WCW Bash at The Beach 1996 Review

1. Rey Mysterio, Jr vs Psychosis

Before he did the 619 and won World Heavyweight titles, he was the king of the cruiserweights. All his matches with Psychosis are high quality. These two exit the ring a lot in this match, so expect an exciting opener and expect high spots galore.

2. John Tenta vs Big Bubba (with Jimmy Hart)

What's with WCW and its need to stick random gimmicks on a pole?  In this match a sack full of coins is on a pole, and it can be used as a weapon. The contest is settled over a pinfall or submission, meaning that acquiring the sack is optional. I thought this match would be boring, but it made for tolerable and entertaining comic relief. Expect some cartoony heel moves from Big Bubba and Jimmy Hart.

3. Jim Duggan vs Diamond Dallas Page

This started off looking like a one-sided squash match. I totally assumed that Duggan was going to humiliate DDP. DDP does manage to win this bout.

4. The Nasty Boyz vs The Public Enemy

I was drifting in an out of consciousness during this hardcore match. The Nasty Boyz were an innovative tag team during the 80's, but they're too goofy for me. Getting hit with an inanimate steel object should make me cringe, not induce slapstick comedy.   

5. Dean Malenko (c) vs Disco Inferno for The WCW World Cruiserweight Championship

This is a face vs face confrontation. Without a doubt this is Disco Inferno's best match. The contrast between both wrestlers personalities and styles is complementary. Malenko can work a great match with anybody thanks to his stoic personality and technical wrestling abilities. Disco Inferno gets the advantage a few times and does a good job for the most part to avoid his goofy habits.

6. Joe Gomez vs Steve McMichael (with Queen Debra)

Steve wins with a tombstone piledriver. This match rekindled my sleepiness; thus making the excitement of the previous match all for nought. I appreciate the fact that this match is short, because nothing memorable happened.

7. Konnan (c) vs Ric Flair (with Woman and Miss Elizabeth) for The WCW United States Championship

I find it strange that both wrestlers are still alive as of this day, yet the female valets aren't. This was when Ric Flair hopped back into the midcard hoping to make the transition back into the world title scene. Konnan is a beast in the ring, and Ric Flair can tell a great story given the right guy. Towards the end the ring valets played an integral role in the match. Elizabeth played the passive valet who would distract the referee, while Woman was aggressive and would attack Konnan.

8. Chris Benoit and Arn Anderson vs The Giant and The Taskmaster.

I dislike anything with WCW's Kevin Sullivan in it. He sucks. 

9. Randy Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger vs The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) and Hulk Hogan

The third man in the mysterious hostile takeover didn't show up yet for most of the match. Obviously for you, you know that it's Hogan, but for everybody else they never saw it coming. It starts off as a handicap match with the heels battling the faces and doing a pretty good job. After a while it seems that the heels are just drawing out time, then Hogan comes to "Save The Day"; What he does instead is hit Randy Savage with a legdrop. We are then treated to the coolest interview sequence with Hulk Hogan and Gene Okerlund. It was the most surprising heel turn at the time, yet looking back it seemed so necessary.

This will be my last WCW ppv review in a while. I need to mix it up.

WCW Bash at The Beach 1994 Review

1. Johnny B Badd vs Lord Steven Regal (C) for The WCW World Television Championship.

Johnny B Badd was always a strange character: He can make any other flamboyant wrestler look manly, and he relies on his boxing background to beat his opponents. Lots of people in The IWC look at Steven Regal like he's some kind of underrated gem, and I never found out why. Now I realize that he can work an engaging match with anybody. I'm not knocking on B Badd. 

Prior to watching this, I didn't know that B Badd was a replacement for Sting. Those are some big shoes to fill, and I commend him for putting up a fantastic opening match.

2. The Guardian Angel vs Vader (with Harley Race).

The match itself was so-so, but the finish was well done. The Guardian Angel was holding a weapon that Vader or Race was going to use against him while the ref was down. The Angel wasn't going to use it on Vader, but the referee disqualifies The Guardian Angel upon getting up. This was a great way to get heat on both Vader and Race. We all knew that The Guardian Angel was too much of a goodie two shoes to actually use it, but the ref acted on his own judgement when he made the call.

3. Dustin Rhodes and Arn Anderson vs Terry Funk and Bunkhouse Bunk.

This match really established Dustin Rhodes as the underdog. He was a rookie at the time in a feud with a bitter family rival. The Funks and The Rhodes family had a past together. The first half of the match featuring Funk and Bunk torturing Dustin Rhodes, while the latter half featuring Rhodes taking on both of them at the same time with finesse. For a while it seemed like Rhodes was taking too long to tag Anderson, but as soon as he gets the tag in, Anderson attacks his own partner with the DDT and let's Funk get the pinfall.

All three of them proceed to systematically attack Dustin Rhodes, targeting his arm in the beatdown. It was a brilliant way to get heat on Terry Funk and to get Dusty over as a babyface. They all proceed to celebrate with Champagne and Hookers, The WCW way.

4. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs Stunning Steve Austin (C) For The WCW United States Championship.

Steamboat (allegedly) never had a bad match, while Austin was still a technically sound wrestler at the time. These two put on the match of the night. Austin does every cheap, underhanded thing to get the victory or keep the title, while Steamboat lays it all on the line to win the title.

5. Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan vs Pretty Wonderful (Paul Roma and Paul Orndorff) (C) For The WCW World Tag Team Championships.

I didn't really care for this match. Most of the matches in this ppv felt longer than they actually were, but in this case this match actually had some hangtime to it. Paul Orndorff's weird elbow drop and Spike Piledriver were the saving graces of this match.

6. Hulk Hogan (with Mr T and Jimmy Hart) vs Ric Flair (With Sensuous Sherri) for The WCW World Heavyweight Championship:

I knew going in to this match that it wouldn't be all that. Vince tried out Hogan vs Flair in a few house shows prior and realized that the matches weren't all that. This was the first time a large mass of people got to see the original dream match in action. Sherri Martel was much more interesting than the actual match. If it wasn't for the managers and valet's this match would have been nothing. The crowd itself wasn't feeling it once the hype dissipated and the match actually started.

I don't even dislike Hogan as an in-ring performer. He's okay when he's in Japan, or when he's working power matches at Wrestlemania, but against Ric Flair the styles do clash. Flair is doing his typical cowardly heel act, while Hogan continues to do the impossible (even power out of the figure four leglock). Check out his matches with Sting and Luger if you want a dream match vibe.

WCW Uncensored 1998 Retro Review

1. Booker T (c) vs Eddie Guerrero (With Chavo Guerrero) for The World Television Championship
Booker T was my first favorite wrestler. I saw him in WWE Smackdown in 2005 and enjoyed his eccentric look and personality. At the time I hated Eddie Guerrero for his creepy heel angle with Dominic (Rey Mysterio's son); I hated him so badly that I regrettably cheered when I found out that he died. Nowadays I love both wrestlers.

Booker T stood out in this match for me. He's a fun power wrestler who just got out of an awesome Tag Team with Stevie Ray. Guerrero is a brilliant heel, and his performance in this match was impressive.

2. Juventud Guerrera vs Konnan
I didn't know much about Konnan as an in-ring performer, but I now see that he's badass. He put Juventud in through various submission manuevers and really made me sympathize with Guerrera. Guerrera just lost his mask to Jericho months ago in a Luchas de Apuestas match up, ever since then he started winning matches in order to gain momentum as a star. In order to sell Guerrera as a new man, he gained the upset victory against Konnan that night.

3. Dean Malenko vs Chris Jericho for The World Cruiserweight Championship
Jericho was getting over big time as a heel; Malenko was getting more over big time as a face. I wanted to watch this ppv for this match alone. This match is full of twists and turns ultimately ending with a Liontamer.

The highlight of this segment is Mean Gene coming up to cut a heel interview on The Ice Man. Malenko, not his usual self is nearly on the verge of tears after losing the match. Gene Oakerland tells Malenko that many people were betting on him winning tonight, and that he's been on a disappointing losing streak. Malenko gets called a loser and is asked "Where are you going, now?" Malenko responds softly "home" before walking out the arena.

4. Lex Luger vs Scott Steiner
I didn't pay attention to this match. I don't watch either of their wrestling matches religiously, nor do I find their style of wrestling appealing. I do enjoy Steiner's old work before he changed his look, but Lex was always ish (that could be interpreted in two ways) for me.

5. Diamond Dallas Page vs Chris Benoit vs Raven in a No Disqualification, Triple Threat Match for The United States Championship
I've recently become a fan of Raven: His moves aren't really flashy and his gimmick can be one-dimensional, but his character/promo cutting/in-ring storytelling is awesome. Benoit was always a favorite of mine, while DDP is someone I have respect for. This match was a pleasant surprise for me and it quickly become my favorite match on the card.

Some of my favorite spots include DDP getting irish-whipped into the pre-jumbotron multiple times, Raven hitting DDP with a fan sign that had a stop sign inside, and DDP hitting Raven with a diamond Cutter off the top rope into a table. Initially this was more of a confrontation with Benoit and DDP with Raven trying to steal the pinfall whenever someone was knocked down.

6. The Giant vs Kevin Nash.
I almost didn't pay attention to this match. The reason I did pay attention was because Kevin Nash was a classic heel, and because I was hoping to see another Jackknife Powerbomb. Sadly, the latter didn't happen as ends in a DQ to advance the storyline. Kevin Nash hit The Giant with a nasty jack-knife powerbomb not too long ago, and this move's legalization was hyped up in the beginning of the show.

7. Bret Hart vs Kurt Hennig (With Rick Rude)
I love Rick Rude, I love Kurt Henning, but I like Bret Hart. He has great matches, great title runs, and his attire/theme music is cool, but he doesn't get me goosebumps like the other two. Kurt puts Bret Hart on a figure-four leglock while Rude would come in to give him some leverage while trademark idiotic ref isn't looking. The ref finally catches Rude in the act and makes Kurt drop the hold. After some selling and some signature moves + pinfall combinations, Bret Wins with a sharpshooter.

8. Sting vs Scott Hall for The WCW World Heavyweight Championship:

I was a little too entranced by Scott Halls macho-cockiness to pay attention to the match at first, but after a minute I was getting into it (no homo to all of that). At times I wish Scott would win The WHC. I know that he was a major druggie, but that excuse doesn't fly with me. If Shawn Michaels could win Three WWF World titles why can't ___ over junkie wrestler here? Still, Sting got the victory in this match. Don't get me wrong, Sting was wavy looking the whole match too, he even helped make the finish great as well.

9. Randy Savage (with Miss Elizabeth) vs Hulk Hogan in a Steel Cage Match.
Miss Elizabeth looks different hot with that hairstyle, I'm still glad she kept her older one. This match doesn't really have a lot of wrestling moves, but it's an aggressive brawl. They even escape the cage to continue the onslaught there, only to come back inside minutes later. That diving elbow drop from the top of the steel cage by Savage was beast. No one can hit the diving elbow drop quite like him. This match ends in a no-contest when Brutus Beefcake breaks the lock and enters the cage to help Hogan.  Savage is outnumbered until Sting comes down from his b-movie harness to aid Macho Man. Macho man hits Sting with a ?piledriver? (I can't remember) only to spit on Hogan and walk away. It was a grudge match for NWO control with two clashing egos; I expected as much.

Overall: Great show. I came for one great match, I was treated to two great matches, four good matches, and a decent main event. It won't be long until the creative team and the bookers mess this up.