Happy Saturday Everyone!
We reviewed a honking WCW show last week so let’s redress the balance by reviewing a better one with Bash at the Beach 1994. This is the event best known for being Hulk Hogan’s WCW pay per view debut against Ric Flair, but we’ve also got the likes of Steve Austin, Ricky Steamboat, Vader and Steven Regal on the undercard, so there should be some good wrestling to enjoy.
You can view the card for the event by clicking below;
Let’s review Bash at the Beach 1994!
The event is emanating from Orlando, Florida on the 17th of July 1994
Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Jesse Ventura
We get the big video package to open, with it doing a good job of making it seem like the Main Event tonight is a big deal.
The commentary team yaks about the Main Event.
Daron Norwood sings the US national anthem. I don’t know who he is.
We get clips of The Sensuous Sherri attacking Sting whilst in drag in order to take him out of the opening match. We’ve had nearly 10 minutes of talking and video recaps here by the way. Get a match in the ring WCW!
Opening Match
WCW World Television Title
Champ: Lord Steven Regal w/ Sir William Vs Johnny B. Badd
Regal was coming off a feud with Larry Zbyzko where he had briefly lost the belt, but he’s won it back and is now set to feud with Badd. Badd is stepping in for Sting tonight, who supposedly has an injured eye courtesy of Sherri. They do some nice chain wrestling to start, with Badd hanging with Regal just fine for the most part. How much of that is down to Badd being good and Regal helping him through it is unclear, although Regal would just tend to tell opponents to “hold on” whenever he did some tekkers and it usually worked out okay.
Badd gets the better of things in the early going by using traditional babyface fare such as arm drags and arm wringers, with Regal taking some nice bumps and selling everything well. Regal keeps trying to gain a foothold, although Badd doesn’t make it easy for him, and eventually Regal has to start throwing strikes in order to get anywhere. I like that as it shows that Regal has in essence conceded the technical wrestling aspect of the match and is instead going to turn it into more of a stand-up fight, which is a somewhat subtle way of proving that Badd is the superior wrestler.
Regal really does spend the majority of the bout on the back foot, with Badd even sending Regal to the floor for a dive at one stage, with William getting taken out in the process. Regal eventually manages to counter a Sunset Flip attempt from Badd into a pinning hold of his own though and that’s enough for the three count. The replay shows that Regal had a hold of Badd’s tights as well, although the commentary team don’t make a lot of that.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: STEVEN REGAL
RATING: **1/2
Thoughts: Badd took most of that and it was totally watchable thanks to Regal being such a good seller and bump taker. The point of the bout was to show that Badd was the better wrestler of the two, whilst also giving Regal a cheap win so that they could run it back, which is what they eventually did at Fall Brawl 94, with Badd this time getting the win
Badd beats up Sir William following the match and steals his hat for good measure.
The commentary team hype the Main Event some more, as Jesse Ventura joins the desk.
Antonio Inoki is introduced to the crowd by Mean Gene Okerlund, and he’s here to collect an award. Steven Regal isn’t happy about this though and comes out to complain about it, because he wants an award for himself. This was all to set up a match between the two down the line, which went some ways to WCW and New Japan re-establishing their previous relationship. Inoki looks ready to fight following Regal’s insults, but Regal bails before things can kick off.
Match Two
Vader w/ Harley Race Vs The Guardian Angel
Vader had wrestled with Angel (Ray Traylor) under his previous name as The Boss. WWF sent legal threats to WCW though as The Boss was quite similar to his Big Boss Man name there, so WCW went and did a deal with the real Guardian Angels so that Traylor can dress up as them. Unfortunately all I can think of Aaron from Trigger Happy TV whenever I see Traylor with this gimmick. Vader had won the previous pay per view match between the two back at Spring Stampede and now we have a pay per view rematch.
I actually prefer Tony and Jesse as a commentary team to Tony and Bobby, as I think they had better chemistry together as a broadcast duo. This one is a slugfest right from the beginning, with even Race taking a bump in the early going when he mouths off to The Angel. These two had really fun chemistry together; as they’d just clobber one another and it was usually always fun, especially as The Angel could slam Vader around with unnerving ease sometimes.
The Angel takes the fight to Vader and shines on him to start, but Race provides a distraction and that leads to Vader attacking The Angel outside the ring for the cut off. The Angel sells well during the heat segment, which was always something Ray Traylor was good at. Vader’s offence looks as painful and realistic as always, probably because he really is beating up The Angel for real in a manner most painful. Vader does actually try a Sunset Flip at one stage, but The Angel is able to block that with a punch and thus deny us one of the greatest spots of all-time.
Vader manages to squish The Angel with both a Pump Splash and a Moonsault, but he seemingly hurts himself on the latter move and that gives The Angel some time to recover, leading to him battering both Heels before suplexing Vader from the apron into the ring. The referee ends up getting momentarily dazed, which leads to Vader trying to hit The Angel with a nightstick. The Angel manages to disarm Vader, but the referee turns around and thinks The Angel hit Vader with the weapon, so Vader is the winner by DQ.
WINNER: VADER BY DQ
RATING: **3/4
Thoughts: This was a fun match but the lame ending drags it down a bit. I will say though that I did like how The Angel didn’t do anything wrong but still lost, because it just makes Vader look all the more like a jerk and it didn’t make The Angel look stupid either as he disarmed the Heel and did the right thing but just got unlucky. If he’d actually hit Vader with the weapon and gotten caught then he would have just looked like a fool, but instead he came across as a sympathetic figure. That all being said, this is the finish you do in a TV match to elongate a feud, not on a pay per view people have paid money to see. You at least give a proper finish of some kind on the big event, even if it’s just Vader getting a cheap pin fall victory
Mike Tenay and Chris Cruise are trying to interview people backstage. Terry Funk walks by but declines to speak with them.
We get some clips in order to give us the backstory to the upcoming bout.
We get clips from earlier where Molly McShane defeated some men in a handicap match.
There has been A LOT of filler on this show thus far with all the video packages and interview segments. They’re really dragging this out and could have probably given us an extra match with all the time they’ve spent on extracurricular activities.
Match Three
The Stud Stable (Bunkhouse Buck and Terry Funk) w/ Col. Robert Parker and THE MONSTER MENG Vs The Enforcer Arn Anderson and The Natural Dustin Rhodes
Dustin was having issues with Parker and his men, so he’s recruited Arn Anderson to help him in a move that I’m sure won’t end badly for him. Terry Funk calling Dustin’s father “an egg-sucking dog” will always be supremely entertaining, just because Funk always insulted Dusty with such zeal. The entrance music of The Stud Stable kind of sounds like it could be background music on one of those N64 THQ/AKI wrestling games. Like if they made a sequel to WCW/nWo Revenge and had a Spring Stampede arena you could select.
Dustin and Arn shine on The Stud Stable in the early going, with Funk doing a particularly good job stooging for them. Arn doesn’t really do much though, with Dustin doing the lions share. Dustin actually throws both Heels over the top rope when the referee isn’t looking, as that was a DQ in WCW at the time, and Jesse is of course very offended at a babyface cheating and castigates Tony for letting Dustin get away with it when he would be complaining if the Heels did it. I like how Jesse was always take his play by play commentator to task for things like that.
Dustin eventually gets cut off in the Heel corner and they work him over. I’m sure Buck was legitimately tough, but he has such an odd looking physique, with seemingly unnaturally long limbs and a pot belly, which is only accentuated by his white long sleeved shirt. It’s like he’s some kind of a redneck emu from certain angles. Dustin does a good job selling for The Stud Stable, with both Buck and Funk doing a good job working the heat, as both are very good at playing crazy wild brawlers from the south.
The crowd really gets behind Dustin when he starts fighting back, especially when he takes both Heels down with some Bionic Elbows. Dustin stupidly doesn’t go for the cover though, and instead makes a one man comeback, which admittedly is quite effective as he clobbers both Heels with relative ease, with both of them taking some impressive bumps for him. Dustin does finally deign to tag Arn in, at which point Arn instantly turns on him with a DDT to give Funk the three count.
WINNERS: THE STUD STABLE
RATING: **1/2
Thoughts: That was a very well executed turn, with the match leading up to it being decent, although it wasn’t particularly great or anything like that
The Stud Stable beats down Dustin following that, with them focusing on Dustin’s arm. The payoff to this was Dustin getting his dad involved and it leading to Fall Brawl in the War Games match.
Mean Gene Okerlund tries to get an interview with Arn Anderson following that, but he isn’t interested in giving an interview and heads to the back with his new buddies.
The commentary team has a chat with Hank Aaron, who I believe was the guy who played a role in getting Bill Watts fired at one stage. Hank wishes both wrestlers in the Main Event well. Well, that interview was a whole load of nothing.
Mean Gene is backstage with World Champ Ric Flair and The Sensuous Sherri ahead of Flair’s Main Event Title defence against Hulk Hogan later on. Flair is of course very excited that Arn Anderson has gone back to being on the Heel side, and then cuts a great promo hyping up the match with Hogan later on. Sherri adds her bit and that’s good as well. This was an excellent promo segment and I enjoyed it immensely. They should have just gone straight to that.
Match Four
WCW United States Title
Champ: Stunning Steve Austin Vs Ricky The Dragon Steamboat
Austin had won the belt back at Starrcade 1993 and had been having solid matches with a variety of opponents. Steamboat promised to be his most exciting feud yet, although sadly an injury led to Steamboat retiring early and we never got a proper blow off between the two despite the promise of the early matches, including this one. Austin has “Dragon Slayer” on the back of his trunks here just for that extra bit of Heel cockiness on his part.
Austin quickly jumps Steamboat at the bell, just so any casual fans in the crowd know who the bad guy is in case they’re new to this whole Pro Wrestling thing. Steamboat of course sells all of that fabulously, and makes sure to do his famous technique of always trying to fight back after a few attacks from the Heel so that the crowd know he’s always in the fight. Austin ends up getting tied up in the ropes though and Steamboat tees off on him before delivering some of his trademark deep arm drags, which always look great.
Austin fakes a knee injury on a leapfrog attempt, which was a regular strategy he employed during this time, with Steamboat reacting like he doesn’t buy it, which at least means he doesn’t look like a dumb babyface. Austin sound compounds things by literally trying to run away from Steamboat, thus showing the “injury” to be an utter sham, but Steamboat still manages to get the better of him, with the crowd getting into the cocky Champ being put in his place by the talented challenger.
Austin eventually manages to catch Steamboat with a mule kick that’s unseen by the referee, although Heenan attributes the low blow from Austin as just his knee acting up. Oh yes, Accidentalkneeingyouroppentsinthebollocksus is a well-known medical condition that many villainous wrestlers suffer from. You hate to see it. Steamboat keeps coming though and gets some quick pin attempts following that, but Austin manages to keep kicking out and then SPLATS Steamboat with a big Spine Buster, which would appear to be the cut off.
Austin plays the role of arrogant bad guy really well, mugging for the camera and just generally being a jerk whilst he works Steamboat over, drawing some good heat from the crowd as a result, especially when he mocks Steamboat by doing some cheesy fake Kung-Fu poses and attacks. Steamboat sells all of that well and shows some good fire whenever he gets a chance to fight back, with him refusing to just lay around and get beaten up.
Steamboat eventually manages to catch Austin with Austin’s own Stun Gun finisher, but Steamboat is too hurt to follow up instantly and that leads to both wrestlers fighting on the apron and then outside the ring. Stemboat gets a big chop from the top rope back inside and unloads on Austin with some punches, as the crowd chants along. The crowd has been pretty decent reaction wise this evening actually, with most of the matches having some level of interest from the audience.
Steamboat keeps skinning the cat back into the ring and getting pin attempts on Austin, but Austin keeps managing to kick out. The suggestion from the commentary team is that Austin is deliberately trying to get DQ’ed by throwing Steamboat out of the ring over the top, but Steamboat skinning the cat means the referee won’t do it. Austin straight up shoves the referee next, but Steamboat begs with the referee not to call for the DQ and the referee relents. Steamboat catches Austin with a cross boy after that, but Austin rolls through and puts his feet on the ropes for the dirty pin in order to retain the belt.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: STEVE AUSTIN
RATING: ***1/4
Thoughts: This was good fun and the crowd responded to it the more it wore on. Austin was a fantastic Heel and Steamboat did a good job of playing the babyface who is tired of the Heels’ hijinks and just wants to defeat him. Not the best match they ever had together, but this one was still an enjoyable outing that delivered some good near falls and drama
Chris Cruise is interviewing Paul Roma and Paul Orndorff on the WCW hotline.
Mean Gene crashes a backstage party that The Stud Stable is having because he wants some comments from Arn Anderson. Anderson eventually obliges and references his scissor based injury at the hands of Sid Vicious (although he doesn’t mention Sid’s name) and then says that Dustin Rhodes wanted the old Arn Anderson and tonight he got him, and the real Arn Anderson does NOT like the Rhodes Family.
Semi-Main
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan w/ Dave Sullivan Vs Pretty Wonderful (Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff and Pretty Paul Roma)
Sullivan had stepped in for Maxx Payne back at Slamboree 94 and had helped Cactus win the belts from The Nasty Boys. WCW had been building Pretty Wonderful up with wins for a while though and Cactus had already done a shot for ECW whilst Tag Champion (where he’d gotten in trouble for spitting on the belt as part of a promo) so the result in this match wasn’t exactly a massive secret for those in the know. To be fair, they had been giving Pretty Wonderful a relatively strong push so it only made sense to belt them here and see where it led.
Dave Sullivan begins the next story arc of his career by wearing a Hulkamania shirt here, which led to him adopting one of Hulk Hogan’s rap songs as his entrance music for a period. Yes, Hulk Hogan made a rap song in the 90’s. Jimmy Hart basically repurposed Owen Hart’s WWF theme and then Hulk spit some bars over it, and it was as good as that sounds, which is to say not very. They establish early on that this will be Grapplers Vs Brawlers, with Pretty Wonderful doing arm drags and the like whilst The Champs throw punches, but the challengers are the ones being cocky so that we know that they are playing the Heels.
There’s quite a bit of stalling in this one, but the story being told makes sense at least, with The Champs showing some unexpected chemistry and shining on the Heels to start whilst the challengers bump around for them. These teams have very little chemistry as opponents though, and there’s a lot of instances of wrestlers having to move another to where they want them to be rather than each wrestler seamlessly putting themselves there, which tends to happen when wrestlers’ have good chemistry together as opponents and each wrestler just tends to be where the other wants them at any given time.
The shine goes on for quite a while, with Sullivan doing most of the work for the Champs, and the challengers doing some stooging. The crowd doesn’t really get that into it, but the wrestling itself is fine, if a bit disjointed at points. The fans start doing the Central American Wave at one stage whilst the camera crew cuts to showing the dignitaries at ringside, which is normally not a good sign during a longish wrestling match. Eventually Sullivan gets cut off, courtesy of a Mr. Wonderful piledriver, and that gives us our Heel heat segment.
The challengers look find during the heat and Sullivan sells everything okay, although I would have probably gotten the heat on Cactus as he’s a better seller and you could actually feel some sympathy for him, whilst Sullivan just isn’t as good in that role. It’s a perfectly cromulent heat segment as Scott Keith would say, but this crowd already doesn’t care about this match and freaky devil worshipping Kevin Sullivan getting beaten up probably isn’t going to get them to start caring. Dave Sullivan at ringside tries to bang the mat in order to get the crowd invested, but it doesn’t really work, certainly for the camera facing crowd members at any rate.
Eventually Roma misses a splash from the top rope and Cactus gets the hot tag, running wild and doing a decent job. Cactus gets a Double Arm DDT onto Orndorff but the ref is distracted by Sullivan and Roma brawling, which means there is no one to count. They quickly take it home following that, with Orndorff pinning Cactus and Roma helping out by holding Jack’s legs down so that Orndorff can get the three. So Cactus was protected in the fall at least and they gave the Champs a lot of offence before losing, so this was hardly a burial.
WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: PRETTY WONDERFUL
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: At 20 minutes this was just too long. I think if they’d cut it down to 10-12 and had the Champs bump the challengers around for a bit until having a brief heat segment leading into the hot tag and finishing sequence, the match would have been overall better and they would have managed to keep the crowd more invested in it as a result. As it was, 20 minutes was too long and the fans switched off during the long shine for the challengers, which isn’t what you want from a long babyface shine. It wasn’t as if it was a terrible match or anything, but it was just too long and it was the wrong match for this crowd with the wrong wrestlers involved in it. You know a match isn’t really working when, as the reviewer, you’re checking how much is left during the heat segment
Tony and Bobby do one last big hype job for the Main Event, with Tony doing a good job of explaining to first time viewers why this is such a big Dream Match amongst long time wrestling fans, which is an important thing to touch on and really helps get the enormity of the occasion over. It’s more talking on a show with too much talking though sadly.
Main Event
WCW World Title
Champ: The Nature Boy Ric Flair w/ The Sensuous Sherri Martel Vs The Immortal Hulk Hogan w/ The Mouth of the South Jimmy Hart and Mr. T
This was of course one of wrestling’s biggest Dream Matches, with WCW being the first to put it on pay per view even though the WWF could have done it themselves back in 1991 or 1992 had they wished to. Flair had been a babyface going into 1994, but he was quickly turned Heel in order to feud with Hogan. Knowing how Flair has always favoured working the Heel side of the fence, it probably wasn’t too much of a struggle to get him to go along with it. Indeed, Flair had played a part in convincing Hogan to come to WCW to begin with so that they could work this program. It ended up being a smart move on WCW’s part too, as this show did a good buy rate and helped give the company a sheen of legitimacy.
Noted wrestling fan Shaquille O’Neal is here to present the belt to the winner, owing to the show being in Orlando and him being an Orlando Magic player at the time. Michael Buffer lays it on thick in the ring introductions, comparing the match to the moon landings when it comes to importance. Well Hogan does have a moon sized ego, so that’s probably an apt comparison in some ways. I’ve seen this one in highlight form numerous times due to having the “Best of the Bash” VHS that WCW put out in the 90’s, but I’ve seen it in full considerably less.
Hogan gets a strong babyface shine, as he bumps Flair around and even gets to out wrestle him at stages too. Flair sells it all well in his excellent Heel style of course, displaying an effective mixture of cockiness, frustration and cowardice. It works in getting the majority of the crowd behind Hogan, as they pop when he batters the Champ and then boo when Flair tries to run away and use Sherri as a shield. If you’ve ever seen a Heel Flair Vs Face Hogan match before then you likely won’t be surprised with what you see, but it’s a formula that works well and I’ve always enjoyed the dynamic between them. Both of them are still quite spry here as well, so the action is fought at a decent pace in comparison to later bouts that they would have.
Eventually Sherri trips Hogan, which allows Flair to cut him off and start working some heat. Sherri was a good accoutrement to Flair’s act actually, as having a sexy manager who could get physically involved worked well for the sort of snide Heel character Flair had going on. It worked pretty well when he had Woman in his corner as well, as she wasn’t afraid to get physically involved either and she once gave Konnan one of the all-time best low blows I’ve ever seen when Flair took him on at BATB 96. Bobby Heenan is great on commentary too, openly cheering Flair on and getting desperate whenever Hogan has control of things.
A long chin lock slows things down a bit during the heat, possibly because Hogan over exerted himself in the opening section, but it succeeds in getting the crowd behind the challenger and they pop big when his hand doesn’t drop at three and he fights out to make the comeback. Flair takes a fantastic bump over the top to the floor and then even takes a back suplex whilst out there also. Flair has literally done everything in his power to make Hogan look like an all-conquering megastar here, which he really didn’t need to do as Hogan just being Hogan would have gotten over to begin with anyway, but he’s gone the extra mile to make the challenger look strong.
Flair manages to get a suplex back inside the ring, but Hogan no sells it and gets the big boot. This should be the three count, but Sherri pulls out the ref and then decks Jimmy Hart before coming in with a splash from the top rope to Hogan. Flair goes to the Figure Four following that, and the heat as Hogan teases tapping out is fantastic. Hogan eventually makes the ropes to break the hold, but sells his leg big following it. Flair makes the mistake of throwing chops though, which leads to Hogan no selling and making the comeback again. Flair had a fantastic facial expression of “you’ve got to be kidding me” when Hogan started no selling there. It was great. Sherri tries coming in with another splash to cause the DQ, but Hogan moves and then takes both Heels down with an Axe Bomber.
Hogan goes to the Figure Four following that, but releases the hold due to Sherri being on the apron. Mr. T carries her away, but not before she can throw Flair a concealed weapon. Flair hits Hogan with the international object (yes, that’s what WCW would refer to them as back then), but Hogan kicks out at two for a great near fall and then does the full Hulk Up routine. The Legdrop of DOOM comes next and that’s enough for the three count and the Title. The crowd loves it and goes nuts for the finish, giving Hogan’s first match under the WCW umbrella the seal of approval.
WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: HULK HOGAN
RATING: ***1/2
Thoughts: This was a really good first pay per view bout between the two and delivered a satisfying clean finish to send the fans home happy. Obviously things wouldn’t remain rosy in the WCW garden once Hogan’s ego really started getting out of control and he filled the roster with all of his ex-WWF mates, but this was one heck of a first night and getting the belt on him early certainly gave the company a jolt. The problem was that they didn’t really have an opponent for him once the feud with Flair was done, and when they finally did have one in Vader they allowed Hogan to no sell his devastating powerbomb finisher to make him look like a goober right out the gate, because WCW
Hogan does the big celebration following the win whilst Bobby is disconsolate on commentary and treats it all as a bad dream. Tony of course takes joy in rubbing it in.
Mean Gene is backstage with Hogan, who celebrates with Jim Duggan and also gives a shout out to regular WCW guys like Brian Pillman and Johnny B. Badd, although they would soon be pushed to the side as Hogan allies in favour of his buddies from the WWF.
Bobby storms off to end the show.
In Conclusion
There was some solid wrestling on this show for the most part, with only really the Tag Title match being below what you would want from a pay per view event. The problem was that there was SO MUCH filler throughout the event, and it took a hammer to the show’s momentum after a certain point. I get that a whole 3 hours of just straight wrestling isn’t going to hook the Sports Entertainment crowd and WCW needed those folks in order to make their business model a success, but they leaned too much into that direction during this show I feel and neglected to present enough actual wrestling.
I’ve nothing against a big angle or interview segment on a pay per view if it adds to the show and keeps the momentum of the show building, but too often on this show the interview segments and video packages just slowed everything down to a crawl. If they’d taken 10 minutes or so away from the extracurricular stuff and given us another match then I think the show would have benefitted from it. WCW just didn’t have the balance right between wrestling and non-wrestling on this show in my opinion, even though there was little on the show I would say was actively bad.
Hogan and Flair delivered in the Main Event at least and the show definitely ended on a high, with Austin and Steamboat delivering a great match on the under card as well. Two high scoring matches (by my watch) on a six match pay per view card in 1994 was nothing to be sniffed at, so the show wasn’t bad by any means, but it could have been better than it ended up being if WCW had made some tweaks to how the show was put together.
Mildly recommended show
