The Write Off: Great American Bash 1990

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Event Details:
Location: Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland
Hosts: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle
Reported Attendance: 10,000

I’m BACK! I apologize for the wait to all of the readers of the site out there as I’ve been busy with college finals and was busy preparing for college speech and debate nationals. However, now that all of that is out of the way until next year I can start reviewing my tape collection again and today’s lucky winner was NWA Great American Bash 1990: New Revolution. So without further adieu away we go…

P.S.—I’m reviewing the commercial release of the videotape which omits four matches from the show. Here are the results of those matches:

*Brian Pillman pinned Buddy Landell with a high crossbody off the top rope
*Captain Mike Rotunda pinned the Iron Sheik with a backslide
*”The World’s Strongest Man” Doug Furnas pinned “Dirty” Dutch Mantell after a snap belly-to-belly suplex
*Harley Race pinned Tommy Rich after rolling through a top rope high crossbody

-Opening Contest for the NWA U.S. Tag Team Championships: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) vs. The Wild Eyed Southern Boys:

Express double-team Tracy Smother to start and the brawl spills to the floor with the Southern Boys gaining the advantage. Back in, double-backdrop given to “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and the Boy’s follow it up with a double-shoulderblock before the Express bail and regroup outside as Cornette crabs at the fans. Back in, Eaton and Steve Armstrong give it a go with Armstrong getting an armdrag but Eaton corners him and gets a slam. However, Eaton climbs the top rope too slowly and gets slammed off and a reverse monkey flip and dropkick follow. Flying clothesline causes Eaton to bail again and Cornette crabs at the camera some more. Doesn’t look like the Express had a solid game plan to deal with the Southern Boys here but it’s too early to tell. Tag Smothers and he levels into Eaton with some karate leading Eaton to do sell the attack like he’s unconscious. Backdrop after a charge out of the corner delivered by Smothers and a thrust kick brings “Lover Boy” Stan Lane into the ring and we get a karate showdown with Lane getting some blows in but Smothers comes back with some of his own and Eaton gets some when he comes in as well and the Express bail again. Hard to imagine the crowd would be exhilarated by some karate but it’s done the trick early but a red hot crowd doesn’t hurt matters at all either I guess. Back in, Smothers and Lane go through a wrestling sequence and Eaton is tagged in only to get caught with an armbar. Dropkick off the apron by Smothers gets one and he fakes a dive outside only to nail Eaton with a kick courtesy of the ring ropes when Eaton bails. Lane takes over as the legal man and the Express get a double-elbow but Steve Armstrong gets a flying bodypress off the top rope onto the Express and the Boys dive on top of Eaton and Lane to get a mixture of one counts causing the Express to bail. Back in, blind tag given to Lane and as Cornette distracts the referee Lane comes in and throws Smothers over the top rope and follows it up on the outside by throwing him into the guardrail. That’s why the over the top rope rule was so cool for heels because they could throw an opponent over the top and they’d sell it like they got hit by a truck. Outside, Cornette nails Smothers with the tennis racquet and Lane knocks Smothers off the apron when he tries to get back in causing him to take a nasty fall into the guardrail as well. Back in, Express double-team Smothers to garner a two-count and Eaton gets the Alabama Jam but is too exhausted from the move to make a cover and tags in Lane. Smothers get a fluke sunset flip for two but the Express continue to have the advantage by making Smothers their whipping boy. Lane delivers a double-underhook suplex for two and Smothers continues to fight both Express members but can’t get a break. Cool spot as Smothers sunset flips both members of the Express when they try a double-backdrop and gets the momentum swinging tag to Armstrong. Armstrong unloads on the Express and covers Lane after a flying shoulderblock but Eaton breaks it up at zero. Southern Boys nail their missile dropkick finisher but the referee is out of position and can’t register a pinfall. Eaton throws Armstrong off the top rope as the referee is distracted and the Express nail the Rocket Launcher but it only gets a two-count even though Eaton was able to take out Smothers. Smothers switches places with Armstrong, which usually ends a match, but Lane interrupts the small package at two. Damn, the crowd thought that was the finish and so did I. Smothers runs the ropes to attack Eaton more but Lane kicks him in the back of the head and an Eaton small package ends the match at 18:17 to retain the belts. Beautiful tag team match that started the card off in a fantastic pace and if it wasn’t for a couple slow spots at the beginning this would’ve made the five-star list. ****½

-The Fabulous Freebirds, decked out in women’s makeup and sequined outfits, tell the Steiner Brothers that they are going down in tonight’s tag team match in an interview with Gordon Solie

-Special Attraction Match: Tom Zenk vs. Big Van Vader:

This was Vader’s debut match in WCW and Jim Ross hypes him like nothing else. Vader’s outfit resembles the muscle-bound freak Poison Ivy had at her disposal in the Batman & Robin movie. Total squash here as Vader goes through his offensive moves and the crowd just watches because there’s no angle here prompting J.R. to say that they “are in awe.” The only move Zenk gets in is a dropkick. Vader finishes it off with a splash off the ropes in case you want to know at 2:13. However, I got some sick pleasure out of watching Vader crush Zenk so I’ll give it ½*

-Barry Windham, Sid Vicious, Arn Anderson, and Ole Anderson say they’ll take care of business in tonight’s six-man tag match

-The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Steiner Brothers:

Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin are really playing up the effeminate male side of their characters tonight, especially in their introduction where at one point they look like they are going to kiss each other. Freebirds attack the Steiners from behind to start and Hayes gives Scott Steiner a sidewalk slam. Double-clothesline by the Freebirds but Scott backdrops out of and blocks two signature DDT attempts. Rick Steiner comes in and gets some Steinerlines and the Freebirds bail where Scott blindsides them with a double-clothesline. It’s about damn time the faces finally quit letting the heels get a breather on the outside. Crowd gives the Freebirds a very non-politically correct “faggot” chant. Well I guess this is southern wrestling after all. When the stalling finally leads to more action Rick demolishes Garvin and gets a two-count off of a Steinerline. Hayes comes in and stalls around so Rick bites him in the ass. Both sides tag out and Scott gets the better of Garvin on a wrestling sequence and the Freebirds bail again. JR talks about how the match has lost its momentum and I’d have to say that it’s losing its star rating by the minute. Back in, Hayes beats around Scott until Scott kills him with a tigerbomb and then gives an incoming Garvin a tilt-a-whirl and guess what? That’s right, the Freebirds bail AGAIN. Back in, and Rick powerslams Hayes and catches Garvin with a slam off the top rope so the Freebirds gain the advantage after Garvin nails Rick in the back with a kick on a charge. Outside, Garvin clotheslines Rick and the Freebirds get a double-suplex. Well this match may finally be heading somewhere which is a good sign. Back in, Hayes gets a slam for a one-count and gets a bulldog for a two-count. Tag Garvin and he stalls around with kicks and a restholds getting some near-falls in between this boring sequence and yelling a lot of “yeah, yeah, yeah.” Rick makes a light-hearted comeback after Garvin tries a top rope move and Garvin doesn’t raise his head so the top rope bulldog looks shitty. Momentum swinging tag to Scott who takes out the Freebirds by himself and then we get the four-way brawl with the Freebirds getting taken out with clotheslines. Scott gets the Frankensteiner on Hayes but Garvin intervenes and plants Scott with the DDT but the referee refuses to count because Garvin isn’t the legal man. So when the referee has his back turned Rick just comes in, catches Hayes with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex and rolls Scott on top for the three at 13:45. This had it’s moments (mostly when the Steiners were kicking the Freebirds around) but didn’t set my world on fire by any means because of Garvin’s stalling. **½

-Six-Man Tag Team Match: The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson, Sid Vicious, and Barry Windham) vs. The Dudes with Attitudes (The Junkyard Dog, “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff, and El Gigante):

JR, not getting to talk about football in reference to El Gigante, decides to talk about soccer in terms of the World Cup as El Gigante’s homeland of Argentina is squaring off versus West Germany in the final. I guess some habits are hard to break. Sid and Orndorff start the match and that goes about as well for Orndorff as you could expect in the early going. Orndorff goes after the legs after Sid misses a dropkick and dropkicks Sid to the outside and takes out the Horsemen by himself until Sid comes back in. Orndorff traps Sid in a backslide and the JYD punches Sid causing the backslide to get two after a struggle. Horsemen try to attack Orndorff again but El Gigante comes in and the Horsemen run away and regroup on the floor. Back in, JYD and Anderson have a go with the JYD getting in his headbutts and then gets pinballed in the opposite corner until he sees El Gigante and flees back to the heel corner acting like he’d just seen a ghost. JR talks about how the audience needs to see El Gigante to believe his size which to me sounds number one very negative for El Gigante because your showing him off as a freak show but number two WHO IN THE HELL is going to buy a ticket to see how tall someone is? Back to the action as Windham and Anderson exchange turns with the JYD and the JYD no-sells Windham’s DDT and refuses to cooperate with giving away any significant form of offense. Orndorff relieves us of the JYD and takes on the heels by himself but when he tries to piledrive Anderson he gets caught with a double-axehandle courtesy of Windham. Crowd gets restless and starts chanting for Sid so Anderson gives them Sid and then I guess the crowd wants El Gigante but doesn’t know how to make that a chant. Powerslam on Orndorff gets two. Suplex by Windham gets a near-fall. Heels continue to beat down Orndorff until Orndorff gets a forearm for a double-KO and tag to the JYD. JYD tries to take out the heels but they turn on him and toss JYD over the top rope which gets them DQ’d at 8:52. El Gigante walks in and the Horsemen flee and I think about how dumb this match was. Nothing was settled here, the match lacked a serious flow, and the stupid ending didn’t do it for me. Orndorff and the Horsemen’s efforts, though, were good enough to make this *½

-NWA United States Championship Match: Lex Luger (Champion) vs. “Mean” Mark (w/Paul E. Dangerously)

This would be one of the last matches for “Mean” Mark in the NWA as he’d be released shortly afterwards and would be snatched up by Vince McMahon and reincarnated in the form of the Undertaker and the rest is history. The first six minutes of the match consist of some mat wrestling and wandering around the ring looking at each other which naturally dulls the crowd to sleep. Luger pulls out a crossbody off the ropes for two after some Mark offense and gets an armbar that he hangs onto like there is no tomorrow. The more I watch this match I see how the Undertaker character was a perfect fit for Mark considering that most of his offense here is slowly paced and made of punches. Mark gets his own boring armbar and gets the soon to be named “Old School” ropewalk. Luger tries another crossbody out of nowhere on Mark but flies over the top rope and to the floor and Mark knocks him off the apron when he tries to get in. Outside, Luger gets taken to the steps and the announcer’s table. Back in, Mark gets a headbutt but Luger gets a fluke sunset flip for two. Blind charge eats buckle and we get some fisticuffs that Mark wins. Luger no-sells a suplex and three clotheslines follow. Luger gets Mark in the Torture Rack but Mark’s long leg knocks down the referee when Luger turns it around. Dangerously then rushes in and nails Luger in the ribs with the cell phone but when the referee recovers it only gets a two-count. Mark gets a short-arm clothesline but the Heart punch gets countered with a kick, Luger knocks Dangerously off the apron, and a CLOTHESLINE finishes at 12:08. What kind of an ending was that? Looking at this match I can’t say I fault WCW for releasing “Mean” Mark here because his offense wasn’t that great, he had a terrible finisher, and no heat. The only reason it was a good buy for the WWF was because of McMahon’s creative vision with the Undertaker character. Anyway, believe me that this match is really bad. ½*

-Gordon Solie interviews Sting who gives a less than stellar interview

-NWA Tag Team Championship Match: Doom (Champions w/Theodore Long) vs. The Rock N’ Roll Express:

Ron Simmons and Robert Gibson start off the match and Simmons acts like bad ass in holding open the ropes for Gibson to leave and does it again after he pushes him down out of a lockup and proceeds to do so again. Blind charge eats buckle and Gibson gets a rollup for a quick one-count. Tag Butch Reed as JR lists off the football backgrounds of Doom (what else?). Gibson slams Reed and gets an elbow off the ropes to showcase that this IS a big strong team vs. agile quick team matchup. Tag to Ricky Morton and Reed floors him with some shoulderblocks. Blind tag to Gibson as Morton is whipped into the ropes and the Express get a double-clothesline to Reed and a double-suplex to Simmons before flipping Reed back into the ring from the ramp. Reed, however, comes back with a clothesline and Doom gives Gibson a double-elbow off the ropes for two. Reed throws Gibson over the top rope as the referee is distracted with Morton and Gibson sells it like he’s been mortally wounded. Sunset flip back into the ring gets two and Reed gets a swinging neckbreaker for two. Crowd isn’t into this matchup too much as Gibson gets a tag to Morton after a double KO following a kneelift that’s given to Reed. Morton rolls up Reed for two but Simmons blindsides him with a clothesline to the back of the head. Clothesline and two elbowdrops get a two-count for Reed. Tag Simmons but a blind charge eats boot. Nevertheless, Morton can’t make the momentum swinging tag and Reed gets a second rope elbowdrop for two. Chinlock slows things down but Morton fights up and gets a backslide with the help of a Gibson clothesline for two. Simmons is tagged in and slingshots Morton on the bottom rope to get a near-fall. Fluke small package by Morton gets two. Spike slam by Simmons gets two. Reed with two fistdrops for two and goes to the reverse chinlock that is aided by Long and Simmons. Nice to see them do something with that. Reed throws Morton over the top rope behind the referee’s back and Long gets in a shot on the outside. Doom continues to beat on Morton as he fails to make it to his corner garnering another near-fall. Pump splash off the ropes by Reed on Morton hits knees and that finally gives us the momentum swinging tag to Gibson who unloads. Rollup by Gibson gets one before Simmons breaks it up and it’s a four-way brawl. Fun spot as Gibson gives an enzeguri to Reed whose momentum carries him into Long who is on the apron and causing Long to flip inside. However, when Gibson stupidly gets preoccupied with Long it allows Reed to hit him with a flying shoulderblock off the top rope to retain the belts at 15:38. The match was technically solid but most of it was a squash as the Express never threatened to take the titles. Also, the crowd was apathetic but probably because they knew the Express didn’t stand a chance in hell. ***½

-NWA World Champion Ric Flair tells Sting that to be the man he has to beat the man

-NWA World Championship Match: “Nature Boy” Ric Flair (Champion) vs. Sting:

Okay listen to these stipulations: no-disqualifications, Ole Anderson has to be handcuffed to El Gigante on the ramp, and the Dudes with Attitudes (Sting’s friends) surrounding the ring. Now I’m all for helping the face out against the heel but shouldn’t the deck be stacked against the face not the heel? Also, it’s tough in storyline terms to sell to the audience that Ric Flair, the biggest heel in the company, would ever SIGN a contract to defend his title in this type of environment. As Bobby Heenan might say “this isn’t fair to Flair!” Lockup starts us off and Sting shoves Flair down. Sting with a shoulderblock but Flair backs Sting into the corner and gets a shoulder thrust but the knife-edge chops are no-sold and Sting gorilla-press slams Flair after a whip into the corner. Flair thinks of bailing but sees that he has no friends outside the ring. Sting gets a hiptoss and a dropkick so Flair bails to the ramp where Sting follows and no-sells the knife-edge chops again. Flair gets clotheslined back into the ring from the ramp but turns the tide with the thumb to the eye. Sting no-sells Flair’s suplex and gets some clotheslines. Flying bodypress off the top gets two and Flair rolls outside where Nick Patrick starts counting. WHAT? I thought this match was supposed to have a winner. Who’s booking this, Vince Russo? Back in, Flair kicks Sting in the knee which causes the crowd to go silent because Sting had just recovered from that injury and Flair zones in on it. Flair tosses Sting onto the ramp as we hear the match has gone ten minutes but according to my watch it’s only six. WHAT’S THE POINT OF LYING PEOPLE?!?! I don’t think people are going to buy tickets for the rematch if the first match goes 25 minutes as opposed to something like 18. Back in, Flair continues his assault on the knee. Flair misses a kneedrop, though, and Sting snaps on the figure-four but Flair grabs the bottom rope to break. I don’t get that move either. The match is NO-DISQUALIFICATION so who gives a crap how long you hold onto the move? What is the referee going to do when they can’t disqualify you? Hell if I were Sting in this instance I hold onto that figure-four as long as humanly possible and break Flair’s leg. Anyway, Sting slams Flair off the top rope as Flair fails for the 1,085, 185th time to hit a move from up there. Backslide by Sting gets two but Flair takes out the knee again. Sting blocks a figure-four attempt and makes a comeback with a gorilla press slam and gains a near-fall along the way. What about the knee? Sting whips Flair into the buckle allowing Flair to the do the Flair flip and clotheslines him on the apron. Sting gets a suplex for two. Sting nails the Stinger Splash and locks in the Scorpion Deathlock as the Horsemen charge down and get confronted by the Dudes with Attitudes. Flair gets to the ring ropes for a second time as Sting stupidly breaks the hold. Flair gets a shoulder thrust from the apron and tries a pin with his feet on the ropes but Scott Steiner throws his feet off at one and the crowd begins to sense that the end is near. Sting with a rollup for two. Sting gets a backslide for two. Blind charge by Sting into the corner sees his knee hit buckle and Flair goes for the figure-four but Sting small packages him for the pin and his first world title at 16:01. Afterwards, Sting gives his championship interview where he heralds Flair as the greatest world champion of all-time and he’s got some big shoes to fill yada, yada, yada. Why the heck do you cut that promo? It sounds more Oscar worthy than winning a world championship. This match was supposed to make Sting the champion of the future and Flair was supposed to begin his ride into the sunset with his loss here but with the infamous Black Scorpion incident Flair would find his way back into the fold and would play a large role in saving NWA/WCW time and time again. This match, while a big moment in the Sting-Ric Flair legacy, is a solid contest but the stipulations took away some of the luster the match could’ve had otherwise, the crowd was silent in some key parts of Sting’s comeback, and Sting’s non-selling of the knee injury in the middle caused the match to lose some credibility. ***½

OVERALL TAPE RATING (BUST-****): ***. This tape is worth seeing simply for watching Sting win his first world championship. However, if you don’t want to give this tape a look for that reason then there are two solid tag team championship matches to round out the card plus Vader’s NWA debut is included. The rating is only lowered, though, by the shenanigans in the six-man tag match and the farce of a US title contest but you can easily FF through those parts. Nuff’ said.

Logan Scisco has been writing wrestling reviews for Inside Pulse since 2005. He considers himself a pro wrestling traditionalist and reviews content from the 1980s-early 2000s. Most of his recaps center on wrestling television shows prior to 2001. His work is featured on his website (www.wrestlewatch.com) and he has written three books, available on Amazon.com.