I was literally watching professional wrestling before I was walking as a young child. One of my earliest memories as a wrestling fan was the Great American Bash of 1986. With the summer of 2001 quickly coming to an end, I cannot believe that the '86 Bash has now been 15 years ago. In honor of that, I decided to do a special rant on the commercial tape of Great American Bash '86.

Hosted by Tony Schavone and David Crockett and featuring matches from several of the 14 different stops the Bash tour made. A music video with a bunch of different clips of everyone on the roster from various GAB tour shows introduces us and we're on our way.

The tape starts off with The Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant against "Shaska" Pez Whatley in a hair versus hair match from Charlotte, NC. Boogie charges but Shaska catches him off guard and takes over early. Shaska gets a two count but the ref breaks it when he sees Whatley's feet on the ropes. Boogie gets up but Paul Jones nails him on the outside. Shaska controls much of the match and Boogie blades. Shaska throws about fifteen headbutts and a bunch of punches as Boogie sells for several minutes straight. Boogie makes a comeback and catches him with a sleeper but Baron Von Rachske breaks it up. Manny Fernandez comes in and takes down the Baron. Boogie grabs the infamous black glove and nails Whatley with it for the pin. The babyfaces rush the ring and shave Shaska's head after the match. Sorry, gotta call it a DUD, but not the absolute worst Boogie match I have ever seen.

Up next, we get the closing moments of Boogie vs Paul Jones from Greensboro, in another hair versus hair match. Now lemme get this straight, there is only room for ONE Flair match on this tape, but Boogie is on here twice?! Baron enters and tosses Jones the black glove, but Boogie counters it with his own glove and makes the cover. The now bald Shaska nails Valiant with a chair and Jones gets the pin. DUD, if for no other reason than because it was only the last minute or so. In a big heroic babyface angle, Boogie stays in the ring and lets them shave his head even though he was screwed in the actual match.

Ronnie Garvin takes on NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard next in a taped fist match. This match is to be contested in ten three-minute rounds like a boxing match for some reason. J.J. Dillion is the cornerman for Tully, Wahoo is the cornerman for Garvin. Tully runs at Garvin before the bell so Garvin decks him. Garvin pops Tully about six or seven times, still with his belt and robe on. He finally gets the robe off but Garvin keeps punching him. Garvin keeps on punching him as this is essentially a boxing match and kinda boring by wrestling standards. In between the second and third rounds, Dillion adds a couple of additional layers of tape to the right fist of Blanchard, who was busted open long ago. Tully takes Garvin down and then puts the boots to him. Garvin gets back up and they trade punches. They roll to the floor where Wahoo atomic drops Tully, knocking him into a punch from Garvin. They box some more and J.J. puts something in Blanchard's hand. Tully hits Garvin with it and gets the ten count to win the match. Not much of a wrestling match at all. DUD

The Road Warriors are up to face Ivan and Nikita Koloff in a double Russian chain match from Charlotte. Just for the record, Ivan is chained to Animal and Hawk is chained to Nikita. Less than a minute in, Ivan is bleeding. Hawk and Nikita choke each other with the chain for a while. Ivan goes up top but gets thrown off by Animal. The Russians take turns double-teaming both Warriors and they pound on Animal a little until Hawk makes a comeback. Hawk spills outside and Nikita unhooks himself from the chain and nails Animal with the Russian Sickle. Ivan goes up top again, but Paul Ellering shakes the rope and he gets crotched. Ivan falls off and gets pinned by Animal for the victory. *1/2

We see a brief clip of the Rock N Roll Express singing on stage for some reason, and then we go to the Rock N Rolls against Ole and Arn Anderson. Ole and Robert start, but Arn gets tagged in quickly. All four end up in the ring with Ricky and Robert getting the better of the exchange. Morton tags in and women squeal. This was shortly after the legendary angle where the Horsemen broke Morton's nose and they play that up. Morton blocks several attempts by Arn to nail him in the nose and then drops Arn twice right on his face. Ole tags back in and catches Morton, knocking him to the floor, where Arn smacks him in the nose. In a beautiful bit of psychology, Ole simply places his hand over Morton's supposedly broken nose and applies pressure, and Morton screams as if he were being killed. Ole takes a photographer's camera and wraps the cord across Morton's nose. They continue to pound on Ricky until he makes the hot tag to Robert. Gibson takes Arn down with a sleeper, but the time limit expires. Gibson grabs a chair and gets both Andersons with it. Cheap ending, as was the norm for the time period really, but a good match. **3/4

Match number four in the best of seven between Magnum T.A. and Nikita Koloff is next. Nikita leads the series 3-0 at this point. Magnum scores first with a forearm smash and Nikita rolls to the floor. Nikita controls with a side headlock, shoulderblocks and slams for a little while and also drops Magnum throat-first across the top rope. He throws Magnum to the floor where Ivan kicks him in the face, then throws him out on the other side as well. Magnum gets back on the apron and surprises Nikita with a sunset flip to win his first match of the series. Short, but not too bad. *1/2

Baby Doll teams with Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A. against The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette in a cage from Charlotte. Baby Doll armdrags Beautiful Bobby to pop the crowd and then T.A. and Eaton start. Bobby takes T.A. down and Cornette enters but misses an elbow. Dusty enters and Bobby blades off a bionic elbow. Eaton tosses Magnum into the cage and he comes up bleeding also. Bobby comes off the top of the cage and hits Magnum. He goes up again but gets nailed on the way down this time. A pier six eventually breaks out with everyone in the ring and Baby Doll pins Cornette after a big punch. *1/2 Big Bubba lures Dusty outside the cage where he and the Midnights beat on him while T.A. and Baby Doll are inside the cage. Magnum gets up and makes the save after a minute or so.

From Greensboro, NC inside the steel cage, it's time for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as his holiness, The Nature Boy defends against Big Dust. They feel each other out for the first few minutes until Dusty takes him down and works on the arm. They trade chops until Flair backs down. Dusty controls the match for several minutes and locks on the Weaverlock (it's not just a sleeper, ya know), but Flair escapes it. Dusty drops an elbow but only gets two. Flair catches Dusty in the midsection and then rams him into the cage a couple of times until Dusty is wearing the crimson mask. Flair lays him out and drops the knee across the ankle. Flair continues to work on the leg and locks on the figure four but Dusty gets out of it. Flair goes back to the knee and takes him down. Flair chops him a few times and then charges him but takes a clothesline for a two count. Dusty elbows him, they trade chops, and Flair retreats to the top rope. Dusty goes to meet him and Flair then takes refuge in a corner. Dust pulls him out and tosses him into the cage. Dusty grinds Flair's face into the cage and then Flair begs off, but gets rammed into the cage again. Dusty stomps on the ankle and Flair again retreats to the top but Rhodes pulls him down again, but not before ramming his head into the top of the cage three times. They're fighting on the top rope until Flair gets crotched and falls to the mat, begging for mercy. Dusty grinds him into the cage again. Dusty swings but his fist smacks the cage as Flair ducks. Flair climbs the top rope but Dusty gets up and he takes the pattented Flair bump off the top. Dusty applies his own figure four but Flair makes it to the ropes. Dusty chops him down in the corner. Dusty ducks a back elbow and clotheslines Flair down for two. Flair comes off the top with a cross bodyblock for two. Flair attempts to toss him into the cage but Dusty blocks it and tosses Flair into the cage but only gets two off a rollup. Flair goes for a slam but Dusty catches him with a small package for the pinfall and the championship. Dusty wins his third World Title to close the tape as babyfaces storm the ring to congratulate him. *** We see more match clips from different Bash shows as the closing credits roll.

Final analysis: A very fun show for nostalgic purposes, but there are definitely better pure wrestling shows out there. One of the Midnights vs. Rock N Rolls matches from the tour would have been a nice touch. Dusty versus Flair is pretty good, but overall, a good but not great outing from the NWA. Recommended for old school fans, but there probably is not much on here that would appeal to the casual fan.

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