[1993-01-02-WCW-Worldwide] Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs Barry Windham & Brian Pillman

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is definitely worth watching. It isn't terribly far behind Starrcade, which is a tremendous tag match as well.

 

This is during the final months of the Bill Watts era. So the arena looks like a UWF TV taping and the wrestling style is a lot more focused and aggressive than it would be later in the year (at least how I remember the rest of '93 WCW being, we'll see).

 

These guys work really hard, but this isn't a very responsive crowd, which is too bad, because I wouldn't blame the wrestlers for that at all. Windham lands some nice elbows to Douglas's eye. This heel turn was a good time for him because he started wrestling more like a grizzled veteran and changed his look.

 

Nice FIP stuff on Douglas, and one thing I will say in defense of the Watts style is that because he made such a big deal out of the rules, heel cheating was way more meaningful, that's for sure. I don't know if '93 is the right platform for it since Watts leaves fairly early. 1992 might be a more relevant place to go into detail on it. But there is an interesting case to be made for how he properly understood what was wrong with wrestling at this point in time, but he prescribed the wrong medicine to fix it.

 

As the match goes on, the heat picks up a little as Pillman and Windham continue pulverizing Douglas. But it's still disappointing and Steamboat's hot tag doesn't get near the response it deserves.

 

A few minutes in, Windham DDTs Douglas on the concrete in a great looking spot and he's out of the match. Windham and Pillman continue working over Steamboat. Windham and Pillman do a rocket launcher! I miss tag team moves.

 

Dustin Rhodes comes out to check on Douglas, then gets on the apron and Steamboat, in a daze, tags Dustin. Dustin comes in the ring and the ref says let it go?? What? You can imagine how Jesse Ventura responds to that. He then hits Windham in the face with the cast on his arm and scores a pinfall.

 

Dumb booking, but this is a really good match in spite of all that.

 

Ventura interviews Pillman and Windham after the match and they are furious, with Jesse talking about how they were jobbed.

[benj]

I really got into this match and the ddt was sweet. I was surprised how much I bought into Douglas as the FIP. Post-match anger with Windham looking like a crazy sob ruled.

[shoe]

This was a good tag. Wish we would have gotten a longer shine segment on Pillman. The arm work and Pillman's selling was real good. Like Loss said the heels because of how rules were enforced and meant something when they got away with it the heat meant more. When Douglas was thrown over the top rope to the floor the increase in heat was noticeable.The guys didn't get the time that they did at Starcade which hurt the bout a bit, not as much as the shitty booking at the finish. Oh well this was well done.

[Matt Franklin]

Loved this match. I haven't seen the Starrcade match in years so it's hard to compare the two for me, but I thought this was a really fun TV tag that got a decent amount of time. I forgot how awesome Barry's right hands were, and both Douglas and especially Steamboat sell them appropriately.

 

I really don't mind the finish in the context of the feuds at the time. Windham's DDT to Douglas on the concrete looks great and is a believable way to take someone out of a match. Dustin runs out to check on him and gets caught up in the moment and gets on the apron and is tagged in, which the ref kinda stops and then finally says 'fuck it' and lets it continue. While it is ridiculous that this can happen in the context of the rules, the ref getting caught up in the emotion of the match gives the heels a valid reason to be pissed and want a rematch with the champs, as well as further the Barry/Dustin feud. I loved Dustin's backhand blow with the cast to finish the match, it looked like a believable KO blow.

 

The post-match promo, with Jesse livid about the heels being 'jobbed', is great as it continues the story of the heels feeling cheated and Barry is great in setting up the singles match with Steamboat the following week. You also need to remember that they were transitioning to the Barry/Dustin feud (which is a shame, as they never got a proper blow-off) and Steamer/Douglas vs Blondes, so having Dustin screw Barry is a way to get him out of the tag program and into the singles feud.

 

Having typed all of this and reading it back, maybe the booking is a bit screwy, but compared to the slapdash way feuds are put together these days, the fact that I can make sense of what they are trying to get across is good enough for me. Plus, as a match this may be better than any tag match by WWE or TNA this year. I know that this is cheating as I should be looking at it in the context of January 1993, but it really stood out to me how solid all four were in comparison to what we get on TV today.

[Kevin Ridge]

Good to hear Jesse again. He wants Steamboat to quit snitching about cheating. Douglas gets flattened into the floor by a Windham DDT. Dustin comes down to try take Shane's place and the referee allows it! Ventura is not having it nor am I. Nice physical match with the good guys getting to over come the heels with a dubious decision to allow Dustin to replace Shane.

[PeteF3]

Not quite as good as Starrcade, but a hell of a TV match worked with stunning intensity. Loved Steamboat busting out the Anderson-style hammerlock slams, and there are a number of stiff shots and big moves throughout, climaxing with Windham leveling Douglas with a DDT on the concrete. The Douglas FIP segment in general was very well-done, with well-timed hope spots and teases, and this is the most complete pre-Franchise Douglas performance that I've seen. Then things get goofy--Steamboat is working a hot FIP segment of his own when Dustin Rhodes comes down to check on Douglas, then gets tagged in and Mike Atkins allows it. I believe we need to consult Mike Pereira over the legality of all this, but as dippy as this idea is it's all worth it to hear Ventura melt down over it. Rhodes hits an AWESOME cast shot to Windham's face and knocks him out for the pin.

 

I still think Pillman is miscast as a heel at this point, but he and Windham are really starting to gel as a team, and I'm curious as to when and how the decision was made to move from a Pillman/Windham team to the Hollywood Blonds.

[WingedEagle]

I can't say I was really stoked to watch a Steamboat & Douglas tag, but Barry Windham is awesome. Great punches, he moves so fluidly yet isn't some athletic freak and is the absolute stand out here. I wasn't digging Steamboat's antics on the apron which seemed hokey even for that type of babyface. Windham with a nice DDT to Douglas on floor and then a near fall after a rocket launcher. Dustin comes out to check on Douglas and take his place, which makes for a much better match. Dustin pins Barry after slugging him with the cast hand. Pillman & Windham have a promo after where Pillman is a bit out of control, but Windham is raging and awesome. Call me crazy but I wish they stuck with this pairing rather than moving to the Blondes.

 

***1/4

[Loss]

I think Austin was put in the spot because Watts wanted to finally give Barry Windham a big singles run, and Barry was in a career renaissance. That's what he said in his Wrestle Perspective interview. But yes, Windham and Pillman were a really good team.

[WingedEagle]

Interesting. Was that the plan before they knew Flair was coming back?

[Guest TheGreatPuma]

One of Ventura's all time best moments. This is one of my fav organic/different/stand out angles that runs smoothly into a match. Whatever you like in wrestling, there is something for you to get behind here.

[Loss]

Interesting. Was that the plan before they knew Flair was coming back?

I'm not sure. I think Barry showed some good stuff after turning heel and Watts decided to go with it.

[soup23]

Really good tag to start the footage watching off. Good shine to start and the arm work on Pillman was brief but great. Barry and Pillman are a hell of a tag team here doing tandem moves and working a great dynamic of BW being the bruiser and Pillman mixing in highspots in a heel manner. The ddt on the floor looked brutal. I rolled my eyes when Dustin subbed in because it was ridiculous and sort of made you side with the heels but Jesse's furious commentary almost made up for it. Great cast shot gets the pin for the faces. Post match promo was really good with the fired up heels and I dig Barry in the unkept heel persona role. ***

[garretta]

This whole Douglas/Steamer/Dustin/Windham/Blondes dynamic is a bit like the Rock 'n' Roll/Bodies/Studs stuff in SMW; it's confusing as hell by design, but the action turns out great.

 

The match before Shane was taken out was a bit faster and a bit meaner than I remember the Starrcade match being, but Windham and Pillman seemed to have a lot more of the action. I liked the reversal of the dynamic that we usually see in tag matches, where the veteran get pounded into chopped meat while the youngster is forced to watch, his attempts at interference to stop the beating thwarted by the referee. Here, it's the reverse; Shane takes the beating while Steamer plays the hothead almost too well. This was similar to Starrcade, except that Steamer made more of a nuisance of himself here, which led to some great Windham/Pillman doubleteaming. I liked Jesse pointing out how Steamer was costing his team by distracting Mike Atkins so often, and Tony never really had much of an answer for it. Then again, when does he ever?

 

The finish was as illegal as can be, of course, but it was still nice to see Dustin come to Shane's aid and clean house. He needed to get one up, to borrow Barry's phrase, after being so dramatically turned on at the November Clash, and he certainly got it here. This more clearly explains Barry's interference in the US title final between Dustin and Steamer, but the question still remains: Why let your deadliest enemy win anything, let alone the second-biggest belt in the company? Sure, you may think you can beat him for it later, but wouldn't it be more satisfying just to deny it to him in the first place?

 

Jesse was remendous here; this may be his best overall performance since his return, His point of view concerning the finish won't ever be validated, but that doesn't make him wrong, and he criticizes Pillman just as harshly as he did Steamer earlier when Pillman jaws for too long before attempting Air Pillman late in the match. Tony's his usual dipstick self for the most part, once calling a Steamboat chop a double axhandle, just to name one mistake. He's a lot like geeky Vince these days: pro-babyface and anti-heel to almost a sickening degree, willing to give the faces any benefit of the doubt he possibly can, and unable to do more than grudgingly put up with his heel color man. The only difference is he knows the holds and moves just a little better than Vince pretends to while on the air.

 

I liked the promo from Pillman and Windham afterward; both guys are much better talkers as heels than they ever were as faces, particularly Pillman; much like Shawn Michaels, he's proving (at least to me) that he was miscast as a pretty-boy face.

 

This has been a great month overall for tag team wrestling in North America, and there's still one more match between the Blonds and Steamer-Douglas to go!

[JKWebb]

This match just made me want to see Dustin and Steamboat become a full on tag team.  Douglas is alright, but Dustin and Steamboat are both so good at firing up!  They are a blast to watch together.  Oh yeah, and I loved the Windham/Pillman promo after.