Evolution Schematic 07.25.06: The Great American Bash (Part 3)

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 07.25.2006

Ok, so I'm now out of kilter. ALL HAIL...nah, that won't cut it.

Writer's Notes

Being out of sync with the current state of wrestling in regards to this column doesn't matter, at least in the long run. Why?

Because Kennedy beat Batista in his now annual "Get DQed for excessive fun with weapons" tradition. Plus I won the TNA PPV game on Stablewars.

In both cases, it comes down to a simple factoid.

MATHEW CALLED IT!

*confetti and balloons fall*

Yeah! We filled these with raw power you know.

And speaking of American Diplomacy, let's get back to The Great American Bash. This link takes you to parts 1 and 2, sorta. We rejoin the show in 1992, although we begin not with the PPV, but a week before.

Phase 8: 1992- Wait, what?

A week before the 1992 Great American Bash that everyone knows and lov…lik…respe…knows, there was another GAB show, like how they used to tour the area on the GAB tour. Despite not being well known, the card did see some important things go down. At the time, the Dangerous Alliance was slowly running out of steam, and it showed.

It began with Bobby Eaton, along with his manager, Paul E. (Heyman) Dangerously, defeating turncoat to the Alliance Larry Zbyszko. Then the fans saw an unusual match, Jushin ‘Thunder' Liger battling to a draw Johnny B. Badd.

That sentence still looks wrong.

Dustin Rhodes then beat Greg Valentine, and Ron Simmons dismantled Super Invader, much to Harley Race's chagrin. But then the Dangerous Alliance resurfaced, although it didn't go well, as Barry Windham beat "Stunning" Steve Austin despite copious interference from Medusa.

But then, in a very significant moment, The Miracle Violence Connection,
Terry Gordy and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, dismantled and destroyed the WCW World Tag Team Champions, Rick and Scott Steiner to win the belts, and set off one of the most devastating title reigns a tag team ever had. The rest of the card, while important, paled in comparison to the beat down the MVC gave out. Rick Rude saving his US title by a double DQ against beloved Russian Nikita Koloff, Brad Armstrong defeating Scotty Flamingo (Raven back when he was subconsciously mocking Tommy Dreamer) to win the WCW Light Heavyweight title and World Champ Sting beating Arn Anderson, sure, they were good and important matches, but again, MVC were on a roll. And yet, while their roll would keep going, another one was about to begin that would really overshadow theirs…

Phase 8b: 1992 (Part 2)- Miracle Violence Connection? Big Deal. Vader? Big Deal!

And yet, the entire PPV revolved around the MVC. Apart from the dark match (Super Invader pinning Marcus "Not Quite Buff Yet" Bagwell) and one other match, the whole night was the NWA Tag Team Title tournament. And said tournament pretty much revolved around Gordy and Williams. They had already advanced to the semi-finals by beating the Steiners on the same Clash as the qualifying matches. So they sat back, and watched with interest the other qualifiers. They saw Nikita Koloff and Ricky Steamboat beat Jushin Liger & Brian Pillman thanks to a countered cross body by Pillman that Steamboat got a pin off.

They saw Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham beat the Dangerous Alliance's team of TV Champ Steve Austin and US Champ Rick Rude thanks to a flying lariat.

They saw, perhaps to their surprise, Hiro Hase & Shinya Hashimoto beat The Fabulous Freebirds (represented by Garvin and Hayes) when Hase pinned Garvin.

So then the two men wandered out for their semi-final, brawled with Koloff and Steamboat for a solid 20 minutes, then win with an assisted Stampede Suplex.

Then they found out their opponents in the final would be Rhodes & Windham, when they pinned the Japanese contingent with a stiff non-flying lariat.

Then came some singles match, and then the show ended with the Miracle Violence Connection beating Rhodes & Windham with their teamwork and bad-ass-ness, Special Guest Ref Ole Anderson counting the fall that had the MVC winning the NWA Tag Titles and unifying them with the WCW ones right off the bat.

But not many people truly remember the show for the MVC reigning supreme over the tag ranks. No, they are focused on that singles match, which saw a World Title defense. Sting, wholesome, good looking and popular, wanted revenge on the man who broke his ribs a few months earlier. Problem was, that man was Vader, and Sting didn't really know who, or rather what Vader was.

Hence, Sting, despite showing some major guts, was totally annihilated. It was arguably the single biggest mauling a World Champ has ever had in a title match (Rey Mysterio not withstanding). For at the end of the match, Sting got a few shots in, and then Vader merely took a side step. And in a visual that shocked the WCW fan base, Sting just fell down. An academic powerbomb later, and Vader had won his first WCW World Title and ARRIVED on the US scene.

That is what Bash 92's PPV is remembered for. 93 on the other hand no-one remembers, because it didn't exist.

After the shocking taste of Vader and MVC ruling, the Great American Bash show was put on hiatus for a few years. But it made its return in 1995, and immediately…slotted back like nothing had happened.

Phase 9: 1995- Harem Heat wrestling twice! Craig Pittman also wrestling twice! Two More Guys fighting twice! Coach D'Amore wrestling once! A Date vs. A Rabbit! And You Attacked My Father, Prepare To Be Pinned!

The Bash, like most big Pay Per Views, had a few dark matches before the show. And out of 3, all are interesting for different reasons, although 2 for the same reason. The first match saw Harlem Hear beat a legendary team in The Fantastics, Fulton and Rogers. This would become interesting later.

The second match is interesting now, since it saw Coach D'Amore of the Ex-Team Canada and Eric Young yeller-at tap out to Craig Pittman in a little over 2 minutes. Sounds about right.

And then Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck beat Frankie Lancaster and Barry Houston, Dick and Bunkhouse also wrestling again that night.

Well, ok, 1 out of 3 interesting then.

Then began the show proper. It opened with 2 fan favorites, Dancing Fool Alex Wright and High Flying Maniac Brian Pillman, although Pillman was much more liked by the crowd than Alex was. Hence, when Alex won by countering a sunset flip, he was hated by the Dayton Ohio crowd.

Then came an arm wrestling match, with Dave Sullivan taking on DDP. The stakes were a date with Kimberly vs. Dave's pet rabbit, Ralph.

Unless DDP goes to the Elmer Fudd school of culinary cuisine, that doesn't quite make sense. But regardless, Dave won the match, and ‘hilarity' ensured.

Then came SGT. Craig "The beatings will continue until morale improves" Pittman, for his second match of the evening, when he fought ‘Hacksaw' Jim Duggan, whom was subbing for Marcus "Still Not Buff" Bagwell who was out with a ruptured calf

implant.

Craig then went after Duggan's leg, but then out of desperation got an arm bar off Duggan's trademark 3 point stance clothesline. And then out of anger, he refused to let go and got DQed for his trouble.

And then came the tag team match that featured the winners of the 2 tag matches prior to the show, Harlem Heat and Slater/Bunkhouse. And Heat ended up winning the mini-tournament with small package reversal thanks to the Heat's manager, Sherri.

And then Renegade pinned Arn Anderson to win the WCW TV Title. Enough said.

But the night was not over for Harlem Heat, no no! They had a WCW Tag Team title match to interfere in. The Nasty Boys, then champs, and Harlem Heat, then not champs, didn't like each other. Hence Heat tried to help the Bluebloods, Bobby Eaton and Steven Regal to win the titles. But the Boys beat the Heat and Bloods to retain.

Then came the finals of the tourney to find a new WCW Us Champ, after Vader had been stripped of it for being a violent SOB. Sting had qualified by beating Junk Yard Dog, Les Thornton and Pedro Morales. Meng had qualified by beating B. Brian Blair, Ricky Steamboat and Tito Santana.

Truly a who's who.

But the match itself echoed the Sting/Vader wars, except this time Sting was smarter, and hit and moved, and won the match with a leaping DDT, a move he was not known for, and hence one Meng wasn't prepared for.

And then came the main event, Flair vs. Savage. At the last Slamboree, Flair attacked Savage's dad, Angelo Poffo. Savage wanted revenge. A match was thus signed. A match Savage blew when he could had taken the pin, but chose to pick Flair up for more damage. Something he later regretted with Flair won by using Angelo's cane to waffle Savage into next week.

GAB95 ended with bad blood. 96 featured the start of the most bad blood ever seen in WCW.

Phase 10: 1996- Cash, Women, and a powerbomb through a table.

After the preliminaries, (Rocco Rock of Public Enemy pinning Jerry Sags of the Nasty Boys, Michael "Don't Call Me Rotunda" Wallstreet beating Jim Powers and Hacksaw taking care of Disco Inferno for those playing the home game), the show started out with The Steiners vs. Fire & Ice.

Well, can't win them all.

Although in this case, there had to be, as the special stipulation on the match was that there had to be a winner. Hence the ref was lenient with saves, thus allowing Scott to eventually hit a sloppy but effective Frankensteiner for the win. Then came a US Title defense for Konnan, who won easily after a sunset flip to the outside from the apron totally took El Gato out of his game plan, a roll up getting him the pin immediately after.

Then came cigar-smoking guttersnipe DDP, defending his Lord Of The Ring…ring against Marcus "Buff Any Day Now" Bagwell. Marcus put up a good fight, but he tried to fisherman's suplex DDP near the ropes. Diamond was able to hold on, snap off a Diamond Cutter and get the win and retain his Precious.

Well, Kimberly wasn't on the line, but you know what I mean.

Then came yet another title match, with Dean Malenko defending his Cruiserweight title, despite the fans ire, against a newcomer in WCW, in his debut match for WCW, one Rey Mysterio Jr.

You may have heard of him.

Anyway, he immediately made an impact, and while Malenko won with feet on the ropes, the match was spectacular and launched Rey's career to a whole new level.

And then we had John Tenta fighting Big Bubba, after Bubba shaved off half his hair to kick him out of the Dungeon Of Doom. Tenta won the match, which was good. I'll leave it there.

Then came the famous Benoit/Sullivan match over Nancy that went into the men's bathroom. For those who haven't seen Benoit's DVD, he stole Nancy from Sullivan, and hence both men didn't like each other. The fact Sullivan was trying to destroy the Horsemen by luring Anderson to the Dungeon after forcing Pillman to WWF was just icing on the cake.

Important icing though, for after Benoit won the Falls Count Anywhere match, Anderson came out…and joined in the beat down to signify a renewed Horsemen. Although, it was Flair, Arn, Benoit, Nancy & Miss Elizabeth as valets and Heenan as manager…that's only 3 Horsemen. Where's #4?

It was neither Sting nor Regal, who wrestled a stiff, surprisingly competitive match that saw Regal's hard work end up for naught as Sting came back and won with the Deathlock.

But perhaps we would find out in the Horsemen's tag match. See, Steve ‘Mongo' McMichael, a former American Football player, had been brought into WCW after supporting Lawrence Taylor at Wrestlemania 11, as a color commentator for Nitro. He had feuded and bickered with Heenan for a while, and then Ric Flair made passes at Debra, his wife. Steve didn't take too kindly to that, and challenged Flair and Anderson to a match at the GAB, his partner to be fellow Pro Football Player (albeit still active at the time) Kevin Greene. While the Horsemen were ‘coached' by Heenan, the football players had Randy Savage in their corner, who trained them, since he too didn't like Flair (Flair having stolen Miss Elizabeth from him before this).

So the match went down, with the football players showing great heart if not much experience, which was logical. But early on, the Horsemen's women, Liz and Woman, chased Debra and Greene's wife to the back, away from ringside.

And then, while Greene was being beaten up and Mongo longed for a tag, Debra came back out.

Wearing a 4 Horsemen shirt and carrying a Halliburton briefcase chock full of money. Mongo thought about the implied offer, shrugged, then nailed Greene with the briefcase. The Horsemen got the pin, got a third woman and a 4th member. Classic Horseman beat down on Savage and Greene followed.

But while this moment would have made the show memorable, what followed blew it out of the water. The Outsiders, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, although they had not been actually named as Hall and Nash, nor barely known as The Outsiders, were brought out by WCW Chairman Eric Bischoff. He told the two that they, along with their mystery third man, would be forced to fight in a 6 man tag match at Bash At The Beach against 3 of WCW's finest. Naturally, Nash & Hall wanted to know which 3 members in particular Eric had in mind. Naturally, he wasn't going to say if they didn't reveal their third man. Naturally, Nash responded by powerbombing Eric through a table/floor of the ramp way of the set.

Naturally, this peaked everyone's interest.

And while the PPV ended with Giant successfully defending his World Title against TV and one half of the tag champions Lex Luger, Eric's fall (and Mongo's turn) are what people remember about the show. But while this was the build up to the launch of the nWo, the following year the nWo was entrenched, and things would be a lot different.