HITMAN383 Re-Rant for WCW/Mandalay Video 'Best of' Series (Great American Bash, Fall Brawl)

- One more before I get to KOTR ’98.

- I explained the concept of these in Mandalay Rant I, so if you don’t know, you’re just not cool. I’m sorry.

- On today’s Hitlist: The Best of the Great American Bash & The Best of Fall Brawl. (This was originally written in the Spring of 2002)


- BTW, I use the SK system for these. That means, if I think the match/segment was worth anything, I’ll give it a point. I do this because these Mandalay ones are clipped to the point where you’d be a nut to give it a star rating. Some tapes (like most Coliseum ones) are minorly clipped, and I still give out the stars to them.

- First Tape: The Best of The Great American Bash.

- Your Host is Mean Gene.

- Great American Bash 1989: NWA United States Title Match: Ricky Steamboat vs. Lex Luger: We cut into Steamboat dropkicking Luger, and then cut to them fighting on the floor. Cut back in, Luger hits a press slam, and then a series of clotheslines. Damn, the heel Luger sure is getting some BIG face pops, huh? Cut to Lex powerslamming him for two, and a Steamboat crossbody gets two. Cut to The Dragon slamming him off the top, and then cut to Luger backdroping Steamboat from ring to ring. Cut to Luger stalking him with a chair, but Steamboat trips him up, and slingshots him into the corner. Steamboat then pastes him with the chair, and gets DQed at 2:34. Damn them, and their clipping! Still, 1 for 1.

- Great American Bash 1990: NWA World Title Match: Ric Flair vs. Sting: Some dumb-ass in charge of pyro screws up Sting’s entrance (caging him by the entrance with it), and the Stinger gets PISSED. Funny to see, actually. We cut right to Sting’s no-selling of Flair’s chops, and then he press slams him. Hip toss is followed by a dropkick, and they fall to the ramp. Out there, Sting no sells some more, and clotheslines Flair back in. Cut to Flair hitting a hanging vertical suplex (no-sold), and Sting hits a top rope crossbody for two. Cut to them trading “whoos,” and then Sting killing him in the corner, and hip tossing him out. He misses a dropkick, however, and Flair works the knee. Cut to the floor, where Sting is FORCED to sell some chops, but no-sells a shot into the rail to even himself out. Good for him. He stalks Flair in, and kills him with punches. Cut to more no-sold chops (guess who was doing which part), and Sting hitting a press slam. A clothesline gets two, and the Stinger Splash looks to finish. He gets the Deathlock on, as some WCW faces keep the Horsemen at bay, but Flair makes the ropes. We cut to a reversal sequence, as Sting gets a backslide for two. He misses a charge into the corner, however, and damages his knee. Flair naturally goes for the figure four, but Sting cradles him to win the title at 5:33. Big pop for that one! An easy point to a fine match. 2 for 2.

- They skip Bash ’91 for obvious reasons.

- Great American Bash 1992: WCW World Title Match: Sting vs. Vader: Oh joy! Bill Watts, and his dimly lit arenas! (Bash ’92 was, indeed, such a depressing looking show, with dark color schemes and poor lighting. At least Beach Blast had the beach theme to liven things up) We start with Vader killing Sting in the corner with his bodyshots. Cut to Vader missing an avalanche, and Sting side suplexing him. He does a series of clothesline to knock Vader to the floor, and we cut to Sting knocking Vader out of the ring with punches and dropkicks. Cut to Sting suplexing Vader from the apron into the ring, and then cut to a slugfest. Sting wins (!), and we cut to a Sting German suplex for two. Cut to the Stinger Splash, and he tries a second, but hits the post, and Vader powerbombs him for the pin at 2:28. The match is just WAY to butchered, and I can’t in good conscience give it a point. 2 for 3.

- They skip Bash ’93 and ’94 since … well … there WAS no Great American Bash in 1993 and 1994. (Seems like a good reason to skip them, then)

- Great American Bash 1995: Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage: Savage brings his father with him, since it’s on Father’s Day. How nice. Savage absolutely kills him to start, and hits an ax handle from the top to the floor. Cut to Flair taking over with chops on the outside, and hitting an ax handle to the back of the neck. Cut to Savage coming back with punches, and then cut to him ambushing the Nature Boy on the outside. Cut to Flair taking his Flair Flip to the outside, and he assaults Macho Poppa, luring Savage out. Ric takes the knee out, and works on that for a while. Figure four applied, and he even uses the ropes for leverage. Cut to Flair missing a top rope shot, and Macho coming back with punches. Flair tries a move off the top anyway, but gets decked on the way down for two. Cut to the big elbow drop, which gets two, since Randy pulls him up. Cut to Savage missing an axe handle to the floor, hitting the rail with authority. Flair, also known as “the vulture,” dives right on, and chokes the life out of him. He goes for Poffo, however, but the old man chokes him out with his cane. Flair gets a low blow in, and steals the cane, then lets Randy have it to get the pin at 6:04. 3 for 4.

- Great American Bash 1996: Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Steve McMichael & Kevin Green: Steve starts with Arn, a privilege he doesn’t deserve. He cut to Arn out wrestling him (well duh), but Steve hits a 2nd rope shoulderblock. Cut to Arn getting double teamed by the faces (and selling like a true pro), and then taking a shot from Randy Savage (who’s with the football guys because he hates Flair). Cut to Flair and Green, as Flair taunts him. He outsmarts the dumb ass, and kicks him right on the top of the head. Serves him right. He comes back with a shoulderblock, and then gives Anderson one, just for the hell of it. Flair tries to walk out, and for some reason reminds me of Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man” the whole time. Either way. Savage drags him back in, so Kevin can do more (you guessed it) shoulder blocks! Cut to Mongo and Flair going, and Steve does some shoulderblocks too. Gee, did they learn ONE move the whole time they were there? Go to “Tough Enough” or “The Power Plant,” or SOMETHING. Steve expands his moveset by 50%, hitting a hip toss and a backdrop on the Nature Boy. He then hooks the figure four on Flair, while Green hooks one on Anderson. Man, the crowd just exploded for that one. A big brawl is going down, and the Horsemen’s women chase the football players’ wives to the back, which becomes important later on. Flair chops away at Mongo (which is no sold, as usual), but Mongo DOES sell a low blow. Cut to Green slamming the hell out of both Horsemen, and backdroping Flair. Powerslam hits, and Flair takes the Flair Flip right into Mongo’s boot. Benoit joins us, just for the hell of it, and helps Arn beat down Savage. Flair gets the figure four on Green during all of this, as Debra (Steve Austin’s current wife) comes out, and gives Mongo a case full of money. She was his wife at the time, BTW. He clobbers Kevin with it, and Flair pins him at 9:43. Ten minutes? And they gave Steamboat/Luger two? That’s just plain WRONG! (This was good for what it was, but come on! Steamboat/Luger and Sting/Vader got less time COMBINED!) Afterwards, the Horsemen kill Green and Savage, just because they can. 4 for 5.

- Great American Bash 1997: Falls Count Anywhere Match: Randy Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page: Page jumps Savage from behind, as he comes out of the crowd. He kills him, so Savage bails right away. That proves to be a mistake, however, as DDP dives out after him! Randy tries to hid behind Liz, but it isn’t 1989 anymore, so DDP just shoves her out of the way. Hey, do what ya gotta do. Back in, he continues to massacre the Macho Man. He hits a clothesline off the top, and we cut to Savage pounding him into the crowd. They brawl to an exit, and DDP clobbers him with somebody’s crutch. This was WAY before “Hardcore Matches” were a common occurrence, BTW, so this all wasn’t so played out at the time. Inside the ring, Savage throws powder in the eyes, and breaks a piece of glass over his head. He takes the ref. out with a piledriver (I’m not quite sure why, other than to establish havoc), ! (Pretty sure that was literally exactly why)  and then chokes Page, as another ref. runs out. Savage kills him too, and beats Page out to the floor. Savage threatens Kim, as some fans feel her up, and a third ref. comes out. Poor Kim, having those rednecks hanging all over her. Than again, she married Page, so you know. They fight over to a BBQ pit, where Page breaks a salad bowl, and a flower pot over his head. He slams him through a picnic table, and throws a grill onto the Macho Man. Cut to the ring, where Savage gets caught in the Diamond Cutter. Scott Hall runs out, since this IS 1997 WCW, and takes out the ref. Page kills him too, however, but Savage breaks his head with the tag belt. He hits the big elbow, and gets the win at 8:17. Gee, do faces EVER go over on this tape? Still, a really fun brawl which earns another point. 5 for 6. (This was a wild brawl for 1997, though it doesn’t really hold up today)

- Great American Bash 1998: Randy Savage & Roddy Piper vs. Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart: I hate it already. Well, if it was 19 88 that would be different, but this is 19 98, so I’m not looking forward to this. Piper and Hogan go to start, and he and Savage take turns poking the eyes. Cut to Brutus Beefcake (as the Disciple) hitting Piper, and then cut to Bret getting a low blow. Cut to Savage killing Bret and Hogan, and then Piper joins the fun, after hooking up to his respirator. Savage falls off the top rope (presumably because he’s so old), and hurts his knee, which the heels go right to work on. Everyone is just brawling now, and in the mess, Bret hooks the Sharpshooter to beat Savage at 2:42, adding another heel win to the list. 5 for 7, and one of the most embarrassing matches I have ever seen. To think that all these guys were having **** matches with each other ten years prior, and then they do this embarrassment. It’s a sad day for wrestling, I’ll say that. (Sad that they clipped this match down to a quarter of its length, and still couldn’t cut and paste it into anything even resembling a good match. Truly one of my least favorite matches of all time)

- Great American Bash 1998: United States Title Match: Goldberg vs. Konan: Well, SOME face has to go over. Might as well be Goldberg. To be clear, Goldberg was SUPER, SUPER over at this point, and was about a month away from the world title. This was being sold as his “100th” straight win, and the crowd is just jacked for this guy. And WCW, in a smart and dumb move all at the same time, piped a “Goldberg” chant in through the sound systems during this time period to encourage people to chant, and it WORKED. That’s the smart part. The dumb part is that they had to pipe it in to get people to chant, but whatever works, right? Anyway, Goldberg kills him for the whole squash, and the spear/jackhammer combo puts him away at 1:56, un-clipped. It’s a sure DUD, but it gets a point because Goldberg was just SO cool at this point. 6 for 8.

- Bottom Line: Well, 6 for 8 is a pretty good ratio, and while some stuff sucks, the cutting ratio looks a little better than some other Mandalay tapes. Not a blow away AMAZING tape, but a fun one hour event with some good action.

- Recommended. (Steamboat/Luger cut down to two minutes? Vader/Sting cut down to two minutes? The depressing 1998 tag match included? No way this is a recommendation, even back then)

- Tape 2: The Best of Fall Brawl.

- Mean Gene is the host, as usual.

- This is gonna be a hit or miss. They obviously can’t show the War Games matches in great length due to this being a one-hour tape, so based on singles matches, and how they cut the War Games matches is gonna decide how good this one is.

- Fall Brawl 1995: Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson: Well, so much for going in any kind of order. Some other young wrestlers are sitting in the crowd, all studying from these two. Good build there, I have to admit. Anderson wins a criss cross with a toe hold, but lets off right away. He wins another criss cross with a shoulderblock, and then slaps the Nature Boy. Cut to Flair chopping his buddy down, but he runs into an elbow, so Arn hooks a sleeper. Flair quickly breaks it, so Arn drives a knee into the back. Arn slams him on his arm, and then works on that for a while. Flair tries to escape Anderson’s arm work with chops, but no dice, as Arn gets him down. Cut to Anderson winning a slugfest, but getting dumped to the floor off of a Flair Flip sequence. Flair drops out after him with an axe handle from the top, and we cut to Ric hooking the figure four. The crowd pops, and EVERYONE is on their feet for this! Arn refuses to quit, however, and reverses the hold! Flair escapes, and we cut to Ric abusing the knee as Brian Pillman pops up on the apron from the crowd. He kicks Flair in the head, and Anderson gets the pin at 6:14. Well that was a cheap ending. Still, it’s worth a point. 1 for 1. Here’s a note I’m adding after watching the rest of the tape: if you rent this … stop here. No more good wrestling will come of this tape, I promise.

- Fall Brawl 1994: Loser Leaves WCW Match: Cactus Jack vs. Kevin Sullivan: What, so the loser gets the prize? ! (Yes, I made that same joke in the first rant too. Wanna fight about it?)  Big pop for Cactus, so naturally you know he’s gonna lose. They brawl from the start, and actually look pretty goofy doing it. Something’s not clicking here. Cut to Sullivan slamming Cactus off the top rope to the floor, onto the exposed concrete. Okay, ouch. Cut to Cactus dropping an elbow inside the ring for two, and then cut to Sullivan trying to use a chair. Dave Sullivan stops him, however, but Sullivan still rolls Jack up for the pin at 1:59. Big, big boos for that. I’m tempted to give it a point for Jack’s sick bump to the floor, but the fact that WCW screwed up so badly with Cactus prevents me from pulling the trigger on that one. 1 for 2. (Not sure why this even warranted inclusion, especially since if Foley doesn’t equal butts in seats, he certainly wouldn’t equal tape sales)

- Fall Brawl 1997: Harlem Heat vs. The Steiner Brothers: Scott and Stevie start, as I wonder why they’re showing this when there are such better matches to show. ! (Of all the obscure choices to avoid showcasing super clipped versions of War Games, this has to be the weirdest) Stevie controls, and we cut to Booker getting belly to bellied by Poppa Pump. A 4-way brawl breaks out, with the Steiner’s easily winning, and then we cut to Booker spin kicking Rick. Stevie Ray gets tagged in, and he does his favorite scientific holds: punches and kicks. Scott plays Ricky Morton for a long time (even with all the cutting that’s going on), and then we cut to Rick cleaning house. 2nd rope bulldog gets two on Booker, and a combo clothesline/German suplex by the Steiner’s gets three on Stevie at 4:07. Boy, that wasn’t worth four minutes. I mean, what were they thinking when they decided to show THIS match? Was Eric Bischoff offering free lap dances to the jerk who can come up with the worst matches for a best of tape? (That’s... possible...) I mean, gee! 1 for 3.

- Fall Brawl 1995: War Games Match: The Zodiac, The Shark, Kamala, & Meng vs. Hulk Hogan, Sting, Lex Luger, & Randy Savage: You may recognize the heels as the “bad WWF wrestlers of the 80’s.” ! (Not sure if that was a Troy McClure reference or not, but I’d like to think that it was)  Sting and Shark (John Tenta, also known as Earthquake) start, and Sting slams the big guy. Cut to later, as Savage and Sting are fighting Tenta and Zodiac (Brutus Beefcake). A bunch of chokes is all. Cut to later, as Luger and Savage have a miscommunication, and start fighting eachother. That allows Meng to kill everyone, as Kamala sits on his ass. Cut to Hogan entering the cage, and using powder on everyone. Cut to even later, as Hogan gets the worst camel clutch EVER on Beefcake to get the submission (presumably because even Beefcake was embarrassed to be in that crappy of a hold) at 2:32. Beefcake was probably happy to have Hogan riding him, however. Afterwards, Hogan is allowed five minutes with Kevin Sullivan, and kills him, but The Giant makes the save as Bobby Heenan makes references to Andre the Giant. Yeah, whatever. This was an embarrassment to the sport. 1 for 4. (Why even bother showing War Games matches clipped down to two minutes?)

- Fall Brawl 1996: War Games Match: Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan & A Mystery Man vs. Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Ric Flair & A Mystery Man: The Mystery Man parts become very important later on. Cut right to when everyone is already in (???), and the faces are kicking ass. Just look at the face team, and think “when did I ever expect to see THESE three on a team?” Sting comes in for the final n Wo guy, but it’s a fake Sting. We “don’t know” that, despite this guy not really looking like Steve Borden, but the crowd was buying it, so whatever. Then the real Sting comes in for Team WCW, and all is well and good, right? Wrong. Sting takes out all of the heels, but doesn’t end the match, instead walking out. See, he’s very pissed that team WCW didn’t trust him, and thought he was a trader. That, of course, led to Sting going dark for over a year, and hiding in the rafters, before he wrestled again in December of 1997 against Hulk Hogan in WCW’s biggest angle, ever! They did try to get him back, however. In fact, on Nitro, they offered him a RACE CAR to come back, but he still didn’t. What a PUNK! I mean, I know I would have come back for the race car. Hell yeah, IN A SECOND! Anyway, the n Wo makes Luger submit shortly after at 3:38, to end this crap. It’s historically significant, yes, but it still sucks. 1 for 5.

- Fall Brawl 1998: War Games Match: Diamond Stalker Page, Roddy Piper & The Warrior vs. Bret Hart, Stevie Ray & Hulk Hogan vs. Sting, Lex Luger & Kevin Nash: This would be the worst, and the last, War Games. But the rules are different … see, ANY man can win. At any time. There really are no “teams,” and people don’t have to wait until the Match Beyond to end it. They can even beat their own teammates. Yes, I know it’s stupid, you don’t have to tell me. DDP and Bret Hart start out, for whatever reason, without a member from the third team present. If you understand that concept, please, go away. Don’t even visit this web site anymore, we don’t need your hits. Bret and DDP go through a crappy match with eachother, since it’s ’98 Bret Hart, and DDP hits a shoulderblock for two. In a War Games. Oh man, this is just BAD. Page with a belly to belly for two, and we cut to later, as Hart kicks his ass. Backbreaker hits, as Hart stalks Page around the ring. How’s it feel, Dallas? (Dated reference to Page’s 2001 WWF angle as Undertaker’s wife’s stalker)  Stevie Ray enters next, for whatever reason, so now one team has TWO guys, while another team has none. We cut right to the end of the time period, as Page clotheslines both guys, but gets atomic dropped by Ray anyway. Sting enters next, to the only pop of the match so far, and beats up Stevie Ray. Yeah, I'm as pumped as you are. Cut to the end of the period, as Sting continues to beat on poor Stevie, while Page and Hart punch eachother. Man, I miss the old Bret. Not this punch-kick piece of crap he was by this point. Roddy Piper enters next, and hits everyone, including teammate DDP. He kisses Stevie Ray, and Ray tries to kill him as a result, but Sting stops that. (Piper got really weird during this period)  Man, this match sucks. And it’s minimally cut, which really sucks. Lex Luger comes in next (after that terrible, terrible period), and fights Stevie Ray. Bret waves at them the whole time, for some unknown, weird ass reason. Oh man, someone CUT THIS to the end already. Gee, and you butcher Luger/Steamboat on the Bash tape? Bastards! Kevin Nash is next, as I think they’ve quit cutting at all here. I guess the guy in charge of cutting these fell asleep (and I can’t blame him), so they just air the whole thing. (I was just about to chime in with that same joke at the end of the previous sentence, before realizing it was already right there in 2002 in the following sentence. That’s a weird feeling)   Hulk Hogan wanders in, despite that it isn’t his turn, or the end of the period, and hits various people. And no one stops it. Or complains. Or anything. This is the biggest farce I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot. Anyway, Hogan and Stevie kill EVERYONE, as the fans chant “Hogan sucks.” Hey, I agree. The ring fills with smoke at this point, and the Warrior appears inside the ring, before his turn too. Hogan kills him, so the smoke appears again, and Warrior disappears. Then Warrior runs down the isle, and kills Hogan and Ray. Does anyone else feel embarrassed to say they like wrestling at this point? Hulk bails out of the cage, so Warrior busts through the mesh, and gives chase while Hogan holds the Disciple’s hand and runs. Oh my G-D (…). I feel dirty. Meanwhile, in the ring, Page Diamond Cuts Stevie Ray and gets the pin at 16:05. Yeah, it was cut some, but I feel comfortable enough with giving this a star rating. -*****. One of the biggest black eyes on wrestling, EVER! 1 for 6. ! (This is actually an even more perplexing decision than the Heat/Steiners or Cactus/Sullivan inclusions. Of all the matches to show nearly at full, THIS ONE?!?!)

- Bottom Line: Outside of Flair/Anderson, which is only moderately good, nothing is worth your time. And some of it is downright embarrassing.

- Strong, Strong Recommendation to Avoid.

- Final Word: Get the Best of Great American Bash, never, ever, ever rent the Best of Fall Brawl.

(This also marks the final HITMAN383 Rant I have archived from the 1999-2002 run, completing this section of the BUExperience. It’s been great reading some of the comments and e-mails from those of you who remember the old site from way back then, and it’s been fun for me to revisit these – most of which I hadn’t read through in a long while. Some of it was better than others (the 1999 stuff was particularly cringe worthy), but I hope you all enjoyed this two year journey through it all as much as I did!)