Beach Blast '92

Legacy Review

Beach Blast '92

June 20, 1992 from the Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, AL

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

This is the new addition to WCW's PPV calendar for '92, making them the first company to have half the year covered with scheduled PPVs. Former Mid-South boss Bill Watts is now the man in charge, and to show everyone he's in charge he's ruled all moves off the top rope are banned, all throws over the top rope are banned, and all those pesky ring mats on the outside were fired quicker than a ladder that won't stand up right for Shawn Michaels in 1995. Fortunately WCW's still got a really talented roster that's still motivated from the success of the short Kip Frey era to plow through some of these issues, for now.

I have to say, I've always liked the logo for this show, with the pumped arm made out of an animated wave. Cool stuff. The raised ramp is still in use, and it will see a lot of use. Watts comes out of his torture cave to join hosts Tony Schiavone and Eric Bishoff to ballyhoo the show in his zumbas and fanny pack, a mainstay for any wrestler in this period. Ventura also gets another super sized intro.

WCW Light Heavyweight Championship: Scotty Flamingo def "Flyin'' Brian Pillman (c) in 17:29- Flamingo is Raven. Pillman comes off the top rope during his entrance. Watts is probably already calculating fines. Flamingo gets a leg takedown and celebrates. Some decent chain mat wrestling ends with Pillman holding a hammerlock. Pillman does a crucifix but spins it into a sunset flip for 2. He hooks in a short arm scissors. Flamingo uses the tights to roll it into a pin attempt. There's a few more minutes of Pillman works the arm, Flamingo uses the ropes to get out, rinse and repeat. Flamingo goes for a tilt a whirl but Pillman seems to block it. Not sure they were sure what they were going for there. A Pillman dropkick sends Flamingo out but his feet hook the top rope and he's dangling upside down! Pillman helps him by unhooking his feet and Flamingo crashes to the uncovered concrete floor. Pillman with a double ax handle off the apron to the floor. He goes to the top rope (gasp shock horror!). Flamingo throws him off, face first rather than Flair throw style. Then he throws Pillman out and follow up with a plancha! Now there's finding a loophole in the new rules. Flamingo with a fist drop off the second rope (that's allowed) for 2. Flamingo charges while Pillman's on the apron, but Pillman counters with a slingshot flying tackle! That gets 2. Flamingo goes to the chinlock, which is probably Watts' favorite hold. Even Ventura calls it a rest hold. Pillman counters with a sleeper. Flamingo runs him into the top turnbuckle. They punch each other at the same time and both guys are down. Slugfest on knees. Flamingo hits a powerslam and grabs a handful of trunks but only gets 2. Pillman's knee gives out while Flamingo tries to whip him. He goes up to the second rope to brag, but Pillman makes him pay for it with a belly to back suplex! He covers but Flamingo's foot is on the rope. Pillman clotheslines Flamingo over the top and onto the entrance ramp, another loophole. Pillman tries a dive, but Flamingo dodges and Pillman splats face first on the ramp. Back in Flamingo hits a kneedrop to the back of Pillman's head off the second rope, and gets the clean pin and the title! Really good match considering all the handicaps. Take Bill Watts' shackles off and this could have been something really special. Say what you will about Flamingo/Raven, but he was always really good at match layouts. ***1/4

Next up is the start of the show long "bikini contest", hosted by Johnny B Badd. The contest is Missy Hyatt vs Medusa, and in this first round they're in evening gowns. They come out and pose, Badd says a lot of things like "shake it baby" and "show it off" and shoots his blaster off. Total waste of time.

JR hypes up next month's Great American Bash PPV. Sting vs Vader for the world title has already been booked for that show.

 

"The All American" Ron Simmons def "The Taylor Made Man" Terry Taylor in 7:10- Simmons throws Taylor out of the inital lockup and Taylor bitches about ponytail pulls. Simmons blocks a hiptoss, hits his own, and runs over Taylor's legs with a couple of low football tackles. He throws Taylor out to the ramp and press slams him back in. Taylor's clotheslined over the top rope and outside! Watts is definitely adding up the fines for that one. Simmons works the back, including a bear hug. Taylor eye pokes out. Simmons goes for anther tackle. Taylor dodges and Simmons flies outside to the ramp. Taylor hits a snap mare and the neck snap for 2. Simmons counters with a spinebuster. The powerslam finishes it. Serviceable. **

 

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine def Marcus Alexander Bagwell in 7:17- Bagwell shows off some speed and hits a hiptoss/armdrag/slam combo. Valentine elbows the back of his neck to counter a backdrop. Bagwell counters a piledriver attempt. He hits a couple of dropkicks and Valentine powders. Bagwell tries another hiptoss but Valentine whacks him with a clothesline. Stiff chops. Bagwell dodges an elbow off the second rope. Valentine dodges a kneedrop and goes to work on the knee. Bagwell pushes out of a figure four attempt. Valentine goes for it again. Bagwell wraps up a small package for 2. More quick pin attempts by Bagwell but his knee gives out on a leapfrog. Valentine hits a kneebreaker, locks in the figure four, and Bagwell gives it up. Meh. Not sure why you're putting Valentine over in a singles match on PPV in 1992. Seemed like a "teach this kid a lesson" match for Bagwell, which was a very Bill Watts thing to do. *3/4

 

Falls Count Anywhere Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Sting def Cactus Jack in 11:24- This is the first of two gimmick matches featuring the top two singles champions with the titles not on the line. Jack looks deadly serious. He waits on the ramp for Sting to enter. Sting takes his gear off at the start of the ramp, meets Jack in the middle, and we're on with a hockey fight on the ramp! Jack tries to hiptoss Sting off the ramp. Sting blocks it and turns it into a backslide for 2. Sting backdrops Jack on the ramp and follows up with a faceplant. He charges toward the ring but Jack dodges. Sting flies over the ring corner. Cactus elbow! Jack with a swinging neckbreaker on the floor for 2. He hits a sunset flip off the apron to the floor! The Mick Foley bumpometer is definitely a 10 tonight. Sting backdrops him over the barricade into the crowd! Suplex on the floor! They head into the ring to have something soft to bump off of for a minute or two. Big clothesline from Jack. He target's Sting's ribs that Vader hurt a few weeks ago with a body scissors. Mick Foley with a wrestling hold? Sting hulks up out of it. Cactus clothesline! Jack hits some chairshots on the floor. Bang bang! Sting counters with a belly to back suplex on the floor. They do a near fall tradeoff. Stinger Splash against the barricade! Jack tries a piledriver but his knee that's been wobbly most of the match gives out. He goes for the big Cactus elbow off the second rope to the floor but Sting dodges it. They go back to the ramp. Chairshots from Sting. He tries to hook in the Scorpion Death Lock but Jack flips out of it and they fall down to the floor. Jack with the double arm DDT on the ramp! Sting kicks out! Sting charges with a clothesline. Then he throws an FU to Watts, goes to the top rope, nails Jack with a flying clothesline, and that gets the pin! Absolutely fantastic, innovative match that wouldn't become common in mainstream wrestling for another 5 or 6 years. Foley was the master in this environment but Sting kept up every step of the way. ****

 

30 Minute Ironman Match: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude- Paul E and Medusa have again been banned from ringside, and fortunately there's no suspicious looking ninja character hanging around either.

FALL ONE: They start fighting while Steamboat still has his entrance robe on. Steamboat hits a huge gutbuster, making Rude's ribs the major story of the first part of the match. Rude does a flop on a whip attempt. Steamboat targets the ribs and goes to work on them. Bear hug. Rude gets a kneelift in the corner to try and get some breathing room. Steamboat grabs a ZSJ like hold, stretching Rude's midsection. Rude eye rakes out. Steamboat rolls out of a monkey flip attempt and turns it into a Boston crab. Rude slowly crawls to the ropes. More attacks on the ribs. Steamboat's almost heelish here, targeting a hurt body part while taunting Rude to get up and fight. He lifts Rude up for a suplex but drops him face first. Rude gets a knee up in the corner, drops on Steamboat and grabs a handful of tights for a shock (almost babyface) pin. 1-0 Rude at 22:15 left

FALL TWO: Rude Awakening! Another pin for Rude. 2-0 Rude at 21:20 left

FALL THREE: After a slam Rude goes to the top rope. He drops a knee on Steamboat, but per Watts' edict the ref calls for the DQ. Intentional calculation by Rude, taking a DQ to inflict maximum damage. 2-1 Rude at 20:18 left

FALL FOUR: Rude wraps up a quick Paul Smackage to get the fall he just lost back. 3-1 Rude at 19:45 left

FALL FIVE: Steamboat gets some punches in Rude's ribs to try to come back. Rude counters a backdrop and goes into prevent defense mode with a couple of double chinlocks. Classic Rude bit where he tries to hip swivel but sells the hurt body part. Steamboat electric chair drops out of the chinlock. Rude gets his knees up on a splash attempt. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Steamboat chops back. Another chinlock from Rude. He hits a piledriver for 2. He loads up a tombstone, but Steamboat reverses it, hits the tombstone, and gets a pin! He's back in it. 3-2 Rude at 12:18 left

FALL SIX: Both guys are recovering. Rude tights pulls Steamboat face first into the buckle. He goes up top again. Steamboat chops him, climbs up, and hits a superplex! (According to JR that's legal) Rude kicks out! Double clothesline. 10 minutes left. They do the bridge up/backslide spot, and the backslide gets Steamboat another pin! We're all tied up! 3-3 at 9:45 left

FALL SEVEN: Steamboat rolls through quick pin attempts. Rude counters with a jawbreaker. He hits some power moves for near falls. Steamboat chops back. They're still working at a furious pace and there's been very little resting the whole match. Rude hits forearms. He tries for the Rude Awakening again but Steamboat powers out. Steamboat hits a Rude Awakening! Rude just gets a foot on the rope at 2. 5 minutes left. Steamboat hits a couple of suplexes for near falls. Rude counters a whip and hooks on a sleeper! Steamboat runs into the buckle multiple times but Rude hangs on, literally riding Steamboat's back. Steamboat sloooooooooooooooowly crawls to the ropes and reaches a hand out, but Rude slaps it back down. Steamboat's going down. 2 minutes left. At 1 minute left the ref checks Steamboats's eyes and starts the arm drops. Steamboat's not done yet! He flips back off the top turnbuckle, lands on Rude, and pins him! 4-3 Steamboat with :32 left

FALL EIGHT: Rude is furious and desperately tries for a quick pin. Clothesline for 2. Shoudlerblock for 2. Another clothesline for 2. Small package for 2. Slam for 2. Time's up! Steamboat hangs on and wins 4-3!

For years this was the gold standard in Ironman matches, until Bret and Shawn did it for an hour at Wrestlemania 12. Both guys worked their asses off, and the layout and booking were fantastic. That sleeper at the end was as dramatic a sleeper hold as you'll ever see. ****1/2

Next up is part two of the Medusa/Hyatt "battle", the swimsuits. I have to admit, Hyatt does look pretty good. Otherwise, next.

 

"The Natural" Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham and Nikita Koloff def WCW World Television Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin, Arn Anderson and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (w/Paul E Dangerously) by DQ in 15:32- Ole Anderson is reffing this match in his new on screen role as WCW's senior official. We're well into the winding down phase of the Dangerous Alliance angle as the group is being slowly disbanded. Austin and Windham start. Good back and forth. Austin goes up to the second rope and Windham Japanese armdrags him off. Arn wants Koloff, and slaps him! Koloff comes in wanting murder. Arn goes up to the top rope, remembers the new rule, comes back down, and acts like it was part of the plan all along. JR tries to defend the rule and doesn't get any further than "idiot sportswriters that don't know what they're talking about". Koloff hits Arn in the back of the head with a Sickle and Arn flies over the top rope and out, prompting a 5 minute debate from commentary about what is and isn't a throw over the top rope. Paul E wants a DQ. Arn breaks up a Koloff bear hug on Eaton. Koloff fights off all the heels. Regroup on the outside. Paul E wants to switch to plan 2. As long as we don't end up on plan 9. I don't think anyone's got any solaronite. Windham atomic drops Arn into the corner, but Arn ricochets off and they hit heads. Arn goes up top again, eye rakes out of a throw attempt, goes down to the second rope and drops a punch. Windham back suplexes out of a headlock and tags Rhodes. Mini--hot tag/donnybrook sequence where Rhodes takes out all the heels. Arn whips him into the heel corner and throws his head into Eaton's head. Rhodes goes full face in peril. Eaton posts Rhodes' knee....then goes to work on the arm. Big flying clothesline from Austin for 2. Arn stops a tag with a drop toe hold. Eaton dodges a Rhodes crossbody attempt. Rhodes flips out of a suplex and rolls Austin up for 2. Rhodes turns the tables on Arn, pushing his head into Eaton's head. Austin prevents the tag. Gun stun! But Rhodes falls near the face corner and *just* reaches over to tag. Donnybrook! Windham hits the superplex! While he's covering Arn tries coming off the top rope onto his back, but Ole sees it and calls for the DQ. Pretty pedestrian and disappointing considering all the talent in the ring. Ole was constantly out of position and just plain not good as the ref. **1/2

 

JR interviews Steamboat. Paul E crashes and yells at Steamboat that he'll never, ever get another title shot at Rude. Then Cactus Jack attacks Steamboat. JR speculates Paul E has hired Jack.

Round 3 of the Hyatt/Medusa duel, the hyped up "itty bitty teeny weeny tiny bikinis". I don't think it's possible for Hyatt to wear less than she did last time and still have it be near PG. And she doesn't. No winners are announced, call the 900 number now to cast your vote results will be later. And you thought they didn't start shilling that until Mean Gene came along.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) and The Miracle Violence Connection go to a 30 minute time limit draw- The MVC had been a top team in All Japan for about 2 years and are announced as currently residing in Nagoya. Of course both guys were well known to long time American wrestling fans. The Steiners were former IWGP tag champs and would actually win them again a week after this match, so we have a little cross promotion match between Japan's top two companies as well. Scott and Gordy start. They roll through some waistlock counters. Scott puts on a half nelson followed by some more mat wrestling. Gordy escapes to the ropes a couple of times and gets clean breaks. Both guys run into each other full speed for a shoulderblock where neither guy budges an inch. That collision pop would rival anything heard on a football field. Slugfest! Scott and Williams also go amateur on the mat for a bit. Scott ducks a clothesline and tries a German suplex, but Williams grabs the ropes to block it and back elbows Scott. Scott dodges a corner charge and gets a roll up for 2. Rick tags in, and JR mentions he and Williams used to be teammates in the Varsity Club. They make a hiptoss block look rough and stiff. Rick hits a belly to belly suplex! Suplex City, bitch. Williams hits a couple of low football tackles at the legs. He goes for a third but Rick kills him with a Steinerline! Gordy blocks a Rick German attempt and hits a Saito suplex. Rick responds with a Saito of his own. Williams throws Rick onto the entrance ramp. Spear through the ropes! Rick sunset flips back in. Gordy wraps Rick up in a leg scissors. Rick rolls it over for a couple of pin attempts. Gordy transitions to an old school spinning toe hold. Rick with another belly to belly. Scott freaking deadlifts Gordy and slams him. He wraps up a cloverleaf type hold and tries to turn it into a bow and arrow but Gordy blocks it. Williams blocks another belly to belly attempt. Scott crossbody on Gordy for 2. MVC double team, with Williams hitting chops and taking out Scott's knee. Gordy goes to work on it. Scott tries to come back with shots on Williams' knee but his own knee gives out again. Another MVC double team and Rick breaks up the pin. He's doing a better job of staying on the apron than usual. Gordy hits a suplex for 2. Back to the knee. Gordy tries a bow and arrow but can't roll Scott all the way over. Williams does a spit sell of a Scott punch and the crowd gasps. With about 10 minutes left Gordy and Williams take turns putting half crabs and a Boston crab on Scott. Scott slowly crawls over....and manages to get the tag! Rick powerslam for 2. Bulldog off the second rope! Gordy sticks his nose in to keep Rick from covering. The Steiners set up a double team but Gordy knocks Scott off the second rope to the floor. Huge Williams clothesline. Gordy powerslams Rick off the second rope. Rick kicks out! MVC double team for another 2. 5 minutes left. Gordy comes in and just potatoes Rick across his earpiece. Another Saito for 2. Williams hits a gutwrench power bomb for 2. Rick tries a Steinerline out of the corner but Williams shrugs it off and hoists Rick up for the Oklahoma Stampede. He hits one buckle, but going to the second Rick pushes off and *kills* him with a Steinerline! Williams tags. Gordy hits a corner clothesline, whips Rick the other way, and he eats a Steinerline! 1 minute left. Scott's tagged in. Backdrops. Slams. Double underhook powerbomb. No cover. He calls for the Frankensteiner, but as he's hitting it the bell rings for the time limit. You want stiff? This is as stiff as you can get. Just an amazing match with all the physicality you'd expect from these two teams. The only thing against it is some obvious time limit stalling down the stretch. The MVC would win the titles in a house show rematch a week before GAB. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: WCW's run of phenomenal PPVs in the first half of '92 continues, Bill Watts or no Bill Watts. And talk about variety. You've got an early Mick Foley all arena brawl, a great stand up wrestling match that's an Ironman to boot, and a tremendous stiff fest of a tag match, all hitting 4+ stars. Watch this thing.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A