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[1993-05-23-WCW-Slamboree] Vader vs Davey Boy Smith


Loss

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  • 1 month later...

So the Slamboree PPV goes like this....

 

...fans expect Scott Norton v Sting, fans get The Prisoner v Sting....

 

....fans expect Tully Blanchard, fans get Paul Roma.....

 

....fans expect Steamboat & Douglas v the Hollywood Blondes, fans get Steamboat & Zenk v the Blondes....

 

 

....fans FINALLY get the main event as advertised, and it ends in a DQ!! WCW really screwed the audience on this PPV!

 

 

That said, the Davey Boy power moves in this were pretty awesome, especially the delayed vertical suplex, and the match was going along nicely until the ending.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There were some nice moments in this match for sure. That said, I thought it was going to be better than it was, as there was a lot of laying around between moves. Vader and Davey Boy's Clash match I remember being much better. This wasn't bad at all, but it was missing something. Notice it took Sting coming down in the post-match for the audience to care. There wasn't a ton of heat, which is strange for an Omni show.

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  • 1 year later...

I thought it was really good. The power moves from Davey are insane, especially the delayed suplex and the piggybackdrop. I can understand the DQ as it was the first match in the programm, but coming off such a disaster of a show, yeah it can seem like the rotten cherry on the shitty cake.

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So the Slamboree PPV goes like this....

 

...fans expect Scott Norton v Sting, fans get The Prisoner v Sting....

 

....fans expect Tully Blanchard, fans get Paul Roma.....

 

....fans expect Steamboat & Douglas v the Hollywood Blondes, fans get Steamboat & Zenk v the Blondes....

 

 

....fans FINALLY get the main event as advertised, and it ends in a DQ!! WCW really screwed the audience on this PPV!

 

 

That said, the Davey Boy power moves in this were pretty awesome, especially the delayed vertical suplex, and the match was going along nicely until the ending.

To be fair, nobody really knew it was Zenk and I'm not sure Norton vs Sting was highly anticipated by any means - was there an angle? I only have 1 Scott Norton match on tape from this era and it's a squash and I think Norton's a face.

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  • 1 year later...

I can't help but notice how poor the production set up for the show is. Just doesn't feel like a PPV with the bland ring apron and dark lighting of the crowd. I did like Bulldog's big power moves on a guy like Vader. Not much of a crowd in this. DQ finish was fine building to another match.

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  • 1 month later...

Phil's summation of this show was perfect. On top of the other production and advertising issues, Bulldog comes out to a version of "Rule Britannia" that sounds like it was captured by holding a tape recorder up to a radio speaker. Hey, it took a couple of weeks, but we've gotten around to mentioning Cactus Jack risking his life for us. This is a poor man's Sting vs. Vader, but Davey Boy offers up some tremendous, awe-inspiring power spots. Lifting Vader up into the electric chair was markout-worthy. This may be his strongest (hah) individual performance in years. Davey Boy hits the same corner-powerslam spot he hit on Saturday Night, but Race breaks the count and a desperate Vader clobbers Smith with a chair to draw a DQ. I actually liked that finish in the context of the feud and thought it was built up to well, but yeah...in the face of the other ripoff bullshit surrounding this show this may not have been the right time for that. Good match in isolation, though.

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  • 1 year later...

This was a good power match between a couple of big boys that just couldn't get over the hump to great. Vader misses a splash on the floor and goes up for Davey's big delayed vertical suplex. Can't say he didn't come to work on this day, bumping and selling very well. We get an absolutely terrible DQ finish following a chair shot. This would've been better if they shaved off some time and went with any kind of clean finish.

 

***1/4

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  • 3 weeks later...

Good match with a dead crowd. Davey Boy really didn't feel like a top flight star which is odd considering how on top of the world he felt the previous August. It is weird to think this is the last PPV Atlanta had until he 2002 Rumble. I don't think this killed the territory per say but this did seem to add credence to Bischoff seemingly being ashamed of running big shows here for a while. I liked this match and the power moves performed and thought both guys looked better coming out than going in. In addition. Larry Z did a good job calling this. Bullshit finish ruins things a bit. ***1/4

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  • 7 months later...
  • 5 months later...

The missteps and botches start to pile up after the halfway point--witness the awful front superplex "reversal" where Vader clearly leaps off with no assistance and the Vader top rope splash where he has to sell "hitting his head on DBS's sternum" because DBS forgot to pick his knees up. These are also both good examples of Vader's career-long inability to adjust his layout on the fly. However both guys do a decent job drawing whatever heat is available from this beleaguered, exhausted crowd. Watts came close with Havoc, but was never able to put on a show this godawful *boring* during his run.

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  • 5 months later...

I wasn't a fan of this.

 

Simply put, I never got the sense that Vader could lose the belt. Sure, Davey looked good throwing him around at the start of the bout, but that's as far as it went. The rest of the time, Vader dominated. Even when Davey got a move or two in, Vader either countered or kicked out with ease. Even the powerslam got nothing. As someone above me said, it took Sting coming out and knocking Vader from the ring with ease to mane this whole match worth caring about one way or the other. What this was was typical Bischoff: Sign a big WWF star and push him to the moon, regardless of common sense or other possible options Sometimes it worked in spite of the people's initial reaction (Hogan), but in this case it clearly didn't. This probably should have been a Sting rematch; surely there was someone else who could have worked with Norton.

 

The lack of real danger to Vader made Harley's constant interference and the DQ finish itself look stupid. Why go to these lengths for just another challenger? For that matter, why book the DQ for something that happened outside the ring? At least let Vader bring the chair in and go to town on Davey right in front of Patrick. My guess is that they were running out of satellite time and wanted to do all the run-ins, plus Verne's closing interview, so they booked the DQ to happen as soon as they felt they could possibly get away with it.

 

Tony and Larry tried their best to save this: Tony with his historical references and Larry with what continues to be the best nuts-and-bolts analysis in the business. I loved his talking about how wrestlers like to wait until their opponent inhales to drop knees and elbows to the midsection, and also his reminders that size and strength don't matter much, even if you're as big as Vader, if you aren't athletic enough to use it effectively.

 

The only time the audience was reminded of what a scumbag he used to be was when he talked about how his opponents used to have the towel thrown in for them because it was the humane thing to do, and even that related to the pounding Davey was taking at the time. Larry fits the WCW commentary style better than any ex-wrestler I've heard yet, and that includes Jesse. If Jesse hadn't been a big Hollywood name (by wrestling's standards, at least) he might have been demoted to the B team already, as he was when Heenan came in. Tony's much more comfortable with Larry; the problem is, they don't have another experienced play-by-play guy to put with Jesse.

 

In light of how the match turned out, the "doing it for Cactus" stuff was pointless, as were the references to Davey being "The Man" after his early success. The latter was understandable under the circumstances, but they should have saved the Cactus shoutouts for when Vader might actually have looked like he was going to lose.

 

Line of the Night: Tony's exchange with the director over whether to put a mic on Harley or not. There was something about the way Tony dismissed the idea that made me chuckle.

 

Verne going out of his way to put over WCW was expected, but to claim that he didn't know what kind of star power they had until this card? Have you watched any wrestling whatsoever in the last three years, Verne?

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Capetta introduces him as "The British Bulldog" and it's even emblazoned on his tights. It's my understanding that WWF prevented him from using the name in any other promotions once he was fired. How did WCW get around it? It cut to a shirt in the crowd of this match that simply said "Davey Boy Smith", which I'm guessing is indicative that they couldn't use the moniker on any merchandise.

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  • 7 months later...

PhilTLL, it is interesting you point what you do because I was going to point those spots out but as a feather in Vader's cap for being to cover for Bulldog. Interesting you had the exact opposite reaction.

 

 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader vs British Bulldog - WCW Slamboree 1993

 

Davey Boy is like the antithesis to a Ric Flair or a Bret Hart in that he needs someone to hold his hand throughout a match. He is very carryable, but he has not grasp on psychology and layout, but if you can fill that in for him he has the athleticism to execute the moves and layout. Vader does not get enough credit for being in that Bret, Flair class in that he can have a match completely unto himself. He has enough signature bumps and offense that he can just plug an opponent into his match. As World Champion this a very critical trait to have. So this is a Vader broomstick match. I enjoyed it a lot. We have the nice wrinkle of Bulldog standing down Vader and his power offense (clothesline, body attack) so then Vader just starts punching him in the head hard. Vader sets the shine nicely with his typical guard rail bump this one with a somersault. Bulldog has some incredible feats of strength. Honestly, that all you can really expect out of the Bulldog. The bodyslam over the railing, the delayed vertical are incredible. The slam off the middle rope is typical Vader and a good nearfall. The crucifix was a pretty dumb move by Bulldog and Vader made him pay. Vader just MAULS Bulldog. Vader is so good about feeding hope spots to his opponents. That's what Bulldog needs is this spoon feeding. Even when Bulldog is out of position (front superplex counter) or forgets (lifts knees up on splash) Vader covers for him with great bumping and selling. It really feels like Vader is wrestling himself. The offense is great and the bumping and selling are incredible too. Bulldog's most impressive feat of strength is picking Vader up in the electric chair out of a camel clutch. Holy shit! Vader feeds him his running powerslam by doing the crossbody in the corner catch. Harley interferes and then Vader attacks with chair. Pretty lame DQ.

 

This felt like a total Vader mauling and while he was selfless British Bulldog just did not have the presence of a Sting to really make the hope spots meaningful. DQ was kinda lame because they had not really built up Smith putting Vader in danger. If he really had the big man reeling, then I think it would have been more justified. I really thought this was an amazing one man performance and something you look more for in a GWE analysis rather than saying it was a great match. Recommended to see how Vader works a very carryable wrestler. ***

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  • 5 months later...

I watched this match this afternoon and I thought it was a good match, that dragged a bit in the middle but with an anticlimactic DQ finish. I loved Davey Boy's power spots early in the match designed to throw off Big Van Vader off his game and like everyone, the Electric Chair at the end of the match is probably the highlight of this one. I thought early on, Vader made Davey Boy look pretty good by letting him showcase his power and no-sell his early offense. Obviously, the DQ ending and the final moments of the PPV with the Bischoff/Magnum comments along with Verne Gagne's interview made me feel like that was rushed but if I look overall, it wasn't a bad match. However, it felt really clear that the endgame was being Sting vs Vader on a bigger stage.

 

Quick question; early in the match, Tony & Larry ran down a list of people that Big Van Vader injured in the weeks prior to Slamboree. I heard Cactus Jack, Sting & Ron Simmons but I couldn't hear the 4th one. Anyone knows who it was?

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-05-23-WCW-Slamboree] Vader vs Davey Boy Smith

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