WCW Beach Blast 1993 Review
- Tomás Cunha
- Aug 15, 2023
- 18 min read
Updated: Apr 18
July 18, 1993 Location: Biloxi, MS, USA (Mississippi Coast Coliseum) Announced attendance: ca 8 600 PPV buys: 100 000 (same as Slamboree 1993’s 100 000 buys; up 28.6% from Beach Blast 1992’s 75 000 buys; down 84.1% from WWF KOTR 1993’s 245 000 buys)
What’s up, people? Welcome everyone to my review of WCW Beach Blast 1993. It’s a pleasure to have you here! Barry Windham vs. Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship and a tag team match with Sting & The British Bulldog taking on Big Van Vader & Sid Vicious are the two featured matches of the night. Additionally, the former US Champions Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes will battle in a 30-minute Iron Man Match for the vacant US Title. All that and much more!
Here is the list of WCW champions heading into Beach Blast:
WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Big Van Vader [123rd day of his 3rd reign] – previous champion: Sting
NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Barry Windham [147th day of his 1st reign] – previous champion: The Great Muta
WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Vacated [for 50 days] – previous champion: Dustin Rhodes, before it was vacated
WCW World Television Champion: Paul Orndorff [138th day of his 1st reign] – previous champion: Scott Steiner, before it was vacated
WCW/NWA Unified World Tag Team Champions: The Hollywood Blonds (Stunning Steve Austin & Flyin’ Brian Pillman) [138th day of their 1st reign] – previous champions: Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas
Note: in title matches, the defending champions are underlined
Enjoy the review!
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Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Jesse Ventura
The show begins with Eric Bischoff and Missy Hyatt on stage saying… nothing essentially. They throw it to Schiavone, who’s announcing alone because Jesse Ventura is in good company! Ventura makes his entrance alongside the ladies and joins Schiavone.
WCW World Television Championship – Paul Orndorff vs. Ron Simmons
If Orndorff gets DQ’d he loses the title.
The ‘Paula’ chants distract Orndorff, who gets knocked off the apron before the bell. Simmons catches Paul with an elbow smash and a dropkick for two, and Orndorff bails. Cue the ‘Paula’ chants once more. Simmons regains control back in the ring with a wristlock, which Paul escapes with a back elbow shot. He misses a charge and eats turnbuckle, but Simmons misses a clothesline and Orndorff goes for the sleeper. Into the buckle goes Simmons and Orndorff takes him down with a backdrop suplex. Orndorff misses a move off the top rope and hurts his knee, and Simmons goes after the leg. Unfortunately, his stuff doesn’t look very good, but it’s the thought that counts. Orndorff kicks him away when Simmons goes for a Figure Four Leglock, throws Ron’s head into the announce table and brings him back inside for a rear chinlock. Simmons comes back but eats boot on a blind charge in the corner, and Orndorff goes back to the rear chinlock. Simmons escapes and explodes with a big powerslam for two. Sunset flip gets two. Orndorff completely misses a dropkick and eats a clothesline from Ron, who follows it up with a back elbow smash for two. Simmons hits a suplex with Orndorff grabbing the ropes to break the pin. Orndorff thumbs him in the eyes and sets up for the piledriver, which Simmons escapes with a backdrop over the top rope leading to the lame DQ finish in 11:15. Simmons beats up Orndorff some more after the result is announced.
Rating: The match is fine but there was really no rhythm or flow to it. Simmons went after the leg in the beginning yet they never really followed up on it nor did it lead anywhere. Simmons just keeps getting f-cked ever since he became World Champion with all these terrible finishes. **
2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs. Tex Slazenger & Shanghai Pierce
Bagwell is unable to shoulderblock Shanghai to start, but a crossbody gets the job done. All four guys take the fight to the ramp for a while before the Texans regroup. Slazenger gets in (he’s the future Mideon, by the way) and he asks for 2 Cold Scorpio. Bagwell obliges and Tex takes 2 Cold down with a shoulderblock. A huge backdrop knocks Scorpio all the way to the top rope. Tex takes Scorpio to the top rope but Scorpio kicks him away and jumps off with a high crossbody. Scorpio & Bagwell with a double armdrag and it’s off to Bagwell, who catches Slazenger with an armdrag into an armbar off a criss-cross sequence. The ref gets busy with Scorpio not being in his corner, though, allowing Pierce to drive a knee to Bagwell’s back while he criss-crosses. The Texans go to work on the arm while using frequent tags. Bagwell sunset flips Tex for two, only to get up right into a clothesline from Tex. Pierce comes off the top with a knee for two. The Texans cheat behind the ref’s back some more and Pierce grabs a headlock with some assistance from Tex that the ref can’t see. The fans are into it as they keep building the eventual hot tag nicely. Pierce hits a nice gutwrench sitout powerbomb for two. Shanghai Pierce is the future Henry Godwinn in the WWF. The Texans with a nice double-team combo with Tex hitting a shoulderbreaker followed by a Pierce elbowdrop for two. Bagwell ducks a blind charge and makes the hot tag to Scorpio, who runs wild with his fast offense. 2 Cold superkicks Pierce and comes off the top with a flying splash, but Slazenger breaks up the pin which leads to a big melee. The faces knock the heels into each other, Scorpio dumps Tex with a dropkick while Bagwell backdrop suplexes Pierce in the ring. That sets up Scorpio’s 450 Splash for the win at 12:48.
Rating: That was actually pretty nice for a nothing undercard match. They set up Scorpio’s hot tag sequence quite well and the crowd dug it. Perhaps it was a bit longer than it needed to be, but I didn’t mind it. **3/4
Missy Hyatt interviews Paul Orndorff and “a man we’ve never seen before in WCW”. It turns out to be The Equalizer aka Dave Sullivan, who seems to be Orndorff’s new heavy. Orndorff talks about how he beat Ron Simmons because he plays by the rules and proceeds to call Ricky Steamboat old after Missy mentions him as a potential future TV title challenger. Well, this was there. It would’ve worked better had it been on the weekly television shows, especially considering The Equalizer was nowhere to be seen when Paul was in trouble of losing his title earlier.
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Lord Steven Regal (w/ Sir William) vs. Erik Watts
Watts comes out with American flags in an attempt to get over with the crowd. Yeah, good luck with that. Lockup to start with each man going after the other’s arm. Watts gets the better of that exchange by locking in a wristlock, Regal rolls through and monkey flips his way out of it, but Watts keeps him in the hold. Watts stays on the arm by dropping some knees on it. Regal finally wrestles his way out of the hold and takes Watts down for two. Watts tries to come back, but Regal twists the arm and takes him back to the mat for two. They trade nearfalls on a pinfall reversal sequence, but get no reaction and the announcers basically bash the crowd for it. The sequence was actually fine, but people just don’t wanna see Watts. He stays on the arm and sunset flips Regal for two. Regal switches gears by hitting some European uppercuts, and he removes the kneepad to drive a knee to the face but Watts ducks it. Watts puts him in the STF near the ropes, Sir William breaks it with a shot to the face while the ref was checking the submission, and Regal steals with a handful of tights at 7:31.
Rating: Regal did everything he could and then some to make Erik Watts look good. The match was actually fine, but the crowd couldn’t care less because it’s Erik freakin’ Watts. **1/4
Steven Regal gets interviewed by Jesse Ventura after the match. He claims he didn’t even break a sweat beating Erik Watts and issues a challenge to Paul Orndorff for the Television Championship.
They actually show us a brief recap from Clash of the Champions with Maxx Payne hitting Johnny B. Badd with the confetti at Clash of the Champions. No, really.
Johnny B. Badd vs. Maxx Payne
Johnny comes out with a mask to sell the “pain” of being hit with the CONFETTI OF DEATH. Seriously, I can’t believe this made it to the pay-per-view. Badd unloads on Maxx to start while Schiavone puts over the seriousness of this blood feud of epic proportions. Johnny misses a blind charge and launches himself all the way to the floor, though. Maxx brings him back in and hits a suplex. Hammerlock slam, running avalanche in the corner and an armbar by Maxx. Badd comes back but Maxx cuts him off and hits a backbreaker for two. Maxx catches him with the Payne Killer, but Badd just happens to land with his feet under the ropes and that breaks it up. Maxx Payne hits a suplex for two. Badd comes back with a sunset flip for two, Maxx turns it around with a slam but misses an elbowdrop and Badd dropkicks him to the outside. Badd meets him out there with a dive, only to get sent into the post. Payne ends up eating the post as well, though, allowing Johnny to throw him back in and come off the top with a high crossbody to win the “grudge match” at 4:50.
Rating: This sucked. The whole feud was dumb and simply goofy to begin with, and the match didn’t make up for it. Apparently Johnny got revenge for his “smashed face” by getting a pin with a crossbody. Good for him. *
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WCW/NWA Unified World Tag Team Championship – The Hollywood Blonds (Stunning Steve Austin & Flyin’ Brian Pillman) vs. The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Paul Roma)
Pillman challenges a Horsemen fan into a fight, delaying the beginning of the action. Roma and Austin with the lockup to start and they reach a stalemate. They go for it again, Austin takes him to the corner and talks some trash to intimidate Roma. Roma responds with a closed fist, Austin bails so Pillman can check him and Brian plants a kiss on his cheek. That pisses off the crowd even more! Brian comes in to face Roma and he asks the referee to check Roma’s elbowpad, while adjusting his own tights with his back turned to the ref! Austin and Pillman are so charismatic. Anderson comes in to take on Brian, who quickly turns things around with a hiptoss out of the corner. Arn takes Pillman down with a handful of hair, and Pillman stops to complain some more. In comes Austin, Arn with a shoulderblock but he criss crosses right into a backdrop by Austin. Anderson dumps Austin to the floor, and Austin asks for a handshake back inside the ring. Arn stops to ask the crowd, grabs the hand… and unloads on Austin! Tag to Paul Roma, who comes off the top rope with a double axehandle before putting him in a wristlock. Ventura is constantly saying how it’s the Horsemen cheating while the Blonds have wrestled a totally clean match. So far, he’s right!
Bearhug attempt by Austin, Roma turns it into a sunset flip for two. Roma counters a gutwrench powerbomb into a backslide for two more and fires away with an armdrag. Roma goes for a crossbody, but Austin moves out of the way and tags in Brian. Pillman with a LOUD chop to Roma in the corner. Roma retaliates with a blatant chokehold that gets Jesse all worked up again! Clothesline by Roma gets two. Anderson comes in and goes to work with a wristlock. Pillman drives a knee to the gut to break the hold, but Arn catches him with a stungun of sorts. The Horsemen work together and Arn sets up for the spinebuster, but Pillman’s knee just so happens to buckle and Austin asks for a time out! The referee asks for some separation, allowing Pillman to take advantage and assault Arn’s knee. Pillman dumps him and goes for a flying move off the apron, but Arn ducks and Pillman eats the railing. Pillman beats the count back in and walks into a sunset flip from Roma, with Austin having to come in to break the pin at two. Austin rams Roma throat first onto the railing on the outside, putting the Blonds in the driver’s seat.
Gutwrench suplex by Austin, who challenges Arn so they can cheat while the ref is busy with Arn. Short clothesline by Austin and he stops to do some push-ups. Austin drives some knees to Roma’s throat, Roma tries to fight back but Pillman takes him down with a drop toehold. Roma gets his feet up on a blind charge by Austin, but Austin positions himself between Roma and Arn and punches the latter, enabling the Blonds to cheat some more. Roma sends Pillman’s face into the post and they blow the double dropkick double KO spot, clearly not making contact. Alas, Anderson gets the hot tag and he runs wild all over the champions. Great looking DDT by Arn seems to finish Brian, but Austin comes in with an axehandle to the back of Arn’s head. Pillman goes to steal it but it only gets two. Austin in with a bodyslam and a flying axehandle for two. Anderson comes back with a headbutt, although it ends up hurting Arn more than it does Austin, who remains in control. Pillman sends Arn into the railing and Austin goes for a piledriver on the floor, but Arn reverses with a backdrop. Arn tries a DDT in the ring, which Austin blocks by hanging Arn on the ropes. Pillman cheats while Austin has the ref distracted. Austin sets up for the Stungun, but Arn hangs on and hits one of his own. Pillman hits Roma, Arn cradles him but the ref is distracted and misses the pin. They collide leading to a double KO spot, but Pillman falls close to Austin, who comes in with a backdrop suplex for two. Arn gets caught in the heel corner, fights off both Horsemen and suplexes Austin over the top to the floor. Ventura calls for a DQ. Pillman stops the hot tag, but gets taken down by Arn eventually as well. Roma with the hot tag. Backdrop for Austin, gorilla press slam for Pillman and Arn hits the Spinebuster on Austin, with Roma getting two off of it. The ref misses an O’Connor roll by Roma since he’s busy with Anderson, and Pillman reverses and puts Austin on top, who grabs a handful of tights to retain at 26:14.
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Rating: It was a good tag team match, but I definitely think it dragged near the end. The first half of the match was great with the Blonds showing off their great charisma. Like I said, I think it dragged a bit near the end and the crowd weren’t really into Paul Roma, but it was still a good match. ***1/4
Eric Bischoff & Missy Hyatt promote Fall Brawl, the next WCW PPV coming up September 19.
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship – 30-Minute Iron Man Match – Rick Rude vs. Dustin Rhodes
Ironically enough, this is the second time Rude competes in an Iron Man match at a Beach Blast PPV, and those were the only 2 Iron Man matches that ever happened in WCW history!
They feel each other out for the first couple of minutes and get in each other’s face. Rude unloads on Dustin and adds the hip swivel early on. That ends up costing him, however, allowing Dustin to turn the tables. Rhodes goes to work with a reverse chinlock, returns the hip swivel from a while ago and goes back to the reverse chinlock. Five minutes have gone on by now and nothing particularly interesting has happened. Rhodes goes to drop his ass on Rude’s back, but Rude turns around and gets his knees up hitting Rhodes right in his Naturals. Yikes. Rude follows it up with a clothesline, goes up for a flying axehandle and does the hip swivel again, but he’s too hurt and can’t do it this time. That reverse chinlock really hurt him, I see. Rude slaps in a bearhug while Schiavone talks about how awesome Rude vs. Steamboat was last year. Rude with a reverse chinlock of his own and that goes on for a while, before Dustin powers out of it with an electric chair drop. He goes for a splash but only finds Rude’s knees. Meanwhile, Gary Cappetta announces 10 minutes have gone by. Rhodes goes to work on the leg with a long submission. Rude fights back with a backbreaker and the Rude Awakening gives him the first fall at 13:19.
Rude 1-0 Rhodes
Rude immediately goes to the top rope and comes down with a flying clothesline for two. We’re at the halfway point with 15 minutes left on the clock. Rude with a necksnap and Dustin takes a nasty bump on the long ramp. Rhodes breaks up the count at 7 and Rude goes for a chinlock back inside the ring. Dustin comes back but misses a blind charge in the corner, with Rude still in control. He sets him up for a tombstone piledriver, but Rhodes rolls through and hits it himself for two. Charge by Rhodes, Rude moves out of the way and Rhodes goes flying to the outside. Back in the ring, Rude hits a snap suplex for two. Rhodes with a suplex of his own as we have 10 minutes remaining. Flying axehandle by Rude as this keeps dragging. Knee to the gut and Rude poses once more. Rude goes back to the reverse chinlock with about 7 minutes to go. Rhodes fights out of it, slugs away only to walk into a sleeper from Rude. This would be good strategy if a good 50% of the match hadn’t been chinlocks up until now. Rhodes escapes the hold with a jawbreaker, but he’s too hurt to follow up on it and Rude stays on top. Rude rams Rhodes’ head into the buckle a few times, until Rhodes spits on him and makes the comeback. However, Rude thumbs the eyes and Rhodes gets knocked silly to the floor. Back in, Rude humiliates Rhodes some more, but it backfires as Rhodes explodes with the Bulldog to make it 1-1 at 26:56.
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Rude 1-1 Rhodes
The matches continues with less than 3 minutes left, and Rhodes hits a flying axehandle for two. Piledriver by Rhodes gets two because Rude makes the ropes. Rhodes with a series of running clotheslines for two with less than a minute left now. Rhodes with a sleeper as the clock keeps ticking. Rude escapes it with a jawbreaker, goes up but Rhodes ducks his flying move and hits a DDT… but the 30:00 time limit expires mid-pin. The crowd rightfully boos that finish.
Rating: For an Iron Man match this was way too slow and boring for the most part, which is a shame given how absolutely awesome Rude/Steamboat had been the year before. Sadly, there was no flow to this one and the wrestlers didn’t have much chemistry, which is also weird given how good both men are. This is one of those matches that had everything to be great but it just never clicked for whatever reason. Needless to say, keeping the US title vacant with a draw in the end didn’t exactly help. **1/2
They show us a recap from Clash with Ric Flair and Barry Windham getting into a fight at the end of the show. Then, a few weeks later on Worldwide Wrestling, they got into yet another slugfest that started in the ring and went all the way to the parking lot.
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NWA World Heavyweight Championship – Barry Windham vs. Ric Flair
Windham takes it to Flair with some blows to start, but Flair throws his classic chops in return. However, Windham catches him with a clothesline out of the corner. Flair with more chops, though, and Windham bails. Back in the ring, Windham clotheslines Flair, slugs away on him and throws him into the outside. Windham brings Flair back in the hardway with a suplex from the apron to the ring. Flair with a thumb to the eyes and some chops, shoulderblock by Windham but Flair comes back with a sleeper. Windham rams Flair’s face into the buckle to escape, though, and Flair goes down off the Flair Flop. Barry with a Samoan drop and a scoop powerslam for two. Legdrop gets two. Lariat gets two more. Flair nearly steals it with a quick jackknife pin, but Windham strikes with a cheapshot. A forearm knocks Windham to the floor, though. Flair follows him there, only to get slammed by Windham out on the floor. Windham brings him back in and goes for the 10 corner punches, but Flair cuts him off with an atomic drop. Kneedrop by Flair but he can’t suplex him, and Windham puts him on the top rope and brings him down with a superplex. Windham up top, but misses a flying elbowdrop and Flair cradles him for two. Windham whips Flair into the corner, Flair Flip and into the other corner for a high crossbody, but the momentum puts Windham on top for two. Backdrop suplex by Flair and he goes to work on the legs. He tries the Figure Four, but Windham’s on the ropes. Second attempt, but Windham kicks him off. Flair takes him down with a kick to the knee, applies the Figure Four and Windham gets his shoulders pinned to the mat, giving Flair the Big Gold Belt back in 11:15.
Rating: Good match with a strange finish. Windham didn’t get knocked out while in the hold, it just looked like he got distracted for a second and got pinned. I don’t know if he screwed up for real or not, but the fact is it looked odd. Aside from that, the match was good but nothing crazy. ***1/4
Main Event
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The Masters of the Powerbomb (Big Van Vader & Sid Vicious) (w/ Harley Race & Col. Robert Parker) vs. The Super Powers (Sting & Davey Boy Smith)
Sting slugs away on Sid to start. Stinger with a pair of faceplants and a clothesline, until Sid catches him with a Chokeslam. Sting gets caught in the wrong corner and double-teamed, causing Bulldog to get involved and the faces come off the same top rope with flying clotheslines in stereo. Vader and Sid bail with the crowd going absolutely crazy. The match resumes in the ring with Vader and Bulldog. Vader unloads in the corner with his scary barrage of punches knocking Bulldog silly. Clothesline by Vader, who sets his own pace. Bulldog is able to avoid a suplex by Vader and turns it into a delayed vertical suplex for two. That’s crazy levels of strength by Davey Boy! Bulldog knocks himself out by running right into Vader’s body.
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Running avalanche in the corner by Vader right into a big boot from Sid. Vader with another running clothesline. Sting challenges Vader from the apron, with Vader removing his mask and wanting to go at it. Sunset flip attempt by Davey Boy, Vader with an assdrop that Bulldog thankfully escapes, and Sid comes in with a double axehandle off the middle ropes. Sid with a nerve hold that Bulldog escapes with a powerslam. Vader tags in and Harley Race sets up Bulldog for an attack. Vader ends up hitting Race instead, tough, allowing Davey to make the hot tag to Sting. Dropkick to Vader, Sid gets knocked off the apron as well. Sting ducks a running avalanche in the corner, but Vader nails him with a regular clothesline. Sid chokes Sting on the ropes for a while, then brings in Vader so he can hit his series of punches in the corner. Flying clothesline by Vader, then he takes Sting up top for a superplex, which Sting avoids by biting Vader in the face and knocking him down to the mat. Vader stops the hot tag by driving an elbow to Sting’s body. Bodyslam by Sid, but Sting ducks an elbowdrop and makes the hot tag to Bulldog. He takes Sid down just to walk right into a kick to the gut. Samoan Drop by Vader gets two. Vader comes down with the Vader Bomb, but Sting saves the pin. Sid gets rid of Sting and they take the fight to the ramp, while Vader hits a Moonsault on Bulldog. However, Sting dives into the ring just in time to break up the count. Bulldog manages to counter a Samoan Drop by Vader into a crucifix pin for the win at 16:44.
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Rating: That was an electric match worthy of the main event spot that the fans were alive for. Vader getting pinned was a good ending that not many people expected since Vader was the champ and rarely got pinned. Vader was amazing in this match as usual, Sting was electrifying as always, Bulldog was impressive with great power moves, and while Sid was the least impressive part of this match, even he did his job nicely. I really like how they began the match with big moves that got the crowd into it right away, and the final sequence was great too. This was the match of the night in my opinion. ***1/2
After the match, a frustrated Vader nails Schiavone in the back of the head and throws some chairs around before leaving. They promote Fall Brawl, the next PPV that will feature WarGames, Jesse says he’s going back to his girls and that’s the show.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: Definitely not a PPV you need to go out of your way to watch right now. There are a couple of solid to good matches, but most are disappointing and underwhelming. Particularly the Iron Man match disappointed me, as I was expecting a lot more from that bout. The Blonds/Horsemen tag title match was good but I feel it dragged, Flair/Windham was good but had a very strange finish, and even the main event (which was good) had nothing on the line. It’s not horrible or even bad, but there’s really not much to see here – unless you’re curious to see Ric Flair winning his first title after coming back from the WWF. 5/10
POINT SYSTEM
Thank you all for reading. Make sure you don’t miss my upcoming reviews, as we get closer to WWF SummerSlam and WCW Fall Brawl. Until next time!
Written by:
Tomás Cunha
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