83 Weeks - Great American Bash 1995 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Great American Bash 1995

Great American Bash 1995 took place on June 18th. 1995 from the Hara Arena, in Dayton, Ohio. It drew 6,000 fans with 5,218 paid and a gate of about $63,000. It did a 0.51 buy rate

This is the first Great American Bash pay per view since 1992.

Great American Bash was a staple event for the NWA since 1985. Why did it go 3 years without having a pay per view?

We're coming off of the Slamboree pay per view, where we saw Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage defeat Vader and Ric Flair, in Ric's first pay per view match back since he lost the retirement match to Hogan at Halloween Havoc 94.

Hogan wouldn't have a match at the Great American Bash, but in the main event, we'll see Ric Flair vs Randy Savage, which was built from the Slamboree match we just talked about, where Flair attacked Randy's father, Angelo Poffo, and put him in the figure four.

The day before the Bash, Savage and Hogan went to the Mall of America in Minneapolis, for the opening of Hogan's Pastamania restaurant. They signed autographs for three hours. The line began to form at 9 a.m., three hours before the appearance. The wait in line was estimated by security to be over two hours. They signed around 2,000 autographs.

Hogan appeared on TNT on May 17 during a break in the Orlando Magic-Chicago Bulls playoff game. When announcer Doug Collins referred to Hogan as being from the WWF, he was then corrected that Hogan was actually with WCW.

Speaking of Slamboree, Meltzer wrote - WCW is outwardly claiming an 0.8 buy rate for Slamboree, but within the company it is no secret that they'd be thrilled based on early returns to come out with an 0.60 to 0.65, figures which nobody is trying to spin as a successful return. Sources, not within the WCW office, claim that the number circulating within WCW for buy rate was 0.57, the same as independent sources. Some in Titan claim the figure could be as low as 0.50. If we are to accept Titan numbers, not only did its show strongly outdistance WCW when it came to buys, but also would have drawn more money. If we are to accept WCW numbers, Titan barely had more buys but WCW would have blown them away when it comes to revenue. Independently, we can estimate the Titan show at 187,000 buys and a $1.26 million company gross. WCW can be estimated at 130,000 buys and a $1.46 million company gross, of which an estimated $365,000 would be the Hogan share. 

Let's get to some company news heading into the Great American Bash

At this time, you guys were doing a contest, "Does your dad look like a WCW wrestler contest?" where if you win you get a trip to the Bash 

Meltzer reported - Apparently backstage at Slamboree, they wanted Michael Buffer to announce the Sting-Bubba match but he informed them his new deal with WCW was to only announce one match per show. 

Dave had some pretty stiff words about you. He wrote - After a good performance on PPV, Bischoff was really annoying in commentary on this show. (Saturday Night from Charlotte)Both on this show, and on a later Hotline live interview segment, Bischoff was continually critical of UFC to the point he came off like a child trying to insist that his dad could beat up someone elses dad and nobody would believe him. Bischoff, who has a kick boxing background, has the same threatened series of excuses as all kick boxing types trying to discredit UFC because it is proof that at the top level, kick boxing isn't a very effective form of real fighting, particularly kicking is very ineffective against any kind of a quality ground fighter. 

Bischoff tried to put over WCW guys as being tougher bringing up again on the Hotline that Jerry Sags beat up Ken Wayne Shamrock "and we have the police reports to prove it." That statement is leaving out several important parts of the story such as Brian Knobs involvement and he was jumped by two men and it was many years ago before Shamrock had ever even done any training in shootfighting. He kept insinuating that Meng or Craig Pittman could beat Dan Severn, who they tried to say was negotiating to come in but should beware because WCW was where the big guys play (pretty much the negotiations consisted of one or two phone calls from WCW promoter Zane Bresloff trying to book a shoot match with Pittman for the K-1 PPV) because Pittman "used to throw him around when they were in college" 

(absolutely ludicrous, Severn finished second in the nation in college and was ranked No. 1 all season before losing in the NCAA finals and is in the Arizona State Sports Hall of Fame; Pittman was never any kind of a name in college wrestling). Not to downplay that Pittman is clearly a skilled wrestler, but he had his chance to back up all the talk by Bischoff and Terry Taylor and lost to a guy nobody had ever heard who came into the fight with both eyes shut and was giving up more than 100 pounds in bodyweight. 

Then Bischoff talked about Kimo being knocked out in the first round in K-1 (actually it was the second round) to prove K-1 superiority in real fighting over UFC and called K-1 "anything goes kick boxing" saying that UFC guys are good on their own turf and under their own rules. Anyone who saw the Kimo-Satake fight would know Kimo was a fool with not one kick boxing match under his belt and no gloved fights in his life trying to fight a world champion kick boxer and he came off as a fool. When the rules are such that no fighting on the ground is allowed, of course a stand up fighter like a kick boxer will destroy any wrestler.

However, anyone seeing the fight could easily tell that if it were truly anything goes, even with the handicap of wearing gloves, Kimo would have destroyed Satake. Bischoff is no different than many in the martial arts world who are trying to discredit the results and what has consistently happened in UFC matches because their styles seem to always lose when pitted against strong ground fighters. 

Bischoff brought up the same karate argument that UFC hasn't had strikers that were the same calibre as the wrestlers they've used, saying Royce Gracie was the best in the world at his art (which from most accounts actually isn't the case) and they've only been using second-degree black belts like Keith Hackney, and even he gave Royce a fight, rather than world champions or ninth degree black belts. Of course that is from convenient memory loss since both Minoki Ichihara and Gerard Gordeau (who was a K-1 star) were world champions in kick boxing and Gracie beat both handily 

It's been rumored over the years that you were doing that because you guys wanted to do a UFC/K1 style pay per view in September of 95. Is that true?

Meltzer reported about you - Ted Turner met with Eric Bischoff on 6/5 in Atlanta. No word on anything that came out of the meeting. 

Was this the famous meeting that the birth of Nitro came from?

Meltzer has said that it was, and he reported - A few more WCW notes stemming from the announcement of the new Monday night television show which may be called "Head to Head" which starts on 8/7 against Raw nationwide on the TNT cable network. Nancy Sullivan (ECW's Woman) was given a try-out as an announcer this past week but the only word we've gotten is to expect Eric Bischoff to host and for the show to have a totally new look. The first show will tentatively emanate from Sarasota, FL and will take place one day after a Sunday night Clash of Champions from Daytona Beach. It is expected the show will be done similar to Raw in that three weeks will be taped at a time with the first week airing live.  

Meltzer reported - Little Richard is being negotiated with to appear on the Los Angeles PPV show. If so, expect him to be in Johnny B. Badd's corner in a match. 

Any memories of those negotiations? Little Richard's real name is Richard Penniman. He passed away on May 9th, 2020

Meltzer reported - Gordon Solie quit the promotion actually toward the end of last week. He had already quit once before Slamboree but was talked into coming back by being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

That takes us to the Great American Bash

Behind the scenes the show wasn't nearly as smoothed as it appeared on camera. As expected, Marcus Bagwell's leg infection caused Jim Duggan to replace him in for international amateur star Craig Pittman's first career major show match. For reasons that are a bit more confusing, Road Warrior Hawk, who was to do a live radio spot, work a squash match on television and shoot an angle for an impromptu PPV match, wasn't in Dayton. 

Apparently he stayed home in Minneapolis to hang with his father since it was Father's Day. As of Sunday night, the general impression around WCW was he was through, but by Monday everything had been smoothed over. Hawk's last-second challenge match with Bunkhouse Buck was changed to a tag match with Buck & Dick Slater vs. Harlem Heat. 

But perhaps the biggest changes of all came due to an article in the local newspaper written by former Miami Herald reporter Alex Marvez, who had just recently started working in Dayton. Marvez' article listed what apparently what he expected would be the finishes to every match on the show. Since WCW gave away a few finishes already at the last television tapings, putting together a reasonably good set of guesses would be pretty close to correct. In this case, too close. WCW officials totally panicked since apparently Marvez' finishes were 100% on the money and everyone was trying to guess who it was that leaked them to Marvez. 

While I don't know for sure, I'm relatively sure there was no leak and Marvez just deduced, and considering he had Dallas Page vs. Dave Sullivan in the article as a wrestling match rather than arm wrestling, I would deduce there was no leak. 

We have differing versions of this story but the consensus seems to be that booker Ric Flair and others were so mad that he wanted to make sure Marvez' story didn't have any credibility by changing one or two finishes, one of which was in his main event match (Marvez had predicted a Flair win due to outside interference rather than using Angelo Poffo's cane). This naturally made Savage a happy camper since up until Thursday he was supposed to beat Flair, then it was supposedly changed to him losing due to outside interference at a booking meeting because everyone realized Flair badly needed a credibility boost and outside interference was a set up for their gimmick match in July. 

Then it was changed again with Flair winning, but not only without any help, but with his own father's gimmick being used on him. Before the end of the night, some of the more paranoid among the boys were suggesting that it was Flair himself who actually told or had leaked to Marvez the finishes, having orchestrated the whole deal himself, so he could have an excuse for winning in that matter. That all sounds like a brilliant story except that none of it is true. 

What is true is that WCW did perhaps its sleaziest come-on to date, which covers a lot of ground, in a last minute tease before the show started. It started with an angle on the live main event show where Vader attacked both Nick Bockwinkel and Eric Bischoff, and then was attacked from behind by Hogan and the two wound up in a pull-apart. As the live show was in its closing seconds, Vader came out again demanding to Bischoff for the match with Hogan to take place "right now." Bischoff said that as we speak, Bockwinkel is in a meeting with Hogan and Jimmy Hart. 

Vader again reiterated wanting the match "tonight" just as the show went off the air. With the precedent of an impromptu match being added set last month and followed again with the Heat vs. Slater & Buck match being announced coming from a last-minute angle minutes earlier, the impression fans were led to believe was there was a good chance Hogan vs. Vader would be added to the show. And having seen the live angle, they had already seen that Vader was in costume and Hogan was in the building even though neither was booked on the show. Of course there was no chance of it happening, but the reason Hogan was brought to Dayton for the angle was the fear, coming off the weak buy rate, that a show without him would do far worse. 

The problem is Hogan's contract per PPV appearance is so high (rumored to be a $300,000 guarantee vs. 25% of the PPV revenue), so just appearing on the show would be financially prohibitive unless there were weeks of promotion going in. Of course, none of the fans at home knew any of this and WCW was counting on those Hogan fans that popped the four big buy rates of the last year but who probably weren't going to buy this show because of no Hogan, to impulsively call their cable company at the last minute and it should have worked in some cases. 

About Bagwell's leg injury, Meltzer wrote - The situation with Marcus Bagwell's leg infection went something like this. Bagwell had calf implants put in (I can understand a competition bodybuilder, but why a wrestler who wears long tights would want calf implants is harder to figure) in late May. He was in pain almost from the beginning and had circulatory problems and I guess he got infected from the operation and if he hadn't had them taken out, the infection could have ended his career. 

Harlem Heat beat The Fantastics in 6:46. Fantastics were a late sub for Rock & Roll Express who canceled wanting more money or at least not to be used in this manner. The match was disappointing as the Fantastics are usually a good working team. Rogers hit Booker T with a moonsault block but Stevie Ray made the save and clobbered Rogers. T then came off the top rope with a somersault legdrop (a Too Cold Scorpio invention) for the pin. *1/2

Craig Pittman, in his first of two matches, made Chris Kanyon submit to Code Red (short arm scissors) in 2:16. The camera missed the finish because they were showing Paul Wight, one of several "Giant sightings" with the announcers going crazy like he was the biggest man they had ever seen. During the match Eric Bischoff brought up Ultimate Fighting and said Pittman had entered an Ultimate Fighting style tournament in Japan and "ate up the competition" like "a hot knife going through butter." Imagine what Bischoff would be saying if he had won his second match. DUD

Then came the Vader/Hogan angle, which started off with Vader screaming at Bockwinkel, "I'm tired of your shit" right on television and he was about to say it again to Bischoff with the mic right in his face but stopped.

Dick Slater & Bunkhouse Buck beat Frankie Lancaster & Barry Houston in 3:52 when the heels did a double forearm smash on Houston. Weak match and clumsy finish. -1/4*

After the match, Col. Parker did an interview calling Sherri a floozy. Sherri came out and issued a challenge for a match. Parker than said Sherri needed a fine Southern gentleman like himself, (you know, the one-time Tennessee Stud). 

Parker kissed Sherri, who responded by decking him and challenging them for a match which after a break was officially confirmed. Somehow I think the Hogan tease was more responsible than this angle for any last-minute buys.

It was surprising to see Tony Schiavone to the PPV show since he recently underwent neck surgery and has suffered some fairly serious post-surgery complications. Since he was obviously in pain and not enjoying life, one would have to compliment his performance.

Alex Wright pinned Brian Pillman in 15:26. Wright was almost totally booed to the point that after the show the decision was pretty well made to turn him heel and make him the protege of Ric Flair. Pillman, who hasn't worked much in the way of important matches over the past year, looked a little rusty early but by the end this turned into an excellent match. These two both left for the New Japan junior heavyweight tournament a few days later. With all the hatred directed at Wright because Flair gave him that deadly dancing gimmick, a lot of people are missing that this guy has improved a lot over the past six months and has had three of the better matches (faint praise to be sure) on WCW television this year over the past several weeks (Anderson, Flair and this match which was his best thus far).

The first big pop was when Pillman chopped Wright hard. Pillman was playing subtle heel and was getting less subtle as the match went on, as the more he heeled, the more he was cheered. After Pillman took a bump to the floor, Wright held the ropes open for his return but Pillman attacked him. The two had a heated chop and forearm exchange. Pillman did a gut wrench almost into a piledriver. Wright suplexed Pillman over the top to the floor. Wright followed with a tope over the top rope and a dropkick off the top for a near fall. Pillman came back with a tope of his own.

Pillman then came off the middle rope going for a Randy Savage-like sledgehammer blow, but Wright moved and Pillman caught his throat on the guard rail. Wright missed a tackle off the top rope. After reversing a superplex and dropping Pillman face forward on the mat, Wright used his crossbody finisher but Pillman kicked out. Pillman worked a knee injury and as Wright came off the top, he "suddenly recovered" with a dropkick to the face. As Pillman went to the top, Wright recovered and threw him off with Pillman crotching himself. After Wright used a german suplex for a near fall, Pillman went for a crucifix, rolled around Wright's back into a sunset flip, but Wright reversed it into a pin of his own. ***3/4

Dave Sullivan won the arm wrestling match from Diamond Dallas Page in a match where Sullivan put up his rabbit Ralph against a date with the Diamond Doll . Page did the normal heel routine arm wrestling gimmick. After going back-and-forth with Max Muscle giving Page leverage to get advantages, Doll accidentally bumped into Max who bumped into Page, who then had his arm put down. It was good for what it was.

Jim Duggan beat Pittman via DQ in 8:13. The graphic underneath Duggan read "Marcus Bagwell" twice. Speaking of trivia, Pittman's nickname "Pit Bull" was not a pro wrestling creation but was a nickname given to him as an amateur. Fans were chanting "USA" which was more moronic than usual given Pittman's Marine Corps gimmick (which is a shoot). The match got awful as time went on. Pittman got the Code Red on Duggan, who made it to the ropes but Pittman didn't break it for the DQ. After all the pushing of how Pittman went through UFC competition, he can't even beat Duggan. This finish was changed from the original plan either due to the Marvez article or other forces within the company wanting to save Duggan from doing the submission. DUD

Heat beat Slater & Buck in 8:39. Despite the angle early in the show, the bout was sluggish and lacked heat. Fans picked up on Heat being the faces since they were working that role by the end. Finish saw Booker T cradle Buck, but Parker interfered to turn them over, and as the ref was distracted, Sherri ran in and turned the pile over again for the pin. DUD

Renegade beat Arn Anderson to win the WCW TV title in 9:07. Anderson probably worked about as well as I've ever seen anyone work in a negative star match. Like Wright, this match was a terrible expose of just how badly the Renegade gimmick is catching on as the biggest pop was when Anderson hit the spinebuster, which he kicked out of, not to mention exposing that this guy isn't ready for prime time. Also, the guy is shrinking by the week which is for the best but kills him as a Warrior clone. Renegade won with a splash off the top rope. -1/4*

Is it true that Flair booked Alex Wright to win the TV title from Arn at Slamboree, but Hogan veto'ed it and changed it to Renegade winning it here?

Nasty Boys retained the WCW tag titles beating Blue Bloods in 15:03. Regal & Eaton look to have potential as a team but have no teams anywhere near their level to work against. Typical Nasty Boys match, good in spots, weak in other spots. Match had good heat. Regal's style conflicts totally with Nasty's although Regal did the greatest facials in the world after being smothered in the arm pits. Really creative finish to set up the triangular match. Stevie Ray and Sherri came to ringside to distract everyone. Then Booker T came out blindsided and clocked Brian Knobs. Eaton was on the top rope ready to finish Knobs when T leapfrogged over the top rope to get out of the ring, shaking the ropes and Eaton crotched himself on the top and fell into the ring to be pinned. **1/4

Sting pinned Meng to win the U.S. title in 13:34. Meng did the superhuman gimmick early not going down. Match was slow early but the psychology was good. Basic storyline was Sting clamped on the scorpion in the middle of the ring but Meng became the first man ever to power out of the move. Sting clipped Meng's knee, then using a clothesline off the top and a splash off the top but Meng kicked out of both. Sting then used a jumping DDT for the pin. 

Total Japanese finish which was good in that you get the clean pin but the loser looks strong by breaking the usual finisher. **1/2

This was the finals of the U.S. Title tournament. The results of the tournament were- 

Rd 1 -

Sting over Arn; Ordorff over Badd; Meng over Bagwell; Pillman over Buck; Flair over Patriot; Wright over Big Bubba by DQ; Savage over Butcher; Austin over Duggan

Rd 2 -

Sting over Orndorff; Meng over Pillman; Flair over Wright; Savage over Austin

Semis – Flair & Savage ended in a no contest, so both were eliminated; which made Sting vs Meng the finals for the title

Ric Flair pinned Randy Savage in 14:42. Anyone who says Flair is washed up as a worker can eat it. As a draw may be another story. It's been years since Savage has put out like this. Basically this was everything you would have expected of a match between these two in their primes. Fast and furious with them brawling inside and outside the ring. Angelo Poffo was at ringside with a cane selling the injury from the last PPV when Flair used the figure four on him. After a kneebreaker on the guard rail, chops and even the old Don Muraco avalanche leg snapper, Flair used the figure four. Of course Savage reversed it. 

Flair did his characteristic flip bump, run across the apron, come off the top on the other side into a clothesline. Savage used the elbow off the top but picked Flair up at two. Savage pulled out the ring bell (reminiscent of a 1986 angle with Rick Steamboat where he "injured" Steamboat with a ring bell to the throat off the top rope) but didn't get to use it. Flair wound up outside the ring and Savage came off for the double sledge, Flair moved and Savage landed jaw first on the guard rail. Vintage stuff. Finish saw Poffo choke Flair with his cane. Flair got the cane but Savage attacked him from behind. However Flair got the cane in the ring and clobbered Savage with it for the pin. 

Bobby Heenan made a contemporary reference reminiscent of Monday Night Raw comparing Flair's swing to that of Ted Williams (a baseball legend whose career ended before the vast majority of viewers were even born). Geez, even Al Kaline is more contemporary. Poffo, without a cane but walking perfectly, had to help Savage to the back. They did an angle off television as they were filming Hogan and Jimmy Hart leaving the building either just before or during this match (it couldn't have been shown on the PPV as it happened or they'd have to pay Hogan for appearing on the PPV rather than just using his name value for last second buys as they did) which may be subtle step one of the Savage turn. ****

Thumbs up 77 (43.0%)

• Thumbs down 40 (22.3%)
• In the middle 62 (34.6%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage 98

Brian Pillman vs. Alex Wright 63

WORST MATCH POLL

Arn Anderson vs. Renegade 56

Jim Duggan vs. Craig Pittman 43

Harlem Heat vs. Slater & Buck 17

Dallas Page vs. Dave Sullivan 8