Great American Bash 2000

Legacy Review

Great American Bash 2000

June 11, 2000 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden

 

We've reached the point in WCW that it's time to start checking off the big last time events. This is the final original run Great American Bash. Starting out as an annual summertime house show/large stadium tour in '85, it became the #2 PPV after Starrcade before being supplanted in importance by Bash at the Beach in the Bischoff era. It would end up being the first WCW PPV name revived by WWE, running as the June or July PPV from 2004-2009, then as a yearly NXT event starting in 2020.

 

The big news coming into tonight's show was the return of Goldberg from injury a couple of weeks prior. When he returned he joined up with Kevin Nash as a new top guys babyface pairing. On the go home Thunder Goldberg was arrested. At the start of the show we see every cop in Baltimore is stationed outside the arena to keep him out. If anyone wants to commit a crime elsewhere in Baltimore, tonight's the night.

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Lieutenant Loco (c) (w/The Misfits in Action) def Disqo (w/The Filthy Animals) in 4:54- Don't let the crazy Russofied names fool you, this is Chavo Guerrero Jr vs Disco Inferno. Before the match Chavo pulls a (toy) grenade out of his pocket he threatens to use on Disco because he's LOCO. If that was a real grenade is was even more loco to keep it in his pocket. Disco's entrance looks like the Black Scorpion is coming out. Disco's wrestling in not just a Kobe Bryant Lakers jersey, he's got the full uniform on. In Baltimore. He never was the most on top of it guy. Chavo opens up with a crazy flippy clothesline. Equally crazy crossbody from Chavo. After some back and forth jockeying for position Disco gives Chavo a hot shot. Chavo floats over in the corner and flying headscissors Disco to the floor, right into the MIA. After thinking about it for a second they do the gang attack and slide Disco back in like it's a lumberjack match. Probably might as well be. Pumphandle slam from Chavo for 2. More counters and Chavo hits a back suplex for 2. Low bridge from Chavo and Disco falls out to the floor again, this time into his own teammates. Crossbody off the top to the floor from Chavo! Chavo ends up on the floor and the Animals work him over before MIA make the save. Disco poses forever then hits an elbow off the second rope for 2. Some older guy wearing an army helmet with general's stars on it makes his way down. Looks like dollar store Patton. Or Bradley. He does look more like a Bradley. Yes I'm shamelessly namedropping WWII generals off the top of my head to show off my knowledge of real history, not just wrestling history. Anyway, Disco hits an inverted atomic drop and clothesline for 2. Russian leg sweep from Disco while the general guy messes with the Animals' token woman whose name I don't even remember. Konnan comes over and shoves him and he becomes General Play Dead after a ridiculous delayed flop. The MIA take issue with that for some reason. Now Juventud Guerrera comes in the ring behind the ref's back. He gives Chavo a reverse DDT then goes for a Dollar General People's Elbow that Chavo dodges. Chavo dropkicks him out to the floor. Disco hits the Last Dance on Chavo, but then one of the MIA guys comes in, drops Disco, and Chavo covers for the pin. The predictable big gang brawl follows. Seen it a million times with Russo already. Then we get some "comedy" T&A hijinks with the general and Major Gunns. 1/2*

 

In the back, the Baltimore PD (half of whom are in this room) assure Bischoff they've got all the entrances covered and nothing will ruin Bischoff's "surprise" for Nash.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's Match: KroniK def The Mamalukes in 9:20- The Mamalukes are also somehow collectively the Hardcore champ(s). Don't ask, it's Russo. KroniK's graphic says "Kronic". When they get in KroniK listlessly clears the ring and the Mamlukes stall on the floor for a bit. Reset with Bull and Clarke. Pretty much all Clarke to start and he hits a uranage. Flying tackle and Bull goes out to the floor. Clarke follows and Russian leg sweeps him back into the barricade. It's not nearly as cool as it sounds. Back in Bull puts Clarke down with a kick combo. Tag and the Mamalukes double stomp Clarke down. Vito takes over, wrestling with the Hardcore belt on. He's clearly very proud of it. Clarke gets Bull with a tiltawhirl backbreaker and finally tags out to Brian "Crush" Adams. Full nelson slam from Adams for 2. Someone in the crowd has a "Where is La Parka?" sign. Mexico? Running powerslam from Adams on Bull for 2. Bull manages to get Adams down with a clothesline. Adams blocks a suplex and press slams Vito. A distraction from Vito lets Bull DDT Adams. Vito tags in and continues to wrestle with the belt on. That thing must be stapled or superglued on. Adams dodges Vito in the corner and KroniK double backdrop him. Adams gets the Hardcore belt off Vito and tosses it aside. Adams puts Vito in a fireman's carry and then spikes his head right on the mat. Vito superkicks Adams, nearly falling down himself in the process, then looks lost before tagging in Bull. Vito does a sad example of a "hot" tag run, all this match deserves, then takes forever slowly maneuvering Adams into position in the ring. Then he can't do his spring up to the top rope, slipping off. He gets there the second time, then dives at an Adams that had gotten out of the way half an hour ago. Freaking ugly as hell. Double tackle from KroniK. They hit their double chokeslam finisher, Vito is too busy recovering his beloved Hardcore belt to help, and it's over. Two teams that absolutely sucked so it's pretty much what you'd expect, though I've seen worse from both. 3/4*

 

Ambulance Match: Mike Awesome def Diamond Dallas Page (w/Chris Kanyon) in 9:41- Kicking off the gimmick match overload most of this show will be. DDP wheels Kanyon in on a wheelchair and leaves him up on the stage. Kanyon's making his first appearance on TV since his big dive at the end of Slamboree. Instant slugfest at the bell, with both wrestlers taking turns to punch the ref out because they want to FIGHT. Spinning clothesline from DDP. Cactus clothesline! Brawl on both sides of the barricade. Both guys get chairs and have a classic chair sword fight in the ring. DDP punches Awesome's chair into his face. Swinging neckbreaker from DDP. Awesome goes up the second rope and hits a diving back elbow. Back suplex from Awesome, followed by a big splash. He gives DDP a hot shot. Awesome goes under the ring and sets a table up. He dodges a DDP baseball slide. DDP gets powerbombed through the table. Awesome calls for the stretcher guys to come down. They haul DDP up and put him on the stretcher. Should they do that in this match, legally? Isn't that the wrestler's job? DDP falls off the stretcher anyway. Awesome gives him a chairshot and rolls him back in the ring. Chairs to the gut from Awesome. Big splash off the top rope. A second. Awesome calls for one more, and puts DDP in a chair sandwich for some extra impact. DDP dodges and Awesome (theoretically) lands on the chairs. Kimberly makes her way out, armed with a giant lead pipe. Wasn't that Vampiro's? She nails DDP with it. Now Miss Hancock comes out and drags Kimberly out by the hair. Awesome does an elaborate setup on top, but DDP low blows him (amazingly the first one all show). Avalanche Diamond Cutter! DDP rolls Awesome onto the stretcher and the EMT's wheel him off. Music plays and now Bischoff is out here with a chair. DDP attacks him. KANYON IS OUT OF THE WHEELCHAIR! HE'S STANDING! IT'S A RUSEV DAY MIRACLE! Kanyon Cutters DDP! He then rips off his shirt and reveals a New Blood shirt underneath. Took them long enough but everyone saw this turn coming months ago. Kanyon gets DDP on the stretcher, puts him in the ambulance, and it's over. Meh. *1/2

 

Commentary spends WAY longer reasoning through Kanyon's turn than Russo did. 

 

Boot Camp Match: GI Bro def WCW World Tag Team Champion Shawn Stasiak in 12:10- Another silly Russo name change here, Booker T is now GI Bro. Booker does the Shawn Michaels Wrestlemania 12 entrance, rappelling down from the top of the arena. This is over a year after Owen Hart's death and WCW is still doing that. Both guys are in camo to go along with the match theme. Stasiak even has camo facepaint. Brawl in the aisle to start. Tony mentions this is "can't answer a 10 count" rules, like a Texas Death Match. Back and forth brawling on the floor leads to back and forth brawling in the ring. Booker hits a running forearm and slam, then clotheslines/punches Stasiak 360 back to the floor. Stasiak gets tossed over the guardrail literally into the laps of some ringside fans. Guy with a Ray Lewis jersey in there. The coming 2000 season the Baltimore Ravens would have one of the greatest defenses in NFL history, lead by Lewis. Booker gives Stasiak a chairshot. Back in Booker hits a double ax handle off the top rope. The ref starts a 10 count. So it's like a Last Man Standing match, not Texas Death. OK then. Stasiak tries to counter mounted punches with an inverted atomic drop. Booker blocks that, but then Stasiak hot shots him in the corner. Flying back elbow from Stasiak. Booker comes back with a boot up in the corner and side kick. Stasiak pants pulls Booker out to the floor, then suplexes Booker on the entrance ramp. As they go back in the ring I see a "Run in time" sign in the crowd, that makes me chuckle. Stasiak hits a clothesline off the top rope. Booker barely gets back up at 9. He fights off a Stasiak suplex and hits his own, but Stasiak puts him back down with a clothesline. Back out to the floor. Again. Booker takes a chairshot, with the padded end. Back in Stasiak hits a gutwrench powerbomb that gets a long 9 count. Sleeper from Stasiak that sets off some "boring" chants. They do arm drops even though that doesn't count in this match because it's Booker's sign to fight back up. He hits an Olympic slam on Stasiak. Kurt Angle already influencing wrestlers. Stasiak back elbows Booker back down. Booker counters a whip into a side kick. Book End! Booker goes up top and hits a missile dropkick. Stasiak's tag champ partner Chuck Palumbo runs in. Booker cuts him off and gives him the scissors kick. Stasiak uses the opening to low blow Booker. Another long 9 count. The tag champs straight double team on Booker. At least this match is actually no DQ. Booker counters a double team with a double tackle. Spinaroonie! Side kicks and clotheslines for everyone. He hits Stasiak with his own gimmick weapon, some kind of workout bar, and that gets the 10 count to end it. Dull as hell but technically competent. The whole boot camp theme did absolutely nothing. *

 

In the back, Mean Gene is INDIGNANT at Kanyon. Unfortunately, that means Kanyon has to talk to explain himself. We then get footage of DDP fighting out of the ambulance, but the main point from that is we see a Goldberg monster truck in the background skirting the crack local police force.

 

Tables Match: The Franchise def The Wall in 8:40- Like Lex Luger's name change to just The Total Package, Shane Douglas is now being called just The Franchise. Douglas takes a mic after his entrance and takes way too long to say he wants this to not just be a Tables Match, but a BEST OF FIVE tables match. Conveniently there's already four or five tables set up around the ring. Wall looks like he's morphed into a much taller and less pudgy Tommy Dreamer. Sluggy start. Wall hits a big boot. Press slam. Douglas goes for a swinging neckbreaker but Wall blocks it and hits a clothesline. Whip reversal and Douglas hits a high knee. Delayed front drop suplex from Douglas. Reverse neck snap! That always looks ugly. He 360 clotheslines Wall out to the floor, then baseball slides him over a table. Douglas looks like he's literally leading Wall around on the floor to where he needs to go. Wall blocks a suplex on the floor. He chokeslams Douglas through a table! 1-0 Wall. Douglas tries to fight back but Wall lifts him up and puts him through another table to go up 2-0. Back in Douglas kind of begs off, then lifts Wall up into a straight low blow. Douglas then goes to the floor and dares Wall to join him. He taunts Wall all the way up the aisle to a side part of the stage that has a Jeff Hardy Suicide Ladder set up and a platform that's clearly, obviously been set up for someone to fall through. Oh, and a couple of tables that have already been stacked up. In other words, none of this looks organic. Douglas runs Wall into the ladder, then climbs up it. Wall then climbs up to join him. There's a stack of two tables on top of a platform behind Wall. Both guys slug it out/position themselves on top of the ladder. Wall flops down through the tables! We then see Douglas has knucks or something on his hand. Douglas' music plays, so I guess he won. But that was only two tables? Or are they counting the platform they were on as a third? More importantly, why do we care? The match is over, which is a blessing for everyone. Textbook proof that breaking a bunch of tables does not automatically make things interesting. DUD

 

After the total lack of a bell Wall puts a ref through a table just because. Hey, that was 5. Wall wins, 3-2.

 

Back outside, one of the police cars backs up QUICK, squealing tires quick, but only to let a car in. It's Hollywood Hogan, back in full black and white mode. 

 

Handicap Asylum Match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Scott Steiner (c) (w/Midajah and Shakira) def Rick Steiner and Tank Abbott in 3:30- This was supposed to be Scott vs Abbott straight up and they start fighting as soon as Scott's in the ring, but while that's going on Dave Penzer announces that "in the interest of fairness" Rick Steiner has been added to the match. Rick jogs in while Scott's pounding on Abbott and hits Scott from behind. So what's the whole Asylum thing supposed to be? Oh, here it comes. It's a cage that's being lowered down, but it's a small circular cage, like an MMA "ring" or the Den matches Ken Shamrock had in WWF a couple of times. Steiner's women shout from the apron while Scott gets pounded on in this very small circle that only takes up about three quarters of the inside of the ring. Another question, if Scott loses which of the other guys wins the US title? The one that gets the decision I guess. Not that WCW thought through it that much. Abbott gets a chain out, then immediately puts it away again. Then Scott ducks and Abbott punches Rick. Guess Rick didn't want to get hit with the chain. Now Scott gets the chain and hits Abbott with it. He puts Abbott in the Steiner Recliner and Abbott submits. Well that was beyond pointless, and as brutally awful as anything else Tank Abbott's done in WCW. Ken Shamrock he is not. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

Once again back outside and now there's a limo pulling up. It's only Ric Flair, along with his family. No BIG SURPRISE yet. After they get out we see the Goldberg truck lurking in the background again. 

 

Hollywood Hogan def Billy Kidman in 11:36- I'm honestly surprised this feud is still going. In addition to Kidman now facing black and white Hollywood Hogan instead of red and yellow Hulk, there's been a boatload of stipulations added onto this rematch. Horace Hogan, supposedly on Kidman's side against his uncle, is the special guest referee, and if Hogan wins he gets a World title shot "in July", I'm assuming Bash at the Beach, while if Kidman wins Hogan has to retire. So, dead giveaway of the result. Lockup! Hogan easily wins. Kidman runs back in and gets tossed right back out. Hogan then punches Kidman down, the last one sending Kidman all the way out to the floor. Hogan rolls Kidman back in and Kidman begs off. Hogan's not interested. Early big boot and Kidman rolls out again. Hogan chats with a couple of kids at ringside, like he's asking them if they want him to run Kidman into the barricade, then he does so. Pretty cool little moment for the kids, well done by Hogan. Back in Hogan goes to straight chokes, drawing the ire of ref Horace. Kidman eye rakes to turn things around. Horace then gets on Kidman for choking, trying to show he's impartial. Kidman's not happy about that. Hogan gives Kidman a sneaky style low blow. Learned that one from Flair. The weightlifting belt is off and Hogan makes a big show of it before starting to whip Kidman with it. It's clearly become a Thing. Kidman goes out to the floor again. Hogan gets a chair. Kidman dropkicks it into his face! When Hogan let go of the chair it damn hear hit a couple of ringside fans in the face. Kidman gives Hogan a couple of charishots, rolls him back in and covers for 2. Hogan goes back to the floor, drags Kidman out and goes back on offense. Now there's a guy with a "Where's Silver King" sign. With La Parka in Mexico? Hogan gets the chair and gives Kidman a shot with it. Back in Kidman avoids a slam and DDTs Hogan onto the chair for a long 2. Big splash off the top rope from Kidman for 2. He gets all over Horace for not being biased for him. The crowd chants "Hogan" while Hogan wanders around and Kidman hits him in the back with Hogan gradually hulking up. Point! Hogan punches Kidman down and gives him mounted punches. Corner clothesline. On the floor Kidman runs Hogan into the post. Hogan hiptosses Kidman onto the announce table! That was enough to mostly break it. Torrie Wilson, who'd apparently broken up with Kidman over his Hogan obsession, makes her way out. She gets on the apron, takes out brass knucks, and gives them to Hogan. Kidman knees Hogan in the back, sending Hogan into Torrie. Kidman gets the knucks and nails Hogan with them. Hogan just kicks out. Kidman gets the knucks out again and punches Horace out. Torrie gets in and low blows Kidman. SWERVE! Another one we all saw coming miles away. Hogan hits Kidman with the knucks, and that gets the pin. After the bell Horace and Hogan embrace. SWERVE! Usual overbooked overswerved nonsense, and like the last match Hogan either wasn't capable or wasn't interested in doing any of Kidman's moves. *1/4

 

The win means Hogan gets a title shot at Bash at the Beach. That will not go how anyone expects it to go. More on that when we get there, but it's one of those famous end of WCW moments I've been looking forward to writing up for a long time. 

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair def David Flair (w/Vince Russo) in 10:14- They'd faced off in tag matches during David's various turns, but this is the only time the Flair boys had a one on one match. Like the last match, if Ric loses he has to retire. Imagine if Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair really were retired on the same night. Under those circumstances Hogan really should have lost the last match, even if it got reversed on Nitro after, to add some weight to Flair potentially losing this one. I'm amazed this is the first time Russo's gotten himself on camera all night. Flair's family gets escorted on camera to ringside seats before the match, yes including daughter Ashley, AKA Charlotte Flair. Ric's back in regular gear after wrestling in street clothes the last couple of PPVs, but David's in his usual t-shirt and jeans. Hand jockeying after the bell and we get a little Slick Ric. Lockup into a headlock/top wristlock fight that Ric wins. Ric works around into a hammerlock, and when David goes into the corner to take a cheap break Ric slaps him. Another lockup. David backs Ric into the corner and lays in some forearms and chops. Flair Flip! Ric alllllllmost gets all the way over the top but can't quite do it and settles for rolling under the bottom rope instead. On the floor David gives him more forearms and whips him into the barricade. Delayed suplex from David back in. Sleeper from David. Ric works around into a back suplex counter. He tears David's shirt off in the corner and hits the first real chops. Plus a bit of Flair strut. Ric takes David out to the floor and gives him more chops in front of the makeshift replacement announce table. Back in David ducks and 360 clotheslines Ric out to the floor. Russo comes in and gives Ric some shots with the rubber baseball bat. Russo then gets handcuffs out and handcuffs Flair! More chops from David back in and he tries a Flair strut while ref Lil' Naitch seems supremely unconcerned that Ric's hands are handcuffed and he can't wrestle properly. David puts on a figure four! With leverage help from Russo. Eventually Lil' Naitch goes Earl Hebner and kicks David's hands off the ropes, allowing Ric to reverse. David quickly lets go and goes into some ground and pound. Lil' Naitch pulls David off by the hair! Russo uses that opening to get some more shots in. Ric's youngest son Reid jumps the rail and goes after Russo! He low blows Russo! Reid gets the handcuff keys off Russo. David grabs Reid and goes angry big brother on him, but Lil' Naitch gets the keys and uncuffs Ric. Ric hides the fact he's free and chops the hell out of David when he gets in range. Meanwhile, Ashley/Charlotte has Russo pinned down on the floor and is putting the handcuffs on him! Backdrop from Ric on David in the ring. Greco Roman Nut Stomp from Ric. David tries the Flair Flip! With difficulty he manages to get himself onto the apron, and Ric chops him down to the floor. Big delayed suplex from Ric back in and we get some more strut. David begs off and gets an eye poke in. Ric should have seen that coming. David goes up top and Ric slams him off! David should have seen that coming. Also, must have been very satisfying for Ric to be on the other end of that for once. Ric hits a kneedrop and a bunch of short jabs. Then Ric starts in on the knee work. Figure four! David almost instantly submits! After the bell Ric pulls apart Russo's Yankees jersey (BOOOO) and gives him a chop, then the whole family minus David celebrates in the ring. Shoot me, but that was actually kind of fun Flair family drama, with Ric walking David through the match as well as he could. Put that same match in a better era and I think it would have played just fine. **3/4

 

Russo takes a mic, swears a bunch like usual, then says tomorrow night on Nitro he's going to retire Flair himself. I think we all know that's not happening. 

 

Human Torch Match: Vampiro def Sting in 7:22- What is a Human Torch match you ask? To win you have to light your opponent on fire. I'm not joking. WCW has spent weeks building this up saying someone was going to be immolated like Anakin Skywalker after he lost the high ground. Literal snuff film stuff. During Vampiro's entrance a stagehand tries to sneak in to set a torch up for Vampiro to light up but is fully caught on camera. Vampiro lights the torch, then when Sting's entrance starts we see he's up on top of the NotTitantron and he pulls the torch up to him. Sting also has a mic. He asks if Vampiro's afraid of heights "because I'm not" (no shit, we've seen for years) and tells Vampiro if he wants to light Sting on fire he has to come up here. After a minute of Vampiro protesting Sting says never mind and rappels down the to the stage area. Reminder, over a year after Owen Hart's fatal accident. Sting gets in the ring and Vampiro is all over him. Sting comes back with a powerslam, followed by clotheslines and the faceplant. He goes for a Stinger Splash but Vampiro gets a boot up. Corner hot shot from Sting and he goes for the Splash again. This time Vampiro dodges. He has a gas can and pours it all over Sting. They slowly work up the aisle with Vampiro pounding on supposedly gas covered Sting. Sting fires back with, what else, a low blow. Commentary says the arena is "deathly silent" and "no one wants to see this". Unintentional shoot comments for the win. Vampiro starts climbing up the stage, followed by Sting. Vampiro kicks Sting and he falls off the stage! I don't think that fall was any higher than falling off the top rope to the floor. Sting recovers and both guys climb all the way up to the top of the tron/stage. The lights go all kooky for some reason, like lightning. Is Undertaker running in? Both guys vanish behind the tron, then pop back up still fighting. Vampiro goes for the torch but Sting cuts him off. The lights go out completely for a second, then Vampiro gets the torch. He lights the heavily covered and protected stuntman that's replaced Sting on fire while commentary acts like they're seeing a literal murder, then the fake Sting stuntman does the long fall off the tron all the way onto the padded platform I spotted back in the tables match. Everyone runs in with fire extinguishers even though the fire went out before he hit. Cut to shock face somber voice commentary. They got (in story) what they'd been hyping up all this time, I have no idea why they're so depressed about it. Whoever came up with the concept of a match where a wrestler gets lit on fire to lose should have been laughed out of the booking committee meeting, and nothing in the match made it any less atrocious. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

The new backstage interview floozie whose name I can't recall tries to get Bischoff to finally spill what the BIG SURPRISE THAT WILL CHANGE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT FOREVER (their words, not mine) will be. Bischoff, still furious about the Goldberg themed monster truck stalking the arena, says "There's no surprise! There's your surprise". Bigger cop out than that PPV a couple of years prior where Bischoff tried to get Vince McMahon to show up. Which I think is what they'd been teasing on weekly TV leading up to this again, or something similar.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Jarrett (c) def Kevin Nash in 16:22- It's absolutely hilarious they go into this match barely two minutes after supposedly seeing someone murdered by external combustion. After both wrestlers make their entrance Ernest Miller's music hits and he comes out. The hell? Miller says Bischoff and the New Blood have some celebrity guests for this match. Konnan is the special guest bell ringer, Rey Mysterio is the special guest timekeeper (literally the same job but I understand if Konnan needed help with it because it was too mentally taxing for him), Disco Inferno is the special guest BELT keeper, Juventud Guerrera is the special guest ring announcer (a job Buffer already did), and Miller himself is the special guest outside enforcer. Basically, this is a ridiculously over the top deck stacking against Nash. They're trying so hard to duplicate the Austin/Vince stuff and making a complete dog's and pig's breakfast with it. Lockup! Nash easily tosses Jarrett out. Repeat that a couple of times and all the extra guys get on the apron to distract Nash and let Jarrett attack him. Nash fires back with kneelifts and tosses Jarrett across the ring. The usual Nash corner knees and elbows follow. Jarrett gets 360 clotheslined to the floor. Jarrett manages to push Nash into the post, then Nash whips Jarrett into the barricade. He gives Jarrett a snake eyes on the improv announce table. Jarrett gets tossed over the barricade and it's crowd brawl time. Another thing they blatantly copied from WWF. They do a quick half circle around that section of the floor and come back over. When they do Mysterio hits Nash in the knee with a chair. Jarrett then comes in the ring with a chair and continues to pound on Nash's knee with it until the real ref takes it away. Jarrett continues with the knee work. Eventually Jarrett puts on a half crab, but in the corner where Nash can easily get a corner break even though he makes it look like a struggle. Jarrett then hooks on a figure four. Near fall, long fight, then Nash very slowly tries to reverse but Jarrett cuts it off. After some more moment milking Nash finally reaches out for a rope break. Konnan gets on the apron and hits Nash with the bell. Jarrett covers for 2. Nash fights back up and hits a side suplex for 2. Knee's just fine. Nash proves that by running around the ring taking out all the extra riff raff. Jarrett tries for a belt shot, but Nash dodges it and hits Jarrett with the belt. Disco comes in and takes the ref out before he can count 3. Nash goes to the floor and gets ganged up on. Miller gets in to take the match over but both guys are down. Miller does a 10 count while yelling at Jarrett to get back up. Jarrett manages to get an arm over Nash. Miller fast counts but Nash still kicks out. Disco gets on Nash's back and gets slammed for his trouble. After Nash takes a couple of other guys out Jarrett grabs him and hits the Stroke, but he takes forever to cover and Nash still kicks out. Jarrett goes out and gets the guitar. Nash catches him coming off the ropes and chokeslams him! Miller counts 2 then pretends something got in his eye. There's a jackknife for Miller. Big boot on Jarrett and the straps are down. Jackknife on Jarrett. Lil' Naitch runs in to count but almost instantly gets pulled out by someone else. It's Rick Steiner. Because that's all this match needed, more random guys running in. Tank Abbott and Scott Steiner are out here still fighting because reasons. This is like a blurnsball game in a Futurama episode, with all kinds of crazy random shit happening just because. Blurnsball probably has more rules than wrestling in the hands of Russo too. The whole gang is in the ring beating down Nash. And, the final turd cherry on top of this shit sundae, Goldberg's monster truck finally rolls into the arena, as could be predicted by literally anyone. Goldberg's music hits and here he comes. Incidentally, we don't see Goldberg on camera until he's halfway down the aisle. Zero proof he was actually in or driving the truck. Goldberg sets up.....AND SPEARS NASH! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA SWERVE YOUR ASS. Russo should be writing comedy. Hell, he is, he just doesn't know it. Jarrett covers and gets the pin to retain. Bischoff and Russo both comes out while Goldberg gets in Nash's face and lets him know about what just happened. Goldberg then embraces Russo and Bischoff to cement the turn. That was one of the most insane, ludicrous excuses for a main event wrestling match you'll ever see. DUD

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The summer of 2000 fully cemented that WCW had slid down to a depth they were never going to crawl back up from. And the summer's not over yet.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: F 

Great American Bash '85

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '85

July 6, 1985 from Charlotte Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, NC

 

Well this is a nice surprise. Years ago I reviewed three Great American Bash tour shows that were uploaded to the fantastic Hidden Gems section of the old WWE Network, two from '86 and one from '88. Now WWE has just uploaded onto their WCW Vault channel on YouTube the first ever GAB show from 1985. Previously this show was only available as a hugely truncated one hour VHS release. Now we have the whole show to enjoy, and I will always take more mid '80s Jim Crockett Promotions shows, one of my favorite periods in wrestling history.

 

Starrcade was a huge success the past two years for Crockett and the NWA, even if the '84 show wasn't all that great, so the obvious thing to do was to try to add on some more supercard shows. Since Starrcade was a Thanksgiving show, it made sense to hold one during the middle of the summer, specifically coinciding with the 4th of July holiday. Starting in '86 GAB would become a multi-week tour of shows during midsummer before eventually becoming a yearly PPV, but this first year it's just a single outdoor stadium show. And the NWA wouldn't be putting all its eggs in this basket right away, as they also had a huge joint show with the AWA planned for the fall to try to compete with the WWF's success with the first Wrestlemania, which would end up being the first Superclash. They were also slowly building to what would end up being possibly the greatest Starrcade of all time in November.

 

We get the "presented in the most complete form possible" disclaimer at the start, which is completely understandable under the circumstances. Some skydivers start things off to get the crowd going. #1 misses his spot pretty bad, #2 does better, and #3 sticks the landing right on target. After that is a real nice panning shot of the whole crowd before intros for the first match. I like how there's only a dozen or so rows of floor seats. Yeah it makes the stadium field look awful empty, but I can tell you from experience that if you get that far back on unraised seats at a wrestling show you can hardly see a damn thing anyway. No commentary for this show as it wasn't shown on TV. 

 

"Cowboy" Ron Bass and "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel (w/JJ Dillon) time limit draw- Bass' nickname is "Cowboy" here instead of the more well known "Outlaw" because he's a face. Landel's whole gimmick is he's a delusional heel that thinks he's the real "Nature Boy", and in fact had just had a few title shots against the real Nature Boy so this is a bit far down on the card for him considering. Also ironic that Dillon's managing him when he'll soon be the manager of the Four Horsemen. Red Pants is the referee working the first batch of matches tonight. You know Red Shoes Unno, here's Red Pants Sonny Fargo. He was a regular ref for lower card matches for Crockett in this period. The bell rings and Landel immediately runs around and bails to the floor. When he gets in he tries to hide behind the ref and bails again. After some Dillon advice he manages to attack Bass from behind, triggering off an extended back and forth slugfest. Landel takes a couple of buckle shots and rolls out again. Cautious knucklelock back in. Off a whip Landel grabs the ropes and escapes to the turf one more time. Bass has had enough and chases him down. Post shot for Landel and Bass is very happy with his handiwork. Another cautious knucklelock in the ring and Bass stomps on Landel's foot. He starts working on Landel's arm. ARMBAR. Landel backs him into the corner and hits some chops. Bass dodges in the opposite corner and Landel runs shoulder first into the top turnbukle. Bass identifies the target and runs the shoulder into the corner a couple of more times. He hooks on a hammerlock to try to work the shoulder some more. Landel eye rakes free. Bass hooks on the gut claw! Landell gets himself free and powders again. Back in Landell tries an arm wringer that Bass easily reverses. Bass then delights in some more arm punishment. It's always good to see someone that loves their job so much. Landel gets another chop in and tosses Bass out. Dillon gets a couple of shots in, including the dreaded back rake. Landel gives Bass a shot on the timekeeper's table that actually rings the bell, then chokes him with a camera cable. Back in Landel works a chinlock and asks "Who's the real Nature Boy?". In between chinlocks Dillon gets a slap and chokes in. Bass dodges an elbow drop and gets a flash small package for 2. Landel gets back on the chinlock, then there's a small edit cutting to Landel beating on Bass on the turf again. Bass fires back and knocks Landel around the ringside area. Landel begs off back in. No dice there. Landel then tries to walk. Bass follows, but then chases Dillon after Dillon tries to distract. Landel tries to use that to jump but Bass was ready for him. Bass no sells some punches and they stand off as the bell rings for the 20 minute time limit draw (about 17 minutes shown thanks to the edit). Pretty time limit stally and it didn't have the usual trying for a last second win flurry at the end (which might be more of a plus than a minus), but overall it was an OK opener. **

 

The fight continues a bit after the bell. Dillon tries to get involved but Bass maneuvers him and Landel into colliding, then Bass puts the Claw on Dillon before Landel saves him. 

 

NWA National Tag Team Championship: The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (c) def Buzz Sawyer and Dick Slater- The National titles were the titles in the NWA's Georgia territory that was recently acquired by Crockett after the whole Black Saturday fiasco, the start of Crockett's expansion that would eventually overtax them and lead to their downfall and Turner buyout. The Arn and Ole Anderson team go by both The Andersons and The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (second version) and it's hard to tell what it's supposed to be on any given day, so in the absence of clarity I'm going with the much cooler name. One of the best team names ever. Sawyer and Slater ride in on a golf cart, charge to the ring and attack! It's weird seeing them as faces as both had most of their most prominent exposure as heels (and Sawyer was a pretty big heel in real life by all accounts). Sawyer's got on fur covered boots that honestly look like they could be slippers. Big 2v2 brawl with Slater atomic dropping Arn on the floor while Sawyer takes it to Ole in the ring. Eventually the faces clear the ring and pose while the Andersons try to find an opening. They think they see one and call the play but the faces are ready for them again. Red Pants finally restores some order with Arn and Slater in the ring. They lock up and Arn pushes Slater to his corner so Ole can blind tag in. The Andersons try a corner beatdown but we're quickly all in donnybrooking again. Sawyer bites Arn. The Andersons get whipped into each other and bail for a think again. Reset with Slater now stalling Ole to play some of his own mind games. Lockup and Slater hooks on a hammerlock. Ole gets dragged around by the arm but escapes enough to make a tag. Arn tries a corner floatover but Sawyer turns around and decks him with a forearm. After another short order breakdown Sawyer ducks an Arn crossbody attempt, but Arn bounces the right way and tags out. Sawyer and Ole have a nice short mat sequence before Sawyer starts in some arm work on him. Slater comes in with an elbow off the top rope on Ole. Slam and elbow drop from Slater for 2. He tries for a figure four but Ole tights pulls him down to the mat. The Andersons try a double team. Sawyer runs in to stop them, but takes away Red Pants' attention and the Andersons beat Slater down in their corner. The next couple of minutes are some classic Anderson arm work and cutting the ring in half, keeping Slater in their corner with nice toe holds. They make a mistake when Ole tries to get creative (there's a sentence with multiple future meanings) and goes up top. Slater slams him off! Tag to Sawyer. Sawyer hits a powerslam on Arn for 2. Flying forearm and he covers Arn. Ole elbow drops Sawyer in the back of his head, covers and wraps his head up so the ref can't see it's him, and gets a three count even though Sawyer might have just kicked out in time. It was bang bang. Slater points out to Red Pants the wrong Anderson was making the pin but the Andersons are already half out of the stadium. They even left the belts behind. After a minute or so the ring announcer says the Andersons win....by DQ. Uh, OK? Nothing in the online results on Cagematch or Wiki say anything about a DQ and I can't see any reason for a DQ going that direction so I'm going with the ring announcer goofing on that. A solidly good match that showed off that classic advanced level Anderson tag team strategery. ***

 

Manny Fernandez, Buzz Tyler and Sam Houston def Abdullah the Butcher, Konga the Barbarian and "Superstar" Billy Graham- Tyler is the reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight champion and has his belt on. Fernandez is the reigning NWA Mid-Atlantic Bare Knuckles champion and does not have his belt on. If there even was a belt for that short lived title, I don't remember. Konga is the artist that will later be known as just the Barbarian, mostly in WWF and WCW. Tyler and Graham start. Quick speed run and Graham runs into Fernandez on the apron, knocking himself down. Too bad for Graham he didn't run into Houston, that bean pole wouldn't have even bothered him. Graham backs off and tags Barbarian. They do the same sequence, but Barbarian slams on the brakes before hitting Fernandez. But that allows the faces to knock him around the circle a couple of times. Barbarian gets a chop on Fernandez. Fernandez responds with a back elbow and some chops of his own. Fernandez fakes Barbarian out with a crossbody tease, then hops to the other side and hits the crossbody for 2. Graham tags back in and Fernandez speeds around him, not difficult as Graham was barely mobile by this point, and hits an uppercut. Graham wants a time out. Fernandez responds with a Spaceballs salute. The faces work on Graham's arm for a bit. Graham is easily able to outmuscle Houston once he's in, getting him in the heel corner and tagging in Abby. Abby runs Houston over, which is about the equivalent of a train hitting a sheep. Barbarian hits a slam and legdrop on Houston. Graham comes in with some martial arts shots to the throat. Fernandez runs in to try to stop a triple team, but that only lets Abby squash Houston in the heel corner. Houston gets tossed out and flipped over the guardrail. Fernandez helps him back over and into the ring, but Houston stays in peril. Eventually Houston manages to speed around Graham and hits a crossbody. DONNYBROOK! Houston wraps Graham up in a small package, and gets a shock upset pin! After the bell Houston celebrates like crazy with his teammates for a couple of minutes, clearly unable to believe what he just did. Solid six man stuff, with a good old "monster heels vs quick bumpaholic babyfaces" formula. **1/2

 

Dog Collar Match: Jimmy Valiant (w/Buzz Tyler) def Paul Jones (w/Abdullah the Butcher)- Hebner checks in to ref the next couple of matches. Yes, Hebner was with the NWA for a while before joining WWF. I haven't seen anything close to resembling a decent Jimmy Valiant match during these years and I'm not expecting that to start now. Most of those shitfests have been against former wrestler turned manager Jones too. This was a neverending feud. The crowd was always hot for it though, I can't deny Valiant's offbeat charisma. Not sure why two guys from the last match stayed behind to be seconds but whatever. Naturally we get the usual heel refusing to put the collar on stalling. Jones takes the collar, has a really good and long think about how exactly to apply it....then tries to put it on Abby. Tyler jumps him and forces it on, but while he's doing that Abby lays out Valiant. Once the collar's on the bell rings to officially start things. Valiant is still wobbled and Jones takes advantage to work him over. Valiant's already bleeding and we get plenty of his specialized spasm selling. He's got "FM 100" on his tights. Is that a local radio station that's sponsoring him? Jones goes up to the second rope, then comes down with what I really hope wasn't an attempt at a move because it was weak as shit. He goes up there again. Valiant uses the chain to crotch him! Jones gets out of the ring and tries to run but can't because of the chain. Valiant uses it to pull him into the post. Jones gets back in and Valiant works him over with his crazy over the top punches that make the Rock's look subtle. Jones is bleeding a little. Valiant hooks on the sleeper! Abby tries to get in. Valiant uses the chain to pull Jones into Abby. Elbow drop, cover, and Valiant gets the pin. After the bell Abby attacks Valiant with his Spike of Death but Tyler fights him off with a chair. The usual slow motion, barely come within 6 inches of each other on any strikes crapfest from these two, but at least they kept it short and to the point. 1/4*

 

NWA World Tag Team Championship: AWA World Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) and The Russian Team (c) double DQ- There's another edit that clips the entrances for this match, so sadly I can't say if the Roadies rode in on their bikes or not. The Roadies are announced as the AWA World tag champs (without their belts though), but the ring announcer makes it clear this is for the NWA titles only. Then he goes and does a full on Lillian Botch, announcing the Russians as Ivan and Nikita Koloff when it's Ivan Koloff and Krusher Kruschev defending tonight, before quickly correcting himself. The Russian Team were a three man unit that defended under Freebird Rules, and Nikita had bigger things going on later tonight. Kruschev is the very not Russian Barry Darsow, the future Demolition Smash, Repo Man and Blacktop Bully. Not all at the same time. Hawk and Ivan start. Hawk easily overpowers him out of the first lockup. Ivan tries a top wristlock but Hawk also fights that off. Ivan tries to counter a backdrop attempt with a kick but Hawk dodges it and hits the backdrop going the other way. Powerslam for 2 and both sides tag. Animal and Kruschev have a little flex off. Lockup and Kruschev picks Animal up and tosses him! Pretty unexpected and impressive power there honestly. Another lockup and this time Animal does the lifting and tossing, with a bit more force. Test of strength that ends in a stalemate. They have a long top wristlock leverage fight that also ends in stalemate. Full speed shoulderblock collisions that are also inconclusive. Very fun sequence there. Kruschev cranks things up a notch by laying in the first strikes between the two and he hits a slam. Animal comes off the ropes with a tackle. He has a bit of trouble lifting Kruschev up, but eventually does and drops him on the top rope. Both sides tag again. Ivan gets a boot up in the corner and goes up top, but Hawk slams him back down. Running chop and fistdrop from Hawk for 2. He hooks on a front facelock. Ivan manages to fight over and get a tag, but Kruschev was standing on the bottom rope so Hebner doesn't allow it! Yes, back when tag rules were actually enforced. To a degree. While Kruschev is arguing that the Roadies swap without a tag! Hebner hilariously makes a big show asking the crowd if there was a tag, then shrugs his shoulders and pretty much goes "whatever". Kruschev decides to argue some more and the Roadies swap with no tag again! Another very fun expectation subverting sequence. Then Hawk does a little biting. The Roadies can heel it up all they want, there's no way in hell the crowd is going to root for the Soviet pinko commies. Hawk press slams Ivan, then Animal tags in and hits a big elbow drop for 2. He chinlocks Ivan literally inches away from being able to tag just to tease him, then drags him back over. Ivan manages to fight back to his corner, but Kruschev isn't there for the tag! He gets back on the apron but just misses Ivan again! I don't know what happened there, if Hawk pulled him down or not, we never saw on camera. Kruschev has finally had enough, getting in the ring and brawling with Hawk. They go around the ring and back in, and while passing Animal Kruschev gives him a shot to finally put the Russians in control. They quick tag to keep Animal isolated. Animal ducks an Ivan punch and hits a back suplex, but Kruschev cuts the tag off. Back elbow on Animal for 2. Animal headbutts Ivan in the gut but again gets blocked from tagging. Tagblocked. Kruschev and Animal double clothesline each other. Tag to Ivan. Tag to Hawk! Hawk runs wild on everyone. Big clothesline on Ivan but the pin is broken up. Everyone in the pool! Hawk hands Ivan to Animal on the ropes, but before Animal can do anything Kruschev hits him with a chair. Hawk gets the chair and unloads chairshots on everyone. Hebner calls for the bell, tossing the match out. No one cares, they're still fighting. Eventually the Roadies clear the ring to stand tall at the end. That was a pretty damn fun match with some very well done mini stories and everyone working hard. You can even forgive the finish as that was the norm in these kinds of interpromotional matches back then. ***1/4

 

Three days after this show, the Rock N Roll Express made their debut with Crockett and in their first night with the company defeated the Russian Team for the World tag titles, kicking off a feud that would last the rest of the year and culminate in a steel cage match at Starrcade. Over the next couple of years the RNR Express would be arguably the top draw in the whole company, even more than Ric Flair or Dusty Rhodes.

 

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Magnum TA (c) def Kamala (w/Skandor Akbar) by DQ- Magnum is in his first reign as US champ, and he was someone the NWA and Crockett had a lot of hopes in as a future company carrying babyface. This is a one off stop for Kamala in Crockett as he was mostly working for the AWA and Mid-South at this time. NWA senior ref Tommy Young steps in for this match. He tries some prematch instructions but impatient Kamala takes is as a cue to attack instead. Probably a translation issue. Skandor Akbar is no Kim Chee. Magnum ducks a clothesline and hits a crossbody with a very delayed Kamala reaction. After a few punches Kamala makes a hard left turn out of the ring and out to the turf. Back in Kamala holds his hand up for a test of strength. Magnum comes in cautious and decks Kamala before Kamala can try anything sneaky. Kamala eye rakes and hits a head chop. He drops Magnum on the top rope and lays in some more head chops, followed by a back kick and the classic "I'm hungry" belly pat. Magnum is already bleeding off the chops. This is most definitely the NWA's "blood heavy" period. Kamala bites the cut then hooks on the Titty Pinch of Pain +2. He switches between that and choking. Magnum tries to power up but Kamala head chops him again. Big splash for 2. Chops to Magnum's back and Kamala hits another big splash, then tries to pin Magnum while Magnum's face down. Kamala even hooks a leg! What a goof. More choking and titty pinching follow. Magnum fights up again and punches free. He comes off the ropes but Kamala chops him in the back of the head as he's passing. Magnum fights up again and goes into full resilient babyface comeback mode. Corner dodges and Kamala crashes into the corner. Magnum wobbles Kamala with dropkicks and the third one puts him down. Magnum covers. Akbar comes in and attacks Magnum to draw the cheap DQ. The heels try to continue the punishment after the bell. Magnum slams Kamala! Then belly to belly suplexes him! Sure, do the best stuff after the match is over. He covers and counts a quick three on his own while Young reminds him the match is already over. You're never going to get much out of Kamala and Magnum wasn't really good enough to carry anyone yet, but he certainly tried. *3/4

 

The ring announcer has an important announcement: if you're parking on the other side of Independence at the baseball field, you better go and move your car now or it's going to get blown up by the post-show fireworks being set off from there. I'm paraphrasing a bit. I believe the legal phrase for that announcement is "covering your ass". 

 

NWA World's Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/local TV sports personality) def Nikita Koloff (w/Ivan Koloff)- Nikita Koloff only had about a year of experience under his belt and was still awfully green, but he'd become a big enough heel thanks to his Soviet gimmick to get a test run against The Man here. He's billed as Ivan Koloff's nephew, but in reality was from that great factory for wrestlers in the 20th century, Minnesota. Flair was slightly over a year into his (officially) third reign as champion, a reign that would end up being the longest of all his reigns. We're also still in the period where Flair is a face in his home territory. His big heel turn and the start of the slow formation of the Four Horsemen won't happen until the fall. After Nikita's entrance the ring announcer tells fans to clear the field in a certain section as they have a special surprise happening over there. It's soon clear what it is. A helicopter slowly makes its way in and lands there, and lo and behold there's Ric Flair inside it. That's making an entrance. And in the News 9 WSOC TV News Copter no less! The man spares no expense. A red carpet gets rolled out and fans quickly swarm the area. It takes security a bit to get Flair a path to the ring and there's another edit there. Some local TV sports guy handles the ring announcements, all while holding a rubber chicken. I have no idea if that's some reference to the Russians being chickens or if that's just his gimmick. For some reason David Crockett is reffing this match instead of Tommy Young, wearing khakis and a teal polo. It looks like he walked out of the corporate office straight into the ring. Flair struts a bit after the bell and we're on. Much stronger Nikita easily wins the early lockups. Flair works around into a hammerlock and down for a leg takedown. Quick reset. Nikita cranks a headlock and fights off Flair's attempt to escape with a top wristlock, all while the crowd is distracted by something or other. Flair backs into the corner and hits a big chop flurry, followed by a hiptoss and some more strutting. Nikita responds with his own corner attack and hiptoss. Backbreaker for 2. Nikita hooks on a bear hug. Flair bell rings out. Whip from Nikita and he gets the bear hug back on. Flair jabs free this time. Clothesline from Nikita followed by a choke before he goes back to the bear hug. This time Flair lifts him up and hits an inverted atomic drop! He fires off some more chops. Nikita hits a forearm and yet more bear hug. They're keeping it dead simple for him. Flair goes down into some near falls. He fights back up into the corner but Nikita hits another backbreaker for 2. Flair shoulders Nikita in the gut to get some space. Snap mare/kneedrop combo for 2. More chops. Leg sweep and Flair goes for the knee for the first time. Back suplex. Nikita tries to fight it but Flair hooks on the figure four! Nikita eye rakes free. Flair grabs the leg to try to stay on it, but Nikita hooks him in a front chancery. Flair drops into some more near falls. When he gets back up Nikita switches to a headlock, then hits a shoulderblock. More Flair chops wobble Nikita. Flair hooks on a sleeper! Nikita backs him into the corner and muscles Flair up for a slam. Flair Flip! He falls all the way down to the turf. Nikita runs him into the post a couple of times and Flair does his usual duck near the ring skirt to blade right on camera (the camera's fault, not his). Flair crawls back in bleeding. Nikita bites the cut and covers for 2 with Flair's blood on his mouth. Nice. Clothesline from Nikita, but he takes absolutely forever to cover and only gets 2. Rookie mistake. He goes back for the bear hug but Flair very quickly bell rings free again. He's bleeding pretty good now. Comeback flurry from Flair. Chop and roll up for 2. He ground and pounds Nikita some and struts around again. Suplex from Flair. Elbow drop for 2. Corner chop and jabs. Ivan pulls Flair down in the corner and Nikita lays into him. Crockett goes down somewhere in there. Ivan goes up to the top rope. When he comes down he manages to take Crockett out again, not anyone else. A fan comes into the ring and grabs Ivan! 100% total legit fan run in here. Security very quickly runs in and gets him away. Once they clear out Flair does another Flair Flip, goes across the apron and comes off the top rope with a crossbody that Nikita completely fucks up his end of. After a lot of groping they get in position for Flair to cover for 1. Flair goes to the apron and pulls Nikita over the top rope for some elbow shots. Nikita lifts Flair back into the ring, but Flair falls on top of him and gets a pin! After the bell the Russians take Flair out while the ring announcer asks fans to clear the ringside area. It's still real to everyone, dammit. The face locker room tries to run in and help but the Russians take them all out too and leave Flair laying on the turf to end it. House show loop rematches set up. We're just getting into Flair's peak period, and this is a classic "good match with a broomstick" Flair match as he carried Koloff as well as possible. ***1/2

 

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Television Championship: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes def Tully Blanchard (c) (w/Baby Doll)- The TV title might seem like a bit of a come down for Dusty, but this was the hottest feud in the company at the time, which is why it's main eventing over the World title. That and the cage was too much work back then to put up and take down during the show.  Blanchard held the TV title for almost exactly a year before Dusty defeated him in March, then Blanchard managed to win it back again in April. In this period Blanchard looked every bit the surefire future world champion before his personal demons took over and Crockett was slowly grooming him to move up the card. More on that later. Another edit on the tape and we jump from Flair laying on the ground to the cage already set up for this match and both wrestlers in the ring. Tommy Young is back in to ref. This is announced as lights out unsanctioned. There's also an added stipulation that if Dusty wins he gets Baby Doll as his manager for 30 days. Blanchard's been making use of a loaded elbow pad lately, and he refuses to let Young check it. Dusty insists, so Young insists, and finally Blanchard relents. Young gives it every test possible, even standing on it, and says it's clean. Lockup and Dusty gets a quick elbow in. Blanchard dodges another elbow and we get a bit of a strut off. Dusty wins that. Speed run and Dusty hits a slam. Blanchard takes a second to double check the door really is locked, which makes Young also double double check. Yes it is. Remember the NWA didn't do escape rules cage matches like WWF did, they were designed to keep the wrestlers locked in and everyone else out. Dusty gets a leg takedown and drops an elbow. Blanchard pounds away on him on the mat, then tights pulls Dusty into the cage for the first cage shot. Elbow off the second rope from Blanchard. Dusty's already bleeding. Another cage shot for Dusty. Blanchard hooks on a chinlock. Dusty jawbreakers out. Blanchard dodges an elbow drop and hits his own. He grounds Dusty again with an armbar. Dusty comes back up firing off elbows. Cage shot for Blanchard. Dusty gives him repeated shots into the cage and now Blanchard is bleeding. Both wrestlers keep pushing Young away, he's taking as many bumps as anyone. Dusty hits a couple of swinging double ax handles and gives Blanchard the good old cheese grater spot on the cage. Blanchard crawls to the door and tries to open it. Still locked. Blanchard slips out of a suplex attempt but runs into a Dusty clothesline for 2. Dusty hooks on a figure four! Blanchard reverses it and they have a mutual agreement rope break. Blanchard tries to attack Dusty's knee from the mat. Dusty gives him some more elbows and backdrops out of a Blanchard piledriver attempt. Blanchard starts to climb the cage. Dusty follows, headbutts him, and gives him an elbow that drops him down to the mat. Dusty walks the top rope a bit using the cage as a support, then drops down with an elbow that's mostly dodged. Blanchard rolled away but it still hit him in the back. Both guys are down. Blanchard climbs the ropes again and Baby Doll hands him the loaded elbow pad. He puts it on, but never gets a chance to use it because Dusty pulls him down by the tights, plants him with a piledriver, and gets the pin to win the title and Baby Doll's services for 30 days! The face locker room empties to celebrate with Dusty and the last shot before the tape ends is a furiously resisting Baby Doll being drug into the ring. Another good but not quite great co-main event. There's nothing wrong with it, it just never hit the next level for whatever reason. ***1/2

 

The loss wouldn't bother Blanchard any. I mentioned he was slowly being groomed for bigger things. Later this very same month he'd defeat Magnum TA for the US title, kicking off another red hot feud that would end at Starrcade in their legendary I Quit Steel Cage match.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Not a blowaway start to the Great American Bash lineage, but it's still a fun stadium show. Old school shows like this almost always lived or died by their main event(s), and this one delivered well enough in that regard. It's also a good window into what Crockett was doing right at the beginning of their hottest period. Watching this won't exactly change your wrestling life, but still I'm very happy to see this finally liberated out of the vault after so long and I definitely recommend it for anyone wanting to check out some classic NWA action.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B 

Great American Bash '99

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '99

June 13, 1999 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

Amazingly, they manage to have nearly 10 minutes of opening segments and video packages before anyone steps foot in the ring and have absolutely nothing of note said or happen. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the show.

 

Hardcore Match: Hak (w/Chastity) def Brian Knobbs (w/Jimmy Hart) in 5:41- The WCW Hardcore title is coming, I promise. Just like the dragons. Knobbs has been reunited with Hart, who managed the Nasty Boys in WWF. Knobbs wants to get rid of the kendo sticks and all the other toys and "see who's really hardcore". Um, he he talking about fighting or.....something else? Turner's a PG show you know, PPV or no. Knobbs tosses his trash can away, then gets another one from Hart and nails Hak from behind with it. Commentary goes on about "the first SWERVE of the night". Easy to see where their mentality is right now. And we're still months away from Russo coming in.. Knobbs follows up with can lid shots, then gives Hak the Nasty Boys classic, the pit stop. Hak cuts off a chairshot and nails Knobbs with it. He goes under the ring and gets a ladder. He tosses the ladder into the ring right onto Knobbs! Crap that looked ugly. When Hak gets back in Knobbs waffles him with a trash can! I think that might have been a receipt. They do a messy little bit with the ladder on Knobbs and Hak hits a slingshot legdrop into the ladder. Knobbs' leg gets pulverized by a chairshot with it in the ladder, which of course goes nowhere. Knobbs tosses Hak into the ladder, who does an upside down bump into it. Another can lid shot for Hak. Knobbs swings the ladder into Hak. Hak tights pulls Knobbs into the ladder. Knobbs dodges and Hak sentons off the top rope onto the ladder. Hart sets up on the apron with a chair. Hak tosses Knobbs  into it. Kendo shot to Knobbs' head, and Hak covers to get the pin. Absolutely nothing special. 3/4*

 

After the bell Hugh Morris, another member of Hart's "family" (ripping off the Heenan Family) attacks and he and Knobbs take Hak out with a spike piledriver and Morris moonsault onto the ladder on Hak. 

 

Van Hammer def Mikey Whipwreck in 8:35- Hammer's had yet another reinvention as a no nonsense heel and is getting a small push as a result of it. Heenan gets on Whipwreck for wearing kneepads as boot covers. I have to agree. The larger Hammer tosses Whipwreck around until Whipwrecks gets a couple of armdrags. He tries a hiptoss but Hammer easily muscles him to a backbreaker. Commence more easy tossing around that eventually starts getting some "boring" chants. Hammer's delayed superplex is pretty impressive looking, I'll give him that. An abdominal stretch with the heel rope leverage game kills some time. Whipwreck makes the mistake of trying a backslide and gets squashed in the corner instead. Hammer tosses Whipwreck out, sets the stairs up against the guardrail, then climbs the stairs with Whipwreck to drop him down on the guardrail. Whipwreck tights pulls Hammer into the guardrail, then hits a slingshot legdrop and a plancha. Thesz press off the top rope from Whipwreck for 2. He tries coming off the top again and Hammer catches and spinebusters him. Hammer hits his new finisher, a cobra clutch slam, and it's thankfully over. A very extended squash that belonged on Nitro. 1/4*

 

Buff Bagwell def Disco Inferno in 10:33- Any bets on the combined IQ of the two guys in the ring being lower than the match time? Probably too easy a bet. Both guys play to the crowd before locking up. Early speed run and Disco hits a swinging neckbreaker. Bagwell quickly goes out to think about it. More speed and this time Bagwell hits a swinging neckbreaker. Some more basic back and forth follows with Bagwell hopping to the second rope looking for an early Blockbuster. Disco sees it coming and quickly gets the hell out of town. When Disco gets back in the ring Bagwell tells him he's #1. Bet that gave some Turner exec a heart attack. Disco maneuvers Bagwell into a hot shot and follows up with a clothesline. Inverted atomic drop from Disco. He goes into a some generic stompy chokey heel offense, then goes up to the second rope, dances a while, and hits an elbow for 2. Another go and this time Bagwell dodges. Backdrop and clothesline from Bagwell. He goes up top and Disco crotches him on the top rope. Disco hits the Chartbuster, er, the Last Dance on the floor. They keep changing the name of that. Disco goes for the countout win but Bagwell is back in at 8. Disco's so shocked he doesn't know what to do next. He hooks up Bagwell for a macarena piledriver but Bagwell backdrops out (after the macarena was done of course). Comeback flurry from Bagwell. Powerslam. Disco tries to dodge it, but the Blockbuster hits and it's over. *

 

The No Limit Soldiers def The West Texas Rednecks in 10:44- Nice to see some teams finally getting proper team names. The No Limit Soldiers are the longstanding friendship of Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr, and the West Texas Rednecks are proper Texan Bobby Duncum Jr partnering with Minnesota's own and nowhere near Texan Curt Hennig. This is another one of those "country music vs rap music" feuds, which as usual means I'll be rooting for the ref. The Rednecks' entrance music is Hennig singing his own song "Rap is Crap" from Nitro. Konnan and Mysterio have gas masks on. We're still over two years away from that (understandable) panic. Probably some rap reference I don't get and don't care to. There's some rap dude ringside that, again, didn't care then and don't care now. Mysterio is still the Cruiserweight champion by the way, second straight PPV he's not defending that. Hennig runs the rap guy's hit song down on the mic so the Soldiers attack him from behind. A couple of double teams with Hennig trying to get one of his classic over the top bumps in clears the ring out. Rap dude apparently hits Hennig from behind while Konnan has him distracted. Toss him out, fans shouldn't be touching wrestlers. Reset with Duncum and Konnan. Konnan rolls through some slow motion counters, then Mysterio comes in with a flying headscissors for Duncum and he shotgun dropkicks Hennig off the apron. Plancha onto Hennig! He tries a springboard crossbody back in but Duncum catches him and gives him a backbreaker. I swear Duncum is wearing Barry Windham's old gear. I think even 1999 Windham would likely be superior to Duncum. The heels drastically slow the match down while keeping Mysterio in peril. Hennig bumps himself while corner whipping Mysterio. Classic Mr. Perfect era stuff. Then dumbass Duncum actually lets Mysterio tag out. What a Duncum. Fortunately Hennig had the ref tied up so he doesn't allow the tag. Hennig can still do the standing dropkick. Honestly he does look better than he did a year or two ago. They keep working Konnan and the ref to keep Mysterio in peril. Konnan tries to make a save when Mysterio had already countered Hennig into his own cradle pin attempt. What a Duncum. Hennig puts the straps down, gives us a hip swivel and points upstairs. Nice shoutout to his buddy Rick Rude, who had passed away less than two months prior. Finally Mysterio crawls under both heels and tags. But the ref didn't see it AGAIN. Getting a bit ridiculous now. Big delayed suplex from Hennig. Mysterio tries a springboard moonsault. Hennig catches him, but Mysterio uses it for a comeback flurry and tags Konnan finally for real this time. DONNYBROOK! Mysterio gives Hennig the shitty bronco buster. Hey, here comes the real Barry Windham. One of the rap guy's 47 bodyguards (why do they always need so many?) hops the rail and nails Duncum. Springboard legdrop from Mysterio on Duncum and he gets the pin. After the bell all of the rap guy's entourage try to get involved and security forces them to the back. The heel trio then beats the faces down to get their heat back. OK formula tag stuff. In better circumstances Hennig could probably carry Duncum to being a decent tag pairing. **1/4

 

Ernest "The Cat" Miller (w/Sonny Oono) def Scott Norton Horace Hogan in 5:10- One word: Why? Let's get this over with. This was supposed to be Miller against Scott Norton, but Norton didn't make the town for unexplained reasons so Hogan is substituting himself in. In fact Norton would spend the summer back with New Japan, but whether WCW knew that in advance or not who knows. Hogan charges in and they slug it out with some of the worst punches I've ever seen. Clothesline from Hogan. Hiptoss out of the corner. He tosses Miller out to the floor, chops him, and tosses him back in the ring. Huge point to that. Back in Miller gets a superkick to put Hogan down. Slam from Miller and he builds up to....a choke. The blind leading the blind here. Hogan gets tossed out and Oono gets some kicks in that only annoy Hogan. Miller jumps from behind and knocks Hogan around ringside. Hogan gets a slam in the ring and follows up with an elbow drop for 2. Straight low blow from Miller. Heenan: "All of Cat's matches are brutal". Shoot comments for the win! Hogan gets a big boot and hits a big splash for 2. Oono gets on the apron. Miller tries to jump but Hogan backdrops him over the top to the floor. Oono goes into his briefcase, gets a dress shoe, and Miller puts it on. Superkick with the obviously loaded shoe and Miller gets the pin. Who uses a shoe, honestly? DUD

 

For the Presidency of WCW (again): "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Arn Anderson and Asya) def "Rowdy" Roddy Piper by DQ in 8:16- Please Lord let this be better than their Slamboree match. I still can't believe I had to give a match that a guy that is both my all time favorite and in my opinion the greatest there's ever been was in a MINUS FIVE STARS rating, but....it was that bad. The horrible booking shenanigans with Bischoff coming out and just declaring the winner was what really pushed it over the edge to MFS, but the match itself was still really damn bad. Last match Flair wore blue trunks and kneepads with black boots to match Piper, this time the pads and boots are the same but with red trunks. Piper spits at Flair and they exchange chops in the corner with Flair obviously calling spots. Backdrop from Piper and Flair begs off. Corner jabs from Piper and he goes punching bag nuts on Flair's head. Flair Flop! More chops from Piper and the ol' two finger eye poke that Flair sells the hell out of. Piper backslide for 2. Flair gets in a shoving match with ref Randy Anderson and Piper jabs him down again. Flair rolls out to think about things. Reset lockup back in. Piper gets a shoulderblock and pounds Flair down on the mat. Flair begs off again. Spaceballs salute in response from Piper and more jabs. Another beg off. Flair hides in the corner to get a sneaky style low blow in. He tosses Piper out to let Arn pound away on him. Asya then rakes Piper's eyes. Straight Greco Roman Nut Punt from Flair. Arn supposedly had the ref distracted but it's not like WCW refs cared about that for months anyway. Piper grabs Flair's tights to moon the audience again, Flair's been doing that a lot lately like mid '90s Shawn Michaels, and rolls him up for 2. Flair slam off the top rope. Clotheslines from Piper. Flair tosses him out again, but this time Piper decks Arn. Piper just manages to get over a sunset flip for 2. Sleeper! Flair manages to push free. Arn distracts Piper and Flair gets the knucks on. He decks Piper with them. Very slow cover and Piper kicks out. Figure four! With Arn leverage help. Buff Bagwell, who's been buddying up to Piper lately, runs in and takes Arn out! He attacks Piper, but right in the ref's view and gets Piper DQ'd! What a Duncum. Pissed Piper attacks Bagwell for costing him the match! Arn gives Bagwell the World's Greatest Spinebuster, then Flair and Arn hold Bagwell down for Piper to belt whip him! Everyone unites in hatred of Buff. Seems right to me. Piper gets some final belt shots in on Buff after everyone else leaves. The match was marginally better than their last one. Marginally. 1/4*

 

Falls Count Anywhere: WCW World Television Champion Rick Steiner def Sting in 10:35- Rick Steiner getting his biggest singles push in a decade was not something I would have had on my bingo card in 1999. I guess he can thank Scott. This is a non-title match I presume because that's what WCW usually did with champions in gimmick matches. Quick start from Sting. After some floor shots Rick pounds Sting down in the ring. Sting hits a pair of inverted atomic drops and a dropkick. Back and forth brawl on the floor with Rick hitting a weak chairshot. Both guys use drinks from fans as weapons. Rick dodges a Stinger Splash on the floor and Sting crashes into the guardrail. Rick pulls up the floor mat and piledrives Sting on the concrete, then covers for 2. You're seriously going to pull out a piledriver on concrete as a transitional move? Greco Roman Nut Stomp from Rick back in the ring. Release German suplex for 2. Rick works some extremely dull offense in the ring until, in an obvious setup, Sting flips around to crotch him. Sting hits a pair of Vader bombs, then goes up top and hits a big splash for 2. Another low blow from Rick. We're going to need a lot of ice packs in the back tonight. He hooks Sting up in a butterfly type hold. This is Falls Count Anywhere, by the way. You'd be forgiven for forgetting that. Sting powers out and gets Rick down again. Stinger Splash! A second. Scorpion Death Lock! Rick gets a fairly easy rope break. Sting tosses him out and they go up the aisle to the stage area. Sting suplexes Rick on the ramp. They go over to the internet position and Chris Jericho makes his actual final blink and you'll miss it WCW PPV appearance because he's on radio/internet commentary tonight. The wrestlers go through the curtain to the back, to the boos of the crowd because they can't see. When they go through the curtain Tank Abbott (a UFC guy WCW had brought in, think "I want Ken Shamrock/We have Ken Shamrock at home" and it's Tank Abbott) attacks Sting. Scott Steiner is also there. A dog runs up and jumps on Sting. He gnawing away on a towel or something Sting just wrapped around his hand to protect himself, not that he needed much protection. It's like a young dog gnawing on something for teething, which is probably exactly what it is. Another dog playfully tugs on Sting's tights. Scott has another dog. Security runs in. And....end scene. What? That's it? Tony says they have to cut away because it's "so violent". Suuuuuuure. There were so many cuts and edits after they went backstage I think Kevin Dunn infiltrated the WCW production truck. Now the Steiners are dragging the ref back to the ring. Scott takes a mic and says it's Falls Count Anywhere and the ref rings the bell. Scott claims Rick pinned Sting but they can't show the footage because it's too disturbing while the crowd chants "Bullshit". Terrible "finish", and neither guy tried during the rest of the match because they knew the shit was coming. The saddest thing is, this isn't the worst wrestling thing involving dogs that would happen this year. WWF's Kennel from Hell match was three months after this. DUD

 

One of the perfect encapsulations of end of life WCW in one image.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Jersey Triad (w/Bam Bam Bigelow) def Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn (c) in 19:13- The Jersey Triad are the union of Bigelow, DDP and Kanyon because all three guys are from New Jersey. Not something I'd advertise but whatever. Dean Malenko was out with an injury and with Flair being the heel WCW President making the Horsemen no more (again) Saturn stepped in to fill the void. Benoit and Kanyon start with some basics. Benoit hits a dropkick and Kanyon bails back to his corner. Benoit shrugs off some Kanyon shots and hits chops. Early everyone runs in and the faces clear the ring. Reset with both sides tagging. They do some decent back and forth stuff. Saturn hits a slam and springboard legdrop and everyone runs in again. The heels regroup again on the floor. Saturn and Benoit take a shot at Benoit, then give the Jersey boys stereo belly to belly suplexes. Saturn Cactus clotheslines Kanyon! Bigelow trips Benoit and DDP 360 clotheslines him to the floor. The heels work the ref so all three can lay in punishment. Avalanche legdrop from Kanyon for 2. Commentary goes back to talking about the dog "attack" on Sting while Benoit is in peril. Benoit has a comeback flurry and hits DDP with a bridged Saito suplex for 2. He goes for a German, but DDP hooks the ropes and low blows him. Ice packs. So many ice packs. Sit out powerbomb from DDP. Kanyon tags in, goes up top, but Benoit dodges the moonsault. Tag to Saturn. Hot tag run. Kanyon gets t-bone suplexed. Big splash off the top on DDP for 2. While Saturn's giving DDP mounted punches Kanyon lifts Saturn in an electric chair and drops him down. DDP covers for 2 and now Saturn is in peril. Kanyon mocking tagging Saturn when Saturn was reaching out in the wrong corner is pretty funny. Saturn tries a sunset flip on Kanyon, but Kanyon tags DDP and holds Saturn down for a DDP elbow off the top for 2. Kanyon swinging neckbreaker for a long 2 that I think was really 3, Saturn was late on that kickout. Saturn fights out of the heel corner but DDP drop toe holds him to cut the tag off. They very obviously set up for the phantom tag spot, and there it is. Even commentary wasn't surprised by that. Saturn dodges in the corner and DDP flings himself up on the top turnbuckle gut first. Tag to Benoit! Both Jersey guys get knocked around and DDP falls into Kanyon's crotch. Benoit runs Kanyon into Bigelow. ROLLLLLLLLLLLING GERMANS! The third is with a bridge but DDP breaks the pin up. Dragon suplex from Benoit on Kanyon! Saturn has DDP held back, but Kanyon still JUST kicks out! By far the best near fall tonight. Benoit goes up top and hits the headbutt on Kanyon. Saturn tries coming off the top, RIGHT INTO A DIAMOND CUTTER! That was great. Malenko makes his way out. Benoit gets the crossface on DDP! Bigelow breaks the crossface up, DDP hits a Bigelow assisted Cutter on Benoit, and Kanyon drapes an arm over for the pin and the titles! Malenko then takes the double team Cutter after the bell. Finally a good match on this show. Most of it was solid formula tag stuff, but better than the earlier tag match, while the stretch run was well done. One of the few times in WCW I've seen a tag match with an elaborate finish like that come off right with no major screw ups. ***1/4

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Kevin Nash (c) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Team Madness) by DQ in 7:29- During the course of this feud Nash or his allies have dumped raw sewage on Savage, Savage has put lipstick all over Nash's face multiple times, there's been a fake mocking double of Nash, and some attempted vehicular homicide that also included an attempt to recreate WWF's "WHERE TO, STEPHANIE?" moment. They've really checked a lot of '90s wrestling tropes off. Someone really needs to find a "Give us the short version" switch on Buffer. Nash is also coming in with hurt ribs from an earlier attack. Nash gives Savage's ladies a crotch chop and goes to work on Savage. Right to the corner knees and elbows. Corner clothesline, but he hurt his own ribs doing that. Side suplex and that hurts the ribs even more. Savage gets up and starts attacking the bad ribs. With an eye rake thrown in for good measure. He 360 clotheslines Nash to the floor. Medusa comes up and gives Nash a kick in the ribs. I do appreciate she dressed for the show with her US flag gear, heel or no. Savage stays in control with less ribs focus and more generic heel punchy chokey stuff. Nash comes back by giving Savage, what else, a low blow. The women all get on the apron. Missile dropkick from Miss Madness! That was actually really good. Savage elbow off the top! Nash kicks out! He starts to slug back. Snake eyes on Savage. Big boot. The straps are down. Jackknife! Medusa comes in and kicks Nash's ribs again, then Gorgeous George hops on Nash's back and gets tossed off. Miss Madness goes up top again. This time Nash is ready and catches her. Snake eyes on Miss Madness! Another good bump from her. Someone comes in and big boots Nash! IT'S SID VICIOUS! SID IS BACK! Since leaving WWF almost exactly two years prior, Sid had been working part time on the indies and had just had a short stint in ECW. He hadn't been seen in WCW since the infamous Arn Anderson scissors stabbing incident in late '93. Now the ref calls for the bell. The women interfering was OK, but Sid was too much. Sid powerbomb on Nash. He helps Savage up and leaves with Team Madness as the show closes. Another trash Bischoff era WCW main event, but Sid's return was a good and genuinely unexpected surprise. 1/2*

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A true contender to rival GAB '91 as the worst GAB ever. WCW was able to recover from that one, for a time, thanks to a change at the top. No such help is coming this time.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D- 

Great American Bash '98

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '98

June 14, 1998 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

The NWO Civil War continues.

WCW World Television Championship #1 Contender's Best of 7 Series Match 7 (3-3): Booker T def Chris Benoit in 16:20- This has been something you otherwise never saw in this era of WCW, a feud based purely on awesome wrestling and a battle for respect. I called Savage/DDP WCW's last great feud, but this is also very much a contender. Technically this is the 8th match in the series. The first game 7 was thrown out thanks to Bret Hart trying to help Benoit win and Benoit refusing to take it that way, then Booker also refusing the win by DQ. Bret and Benoit would be an awesome and logical pairing, but of course this is WCW so Bret was just trying to recruit Benoit into NWO Hollywood. The winner of this match will get his TV title shot against Fit Finlay later tonight. Lockup and quick Benoit armdrag. Booker hiptosses Benoit out of the next lockup. Speed run and Benoit gets a drop toe hold. After a Booker powder to think both guys exchange hammerlocks as the very good groundwork laying continues. Booker cradles Benoit in a hammerlock for the first near fall. While in a Benoit hammerlock Booker back elbows out, cranking things up a notch. Another back elbow for 2. Forearms in the corner. Benoit grabs a Booker kick and gives him a dragon screw! Booker is supposedly coming into this match with a bad knee from the previous matches but they don't do much of anything with it. Doesn't stop Heenan from constantly talking about it though. Huge 11 on a scale of 10 Benoit chops. Back suplex for 2. They turn on the jets again and Benoit slams on the brakes after ducking a leapfrog to hit another chop for 2. Snap suplex. Benoit goes for another back suplex. Booker twists in midair into a cover for just 1. Benoit grounds Booker with a chinlock, something he'll do off and on a good portion of the match. Booker gets suplex dropped on the top rope and Benoit hits a clothesline for 2. He stretches Booker's arms out in a surfboard style hold. Booker manages to reverse it. Powerslam! He goes up top but Benoit dodges a reverse crossbody and Booker splats on the mat. He goes for the crossface! Booker feels it and falls into the ropes. Kick counters and Booker hits an enzuguri. Spinebuster. Flapjack. Spinaroonie! He goes up top again. Benoit crotches him and hits a superplex. Both guys are down. Slow Benoit cover for a long 2. ROOOOOOOOOOOOLING GERMANS! Booker counters after two. Standing switch. Benoit ducks a clothesline and hits a dragon suplex! Booker *just* kicks out! Booker does a fancy floatover dodge in the corner. Benoit says "that's nice" and chops him again when he lands. Setup slam. Headbutt off the top! Again Benoit can't cover right away and when he does Booker kicks out. Booker small package for 2. Bret bump from Benoit. Harlem sick kick to the back of his head! Another to the front! Booker's up top again. Missile dropkick! That was Booker's finisher at this time, and that gets the pin! Another phenomenal match between these two, and this one was refreshingly old school in style. Booker's singles breakout has been one of the highlights of the year so far. ****

 

Kanyon def Saturn in 14:46- Kanyon, the former Mortis, unmasked at Slamboree and declared war on the Flock. Saturn is supposedly not officially in the Flock, just a friend of Raven, but it seems like pointless semantics to me. Kanyon comes out in his old Mortis gear....no, it's a RUSE! Fake Mortis from one direction, Kanyon sneaks in and attacks from the other. Tony keeps calling him a "master of disguise" but this is Black Scorpion level stuff. The Master (Doctor Who), a true master of disguise, thinks this is amateur hour. Swinging neckbreaker and electric chair slam from Kanyon. Lodi and Kidman both run in and get taken out, and Saturn goes over the top rope and out. Saturn trips Kanyon coming back in and gives him a slingshot splash. Corner kick combo. Corner dodge and Saturn posts his shoulder. Kanyon faceplants him for 2. The Flock distracts the ref and beat Kanyon down on the floor. Saturn dives onto all of them! He made it clear he didn't want any help. Guardrail shot for Kanyon. Saturn climbs to the second rope for some extra welly on an apron suplex for 2. Drop toe hold into an ankle lock. Kanyon gets a rope break. Saturn keeps him grounded and hooks on an almost cattle mutilation. Another rope break. Kanyon gets planted on the top rope in the middle of the ring, then Saturn springboard clotheslines him to the floor. Saturn gets a chair, but as usual not to hit with, but to jump off of. Chair springboard dropkick in the corner. Chair to rope double springboard moonsault! That gets 2. Kanyon hits a counter Russian leg sweep. He catches a slingshotting Saturn into a northern lights suplex for 2. Swinging neckbreaker from Saturn. Kanyon hits a back suplex. Hot shot. Small package for 2. Saturn gets a backslide for 2. Kanyon jackknife cover for 2. He hits a back elbow that Saturn somehow does a 180 sell of. Kanyon puts Saturn up in a fireman's carry and hits an almost F5! That gets 2. Downward spiral gets blocked into a Saturn exploder suplex for 2. He puts Kanyon up for the DVD. Kanyon escapes but takes a Saturn superkick. Top rope fight. Both guys get crotched and fall to the floor! The guy in Mortis gear comes in again. Wait, there's a second one! The Mortises (Morti?) are fighting each other! They fall out of the ring still going at it. Kanyon hits Saturn with a reverse Russian leg sweep and that gets the pin. Neither of these guys are generally considered good, but every once in a while they could surprise you. They were both willing to do crazy ass spots and moves that were innovative for the time, that's for sure. The match seemed to lose rather than gain momentum during the stretch run. **3/4

After the bell one of the Mortiseseses celebrates with Kanyon....then plants him with a DDT on the floor! Mask off and it's Raven. Raven takes a mic and gives Saturn the "you had one job" speech. Saturn has enough and attacks Raven! The whole Flock beat Saturn down! Saturn fights them all off because none of them have any credibility, they're all just bodies to be tossed around. I guess Saturn really is not in the Flock now.

Next we get a recap of Dean Malenko voluntarily vacating the Cruiserweight title in order to get another match with Jericho because Malenko is that confident he can win it back. After Malenko's shock return at Slamboree Jericho's gone full conspiracy nut. Just before this show he had another one of the legendary bits from his WCW run, the video of him going all over Washington complaining about conspiracies and being screwed. Sadly way too many people holding office in DC sound like him now. He's also continued to verbally abuse Malenko's family.

 

Vacant WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho def Dean Malenko by DQ in 13:52- Big "Jericho sucks" chant after the bell. Both guys try a quick jump with Jericho getting the early edge. Malenko flips over and plants Jericho with a German suplex. A Jericho buckle shot produces a really loud "THUNK" sound. Are those turnbuckles secured properly? Crazed corner beatdown from Malenko. Jericho gets a boot up in the opposite corner and hits some shots. Shoulderblock and Jericho plays to the crowd a bit. Slide under, double leg takedown and Jericho goes for the Liontamer. Malenko counters before it's on. Suplex from Malenko for 2. Reverse chinlock into a surfboard stretch. Nice reverse kick escape from Jericho. Corner whip and Jericho flips upside down in the corner, lands on the top rope, and then after a delay his head falls down onto the ring post. Jericho just keeping himself amused there. He falls back down into the tree of woe. Malenko charges but Jericho dodges the slide and Malenko goes to the floor. Jericho with a plancha! He's bleeding a bit, presumably from hitting the post, but commentary doesn't mention it and the camera stays in wide shot for a long while because Turner's paranoid about blood. Delayed suplex and arrogant cover. Sleeper! Malenko escapes and hooks on his own sleeper. Jericho back suplexes out. Some more cocky crowd playing follows. Malenko dodges the Lionsault! Leg lariat from Malenko. Cradle for 2. Faceplant off the second rope for 2. After some corner dodges Malenko sets up for the super gutbuster. Jericho fights out. Hurricanrana! Both guys are down. Jericho pops up at 9 to cover for 2. Malenko fights out of a powerbomb attempt and lands on Jericho. Jericho rolls over and has the Liontamer on! Malenko fights to the ropes. Jericho goes up and hits an Alabama slam into Liontamer position. After a series of roll counters Malenko goes for the cloverleaf! Now Jericho quickly scrambles to get to the ropes. The crowd bit hard on that one. More counters into a Jericho double underhook backbreaker. He slaps Malenko in the corner and says "You're nothing, just like your dead father!". Malenko snaps! They go to the floor. Malenko knocks Penzer down! He takes Penzer's chair and nails Jericho with it! The ref has no choice but to call the DQ. Malenko doesn't hear it and keeps laying into Jericho. They head up the aisle, right past the alter, down the ramp and out the door. While fighting backstage Malenko keeps a table from falling onto Jericho. Nice guy. They go all the way past the production truck outside. Malenko finally gets held back by officials. Jericho literally runs across the street and keeps on running. Commentary isn't sure what the title situation is with the DQ. They assume Jericho won it but tune in tomorrow night on Nitro to find out for sure. Jericho did indeed get the title back. Another rock solid but not quite great match between these two. ***1/2

 

Juventud Guerrera def Reese (w/Lodi) in 8:45- Reese has been in the Flock for a while but this is his first PPV match. His sole claim to a spot is the fact he's 7'2" (and you can't teach that). The top of Juvy's head barely reaches his chest, which is honestly a great visual. Juvy says a little prayer in the corner just after the bell. Probably a good idea. He tries some dodge and stick but Reese tosses him around. Juvy rolls out for a rethink. He gets Reese to chase him and hits a rope assisted swing kick. Springboard crossbody. Reese catches him in midair and posts his back, then presses Juvy back in the ring. While Reese is getting back in Juvy kicks his leg against the ropes. Reese pushes him away. More Juvy hammy kicks. He goes up top and leaps on Reese's back, hooking on a straight choke. Almost exactly the same technique Westley used to take down Fezzik in The Princess Bride. Juvy studied the classics. Reese goes down to one knee, but then recovers and backs Juvy into the corner. Backbreaker with a stretch from Reese. Huge hiptoss. Reese hooks on the inevitable bear hug, but fortunately not for long. Juvy tries to slide under but Reese grabs him. Juvy with a low blow kick! Another one! Juvy hits the ropes. Reese goes to his knees and literally puts his fist up so Juvy can run into it. Blackadder did the same thing to Baldrick one time. Suplex from Reese. Instead of a pin he wants a KO count. Juvy uses Lil' Naitch to pull himself back up at 9. Reese goes out and get a chair. Lil' Naitch grabs it away from him! Former Flock member Hammer is out. He takes the chair and hits Reese with it! Juvy gives Reese the second worst hurricanrana ever (Nia Jax at Bad Blood '24 will always be the worst now) and gets the pin! That could have been a hell of a lot worse. *

 

Chavo Guerrero Jr def Eddie Guerrero in 14:46- This is the culmination of months of Eddie trying to control his nephew Chavo's life and career. Chavo finally snapped recently on weekly TV. Eddie was actually willing to let him walk because he didn't want to fight family, but Chavo insisted on this match to prove a point and because he now has a screw loose. Kinda like the face/heel inversion there. After the bell Eddie still doesn't want to fight. Chavo slaps him! Eddie shoves. Nose to nose jawing. Eddie hits a chop and it's on. Chavo responds with his own chops. Big backdrop. Full on roll around brawl. The ref forces a break in the corner. Both guys exchange hot shots into the corner. Eddie's arm scraped against the turnbuckle on his and gave him a nasty red welt there. Eddie tries to hide but Chavo is all over him. Buckle shots all the way down. Flying headscissors. Eddie grabs the ropes after a whip, bails and walks. Chavo quickly chases and throws him back in. As Chavo's getting back in Eddie kicks the rope to crotch him. Back suplex. Eddie works on Chavo's arm a bit. Chavo flips an armdrag to escape, then hits a monkey flip. He goes up top, sees Eddie up, flips over and lands on his feet, goes up the other side, and hits a moonsault for 2. Eddie ducks and Chavo flies over the top to the floor. Brain buster from Eddie. But no cover. Instead he slaps Chavo. Bad move. Chavo goozle! He chokes Eddie down and has to be physically pulled off by the ref. Eddie runs and we get a full on chase around the ring. Eddie then tries to hide behind the ref. When Chavo gives him an opening Eddie clips his knee! Basement dropkick to the knee. Figure four! Chavo won't quit so Eddie lets it go. Gory special! Chavo armdrags out. Eddie dodges and hits a dropkick. Camel clutch. After messing with the crowd a bit Eddie puts on a Canadian backbreaker, then helicopter spins Chavo around and drops him. Chavo backdrops Eddie to the floor! Tope con hilo! As they get back in a loud "We want Flair" chant starts. Sounds just like the Baltimore Arena 7 years before for Great American Bash '91. This was in the period when Flair and Bischoff really didn't get along, less than usual, and Flair had been suspended. Chavo hits a bulldog for 2. He goes up top. Eddie hits the ropes to crotch him. Chavo dodges the frog splash! They lay close to each other and have what looks like a quick discussion. Chavo goes for the tornado DDT, but does an extra midair twist and snaps Eddie over the top rope instead. Springboard DDT! That gets the pin! I think Eddie might have hurt something on that missed frog splash and they had to call a quick finish. Still a good match, though not the blowaway amazing match you'd hope for from these two. ***1/4

 

WCW World Television Championship: Booker T def Fit Finlay (c) in 13:13- Booker comes out sans gloves for his second match tonight. After the bell they circle a bit and Booker gets the first shots in. Wild clothesline that Finlay barely sells. Hook kick. Finlay does a leg takedown into a partial STF. Rope break reset with both guys very cautious. Booker gets a huge head of steam and hits a flying forearm. Chops. He 360 clotheslines Finlay to the floor. Booker plancha! Finlay counters a scissors kick attempt with another leg takedown into a half crab. He starts working through leg holds, using the ZSJ rule of never holding anything longer than 6 seconds before switching it up. After Booker escapes Finlay lays some kicks on the knee and gives it an apron shot. Booker does a floatover with a spiffy little spin in the corner into cradle for 2. Finlay is quickly back on the knee and puts on a stretch muffler/El Deperado's Numero Dos. Booker slowly rolls over and lays in some ground and pound. Finlay hits a kneebreaker and tosses Booker out. He grabs a chair, and when the ref comes out to stops him puts it down in a hilariously disappointed way, like he's a kid that just got told by his dad not to do it. Instead he posts Booker's knee. Back in Finlay hits a setup slam and Vader bomb. Booker ducks a clothesline and hits the side kick. Powerslam. Scissors kick. Spinaroonie! Finlay responds with a clothesline that Booker does a 360 sell of. Finlay hooks up for the tombstone. Booker tries to reverse it but can't hold Finlay up and drops him. He goes for it again and falls down himself. Finlay covers by covering Booker for 2. That was all kinds of ugly. Booker dodges in the corner. He hooks Finlay up and plants him with a REVERSE piledriver! That gets the pin and the title back! Stevie Ray comes out to celebrate with his brother. It's not mentioned on TV, but with the then unofficial now official house show title swaps with Benoit this is Booker's 5th TV title win, tying him with Paul Jones for the most all time. A record Booker will later break. The match was pretty sloppy. They definitely had communication and chemistry issues and the finish really got messed up. They also had to deal with the crowd getting distracted multiple times which didn't help any. **

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Goldberg (c) def Konnan (w/Rick Rude and Curt Hennig) in 1:57- We now come to the NWO portion of the night. Konnan, Hennig and Rude are all in NWO Wolfpac. Goldberg is coming into this match 99-0. What an amazingly incredible coincidence he can get win number 100 on a PPV. Goldberg is THE guy this crowd came to see. They're nuts for him and those chants are not piped in. Lockup, Goldberg shove and Konnan quickly bails to the floor. Back in Goldberg cranks a headlock. Konnan counters into a hammerlock but Goldberg quickly counters the counter with a leg takedown. Konnan gets a few wild shots in. Spear! The jackhammer hits and Goldberg squash done we're up to 100-0. Given it was both win #100 and he was up against Konnad I have zero issues with this. It would also turn out to be very smart to keep Goldberg looking so dominant. Keep reading after the show wrapup for some bonus coverage regarding that. NR

After the bell Hennig and Rude jump Konnan! Hennig takes his shirt off and he has an NWO Hollywood shirt on under! Nash and Luger run out to make the save. Welcome to the NWO civil war, where the #1 swerve we have is guys switching sides between the two factions.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan and Bret "Hitman" Hart (w/The Disciple) def "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 11:40- This won't be a shock to anyone, but notorious hotheads Piper and Savage not only can't get along, they have a match against each other scheduled right after this one where they're teaming together. Bret's fully joined NWO Hollywood now, which is not a great fit. Disciple gets to hold the world title belt ringside. The only time Brutus Beefcake ever touched a belt is when Hogan gave one to him. Lots of stalling and arguing at the start from both sides. Finally they settle on Piper and Hogan. More Hogan stalling. Piper has enough and jumps him. Hogan gets caught in the wrong corner with Piper and Savage actually working as a team, quick tagging him to keep him isolated. Piper hits the ropes and Disciple whacks him in the back with the belt. Bret tags in and pounds away on Piper. Remember their tremendous Wrestlemania 8 match? Seems like two lifetimes ago, but it's only been 6 years. Piper tries to hulk up off Hogan shots, including the dreaded back rake, but gets caught in the heel corner. They keep maneuvering Piper around to work the ref and keep madman Savage running in every two seconds. It's too easy. Piper gets Bret with a slo-mo small package for 2. Bret reverses it. Savage tags Piper's back but Nick Patrick doesn't see it. Front facelock fight and ANOTHER phantom tag spot. Savage gets a chair. Bret goes for the headbutt to the gut on Piper. Savage puts the chair on Piper's stomach and Bret headbutts that! OK, that was good. Tags on both sides. Savage goes semi-nuts. Hogan accidentally clotheslines Bret. Half speed donnybrook time. Savage goes up top to hit Bret with the elbow. Hogan whips Piper into the ropes, knocking Savage down and tweaking his permanently hurt knee again. Hogan posts the knee. Bret hooks the Sharpshooter on Savage and it's over. 3/4*

Mean Gene gets in the ring to ask Piper if he's really going to go through with the next match seeing how badly Savage is hurt. Piper blows Okerlund off, but then helps Savage up to his feet. Savage clotheslines him! The bell rings to start the next match.

 

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper def "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 1:37- Savage chokes away. The elbow off the top hits! But Savage hurt his knee again on the landing. Slow cover and Piper kicks out. Savage decides to deck Lil' Natch, like Naitch hurt his knee or something. Piper low blows Savage and kicks his leg out. Figure four. The backup ref runs in and Savage submits for the second straight match. DUD

 

Singles Match for Control of the WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting def The Giant in 6:40- Giant joined NWO Hollywood soon after the NWO split. At Slamboree he teamed with Sting to defeat The Outsiders for the tag titles, with the help of Scott Hall switching sides from the Wolfpac to Hollywood. Sting was still lone wolf Sting at the time, but since then he's done the previously unfathomable and joined an NWO faction, the Wolfpac, and is now wearing red and black face paint. The winner of this match will win control of the tag titles for his NWO faction, and will be allowed to choose his partner. Giant has already said it'll be the Disciple, likely on Hogan's orders. It's generally expected that Sting will choose best bud Lex Luger, who followed Sting into the Wolfpac. Oh yeah, this is also the time that Giant tried to really heel it up by smoking. Yes, smoking. Cigarettes. In the ring. He lights one up during his entrance and smokes it during both his and Sting's entrances. After the bell Giant takes a huge puff and blows the smoke in Sting's face. Sting smacks him upside the head. Giant charges but Sting dodges and Giant gets caught on the ropes. Stinger Splash! He goes again but flies right into Giant's boot. Sting gets a huge head of steam off the ropes and tries a crossbody but literally bounces off Giant's chest. Press slam from Giant and he tosses Sting into the corner, an almost super snake eyes. Bear hug. We do the full arm drops before Sting bell rings and bites to get out. He dropkicks Giant's knee. Stinger Splash to Giant's back. A second one to the front. Sting slams Giant! Scorpion Death Lock! Giant powers out. Scorpion Death Drop! Giant kicks out! Goozle. Sting....counters the chokeslam? Or Giant's knee gave out. One or the other. Another Scorpion Death Drop and another kickout. Sting goes up top, hooks Giant up, makes him think about it for a second, and hits an avalanche Scorpion Death Drop. That gets the pin! Commentary says Sting will pick his partner on Nitro tomorrow night. Instead of the expected Luger pick, Sting would choose Wolfpac leader Kevin Nash instead. They worked in a couple of cool moments, but it was still a low level Nitro main event match. *1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Stop me if you've heard this one before: the undercard is full of pretty consistent good to great quality, then once the NWO stuff kicks in at the top of the card it all goes downhill.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

 

Bonus Match Review

Monday Night Nitro (July 6, 1998 from the Georgia Dome)

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: WCW United States Champion Goldberg def Hollywood Hogan (c) in 8:11- This is easily the biggest match WCW could possibly put on at this point in time. Either Goldberg defeats perennial champion Hogan to cap off his ascent to the top, or Hogan ends the undefeated streak. Naturally WCW put this, a guaranteed PPV seller, on Nitro to try to pop a one week rating and get back on top of WWF for at least one week. Not only that, they didn't announce or even set up the match until the Thunder the week before. Goldberg himself only found out about it by watching Thunder. Earlier in the night Goldberg had to clear one last Hogan demanded hurdle by defeating Scott Hall. Goldberg gets the full security walk entrance. The crowd is crazy bonkers for Goldberg. Circle and lockup into a Goldberg headlock. He hits a shoulderblock and Hogan quickly backs off. Hogan works a font facelock and Goldberg backs him into the corner. Knucklelock test of strength that Goldberg wins. Hogan takes a rope break, then goes into some eye pokey back rakey offense before taking his weightlifting belt off and whipping Goldberg with it. Goldberg takes the belt away! He doesn't even think about using it, just tosses it out of the ring. Hogan works in his Japan wrestling playbook workaround into a hammerlock. Golberg reverses it into a full nelson. Hogan low blows him. Clothesline. Slam. Goldberg dodges elbow drops and pops up with a clothesline. Hogan goes to the floor and retrieves his weightlifting belt. Back in Hogan hits some corner knees and tosses Goldberg out. He gets a chair and gives Goldberg a couple of chairshots. Another slam back in. Legdrop! A second one! Curt Hennig, now in NWO Hollywood, makes his way out. He's followed by DDP and Karl Malone. Hogan and Dennis Rodman vs DDP and Karl Malone has already been booked for Bash at the Beach. Off camera Goldberg kicked out of the double legdrop. Way to step all over what should have been a seminal moment. Malone Diamond Cutters Hennig! Hogan gets distracted by the goings on outside. He turns around into a spear! The crowd starts throwing trash in the ring, but this time like it's a party instead of in protest. There's even something that looks like streamers, or toilet paper, being tossed in the crowd. Jackhammer! Good night Hogan the Goldberg era is here. HUGE pop for the win. Heenan also celebrates like crazy from the booth. I always liked how Heenan was consistent in his hatred for Hogan no matter which side of the face/heel fence Hogan was on. That match went as well as it possibly could have. It was extremely well laid out. Reminded me a bit of the Hogan/Ultimate Warrior Wrestlemania 6 match in that regard. The nuclear hot crowd also helped tremendously. I still would have built this up WAY more and put it on PPV though. **1/2