Bash at the Beach '96

Legacy Review

Bash at the Beach '96

July 7, 1996 from the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, FL

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

Welcome to the night that changed the face of wrestling forever.

 

The question of the night, other than who will the Outsiders' partner be in the "hostile takeover" match, is where is Eric Bischoff? No one knows and commentary is super worried about it. There's extra security all over the arena to keep the Outsiders from crashing the show before their match. You can tell this is an important night: Dusty's wearing dress pants instead of jeans.

Rey Mysterio Jr def Psychosis in 15:18- Mike Tenay joins the booth for this match and generally befuddles both Heenan and Dusty by calling moves. These guys were already familiar rivals, having both been trained by Rey Mysterio Sr and they've been feuding off and on in Mexico since their debuts. Mysterio offers a handshake. Psychosis slaps him! No Code of Honor in lucha libre apparently. Mysterio opens up by armdragging Psychosis to the floor. Back in Mysterio gets a takedown into a single leg crab. Psychosis transitions into a bow and arrow. Both guys trade off arm work on the mat before Psychosis takes a rope break. Speed run with counters and a Psychosis spinning heel kick sends Mysterio to the floor. Tope suicida! Psychosis planted his head on the bottom of the guardrail on the way down. Heenan: "He bent one of his horns!" They check on each other on the floor before continuing. Psychosis hits a slam and legdrop for 2. Legdrop off the top rope for 2. Legdrop with Mysterio draped across the bottom rope. Big Psychosis running clothesline and he puts on a headscissors. Mysterio tries to use speed and agility to work an advantage but Psychosis is one step ahead with strikes every time. They both end up on the apron. Mysterio monkey flips Psychosis into the post! Hurricanrana off the apron to the floor! Mysterio springboard hurricanrana back in into a stack up for 2! The crowd's awake now. Mysterio does a bit of leg work. He ties Psychosis up in the ropes and hits a dropkick. Psychosis gets a drop toe hold into a headscissors. He lifts Mysterio up and drops him on the top rope with a hot shot! Hell of a crazy ass bounce off the rope by Mysterio there. Psychosis hits a reverse DDT and Mysterio rolls out. Psychosis drops him on the rail. Senton off the top to the floor! Enzuguri back in for 2. Camel clutch from Psychosis. More speed/counters and Mysterio hits another hurricanrana. Springboard apron dropkick from Mysterio. He hurricanranas Psychosis off the apron from the top rope! Mysterio springboard moonsault back in for 2. A couple of Mysterio dropkicks send Psychosis out again. Springboard corkscrew to the floor! Mysterio hit the rail pretty hard with his knee but he's good. He tries another hurricanrana back in but Psychosis counters into a powerbomb for 2. Psychosis face first buckle bomb. He sets up on the top for Splash Mountain. Mysterio counters it into another hurricanrana! That gets the pin! Welcome to the WCW cruiserweight era. Incredible match that showed Mysterio, even this young, wasn't just a flashy spot guy, he knew how to put a match together. ****1/2

 

Carson City Silver Dollar Match: John Tenta def Big Bubba (w/Jimmy Hart) in 8:53- From that to this. So what is a Carson City Silver Dollar Match? Well, first I'll remind you this show is in Daytona Beach, FL, nowhere near Carson City. It's essentially a loaded sock on a pole match. There's a sock on a ridiculously long pole, like over 20 feet high, that's loaded with silver dollars. Get it and you can pummel your opponent with it. Tenta chases Bubba around to start and Bubba stalls on the floor. After a quick exchange Bubba stalls some more. Tenta gets him down and takes a look at the pole he doesn't have a prayer in hell of climbing. Bubba jumps him and climbs up to the top rope to think about the pole. Tenta throws him down and steps over him. He goes up and Bubba back suplexes him off the ropes. Bubba gets crotched on the top rope and falls to the floor. Tenta finally gets smart and starts working on the straps holding the pole up. Bubba hits him with his belt and chokes Tenta out with it. In full view of the ref so I guess it's no DQ. Why go out of your way to climb that ridiculous pole when you can just get an easier weapon anywhere else around the ring then? Bubba gets some tape out of his pocket. How did that get there? Yano planting things again. Bubba tapes Tenta to the rope. but only one arm. More belt shots. He gets some scissors from Hart and starts cutting some more of Tenta's hair, which is what started this feud in the first place. Tenta low blows Bubba, gets the scissors and cuts himself free. He uses the scissors to cut the straps on the pole. Bubba attacks him before he can finish and gives him a spinebuster. Now Bubba finally shows some intelligence and tells Hart to climb the pole. Hart takes his jacket off and does. Tenta hits Bubba with a powerslam. Hart gets the loaded sock, and falls right into the waiting arms of Tenta. Sock shot for Hart. Sock shot for Bubba and it's over. DUD

 

Taped Fist Match: Diamond Dallas Page def "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in 5:39- DDP's Lord of the Ring Battlebowl ring is on the line in this one. The taped fist match starts with....a lockup and basic wrestling. Of course. A shoulderblock sends DDP out to the floor. DDP stalls a bit, then snaps Duggan over the top rope. Now DDP finds some of Yano's tape in his tights, and tapes up Duggan's feet around the ring post! While ref Nick Patrick is getting Duggan free DDP gets some shots in, then pulls the tape off Duggan's fists! Now that's smart. When Duggan gets up his punches stagger DDP anyway. Guess it would have been worse with the tape. DDP does the seesaw in the ropes while taking Duggan shots before falling to the floor. Duggan gives him rail and post shots. Once again DDP is in super selling mode tonight. Duggan suplexes DDP back in. DDP blocks another suplex with the ropes and gets an arm takedown. He goes up top. Duggan falls in the ropes and DDP is crotched. Duggan faceplants him. Buckle shots and Duggan 360 clotheslines DDP to the floor. Dusty just now realizes that the tape on Duggan's fists is gone, gets confused and Tony has to explain to him what happened three minutes ago. I think Tony knows how Biden's staffers feel now. DDP hits the Diamond Cutter outta nowhere and it's over. DDP was trying enthusiastically but yet again was getting next to nothing from who he was working with. 3/4*

 

Dog Collar Match: The Nasty Boys def Public Enemy in 11:25- There's more gimmick matches on this show than there was at Uncensored. These two teams have been going at it for a while, usually in some kind of hardcore matches and tonight is no different. After the collars are on both teams stand off and stare for a really long time before commencing the festivities. They quickly go to the floor and we get the split screen that Dusty famously dubs the "Double trouble Bash at the Beach bubble". A conveniently placed trash can gets emptied out and used as a weapon. Trash is all around the ring. And a bunch of stuff from inside the trash can is laying around too. Oh, I slay myself sometimes. Anyway. Knobbs and Grunge work up to the stage and start brawling in the sand. "Now there's a rubber shark!". Yes, a rubber shark is used as a weapon. In a wrestling match. Flair probably would have bladed off it. Sags and Rock also get into it on the artificial beach. Sags has a surfboard! As Tony rightly points out, that's a much better weapon than a rubber shark. There's chairshots flying around too. And a life preserver! Knobbs gets a cover for 2. Apparently it's also falls count anywhere. I love how WCW carefully lays the rules out before the match begins. Rock climbs up the lifeguard stand and hits a senton. He goes up there again. Sags pulls the whole stand down! Their chain gets caught under it for a bit. Knobbs and Grunge are fighting by the crowd and Dusty randomly says "I think it's illegal to walk your dog on a beach in Florida". Sags drops a table on Rock. Piledriver from Sags on the floor! Sags flops on the table in the aisle and it suffers from premature breakage. Super ironic with what's about to happen. Rock dives off the rail and finishes the job. They work back toward the ring. Sags sets another table up in the ring. PE set Sags up on the table. Rock goes up top. Sags uses the chain to yank him off. Rock falls and BOUNCES off the table that doesn't break! I AM THE TABLE! That looked painful. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be the finish. They're forced to improvise from here on out, and as you can imagine with these two teams it's not pretty. Sags sets Rock on the table, wraps the chain around his elbow, and drops the elbow from the second rope. The table still doesn't break! Check on the bottom, I bet there's a "Made in Japan" label on it. Everyone says screw the table, let's try something else. Knobbs hangs Grunge over the ropes by the chain. Sags whips Rock and he gets clotheslined by that chain! Ugly hit. That looked almost worse than the big bounce off the table. Sags drops an elbow and covers for the pin. The fight continues after the bell. Rock dumps Sags over the top rope onto the table and the damn thing finally breaks. Mission accomplished. PE look legit pissed off as they leave. Serviceable chaos plunder brawl, but pretty much the floor for this type of match. I get there were extenuating circumstances but still that end run was ugly. Commentary had a ton of fun calling it even if most of it was nonsensical. **1/4

Tony says we still don't know who the third man is. Heenan: "Should be the table!".

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Dean Malenko (c) def Disco Inferno in 12:04- Inferno, long an undercard heel joke who garnered more "go away" heat than anything else, has been going through a face turn. Malenko quick marches his entrance. This isn't his usual iceman all business look, this is his "I'm going to fuck this kid up six ways from Sunday" look. He points and jaws at Inferno, then slaps him! Quick toss to the floor. Rail whip. Malenko is all over him. Post shot. Back in Inferno shoves and Malenko kips up off of it. HARD corner clothesline. Spinning heel kick for 2. Malenko brain buster! That gets a 2 count. Well, probably not much brain to hurt up there. Plus all the hair product is a natural cushion. Commentary gushes over the fact Inferno has survived this long. Malenko does some ground work and stays completely in control. Saito suplex. He puts on a leg bar and does some knee work, then hits a snap mare/basement dropkick combo for 2. STF from Malenko. Inferno reverses a corner whip. Malenko floats over in the corner and rolls Inferno up for 2. The beatdown continues until Malenko's morale improves. Inferno starts to fight back with some corner shots and a clothesline. Hot shot from Inferno! He hits a skull crushing finale like faceplant for 2. Malenko gets a headbutt to the gut and tosses Inferno out again. Another rail whip. Malenko wraps Inferno up on the mat again. Inferno slowly fights over and just gets the sole of his foot against the rope. Malenko climbs the second rope and drops a leg for 2. Inferno fires back again with a flurry of elbows in the corner. Malenko uses a corner whip to leap the ropes and go up top. Inferno blocks the double ax handle! Neckbreaker! Malenko gets a foot on the rope. Inferno backdrop for 2. Swinging neckbreaker. He stops to dance, then quickly remembers where he is and covers for 2. Solid character work and development here. He's trying to learn. Malenko hits a springboard dropkick to the back of Inferno's head. He goes for the cloverleaf but Inferno small packages him for 2. Desperation Inferno clothesline for 2. Malenko blocks a hiptoss and murders Inferno with a straight right. Backslide fight. Malenko hits a double underhook powerbomb. He gets the cloverleaf on and Inferno submits. Well. Talk about seeing a side of Disco Inferno we'd never seen before. Really good match that could have launched Inferno into a good underdog babyface role but, it's WCW. Malenko continues to build credibility for the cruiserweight division and title with every defense. ***1/2

 

Steve "Mongo" McMichael (w/Debra) def Joe Gomez in 6:44- Mongo made his in-ring debut at Great American Bash, teaming with fellow NFL'er Kevin Greene against the Horsemen, then turned on Greene to join the Horsemen. That turn was well done but would end up being pretty pointless, as the start of the NWO would turn everyone else on the roster into default babyfaces. This is little more than an introductory squash to further establish Mongo. In fact I think it's his first ever singles match, and if you want to get a quality match out of green Mongo, Joe Gomez is not the guy to turn to. Gomez comes out aggressive but Mongo says never mind that shit. Commentary spends the whole match buttering up Mongo something fierce. Chops and Mongo hits a 3 point stance corner clothesline. Gomez fires up but Mongo doesn't bother to do much selling. Or doesn't know how. Gomez crossbody for 2. More Mongo corner shots. Gomez tries to fight back again but Mongo cuts it off with an eye rake. He hits a blatant low blow just because. Field goal kick to Gomez's gut. Backbreaker into a double chinlock. Mongo hooks on a sleeper. Gomez quickly jawbreakers out. Mongo flop! That was the best thing in the whole match. Mongo hits a neckbreaker. He goes for a figure four but Gomez small packages him for 2. Piledriver attempt that Gomez backdrops out of. Mongo's legs hit the bottom ropes on the way down. The ring awareness of both these guys is terrible. Running chops from Gomez. Horrible dropkicks. They both fuck up a sunset flip spot in more ways than I can count. I've never seen one that bad before. Mongo hits a tombstone and gets the merciful pin. Which was also up against the ropes and Gomez has to move himself away from them. DUD

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Woman and Elizabeth) def Konnan (c) in 15:39- Not well known to fans at the time (and not really brought up by commentary), Flair was already a 4 time US champ with reigns from '77-'80 before his first World title win in '81. Flair offers a handshake, and Konnan takes it with no shenanigans from either guy. That's surprising. Flair gives us a little Slick Ric after. Lockup, clean corner break and a WOOOOO. Konnan works a headlock with Flair trying to get a leverage pin. Speed run and Konnan hits a low dropkick. Now things get heated. Flair bumps off a slap! Fantastic. Flair's cautious to get back in. Wristlock fight. Konnan works Flair down. Shoulderblock from Konnan and Flair has a think. No roll out though. Flair surprisingly stays in the ring at a lot of points you'd think he'd roll out. First chop from Flair. Konnan gets a backdrop and hooks on a surfboard. Press slam and Flair begs off. Konnan hits chops. Flair reverses and tries to show him how to do that right. Konnan floors him with a punch. Another press slam and clothesline. Konnan Cactus Clothesline! The women come over to check on/shield Flair. Konnan doesn't care and dives off the apron! LIZ DOWN! She's right back up, she's OK. Flair repositions everyone (I'm honestly not sure if the ladies knew that was coming or not). Konnan goes up top. Woman shakes the ropes and he falls into the ring. Kneedrop from Flair back in. Konnan starts slugging back so Flair gives him the ol' eye poke. Patrick tells Flair off. Woman takes the opening, gets in the ring, and punts Konnad's gonads! That was a 50 yarder. Flair goes into full cocky mode. Elizabeth distracts the ref and Flair tosses Konnan over the top and out. Woman gets some more damage in. Flair suplexes Konnan back in for 2. After a chinlock Konnan fights back and does mounted punches. Flair Flop! Flair Flip! A springboard dropkick knocks Flair off the apron. Konnan teases a dive but flips out of it. More Flair begging. A sunset flip is fought off. Flair gets Konnan down and goes for the figure four. Konnan small package counter for 2. Drop toe hold from Konnan. He puts on a figure four! Flair almost gets pinned, then gets to the ropes. Konnan suplex for 2. Flair gets a back elbow and goes up top. Konnan slams him off. Faceplant for 2. Rolling clothesline for 2. He gets Flair in an abdominal stretch cradle but the ref is distracted. Woman has a shoe off. Everyone knows what's coming, but they take forever to maneuver into position. Woman shoe shot on Konnan! Flair covers, and gets his feet on the top rope for extra leverage because why not, and gets the pin and his first US title win in over 15 years! This probably won't shock most people, but Flair and Konnad didn't really click. **

 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion The Giant and "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan def Arn Anderson and Chris Benoit in 7:59- Putting a bit of a bow on the Horsemen/Dungeon of Doom feud with the NWO coming, though it would continue to percolate for a while after this, mostly the Sullivan vs Benoit stuff. With the Horsemen cementing themselves as heels the last PPV the DOD, particularly the Giant, are starting to get more face reactions. That'll be important at the next PPV. If the Horsemen win this match, whoever gets the decision will get a World title shot on Nitro. The DOD attack the Horsemen from behind on their entrance! Mongo comes out and whacks Giant with his briefcase. Giant chases him to the back, which goes exactly what the Horsemen wanted as they now have Sullivan isolated. Benoit/Sullivan chopfest in the ring as Giant returns. Sullivan and Benoit get into a eye scraping scrap on the mat. Arn tags in, gets thrown out and whipped into the rail, but they keep Sullivan isolated. Sullivan fights out of the Horsemen corner but flops back down and Benoit is quickly on him. Arn hooks up for a DDT on the other side of the ring. Giant clotheslines him from the apron. Sullivan falls on him for 2. Benoit sets up a superplex. Giant comes in. Benoit sees him and tries a crossbody but Giant catches him and throws him into Arn. AGAIN Sullivan is cut off from making a tag. Arn hooks in an abdominal stretch. Benoit does some more ground and pound into another eye gouging cat fight. Arn does some knee work, then works himself into that spot where he always gets crotched. Benoit once again cuts the tag off. Sullivan fights off a double team and finally manages to get the tag. The Horsemen bail. Sullivan and Benoit keep fighting up the aisle and onto the commentary stage. In the ring Giant plants Arn with a chokeslam and gets the easy pin. *3/4

 

Back on the commentary stage Sullivan walks away from Benoit. Benoit dives onto him off the stage into the sand! I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU! They come back to the ring still fighting. Benoit hits a back superplex. He looks like he's only getting started when for some reason Woman comes out and begs for him to stop before he hurts Sullivan. Benoit doesn't listen. Finally Giant comes back out, chases everyone off, and carries Sullivan to the back. This would kick off the next stage in the Sullivan/Benoit feud with some serious real life implications. See, Sullivan and Woman were married in real life. That would be brought on screen, with Sullivan accusing Benoit of having an affair with Woman. In order sell the angle, Benoit and Woman would spend a lot of time together in public. So much so that they actually ended up having a really real affair! And Woman would then divorce Sullivan, and marry Benoit! For realsies. Somehow the two of them managed to work together still, like Matt Hardy and Edge when Lita dumped one and went with the other and it was turned into an on screen angle.

We get a very mid-'90s video recap of the "hostile takeover" angle to date.

 

The Outsiders and "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Sting & WCW World Television Champion "The Total Package" Lex Luger no contest in 16:55- The as yet unnamed Hall and Nash come out in their soon to be classic red and black. And by themselves. No third man. Commentary is flummoxed. Mean Gene comes out, steals Buffer's mic and tries to get some answers. Hall says of the third guy "He's here and he's ready". Nash then says "We got enough to handle it". Commentary says OK, if that's the way you want it our three guys will take out you two easy. Everyone stares down with the WCW wrestlers confused and angry that there's no third man. Hall and Luger shove. Commentary starts flipping out and seeing menace in every shadow, thinking anyone could be the third man. Anyone. Everyone gets out and Hall and Luger start. Hall throws the toothpick. Luger slaps him. Quick Hall pounding, but Luger quickly responds with a forearm. Forearm for Nash. Everything breaks down with Nash holding Luger down in the corner. Stinger Splash onto them! Luger is wiped out! Sting checks on him. Savage fights with Hall, then also goes to check. Luger is out and not moving. The match stops and a stretcher is wheeled out for Luger. Commentary makes sure to point out that, intentional or not, Sting's splash caused this. Planting seeds for later. Hall makes an attempt to attack but he's held off and Luger is wheeled out. It's now 2 on 2. Tony finally calls them Nash and Hall on commentary. Just last names, for now. Reset with Hall and Sting. Hall slaps and Sting goes NUTS. Inverted atomic drop and faceplant. Savage tags in but get caught coming off the top rope. Nash hits him with snake eyes. Savage ducks a Hall clothesline and hits one for 2. Nash tags in. After a quick back and forth he starts pounding on Savage. Savage goes to dodge an elbow drop, but Nash miscalculated and lands right on top of him. Oops. Savage quickly tags out to legit recover, that jammed his head good. Nash hits his measured corner elbows and knees on Sting. Sting flips over and hits a dropkick. Nash powers out of a sunset flip as Sting goes in peril. Hall fallaway slam for 2. Nash big boot. Savage is pacing like a caged animal on the apron while Nash is in full cocky mode. Sting dropkick to Nash's knee. Hall cuts the tag off. Sting gets a small package, but the ref is distracted by Savage and Hall is out at 1. Hall drops an elbow and wraps up an abdominal stretch with help from Nash. The Outsiders swap without a tag and Nash takes over on the abdominal stretch. After an arm drop Sting eye pokes out. The tag is cut off again. Hall clothesline for 2. Sting gets tossed to the floor. Savage comes around with a chair but the ref stops him. Nash side suplex back in for 2. Sting counters a backdrop, slugs it out a bit with Nash, then dives over him and gets the tag! Savage double ax handle off the top. The Outsiders run into each other. Double ax handle to the floor on Hall. Another one in the ring. Nash gets a low blow to kill the momentum. HULK HOGAN is walking out! Tony and Dusty celebrate, thinking he's there to replace Luger and help. Cagey Heenan, though, has a bad feeling and asks which side is Hogan on. Hogan comes in and does the shirt tear. The Outsiders bail. They stare down.....THEN HOGAN TURNS AROUND AND LEGDROPS SAVAGE! OH MY GOD HOGAN IS THE THIRD MAN! Another legdrop! The Outsiders come in and they all celebrate. Hogan tosses the ref out. A third legdrop on Savage! Hogan covers, Hall counts 3, and they celebrate like it was a real victory. The crowd is shocked. Trash starts getting thrown in the ring. Mean Gene comes in to get an explanation, and gets one. Hogan gives one of the promos of his life, running the crowd down to cement the turn, saying he alone made everyone rich "up north" and Billionaire Ted hasn't been playing ball since he came here, and dropping the famous line "You can call this the New World Order of wrestling, brother". Of course he says "New World Organization" after but the original line stuck. As the long promo goes on the ring is absolutely filled with more and more trash. It gets to the point people are throwing full buckets of popcorn in. A disgusted Tony closes the show with "Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell...Straight to hell". Welcome to the next two plus years of WCW programming, the angle that put WWF completely on the ropes, kicked off by the biggest heel turn still in the history of wrestling to this day. Commentary did a superb job selling it every stage of the way as well. Putting a rating on this is kind of pointless, but the match accomplished everything it needed to before the big angle so call it ***.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The undercard is quite the crazy roller coaster of quality, in a lot of ways indicative of the ups and downs of the era in general. But that's not what's here to remember. It's all about the big turn at the end, and that puts this as possibly the biggest and most consequential PPV in WCW history.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B- for overall quality, A for historical importance. Call it a B+ average