http://placetobenation.com/where-the-big-boys-play-79-great-american-bash-92/

Chad and Parv welcome back Good Ol' Will from Texas to discuss Great American Bash 92, let's hook em up!

[3:28] Wrestling observer roundup, including: record low buyrates and viewing figures for Beach Blash 92 and Clash 19, Bill Watts's booking decisions, and the reasons for him banning babyfaces and heels from riding in the same planes.

[37:05] Review of Great American Bash 92, including: how many guys can Doc and Gordy roll over?, how low can Meltzer's star ratings get?, does Sting vs. Vader hold up?, and just what was Bill Watts thinking when he booked this show?

[2:07:12] End of Show Awards

In reference to the JYD/Mr. Hughes sunglasses angle, the incident can be seen briefly here although not very well:

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2huvjw

 

The footage is around the 12 minute mark of the video. if I recall, Mr. Hughes tried going face and befriending JYD, but was gone from WCW within weeks of this happening so nothing much came of it.

Fascinating PPV to review, and you three didn't disappoint. The extra comments from Loss were very interesting. Looking forward to your views on the rest of the Watts era.

I'm about half way through this but wanted to comment to say it's nice to hear some credit being given to Nikita Kolloff. I would never place him as a greatest ever sort of guy, but I do think he had his moments in the ring and had a tremendous look (save for the crew-cut days in 1988 when Parv is right - he sucked). It always annoys me that Meltzer in particular would never seem to have much good to say about him. Actually, I think Dave Meltzer has a habit of letting his preconceptions impact on his match ratings a lot, like around this time, any Misawa match would start at 4* and he'd adjust from there, whereas he'd go into watching a Kolloff match, thinking 'It's Nikita so that's a star-and-half at best".

 

Incidentally I'd just been watching some Nikita when I first signed up here. I thought he was cool and my wife would definitely attest that I am on of the worlds great day dreamers, hence the name. I'm not some creepy, weird Nikita Kolloff super-fan or something, just to make that clear.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing what you said about Sting vs Vader. It's one of my favourite rivalries ever and personally, I think the Bash match is the best of the 92-93 trilogy.

Thanks for reading my little blurb on the air. It's appreciated. To follow up on that, I do agree that Watts selected talent that wasn't right to execute this vision. To his credit, he did eventually figure that out and made the needed changes, but by then, he was nearing the end of his run. At first, he didn't seem to realize the top talent in 1987 wasn't the same as the top talent in 1992. By the end of his run, he was pushing Austin, Dustin, Pillman, Foley, Douglas, Benoit and Scorpio, with Vader and Sting as the main event constants and Steamboat and Windham as the working vets, with Flair on the way. He was also giving guys like Orndorff who could still go new leases on life. He signed Regal and RVD. Given who ended up having a successful rest of the decade, it's tough to paint him as too out of touch in that regard. He was out of touch on talent when he started, which meant he was out of touch when this show happened. But he was a quick study. It's sad that early 1993 was when WCW started getting really good under him, which also happened to be right when his time there ended.

Great point. I still contend that with their 1992 talent that Kip Frey wasn't given enough time either. He seemed like he was on the right track aesthetically.

The problem was that guys were getting big six-figure guaranteed contracts at a time when WCW was drawing crowds as low as 200 at house shows and all-time low PPV butyrate as well as TV ratings, as we talked about on this show.

 

Frey threw more money at the problem and it didn't change the bottom line. Watts was trying to slash costs.

 

It's one thing we didn't talk about but I wonder if Greg Valentine's fee at this time would have been lower than a Brian Pillman's? Could explain some of the pushing of the old boys over the young guys.

 

On another note, I'd also like to know if any listeners actually enjoy that last match which I hated and Will was a tiny bit higher on. This is the show that soured me on Doc and Gordy for a long time.

Well, Watts was also hired and told his primary goal was to cut costs. I suspect if he was hired and told his goal was to beat Vince, we would have seen something different than we got.

 

Also, Pillman's contract was a big issue of contention because Watts told him he wouldn't be pushed unless he took a pay cut and Pillman said he'd be perfectly happy to be the highest paid curtain jerker in the history of wrestling.

I didn't know that about Pillman, but I did suspect money might be something to do with certain guys being pushed and other guys not.

 

Makes me wonder what guys like Marcus Bagwell and Johnny B. Badd, who also got de-pushed during this time, were on relative to the Greg Valentines.

 

All that said, surely Doc and Gordy were on a packet given what they could get paid in Japan?

Doc & Gordy might have been on a relative high money per night deal but they wouldn't have been high money over the full year as their main gig was with AJPW.

 

Did AJPW not care about their Gaijin working for WCW when they had the deal with New Japan? I'm guessing they couldn't have done anything like Muta or Sasake or Chono vs Williams or Gordy without political fallout, although Muta and Williams were in a battle royal together at Starrcade '92 and Williams went over Liger in a tag match at that same event.

 

Also, Pillman's contract was a big issue of contention because Watts told him he wouldn't be pushed unless he took a pay cut and Pillman said he'd be perfectly happy to be the highest paid curtain jerker in the history of wrestling.

 

Isn't that an Ole Anderson story from 1990?

I've heard both, but I remember reading it in the 1992 WONs.

i remember the common narrative being that cutting costs was why they brought in a bunch of older guys for the dudes with attitude stuff in 1990, but i could totally buy that still being a thing in 92

Ole also came back in in 1992, so it's possible he was involved but as a Watts surrogate.

Ole also came back in in 1992, so it's possible he was involved but as a Watts surrogate.

 

I feel positive I read it in the 1990 WONs (haven't gotten up to 1992 yet) - but it's WCW, so totally likely it happened twice.

great show

finally I get Chad and Will on one podcast again, the dream team

I didn't know that about Pillman, but I did suspect money might be something to do with certain guys being pushed and other guys not.Makes me wonder what guys like Marcus Bagwell and Johnny B. Badd, who also got de-pushed during this time, were on relative to the Greg Valentines.All that said, surely Doc and Gordy were on a packet given what they could get paid in Japan?

I suspect that the de-push was a combination of two things.

 

The first being that both guys were inexperienced. They both needed to be led hence why the need for veteran prescence. I am surprised that bob Orton wasn't brought in for a similar role to Valentine.

 

Second is that neither guy fits the image of a Watts worker. Watts on his own favored using more bruiser and rugged guys over matinee idol looking dudes.

As you may be able to tell by this post, I have quite the backlog I am working through...

 

That said, I loved this episode across the board. Great insights into each match but really strong takes and analysis on the style Watts was trying to implement vs. what Frey was trying to do.

 

It is such a weird show in the history of WCW with both positives and negatives worth debating.

 

Also loved the reading of Charles's takes too.

 

Great episode, one of my favorites WTBBP for sure.

That bump made my heart skip a beat.

That bump made my heart skip a beat.

 

Sounds like you may have a coke problem PAL!