The Great American Bash (1991)

The Great American Bash (1991) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It was the fourth The Great American Bash event to be broadcast via pay-per-view and the event took place on July 14, 1991 at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Great American Bash (1991)
Promotional poster featuring Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Sting, Nikita Koloff, and Missy Hyatt
PromotionWorld Championship Wrestling
DateJuly 14, 1991
CityBaltimore, Maryland
VenueBaltimore Arena
Attendance9,320
Tagline(s)Legend vs Legacy
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous
SuperBrawl I		 Next →
Halloween Havoc
The Great American Bash chronology
← Previous
1990		 Next →
1992

The original scheduled card of the event was heavily changed. Ric Flair was scheduled to defend the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Lex Luger in a steel cage match but Flair quit before the event and was replaced by Barry Windham. Luger defeated Windham to win his first world championship. The final bout of the show was a handicap steel cage match, in which Rick Steiner defeated Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously.

Storylines

The event featured wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[1]

The card was originally to be headlined by a steel cage match between Ric Flair and Lex Luger for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and this match was heavily promoted on WCW television but two weeks before the show, then-WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd fired Flair over a contract dispute, stripping him of the title in the process. At the time, champions left a $25,000 security deposit that would be refunded to them (along with any accumulated interest on the deposit) once they lost the title. As Herd did not give Flair back his deposit, he retained possession of the belt and later brought it to the World Wrestling Federation, where he appeared with it on television. WCW had to commission a new world championship belt. However, the new belt could not be readied in time for the event, so the company was forced to improvise. A Championship Wrestling from Florida title belt that was in the possession of Dusty Rhodes was used and a metal plate with "WCW World Heavyweight Champion" was attached to the front.

Event
Other on-screen personnel
Role: Name:
Commentators Jim Ross
Tony Schiavone
Ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta
Interviewer Eric Bischoff
Referees Mike Atkins
Randy Anderson
Nick Patrick

In the match, Lex Luger pinned Barry Windham, who replaced Flair, after a piledriver on orders from Harley Race. After the match, Luger turned heel and took on Race as his manager and Mr. Hughes as his bodyguard.

P.N. News and Bobby Eaton were scheduled to face Steve Austin and Terrance Taylor in a traditional scaffold match but on the day of the show, a "capture the flag" stipulation was added as the wrestlers were unwilling to perform a risky fall from the scaffold.

Dustin Rhodes and The Young Pistols (Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong) faced The Fabulous Freebirds is a six-man elimination match.

The masked The Yellow Dog defeated Johnny B. Badd by disqualification when Badd's manager Teddy Long interfered to try to unmask Yellow Dog; had he done so, Brian Pillman (who was wrestling under the mask) would not be allowed to wrestle in WCW again.

The final match was originally supposed to pit The Steiner Brothers and Missy Hyatt against Arn Anderson, Barry Windham and Paul E. Dangerously. After Windham was moved to the title match following Flair's departure from WCW and Scott Steiner sustained an injury, the match was changed into a mixed tag team match pitting Rick Steiner and Missy Hyatt against Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously. Before the match Dick Murdoch and Dick Slater forcibly took Hyatt backstage, turning the match into a handicap match, which Rick Steiner won (in reality, this was done, because the Maryland State Athletic Commission didn't allow intergender matches).

Results
No. Results[2][3][4] Stipulations Times
1D Junkyard Dog defeated Black Bart Singles match 12:45
2 P.N. News and Bobby Eaton defeated Steve Austin and Terrance Taylor (with Lady Blossom) Capture-The-Flag Scaffold match 06:19
3 The Diamond Studd (with Diamond Dallas Page) defeated Tom Zenk Singles match 09:00
4 Ron Simmons defeated Oz (with Merlin the Wizard) Singles match 07:55
5 Richard Morton (with Alexandra York) defeated Robert Gibson Singles match 17:03
6 Dustin Rhodes and The Young Pistols (Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong) defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Badstreet, Jimmy Garvin, Michael Hayes) (with Big Daddy Dink) Elimination match 17:10
7 The Yellow Dog defeated Johnny B. Badd (with Theodore Long) by disqualification Singles match 06:00
8 Big Josh defeated Black Blood (with Kevin Sullivan) Lumberjack match 05:39
9 El Gigante defeated One Man Gang (with Kevin Sullivan) Singles match 06:13
10 Nikita Koloff defeated Sting Russian Chain match 11:38
11 Lex Luger defeated Barry Windham Steel Cage match for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship 12:25
12 Rick Steiner defeated Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously Steel Cage match 02:08
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • D – indicates the match was a dark match

Dustin Rhodes and Young Pistols vs. Fabulous Freebirds eliminations
Elimination no. Wrestler Team Eliminated by Elimination move Time
1 Steve Armstrong Dustin Rhodes/Young Pistols Michael Hayes Double DDT with Badstreet 13:49
2 Michael Hayes Fabulous Freebirds None Disqualified for backdropping Smothers over the top rope 14:04
3 Tracy Smothers Dustin Rhodes/Young Pistols Jimmy Garvin Double DDT with Badstreet 15:16
4 Jimmy Garvin Fabulous Freebirds Dustin Rhodes Lariat 15:24
5 Badstreet Fabulous Freebirds Dustin Rhodes Bulldog 17:10
Survivor: Dustin Rhodes
gollark: It works if they're *identical* and know they'll both make the same decision.
gollark: Taking one box is also rational because if you do you get 1 million and if you don't you get 10000.
gollark: Predicting which box I'll take effectively means running a high accuracy simulation of me. Thus, since I may be being simulated when I choose, my choice does affect the (eventual) box content, thus take one box.
gollark: No. I've thought about this.
gollark: Oh, lyric, heard of Newcomb's paradox?

References
  1. Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  2. Cawthon, Graham (2014). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 4: World Championship Wrestling 1989-1994. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 1499656343.
  3. "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Great American Bash 1991". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 136.
  4. "Great American Bash 1991". Pro Wrestling History. July 14, 1991. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.