New Footage Friday: Great American Bash 7/16/88

Larry Zbyszko/Rip Morgan vs. Tim Horner/Bugsy McGraw

ER: Really dug Zbyszko in this one. With these raw footage shows it's always great to here more ring noises, and here we got Zbyszko shit talking Horner and yelling at Morgan to pull McGraw's hair. My favorite part of the match was when Larry tagged in and kicks Bugsy in the stomach, and then punches him three times right in the side of the head. I am becoming so much of a Larry guy. Rip Morgan works this like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds, and it's pretty great. His heel crazy was a nice counterpoint to babyface Bugsy. And Morgan is good at being that stumbling type of bully who Horner can do all his graceful armdrags to. Horner is always a treat to watch, a real underrated babyface who should have been bigger. He just seems like a nice guy. I liked the fun simplicity of this.

MD: This never really had the depth for anything to set in. It felt like the cliff notes version of a match. I wonder if that was frustrating for them since there was so much repetition on this tour. I imagine they were just glad to get paid. Horner and Larry looked solid. McGraw was a poor man's Valiant by this point, but the shtick of him reacting to the Haka was obviously well worked out by this point. None of the hope spots or transitions or finished felt earned. Larry worked hard, bumping around the ring.

Ronnie Garvin vs. Itallion Stallion

ER: This was great. It goes about a minute, and heel Ronnie Garvin is now my favorite wrestler. I need to see all of the post NWA champ Garvin, because he was the smuggest asshole here and it was the best. Garvin does a fake towel toss to the crowd, and the crowd HATES him and it makes Italian Stallion a big babyface. Garvin sure doesn't let him do much with that though. This whole thing is Garvin faking an ankle injury off a leapfrog, really well, and the entire crowd getting louder and louder the longer he fakes it. It's classic, simple stuff, but Garvin is a much better actor than he's ever gotten credit for. The crowd knows exactly what's happening and they are desperately trying to warn this goof Italian Stallion that they've been forced into cheering by default. And of course, Garvin, after begging off and holding his ankle in agony, hops off and finishes off Stallion with one shot, sitting on his chest for the pinfall with the greatest grin. 1988 Ronnie Garvin is the best.

MD: One of my favorite sub 1-minute matches in forever. I'm not sure I've ever seen much of this short heel run and we were robbed of something long and meaningful. He was such a glorious dick, demanding to wrestle in one ring instead of the other, having Hart force Tony to announce him as the former world champion, almost immediately faking a knee injury, popping up for the fist of stone and then sitting on Stallion for the win. What a glorious jerk. Can you imagine him riding into 89 with this gimmick as a foil for guys like Sting and Steamboat?

PAS: Matt and Eric pretty much cover it, but man I want to third the greatness of Ronnie Garvin. His career is basically over four years after this match, but this version of Ronnie Garvin should have had another decade of just being a heel dipshit.

Dick Murdoch vs. Gary Royal

ER: The raw footage is a blessing for Dick Murdoch matches, as the way this match is shot is almost cinematic. This is Dick Murdoch in a John Cassavetes movie. He even looks like David Rowlands. The camera is in so tight on everything, and this honestly feels like the greatest footage ever filmed of Murdoch. And Murdoch is perfection. He holds headlocks, ignores Teddy Long, throws hard elbows across Royal's throat, throws punishing stomps from the apron, and the camera zooms in extra close every time Murdoch locks in a headlock and throws his greatest ever headlock punch. This cameraman knew what people wanted to see. Murdoch struts around the ring and ringside area so cockily, really taking his time to lay down a beating on Royal. I especially like him throwing Royal into the scaffolding that was set up at ringside; Royal took a couple great hard chest bumps right into it. Murdoch hits a gorgeous brainbuster, really holding that vertical suplex for a long time before dropping him, and that toothless grin he flashes during the pinfall is right up there with the greatest things I've ever seen in wresting. I would watch a match like this every time over a "great match".

MD: A great lost Murdoch squash. His interactions with Teddy Long here were just off the chart. We're blessed here by the lack of commentary, since you can hear all the jawing perfectly. He was a bit like a poked bear as Royal kept trying to take advantage early, and then when he came unleashed after Long admonishes him, he just used the entirety of the ring, including the scaffold and the apron to demolish the poor jerk. The delay before the brainbuster was the icing on the cake.

Rick Steiner vs. Jimmy Garvin

ER: What a fun 90 seconds of pro wrestling. The fans are louder for Jimmy Garvin than they are for maybe anyone so far on this card. Rick Steiner looks super formidable, really crashing into Garvin with a hard lariat and big punches to the head. When Garvin starts firing back the crowd really loses it. Kevin Sullivan gets involved, Steiner grabs Garvin for a powerslam, and Garvin gets the great small package surprise win. This was 90 seconds, but was a great use of 90 seconds.

MD: Good aggression from Steiner. Great punches from Garvin. This was ultimately nothing, but the way the crowd rallied behind Garvin and Precious was one of those things you wouldn't believe on paper. Garvin felt like the biggest babyface in the world here when he went to save Precious from Sullivan. You have to love this crowd.

The Rock n Roll Express vs. The Sheepherders

MD: This never quite settled down, but in a good way. Once they got past the initial goofiness with the flag things were pretty loose and chaotic. Morgan was a near constant presence and they weaved him in and out of the match believably enough. The Sheepherders had some memorable driving kneedrops and their usual ability to create an atmosphere of violence. The finish matched things well, coming out nowhere but feeling believable and triumphant.

ER: This ruled. I love how the Sheepherders match up against a team like the Rock n Rolls; Butch Miller especially always bumps around big for babyface offense (he had a fantastic bump from the ring to the apron to the floor here) and the Sheepherders work viciously enough that they come off like a threat. I love when the Rock n Rolls match the savagery of their opponents, and Ricky always comes off so tough against roughneck types. This felt like a real chaotic brawl, Rock n Rolls hitting crossbodies on both Sheepherders, Ricky taking a super fast bump to through the ropes to the hard floor, Butch hitting a great leaping fistdrop, everyone throwing punches. This is the kind of constant motion wrestling that I want.

Brad Armstrong vs. Al Perez

MD: I liked this but didn't love it. A lot of it was by the numbers, with the heel getting more and more frustrated at getting outwrestled until he took over by roughhousing, etc. Hope spots, comeback, the good type of heel manager finish with a leg grab. Like I said, a lot to like. For a cold match, the crowd was into it. Perez could be pretty emotive when he was getting clowned. He had some fun offense. Hart was very effective on the outside. The hope spots were really spirited, with Brad just flying across the ring at one point, and the comeback had a great revenge spot with a slam to the floor. There was just a disconnect when Perez was on offense. His stuff looked good but it didn't flow. There was a story they could have told following up on Brad's back and building to the hope spots and cut offs better and it just didn't happen. This would have been a great opening match on a more balanced card but without an underlying reason for the fans to care and even with the effort put in, it was more of a testament to the crowd than the match that this was still fairly over.

ER: This is the first match of the card that I wasn't super into. It just felt a little long, Al Perez threw on a chinlock for awhile, felt pretty time filler. There were some inspired moments, like Armstrong interacting with Hart on the floor and getting slammed into the scaffolding, or Armstrong's brief but fiery comeback down the stretch. But this match was a little too dry in the middle of a card that's been checking off all my boxes.

Midnight Express/Jim Cornette vs. The Fantastics

ER: The Midnights' gear is the stuff of wrestling miracles. Eaton is an Alabama crop top, kneepads over beat up jeans, a flat out gorgeous outfit for a bunkhouse match. Stan is dressed like a front row Malibu aerobics boy toy, tank top and pink/turquoise bike shorts and shag. Fantastics are both wearing tank tops, jeans, kneepads over jeans. It's the fucking code and everybody looks like the encyclopedia image for "What to Wear to a Fucking Bunkhouse Match". It's incredible. And this whole entire match is as great as it looks on paper. Bobby Eaton was god level here, it was the best in ring performance I've ever seen from Cornette, Stan Lane had meathead frustration bumping down to a science, and The Fantastics were throwing punches like the best fired up babyfaces. I think Bobby Fulton is underrated as hell, and his exchanges with Bobby were flat out pro wrestling punch master classes. You wanna punch? You watch the Bobby's. Throw Bobby Heenan and Bobby Blaze into that mix. Eaton vs. Fulton was awesome the whole match through, Eaton going from vicious puncher to man taking highest backdrop. When the match broke down they had a fantastic chairshot sequence, with Fulton bashing Bobby with a metal folding chair. As someone who great up with the weird wooden folding chairs of WWF, it's always shocking for me when I see metal chairshots to the head in the 80s. Fulton's shots to Eaton's head looked great, and Eaton would get his hand up while looking like he was getting totally obliterated by these shots. He take ones in the aisleway that the super hot crowd flips out for.

Now, James E. Cornette may have been the superstar of the match. As great as Nick Patrick looked in my absolute dream of a match against Jericho, Cornette looked here. This was the best in ring Cornette I have ever seen. He dropped an elbow on the floor, two picture perfect fistdrops, a great leaping elbowdrop, and some genuine top 20 all time punches. His punches were hot fire, and when it came time for him to bump for the Fantastics you know he flew into offense like he was Heenan. This was the kind of 15 minutes of wrestling that makes me love all of this so much.

The Road Warriors vs. Ivan Koloff/Russian Assassin #1

PAS: I am a scaffold match fan. I can just imagine how insane it must be to watch live, knowing you might see a murder. Ivan was especially great at teasing death, and Animal even tried a dropkick. Hawk and Russian Assassin spent most of the match brawling near the ends of the scaffold which had guardrails, which is kind of pussy. I don't need you to die, but at least tease me a bit.

MD: Not a ton to say here. As scaffold matches go, this was ok. The falls were bs, but are we really going to complain about that in 2019, especially knowing they had to work this match around the loop? In general, I was impressed with how well they moved around up there. A little can go a long way in a setting like this. The fans, again, were generous, happy with all of this, especially the half-baked falls. Great crowd.

ER: Yeah Scaffold matches are a gimmick match I absolutely adore. I couldn't imagine how much I'd be flipping out if I saw a scaffold match live. I would be standing the whole time with my mouth wide open. The Dundee/Koko 2/3 falls scaffold match was my #1 match of the 80s Memphis project. They come off so scary to me! Look at how narrow this damn thing is! Look at how HIGH this thing is! It is one of my all time favorite gimmicks and too many people undersell what a damn attraction a scaffold match can be. THIS crowd knew exactly how big a treat they were getting, and I was right there with them. It turns out Ivan Koloff is a master of scaffold matches. I need to know what other Koloff scaffold matches exist on tape, because I want to write about them. Koloff is the guy running around up there, he's the guy taking big bumps for Animal, he's the guy who takes a ridiculously high fall while swinging from the bottom of the scaffold, he's the one falling dangerously close to the edge; Koloff was 45 years old here. He's the oldest non-JJ Dillon guy on the card and he's in the running for craziest guy on the card. Animal tries throwing a dropkick and it doesn't totally hurt, but Koloff makes it special by getting bounced dangerously close to the edge butt first, and later Animal and Koloff both hang off the edges and the bottom in fun ways. Hawk and Assassin (who was Angel of Death) play it safer on the edge with a guardrail, but even that railing was rickety as hell so I was still feeling the danger. Scaffold matches are the ultimate gimmick attraction for me, and this didn't let me down at all.