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[1994-12-27-WCW-Starrcade '94] Vader vs Jim Duggan


Loss

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  • 2 months later...

Really good match. I wish these two could have worked together more, because for one night, Duggan looked like the guy from Mid South. He hits him with some pretty hard clotheslines and they do some really good brawling. Duggan missed a middle rope elbow drop (!!), which leads to a rib injury that Vader exploits. Duggan gets in an amazing jumping clothesline after Vader misses a moonsault. Vader was one of the two or three best wrestlers in the world at worst in 1994. He finishes Duggan off with the face eraser. Vader was the master of getting good matches out of those who could work, but didn't always choose to work (Bossman, Duggan, etc.) Really, really good.

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Important to note that a lot of traditional big man spots (Which is what you'd use in a Duggan vs big man match generally) were held off because they were saving them for Sting vs Tenta later in the night. It pushed this closer to a brawl and made it ultimately more interesting.

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I have seen very little of Duggan outside of WWF/WCW so am not very familiar with his Mid South stuff. So this is pretty much the best Duggan match I've seen. I was surprised to see Duggan could bring it to this level at this point of his career. After Duggan beat Austin earlier in the year it was enjoyable to see Vader beat him good at the end. Vader versus both Duggan and Bossman were two very nice surprises for 1994.

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I was not expecting the Boss Man match to be as good as it was. I'm not down on Boss Man but I was not expecting him and Vader to be throwing bombs and tossing each other around like that in the Stampede match. One of the things I love about the Yearbooks is coming across a match I haven't seen and really enjoying it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Yep, as good as I remembered it to be. They already had a good match on Saturday Night a few weeks prior. I have to say that it's not a one-night-wonder for Hacksaw, who did work hard in his first few months in WCW against both Vader and Austin, resulting in having better matches with these two as he probably had in his entire WWF stint. Vader is indeed having a great 1994.

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  • 1 year later...

I knew this match's reputation, but still...stunningly good match, with Duggan more than just pulling his weight. Speaking of his weight, he was in better shape here than he had been in years. This isn't just one of Hacksaw's best performances post-Mid-South, it's one of his better efforts period. He throws some good stiff blows and takes some very dramatic yet safe bumps to put over Vader's offense. He even sells while on offense, as though the very act of taking Vader off his feet was exahusting him. And on top of all that he throws in an attempted elbow off the turnbuckle (!!) He had no business ever holding the U.S. title but this match is almost enough to make up for it.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 5 months later...

Just cherry picked this match to watch because it sounded good on paper.

 

Pretty solid overall. Vader made Duggan look good with some nice bumping and selling early. Some spots like Vader going over the top rope prematurely before the clothesline from Duggan annoyed me slightly along with some weak looking punches from Duggan when he mounted Vader in the corner. Still it was a fun match and both guys worked hard.

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  • 6 months later...

As with the Boss match, the match begins on the aisleway as Duggan takes it right to the Mastodon. Duggan throws Vader into railing and Vader if flying all over the place as he makes Duggan look like a million bucks. The crowd chants U-S-A!. Maybe the White Castle of Fear is not in America? During this shine, Vader takes his gut first bump into the railing and plenty of wicked lariats (some real stiff shots by Duggan). Strong shine for Duggan, Vader hits a wicked, MONSTAH eye-poke? He has all this raw power and strength, but instead chooses to use an eye-poke as his transition, such a great heel move. Duggan tries to stave off the Vader rally, but misses a Tenryu style elbow to finally put Vader in command. Tony is losing his shit over this.

Vader hits the axe-bomber, which sends Duggan careening into the guardrail from the apron (very nice bump from Duggan). Bobby the Brain unloads one of his funniest lines with: For Duggan to take a shower is a high-risk maneuver. Vader smartly attacks the ribs with vicious body punches and tries to polish him off with his powerslam/Vaderbomb combo but Hacksaw is able to get his foot on the ropes. Nice Vader Body Attack cuts off Duggan.

Vadersault misses and the fans erupt in U-S-A to exhort their fallen leader. Duggan gets down into the three-point stance and hits his lariat finisher, but Harley gouges the eyes. Vader takes his usual slam off the top, but there is NO REF!!! The ref is being detained by Harley Race on the apron, which distracts Hacksaw. The finish is Vader Irish whips Hacksaw into Harley holding the 2x4 into this weird variation of the Glam Slam. It is looked impressive as Vader basically muscled Duggan up, but then couldnt hold him so he just dropped him on his face. I dont know what it was supposed to be, but it looked vicious. Vader is the NEW US HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION! ****

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  • 2 months later...

I am actually surprised at so much positive hype for this match, I was not a fan and I didn't even know that was possible for me to dislike a Vader match from this era. Duggan seems to take up about 80% of the offense, and while yes it looks better than it ever did in WWF, it's still not nearly good enough to justify Vader being so much on the backfoot, which he generally does a little too much of anyway but not like this. Even when he did go on offense he seemed to be holding back a lot, early on he tried to do one of his clubbing blows but Duggan stopped him, and then after that all Vader would throw is mediocre looking bodyshots. Pretty far step down from the way Vader has been smashing around guys like Sting and Boss all year. And with all this, you still have Duggan getting a clean visual win over Vader before the finish, Vader being the man who they are supposed to be building up as a monster for Hogan! Maybe it was the booking, maybe it was the fact that I'm still reeling from Duggan's title win in the first place, but this did not come off well for me.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1994-12-27-WCW-Starrcade '94] Vader vs Jim Duggan
  • 1 year later...

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