The Furious Flashbacks – NWA Great American Bash ‘88

It seems like a good time to do a Great American Bash recap seeing as the WWE have now continued the Bash tradition off into the new century. Seeing as the last column hasn’t gone up because I only wrote it shortly before this one I don’t have anything feedback worthy to post nor do I have much else to talk about. Aside from upcoming shows. On Friday (August 5th) I’ll be at 3CW’s show in Middlesbrough. Rumours have a very strong card developing with the latest edition being IWF’s Max Heat v SWA’s Falcon. Conscience is signed for the show to do something interesting and the tag titles are on the line with my buddy Dan Evans making his first title defence. Plus there’s more Lord of the Ring action with Ice XVII taking on Chris Whitton AND The Kraze are working against The Damned Nation! Now THAT will be freakin’ awesome. I’ll bust out the Hawaiian shirt again for that. There’s also something wrestling related that I’ve been told in the strictest of confidence that I can’t tell you. If it does pan out I should have an entertaining tale to tell soon though. Probably not as awesome as the time that Raven looked up when I walked into a room and said “ah, Furious” but close. I heart wrestling.

We’re in Baltimore, Maryland. Hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone.

NWA tag titles – Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard (c) v Sting/Nikita Koloff

Luger was going after the NWA title so Sting had to acquire himself a new tag partner. Koloff had nothing to do after his run with Flair so he drops into this. We start with a big ass brawl. Babyfaces clear the ring. Sting is MAD over. Horsemen bail, come back in and we have another huge brawl. Sting gets a roll up for 2 and nearly ends it after 40 seconds. Dropkick and the Horsemen bail so Sting hits a suicide dive and the roof comes off the arena. You just didn’t see a whole lot of dives in 1988. Koloff comes in to kill this match with an armlock and in general the crowd aren’t as fond of him as they could be. Of course it had to slow down but it could have been the Horsemen slowing the pace, not Koloff. Would have made more sense. Koloff hits a few clotheslines and the crowd is just lapping up EVERYTHING impact here. Sting in and he armdrags Tully around. Koloff back in and he hooks that armlock again. He’s doing nothing with it though. He’s just sitting there. He looks bored. Sting comes back in and he brings the crowd right back into it. Challengers keep Tully isolated until Koloff messes up and allows Arn in. Arn gets caught in the ribs and we get a hot tag to Sting and off comes that roof again. Sting press slams Tully and hits a bulldog on Arn. The crowd is sensing the titles are going to change. Sting hits another dropkick and double noggin knockers the Horsemen. Arn back in and Sting hooks a sleeper but he’s running out of time. Sting blocks a sunset flip from Tully and we’re down to 30 seconds. STINGER SPLASH. SCORPION DEATHLOCK and it should be over but the time limit expires and the Horsemen keep the belts. **. Decent match but the crowd were REALLY not happy with that booking. It’s the kind of booking that eventually killed these super hot crowds they had going.

US tag titles – Fantastics (c) v Midnight Express

Fantastics just took the belts off MXP so this is a re-match. MXP get lashed 10 times if they lose. Cornette is in a straightjacket AND a cage to keep him out of the action. “My sleeves are too long” – Cornette. Awesome. Cornette tries to bribe the referee. “This guys a crackpot. He’s an honest man”. Fulton gets a quick near fall on Eaton but we quickly clip ahead to later in the match. Fulton is still trying for that pinfall. Stan Lane slams him on the floor. Rogers is in and he hits the ref accidentally with a flying forearm. Eaton gets a chain and waffles Fulton with it pinning him to win the belts back at 2.13 shown. Heels are 2-0 tonight. Crowd enjoyed the match but we didn’t get to see it.

POST MATCH the Fantastics are less than happy at the outcome. They take it out on Cornette with the referee’s belt. Luckily for Jimmy he still has his straightjacket on.

Tower of Doom

Right. This is a cage match. Sort of. It’s more like 3 cages stacked on top of each other. Vince Russo brought this back for the Chris Kanyon bump a few years back. On the babyface side we have the Roadwarriors, the Garvin brothers and Dr Death. On the heel side are Kevin Sullivan, Al Perez, Russian Assassin, Ivan Koloff and Mike Rotundo. Precious (Jimmy Garvin’s wife) has the keys to the door but she’s also been re-programmed by Sullivan so it’s hard to tell where her allegiance lies. GMC explains the rules but it’s almost entirely lost on me. People enter by the top and exit through the door at the bottom, which is controlled by Precious, natch. There’s a complicated trapdoor system whereby people can move down the cage every 2 minutes.

Ronnie Garvin and Ivan Koloff start the match up at the top. It’s almost hard to see the action because it’s WAY up there in the lights. Garvin uses his hard hands and it’s all just brawling but then there’s no room for anything else. 2 minutes is up, the first trapdoor opens and in come two more wrestlers. Rotundo gets accidentally powdered by his teammate. Garvin is through the door into the second cage while Doc beats the crap out of the other two. Doc does pretty well for a guy who’s out numbered. Another 2 minutes are up. Garvin drops down into the bottom cage while everyone else is still brawling up the top. Doc makes it through into the second cage but Koloff comes through with him. Ronnie Garvin escapes the Tower of Doom at 4.58. So Team Garvin is up 1-0 but the whole team has to get out. Maybe he should have waited down there to help teammates in the bottom cage. Now Animal finds himself 2 on 1 in the top cage. Perez has also come in. Doc and Koloff battle in cage two. Crowd goes nuts for some of this even though nothing is happening. Another two minutes are up and down go Perez and Animal into cage two. Hawk and Assassin enter the cage leaving only the team captains. Doc slams Koloff in the middle cage and that draws another big pop. Last two men go in with Sullivan and Jim Garvin joining the battle. Hawk finds his way down to the middle cage. Animal and Perez make it down to the bottom cage. The door is open and Animal gets out at 9.23. 2-0 Team Garvin. But Perez is alone in the bottom cage. He can just walk out and he does at 9.36. 2-1 Garvin. Doc ties up Koloff in a figure four to stop him getting out. Another two minutes are up and the trapdoors open again. Rotundo finally makes it down to the middle cage. Russian Assassin drops down and so does Koloff. They wait for Hawk and kick his ass. Assassin fucks up a clothesline sell so Hawk cuts him down at the second attempt. Still got a pop. I heart marks. Not WWF/E ones though. They suck. Hawk cages Assassin hard and gets out at 12.27. 3-1 Garvin but Garvin himself is still up in the lights while Doc is battling Rotundo in the middle cage. Trapdoors open again and Doc gets down to the bottom as Koloff and Assassin leave. Doc is out at 13.19. 4-3 Garvin. But now he’s left in a 2 on 1 as Rotundo and Sullivan kick his ass in the middle cage. If they incapacitate him up there they can both leave without him doing anything about it. Sullivan holds Garvin back from the trapdoor while Rotundo leaves at 15.11. Garvin stomps on Sullivan while a huge brawl breaks out on the floor. Garvin tries to make a mess of Sullivan’s knee in order to stop him getting to the bottom level. Both men get to the bottom level and the crowd is really buying into this now. Sullivan grabs at Precious to get the door open but Garvin takes out his leg again. BRAINBUSTER! Sullivan is dead and Precious unlocks the door. Sullivan jumps Garvin from behind but Garvin is halfway out so he just falls to the floor and Team Garvin win the Tower of Doom at 18.09. ***. Well that was certainly different. I think it’s too complicated for New York but it’s an interesting concept.

POST MATCH Sullivan locks the cage so he can take out his frustrations on Precious, which he does by grabbing at her. Garvin and Hawk climb back into the Tower from the top. Hawk dives down and wipes out Sullivan with a clothesline. Crowd goes absolutely BATSHIT, again. Garvin hugs Precious and we get our very happy ending.

TV title – Mike Rotundo (c) v Sting

For some reason we have a match from Greensboro tacked in the middle of the tape here. Sting dropkicks Rotundo 3 times while he just stands there and takes it. Steiner and Sullivan jump in there and both get dropkicks too. Steiner continues to interfere by tripping Sting. Rotundo throws Sting out and Sullivan pounds him with a steel bar. Something tells me that the Varsity Club are not planning on adhering to the rules in this one. Rotundo chinlocks the crowd to death. Sting gets out and he’s tripped again from the outside. Rotundo goes back to that trusty chinlock. Rotundo heads up top but looks like a fish out of water so Sting slams him off with ease. We have two rings here, which probably meant Wargames. Sting throws Rotundo into the other one and hits a dive over the ropes. STINGER SPLASH and this one is nearly over so Rick Steiner dives in again and that’s a DQ at 8.15. Sigh. Ѕ*. Why? I was planning more on that last sentence but thought one word summed it up nicely enough.

US title – Barry Windham (c) v Dusty Rhodes

Windham starts off selling heavily, which puts Dusty over as a heavier guy. Hey, no shit. Dusty is heavier than the moon! It’s like wrestling a planetoid. Dusty with a press slam and a DDT. Here come the elbows and Dusty hits a diving crossbody for 2. Good God that was fugly. Windham must have thought a cottage cheese train had de-railed off the top rope. Dusty dances around demonstrating his superior “speed”. Yeah. That’s 2-0 to Big Dust. Hey, he’s way out front in terms of bitchtits too. He’s an F cup, easy. 3-0. Outside and Windham tries for a piledriver on the floor but Dusty backdrops out of that because yanno he doesn’t TAKE moves, he delivers them. Windham gets the change of pace and pummels Dusty in the corner. Dusty slingshots him out to the floor though and the crowd goes nuts because that’s such a cool looking move. Dusty slams Windham on the floor and he is just bumping like crazy for Da Dweem. JJ Dillon distracts though allowing Windham to jump from behind and apply THE CLAW. That gets 2 until Dustamania runs wild and he hulks up (or should that be bulks up). Windham takes him back down with the CLAW #2. Oh for the love of God, not the CLAW again. Dusty’s head my very well have been caved in! Or at the very least he’s messed his hair up. Note – Windham sells Dusty’s stuff by bumping, Dusty sells Windham’s stuff by not moving and then no selling it anyway. Dusty elbows out of the claw but Windham puts it on again for #3. Well, call the coffin makers we got us a corpse. Dusty climbs the buckles while still in the claw. I’m begging fatty to sell something. Windham looks for a superplex but Dusty blocks it and the ref is bumped. Dusty throws Windham off the top again and drops his bulbous, swollen carcass onto Windham. Ronnie Garvin runs in to turn heel with a vicious shot with the HANDS OF STONE and THE CLAW is reapplied. Dusty is now counted down at 15.56. **3/4. Total carry job from Windham who looked in magnificent shape. The less said about his rotund opponent the better.

BACKSTAGE Ron Garvin completes his selling out process as he takes a shit load of money off JJ Dillon and Gary Hart for turning on Dust.

NWA title – Ric Flair (c) v Lex Luger

Luger is all power from the off with Flair totally overselling. Luger, the total opposite, barely sells at all and dropkicks Flair outside (not having a go at the selling there btw, that’s the booking and it was the right way to book Luger). Flair back in and Luger press slams him. Flair bails again and face bumps over the rail into the fans. Back inside and Luger hits another press slam and a bearhug. Flair eventually gets into the ropes and tries to bail but Luger grabs him and suplexes him back inside for 2. Luger drops an elbow for 2. He foolishly looks for another one so Flair moves. Flair remains on defence though and bails allowing a brawl outside. Flair takes advantage with the rail and takes it back inside with a knee drop before raking Luger’s eyes along the rope. Another knee drop gets 2. They trade shots to the midsection until Luger gets up a head of speed into a clothesline for 2. Flair climbs but Luger crotches him. Luger on the offence so Flair steps out of the way of a dropkick. Both men down but Luger brings the power with a clothesline again for 2. Sunset flip gets 2 so Flair goes to the knee for the first time and goes to work on the body part. FIGURE FOUR APPLIED! Flair uses the ropes for maximum cheatage. Luger turns it over though and Flair has to break the hold. Flair misses on the ropes and Luger clotheslines him outside. Back in and Flair brings the CHOPS! That just pisses Luger off and he press slams Flair again but hurts his knee in the process. Luger, like a genius, goes for a knee drop and misses further injuring his knee. Flair climbs and that never works so Luger throws him off. Clothesline again and Flair is looking a bit screwed so he’s pinned for 2. Flair takes his corner bump and back inside Luger backslides him for 2. They go flying into the ropes and both go over to the floor with Flair screaming about his leg being injured. He takes advantage of the distraction to post Luger and while the ref takes a chair off him Dillon posts Luger as well. That’s enough for a bladejob from Luger. Flair drags him back in and works the cut with punches. Luger with a powerslam and he calls for the Rack but the doctor is up at ringside calling for the bell FOR BLOOD LOSS. HAHAHAHA. The tiny trickle of juice ends the match even though Luger had it won at 23.12. ***3/4. Good match, bad finish. Luger is convinced he’s won the title as are the crowd but guess again Lex. The announcement is NOT popular. Luger winning actually would have made his career incidentally but that seemed to be ignored at the time. Hell, Flair jobbed to Jimmy Garvin why not Luger? By the time he actually got the belt booking like this lessened the importance of that achievement. I guess you can chalk that finish up to an assortment of backstage politics. Most perceptibly the whole Rhodes-Flair deal.

Overall PPV thoughts – C+

Certainly a better tape than the Crockett Cup in ’88. Aside from the tacked on Sting-Rotundo match everything was pretty good. Flair-Luger is better elsewhere but it’s still a good match and everything else is at the least fun. The Tower of Doom is pretty out there for gimmick matches. I’m glad I got the chance to see that. Shame the Midnights got clipped up as the crowd reaction seemed to suggest a real barnburner in their match with the Fantastics. Due to the editing I probably couldn’t give this show a clear cut thumbs up so I’d have to go somewhere in the middle. Decent and memorable for a few big storyline developments.