The Great American Bash 1990: Sting Finally Got His Night—and WCW Got the Big One Right

Pillman brings the energy the opener needs, using quick armdrags, dropkicks and repeated crossbody attempts to keep Landel moving. Landel responds by slowing him down with wrist control, eye rakes and veteran timing, creating a straightforward story in which the younger wrestler has to keep restarting his momentum after every shortcut.

The finish rewards that persistence. Landel blocks one rollup by holding the ropes, but Pillman immediately goes upstairs and catches him with the flying crossbody for the pin. Some retrospectives are much harsher on the bout, yet the structure is coherent and the work is cleaner than much of the early card. It earns a solid B rather than being treated as disposable filler.

The Iron Sheik attacks with the flag and immediately establishes the match as a throwback rather than something connected to WCW's younger direction. Rotunda responds with familiar amateur-based counters and a dropkick, but the pace repeatedly collapses into holds and loose transitions that never create real urgency.

The ending arrives suddenly when Rotunda catches Sheik with a backslide after a series of awkward suplex exchanges. Six minutes is not especially long, yet the match still feels padded because there is no larger story beyond two recognizable names wrestling. It is competent enough to avoid the bottom grade, but the crowd and card both move on quickly.

Furnas is physically impressive from the opening bell, throwing Mantel with power moves and showing the explosiveness that would become more refined later in his career. Mantel wisely responds by grounding him, taking shortcuts and forcing the inexperienced powerhouse to work through a slower match than he probably wants.

There are rough transitions, particularly late when both men attempt more complicated reversals, but Mantel keeps the bout from falling apart. Furnas eventually lands the belly-to-belly suplex for the victory. Eleven minutes is longer than necessary, yet the match works as a useful showcase for Furnas while giving Mantel credit for holding the structure together.

Race and Rich carry enormous historical credibility, but the match feels imported from another era. Race works deliberately with knees, suplexes and the piledriver, while Rich attempts to create movement with punches and a late comeback. The audience never becomes deeply invested because neither wrestler is positioned near the center of WCW's 1990 direction.

Rich finally tries a top-rope crossbody and Race rolls through for the pin. The finish is perfectly professional, and Race still knows how to make every movement look heavy, but six minutes of nostalgia cannot make the match feel essential. It functions as a farewell-stage curiosity more than a pay-per-view attraction.

The match begins with the Southern Boys surprising the champions through speed, armdrags and quick double teams. Eaton and Lane repeatedly retreat to consult Cornette, allowing the challengers to establish themselves as a genuine threat rather than decorative underdogs. The early karate exchange between Smothers and Lane is theatrical, but the crowd completely buys into it.

Once the Midnight Express isolate Smothers, the match becomes a lesson in tag-team geography. Every attempted escape is cut off by positioning, blind tags or Cornette's racket, while Eaton and Lane continuously find new ways to keep the wrong Southern Boy trapped. The control segment never feels repetitive because each cutoff raises the frustration.

Armstrong's eventual hot tag produces a sequence of near falls that feels increasingly desperate. The Southern Boys hit their missile dropkick, Eaton saves, the Rocket Launcher nearly finishes the match and a small-package switch creates another believable upset. The crowd has gone from skeptical to fully invested by this point.

Lane finally kicks Smothers from behind and Eaton cradles him for the pin. The champions retain without diminishing the challengers, and eighteen minutes disappear because every section has a purpose. A+ recognizes one of the great American tag-team matches of the period and the clear in-ring peak of the event.

Vader's debut is exactly as long as it needs to be. Zenk tries to use speed and basic offense, but almost everything bounces off the newcomer. Vader answers with short-arm clotheslines, a press slam, heavy elbows and a splash that immediately establishes the size difference.

The match ends in just over two minutes after another crushing splash. There is no complicated story because none is required; the purpose is to introduce Vader as a physical problem unlike anyone else on the card. A C+ may look generous for a squash, but the segment accomplishes its objective efficiently and leaves the audience with a clear impression of the debuting heavyweight.

The Steiners want to accelerate, throw suplexes and overwhelm the Freebirds with athletic power. Hayes and Garvin want to stall, regroup and control the pace. That contrast creates the match's personality, even when the repeated Freebird retreats delay the action longer than necessary.

Once the Freebirds finally isolate Rick, the bout finds a more conventional tag rhythm. Scott's hot tag immediately changes the speed, with powerbombs, presses and the Frankensteiner forcing Hayes and Garvin into survival mode. Garvin briefly appears to steal the match with a DDT, but Rick intervenes and the Steiners recover for the pin.

The match never reaches the level of the Midnight Express classic earlier on the card, yet the Steiners' athletic offense already looks like the future colliding with an older tag style. B- reflects a good match that becomes more interesting whenever the Steiners are allowed to dictate the pace.

Orndorff works hard enough to give the match some movement, trading with Sid, Arn and Windham while the Horsemen cycle through control segments. Junkyard Dog enters and largely refuses to sell the heels' offense, which makes the structure increasingly awkward. The crowd is far more interested in seeing Sid than the supposed babyface coalition.

The biggest problem is El Gigante. His in-ring debut is promoted as part of the attraction, yet he never makes a legal tag before the Horsemen are disqualified for throwing JYD over the top rope. Gigante chases them afterward, but the advertised novelty has effectively been withheld. Nine minutes of uneven work end with a technicality instead of a payoff.

Luger and Mean Mark look like they should have a straightforward power match, but the opening spends too much time in armbars and cautious exchanges. The pace improves when Mark begins using his size and Luger starts selling from underneath, yet several transitions remain visibly uncertain.

A referee bump leads to Paul E. Dangerously using the phone, adding interference to a match that does not need it. Mark sets up the Heart Punch, Luger recovers, takes Dangerously out and wins with a clothesline. The historical curiosity is substantial because this is Callous' final WCW pay-per-view, but the wrestling itself remains ordinary and occasionally clumsy.

Doom's power creates an obvious contrast with the Rock 'n' Roll Express formula. Gibson and Morton use quick tags and rollups early, but Simmons and Reed eventually isolate Morton and slow the match through clotheslines, forearms and repeated cutoffs. The structure is familiar enough that every stage can be predicted.

Morton finally escapes and Gibson gets the hot tag, briefly creating the expected full-ring chaos. Teddy Long becomes involved, Gibson chases him and Reed uses the distraction to hit the decisive shoulderblock from behind. Doom retain in a finish that protects the challengers without creating much excitement.

The match is professionally constructed and rarely bad, but it feels like a recreation of a formula that had produced hotter reactions several years earlier. C gives credit for solid execution while recognizing that fifteen minutes never develop into a memorable championship match.

Months of detours give the main event an emotional advantage before the bell. Flair immediately treats Sting's repaired knee as the key to survival, using chops, clipping attacks and repeated Figure Four attempts to test whether the challenger is truly ready. Sting responds with power, no-sells at the right moments and keeps forcing Flair to retreat.

The ringside presentation reinforces the stakes. The Dudes With Attitudes surround the ring to discourage Horsemen interference, while Ole Anderson is handcuffed to El Gigante. The extra bodies threaten to overwhelm the match occasionally, but the central story remains Sting trying to survive Flair's attack on the knee and finally finish the job.

Sting eventually misses the Stinger Splash and jars the injured leg, giving Flair his clearest opening. Flair attempts the Figure Four, Sting counters into the small package and the three count arrives cleanly enough to trigger the celebration the promotion has delayed since February. The finish is simple because the moment does not need another twist.

This is not the longest or most technically ambitious Flair-Sting match, but it is one of their most important. The crowd sees the correct wrestler win the correct championship at the correct time. A- reflects a very good main event elevated by an all-time career moment rather than pretending the match itself is an untouchable classic.