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TITLE :- NWA Great American Bash 1990, "The New Revolution".
DATE : - July 7, 1990.
WHERE : - Baltimore, MD; Baltimore Arena
CROWD SIZE : - 10,000.
PAL OR NTSC : - Pal.
PRICE : - £8.
WHERE TO BUY : - www.ruffneckwrestlingvideos.co.uk
.
It's time to get old school here, or at least old school for those of you who were brought up on WWF/E and such like. We begin with a young Jim Ross and Bob Caudle introducing the night's action, and it's a nice reminder of how Ross was the best announcer in the business for many years.
Your opening match is a chance to see one of the greatest tag team's of all time in the NWA U.S. Tag Team Champions at this point - The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane). They're defending their titles against The Southern Boys, Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong here; and an added bonus for people like me who loved the concept of male managers is the almighty Jim Cornette and his ever present tennis racket in the corner of Eaton & Lane.
This is a quick paced tag team match to start, and it will leave you wondering just where the art of tag team wrestling went wrong in recent years. Eaton and Smothers then take you to school and give you some psychology and show you why tag team wrestling at this point in time had never been better. Stan Lane was always a superb professional wrestler to watch, and has a great sequence of karate with Smothers and then suddenly the crowd pops huge and you're just left thinking 'Wow' and wishing things were still like this today.
Eaton was always great at selling, Smothers and Armstrong are in this match taken from future stars to the real thing; and this is not to say that they weren't good previously but just to state that this was their first pay per view appearance and it was something very special. Cornette is in his usual form, loud and hilarious; and a major factor in this being such a great match. A true all time classic, and I would give this **** 1/4 out of 5 stars.
Time for an interview next, with the best 'rock n' roll' tag team in the business ever; The Fabulous Freebirds. If you've never seen Michael P.S. Hayes in his prime on the microphone, then it's sure time you did. Just dont focus on how they look TOO much, as the make up was surely done by a drunk make up artist backstage!
Then we're taken to the in later life controversial internet columnist Tom Zenk, who was always a solid talented professional in the ring; but with a big task here in Big Van Vader, making his first ever WCW appearance; with his big helmet from which steam used to shoot from. A crowd pop for this, as things like this hadn't been seen by U.S. audiences at this point. Realistically this is a 2 and a half minute squash match, and hard to rate.... but I'll give it * 1/2, it gets across Vader as a monster heel which I would imagine is all it set out to achieve.
Gordon Solie now interviews the Horseman, about their upcoming match. Barry Windham does the main talking, and always sounds good. Just try and ignore Sid Vicious in the background, I always do! This trend will continue....
Then it's time for two teams who are synonymous with NWA/WCW tag team wrestling - The Fabulous Freebirds and The Steiner Brothers. This was when Scott Steiner wasn't 'roided out of his mind, and whilst well built; actually managed to look decent and be a very talented wrestler. It may surprise newer fans, but he was considered the future of the business at this point. And, can those Freebirds sell?! Hayes and Garvin put the Steiners over very well in this match, but it's clear the main star of the team is Michael Hayes. Another thing to consider is Scott's finishing move 'The Frankensteiner' was very hot with the crowd at this point, and they were dying to see it. A crowd chant of 'faggot' is directed at the Freebirds and is rather amusing, or at least if you have a politically incorrect sense of humour like me! Good match, and worthy of ***, possibly and a half stars in my opinion.
Then it's the 6 man tag team match.... where one side has talent, and one side....er....doesn't really. Barry Windham, Arn Anderson & Sid Vicious line up; and if you ignore Sid then that's classic Horseman territory. On the other side of the ring, only Paul Orndorff has any value really; as Junkyard Dog was pretty washed up at this point and El Gigante actually manages to scare me with his mere presence. Not that I find his height and size scary, like the poor Horseman were meant to sell; just that I'd tried to forget he'd ever wrestled for the sake of my own sanity. So that's two talented guys on one side, and one on the other.... Can that save the match? Not for me. The faces (Orndorff, Dog, & Gigante) really don't put much over at all that the Horseman do, for all the crowd's interest in Gigante he barely does a thing. Mind you, that's no bad thing really as time surely told over his 'career' he never did anything positive anyway! Arn Anderson really tries god bless him, but.... this really isn't too great at all. ** stars is my rating. And that's only for Anderson's work.
Flexy Lexy Luger is interviewed by Gordon Solie. Luger's most inspiring factor during this promo is a rather nice mullet. A forgettable promo, and you can't help but feel even in Luger's alleged 'glory days', in retrospect; he sucked.
A young Paul Heyman accompanying a young (pre-Undertaker) Mark Callous comes next, and is a good example of how professional wrestling can age you way before your time. I can only assume that Callous came out to deal with Luger for cutting such a bad promo. Please, try and forget Lex Luger is wearing hot pink trunks. Whilst Bret Hart and to a lesser extent recently Stevie Richards can pull this off and still retain credibility, Luger can't. It was later this year that Mark Callous became the Undertaker in the WWF and pretty much changed the way people thought about characters and gimmicks forever more, and he pulls out a decent enough performance here; definitely enough to make you wonder why WCW didn't renew his contract. You can see what the then WWF saw in him to make him a star, that's for sure. Luger is Luger, very through the motions; and this is an average match. ** 1/2 stars for me.
Sting. You remember him, right? Face painted dude, used to wrestle? Long before he went black & white & mysterious (and damn lazy); he used to be a decent charismatic talker and a respectable wrestler. He cuts a run of the mill promo here, to put over his main event title shot against Ric Flair.
The one thing you can say, that aside from Flair and The Horseman was special for the NWA/WCW at this time; was certainly tag team wrestling. Earlier you had the Midnight Express, and then the Freebirds & Steiners showing you; and now it's time for the Rock And Roll Express to take on Doom. Ricky Morton is to me, a legend; full stop end of. No-one could quite put over the importance of the good guy being beaten down and needing the tag quite like Morton did. Doom (Butch Reed and Ron Simmons) are your tag team champions here, and are accompanied by Teddy Long who again sure has aged. Maybe that's what being employed by Vince McMahon does to you..... Anyway, Doom are looking fine here; and the ever gracious selling of the Rock & Roll's really does them justice. Morton works the main of the match, as ever; and works the crowd up to fever pitch for the big tag to his partner Robert Gibson. A very good match, worthy of *** 3/4 from yours truly.
WHOOO! Yes, it's now time for a promo from the man; the ONLY man - Ric Flair. Classic 'Naitch' in full flow, putting over his opponent and himself as only Ric can/could. Because to be the man, you have to BEAT the man.... and god only knows, Ric Flair sure was the man!
And now it's main event time. Sting vs World Champion Ric Flair. The build up was great for this one, Sting joined the Horseman and then challenged Flair and wondered why they turned on him. How daft would a babyface have to be to TRUST the Horseman at this point?! Aside from that, the Horseman then attacked his knee and put him out of action for months. It's no disqualification, its no countout, for some reason the Dudes with Attitudes (Orndorff, The Steiners, JYD, and El Gigante) are at ringside; and poor Ole Anderson of the Horseman is handcuffed to El Gigante. Gigante could have used this opportunity to have asked a few questions about how to wrestle, but it's obvious he didn't! The crowd goes mad for these stipulations, and however daft they seem; at least they were taken seriously by the fans.
The irony is this match was meant to be the one that Flair retired gracefully, or at least slowed down after; as Sting carried the World championship onto other heights. Mind you, the same thing was meant to be happening in the WWF at that time with Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan; and that went as pearshaped as this did. Please don't mistake that as any comparison between Hogan and Flair, as Hogan was never even fit to tie Flair's shoelaces in their primes.
The match is based around Sting's knee, and it's ability to hold up in such a high profile match up. Flair works on it in classic Flair psychological manner and there's a lot of 'WHOOO!' going on, which is always positive! Towards the end, the Horsemen and Dudes With Attitudes fight outside the ring and the tension is high. Sting goes for his second Stinger Splash of the match, but Flair moves and Sting hits the turnbuckle knee first. The crowd reaction is pricless as Flair attempts to lock on his figure four leglock, and.....and..... inside cradle by Sting, 1-2-3; and he wins his first World Championship. And the crowd goes absolutely mad for the new champion. It's sad to think Sting would never really reach these heights again, but it's a great moment immortalized on videotape. *** 1/2 stars out of five for the match.
And overall? The tape shows you some wonderful tag team wrestling, and a main event which still holds up well today. *** 1/2 for the tape in general, which once again is available from www.ruffneckwrestlingvideos.com.
Peter Staniforth.
Peter is an English based professional wrestling journalist, currently
writing for the following websites : - www.prowrestlingdaily.com, www.wrestlingclothesline.com,
and www.ukevents.net .
Peter has written press releases for http://wwweeuroshop.com/?tid=ps101 , the official WWE merchandise outlet for the UK & Europe.
Peter reviews video tapes for the following wrestling tape traders, who come strongly recommended by him - www.simania.co.uk, www.violentjtapes.com, www.bluethundervideo.com, www.modtrom.com (the official video production team behind Jersey All Pro Wrestling), www.a1wrestlingvideos.com, www.ruffneckwrestlingvideos.co.uk, www.goldenboytapes.com, and www.mayfieldmayhem.com.
Peter is also a booking agent to such names as CZW's Nick Berk (and others),
and runs a independent wrestling bookings website for wrestlers - http://www.pstaniforth.vze.com/
. Peter was also mentioned on the credits of the cult PC wrestling simulation
game EWR 4.0, by Adam Ryland.
