Great American Bash '96

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '96

June 16, 1996 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes

This is one of those shows that would end up becoming a bit of a historic tentpole without anyone knowing it at the time, as this was the final WCW PPV before the formation of the NWO. And we're on the road there, as a couple of Outsiders have already been making their presence felt. GAB is also returning to its traditional yearly venue in Baltimore for the first time since 1991. It's probably taken that long to get the stink of that show out of the building.

Somebody must have been watching old WWF Saturday Night's Main Event videos because the show opens with a run of promos like those shows used to. Bobby Heenan is not on commentary tonight because for one night only he's back to managing to help Flair and Arn out for their match. The main effect of it is there's no one in the booth to keep Dusty in check.

The Steiner Brothers def Fire and Ice in 10:29- Three months after returning to WCW the Steiners finally get their first proper PPV match back (they had a preshow Main Event match at Uncensored and were on separate teams in Slamboree's Lethal Lottery). These two teams have had a series of indecisive matches on weekly TV so tonight "there must be a winner". Technically it's face vs face but the crowd is almost all pro-Steiners. Really, it's the popular Steiners against a team no one really gives a damn about. Train and Scott start. Quick Scott armdrag followed by a Train hiptoss as they feel each other out. Speed run and big Train clothesline for 2. Scott hiptosses everyone. Steinerline! Steinerline! F&I go out to regroup while the Steiners strike their pose with the crowd going nuts. Both sides tag. I can't remember if they ever actually got in the ring together over there, but Norton worked in New Japan full time for a long time while the Steiners were going in and out so there's at least some familiarity from that. Stiff back and forth between the two. HUGE Rick Steinerline. Belly to belly suplex. I really like the pause before hitting it, letting Norton think about what was about to happen to him. Scott hits a dropkick with an iffy Norton sell. Norton hits a Samoan drop that hurts Scott's shoulder. He rolls out to shake it off. Train hits a suplex, followed by his own belly to belly for 2. Norton gets a cheap shot in on the floor, taking what the crowd's been giving them and rolling with it. Big Train corner clothesline. Scott gets a boot up in the corner and hits a belly to belly. Steinerline. A Scott suplex drops Norton on his head and he needs a minute to legit recover. Scott tries coming off the top rope. Norton catches him, needs a second to get his balance, and hits a powerslam for 2. He goes back to working Scott's hurt shoulder. Train comes in with a chinlock. All he can do. Norton hits a shoulderbreaker and hooks on a Fujiwara armbar. Rick tries to break it up but Norton won't let go. Finally Rick kicks him in the head enough to break it up. He goes for another shoulerbreaker, but while he's got Scott up Rick blind tags in. Steinerline! Rick German suplex! Rick and Train fumble around into a backdrop. Donnybrooking. F&I hit their powerbomb/splash combo. Scott breaks the pin up. F&I set up a doomsday device. Scott knocks Train off the top rope. Rick DDT on Norton. Scott tags in from the wrong corner. Doomsday bulldog! The pin just gets broken up. Frankensteiner! Norton sold that the best he could, which was not at all good. That gets the pin. Nicely stiff, and F&I tried to keep up with the Steiners as best they could. On the other side, the Steiners were still good but this is no longer their peak years. **3/4

Kevin Sullivan stumbles badly through his promo while Mean Gene seems to have a conversation with producers behind him.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Konnan (c) def El Gato in 6:03- The last couple of PPVs they got decently good results by pairing Konnan up with guys that could carry him (Eddie Guerrero, Jushin Liger). I don't think we'll get as good this time around. Gato is late career Pat Tanaka in a mask with a very short lived character. What the hell is Gato's music? It's like what Bischoff era WCW would come up with for Jungle Boy. His mask is almost a direct Tiger Mask ripoff too. Armdraggy start. Gato does some martial arts kicks and hits a dragon screw leg whip. After some more basic takedowns Konnan pulls Gato down by his mask and hits a clothesline. Leapfrogs and Gato hits a reverse kick for 2. He wraps Konnan up on the mat, and uses the ropes for some extra leverage in a desperate but half-hearted attempt to get some heat. No joy there. Gato powerbomb for 2 followed by some more arm work. Konnan counters into a legbar. Corner whip from Konnan and he does a silly roll into a faceplant. Gato pulls Konnan out to the floor by his tights. Konnan dodges a baseball slide and Gato splats on the floor. Konnan sunset bomb! That woke the crowd up. Gato tries to float over in the corner back in. Konnan counters it into an Alabama slam, does a jackknife cover and gets the pin. Not good, but not nearly as awful as it could have been. **

Sting and Mean Gene have a conversation about Regal's "prissy mannerisms" and Sting questions Regal's sexuality.

 

Diamond Dallas Page def Marcus Alexander Bagwell in 9:39- This is Bagwell's first PPV match in a while. He's now teaming up with Scotty Riggs as American Males and is slowly starting to look more and more Buff-like. Still a face though. Commentary mentions DDP's Lord of the Ring, er, ring from winning Battlebowl is supposedly on the line but not much is made of it and it's never officially announced. If the ring announcer doesn't say it, it's not official. Wrestling 101. DDP does a little Rick Rude style promo during his entrance. Bagwell charges in and DDP bails, but uses Bagwell's fire to sneak around and hit him from behind. Ever the master strategist. Bagwell snaps DDP over the top rope and he tumbles over and all the way to the floor! Bagwell whips him into the rail and punches him over into the first row. DDP, being DDP, finds an unoccupied chair and wraps it around his head to sell more. Bagwell crossbody for 2. After some arm work they go speed and Bagwell hits a forearm. Or elbow. Either or. A punch sends DDP into the ropes and he begs off. Bagwell dropkicks him free down to the floor! Plancha! Bagwell goes up top. DDP hits the ropes to crotch him. Generic Heel Offense from DDP. He does a gutwrench backbreaker that Bagwell looked like he was legit fighting him over. Abdominal stretch with rope leverage. The ref catches him and Bagwell hiptosses out. DDP tombstone slammy thing for 2. He goes for a big kick, misses, and sells the hell out of it. Tony says he'll never be a punter for the brand new Baltimore Ravens and Dusty doesn't know what a Baltimore Raven is. Bagwell atomic drops on both ends that DDP gives his second Rude tribute of the match for with his selling. Bagwell slingshot clothesline for 2. DDP gets a back elbow in the corner and tries for a leverage pin. Bagwell flying headscissors. He goes for his perfectplex finisher but DDP uses the ropes to block it. Diamond Cutter! It's over. The Cutter was already being sold as a Move of Instant Death, and it's not long now that they'll add on DDP being able to hit it from anywhere at any angle to really put a rocketship on him. The match had DDP selling like an absolute maniac, but not much else. **

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Dean Malenko (c) def Rey Mysterio Jr in 17:50- Young Rey Rey is making his WCW debut after being introduced to US audiences in ECW the year prior, and was coming in with a ton of hype and expectation. Mike Tenay joins the booth for this match. Feeling out back and forth start. Double kip up and stalemate. They go speed, Malenko hits a back elbow, Mysterio gets on his shoulders and does a super spinny lucha armdrag that sends Malenko to the floor. A springboard dropkick knocks Malenko off the apron. Test of strength back in that leads to some more great counter work, ending with Malenko slingshotting Mysterio over the top rope to the floor! He goes for a baseball slide but Mysterio sidesteps by getting back in the ring. Malenko wraps Mysterio up and kicks his arm hard, hurting Mysterio's elbow or shoulder. Target acquired. Hammerlock slam. Malenko starts picking the hurt arm apart. Mysterio escapes and tries to get a breather on the floor, but that only lets Malenko use the guardrail to hurt his arm more! Back in Malenko goes for a powerbomb. Mysterio tries to counter out of it, but Malenko gets him on his feet and kills him with a clothesline! That gets a nice crowd reaction. He stretches the bad arm out again. Mike Tenay mentions Eddie Guerrero just won the Super J Cup in New Japan. Well he's somewhat right. It was actually Best of the Super Juniors, and Guerrero won it under a mask as Black Tiger II. Tenay does get him beating Liger in the final right at least. I'll give him 1.5 out of 3. And I thought Tenay was the professor. Malenko hits a back suplex on Mysterio's arm for 2. Mysterio flips over and hits a high knee to put Malenko down, but he's still up first and back on the arm. He puts on a crossface and a surfboard, then tries for a kimura. Saito suplex from Malenko for a long 2. The crowd is starting to buzz in a good way. Double underhook suplex for 2. Back to the arm with a Fujiwara armbar. A Mysterio counter sends Malenko out to the floor. He baseball slides Malenko off the apron. Springboard senton! I think we're now in the "cranking it up to the finish" portion of the match. Mysterio springboard missile dropkick for 2. Another Mysterio powerbomb counter leads to a long counter sequence and Mysterio gets a jackknife cover for 2. Flip over the ropes and Mysterio hits a springboard hurricanrana! Damn. He stacks Malenko up for 2. Corner counters. Both guys go up top. Malenko looks for his super gutbuster but Mysterio fights him off. Hurricanrana! Malenko tries a tiltawhirl but Mysterio blocks it mid-move and drops on Malenko for 2. He goes for another flying headscissors. Malenko blocks it into a powerbomb! Finally hit it. Malenko stacks Mysterio up, puts his feet up on the ropes and gets the pin! They get a quick standing ovation from the crowd after that match. Maybe not quite the way you want someone like Mysterio to debut, but they worked hard to make sure the long submission work stretch never got dull, Mysterio showed his ability to refuse to die and fight back, and the closing stretch was fantastic with Mysterio starting to show off his aerial skills. It's all up for him from here. Malenko also did his job with his usual smoothness and efficiency. ****

Luger is with Mean Gene and admits he's only doing the interview because he has to. Luger's just here so he doesn't get fined.

 

John Tenta def Big Bubba Rogers (w/Jimmy Hart) in 5:24- Tenta, the former Shark and Avalanche (and Earthquake in WWF), is now wrestling under his real name and had part of his head shaved by Rogers on TV a couple of weeks back as part of a face turn. He's former Dungeon of Doom and Rogers is current DOD. I'm not sure what's going on inside the DOD at this point and frankly couldn't care less, they should have gone away like a year ago. Rogers jumps Tenta during Tenta's entrance and they brawl on the floor. Rogers goes up top but Tenta knocks him back off to the floor. He whips Rogers into the steps. Rogers begs off back in. Tenta kicks him into the corner and squashes him. Hart gives Rogers an international object, probably knucks, and he waffles Tenta with them. Ref Nick Patrick checks but he's already passed them back to Hart. Cover for 2. Rogers hits an enzuguri. Sliding uppercut and he tries for a rope leverage pin but Patrick catches him. Tenta tries a slam but Rogers falls on him for 2. Another slide out and Rogers posts Tenta's knee. After a corner dodge Rogers hits a back suplex. He goes up top. Tenta catches him, hits a powerslam, and it's over. After the bell Tenta gets the scissors from Hart and clips a bit off Rogers' goatee. Bit of a contrast from the last match. 1/4*

 

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Chris Benoit def "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan (w/Jimmy Hart) in 9:58- This started as the DOD vs the Horsemen but has become very personal between these two. Sullivan does the all business power walk on his entrance. Benoit attacks him in the aisle! They work to the ringside area and have a chopfest. Benoit goes over the rail and Sullivan follows. Brawl through the crowd! Up the stairs! To the back of the arena and into a public men's bathroom! There's randos in there, WCW didn't even clean it out beforehand. Luckily no one's in the middle of doing their business. That we can see. Sullivan gives Benoit some door shots as security head honcho Doug Dellinger swoops in to control the growing crowd. Sullivan double stomp. Dusty is going bananas on commentary with what's happening. Benoit fights back and gives Sullivan a door shot. Sullivan hits Benoit with a bag full of toilet paper! Unused, fortunately. He grabs a trash can and hits Benoit with it while Tony runs the ECW/WWF departed Brian Pillman down on commentary. Benoit also gets a trash can shot in as they go out of the bathroom and slug it out back into the arena. Benoit falls down the stairs! In small segments, gotta stay safe. Stair injuries are so much OSHA paperwork. Sullivan works in a quick Greco Roman Nut Stomp. More slugfest as they get back to the floor. Benoit gets crotched on the rail. They get back ringside. Sullivan throws a chair at Benoit. Benoit gets Sullivan back by crotching him on the rail. Benoit gets a table out and puts it in the ring, other than Jimmy Hart the first thing in the ring the whole match. Now the wrestlers get in too. Benoit sets the table up in the corner and both guys run into it. The table gets set up on the top turnbuckle. Sullivan backdrops Benoit onto the table. They both climb on it. Benoit superplex off the table! That gets the pin and a pretty big pop. Kinda disappointing use of the table honestly, and I'm not someone that freaks out over every broken table spot and generally hates the constant "We want tables" chants in modern wrestling. Benoit keeps beating on Sullivan after the bell. Arn Anderson, who had been trying to play both sides of the DOD/Horsemen feud, comes out. He pulls Benoit off.....then pops Sullivan with a straight right! HUGE pop for that. I've been saying since the big Horseman reforming angle in '95, the crowd wants to cheer them but WCW keeps booking them as heels. Whatever scrubs are left in the DOD run out to chase them off. Very fun all arena brawl that hearkened back to the Cactus Jack-led hardcore tag classics from the spring of '94, but to me this didn't quite get to the same level. WCW was definitely ahead of WWF at this stage for this style match though. ***1/2

Mean Gene is with the Horsemen, all three of them. While Flair hypes up their later match, Arn says Benoit has earned his Horseman stripes tonight.

 

WCW World Tag Team Champion Sting def Lord Steven Regal (w/Jeeves) in 16:30- Kinda disappointed Sting's not out in his traditional GAB red, white and blue gear, especially with the way the feud was built up. Sting jumps out quick after the bell. Regal does the over the corner flip to the floor! Sting follows and backdrops him on the floor! Back in Regal begs off to sucker Sting in. Huge Regal forearms and European uppercuts. Man, Regal is physical tonight. Taking that energy he had going against Fit Finlay and keeping it going. Speed run and Sting gets a Japanese armdrag. Slow reset and Regal rolls out to jaw at the crowd a bit. Back in Regal says let's calm down and offers a handshake. Sting is disinclined to acquiesce. Means no. He gets fired up and Regal ducks in the ropes, but quickly gets a takedown and tries for a leverage pin. Sting uses the knucklelock to get the strength and leverage advantage. Regal does a nice escape into a cobra clutch. Huge back elbow from Regal and more uppercuts. He puts on a full nelson and grinds Sting down. Sting gets free and does a sunset flip for 2. Regal quickly drops an elbow on him and wraps him up. More pillar to post beating by Regal. This match has not played out as expected. Regal dropkick and he catches Sting with one foot right on the side of the head. Sting back suplexes out of a headlock with a great Regal reaction. All of Regal's reactions have been great tonight. All the little things done perfectly right. Regal's still up first with an armbar. Midring collision. Regal again recovers first again and keeps Sting grounded. He hasn't been able to put Sting away so he tries some extra rope leverage. The ref catches him and they argue. Sting fires back up and puts Regal in an abdominal stretch. Regal grabs a rope, hits some more forearms and poses a bit. Headscissors, then Regal stump pullers Sting's arm. Sting starts hulking up. Regal cuts it off with an eye poke. Double underhook, but instead of trying to hit a power move he again grinds Sting down to the mat. Sticking to the game plan. Sting fires up again and this time Regal can't stop him. Dropkick. Clothesline! Clothesline! Cover for 2. Sting goes up top. Regal fights up to join him. Regal superplex! Cover for 2. The Regal Stretch is on! After a minute Regal lets go, frustrated Sting hasn't submitted yet. More stiff pounding in the corner. One more hulk up by Sting. He reverses and pounds Regal down in the corner. Stinger Spla....NO Regal gets his knees up! But runs into a Sting backdrop! Scorpion Death Lock! Regal submits! I loved this. Regal was on fire in every way possible from the stiff physicality to the crazy mannerisms, and the layout was completely unexpected but worked brilliantly, with ever generous Sting giving him the whole damn match before getting the quick comeback win. Absolutely fantastic. ****1/4

Ad for the next PPV, Bash at the Beach. Spoilers: big things happen.

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Arn Anderson (w/Woman, Elizabeth and Bobby Heenan) def Kevin Greene and Steve "Mongo" McMichael (w/Randy Savage, Debra McMichael and Tara Greene) in 20:51- This is billed as "the NFL vs wrestlers", though Mongo was long retired from football, had been doing commentary on Nitro since it started and was setting out on a wrestling career. I would almost pay money for Buffer to intro him with "Never mind that shit, here comes Mongo". The NFL guys do a quick football warmup routine before the bell. It's great to see Heenan managing again. Mongo and Arn start. Soms fans flash a giant "MONGO SUCKS" sign. Arn schools Mongo with some basic wrestling. Mongo says OK, let's get down in the football trenches. Arn goes for it and Mongo runs him over. They go again, but this time Arn dodges and takes Mongo down with a drop toe hold. Mongo gets a boot up in the corner and a tackle off the second rope. Arn gets caught in the wrong corner and the football team stomps him out of the ring. Savage gives him a shot on the floor. The Horsemen take a minute to regroup. Back in Arn wants Greene. Greene comes in and is.....a little intense. Flair tags in and gives him some Slick Ric. Now Flair is the one that wants to do a football snap drill. Greene gets down in the 3 point stance....and Flair kicks him in the head! Fantastic. The crowd cheers that. Greene shoves Flair out of the corner with Flair, being Flair, flopping literally all the way across the ring off it. Greene hits tackles on both Flair and Arn. Flair is furious, rolls out and quick marches almost all the way up the entrance aisle. Savage runs out, jumps him, and brings him back in. Greene gives Flair a backdrop and more tackles. He goes to tag but Mongo runs over and cuts it off. Flair fires back up and tries to shoulderblock Mongo but just bounces off of him. He suckers Mongo in for a kick. Mongo no sells chops and chops Flair back. Hiptoss. Flair begs off. Mongo backdrop. Flair eye poke. He goes up top and Mongo slams him off. Mongo hooks on a figure four! Greene tackles Arn! Greene figure four! Woman eye rakes Mongo to break it up. The women all start arguing and all leave. Reset with Arn working Mongo over. Flair hits chops and tosses Mongo out. Arn gets some shots on the floor before Savage chases him off. Heenan gets a kick in! Savage chases him. Back in Mongo no sells chops and goozles Flair. Arn distracts the ref and Flair hits a low blow. Kneedrop. The Horsemen work the ref to get chokes in. Double suplex. Mongo pops out of the corner with a clothesline on Flair. Arn cuts the tag off. Mongo ducks a punch and atomic drops Arn into Flair! Flair Flop! Tag to Greene. Tackles. He slams both guys. Powerslam on Flair. Flair Flip! Into a Mongo big boot! Greene suplexes Flair back in. Arn comes in and clips Greene's knee and the Horsemen start picking it apart. Greene pushes out of an Arn figure four but the tag is cut off. Flair tries a figure four but Greene small packages him for 2. Kneebreaker from Flair. Figure four! Arn gives him leverage help from the corner. Savage takes Arn out. Benoit's out! He and Savage slug it out! Arn jumps in to help and they get Savage down. Woman and Elizabeth are back out, with Debra! Debra has a briefcase. She hands it to Mongo. He opens it up, and inside is a Horseman shirt and a ton of cash! Mongo closes the case.....and whacks Greene in the head with it! Flair covers and gets the pin! After the bell Savage tries to jump Flair. Mongo stops him. The Horsemen beat Savage down. Mongo puts the Horseman shirt on and shakes hands with everyone, including Heenan. There was a situation vacant with the Horsemen. Not anymore. That was a fantastic turn. The match was way better than it had any right to be, especially with as much time as they got they were courting danger (shaking hands with danger?, one for my fellow Rifftrax fans), but Flair and Arn carried the non-wrestlers superbly. The downside was it convinced Mongo he could actually wrestle and we'd all have to suffer through that the next several years. Wish Heenan had stayed on as manager too, he would have been great. ***1/4

Eric Bischoff is out and calls out those guys that have been disrupting Nitro the last few weeks. You know who they are. And here they are. No one in WCW is using their names, but it's Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) and Kevin Nash (Diesel). Bischoff says he has an answer to their challenge and yes, they will get a match at Bash at the Beach. Then Bischoff asks them straight up "Do you work for the WWF?" because the lawyers were barking. Both say no, and Hall says "forget about the past". He drops a bunch of Billionaire Ted references and says it doesn't matter what three guys WCW puts up, the two of them and their "surprise buddy" will take care of business. They demand Bischoff tell them who WCW is putting up. Bischoff says they'll find out tomorrow night on Nitro. Wrong answer. Nash grabs Bischoff and powerbombs him through the stage! Again, cliche now, but back then this was earth shattering shocking. The outsiders leave as security and medics run in. I believe this was the first time Bischoff was acknowledged on air as WCW's executive producer. Tony even leaves the booth to check on him and Dusty cuts a short promo saying the war is on.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: The Giant (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def WCW World Television and Tag Team Champion "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 9:21- Luger stops to check on the still being worked on Bischoff during his entrance. The angle this match has been wrapped around is can Luger get Giant in the Torture Rack. Luger charges at the bell....right into a big boot. Luger fires back up and clotheslines Giant 360 and out. Giant lands on his feet and pulls Luger out, then press slams him back in. Luger pounds away some more, then jumps off the second rope onto Giant's back, loses his grip, then gets back on with a sleeper. Hart gets on the apron. Sting runs out, grabs the megaphone and chases Hart back to the back. Giant still powers out of the sleeper on his own and puts Luger in the tree of woe. He knocks Luger around and hits a backbreaker. Gut wrench, struggle, Giant finally gets Luger up all the way in a Canadian backbreaker, then drops him back down. Lot of work for little result there. He butterflys Luger's arms. Luger gets free and hits a jawbreaker. He tries to slam Giant and fails. Giant pounds on Luger's back some more. Luger comes back with kicks and clotheslines but can't get Giant down. Knee clip and Giant goes to one knee. Luger dodges an avalanche and Giant gets caught straddling the top turnbuckle. Luger kicks him, then takes advantage of the position to try to get Giant in the Rack. He tries to carry him to the middle of the ring, can't hold him and collapses. Giant hits the choke slam and gets a clean as a sheet win. Not as good as Giant's matches with Sting or Flair, but still way better than the Hogan matches. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- I don't know where the hell this came from, but thank goodness it did. After struggling mightily, with rare exceptions, the past 18 months or more, WCW put on their best PPV since at least the Flair-booked pre-Hogan first half of '94, and possibly since the glorious Kip Frey era of the first half of '92. With a better main event it's easily top tier, but even with it doesn't miss by much. And it couldn't come at a better time, as there were major events on the horizon that would quite literally change the landscape of wrestling forever.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+