[1994-01-01-WCW-Saturday Night] Sting vs Steve Austin

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was an excellent TV match. It really stands out for the time because they spent so much time working holds. I wouldn't call this an example of great working of holds like you'd find on a random episode of AJ Classics in the 1970s or early 80s, but in the context of U.S. wrestling in 1994, this is really good. They spend most of the match on the mat working headlocks, hammerlock reversals and other basic mat holds before Austin finally takes over and locks in an armbar from a spinning toehold position. Not sure what to call that, and it shows how bad Tony and Jesse are as a team when they can't even give it a name or sell the importance of the holds being used.

 

This is worth seeing for seeing what we would have gotten out of Austin had he been used more on top at this point. You'd probably see a lot of mat-based title matches. The problem was that he was wrestling like your Classic World Champion, but wasn't being pushed like your Classic World Champion, so 1994 Austin matches were never going to quite meet their potential. Plus, Austin was still putting the pieces together of his personality, although it's pretty evident by this point that he's a future star.

 

I could have easily watched this for another 15-20 minutes, but the 12-13 minutes we got were lots of fun. More buildup than payoff in terms of match structure, but really good buildup.

[shoe]

This was such a fun bout. It's a shame that the body of this bout didn't merit that bull shit finish. This easily could have gone for another 10 minutes. Austin really seems to be getting it. He's working a modernized hybird of Ric Flair and the go go go and ruginess of Stan Hansen. Of course he doesn't work as tight as Hansen, but brings a realism to his work like Stan. Though having Parker as his manager doesn't help his character at all.

[Childs]

I don't get Shoe's Hansen comparison, but yeah, this was a really solid TV match that could've used another 5-10 minutes. These guys always matched up well.

[DocSarpolis]

I also enjoyed this. Simple, but compelling working of holds rather than the Randy Orton 'rest' hold. It was interesting watching this soon after seeing Sheamus-Bryan from 'Extreme Rules'. Among the qualities of the latter that overjoyed me was that Bryan was able to execute a very old-school style match in that 1st fall with lots of hold based work and it got over like crazy. You just don't see hold-based work get over very often these days in front of that large of a crowd. And this Sting-Austin match is indicative of the kind of match that you probably just wouldn't see on TV from a major company today. And that's a shame, because it served its purpose. It was compelling and they didn't blow through moves, so if the two were to end up having a series of PPV singles match down the line, there would still be a ton of stuff for them to do that they had yet to do.

[Exposer]

This was very good. Austin is definitely good at this point. It was paced very well and I enjoyed Austin's arm work a good bit and Sting sold it well. The finish annoyed me but the post-match promo made up for it. Austin was hilarious.

[soup23]

Very fun tv match. I actually enjoyed the finish as it gave a glimpse of Pillman loose cannon moniker as he couldn't resist hitting Austin when the opportunity presented itself. I also liked how up to the finish, while Austin took some more subtle shortcuts to get over the story of the match and build up sympathy for Sting. Jesse on commentary seems pretty good for someone that was about to be on his way out, minus his little political rant on smoking. The other thing that was nice was that this match got a good amount of time without a commercial break, which no doubt would happen if the match was on Raw or Smackdown now.

[El-P]

Fun TV match, but I don't see how the hold work was particulary compelling. It was nice and all, but earlier on Terry Taylor and Steven Regal worked a mat-based match with simple holds (namely a whole segment around a body scissor) that was much more focused and told a better story. This was a nice match that showed that Austin was more than able to hang out with Sting. The ending was kinda cheap, and poor Brian Pillman really finds himself back into Flyn' Brian mode of Stinger's little buddy like it's 1990 all over again. Feel the frustration. Did I mentionned Col. Parker is quickly annoying on promos ?

[jasch]

I watched this set after the 91 set. The difference between the ass kicking face Robert Fuller that was feuding with the Moon dogs in Memphis and Col. Parker here is amazing. He looks 20 years older.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I can't believe Austin went from this to jobbing to Duggan around the horn by the end of the year. I have not really seen "it" with Austin yet until this match. He definitely conveyed a greater sense of being self-assured in this match than the previous encounters I had seen. His style for 1994 was so different than pretty much everyone else beside heel Doink The Clown. He was not a big bumping heel. He would stooge, but he felt a lot more understated than yesteryear's heels. He mocked Sting, but also was credible on the mat. He drew his heel heat from frustration rather outright cowardice or cheating. Eventually, he would add a level of roughhousing and meaness to his character that finally took him from potential star to superstar. Having Parker for a manager was good for him because he needed some to display weakness and to draw more heat. He could look strong and Parker represented his faults. Plus the "KFC" chants were hilarious. This was the best mat wrestling from Sting I think I have ever seen. He has come along way from those shitty, loose armbars of 1988! Sting is really good at showing up heels. It is the best part of his babyface character. Whether it is his Sting holler, outwrestling or overpowering his opponent thats where Sting shines. Austin uses the superplex to transition into a nice spinning armbar, which Sting fights outta from his back. Sting sells the arm, while punching his way back into it. Pillman decided he can not stand looking at the Colonel's mug on TV any longer and chases him. He gets in the ring and Pillman hits Austin. This triggers a DQ and the ref stops Sting from putting on the deathlock. In his promo, Austin gets it. Austin huffing and puffing says he can go another 30 and was ready to be the first man to reverse the Scorpion before that nefarious Flyin Brian robbed him of the opportunity. It is a great match to chart Austin's progression, but you never get the full story in this one.

[PeteF3]

No-frills, down-and-dirty contest where Austin really carries himself as a singles star. It also reflects well on Sting that he was able to work a match like this The finish is cheap, but it seems to set up Sting & Pillman vs. Austin & Rude, which is something I can get behind. I'm going to try not to be too negative for the first half of 1994, and qualify every Austin match with a comment about why the fuck was he putting over Jim Duggan in 10 seconds and why the fucking Butcher main evented Starrcade and what a gigantic dump they took on Ric Flair and...OK, I got that out of my system.

[garretta]

This match never got out of first gear for me. I appreciate that Austin can wrestle on the mat, but that's not what I want to see from him when he's in there with someone like Sting. He shoyld have been running for his life and cheating like mad, trying to stay away from someone who could pulverize him.

 

The finish stank. I disagree with El-P about Pillman being Sting's little buddy again; the Pillman of 1990 would never have been so selfish as to deliberately get Sting disqualified by by taking a shot at Austin. The match probably should have been thrown out the second Fuller got in the ring anyway, but up until Pillman nailed Austin you could make a case for it continuing, since neither wrestler had been touched yet.

 

A superplex ​barely getting a one-and-a-half count? My God, what is wrestling coming to? Don't answer that!

 

Missy Hyatt​ throwing a decent punch at Road Warrior Hawk​? Same question.

 

I still don't get a superstar vibe from Austin. Star, yes. Superstar, no. It was Vince and the Stone Cold character who made him a superstar, and that combination could have made a lot of people a superstar. He might have been a slightly more modern version of the classic blonde heel had he stayed in WCW, but that wouldn't have been enough for transcendent superstardom.

 

Fuller's slipped badly in his promos. I don't think it's the character as much as the new accent. Why Bischoff and/or Dusty insisted in giving him a Kentucky accent when the man already had a perfectly grand natural one from Tennessee I have no idea, but it's really making him hard to understand, plus he can't really tell stories like he used to because Colonel Parker hasn't led the same life as the Tennessee Stud, and is supposed to be a physical coward who's afraid to soil his hands. Not that he would have done it, but I could buy Corny as Colonel Parker before Fuller. As for Austin, promos are another area where he wasn't a superstar before Austin 3:16. There's nothing here that hasn't been said in the same circumstances by literally thousands of similar heels.

 

Tony and Jesse are finally clicking on most, if not all cylinders. No offense, Loss, but I couldn't care less if they didn't know what to call that hold Austin had on Sting. What matters are the little touches, like Jesse talking about how the paint crumbles off of Sting's face during tough bouts or how many hankies Fuller goes through because he's so involved at ringside (which he isn't really, but we'll pretend). The day I need a lesson in technical hold application from Jesse Ventura is the day I'll switch to synchronized swimming, and Tony isn't paid to call holds. I'm not even sure that Gordon Solie ever got that deeply into holds' exact names; if we're thinking of the same hold, he'd have probably called it a "spinning armbar" and left it at that.

 

Jesse's point about smoking wasn't exactly a rant, but it was probably best that Tony ignored it. I liked the stuff about Fuller giving Tony his (supposed) Cuban cigars, and how Tony allowed that he might smoke them when he's not at home, which shows that he's finally loosened up around Jesse and isn't afraid to have a good time.

 

My Exchange of the Night comes after the aforementioned line about Missy hitting Hawk:

 

Jesse: "Does Lois (Tony's wife) ever slap you around like that?"

 

Tony: "I wouldn't tell you if she did."

 

Jesse: "You couldn't ​tell me if she did."

 

Just when they're getting the chemistry they had in the WWF back, they're about to be broken up for good. Figures, doesn't it? (For the record, I also liked Jesse wondering where Pillman got the chicken suit. It sounds like Austin may have been the original opponent for that match, but someone figured out that putting the new U.S. champion in a chicken suit wasn't exactly a way to boost his credibility.)

 

Note to Rick Rude: Please end any and all association with Boss Hogg immediately. Not only would he flush your tough-guy reputation down the sewer instantly, but you're about as good a fit as fine wine and Twinkies.