NWA (JCP) Great American Bash 1988

Now in on the pay per view game, the NWA took the Great American Bash off tour for 1988 (though house shows were still marketed as ‘Bash tour stops’ throughout the summer), and held a single event to air on pay per view – the show built and sold on NWA Champion Ric Flair facing off with up-and-coming superstar Lex Luger, recently ousted from Flair’s Horsemen stable, and looking for revenge.

The show came during a period of transition for the promotion, as Jim Crockett’s failure to compete with the WWF on a national level, as well as his excesses rapidly catching up to him, forced him to sell the promotion to Ted Turner only a few month later – the Bash something of a Hail Mary to try and salvage things.

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Opening NWA World Tag Team Title Match: Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard v Sting and Nikita Koloff: Big brawl to start, the challengers clearing the Horsemen out, and Sting diving after Anderson with a plancha. Inside, Sting gets Arn in an armbar as things settle down, and Koloff tags in to have his turn barring the arm. Tully tries to sneak in for a double-team to turn the tide, but Koloff blasts him with a lariat - then gives Arn one, too, for good measure. Tag to Sting, but he misses a blind charge, and Arn hooks a sleeper - only to get rammed into the corner to break. Back to the arm, and Sting manages to dodge his own Horsemen double-team attempt, so Tully tags in outright - but ends up in an armbar as well. Koloff ties him up on the mat - forcing Blanchard to kick out of multiple, forceful pinfall attempts, and the challenger’s pinball him in the corner for two. They cut the ring in half, destroying Tully's arm/shoulder, until Tully finally manages to literally crawl - inch by agonizing inch - to Anderson's open hand. He goes right at Koloff, but ends up tied up on the mat as well, and quickly bails back to Tully - but he's already worn down, and can't build any momentum. Cactus Clothesline puts him on the concrete, and Nikita suplexes him back in for two - broken up by manager JJ Dillon. Koloff heads out for revenge, but ends up ramming himself into the post, and Anderson puts a cherry on top by doing it again. Inside, the champs smell blood, and zero right in on the shoulder - Arn wrenching it on the mat - and Koloff's power up is met with a DDT for two. The Horsemen continue to cut the ring in half, but Arn's attempt at a Vaderbomb hits the knees, and Koloff makes the tag! Sting's a house of arson, but gets overwhelmed by blatant Horsemen double-teaming - so Nikita runs in to take Anderson out with the Russian Sickle. Stinger Splash for Tully, and he hooks the Scorpion Deathlock, but time expires at 20:07 - the champs retaining. I'm usually against time limit draws for openers as a rule, but this one was really well worked, filled with great psychology (though, all that arm work never really went anywhere, or factored into the finish), and it was a nice twist on the standard formula - the heels getting dominated for the bulk of the bout. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the last stand for the tag champs, as a money dispute saw them jump to the WWF in the fall - losing the titles to the Midnight Express on the way out. *** ¼

NWA United States Tag Team Title v 10-Lashes to Jim Cornette Match: The Fantastics v The Midnight Express: They had been trading the titles in the months leading up to this, and to goad the Fantastics into another shot, the Midnight's literally put their manager's ass on the line - Cornette due 10 lashes if the Express fail to capture the titles. Bobby Fulton starts with Bobby Eaton (the Battle of the Bobby’s!), and Fulton quickly catches him with a sunset flip for two. Eaton regroups with a side-headlock, but Fulton wrestles free, and nails him coming off the ropes. Tag to Stan Lane for a test-of-strength, so Fulton starts literally climbing him into an armdrag - a strategy that's met with a series of kicks to put him on the floor. Whip into the post reversed, however, and Fulton blasts him with a baseball slide before tagging Tommy Rogers. Series of dropkicks leave Lane reeling, and he passes to Eaton - who walks right into an armdrag/armbar, so he fires off a kneelift to break. Superplex, but Rogers escapes in mid-air, and hits a springboard bodypress for two. Double-team backdrop takes both Midnight's out, and they try a stereo monkey flip spot to follow-up - but it gets botched. The champs still manage to clean house, and the dust settles on Rogers working Lane's arm, but getting bulldogged by Bobby for two. The Express quickly regroup for some proper ring cutting - a particularly nice double-team sees Lane savate kicking the crap out of Rogers until he falls right into Eaton's waiting arms for a backbreaker. Fulton desperately tries to make the save, but gets thwarted at every turn, and the Midnight's keep gleefully working Rogers over. Alabama Jam (a flying legdrop) gets two, but the Rocket Launcher hits knees, and Rogers is finally able to make it over to Fulton. He's a house of arson, but falls prey to some flawless double-teaming (the heavily worn Rogers unable to give much help), and one knux shot from Eaton later, we have new champs at 16:23. Really well paced stuff (it was just go-go-go for sixteen minutes), with loads of great tag team psychology and double-teams. The Fantastics never beat the Midnight's for them again, but they did get the titles back a few months later, after the Express vacated them, and they won a tournament for the vacant title. *** ½

Tower of Doom Match: Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, Ivan Koloff, and The Russian Assassin v Jimmy Garvin, Ron Garvin, Steve Williams, and The Road Warriors: The Tower is a literal tower of three cages stacked one on top of the other over the ring (not unlike Uncensored 1996), and two wrestlers start the match out in the top cage for a two minute period, after which a trap door in the top-tier cages open for fifteen seconds to allow a locked wrestler to get down into the cage below, and join the mayhem. The object of the match was to get to the bottom, where Jimmy Garvin's valet Precious held the key to the door. Something like a very bad version of Donkey Kong, basically - with Precious playing both the Donkey and the Princess. Unlike Uncensored, however, this version looks COMPLETELY unsafe (this is like the coma version compared to Uncensored's broken arm), rickety as hell, and without even scaffolding to climb it - instead two skyscraper ladders leaning on either side for each team, which even the poor referee looks absolutely terrified to scale. Everyone stands around and looks at the thing for a while, until Ivan Koloff and Ron Garvin get things started in the top cage - trading closed fists. The top cell looks to be about 5x5 max, and there's literally no room for them to do anything - not to mention, it's obscured by the overhead ring lights, so both the live crowd and the home audience can't see much anyway. The period ends with Mike Rotunda and Steve Williams joining in, as Garvin starts to climb down into the next level. More punching, as Garvin makes it to the bottom and out the door - the Precious bit only coming into play when everyone makes it through. Things keep going with more of the same, as I wait for Sullivan and Jimmy Garvin (on the ladders leaned against this thing, and waiting their turn) to go flying off to their deaths due to all the shaking the Tower is doing. It finally gets down to Kevin and Jimmy (the main reason this whole thing is going on, anyway), and Sullivan tries to get the key from Precious, but gets nailed with a brainbuster from Garvin, and he gets the key for the win at 19:30. Well, I said it was the coma version - and they didn't disappoint. Why they didn't just run a WarGames (already associated with the Bash from the year before) is beyond me. Everyone worked hard, but there was literally no way to make this work - once the 'wow, look how high' factor quickly wore off. The whole thing can be best summed up by some teenage girl in the crowd, staring up at it with wide eyes, mouth agape, and completely dumbfounded. DUD

NWA United States Title Match: Barry Windham v Dusty Rhodes: Rhodes sends him to the floor with a shoulderblock early on (that was some serious Curt Hennig-level selling there, as Barry flew to the outside, and bounced around, like, three times from a simple shoulderblock), and a big criss cross ends in Dusty press slamming him. DDT, and a flying bodypress for two - so Windham bails to regroup, considering walking with the title. Manager JJ Dillon talks him into giving it another go ('do you want him to job you to Al Perez instead?!'), but Rhodes unloads elbowsmashes when he takes JJ's advice. Test-of-strength allows Barry a cheap shot, and it spills to the floor for him to ram Rhodes into the rail. Piledriver out there, but Dusty counters with a backdrop, and levels him with a lariat. Back inside, Windham tries a ten-punch count, but Rhodes reverses a slingshot - sending Barry flying back to the floor. Bodyslam on the concrete, as Dusty seems to be determined to win this without winning the title. Inside, Windham slams him for being a dumbass, and hooks a clawhold at center ring - leaving Dusty on his knees, his mouth dangerously close to Barry's cock. Guess no one from the casting couch sent Dusty that memo. It doesn't help that Windham holds his head firm while thrusting his pelvis, either. Elbowsmashes eventually break the hold, but a figure four attempt ends in Windham relocking it. Windham's evil knows no bounds! Going after Dusty Rhodes' head is just malicious! Superplex, but Dusty tosses him off, and backdrops him from the top rope. Elbowdrop, but the referee is down, so Ron Garvin runs in to watch Rhodes' back... only to turn on him in short order. Clawhold again, and with Rhodes still out from Garvin's punch, Windham retains at 15:56. Too long for what it was (the long claw sequence wasn't exactly Hart/Backlund at Survivor Series), but Barry's bumping kept it from falling apart. * ½

Main Event: NWA World Title Match: Ric Flair v Lex Luger: Really cool visual thing going on, as Flair dons white tights with yellow kneepads, and Luger yellow tights with white pads - and I don't think it was coincidental, either. Maybe Vince McMahon should have had him dig those out of the closet in '93, when he was trying to convince everyone he was Hulk Hogan. Flair takes his time locking up, but Luger backs him into a corner, so Flair reels off a couple of desperation chops - only to get thrown across the ring in response. Lex with a side-headlock, but the more experienced Flair backs it into the ropes to force a break - but eats dropkick for his troubles, and bails to the floor to regroup. Back inside, Flair runs into a press slam, and oversells it to the point where he falls all the way into the front row. Well, after that response, no wonder Luger decided to hit that spot a dozen times per match whenever he faced Flair. Ric is extremely cautious coming back in, and, with his back against the ropes, gets forced into a test-of-strength - ending in another Luger press slam. See? Bearhug allows Flair to loudly sell (this is Arthur Janov psychology here), and Ric tries to bail again, but gets caught on the apron with a hanging vertical suplex for two. Leaping elbowdrop gets two, but a second misses - though Luger pops right up and hiptosses Flair anyway. The champ suckers him into a chase out there - ramming him into the rail to take the pep out of his step, and back inside, Flair drops a pair of shins for two. Flair starts punting the challenger’s ribs, but gets caught with a diving clothesline out of a criss cross for two. Shot to the ribs slows Lex down, but Flair gets crotched when he tries going to the top rope - though still managing to dodge another Luger dropkick attempt. He tries to dump Lex for a countout, but Luger dives back in with a sunset flip, so Flair starts targeting the knee to take the step out of his pep-less step. Well, gotta finish the job; can't be a halfassed world champion. Figure Four, but Luger manages to reverse - though he can't build any momentum, and Flair chopblocks him. Luger throws a desperation clothesline to knock Flair to the floor, but he's still flat on his back after the spot, so Ric feels confident enough to head in and start unloading chops - but Luger no-sells, and press slams him again. And again. Ten-punch count gets rudely interrupted with an inverted atomic drop, but Lex springs right up with a clothesline for two. Flair Flips to the floor after another ten-punch, but Luger wants the title, and drags him in for a backslide - getting two. Flair bodypress out of a criss cross sends them both 'tumbling' to the outside (very sloppy spot - as they failed to go over the top, and had to literally hang there while regrouping) where Ric rams him into the post to draw blood. Inside, Flair tries a ten-punch of his own, and Luger's inverted atomic counter doesn't do the bad knee any favors. Doesn't matter, though, 'cause he's CHOKING UP!! Powerslam! Torture Rack! New Champion at 23:13! All the babyfaces pour into the ring to celebrate, but it turns out the referee stopped the bout for blood loss (one of the more ridiculous bits they pulled, as Luger was barely, barely bleeding - let alone losing blood to the point where a match needed to be stopped), and Flair retains on a technicality. Aside from the bullshit ending, the match was very well paced, however the psychology (the good knee work, which was forgotten by both men later in the bout) and execution (a couple of sloppy bits) fell short of greatness. They would fix all the glitches in time for their Starrcade re-match, though, which was a masterpiece. While annoying, this ending could have worked if they had properly parlayed it into a future payoff (which was booker Dusty Rhodes' plan - putting Luger over Flair for the title at Starrcade), but when the regime change that fall vetoed that idea (and ousted Rhodes from his position, and the promotion altogether), Luger became labeled a choker - something he would struggle with for the rest of his career. ** ¾

BUExperience: Overall a very solid show (Tower of Doom was the only stinker – and even that’s somewhat interesting as an oddity) that time has been kind to, this was very ‘less is more’ booking in contrast to the WWF at the time (compare it to the sixteen matches at WrestleMania IV, or the ten at the first SummerSlam – both from the same period), and while the main event’s ending has become infamous as one of the shittier, most enraging finishes by either promotion, time has mellowed it, and things seem more logical when considering Dusty Rhodes’ original booking of Luger winning the rematch at Starrcade.

Unfortunately, the paying customers felt (understandably) cheated, and didn’t stick around to find out – Jim Crockett’s Hail Mary ending up in Ted Turner’s arms. ***