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[1985-07-20-WWF-Landover, MD] Ricky Steamboat vs Bob Orton Jr


Superstar Sleeze

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Ricky Steamboat vs Ace Cowboy Bob Orton - WWF, Cap Center 7/20/85

 

The Landover crowd is rocking for the recently debuted Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. I have to say Steamboat committed himself to the Karate gimmick better than I would think a lot of proud veterans would. He had working at a high level and he could have been badass Steamboat in the Carolinas, but he went out there and executed Vince’s vision, which is pretty cool. I think those intense spots where he is summoning his chi and what not aka flexing his bulging muscles got him over huge. Yes, this is during the time period where Bob Orton had the cast. Bob Orton was such a great midcard heel and perfect for his role.

 

I really enjoyed Steamboat’s mannerisms in this. I thought he was intense and charismatic. I really liked him mocking Orton in the arm bar. Steamboat focused his shine working on injured arm, but they both always kept things moving. It began with an armdrag into arm bar and some nice karate strikes to the arm. Orton keeps it moving as he tries to get out in numerous ways including to go through ropes, a punch that was blocked and a bodyslam, but Steamboat always maintains control. Steamboat is really fun in this. Orton backs him into corner and starts laying on the heavy artillery. Headscissor by Orton tries again and goes flying over ropes into railing on the second attempt. He throws soda in Steamboat’s eyes and goes to town. Cool transition. Orton powerful knee lift. Good heat builds to the cast shot, but misses. Big chop by Steamboat but he missed a fistdrop. They slug it out in Carolina boy fashion. Orton midsection shots stops the Dragon rally, but he is backdropped out fo pilederiver. Top rope crossbody by Steamboat!!! 1-2-No! Great nearfall!

 

Inverted atomic drop by Orton and Steamboat crumples to mat. Really awesome selling there by the Steamer. Steamboat skins the cat and enziguiri (not a good looking one, but he is trying). Orton takes a huge bump through the ropes. Another karate shot by Steamboat while Orton is on apron. Orton eyerake while on apron and Steamboat wins suplex struggle and brings him in hard way. Steamer eats knees on splash attempt. Orton adjusts the cast! Cast shot and DQ.

 

Damn it was just getting good. Steamboat fends him with chops and kicks. Gene Okerlund “This guy had the guts to do whats right.” In reference to the ref DQ’ing Ace Cowboy, which I think in terms of grandstanding righteous indignation that has to rank up there. Steamboat wants some more of Orton, but Orton retreats. This was well on its way to being a great midcard match to get Steamboat over. I don’t mind the finish, it just rendered the match incomplete. Sometimes you get to that level finish and it feels right. I felt these guys still had more left to give. Plus I think that The Dragon was higher enough on the pecking order he probably should have gotten the clean win. I really fun Steamboat performance. ***3/4

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  • 1 year later...

I really liked this a lot, and I think I'm pretty much on the same page with Sleeze with it. I've heard some mention of this possibly being Orton's best singles bout in the WWF. I have not seen very much from Orton in a singles capacity, but I do think this was a really solid performance from him. His heel mannerisms were really good, and even though it's not the finish we wanted, he did a great job getting over his disappointment in the DQ finish. DQ finishes made more sense in this timeframe because they pushed that a wrestler that was DQ'd wouldn't get his share of the purse. If a heel gets DQ'd in the WWE currently, they are happy, because they "got away with the title" (if they are a champion). I miss that losing money on a DQ narrative.

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  • 3 months later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1985-07-20-WWF-Landover, MD] Ricky Steamboat vs Bob Orton Jr
  • 5 months later...

Yes, this match was a classic. I agree with everything in this thread.

By the way, I re-watched Orton's work from 1984-5 WWF (he's someone I was not interested in as a kid), and he truly is a NWA-style technical heel. He was great in this time frame, and I remember old timers then telling me his previous NWA work was even better.

I also was very pleased with Steamboat's charisma here. The Dragon unfortunately is boring to me in his Muraco and Roberts feuds- he tends to sell too much and work submissions too long, but here he really felt like a larger than life character early on his is WWF run and in the Orton match. Compare this match with the Muraco one in the other Best of the WWF Volume, and Steamboat's offense is like night and day.

Steamboat also looks good when teaming with Tito Santana vs The Dream Team in this video series, although he had vanilla tights to match Santana's.

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