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Saturday, May 14, 2011

NWA/WCW Big Event Project #6: The Great American Bash Tour 1986

-Opening video lists all the stops on the tour.

-Hosts are Tony Schiavone & David Crockett

-Tony & David start out in studio talking about the highlights of the tour, then a music video package follows.

-Match 1-Hair VS Hair: Jimmy Valiant VS Sashka Whatley (w/Paul Jones)

-There must be a winner. Valiant arrives via a golf cart. Whatley nails Valiant the moment he steps into the ring. Valiant Hulks Up about 30 seconds in...but then gets knocked down after another punch to the face. Shaska tries a ropes-assisted pin (which Valiant makes no attempt to kick out of), but gets busted. Shaska busts Valiant open with a series of headbuts. A chant of “bald-headed geek” breaks out. Shaska completely dominates the match, with only moments of offense for Valiant. Valiant keeps hulking up, but goes down after a headbut. Shaska covers Valiant with just a knee, and Earl Hebner blatantly stops counting before Valiant kicks out. Valiant gets Whatley in a sleeper and appears to have it won, but Earl disappears, allowing Baron Von Raschke to interfere. Manny Fernandez attacks Raschke before he can nail Valiant with a loaded glove, and Valiant KO's Whatley with the glove for the pin. Match was all Whatley until the end, and what he had to offer was not particularly interesting.

-Valiant gets a lot of help to hold Whatley and to keep Paul Jones' Army out of the ring. Valiant tells Paul Jones that he is next. Whatley flips out upon waking and realizing that he has been shaved.

-Match 2-Hair VS Hair: Jimmy Valiant VS Paul Jones (w/Baron Von Raschke)

-There must be a winner here also. Match is clipped to Valiant working over Jones. Valiant opens Jones up with a foreign (not international yet) object. Raschke tosses his glove to Jones. Valiant counters with a loaded glove of his own, and KO's Jones. Manny Fernandez stops Raschke from interfering, but the ensuing brawl allows Shaska Whatley to sneak in and nail Valiant with a chair, allowing Jones to steal the pin.

-The fans go nuts after the pin, chanting “NO!”. Whatley's celebration dance is aces. Manny does not want the haircut to go down, but Valiant defiantly puts the chair down and takes his hair cutting like a man.

-David Crockett says that Valiant is still going to get Jones' hair.

-Tony Schiavone runs down the angle leading to a taped fist match between Ron Garvin and Tully Blanchard.

-Match 3-Taped Fist Match: Ron Garvin (w/Wahoo McDaniel) VS Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon)

-Match is contested like a boxing match, and consists of 10 three-minute rounds. Blanchard is the National Heavyweight Champion, but this appears to be non-title. Garvin KO's Blanchard before the bell rings. Garvin pounds away on Tully, who takes until they are one minute into round 1 before he can even get out of his robe. Garvin dominates round 1 and busts Tully open. Tully charges as the bell rings for the round, and gets KO'd again. Tully is out as round 2 starts, but JJ revives him with smelling salt. Tully tries to nail Earl Hebner, but misses. As round 2 ends, Tully tries to kick Garvin, who blocks the kick, and kicks Tully in the nuts.

-Tully finally gets some offense in round 3, pulling Garvin into the turnbuckle and stomping away before finally landing some punches of his own. Tully tries coming off the top, but Garvin catches him with a punch on the way down, and they both go down. Tully rolls to the outside and takes a swing at Wahoo, who counters with an Atomic Drop, and Garvin lays Tully out on the floor to end round 3. Garvin seems to have it won in round 4, but JJ breaks the count, and slips something to Tully, who nails Garvin with it for the win. This was pretty decent, and had a lot of heat. Some of the goofiness would draw some backlash online if it were to happen today.

-Match 4-Double Russian Chain Match: Ivan & Nikita Koloff VS The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering)

-Pretty much an aimless brawl (not that I expected anything else). Koloffs seems to have the match won, but the ref is on the outside of the ring, Ivan pulls off the pin to go up top, and Ellering shoves Ivan off, crotching him on the top rope, and allowing Animal to get the pin.

-The Russians try to extract some revenge after the bell, but are thwarted.

-The Rock N' Roll Express have a concert...and it sucks. Crockett talking about their on-stage charisma is funny, as they both basically just stood there.

-Match 5: The Minnesota Wrecking Crew VS The Rock 'N Roll Express

-Arn is TV Champion at this point. This is built up by Tony & David as a #1 contenders match. Ricky Morton is coming off a broken nose (is this after getting his face rubbed in the floor during a Horsemen attack? Sounds like it is, from the commentary), but is not wearing a face guard, so Arn naturally goes after it. Ricky responds by drop-kicking Arn twice, hitting him on the nose both times. Crowd LOVES the RNR. Ole gains control and continues to go after Morton's nose. Arn launches Ricky over the top rope while the ref's back is turned, just because he can. Ole ups the ante by grabbing one of the photographer's cameras and choking Ricky with the strap. Ricky finally gets some offense in, as a two minute warning is given. Ricky gets a cross body from the top on Arn, but that only gets two. Arn tries a flying something-or-other in the corner, and ends up crotching himself on the middle turnbuckle. Ricky FINALLY makes the tag with 30 seconds remaining. Roberts locks Arn in a sleeper, and Arn is about to go out, but the bell rings for the time limit draw. The fight continues after the bell, and Robert cleans house with a chair. Pretty good match, especially after the Andersons took complete control and took turns working over Ricky.

-David & Tony talk about the best-of-seven series for the U..S title between Magnum T.A. and Nikita Koloff.

-Match 6-Match 4 in the best-of-seven series for the NWA United States Championship: Nikita Koloff (w/Ivan Koloff) VS Magnum T.A.

-I love the ring announcer introducing Magnum as “the vastly popular” Magnum T.A. Nikita leads the series 3-0 at this point. Slow start as the two feel each other out. Nikita dominates Magnum for quite a few minutes, to really put over how desperate Magnum's situation is. Magnum gets a sunset flip for the pin out of nowhere. Not much to it.

-Match 7-6 Man (Person) Tag Team Steel Cage Match: NWA World Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette (w/Bubba Rogers on the outside) VS America's Team of Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A. & Baby Doll

-Cornette is rocking some Jerry Lawler-esque gear. Cornette gets pumped to fight Baby Doll. Eaton charges her, but takes an arm drag! Dusty sends Eaton into the cage, and Cornette wants to bail. Magnum controls the Midnights for a little bit. After Magnum goes down, Cornette goes for a big elbow drop, and misses. Cornette really sells being scared to death well. The Express take turns beating on Magnum, and he is busted open. Eaton tries a dive off the top of the cage, but gets punched right in the face by Magnum on the way down. Things break down, and Baby Doll KO's Cornette for the pin. Fun while it lasted. Dusty did jack shit here.

-Dusty, having not done much of anything in the match, wants a piece of Bubba. He gets jumped by the Midnights, and they hold Dusty so Bubba can beat on him.

-Match 8-NWA World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match: Ric Flair [c] VS Dusty Rhodes

-Jeez, ANOTHER event headlined by Flair VS Dusty? Long feeling-out process to start. This match is horribly boring to start. Basically, this is every Dusty VS Flair match I've seen...in a cage. Flair takes control with an extended heat segment, and really works over Dusty's leg. Dusty counters a Flair charge with a lariat, but that only gets two, as Flair's foot gets on the bottom rope. Flair tries to escape as Dusty finally fights back, but is sent back in. Dusty sends Flair into the cage, and Flair very obviously blades. Dusty wants to work on Flair's leg. Flair tries to bail again, and it's a full moon in North Carolina. As they fight on top of the cage, a Dusty headbut sends Flair back inside, crotching him on the top rope. Dusty accidentally punches the cage, and reacts like he punched a brick wall. Dusty locks in a figure 4, despite not actually doing much leg work. They trade near-falls at the twenty-minute mark. Dusty misses an elbow drop, but gets a small package for the pin and the title shortly after. HUGE pop for the title change, and the babyfaces come out to celebrate. Match was insanely boring for the first ten minutes, then slowly picked up until about the last five, which were pretty good.

-More highlights from the tour.

-Decent enough video release with some good action. I can understand why match 4 of the U.S. Title series on there, but why not include the last match as well?

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