- Okay, today what many have called the best PPV ever, Great
American Bash 1989. My personal pick is WrestleMania X, but this is also very
good. (This was originally written in 2000)
- BTW, I use this system: ***** - Excellent **** - Great ***
- Good **- Okay * - Decent DUD - Awful.
- Live from Baltimore
Maryland.
- Your hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.
- Very 80’s video package to start.
- Opening Match: “King of the Hill” Battle Royal:
This is basically a two ring battle royal, with all of the participants being
people who won battle royals to get here. The object is to toss the guys into
the 2nd ring, and then a second battle royal goes down there. The winner of
ring 1 fights the winner of ring 2 for $ 50,000. Okay. (I’m not the biggest fan of these
multi-ring battle royals, but I do appreciate when they try new things)
Basic battle royal fare here. Ron Simmons tosses Ranger Ross into ring 2, and
then Ron gets tossed too, and Ross tosses him out. Hall and Gordy get into ring
2, and Bill Irwin follows. They cut the tape, as the rings are about even, and
Dan Spivey powerbombs everything that moves. Ring 1 is down to Sid and Pillman,
which Sid wins pretty easily, to win ring 1. Ring 2 has Rotunda, Spivey, and
Steve Williams. Steve kills Mike, and tosses him, and Dan attacks. Steve fights
back, but Rotunda trips him up, and Dan tosses him to win ring 2. They are a
tag team though, so Dan and Sid split the money instead of fighting. The whole
thing lasted about 8:32, and wasn’t very good. ½ *.
- Brian Pillman vs. Bill Irwin: Bill kills him to
start, but misses a splash, allowing Pillman to dropkick the hell out of him,
to some nice pops. He runs through his stuff, and goes up top, and misses a
dropkick. Good bump, however. Irwin stomps away, and hits a gutwrench suplex
for two. He tosses him to ring two, and Pillman hits a clothesline from one
ring to the other for three. Clipped to about 3:00, but was fun enough. * ¼.
- The Skyscrapers vs. The Dynamic Dudes: The match is
clipped, as it starts with Sid killing Shane. Sid is crazy over, with the crowd
cheering whenever he’s in, and when Dan gets in, they chant “we want Sid.” Now
THAT is over. I now hate Baltimore,
because they convinced Sid he’s a draw, and made us suffer so much in the
future. (Shut up, Sid’s awesome!) Shane outsmarts Dan, and tags Ace.
Johnny fly’s around to gets a two count, and a pier six breaks out, with the
heel easily winning. Miscommunication spot allows the faces some offense, none
of which Sid can sell. They screw up though, and gets two powerbombs to end at
about 3:18. DUD.
- Tuxedo Street Fight: Jim Cornette vs. Paul E.
Dangerously: Read that again: Paul E. vs. Cornette! Whoa! Jim beats the
hell out of him to start, so Paul throws powder in the eyes, and kicks the crap
out of Jimmy. It spills to the floor, and Paul leaves him laying. He struts
around, and Ross comments: “He strutting around like he’s Ric Flair!” Jim comes
back in, and gets killed some more. Paul misses an elbow drop, and Jim makes
the Hulk Hogan come back, and decks Paul. Too funny. Bob: “ALLRIGHT! Let’s see
some clothes coming off here! Yeah, take it off!” It’s like a gay Jerry Lawler.
He rips Mr. ECW’s shirt off, but Paul gets MORE powder, and it backfires. He
rips the pants to win at 3:58. DUD.
- Street Fight: The Steiner Brothers vs. The Varsity
Club: Big brawl here, without tags or anything. Rick kills Sullivan with a
chair on the floor, and they brawl like crazy. In the ring Mike wrestles Scott,
and Kevin and Rick use Tables and Chairs. Odd to see in 1989. The heels double
team Rick, and Scott makes a save, turning the tide. Rick suplexes Kevin, and
powerslams him for two, as Scott small packages Mike for two. Sullivan drops
Rick to the floor, as Mike beats Scott up. The heels get dual two counts, and
Rick low blows Kevin. Stretcher gets involved, and Scott and Rick get a double
cross body pin at 4:26. Big brawl, and not a very good one. * ¾.
- NWA TV Title: Sting vs. The Great Muta: Sting is
CRAZY over here. Getting gigantic pops. (Twenty five years later, and he still got a
pretty gigantic pop at Survivor Series) Muta won’t get into the right
ring, so Sting dives from ring 1 into 2, in a beautiful spot. He then chases
Gary Hart, allowing Muta to attack with a big chop. He hits a handspring elbow,
but misses a moonsault (yet lands on his feet!). It spills outside, and Muta
hits a cross body. He is SO ahead of his time. Sting comes back with a flying
clothesline, and a standing dropkick. A big right hand gets a one count, and
Muta gets a chinlock. Sting escapes, and gets a press slam, then misses a big
elbow. Muta hits one of his own, and hooks another chinlock, and then a rope
assisted abdominal stretch. Man, that’s not the Muta we want to see! He turns
it into a roll up though, to redeem himself, and Sting comes back with a ton of
energy. Eye rake stops him, and Muta kicks away. He misses another handspring
elbow, and Sting bulldog’s him. Standing dropkick follows, and a criss cross
ends in a ref. bump. Stinger Splash misses, and Muta hits an amazing moonsault.
Another ref. runs down and counts, but it’s only two. Sting then hits a side
suplex for three at 8:10, but apparently he didn’t get the shoulder up in time,
so they hold the belt up to be decided at a future date. Match was good, with ton’s
of heat. *** ¼.
- NWA US Title: Lex Luger vs. Ricky Steamboat: This
was supposed to be no DQ, but Lex refuses to wrestle unless they wave that
rule, so they have to make it a normal match. They wrestle around to start, and
Ricky gets a quick two off an inside cradle. He does a bunch of quick paced
spots, and does some Hawaiian Violence on the floor. Atomic drop, and back in
they go. Luger gets a cheep shot to take over, and murders him on the floor
with a vicious clothesline. Ricky chops away, and drops him on a table. It goes
back in, and Luger pops him one off a flying chop. Lex with a backbreaker, and
hammers the back. Big press slam, and Lex taunts the fans. Luger keeps
hammering, but Ricky won’t stay down. He chops to come back, but the ref. stops
him from using a closed fist, so Lex gets a cheep shot. Now THAT’S how to be a
heel. Powerslam for two, and Ricky gets a cross body press for two. Lex with an
inverted atomic drop, but Ricky gets a neckbreaker. Lex misses a body press,
and goes over the top to the floor. Ricky drags him back in, and hammers away.
Luger lifts a knee on a charge, and goes up top, but gets slammed off. Ricky
with a standing dropkick, and he kills him off a criss cross. Huge top rope
chop for two, and he charges Lex, so he backdrops him from ring 2 to ring 1.
Lex gets a chair, and goes to nail Steamboat, but Ricky slingshots him (with
the chair in hand), and picks it up. He clobbers Luger, getting DQED at 10:26.
Good match, bad ending. Ricky then chases Lex all the way to the back, getting
a big pop. *** ¾.
- War Games: The Fabulous Freebirds, Terry Gordy, and the
Samoan Swat Team vs. The Midnight Express, Steve Williams, and the Road
Warriors: The Road Warriors are super over as faces. Garvin starts with
Eaton, and they actually wrestle. In a War Games. Jimmy controls for the most
part, but Eaton comes back, and they brawl around. Eaton turns a Bossman slam
into a backbreaker, in a nice spot, and continues to hammer. Boston crab is applied, and the next period
starts so Gordy comes in. They dominate Eaton with a load of punches, and
chokes, not really entertaining me. Williams enters for his team, and pounds
both guys. He then press slams Terry which is pretty cool, considering how big
he is. They pair off with Steve/Terry and Bobby/Garvin, with no one really
winning. Samu enters, and kills Dr. Death, as the other two work on Eaton.
Steve makes a super man comeback, and keeps beating Gordy. Man, he likes
Shoulderblocks, doesn’t he? Animal enters next, and is a house of fire, clotheslining
anything that moves. Samu down! Gordy down! Samu down again! G-D the Warriors
are over! Garvin down! Fatu is next, and beats on Animal. He gets him down, and
oddly doesn’t dance in celebration. Stan
Lane is next to join the fray, and rams everybody
into the cage. Fatu gets double teamed by Animal/Williams, which is a deadly
combo. Michael Hayes is the final man for his team, and he DDT’s everybody.
Man, whenever someone enters, they do their signature move on everyone, and
then cool off. That seems to be the idea here. The fans chant “we want Hawk”
and the NWA gives them Hawk, as he’s the last man in the match. He comes off
the top with a double clothesline on the Samoans, and then Gordy is sacrificed
to Hawk. He slams the hell out of Garvin, as Eaton DDT’s Hayes, and then Samu.
Hawk with a ring to ring shoulderblock, in a nice spot. Weird spot: Gordy holds
Hawk for Animal to hit. It backfires, of course, but the logic of the spot is
terrible. Hawk then hooks Garvin in a VICIOUS hangmen to end the match at
22:12. Good enough War Games, ***. (This
one was actually pretty boring to me the last time I watched it)
- Main Event, NWA World Title Match: Ric Flair vs. Terry
Funk: Funk is despised as a heel. The people just do not like that man.
Flair, however, gets a big ‘ol pop. They start in the (a)isle, with Flair
chopping the crap out of Funk. Funk’s retaliation: go into the crowd and bitch.
One security guard looks like Jake Roberts, BTW. It isn’t, of course, but it
looks like him. (Thanks for clearing that up) Flair follows him into the crowd,
and kicks his ass there! In the ring, and Funk does some Texan violence, but
Flair comes back with right hands, knocking him to the floor. Terry looks
drunk. Funk gets control, and slaps Flair around, and suplexes him. Flair
retaliates by dropping Funk to the floor, right on his head. They trade chops
out there, with Flair winning that contest. Funk teases a piledriver, scaring
the crowd, so Ric backdrops him to the floor. Flair does some neck twists out
there, and Funk’s selling job is hilarious. Ric works the neck, as Funk humps
the mat. Ric does a piledriver of his own, and follows with another. Not good
ones either. Funk’s selling is again, funnier than a comedy routine. They have
a mini-boxing match, which Flair wins with a right hook for a two count. Side
suplex leads to the figure four, but Terry grabs his branding iron and clocks
Flair, drawing blood. Good blade job, too. Piledriver hits this time, and the
crowd goes nuts. It gets two, however, as Ric’s feet were in the ropes. The
reason the piledriver caused so much tension, is that at WrestleWar that year,
Funk broke Flair’s neck with it, and this is Ric’s return. Funk tries another
one on the exposed floor, but Ric backdrops out. Back in, and Terry hits a
neckbreaker. Ric grabs the branding iron, and pops Funk, then kicks his ass on
the floor. Terry blades too, as JR talks about how only the NWA title matters,
and the “other one” sucks. Sign in the crowd “NWA is # 1, WWF stinks!” Oh, the
language! Fans used to be so tame. Flair misses a flying knee, and Terry gets
the spinning toe hold, but Flair quickly escapes. Funk with a small package,
but Ric reverses for the pin at 17:19. Great match, ****. Muta then runs out,
and he and Terry annihilate Ric. Sting comes out and makes the save, and Flair,
Sting battle Terry, Muta all the way to the dressing room, which would set up
Halloween Havoc. Great angle. (What was awesome about this match is that
they didn’t book it to overstay its welcome, thereby allowing for unrelenting intensity)
- Bottom Line: People have called this the best PPV
ever. I wouldn’t go that far. It was very good, yes, but it wasn’t the best PPV
ever. (I wouldn’t even consider this one of my top ten best, honestly)
I still stand by WrestleMania X, but
this was certainly a good show, too. People will say that I didn’t rate
Steamboat/Luger high enough, but I really think it was *** ¾, sorry. Still, it
was a good match, so don’t bitch at me too much =). (Anyone who didn’t like that rating would
have outright HATED my BUExperience rating)
Recommended show. 
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