Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Many times in the past on this blog we have talked ad nauseam about how Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation expanded nationally killing territorial wrestling in its path. The territories that were fortunate enough to survive, would usually join forces in some capacity to stave off being swallowed up by the WWF. In doing so, these territories would put on ‘Super Cards’ to garner business.
In 1989, this was the case with dying territories like the World Wrestling Association based out of Indianapolis, Indiana run by Dick the Bruiser and Central States Wrestling based out of Kansas City, Kansas partnered with the much stronger All Japan Pro Wrestling run by Giant Baba in Japan. Together, they decided to put on a super card of their own which emanated from Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.
The name of this event was called ‘The International Bash’ and took place on February 2, 1989. The show was jam packed with talent. The issues were that the promotions lacked funds to really promote the show heavily. Add to that, Kansas City suffered a major snow storm on the day of the show. The combination of those things, led to a pretty small turn out. Memorial Hall could house 3,500 fans, but only generated (Depending on who’s numbers you’d like to believe) around 300 to 500 fans.
Despite the paltry turnout, the International Bash was historic for a couple of reasons. First of all, it was the first and only time in All Japan Pro history, that one of their titles changed hands any place other than Japan. Secondly, it was the site of the only match up between the Rock N Roll Express and the British Bulldogs. NWA legend Pat O’Connor was the special guest referee for that tag match.
The entire card and results were as follows:
Rick McCord beat Bobby Jaggers.
Tiger Mask (Misawa) pinned Tommy Sharpe (8:47).
Terry & Dory Funk, Jr. beat Doug Somers & Gary Young (10:28) when Terry forced Young to submit.
Genichiro Tenryu pinned Bill Irwin (9:24).
Akio Sato pinned Curtis Hughes (8:20).
The British Bulldogs drew The Rock-n-Roll Express (30:00). Pat O’Conner was the special referee.
Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu beat Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy (16:36) to win the International Tag Title when Tsuruta pinned Gordy.
WWA Champ Mike George beat Stevie Ray (10:47) via countout.
The show was filmed and aired on Nippon TV in Japan…however…Nippon TV only aired matches that involved All Japan talent. If you noticed the main event, where WWA champion Mike George defended his title against his challenger Stevie Ray, it was not Stevie Ray (from Harlem Heat fame) but ‘Wild Thing’ Stevie Ray most notably from Herb Abrams UWF.
The show was a big financial flop and not long after, both WWA and Central States Wrestling folded and disappeared.