Bash at the Beach '95

Legacy Review

Bash at the Beach '95

July 16, 1995 from Huntington Beach, CA

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

Sponsored by Slim Jim. If there's one thing to say for this show, it's a unique venue as Bash at the Beach is taking place....on a beach! It's the first time WCW has gone to an outdoor location, something they'd revisit a lot in the future (Road Wild, the "spring break" Nitros). Sponsored by Slim Jim. Commentary keeps claiming there's "hundreds of thousands" of people there, but the eye test says it looks more like a regular arena sized crowd. The official count was about 10,000, and because it's on a beach they're all free. Haven't seen this many comped tickets since the last AWA shows. I feel for the people in the back of the crowd, I have no idea how they can see. I've been at shows with floor seats 9 or 10 rows back and even from there it can be a bitch to see properly. The whole beach setup does look good on TV though. And in case you missed it, it's sponsored by Slim Jim.

Before the opener we get an absolutely ludicrous video promo for Meng. "Knows 9 forms of martial arts" "bodyguard for an unnamed royal family" etc etc. What's even crazier is all they needed to do was go with some of his real life fight stories to prove he was one of the toughest SOBs in wrestling history.

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Sting (c) def Meng (w/Col. Robert Parker) in 15:31- This is a rematch of the tournament final for the vacant title at Great American Bash. Cautious start. It's hot out there. Meng hits chops and forearms in the corner. Slugfest stalemate. More slow lockups. Mongolian chops from Meng. He hits more kicks and chops in the corner then puts on a Greco Roman throat hold. Sting quickly gets out of a nerve pinch and hooks on an ARMBAR. Meng goes for a suplex that's blocked by Sting, then he no sells a Sting clothesline. Sting's stunned, flummoxed and bewildered. Meng slam. Sting dodges a headbutt off the second rope. He sloooooowly turns Meng over into the Scorpion Death Lock. Parker gets on the apron to distract. Meng kicks Sting from behind. Brain buster for 2. Trio of backbreakers for 2. A Meng abdominal stretch kills some time. Sting gets a sunset flip. Meng tries to fight. Sting gets him down but they're in the ropes. Now Meng tries a sunset flip. Sting leaps and falls on him. Both guys are down. Meng grabs both of Sting's legs in one arm and puts on a modified Boston crab. Sting dodges an elbow drop. Back suplex. Clothesline flurry. Thesz press! That was new. Ugly Sting hurricanrana for 2. Springboard crossbody for 2. Stinger Spla....NO Meng kicks him right in the face in midair! OK, that was good. Cover for 2. Meng splash off the second rope for 2. Sting ducks under a kick, rolls Meng up, and gets a pin. The whole match was in slow motion, which doesn't bode well for everyone else going out and trying to wrestle outside on a beach in the middle of July. *1/4

Jimmy Hart and the Renegade are with Mean Gene. Renegade continues to milk his Ultimate Warrior Comic Con cosplay for every penny WCW will give to him.

 

WCW World Television Championship: The Renegade (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff in 6:12- And Renegade even runs to the ring. Quick start in contrast to the last match with Orndorff getting a knee to the gut and dropping a kneedrop. After some jawing at Hart (it's hilarious to hear Heenan call Hart a runt now Hart is a face after all those years they were both heels in WWF) Orndorff comes off the top rope into a Renegade boot. Tackles from Renegade and he clotheslines Orndorff 360 outside. Orndorff falls off the dais the ring is on and all the way into the sand. Well that's going to make a mess in the ring. I feel bad for anyone that gets sand down their tights during a match. It's coarse and rough and it gets everywhere. Renegade pulls him back in by his hair over the top rope and drops him, then cranks a headlock. Horrible dropkick from Renegade. So bad I don't know if I should even be calling it a dropkick. Orndorff goes out again, gets a handful of sand and throws it in Renegade's face. Saito suplex from Orndorff back in. Renegade's idea of selling is "wander around the ring and shake your head a lot". That's not just from the sand in the face, that's normal for him. Orndorff goes for the piledriver. Renegade backdrops out and hits more awful dropkicks. Give it up, kid. Renegade powerslam to some boos. Orndorff goes for a suplex. Renegade slips out, hits a back suplex, bridges and gets a 3 count to some definite boos. After the bell Orndorff attacks him to cheers. He plants Renegade with the piledriver to about the biggest pop in the show so far. Renegade pops up like it never happened and gives Orndorff a tackle off the top rope to more boos. 1/4*

Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you it's Dungeon of Doom time. We get video from the very fake Dungeon cave set of the Taskmaster (Kevin Sullivan) holding the GOBLET OF DARKNESS while the Master guy rambles on saying something totally unintelligible. Seriously, he needs to learn to deliver lines so people will actually understand what he's saying. Kamala is introduced as the Dungeon's first "warrior". More will come. It's not in this video but they've also been joined by the Zodiac, Brutus Beefacke's latest ever changing gimmick.

 

Kamala (w/The Taskmaster) def "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in 6:00- Tony and Heenan try to find a line of logic through the Dungeon of Doom story. A losing battle if I've ever seen one. I've seen Rifftrax/MST3K movies with more coherent plotlines. Duggan teases a 2x4 shot before the bell. Lockup and slugfest. Kamala weebles wobbles and doesn't fall down. A clothesline finally puts him down. Tony praises his "balance" in not going down which is hilarious. Kamala opens his arms to Duggan. Does he want a hug or something? He hits chops to Duggan's head. Duggan tries a slam but of course can't lift the GIANT. Kamala hooks on the inevitable bear hug. Duggan tries to headbutt out and hurts himself. Finally (Duggan has always been a bit slow) he goes the obvious route and stomps Kamala's bare feet. Kamala dodges a charge in the corner and hooks on the Pectoral Pinch of Boob Twisting +1. Duggan bites out. Clothesline and he manages to slam Kamala. 3 point stance clothesline. Sullivan gets on the apron to distract. Zodiac runs in, hits Duggan with Kamala's mask, and Kamala covers for the pin. DUD

 

Diamond Dallas Page (w/The Diamond Doll and Max Muscle) def Dave "Evad" Sullivan in 5:04- After years of stops and starts across multiple WCW regimes DDP was finally starting to get some traction, thanks in part the current "abusive boyfriend/husband" angle he has going with the Doll (Page's real life wife Kimberly) that's turning him into one of the company's top heels. His cool new finisher, the Diamond Cutter, helps too. This started at GAB when Evad beat DDP in an arm wrestling match to win a date with the Doll. Nothing about said date is mentioned during this match and I honestly can't be bothered to go look up if they did anything with it on weekly TV or not. A kid tries to give the Doll flowers before the match. DDP takes them and yells at her. Evad charges the ring and attacks. He stuffs the flowers down DDP's mouth. Evad ducks a punch and hits an atomic drop. Suplex. He starts talking to the Doll and DDP hits him from behind. Sullivan catches him in the corner with a bear hug. DDP eye pokes out. Another Evad dodge in the corner. He catches a DDP kick and clotheslines him. Buckle shots. He puts DDP in the "inverted bear hug" that's his current finisher. Muscle gets on the apron. Diamond Cutter! Good night. It's an Evad match. Second straight match with a manager distraction finish too. DUD

 

Triangle Match for the WCW World Tag Team Championship: Harlem Heat (c) (w/Sister Sherri) def The Nasty Boys and The Blue Bloods in 13:41- These triple threat matches were still a new thing at the time and they were still trying to figure out exactly how to make them work. If I remember right that's another thing ECW was taking the lead on innovating around this time. Knobbs and Booker start after a very long coin toss. Regal gets in but both teams pound him. Everyone's brawling. The Bloods both take pit stops as the Nastys clear the ring. Reset with Knobbs and Booker. Back and forth brawl. Booker 360 sells a clothesline. Regal tags himself in. Booker trips and superkicks him. Ray backdrops Eaton. Eaton rolls out and Sherri pops him. Sags blind tags in and drops elbows on Ray. The Nastys pound him down in the corner. Then Sags tags Regal in and tells him to go for it. Regal gets stuck in the Heat corner. Booker gets a boot up on Knobbs in the corner and it looks legit accidentally falls out of the ring. He's OK. Regal blind tags in and then has to tell ref Nick Patrick that he did it because Patrick wasn't looking. European uppercuts on Booker. The Bloods and Nastys start to fight with each other, allowing Booker to tag Ray. The Bloods and Nastys start to work together again to pound Ray down. Heat gets Knobbs isolated and Booker hits him with a swing kick. The Bloods get in to work Knobbs over. Eaton fistdrop off the top rope. Sags breaks up the Regal Stretch. Tony and Heenan argue about the rules and I don't think either of them have it right. Knobbs and Regal lay into each other a little bit stiffly. Sags tags in and does a hot tag run. Everyone in the pool! Sags backdrops Booker onto Regal. Knobbs splashes them both and sits on them. He gets a 3 count and the Nastys think they won. But Patrick gives the belts to Heat! Apparently Booker got a shoulder up, and also apparently Knobbs was only sitting on Booker, not Eaton, while Booker was covering Eaton. See, that's trying way too hard to get cute and clever with the finish in a match that was already unique enough at the time as it was. The rest of it was a pretty big mess too. 3/4*

During Flair's promo I notice that his roots badly need doing. That's the least blonde I've ever seen Flair. Before the next match the cast of Baywatch comes out to say hi, sit around and watch so WCW can say they were there. Heenan stands on a chair to look at the women and Tony legit loses it laughing. "You never know when you'll need a lifeguard!"

 

Lifeguard Match: "Macho Man" Randy Savage def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in 13:55- So what is a Lifeguard Match? Well, it's a Lumberjack Match except it's on a beach. So, Lifeguard. Hey, that's pretty much word for word what Tony said. And it is wrestlers working as the lifeguards, not the Baywatch cast. Flair's in his rare pink gear. Savage has all the Slim Jims with him for Slim Jim presents Bash at the Beach sponsored by Slim Jim. Tony calls shenanigans on Arn Anderson being a lifeguard. After the bell Flair bumps off an eye poke. Savage does some ground and pound. Backdrop and clotheslines. Flair gets clotheslined 360 to the floor. The lifeguards get him back in. Savage does mounted punches. Flair inverted atomic drop counter. He tosses Savage out and he gets pushed back in. Flair chops lead to a slugfest. Running elbow from Savage. Flair Flip! He falls out and gets pushed back in. A tights pull sends Savage out hard all the way into the sand. Savage blocks an apron suplex and suplexes Flair over the top outside! Flair begs off and gets the eye poke in. Back elbow and Flair gets strutting a bit. Sleeper. Savage elbows out. Speed run and Flair puts the sleeper back on. Savage runs him into the top turnbuckle. Flair Flop! Flair is up first with more chops. He tosses Savage over the top into the sand. There hasn't been an incident with the lifeguards, yet. Flair comes off the top and lands jaw first on Savage's head. I don't think that came off right. They take a minute to get their footing back. Savage hooks on a sleeper. Flair counters with a kneebreaker! We're going to school, kids. Another corner slugfest. Flair gets a boot up in the opposite corner. Figure four! Savage fights and reverses it. Flair delayed suplex for 2. Savage goes for mounted punches again. Flair tries the inverted atomic drop counter again but this time Savage blocks it. He punches Flair 360 to the ground. Flair tries to run but the lifeguards drag him back in. Savage double ax handle off the top. Arn gets on the apron and in the ring. Savage pops him. Flair with another eye poke. Savage backdrops him over the top! Knobbs catches him in midair! While that's going on Arn sneaks up and DDTs Savage! Flair covers. Savage kicks out! Savage backslide for 2. Flair gets slammed off the top. Another double ax handle off the top. Setup slam. The elbow hits! Savage gets the pin! Solid but not spectacular. Nowhere near the level of their GAB match. I appreciate that they didn't do the cliche giant lumberjack brawl finish. Er, lifeguard. **3/4

 

Steel Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart and Dennis Rodman) def Vader in 13:13- With this show Hogan is marking one year with the company and one full year as world champ, the longest WCW/NWA world title reign since the Jim Crockett days. Vader's going old school with his old headgear! Nice. NBA star Dennis Rodman, a polarizing figure at the time to say the least but also an avowed wrestling fan, is making his first of what would be many WCW appearances. For the first time ever in WCW this match can be won by escaping the cage as well as pin or submission, something I'm sure Hogan insisted on since cage escapes were the standard cage match finishes in WWF during his time there. As soon as he tears his shirt off Hogan wraps it around Vader's neck and pulls him into the cage. He stuffs his bandana in Vader's mouth. Mounted punches and stomps. Double ax handle off the second rope. Both guys block cage shots. Slugfest. Hogan finally gets run into the cage and Vader starts laying in the corner potatoes. He runs Hogan into his headgear that's set up in a corner! Hogan blocks another shot and Vader takes a headgear shot. Hogan puts Vader's headgear on! Then headbutts Vader with it! OK, that's funny, I'll give him that one. Avalanche from Vader. Vader bomb! A second one! Cover. Hogan kicks out. Vader suplex. He goes for the door. Hogan pushes him from behind into the cage. Vader blocks a slam attempt. He goes up top. Hogan dodges a senton. Corner clothesline. Another slam attempt and Vader falls on Hogan for 2. Another slugfest. Hogan hits a clothesline and gets the slam, but his back gives out. Vader short clothesline. Splash off the second rope. Hulk Up. Hogan no sells cage shots and runs Vader back and forth into the cage. Big boot. The Taskmaster and Zodiac come out and try to get in the cage. Rodman chases them off. Legdrop. Hogan poses forever then hits a second legdrop. He climbs the cage. Vader chases. Hogan fights him off, climbs over, falls to the floor and it's over. Bleh. *1/2

After the match Tony and Heenan think they're going off the air, then Flair comes out to berate Vader for failing to take Hogan out. Arn joins him. Vader takes them both out and challenges them to a 2 on 1 match. That match will happen at the next Clash of the Champions as Vader would be gone from WCW before the next PPV.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- After finally having a halfway decent PPV at Great American Bash it's right back into the '95 doldrums here. The only positive thing I can say about this show is the beach location looks good on TV.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D-