[1992-06-13-WCW-Worldwide] Steve Austin vs Barry Windham

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was way better than I remembered it being. I remember it being solid, but I remember telling Will while going through the matchlists that we could chop this down to just the finish to show the title change if we needed to. That would have been a mistake. I thought this was a terrific match. Austin again shows new confidence. There was some fun hold work at the beginning, namely Austin trying to get out of a hammerlock with a back body drop and it not working, but there are plenty of other spots like that too. I also really liked Austin's somersault shoulderblock spot he started doing around this time, although he dropped it quickly, maybe because it didn't get over since he always missed the move.

 

Austin ends up regaining the TV title after a belt shot to the face. Another match everyone should check out, and one that I think I've slighted a little in the past, even in admitting it was good.

[Tim Evans]

Maybe this will be better on a rewatch but I didn't like it too much. Had a kind of a slow start. Austin's rolling shoulder block into the corner miss was pretty nice. I don't remember him ever doing that.

[KB8]

This is the one I mentioned in the matches of the month thread as my favourite Austin v Barry singles match.

 

Still think this is their best match together. It's Austin's TV Title rematch and it's pretty terrific. Between this and the Austin/Rude v Barry/Dustin tag from the Bash a month later, Austin's shot right up there with Double A as my favourite guy selling Windham's knockout punch with the taped fist. As soon as this starts Barry chases him around the ringside area, and as Austin slides back in the ring, Barry's already there waiting for him, plastering him with a big right hand that Austin sells like a king. Windham controls the early stages of this by working the arm, and both guys are really good at working in and out of it, Austin looking for escapes and Barry looking for ways to keep the pressure on. When Austin gets on offence - following Barry's trademark kidney-crushing bump on the apron from a clothesline - he makes sure to sell the arm by hanging it at his side as if it's gone limp on him, constantly shaking it to get some feeling back into it, etc. Final few minutes are excellent and the finish is one of the best non-ref' bump belt shot finishes I've ever seen. There's one more match between the two that I'm yet to see, but so far this is only behind the Steamboat match from the September Clash event as my pick for Austin's best singles match of the year.

[shoe]

I thought this was pretty good. Austin's selling of the arm is so good.

[Kevin Ridge]

Thought it was good. It was nice to get away from the 2 out of 3 falls stuff. Seemed that maybe they would go for the TV time draw. Austin outsmarts Windham by laying prone hiding the title belt and nails him. Referee's view seemed to be blocked so it was okay but risky since he wasn't really being distracted enough by Paul E.

[WingedEagle]

Austin looked a lot more confident here after War Games than he did earlier in the year. Neat spot with Austin doing a somersault into a missed shoulder tackle in the corner. I might expect Santo to pull off something like that but not Austin. Austin uses Paul E's distraction to nail Windham with the belt and win the TV title.

 

***1/4

[PeteF3]

Good, tighter version of the 2/3 falls match. Austin is really coming into his own, as he's got a bit more in his arsenal that he can do besides that cool clothesline. And Ventura remains a breath of fresh air on commentary, at least so far. Well-done screwjob finish with Austin doing a terrific job of hide-the-belt. I was always a little confused over the purpose of this quick TV Title turnaround--Watts was coming in right at this point, so maybe this was him hitting the reset button.

[MikeCampbell]

I liked this a lot better than the 2/3 falls, and I think Loss nailed it about Austin's confidence. He looked so much more confortable, but then again, 12 minutes is much easier to fill than 30, especially when he's worked with Windham plenty already.

[garretta]

This was a stinker.

 

If you've read my reviews, you know that I'm just as much about the booking and the commentary as I am about the moves, and I've called well-executed matches garbage because those factors were so poor that it reduced the actual wrestling to so much pointless ballet. This is one of those matches.

 

First, let's talk commentary. The main talking point of the bout was Jesse complaining about Barry's taped fist. It's typical Ventura carping that we've heard a thousand times, and Vince, Gino, and JR have all worked around it without making him look any worse than he's supposed to as a heel. But Tony hasn't learned how to do this yet despite experience with Jesse spanning two different promotions, two pay-per-views, and a major syndicated show, perhaps WCW's overall B show after Saturday Night. Instead of acknowledging Jesse's complaints the first time and moving on after a pause each time he does it afterward, Tony goes after Jesse for complaining in the first place.

 

Here's a news flash for you, Mr. Greatest in The History of Our Sport: Taped fists are indeed illegal. If Barry's still medically cleared to have one, it's your job as the play-by-play man to tell us that and reduce Jesse's complaining to hot air. But you didn't do that. No, you took up the second half of the match complaining about Jesse's complaining, to the point where Jesse had to mention it on the air himself. And even after that, you still didn't take the hint and shut the hell up about it. By the end of the match, Jesse was so disgusted with you that it started to show in his voice, and based on your cluelessness I'm not sure it wasn't at least a partial shoot.

 

Not only that, you defended Barry's flagrant biting of Austin's nose to get out of a bearhug late in the match the way a heel announcer would, then had the nerve to go after Austin for nailing Barry with the belt to win the match. Neutrality is the ideal for a play-by-play guy, but if you can't always manage that, at least don't be an open hypocrite, defending cheating from one guy and crying about it when his opponent does it. That's the heel color guy's job. You lost all right to complain about Austin using the belt on Barry when you defended Barry for biting Austin earlier.

 

I used to respect Tony as a commentator, but he's really slipped since he came back to WCW. He was actually better with Vince than he was just about anywhere else, including his JCP stint with David Crockett. Now, I would have a hard time using him as anything but a wrapup show or Control Center host. He's slipped that far, and the fact that WCW turned to him as lead announcer once JR left shows just how hard up they were for decent announcers.

 

As for the booking, my problem isn't with the belt shot, which I thought was very well done. My problem was with Heyman doing his distraction from inside the ring and Fonzie not immediately disqualifying him for it. Watts is calling this a brand-new era and he allows something like that? How many times did you see Corny or Skandor Akbar or Eddie Gilbert do their distraction spots from inside the ring in Mid-South/UWF? If Watts' reputation matches reality, a manager even suggesting that would have been fined a month's pay. But now, not a word said on commentary, not a movement made by Fonzie to get Heyman out, nothing. The relaxation of kayfabe didn't just mean knowing that wrestling's a work; it meant that rules were only enforced when it suited the booking and were openly ignored otherwise to an extent not even dreamed of twenty years before, or even five.

 

Don't get me wrong, I know rules enforcement in wrestling is supposed to be spotty, but when a rule is supposed to be ignored for the greater good, there should at least be some style about it. A ref shouldn't just stand there when a manager's in the ring and pass the time of day just because the finish calls for him not to see the heel hit the face with a foreign object. Work out a distraction spot that isn't quite such a flagrant violation of both the rules of the sport and common sense.

 

I can think of only three times during the Yearbook series to date when I've refused to discuss the wrestling part of a North American match. All three have come from WCW, and two of them (Steamboat-Rude SuperBrawl and this one) have come this year. WCW was circling the drain long before Russo showed up, folks; he was just the last blast of air through the pipes. The flushing began with matches like this six years before he was even thought of by Turner.

[Childs]

WCW was circling the drain long before Russo showed up, folks; he was just the last blast of air through the pipes. The flushing began with matches like this six years before he was even thought of by Turner.

WCW became one of the most successful wrestling companies in history during that period. So reducing the story to one long slide down the drain is beyond silly.

[garretta]

I couldn't care less how much money they made; I only know that I found the product juvenile, stupid, and embarrassing. To me, they were in the gutter, if not below it.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW World TV Champion Barry Windham vs Stunning Steve Austin - WCW Worldwide 6/13/92

 

Ever wanna watch Barry Windham wrestle himself? Watch this match. It is amazing Austin was getting pushed with his dearth of offense. We were supposed to pop for his back drop out of Windham's piledriver as a key nearfall. Windham tags Austin early with his taped up right hand. Windham settles into working a strong hammerlock and then executing a nice suplex. Windham is silky smooth. Windham drives five punches in his head. Austin clothesline him over the top. Windham feeds him the two biggest moves the missed lariat on the outside and even gives him a press slam off the top. When is the last time a babyface has taken that move? Windham gets put in the bearhug twice and he bites out of it and then a belly to belly suplex. Then there is that lame back drop cover. There is no heat segment. Austin does a fancy little somersault into a shoulderblock into the buckles. LOL! That's his big spot. Windham gives him a big back drop. That's Austin's forte, big bumps and I don't think they played to his strengths. I think Windham wants a lariat but he gets a forearm, nice legdrop by Windham as Austin was getting up. 1-2-3, anti-climatic, foot was on the ropes. Austin gets the TV title belt and blasts him to win the belt. No heat segment and no real strong comeback. Windham looked really great but there is not much herE to get excited about.

[dawho5]

I liked the match as a fun TV match.  I would agree with garretta that the WCW booking in the past months has been atrocious outside of some good DA stuff.  The finish was a little off for me and takes away from the match quite a bit.  I thought Fonzie had a pretty good view of it for sure.