WCW Great American Bash 1996

1) The Steiner Brothers vs. Scott Norton & Ice Train - 4
2) El Gato vs. Konnan – 6
3) Diamond Dallas Page vs. Marcus Bagwell – 4
4) Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko – 6
5) Big Bubba Rogers vs. John Tenta - 3
6) Falls Count Anywhere: Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit – 6
7) Steven Regal vs. Sting - 5
8) Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Kevin Greene & Steve McMichael - 3
9) Lex Luger vs. The Giant – 5

The opening match was your basic standard tag match and served nothing more than to get the Steiners over. El Gato and Konnan had a brief but enjoyable match and helped to show that the cruiserweights couldn’t be limited to just their own division. Bagwell had a standard match with DDP. Bagwell, in his youth, was a very well rounded wrestler, but once he became “Buff” Bagwell and joined the n.W.o., he’s sucked ever since. With Benoit and Sullivan, they had a pretty stiff match and fought all around the arena and into the bathroom. Some run-ins at the end brought the rating for it down a bit, but it was still probably the best match on the card, next to Mysterio and Malenko. Speaking of which, I believe that this was Mysterio’s first pay-per-view appearance in the states and with Malenko, you can’t go wrong.

Kicking off the second half of the show was a rather interesting match-up between Regal and Sting. They get really slow and technical but still deliver a solid outing. The great thing about it was that there were no titles or special stipulations attached to it. Just two well rounded athletes going out and wrestling hard for the fans. After this, though, the show begins to deteriorate. The Flair tag match left a lot to be desired as the gridiron gurus of McMichael and Greene were completely out of their league and really had no clue what they were doing in there. McMichael does turn on Greene at the end and joins up with Flair and the Horsemen. Luger and Giant was just a mess but with Sting, Flair, and Benoit already booked, they had to have someone challenge for the title.

I’d recommend trying to find this tape at the flea market or for super cheap on Ebay. Check this out for Benoit vs. Sullivan, Malenko vs. Mysterio, Regal vs. Sting, and Bischoff getting his ass kicked by Hall and Nash. This was definitely one of the better WCW pay-per-view shows I’ve seen and is recommended if you want to see a solid show from beginning to end. If not, well, I guess you can watch an XPW tape then.