Post by BobbyTheBrain on Dec 26, 2021 2:56:33 GMT -5
Bound to be better than Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 lol. Live from Baltimore! It's Great American Bash 1988.
Match 1: Sting & Nikita Koloff vs Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (World Tag Team Champions)
The titles are on the line here. Already we got a better matchup on paper than an earlier card in the year and it's just the show opener. In the early going we got Sting and Koloff dominating with their superior strength. They're pretty much dominating the first several minutes of the match until Koloff makes the mistake of being distracted by one Mr. James J. Dillon who he pursues on the floor and while attempting to give him the Sickle, clotheslines the post and injures his shoulder. Well you just know Arn has to take advantage of that 
. They work over Nikita for a little bit before he makes the tag to Sting who proceeds to resume kicking the shit out of Arn and Tully. Sting pours it on and has Tully in a Scorpion Death Lock as the Time limit expires. We have a draw, and in our very first match on the card a far better match than anything on 1st PPV of 1988 from the NWA. A good, solid 3 star match here. Mostly the challengers kicking the shit out of Arn and Tully but those damn Horsemen hang on and keep the titles with the Champions advantage. I'm not sure if that was a 20 minute match or a 30 minute match. Felt like 30 minutes. Couldn't have been less than 20 though.
. They work over Nikita for a little bit before he makes the tag to Sting who proceeds to resume kicking the shit out of Arn and Tully. Sting pours it on and has Tully in a Scorpion Death Lock as the Time limit expires. We have a draw, and in our very first match on the card a far better match than anything on 1st PPV of 1988 from the NWA. A good, solid 3 star match here. Mostly the challengers kicking the shit out of Arn and Tully but those damn Horsemen hang on and keep the titles with the Champions advantage. I'm not sure if that was a 20 minute match or a 30 minute match. Felt like 30 minutes. Couldn't have been less than 20 though. Match 2: The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) vs The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers) (U.S. Tag Team Champions)
The other Tag Titles on the line here. Jim Cornette takes the mic and says he's not crazy, and should not be put in a Straight Jacket. One of the stipulations of the match being that he's to be locked in a straight jacket, hanging above the ring in a small cage. Before the match even begins Cornette is brilliant with the reluctance to put on the straight jacket, and basically just being a difficult ass about every step of the process of them carrying out the stipulation lol. Solid opening few minutes to the match with the momentum swinging back and forth fairly frequently. After taking a moment to regroup the Midnight get the upper hand when Stan gets a blind tag on Bobby and Eaton catches Tommy Rogers with a bulldog when he didn't realize he was in. They have the advantage on Rogers for a good little while, he eventually makes the Tag to Fulton and the momentum goes back and forth for a moment. When the referee is hurt at one point Stan Lane breaks a chain out of his tights which winds up in the hands of Bobby Eaton who wraps it around his hand and lays out Bobby Fulton with it to get the One, Two and Tha-REE!!!! Your winners and new U.S. Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express! Another good, solid match. 2 really good old school opening matches here.
Match 3: The Tower of Doom Match - Mike Rotunda, Ivan Koloff, The Russian Assassin, Kevin Sullivan and Al Perez vs The Garvins, The Road Warriors and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams
What is a Tower of Doom match you ask? That's a good fucking question. Apparently it's like a twist on the War Games which was already a kinda convoluted match to me. Well they made it more convoluted here by having these 2 teams of 5 go to the top of the cage, and have to slowly battle their way down and out of the cage to win? Really odd. But anyway, that's the stipulation, onto the match itself. Ivan Koloff starts things off for the heel side and Ronnie Garvin is the man who climbs up to meet him. So basically they fight it out in a small section of the cage at the top, a horn sounds after a few minutes a trap door opens and Garvin escapes to the 2nd tier of the game when more guys come in. The most action of the match starts to happen when about 4 of these guys get to the 2nd tier and actually have some room to move but since they're wrestling on a fence they're just keeping it simple. Kick, punch, eye gouge, choke...that kinda thing. Anyway, this match sucks. Just a mess, not much action to it, I'm watching it just kinda wanting it to end just like the Bunkhouse Stampede match, but this is even worse actually as it's just fucking ridiculous. I can't even give this 1 star. This is a Half star match. Stupid concept, boring match, Just not good. Oh and the team of The Garvins, Road Warriors and Doc win if you care.
Match 4: Dusty Rhodes vs Barry Windham (United States Champion)
We're 4 matches into the card before we finally have a good old one on one match, but it should be a fairly solid one with these two. Dusty wasn't what he once was at this stage of his career, but still knows what he's doing, and can work a crowd. Barry Windham is at or very near his athletic peak here. As it starts to unfold though this isn't as good a match as I'd hoped. Lots of time spent with the Windham has Dusty in the claw, Dusty starts to battle back out of it, then gets weary again spot. Seems to go on and on. For some reason at the end Ronnie Garvin comes in and lays out Dusty with one of his vicious punches, and Windham reapplies the Iron Claw to an unconscious Dusty Rhodes to get the 1-2-3 and retain the U.S. Heavyweight Title. Nothing real memorable here. I'd give it a 1.5 at best.
