WCW Great American Bash 92'

RATING LEVELS:

Curt Hennig Level– A “GOAT” show, from top to bottom

Watch It All – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety

Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 2-3 great matches, but lots of filler

1 Match Show – All filler, one thriller

DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities

THE GREAT AMERICAN BASH 92’ - July 1992

Albany, Georgia

CHAMPIONSHIP BACKGROUNDS: Sting is coming into tonight’s show as the reigning WCW World Champion. The NWA Tag Team Championship will be awarded tonight via a tournament, though the Miracle Violence Connection of Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams are the WCW World Tag Team Champions. At some point in the broadcast, Jim Ross alludes to the fact that The Barbarian and Dick Slater hold the US Tag Team Championship belts, but those titles would be retired by the end of the month.  Representing the Dangerous Alliance, Rick Rude is the company’s US Champion and “Stunning” Steve Austin is in the midst of his second reign as Television Champion. Brad Armstrong was holding the Light Heavyweight Championship at the time, though, like the US Tag Team Titles, Armstrong’s belt would be unceremoniously retired soon after.

COMMENTATORS: Our hosts are Tony Schiavone and Magnum T.A, but handling the play-by-play are Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura. * Other wrestling writers who have tackled this event have noted that show is one of the pairing’s best, as the two often had difficulty getting on the same page due to conflicting styles. Tonight, though, things really click.

Kicking things off, as part of the NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament, the team of Jushin “Thunder” Liger and Brian Pillman takes on another pair of babyfaces, Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff. Nice back-and-forth match here, with Steamboat and Koloff taking advantage of the size difference, adding realism to this contest. Ross and Ventura do a nice job of playing up the different styles of the teams, which couldn’t be more apparent than when Liger hits the ring and connects on a rare (for its time) moonsault before getting cut off by the power moves of Koloff. Even Steamboat shows off his strength a bit with a series of backbreackers followed by a powerslam that pops the crowd. All in all, an absolutely great opening bout to kick off the evening. (3.5/5)

The Steiners are in the back and, as one might expect, their promo borders on incoherency but still manages to be entertaining. They explain that injuries at the hands of Gordy and Williams have forced them out of tonight’s tournament.

Japanese stars Hiroshi Hase and Shinnya Hashimoto battle the Fabulous Freebirds next. I’m admittedly unfamiliar with the work of Hase and Hashimoto, so I went into this one figuring it’d be an interesting mix of styles based on reputations alone. Michael “P.S” Hayes starts things off with some breakdancing before tying up with Hase and, rather quickly, things get serious. While the crowd doesn’t get as hot as it did for the opener, both teams pull off some solid wrestling with a healthy dose of straight up brawling thrown in for good measure. (3/5)

Hiro Matsuda and “Cowboy” Bill Watts talk with Tony Schiavone to discuss the upcoming the NWA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament. Watts explains that the last champion, Ric Flair, has had his nameplate removed from the title, and that following the tournament in Japan, there will be a title unification bout with WCW World Champion Sting.

Our next tag team contest pits TV Champion, “Stunning” Steve Austin, and US Champion, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, against their longtime rivals Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham. In April, Windham snapped Austin’s impressive 329-day TV Title reign before dropping the title back to him a month later. What works great here is that, no matter which two of the four are in the ring, there is enough chemistry that even the "rest holds" keep your attention. Ventura makes a comment that Rhodes is “no longer a rookie,” keeping up with the vets, and that comment could come off as overly complimentary if Rhodes wasn’t as good as he was. Similarly, Austin shows serious improvement from earlier this year, using the ropes for leverage, taking advantage of a distracted ref, and selling for his opponents just as good as Rude, arguably one of the best bumpers of all time. The ending comes off as a tad bit anticlimactic to me as I could’ve stood to watch more than a few minutes more. (4/5)

The tournament continues with Koloff & Steamboat returning to the ring to take on the fresh Miracle Violence Connection, Terry Gordy and Steve Williams. The MVC come into this contest already holding the WCW Tag Team titles and having put the Steiners on the bench. This one starts off a little slow, especially compared to the first three tag matches of the evening, but it also makes a bit of sense strategically as the Connection tries to wear down the already-exhausted Steamboat and Koloff. Early on, Williams and Steamboat have a nice exchange of reversals, but the pace never really quickens, a common knock against the MVC and their “Japanese” style. Again worst wrestlers, this one would be a bore, but Steamboat and Koloff are engaging enough to make this an above-average match. (3.5/5)

Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham take on Hase and Hashimoto next and, again, compared to the action-packed and emotionally-charged match that Rhodes and Windham had earlier, this one doesn’t measure up to their match earlier in the evening. The crowd is noticeably quieter too, though, that could almost be assumed considering Hase and Hashimoto were unknown to most in attendance. There’s a pretty ugly looking spike piledriver delivered by the duo from Japan, but, then again, it could also just be Rhodes’ selling it for minutes afterwards that makes it seem so devastating. Worth viewing if you’re a fan of either team, but not necessarily “must see.” (3/5)

Ron Simmons talks with Schiavone and Magnum next. While Simmons’ isn’t a great promo at this point and, in my opinion, became much more engaging later on under the Farooq Asad gimmick, he at least builds up the idea that he wants to challenge for the WCW World Championship sooner than later.

Our sole singles match is next - Big Van Vader challenging WCW World Champion, Sting. The Stinger gets a massive pop from the kids and ladies in the audience while JR plays up his victories over Flair, Sid Vicious, and Lex Luger, conceding that Vader will be his greatest challenge yet. From the early going, the crowd is very into this contest and at no point does the action let up. At the 15-minute mark, Sting rallies, but continues to look vulnerable against the monster, the crowd cheering and groaning with every shift of momentum. What really solidifies this match as one of Vader and Sting’s best, though, is the closing moments, in which we see a clean finish that still isn’t quite definitive enough for us to believe one man stands as the other’s undeniable superior. The victor comes out looking great, but the loser showed enough fighting spirit that you know he’ll be itching for a rematch sooner than later. While not as good as the match they’d have at Starrcade later that year, few matches are. (4.5/5)

Our main event is next and it pits the Miracle Violence Connection vs. Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes in the finals of tonight’s NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament. I wonder if this model would work in today’s WWE? Part of me thinks it could…if the competing teams were star-studded. Like both teams previous matches, the crowd is quiet for the opening minutes, arguably spent from the more thrilling Vader/Sting match. While all four men work hard to get the crowd into it, especially Rhodes, this match never grabs you by the throat and makes you watch it. Again, part of that is the style of the heels, who wrestle stiff and snug, but won’t blow you away with many high spots. Finally, instead of ending with Williams’ awesome Stampede finish, you get the sense that the losing side just lost steam after one too many nasty clotheslines from Dr. Death. As good as this tournament began, its ending is so unfortunately uneventful, failing to top any of the night’s previous bouts. In another context, this bout probably would’ve earned more stars in my book, but, as it is, it comes off as a disappointment, ending the show with a whimper instead of a bang. (2.5/5)

With a respectable average match score of 3.36-out-of-5, first-time viewers should expect some really solid tag team wrestling here. Unfortunately, the tournament peaks early on. The opening contest and the Austin & Rude/Rhodes & Windham matches are significantly better than any of the other matches in the tournament and, as they happen in the first round, it leaves you wondering if the finals were booked properly. One could even argue that MVC vs. Koloff & Steamboat or MVC vs. Liger & Pillman would’ve been a more engaging main event as, at the very least, these teams would’ve forced Gordy and Williams to pick up their pace a bit. As much as I want to give this one a fully positive Watch It All review, the Hase matches are underwhelming considering his reputation and the show as a whole loses steam in its final moments.

FINAL RATING: Watch It…With Remote in Hand