WCW The Great American Bash 1995 (Version II)

Original Airdate: June 18, 1995

From Dayton, Ohio; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

Opening Match: Alex Wright v Brian Pillman: Nice to see Pillman back on pay per view - this his first appearance on one in over a year. Feeling out process to start, until Wright misses a leg-feed enzuigiri, and Brian takes him down in a Mexican surfboard. Alex hangs on, so Pillman tries a headlock, but Wright escapes with a whip into the ropes. He goes for a tilt-a-whirl, but Brian counters with a headscissors takedown - only to miss a dropkick, and end up in a Boston crab. He tries a surfboard next, but can't seem to get it properly applied, and just kind of holds it in a weird position. They trade cradles, and Pillman shows some aggression by using an elbow to get out of a hammerlock. He gets Alex down in his own hammerlock, but gets dumped to the outside on Wright's escape. Alex tries to be kind and hold the ropes open for Pillman, but Brian responds by pulling him to the outside for a beating instead. Back in, Pillman cracks him with chops, but telegraphs a backdrop, and eats a facebuster. Wright tries following up with a splash, but Pillman lifts the knees to block - thought Alex was way out of position, and didn't really connect in any believable way. Brian grounds him in a chinlock/bodyscissors combo, and an awkward looking gutwrench stomachbreaker gets two. That looked like a miscommunication there. Brian drops him front-first across the top rope, but a vertical suplex gets reversed to the outside, and Alex capitalizes with a baseball slide. Plancha follows, and Wright delivers a missile dropkick for two on the way back in. Pillman dumps him to the outside to try and cut off the comeback, and Brian manages a tope before Wright can recover. He goes to the well again with a dive off the middle rope, but it proves one time too many, as Brian crashes into the guardrail. Wright tries a flying clothesline on the way back in, but Pillman manages to duck, and Alex wipes out. Both guys stagger up and throw dropkicks at the same time, but Pillman recovers from the miss first, and he tries a vertical superplex - Alex countering with a gourdbuster down. Wright dives with a flying bodypress for two, but his attempts to whip Pillman into the ropes fail when Brian keeps collapsing. Wright falls for it, and goes up to the middle, but a dive is blocked with a dropkick for two. Pillman goes up, but Wright shoves him off - Brian crotching himself across the top rope with gusto! German suplex, but Pillman reverses - only to have Alex reverse back for two. Clothesline, so Brian tries a sunset cradle, but Wright counters it by dropped to his knees into a cradle for three at 15:25. They had some awkward bits early on, but it built into one hell of a match by the end. *** ½ (Original rating: ***)

Arm Wrestling Match: Dave Sullivan v Diamond Dallas Page: If Dave wins, he gets to go on a date with Diamond Doll, and if Page wins, he gets Dave's pet rabbit. That seems like a lopsided deal there. Not much to say here - Page acts like a dick-heel, and they arm wrestle, only for Doll to 'accidentally' knock into Page to cost him the match. Page was entertaining, but this belonged on TV

Sgt. Craig Pittman v Jim Duggan: Duggan is subbing for Marcus Alexander Bagwell, who is announced as injured. They size each other up to start, then get into trading wristlocks, until Pittman starts choking him on the ropes. A charge misses, however, and Craig takes a pretty wild bump over the top - landing in his feet for a second before crashing to the ground. Pittman sweeps Jim down from the floor, and tears off Hacksaw's kneepad for some exposed shots into the post. Pittman has some great intensity going here. Inside, Craig works the leg, but Duggan fights him off, and starts mounting a comeback. 3-point stance hits, but Pittman slaps on the Code Red as Duggan goes for the cover. I'm not sure I appreciate the psychology of Pittman working the leg for the bulk of the match to set up his armbreaker finisher, but whatever, Jim is in the ropes anyway. Unfortunately for him, Pittman won't let off, and the referee DQs him over it at 8:11. Pittman came along too late. He was an interesting and intense character, but in this era, fans expected you to be able to display that same potential in the ring as well, and he just didn't have it. ¼* (Original rating: ¼*)

Harlem Heat v Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater: Big brawl to start, with the Heat cleaning house. Stevie Ray starts with Slater as the dust settles, and he pounds Dick in the corner. That brings in Buck without a tag, but Stevie bodyslams him, and the heels back off. Dust settles on Booker and Buck, and Bunkhouse manages to win a slugfest, but runs into a sidekick. Bicycle kick follows, and Stevie tags back in for a big boot. Even his kicks are lazier than Booker's! Stevie grabs a front-facelock to wear Buck down, then passes back to Booker for a dropkick. That knocks Buck right into a tag to Slater, and he tries a front-facelock of his own, but Booker counters to a hammerlock. The match kinda falls apart, as the Heat can't seem to settle on who they should work over, and the flow is badly disrupted as a result. The heels briefly cut the ring in half on Stevie to try and give us something to work with, but he gets the tag off to Booker in short order, and Roseanne Barr the door! Finish comes as Booker hooks Buck in a small package, so Colonel Robert Parker hops in to reverse it, but then Sister Sherri hops in and does the same for the pin at 8:39. This was awkward all the way through, with the Heat not really accustomed to working as babyfaces, and basically trying to translate their usual heel routines as-is into a babyface style, which didn't work. ¼* (Original rating: DUD)

WCW Television Title Match: Arn Anderson v Renegade: Arn tries to blitz him at the bell, but Renegade shrugs off his attacks, and starts throwing clotheslines to send the champion to the outside. Back in, Renegade grabs a headlock, but Arn counters to an abdominal stretch, which Renegade reverses. Why bother making him a Warrior clone if you're going to have him doing chain wrestling? And it's not like he's GOOD at doing chain wrestling either, so it's a failure on every level. Like, who is this character supposed to appeal to? Arn tries a leg-feed enzuigiri, but Renegade no-sells, and beats on Anderson in the corner. A charge hits elbow, and Arn tries a sleeper, but Renegade reverses. The exchanges are so awkward and clumsy here. Anderson side suplexes out of the hold, and ropechokes his challenger, then snapmares him over for a chinlock. Renegade escapes, so Anderson drops him with the rotating spinebuster, but it only gets two. Renegade fires back with an atomic drop, but that somehow results in a double knockout (in another clumsy exchange), and Anderson goes to the top. Renegade pulls him off with a Samoan drop, however, and a flying splash finishes at 9:06. Terrible. Renegade was completely exposed here. If they wanted to put the title on him, this should have been a squash in under a minute. DUD (Original rating: DUD)

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: The Nasty Boys v The Blue Bloods: Big brawl to start, which quickly spills to the outside, and all around ringside. That goes on for a long, long time, before finally settling into Jerry Sags and Lord Steven Regal. Sags pounds him, so Earl Robert Eaton takes a cheap shot from the apron, but Brian Knobbs does the same to Regal. That gives us another brawl on the floor, again dominated by the champions. Inside, Sags hits Regal with a pumphandle-slam for two, and tags to Knobbs and Eaton result in Robert taking a backdrop, but he manages to dodge a charge, and Brian takes a bump to the outside. Regal capitalizes with a flying elbowdrop off of the apron, and the Bloods cut the ring in half on Knobbs. Eaton misses a charge in the corner to allow the tag to Sags, and Jerry comes in with a scoop powerslam to set up a kneedrop, but runs into a cheap shot from Regal. The Bloods dominate him with double teams on the outside, as Bobby and Tony get in a funny exchange about the seasons that segues out of Heenan noting that Sags has 'summer teeth' (some are bent, some are crooked, some are missing, etc). The Bloods cut the ring in half on Sags, but he manages to get the tag off to Knobbs, and Roseanne Barr the door! Harlem Heat run out as both teams brawl, and Booker hits Knobbs with the Harlem Hangover, but accidentally takes out Eaton in the process - allowing Sags to dive off the top with a flying elbowdrop at 15:03. What was WCWs fascination with booking the Nasties in such long matches? Best spot of the match came from a guy not even in the match. * (Original rating: DUD)

WCW United States Title Match: Sting v Meng: This is a tournament final for the vacant title. Or, well, it's actually the semifinals, but since the other semifinal match ended in a no contest between Ric Flair and Randy Savage, this becomes the final by default. I've always wanted to see that happen in a tournament before... adds some realism. Meng blitzes him in the corner, so Sting throws back a pair of standing dropkicks, but Meng absorbs them. He steps to the outside to strategize with Colonel Robert Parker, and back in, he unloads on the Stinger with a variety of strikes. Sting again tries a standing dropkick, but he misses a charge follow-up, and ends up taking a bump to the outside. Meng follows to whip him into the rail out there, and he hits a nice sitout powerbomb for two on the way back in. Shoulderbreaker gets two, and Meng works a nervehold. Well, you knew it was coming eventually. He dumps Sting to the outside for Parker to get some licks in, then back in for another nervehold. I knew we were getting off too easy when the first one lasted less than a minute. There's a quota. Sting escapes, but Meng blocks a backslide attempt, so Sting dives with a neat 2^nd rope flying reverse bodyblock. Unfortunately for him, Meng recovers from that blow first, and hits a headbutt drop for two. Side suplex, but Sting topples him on the way down for two, and starts throwing clotheslines. Meng no-sells, so Sting hits a jumping version to talk him into it, and a one-handed bulldog follows. Inverted atomic drop leads to a cactus clothesline, so Meng tries a charge out there, but ends up bashing his head into the post. Back in, Sting hits a fistdrop to set up the Scorpion Deathlock, but Meng powers out of it. Sting is stunned, but stays focused by clipping the leg, and hitting a flying clothesline. Flying splash gets two, but a jumping DDT puts it away at 13:35! Pretty boring most of the way through, but got good towards the end. This would have benefitted from losing a few minutes. * ½ (Original rating: ½*)

Main Event: Ric Flair v Randy Savage: Small thing, but I always thought Savage's WCW outfits couldn't hold a candle to his WWF gear. And speaking of bad outfits, Savage's dad Angelo appears to have borrowed his suit for tonight from the wardrobe department of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. Macho goes right at Flair, blitzing him in the opening moments, and sending him to the outside with a clothesline. Randy dives after him with a flying axehandle, so Flair goes to the eyes to buy time, but runs into a backdrop on the floor. Into the post next, but Ric manages to reverse, and he introduces Macho to the rail. The Nature Boy with a few chops out there, and a flying axehandle off of the apron follows before they head back in. Flair works Savage over in the corner, and a snapmare sets up a kneedrop - Randy bailing to the apron. Ric pulls him back in for chops, but Macho fires back with punches, and he goes to town in the corner! Mounted punches follow, so Ric bails to the outside, but Savage is hot on his tail! He beats Flair down out there, and slams the Nature Boy off the top rope on the way back in. Piledriver, but Flair manages to hit the deck to block, so Savage corner whips him to flip Flair to the outside. He goes after Poffo out there, so Savage rushes out to save - his concern for his father allowing Flair to clip the leg. He drops Macho knee-first into the rail, but Randy beats the count in, so Flair clips the leg again. Ric goes to work on the part, and the Figure Four looks to finish, but Macho manages to reverse! Flair escapes, and tries to keep control with a flying splash, but Macho moves! That leads to a slugfest that goes Savage's way, and a bodyslam sets up the Flying Elbowdrop, but Macho pulls him up at two! He wants to do more damage, so he goes out to fetch the ring bell, but the referee manages to intervene. Meanwhile, Flair has bailed to the outside, so Savage comes off the top with a flying axehandle, but Ric dodges, and Randy crashes into the rail! With Macho down, Flair goes after Poffo again. He steals his cane away from him during the beating, and when Randy recovers enough to attack, Flair bashes him with the cane for the pin at 14:41. They've had better matches, but this was a nice change of pace, after months of Hogan main events with the babyfaces going over every single time. ** ¼ (Original rating: ** ½)

BUExperience: After months of goofy overbooked messes, it was a real breath of fresh air to have a realistic and intense angle in the main event again. And while that was great, this is still not a good pay per view by any stretch of the imagination – though it still managed to be better than anything else they churned out for 1995 thus far.


DUD