[1993-10-16-WCW-Saturday Night] Vader vs Ricky Steamboat (Human Cage)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Human cage is a fancy term for lumberjack, but I like the term. Vader and Steamboat have a really good dynamic working with each other, very similar to Vader and Sting. Steamboat doesn't have the offense Sting has at this point, but is probably even better at selling. Very good match.

[El-P]

I found the previous week match better than this one. Watching shitload of Steamboat, I was slightly annoyed at times by how weak his "martial art" stuff looks, and always found too bad that he kept using this stuff as times went on. Of course he's such a great worker overall that it's like Tenryu's enzuigiri, we accept it was what it is. But in a match against Vader it was exposed more than usual, although Vader did a good job selling it. To me the match kinda lost its focus at times, and Vader looked odly fatigued, as Ventura would point out. Cool finish as far as screwjobs go, good use of the gimmick. Good match, but a bit disapointing to me considering the two Vader vs Steamboat matches I've seen before.

[RCS1988]

Well, I always thought the human cage was all the wrestlers standing on the apron, while the 2 wrestlers fought in the ring. Lumberjack is guys on the outside of the ring and Canadian Lumberjack is guys on the outside with leather straps.

[Strummer]

I've seen this match several times and cannot take my eyes off of Steamboat's bald spot. <_>

[Zenjo]

'Human Cage' sounds like a Lumberjack match I thought reading the listing. But maybe it's not? I kept hoping until I got to the chapter. Oh crap, it's a Lumberjack match. I fucking hate Lumberjack matches.

[Kevin Ridge]

Human Cage definitely sounds like guys on the apron. Those big Survivor Series elimination tag team matches they had in the first two events like at beginning until guys got eliminated. I thought the outside guys barely did anything overall until end when Sid got involved. Steamboat did some good stuff with his selling. When Vader was tossing him around, Steamboat grabbed Vader by the leg if only to try give himself a few seconds to recover. I think Vader should have won more convincingly.

[PeteF3]

I thought the lumberjacks were pretty distracting for the most part, though it placed nicely into the finish. There's a certain psychology I think you need to maintain with lumberjack matches, and this sort of broke it--you need to have the guys do their job first to establish the ground rules, THEN you have the heels attack or have a brawl break out or what have you. After that this stayed mostly in the ring, and it was good--but kind of disappointing. With workers of this caliber going this long you can't help but expect at least a North American MOTYC, and this wasn't it. Lots of repeated spots here and they did lose focus.

[garretta]

I nevrer thought it would come to the point where a guy like Ricky Steamboat would be actively squashed, but that's what this match was: an extended Vader squash with a totally needless finish. Steamer never once had Vader truly on the run, so what was the purpose of Sid's inteference? Vader had already pounded the crap out of Steamer and probably carried him at least five minutes too long as it was. Even as slowly as Vader was moving by the end, I never lost the feeling that the match was safely in his pocket. It was just a question of how much TV time they had to fill.

 

The psychology of the lumberjacks was well-established, but it didn't mean much since the match was so non-competitive. In fact, I'd have liked for guys like Arn, Dustin, and Sting to pound on Vader for a good while and soften him up so Steamer actually had a chance against him. As it was, the heel lumberjacks just added their two cents to what was already a thorough beating.

 

Tony and Jesse were in main event mode, which considering the match in front of them was a bad thing. I could have used a few more of Jesse's witticisms and Tony's reactions to liven things up. The closest thing we got to that were a few gratuitous shots at poor hapless Fred Ottman, whom I've heard abused quite enough on this set. The Shockmaster gimmick can't have too much longer to go, can it?

 

The crowd was apathetic for this, and I can't really blame them. Steamer only got a few isolated patches of offense, which wasn't enough to keep them interested, and the finish ought to have pissed them off good and proper, and not just in a kayfabe sense. Why even give Steamer a World title match if you're going to treat him this way? If you as a booker think he's past it, Dusty, then leave him in the TV title ranks where he can still have good matches with people closer to his own size. As for who should have taken his place, why not Cactus? You're already giving away one Havoc title match, so why not two, and do a quickie title change while you're at it like you're going to do the following week with Buff and Scorp?

 

Was there any significance to Gary Cappetta announcing the challenger as "Ricky Steamboat, The Dragon" as opposed to Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat? Might Bischoff have been looking to trademark "The Dragon", like Vince had tried to do years earlier, or was Gary just being whimsical (I hope)?

 

The one good thing I take away from this is that it wasn't Steamer's last World title shot; that would come against his old buddy Flair in the spring of '94. It would certainly have been a shame for Steamer's days as a World title contender to end like this, that's for sure.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader vs Ricky Steamboat - WCW Saturday Night 10/16/93 Lumberjack Match

 

"For every ten punches from Steamboat, it only takes one from Vader to knock him down" - Jesse The Body, story of this match

 

Steamboat just did not have much in the offensive arsenal to contend with Vader. Vader is a big, burly stand up fighter with lots of power spots. Steamboat needed those 1989 chops but he was not getting them. Vader is very selfless and basically set Steamboat up with a lot of hope spots through bumping from him on missed charges and splashes. Steamboat was laser focused on the midsection and even though Vader was selling I never thought he had a chance because his shots did not look as good. I loved how Vader would just unleash one massive punch to Steamboat's face and cripple him. Watching Vader in this 1993 run has been amazing as good as Bret was in 1993, Vader is the definitely the US wrestler of the year. Total package of offense, bumping and selling. I thought Vader laid this out well to always have a lot of hope spots and never totally crush Steamboat with his offense. I feel like because Steamboat lacks offense that Vader took that into account. Just a throwaway note didn't really use the lumberjacks it was just strange beside the finish which was cool. Vader goes for Vaderbomb but takes too long. Steamboat gets a double stomp (midsection psychology). Vader ends up on the outside. Sid comes in and powerbombs Steamboat. Vader splash and wins.

 

Definition of a good match. Nothing next level. Kinda disappointing in a way because you are expecting VADER VS STEAMBOAT~!, but I don't think they are a good pairing. ***

[soup23]

Never thought I would like a match this much more than Marty but here we are. Steamboat's offense isn't going to match Vader but I didn't think it looked too bad here all things considered and I liked him doing stuff like the body weight onto Vader's stomach and the big splashes to wind the big man. Vader's stiffness was also great here and he had a willing partner to sell in Steamer. The lumberjack stip wasn't used well at all here and really was a prop that set up the finish. Vicious is set up well in the finish and I guess we were still heading towards Vader vs Sid at this point. Pretty crap finish and while this wasn't a classic, I thought it was still very good. ***1/2