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[1993-11-10-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXV] Steve Austin vs Brian Pillman


Loss

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  • 4 months later...

Terrific 10 minute sprint, but I wish these two could have gone 30 minutes with blood. The action is terrific and has tons of hate and fire, but it falls short of what it should have been. They should have found a way to get the U.S. title on Pillman so these two could go at it at Starrcade with more time for the match and to build to it. Or maybe even putting the belt on Austin at Havoc so he could defend against Pillman at Starrcade.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Liked it too but rushing it seems to take away the early story of the match with Austin working on Pillman's throat. Brian has a history of throat issues and you know his former partner would be all over that. Commentary did not pick up on it though and then they moved to Pillman's knee instead which was a more recent injury. It also feels like they are immediately moving the feud to Pillman versus Parker.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Awesome as hell--some psychology, TONS of hate and violence, some great bumps and awesome near-falls. Plus a screwjob finish that I liked--Parker blocking the Air Pillman came off as a legitimate bastard move rather than a cop-out fuck finish, which I liked. This match alone damn near justified the entire Blonds breakup, but I agree they could have used an even more epic rematch. Also, Austin and Col. Parker are SO not a good pair, talented as they are individually. For a few minutes, the "old" WCW was back again.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Give these two credit for one thing: they laid it all on the line here. This felt like it was longer than ten minutes, but in a good way. I especially liked the recurring theme of each guy knowing the other so well that they had the other's big moves scouted. The most impressive instance of that was Pillman dropkicking Austin out of mid-air, which was such a great spot that they showed it during the final replay segment.

 

I didn't mind Austin not going for Pillman's throat; as Kevin noted above, the knee was a much more recent injury which led directly to the Blonds losing the belts, so it made sense that Austin would try to hurt Pillman there. It's kind of a shame that Pillman didn't have a corresponding injury to work on against Austin; maybe he could have developed one if the match had been given more time.

 

I liked both guys wearing Hollywood Blonds tights; in fact, if I'd been booking WCW and I hadn't been able to think of anything else for Pillman to do, I'd have thought about finding Brian a partner and reforming the Blonds as a face team until something better came along for him. If you wanted to keep the Blonds edgy (which is how they work best), Bobby Eaton would have been perfect for the role.

 

I liked Jesse pining for the reformation of the Blonds, and even Tony sounded somewhat regretful that this match had to happen. I noticed that there was no attempt to tell whatever backstory the feud had, which is surprising. They probably knew that this was a one-off and didn't want to waste much time with it, but what about the fans who may have been away for a month or so and turned on the Clash to see the Blonds beating the hell out of each other and Fuller in Austin's corner? It's almost like they were saying, "Just trust us, they hate each other now." Why? We never got an answer in this match. Hell, we barely got an answer when Austin turned on Pillman originally.

 

I hated the finish. If you know that these two aren't going to meet again in any sort of substantive match and want the feud to be over, have Pillman do the clean job and build him back up later. Fuller interfering like he did would seem to set up a rematch, only it doesn't. Not only that, but now that Sid's gone Fuller has no one else for Pillman to fight in order to continue the issue. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that Pillman had given notice and this was his last match on the way out. This isn't exactly a burial, but it's a definite dead end for Flyin' Brian; where can he possibly go from here? Certainly not to Battlebowl or Starrcade; he was left off of both cards entirely.

 

Line of the Night goes to Tony, after Jesse says that he can't bear to see the Blonds tear each other apart: "Close your eyes. I'll tell you when it's over."

 

Once and for all, was Sid in the building or not? I think he'd already stabbed Arn and been suspended, but Tony threw me for a bit of a loop when he said that Okerlund had seen Sid earlier in the evening. They also played up Fuller being scared that Sid would violate his restraining order and come down to knock his (Fuller's) block off.

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  • 3 months later...

Really good sprint. Pillman is the king of that type of match and this hearkened back to his series vs Windham from 1991. The finish was a little clumsy but this did a better job of getting the hatred over than the promos or the actual turn. This is kind of the reverse HBK/Janetty in that the actual turn and build was disappointing but the match delivered. ***1/2

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-11-10-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXV] Steve Austin vs Brian Pillman

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