[1994-11-26-WCW-Saturday Night] Steve Austin vs Jim Duggan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Kevin Ridge]

Race is ringide in Austin's corner. Austin with the jawbreaker. A couple inches to the right Steve to hit the Stunner. Duggan hits a couple shoulder tackles and stupidly runs in the direction where Harley is holding down the ropes. Vader runs down but Duggan has the 2X4. Sting is there to help too. Duggan was a lousy choice to be U.S. champion. They needed someone like Austin to balance things out somewhat with Hogan as the WCW champ.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. Austin isn't wearing kneepads for some reason, which is surprising considering that he takes some big bumps. Vader attacks Duggan from behind after Race takes a bump on the concrete. Duggan makes his own save and clears both Austin and Vader out of the way with his board. Sting is out to even the sides, but Duggan already had it under control.

[Exposer]

Duggan and Austin are going at it for the US title when Vader comes out and attacks Duggan. Duggan gets his 2X4 and fends off Vader and Austin. Sting comes out to jaw with the heels along with Duggan. This was okay.

[soup23]

It just feels so wrong for Duggan to be champion and a lot of energy is deflated from WCW as a result. The action and set up here was fine but there is no way to get invested due to who the babyfaces are.

[El-P]

One thing I'll say about Duggan, he worked way harder facing Austin and Vader than he did during his entire WWF career, resulting in having also much better matches. Maybe the fact he was actually featured in longer matches pushed him, but as much as I can't stand the character and the fact he got here by being Hogan's friend, he did show up to work, at least at the beginning against excellent opponents. Austin making fun of Duggan is pretty priceless.

[PeteF3]

What the fuck is this? Halfway-decent action? Solid booking to set up future matches? This ain't quite the Mid-South Duggan, but it's as close as we've seen in 7 years. Not only am I looking forward to seeing if this Starrcade match lives up to its rep, this had me wanting to see this Main Event tag match, too. I agree--at least so far, Duggan is not just coasting on his rep and his connections. Hacksaw was always, even at his lowest, a good and effective seller, and that can go a long way with the right opponent.