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This week’s look at nostalgia takes us back to the Great American Bash 1987. The Great American Bash was an annual summer wrestling tour and later a PPV event started by the National Wrestling Alliance, then promoted by World Championship Wrestling and continues to this day, now promoted by the WWE. Dusty Rhodes is widely credited with the inventing the concept of the GAB. The first ever GAB was held in 1985, in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1986, the Bash expanded to a tour, called “The Great American Bash Tour” that had several PPV caliber shows around the country. There were 13 GAB shows during July and early August of 1986. In 1987, the gimmick match “War Games” was introduced, another invention of Dusty Rhodes. In the summer of 1987, a commercial video was released, comprising of the best matches of the summer of 1987 bash tour. I will be reviewing this commercial tape in this week’s nostalgia column. It wasn’t until 1988, that the NWA promoted a Great American Bash PPV.

First match on the tape is War Games: The Match Beyond. Teams are Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger and JJ Dillion vs. Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, the Road Warriors, and Paul Ellering. Rules were two men started the match for 5 minutes, then a coin toss would determine who would enter next and gain the man advantage. A wrestler from opposing teams would enter every two minutes. After all 10 men were in the ring, the match beyond would begin. Match had to end by submission or surrender. Anderson and Rhodes are in for the first 5 minutes. Good action with Rhodes getting the predicable advantage. Flair’s team won the “coin toss” and Blanchard came in to give his team the advantage. Road Warrior Animal is next in and the crowd popped big for his entrance. Flair is next in and Flair and Anderson double team Animal to gain the upper hand. Rhodes is a bloody mess. Koloff is in next and goes immediately after Flair. Lex Luger is in next. Road Warrior Hawk follows Luger in. Action is fast and the crowd is into everything. JJ Dillion in next and followed by Ellering and the “match beyond” begins. Road Warriors give Dillion their “doomsday device” and he dislocates he shoulder legit on landing wrong on the mat. Dillion submits and the match is over. Excellent and physical match.

Next up is Barry Windham vs. Rick Steiner. Windham is the NWA Western States Heritage champion, however the match was announced as non-title. Windham won the title on June 20, 1987 in Houston, Texas in a tournament final over Black Bart. Steiner dominated the action early, using basic power moves. Finish came when Steiner suplexed Windham into the ring and Steiner was supposed to roll through and Windham would roll him up for the cradle win. Steiner forgot to roll through so Windham had to tell him to roll through and then pinned him.

Lex Luger challenges Nikita Koloff inside a cage for the NWA U.S. Title is next. Koloff is wrestling in a neck brace, selling a pile driver from Luger leading up to the match. Luger spent most of the match working on Koloff’s neck injury. While the psychology was good, the match itself was rather boring. Finish came when Koloff was making his comeback, he hit Luger and the ref with the “Russian sickle” clotheline. With the ref down, JJ Dillion threw a chair to Luger who hit Koloff with the chair. Luger put Koloff in the rack for the submission victory and Luger won the title from Koloff. This would be Luger’s first U.S. title reign and Koloff’s last.

Texas Death Match is next, Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Dick Murdock. Match consisted of Murdock working over Doc’s injured left wrist and lots of brawling. Finish came when Williams missed the Oklahoma Stampede and hit his shoulder in the corner, Murdock went to the top rope and Williams hit him with the cast and knocked him out. Murdock couldn’t answer the bell and Williams won.

The Freebirds vs. Manny Fernandez, Paul Jones, Ivan Koloff is the next match. Nothing match, finish came when Gordy hit Jones with a back elbow and dropped an elbow.

Next match is a “lights out barbed wire match” pitting Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard. This match was for $100,000, which was suspended above the ring. Winner had to climb a ladder and grab the money. While Bret Hart gets credit for bringing the ladder matches to the WWF in the early 1990’s, the NWA used a modified variation of a ladder match in the latter half of the 1980’s. Good physical brawl. Match ended when Blanchard tried to climb the ladder and grab the money, but Rhodes kicked the ladder, knocking Blanchard off and Rhodes climbed the ladder to get the money. The ladder never came into play at any other time in the match and there were no high spots off the ladder.

Ric Flair vs. Jimmy Garvin for the NWA World Heavyweight Title is the next match. This match is inside a steel cage. Flair worked over Garvin’s knee most of the match, with Garvin doing a great job of selling. Flair repeatedly tried to climb out of the cage, but each time Garvin cut him off. A near fall by Garvin got a huge crowd pop as it looked like Flair would lose. Flair kicked out and continued to destroy Garvin’s knee. Finish came when the ref ruled Garvin couldn’t continue. Ronnie Garvin went into the cage to save his brother, which started his feud with Flair that would culminate with a match at StarrCade 1987. Flair carried this to an excellent match.

Next match is title vs. title, the NWA World Tag Team championship vs. the U.S. Tag Team Championship; the Midnight Express of Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton vs. the Rock & Roll Express of Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton. If you like old time tag team wrestling, this match is for you. Great tag team action until the screw job finish. Big Bubba Rogers hit Ricky Morton with a sidewalk slam and the ref saw his hat in the ring and called for the DQ. This kept the titles on their respective teams.

Final match is another War Games match. Teams are Road Warriors, Road Warriors, Nikita Koloff, and Paul Ellering vs. Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and the masked “War Machine” who was replacing the injured JJ Dillion. The War Machine was Big Bubba Rogers (Ray Traylor, Big Bossman) under a mask. Dusty and Anderson start out for the first 5 minutes and Dusty had the upper hand when the 5 minute period ended and the 4 Horsemen again won the coin toss. The War Machine entered the ring and dominated Rhodes. Rhodes was bleeding already. Hawk is next in to even up the odds. Ric Flair is next in for the Horsemen, followed by Nikita Koloff. Blanchard came in to give the Horsemen the advantage. Next in was Road Warrior Animal, then Lex Luger and finally Paul Ellering came in when the match beyond concept began. Finish came when Hawk jabbed something into the War Machines’ eye and the War Machine submitted. An excellent match.

Summary: If you look back at the year of 1987 and compare the WWF and the NWA during this time period, you can see some startling differences. While the NWA was head and shoulders above the WWF in terms of in ring talent, match quality and overall wrestling, the WWF was world’s above the NWA in terms of PPV quality, marketing and merchandise. In a world where perception is more important than reality, the perception was that the WWF was the number 1, major league promotion in 1987 and the NWA was second rate. This tape was only 2 hours long, had clips of some matches and no interviews to make the matches feel significant. It was more of a highlight reel of some important matches from the GAB tour. It would take until approximately 1994 before the WCW would improve their marketability, including commercial released videos; before they would change public perception and eventually make a run at the WWF. The war games were outstanding matches and well worth watching if you can find this hard to find video.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s column. As always your questions, comments and thoughts are always welcomed, and you can contact me at bhoops@midwestmarketsolutions.com.

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