Random Network Reviews: WCW Beach Blast 1992

WCW Beach Blast 1992
June 20th, 1992 | Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, Alabama | Attendance: 5,000

WCW in 1992 can be a thing of beauty. Bill Watts took over booking and did some interesting things, but also was out of touch with a lot. Either way, a lot of WCW in 1992 features great wrestling. This is widely considered one of their best Pay-Per-Views in history and it’ll be my first time watching it. This was the first of only two Beach Blast PPVs, with Bash at the Beach replacing it in 1994.

A simple graphics package opens things and hypes the card. Tony Schiavone and Eric Bischoff both look super young and skinny. They introduce the show and Bill Watts, who plugs some of the matches. Jim Ross, in a Hawaiian shirt almost as ridiculous as his WWF debut toga, is on commentary with Jesse Ventura.

WCW Light Heavyweight Championship: Scotty Flamingo def. Brian Pillman (c) in 17:29
Flamingo is a flamboyant character who would go on to become Johnny Polo and then reach his greatest fame as Raven. Pillman wasn’t happy with WCW at this time since Watts took away several things that hurt this division (top rope moves, mats outside, etc.). They go through an extended feeling out process. It allows Flamingo to show that he’s really good too, but he’s sure to add in cheap heel tactics. Pillman goes after the left arm so Flamingo just bites him. Flamingo was in firm control thanks to all of his underhanded tricks for a good chunk of the match. They get into a battle of strikes and again, Scotty rakes the eyes. A second rope cross body turns things around for the champion. Pillman charges into a powerslam for a very close near fall. Pillman tries to dive over the top but misses and lands face first on the walkway. Back inside, Flamingo wins the gold with a second rope knee drop. In an upset, Flamingo takes it home in a strong opening contest. It was fast paced and a bit ahead of its time. I liked how both guys made sure their roles as heel/face were defined. ***½

Johnny B. Badd is out to emcee a contest between Missy Hyatt and Madusa to crown the “First Lady of WCW”. This is the evening gown portion. I’d have voted for Hyatt since Madusa had flowers and a veil with hers and it just looked odd.

Ron Simmons def. The Taylor Made Man in 7:10
This is apparently the start of Ron Simmons’ run towards the WCW Title, which he would go on to win in August. The Taylor Made Man is Terry Taylor. We get a lot of showcases of Simmons’ power. He does the three point stance and slams Taylor around. Simmons misses another tackle attempt and just lands on the ramp way in a spot that looked funnier than it was supposed to be. With that, Taylor takes control for a bit. Jim Ross talks about Ron’s football career for the entire match. Ron nails the powerslam and wins. Pretty much just a showcase for Ron. Taylor bumped well for him and got in a bit of offense, but Simmons was headed towards the World Title. It went on for a bit longer than it needed to though. **

Greg Valentine def. Marcus Bagwell in 7:17
The young upstart against the past his prime veteran. Hmm, I wonder who goes over here. Bagwell does start pretty hot and moves at a pace that Valentine can’t keep up with. Once Valentine slowed things down, he was able to turn things around. Valentines works the leg to set up the figure four. Bagwell is too quick and pulls him into several flash pin attempts. Props to Bagwell for how he sells the knee. Valentine locks in the figure four and Bagwell has to give up. Better than expected. Valentine’s offense was dull, but Bagwell brought fire and put in a strong effort. **¼

Falls Count Anywhere on the Gulf Coast: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Sting def. Cactus Jack in 11:24
This is a non-title match. Cactus waits on the ramp way to get this started, really adding to the falls count anywhere feel. Of course, Cactus takes a back body drop on the ramp within the first minute. Sting misses a Stinger Splash and takes the apron Cactus elbow. One of the rules Bill Watts put into place was to remove the mats outside. Due to that, everything has more impact, especially a swinging neckbreaker and sunset flip off the apron by Cactus. The fight spills into the crowd, where Sting hits a suplex on the concrete. Surprisingly, Cactus takes to actual wrestling when the match moves to the ring. Outside, Cactus goes back to brawling and uses a chair. Ventura questions Sting getting into a non-title match that could injure him. Sting stops his momentum with a back suplex on the outside. Going back to the ramp, Sting lays in chair shots but Cactus won’t go down until he takes one to the leg. Cactus avoids the Scorpion Death Lock and they fall off. Sting climbs to the top rope and hits a flying clothesline to Cactus on the ramp for the three. Awesome match. A wild brawl that lasted just the right amount of time. Cactus looked like a million bucks, while Sting came across as the badass babyface with fire. Just what I want from a match like this. ****¼

Non-Title Ironman Challenge: Ricky Steamboat def. WCW United States Champion Rick Rude in 30:00
I’m disappointed that this isn’t for the title. They go right after each other, which is a change of pace from a lot of ironman matches that seem to go so slowly. Steamboat attacks the ribs and JR claims that there are rumors about Rude injuring them recently. Five minutes in and Steamboat is in full control. Despite this, Rude gets a knee up on a charging Steamboat and uses a handful of tights to take a 1-0 lead. Ventura excellently compares it to a hockey team scoring on one shot after the other team dominates with ten plus shots on goal. Rude gives no rest and goes up 2-0 on a Rude Awakening. He then comes off the top with a knee drop to hurt Steamboat but gets himself DQed for coming off the top. It proves smart when he uses a small package to take a commanding 3-1 lead. He wears down Ricky with a camel clutch. Ricky taps but this was before that counted as a submission so nothing happens. Rude stays in the driver’s seat as the clock nears twenty minutes. Rude hits a piledriver for a surprising near fall. Steamboat counters a tombstone attempt into one of his own and cuts the lead to 3-2 with about thirteen minutes left. The crowd comes unglued when Steamboat ties it with a back slide. He then desperately goes into every pin attempt possible. Rude stops his momentum and poses. Steamboat comes back with his own Rude Awakening for two! In the last few minutes, Rude works a long sleeper. Steamboat powers up with under a minute left and pushes back off the turnbuckle to take a 4-3 lead! Rude goes for a cover each time he knocks Ricky down in a frantic attempt to win but time expires. The best non-WWE Ironman match I’ve ever seen. Hell, it’s among the three best I’ve seen period. A beautifully worked match. At some point, things got a little slow but it all made sense. They made a sleeper hold spot very dramatic. This felt like two guys desperate to prove who the better man was. ****½

Time for the bikini contest, again hosted by Johnny B. Badd. Madusa rocks a once piece black one, while Missy Hyatt goes with a two-piece blue one. The crowd clearly likes Hyatt more.

Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and Nikita Koloff def. The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and WCW Television Champion Steve Austin) w/ Paul E. Dangerously via disqualification in 15:32
We get a lot of basic stuff for the first five minutes. Like, none of the work they do is particularly bad, but nothing of note happens and it is all so mundane. Windham gets a lot of the work for his team, spending most of the match inside. Dustin gets a mild tag. It’s insane how much better he was in, say 2013, than he was in 1992. JR feeds us a BS line about the bikini contest voting being 51%-49% right now. Dustin takes some heat for a bit. He eventually tags in Barry but it ends up being a pier six brawl. Windham nails a superplex on Austin and since he had it won, Arn comes off the top with a knee drop for the DQ. Like I said early on, this wasn’t bad, just underwhelming and relatively lackluster. **¼

Eric Bischoff interviews Ricky Steamboat, who says that it felt great to beat Rude. He is ready for a US Title shot but Paul E. shows up to tell him that he’ll never get a shot as long as Rude is champion. Cactus Jack shows up and we get a pull-apart brawl between two of the MVPs of this show.

Jesse Ventura joins Johnny B. Badd to host the final round of the bikini contest. Johnny is out in an absurd cowboy outfit that literally causes Ventura to ask if he likes girls. Anyway, Madusa comes out in a red, white and blue bikini with chaps. Missy says that her bikini was stolen so she has nothing on. She steals Jesse’s bandana and makes a bikini out of it, picking up the win.

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) and the Miracle Violence Connection (Terry Gordy and Steve Williams) wrestled to a time limit draw at 30:00
This is a highly anticipated match between two teams that were considered to be among the best at this time. Scott and Gordy start before we move to Rick and Williams for a bit. A good chunk of the match sees neither team gain clear control. They really showcase how evenly matched they are. When the Steiners get in trouble, they go to their trademark suplexes. Scott starts to take the heat and gets his leg worked over by Gordy. The work they do on Scott’s leg and Scott in general is just really solid. Rick gets the hot tag and though they built to it well, it seemed like the official didn’t see it, so the crowd didn’t pop as hard as they probably would have. Rick still ends up in trouble and survives a middle rope power slam. A double shoulder block to Rick comes with five minutes left. As the clock winds down, Rick gets put in a chinlock, but fights out quickly. Sitout powerbomb by Williams gets a near fall. He rams Rick into the turnbuckle but eats a STEINERLINE! He nails a second and there’s a minute left. Scott gets the tag and comes in hot, slamming both opponents. He hits a butterfly suplex but like a moron, stops to look at the crowd and then taunts instead of going for the pin. Time expires as he attempts a Frankensteiner. A great tag team match. You could kind of tell they were going the distance, which took a bit away from it. It was still hard hitting, intense and felt like a big deal. ****

8.5

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

One of the best WCW Pay-Per-Views of all time. The show flies by despite having two matches go for half an hour. The six man tag, Simmons/Taylor and Bagwell/Valentine matches are all kind of just there, but none are bad. Then you have a fun light heavyweight opener and great tag team main event. The Cactus/Sting match is excellent and Steamboat/Rude is a classic that needs to be seen. There aren’t many better ironman matches.