83 Weeks - Great American Bash 1992 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Great American Bash 1992

Wrestling Observer 6/1/92

World Championship Wrestling's Great American Bash on 7/12 was moved, as had been rumored for some time, from the Philadelphia Civic Center to the Albany, GA Civic Center. As reported here earlier, there was a strong possibility city workers in Philadelphia would be going on strike on 7/1, at which point it would be almost impossible to move a location for a major PPV event. WCW waited about as long as it could go wait for a contract settlement, which didn't seem to be forthcoming. There don't seem to be any changes in the card, which is scheduled to be headlined by Sting vs. Big Van Vader for the WCW title plus the final three rounds of the NWA world tag team title tournament.

“There have been other changes at WCW. Kip Frey quit the company on Wednesday, which came as no surprise to anyone. Frey reportedly had no idea that they were literally pulling the rug from underneath him when it comes to power in the hiring of Bill Watts as Vice President in charge of wrestling operations. While Frey was given a figurehead position to save face, nobody expected it to last. According to several reports, Frey has transferred within the Turner organization and will work under Jack Petrik in a proposed new division of the Turner empire which will produce records, films and broadway shows. Frey's spot and the new No. 2 man in the company will be Jim Ross. I'm not certain whether Ross is officially titled Vice President, but he'll be handling the production of all television shows, marketing, merchandising and become the company liaison with Turner Home Entertainment, which is in charge of the pay-per-view events.

On Ross' radio show Sunday night, most of the callers and questions revolved around the hiring of Watts, with probably few if any listeners realizing the promotion Ross himself had just received. Ross talked about the Center Stage tapings on 6/1 and 6/2 (which will be the first tapings Watts is in charge of) and said that people won't be waiting hours to see wrestling matches, in reference to the tapings of the new Saturday night TBS show that was Frey's brainchild which saw few matches taped at each taping and long delays for the fans attending live as all the segments were taped. The Saturday show will almost surely have another major overhaul, which will become evident on television in three more weeks. Ross likened Watts to Vince Lombardi, the late and legendary pro football coach, in that his philosophy isn't that winning is everything, but that winning is the only thing. He said that a lot of the current wrestlers may be going through culture shock because of the heavy discipline that is going to be imposed and he doesn't know how many of the current crew will survive. Ross surmised that there could be as great as a 30 to 40 percent turnover in talent before things are said and done.”

Whoo-boy! Kip Frey quitting (transferring)! Jim Ross being promoted! Bill Watts having full control!

What were your thoughts on Kip Frey? Was he right for the wrestling business? What was he like to work for?

How in the know were you at this time? What was JR saying at this point? What was dealing with Watts like?

Did Ross talk up Watts to you? What was your relationship like with both of them at this point in time?

“Steve Austin regained the WCW TV title from Barry Windham on 5/23 in Chattanooga at the World Wide tapings.”

Hope that works out for him.

“In the other major angle, the Larry Zbyszko turn was completed. They had a match set up with Austin vs. Zbyszko. Dangerously and Zbyszko came out for an interview and Dangerously called Zbyszko trash and said it's nothing personal but blamed him for all the recent losses. Zbyszko slapped Dangerously and was attacked from behind by Austin. During the singles match, Zbyszko had Austin in an abdominal stretch when Dangerously jumped on the apron. Zbyszko pulled Dangerously into the ring and as Dangerously gets the ref diverted, Bobby Eaton hits a kneedrop on Zbyszko and Austin pins him. This is to build first to Eaton vs. Zbyszko bouts at the houses.”

Babyface Zybysko against the Dangerous Alliance. How good was the Dangerous Alliance back then? Heyman especially.

“Bill Watts' first TV's where he'll be in charge will be 6/1 and 6/2 at Center Stage and expect him to make a major speech announcing various changes on the first show. That show airs on TBS on 6/20. Don't expect any real changes in direction until July at the earliest, however.”

Did Watts put himself on TV too much during his run at WCW?

“Watts said his first priorities are to build back the television ratings, because you can't get viewers back to the arenas unless they first watch the television, concentrate in particular on rebuilding attendance at the Omni and put together a product in which the credibility and believability holds up as a total contrast to the WWF. Watts did also say that the anti-steroid doctrine and eventual testing came from TBS itself so the policy won't be changing with Kip Frey out of the picture. From a serious standpoint, there will be a day of reckoning with certain wrestlers and we all know who they are, are told point blank that have to either get off the juice or find a new place to go, and since those are some of the guys in line for the biggest pushes, well, it's going to be interesting.”

Would you agree with that assessment in that ratings have to rebuild before live attendance can?

Was the anti-steriod doctrine just lip service at this point?

“They aired a vignette with Eric Bischoff in the Freebirds offices that was tremendously entertaining but also lacked any credibility. Bischoff was at his all-time best here, particularly when the bouncers were going to throw him out of the office because they had no idea who he was. Next best part was Precious saying that the Birds were busy, only to find them in the conference room making prank calls. The skit was to establish that Precious is the one who is really running all the Freebirds business.”

This had to have been a blast to shoot right?

Wrestling Observer 6/8/92

“WCW wrestlers this past week all received a letter officially listing the new rules, most of which had either been previously speculated upon here or talked about in a previous announcement to the wrestlers when Bill Watts appeared at the house show a few weeks back in Savannah, GA. Anyway, effective on 6/1, the rules, dubbed the "ten commandments," by the wrestlers, go as follows:

Use of the ring barricades and the ringpost is forbidden and will also be cause for an automatic disqualification

Wrestling outside the ring is discouraged

Absolutely no low blows. First offense is a $1,000 fine, second offense is a $2,500 fine and third offense is a $5,000 fine and will be considered a breach of contract. If a wrestler is hit low, he is to make every effort not to sell the move as a low blow

All wrestlers are due in the building one hour before the scheduled starting time of the show, with fines again being implemented for being late of $1,000 for a first offense, $2,500 for a second offense and $5,000 and a breach of contract for a third offense

Missing an event except in the case of the most severe injuries is considered a breach of contract. The only excusable exception to this rule is an act of God.

Wrestlers who are injured and can't perform are still expected to make the town in order to show the fans that WCW will no longer falsely advertising talent. The only exception would be a crippling injury which doesn't allow for traveling

Talking over the p.a. during the show is to be discouraged. Lewd hand gestures are prohibited, as is any cursing loud enough for the audience to hear

Fraternization (between heels and babyfaces) in public is not acceptable. This includes traveling together to and from the arena, to public appearances, restaurants and even to the gym. This also includes faces and heels socializing together in social situations and the gym.

No guests are allowed in the dressing room, including family members, media, etc.

Each wrestler is allowed only two complimentary tickets to each show for friends and family. Any number of tickets above that number must be purchased at face value by the wrestler.

Watts held a meeting on 6/1, before the first television taping under his auspices, and added some new directives. He's going to cut back on the length of the television tapings because he believes it burns out the fans and hurts the return gates in those cities, so the days of 25-match television tapings are done. Crowd enthusiasm also generally wanes after a certain point in those long tapings which makes the television product appear lackluster. I will assume that means they will be doing more tapings. Either that or they'll have to cut down on the number of weekly television shows (which I wouldn't be surprised to see Watts attempt to do eventually) or an increase in the amount of repeated material (which is the other possibility, but I don't expect it). In what will be almost surely the most controversial new directive, Watts has banned everything off the top rope. The theory behind the rule is that it will enable heels to get heat ala Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel in the early 1970s in the AWA when they got incredible heat when Stevens would "illegally" come off the top ropes behind the referees back to lead to pinning babyfaces. I guess the idea is to cast Bobby Eaton in the Ray Stevens role on the heel side. However, in this day and age, with fans accustomed to moves of that variety and with wrestlers like Rick Steamboat and Brian Pillman, not to mention Jushin Liger and Great Muta, eliminating all moves from the top rope is attempting to retrogress the in-ring product itself and take away what has probably been the single most universally accepted change world-wide of the past decade, which is the advent of the hot new acrobatic moves like moonsaults, Alabama Jams, shooting stars, Air Pillman's and the like. During the first television show, as a way to get the rule over, during a match with The Steiners vs. Arn Anderson & Steve Austin, Anderson climbed to the top rope and Ole Anderson immediately made him get off the rope before he could jump. Watts also banned the juice (as in blood, not steroids), telling the boys the subject had become too controversial. Watts also addressed the subject of steroids and said that he would have to find out what TBS' policy is regarding steroids. He said if TBS doesn't want the guys on steroids, then nobody is going to be on steroids because if they are, they won't wrestle for WCW and it's as simple as that. As we've gone into, that subject isn't quite as easily dealt with but we'll see how serious that is when we see the physiques of certain wrestlers over the next six weeks and what happens to certain main eventers who continue use. Most wrestlers had gone into the meeting under the impression since steroids weren't mentioned in the original ten commandments, that Watts wouldn't be serious about the subject and WCW wouldn't test, so use would revert back to original levels rather quickly (which it pretty well had seemed to of late, except in a few notable cases where use appears to have increased to well past original levels).”

Were you there for this meeting? What were the wrestlers saying to you about this? Who did you hear hated it the most?

There’s just so much here. Did you see a change in the product for the better with these new rules?

“Watts co-hosted the WCW Saturday Night show that was taped on 6/1 and will air on 6/13 proclaiming the beginning of a new era for "WCW: The Real Deal." Watts called the WWF a macabre cartoon and said that WCW wouldn't be having people throw up or be electrocuted (in reference to the recent angles with Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter, although pro wrestling's most famous electrocution was at WCW's Halloween Havoc show in 1991 with Abdullah the Butcher) on television. The padding on the floor was eliminated (in many states it will be kept because of commission rules in those states as far as safety regulations) with Watts saying something to the effect that real wrestlers don't need a bunch of mattresses to fall onto. If that is Watts' legit reason for removing the padding on the floor, then it doesn't seem justifiable and does seem to be behind the times. However, there is some dispute among wrestlers as to whether or not the padding serves its designed purpose, which is lessening of injuries from bumps on the floor. Certainly it lessens the hip and back injuries from bumps because the mats have more padding that concrete, however some way argued that it creates knee and ankle injuries when guys jump off the ropes or apron because the feet aren't landing on a solid foundation. So, if arguably, removing padding decreases injuries, that's at least a legitimate justification for it. If it's being done because tough guys can land on concrete, that's simply being behind the times. Ole Anderson was introduced as the trouble-shooting referee. His reactions were said to be slow and his counting of pins wasn't the least bit dramatic, but this is also his first real role as a referee so it's way too early to make any judgement on his performance. The two-out-of-three fall television main events have been made one fall once again, which is probably a change for the better since two of three should be saved for special circumstances and only used when the particular wrestlers are good enough to maintain interest for three falls. That hasn't been the case with most, but not all, of the television main events of the past two months, which is probably a small reason for the ratings going south. The television squash matches are being cut down in time to 2:30 or less, similar to the WWF, to make for a faster-paced television show.”

Lots of good ideas with not a lot of good ideas here. Did you think Watts time away from wrestling hurt him more than helped and not knowing the product make him already behind the 8 ball?

How soon were you making notes of things of what you would do differently that would set up your run at the top spot after Watts got blown out?

“Bill Watts' first television tapings took place 6/1 before a full house of 800 fans at Center Stage. Watts was Jim Ross' guest host on the show that airs 6/13. Watts did a strong interview announcing several of the changes. Ole Anderson did an interview after being announced as trouble-shooting ref, which wasn't one of his best ones, but still good. The heels and faces now come out of different entrances at Center Stage. The non-squash matches taped saw Dustin Rhodes beat Tracy Smothers, Sting beat Diamond Dallas Page *1/4 and Steiners beat Arn Anderson & Steve Austin *3/4. Cactus Jack did an interview where he smashed a crate over his head. The 6/20 show saw Ross have Dusty Rhodes as guest host. Arn Anderson did an excellent interview talking bout his series of matches with Sting, although no word on when the feud even starts. TV main event saw Greg Valentine beat Tom Zenk in a -* match and it appeared Zenk blew out his knee during the match.

There was more of an emphasis on matwork as opposed to flying moves, with no top rope moves and only two moves off the middle rope. The squash matches all lasted around 2:30, similar to WWF squashes.”

Watts seemed to begin to highlight the better workers to make the product better. But it seemed like he was pushing himself the most on TV. Not the smartest way to launch a new “product” don’t you think?

“Gary Juster has been elevated to the head of all promoters and will be responsible for hiring promoters, the touring schedule and overseeing the work of the promoters.”

How successful was Juster in this position?

Watts was on Jim Ross' radio show and talked about many things you've already read, plus when asked, said that he had no interest in bringing in Sid Vicious and made it clear that the wrestlers you see advertised on television will appear for the live shows because no-shows aren't going to be tolerated any longer.

This is a good idea.

Wrestling Observer 6/15/92

Most of the major talk over the past week involves the new WCW rules as established by Bill Watts both in a memo to the wrestlers about two weeks ago and in a meeting Monday night at Center Stage before the television taping. We have one correction to make (shows what happens when people don't pay close attention in class) from what was reported here last week. The official company policy on blood is that Watts is going to use blood. However, because of the higher-ups being afraid of a lawsuit by a wrestler unwilling to cut themselves and taking the company to court if they either lost their spot or their job over it (and in that case, the wrestler would almost surely win), Watts is unable to order anyone to cut. However, he will suggest it when he feels it is useful for the product but the wrestler has the option to turn down the request and doesn't have to give a reason and no punishment in terms of a lessened push will result in turning down the request. There are wrestlers who believe that turning down the request is akin to having the man with the pencil erase you from main event consideration, but it was clearly stated as blading would be up to the discretion of the wrestler. Watts said he didn't believe HIV could be spread from a head cut and admittedly there isn't one case on record of HIV being spread during a bloody wrestling match. The potential of contracting AIDS has been the main argument for banning blading. However, several doctors who are experts in the field of the spreading of the HIV have felt pro wrestlers are in the highest-risk category of almost any athletes because of adding the factor of wrestlers bleeding all over one another with the prevalence of injecting drugs with needles, the lifestyle on the road (which wrestlers are no different than many other popular sports and entertainment performers and the disease has already started to hit both).

While the majority of Watts' new rules have been pretty well accepted as steps in a positive direction and in some cases, as necessary, as expected there is some dispute over the rationale for removing the mats from the ring area in states where they aren't mandated. Apparently Watts tried to discourage using chops to the chest ala Ric Flair, feeling that they expose the business, in favor of more punches. This has been cause for some dispute since the stiff chops ala Flair have become very popular and in some ways the loud sound effects of a stiff chop makes things seem more realistic than punches with no sound effects. Without question, however, the most controversial new rule is the banning of all moves from the top rope. It eliminates accepted and popular maneuvers from the group's top performers (Sting, Rick Steiner, Rick Steamboat, Great Muta, Jushin Liger, Brian Pillman, Tom Zenk, Johnny B. Badd) and unlike elimination of using the ringpost and low blows, will hurt match quality. In fact, what many looked forward to and what was specifically booked to be a match of the year calibre bout on 6/16 in Charleston, SC with Pillman & Liger vs. Chris Benoit & Biff Wellington, while not completely ruined by the new rule, is certainly going to be hampered greatly. If there is a method to this apparent madness, and that is trying to sell completely realistic looking wrestling ala the UWF type organizations in Japan, maybe this is a step in legitimizing the product. It's highly unlikely such a style would make it in this country, and there is no chance it would without a very charismatic performer to popularize the style and a period of at least two extremely lean years to educate fans to submissions and to accept realistic looking matches. Since neither is going to happen, it's something of a moot point that some moves that are universally popular aren't actually legitimate. Trying to rationalize that top rope moves wouldn't be used in a legitimate street fight is ridiculous, because virtually nothing used in a pro ring would be used. I've yet to hear anything close to a reason that holds any water for the rule other than it was a rule in the past. But those who have said it would be the equivalent of the NBA banning the dunk and three-point shot because when Bob Cousy played, neither existed, are, unfortunately, pretty close to the mark on this one. Since this change has been almost universally criticized, I expect there is a pretty decent chance it will be done away with in a few months.

Watts made statements in the meeting about steroids, as reported here previously, that if TBS is against them, that guys won't be allowed to use them. After nearly one full year of pro wrestling being engulfed in a steroid problem, a few lessons should been learned if anyone was paying attention: 1) Doing nothing inherently is condoning steroid use because of the competitive advantages steroids give wrestlers in bolstering their physique. Promotions from the mid-80s to the present did nothing, steroids were plentiful because it helped guys get over and those who didn't want to use them often still did because they had to do something to keep pace with those who did. One can argue that things should then be left alone, but that is ignoring that steroids are a felony and doing nothing about it inherently means the organization is encouraging its athletes to commit felonies to keep up competitively with the competition, not to mention that WCW television is inundated with anti-steroid psa's; 2) Testing is not the answer because tests are beatable despite what those who administer the test want you to believe; 3) Not testing is even less of the answer, because then nobody takes the program seriously. Steroids are a huge issue with WCW because they have wrestlers doing specific anti-steroid interviews on their television show, whereas the WWF only has wrestlers in their magazine taking the more vague say no to drugs of all kinds. Also, while the WWF has not eliminated usage of muscle-building drugs no matter what may be publicly claimed, use has decreased and while some wrestlers who could literally be called chemical freakazoids may still be using some stuff, they've clearly cut down on quantity which at least has lowered the standard somewhat and is better for the health of everyone overall. While the WWF could take a real approach instead of the fake approach by not pushing (or not hiring in the first place) the freaks built on a foundation of sauce, to say testing has been a complete failure wouldn't be fair either. While WWF has had a six-month head-start in regard to its initial announcement, it has also made more progress than WCW in regards to this subject, even though it has yet to invoke a serious plan and instead is using drug testing as something of a very expensive p.r. con. On the other hand, after Kip Frey first implemented his program, it did appear use in WCW had decreased, at least among certain wrestlers. But it did nothing to dissuade the hardcore users. Judging from recent television and talking with various wrestlers, it is back up as high as ever right now because the hardcore users have been able to get away unabated and have created the standard and those who can take it or leave it have to be able to stand next to them. With no testing at all, there is no deterrence built in. But implementing policies that haven't worked anywhere else isn't the answer if one is trying to address the problem, and not just implement a p.r. con. This is not saying WCW should ban steroid use or have a policy. Just to say that the responsibility of management in a wrestling company is to either condone use (doing nothing and saying you aren't encouraging use is still condoning use) or condemn it, which means use is eliminated which in some cases, means certain very charismatic wrestlers may have to be punished in some form because other methods have proven to be ineffective.

This seems to continue the pattern of focus on Bill Watts. Was it just too much too fast for the new rules and also for him booking himself to be the focus of things?

Jim Ross was hired on Friday as the new color commentator for the Atlanta Falcons for the upcoming season. Ross, who will retain all his present administrative and announcing duties with WCW, will do both the pre-game and post-game shows (post-game being a call-in show) along with being the third man in the booth during the games. The Falcons radio network flagship station is WSB, and Ross' wrestling talk show is the highest rated talk show on the station, which probably is part of the reason he got the job. It's usually very hard for someone so well known as a wrestling announcer, no matter how good they may be at announcing, to get a break with legit sports because of how wrestling and everyone involved in wrestling is often perceived, so it really is a feather in Ross' cap to pull this one off.

Any idea if this was a means to an end for Ross at this point in his career? Or was he just riding high being successful on both ends?

Abdullah the Butcher was at the Omni trying and succeeding in losing a job the same night. Abdullah was asked to put Dustin Rhodes over clean and he made a fuss about not being treated right and quit on the spot. Since Abdullah has another Japan tour booked for the month of July and is headlining in Puerto Rico, it's not like he had any dates booked in the first place or was actually planning on sticking around.

Were you there for this? How hard was Abby to deal with to your knowledge?

It appears they are going to target certain cities that have the best television ratings and run them more frequently and stay out of cities that don't have strong television outlets. In those cities, they are going to run angles at the house shows to lead to the next shows and talk in the localized magazine segments about events that happened on the previous and will happen on the following house shows to build local storylines.

This makes sense.

Wrestling Observer 6/22/92

This is one of the biggest weeks of the year for World Championship Wrestling, with a Clash being taped on Tuesday night (airing 6/22) and a PPV show on Saturday night. The PPV is going to be a difficult sell, but on paper looks like it will be an entertaining show. Although we can point to factors such as the downtrend in PPV wrestling of late, the lack of the killer interest main event and coming the day after the Holmes-Holyfield fight which has a $37 list price and is being extremely well promoted in television ads, probably the biggest problem is that it was a mistake to attempt three PPV shows in such a short period of time. For whatever is to be said about Bill Watts, it does seem pretty clear that decisions such as those won't be made in the future and the gap between the Bash on 7/12 and Halloween Havoc on 10/31 will leave ample time to build up an attraction worthy of PPV, rather then creating a PPV card without the worthy attraction.

Why book a Clash and a PPV so close together?

If the Clash does anything but the lowest rating in the history of the Clash series, it should be taken as a major success. While I don't believe the fact that the show is on taped-delay and that there will be some people who will know the results ahead of time being any kind of a ratings factor, again the overall downtrend in ratings, going head-to-head with Prime Time Wrestling on USA, and most importantly, a line-up that hasn't been well-promoted, add up to ratings problems. When the tag team tournament was first announced, there seemed to be a great deal of initial interest. Now that the tournament is upon us, that interest is pretty much gone with the exception of some curiosity over the probable semifinal Williams & Gordy vs. Steiners match. Introducing so much new talent would have been hard anyway, but the overall problem with the tournament is it became a lame duck idea. The idea was the brainchild of Kip Frey, who wanted to re-establish the NWA name and use it as a way to work with international organizations like New Japan. Bill Watts felt otherwise, figuring the WCW name needed to be established without confusion. When Watts came in, the tournament was already on the boards and it was too late to cancel. With so many newcomers involved, time needed to be spent getting their personalities over so fans would care about them one way or the other. That wasn't done on the television "Countdown to" segments. Whether or not anyone knows about The Head Hunters, for example, beforehand doesn't matter, but it's going to be virtually impossible for their match to get over no matter how good the workrate may be because nobody has a clue as to who they are, what they can do, etc.

The "new era" for WCW started on television Saturday with the introduction of Bill Watts as Vice President. I had a mixed reaction to the first episode. On the positive side, as a long-time fan, it had some nice nostalgia to hear Watts commentate on the matches as he did in the old Mid South Wrestling promotion in the early 80s. Watts has always been one of the best announcers, if not the best, at dramatically getting angles across in a believable manner. He was even able to make some very unbelievable ideas look and come across as realistic. On the downside, there was just a feeling about how much wrestling has changed since that time. Watts and Ole Anderson doing those early in the show interviews only made it too obvious how cutting a believable promo has almost become a lost art form.

On the other side, by no means was the first show anymore gripping or exciting than any other wrestling television show of late. Of course, it's ridiculous to expect a whole giant turn-around on the first show. And there were too many references to things too far in the past. While Watts probably has fond personal memories of big houses he helped draw in Atlanta during the 1970s, and the traditions of pro wrestling in Atlanta, the fact is, TBS is not a local Atlanta station anymore and the vast majority of viewers not only don't know about the 1970s, but even if they did, more importantly, aren't living in Atlanta and the vast majority of the period Watts headlined in Atlanta was well before TBS was on satellite. But it was a first show and Watts probably felt he needed to establish a tie-in to better days of the past. As far as any kind of overall direction, we probably won't be able to evaluate anything for a few months.

Whatever turnaround can be accomplished will have to come initially from television, since it reaches the mass audience. PPVs can't turn around a company because relatively few people order PPVs, and those that do are generally already solid fans, particularly when they are running as many PPV shows as they've been. A turnaround requires as much as anything, creating new fans. People who aren't already fans aren't going to buy the PPVs before first being hooked by the television.

Yet with so much wrestling that looks cartoonish available, can one turn the clock back in time and change the way people look at wrestling? I believe it can be done through re-education, but re-education of the audience is not something that happens over night. Re-education also works mainly on the hardcore fan because the casual fan needs to be hooked before he can then be educated. It also won't necessarily work, as people and times change. The vast majority of attempts at reviving dead or dormant art forms, while they may succeed short time for nostalgia purposes if they once had a huge following, usually don't last very long before they get buried by whatever the new fad is in that art form, be in movies, music or whatever, the whatever being wrestling in this case. Watts talked about setting the pace and being the trend-setters, but that requires an audience that has to be rebuilt and an ability to change people's perception as to what is the major league in wrestling. People have been educated for eight years that WWF, Hulk Hogan and pro wrestling are one and the same, a cartoon show aimed at young children in some eyes, as a sleazy, fake morality play for morons in the view of the majority of the public. Changing that may require a direct assault on the WWF publicly, something the Turner group has hinted at doing at times but has never done. I read an article where they were talking about the most successful marketing approaches in competing with a product that has the lion's market share and they found using celebrities in endorsements as generally ineffective, but the most effective method is to go head-up in advertising against the competition and point out your strengths and their weaknesses. In wrestling, that has rarely been attempted and never in recent years been done with any effectiveness. In addition, overall interest, even for the WWF, is on the wane. Much of it appears to be a combination of overexposure and wrestling cyclical nature, a trend that is very difficult to turn around. Quite frankly, watching the first week of the Watts product on television, the new era looks almost exactly like the old era. Changing set designs doesn't change the fact that these are the same wrestlers in the same basic mix pretty much working against the same group of opponents. There are different categories of wrestling fans that WCW has to acquire in order to become successful as the company was not that many years ago. The hardcore fans are still around, but don't appear to be as hardcore as in the past. They'll be brought back with intriguing angles, personalities and hard action. The casual fans who occasionally watch the television need a much improved television product to hook them into becoming loyal viewers before they start returning to the arenas. Those who have given up watching, and judging from ratings, those are many, are probably not coming back, having moved onto other weird and not-so-weird preoccupations. In their place you need to have a constant influx of new fans. It is people from this group where the competition from Titan is so imposing. New fans see Titan as the major league for reasons that have been gone over so many times and the fact is historically, few cities over the long haul in the United States have supported two promotions in a city without fans basically choosing one over the other and the "other" usually sputters out. That is a major difference in U.S. wrestling history as compared with other wrestling hotbeds like Tokyo or Mexico City where fans have supported two or more promotions at a time without one dominating and the rest faltering. All the acknowledged bumbling and mistakes aside, it may just be that the NWA and now WCW have simply played the role of the "other" for the past several years in a country that will only support what it believes to be major league entertainment.

Again this seemed like a lot of Watts. Why?

Was the WCW taping schedule at this point counter-productive to promoting PPV and Clash of the Champions especially when they were so close together?

It appears like Jake Roberts isn't coming in at anytime soon. Apparently they aren't close on contract terms as Roberts was going to be offered a heavy duty guarantee by Kip Frey whereas Bill Watts wants a more incentive-oriented deal.

Is this one of the bigger differences between Frey and Watts? How much was Watts told to cut the budget even before you were told the same thing?

Speaking of which, Sid Eudy has been calling both WWF and WCW about returning when the summer is over. WCW appears to not be interested and Watts has said as much numerous times publicly. WWF also is said to not be interested but as one official told me, "the way everyone says no makes me think it's a yes." It's also not like the WWF doesn't need a new heel on top during the fall.

Ohhhh Sid.

WCW holds Beach Blast PPV here on June 20th. I put a lot of the Watts in because I think it plays a major role in the Great American Bash PPV. Use what you will.

Beach Blast:

JYD, Tom Zenk & Big Josh defeat Tracy Smothers, Richard (Ricky) Morton and DDP (dark match)

Scotty Flamingo beats Brian Pillman to win the WCW Light Heavyweight Title

Ron Simmons beats Terry TAylor

Greg Valentine beats Marcus Bagwell

Sting beats Cactus Jack in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

Ricky Steamboat beats Rick Rude 4-3 in a 30 minute iron man match

Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham & Nikita Koloff beat Arn Anderson, Steve Austin & Bobby Eaton (The Dangerous Alliance) via DQ with Ole Anderson as special guest referee

Steiners 30 minute time limit draw for the WCW World Tag Team Titles with Terry Gordy & Steve Williams

THEN there’s a Clash of the Champions airing the next night!

Steamboat & Koloff beat Joe & Dean Malenko

Rude & Austin beat Bagwell & Zenk

Williams & Gordy beat Jeff & Larry O’Day

Rhodes & Windham beat Anderson & Eaton

Freebirds beat Silver King

Liger & Pillman beat Benoit & Wellington

Hase & Akira Nogami beat the fake Head Hunters (the real ones no-showed to not do a job)

Gordy & Williams beat the Steiners (who just last night on the PPV they went to a 30 minute draw for the tag team titles with…)

Wrestling Observer 6/29/92

“This leads to the Bash on 7/12. I expect a few matches added to the show besides Sting vs. Vader and the tag team tournament matches. The bouts, unless they change the bracketing again, look like Steamboat & Koloff vs. Liger & Pillman with the winners facing Gordy & Williams on one side. The other side will be Rude & Austin vs. Rhodes & Windham and Hase & Nogami vs. Freebirds with the winners meeting in the other half. It sure looks like Gordy & Williams vs. Rhodes & Windham in the finals, and everyone would expect Gordy & Williams to win and given that fact, I'd say it's not a sure thing. You've got to figure they'll do something to add the Steiners to the card because it seems ridiculous not to have them somewhere on a PPV show. How's this for an idea of art imitating life. Have them go to a judge in Bay City, MI and get a restraining order allowing them to compete in the tournament, then the dreaded NWA president could rule that everyone else in the tournament will be banned if they compete against them and Watts can stand up for the Steiners and do another hot interview.”

Wow. It’s all so convoluted. Was having the NWA being a featured part of the product a determinant to it?

Then WCW embarks on the Great American Bash TOUR. 

“The complete Great American Bash tour, at least as far as I've got, will be: 7/1 in Macon; 7/2 in Huntsville; 7/3 in Chattanooga; 7/4 in Baltimore; 7/5 in Atlanta's Omni; 7/9 in Norfolk; 7/10 in Raleigh; 7/11 in Richmond; 7/12 in Albany, GA; 7/16 in Augusta, GA; 7/17 in Fort Bragg; 7/18 at Charlotte Stadium; 7/19 in Charleston, WV; 7/20 in Roanoke; 7/23 in Oklahoma City; 7/24 in St. Joseph; 7/25 in Kansas City; 7/26 in Joplin; 7/30 in Savannah; 7/31 in Hampton, VA; 8/1 in Philadelphia; 8/2 in Baltimore; 8/5 in Raleigh; 8/6 in Fayetteville; 8/7 in Chicago; 8/8 in Milwaukee; 8/9 in Chattanooga; 8/11 in Gainesville, GA; 8/13 in Sarasota; 8/14 in Fort Myers; 8/15 in Jacksonville and 8/16 at the Omni.”

Ambitious stuff by a company that is struggling right now and with a regime change.

Mr. Hughes is bleaching his hair and beard blonde and coming back with a new gimmick and a push.

Oh jesus.

Wrestling Observer 7/6/92

Buddy Rogers passes away.

Thoughts on Rogers?

Beach Blast drew an estimated 0.4 buy rate, which is an estimated 70,000 buys and $1.4 million gross, all three of which are by far the lowest of any WCW PPV event in history. WCW's share from the show should be approximately $630,000. With another PPV show in three weeks which now, combined with the elimination of the Steiners killing most of the interest in the tag team tournament, makes it, as far as drawing goes, a one match show with Sting vs. Big Van Vader. Even though there is something of a grudge involved because of the legit injury, the storyline has been rather clumsy with Sting immediately acting like the injury was nothing when it happened and now all of a sudden them playing it up as a major injury. Even with the tradition of the Bash, they'll be hard pressed to equal the Beach Blast numbers. Three weeks is simply too short to build up a PPV show and they obviously scheduled far too many big shows in too short a time period (this is not pointing the finger at current management because these decisions were actually made by Turner Home Entertainment).

Do you agree with that assessment?

The Clash on Monday did a 2.8 rating with a 4.8 share, seen on average in 1,634,000 homes. All three of those numbers are also all-time lows for Clashes, a full 24 percent drop from the previous Clash which set the previous all-time low. While most expected this Clash, for a number of reasons, to be the lowest rated one ever, to drop to this level was a major shocker, since no previous Clash had ever done below a 3.7. The two lowest rated Clashes in history--the January 21, 1992 Clash from Topeka (Sting & Ricky Steamboat vs. Rick Rude & Steve Austin) and the September 5, 1991 Clash from Augusta, GA (Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko vs. Rick Steiner & Bill Kazmaier), both did 3.7 ratings. The Clash sandwiched between those two, on November 19, 1991 from Savannah, GA, headlined by Lex Luger vs. Rick Steiner but most remembered for the Rick Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes tag title win over Anderson & Zbyszko, drew a 4.3 rating. While some in the company tried to use convenient excuse K (as in K. Allen Frey) for coming up with the entire tournament and return of the NWA idea, which would be a hard sell to begin with, that is forgetting that the promotion itself, after Frey left, never even attempted to familiarize the fans with any of the outside talent, thus the show never had a chance. Others outside the wrestling company tried to put the blame on the show not actually being live, but in this case that wasn't even a factor. At the same time, it's way too early to blame the new regime for any of these numbers. While others may use the fact that this show went head-to-head with WWF Prime Time Wrestling in the Eastern and Central time zones (which resulted in the lowest rated Prime Time of all-time) and say the two shows wound up splitting the audience, judging from the ratings of the first hour of the show (with no competition from Prime Time in any time zone), that doesn't appear to hold water as the first hour unopposed did a 2.4 rating while the 90 minutes that went head-to-head with Prime Time did a 3.0. The ratings built steadily from a 2.1 at the start to a 2.9 for Freebirds-Silver Kings. The audience first peaked during the Pillman & Liger vs. Benoit & Wellington (3.2), dropped during Hase & Nogami vs. Head Hunters match (2.9) before popping back to a 3.3 (1.96 million homes) for Williams & Gordy vs. Steiners.

People would kill for these ratings right now lol.

The poor showings of both Beach Blast and the Clash were part of yet another weekend from 6/20 to 6/22 which set new lows for cable television ratings. These numbers are even more ominous when it comes to WCW because ratings traditionally increase the weekend of a major show, in particular the first television show after a PPV because the vast majority of fans still don't have access to PPV (plus, of those who do, in this case, few ordered it to begin with) and it's their first chance to find out. Even so, Main Event did just a 1.9 rating while WCW, one hour before the PPV, did a miserable 1.6 and Power Hour did a 1.4. WWF numbers were nearly as bad with All American doing a 2.2, and Prime Time (which went head-to-head with the Clash) doing an all-time low 1.6. While Prime Time can't be blamed for anything but a little of a poor ratings of the WCW Clash (since the ratings started off so poorly when there was no other wrestling competition on cable), the fact that there was a Clash on opposite Prime Time probably did swing some regular viewers away since the rating was so much lower than it has ever been.

Not a good look right now.

Wrestling Observer 7/13/92

In an attempt to push Atlanta's Omni as the new Madison Square Garden of wrestling, WCW had two title changes at the 7/5 house show with Brad Armstrong beating Scotty Flamingo to win the lightheavyweight title and Terry Gordy & Steve Williams beating The Steiner Brothers to capture the WCW tag team titles. Both matches, along with a few others, were filmed with a single camera set-up and will probably air as soon as Saturday on TBS. The move to push the Omni shows was exemplified on the TBS shows this past weekend since both national shows heavily pushed the Sunday night card at the Omni with all angles and commentary designed to push those matches at the expense of no hype, no angles and virtually no commentary devoted to the PPV show on 7/12. Looking at things from the short term, this was the ultimate penny-wise, dollar-foolish decision. Only a tiny percentage of the audience watching nationally on TBS lived within a one hour drive of the Omni and could even attend the show, whereas roughly 30 percent of those watching those shows have PPV capability and could, if they wanted to, order the Bash. Even with all the hype, the Omni crowd was approximately 2,500 and $25,000, roughly the same as the previous card.

How...does this make sense?

Long term an argument can be made that house shows have to be emphasized in order to make them profitable and to do that fans have to be conditioned that the house show is the main item, where the big matches take place and the titles change, rather than the PPV and/or the television tapings. The thing is, we have to look at the future and not the past simply because the business was based on house shows before PPV existed. The business is based on maximizing profits, or in this case, minimizing losses by maximizing revenue. However, PPV has hit a snag this year with the rapidly declining buy rates. Is PPV a dying money stream or has WCW simply drawing poor buy rates because they aren't promoting PPV shows well? PPV or house shows? Which has the potential for the largest amount of revenue and largest amount of profit?

Without seeing the books, that's a question I can't answer right now. But let's look to the future. If one figures a correctly promoted quarterly kick-ass PPV show with a line-up of matches that have been built and that people want to see for WCW can do a consistent 0.6 buy rate (a number that two months ago would have sounded ridiculously low) when the homes hit 22 million (which they should by the end of this year), or 130,000 buys (a figure most WCW PPV shows with a smaller universe have topped until the past two months) at $19.95, means WCW should be able to realize $1.2 million. This is presumably far less than SuperBrawl from Milwaukee realized but well above what Wrestle War, Beach Blast and undoubtedly, the Bash, will do. However, there is a strong argument that those weaker numbers came from producing less marketable shows too often and are not an example of the golden goose of PPV already being destroyed by wrestling promoters. Let's say a PPV show as a secondary gimmick show, poorly promoted, like Beach Blast and the Bash were, could still do an 0.3 or 65,000 buys, WCW would net about $600,000 (the approximate figure the most recent PPV apparently generated). If the company can run, as previous TBS management wanted, six hot PPV shows that are well promoted per year as opposed to the four and maintain the 0.3, a figure which would be considered incredibly conservative and in fact, inconceivably low for even a poorly promoted weak line-up major PPV show just two months ago, the house shows would have to increase to an average of $31,000 per night just to have all this house show emphasis pay off with no return. If WCW could run six PPVs per year and maintain an 0.5, to make up for the lost revenue, they'd have to average almost $40,000 per night on the road. In other words, to have everything come out as a wash, which would mean the company is in the same economic shape it is in today, by October, the company needs to average no less than $31,000 per house show and maybe as much as $40,000. That number isn't inconceivable, although it is double or more than what they are averaging today. However, for monthly Omni shows to pick up enough economic slack caused by de-emphasis on PPV hype, the company couldn't come close even if every Omni show sold out. So, the big question, is making the house show angles the focal point of television hype instead of PPV match angles and hype a good move? When the average nightly gates double their current mark, then it is. Until that point, it isn't. And no answer can be given on the policy until November when looking at the figures to see if they're moving in a direction where the $31,000 nightly average is feasible. Is spending the bulk of the cable television shows one week before a PPV trying to hype a local house show in Atlanta instead of the PPV justified economically? No way.

Say what you will about Meltzer but he’s dead on correct here isn’t he?

It appears the big losers now that Watts is in charge are Brian Pillman, Jushin Liger (who did a job for Flamingo in hardcore Baltimore on 7/4), Tom Zenk, The Freebirds and Marcus Bagwell and the big winners are Terry Gordy, Steve Williams, Mr. Hughes, Ron Simmons, Greg Valentine, Dick Slater, The Barbarian and Dan Spivey.

Seems about right.

Watts has now banned babyfaces and heels from flying in the same airplane which in some cases has made a tough travel schedule that much tougher with the faces and heels alternating weeks in having to take the early flights out of town (after wrestling the previous night). The reason given wasn't kayfabe as much as the fear that if everyone was on the same plane and it went down, there would be nobody left to wrestle. So now, the billion-to-one odds of that happening are doubled.

OK boomer.

Zbyszko looks like he'll be phased away from full-time wrestling to concentrate on commentary.

Started then. Look at him 6 years later.

AND HERE WE ARE FINALLY AT GAB 1992

Wrestling Observer 7/20/92

GREAT AMERICAN BASH

• Thumbs up 58 (32.0%)
• Thumbs down 89 (49.1%)
• In the middle 34 (18.8%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Sting vs. Big Van Vader 78

Pillman & Liger vs. Steamboat & Koloff 44

WORST MATCH POLL

Freebirds vs. Hase & Hashimoto 60

Steamboat & Koloff vs. Gordy & Williams 35

Rhodes & Windham vs. Gordy & Williams 10

Big Van Vader most likely became the first wrestler in history ever to win world heavyweight titles in four countries on 7/12 in Albany, GA at the Great American Bash when he defeated Sting for the WCW crown. Vader, who has previously held the IWGP (Japanese) version of the title on four occasions along with the CWA (European) and UWA (Mexican), and at one point held all three simultaneously, captured the title in a tremendous match that highlighted a show generally considered lackluster. The win came at 17:17 after Sting missed an attempt at a second "Stinger splash" in the corner and hit his head on the metal rod connecting the turnbuckles and ringpost (although the replay showed too clearly he really hit his shoulder on the rod) and juiced, and then was pinned after being picked up in a backbreaker over the shoulder and dropped into a power bomb (Onita's thunder fire power bomb) in a match that was pretty much Japanese style all the way through. Both wrestlers earned high marks for putting on a top notch performance and in popping the crowd that could be charitably described as comatose during the rest of the show from the start to the finish of their match.

From the hints at the show, it appears Vader will a short-term heel transition champion between Sting and Ron Simmons. During the match, they showed on television Simmons watching the match intently. While there is nothing I'd call reliable on this, my personal gut feeling is the Simmons-Vader match will take place at a house show (Omni?) before the next PPV rather than wait for the 10/25 PPV, but who knows? And speaking of that date, Halloween Havoc was moved from 10/31 in Chicago to 10/25 at the Baltimore Arena in a decision made because it was felt a PPV on a Halloween Saturday night because of Halloween parties and trick-or-treating wouldn't do nearly as well as a show the Sunday before. As far as the live site, the change apparently was simply because they had Baltimore booked originally on 10/25 and Chicago on 10/31 and Baltimore has been a better city for WCW than Chicago anyway. In addition, WCW is going to attempt to run almost all its PPV shows on Sunday nights since the 6/20 PPV on a Saturday night bombed so badly. In addition, the theory is to take advantage of using all the weekend television to build toward a Sunday night big show.

I'm sure there will be plenty of discussion everywhere over the next few months regarding the decision to build the company around Simmons (provided that is the direction long-term although it appears he'll be given the first chance at being top dog). My only feeling is this. If it draws money, it's a good decision. If it doesn't, it's a bad one. It's quite obvious what the motive is here, and Bill Watts was very successful in the early 1980s building a promotion in five states around the Junkyard Dog. Part of the appeal, inarguably, is that Dog was black (well, he still is, but you can the drift). But if you think it was just his skin color that was the reason it was successful, it would be every bit as silly as saying that Bruno Sammartino's success in the Northeast was strictly because of his Italian heritage and not crediting it to personal charisma, which is the real reason both men drew money and not their heritage although heritage was a factor but only because of the charisma that was there. If that was the case, after Sammartino retired then Tony Parisi or Sal Bellomo could have come into Boston, New York and Philadelphia and drawn consistent sellouts, which wasn't even tried since it's a ludicrous idea. Junkyard Dog was one of the most charismatic wrestlers during that time period. And the fact is, Watts did better business in most of his cities consistently (New Orleans being the noted exception) the year after JYD had left using Jim Duggan, Terry Taylor and The Rock & Roll Express as the main babyface draws. Was it because they were white and not black? No, it was because they also, at that time, had a lot of personal charisma. Watts also tried to re-create the JYD phenomenon time after time with so many black wrestlers it's hard to remember them all, with limited success in some cases (Butch Reed) to absolute failure in other cases (Snowman, Savannah Jack, Master Gee aka George Welles and others even more forgettable). JYD was incredibly charismatic and already the biggest drawing card in the territory before Watts ever put a singles belt on him. That can't be said for Simmons, who is nowhere near the worker Reed was during his peak, or even Welles was for that matter (although Welles had his own personal demons that destroyed him). Does Simmons have Sting's personal charisma? There is an argument going around that since pro wrestling has long tried to draw fans on black challengers with the line that no African-American has ever held the world heavyweight title, that it's overdue. Thus, for that reason, and really no other, Simmons should be the champion. That's not considering, of course, that if you stack Simmons up qualifications-wise, which is mainly ability to draw money, ability to carry an opponent and work a match and interview ability, while he's far from the worst wrestler in WCW by a longshot (since with Hercules in, the standard for worst is pretty low) but he's far from the best. There are at least a half-dozen singles babyfaces in the promotion over more than Simmons, and with the exception of Sting, Simmons has had as much of a real chance as any of them. While this first black world champion line isn't true since Bobo Brazil, and I believe Bearcat Wright as well, held the old WWA world title in California during the 1960s which was recognized in the second largest city in the country; King Parsons held the World Class version and Abdullah the Butcher held the PWF version and WWC version (when it was called world instead of Universal) and I'm sure there are others, the fact is that in the title history of the NWA, there are no black singles champions and in the title history of the WWF, the same is the case. I don't want to hear about drawing black fans to buildings, because people are people and the wrestlers who have been successful on top in the past have drawn people, not demographic statistics. If Simmons can outdraw Sting, the it's a good move. If he can't, it isn't, and I don't want to hear about a business atoning for past sins. If that's the case, put blacks in decision making positions in the front office where they have real power, and go out of your way to recruit and train and groom top-notch athletes the same way somebody walked into a gym and saw Jim Hellwig, Larry Pfohl (or wherever he was found and recruited) and Steve Borden and recruited them for pro wrestling.

Meltzer really saw into the future here didn’t he?

What were your thoughts on the title moving from Sting to Vader here?

On the PPV Sunday night, the NWA belt that Ric Flair held was displayed by Bill Watts who gave the belt to Hiro Matsuda. WCW won possession of the belt in a lawsuit several months back, but ironically after winning possession, had yet to pay Flair for the belt itself. The financial deal, which saw WCW pay Flair a figure reportedly of slightly more than $28,000, was finally worked out earlier in the week. The fact that the last time Flair's belt appeared on television with a promotion he wasn't working for and that Watts prominently mentioned his name is going to lead to the Flair jumping rumors. Flair's WWF contract doesn't expire until September 5, 1993. Don't think for a moment that Vince McMahon is going to be agreeable to release him from his deal at a time when McMahon has a dearth of main event heels and given the fact that Flair would be a major plus for his opposition. On a similar subject, a companion lawsuit by WCW against Titan Sports for usage of the title belt is expected to be settled sometime this week. WCW was suing Titan for damages caused by using its prized symbol, the NWA belt, on WWF television shows causing the promotion embarrassment within the wrestling community. The sides are close to agreeing to a nominal financial settlement (between $30,000 and $40,000 is being discussed) along with a permanent injunction against using the belt or the facsimile belt that Titan made and used for about a week which the courts looked down upon. In other words, Titan is apparently agreeing not to ever use any footage involving that belt in highlights, footage released to the media or in videos.

What a deal this all is.

The Great American Bash PPV show took place 7/12 at the Albany, GA Civic Center before a packed house of nearly 8,000 fans (roughly 4,000 paid with a gate of more than $45,000). Very preliminary estimates are the show did, among the few systems we've gotten reports from approximately the same to noticeable decreases on PPV compared with Beach Blast, or probably an 0.3 to an 0.4 buy rate. Given that this show, aside from Sting vs. Vader, had advertised matches with no box office appeal and wasn't well promoted until the final weekend, it seems this is about as low a level as a WCW PPV is going to do under these market conditions. The freebies turned into a major local news story in Albany which was carried state-wide on the wire services because there were so many giveaways in order to fill the building that thousands of those who had freebies were turned away at the door, some of whom arrived at the Civic Center as early as 9 a.m. and waited until 6:30 p.m. only to be turned away. Civic Center management refused to be interviewed on camera for local television news stories but did admit that half the crowd was composed of those getting in free with coupons, apologized to those who didn't get in and said that on the coupon it did say tickets were subject to availability.

If the card showed anything, we are in for a major change in direction. A lot more mat work and working holds. Less high spots but more attempt at athletic realism. In other words, the U.S. wrestling scene is going to have two promotions going opposite extremes with nothing in the middle. This total re-education process toward a sports-oriented rather than entertainment-oriented emphasis, if it does work, is going to take some time and, like it or not, it at least is a direction. After years of having no real direction, that is a positive. Judging from the crowd reactions at the show, or lack thereof, those live appeared to be bored, with little response for anything aside from the first match and Sting-Vader. On the messages to here, the word used more than any other was simply "boring," with no real complaints about the show other than that one dreaded word. The booking and storylines were focused. The matches all had clean-cut winners and everyone did jobs to clean moves. There was none of this fear of having the top babyfaces lose cleanly. Clearly, we are entering a period of real unpredictability in the results of the big matches and people will be educated that when it looks like the top face was hit with a devastating move, he may actually get pinned so it should put more suspense into the matches. At least when the messages is fully put across but you have to walk before you can run. The announcing was great in trying to put over the holds, and also entertaining at the same time. But with everything that has improved and with all the garbage that has been eliminated, the matches, with two exceptions, were dull. Not technically bad, but no excitement and too long with no excitement.

1. Rick Steamboat & Nikita Koloff beat Jushin Liger & Brian Pillman in 19:25 when Pillman came off the top rope (legal in every match but one because of NWA rules) with a crossbody and Steamboat rolled with it for the pin. This match showed flashes of brilliance but was nowhere near the calibre of what one would expect with Steamboat, Liger and Pillman as three of the four contestants. They worked on Koloff's arm early and he didn't sell it well. Liger did a perfect moonsault on Steamboat as the highlight of the first half of the match which was slow paced. Steamboat & Koloff worked on Liger, however Koloff killed the heat and action once the match got going every time he tagged in. Pillman made the hot tag at 13:00 but his timing with Koloff was way off on some spots but he got a convincing near fall after a dropkick off the top rope which the crowd even believed he was going to win with. Basically, Pillman was all action with some great moves and some missed spots. Steamboat worked well, but wasn't spectacular. Liger was nowhere near his usual level but probably wasn't allowed to be anyway, and did no mind-blowing flying moves, but he's so talented that he still was the third best performer on the show. And Koloff didn't ruin the match but he was pretty bad. ***¼

How confusing to the viewer with this top-rope rule nonsense?

2. Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto beat The Freebirds in 9:16 when Hase pinned Jimmy Garvin with a Northern Lights suplex. Great to see the return of Nick Patrick, who was in a severe auto accident earlier this year, as referee. Total Clash of styles although Freebirds seem to Clash with almost any style now. No heat, but I'm a Freebird and that's my excuse. Hashimoto replaced Akira Nogami who suffered a legit eye injury. In fact, to prove it was legit, WCW got footage from Japan of Nogami having his eyes examined. At least that's what they wanted you to believe. He was really just looking to get free SWS tickets (credit that joke to Evan Schlesinger, Great Neck, NY). Next time they try something like this, which may be never, hopefully they'll try and get the foreign teams over on television. *¼

Freebirds were done at this point right?

3. Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham beat Rick Rude & Steve Austin in 19:16 when Austin tried to piledrive Windham and Rhodes came off the top rope with a clothesline. Started slow. Rhodes did the cool tombstone reversal on Rude. Madusa was at ringside instead of Paul E. Dangerously, who wasn't even booked on the show. He's kind of in the doghouse right now but theoretically one had nothing to do with the other. The first match didn't pop big because it was face vs. face, the second because it wasn't good and the fans weren't familiar with the Japanese. But then the crowd didn't react in this match either. Windham was controlled on the mat to the point it got boring with constant restholds. Rhodes finally made the hot tag and they went to the finish with the heels selling great in the last minute. *½

Tough to have these 4 go almost 20 and only end up with a star and a half.

4. Steve Williams & Terry Gordy beat Steamboat & Koloff in 21:39 when Steamboat was on the top rope, Gordy shoved him off and Williams caught him, rammed him into the turnbuckles, and gave him a forward power slam for the pin. This was one of the dullest matches I've ever seen involving wrestlers of this calibre that were all trying hard and not blowing up or missing spots. The amateur stuff was fine to set the stage in the beginning but it lasted way too long. It looked legitimate, but wrestling promoters learned sometime in the 19th century that legitimate wrestling isn't marketable and that's when someone got the idea for showy moves and started making money. When they finally got heat on Steamboat, there was no crowd reaction and this is the No. 2 face in the promotion who is a master at getting crowd reaction. At some point during the match, Williams gave Steamboat a move, I think it was a backbreaker and Steamboat legit hurt his ribs, but no word how seriously. Koloff made the hot tag at 14:45, but he was then controlled on the mat until making a hot tag to Steamboat several minutes later and Steamboat came in for the finish. DUD

Styles clash much?

5. Rhodes & Windham beat Hashimoto & Hase in 14:55 when Windham pinned Hase with a lariat. First half of the match was all scientific and not bad even though again no crowd reactions. The Japanese did so many moves U.S. fans aren't educated to yet. Actually from a technical standpoint, this was a good match. Rhodes was punished until Hase missed a double kneedrop off the top and Rhodes made the hot tag to Windham who went to the finish. **

Getting better.

6. Big Van Vader pinned Sting in 17:17 to win the WCW title. Hot match all the way with Vader going up for several suplexes. Given what was going to happen, it was the perfect storyline since Sting destroyed the invincible monster from the beginning since he was doing the job. Vader didn't get an advantage until 6:51 when he squashed Sting as Sting attempted a sunset flip. But Sting kicked out of a big splash that looked like the finish. Vader eventually caught Sting in the scorpion (the reason Vader didn't bend down while applying the hold was because his knee is still in bad shape so he actually did the hold standing up). Sting kicked out of a powerslam as well. Sting made a comeback using a koppo karate kick, face crusher and DDT. The highlight was Sting holding Vader (going right around the legit 380 mark these days and that's live weight and he wasn't wearing a weightlifting belt) on his shoulders and doing a back splash with him. After a ref bump, Sting gave Vader a german suplex but the ref was slow getting down since he'd been bumped and Vader kicked out. Sting did a Stinger splash, but missed the second and hit his shoulder (which was supposed to be his head) on the rod and juiced. Sting kicked out of the first pin attempt, but acted woozy and swung wildly, and Vader used the power bomb finisher. ****

Great match.

7. Gordy & Williams beat Rhodes & Windham in 21:01 to win the NWA tag team title. The Steiners came out at the beginning of the match, only to be sent back by Ole Anderson and Doug Dillinger. Rhodes was controlled on the mat for most of the first half of the match until Windham made the hot tag and it sounded like two fans popped. They quickly cut him off and he was controlled for about six minutes until Rhodes made the hot tag and this time it sounded like three fans popped. Rhodes was then cut off. After 20:00 of sudden death, they picked things up with a few near falls before Williams pinned Rhodes after a clothesline with Rhodes taking a nice spin bump. 3/4*

Not the way to finish the PPV compared to the previous match. The NWA was just a big waste of time here wasn’t it?

Noticeable by their absence, besides Dangerously, were Missy Hyatt, the ramp, elaborate set designs and all other trappings of the Jim Herd era.