United We Slam: The Best Of The Great American Bash

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 430 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: July 14 2014

Similar to the WCW PPV compilation released a few months earlier, United We Slam (hosted by Dusty Rhodes in his own unique, at times confusing yet ultimately entertaining way) is a straight-forward collection of matches from the history of The Great American Bash. The artwork of the DVD is quite nice and somehow fits with the theme, and I liked the minor touches, such as the fireworks going off during transitional scenes. The DVD does not cover the WWE years (2004-2008, or 2009 when the event was simply renamed The Bash), which is probably a good thing: few fans want to relive the abomination that was the Concrete Crypt, or the excitement of the original Punjabi Prison match (I jest).

Anyway, TGAB actually began in 1985 as a tour of Jim Crockett Promotions/NWA wrestling shows held in the summer rather than a stand-alone card. Some were filmed, and some were not. Of those that did make it onto camera, we get some worthwhile action, as the DVD opens with Ric Flair defending his NWA World Title against Nikita Koloff, following a spectacular helicopter entrance for The Nature Boy. Dusty and Larry Zbyszko provide new commentary for this match, which becomes bizarre when Dusty openly states "I don't care about this match". Better is The Rock 'N' Roll Express challenging The Andersons for the Tag Team Titles in 1986, which is your typical logical and well-executed doubles outing from the mid-1980s NWA that has your classic 1980s post-match hand-slap by Rock 'N' Roll, to celebrate their, erm, non-victory (by the way, Dusty and Larry commentate on this one as well; it's worth remembering that both had announcing experience from the Nitro era of WCW). Next, it's a Flair vs. Dusty Cage match from 1986, but this has clearly the version that we had on Dusty's own DVD, released in 2006, because it has commentary from Rhodes, Steve Romero (who left WWE years ago) and Mike Graham (who passed away in 2012, nearly two years before this DVD was released). It's always amusing to hear Dusty mention his "belly-welly" though, so I'll give them a pass on that.

Then, we're taken to the first (or one of the first; the timeline is confusing) War Games match from 1987, which sees Dusty, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering battle The Four Horsemen and JJ Dillon in a great brawl; it makes one wish for the return of War Games in the modern era, although most followed the basic same formula and weirdly enough, the match usually ends around five minutes after the final participant enters, which nowadays would have fans shouting "Refund!" Anyway, the first disc concludes with The Road Warriors battling Sting and Lex Luger in 1988, as a part of the Bash tour but not as a part of the Bash PPV, as the show made its Pay-Per-View debut that year. Confused? Never mind. The match is alright, and we have Dusty and Larry commentating once more, with Larry randomly mentioning that he once saw Hawk slap some guy in an airport. (By the way, original match listings for this DVD had the inclusion of a Dusty/Sting vs. Road Warriors match from Starrcade 1988, which would have made no sense; fortunately, it was an error by those reporting on the DVD rather than an inexcusable mistake by the producers of this collection.)

From there, disc two brings us into the PPV era, and to the 1989 Bash, often considered one of WCW's greatest ever shows. Two reasons come on this compilation: a Sting-Great Muta clash, which is a little on the short side, and an intense Flair-Terry Funk main event, with the four aforementioned names having one hell of a post-match brawl (this would set up a tag match at Halloween Havoc later that year). Although it's a familiar match, Flair-Sting from 1990 had to be included for historical value, and it's a very good match in its own right. The 1991 Bash is skipped over, possibly because many considered it to be a dire show (even though Luger-Windham from that event made it onto WCW's Greatest PPV Matches), so we go directly to 1992 with a double-header: an entertaining tag match pitting Rick Rude and Steve Austin against Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham (the presentation of the match ending is handled clumsily by WCW), and a very enjoyable main event between Sting and Vader which has a shock outcome.

For some reason, WCW abandoned the Bash tradition in 1993 and 1994, but the card was resurrected in 1995. That being said, the Bash felt like a B-show for the next few years judging by the absence of certain key players, although '95 did feature a Ric Flair-Randy Savage clash. Flair-Savage opens disc three, but whilst entertaining, it's clear that Flair had passed his prime by this point; the match can't hold a candle to the earlier Flair-Funk showdown. The year 1996 is represented by a short yet momentous angle that saw The Outsiders attack Eric Bischoff (the great Dean Malenko-Rey Mysterio Jr match from the same event is a notable absentee), before we're taken to 1997 and a wild clash between Diamond Dallas Page and The Macho Man. From the same card (but held earlier that night), we have an awesome cruiserweight battle between Psychosis and Ultimate Dragon, which benefits from a hot-as-hell crowd, making a nice change from the WCW audiences that would generally sit in silence for most of the high-flying clashes.

After that, we have three 1998 matches: Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr and a dream tag match pitting Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart against Randy Savage and Roddy Piper. All three are worth watching, but they still have a slight filler feeling to them, as none are really classic encounters. Perhaps this is partly to cover the gap left by the DVD not including any matches from 1999, held at a time when WCW was firmly on the proverbial slippery slope (the most memorable part of that event was probably Sting supposedly being attacked by a bunch of dogs, which says it all really). That being said, the DVD closes with two matches from 2000, when WCW was even further in the s--t, and the booking of the final two bouts emphasise why: a needless betrayal on DDP (the third in as many WCW PPVs at the time on poor Page) and other interference overshadows the action in his Ambulance match with Mike Awesome, and a Jeff Jarrett-Kevin Nash main event is highly overbooked (the wealth of interference does provide us with perhaps the only appearance by an unmasked Rey Mysterio on a WWE DVD compilation), and ends with the ridiculous-in-hindsight Goldberg heel turn on Nash. One could say that turning its only true remaining babyface superstar into a villain was the moment when WCW entered the point of no recovery, but that probably came a month later with the Bash At The Beach 2000 fiasco. I know Goldberg loathes Vince Russo for switching him into a bad guy for no reason, and you wouldn't want to disagree with Da Man, right?

Anyway, the Bash ended along with WCW after that, but WWE brought back the Bash name in 2004 for its annual SmackDown PPV each summer. Unfortunately, the 2004 Bash was atrocious, and the 2005 Bash wasn't much better. The 2006 Bash was a slight improvement, and with all brands contributing, the 2007 and 2008 Bash cards at least provided some memorable moments. But after "Great American" was dropped, the 2009 Bash marked the end of the tradition, besides a one-night return for a random 2012 edition of SmackDown, which was hosted by Zack Ryder (don't ask). And so marked the end of The Great American Bash, unless WWE brings it back again (which it might just do, since we're apparently getting 19 PPVs a year in this Brand Extension II era).

Summarising the DVD, then: it's obvious to say, but if you were a die-hard fan of JCP/NWA/WCW, then you'll get a real kick out of reliving the matches and moments which formed the legacy of The Great American Bash. Newer fans will get a good education of why the event meant so much to fans of World Championship Wrestling, too. But I felt the WCW's Greatest PPV Matches set was superior (as it should be, when you think about it), as it boasted several matches that were true classics, whereas on this DVD, the action only reaches the "Outstanding" mark on one or two occasions; and whilst the spectacle of nWo-era WCW is always fun to watch back, the two 1997 bouts are arguably the only two really good encounters on the final disc. Nevertheless, if you're a longtime fan, you'll probably enjoy this DVD, and if nothing else, you'll get a chuckle from the random yet endearing comments made throughout by the late, great American Dream.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 - Good

War Games - WCW's Most Notorious Matches

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 369 Minutes
Certificate: 18
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: July 1 2013

As someone who has primarily watched the WWF/WWE and who only caught bits and pieces of WCW when it was in business, there were many key moments from the latter company that I never saw at the time. Even as WWE began releasing DVDs featuring such incidents, there was still one group of matches from WCW history which, by and large, I had never seen and only knew a little bit about, and that was War Games, a stipulation invented by Dusty Rhodes (who is the talking head before matches here). This DVD finally provides the chance to see War Games in all its glory.

For those unfamiliar, War Games was a NWA/JCP/WCW creation which saw a roofed steel cage cover two rings. The match saw two teams of five, mainly, head into battle with one man on each team starting and fighting for five minutes. Then, after a coin toss, another wrestler off one team enters (usually from the heels; actually, it was always someone from the heel team). Two minutes later, a wrestler off the other team enters. Then two minutes later a third man off the first team goes in and so on, until everyone is in. At this point, the door locks and you have The Match Beyond; only now can someone win, which happens when one man surrenders or submits, and his team then loses.

It sounds a bit complex, but it's easy to follow once in progress. The key thing is that, whilst the entry parts can't end the match, they do involve a lot of brutal, bloody action, so it isn't uncommon for many entrants to be bleeding by the end. Plus, as Dusty notes, when it debuted in 1987, at the time The Four Horsemen were running roughshod in the NWA/JCP, so each member of a babyface team would have a score to settle with at least one adversary from the opposing faction. It all meant one huge, violent brawl, something very different from what the WWF was providing at the time. One can understand its appeal in the late 1980s.

This DVD begins with two 1987 War Games bouts from the Great American Bash tour (TGAB was a summer tour of shows back then). Dusty explains that these matches were recorded for video but weren't on TV because War Games was an experience you had to see in person. Both matches are very similar; they aren't about spots, although there are some big moves. They are more about fighting, action, violence, bloodshed. Both are engaging but a little hard to watch due to poor production values. Another bout from 1988 follows with roughly the same personnel, give or take a couple of names.

Before then, we get a Tower Of Doom match from the 1988 Great American Bash (now a PPV). This is a triple-decker cage and has slightly different rules. It's enjoyable and the better production makes the viewing experience a lot better, but the rules are almost impossible to follow; it would require a full article from me to explain it, so I'll just suggest that you try to just enjoy it and not think about it when watching. Disc one ends with a War Games from the 1989 Bash which lacks blood but has more exciting moments of actual wrestling and is a really good match, actually.

The Horsemen weren't in that one, but a newer version appears in the opener to disc two from Wrestle War 1991 (which begins the trend of 4-on-4 War Games matches). I liked this match although the lasting image is a nasty one of Sid Vicious almost breaking Brian Pillman's neck with an attempted powerbomb. Beforehand, though, Dusty says that the concept was starting to move away from his original version; as an occasional PPV attraction, and without factions like the Horsemen, he states that the match started to lose its lustre. That being said, the next match from Wrestle War 1992 between Sting's Squadron and The Dangerous Alliance is one of the best of this type: it is chock-a-block with activity, has a strong crowd reaction, plenty of blood and includes several spots which take advantage of the caged environment unlike those before it.

The following clash from Fall Brawl 1993 is when some say the stipulation began to really suffer. I didn't think I was that bad, although it wasn't as good as those before it. The 1994 clash feels like a mid-card match although it does see Dusty and his son team in the American Dream's creation (by the way, Dusty tells a funny story before this match which provides a moment to look out for, in a way, in this bout). The 1995 meeting sees War Games debuts for big WWF names like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, but it's largely uneventful and it becomes clear that War Games had now changed from what it had been.

The next two matches are from the nWo vs. WCW rivalry and, for that reason, have more purpose to exist and provide more lively bouts as a result. The 1998 Fall Brawl clash is something else: a star-studded 3-way meeting of teams of three, with a World Title shot at stake for one winner. It is good, bad and ugly all at once; it is definitely worth seeing, if not for the reasons that those involved would have hoped for, and if you research online the back story of this scrap, you'll enjoy it even more. But even for the mistakes and occasional daftness, it's still better than the incredibly confusing War Games-rules triple-decker cage match from 2000, which ends the DVD and can only be described as an absolute clusterf--k (sorry, but it is).

Dusty's talking spots are worth watching as they provide context and include a few intriguing stories. (By the way, there is a hidden "Easter Egg" on disc one where Dusty compares War Games to the Royal Rumble; to access it, go to the second chapters page on disc one and press right on the penultimate match until a WWE logo appears and then click on it.) The Blu-ray includes a few War Games-style matches from SMW and ECW which is a nice twist; I would have liked to have seen the other triple decker cage bouts from WCW here too, especially since the DVD would have had plenty of running time left to include them.

This is an unusual DVD for me. The best matches are from a time period where the production values are gritty and make them hard to watch. By the time the visuals are of a more acceptable standard, the match quality and storylines have largely decreased. And besides the nWo plot developments, the last few matches are largely confusing. Plus, the earlier matches are very repetitive, and the same general story applies to almost every War Games match; it'd be wrong to say that if you've seen one then you've seen them all, but it isn't too far off. Also, many War Games bouts quickly end once the final entrant comes in. And while the idea of making War Games something that you had to pay to see makes sense, it means that many were not recorded and thus couldn't be here, and by the time it regularly featured on PPV, the consensus is that the stipulation's glory days had passed.

And yet War Games is lauded as one of the all-time great wrestling stipulations and, as this DVD shows, rightfully so. It was the ultimate battlefield, at a time when many fans perceived wrestling and its feuds as being real, and before the likes of Hell In A Cell and Hardcore matches. As a grudge match where all hell broke loose, this was a perfect stipulation, and the matches pitting the Horsemen against teams led by Dusty or Sting are great in emphasising this. The 1989 match is good for the action, and the 1992 clash is a tremendous fight involving another faction (The Dangerous Alliance). And the nWo matches are enjoyable for different reasons, as they both play big roles in that amazing storyline of 1996-7.

WCW folded in 2001, and at no point since then has the WWF/WWE decides to finally stage a War Games match. Various reasons are given as to why, the rumour being that Vince McMahon doesn't want to use a "Dusty Rhodes idea" that he didn't invent. The best chance of it happening would have been in the mid-2000s when Raw and SmackDown were split and creating an inter-brand rivalry of star talent to end in War Games, before WWE went PG, would have been great. Instead, it never happened, and probably never will ... or might it?

At a time when Hell In A Cell and Elimination Chamber have lost some of their appeal, it could be an ideal time to bring back War Games as a "new" WWE match. The cage itself could be modernised to look more threatening and different to the likes of HIAC. The rules could be tweaked to require entire eliminations of teams to make it a bit different. The extra ring could be brought down the aisle and built prior to the main event, which it would be. The 1989 match proved that a PG War Games would work. And, with Sting finally in WWE and with The Authority as a ruling heel group, what better scenario than a modern-day Sting's Squadron (perhaps consisting of Sting, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan and John Cena) against The Authority (Triple H, Seth Rollins, Kane, Big Show and a new member in Rusev)? And where better to have it than at Extreme Rules where anything goes, or at Survivor Series where multi-man combat has ruled since 1987, which ironically was the year that War Games debuted?

Whether WWE ever holds a War Games match or not, though, this anthology of the stipulation is still enjoyable. I would recommend that you space out your viewing of the matches as they can be very repetitive, more so than on most other match stipulation DVDs, but you should find this release to be a good one regardless. And there are a variety of people that you'll recognise, a large number of whom you'd never have known were in a War Games (including Roddy Piper, The Nasty Boys and even Kamala). It is full of bloodshed, though, even if you rarely see actual violent moments. Simply put, if you own the compilations for Steel Cage, Hell In A Cell and Elimination Chamber matches, this round-up of War Games will complete your structure-enclosed collection.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 - Good