Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WCW Bash at the Beach 1995

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

I’m actually writing part of this on Christmas Day because we’ve only got six days of WWE Network left and I wanted to at least Bash at the Beach in when it comes to the 1995 WCW reviews (of course since then I think they’ve added the two main matches to the WCW YouTube Channel). Bash at the Beach 1995 is widely regarded as one of WCW’s worst ever pay per views, even though it has a unique setting of taking place on an actual beach. However, a quick look at the card reveals that we’ve got some likely awful contests to digest as the show rolls on.

Who knows though, maybe the negative reviews are a bit harsh and Bash at the Beach 95 isn’t as bad as folks let on? I guess we’ll have to watch it to find out.

You can view the full card for Bash at the Beach 1995 by clicking below;

WCW Bash at the Beach 1995 Card

Check out Wrestle Me on YouTube, seeing as I’ve stolen a bunch of their thumbnails for the review here

Bash at the Beach is emanating from a literal beach in California

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

SLIM JIM presents Bash at the Beach, OHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHH (although I’m not sure if we’ll get any Slim Jim emblazoned tables)

We get a video package hyping up Meng, which delays the show in getting started, but it does serve a storyline purpose by making Meng look like a scary dude who we should be worried about.

Mean Gene Okerlund is in the interview area with Sting ahead of the opening contest. Sting says that he knows how bad Meng is, but we’re on Sting’s home turf here, so Sting is going to bring the crazy in order to prevail at Bash at the Beach. Heck, even Sting’s parents are here today, so he’s fired up and ready to go. This was a fun energetic promo from Sting and he seemed really motivated by wrestling in Huntington Beach.

Opening Match
WCW United States Title
Champ: Sting Vs THE MONSTER MENG w/ Colonel Parker

Sting defeated Meng to win the belt back at Great American Bash, so we’ve got the rematch here at Bash at the Beach. Michael Buffer has been flown in for this one, and he still manages to look immaculate despite having to show up to a literal beach for this booking. There looks to be a decent turn out for the show here, at least enough for it to look okay on camera. It’s a pretty casual crowd, which means they only really care about wrestlers that they recognise, which usually means the guys who have been in the WWF previously. Sting does get a good reaction though, which shows that, despite the many blunders that WCW regularly performed, the company still did a decent job at making Sting it’s franchise player. Meng is described as wearing “Gold and Aqua” by Buffer here, which amuses me for some reason. Maybe Buffer had been buying paint at his local Home Depot that week and took some notes?

This is basically a re-run of their match back at GAB, which means it inherits a lot of the same problems that one had, mainly being that Meng is being presented as this unstoppable tank who cannot be bumped, which just looks like of ridiculous when Sting is not only bigger than Meng but we’ve also seen him manage to throw around the likes of Big Bubba and Vader in the past year, both of whom are bigger and more imposing looking than Meng. Meng being a really tough guy who can absorb punishment and keep coming to dish it out, whilst still being able to be bumped by the babyface, is a perfectly fine role for him that he’s good at playing. Meng being booked like he’s Andre The Giant and never being taken off his feet just doesn’t look right. Yes, Meng was a legitimate tough guy in real life, but wrestling is a show and it just doesn’t look right that a big dude like Sting, who has already been able to knock down a guy like Vader, can’t knock a guy Meng’s size down, regardless of how hard as nails Meng is in a real fight situation.

The work itself is fine, although there’s a bit of stalling, possibly because one of the brain surgeons in WCW decided that this show should take place outside on an actual beach where the wrestlers would be a victim to the elements. Sting only really gets any offence in when Meng misses an attack, such as when Meng finds no water in the pool during a Splash, which allows Sting to briefly get The Scorpion Deathlock until a distraction from Parker leads to Sting letting go to go after the manager. I love Sting, but he was REALLY dumb sometimes when it came to being easily distracted and trusting people who were clearly going to betray him. Sting’s selling is decent here and Meng’s offence looks okay, the match structure just doesn’t really work. As I said earlier, it’s a GAB re-run basically. Meng does finally agree to take some bumps near the end, and the match picks up as a consequence. Sting even gets a Thesz Press of all things for two, and even busts out a rana at one stage for another two count! Meng fires back with a big kick and a Splash from the second rope, but Sting manages to survive both of those and then catches Meng with a roll-up OUTTA NOWHERE for the flash three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: STING
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: You could copy and paste my review of their Great American Bash match here as I pretty much had all of the same issues with this Bash at the Beach contest. The closing stretch might have actually been a bit better in this Bash at the Beach match though. Not a terrible match, but it was just a bit dull in my opinion and I just didn’t buy Meng as a no bumping brick wall. Again, if Meng had been presented as a tough bad ass who could take punishment and keep coming, whilst still taking bumps etc, I think these two Sting matches would have been better. If you want Meng to be an immovable object against a Flyin’ Brian/Alex Wright/Johnny B. Badd type smaller babyface then that could work. Heck, you could possibly even get it to work with a guy like Randy Savage. Against Hogan/Sting/Luger sized guys though I don’t think that sort of presentation really works for Meng. That’s just my opinion though and you’re welcome to disagree

Meng decides to get his heat back following the match by attacking Sting, which leads to Road Warrior Hawk coming down to make the save. Meng Vs Hawk in a no-sell-a-thon would be an interesting watch!

Mean Gene is in the interview area with Jimmy Hart and The Renegade. Renegade mostly yells and snarls whilst Hart cuts a wacky 1980’s style promo about how violent his client is.

Match Two
WCW World Television Title
Champ: The Renegade w/ Jimmy Hart Vs “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff

Renegade won the belt back at Great American Bash, but now he’s got a grumpy vet in the form of Mr. Wonderful to contend with. Renegade was hopelessly under-prepared for this level of push, and someone like Orndorff was not going to take it easy on him. The crowd aren’t going easy on Renegade either, as they recognise Orndorff from his years of being a star in Pro Wrestling and clearly have no time for The Ultimate Warrior cosplayer that Mr. Wonderful has to contend with here. Orndorff tries to yell at the crowd and be mean, but the amassed group of casual fans here at Bash at the Beach see him as the star and thus want him to win. Poor Renegade, he was reportedly a respectful guy that tried his best in there, but he wasn’t anywhere close to being ready for this kind of position and it really shows here, although he can at least apply a headlock properly now, which is an improvement on the match he had at GAB.

Orndorff actually holds this together as best he can, and he actually finds quite a clever way to get the heat, as he finds some sand from the beach and flings it in Renegade’s eyes. The only downside is that they did that spot in full view of the ref. Points for inventiveness but points deducted for poor execution. Renegade’s selling is serviceable, but he makes a comeback with some of the worst dropkicks in history, as the crowd continues to turn on the inexperienced Champion. Renegade ends up getting a pretty weak looking Back Suplex for the win, although the commentary team states that Orndorff’s shoulder might have been up but the referee missed it.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: RENEGADE
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: Amazingly they kept the belt on Renegade for a further two months following this. This match was no good, but the crowd cheering for Orndorff made it entertaining in it’s own messed up way

Orndorff tries attacking Renegade following the match, but Renegade no sells it and makes the comeback to vociferous boos from the crowd.

We get a recap of The Taskmaster being gifted Kamala as a new charge in the Dungeon of DOOM from King Curtis Iaukea.

Mene Gene is interviewing Jim Duggan. Hacksaw is all fired up because he’s always told to play by the rules but the bad guys keep getting away with it, so it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. This was a lot of yelling, but that works for Duggan.

Match Three
Kamala The Ugandan Giant w/ “The Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan Vs “Hacksaw” James Duggan

Kamala is part of Sullivan’s wacky Dungeon of DOOM faction, where Sullivan put together a collection of assorted weirdos in an effort to try and take down Hulk Hogan. Duggan is both a pal of Hulk Hogan and also a proud xenophobic American, so he’s more than happy to throwdown with an evil (kayfabe) foreigner here on Bash at the Beach. Bringing Old Glory with him is at least an easy way for Duggan to get the crowd to cheer for him if any of them aren’t aware of who he is. You’d think most of the crowd would know who these two are anyway due to them being stars in the WWF, but they are both very good at playing over the top characters so that helps a little bit. The wrestling is absolutely awful here of course, but the crowd doesn’t hate it at least, so it’s got that going for it if nothing else.

Kamala is also playing the role of “big bloke who can’t be bumped easily” but he is at least 300+ pounds. We get a long Bear Hug spot at one stage, which is about as exciting as two folks just hugging one another in the middle of a wrestling ring can be expected to be, although Duggan does at least play to the crowd in an effort to get them to chant for him, and that kind of works. Duggan eventually fights back, and gets a decent reaction for catching Kamala with a Body Slam. Taskmaster distracts the referee though, which allows The Zodiac Man (Ed Leslie after yet another terrible gimmick repackaging) to attack Duggan from behind so that Kamala can drape an arm to win.

WINNER: KAMALA
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: The work here was mostly bad, but both of these two are good at playing to the back row, so the match wasn’t wrestled to silence at least. It was super basic stuff, mostly just punches and clotheslines done poorly, but the live crowd liked Duggan, so it wasn’t totally without merit

Mean Gene is interviewing Randy Savage, as it hits me that 75% of the two Main Event matches on this Bash at the Beach show have now passed away. Savage is all decked out in Slim Jim regalia (I bet TKO are gutted they can’t bring him in for some delicious corporate synergy these days), and he doesn’t care what the Lifeguards do later on, as he’s just there to get revenge on Ric Flair for what Flair did to Savage and his family. This was a good promo from Savage that did a solid job setting the stage for later. I would have liked him to make more of the Lifeguards meaning that Flair couldn’t run away though. Gene did try and tee Savage up for that but Savage had other ideas and just did his usual promo. The literal point of the stipulation match is that Flair can’t escape because the Lifeguards won’t let him Randy, so tell that story!

Match Four
Diamond Dallas Page w/ Diamond Doll and Maxx Muscle Vs Evad Sullivan

Evad won a date with Diamond Doll at Great American Bash, but DDP ruined the date and now we’ve got a match here on Bash at the Beach. That’s storyline progression that makes sense at least, although sadly it involves Evad Sullivan now having to wrestle. A little kid hands Doll some flowers before the match, but DDP doesn’t like that and yells at Doll. This was all leading to Doll eventually ditching DDP for Johnny B. Badd later in the year. The crowd actually enjoys seeing DDP stooge around for Evad to start, with Evad even trying to force-feed DDP the flowers. This feud was basically Randy Savage Vs George Steele from 1980’s WWF, and I’m annoyed that it’s taken me that long in order to put those pieces together. The parallels are all there though, and it wouldn’t shock me if those parallels were all intentional as well.

I mean, you’ve got the arrogant Heel with a beautiful woman who he treats like dirt, whilst a doofus babyface has the hots for the lady and is trying to be with her instead, whilst the woman just seems baffled by the whole situation. DDP yelling at a beautiful woman and being a total jerk at least manages to draw some heat from the crowd, as you don’t even need to know the storyline or the characters to know that someone behaving like that deserves to be booed. Evad mostly sticks to punches, clotheslines and the like, and it’s not good but it’s not totally awful either. DDP is solid enough here, being a good bumping Heel and keeping it simple on offence so as not to confound Evad. Muscle ends up distracting Evad when it looks like Evad might be in the ascendency, and that leads to the Diamond Cutter giving DDP the win.

WINNER: DDP
RATING: *

Thoughts: This wasn’t good, but amazingly there have actually been worse matches tonight. DDP had most of his Heel persona down at the time and he could always lean into that, which helped out in situations like this when there was a more casual crowd watching the action. DDP really upped his game to the point that he was one of the most dependable in-ring performers in any of the “Big Three” North American promotions by the time 1997/98 came around, and you could see the beginnings of that here as he was still relatively inexperienced at the top level and yet he arguably got more out of Evad than Orndorff did out of Renegade, which is very impressive in all honesty (It could be that DDP was actually trying to have a good match whilst Orndorff just looked annoyed to be there)

Mean Gene is interviewing The Harlem Heat and Sister Sherri. Sherri says they are the most cohesive unit in WCW and that’s why they will win the upcoming match. Booker says it will be on like neckbone, whilst Stevie says that four suckas are getting whooped today. This was a promo on a wrestling show and it was totally fine

Match Five
Triangle Match for the WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) w/ Sister Sherri Vs The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal and Earl Robert Eaton) Vs The Nasty Boys (Knobbs and Sags)

These three teams all had a scuffle back at Great American Bash, so now we’ve got the logical Three Way Dance to pay it all off. The Heat won the belts back from The Nasty’s between GAB and Bash at the Beach. The way this works is that one team will be on the apron whilst the other two will wrestle, with a DQ causing a team to leave the contest. The first pin or submission wins it. Regal supposedly said the weather in Blackpool is nicer than California. I can guarantee you that the water won’t be nicer, as Blackpool has long had a reputation as a coastal town where you DO NOT go in the sea, unless you like sharing the ocean with toilet paper that is. Eaton being announced as from Stoke-On-Trent continues to amuse me, because the closest thing you get to landed gentry in that part of the world is the guy who has the key to the booze cabinet at the local supermarket.

The Heat and The Nasty’s end up being the two teams to start following a coin toss. I don’t know why they couldn’t just have all three teams be legal, but that might have been a little bit too radical for WCW in 1995. We do at least have a Pier Six to start, which does give us the chance to see Regal sell Pity City again, which is always fun. Bobby Heenan gets a good line saying that folks like it when The Nasty’s come to a picnic because it keeps the flies away from the food. Once the match settles into two men wrestling in the ring whilst the other four wait on the apron for a possible tag, it becomes a decent bout from an in-ring perspective, due to Booker, Eaton and Regal all being good in the ring and The Nasty’s being solid brawlers that suit this style of match. And Stevie Ray also exists!

The Heat are kind of tweeners here, as they wrestle more heelish against The Nasty’s but are a bit more faceish against The Blue Bloods, with Sherri even clocking Eaton at one stage in a fun spot. Booker takes a big spill out to the floor at one stage and I’m not entirely sure why as it looked like he was getting a boot up in the corner to a charging Knobbs only to then go flying out of the ring. Regal and Eaton’s exchanges with Booker are the best actual wrestling in the bout, although I’ll give Stevie Ray credit for having a fun hockey fight styled exchange of punches with Sags at one stage that the crowd gets a kick out of. I’m not sure the crowd totally understands the rules here, but they do react when cool stuff happens and they seem to like The Nasty’s, so either they follow the product enough to know that The Nasty’s are the Faces or The Nasty’s themselves are doing a good job of working Face.

Both the Champs and The Blue Bloods trade off working over The Nasty’s at different points, which I guess fills the slot that the heat segment would fit into, and that succeeds in getting the crowd to chant for The Nasty’s. Knobbs eventually manages to get a hot tag to Sags after getting worked over for a bit, which leads to things breaking down and everyone going at it. It’s a bit sloppy with bodies flying around all over the place, but it’s entertaining in a wild out of control sort of way. It looks like The Nasty Boys end up pinning Regal, but it turns out that Booker T was actually on top of Regal first, so that means that The Heat are still Champs and The Nasty’s are super dumb-dumbs for not realising.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: THE HARLEM HEAT
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: I don’t think the fans really understood that finish, and it took the replay for the commentary team to get it as well. It was actually kind of a clever finish, as if you stack up two people then technically the person in the middle should be the one who is winning unless their shoulders are down as well, and Booker’s shoulders were clearly not down there so The Heat winning was technically the right decision. It made The Nasty’s look like total idiots of course, but then it’s The Nasty Boys so you generally expect them to be a bit dim-witted. The match itself wasn’t bad, with Booker continuing to show hints of his eventual stardom and The Blue Bloods being arguably the best wrestlers we’ve seen on the entire show up to this point. I think if they’d leaned into the chaos and just had all three teams going at it from the start then it might have been more entertaining, but what we got ended up being okay thanks to the better workers in the match stepping up and holding it together

Mean Gene interviews The Heat and Sherri in the entrance way following that. They deny that luck had anything to do with their victory. Gene says that Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater want the next shot, and The Heat is down with that. The tag scene might have been one of the best booked parts of WCW at the time actually, as they created a decent list of contenders and they would regularly set up matches on the big shows in order to keep storylines moving.

The commentary team talk for a bit, which soon turns into an argument because they don’t like one another, both in real life and on screen.

Mean Gene is interviewing Ric Flair. Flair references Miss. Elizabeth in his promo, saying that Flair took her to Space Mountain, which causes Mean Gene to crack up. Cue up the MegaDrive version of Beat It Maffew! This is the usual crazed rant from Heel Flair and it’s good fun.

Co-Main
Lifeguard Lumberjack Match
“The Nature Boy” Ric Flair Vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage

Flair defeated Savage back at GAB so Savage is coming for revenge here at Bash at the Beach. The lumberjacks are dressed like lifeguards as part of a tie-in with Baywatch, and footage of this match would appear on the show. OSW Review and Allison Pregler have done a great review of that episode by the way, so go give it a viewing! Bobby standing on his chair in order to get a good look at the scantily clad babes who come out for this is pretty funny. They don’t give us a full list of the lifeguards, but we’ve got Jim Duggan and Craig Pittman amongst them, and in a nice touch they are arguing following their match at the previous pay per view. Savage’s dad, Angelo, is in the crowd for this one in order to see Savage avenge him. Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, Dick Slater, DDP and Flyin’ Brian look to be out there as well, as it’s hard to miss Brian’s distinctive haircut.

They don’t bother with a lock-up here and just go straight to fighting, which suits the storyline and provides mostly enjoyable action. They quickly establish the rules by having both competitors knocked out to the floor before being thrown back in, with the Heel and Face lifeguards getting into arguments with one another at points. Flair takes numerous big bumps here, including a suplex from inside the ring to the floor, which isn’t a DQ despite WCW’s over the top rope DQ rule. I’m so glad they finally got rid of that, not because I think it’s a dumb reason to DQ someone but more because it was just never consistently enforced. I’m not sure the lumberjack stipulation really adds anything to the match, but the action on display is mostly fast-paced and entertaining. They are both definitely putting in the effort here, which is probably why this feud drew so well.

Flair targets Savage’s leg at one stage, which gives Savage a chance to sell and get the crowd behind him, which does indeed happen. We get the big dramatic submission tease in the Figure Four, which leads to Savage turning the hold over, although sadly that doesn’t lead to a submission on Flair. One day…one day. Savage makes the comeback, with Flair taking some more customary bumps, including another one over the top to the floor, which is still not a DQ. Flair just outright flung Savage over the top earlier as well. Flair tries running away, but the lumberjacks throw him back in, so Arn Anderson DDT’s Savage whilst the referee is distracted by lumberjack silliness outside the ring. Savage survives that for a two count, and that gets him a loud chant from the crowd, as it was a good near fall executed well. Flair tries going up top, which goes about as well for him as it usually does, and that leads to Savage regaining control before delivering the Macho Elbow off the top for three.

WINNER: RANDY SAVAGE
RATING: ***

Thoughts: I’m not sure the lumberjack stipulation really worked for them, and there were at least four instances in the match when someone got thrown out over the top rope and it wasn’t a DQ. It’s not like I love that rule or anything, but if you have it as part of your promotion’s ruleset then it actually needs to be enforced, otherwise it just makes it dumb on the occasions where it is. Aside from that; this was Flair and Savage realising that they had a beach full of casual fans to wrestle in front of, so they went out there and had a quick paced match with lots of over the top bumping and selling in order to keep the fans invested, whilst still having the kind of bout that suited their rivalry. Both of them were good at their jobs, so we got a mostly entertaining match here that the beach goers enjoyed, but they probably could have had better in a proper arena with less restrictive stipulations. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a good match, and probably the best one we’re getting on Bash at the Beach in all honesty, unless Vader and Hogan can really turn it on up next

We get a cool looking aerial shot of the beach, and it looks impressive. There’s definitely lots of folk there, even if it’s not a “capacity” crowd of 100.000’s of people as WCW would claim at some points.

We get a video package of Vader, showing how scary he is, and it’s very effective, although La Parka’s theme undercuts it somewhat when they plays at one stage. Rey Mysterio Jr’s theme certainly suits it better when that gets played for a bit

Mean Gene is interviewing Vader. Vader is his usual self, in that he’s yelling and throwing things around whilst ranting about destroying his opponent. This promo combined with the previous video package succeeded in making Vader look like someone who Hogan fans needed to be worried about.

The commentary team talks about Collison in Korea, which I’ve reviewed previously.

Mean Gene is interviewing Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Hart and Dennis Rodman. Hogan does the usual promo, whilst Rodman mostly hotdogs for the camera and even annoys Hogan by wiping his face when Hogan is mid-promo in a funny awkward moment. Hogan of course talks about feeding Vader to the sharks following their match, which is basically a threat of murder here on this family friendly pay per view. Rodman tries his best to do a yelling Pro Wrestler promo at one stage, but it goes a bit awry. This segment was a bit of a car crash, but it was certainly an entertaining one.

Main Event
Cage Match for the WCW World Title
Champ: Hulk Hogan w/ Jimmy Hart and Dennis Rodman Vs Vader

This was the payoff to Hogan’s disappointing feud with Vader, as they held this match on an actual Beach and clips from it would go on to be used in an episode of Baywatch. As mentioned already in previous reviews, Hogan pretty much killed Vader immediately by taking his devastating powerbomb move in an angle and popping up like the move didn’t even hurt, thus making Vader and everyone else who had been powerbombed up to that point look like an absolute plum. I mean, I get that no selling finishers was kind of Hogan’s thing, but if you ask me Vader was a special case who had plenty of other big moves that Hogan could no sell like the Pump Splash or running body attack, that would have still allowed Hogan to look like superman but would have protected Vader’s biggest move.

Hogan clobbers Vader in the early going, as I ponder how hot the ring canvas must have been due to it being out in the sun all day. Vader blocks a throw into the cage and gets one of his own before working Hogan over with his usual array of punches. Hogan quickly fights back after that and then decides that what this heated blood feud needs is some comedy, as he puts on Vader’s entrance mask attire and mocks him with it. I mean, I get that this is a super casual crowd so silly house show comedy spots would pop them, but this is a pay per view that everyone all over the world is watching and this is supposed to be a big hate filled rivalry. It’s about more than pops in the building sometimes.

The action itself is entertaining at least, and Hogan takes his licks as Vader splashes, punches and throws him around in his usual manner (Though he might have been taking it a bit easier on Hogan than he would normally). It’s hardly a technical classic or anything, but it’s a reasonably fun brawl inside the cage, with Vader even taking a huge bump by missing a back senton splash from the top rope. That one looked a tad unpleasant I must say. Hogan probably gets a tad too much offence at points considering his monster foe, but it’s generally fine and he does let Vader do a number of him for parts of it.

Hogan takes Vader down with an Axe Bomber and successfully gets the big body slam before collapsing in pain due to hurting his back. This actually allows Vader to get up first and then clothesline him, which is a nice little break from the usual Hogan formula, as normally they’d go straight to the finish from the big body slam. Hogan no sells a Vader splash from the second rope and then starts Hulking Up. Vader gets flung back and forth into the cage before taking the big boot and leg drop. Kevin Sullivan and The Zodiac Man try to run down and help out Vader, but Rodman fends them off and Hogan drops another two leg drops before clambering out of the cage to win.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: HULK HOGAN
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Quite similar to Hogan’s match with King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania 2 actually, as Hogan spent a lot of the match giving the bigger Heel a kicking and didn’t really do as much selling as you’d expect. It wasn’t a great match owing to the casual crowd and the fact that Vader didn’t really get a chance to put some serious Heel heat on Hogan, but it was basically fine and it was entertaining for what it was.

Ric Flair comes down to yell at Vader following the match, which leads to Vader beating up both him and Arn Anderson to seemingly turn face.

Is It Really A Stinker?

Yes I’d have to say that Bash at the Beach 1995 is a Stinker. The last two matches were decent, but most of the undercard was absolute mince, filled either with cartoony gimmicks that didn’t really belong in 1995, bad wrestlers that weren’t able to wrestle at the top level, or in some cases a combination of the two.

I will say that from a storytelling point; Bash at the Beach 1995 actually wasn’t too bad a show, in that each match seemingly advanced a storyline in some form or set up a new one in some fashion. You had Hawk showing up to help Sting in order to set up his autumn feud with Colonel Parker and his goons, The Dungeon of DOOM showed that their superior numbers over the babyfaces meant they could be a viable threat (even if the gimmick itself was ridiculously goofy), DDP continued his mean boyfriend gimmick in order to make us want to see Diamond Doll break away from him (which she would eventually do), Harlem Heat retained the tag belts and immediately knew who their next challenger was going to be and were ready to hype it up (again, props to WCW for doing a decent job with the tag division around this time in as far as usually always having the next match set up) and Vader’s turn at the end seemingly freshened him up and laid the groundwork for the awesome Four Horsemen return later in the year.

However, the wrestling itself was so bad in places that it dragged Bash at the Beach down as a whole, even though storyline wise the company seemed mostly focused in what it wanted to do. Plus, even though they technically did everything right storyline wise with that Kamala/Duggan match, it’s still Kamala getting a renewed push in 1995 as part of this bizarre Dungeon of DOOM Vs Hulk Hogan storyline. That whole feud would have felt outdated in the late 1980’s, and by 1995 it was straight up anachronistic, especially in what was supposed to be the more serious wrestling focused outfit of the Big Two promotions at the time. I always feel bad about being too critical about poor Renegade due to how tragic an end he had to his life as well, but goodness me was he awful here and completely out of his depth to the point that it was almost painful watching his match.

It’s sometimes presented that Orndorff was a bit unprofessional in that TV Title match and showed Renegade up, but honestly I thought that Renegade was doing a fine job of that all by himself and Orndorff actually did a reasonable job trying to hold the whole thing together. You could tell that he hated having the assignment to begin with, but he went out there and did his job and he did try and turn the fans back around when they were cheering for him, but they hated Renegade so much that it didn’t work. When you have a casual set of fans booing you out of the building (or booing you off the beach in this case) then you know that your push isn’t working, as that is usually the easiest set of fans to get on board so long as you turn the volume up and play to the back row in order to entertain them. As bad as Kamala Vs Duggan was, they at least understood the assignment, and that’s why their match actually had okay reactions despite being thoroughly awful.

Flair Vs Savage was good, although below their usual standards, and the Main Event was okay but had a bit too much comedy considering that it was meant to be this big grudge match. Again though, Hulk Hogan knew exactly what kind of crowd he was working in front of and tailored the match accordingly. You can argue that he should have tried to wrestle the match that was consistent with the storyline as opposed to chasing pops from the casual crowd, but at least the fans seemed to have fun with the match. The fans in general weren’t too bad, as they mostly made noise throughout the show and, poor Renegade aside, they were far more polite than the hick bikers at Road Wild and actually gave most of the matches a chance. Granted, most of them were just there to see the stars and weren’t going to get into anything other than quick paced basic action, but I’ve seen crowds like this ruin shows before due to being rude or impatient, and this Bash at the Beach crowd didn’t do that outside of one exception, so props to them for that.

It’s just a shame WCW served up so many awful matches to the crowd, as they did seem up for the show. Overall I can’t look past some of the terrible wrestling, so Bash at the Beach is a Stinker overall, but not all of it was a disaster I suppose.

Final Score – Stinker
(Scores done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)

Logan has also reviewed this show if you fancy a second opinion