[1993-08-08-WCW-Main Event] Ricky Steamboat vs Steven Regal (No DQ)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Tremendous match. The matwork is spectacular, especially by U.S. standards of the time. The struggle for Regal to apply the butterfly suplex is particularly awesome. But this is a No DQ match that ends in a DQ. WCW!

[jdw]

Now this all makes sense after all these years...

 

Carlos: "There was a reason the ref didn't stop the match at the tombstone. You see, it was a no dq match."

 

DM: *nods*

 

Yohe: "But Carlos... the finish was a DQ!"

 

DM: *confused look on his face, looking down at his note pad*

 

Carlos: *sheepish look on his face*

 

jdw & Hoback: *trying not to laugh our asses off*

Carlos got that finish from WCW.

 

 

John

[El-P]

Excellent match, now we get serious.

As far as the no DQ stipulation, it's odd because the ring announcer didn't say a word about it, so I'm not sure it was not some bogus stip added during the post-prod announcing, which would explain the actual finish of a match. It is stupid anyway. (we needed Ventura to blast the referee like he did on a previous show as Nick Patrick was counting to break holds everytime in another no-DQ match; Ventura totally buried him, calling him an idiot every two minutes)

[Superstar Sleeze]

The chain wrestling was fantastic! So fluid and amazing to watch. Steamboat's amateur background sometimes get forgotten by me due to the karate stuff, but he can go on the mat was asked. Regal is so great at forcing people into interesting match dynamics. I think thats what I like the most about Regal. He makes people outside their comfort zone and more often than not they still look fantastic. The WWE needs more William Regals in that sense. The cheap finish at the 9 minute mark pisses me off because if this went 20 minutes, I think it was an instant classic. It leaves me all the more puzzled that their Fall Brawl and Starrcade matches arent well-received. I have never seen them, but based off this, I thought they be considered classics.

[Kevin Ridge]

Regal gets a nasty looking cravat on Steamboat. About ready to twist his head off. He then snapmares Steamboat over and holds onto the neck more. Back and forth hammerlock reversals on the mat. Big fight for a butterfly suplex. Ahhhh. I don't want to be critical of this match. I'm trying here. In a perfect world my dvd would have skipped the finish. Because this was really great until the end. I hate, hate no disqualification stipulations where the match ends in the disqualification!!!! I'll remember the good times though. Regal is easily the best thing in WCW right now and I was loving this match.

[PeteF3]

Why the fuck would you arbitrarily add a no-DQ stip after the fact? Clearly the referee and wrestlers weren't clued in on this. The matwork and struggle here were tremendous--that build to the butterfly suplex spot was something out of All-Japan. The finish is of course bullcrap but Orndorff's sheer energy is enough to make up for it. When it comes to simple stomp-and-punch-based beatdowns, I'm honestly not sure if a wrestler in history was better than Mr. Wonderful.

[soup23]

Awesome return match which shows the progression of the feud. This shows a great gritty type of wrestling that still feels natural and sportsman in a way. Steamboat excels in this area to me where he is forced to show some emotion and put away some of his goofy tendencies that he can have from time to time. ***1/4

[garretta]

This one was what last week's match should have been. These two guys put on an absolute clinic, with very little time wasted until Dundee interfered to set up Orndorff's run-in. We still don't quite know who the better wrestler is, of course, but I'm sure we'll find out in later matches.

 

I agree with El-P that for whatever reason, the no-DQ stip was added by the announcers or whoever was producing Main Event​. I don't know why Tony and Larry would go into business for themselves, so it had to be the producer, unless Tony produced the show, in which case I have no idea what I'm talking about. Anyway, Steamer and Regal certainly worked this like a regular match, which is what made it stand out. In some ways, the snug style of Regal's holds and Steamer's smooth counters made the occasional strike we saw look that much more violent. I don't even think we had a cheating spot at any point in the bout; if there was one, it was very brief.

 

Larry was at his best here, talking about how even in a no-DQ match, it's not always smart to let things degenerate into a brawl, because even as a wrestler hurts his opponent, he gets hurt himself. He also puts over both Steamer and Regal as wrestlers, particularly the newcomer Regal, who really rose to the occasion in his biggest singles match to date in WCW. Steamer really didn't do much but keep up with him, which was all that was required in this bout. It's easy to see why he was designated as the fill-in for Pillman in the tag title match at the Clash and why he looked so at home teaming with Austin although the two had ostensibly never worked together before.

 

I liked Tony giving Larry the gentle zinger about Michael Hayes playing golf better than he did. For those few who don't know, golf is Larry's grand passion, which is why the thought of Hayes being the better golfer got to him. This is another example of the chemistry between Tony and Larry, which Tony and Jesse have yet to match. You buy that these two enjoy working together, and it's obvious that there's respect and camaraderie between them, while there are still times that I think Tony would rather work with Jason Hervey than Jesse.

 

I liked Paul's run-in, and the brawl that ensued had more energy than most postmatch brawls do. There's something about Orndorff that brings out the fighter in his opponents, even guys who usually like to work light like Hogan. It makes for better all-around matches, even at this time when Paul's obviously not in his prime.