This day in wrestling history looks back on July 17, 1994 when WCW (World Championship Wrestling) added Bash at the Beach as one of their flagship events.
The inaugural event was preceded by Beach Blast in 1992 and 1993 before the name was finalized and made history as one of WCW’s top grossing pay-per-views in recent memory.
The numbers tell part of the story as roughly 14,000 people were in attendance, and another 225,000 watched from home. The buy rate equaled the promotions previous two pay-per-views, Slamboree and Spring Stampede, which garnered 225,000 total buys.
Simply put, this was WCW’s most watched pay-per-view in the promotion’s history to that point, and for good reason.
Hulk Hogan’s debut
Yep, this marked Hulk Hogan’s WCW in ring debut, and he went against none other than the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair in a dream match for fans.
This was the moment nearly every wrestling fan had dreamed of throughout the 1980s, and we were finally getting it.
It was our version of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Bill Goldberg or Sting vs. the Undertaker.
It was the holy grail of matches and everyone that could tried to watch it any way we could.
In a match that huge implications for fans, Hulk Hogan defeated Ric Flair to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
In a pageantry move that seemed more like a Vince McMahon move, Mr. T and Shaquille O’Neil were in Hogan’s corner for this moment.
It ended the talk over who was the greatest for the moment, but we al know that discussion isn’t going to end any time soon.
But as great as that was, there were a couple of tidbits longtime fans may want to watch for on the WWE Network or listen to Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson discuss it on 83 Weeks.
Fun extras
Not only will we notice some old favorites like Kevin Sullivan, Paul Orndorff, Vader, Arn Anderson, and others, but Tony Schiavone was the play by play announcer with Jesse Ventura and Bobby Heenan as co-color commentators.
But that’s not all.
A pretty awesome match that helped to make this day in wrestling history memorable featured two of my personal favorites as Stunning Steve Austin and Ricky Steamboat faced off for the United States Championship.
Austin defeated Steamboat to retain the championship, but unfortunately, this would be Steamboat’s final pay-per-view for WCW.
Steamboat would win the US Championship back at Clash of Champions 27 in August, but a career ending back injury forced him to vacate the championship at Fall Brawl.
It’s been reported that he was fired shortly afterwards by Eric Bischoff via Federal Express.
Not a good way to treat one of the greatest in history, but it seemed to be standard operating procedure for WCW at the time.
As rotten as that is, we can’t ignore the impact of the pay-per-view on this day in wrestling history and beyond.
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