Now this was a great tape! The NWA took their Bash concept from 86 and made it even bigger in 1987. The Bash tour lasted most of July, with the three biggest events being held in Atlanta at the Omni, in Charlotte at Independence Stadium (outdoors), and in Miami at the Orange Bowl (also outdoors). The action on this tape is phenomenal, and the wrestlers are on fire. The crowds are also off the charts for the intense NWA action. This tape features big matches from the three biggest dates of the Bash tour, including the debut of NWA/WCW’s best stipulation match – War Games! The War Games concept is one of my all time favorites in wrestling, and this tape features both War Games matches that took place on this tour. These two matches are shown in their entirety, but the rest of the matches are joined in progress, which seems to be the norm for most NWA releases. Not sure why they went that way, but it’s a poor decision. The WWF had no problem releasing three hour tapes and complete events, so I’m not sure what the NWA’s problem was.
The biggest note for this tape was the debut of Jim Ross! Ross’ commentary is awesome from this era and he really adds so much more to these matches, especially the War Games.
1. War Games I: SuperPowers (Dusty Rhodes & Nikita Koloff), Road Warriors, Paul Ellering defeat Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, James J. Dillion)
Holy crap this match is awesome! It’s the first ever WarGames match and the crowd is totally on fire, drowning out the commentators at times. The level of brutality and violence in this match is unbelievable! The best part is Jim Ross’ commentary and hearing Ross going crazy during the whole match. To quote my old Raw reports “I won’t be able to do this match justice” – it’s that great. Dusty and Arn start things out and keep a fast pace for five minutes before the Horsemen win the coin toss and take the advantage. All the guys bleed like crazy and the punches and shots to the cage are really stiff. Also of note, Paul Ellering brings in a spiked wristband at the end and the guys use it as a brutal weapon. The ending of the match sees the Warriors detroy James J Dillon with a modified Doomsday Device in the cage and they legit injure his shoulder! Hawk chokes Dillon until he surrenders, which is kind of a weak ending, but makes sense so the rest of the Horsemen are kept strong. Man, this was great and Ross’ insanity gives it that little bit extra!
2. Barry Windham pins Rick Steiner to retain the Western States Heritage Title
Only a couple minutes of this match are shown. Steiner is a nasty heel at this point without the goofy “earmuffs” – he’s under a wrestling badass type of image. Windham won this geeky title in some tournament and is super over with the fans. He wins in a fluke after reversing Steiner, so Steiner stays strong.
3. Steel Cage Match: NWA United States Champion Lex Luger wins the title from Nikita Koloff
This was a great match too, even though only half of it was shown, which makes sense since it went over thirty minutes. The cage is designed to keep the guys in and prevent outside interference, which adds a great deal of depth to the psychology of this match. Luger beats the shit out of Koloff’s neck, which he hurt in the War Games match before winning with the help of Dillon. Luger looks damn good here.
4. Texas Death Match: Steve Williams beat Dick Murdock
The last few minutes of this match are shown and it’s nothing but a brawl. But a good big man brawl with lots of violence. The most hilarious part of the match is Jim Ross’ commentary as he goes on and on about the football careers of both men and starts rattling off stats. Man, Ross just loves these rugged beer bellied football guys and probably wishes wrestling was still full of them. Of course they’re a million times more over and better workers than male models like Cody Rhodes and Mason Ryan.
5. Fabulous Freebirds (Michale Hayes, Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts) defeat Ivan Koloff, Manny Fernandez, Paul Jones
Notice on this card that we’re starting to see all of the classic names, like the Freebirds, Williams, Luger, etc. that are so closely associated with the NWA and WCW. Even Sting debuted around this time, but none of his Bash matches are on this tape. Nothing special here, unfortunately, as I’m a big fan of Koloff and Fernandez. The Russian thing was just about done and new stars were starting to emerge like the Freebirds.
6. Barbed Wire Ladder Match: Dusty Rhodes beats Tully Blanchard
Man, this match was zany! Barb wire covered the ropes, and since this card was held outside in Charlotte two poles were put in opposite corners and a wire was stretched across the middle of the ring holding a bag of $100,000. It truly looked like a bush league setup! This was a very primitive ladder match, as the ladder was only used to climb seriously, not to do spots or injure the other guy. Both guys were dressed in street clothes, which seemed really cool, and made sense given the nature of the match. There are some seriously sick spots, like Dusty getting busted open right above his eye, and Tully getting his arm scraped over the barb wire. Sick stuff! The ladder portion was goofy, but the crowd was going nuts as they tried to climb. Dusty pretty much won out of nowhere after knocking out Blanchard with a “loaded” glove.
7. Steel Cage Match: NWA Champion Ric Flair pinned Jimmy Garvin
Here’s the rundown of the match from another internet report: “There were a bunch of stipulations going into this match as Jimmy made sure this match was the same type of match in the same arena that Flair lost the NWA Title to Dusty Rhodes the previous year while Flair wanted a date with Garvin’s valey & wife Precious if he walked out the winner.” As you can see there was a lot on the line to the point where the fans were going insane. The heat on Flair was molten! Garvin is such a likeable good guy that the fans were losing their minds as Flair worked him over and made thrusts at Precious on the floor. Garvin came super close to winning the belt with various roll-ups and the crowd was literally out of their seats with excitement. The funniest parts of the match featured Flair trying to climb over the cage and Garvin pulling him back in by the tights. Flair’s full bare white ass was showing, which was damn funny. At the end, Ronnie Garvin was on the floor, and even fans were trying to climb the cage to help Jimmy. Flair of course wins via nefarious means, which means he gets Garvin’s woman for a date, lol! Only in wrestling!
8. NWA Tag Team Champions Rock N’ Roll Express beat NWA United States Tag Team Champions Midnight Express via DQ
I have no idea why there are two sets of tag champs, but whatever, this feud is good. This match is heavily clipped so we only see the end, which is pretty dumb as Big Bubba jumps in and side slams Morton and when the ref turns around he sees Bubba’s hat in the ring so he calls for the DQ. That’s ridiculous, but I guess they needed to keep both champs strong.
9. War Games II: SuperPowers (Dusty Rhodes & Nikita Koloff), Road Warriors, Paul Ellering vs. Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger) & War Machine
The War Machine was Big Bubba in a mask replacing the injured Dillon. This is the rematch from the end of the tour, and is sadly not as good as the first, but still lots of fun to watch. The big problem is that a lot of the match is copied directly from the first, featuring some of the same spots and the same order in which guys entered the first match. Tony Schiavone does a good job covering that up explaining both teams are trying a similar strategy, lol. Like I said, the match is fun and is ultraviolent, but it doesn’t match the craziness of the first one and a lot of the guys look tired, probably because it’s late in the tour. The ending is really dumb as Hawk ground Ellering’s spike glove into the War Machine’s face. But the stupid thing is, he’s wearing a mask! He was supposedly jamming the spike in his eye, making him submit, but the ending seems to come out of nowhere and the crowd seems confused. A weak ending to an otherwise fun match.
Overall, this was an excellent tape! The NWA was on fire in 1987, and their roster was starting to become a lot more established as the WWF took over the US and the territory system began fading away.
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