Bash at the Beach '97

Legacy Review

Bash at the Beach '97

July 13, 1997 from the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, FL

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

It's the one year anniversary of the formation of the NWO, but surprisingly that's not being made a huge deal of. WCW's recent run of bringing in ringers from other sports to try to pop ratings and buyrates continues here, with longtime NWO associate and the most hated man in basketball Dennis Rodman making his in-ring debut in the main event in a tag match teaming with his buddy Hollywood Hogan. Another big question swirling tonight is who will DDP's mystery partner be in his tag match against the NWO. In fact, tag matches are the order of the day on this show.

Mortis and Wrath (w/James Vandenburg) def Glacier and Ernest "The Cat" Miller in 9:47- On the bad side, this is still going on. On the plus side, this would be the end of it. Miller was a former football player turned karate champion that caught the eye of karate obsessee Eric Bischoff and brought into the pro wrestling world with zero experience. Like their match at the last PPV Mike Tenay strangely checks in for this one, not a match you'd think was in his wheelhouse. The heels jump before the bell. Glacier and Mortis, who this feud started with about 15 years ago, are left in the ring and go at it. Mortis gets crotched, takes a buckle shot, and Glacier kicks him off the rope. Kick flurry from Glacier. Mortis gets a tag to Wrath. Wrath hits some corner chops on Miller. Miller slides under and does the only thing he can do- kicks. Wrath gives him a tiltawhirl backbreaker. Miller dodges an elbow off the second rope. Face double dropkick on Wrath for 2. Mortis distracts Glacier and Wrath plants him with a big boot. Glacier goes to the floor. Wrath hits the cannonball senton off the apron. The heels get a chair, put Glacier's head between the chair and ring post, and Mortis kicks the chair! Ouch. Glacier sells it for about 30 seconds before his comeback flurry. Wrath cuts that off with an illegal clothesline and Mortis covers for 2. Double team powerbomb/neckbreaker combo on Glacier. Miller breaks the pin up. Wrath puts on a weird reverse Boston crab and Mortis gives Glacier a legdrop off the second rope for 2. Glacier dodges a Mortis moonsault. Wrath takes Miller out before a tag, which leads to DONNYBROOKING. Miller has kicks for everyone. Glacier DDT on Mortis. Vandenburg puts a chain on Mortis' foot. Glacier superkicks Vandenburg off the apron, but turns around into a superkick from Mortis' loaded boot, and that gets the pin. It's Glacier's first WCW loss of any kind. If he won he always just got beat up by Mortis and Wrath after anyway, he probably figured this was easier. The match was what we've come to expect from this long feud. This wasn't intended to be the end of it, but WCW creative didn't have any end game planned for the crazy story of ancient samurai helmets and even more ancient masters from the Orient, so rather than put some effort into trying to figure one out they just dropped the whole thing cold. No one complained. *1/2

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) def Ultimo Dragon in 12:55- Jericho ended Syxx's near 6 month reign of never defending the title terror by defeating him at a house show in late June, a match later shown on Nitro. This is still pure white meat babyface Jericho, his hugely entertaining heel run hadn't started yet, making this a face vs face match. Tenay stays in for this one. Good back and forth mat grappling start. Lots of flip counters, both guys hit armdrags, simultaneous dropkicks and stalemate. Jericho gives Dragon some chops. Dragon does his handstand in the corner and kicks Jericho, then lets loose a flurry of kicks followed by PKs to the back. Dragon goes for a hurricanrana but Jericho counters it into a powerbomb, then another powerbomb for good measure. Senton for 2. Three loud guys somewhere in the crowd are chanting "We want Syxx" but are left on an island on their own. Delayed suplex from Jericho, followed by a backbreaker with a stretch. Dragon goes into speed dodge mode. Jericho uses it to go for a sleeper. Dragon immediately back suplexes out. Jericho springboard moonsault for 2. Tiger Driver for 2. He goes for a superplex but Dragon blocks it. Jericho adjusts and dropkicks Dragon off the top to the floor! The timing was slightly off and the camera caught they weren't close to actual contact. Not good, but that was also a very tricky spot. Jericho springboard dive to the floor. Back in he comes off the second rope but Dragon gets his boots up. He goes for a top rope hurricanrana. Jericho does a nice counter with a snap mare. Dragon hops back up, and Jericho tosses him out to the floor! Jericho goes for the springboard dropkick. Dragon dodges and Jericho crashes on the floor! Dragon does the 619 dive tease, does a couple of adjustments, and hits the asai moonsault. Jericho *just* beats the count back in. Dragon hits a hurricanrana. Jericho gets a foot on the rope! Dragon goes for the handspring elbow. Jericho grabs him and tosses him away. He goes for a magistral cradle. Dragon counters into his own magistral and Jericho again grabs a rope to break up the pin. Dragon goes for a dragon suplex. Jericho quickly slips out and cradles Dragon, who counters the cradle for 2. Standing switches and they tumble to the floor! Jericho hits chops. Dragon with an enzuguri! Back in Jericho hits a Lionsault to Dragon's back and wraps up a Gedo clutch. Dragon kicks out! Jericho's getting frustrated, showing a side we'll see a lot of soon after his heel turn. He goes for another Lionsault. Dragon dropkicks him in midair! Again that one pretty clearly had no contact. Dragon goes for the tiger suplex. Jericho wraps up in the ropes. Dragon switches to a dragon sleeper attempt. Jericho knees him in the head. Dragon clothesline. Moonsault. He goes for the dragon suplex again. Jericho counters into a Tiger Driver. Dragon counters that with a hurricanrana mid-move! But Jericho reverses the cradle, and gets the pin! They do the babyface handshake after. Phenomenal match. You get the Cruiserweight belt away from the NWO and it's back to business as usual. The two semi-whiffed dropkicks hurt a bit but the rest made up for it. This is Jericho's first truly great WCW match, while Dragon has been a match quality machine for a while now. I don't think he got or even gets today the respect he deserves for his WCW run. ****1/4

Mean Gene is out with tonight's hotline shill: someone who has "no business being in the building" is backstage tonight. He walks to the ring and finds Raven sitting ringside, along with his groupie Stevie Richards. Okerlund asks Raven about why he's here (he was still being presented as an outside invader) and about the rumors he might be DDP's partner tonight. Raven does his usual slam poetry that sounds sophisticated on the surface but says absolutely nothing. Richards decides he wants to talk. He says to Raven "Tell them about the big announcement tomorrow on Nitro". Raven clocks Richards! Clearly someone was speaking out of turn.

 

The Steiner Brothers def The Great Muta and Masahiro Chono in 11:37- Muta and Chono are the co-leaders of NWO Japan in New Japan at this point, and come out to the NWO's music. If you want more on that saga check out my reviews of the January 4th Tokyo Dome shows of the period. Tony talks about the NWO screwing the Steiners out of a tag title shot AGAIN for this show and I can't help but both groan and laugh at the same time. That's been going on way too damn long, but at the same time outsmarting the Steiners is like shooting caged parrots in a pet shop. Scott's morphing into Big Poppa Pump is also continuing apace. Suzuki-Gun jump from the heels. The Steiners get tossed out, then hop to the top rope and hit double Steinerlines. Ring cleared and the Steiners pose. Chono gets into it with a VERY mouthy fan at ringside. Reset with Scott and Muta. Scott hits a shoulderblock and pounds Muta in the corner. Muta does some rolling dodges and hits a back kick. Scott hits a double underhook powerbomb, followed by a press slam. Rick tags in and Muta bails. After some stalling Chono tags in. Shoulderblock standoff. Chono eye rakes and hits a Yakuza kick (or "mafia" per WCW). Test of strength. Rick wins that so Chono kicks him. Standing switches and Chono hits a back elbow. Powerslam from Rick. Chono rolls out and finds the mouthy fan again to stall some more. Both sides swap and Scott pounds on Muta again. He puts Muta on the top rope. Chono comes from behind and electric chairs Scott. Muta hits the handspring elbow and a bulldog, followed by his signature elbow drop. Scott fights a double team and gives Chono a belly to belly suplex. Tag to Rick. Steinerline! Steinerline! Belly to bellys for everyone. Bulldog off the top on Muta. Chono breaks the pin up and it's everyone in the pool time. Scott belly to belly on Muta. Chono gets a shot in and Muta hurricanranas Scott off the top rope. Dragon screw on Rick. He goes for the handspring elbow. Rick plucks him out of midair and German suplexes him. That was SO much cooler in the Tokyo Dome 4-5 years ago. Scott Frankensteiner on Muta. Chono pulls the ref out of his count! The ref reads Chono the riot act. The Steiners avalanche DDT Muta, and it's over. 5 years ago or more this would have ruled, now it's just decent. The Steiners aren't what they were at their peak, getting top effort out of Muta in US matches post-1989 was always a struggle, and Chono was pretty much just this at this point. **3/4

 

Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr and Hector Garza def La Parka, Psychosis and Villano IV (W/Sonny Oono) in 10:08- Lucha trios rules for this one so tagging and selling are optional. Tenay gets his overtime bonus, working his third match of the night. Oono is now managing both Psychosis and Parka, as he's moving on from the Japanese wrestlers to the Mexican wrestlers. Lizmark and Psychosis start with some groundwork feeling out while Tenay explains the terms rudos (heels) and technicos (faces). Garza comes in with an armdrag off the top on Villano. Villano with big chops and a corner clothesline on Garza. Garza does a huge leap into Villano's boots, then goes into super flippy mode. Villano gets armdragged to the floor. Garza flips out to join him, then gives him a tiltawhirl backbreaker on the floor. Juvy tries some tiltawhirl stuff around Parka, who's too big to be caught by most of it. Juvy monkey flips Parka to the floor. Oono gives Juvy some kicks on the floor. Parka sets Juvy up, but Oono kicks Parka! Parka's hot and wants to kill Oono. Psychosis comes over to make peace. Oono flashes Parka a giant wad of cash and everything's good again. Small reset back in the ring. Psychosis CRASHES into the technico corner! Lizmark flips himself into the rudo corner and has to go into dodge mode to get out. Parka gets pissed at his teammates for that. The rudos all miss sentons and Juvy dives onto the whole pile! Triple cover for 2. A trio of dropkicks sends the rudos to the floor. TRIPLE DIVE! Psychosis midair dropkicks Juvy back in the ring. He leg powerbombs Juvy off the top for 2. Techino moonsaults for 2. The rudos run into each other and get locked into a rowboat/THE STAR. Parka gets in the middle and uses Juvy to break it up. They go into a sequence where everyone misses a dive off the top rope. They stack up in the corner for a tower of doom. The rudos have a double electric chair out of it, but Juvy dropkicks them in the back to get his teammates back down. It's EVERYONE DIVE ON THE FLOOR time! Juvy get some insane hang time on his. Garza caps it off with a huge corkscrew onto everyone. While everyone's recovering Villano V runs in to replace IV, who hides next to the ring. V legdrops Garza for 2. Garza dodges around, hits V with a missile dropkick followed by a standing moonsault and gets the pin. Very fun "turn your brain off and enjoy it" lucha spotfest craziness that the crowd didn't give two shits about. ***3/4

No DQ Retirement Match: Chris Benoit def Kevin Sullivan (w/Jimmy Hart and Jacqueline) in 13:11- At long last, this feud that has gone on even longer than the Glacier/Mortis saga and turned into real life bad blood (Benoit stole Sullivan's wife Nancy, known as Woman on-screen) is finally reaching its conclusion with quite literally only one man remaining as a wrestler after. The first part of the feud saw these two have some famous all arena plunder brawls, so they're going back to their wheelhouse to wrap it up. Sullivan and Jacqueline are bitchy at each other during their entrance. After the bell it's an immediate hockey fight. Sullivan suplexes Benoit to the floor! Benoit takes a couple of guardrail shots while Jacqueline gets fully involved, Sherri style. Benoit low blows both of them to get some space and tosses Jacqueline onto Sullivan. Sullivan then sacrifices Jacqueline to get a shot in. They work up to the stage area. Benoit goes into the surfboard hut! Surfboard shots from Sullivan! Beach chair shot! Hart climbs up the lifeguard tower. Benoit pushes it, and him, down! The surfboard hut also collapses. When Hart gets back up he gets some kicks in on Benoit. Another slugfest and Sullivan hits a low blow. Piledriver in the aisle! Jacqueline drops elbows on Benoit! Sullivan hits the double stomp and whacks Benoit with a random tray. They get back in the ring. Benoit comes back and hits some clotheslines. Sullivan tights pulls him to the floor. Hart gets some more kicks in. Benoit gets posted. Sullivan crotches him on the rail right in front of give no fucks Raven. Back in Benoit his a snap suplex for 2. Sullivan bites his stomach! Benoit responds by biting his ear! Big Benoit chops. The crossface is on! Sullivan survives the arm drops and slooooooooooowly fights his way to the ropes. Benoit kicks and chops fire Sullivan back up and we're slugging again. Benoit goes down. Tree of woe! Sullivan hits one, two, THREE running knees! Jacqueline gets a wooden chair from under the ring. Sullivan wants the chair. Jacqueline gives it to him.....across the head! SWERVE! Jacqueline leaves, damage done. Benoit hits the headbutt off the top rope, and the wrestling career of Kevin Sullivan is over. Sullivan would retire as a full time wrestler here, but would stay involved in WCW as an on again off again booker through the end of the company with the occasional on-screen appearance. Benoit is FINALLY free to move on. Tony specifically says maybe he can finally go after some well deserved titles. You can't say they didn't go out on a high note. ***3/4

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Jarrett (c) def Steve "Mongo" McMichael (w/Debra McMichael) in 6:56- Jarrett defeated Dean Malenko for the US title on a Nitro just before Great American Bash, but neither were booked on that show so I didn't get a chance to mention it. Now I am. The longstanding Jarrett/Mongo issues have also finally caused Jarrett to be kicked out of the Horsemen. Thankfully Jarrett doesn't have the second Halliburton of Death with him for this match. Do you know what would happen if the two Halliburtons of Death made contact with each other? Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Total protonic reversal. Yeah, that's bad. Mongo tells Jarrett "You never should have jumped in my chili" during his entrance. Um......OK. Think he's hit his head one too many times. Before the bell Mongo snatches the belt away and poses with it. The crowd does not like Jarrett. After some stalling we get going with an arm wringer tradeoff. Jarrett gets a takedown, struts and chills in the corner. Standing switch and Mongo muscles Jarrett around a bit. Jarrett back elbows out but runs into a side slam. 3 point stance chop block from Mongo and Jarrett bails. Test of strength that Mongo easily wins. Jarrett hits the ropes and Mongo hits him with a "high" (barely got off the ground) knee and 360 clotheslines him back out. Jarrett hears all about from the same guy that got in Chono's face. Mongo comes out and takes a stair shot. Jarrett gets whipped into the rail. Mongo chokes him with a TV cable. Horrible press slam from Mongo back in. Powerslam for 2. Jarrett dodges in the corner and Mongo somehow hurts his knee. Jarrett does a couple of Mongo style 3 point stance chops blocks. He goes for the figure four. Debra gets on the apron. Jarrett takes the Halliburton of Death from her, whacks Mongo with it (who tries to block it like you can block an unblockable attack) and gets the pin. After the bell Debra confirms that after months of teasing she has, in fact, turned to Jarrett's side the hussy. Turrible match, AKA a Mongo match. 1/4*

Next up is an ad for the next PPV, Road Wild. It's a new name, but we're going back to Sturgis. [sarcasm]Yay[/sarcasm]. After that is a classic NWO circle jerk promo that goes on way too long with Rodman and Hogan.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage and Scott Hall (w/Elizabeth) def Diamond Dallas Page and Curt Hennig (w/Kimberly) in 9:35- Hall comes out with both tag belts, but no reason is given for Nash's absence from this show. The recently WCW debuted Hennig is the not at all surprise mystery partner for DDP. The former Mr. Perfect in WWF, and in my opinion the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time before Gunther, had done very little wrestling in the Fed due to continuing back issues the past few years, doing managing and commentary work instead. Like Randy Savage before him, he jumped at the chance to go to WCW because they'd let him wrestle full time again as much as the money. Savage and DDP, whose red hot feud was still going, start. DDP's ribs are still taped up like the last PPV. Quick DDP clothesline and corner elbows to start. He hits a forearm and Savage rolls out. Someone throws a bunch of flowers in the ring. I think that came from the crowd. Good job by the ref on the quick cleanup job. Hall tags in and wants Hennig, and gets him. Toothpick flick and gum spit. Lockup! Clean break and shoving. Hall hits a back elbow and Hennig slaps him. After some stalling Hennig hits some shots and a kneelift. He gives Hall both atomic drop variations and clotheslines him. Running neck snap. DDP hits his front piledriver and more corner elbows. Hall responds with a corner clothesline. Savage hits DDP from the apron, then tags in with a double ax handle to send DDP in peril. Hall starts working DDP's hurt ribs. Seems like an obvious target that barely gets touched in this match. DDP gets tights pulled to the floor and takes a stair shot. Hall discus punch for 2. DDP hits an inverted atomic drop on Savage and tags Hennig. Now here's what would have been a dream match around 1991. They did butt heads in '92 when Perfect was managing Ric Flair during the tremendous Flair/Savage WWF Championship feud. Hennig hits the ropes while DDP is holding them down to balance himself (I think). Now, Hennig was supposed to go over the top and out to give reason for what's about to happen, but he completely fucks it up and just falls against the ropes instead, then compensates by rolling out. Hennig hits DDP in the back of the head! He walks out of the match. DDP takes the Razor's Edge and Savage elbow, and Savage pins him with one foot. The whole thing was a mess and Hennig looked awful after his long layoff, even with the very short spurts he did in this match. The bad botch pretty much ruined all the logic for the finish too. 3/4*

 

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in 13:26- Flair abandoned Piper in a tag match against the NWO at GAB because he wanted to punch Syxx instead (a pretty natural reaction for anyone seeing Syxx at that time) to set this up. Piper breaks up the basic start with some wild ground and pound on Flair. The flying fists continue in the corner and Flair rolls out. Coming back in he clearly wants to slow things down. Chop exchange in the corner and Flair goes down again. Piper with a slap. Flair Flop off the slap! Fantastic. Flair Flip! Piper clotheslines Flair off the apron. Flair eye pokes on the floor to try to get some space. Piper backdrops him on the floor! Flair tries to beg off. Piper says nah. Another beg off in the ring. Piper kneels down and gives Flair the double finger eye poke. The ref tries to stop Piper choking in the corner. Flair takes that opening to clip Piper's knee from behind. Now we're going to school. Flair beats Piper down with some jabs and goes back on the knee. Now Flair gets in it with the ref and Piper kicks Flair's knee. Nothing. That was weird, like Piper did something Flair wasn't expecting and just ignored it. Flair hooks on the figure four! Piper hulks up and reverses. Swinging neckbreaker from Piper for 2. He chokes Flair. Flair responds with a low blow. After some more Flair picking apart Piper comes back with jabs. Backdrop and he 360 clotheslines Flair to the floor. Flair begs off again. Piper nails him with big chops. Back in Piper gets the sleeper! Flair quickly jawbreakers out and tries for a rope leverage pin. Chop and a bit of a strut. Flair goes up top and gets slammed off as per usual. Piper hooks on a figure four! He gets a two count before Flair slowly gets over to the ropes. Flair gets the classic Flair knucks out of his boot. Piper blocks the punch, gets the knucks and waffles Flair! Benoit and Mongo are out. After some fumbling around on Piper's part Benoit goes for the headbutt off the top. Piper dodges and Flair gets it. Benoit goes to plan B, distracting the ref while Mongo plants Piper with a tombstone. Flair drapes an arm over. Piper kicks out! I blame Mongo. Sleeper! Flair goes out and the ref calls it! This would be Piper's last match as a "full time" wrestler so I'm not sure about that result. He'd move over into a commissioner role while still wrestling the occasional match. Sadly there's more matches with Hogan coming. This was a nice old school match but not one that would be mistaken for one of either guy's classics. Flair drug the good match out of Piper Hogan never got close to. ***1/4

 

A little big picture perspective before we head into our main event: World champion Hollywood Hogan hasn't wrestled on a PPV since Uncensored in March, and hasn't defended the title on PPV since Superbrawl back in February against Piper. One of those streaks will continue tonight.

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger and The Giant def WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan and Dennis Rodman (w/Randy Savage) in 22:19- There's a ton of trash being thrown in the ring before the match even starts, and it goes on the entire match. That's something WCW needs to get some control over. One of the clips from Nitro on either this show or GAB, I can't remember which, the ring looked like a literal garbage dump. Luger and Hogan start. Luger cranks an arm and Hogan ties up in the ropes. Bandana toss! Some lockup shenanigans follow. Shoulderblock tradeoff. Hogan fakes a test of strength to get an opening. Corner clothesline. Slam but Luger dodges the elbow drop. Luger hits a huge slam. Rodman tags in as commentary goes nuts. He's still wearing his sunglasses. And, of course, we have stalling. Finally Rodman locks up. He armdrags Luger! The whole NWO team celebrates as commentary acts like they've just seen a literal miracle performed. It's really really annoying. Another lockup and Luger gets an armdrag. Armdrags for the running in Hogan and the NWO bails. Well the sunglasses are off. Speed run, Rodman leapfrogs (commentary: OH MY GOD RODMAN CAN DO A LEAPFROG THIS IS THE GREATEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN ANYONE DO) and gets a shoulderblock. Luger is a bit shocked. More speed, more leapfrogs and Luger hits a clothesline. Rodman does the whole Captain Hammer "This is what pain feels like!" bit and quickly tags out. The trash throwing continues to be out of control. Giant tags in. Hogan does some weebles wobble stuff with him. Corner chops. Giant no sells a corner clothesline and the NWO team scurry out again. Giant atomic drops out of a headlock and Hogan tags Rodman back in. Giant catches him leapfrogging and gives him an inverted atomic drop. He spanks Rodman's ass! Tony gets in a good line about how many NBA players would love to do that. It's funny because it's 100% true. Giant chokes Rodman and Hogan attacks from behind. NWO double clothesline on Giant as they do a double up beatdown on Giant for a bit. Hogan hits the big boot. He tries to hiptoss Giant and gets nowhere, so Rodman comes in and they both do it. Double cover on Giant. Giant tosses both of them off and takes the opening to tag Luger. Clotheslines for everyone. Savage gets in and goes down. Luger hits the ropes and Rodman kicks him from the apron. Hogan clothesline. Back suplex for 2. Savage gets a shot in. Hogan hits the legdrop and arrogant covers. Luger kicks out! There's a pipe in the ring among the trash thrown in. A literal pipe that way back in the before times people used to smoke. What the hell. Rodman hits some corner elbows. Savage distracts the ref as Luger tags out. Giant stays in anyway and takes everyone out. Sting is coming out. Oh, it's NWO "Sting". The hair is different, he's way bigger and is clearly wearing a mask. Commentary is, naturally, clueless. "Sting" hits Giant with his bat, points at Hogan to try to sell it's really Sting, at leaves. Hogan takes Rodman out during a double team attempt. Luger gets Hogan in the Torture Rack! Hogan submits! That was an absolute super finisher at this point. Rodman and Savage both get Racked after the bell for good measure. That was a huge spectacle that came off about as well as it could have wrestling wise. *3/4

Luger would use this win to finally cash in the title shot he'd won months before, and on the last Nitro before Road Wild defeat Hogan for the World title, ending Hogan's reign at just under one year. Sadly, the reprieve would be short lived.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- As has been typical since the NWO showed up, there's quite a bit of good stuff on the undercard capped off with a less than stellar main event. This main event is worth watching however just for the spectacle alone, but be ready to search for a "mute commentary" option to not have to listen to them verbal blowjob Rodman the whole match.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B