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[1993-12-27-WCW-Starrcade '93] Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes (2/3 falls)


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  • 4 months later...

We join the match toward the end of the first fall. Dustin gets DQd in the first fall for throwing Austin over the top rope, and Austin is a bloody mess. There are some lighting issues in the middle of all of this that quickly get corrected. Austin ends up pinning Dustin in a short fall and wins the U.S. title. I remember recently someone asking if a title had ever changed hands when there was a DQ in a fall, and there's your answer.

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  • 1 year later...

Holy shit what a disapointment. Just as it was getting really good, 2 straight falls and Dustin loses the title. It could have developp into an excellent match, but as it is, it's kind of a downer. Not a very good year for Dustin, although much of it is not is fault (working with Maxx Payne, a shot Rick Rude, in the shadow of his father during the Orndorff match, horrible Wargames match thanks to Harlem Heat, Shockmaster and Sid). Well, at least it was surprising, but not less of a disapointment to see the match end like that.

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  • 1 year later...

WCW US Champion Dustin Rhodes vs "Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col. Robert Parker - Starrcade 1993 2 Out Of 3 Falls

 

"Well we certainly cant call her The Natural" - Jesse The Body

 

Well that was anticlimactic. They gave the Nasties vs Sting & Hawk almost 30 minutes, but only let these guys have 15-ish for 2 out of 3 falls? Some of this has to be on the wrestlers as both where wrestling like they were going to go long, but then just went home. It was a really lo-fi match even by Austin's standards. I have no problem with a fundamentals-based match, but nothing seemed to connect. Austin would break Dustin's rhythm by going to the outside. Finally, Dustin said fuck it. They let loose and Dustin chucked Austin four rows deep into the stands. The crowd and I thought this where we were going to get going. Outside of some wicked sweet Dustin rights there was really not much to pop the crowd. Austin's work was real basic used ref's break or a Parker distraction to gain an advantage. Still he did not have the extra gear yet. Rhodes could always rely on his crowd to pop the crowd. Austin did not have an equivalent to garner heat. Rhodes makes his comeback punctuated by a bionic elbow. However, he chucks Austin over the top rope into Parker triggering the DQ finish. Austin blades off a post shot. It was a perfectly adequate first fall, but they seemed to be setting themselves up for some sweet stuff in the subsequent falls. Rhodes starts the second fall on fire, but he Beyonces the house lights. WCW is forced to use spotlights to light up the action. Rhodes goes for a nice series of 10 count punches in the corner when Austin double legs him in the corner to win with his feet on the ropes. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!

 

It really did feel like an incomplete match. I am still shocked that was the finish. The '91 Halloween Havoc match blows that out of the water. It was really disappointing because you know what they can do on the mat and brawling, but the you get such a by the numbers match with a dogshit finish just sucks. I would say Dustin had more tools in his arsenal at this point, but Austin had more charisma.

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  • 1 month later...

First thing I thought when Rhodes got DQ in first fall was that he would not lose his title now since belt cannot change on a DQ. I guess if he were a heel they would have used that as an out. The crew decided to mess around with the lights during the match. Austin gets bloodied up. Two straight falls. Disappointing indeed.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 years later...

Strange as this may sound considering the way I've blasted WCW's booking lately, I didn't have a problem with this. It was clearly done as a shock ending to wake up the crowd, and it certainly did that in spades. It might have worked better if the falls had been reversed, with the over-the-top DQ used to end the match and create controversy, but what we got did the trick.

 

I didn't see Austin get rammed into the post, and Jesse claimed he got busted open when he knocked heads with Fuller at the end of the first fall. Not that it matters much; I just thought I'd point it out.

 

Unfortunately, Tony seems to be in one of his "Shut up, Jesse, and let me call these matches" moods. He completely no-sold Jesse's reference to "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia", which was actually a pretty clever way to acknowledge the problems with the lights without blaming anyone for them.

 

As an aside, he seems to be a pretty cool guy in the few interviews I've heard with him, so maybe he was just fed up with all the political crap that WCW was infamous for long before the Monday Night Wars, especially since he'd had designs on running the company at one point. His mistake was letting his frustration show on the air. Could he have thought that Jesse and Heenan were deliberately trying to make him look ridiculous with their wisecracks? That would explain his attitude toward them both.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-12-27-WCW-Starrcade] Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes (2/3 falls)
  • 2 weeks later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1993-12-27-WCW-Starrcade '93] Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes (2/3 falls)
  • 9 months later...

Watched the match in full, the first fall was pretty good stuff with a good mix of technical wrestling and brawling. When Dustin threw Steve into the Colonel, it seemed like an appropriate first fall. The fans get psyched about the heels getting their asses handed to them but, officially pick up the fall. 

What's weird is that Austin bleeds for, really, little to no reason off of this bump. That is to say, his blood loss didn't really change the match anymore than him not bleeding. It just sorta ended. Maybe they got nervous with the lights cutting out? Maybe they ran outta time? Weird since the majority of the match was building to something great.

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