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[1994-01-15-WCW-Saturday Night] Steve Austin vs Brian Pillman


Loss

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  • 1 month later...

Good match. I don't think these two ever had quite the match they could have based on their breakup, but this is still really good. Pillman targets Austin's knee with some nice stuff, but it doesn't last long and Austin doesn't really sell it. Austin then works over Pillman's arm and shoulder with some great holds, which Pillman sells like a champ. The same thing I said for the Sting match applies here -- this is a glimpse of what you'd get if Austin was headlining at this time, but he was working a style above his push, so his matches always built so well, but never got time to really play out. Still, this is worth seeing.

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I thought this was a blast. I'm a fan of limb work and this had it in spades. I thought Austin could have sold better. I dug Pillman's spinng drop toe hold. The transition from Austin to Pillman taking control was tremendous. I guess those 2 learned a lot from Arn Anderson. Again you wish we got another 5 or 6 minutes.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This was a nice little tv match with good psychology. Pillman worked on Austin's knee and Austin worked on Pillman's arm. Pillman sold the arm great and had a decent comeback as well. This, like all of their other encounters, could have been better but it was satisfying.

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

"Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col Robert Parker vs "Flyin'" Brian Pillman - WCW Saturday Night 01/15/94

 

How can you hate Parker? He elicits "Foghorn" and "KFC" chants!

 

It is funny I am doing a concentrated Austin viewing session and coming away thinking Pillman is just friggin' awesome. That is not a slight on Austin, but just how badass Pillman is as a babyface when he cares.

 

This match starts off more tentatively than their war at the Clash. They hype Pillman's upcoming match with Parker and the loser must wear a chicken suit and thus they have transferred the heat from Austin to Parker. I think that hurt Austin more than anything else. Austin goes for the trick knee early. Pillman is like if you want a knee injury I can give you one. He applies the one of the most beautiful drop toehold into a toehold that I have ever seen. I am a huge drop toehold mark and that was downright Bockwinkelian. Incidentally, Bock is set to become the commish of WCW soon in the storylines. Pillman wraps Austin's legs around the ringpost and adds some chops for good measure. However, his obsession with Parker gets the best of him as Austin is able to clothesline him and ram his shoulder into the post. Pillman sells the arm the rest of the match like a champ and really makes the match. Austin works various arm holds while Pillman is in his element striking vicious chops from underneath while selling the bad left arm. Eventually, Pillman regains control, but a leverage move by Austin sends him careening to the floor. However, Pillman rolls through a powerslam attempt to win. That booking certainly spits in the face in the current style of the winner of the blowoff match losing the match before.

 

Austin is very good at the fundamentals. He works the arm well and sells for Pillman's chops well. However, he could have done more to get heat in this match. Pillman was just in another league. In the pre-Hogan world, the babyface side was so much more stacked that Pillman breaking past Flair, Sting, Steamboat, Dustin and AA just seems like too much. Austin had the easier path on the thinner heel side with Vader and a broken down Rude. However, Hogan'a arrival renders all this speculation moot.

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  • 2 months later...

Man, if you could have somehow combined this match and the Clash bout, you'd have a MOTYC. That was a great spotfest and this was all about limbwork--Pillman targeting Austin's knee and Austin going after Pillman's arm. Pillman pulls the upset, which surprises me greatly (in a pleasant way). A clumsy TV edit follows and Pillman is suddenly at the mercy of Austin and Parker, and Parker tries to put the chicken mask on him before Dustin breaks things up.

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  • 3 years later...

This match is a prime example of how commentary can frame the story of a bout. It was short, but there was plenty of painful limbwork, particularly on Austin's part. There was also the story of Pillman wanting a victory over his former partner, who also happened to be the U.S. champion and what a win like that would mean for his career.

 

What's that you say? You don't remember that story being told? That's because it wasn't. A nasty sprint between two former partners, one of them a singles champion, was turned into a ten-minute long commercial for a lousy ​chicken suit match. ​The biggest singles win of Pillman's career, at least on TV, and its actual wrestling implications were totally ignored. Even if this was taped before Starrcade (which it very well might have been), Tony and Jesse should still have mentioned at least once that Pillman was now a top contender for the U.S. title. Instead, we don't even get to see the supposed payoff with the chicken head and Dustin making the save. In fact, we don't see Dustin at all, which leads to the question: Did he make the save or was Tony just making stuff up for TV?

 

I'm short on time at the moment, so let me get to my Line of the Night before I forget it. It goes to Tony, who's really been on fire for some reason lately. He and Jesse are talking over the possible candidates for Commissioner. Jesse badgers Tony about who's the leading candidate in his mind, which leads to this exchange:

 

Tony: "Ray Stevens (I presume he meant the wrestler, not the singer)."

 

Jesse: "​Ray Stevens​? Can he write?"

 

Tony: "To be successful in this sport you don't ​have to write."

 

Not only a great line, but a nice shoutout to Bock's former partner and good friend. If The Crippler had been in better health, I wouldn't have minded seeing him as Bock's deputy.

 

Austin's work on Pillman's arm would be a hell of lot better remembered if the announcers had sold it as much as Pillman did. I'm not sure if it was in connection with this match or not, but I recall someone saying that both Austin and Pillman learned a lot about limbwork from Arn, and they're so right.

 

When I think about how good a Robert Fuller (as ​Robert Fuller, not Boss Hogg)-Pillman match could still be, even if the Tennessee Stud might be losing a step or two, and how bad a Boss Hogg-Pillman match will undoubtedly be, chicken suit or no chicken suit, the mark in me cries his eyes out. (The more I see of Fuller in that ridiculous getup he wears normally, the more I think that the chicken suit was an improvement.)

 

Did Dustin ever get a decent televised rematch for the U.S. title? It certainly doesn't seem like he did, unless for whatever reason they delayed it until spring. If he did, why isn't it on the set?

 

I almost forgot about Jesse nicely tying the new Commissioner into the wearing of the chicken suit, which was a herculean feat if ever there was one. Too bad Bock didn't ​get involved; I'd have liked to see him order Fuller to put the suit on or else!

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