Beach Blast 1993

Date: 07/18/1993

Location: Biloxi, Mississippi — Mississippi Coast Coliseum

Announcers: Tony Schiavone & Jesse Ventura

The Setup

A midget blew up a boat, and we got the tag team main event. This was the last show where we got a Cheatham the evil midget video setting up a PPV. WCW champion Vader teamed with the just-returned Sid against his previous two PPV opponents. While that was pretty weak for a PPV, Ric Flair was getting his first shot at the NWA title since returning to WCW. I guess that’s one of the few benefits of having two world titles in this period. 

The Business

This show did 100,000 PPV buys, which was par for the course for 1993. Five of their seven PPVs in 1993 did between 95 and 100,000 buys. As fun as the Vader era was in the ring, he was not a draw. 

Prowrestlinghistory had an attendance of 8,600 for a $33,000 gate, so it sounds like a lot of freebies were given away in Biloxi. 

Results

TV Title Match: Paul Orndorff (c) def. Ron Simmons (via DQ) — 11:15 **1/4

2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell def. Tex Slazenger & Shanghai Pierce — 12:48 **1/2

Lord Steven Regal def. Erik Watts — 7:31 *1/4

Johnny B. Badd def. Maxx Payne — 4:50 *

World Tag Team Title Match: The Hollywood Blonds (c) def. The Four Horsemen — 26:14 **1/2

US Title Match: Dustin Rhodes vs. Rick Rude — Iron Man match — 30:00 (ends in 1–1 draw) *1/4

NWA World Title Match: Ric Flair def. Barry Windham (c) — 11:15 **3/4

Sting & Davey Boy Smith def. Big Van Vader & Sid Vicious — 16:44 **3/4 

Snap Bumps

-The main event tag was good and featured the US debut of Vader’s moonsault, but wasn’t even at the level of the six-man at the Clash all four of those guys were in. Bulldog got the pin on Vader to set up their Clash match. Yes, they did a finish in a tag match on a PPV to set up a world title match on free television. Excellent work. 

-The Dustin vs. Rude match was long, plodding, and full of long ass holds. Rude never really got it back after the back injury at the end of ‘92. Maybe the final two minutes were hot, but the crowd mostly sat silently, even when Rude screamed, “You ain’t shit, Rhodes!” 

-Flair beat Windham in what was a terribly anticlimactic NWA title switch. The match got LESS time than Scorpio & Bagwell vs. Tex and Shanghai. Both men worked hard, and the company created a nice video package to make the match seem important, but Windham being pinned in Figure Four was also an odd choice. 

-Vader pinned Bulldog with a crucifix roll-up just like when he won the IC title from Bret at Wembley. 

-The TV title match started well, but started getting a little clunky near the end, and the finish, where Simmons was DQ’d for accidentally backdropping Orndorff to the floor, was lazy. 

-Poor Barry Windham had to job to Flair after Flair refused to put Barry over for the title before leaving in 1991. He left right after due to a knee injury. Hm.

-The problem with how they booked Regal after turning him heel quickly after coming in is that he was facing many young American wrestlers who couldn’t work his style. It didn’t help his matches, which is probably why the easy heat gimmick worked so well. 

-Scorpio blew a spot jumping off Bagwell’s back to the Texans on the ramp, and that match never fully got its heat back. It actually worked best when Tex and Shanghai were putting the heat on Bagwell. Go figure. 

-The Badd-Payne match wasn’t good. Badd wore a mask to sell the injury from the Baddblaster angle and started heated, but they got no time and started messing up moves. The crowd booed fairly loudly when Badd ghosted a dropkick, and Payne crashed over the top rope anyway. 

-Maybe it was the double heat in the tag title match, but the match dragged quite a bit. Arn and Roma didn’t work well as a team, and it didn’t help that we got a fairly abbreviated comeback after the babyfaces were beaten on for so long. 

-The fans came alive for the main event, but really cooled after the Scorpio tag match overall. 

The Verdict

The last two matches at least brought this show up to a thumbs up in the middle, but it was tight.  The show felt like it went from one averagish thing to the next. The time management was flat weird, with Dustin and Rude planning for thirty and the tag title match getting nearly that. Ric Flair won back the NWA world title (and big gold belt), and it didn’t seem to matter. The main event was good, but didn’t feel like a PPV main event. The more I write, the more I talk myself into a thumbs down, but it was okay primarily; it was just a bad misuse of talent.