PW Boards Video Club #3 - WCW Bash at the Beach 1996

Lord TSC

We're back for week three, and today we've got probably the most defining moment in pro-wrestling in the last 20 years.

Show Ratings So Far:
WWE Money in the Bank 2011 - 8.4/10 (15 votes)
WWE IYH 16: Canadian Stampede - 6.4/10 (7 votes)

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Week Three
WCW Bash at the Beach 1996
Picked by Raf32

Psychosis vs. Rey Misterio Jr.

Carson City Silver Dollar Match
Big Bubba (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. John Tenta

Lord Of The Ring Taped Fist Match
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Jim Duggan

Double Dog Collar Chain Tag Team Match
The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) vs. The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock)

WCW World Cruiserweight Title Match
Dean Malenko (c) vs. Disco Inferno

Joe Gomez vs. Steve McMichael (w/Debra McMichael)

WCW United States Heavyweight Title Match
Konnan (c) vs. Ric Flair (w/Miss Elizabeth & Woman)

Tag Team Match
Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan & The Giant (w/Jimmy Hart)

Six Man Tag Team Match
???? & The Outsiders (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) vs. Lex Luger, Randy Savage & Sting

Show Background (from wiki...)

The predominant storyline heading into the event was centered on The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash). It began on the May 27, 1996 episode of WCW Monday Nitro when Hall made his first appearance on WCW television, unnamed and unannounced, and declared his intention to invade WCW, making a challenge to Executive Vice President of WCW Eric Bischoff to pick three of his best wrestlers to face him and two partners to be named. The first of those partners was Nash, who debuted in WCW at the June 10, 1996 Nitro, and thereafter both were referred to as The Outsiders. At The Great American Bash, Bischoff told Hall and Nash their challenge was accepted. Hall and Nash demanded to know the identities of the three men. Bischoff refused, and Nash performed a powerbomb on him off the stage through a table. The following night on WCW Monday Nitro, a random drawing occurred and Randy Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger were chosen to face The Outsiders. The Outsiders refused to reveal the identity of their partner and continued to interrupt WCW events.

Lord TSC

Cause of the draft, I've not had a chance to watch this yet but plan to over the weekend.

Ignoring the iconic main event, the rest of the card looks really juicy.

gnfnrhead

Still want to know who voted for a 1 last week. Everyone who commented gave I think at least a 7.

About half way through and just realised I still have a Mongo match to come

gerrybbadd

Class, there's my Saturday schedule filled!

gnfnrhead

I havent seen this show in years, with the exception of the closing moments which everyone has seen countless times.

The opening video shows the difference in quality between WWF and WCW. WWF always produce something great whereas WCW just threw together a load of video clips to random music. Not even a voice over. Unless you were watching the weeks before, they give no indication of why the main event is happening. Even if it was crap logic, WWF always make sure to tell you. If you hadent been watching recently and decided to start here, you have no clue why the main event is happening. Or even what it is. Hall and Nash are shown a lot but their opponents are shown only once by my count.

Psychosis vs. Rey Mysterio, Jr.

What a match to start with. A perfect match to show why WWF were so eager to try and cash in on the Junior Heavyweights. Unfortunately, WWF weren’t prepared to put the same level of effort in and it bombed. For all the things WCW did wrong, the Cruiserweights were pretty much spot on. Mike Tenay excels in this match. He does such a good job of explaining everything without being overbearing. TNA could really do with giving the three man team another shot. They tried it last year with Todd Kennelly but it didn’t last so Tenay is back to being play-by-play which is a waste of his other skills as shown in this match. The match itself is very competitive and both men look great. Funny how quickly things can change, a hurracanrana is considered high risk in 1996. Its depressing to remember how good Mysterio used to be when you see how slow and bad he is now. Mysterio with the win after reversing a Splash Mountain into a Hurracanrana for the three count. Great opener.

Rating: 7/10

Think Mean Gene forgot where they were. “…and then to…… uhhh….. Florida!” Konnan will defend the US title (remember that?) against Ric Flair later on tonight.

Big Bubba w/ Jimmy Hart vs. John Tenta

Bib Bubba is better known as the Big Bossman in WWF. John Tenta is also better known as Earthquake. The pole in the corner has been there since the start of the show, but now we see it has a sock loaded with coins. It seems VERY high for such a small item and considering the two guys in the match, this isn’t going to be pretty. When Bubba does get to the top rope, he is still nowhere close to reaching it. Neither of these guys are small men so whoever put it up made a complete mess of it. Looks like it was intentional after all as Jimmy Hart goes to get it before Tenta takes the socks and knocks out Bubba with the coins. It’s a slow, plodding match and the Pole stipulation hurt it more than it helped.

Rating: 4/10

Highlight of the Mean Gene segment here is the fact that Savage seems to be doing everything he can to avoid looking at the camera and at one stage stands directly in front of Mean Gene with his back to the camera.

DDP vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Second gimmick match in a row now. This is a Taped Fist match. Considering a lot of wrestlers will tape their fists anyway, this seems a pointless stipulation. It’s an odd match. Page cheats like hell, then just wins. The match was only starting to get going when it ended. Given more time it would have been a pretty good match but it ends so suddenly. Afterwards, Hacksaw decks Page for some payback but meh.

Rating: 5/10

Public Enemy vs. The Nasty Boys

Third consecutive gimmick match of the night. A four man dog collar match. Cant even blame Russo. He is still just starting out on the creative team in WWF. Despite the gimmick, it’s a good match with all four guys just beating the fcuk out of each other. Most amusing part is towards the end when the table just flat out refuses to break so they throw it to the side and forget about it. Grunge gets hanged by Knobbs before Sags whips Rocco Rock into the chain for a vicious clothseline that ends the match. Despite the match being good, the double screen is annoying as hell and really takes away from the match itself.

Rating: 6/10

Afterwards, the table finally breaks thanks to Jerry Sags getting slammed into it.

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match
Disco Inferno vs. Dean Malenko ©

If nothing else, this match shows just how talented Malenko is in the ring. Everyone knows he isn’t exactly Mr. Charisma but that doesn’t matter. WWE should have used him better when he made the jump a few years later. The match itself looks like it is going to be an extended squash for the champion but Disco eventually wakes up and makes it a very competitive match. Disco has a few chances, but his show off antics cost him a potential win, much to the annoyance of the Brain on commentary. It wont be to everyones taste, but I loved this match.

Rating: 8/10

Joe Gomez vs. Steve McMichael w/ Debra

I have no idea why this match is on PPV. Gomez sucks. Mongo sucks. The crowd don’t care. The match is sloppy as hell. It pretty much sucks in every way possible.

Rating: 2/10

Mean Gene is kept busy anyway. Now he’s with Flair, Liz and Woman.

WCW United States Title Match
Konnan © vs. Ric Flair w/ Liz & Woman

It’s sad how broken down these two would be in ten years time. Konnan is good, but Flair makes him look great here. He sells like his life depends on it and puts Konnan over big time. At one stage, Konnan puts Flair in the Figure Four and you can actually see Flair move Konnan’s foot a couple of inches to make sure it is applied properly. Woman hit’s a vicious looking low blow that Stephanie McMahon would be proud of. Ending is a bit sucky but it helps keep Konnan looking strong in defeat. Also, no shame in losing to a 13 time World Champion.

Rating: 7/10

I wonder if Mean Gene gets paid per segment? He says he hears a third voice but cant place it. Personally, I think Hogan has quite a distinctive voice but that’s just me.

Four Horsemen (Chris Benoit & Arn Anderson) vs. Kevin Sullivan & The Giant w/ Jimmy Hart

The Giant, the future Big Show, is billed as 7’4’’ tonight. Today he is only “near 7 foot.” I wonder what happened that near half a foot? Mongo attacks The Giant early on so the Giant gives chase and we are left with a handicap match for now. Really should have been Sullivan to go for the break since the Giant throwing around Benoit and Anderson would have been quite fun. Turns out it is a pointless bit as the Giant comes back about a minute later with Jimmy Hart. What a waste of time when it could have developed into something so much more. Benoit and especially Anderson show some great tag team ability as they do everything right in keeping Sullivan isolated. Eventually someone messes up a slingshot. I think it’s on Sullivan but Anderson looks like a fool in it so neither man looks good. The Giant finally gets tagged in and gets a massive pop. Bet he wishes he could still get them today. The AWFUL split screen is back as Benoit and Sullivan go for a walk. Giant hit’s a couple of moves and easily pins Anderson. Benoit and Sullivan keep fighting afterwards as the Giant simply walks backstage. Some partner he is! Benoit kicks the crap out of Sullivan until Woman comes in to try and get him to stop. Thankfully she fails until the Giant returns and Benoit walks away looking like a bad ass. A good match but it ended too soon after the Giant came in. He is the World Champion and apparently they don’t trust him to actually do much.

Rating: 7/10

A video package plays with the intention of hyping the main event, but without a voice over it is once again pretty useless. Nash and Hall have attacked Eric Bischoff, so now they are facing Sting, Luger and Savage. That’s about all you take away from it. WWF completely destroyed WCW when it came to video packages. Michael Buffer does a far better job at bringing us up to speed and he does it in a lot less time.

The Outsiders (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) vs. Lex Luger, Sting & Randy Savage

Talk about star power! A whole lot of it in this match despite the fact that Luger has an easy night as he is taken out rather quickly. Didn’t really make him look good either as it was only one Stinger Splash and that’s the end of the Lex Express. Tony makes a great point shortly after. Since there was a random draw to pick the team, why not do the same to replace Luger? Would have made the Hogan turn more impactful. Send someone else out, lets say Hacksaw, but he gets taken out too, leaving Hogan to save the day. Sting has a great showing in this match as he plays the baby face in peril to perfection before finally making the hot tag to Savage. Shortly after, the Brain fails to live up to his nickname by trying his best to ruin it by asking which side Hogan is on. Shortly after the match is thrown out.

Rating: 8/10

Despite the Brain, the turn is a complete success for those in attendance and would eventually go down as a pretty definitive moment in wrestling history. Hogan was hitting the tanning bed way too often at this stage. It isn’t really noticeable when he is wrestling, but it’s obvious as hell when he is standing next to the regularly coloured Hall and Nash. The post match promo is pretty good, but I think it would have been better off being kept until Nitro. End the show with a question mark about why Hogan did what he did.

Overall rating: 54/90 which rounds off to a 6. Leaving out Gomez vs. Mongo would bring it up to a 7, such is the effect of an awful match on the card. Looking back, it is an average enough show that is only remembered for the last 10 minutes. The rest is pretty much a mix of pretty good and bad. In a perfect world, it would have been the two cruiserweight matches, Flair vs Konnan, Horsemen vs Giant/Sullivan and the main event. Everything else can happen on Nitro. Nine matches was too many.

Alfred Borden

As said above WWF did promos far better and its obvious again from the start of this PPV. Psicosis v Rey Mysterio was a really good match and probably the best of the night, would have been a show stealer if what was to come didnt happen. Cruiserweight division was so good, probably the highlight of WCW along with the NWO and this match highlighted the brilliance of this division. Good promo by Konnan, they were really pushing him hard but i couldnt and still cant ever enjoy him as a wrestler. Just an average one imo. good moment in the second match with Jimmy Hart climbing the pole but the rest of the match was extremely poor but was to be expected. DDP v Duggan was a really good match, underrated. Duggan was extremely over which is kind of shocking. Nasty boys were brilliant as usual but really didnt like Public Enemy and thought the ending to the match was pretty pointless. I'm a really big Malenko mark and though Disco was vastly underrated so delighted with this matchup and it didnt disappoint. 4 star match with both men looking excellent in the ring, not enough of that nowadays. Gomez and Mcmichael match sucked and was a joke it even made it to ppv. Overall thought they undercard had way too many matches and too much filler which took away from two excellent matches imo.

I really enjoyed from here now. Konnan Flair match was really solid. Flair was electric and still had it. good interference as well and always nice to see the nature boy leaving with a title. Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan & The Giant was another top notch matchup. Although the Sullivan botch, the match displayed great wrestling ability especially from the two horsemen and the Giant wasnt too bad either, who got reactions that he can only dream about getting today.

Main event had so much star power. And it didnt disappoint, sting was so good back then i never really realized it as i only got to see him as the crow character. then the the moment we were waiting for, the biggest in wrestling for me. had to happen and by god did it change the landscape of the entire wrestling world. the formation of my favourite angle ever in wrestling, the NWO were really it. Tony Shivone was brilliant here and really summed up how we all felt. "Hulk Hogan...you can go to hell. Straight to hell." Perfect ending.
8/10 but might be over hyping it after the ending but hard not to. 2 very good matches on the lower card with two decent matches pre main event along with this cancelled out some of the poorer moments on the night.

Chagan

Ah, our first foray into the wonderful world of Dubya Cee Dubya, where the gimmicks are pointless and the results don’t matter.

Video packages are pretty much non-existant in this show, leaving me with no idea of what is happening and why. To their credit, Heenan, Rhodes and Schivone sell the importance and tension of the main event very well throughout the show. Seventeen years on and I still could feel the tension.


Psychosis vs Rey Mysterio

WWF’s lightweight effort was my highlight of last week’s show. So when I saw these two were opening Bash at the Beach my expectations were high.

Having “Iron” Mike Tenay on commentary explaining exotic moves such as the Hurracanrana and the Senton was amusing. Similar to last week, the idea of two small guys getting in a ring and pulling off a wrestling match is relatively new to the company. The commentary team are enthusiastic and eager to listen to Tenay’s worldly knowledge, except for Bobby of course. It gave a feeling that this was the next big evolution for the “sport”.

In terms of the action, you could tell that they had worked this match about a thousand times before this. Everything was so crisp and precise. The initial mat work flowed well and never got boring. Rey’s hurracanrana off the apron and the cartwheel turned headscissors were nice. I got a laugh from Rey doing this impressive flip over the ropes (I’d like to see him try it now) just to stand there and get punched in the face by Psychosis. That guardrail really had it in for them too. The finish caught me by surprise, in a good way.

While this match was fantastic from a technical standpoint, it did lack a bit in terms of selling and just the general psychology of the match. I never felt that anything was at stake for either man. However, I loved it and similar to WWF’s lightweight affair, it was my favourite bout of the night. 8/10


Konnan gave his analysis of the match because, you know, he’s Mexican or something.


Big Bubba vs John Tenta

My first thought when I saw this match? What the f*ck is a “Carson City Silver Dollar” Match. Then it hit me. That big silver pole in the corner wasn’t part of the set. I was genuinely about to watch Big Bossman and Earthquake have a “Sock full of Money on a Pole” match. Good God, they didn’t even have Russo to blame for this.

Everything about this was stupid. Why was the pole so high? Neither man could get past the second turnbuckle. Tenta couldn’t rip the tape off his wrist? Why not tie him up with the belt and beat him with another weapon instead? This appeared to be a No DQ match, making the jizz sock 10 feet above them completely redundant. Even commentary hadn't an iota of what was happening, to such an extent they had no idea how the match was won.

Fair play to Jimmy Hart though. That was a hell of a climb. Tenta cutting at the little security the pole had must have made it even more difficult. Tenta waiting for him at the bottom was great too.

What annoyed me most about this was how long it went on for. This lasted a solid 15 minutes, that’s as long as the Mysterio/Psychosis got! 3/10


Savage picked up my mood with his interview though. Just fantastically all over the place, as you would expect from Macho.


DDP vs Jim Duggan

Not just another gimmick match, another pointless gimmick match. From what I’ve read, the whole tape thing was a gimmick Duggan had in the build up. This made it even more confusing when he didn’t come out wearing any.

The match itself was fine. Hacksaw controlled the match and DDP bumped around. Duggan was over as hell. I genuinely believe that Hacksaw’s is one of the greatest wrestling gimmicks ever created. He’s this lovable oaf with an American flag and a easily repeated catchphrase. It’s simple but brilliant. If he had just had a better tan we might all be Duggamaniacs right now.

The whole point of the match was that the tapes allowed the wrestlers to punch with closed fists, or something. So why did Jim wait until he’d already lost to tape up. Especially when he could have used an array of unsavoury weapons at ringside, namely that 2x4 he walked down with. Also if I’m correct, DDP won a ring. This ring was named “Lord of the Ring”. 4/10


Chris Benoit did an interview. I don’t know what he said because I was in the middle of my obligatory “It’s weird watching Benoit” thoughts.

The “Four Man Dog Collar Match” graphic came up on screen so I turned it off and took a break for six hours.


Public Enemy vs The Nasty Boys

“Well that was a mess” - Tony Schivone, 1996

I hated this. I hated the stupid collar and chains. I hated the two small screens that made it impossible to see what either pair was doing. I hated them for not breaking the table. I hated the hanging spot. I hated that nothing they did got heat because it was all just a clusterf*ck. I hated myself for choosing to continue watching it.

I loved Dusty Rhodes’ reaction to the rubber shark. 1/10


Disco Inferno v Dean Malenko

Finally, a wrestling match. I don’t think I’ve ever popped for Malenko but if there was one thing I needed after all that was a good ol' Dean Malenko wrestling contest. Even the fact Disco Inferno was in it didn’t worry me.
I appreciated the flamboyant entertainer vs reserved professional dynamic coming into the match. Bobby Heenan in particular was great at showing his consternation with Disco’s posing.

The match was perfectly staged. Malenko’s no-nonsense style utterly dominating the first half was precisely what was needed and allowed Disco to come on strong in his comeback. There was a brainbuster in there that impressed me too. Disco did great with his comeback and played up the posturing just enough to make it seem he may just learn the error of his ways. Alas, he didn’t and the old pro took it with a nice Texas Cloverleaf.

I enjoyed this a lot, whether that was due to the two men in the ring or the ten that had come before them I don’t know. It made both guys look good, especially Inferno in what was probably one the highlights on his C.V. 7/10


Joe Gomez vs Steve McMichael

Did anybody else notice the crab-cam at the start of this or had this show actually made me delusional?

Anyway, I don’t know what they were trying to achieve with this. Whatever it was, they failed. If this was a squash match then it shouldn’t have been competitive or lasted over ten bloody minutes. If this was a straight up proper match then neither of them were able to carry it, as basic as it was.

This should have been given five minutes max on Nitro. Also, “Mongo” is a dreadful nickname. 3/10


Mean Gene did an interview with Liz, Woman and an angry middle aged lady.


Konnan vs Ric Flair

Ric Flair made this for me. It’s been a while since I’ve watched a Flair match without thinking “Jesus Ric, just give it up man.”

Flair just spent the match being Flair and he tried to make Konnan look a million dollars throughout. However, I thought that Konnan just looked uncomfortable working on Flair’s wavelength. There was very little chemistry between them and it all looked a little awkward.

The highlight of the match was Woman’s low blow spot which Dusty sold beautifully. “SHE KICKED HIM LOOOOOOW!”

The ending was terrible though. For some reason, Flair decided to throw in some extra offense before going for the end. This left Liz, Woman and the ref standing around like idiots. The shoe shot looked weak as hell then to make it worse.

A solid match ruined by a poor ending. Flair still had it, but just barely. 6/10


Benoit/Anderson vs Giant/Sullivan

I had no idea who was the heel and face going into this one. The Horsemen have been heels throughout the show but Kevin Sullivan’s evil eyebrows threw me.

I thought the match was good enough. Keeping Giant out of the action allowed him to stay hot without exposing his greenness. But that begs the question, why the hell is Giant your world champion if he even has to be protected in tag matches? Surely you have your world title defended on a Big Show like this aswell.

There was a shocking looking slingshot but it didn’t matter because Arn Anderson can do what he likes. Eventually Giant got the tag and it was over in a minute. He didn’t even wrestle for the full minute. Took a run around ringside instead.

Sullivan disappearing up to commentary for the finish was strange but Giant disappearing post match was more baffling. The Benoit/Sullivan/Woman stuff made me squirm a bit. This was nothing spectacular but it wasn't terrible. Another one that would have been better off on Nitro. 5/10


The Outsiders vs Savage,Sting & Luger

The pre-match video package annoyed me. It had music with the audio faintly going underneath. Either play the crap song or let me hear what the guys are saying. I quickly forgot this upon hearing Michael Buffer. Was he there all night or just the main event? I always thought he added a special feel when he announced.

Luger being knocked out early on was clever little trick. It took away the heel’s disadvantage while also teasing Luger as the third member. Hall and Nash played up their roles well and I loved the sneaky leveraging in the abdominal stretch. Sting was in ultimate babyface mode too.

Obviously the ending was it was. I felt they could have beat down on Savage a bit more but the crowd popped big for Hogan’s appearance nonetheless. Was their a kayfabe reason why he wasn't on the card before this?

I've never been that bothered with the Heenan call controversy. WCW had a reputation for not telling their commentators of what was coming and Heenan was always questioning faces’ motives. He probably should have spotted what was going on but I think it was a coincidence that he was right rather than Heenan spoiling it. The entire commentary were phenomenal for the match. They were partisan, even Heenan was pulling for the WCW team, without being overbearing. “We have seen the end of Hulkamania” was a great line.

Hogan’s promo was very good. It was fun watching the crowd slowly but surely getting more and more angry as the initial shock wore off. Mean Gene getting p!ssy with the rubbish throwers was hilarious.

The match itself was standard fare but that’s all it needed to be considering how it ended. 8/10


There was a very good two hour show in there somewhere. Unfortunately, there was an hour’s worth of manure dumped on with it. WCW can consider themselves blessed that that the NWO became what it did because judging by the rest of this card, they were screwed without it.

As a standalone PPV it would get a 5/10 from me but considering the monumental effect it had on both WCW’s and WWF’s futures I’ll give it an extra mark. 6/10