[1994-08-24-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXVIII] Steve Austin vs Ricky Steamboat

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

"As we look at Steamboat, obviously, our thoughts have to be with Hulk Hogan"

 

Tony Schiavone is on FIRE with the unintentionally ambiguous comments tonight.

 

Great match that may look worse in a yearbook setting than it does isolated. I still like it, but the Hogan ambulance, announcing and Blacktop Bully heckling does take something away from it, unfortunately. But if you're able to block all of that out and focus on what the two wrestlers in the ring are doing, this was probably the second best match they had from this run (after the SN match in March). Austin really grew as a wrestler working with Steamboat. You see it through all the yearbooks, and I think it's even evident since the beginning of 1994.

 

This is Steamboat's last chronological match that's likely to make a yearbook. A fitting match to end a great career.

[Kevin Ridge]

Austin can't get disqualified here or he loses the title. Heenan is wearing a neck brace. Distractions aside with the continuing Hogan injury angle, this is a pretty good match. The wrestling is very good as they do very well reversing one another's moves. Cool little sequence with each guy attempting a sleeperhold for sleeperhold but continuously having it reversed. Steamboat gets injured with taking an awkward bump on his lower back. He still attempts a top rope suplex right after that Austin does reverse. Steamboat does win the title but it is sad to see this will be it for him at this time.

[Exposer]

This was very good. Austin and Steamboat had good chemistry and their matches worked better when they were going at a fast pace like this one. I enjoyed all the near falls towards the end in Steamboat's comeback. The victory was sweet for Steamboat too as his career comes to a close.

[soup23]

Really nice swan song for the Steamer. Austin looked really good here in his heat segment being a cocky bastard. The nearfalls were very well done and the finish was a sublime moment. Announcing got on my nerves to no end.

[El-P]

"As we look at Steamboat, obviously, our thoughts have to be with Hulk Hogan"

 

Tony Schiavone is on FIRE with the unintentionally ambiguous comments tonight.

 

Great match that may look worse in a yearbook setting than it does isolated. I still like it, but the Hogan ambulance, announcing and Blacktop Bully heckling does take something away from it, unfortunately. But if you're able to block all of that out and focus on what the two wrestlers in the ring are doing, this was probably the second best match they had from this run (after the SN match in March). Austin really grew as a wrestler working with Steamboat. You see it through all the yearbooks, and I think it's even evident since the beginning of 1994.

 

This is Steamboat's last chronological match that's likely to make a yearbook. A fitting match to end a great career.

Word.

 

Oh, also, fuck you Eric Bischoff.

[goodhelmet]

I really enjoyed this match. It was the workrate match of the feud with no long term selling or sound story being told unlike the previous PPV match. However, beautiful work with some great go-go-go segments. I loved that Steamer was a little more vicious in this one slamming the arm into the ring post, being disrespected and unloading on Austin later in the match. Such a shame it ended for Steamboat here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I was the outlier on the Bash match and I will be the outlier here.

 

WCW US Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin vs Ricky Steamboat - WCW Clash of the Champions XXVIII

 

I thought this was the most disappointing match of their series in '94. Since in actuality I had never seen the Bash match before I was basing my opinion of this program totally on this one match. While I have found that I have changed my opinions on a lot of things throughout the years, I still found this match tepid at best and totally heatless until the last couple minutes or so. One thing that was not their fault was this was WCW's camerawork at its most atrocious long shots of Heenan, the Blacktop Bully and a random shot of the stage at one point. The Bash match had a more woven story with Austin cheating at every single corner and eventually finding a trick that worked (feet on the ropes). Consequently, if he gets DQ'd this time around he will lost the title. However, they don't really play up the stip outside of a couple of almost throws over the top rope. Even without working the stip, there was not much in the way of action or story. If you have both that's great, but this match really didn't have either. I thought the first match was jammed with action and wrestled with great energy and the second match they blew themselves up, but saved themselves with a great story. This time around I thought they made a conscious effort to slow themselves down, but nothing really happened. They never really built up heat one way or the another until the end. It was a pretty boring shine sequence with Austin just doing a good chickenshit heel routine (he pulled my hair, bitching out, eye poke). They just chop each other and trade nearfalls a lot. It was a workrate match without spots. The crowd finally gets into it when the Dragon crotches Austin and taunts him. Of course, Austin hits a super gourdbuster only for Steamboat to catch with a chop off the top and then Steamboat crashes and burns on a splash. Somebody build momentum! Austin's slaps were pretty lame. He needed to go to Jericho school of the slap-taunt because he was just flailing his arms at Steamer. He looked like me when I was 7 against my dad. Steamboat no sells and rattles off a series of nearfalls before catching Austin with an inside cradle. I will say Austin trying to run away from the nearfall barrage only to be Electric Chair Dropped was the best spot in the match. Still, the match was just there and really did not do anything for me. It is not a bad match per se, just one where not a whole lot happens. ***

[PeteF3]

There was some strong work here and a pretty balls-out closing stretch, but this was very my-turn/your-turn-y almost all the way throughout. Steamboat is almost heroic down the stretch here--you can plainly see the injury when he awkwardly falls backward off the turnbuckle and hits his tailbone, but he gamely works through it and does some tremendous sequences, even as he's obviously slowed and in pain. Of course the match suffers through coverage--the work is hard in the open but they're clearly working not to do anything of super-importance so we can focus on Hogan's ambulance ride, and the Blacktop Bully is dropped in on us just to muddle things further. All in all, this was not a great match, but it was a worthy way for Steamboat's career to draw to its premature conclusion and a worthy way for Austin's long title reign to be stopped.