The first Great American Bash to be produced as a PPV, and the 4th annual Bash event. It was later on in 1988 that Ted Turner would buy NWA and turn give the world World Championship Wrestling. Like most NWA, it's a solid PPV and doesn't have a bad match on it. By no means a classic event, but it's still enjoyable. I love all of the old NWA because I wasn't born when it was prominent, but watching it makes me wish I was because most of these guys are all time favorite wrestlers of mine, and when I was growing up they'd either be in the twilight of their careers or finished.
Match 1 (NWA World Tag Team Championship) Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (c) vs Sting & Nikita Koloff
A great opening match, with Tully and Arn showcasing tag team wrestling at its finest. They dominated most of this match after recovering from being overwhelmed at the beginning. Nikita Koloff's shoulder was the target here for Arn and Tully and they spent a large spell of the match working on it, turn for turn, through a succession of quick tags. Those 2 are a prime example of what good tag team wrestling is all about, and even though Nikita and Sting put on a good show (in particular Koloff), they just weren't as dynamic as Tully and Arn.
This match went the whole 20 minute time limit and ended up in a draw, with the clock expiring as Tully was locked in Sting's 'scorpion deathlock.' Sting and Nikita were already putting on the straps at the end of the match thinking they'd won, but Tully didn't submit and therefore, retained the belts for Arn and himself. And good job because Tully and Arn are the boss. Overall, very good tag team match and a great opening contest for the night ahead.
Match 2 (NWA United States Tag Team Championship) - Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) vs (c) The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers)
This match begins with Midnight Express manager and legend Jim Cornette being put in a straight jacket and asking the referee, ''Can you be bribed?'' before being hoistered above the ring in a cage. Everything he says to the ref here is comedy gold and he really does a great job of being a crying idiot.
I was excited for this match as I love the high risk, fast paced style of these teams. In the 80's, high risk and fast paced wasn't made up of solely jumping around like a frog on mdma, these wrestlers were pretty great all round. I love the modern high flying wrestling, don't get me wrong but when I'm in the mood for NWA, I just think those guys are all round greater and lacking in today's era, where mainstream tag team wrestling in America is more or less a dead scene just now.
This was a really good match. Tommy Rogers really took a beating at the hands of the Express here, and it's topped off by a beautiful dropkick by Eaton. There's also a great drop to the concrete that got me more excited in all its simplicity than I got when anyone in WWE in the last few years fell off a ladder. The match is what you expect throughout - intensely physical, some showing off and an all round great contest, ended in great heel fashion with a steel chain wrapped around Eaton's fist to win the titles for his team. Then, after the match, Cornette takes a belt whipping while still in a straight jacket.
Match 3 (Towers of Doom Match) - Road Warriors, Steve Williams, Jimmy Garvin & Ron Garvin vs Kevin Sullivan, Al Perez, Mike Rotunda, Russian Assassin & Ivan Koloff
So what the hell is a Tower of Doom match? Well, it's 3 cages stacked on top of each other you might remember from WCW Uncensored. The point of the match is to start from the top of the cage and get to the bottom during small intervals when a trap door opens in one of the below cages, allowing the wrestlers to drop down. Sounds pretty nuts, and sure it's nuts, but it's incredible. The first complete team to exit the cage at the bottom are determined the winner. Pretty simple but hard to achieve when you have all those guys wanting to beat you like a government mule.
The match is enjoyable just for the sheer ridiculousness of it. I think it would have been better if the cages were all larger so it could have been 5 on 5 all the way from the top to the bottom, but I still love this match nonetheless - mainly because I like everyone in it. Steve Williams is becoming one of my favorite wrestlers the more I watch him. Hell, even Jack Victory being the Russian Assassin was a lot of fun here. I quite liked him in ECW. Kevin Sullivan will always have a place in my heart for being a wizard but that's about it. Everyone else involved is cool with me I suppose. Never really been a fan of Varsity Club though. Just kinda nothing them.
So the match is basically just an all out street fight. Sometimes the wrestlers look to be playing it a little cautiously - but that's because there was close to 1000 lbs in the cage at times at least - maybe even over. There was some nice body slams on the mesh as well that looked as if they should have snapped the cage, but they didn't and thankfully none of them died in this match.
The match came down in the end to Kevin Sullivan and Jimmy Garvin, who finally get to do some brief actual wrestling - or Jimmy Garvin does anyway. The match ends with Sullivan shoving his opponent out and going after the woman Precious who is locked in the cage. He tries to rape her , then he chokes her but the heroes come along to save her just in time.
Match 3 (NWA United States Heavyweight Championship) Barry Windham (c) vs Dusty Rhodes
This was your classic grudge match, but with the US title on the line. Windham had recently turned on Dusty and teamed up with The Horsemen. Windham went into this with some great heel heat (helped by the fact he turned on his mentor and had his 'rightful' title) and the crowd were all behind Dusty more or less. I think they were more against Dillon than they were Windham though because Dillon getting Dusty's classic elbow got the loudest pop of the night, and this was right after the Terror of Doom match (which in 1988 was probably one of the most insane things anyone had ever seen).
The match is a scrappy brawl for much of it. It starts off with an instant body press slam by Dusty, showing great strength and for each second he held Windham the applause got more deafening. It's not long before they're outside and Windham is on his back again after Dusty reversed his piledriver attempt then followed it up with a clothesline and a pursuit of JJ Dillon, before getting back in the ring to be met by some punches by Windham - then they're outside again and Dusty delivers a great slam to the concrete. Dillon is effective for Windham again and distracts Rhodes long enough for Windham to sneak attack and gain control once more. The match has a go between after this and Dusty manages to regain control after Windham ascends to the turnbuckles and Dusty slams him to the mat and drops the trademark running elbow on him, gets the 3 count only there's no conscious ref to actually count.
Then the surprise and controversy... Ronny Garvin.
Yep, Ronny Garvin shows up and sticks Dusty with a fist and Windham followed it up with another punch and the claw, knocking Dusty out and retaining the the title. Great match.
Match 4 (NWA World Heavyweight Championship) Ric Flair (c) vs Lex Luger
Typical Ric Flair match against an opponent with greater strength. Flair gets thrown around and sells everything to perfection. Luger doesn't do the best of jobs selling Flair's assaults, but at this time he was only 3 years pro, according to opponents he was clumsy in the ring and he was still learning. But he was an ultimate babyface so it makes sense why this match was booked, especially with his feud with Flair and The Horsemen. Criticisms of Luger aside though, he still done a great job in this match. Maybe he hurt opponents, maybe he didn't sell moves as good as others could, but he still was a good worker and had a lot of great matches in the late 80's and early 90's. It was the jacked up Luger of the late 90's that wasn't very good.
Luger uses strength here and tosses Flair all over the ring and executes some good agility as well to get roll up pins throughout. Flair, in typical Flair fashion, uses the outside of the ring to his advantage and methodically tries to injure Luger's legs when he has him grounded. Endurance plays to Flair's advantage as usual and Luger just can't seem to keep him down. The match finally ends with controversial victory for Flair and he once again leaves the champion.
Summary: Not the best NWA event by any means, but that's not a bad thing. The NWA for me was consistent and always delivered good matches from what I've watched so far. This one was no different and I enjoyed it immensely. My favorite match was easily Dusty and Windham. In my opinion they're 2 of the best ever and it's always great to see talent like this square off.
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