[1993-01-16-WCW-Saturday Night] Ricky Steamboat vs Dustin Rhodes

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes of a match for the vacant US title. Dustin tries the bridge up spot, but doesn't quite do it. I've always been ridiculously impressed with that spot because it looks so good and probably requires so much strength. Windham comes out and DDTs Steamboat on the concrete after a ref bump. Steamboat gets counted out and Dustin wins the match and title by countout, not aware of Windham's interference. Good action, what was shown.

[benj]

Ross makes a nice save with the "fatigue factor" on the bridge up. Crazy ddt on floor gets the count-out win For Rhodes. Good stuff.

[El-P]

Really good match, and you gotta love Windham crashing the party. His Implant DDT was terrific looking.

[Kevin Ridge]

Ugh, tournament final to crown new U.S. Champion ends in a count out. Windham’s takes out Steamboat on the floor who is out cold. I know Dustin had nothing to do with that but was a dangerous way of turning fans on him with winning title that way.

[PeteF3]

Good action with a screw finish, as Windham plants Steamboat with a DDT on the concrete to give Rhodes the tournament victory. This was a #1 contenders tournament that turned into a title tournament due to the Rude injury. I take it Windham gave Rhodes the win so he could beat Dustin himself?

[WingedEagle]

Dustin's timing and pacing is so spectacular. He never feels rushed, which I'm really appreciating as its becoming more and more important to me. Ref bump and they both go over the top, where Windham DDT's Steamboat on the floor and Rhodes wins US Title tourney via countout. How come we never got a Barry/Dustin PPV shot?

[soup23]

This looked good from the clips we saw. Smart finish too with Barry actually helping Dustin win the US Title so he can go after it in the future. This creates a point of contention between Dustin and Steamboat too.

[PhilTLL]

Really enjoyed the match in full. Gritty stuff with great arm work and selling by both guys--by the last stretch, both their lefts are hanging limp. Steamboat plays the more-pissed-off half of a face vs face match very well. The bulldog and crossbody nearfalls are hot, though not helped much by the Center Stage crowd.

[The Russian Daydream]

The crowd really hurt this match. Steamboat's kick out from Rhodes' bulldog should have gotten a pop but it felt like nobody was actually watching. The work was pretty good though and steamboat sold that DDT at the end so well.

[garretta]

Barry's interference was a nice idea, but it would have made more sense for him to cost Dustin the title, since Dustin was the one he had the issue with going in. A Dustin-Steamer feud makes no sense unless one of them is turning, which we know they're not, and while a Steamer-Barry feud should be a good one in terms of action, it clouds the US title picture unnecessarily in my view. Just let Dustin and Barry go at it around the horn for the title and have done with it.

 

Kudos to Steamer for agreeing to take another DDT on the floor after the bad experience he had with Jake back in '86. I noticed that he was still moving afterward (no matter what Larry Z tried to say on commentary), so at least he wasn't seriously hurt.

 

What program was TBS rerunning that night at 10PM? Was it an old Clash? Did it have anything to do with wrestling at all?

[Beast]

Match in full is fine, lots of armwork. Reminded me of Armstrong and Benoit from the Clash, only the trading holds segment was twice as long. Neither Rhodes or Steamboat played up the face/face aspect at all so it was a long ten minutes of very little personality shown. The star power was big enough that the crowd didn't turn against them at all, but this was a very bland match for most of it, despite the various holds looking good.

Sacrilegious opinion - Windham's Implant DDT looks just as good (if not better) than Jake's.