Great American Bash 1990 - Ric Flair v Sting

On this week's bonus episode join Gus as he heads back to 1990 for the Great American Bash.  Ric Flair defends his World Title against the man called Sting, Doom defend their tag team titles against the Rock n Roll Express and The Undertaker(?) challenges Lex Luger for the US Championship.  Also in action is the debut of Big Van Vader, The Steiners, The Midnight Express, The Horsemen and much much more.

Watch along on the WWE Network 
https://watch.wwe.com/episode/WCW-The-Great-American-Bash-1990-11820

Watch along on Peacock 
https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/GMO_00000000166684_02/2c6dab53-db64-3861-94f7-4257ef6e4c5a

To get in touch email Gus retroreviews@hotmail.com

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/retrowrestling4

Transcript

Hello again and welcome to the Retro Wrestling Reviews podcast.  On this episode we will be reviewing the Great American Bash from 1990.  This show was requested by one of our listeners, James from Las Vegas Nevada.  Thanks for listening James, you have picked a good show and you’re from one of my favourite places in the world, hopefully I can get back there soon.  If you want to request a show to be reviewed then get in touch at retroreviews@hotmail.com.  Last week on the show, we reviewed the Battle Royal at the Royal Albert Hall show and I got some great feedback.  Strangely though, the most feedback I got was because I refused to repeat the terrible joke that Earthquake made on the show!  So far all the people wanting to know what the joke was, here it is.  Earthquake is being interviewed by Mean Gene and he says “Gene, do you know how long of a boat ride it is from the US to here?  Really long, that’s why we took the place”.  I told you it was terrible, so blame Earthquake and not me!  If you have missed any of the reviews so far you can catch up with them all in the archives.  Lets get on with today’s show.  

Great American Bash 1990 July 7 – Baltimore, Maryland

Jim Ross and Bob Caudle are the announcers.

Buddy Landell v Flying Brian Pillman.  We just saw Buddy Landell as a 20 year old on Mid Atlantic Wrestling starting off his career, now we see him 9 years later, doing the Nature Boy gimmick.  Never really got the idea of Landell using that gimmick, especially as it’s a heel gimmick to rip someone else off and Ric Flair was a heel throughout most of the 90s, so the natural feud was just never there.  Pillman is just coming off a tag team run with Tom Zenk, who he held the US Tag titles with for a few months and is now getting a singles push here.  This isn’t much of a match as Landell’s offence is really boring and sloppy and he isn’t giving Pillman much here.  Pillman gets the win with a cross body off the top rope in one of his few offensive moves of the match.

Iron Sheik v Captain Mike Rotunda.  This is the period where Rotunda goes from the captain of the Varsity Club to randomly keeping the captain name and becoming the a ship’s captain.  Sheik takes over early, wearing some interesting peach coloured tights.  The arena must be boiling hot tonight as Sheik and Rotunda haven’t done much but there are dripping in sweat.  The Sheik’s moustache is magnificent, I really need to consider growing one like that.  Rotunda picks up the win with a sloppy backslide to a big pop.  Its one thing you always miss these days is the crowds popping for babyface wins.

Gordon Solie interviews Harley Race about his upcoming match against Tommy Rich and they mention that Rich defeated Race for the world title back in the day.  

Dirty Dutch Mantell v Doug Furnas.  Furnas looks huge here, I didn’t even recognise him before he was introduced.  Mantell is up there with George Steele on the hairiness scale.  Furnas is such a great athlete, he does a back flip off the top rope, then hits a really high dropkick.  This is a pretty decent match, Mantell is a solid wrestler who knows how to tell a story in the ring.  Furnas gets the win with a great belly to belly suplex.

Jim Cornette is interviewed by Solie regarding the US tag title match between the Midnight Express and the Southern Boys.  

Harley Race v Tommy Rich.  This was a huge match 10 years or so ago.  Race is at the end of his career here, this might actually be he final PPV match.  Rich has aged and lost his boyish looks which takes away most of his gimmick.  This is a good hard hitting match, or as good as can be expected with where they are in the careers.  Race gets the win when Rich hits a cross body from the top rope but Race rolls through.  

Paul E Dangerously and a pre Undertaker Mark Callous are interviewed by Gordon Solie regarding Callous’ US Title match v Lex Luger later tonight.  Callous fails miserably trying to rip apart a Lex Luger t shirt, they really should have pre cut that shirt.

US Tag Team Title match.  The Champions, the Midnight Express v the Southern Boys.  This match is excellent, which is no surprise given who is in there.  Southern Boys are quite new to the promotion so the Midnight’s give them a ton of shine early on and bump like crazy to get the crowd behind them and it works.  Lane and Smothers have a karate stand off which Tracy gets the better of for a big pop.  Midnights get the heat on Smothers, Eaton hits his legdrop off the top rope but doesn’t go for the cover, instead tags in Stan.  Express are using all their famous double team moves and are getting a babyface pop from the crowd.  Jim Cornette about a year or so ago did a watchalong of this match on his podcast, talking about how the match would put together etc, its some really good insight and after you listen to this podcast you should check it out.  I’ll put a link to it up on Twitter.  Armstrong gets the hot tag and cleans house.  Armstrong hits a dropkick off the top rope on Lane while Smothers was holding him up.  Express hit the rocket launcher on Armstrong but only get a two count.  Smothers and Armstrong switch, but Smothers only gets a two count from a small package.  Eaton whips Smothers into the ropes where Lane hits him with a kick to the back of the head and Eaton rolls him up for the win to retain the title.  Such a great match.

Gordon Solie is with the Freebirds, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin who are covered in glitter and makeup.  They talk about their match coming up against the Steiners.  

Next up is the WCW debut of Big Van Vader against the Z Man Tom Zenk.  Vader is one of my all time favourites, probably the best 350+lber of all time.  I’m gutted that timings never worked out and we got a prime Vader v a prime Brock Lesnar match.  Vader comes out with the headpiece on.  He doesn’t wear the same mask as he becomes famous for, although he is masked up.  Vader starts off with the forearms in the corner, then follows up with an avalanche and a short clothesline.  If Z Man gets much offense in this match then I’ll be disappointed.  Vader hits press slam and then a big elbow drop.  Vader’s whole presentation is incredible here.  This is the perfect showcase for him.  Vader finishes Zenk off with a clothesline and then a big splash.  

The Horsemen minus Ric Flair are interviewed regarding their 6 man later against JYD, Orndorff and El Gigante.  The Horseman at the point are Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Sid Vicious and Ole Anderson as the manager.

Freebirds v the Steiner Brothers.  I’ve spoken before about how the Steiners are my favourite tag team of all time, so I’m looking forward to this match even though the Freebirds are probably not the best opponents for them.  Freebirds jump the Steiners to start the match but it doesn’t take long for the Steiners to get the advantage with a couple of steinerlines from Rick and Scott.  Rick ends up throwing Garvin around for a couple of minutes before Hayes tags in.  Scott gets in and he throws both Freebirds around too, including an underhook powerbomb on Hayes and a tilt a whirl suplex on Hayes.  Freebirds bail and Hayes gets heckled with a Michael is a Bitch chant from the crowd.  Freebirds get the heat on Rick.  Not much to the heat segment to be honest.  Scott gets the hot tag and runs wild and hits the Frankensteiner on Hayes but Garvin takes him out with a DDT.  The ref is getting Garvin out of the ring and Rick hits Hayes with an overhead belly to belly and puts Scott on top for the win.  So so match, Steiners looked great but the Freebirds were the Freebirds.

6 man tag action now, it’s the Horseman against Sting’s crew.  Arn Anderson, Barry Windham and Sid Vicious v The Junkyard Dog, Paul Orndorff and El Gigante.  Mr Wonderful is totally miscast as a babyface here.  This is El Gigante’s PPV debut.  He does look impressive but that is going to disappear as soon as the bell ring.  Orndorff and side start of and Wonderful cleans house on all three of the Horsemen.  Story of the match is the heels are scared of Gigante and keep trying to avoid him.  JYD is past his prime at this point, but I am looking forward to seeing his Mid South run when we start that in a couple of weeks.  Horsemen get the heat on Orndorff.  Sid is over huge with the crowd, when he is on the outside there is a big “We Want Sid” chant.  Horrible finish as the Horsemen as DQ’d for throwing JYD over the top rope.  El Gigante comes in to clean house and the Horseman bail.  The action was decent but that finish was terrible.

Lex Luger defends his US Title against Mean Mark w/Paul E Dangerously.  Always strange to see a pre Undertaker Mark Calloway.  This is around 4 months or so before his debut as the Undertaker.  Luger comes out to a big pop here.  A lot of mullets in this match.  Taker must have wore big lifts in his boots when he started as the Undertaker as he only looks about an inch or two bigger than Luger here.  Not much to the start of this match as they both work arm bars and hammerlocks.  Mean Mark does a great leapfrog then hits a big boot to take over and does the top rope walk.  Luger no sells a suplex and comes back with clotheslines.  He goes for the torture rack, but Mean Mark’s feet hit the referee and he goes down.  This lets Paul E come in and hit Luger with the telephone.  Luger kicks out at two though to a big pop.  Mean Mark hits a sloppy clothesline and then goes for a heart punch which Luger blocks with a big boot and hits a clothesline for the win.  Another decent match and the crowd were hot for the finish.  

World Tag Team Title match is next and it’s the Rock n Roll Express challenging Doom, who are Ron Simmons and Butch Reed.  Doom have the best theme tune that WCW ever produced.  This should be a good match, as the Rock n Roll Express are perfect to play the underdog babyfaces against the power team.  Ron Simmons and Robert Gibson start things off.  Great line from Jim Ross regarding Teddy Long at ringside who he says “His mouth is so big he can whisper in his own ear”.  Ross also points out that its 5 years to the day since the Rock n Rolls won their first tag team championship.  This is a dream to call for JR as he is able to talk about Doom’s legit American football careers.  A different Express match than usual as its Gibson playing the babyface in peril rather than Morton.  Although just as I say that, Morton gets the tag and its not long until Doom double team him and start a heat segment on Ricky.  Morton is great in this role, he takes a heck of a beating.  He starts a mini comeback but gets caught in a powerslam by Reed.  A little miscommunication lets him get the hot tag to Robert Gibson.  Teddy Long ends up in the ring and gets nailed by Gibson, who then turns around into a shoulder block off the top rope by Reed for the win.  Pretty good match there.  

Main event time and its Ric Flair v Sting for the World Title.  No DQ and the Dudes with Attitude will be on the outside of the ring with Ole Anderson handcuffed to El Gigante, no sign of the Horsemen.  The backstory here is that Sting was in the Horsemen and at Starrcade 89 he won the Future Shock tournament which included Flair, Luger and the Great Muta, pinning Flair in the final match.  This was to guarantee a title shot.  Sting was told by the Horsemen to give up the title shot and when he refused the Horsemen turned on him and kicked him out the group.  Later that night Sting was legitimately injured climbing the cage and tore his patella which meant his title shot in February had to be postponed.  This meant a rush face turn and loss for Lex Luger to take his place before Sting was ready to come back and wrestle Flair here in July.  We get a rare appearance from Jim Herd here as he makes sure Ole gets handcuffed to Gigante.  Crowd is rabid for this match and they are ready for a title change.  Because of the real injury to Sting’s knee, this works in perfectly for the story to a Flair match.  The match starts off the usual way for Flair and Sting, with Sting no selling the chops in the corner.  This is just over 2 years since the famous 45 minute time limit draw on the first Clash of the Champions which made Sting a star for life.  At about the 10 minute mark, Flair finally takes control and starts working over the knee.  Flair misses a kneedrop and Sting puts Flair in the figure 4 but Flair gets to the ropes.  Ric is giving Sting a ton here, he easily could have taken the majority of the match since he was losing, but that isn’t Flair’s way of doing things.  Flair is back in control, working over the leg but its not long until Sting is back in charge with a press slam.  Sting hits a Stinger splash and goes for the scorpion death lock.  This brings out the Horsemen but the Dudes with Attitude hold them off.  Flair moves out the way of a Sting knee in the corner and goes for the figure 4 but Sting counters that into an inside cradle for the three count.  The crowd is electric for the title change.  Flair did everything possible to make Sting look like a star here.  This really should have been a great title run for Sting, but of course WCW then put him into that awful storyline with the Black Scorpion which just killed his title run and by the end of the year it was over and Flair was back to being the champion again.

This was a great show, it was booked really well.  The early matches weren’t anything special, but they did their job of getting the crowd warmed up.  The two tag team title matches were excellent and it was fun to see a pre Undertaker, Mean Mark taking on Lex Luger.  The crowd were hot the entire night, they came expecting a title change and they got what they wanted.  I would recommend that you watch this show.

Thanks again for joining me on this podcast this week, I hope you have enjoyed yourself.  Next Tuesday we will be looking at another reader requested show, Beach Blast 1992 with Sting against Cactus Jack in a falls count anywhere match and an iron man match with Ricky Steamboat and Ravishing Rick Rude.  If you have a request for a show to be reviewed send me an email to retroreviews@hotmail.com.  This coming Sunday we will be back with Mid Atlantic Wrestling from 21 November 1981 featuring Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper and much more.  Remember to subscribe, leave a review and tell a friend.  Take care of yourself and I will speak to you soon.