suplex. Big splash. Good night. Glorious Vader squash. Vader looked fantastic, and he didn't even whip out his best stuff! * in reality, ***** in my heart.

Solie's with the Horsemen minus Flair. Barry Windham says they're going to take the giant (El Gigante) out tonight then let Sid loose on everyone else. Ole says that Jim Herd thinks he has everything figured out, but he's got a few surprises. Is he talking about the match or the next booking committee meeting? "Jim, I've got a great idea for what to do with Sting after he wins the title. It's called The Black Scorpion....."

The Steiner Brothers def The Fabulous Freebirds in 13:45- The Steiners beat the Freebirds for the world tag titles in the fall of '89 so there's a lot of bad blood here. Another pre-match heel jump. The Freebirds work Scott over still in their glittery overalls. Scott blocks a DDT. Rick gets back in. Steinerlines! The heels retreat but Scott gives them a double clothesline on the floor! Reset with Rick and Garvin and lots of react to the crowd stalling. No 50/50 here. Baltimore hates the Freebirds. Judging by some of the chants the makeup was a pretty big heat getter. Oh, and they're actually wrestling in the glittery overalls. Big backdrop on Garvin, followed by a Steinerline for 2. Garvin's had enough and tags out. Hayes stalls more and tries to hide in the corner but Rick bites his ass. Scott dropkicks both heels out. The Freebirds have a long walk and think. More stalling from Hayes but this time he lures Scott into an ambush. He tries a backdrop, but Scott grabs him and turns it into a double underhook suplex. Hayes wants a time out. Rick catches him in midair on a leapfrog and powerslams him. Garvin tries to ambush Rick from behind off the top rope, but Rick catches him in midair and throws him away! While Rick's running the ropes Garvin gets him in the back with a knee, followed up by the patented Hayes straight left hand that sends Rick outside, and the Freebirds finally get some momentum. Double suplex on the floor. Hayes gets a bulldog for 2. Rick elbows out of a chinlock and tries to slam Garvin, but he reverses it into a cover for 2. Garvin tries coming off the top rope but Rick gets him in the gut on the way down, then comes off the second rope with a kinda bulldogish slam. Tags on both sides. Scott powerslams Hayes, then press slams him into Garvin. Stereo Steinerlines. Frankensteiner! But the ref's distracted. Garvin sneaks in and nails Scott with a DDT. He covers but the ref remembers he's not the legal man! FTR nods in appreciation at the rules being followed. Rick comes in behind the ref and gives Hayes a belly to belly suplex and Scott covers for the win. It started out really slow with all the Freebird stalling, but once they got going it got pretty good. ***

The Dudes With Attitudes def The Four Horsemen by DQ in 12:10- It's Arn Anderson, Barry Windham and Sid Vicious representing the Horsemen. Arn is in the middle of a near year long run as TV champ. He wasn't defending on PPVs because of the focus on the tag division but it was still featured on weekly TV. The Dudes with Attitudes was a loose faction put together by Sting to counter the Horsemen. Representing them in this match are Paul Orndorff, the Junkyard Dog, and in his first PPV match, El Gigante, who's by far the focus of the whole match. He's really tall. Can't wrestle, zero charisma, but by God he's tall. JR's forced to talk about Gigante's native Argentina playing in the World Cup final the next day because Turner is broadcasting it. Arn and Orndorff start. No, Sid wants in. Orndorff tries a sunset flip. Sid pulls him up by the neck. Orndorff dodges a legdrop and takes out all the heels until Sid blocks a hiptoss. Orndorff tries to turn it into a backslide. With JYD's help he does for a 2 count. Orndorff fights out of the heel corner and they have a 3v3 standoff until Gigante says BOO! and the Horsemen scatter. Arn tries to rally the troops but Orndorff pulls him back in. Arn ends up in the face corner and runs away from the tall man. JR is laying it on extra super JR's BBQ sauce thick trying to make Gigante a big f'n deal. Windham eats some JYD headbutts and also runs away from the face corner. Orndorff beats up all the heels by himself again. He loads Arn up for a piledriver but Windham hits him from behind off the top rope. Sid hits a powerslam while Arn and Windham do some classic Horsemen teamwork. Orndorff hits Windham with a back elbow and gets over to tag.....JYD. Why, it's almost as if they don't want Gigante to actually be in the match. Arn does a funny Flair Flop variation off a double noggin knocker. The Horsemen get back control and throw JYD over the top rope. While they're celebrating Gigante sneaks up behind them and gently pushes each of the out of the ring. The ref calls for the DQ for the over the top rope throw. There was good effort from the usual max effort guys (mostly Arn and Windham) but the layout and booking were bass ackwards. They tried to walk the tightrope of getting Gigante over as an unbeatable monster, but without exposing the fact that he was complete and utter shit. Half measures usually lead to half results. Plus, on two separate occasions Orndorff took out the whole heel team by himself, so why did they need the monster anyway? **

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) def "Mean" Mark Callous (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 12:10- Great to see Paul E managing again after spending most of the year solely on commentary. Crazy to see Taker as an original Paul Heyman Guy here after the multiple feuds they've had in WWE. It's also crazy to see him in trunks. Arm wringer exchange at the start, followed by a serviceable mat wrestling sequence. Luger gets an armdrag and Callous does heel 101 bitching about a phantom hair pull. Paul E: "He's a football player, he's not supposed to wrestle that good!". Even in his throwaway lines you can find layers of meaning. Callous with a couple of, as JR would describe them many years later, carcinogenic right hands. They turn it up a notch and Luger hits a crossbody for 2. Paul E is on the phone with Murray for advice. Luger works an armbar. Callous tries to roll out but Luger hangs on. They have what looks like a couple of botches on a rope run/punch or clothesline sequence but Callous recovers with a big boot to Luger. Luger does his favorite missing a dive and flying over the top rope spot. Paul E distracts the ref while Callous rams Luger's head into almost every available ringside object. Luger comes back with a sunset flip for 2. Slugfest. Callous counters a backdrop and hits a suplex. Luger pops right back up and no sells the hell out of it. OK then. Clotheslines. Luger gets Callous up in the torture rack but Callous' boot makes contact with the ref's head. Paul E runs in and whacks Luger with the phone. Callous covers, the ref crawls over and Luger JUST gets a shoulder up in time. Callous sets up for the heart punch. Luger counters it with a boot in the face, hits one clothesline, and that's good enough to win. Borderline serviceable, and it could have been better. Callous' inexperience showed in a few spots, and while Luger wasn't dogging it, he didn't look particularly interested in going the extra mile to help get the youngster over either. Partially on the strength of this match Vince was convinced to steal Callous away in the fall, give him the Undertaker gimmick, and the rest is wrestling history. **1/4

NWA World Tag Team Championship: Doom (c) (w/Teddy Long) def The Rock N Roll Express in 15:40- Pure clash of styles here. Gibson and Simmons start. Simmons compares physiques and offers Gibson the chance to walk away. The lockups are, unsurprisingly, all Simmons. Gibson cranks on the jets, jukes, dodges a corner charge and rolls Simmons up for 2. Then Gibson shows some power by slamming Reed and planting an elbow between his eyes. Reed responds by running Morton over with shoulderblocks. The RNR get some double teams in but the AXS guys must be on the cameras again because they miss half of it. Reed kills Gibson with a clothesline. Simmons with a slam and huge legdrop. He's looking really crisp tonight. Doom taunts Morton in to throw Gibson over the top and out. He comes back in with a sunset flip for 2. Reed hits a swinging neckbreaker. Gibson counters a backdrop attempt with a kneelift and rolls over to get the tag. Morton tries a sleeper but Simmons comes in and breaks it up. Morton rolls up Reed. Simmons comes in and flat out murders Morton with a clothesline in the back of his head and we're in classic Ricky Morton takes a beating mode. Reed gets an elbow off the second rope for 2. The heels work Gibson and the ref to give Morton some shots on the outside, including one from Long. Reed goes for a big splash. Morton gets his knees up and crawls over for the tag. Not much from the crowd on this one. They've been flipping between hot and cold all night long, no in the middle. Gibson does a nice slide under Simmons' legs and tries to roll him up but Reed breaks it up. Donnybrook. Gibson hits an enzuguri on Reed and the momentum sends him crashing into Long, who was on the apron. Gibson drags Long in and starts to beat on him, allowing Reed to get up top, hit a flying shouldertackle, and get the pin. It was fine, but felt like something was missing. **3/4

No DQ Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Sting (w/The Dudes With Attitudes) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/Ole Anderson) in 16:06- The Dudes are acting like lumberjacks, but to keep the Horsemen out instead of the wrestlers in. Ole Anderson spends the match handcuffed to El Gigante to make absolutely sure he doesn't interfere. Epic pyro waterfall entrance for Sting. He's fully decked out in red, white and blue. All through the prelims Sting is raring to go. He wins the early lockups. WOOOOOO!/Sting yell exchange. The crowd is alive again, big time. Sting no sells the early chops and hits a press slam. Flair tries to roll out but the Steiners stop him. After a dropkick Flair rolls onto the ramp to clear his head. Another chop no sell and Flair backs off. Sting hiptosses him on the ramp and clotheslines him over the top and back in. Flair begs off and gets an eye poke to slow Sting down. Snap mare/knee drop combo. Delayed suplex. Sting pops right back up. Clotheslines and a crossbody for 2. Flair teases a test of strength but uses Sting looking up to go down and kicks his surgically repaired knee. Sting comes back with a clothesline out of the corner but Flair dodges the follow up elbow drop. He goes for the figure four but Sting powers out. Another WOOOOO/yell exchange with Flair looking almost crazed. He takes his time diving back in and you can see the wheels turning. More big chops and he throws Sting onto the ramp. More kicks to the knee. Sting's limping and Flair smells blood. He goes for another kneedrop, but Sting dodges and hooks in his own figure four! Flair quickly gets to the rope. He pulls Sting outside and runs him into the guardrail. Another no sell. Flair goes into full begging mode. He goes up top but Sting throws him off. Blocked hiptoss/backslide spot for 2. While Sting's questioning the count Flair kicks his leg out of his leg again. Another figure four attempt, and again Sting pushes out before it's fully on. Flair lays in some wear down chops. Sting's chest is a red and blue mess. Flair makes the mistake of slapping Sting's face. He starts hulking up and asks for more! Press slam 2. Long 2 count off a clothesline. Flair Flip! Sting clotheslines him as he's coming across the apron! Suplex back in for 2. Stinger Splash! Flair Flop! Sting gets the Scorpion Death Lock on! The Horsemen try to run in but the Dudes stop them. Flair's fighting and crawling and makes it to the ropes. He was in the Scorpion longer than probably anyone to this point without submitting. Flair hits a shoulder to the gut off the apron, then slides into a cover with his feet on the ropes for leverage. But Scott Steiner pushes his feet off before 3 and Sting kicks out! Sting tries a running high knee in the corner, but Flair dodges and Sting knees the top turnbuckle. Flair goes for the figure four again, clearly thinking it's over, but Sting grabs him, rolls up a Paul Smackage, and gets the 3 and the title! Massive pop and celebration. This was the biggest world title change in the NWA/WCW since Flair's win over Harley Race at the first Starrcade in '83. The match was a bit short for a Flair main event, and as great as Sting already was he was still developing and learning, and still shaking off post-injury ring rust, and it showed a little in the main event spotlight. Really very good and a wonderful moment, but not peak Flair/Sting. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The deepest tag division in wrestling history was still carrying the bulk of the show, but that would start to change in the second half of the year as the division slowly started to thin out from both injuries and departures. All the worst aspects of Jim Herd's management would start to really take hold the next few months. Every wrestling fan needs to watch this world title change at least once.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B