[1992-09-02-WCW-Clash of the Champions XX] Steve Austin vs Ricky Steamboat

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Quite the scene to see everyone decked out in tuxes at Center Stage. I am laughing at Will not editing the 11-year old Oklahoma girl singing the Star Spangled Banner. Steamboat wins the TV title in a solid match. This isn't one of their better matches together, but I always like Austin vs Steamboat.

[KB8]

I'm a pretty big fan of this.

 

This is the rematch from the Saturday Night match (as far as I can tell, anyway) and it’s billed as Steamboat’s last chance at the TV title. Paul E. is suspended above the ring in a cage too, so Austin has to go it alone; one on one and no excuses from the loser. Oh, and it’s no DQ. I thought this was a pretty terrific little match. Only goes about ten minutes, but it’s the sort of compact contest with a strong story built around a pre-existing injury that I really like. Actually reminds me of the Steamboat/Tully match from Starrcade ’84, with Austin throwing out blows to the ribs at the start, although where Tully would throw little jabs and body blows to sort of test the severity of the injury, Austin’s flat out wailing away on them with punches and forearms. Steamboat controls early by working in and out of a headlock, and, from the point of view of Austin working from the bottom, I can’t imagine that being as interesting in, say, February as it was here in September, which seems like a pretty good indication of Austin’s improvement in singles over the course of 1992. Cool moment where Steamboat has a standing headlock and Austin tries to lift him and toss him over his back, starts shaking the cobwebs, but Steamboat lands on his feet and slaps it back on again. He does it a second time, shakes the cobwebs some more, but Steamboat’s still on his feet and goes back to it yet again. Third time Austin figures it’s best to go a different route and instead of trying to toss Steamboat over the back again, this time he just yanks the hair and slams him down to the mat. He’s pretty great at doing things like that the whole match, a desperate man resorting to questionable tactics as everything else fails and his title seems to be slipping; putting his feet on the ropes and grabbing the tights during roll up attempts, tossing Steamboat over the top rope only for it not to matter because it’s no DQ, things like that. He’s much more interesting on offence at this point, too. Most of his offence in February would be standard clubber-fu, clotheslines, etc. He’d be pretty chinlock happy as well, and he never really had a big enough bag of tricks to fill time and keep it interesting with a focused control segment. Granted, his control segment here is short, but it’s focused, interesting, and he visibly has more in the holster were it to go longer (example would be the 8/1 match from Saturday Night). Final few minutes are totally great. Really snazzy spot where they’re fighting over a tombstone piledriver, and Austin’s eventual sell of the move is tops, going dead with his arms falling by his side like jelly. Finish is nice as well and a great way to cap it off. I watched this twice; first time I thought it was the match that put Steamboat over the top as the WCW WOTY for ’92, but the second time I thought it came off as the best Austin match and performance of the year in a singles setting. Steamboat is always good and that’s no different here, but Austin rocked as a man subtly showing his grip on his title slowly loosening and doing whatever he feels necessary to keep hold of it. You never hear this talked about as one of the best WCW matches of the year, but I don’t think there are THAT many better than it, at least when you look at the quality that year. Hell, if it happened in ’95 It’d be my #1.

[Tim Evans]

The 11 year old I'm pretty sure starred on the Nanny tv show on CBS a couple years after this. Good match.

[goodhelmet]

I was going to take out the singer but it felt appropriate in WCW.

[shoe]

The 11 year old I'm pretty sure starred on the Nanny tv show on CBS a couple years after this. Good match.

 

I don't think so. That Girl from the Nanny grew up to be on Californication, and Heroes are a couple of her recent credits.

[shoe]

This is a solid match. I liked Austin working over Steamboat's ribs. Of course Steamboat is great at selling them. Still these guys have had much better matches over the years.

[BackToBionic]

I just wanna say...I don't see it get praise but I love that TV title design.

[El-P]

Good little match, but it didn't feel like anything special, which I guess is enough to make it a slight disapointment. Steamboat going to the tope rope to win since it was a no dq match didn't get any special reaction, which showed that the banning of third rope rule was not working at all.

[Kevin Ridge]

Didn't even think about the top rope rule when watching. Thought match was good. Lots of people dressed up in their best tuxes sitting in a reserved area of the audience. Heyman is locked in a cage which is lifted to the ceiling. He's not playing up a fear of heights so I don't really see the point. Steamboat sneaks under the ring and comes out the other side which leads to the flying cross body for the win.

[WingedEagle]

Who is in the black tie crowd here? Austin goes to work on Steamboat's ribs and does a great job as the aggressor. Its been said before, but the improvement in his work is noticeable over the course of the year. Steamboat with a great counter when Austin puts his head down for a backdrop. We get multiple reversals on a tombstone in a standard WCW spot before Steamboat hits it but is slow to cover. Good finish with Steamboat skinningthe cat, Austin sending him out again and paying for it. Pretty heated down the stretch.

 

***3/4

[PeteF3]

Everyone from Hank Aaron to Doug Dillinger are dressed to the nines. We bizarrely get the national anthem *after* the intros to the first match. Paul E. gets suspended above the ring in a cage and Ventura throws in towards the end that this is no-DQ. The whole "ban top rope moves and then reinstate them and make them special" idea was a complete failure on all levels, starting from when they undermined their own stip by doing two big shows with "NWA rules" and guys flying all over the place. All that aside the match is really good and fast-paced, with just enough consequences from Steamboat's rib injury (like his failure to immediately cover after the dueling tombstone reversals) to make it worthwhile. Strong opener of a match.

[Zenjo]

This was a good way to kick off the Clash, fulfilling its purpose. Steamboat came in with injured ribs so you knew that would be the focal point. It didn't start off all that hot and improved after that. I'd have liked to see an extra 5m.

[Robert S]

GMC has a strange way in announcing this match as a no-DQ match: "There are no DQs allowed." (if I did not mishear completely)

[garretta]

This was too short to be a classic, but it was a good opener. The main story was Steamer's rib injury (which we didn't see on the set), and any time Steamer has an injury to sell, you can count on some good drama. Austin attacks the ribs throughout, but Ricky blocks the pain more than once in order to do what's necessary to win. That's one advantage of his style of selling; you know he's in pain from the start, so when he hits a move using the injured body part, like the tombstone reversal in this match, you applaud him for fighting through the pain rather than get on his case for acting like he's not hurt.

 

Austin was all right here, nothing spectacular. I haven't seen the improvement in him since the start of the year that some of you have, but I never thought he was as green as some of you assumed to start with; he's always seemed solid enough to me, even going back to his days in Dallas. Is he a better TV champion than Tully or Arn, as WCW likes to say he is? Not even close. But he's an above-average worker who's doing a damn fine job in this spot.

 

Something tells me that this match was made no-DQ specifically because Steamer was going to use the flying bodypress off the top to win. It's still his most impressive finisher, even more than the double chicken wing that he pulled out of the hat back in '89 against Flair. That was a novel way of setting it up too, with Steamer coming out from underneath the ring and heading up top before Austin could see him. He's never done that before that I can remember, and it was a nice wrinkle to throw in.

 

It was nice to see Heyman again, even if he was in a cage. It seemed to me like he almost forgot to throw the obligatory "You can't put me in here like a common criminal!" tantrum, as he didn't attack the one ref until he was almost in the cage. I loved Steamer taunting him even though there was no way he could hear it from so high up over the crowd noise. That shows just how much he gets under people's skin.

 

I liked seeing the national anthem, but Mero really didn't need to be out there with the little girl. Also, I noticed that Heyman and Austin talked while the anthem was going on. It seems to me that even heels can be quiet for a few moments while the anthem's playing, so maybe they were doing it deliberately to get heat, although if that's the case it really didn't work.

 

JR and Jesse were solid here. I liked Jesse getting JR to admit that he voted to bring the top rope back, which was a pretty clear indication that it was coming back, and hearing Jesse go after Bruno again after four and a half years brought a smile to my face even though I'm a big Bruno fan. My favorite line, though, was when Jesse suggested that Babe Ruth might show up like Hank Aaron had, and JR, without missing even half a beat, said, "I don't think he'll make it tonight." These two seem to be finding their groove, and they're not nearly as painful to listen to as I thought they'd be.

[G. Badger]

A perfect little match for where it was on the card. A nice bit of psychology with Austin working on the ribs. Very good pace and all action. Enjoyed the tombstone spot especially when it hit! Highly recommended

[dawho5]

Hard to top as a show opener.  These two have had better matches, but this is a nice story with Steamboat overcoming the rib injury to beat Austin for the TV title.  On top of that, it is short and they keep it moving late with a slower start to ease the crowd into it.  Does exactly what it's supposed to do and everything makes sense within the confines of the match too. Steamer doesn't want to leave the ribs open so he slows it down and works a headlock.  Everything doesn't have to be a classic.