[1992-07-12-WCW-Great American Bash] Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude & Steve Austin

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was a heck of a revisit. I remember this being a solid match, but this was way better than I remembered it being. The match was given plenty of time and I think I might even put it ahead of the more acclaimed SuperBrawl tag. Windham plays FIP and does a great job of it. Kind of a low-end WCW MOTYC. It was that good.

[jdw]

I'd watch them back-to-back before ranking it ahead of Super Brawl. I don't recall the Bash match having close to the level of passion, and frankly thought it was pretty disappointing given the talent involved. Not exactly bad, but just felt like it was "there" rather than a match filled with the hate you wanted out of a Dangerous Alliance match.

 

John

[Tim Evans]

Gotta agree with jdw here. This was fine but not as good as the Superbrawl match. Just seemed like a regular match and wasn't very special.

[shoe]

This was nowhere near the level of the Superbrawl tag. I liked some stuff in this, but overall it felt flat to me. I thought the finish was cool. I liked the teasing of the hot tags, but it was obvious Windham and Rhodes were short arming it. Why did Madusa distract the ref for Rude to do the drop kick off the top. It was explained that it wasn't a DQ under the NWA rules. Overall just there.

[Loss]

The only things I take back are:

 

* This being better than SuperBrawl II

* The overall rating I gave it (****1/4)

 

I do still think this was an excellent match. The storyline isn't as strong as SuperBrawl. The match isn't as fast-paced either. But there are a few areas where I do think it's better, and that's what prompted me initially to overrate it:

 

1 - Steve Austin had improved quite a bit in the four months between these matches.

2 - I thought the FIP work on Windham was much better here than it was on Dustin at SuperBrawl. The teases to the hot tag were really, really good.

3 - The early spots with Windham popping an overly cautious Austin were lots of fun.

 

That said, they did spend quite a bit of time sitting in chinlocks, and there were times when it seemed like some of the back and forth flow went just a little too long. The timing wasn't as strong as it was as SuperBrawl. But I still enjoyed this quite a bit, mainly because Rude and Austin working over Windham I thought was really well done.

[El-P]

Excellent match. Lost a bit of steam by the end as Austin does still rely on chinlocks a bit too much at times. Not as good as the Superbrawl match, and it really seems like the DA is quickly fading out at this time, which sucks. Windham has gained quite a bit of weight in a year, but he's still fantastic there. Austin has improved a lot since his debut, it's nice to see him evolve. Madusa's legs are killers. Where the fuck was Paul E. ?

[Zenjo]

I remember when people used to think that Rude was a poor worker. He was superb in 1992. Here he looked like such a champion whilst also putting over the babyfaces big moves. This was a match that was looking promising with all 4 performing well. Unfortunately the beatdown was overlong and then the microstretch. Don't get me started about the hot tag format.

[WingedEagle]

Austin is noticeably more aggressive and wrestling with a purpose here as compared with earlier in the year. As good as he looked, Dustin's work here also stood out and its a shame he never got a true main event run. Dustin reverses a tombstone on Rude (used pretty liberally already on this card) and Austin breaks up near fall. Kudos to Rude for trying a top rope dropkick even if it didn't look amazing. Rhodes gets the pin with top rope lariat to Austin.

 

***1/4

[PeteF3]

Fantastic performance from Dustin, especially off the hot tag. He elbows the fuck out of everybody that moves and his reverse elbow off the turnbuckle was a terrific spot that I wish he used more often. No, it's not as good as SuperBrawl, and maybe not as good as the opener, but it's a really good match. Incidentally, I think I have to take back my criticism of Mike Atkins in the previous bout. Randy Anderson makes a big deal of forcing Austin back into the ring when the heels did a switch-off, and Atkins' "bad positioning" now comes off as following Bill Watts' orders that the referees enforce the rules (unless, of course, there's strong reason not to).

[Robert S]

A really good match but I hope I never have to see Rude trying a top rope dropkick again.

[BruiserBrody]

After War Games and months of TV matches, this just feels flat.

[garretta]

This felt more like a TV main event than a pay-per-view bout, to be honest. Not that there's anything wrong with a good solid TV bout, but with these four in the ring, you expect something more than just solid work, especially after they've all tried to kill each other for months. I didn't expect a bloody brawl all over the arena, but this felt a little too sanitized.

 

Rude and Austin were the much better team here, which surprised me. As has been mentioned, their domination of Windham was expertly done, much like a team that's been together for months if not years.

 

Shoe brought up one of those things that the public isn't really supposed to catch, but once it's been seen it can't be unseen: Windham in particular was really, really short with his tag attempts. I know he and Dustin feud later in the year, but they weren't trying to tease it that early or it would have been mentioned by JR and Jesse on commentary. It's just a case of unusually sloppy work by someone who should know better.

 

In a similar vein, Rude's dropkick from the top looked awful, and Medusa needlessly distracting Atkins in order to set it up was another blunder that shouldn't have been made. They had another, much more effective distraction spot that began Windham's FIP segment.

 

JR and Jesse had some nice interactions here, especially over Barry and his taped fist, which really has been used for too long now. Jesse made sure to point out for the next few minutes which blows were legal and which weren't, which is not only effective nitpicking but also served as a primer for both new fans and those who might not have been able to tell the instep from the flat of the foot. I also liked Jesse talking about the illegal switch Rude and Austin made toward the end; as he said, they got what they wanted out of it (damaging Barry further) even if Atkins counted to make sure the right man got back in the ring (which, after all that setup, he didn't).

 

It's unfortunate that they screwed up the first replay of the finish, but they more than made up for it by showing a second replay and also by doing a split-screen of Dustin going to the top originally. That's something that the WWF wasn't doing much of at the time.

 

I loved the sign from the one fan encouraging Medusa to come to his hotel room. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look during the ring entrances. It's the type of stuff that might get people ejected today.

 

There were a lot of great Jesse one-liners and exchanges with JR during this match, and it's hard to pick a favorite for my Line of the Match. I guess I'll go with this one, as they talk about how handsome Rude is and how he reminds Jesse of himself:

 

Jesse: "I'm a good-looking guy too, Ross. I've been is seven movies, how many have you been in?"

 

JR: "None that I can remember."

 

Not exactly Emmy-winning stuff, but it's great to see them attempting to play off of each other a little. I hope it continues.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude & Steve Austin) - Great American Bash '92

 

I loved this! I am a sucker for a great shine. You know what before that let me say Austin was way better in this than he was in that TV title match with Windham. I was harsh on him there and I want to give him credit where it is due and that he rocked in this match. Admittedly, he ran out of steam towards the end but he killed it for the first 95% of the match. Back to the shine, amazing! Austin is working a break-neck pace trying to overwhelm Barry Windham and instead eats a punch after a couple minutes and goes down in heap. Part of what makes this great is whoever is on the apron also does a great job selling concern. Austin is so good at writhing in pain.

Ten months later and I am ready to finish this review.   The shine is indeed amazing. Austin is not just bumping for Windham it really is the selling and just putting over the offense. I loved Rude trying to get in on the action and does the Tombstone reversal spot to a big pop. Windham gets a flying lariat on a tag and it really feels like the Texicans are running away with this Madusa agrees and gets on the apron. Rude yanks Windham down by the hair and then hits a missile dropkick by the ref's back. Remember this is Watts' WCW so top rope moves are banned. Nice piledriver by Rude. The heel heat segment gets a little long in the tooth, but includes all the staples you would expect from Southern Tag wrestling. The finish was a barnburner. Dustin rocked it as a hot tag, punches, elbows and a great dropkick to Rude. Weird WCW camera angle aside I liked the finish with Dustin hitting the Flying Lariat as Austin was thinking piledriver. Great classic Southern tag. ****

[JKWebb]

Hey, I loved it too.  I absolutely loved Austin in this match.  I felt like his performance stood out the most, and he was probably the greenest of the four legends at this point.  I agree with those points on Austin, and I also just loved how he came across as such a slime ball heel (especially in the early going - he was cracking me up).  Great one to revisit here.

[dawho5]

I was a huge fan of Austin in this match too.  He's a power wrestler who bumps like a junior and shows good technique.  It's kind of a ridiculous combination.  The match does get slow in spots, but that may be due to the time they give it.  Great shine, great heat, the crowd ate up the hot tag and really got behind Dustin.  Maybe not the best these guys had, but they were wrestling later on the show too.