It is summertime and the living is, frankly, not as easy as normal. Not as many of us are spending time sunning at the beach or hitting up BBQs. One event that was a staple of 90’s summers was Bash at the Beach. Every July WCW would put on their Bash at the Beach show as one of their biggest pay-per-views of the summer.
With lots of us inside a lot more often, I wanted to find some gems to watch and pass the time. Remember summers gone by and enjoy five of the best matches from WCW Bash at the Beach events:
1994: Steve Austin (c) vs Ricky Steamboat, WCW United States Championship
In his WCW run, Steve Austin was one of the best technical talents that the company had. He was truly one of the best workers in the world, which may seem strange to those who know him as the brawling redneck Stone Cold. Ricky Steamboat was a frequent opponent of Austin at this time. The two had counters on top of counters, and there’s a false finish here that works effectively. Check out these two battling here.
1996: Dean Malenko (c) vs Disco Inferno, WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Spoilers for this list: it is dominated by Cruiserweight action. They were the best part of WCW’s product for years, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Dean Malenko was on his game in 1996. He reigned as WCW Cruiserweight Champion and took on all comers. We just covered Dean Malenko on Crossbody of Work, which you can listen to here. In this defense Malenko and Inferno go back and forth. It’s only 12 minutes long, but is a great snapshot of the work that the Cruiserweight division did. Watch the match here.
1997: Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr, & Hector Garza vs La Parka, Villano IV, & Psychosis
Full disclosure here: La Parka is my guy. He was a walking meme before memes were even a twinkle in our eyes. The Chairman of the Board was always hilarious, and I’m also a sucker for the luchador style in general. In this six-man tag, it is constant action without typical “tags”. There are stereo dives and some attempted trickery in the end of this match, which only goes about ten minutes. Want to watch six amazing athletes do their thing, then watch it here.
1998: Eddie Guerrero vs Chavo Guerrero, Hair vs Hair match
This match is weird, I’ll give it that. It gets weirder than Chavo’s entrance with a pool floaty and a Super Soaker. Before this match, Chavo had a match against Stevie Ray. Stevie shook his hand, and during that Chavo submitted. That lead into the hair vs hair match, that is by no means a technical masterpiece. Still, it is such a weird spectacle that it is worth watching. It’s better than the main event of Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman versus DDP & Karl Malone, not that that says much. Watch the match and one of them shave their head on their own here.
1999: Jersey Triad (DDP, Chris Kanyon & Bam Bam Bigelow) (c) vs Perry Saturn & Chris Benoit, WCW Tag Team Championships
This tag team match has a lot going for it. One, it has five talented wrestlers. Two, it was one of the lone bright spots on a really bad card. Those factors helped make this match (which was essentially a handicap match) stand out. It is still weird to see DDP operate as a heel, but he and the rest of the Jersey Triad do a good job in control in this match. Saturn & Benoit are great at getting some offense in and operating from underneath. If you want to see a diamond of a match on a rough card, check it out here.
