The legendary 'Macho man' Randy Savage teams up with 'The Immortal' Hulk Hogan to take on Ted Dibiase and Andre The Giant in the first ever WWF Summerslam!
From Hulk Hogan's shocking turn at WCW Bash at the Beach 1996 to the addition of Ted Dibiase, THe Giant Syxx and more, relive the very beginning of the New World Order.
It's one of the most famous promos of all time; Stone Cold Steve Austin wins the 1996 King of The Ring and serves notice on all the WWF superstars. Check it out in our complete review
The boyhood dream comes true as Shawn Michaels battles champion Bret 'The Hitman' Hart in a classic 1-hour iron man match. Plus, Diesel vs. Undertaker and more.
Was Sting in cahoots with the New World Order? Would Lex Luger be able to get along with the Four Horsemen as they faced the nWo in War Games? Find out in this review
ECW When World's Collide was the first of two events to take place under that name in 1994.
the name referred to a cross-promotion between Paul Heyman's ECW and World Championship Wrestling, with the two companies agreeing to exchange talent.
Heyman wanted The Hollywood Blondes on his show but had to settle for Bobby Eaton and Arn Anderson, while the likes of Terry Funk and other ECW mainstays would find themselves on WCW programming.
Later, WCW apparently thought that "When World's Collide" was such a good name for a PPV that they used it for their presentation of AAA's first US PPV, a show that still stands up as one of this writer's favorite PPVs of all time.
Unhappy with that, ECW sued WCW for copyright infringement, leading to an out-of-court settlement in which World Championship Wrestling once again agreed to supply Heyman's company with more talent.
So, that's the background out of the way, but was the show any good?
Let's head to Philly to find out.
Rockin’ Rebel (w/ Jason) vs. Tommy Dreamer
After the standard ECW TV intro, we went straight into our first match as Tommy Dreamer made his return from injury after his match with Jimmy Snuka back at The Night The Line Was Crossed.
For the time period, this wasn’t a bad opener.
OK, so it was a little bland, but it was short and inoffensive, ending when Dreamer caught his opponent with a Thesz Press for the three.
Your Winner: Tommy Dreamer
Post match, Rockin’ Rebel got into an argument with his manager, Jason, but the two patched things up and left together.
ECW Television Championship ECW TV Champion Mikey Whipwreck vs. 911 (w/ Paul Heyman)
The story here was that Mikey Whipwreck was a perennial loser who couldn’t win a match to save his life but had fluked his way to a recent win over then-champion The Pitbull.
Tonight, he would make his first title defence against 911, a man who had regularly pulverised the champion on TV.
The match was hardly a match at all, but it was a cleverly done segment in its own right.
After the match began with Paul Heyman shouting at Whipwreck, the challenger pushed his opponent into the corner then choke slammed him twice.
He was about to do it a third time but instead chose to also grab the referee and chokeslam him too.
Naturally, the battered official called for the bell.
Your Winner via DQ and Still TV Champion: Mikey Whipwreck.
That was smart booking if you ask me. The Whipwreck flukey title reign continued while 911 looked impressive despite his limited in-ring ability.
Afterward, 911 posed with the Tv title before chokeslamming the referee while a distraught Joey Styles yelled “911 does not care about this official’s soul! Who is going to pray for the souls of 911 and Paul Heyman?”
Superfly Jimmy Snuka (w/ Hunter Q. Robins) vs. Kevin Sullivan (w/ Woman)
Kevin Sullivan made this one work and saved it from being a bad match. Instead, he took Snuka on a typical ECW brawl that was good enough to watch without being overly impressive.
Towards the finish, The Sandman came down and convinced Woman to leave with him. Of course, this being early ECW, the cameraman missed the whole thing so it was hard to tell what Sullivan was distracted by.
The distraction allowed Hunter Q. Robbins to trip him up and Snuka to pin him.
Your Winner: Jimmy Snuka
Up next, this:
Singapore Caning Match The Sandman & Woman vs. Tommy Cairo & Peaches
Loser revives six lashes with a Singapore Cane
With the women hanging out on the apron for the majority of the match, The Sandman and Tommy Cairo fumbled their way around the ring in a fairly sloppy and uninspired match.
As they did so, announcer Joey Styles tried to sell us on the extreme and brutal nature of ECW, promising us that this was a company like no other professional wrestling promotion on Earth.
I know Joey was well-respected as an announcer and all that, but he made himself sound kind of stupid here.
How was anybody supposed to take him seriously when he was making ECW sound like the wildest promotion in town while watching Sandman bumble his way into a lacklustre clothesline.
Eventually, Cairo got the better of Sandman but Women dove in to save her man from being pinned and a cat fight with Peaches inevitably ensued.
As Cairo backed Woman into a corner, Peaches pounced on a prone Sandman and won the match.
Your Winners: Tommy Cairo & Peaches
Post match, Peaches exposed her estranged husband’s bare bum and proceeded to whack him with the cane but could only manage three lashes before Woman once again came to the rescue.
A wild brawl broke out until Sandman and Woman got the better of their opponents and absolutely obliterated them with the cane.
Honestly, the post match stuff was a thousand times more entertaining than the actual match.
The Pit Bull (w/ Jason) vs. The Tazmaniac
Prior to the match, 911 came out and chokeslammed the referee again, much to the delight of the ECW faithful.
The match then began with a wild and entertaining brawl around the arena before making it to the ring where The Pitbull began systematically wearing down his opponent.
It made for a decent -though hardly spectacular contest- that came to and when The Tazmaniac made a comeback and busted out a barrage of suplexes.
He even suplexed Jason over the ropes but this distraction allowed The Pit Bulk to take his opponent down and win this good-by-1994-ECW-standards contest.
Your Winner: The Pit Bull
Before the next match, The Franchise Shane Douglas informed us that his rival, Road Warrior Hawk had injured his knee and wouldn’t be getting involved tonight.
The ECW Champion then said something about Ric Flair, but loud music was playing so it was impossible to hear him because early-ECW’s production values were atrocious.
Handicap 4 vs. 3 Elimination Match ECW World Heavyweight Champion The Franchise Shane Douglas, Mr: Hughes, and The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) vs. J.T. Smith and The Bruise Brothers (Ron & Don Harris)
With Road Warrior Hawk no longer able to compete in this match, it became a handicap match.
The bout started slow but soon developed into a gripping contest.
The heels spent most of the time kicking J.T. Smith’s leg out of his leg but the valiant babyface refused to quit.
Although this dragged at parts, it was mostly compelling.
The only real complaint was that the camera man once again missed an important moment as Douglas, Mr. Hughes, and The Bruise Brothers all started brawling on the outside.
The first we became aware of it was when the camera cut awkwardly to the four brawling in the stands as the referee counted them all out for a mass elimination.
Back in the ring, The Public Enemy continued their assault on Smith’s dodgy wheel, but the youngster caught each one with a quick roll-up and miraculously emerged as the sole survivor of the match.
Your Winner: J.T. Smith
Honestly, I’m surprised at how good that was, but not as surprised as Public Enemy were about losing.
Naturally, the two attacked Smith after the bell and left him down and out.
Sabu & Beautiful Bobby Eaton (w/ Paul E. Dangerousy and 911) vs. Terry Funk & Arn Anderson
Before the match could commence, Paul E. Dangerously took to the microphone to rile up the crowd and put his men over.
Terry Funk and Arn Anderson then made their way out and engaged in the best match of the night and the most enjoyable ECW match I’ve seen since I first started reviewing the company’s early shows.
In true extreme fashion, this was wild and out of control in the best possible sense.
At one point halfway through the match it was also pretty funny.
Arn Anderson called his former tag team partner Bobby Eaton into the ring to fight him, but Terry Funk ruined his partner’s plans by attacking Eaton on the outside. It was so typically Funk that I couldn’t help but chuckle.
Even funnier was Joey Styles listing Bobby Eaton’s credentials.
“And he was in the Midnight Express with Stan Lane who is now…well I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing, but he shouldn’t be doing it!”
I don’t know why but that was so funny and redeemed Styles from trying to convince us that the piss poor Singapore cane match was extreme wrestling at its finest.
Enough about him though, this was a hugely entertaining brawl which came to an end following an attack on Terry Funk by The Public Enemy.
Anderson saw off Rock and Grunge the way nu-metal would a few years later, only to turn on his partner and attack him with a chair.
Sabu then applied a half crab and this one was done.
Your Winner via submission: Sabu & Arn Anderson
Backstage after the match, Paul E. paid off Public Enemy for their run-in and then cut a brilliant promo questioning why on earth Terry Funk would want to get involved in a match with The Public Enemy.
Though this would have made more sense if we’d actually seen Funk challenging Flyboy and Johnny to a match against he and his brother, Heyman’s promo was absolutely incredible.
Offering a response, Terry Funk ended When Worlds Collide with a single, solemn line:
“Who are we? We’re the Funk Brothers.”
/——-
Watching the evolution of ECW from their early 1993 shows onwards has been absolutely fascinating.
Those first few shows that I watched sucked, and while this one was hardly perfect, you can see the company get better and better with every show as they continue to morph into the game-changing extreme revolutionaries they would go down in history as.
The main event was awesome and the elimination match was better than anticipated, but there was also some boring stuff here like the Singapore cane match.
ECW still had a long way to go then, but they were clearly getting there.
Still, if you really must watch an event of this name, watch AAA/WCW When World’s Collide because not only was it far superior to this event, it was one of the greatest Pay Per Views of all time.
By the time Great American Bash 1991 rolled around, the truly unthinkable had happened:
Nature Boy Ric Flair had left WCW.
Flair had been at loggerheads with then-WCW president Jim Herd for some time. Despite the fact that Flair had been the company's franchise player for years, Herd saw zero drawing power in Nature Boy and looked to not only reduce his pay but also his role in the company.
Herd wanted Flair to become a completely different character (though he did deny wanting him to become Spartacus) Naitch wanted to keep on Naitchin', and since neither could agree on a direction for Flair in WCW, Big Bad Jim simply booted him out of the company with the big gold belt in tow.
Despite being officially stripped of the title, Flair also had a legitimate claim to keep the title belt due to a $25,000 deposit he'd paid for it which WCW had never returned.
We all know what happened next:
Flair took the title to the WWF and was promoted as 'The Real World's Champion' while, back in WCW, plans for The Great American Bash 1991 were left in dissaray.
Flair was originally scheduled to face Luger for the title, but he had been replaced by Barry Windham, meaning plans for a six-man cage match involving Windham also had to be changed.
Fans were famously unhappy -to say the least- about the changes and positively livid about Nature Boy's departure from the company.
Would WCW put on a great show to win favor with their hostile fans and change their mind about recent developments?
OF course not, this was WCW, and this was a disaster.
Welcome to the Great American Bash
Our opening video tonight was actually better than a lot of WCW’s usual videos, probably because it eschewed the usual cheap graphics and cheesy animations in favor of having a cameraman give us a fan’s-eye view of walking from the parking lot and into the arena.
Once there, the cameraman bought two tickets, which seems unfair. WCW was supposed to be bankrolled by a billionaire and yet the cameramen have to pay their own way into the show?
I’d be calling my union rep if I were this guy.
Anyway, our cameraman next took us into the arena where fireworks went off, the event’s logo flashed up on screen and your friend and mine? Garry Michael Capetta welcomed us to tonight’s event.
There was to be no greeting from the announcers yet as we went immediately into the introduction of PN News and Bobby Eaton.
Man, I wonder what poor Bobby did to deserve that.
Scaffold Match PN News & Bobby Eaton vs. Terry Taylor & WCW TV Champion Stunning Steve Austin
There’s no nice way to say this:
This was the dumbest piece of crap I’ve ever seen in my life.
Honestly, if I ever write a “Top 5 Worst PPV Openers Ever” list, this match will take all five spots because of how ridiculously bad it was.
Unlike the classic scaffold matches at Starrcade '86 and Starrcade '87, this one featured the rule that you could win by either hurling your opponents off the scaffold or capturing their flag and taking it back to your side, a rule which immediately telegraphed how this was going to end.
Meanwhile, the actual platform between the two teams’ scaffold towers was so narrow that nobody could actually do anything and it was impossible to get all four competitors on it at the same time.
This meant we got several very long minutes of the competitors taking it in turns to walk into the middle of the platform, nervously stare each other down and stroke each other’s hands like they were going to attempt a lockup that never happened.
Eventually, all four men ended up in the heel’s “base.” With Terry Taylor and Steve Austin busy attacking PN News, Bobby Eaton simply freed the heel’s flag and sauntered over to the face side like he was out for a Sunday stroll.
That was apparently enough to win the match, but the bell didn’t ring and there was no announcement as Bobby turned back around and went back to the heel side where Steve Austin threw some powder that he’d picked up from Lady Blossom.
It made zero difference.
In the next instance, all four men began climbing down the scaffold as GMC declared Eaton and News the winners, an announcement which was met by silence from the baffled crowd.
I’ve always said that Adrian Adonis vs. Uncle Elmer at Wrestlemania 2 is the worst match I’ve ever seen in life and is the benchmark against which all other bad matches are measured, but honestly, I think this might be even worse.
What an absolutely horrible, boring, and confusing way to start a show.
Your Winners: Bobby Eaton & PN News
Post-match, Bobby and PN continued to brawl with Taylor and Austin. It was the first time the crowd had popped since the start, though some were clearly booing.
Even Jim Ross seemed lost for words to describe what we’d just seen as he and broadcast colleague Tony “I Just Dyed My Hair Blonde” Schiavone welcomed us to the show proper.
Schiavone told us that WCW had made a second offer to Ric Flair to coerce him back to the company but the Nature Boy had refused. As such, Tony insisted that despite this being the seventh Great American Bash, it was actually the first because it was a new era here in World Championship Wrestling.
He and Ross then sent it over to Eric Bischoff, who was here making his PPV debut as he interviewed Paul E. Dangerously and Arn Anderson.
The duo would be teaming up tonight to face Rick Steiner and Missy Hyatt in a cage match.
Say what you want about that booking, this promo was excellent. Both Arn and Paul E. were gold on the mic as they promised to destroy their upcoming opponents.
Something tells me that promo might prove to be one of the best things on this whole show.
Killing time, we went back to Ross and Schiavone who put over the rest of the card before finally, more than six minutes after the scaffold match ended, sending us back to ringside for another contest.
Tom Zenk vs. The Diamond Studd (w/ The Diamond Studd)
Prior to the match, Diamond Dallas Page picked a lady from the crowd to come in and rip off The Diamond Studd’s entrance gear because Scott Hall was, according to Dallas, all “twisted steel and sex appeal.”
Studd also had some weird mark on the back of his trunks. It’s impossible to tell if it was part of the design or if Hall had diarrhea.
Tom Zenk responded by coming to the ring with his own entourage of beauties, but he largely ignored them and leapt over the top rope, knocking Studd on his backside with an impressive flying clothesline.
That got the match off to a hot start, with a fun brawl on the outside and Zenk doing his best to fly around and take out his opponent.
Countering all this, the future Razor Ramon countered with punches, kicks, and an abdominal stretch.
Zenk battled back and was the most entertaining thing in the match, even dragging Page into the ring for a beat down, but in the ensuing chaos, Studd suplexed Zenk for the win.
This match was better than most other reviewers would tell you it was, but it wasn’t exactly anything that demands repeat viewing or anything.
Your Winner: The Diamond Studd
Before the next contest, JR and Schiavone told us that while we’d only really seen Oz at Superbrawl and Clash of the Champions 15, we’d seen a lot of Ron Simmons because the former Doom member was on a roll and working his way up the rankings.
The two would meet next.
Oz (w/ The Great Wizard) vs. Ron Simmons
With The Great Wizard (Kevin Sullivan) in tow, Oz shuffled lifeless lifelessly to the ring with his shoulders slung low looking for all the world like he was going through a bout of depression.
After being saddled with such a goofy gimmick, who could blame him?
Meanwhile, Big Ron hadn’t even made it to the ring before JR started telling us all about Simmons’ football career.
The match itself was…well…it was total garbage, that’s what it was.
Not necessarily sloppy or incompetent, just merely slow and mind-numbingly tedious.
Even the crowd thought so. The audience greeted this match with a deathly silence that was broken only by the sound of one single fan yelling “boring! Boring! At the top of his lungs.
The worst part was that it seemed to last forever.
Look:
I’m not the kind of guy to needlessly rag on Kevin Nash. I honestly think the guy did the best he could with what he had, but even as a fan of Big Daddy Cool, I can’t deny that this felt like an endless trudge that was almost painful to watch.
Thankfully, Simmons put us all out our collective misery and tackled Oz for the win in just shy of eight long and agonising minutes.
Your Winner: Ron Simmons
To be fair, that still wasn’t as bad as the opening cage match.
More ‘tween-match banter from Jim and Tony followed in which they put over the upcoming match between Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson before Schiavone ran down the WCW Top 10.
It put Barry Windham and Lex Luger at one and two which made sense given they’d be competing for the vacant world title later.
Robert Gibson vs. Richard Morton (w/ Alexandra York)
Now going by the name ‘Richard,’ Ricky Morton had turned heel at Clash 15 by joining the York Foundation and then beating up his Rock ‘n’ Roll Express partner, Robert Gibson when Gibson came to ask him WTF was going on.
The two had made for an exciting tag team, but when they actually faced off one on one, none of that excitement was there.
Sure, things started pretty hot as Gibson met Morton in the entranceway for a crowd-popping brawl.
It even looked to be the best match on the card as the two traded holds while JR sold us the story that the two knew each other so well it was hard for either man to outdo the other.
That was good stuff.
Then, Morton began working Gibson’s recently injured leg for at least ten minutes.
I’m not exaggerating either.
The majority of this match was just Morton working Gibson’s leg while the crowd told him that he sucked.
This went on for so long (the match ran the better part of 20 minutes!) that at one point I simply tuned out and started messing around on my phone while I waited for it to end.
When I tuned back in, Gibson was still getting his ass kicked and eventually lost when Alexandra York distracted referee Bill Alfonso so that Morton could hit his former partner with her laptop for the win.
Your Winner: Richard Morton
My goodness, this show is the worst.
Out in the back, The Young Pistols and Dustin Rhodes gave an interview to Eric Bischoff.
The ‘Pistols helpfully explained the rules of an elimination match for us but told us they weren’t here for a wrestling match, they were here for a fight.
Meanwhile, poor Dustin delivered an embarrassing impression of Papa Dusty as he also put over tonight’s six man.
Six-Man Elimination Match WCW Six Man Tag Team Champions The Fabulous Freebirds (Bad Street and US Tag Team Champions Michael ‘P.S.’ Hayes & Jimmy Jam Garvin) vs. Dustin Rhodes and The Young Pistols (Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong)
Hey, you know what we’ve not seen enough of?
The Freebirds vs. The Young Pistols.
Seriously, I feel like these two teams have faced each other so many times that I‘ve lost count:
Still, I probably shouldn’t complain because, whether they going at it in a straight tag team match like they did back at Clash of the Champions XI or spicing things up by making it a six-man like they did both here and at Suoerbrawl 1, both teams normally delivered.
Indeed, this was the best thing on the show so far by a country mile.
Ok, so the bar was set pretty low and anything even remotely half-decent would have looked like a classic compared to the likes of Oz/Simmons, but it would be unfair to say that this was enjoyable only because everything else sucked.
The truth is that, despite an abundance of stalling from the heels in the early going, this was a legitimately solid match with some fun spots and good action.
The only weird part was when Tracy Smothers made a blind tag to Steve Armstrong, who climbed to the top rope and just perched there for a solid minute while Jimmy Garvin staggered around in front of him looking dazed from the match but also completely confused as to why Armstrong wouldn’t leap off the ropes and attack him.
Instead, Steve waited until brother Brad “Bad Street” Armstrong was in the ring so that he could tag him with a drop kick.
The match continued without an elimination until they all happened more or less at once towards the finish.
A Freebirds Double DDT sent Steve Armstrong packing then, seconds later, Michael Hayes was disqualified for hurling Tracy Smothers over the top rope.
Almost immediately after, Tracy Smothers also fell prey to a double DDT courtesy of Bad Street and Garvin, an elimination which was quickly followed by Dustin sending Jimmy Jam to the dressing room courtesy of a clothesline.
This left just Dustin and Bad Street to wrap things up. The former caught the later with his patented bulldog finisher (kicking Big Daddy Dink mid-move in a cool spot) and, three seconds later, the son of WCW’s top Booker was the sole survivor.
Your Winner: Dustin Rhodes
I don’t care how bad this show sucks now, at least that was an enjoyable watch.
Bounty Match Yellow Dog (w/ Man’s Best Friend) vs. Johnny B. Badd (w/ Theodore Long)
(Yellow Dog’s mask is on the line)
Brian Pillman had lost a Loser Leaves WCW tag match against Barry Windham and Arn Anderson back at the last Clash of Champions but had come back under a mask as The Yellow Dog.
Billed from ‘The Kennel Club,’ Dog came to the ring with a Labrador in tow, with Capetta telling us that the dog was ‘Man’s Best Friend.’
If you didn’t get why the cute little pupper was there, Jim Ross killed off whatever thin slice of subtlety the character had by yelling “and he comes to the ring with an actual yellow dog!”
Thanks Jim, I didn’t quite get that.
Meanwhile, Johnny B. Badd was out to claim a bounty that would be awarded to anyone who could remove the mask and prove that Yellow Dog was Brian Pilman.
The former boxer was supposed to have a big, flamboyant entrance where he stood with his arms out stretched wearing an elaborate robe while pyro went off behind him but, this being WCW, the wrong theme music played.
As a result, Badd just sort of stood there for the longest time while his manager, Theodore Long clearly yelled at somebody to get it right.
That ruined Johnny’s big entrance, but it di d nothing to ruin what was a pretty decent match.
In what felt like the shortest contest on the card, the two men worked well together to deliver a good performance which was fun while it lasted but immediately forgettable once it was over.
Speaking of which, the whole thing ended when Long ran and tried to unmask Pillman, resulting in a DQ.
Your Winner via DQ: Yellow Dog
Post match, Dog clotheslined Long but got punched over the top rope by Johnny B.
Backstage, Eric Bischoff tried to get an interview with Missy Hyatt. Venturing into her locker room, he excitedly busted in on her while she showered, only to have the First Lady of WCW scream and throw stuff at him until he left.
I can’t help but feel like this was Missy’s karma for walking in on Stan Hansen in the shower like she’d done twice earlier in the year.
Lumberjack Match Big Josh vs. Black Blood
Big Josh came out with a bevy of beautiful women which seemed ill-fitting with his character.
Meanwhile, Black Blood was billed as hailing from “a little town in France,” because apparently nobody had bothered to ask him what that town might be.
He was also advertised as being accompanied by Kevin Sullivan, but Sullivan was nowhere to be found.
All of this was far more interesting than the match itself which, though not necessarily horrible, was pretty tedious and uneventful.
In fact, there was a point when all the lumberjacks began brawling on the outside and it was far more entertaining than anything that happened in the ring.
Towards the finish, Black Blood (Billy Jack Haynes in an executioner mask) picked up his ax, but before he could do anything with it, lumberjack Dustin Rhodes hit him in his injured knee with an ax handle.
That allowed Josh to get the roll-up and the three count.
I should probably mention that both Dustin and Big Josh were supposed to be the babyfaces here.
Your Winner: Big Josh
Before then next match between One Man Gang and El Gigante, Jim Ross told us that Gigante had improved both his English and his wrestling ability.
History would make a liar out of Good Ol’ JR.
Battle of the Giants One Man Gang (w/ Kevin Sullivan) vs. El Gigante
As One Man Gang and his manager, Kevin Sullivan made their way to the ring, they were stopped by Eric Bischoff for an interview.
The bat-sh*t crazy Sullivan proceeded to ramble on about a Lady with a Third-Eye who helped them build a death wagon which was now apparently waiting outside for El Gigante.
Alrighty then.
From there, Gigante came to the ring with a gaggle of dwarves for reasons which can only be explained by WCW being WCW.
I won’t lie, it was so absurdly ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
The resulting match was just about as bad as you’re probably imagining it was.
Comprised almost entirely of really slow punches and kicks, the end came when Sullivan handed OMG some cocaine (ok, maybe it was just “Mysterious White Powder”) which Gigante then kicked in his opponent’s face so that he could take him down for the three count.
That’s all I’m going to say about this one because, after watching Great American Bash ‘91 for two hours now, I’ve completely run out of creative ways to say “this sucked.”
Your Winner: El Gigante
Before then next match, Jim and Tony sent us to a video package highlighting the feud between Nikita Koloff and Sting, which could basically be summed as Koloff getting the better of his rival every time they interacted.
Honestly, I’m still confused about how this feud started with Koloff attacking Luger and then transitioned to him hating Sting without -as far as I can tell- ever having any kind of major blow-off with Lex at a high profile event.
I mean yeah, I know how the Sting feud started, but from watching PPVs and Clash shows alone, it really felt like the Luger feud was just forgotten about.
Russian Chain Match Nikita Koloff vs. Sting
This could have been a really good match but it wasn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a decent effort and surely one of the more superior matches on the card, but as I said in the earlier six-man, it didn’t take much to be a stand-out match on such a crap event.
In a variation of a strap match that used a long metal chain, the two went at it with a certain intensity but just didn’t seem to gel very well.
The result was a match that was sloppy in some places and kind of dull in others.
Towards the end, both men managed to touch three corners at the same time.
As they did so, Jim Ross told us that he’d never seen such a thing before despite it being a standard part of every strap match ever.
Referee Randy Anderson allowed them to continue fighting with their three count in tact since -according to Schiavone- neither man had technically broken the momentum of the other.
Then, Sting dove at Nikita in the fourth former, presumably looking to take out his rival while simultaneously winning the match.
Instead, Koloff touched the fourth corner fourth and continued his run of getting the better of his nemesis.
Your Winner: Nikita Koloff
Post match, Sting pulled the chain between Koloff’s legs and almost literally broke his balls.
This was followed by a video package that did its damndest to make the Lex Luger/Barry Windham title cage match sound like the most epic encounter in the universe.
Cage Match for the Vacant World Championship World Heavyweight Championship WCW US Champion Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham
The match began with the cameras panning the crowd as they all visibility chanted “we want Flair!”
I get that they couldn’t stop the crowds chanting for Nature Boy, but why draw such obvious attention to it?
The chants continued for a large portion of the match which was a shame really because both men worked hard to deliver a solid, old-school main event.
By the end, it even seemed like Windham and Luger had even won the crowd over with a strong showing, but any good will they’d earned quickly evaporated when Luger joined forces with Harley Race and Mr. Hughes at the finish.
It’s not that any of them actually did anything particularly heelish. As far as I could tell, Luger won clean in the middle of the ring with a piledriver, so the resulting reaction was less hatred towards Luger for turning heel and more a mixture of confusion and apathy.
Your Winner and New WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Lex Luger
Post match, Luger celebrated with Race and then stormed off. It still wasn’t immediately clear that Luger had turned or, if it was, it was just about the lamest heel turn in history.
The crowds booed anyway, but then they probably would have done regardless of the outcome simply because Luger wasn’t the Nature Boy.
Afterward, even JR admitted that the whole thing was confusing.
Mixed Gender Tag Team Cage Match Arn Anderson & Paul E. Dangerously vs. Rick Steiner & Missy Hyatt
Imagine having a steel cage match for your vacant world title involving a top star like Luger on your shoe and then booking a novelty mixed-gender match as your main event.
Imagine then having one of the combatants, arguably the most over in the whole match, taken out before the bell even rang.
That’s exactly what happened here as Dick Murdoch and Dick Slater came down before the match and kidnapped Missy Hyatt, carrying her to the back.
Hilariously, an over-eager fan tried to stop The Hard Liners and nearly got his head taken off by one of the dicks.
Fair enough, but it left GAB ‘91 with a less than stellar main event.
Don’t get me wrong, Anderson and Rick Steiner were good wrestlers, but do I want to see them main event?
Not really.
I would have watched this because at least Missy was hot but now, meh.
Not that it mattered.
By the time the actual match started, there was only four minutes left on the show anyway.
During those four minutes, Anderson tried to attack Steiner, but the Dog-Faced Gremlin got the better of him, took out both Double A and Paul E. with a pair of Steinerlines and won the match.
He then stormed off without bothering to celebrate because, let’s face it:
There was nothing worth celebrating on this show.
Your Winners: Rick Steiner & Missy Hyatt
“Fans, as we look out at the Baltimore Arena tonight, I’m glad there are no more matches left,” said Jim Ross as he and Schiavone signed off.
You know what, Jim?
I couldn’t agree more.
There are people out there who will tell you that The Great American Bash ‘91 was the worst Pay Per View of all time.
Those people have clearly never seen the absolute steaming pile of garbage that was the 1999 Heroes of Wrestling PPV, but you can’t blame them for being so critical of this event.
I rarely agree with the general consensus among diehard internet fans, but there’s no possible way I can defend this show.
From the abomination of the opening scaffold match to the bait-and-switch and pointless four minutes of the main event via a string of boring, lifeless matches, GAB ‘91 absolutely f**king sucked.
Sure, the six man was decent and I personally enjoyed the world title match until the finish, but neither match is really worth repeat viewing and certainly could save this show from going down in history as one of the worst of all time.
Clearly, World Championship Wrestling needed Ric Flair more than anyone ever realized.
The Night The Line Was Crossed was Eastern Championship Wrestling's first major event of 1994 and a big step for the Philadelphia promotion as they began to firmly cement their legacy for violence, hardcore wrestling, and all things extreme.
Throughout 1993, events such as the Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular had seen ECW presented as little more than another indie outfit in which both established, past-their-prime performers and up-and-coming superstars plied their trade.
Tonight, however, the company let it be known that they meant business as they took the first bloody and brutal steps towards establishing themselves as one of The Big Three professional wrestling companies of the 1990s.
Here's what went down on February 5th, 1994, a night that will forever live in ECW fans minds as the night the line was crossed.
The Night The Line Was Crossed
Tonight’s show opened with Todd Gordon sitting in front of a large map of the world and the oldest PC you’ve ever seen in your life.
Gordon informed us that Eastern Championship Wrestling had been accused of being the most violent, gory, extreme, and hardcore federation in America.
He neither confirmed nor denied these allegations, but simply said that what we were about to see was from February 4th, the night the line was well and truly crossed.
There you are then.
Wildman Sal Bellomo vs. The Ruffneck Mr. Hughes (w/ Jason)
I must admit, it was different seeing Mr. Hughes with somebody leading him into battle rather than Hughes being the man standing behind someone else.
The man in his corner had the uninspiring name of ‘Jason’ and wore a tuxedo jacket and bow tie. Combined with his hairdo, you got the feeling this might be what Paul Heyman might look like if he dressed as Brutus Beefcake for Halloween.
Anyway, this match was a big pile of nothing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two men do less in the ring and call it a match.
A few instances of running the ropes, a slow, lumbering punch or two, then interference from Jason to give Hughes the win.
Your Winner: Mr. Hughes.
That was crap.
Double Dog Collar Match The Sandman & Tommy Cairo vs. The Pitbull & Rockin’ Rebel (w/ Jason)
This was a fun, albeit short match full of wild brawling.
After five or six minutes of a fairly good match, Tommy Cairo dove on The Pitbull with The Sandman assisting by grabbing Pitbull’s legs.
That was enough to get the fall.
It’s a shame this will one didn’t last longer because I was just getting into it.
Your Winners: The Sandman & Tommy Cairo
Post-match, Rockin’ Rebel hung Sandman over the top rope by the chain before he and Pitbull did a number on Tommy Cairo.
No Rules Match The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) vs. The Bruise Brothers (Ron & Don Harris)
Coming to us by way of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, The Bruise Brothers entered into a chaotic, arena-wild brawl with The Public Enemy which looked to be even more wild and chaotic than the previous match.
I say ‘looked to be,’ because this was one example of how ECW’s low budget presentation could really hurt them.
The show seemed to be shot from a single camera which meant it was impossible to follow everything. Add some very low lighting, and keeping track of this match was hard going.
From what you could see, however, this looked to be an excellent brawl that finally ended up back in the ring where Johnny Grunge leveled one of their opponents with 2x4.
He and Rocco Rock then piled on for the three count.
Your Winners: The Public Enemy
Up next, this:
Tommy Dreamer vs. “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka (w/ Hunter Q. Robins III)
You know, the idea of a heel Jimmy Snuka appeals to me, but my goodness were his matches terrible.
He and Tommy Dreamer spent the first third of the match stalling and playing to the crowd. I suppose that was fun for them but it was boring as heck to watch.
The second third saw Snuka beat down Dreamer in like 30 seconds, only for the plucky rookie to kick out of the Superfly Splash.
Then, in the final third, Snuka hit another splash and pinned him.
The ending was interesting as Joey Styles played up the idea that nobody ever kicked out of Superfly’s finisher, but the match itself was just dull.
Your Winner: Jimmy Snuka
Post match, Snuka beat up the official then attacked Dreamer some more.
Dreamer then sold the beat down like he’d been run over by a train while Sal Bellomo came in to ensure Snuka couldn’t do any more damage.
Kevin Sullivan & The Tazmaniac (w/ Woman) vs. The Original Sheik & Pat Tanaka
The Original Sheik was such a wild and out-of-control force that he tipped the entrance curtain over on his way out and destroyed started throwing things around wildly.
This distracted everyone enough that Pat Tanaka was able to sneak into the ring and attack The Tazmaniac.
Tanaka was wearing street clothes tonight, probably because he couldn’t be bothered.
What followed from here was really two different matches. Sheik and Kevin Sullivan brawled through the crowd and got into a fight by the barricades while in the ring, Tazmaniac spent the entire match sitting on Tanaka’s back in a half Boston Crab.
To be fair, it wasn’t terrible, but having already seen two wild tag team brawls; this just didn’t add anything new.
At least not until the finish. Sheik broke away from Sullivan to throw a fireball in the ring at Tazmaniac, allowing Tanaka to score the victory.
The whole thing was over in about four minutes.
Your Winners: The Original Sheik & Pat Tanaka.
Afterwards, Sheik and Sullivan continued to brawl while Woman tended to the scorched and singed Tazmaniac in the ring.
J.T Smith vs. Awesome Mike Awesome
Yes, Mike Awesome was Awesome Mike Awesome here as he made his first appearance at a major ECW event.
Big Mike did look impressive here, getting over with the crowd as he destroyed J.T Smith in what looked to be a short squash match until Smith scored a quick victory with a roll up, his only offensive move of the entire match.
Your Winner: J.T Smith
Post match, Awesome vented his frustrations by taking out the referee with two powerbombs.
He then climbed to the top rope, ready to pounce on the poor, battered official. Instead, the top turnbuckle snapped and Awesome fell flat on his face in an ugly botch.
Ouch.
Three Way Dance for the Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship ECW Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas (w/ Sherri Martel) vs. Sabu (w/ Paul E. Dangerously)
Never in my life did I imagine that I’d willingly watch an hour-long Shane Douglas match, let alone actually enjoy it.
The entertainment started before any of the combatants even locked up as Paul E. Dangerously ran out and clocked Sherri Martel from behind with his ever-present cell phone.
It was such a cowardly-d*ck move and was so unexpected that you couldn’t help but be entertained by it.
From there, this three way dance started with just Douglas and Sabu as Joey Styles explained that in order for either man to win, they would first have to beat the other before dethroning Terry Funk for the title.
This got a little confusing as it was then explained that if neither man scored the victory in the first 15 minutes, Funk would come out anyway to make it a three way. That bit was clear, but it was never fully explained whether elimination rules still applied once the Funker got involved.
As both men duked it out, Styles also gave us the backstory to the match, reminding us that Sabu -in only his second match for the company- had upset Douglas for the title at NWA Bloodfest ‘93 before losing it to Funk.
Predictably, neither man scored the pin in the first 15, leading to the arrival of the ECW champion.
If you were immediately expecting the promised three-way though, you’d be dissapointed.
In the ensuing chaos, Sabu just kind of disappeared, meaning Douglas had essentially swapped opponents.
Later, the Homicidal Maniac returned sporting a bandage on his knee, with Styles telling us that he’d been injured.
The three-way then commenced and led to the most comical spot in the match:
Funk left the ring and worked his way through the crowd to Joey’s announce table.
There, he took to the microphone and practically begged Douglas and Sabu to come out and fight him in the crowd.
His opponents ignored him completely and instead went into a rest hold in the middle of the ring.
The more they ignored him, the more Funk called him out until eventually giving up and rejoining the fight.
I don’t know why, but that was hilarious.
Later, after more action, Bad Breed came out and began attacking Shane, though not without receiving a couple of chair shots courtesy of Sabu.
The match continued all the way up to an hour-long draw, and while it wasn’t the greatest technical spectacle in the world, it sure was a very entertaining hour of wrestling.
Time Limit Draw
Post match, Funk and Sabu had to be helped from the ring while Douglas left on his own power, all while the crowds gave the three men a standing ovation.
The Post-Show Media Conference
The Night The Line Was Crossed ended with Joey Styles pretending to host a media conference even though it was very obvious there was no one else in the room besides himself and ECW’s own camera crew.
First, Styles interviewed a very emotional Terry Funk, who put Douglas and Sabu over but was far less complimentary towards WCW and WWF.
The Funker was ECW all the way and was passionate about delivering hardcore wrestling for the hardcore fans.
Up next, Paul E. Dangerously came out with Sabu being restrained by his handlers.
Dangerously simply put his man over and claimed that he had been robbed of the title before making way for Douglas.
Calm, cool, and collected despite visibility seething underneath, The Franchise insisted that he should be the true ECW champion as he was the only man to leave the ringside area on his own two feet.
This brought Funk back for an intense confrontation which led to a predictable brawl that was broken up by most of the ECW roster.
I won’t lie to you, those post-match interviews were the most compelling thing on the whole show.
The fact that the “media conference” was the most enjoyable aspect of the event doesn’t mean that the rest of ECW The Night The Line Was Crossed sucked.
It really didn’t.
By now, the company had truly embraced the renegade, hardcore style that would see them establish themselves as one of American pro wrestling’s big three.
And while none of the matches were classics and there was a lot of crap on here too (looking at you, Superfly), that hour-long main event and the utterly captivating post-match interviews made it well worth a watch.
ECW Ultra Clash 1993 may not be the most widely-remembered wrestling event in history, but that doesn't mean it isn't significant in its own right.
This was the first event for which Paul Heyman had taken control of Eastern Championship Wrestling's booking and creative vision.
It was the event in which he first began to turn this little indie outfit into an extreme institution and one of the Big Three US wrestling companies.
It was also the event at which we would first meet future ECW mainstays like Joey Styles and The Public Enemy...
But was it any good?
Let's head down to the ECW arena to find out.
Welcome to Ultra Clash
ECW was still Eastern Championship Wrestling at this point in time but our opening video (set to what sounded like a cut from a low-budget PlayStation skateboarding game) featured shots of a woman getting her top ripped off and JT Smith being knocked from a balcony, so it was already fairly extreme...at least more so than the fairly tame product we’d seen back at ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular earlier in the year.
After said video, we went straight into our opening match.
The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) vs. Jason Knight & Ian Rotten
If your only exposure to The Public Enemy was as the party-loving jobbers from WCW, you’ll likely be surprised to find them here as two ass-kicking heels who just destroyed their opponents.
I mean they demolished them. So much so Ian Rotten and Jason Knight didn’t manage to get in a single offensive move between them for the duration of this five-plus minute slaughter.
In fact, Jason Knight didn’t even get tagged in. He just got his ass kicked on the outside while Rotten got destroyed between the ropes.
Unsurprisingly, Johnny Grunge and Flyboy Rocco Rock prevailed when the latter cannonballed onto Rotten for the win.
Your Winners: The Public Enemy
Post-match, The Public Enemy further drew the ire of the crowd by continuing their beat down of Ian Rotten.
When they’d had enough, Joey Styles started to tell us all about the group’s next big event, NWA Blood Feast ‘93.
Sadly that isn’t on the WWE Network, though I did find a https://youtu.be/WRltkUbMV0Qone-hour version on YouTube so we’ll get to that soon.
ECW Pennsylvania State Championship ECW Pennsylvania State Champion Tony “Hitman” Stetson (w/ Hunter Q. Robins III) vs. “Ironman” Tommy Cairo
Imagine still using the nickname “Hitman” in the 1990s and not considering changing it.
Here, the not-so-excellence of execution put his title on the line against Tommy Cairo in a decent if somewhat unremarkable match that failed to maintain this fan’s attention.
After roughly ten minutes, Stetson’s manager, Hunter Q. Robins III distracted referee Jim Molyneux while the champ blasted his opponent with the title belt.
One three count later and this one was done.
Your Winner: Tony Stetson
Mask vs. Mask Match Super Destroyer I vs. Super Destroyer 2 (w/ Hunter Q. Robins III)
Prior to the match, Robins took to the microphone to berate Super Destroyer I, but the quality of this recording is so bad that I could only make out the words “building” and “ugly face.”
This was a weird match that was very slow and basic.
Though that doesn’t necessarily make it bad, it was like watching two wrestlers early in their training being told to demonstrate a basic sequence of moves for a match.
Plus there was the fact that both men wore identical attire and masks. Sure, Joey Styles told us that one of them was technically bigger than the other, but it was still impossible to tell them apart.
In the end, the babyface Super D. 1 picked up the win.
Your Winner: Super Destroyer 1
Super Destroyer 2 was then forced to unmask, and while Styles pretended like he recognized him but couldn’t remember his name, The Dark Patriot came down and helped Super D. 2 carry out a beat down of S.D 1.
Eventually, J.T Smith came down to make the save and this led us right into our next match.
Scaffold Match The Dark Patriot vs. JR Smith
No joke, this was probably the best scaffold match this fan has ever seen.
All of the scaffold matches the NWA had in the 1980s (including at Starrcade '86 and Starrcade '87) saw big, tough men hanging around the edges of the platform where it was safe, and then basically hanging onto the edge of the platform and dropping down into the ring as gently as possible.
JT Smith and The Dark Patriot showed no such restraint.
They brawled fearlessly in the middle of the platform and took bumps. Smith even threw a neat dropkick.
Speaking of threw, Patriot won the match by hurling his opponent off the scaffold. Smith took an unbelievably nasty bump but then popped back up so that Patriot could come down and attack him some more.
Your Winner: The Dark Patriot
And attack him he did.
Smith got thrown into the crow, hit with a chair, thrown into another part of the crowd, hit with another chair and so on until he was destroyed.
Tag Team Bunkhouse Match Kevin Sullivan & Abdullah The Butcher vs. Terry Funk & Stan Hansen
I don't know why anybody would think this was good.
Sure, I can see how it might have been entertaining if you were there live, but watching it back now, it just looks like four sloppy-arsed drunks falling over each other after closing time.
At various points, Kevin Sullivan tried a brand new, never-before-tried approach to winning a pro wrestling match:
He would just walk up to his opponents and look at them.
Seriously, there was a moment when he wandered towards Stan Hansen and just stood there staring at him for a while until Hansen thought 'screw it' and slapped the Taskmaster silly.
In the end, Eddie Gilbert ran out with a steel chair, causing a disqualification, which was dumb because this was a weapons-filled, anything goes brawl.
Your Winners via Disqualification: Terry Funk and Stan Hansen
Post-match, Kevin Sullivan and Abdullah The Butcher started fighting each other for no explainable reason until some dudes ran in to break it up.
Funk and Hansen then returned to beat up those dudes and we got another wild brawl into the crowd that was exactly the same as the Dark Patriot/J.T. Smith brawl except with more people.
I'll say it again, this was not good.
$5,000 Intergender Battle Royal Sensational Sherri vs. Tigra vs. Angel vs. Don E. Allen vs. Jay Sulli vs. Hunter Q. Robbins III
Nor was this.
While Tigra spent the whole match sat on the turnbuckle, watching, each of the men took turns in walking over to Sensational Sherri and Angel and being routinely eliminated by them.
Sherri then did a Mil Mascaras and eliminated herself, though rather than hitting a top rope splash, she chased off some dude in a shell suit who Joey Styles told us was Freddie Gilbert, Eddie's brother and ECW referee.
At that point, Angel deliberately popped herself up on the ropes making her an easy target. Tigra came over, poked Angel in the bum with the tip of her finger, and won the match.
Your Winner: Tigra
I'm a big fan of Sensational Sherri, but this was dumb and pointless.
Loser Receives 10 Lashes Wildman Sal Bellomo (w/ Sensational Sherri) vs. Sir Richard Michaels (w/ Hunter Q. Robins III)
Did Hunter Q. manage every single heel in ECW?
I’m sure he did, because here he was again, backing Sir Richard Michaels.
Not to be outdone, Wildman Sal Bellomo got on the microphone before the match started and said ”whmph, mmph, bumpy bum bmmph, Sherri would you come to the ring, please?”
OK, so it may not have been that exactly, but like I said earlier, the recording quality is so bad that I’ve really no idea what he said beyond asking Sherri to join him in the ring.
The Sensational One did so, making her presence felt in Big Sal’s corner for what was a fairly average, if inoffensive, match.
After a few minutes of uninspired action, Sal fell like a sack of potatoes onto Richard Michaels and got the one, two, three.
Your Winner: Wildman Sal Bellomo
If you were worried that this show didn’t have enough post-match brawls, you’ll be delighted to know that yet another one came right up.
Wildman Sal started to lash Michaels with a training belt while Sherri rolled around on top of Hunter Q and made him the luckiest dude in the whole building.
At that point, Rockin’ Rebel ran down to blast Sal with a chair and throw Sherri around the ring.
Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship Fabulous ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas (w/ Paul E. Dangerously) vs. The Sandman
Yes, Shane Douglas was “Fabulous” here, apparently.
Though, to be fair, he almost wasn’t much of anything as he first walked off and threatened not to defend his title until the referee promised that he would give said title to Sandman if Douglas didn’t return to the ring immediately.
The champion did so, and consequently entered into what I have to say was the best match on the card up until this point.
No, I can’t quite believe that I just wrote that either, but it’s true. It was a competently wrestled heel vs. face match with some stuff which, while fairly textbook, was still pretty fun.
In the end, the ref took a tumble and Paul E.‘s phone came into play as an international object to give us a very near fall.
The challenger then dove off the top with what looked to be the match-winning flying cross body only for Douglas to roll through, grab a handful of tights and retain the gold.
Your Winner and Still ECW Heavyweight Champion: Shane Douglas
Afterwards, Sandman berated the referee while Fabulous Shane made his escape.
Baseball Bat Match W*ING Tag Team Champions Headhunters (Mofat & Mahim) vs. Miguel Perez & W*ING Heavyweight Champion Crash the Terminator
Ok, scrap what I said about Douglas vs. Sandman, this was the best match on the card.
As a baseball bat match, things started with all four men outside the ring and a baseball bat inside.
After the count of ten, they charged to the ring to grab the bat and beat the living hell out of each other with it.
And beat the living hell out of each other they did.
The match immediately spilled back out into the crowd for a wild brawl which was hampered only by ECW's lack of budget.
The show was filmed entirely on a single camera, and when you have two teams pairing off and brawling all over the building, that one camera is going to miss stuff.
At one point, one of the Headhunters got thrown through a fricken wall by Crash the Terminator and the camera was focussed purely on the other Headhunter hanging around in the ring doing nothing much of anything.
That gave us the odd moment where Joey Styles called something that we didn't actually see.
When we could see stuff, it was all good stuff, culminating in one of the big fat Headhunters hitting a sweet moonsault for the three.
Your Winners: The Headhunters
At this juncture, Joey Styles told us that The Headhunters had successfully defended their W*ING tag team titles, though there was no mention on the show -or in anything I've read since- that says the titles were actually on the line.
Afterward, both teams continued fighting to end the show with yet another brawl through the crowd because why choose to end your show with something different when you could just repeat the same damn thing you'd been doing from the beginning?
To be fair, it was a pretty entertaining brawl, but I can't help but feel that it would have meant so much more had we not already seen the exact same thing multiple times.
So no, Paul Heyman's start as ECW booker was not a spectacular one by any stretch of the imagination.
When one of the best matches on the show is Shane Douglas vs. The Sandman, you know things are pretty bad.
Sure, it's historically important, and if you do watch it you'll get to see not only Heyman's first attempt at booker but also the ECW debut of The Public Enemy and Joey Styles on commentary, but don't expect to be entertained very much.
If you can get the moment JT Smith plummets to his doom and the main event on YouTube, those are the only moments you need to see from what was otherwise a poor show.
New reviews of classic WWF/WWE events recalling every moment from Wrestlemania 1 - 30. You'll also find reviews of WCW, ECW, TNA and the occasional indie event, along with a look at old school magazines, merchandise and more.
