On this date in NWA history: The Great American Bash hits pay-per-view in 1988

For those who don't know, The Great American Bash wasn't always a name World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) could break out for cheesy episode of its second show, Smackdown. It used to be a tour of multiple big money shows before consolidating and becoming one major pay-per-view (PPV) event.

And it was on this date in NWA history (July 10, 1988) that they held the first PPV at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.

The show featured a ton of talented wrestlers all up and down the card, from Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger for the NWA heavyweight championship in the main event, to Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard vs. Sting and Nikita Koloff in the opener, and Barry Windham vs. Dusty Rhodes in between.

Like I said -- loaded.

One of the major reasons I post this today, however, is due to the recent discussion that arose in the Cageside Seats Pro Wrestling Tournament first round match between Luger and John Cena. A large contingent of voters and folks in the comments felt as though the match, which was close and saw Cena go over 329-259, should have been a blowout in favor of Cena because Luger was never any good.

This is, of course, simply not true.

The argument made by the pro-Luger crowd was that he did his best work with the National Wrestling Alliance and Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling in the late 80s and many of today's fans wouldn't know much about that. This is also true and this seems like as good a time as any to showcase one of his better matches.

Now, you could always discount it because of Ric Flair's involvement but Luger is great here and deserves the accolades he was getting by those who voted for him over Cena. If you don't believe me, what the two have a great match after the jump.