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[1991-08-17-WCW-Saturday Night] Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes


Loss

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  • 3 months later...

Dusty and Dustin do an interview with Paul E. to set up Dustin's shot at the TV title. Lady Blossom interrupts, which looks SO bush league when it happens against a green screen, and accuses Dustin of sending her roses. She also never faces the camera until she leaves, just to make this even more cheap looking. This promotion ... what the fuck? This looks an ICW segment.

 

This was a very good match with both guys looking like future stars, and I guess in some ways, they did rise through the ranks together, as they both worked in Texas early on, worked in WCW for a few years and then left and ended up in the WWF around the same time. They stuck to basics, but executed them really well, and I even liked the Lady Blossom DQ finish, as it keeps the door open to more matches between the two.

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  • 1 month later...

Dustin can't drop the Dusty-speak soon enough for my liking. Dusty's promo is great, though. And yeah, it's absurd that WCW doesn't have a proper interview set.

 

Really solid match, as Austin has come quite a ways in just a few months in getting a good long match out of the equally green Dustin. I groaned at another DQ when it looked like they were building to a perfectly acceptable time limit draw finish, but the finish itself was well-done.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ross must have been in a foul mood as he was jumping all over Heyman on commentary. Started off nice and fast with hitting armdrags. The slowed it down a bit as got on mat. Thought they were going for the time limit draw before Lady Blossom interfered. Decent match.

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  • 7 months later...

Very good match between these two giving some time to develop and start off with basic work leading into a heated finish. I thought both guys looked like stars and Ross did a hell of a job on commentary getting over the action. The finish was cheap and annoying but this being the first match in a series of matches that I know I enjoy was very satisfying.

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  • 1 year later...

I rate matches on the whole package, not just the work in the ring. Keep that in mind when I say that I didn't like this match at all, and it was mostly due to JR. They need to break him and Heyman up right now, because he doesn't want to work with Paul either in the performance sense or the partner sense, and it's ruining some perfectly good stuff in the ring.

 

Every time Paul opened his mouth, not only did JR contradict him (which is expected to an extent) but he insulted him and made him look ridiculous in the most unwatchable way possible, flat-out calling him an idiot at least once. Paul was trying to do standard heel color schtick (I thought him branding Dusty a horse thief was funny, true or not) but not only was JR not having any of it, but he wasn't really calling the match beyond what the viewers could see for themselves either. At his best, he can really take you inside the ring and tell you why the guys are wrestling the way they are and what it might lead to, throwing in perspective from wrestling history or other sports to illustrate whatever point he's trying to make.

 

A match worked like this one would have been perfect for that style, but he was so busy being a prick to Paul that we never came close to hearing it. It was Paul who provided what little analysis there was, questioning Dusty's presence in the pre-match promo and foreshadowing Jeannie's involvement by talking about what a useful distraction she is for Austin. The sad part is, it's most likely going to get worse when we hit '92, if everything we heard about how JR sandbagged Jesse is correct. His stock's really starting to slide badly in my eyes, and I find myself wishing that Turner had found a way to hold on to Bob Caudle, who of course was instrumental in getting Smoky Mountain out of the gate.

 

As for the finish, Jeannie being in the ring should have been an automatic DQ without her having to touch Dustin, but rules are seldom enforced that strictly by now. Her prematch performance is close to that of the USWA Jeannie that we all remember so well; the only thing missing was her slapping Dustin's face, but you can't have everything, I guess. Hopefully she stays at this level for the rest of her Atlanta run.

 

Nice to see Dusty doing his thing on the mic again. I agree with Pete that Dustin needs to stop imitating him, mostly because he can't do it at all well. There's only one American Dream, for better or worse. The flip flop and fly needs to go away, too. The good news is that Dustin has his own finisher at least, and he looks quite good using it. (If Dusty ever used the bulldog to win a match, I've never seen it.)

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what these two can do in a different setting, one with JR either not in the building at all or at least in a much better mood. This feud shapes up as a true battle of up-and-coming superstars, and needs announcing that's worthy of it.

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  • 2 years later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1991-08-17-WCW-Saturday Night] Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes

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