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By: Brian Hoops, Nostalgia Specialist

This week’s flashback to wrestling nostalgia takes us back to July 18, 1993 to Biloxi, Mississippi and the WCW second “Beach Blast” PPV. This show drew a .50 buy rate and a crowd of 8,600 people to the Biloxi Event Center. The show was built around Ric Flair attempting to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title from Champion Barry Windham and Sting and Davey Boy Smith teaming together to take on Big Van Vader and Sid Vicious.

Tony Schivione and Jesse Ventura are the announce team with Missy Hyatt and Eric Bischoff co-hosting the show.

1. Paul Orndorff defeated Ron Simmons by disqualification in 10:35 in a match for the WCW World TV Title. Orndorff came into the match as the champion with Simmons playing the role of the babyface challenger. Simmons was the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion, losing the title to Big Van Vader in December of 1992, and WCW had no idea what to do with Simmons after losing the title. Simmons was placed in the mid-card feud over the TV title with Orndorff and then faded away until his release in 1994. Simmons was in control through most of the match until Orndorff took the action to the floor. Back in the ring, Orndorff used a rear chin lock for a rest hold; then Orndorff threw Simmons into the turnbuckle and back to the rear chin lock. Referee Randy Anderson gave them the two minute cue and Simmons started his comeback. Simmons didn’t have a lot of offense on his own, so they worked around Simmons reversing Orndorff’s offense into several near falls. Finish came when Simmons reversed a piledriver into a backdrop over the top rope for the disqualification. The crowd booed the finish.

2. Marcus Alexander Bagwell and 2 Cold Scorpio defeated Tex Slazenger and Shanghi Pierce in12:44. Bagwell and Scorpio were a fresh, new tag team in WCW in July of 1993 and showing a lot of in ring chemistry. Slazenger and Pierce would go on to the WWF and wrestle as the Godwinns. Pace of the match was very slow early on, with a lot of simple arm drags, arm bars and back drops. Bagwell and Scorpio were getting over by working a fast paced, athletic style with Pierce and Slazenger were big brawlers, so the clash of styles hurt the match. The heels worked over Bagwell the entire match, until Scorpio made the hot tag. Scorpio cleared the ring and hit a top rope splash on Slazenger. Bagwell gave Pierce a backsuplex and Scorpio hit the 450 splash for the win. Turned into an average match.

3. Steven Regal, with Sir William (Bill Dundee) defeated Erik Watts in 7:31. The Watts push was slowly fading as Cowboy Bill Watts was out of power and Dusty Rhodes was running the book for WCW. Regal controlled the entire match, until Watts got Regal in the STF. Just before Regal was going to tap out, Sir William hit Watts in the head with his cane. Regal then rolled Watts up from behind for the pin. A nothing match. After the match, Regal challenged Paul Orndorff for the TV title.

4. Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero) defeated Maxx Payne in 4:52. Badd was seeking revenge on Payne from the June Clash of Champions event. They were supposed to wrestle at the Clash, however Payne shot Badd’s Badd Blaster into his face and Badd was forced to wear a mask. Badd attacked Payne early, but Payne quickly overpowered Badd. Payne went for his arm bar finisher, but Badd made the ropes. The match picked up as Badd hit a dropkick on Payne that sent Payne to the outside. Badd hit a tope on Payne outside the ring. Payne tried to splash Badd against the steel post, but Badd moved and Payne hit the steel post. Badd threw Payne into the ring and came off the second rope with a cross body for the pin.

5. The Horsemen, Paul Roma and Arn Anderson; defeated the Hollywood Blonds, Brian Pillman and Steve Austin; by disqualification in a match for the WCW World Tag Team Titles in 26:13. The Blonds came into the match as the champions and retained the title on the dq finish. Ventura mentioned the Blonds were his favorite tag team in all of wrestling. He also said they were Sylvester Stallone’s favorite team. Pillman was really getting into it with the crowd and Austin had to go outside the ring to separate Pillman from the fans. Pillman was really underrated when it came to working the crowd when he was a heel. This was a standard, back and forth match as they did a good job of telling the story that the Blonds were the equals to the Horsemen as neither team could gain a dominate advantage over the other. They went 25 minutes before any nearfalls were even tried. Anderson had Pillman rolled up in a small package for 10 seconds, but the referee was with Roma. Anderson hit a spinebuster on Austin, but Pillman made the save. The Roma tried to roll up Austin, but Pillman hit a wicked clothesline on Roma and Austin covered him for the pin. This was a good tag team match.

6. Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes wrestled to a time limit draw. This match was a 30 minute Iron Man match that ended in a 1 fall to 1 fall tie and the U.S. Heavyweight Title remains held up. Rick Rude was the U.S. champion for most of 1992 and was stripped of his title in January of 1993 due to a neck injury that kept him out of action for several months. In Rude’s absence, WCW held a tournament to determine the new champion. Rhodes defeated Ricky Steamboat for the title and became the new champion. However, once Rude returned, he challenged Rhodes for the title in a series of matches and appeared to have won the title in a TV match, however WCW held up the belt and declared the winner of the Iron Man match would be the new U.S. champion. Rude and Ricky Steamboat had an outstanding match as Beach Blast 1992, however; this match was not nearly as good as that match. Rude scored the first pinfall at the 13:20 mark as he hit the Rude Awakening on Rhodes and got the pin. Rude then went to the top rope and hit a clothesline but Rhodes kicked out on the next pin attempt. Rude went for a rear chin lock, but Rhodes came back with a piledriver for a near fall. At the 27:00 mark, Rhodes and Rude were trading blows and Rhodes hit Rude with a bulldog out of nowhere for his first pinfall and the match was tied at 1-1. Match ended with Rude and Rhodes both frantically trying for pinfalls in the final three minutes. It was a slow paced match but a good final seven minutes.

7. Ric Flair defeated Barry Windham to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title in 11:23. Windham had won the title at SuperBrawl in February and the plan was for Flair to defeat Windham for the title after a short chase for the belt. Windham hurt his knee in the weeks prior to the match and would be out of action for six months after having surgery. Windham wrestled the match hurt, but still put on a good showing. Windham’s knee was heavily wrapped but it didn’t appear to have an adverse effect on the match. Even though they had worked against each other hundreds of times, this was an average match; solid but not spectacular. Flair hit a high cross body off the top rope for a near fall and then went for the figure four. The first attempt, Windham made the ropes for the break. Flair locked in it on the second time and Windham couldn’t make the ropes. While he was reaching for the ropes, the referee counted his shoulders down for a pinfall. Jesse Ventura interviewed Ric Flair after the match.

8. Sting and Davey Boy Smith defeated Sid Vicious and Big Van Vader in 16:43. Vader and Vicious controlled most of the match, first building heat on Smith and then on Sting. Sting made the tag to Smith, but Vader dominated him. Vader hit and moonsault and covered Smith for the pin, but Sting made the save. The referee cleared the ring of Sting and Vicious and Vader tried to give Smith a clothesline, but Smith reversed it into a crucifix and rolled Vader back for the pinfall. A good match with a clean pinfall finish.

Summary: This was an average card with no matches standing out as a must see match. The PPV was a decent show overall, but not one that I would recommend.

I hope you enjoyed this week's look at wrestling nostalgia. Please email at bhoops@iw.net if you have any questions or comments and visit
http://www.midwestmarketsolutions.com/blog.php?author=1 to view my blog site.

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