WCW Great American Bash 1991 Part 1

 A new Wayback Playback is up and I've got two days off - so what the heck, let's give the "WE WANT FLAIR!" show a shot. We start with a shot of some very early '90s fans. We get the world's best Dennis Stamp lookalike taking tickets as the cameraman plays the role of a fan entering the building. It's as exciting as having a ticket taken and not sitting down can be.

The scaffold match is up first with Austin and Taylor facing PN News and Bobby Eaton - as divergent a team as have ever existed. Lady Blossom is with Austin, and Pat goes over her maritial history with Austin, Chris Adams, and Billy Jack Haynes. Pat points out how stupid this stip is to have for an opener with two teams that have no history either as opponents or allies beyond Eaton and Austin briefly feuding over the TV Title. The scaffold is ungodly high here too - fortunately, it's a grab the flag match!

So they kind of "solve" one risk by not requiring a bump, but of course you're still a billion feet in the air and can fall off if you get woozy. Neon everything is not a flattering color, and all of the various angles on PN's gear make him even fatter. They talk about Dusty loving the PN News gimmick, but being out of touch with rap as Vanilla Ice was over by that point. Bobby struggles to remove the flag, does so, and then the faces get powder to the eyes. Bobby won by grabbing the flag and Terry takes a bump off the top rope and everyone brawls.

 

We go to Jim Ross and Tony, whose hair is light brown! Pat talks about a far better scaffold match being Koko Ware against Bill Dundee in Memphis, which I'll watch later. Arn is with Paul E., dressed in a very '91 outfit of zubaz and a black with neon pink and green jacket. Ross talks about Barry and Lex having issues years ago to build up tonight's match. Sting vs. Nikita Koloff in a Russian chain match ishyped up. DDP and the Diamond Stud get a few sparklers while DDP is dressed in a ridiculous outfit even by his standards. Hall is also in some hilarious stuff.

Stud has the toothpick and flicks it at the camera long before Razor. Z-Man comes out with tons of hot chicks. Zenk dives in and hits a double lariat onto both, resulting in DDP taking a bump. DDP low bridges Zenk and we get Stud dominating and boy is his gear awful. Yellow with blue text and a giant diamond. Pat and Jim talk about how the Diamond Stud is an improvement over every other gimmick that was much worse or just nothing than this. Hall lays in some nice chops. Stud cheats holding the ropes and Pat and Jim talk about how DDP paid to fly himself in everywhere because of all the club money he made.

Stud takes him down with the chokeslam, but he poses and only gets 2. This balding guy with a skullet and a suit-style t-shirt is amusing. They brawl and Z-Man brings DDP in a after he gets slapped. A bridging back suplex gets the win for the Stud. We get OZ! YES!

 

This is so amazingly bad. The movie license tie-in is here to face Ron Simmons. Nash's grey hair is great - and it's probably his actual hair color at the time. They talk about how great it is to have a guy who can't bump for Ron and a guy who can't fly for Oz - perfect style matchup! Tony talks about how each guy does squats. Long top wristlock. Nash can't even take a good drop toehold here. Nash bumps over the top for a lariat, and his boot is falling apart. THE CROWD POPPED! Long test of strength here. Future World Champion Nash tosses Future World Champion Ron Simmons on the floor and The Great Wizard stomps him. Hug of bears is locked on. Ron wins with a flying shoulder tackle! Mr. Shirt Suit Guy is unamused.

WCW'S TOP TOP RANKINGS. I love this idea. Robert Gibson gets a mild pyro and mild reaction for his match against Richard Morton. Richard Morton's business mullet and bright silver and purple gear are amazing. I love the brawl on the ramp. Morton's gear is off too - with purple on the right side and white on the left for the trunks and white on the right and purple on the left for the tights. Alexandra York's getup is astonishing too.

 

Morton also has a ponytail mullet. Everything about this rules. Minus the match. It's fine-ish, but nothing amazing. Bill Alfonso is the ref hear looking like he's on day 2 of a 10 day bender - so downright young compared to his ECW days. Morton snaps the leg on the post. Gibson's white, neon green, and red gear is something else. Morton works on the leg, which is good - but does too much near the rope, so that's kinda stupid. Morton tears the gear up to reveal the knee pads and braced protecting his surgically-repaired knee. Jim and Pat talk about during Robert's team with Ricky Gibson, he actually played Ricky's role in the matches.

Figure 4 by Richard leads to 2 guys chanting for Rock 'n Roll. Tuxedo Suit guy is unamused by this stuff. Gibson FINALLY reverses the figure 4, which hurts Morton thanks to wrestling physics. Robert fights from his knees and they talk about how much better the tape version was because they nixed matches for the VHS. After several more centuries of working on the knee, we get more working on the knee. If you need to full out a Ricky Morton moveset in a game, this is the match to do it with. Gibson gets a DDT! The red, white, and blue ring apron remains good-looking today. Dropkick misses for Gibson, so Morton gets the leg avalanche. Ricky goes for a calf branding, but gets slammed and Gibson hits an enzuiguri. They each go for a dropkick on the ramp and York distracts so Morton hits him with the word processor to win. Holy Jesus was this an awful use of two legends.

Part 2 will be up once the show's up on the Torch site.