NWA (JCP) Great American Bash Tour 1987

For 1987, the NWA once again took the Great American Bash on tour for the month of July, introducing one of their best remembered match concepts along the way: WarGames. The tour was a tremendous success, and Jim Crockett released another two hour compilation of highlights for the home video market.

My local video store carried very few NWA/WCW tapes in the mid-90s (when I started watching wrestling, and looking back), but this Bash Tour tape was one of the few available, and the promise of WarGames had me eagerly renting it.

Your Host is Tony Schiavone.


WarGames: Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Paul Ellering, and The Road Warrior v The Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and JJ Dillon): From the July 4 stop in Atlanta, this is the first ever WarGames, and the main event. WarGames is a two ring match, with a cage covering both rings. One man from each side starts. After five minutes, a member from one of the teams - determined by a coin toss - enters, giving his team the temporary handicap advantage. After two minutes, a member from the other team enters to even the odds. Entrants alternate between teams every two minutes, giving the coin toss-winning team the temporary advantage in the numbers game before giving the other team the advantage with the freshest man in to even the odds. Once everyone is in, they battle to submission, surrender, or knockout - no pinfalls or disqualifications. There was a time when everyone who liked wrestling knew that, but with the WWE's refusal to incorporate WarGames into their schedule, I'm not sure that everyone remembers the details today, over fifteen years since the last one took place. Dusty starts with Arn Anderson, and place is wired in anticipation of this. What better way to celebrate the birth of a nation than guys beating each other in a cage of steel, after all. They approach with caution - Dusty monkey barring his way over with a dropkick, and he blows Anderson low to follow it up. Cheese grater spot draws blood from Double-A, and he hooks a figure four as the period ends, and Tully Blanchard heads in for the Horsemen. Dusty holds them both off with elbowsmashes, but eventually gets overwhelmed in a double-team, and the Horsemen just unload on the guy - targeting the bad ankle, and locking him in a figure four for good measure. In comes Animal, and Tully goes flying from one ring to the next within seconds - Animal following with a triple slingshot into the cage to kill him proper. Diving shoulderblock, as Dusty lays Arn out, and heads over to help - the faces pinballing Blanchard off of the cage. Ric Flair is next in for the Horsemen, but Animal shrugs off his chops, so Arn heads over to double-team - launching Animal into the steel. The Horsemen use the numbers advantage to their... advantage... until Nikita Koloff buzzes in, and starts firing off clotheslines. Animal press slams Flair in the chaos, everyone trading shots and blood everywhere. Lex Luger comes in for the Horsemen, and immediately goes for Koloff (who was hammering leader Flair), powerslamming him, and helping Ric blow him low. The fun's not over for Nikita yet, though, as Flair and Blanchard give him a pair of spike piledrivers to leave him dead, then head over to help Arn with his Dusty problem. Hawk saves the day - press slamming Blanchard into the ringpost, and tossing Flair from one ring to the other before stopping to stomp a mud hole in Lex Luger. Jesus, that was like a tank went through the ring. JJ Dillon rounds out the Horsemen field, but Hawk no-sells his attempt to save the other Horsemen (with a hilarious double-take from JJ, as he looks at his hands as if wondering what he did wrong), and everyone takes turns beating on him. Road Warriors manager Paul Ellering buzzes in to start the Match Beyond, and he goes right for Dillon with an atomic drop. The Road Warriors give him a Doomsday Device for good measure, and then just start toying him two-on-one (the other Horsemen too occupied to make the save) until he surrenders at 21:20. Obviously hugely historically significant, and interesting to see how the match came fully baked right out of the gate (as opposed to, say, the Royal Rumble, which took a lot of tweaking before guys got used to working the style), but as an actual match (and as far as WarGames go), not the best version. Still, completely brutal, with hard work all around - and anything but boring. *** ¼

Barry Windham v Rick Steiner: Also from Atlanta, this was essentially the birth of Rick Steiner in the NWA - looking more like Rick Rude than the version of himself we're most used to seeing. Joined in progress with Windham blasting Rick with a dropkick, and Rick coming back with a pair of clotheslines. Backdrop, and a belly-to-belly suplex send Windham cowering into the ropes, and a backelbow puts him on the floor. Suplex back in, but Windham rolls through, and gets the pin at 2:28 of 5:00. I can't rate a match where literally half of it is clipped off, but what was there was decent, looking like it was probably one - two star territory.

NWA United States Title Cage Match: Nikita Koloff v Lex Luger: This was the main event of a mid-July stop in Greensboro. Koloff is sporting a neck brace as a result of the first WarGames (see: the two spike piledrivers), and they take their time squaring off and sizing each other up. Abruptly clipped to Luger unloading on him in the corner (and a sloppy clip job at that - both guys totally fresh one second, then we come back from a quick crowd shot, and they're drenched in sweat), and Luger hooks a chinlock. I don't know what was going in before the clipping, but if they deemed it less interesting than a chinlock - I wouldn't have high hopes. The hold is psychologically sound, though, considering the champ is wearing a neck brace, and all. They finally break it up for Luger to hit a swinging neckbreaker, and he tears the brace off for good measure. Hey, if you're dumb enough to step into a wrestling ring (let alone a steel cage match) with a neck brace on - you fuckin' deserve to get paralyzed. Piledriver, but Koloff backdrops to block, so Luger hooks a full-nelson. Luger keeps after the neck, and hooks another chinlock, but it falls apart when Koloff starts firing off right hands. Ten punch count, and Koloff blasts him with the Russian Sickle - only to take the referee out in the process, and have no one to count the fall. That allows JJ Dillon to pass Luger a chair, and he whacks Koloff with it - then actually bothers to scoop his limp body up off of the canvas to hook the Torture Rack and win the title at 13:30 shown. Luger was on a roll here, winning the coveted title less than six months into his run with the promotion, but the match (or at least what we saw of it) was dull stuff, with poor transitions - though generally psychologically sound.

Texas Death Match: Steve Williams v Dick Murdoch: From Atlanta. Williams had Magnum TA (coming off of a career ending car crash late the previous year) with him to hammer home who the babyface is - though 'baby' and 'face' have never been uttered in the same sentence as 'Steve Williams,' unless it was something like 'hey, baby, Steve Williams wants to cum on your face.' Joined in progress with Murdoch targeting Williams' broken arm, but Steve comes back with a flurry of rights, and the 3-Point Stance hits. Second doesn't, however, but he manages to clock Murdoch with his cast as Dick tries a flying axehandle, and Murdoch can't answer the count at 3:27 of 8:00. Too heavily clipped to rate, but what was shown (including the climax) wasn't at all good.

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Manny Fernandez, Ivan Koloff, and Paul Jones v The Fabulous Freebirds: From Atlanta. Michael Hayes starts with Fernandez, and stomps his face out of the criss cross. Hiptoss and a pair of bodyslams sends Manny begging off in his corner - but stupidly passes up the opportunity to tag. Buddy Roberts takes the opportunity to beat his ignorant ass, and he finally decides to tag one of his two partners - Koloff. He has better luck, but a six-way brawl quickly breaks out, and Terry Gordy pins Paul Jones at 3:58. Really short for a six-man, but the point was to put the Freebirds over, and that it did. DUD

$100,000 Barbed Wire Ladder Match: Tully Blanchard v Dusty Rhodes: The main event of a mid-July Charlotte Bash. Tully is the NWA Television Champion, but this is 'non-sanctioned' and non-title. $100,000 hangs over the ring, (the ropes wrapped in barbed wire), and the winner is the first man who can climb the ladder and retrieve the cash - literally held in a burlap sack that's only missing a giant dollar sign on it for effect. Both guys battle over getting to toss the other into the wire first, and Tully ends up winning that one - ripping Rhodes' head open with it. Dusty returns the favor, and gets hold of the ladder to make an attempt at the money. Tully literally kicks him off of it, and makes his own climb, but Dusty meets him up there with an elbowsmash, and they end up back on the mat. Dusty DDT, and an elbowsmash - but Tully fires back, and slips on a loaded glove to slap Rhodes with. Climb, but Dusty hits literally the worst dropkick I have ever seen (and I'm familiar with Erik Watts) to knock him off (he literally just flopped to the mat – kinda hitting the bottom of the ladder with his boot), and Dusty gets the cash at 7:14. Pretty tame (hell, outright dull) for a barbed wire ladder match (can you imagine what ECW would have done with those stipulations?) - just mostly punch-kick stuff. ¼*

NWA World Title v Precious: Ric Flair v Jimmy Garvin: From the mid-July Greensboro Bash. Angle: Flair's a dick, and makes Garvin put a night with his wife up to get a shot at the title. And Garvin took that deal, too - an exploration of which would have made for really compelling television, but, hey, it's TBS not HBO. Garvin (understandably a bit pissed) goes right after him with chops in the corner, and he slams the champ off of the top rope to really get his point across. Figure four, but Flair (after much agony) makes the ropes, then rakes the eyes for good measure. Uh, I dunno. Bad strategy there - if you're a dick-heel who's gonna fuck a guys wife out of spite, you want his vision as close to 20/20 as possible so he can properly watch/cry. Chops fail to get Garvin's attention, and a hiptoss leaves Flair cowering in the corner - but it's all strategy to launch Jimmy into the cage. They trade those for a bit - Garvin grating him during his turn - and he mounts Flair on the mat for some closed fists. The champ tries to bail, but Garvin does the usual 'tug Ric Flair's tights down' spot, and the embarrassment gets the challenger two. Backdrop for two, but he ends up blowing his knee out during a leapfrog attempt, and Flair swoops right in with a kneebreaker. Flair destroys the knee over the next couple of minutes, but gets his tights tugged down again on the way to the top for a bodypress - and in a weird(er) moment, the referee slaps his ass while encouraging him to pull them up. The ass chaos behind them, Flair hooks the Figure Four, as some asshole jumps the rail and tries to climb the cage to prevent adultery/prostitution. Fucking Jesus freaks. Garvin refuses to quit, though, but he ends up passing out from the pain, and Flair takes it/her home at 15:00. Well worked, psychologically sound stuff - with a nice transition into the knee work, and a solid gold angle. ** ¼

NWA World Tag Team Title v NWA United States Tag Team Title Match: The Rock 'n' Roll Express v The Midnight Express: From Atlanta. Robert Gibson starts with Bobby Eaton, and Bobby forces him into the corner during the first few tie-ups - but Gibson blocks the obligatory cheap shot, and takes him down with a headscissors. Tag to Stan Lane, but he also can't keep Ricky in the corner, and literally gets kicked out of the ring for his troubles. Back in, Stan with a savate kick to take Gibson down, but he gets caught with an enzuigiri, and Robert passes to Ricky Morton. Series of armdrags gets two, and the R'n'R's trade off working the arm, but Lane slips free to tag Eaton - only for him to run into an armdrag/armbar himself. Morton gives him a rana for good measure, but a double-team takes the pep out of Gibson's step, and Lane gives him a backbreaker. The Midnight's double-team to cut the ring in half, but Gibson slips through Eaton's legs to tag back Ricky Morton, and we have a four-way brawl! In the chaos, Big Bubba Rogers (the Midnight's bodyguard) levels Morton, but the referee sees it, and the R'n'R's win by disqualification at 7:24. The ending was expected (they needed something cheap so both champions can retain), but it doesn't really ruin an otherwise really well paced, well worked match. **

WarGames: Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Paul Ellering, and The Road Warriors v The Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and War Machine): From the tour finale in Miami, this is the second ever WarGames match - War Machine (Big Bubba Rogers, under a mask) replacing JJ Dillon, who was legitimately injured during the first version. Dusty starts with Arn again (for the faces the 'it ain't broke don't fix it' logic works, but the Horsemen really should revise their game plan considering the last one didn't work out too well), but this time Arn evades him rather than start trading off - forcing Dusty to come into the ring closer to the Horsemen side. Dusty unloads on him over there anyway, but gets a thumb to the eye as he tries a figure four, so he switches gears with a low blow on Double-A. Suplex allows him to get the hold on, and he unloads elbowsmashes as War Machine buzzes in to help out. Dusty gives it his best (see: a couple of right hands), but gets quickly overwhelmed, and rammed into the cage. They go after the ankle as Hawk climbs in, and he blasts Machine with a dropkick, then powerslams Anderson. Bodyslams all around, but a legdrop on Machine misses - but Dusty makes the save before Hawk loses the momentum. Ric Flair heads in for the Horsemen, and immediately pulls Hawk to the other ring to isolate him from Rhodes, as Arn runs over to help work him over. Flair runs back-and-forth between rings to fire off shots at Hawk and Dusty, but Nikita Koloff buzzes in just as Ric has Rhodes in a Figure Four. The Horsemen go right after his bad neck with a piledriver, but he no-sells, and throws Flair around. In comes Tully to work Dusty's ankle again, but YOU CAN'T BREAK CANKLE (!!!), and he powers up to slam Machine. In comes Animal to throw the Horsemen around, and he works in the triple-slingshot spot with Blanchard again. He goes for Flair next (no-selling a series of chops), but Anderson saves, and they take Animal to the mat as Lex Luger rounds out the heel field. Paul Ellering enters to start the Match Beyond, and he goes right for Machine - bringing in one of the Road Warrior's spikes to help take him down. He shares that love with the other Horsemen, as the entire team corners Machine in their home ring, and try to take his eye out with the spike for the submission at 19:38. Far from dull, but lacked some of the intensity the first version had - though certainly interesting for archival purposes. ** ½

BUExperience: Showing both WarGames matches in full as bookends of the tape resulted in a lot of heavy clipping throughout, but the WarGames alone (especially with it being the first) make this worth checking out – the rest (while clipped) generally fun stuff, too. **