(01.07.96)Live from Daytona Beach, FLAttendance: 8,300Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes & Bobby HeenanPsychosis Vs Rey Mysterio Jr.Mysterio wins with a frankensteiner from the top after countering a splash mountain in mid-air. This is honestly one of the best openers you will ever see. They pulled out move after move, high risk after high risk. Almost everything but the kitchen sink is in this match. Those that appreciate the Lucha Libre style will adore this match. Before Mysterio had to deal with injuries, he was ridiculously agile. ****1/4Big Bubba (W/Jimmy Hart) Vs John TentaSock on a Pole MatchOn top of the pole is a sock loaded with silver dollars, because WCW hasn't embarrassed themselves enough yet with these types of stipulations. Jimmy Hart grabs the sock full of dollars, but Tenta is waiting for him. Tenta drills Bubba with the sock and gets the win. This wasn't the atrocity I expected, but it was still pretty awful and utterly pointless. Bubba's (The Big Bossman) stock was going way downhill.3/4*Taped Fist Match (Lord of the Ring)Diamond Dallas Paige Vs "Hacksaw" Jim DugganDDP wins with the Diamond Cutter. Duggan drills DDP after the match with the taped fist. This match was borderline crappy! What angered me is that Duggan barely souled the Diamond Cutter! He shrugged it off pretty quickly.*1/4Dog Collar MatchPublic Enemy Vs The Nasty BoysThe Nasty Boys win. This was a LONG, boring match that I just wasn't able to get into. They used every weapon they could think of, including surfboards and chains, I just wasn't that excited about it. Every match with these guys seems to be the same.*1/2Cruiserweight ChampionshipDean Malenko (C) Vs Disco InfernoDean wins with the Texas Cloverleaf. This is a shockingly fun match! I could never take Disco seriously, because of his gimmick, but he came to play here. Disco was actually presented as a threat here and the two managed some good wrestling. ***1/4Joe Gomez Vs Steve McMichael (W/Debra)McMichael wins with a tombstone. I've never seen McMichael in action as a football player. However, I can't stand him as an announcer or a wrestler. The fact that he was a Horesmen member is a joke. The match was mediocre as you may expect.*1/2United States ChampionshipKonnan (C) Vs Ric Flair (W/Miss Elizabeth & Woman)Flair wins the title due to outside interference from Woman. This match was above average, if nothing else. I didn't see the need for all the cheating that Flair did against somebody like Konnan, though.**3/4Chris Beniot & Arn Anderson Vs The Giant & Kevin Sullivan (W/Jimmy Hart)The Giant pins Anderson with a chokeslam after Beniot and Sullivan brawl around ringside. Beniot continues to beat on Sullivan until Woman runs down to the ring and pleads with Beniot to stop. This one was pretty mediocre. It felt like a pretty unimportant grudge match. Woman trying to stop Beniot would lead to a long feud with Sullivan with Woman being involved. Woman was married to Sullivan in real life. *1/2The Outsiders & Mystery Partner Vs "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Lex Luger & Sting The 3rd man is NOT revealed at the start of this match. Luger gets knocked out inadvertently by his own teammate and has to be stretechered out. It turns into a 2 on 2 match. Hulk Hogan comes down to be everybody's hero as usual, right? WRONG! He drops the leg on Randy Savage. Hogan has betrayed WCW. He is the third man. Because there is a word limit, I can't write Hogan's amazing promo, but I do have some thoughts on it. Thoughts: Every time I watch this, I get chills. This changed wrestling forever. It officially made people interested in wrestling again with the formation of the NWO. Hogan is one of the biggest three babyfaces of all time, along with Stone Cold & The Rock. Ironically enough, though, he thrived more as a heel. A Hulk Hogan heel turn was the last thing anything expected. In all honesty, it was a long time coming. The crowd had booed Hogan heavily since 94. It's the greatest heel turn in wrestling history. All you need to do is look at all the trash that was thrown inside the ring. The mat is almost covered in debris! ***8/10 overall

1. Psychosis Vs. Rey Mysterio, Jr. - Incredible match, they are Kings of wrestling and I'll never get, why was Psychosis so underrated. The final move was breathtaking!! 10/10 2. Big Stiffa Vs. John Tenta - I cannot believe this feud wasn't over yet after 2 months. Horrible Big Bubba, Horrible match, horrible booking. At Least Tenta's got a victory. 5.5/10 3. Diamond Dallas Page Vs. "Insult" Jim Duggan - I don't like comedy matches with Duggan. Positive is that Page defeated him by bad Diamond cutter. Duggan even can't sold that move. Nothing special occurred. 6/10 4. Public Enemy Vs. Nasty Boys - Brawling with some stuff. Like always. Adittionaly, boring like hell. 5.5/10 5. WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Disco Inferno Vs. Champ-Dean Malenko - Now that was a good match. Malenko retained. 8.5/10 6. Joe Gomez Vs. Steve McMichael - What's that doing on PPV, I simply can't get. - Push for MONGO. Trololo. No way. 5.5/10 7. WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship: Champ-Konnan Vs. Ric Flair - OK Match with Nature boy's victory. 6.5/108. Chris Benoit/Arn Anderson Vs. Kevin Sullivan/Giant 6/10 9. Sting/Lex Luger/Randy Savage vs. Kevin Nash/Razor Ramon - Average match, legendary moment. Hulk turned heel, NWO was born. I give for great booking work. 10/10

Six years after this event took place I still remember the shocking heel turn by veteran babyface Hulk Hogan.The matches on this event are fantastic but they were all overshadowed by the events in the last match.(SPOILERS AHEAD) Several weeks previous to this event, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (The Outsiders) had returned to WCW saying they were going to take over. They claimed to have a surprise partner who would join them at Bash at the Beach '96.At this actual event the good guys were Sting, Lex Luger and Randy Savage who were to face The Outsiders and the mystery opponent. The good guys were taking a beating towards the end when WCW's greatest hero Hulk Hogan made his way down to the ring. Like everyone at the time, I assumed Hogan was coming to help. He jumped in the ring and the Outsiders dashed to the floor. Then-in the most shocking heel turn in wrestling history-Hogan legdropped his friend Randy Savage and turned heel before joining up with the Outsiders to verbally trash WCW.It was powerful stuff. Nowadays in wrestling the competitors turn from good to bad almost on a weekly basis. Back in 1996 heel turns were quite infrequent. Furthermore, Hogan had been a good guy since the early 1980's and he was extremely popular up until this event so when he turned bad it was a shock to the wrestling fans. It was like watching Superman turn bad.All in all, it was a great card and whilst the Hogan turn overshadowed things the rest of the card had some great matches on.

One of the best PPV's that WCW has EVER done. Not because of the talent, but because a twenty year veteran babyface Hulk Hogan joined the "bad guys", and formed unarguably the biggest threat in professional wrestling today, the New World Order!!!