By Ian Hunter, PWTorch Trivia Specialist

You’re looking at the real deal now! Wooooooo! Ian Hunter here, walking on out to the purple and blue of D’Lo Brown. Something nice and refreshing from this past week’s worth of events considering what a bore Smackdown and Raw were. And let us not forget the sleepy waste of cash the Great American Bash was. Makes me wanna break out my old “Who Booked This Crap” shirt. Remember the good old days when that event used to be something worth watching? I hope so, because this week’s trivia is on the good old days of the Dusty Rhodes creation, as in all the non-WWE events. But first, we need to answer last week’s questions.


1: B. Yeah, nevermind the crash, wouldn’t the hammer to the head killed him first? Again, the fine line between fictitious and outrageous is mighty thin.

2: Ricky Steamboat was the mystery partner. Ricky recently left the WWF after his failed second run as The Dragon, and was looking to revitalize his career in WCW as a serious wrestler. He and Rhodes won the titles that night in a classic.

3: The original choice… O.J. Simpson. What, you think I’m making that up? Go grab the Roddy Piper DVD. Simpson’s name had been tossed around as a possibility, but was eventually dropped. But they still kept in the white Bronco chase as part of the match.

4: B. Kurt Angle. He would later admit it in a 2004 interview that the storyline involved him running down Austin, either by mistake or on purpose, which hadn’t been developed yet. But Angle had won King Of The Ring that year, and drastically changed plans as he was headed toward a WWF title win when Austin was ready to return. Somehow the buck was passed to Rikishi, but no in-depth explanation was ever offered.

5: D. Unforgiven was the event, though not a lot of people seemed to care as it was all building to Survivor Series that year.

Another week goes by with a lot of people getting four out of five, and no one specific question tripping them up. Which is cool to know our competitors know so much and are just shy of getting it all correct. But I feel good about this week’s set of questions. Answer the questions and email your answers to TorchTrivia@gmail.com. We'll post the names of those who got ALL FIVE correct. Good luck to you all!


1. First will be a write-in question. The first Great American Bash was held on July 6th, 1985 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It featured some of the NWA’s best out of the 80’s, including Dusty Rhodes and Tully Blanchard going toe-to-toe in a classic, Magnum T.A. keeping the U.S. title, and Ric Flair defeating Nikita Koloff for the title. But for some reason the following two years the PPV was turned into a tour. Making several stops along the way with PPV quality cards, but none being a specific main event city. 1986 saw thirteen stops from July 1st to August 2nd. Name three of the cities along that tour.

2. The second year of the tour only saw three dates held in 1987. Atlanta on July 4th, Charlotte on July 18th, and finally the big one on July 10th at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Playing to one of the biggest crowds the NWA had seen in its time, they finished off the night with a War Games match between the Four Horsemen and War Machine against Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, and The Road Warriors with Ellering. In standard fashion it started off with Rhodes and Anderson (at one point Rhodes gave Anderson a low blow and flipped off the Horsemen to the crowd’s delight), and in came a man a piece from every team until we got to all ten. It ended with Rhodes team walking out the victors after 25 minutes of wrestling after one of the others surrendered. Who?

A. Arn Anderson
B. Ric Flair
C. Tully Blanchard
D. War Machine
E. Lex Luger

3. 1991 marked the first Bash without Ric Flair due to his dispute with management, and left the door wide open for the company to declare a new champion. In what Jim Herd was calling “the christening of a new era”, he put Barry Windham against Lex Luger in a match for the new WCW Championship. Aside from the Flair chants in the crowd, this was Windham’s least favorite event in his career. According to legend, he was next in line to hold the NWA title, but Flair’s departure killed the idea. What’s more, Herd decided Luger was the man to hold the championship and thought Windham was not “championship material.” Which would explain why he got so few opportunities to hold the gold in that era. The rumor for years was that Windham went to management the night before and said it would do nothing for him to lose to Luger, and instead threw out another name to take his place. Who was the suggested name?

A. Rick Rude
B. Sting
C. Cactus Jack
D. Ron Simmons
E. Kevin Sullivan

4. The 1996 Bash was the last PPV in WCW before the inception of the nWo. Chris Benoit defeated Kevin Sullivan in a pinfalls count anywhere match, the Four Horsemen reformed with Benoit and Mongo, and Paul “The Giant” Wight defeated Lex Luger to keep the WCW title. A lackluster event to say the least, and a perfect example at the time of why WCW needed an injection of something new. Especially since a good portion of the matches were only made a week before the event. Which of these matches actually had planning behind them and weren’t a last minute addition?

A. The Steiner Brothers vs. Fire & Ice
B. El Gato vs. Konnan
C. Rey Mysterio vs. Dean Malenko
D. Sting vs. Lord Steven Regal
E. John Tenta vs. Big Bubba Rodgers

5. The 2000 Bash was the last one to be done as WCW was on its way downhill. Unbeknownst to average fans, AOL Time Warner was already putting up the company for sale, and pushed everyone in charge (Russo included) to put forth a spectacular event that would showcase the best WCW could be to possible buyers. What they got instead were a bunch of gimmick matches thrown together out of spite that they were being presented as a cheap toy, and that ATW would give up on them so easily. Which of these matches did not take place, but was in the running for being an actual match?

A. Human Torch Match
B. Ambulance Match
C. Baltimore Strap Match
D. Asylum Match
E. Boot Camp Match

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