Nerd Watch Wednesday: Great American Bash 1992

Mar 11, 202015 min read

Updated: Jun 3, 2020

It was my turn to pick the show this week and I went nostalgic here. I remember very much being a WWF kid, but I was also completely obsessed with wrestling in general, so when the chance was there, I also delved in WCW action figures and VHS tapes.

This show always stood out to me when I was younger for the excellent tag team wrestling on display in the NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament and also the absolutely brilliant Vader v Sting match which I hope Matt Connolly loves as much as I did.

Let's get to it, nerds!

NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament quarter-final match: Nikita Koloff & Ricky Steamboat vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Brian Pillman

By Luke Heffernan

The opening match of the night is a Quarter Final Tag Team match for the NWA Tag Team Titles. Flyin' Brian kicks off the match in the ring with Nikita Koloff in this to my obviously unaware of 1992's WCW strange Tag Match. Ventura blasts out on commentary that he "hates women beaters" apparently Koloff had beaten up Madusa. Wonder what The Body would have thought of Poseidon. Greek Mythology gag there, not for everyone.

Anyway, the match gets off to a fast pace as you'd expect with Liger, Pillman and Steamboat involved. Liger and Flyin' Brian seem to be the experienced team, regularly tagging in and out and dominating the opening minutes. Koloff eventually tags Steamboat in who gets a nice pop and hits a classic grab both opponents by the head and force them to headbutt each other spot.

Pillman rolls out and when being thrown out the ring, Liger decides to baseball slide his Tag partner. Can't see the strategy in that but not for me to question them. Steamboat begins to put on a clinic in the ring, making everything look so effortlessly smooth. Sadly, he tags in Koloff who looks like Adam Pearce if he dressed in early 2013's Big E Langston gear. He's duller than both.

Thankfully he doesn't last long before we get Liger and Steamboat back in the match. Both teams trade momentum in the following minutes and we get pretty cookie cutter tag team action. Liger hot tag to Pillman, Steamboat hot tag to Big A Pearce and so on.

There's nothing really noteworthy in this match, some cool moonsaults and nice high spots considering it's 1992 and as there's about 6 tag matches on the night, I won't bore you with all the logistics.

The match kinda drags and never really kicks in to a 3rd gear but the fans seem in to it. After 19 minutes, Steamboat picks up the win when countering a flying crossbody from you guessed it Flyin' Brian, into a winning pinfall.

WINNERS - NIKITA KOLOFF & RICKY STEAMBOAT BY HIGH CROSSBODY REVERSAL

NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament quarter-final match: Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto vs. The Fabulous Freebirds

By Brum

I am really looking forward to my match tonight. I get to review 2 90s New Japan legends in the same match as the bloody Freebirds.

Hashimoto & Hase are out first. Hashimoto, along with fellow NJPW Three Musketeer, Mutoh & the Ace of Bread Club, Kojima, is one of only 3 lads to win the IWGP, Triple Crown, & NWA Heavyweight titles. In short, he’s a pretty big deal. Though his matches aren’t really for the faint of heart. He hits people really really hard. Especially with his feet.

Hase may not quite have “Three Musketeer” status but he’s not too shabby himself. A former Olympian, he was one of the best technical wrestlers of the era. He’s also not done too badly for himself outside of wrestling, becoming Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2015. Unlike most wrestlers of that generation, he is also supposed to be a super nice bloke. As well as being easy to work with (not common in that era of Japanese wrestling), he has been a massive supporter of LGBT rights.

If you are interested in seeing what Hashimoto & Hase can do, their match against each other at NJPW Battle Final 1994 is a good place to start. Not only is it them at their arguable respective peaks, but the match itself is maybe the best singles match either of them ever had.

Out next, we have Michael PS Hayes & everyone’s 4th favourite Freebird, Jimmy Garvin. I need to go watch some of the 80s WCCW Von Erich vs Freebirds matches as it’s a chunky gap in my wrestling knowledge. Hopefully I can use tonight as a gateway drug. It’s a good start as the Freebirds come out to Badstreet USA which is a banger.

Hayes is doing some jiving which the crowd is into. After some more traditional wrestling to start things off, Hashimoto enters & is ready to kick someone. With that said, his first two moves are a drop toehold & a headlock takeover. JR refers to the seeding of the tournament which is a nice touch.

Hashimoto is finally unleashing his kicks! Garvin takes a few of them. Hayes tags in though & takes control until Hashimoto twats him in his throat. Commentary big up the Freebirds finisher, the DDT. I like the idea of rather than a double team finisher, both members of the team just use the same singles finisher.

Hase tags in & hits a running rolling senton & a gutbuster. Hashimoto tags back & now it’s Hayes’ turn to take some kicks. Hashimoto hits a spinning heel kick & goes for the pin but Garvin breaks it up. The NJPW lads try some double team action on Hayes but he reverses and whips Hase into Hashimoto before dropping them both with big left hands!

Jimmy Jam gets the hot tag and wails on Hase & Hashimoto. The crowd are enjoying this! Though while the ref is sending Hayes back to his corner, Hashimoto superkicks Garvin into Hase who hits a bridging Northern Lights Suplex which is good for the 3!

Summary: That finish came out of nowhere! A bit of a disappointment as the match felt like it had just started to get going. Another 5 to 10 minutes here could have been a lot of fun. However, you can’t blame WCW as it’s a one night tourney so you can’t expect teams to have back-to-back epic matches.

WINNERS – HASHIMOTO & HASE WITH A SUPERKICK/NORTHERN LIGHTS COMBO

NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament quarter-final match: Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs. Steve Austin & Rick Rude

By Josh Headey

US Champion Rick Rude cut a promo before the match on the crowd whilst putting over his own incredible physique. Barry Windham and TV Champion “Stunning” Steve Austin started the match and exchanged basic holds, with Austin being in control until he was hit with a big punch. Austin got slapped down again by Windham and hit with a strike from Rhodes on the outside. Right on queue Rude was tagged in, and quickly after ‘The Natural’ tagged in too and they went at it.

One thing I’ve noted already is how into the babyface comebacks the crowd is, and how much the two heels sell for the babyfaces. Wrestling really is that simple sometimes... ANYWAY... Rhodes and Rude exchanged control before Dustin reversed a Tombstone into one of his own, before Austin came in to break up the pin attempt. Rhodes went back to work on Rude, but was stopped in his tracks. Rude smashed Rhodes' head on Austin’s knee before the tag, and Austin continued the beatdown and got another near fall.

Rhodes got back into it after an Irish whip and a big knee, more kicks again by Rhodes to Austin’s chest, and then an abdominal stretch that Stunning Steve did manage to get out with a hip toss reversal... only to find himself right back in an abdominal stretch by Rhodes. Dustin got some more strikes in before tagging out, but not before holding Austin up and allowing for Windham to come off the top right onto Austin.

Then came a period of what felt like forever where Windham was in the ring being beat up by Rude and Austin, who tagged each other in and out frequently, and this made up the bulk of the match. Eventually Rude went at Windham some more but got caught with an inverted atomic drop, and soon after both men were down after a collision. Rude tagged out to Austin and then after what Jesse Ventura said was about 7-8 minutes, Windham stumbled back and at long last tagged out to Dustin Rhodes!

The crowd went crazy as Rhodes ran wild on both Austin and then Rude. He got a near fall on Austin with a reverse flying elbow but Rude broke up the pin. Windham came in and all 4 men brawled, this led to Rude being taken out and with Austin and Windham in the ring Austin tried for a piledriver, but Rhodes came flying off the top to take Austin down with a top rope lariat which was enough to give the babyfaces the win, much to the delight of the crowd.

Rhodes and Windham advance to the semi finals. My one critique of this match would be that I thought they got the heat on Windham for a little too long, but that would be nit-picking given that it led to the hot tag and the babyfaces winning in the end. A fine job overall by all involved here, a match very much of it’s time, but for what it was it did what it needed to do.

WINNERS - DUSTIN RHODES & BARRY WINDHAM BY TOP ROPE LARIAT

NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament semi-final match: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs. Nikita Koloff & Ricky Steamboat

By Dom Philp

If there is one thing that DVD likes more than Guinness and cricket it’s WCW tag team wrestling from 1992. We’re in the semi finals of the tournament here and playing the part of Australia are Terry Gordy as Steve Waugh and Steve Williams as Damian Fleming.

For South Africa Ricky Steamboat is playing Lance Klusener and Nikita Volkoff is Allan Donald. After a hard fought match-up, Steamboat's heroics seem to have the match won and South Africa will be going through to the Tag Team Championship Final. All Volkoff has to do is not mess it up. I think Bill Lawry sums it up best...

“There it is, this will be three surely - oh it's three, it's gonna be a three count…oh, that is South Africa out - Donald did not break up the pin, I cannot believe it. Australia go into the World Cup Final - ridiculous running with two balls to go. Volkoff did not go to the ring, Klusener was pinned - what a disappointing end for South Africa. What a match for our viewers right around the world."

Drink lots of water and look after your mates.

WINNERS - TERRY GORDY & STEVE WILLIAMS BY RUN OUT

NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament semi-final match: Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs. Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto

By Shafi

I couldn't be more torn if I was an ex-Neighbours star turned singer called Natalie. You see on one hand The Great American Bash 92 is based around a tournament and I LOVE tournaments! Wrestlemania 4, King of the Ring, Deadly Games, The Dusty Classic, BOLA, SSS16, WXW 16 Carat... Tournaments are great!

The way they can build multiple narratives and completely change your view on a wrestler is unparalleled. Hell they are so powerful that a tournament made me care about The 1-2-3 Kid and Bob 'Sparkplug' Holly winning the tag titles in 1995.

By all rights I should be excited for this PPV ( and this match particularly). However there is a Rikishi sized but coming... This is 'Cowboy' Bill Watts WCW. Many words have been written over the years about WCW dying in 2001 and who was responsible with Eric Bischoff taking a share of the blame. But the reality is that Bischoff saved WCW from dying much sooner at the hands of the likes of Watts whose ideas were so behind the times it's a wonder he didn't try and book Gotch and Hackensmidt.

This match is boring. Like really really dull. Not only that but the psychology is really off so we get something that neither makes sense nor is enjoyable to watch. Rhodes and Windham are faces here being good old American cowboys and they completely dwarf their opponents who look half their size. I've never seen Hase or Hashimoto wrestle and all I know of the two is that Hase went on to be a member of Japan's parliament.

The match is very slow and ground grapple heavy. There is nothing for the crowd to cheer for and for 99% of this match and I have been to rowdier libraries. The lights on the crowd are dimmed which makes it hard to see everyone sneaking out to do literally anything else until this match is over.

With the Texans being the faces you would expect their opponents to take up the mantle of 'sneaky Japanese' that this era of wrestling has conditioned us to consider normal. Yet they do nothing heelish or sneaky and whilst it is refreshing that WCW isn't using negative racial stereotypes the match suffers from not having a clear face/heel dynamic.

Dustin plays the role of babyface in peril and is dominated for much of the match, but Hase and Hashimoto don't cheat at all and merely outwrestle the much larger grandson of a plumber despite being physically inferior. This makes Dustin look weak at best and unable to build any sympathy for the hot tag. It does not make sense.

Rhodes gets hit with a double team spike piledriver which is one of maybe ten moves in the match. Team Japan don't even try and cover him despite the devastating nature of the move. It does not make sense.

Windham comes into the ring on several occasions to illegally interfere despite being a face. The referee does nothing to prevent or deter this. It does not make sense. Senior mulleted official Nick Patrick watches Hase and Hashimoto make a legal tag 2 feet from his eyes and then spends the next minute or so telling them they are cheating and that the tag was not legal. It does not make sense.

Eventually the match breaks down and the finish comes when Rhodes leapfrogs Hase and Windham is supposed to drill him with a lariat but instead hits a glancing blow and gets the winning pinfall. It makes sense but it still sucks.

The only highlight of this match for me was Hase who looks like he is really skilled but is so shackled by the awful style of wrestling that Bill Watts favoured. Long live Eric Bischoff.

WINNERS - BARRY WINDHAM & DUSTIN RHODES BY GRAZED LARIAT

WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting (C) vs. Big Van Vader

By Matt Connolly

I feel like I am on repeat but this week as I have been given a real treat for Nerd Watch. I get to see two all time greats clash as Sting defends the WCW Heavyweight Championship against Big Van Vader. Sting is in contention for the best babyface wrestler ever and Vader in the conversation for scariest dude so there is probably no way this can't be a stormer.

Vader is out first accompanied by Harley Race. Wearing that huge mask that his entrance used to feature. It's so dope. He is billed at 448lbs. That's a big boy! Next is a loud high pitched scream and people losing there minds which must mean Sting is here! Crow Sting might be great but Surfer Sting was a panty dropper. The American flag makes up his ring jacket and his scorpion logo is emblazoned down his leg. Sting looks as cool as a early 90's babyface could look.

The bell rings and Vader stands tall in the centre of the ring but Sting steps straight in for the face to face. The crowd go bananas just for that. Harley is pointing to his head outside which is of course the universal sign for keep your head in the game and Vader takes note as he forces Sting back in the corner before lashing him with forearms that look super mean. The ref struggles to break it up but I don't blame him.

Vader is monstrous early here completely no selling Sting's attempts at offence. When Sting puts together a backdrop and two lariats, one which sends Vader to the outside, the crowd react like we are in the final flurry of a 12 round classic!

They stretch the build to linking hands for a test of strength for about two minutes and the crowd eat it up. Sting is looking in trouble once they lock up but breaks it with an eye poke. You dirty bastard! Several strikes later end with a textbook dropkick that leaves Vader struggling for the second time in the match. The tide turns when Sting foolishly charges at Vader and the collision is more akin to a bus crash. Sting manages to turn it back though and gets a close two count via a roll up which means another retreat to the outside for the big man.

Once back in the ring, Sting attempts a sunset flip but Vader uses him as a chair and thus controls the middle section of the match. At the ten minute mark Sting is a beaten man and is having to get his shoulders off the mat at two whilst in a painful leg hold Vader applies. Vader switches it to another submission which I don't know the name of but this sees Sting playing with the fans' emotions big time. He gets his arm up at the last second on the third drop and eventually drags his carcass to the ropes to break the hold. All in all it takes about three of four minutes but it's so captivating.

As we go to the finishing stretch, Sting manages to put some punches together and ends the flurry with a cartwheel kick that sums up his desperation. He is willing to just chuck his body at all angles to try and hurt the big man. This story arc is great. He runs straight at Vader and manages to force him back to the apron but it appears to take just as much if not more out of Sting. Vader might have had his bell rung though because he decides now is time to go up top. Sting gets there in time to cut him off though.

He gets the big man up on his shoulders in an extreme show of strength before hitting a Samoan drop that creates a noise level that might of ripped the doors off the place! Only two! He eventually hits a German. The crowd erupt again. Still only two! Desperate times now and Vader retreats.

Sting goes for his famous Stinger Splash but despite making impact he over shoots and busts himself open on the turnbuckle. Claret everywhere and Sting can barely move. Vader covers him and Sting does kick out at two but it's more by instinct than any real sign of life.

Vader drags his fallen opponent off the mat before powerbombing him nearly through the damn thing for a three count. This was great. I knew it would be, but it really was. Maybe the best match I have seen for Nerd Watch? It's up there and you should seek this one out.

WINNER - AND NEW WCW CHAMPION, BIG VAN VADER BY POWERBOMB

NWA World Tag Team Championship Match: Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs. Terry Gordy & Steve Williams

By Ross Casey

Well ladies and gentleman, we have made it to the final after several hard-hitting no nonsense tag matches. The crowd are pretty deflated after seeing their hero Sting get flattened by Vader, but The Steiner Brothers do their best to perk them back up, arriving at ringside and looking to fight Dr Death and Gordy.

The crowd holler and cheer, as they were defeated in the first round through nefarious means by the heels - but Ole Anderson ushers them away as Dr Death goads them with their WCW tag titles. Glorious.

The match starts out as a feeling out process and after their previous matches, who can blame them! That is until Rhodes fires up on Gordy and takes him down to the mat to work the leg. Jim Ross expertly explains that the heels have the strength advantage and taking down their base is a wise strategy.

There are some little touches here that I absolutely adore - for example when Gordy manages to reach a tag whilst in a submission, Rhodes is so fast to release the hold, back up and face Dr Death from a standing position. These things make it feel like they are in a real fight, not waiting for sequences or spots, or laying in wait in nonsensical fashion.

The pace is very slow compared to today's wrestling, but it is still gripping in its sense of who comes out on top of the grappling encounters. Commentary adds plenty such as strength and weakness analysis too in terms of their physical attributes. Ventura and Ross make a great duo. There's a quality line where Ross says "Rake to the eyes by Williams. Not very ethical, but still legal." Ventura chimes in and says "Ethics? This is wrestling! If you want ethics, go to Washington. Actually they don't care about ethics there, either". 1992 or 2020??!

In a similar way to the match that Josh reviewed, there is a long heat section, with Rhodes getting isolated from his partner and worn down with submissions, strikes and power moves. The pace quickens once Windham gets the tag, before we get another post spot just like Sting. He isn't busted wide open, though.

Windham is now the one to withstand a long heat stretch, getting punished with oxygen sapping holds, whilst Rhodes cuts a more and more frustrated figure on the apron. The crowd are starting to bubble from their stupor and eventually Rhodes gets the tag as the crowd and Jim Ross burst into life. A wonderful thing.

Unbelievably, it is a false hope as Dustin almost immediately gets blindsided and placed into a chin lock. That's a madness! Rhodes eventually does start the fightback with wild rights and lefts. Ross says "Look at the guts!" to which Ventura replies "Well his dad has lots of guts. Literally."

Dr Death isn't having it though and slams him into both corners before Windham comes in the ring and dropkicks Dustin onto Dr Death for a 2! The crowd bought that one and now they are coming to life.

Gordy and Windham, the two illegal men, brawl onto the apron and Dr Death sends Rhodes into the back of Gordy's head, which knocks him loopy and then hits him with a HUGE lariat turning him inside out and picks up the win. Gordy & Williams are now NWA and WCW Tag Champions!

SUMMARY: I am not going to pretend that this style of wrestling is for everyone and the fact this was their second and third of the match night probably played into why this match was so slow paced. However, I still found this one captivating. The commentary was amazing and the wrestling was believable. I take issue with the lack of a concerted hot tag after the huge heat segments, but the finish was great and now I am going to have to seek out the Steiners v Williams & Gordy rematch!

WINNERS - AND NEW NWA TAG CHAMPIONS, STEVE WILLIAMS & TERRY GORDY BY CLOTHESLINE OF DEATH