[1990-03-23-USWA Texas] Steve Austin vs Chris Adams (No Referee in the Ring)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Looking back, Steve Austin had the best wrestling education of anyone I can ever recall. He worked a year-long program with his trainer, who was very talented, right out of wrestling school. He worked so many different gimmick matches, worked in front of the same crowd every week, had to learn to do promos ... it was basically the best crash course ever. In this match, there was no referee in the ring. Tony Falk stood outside to count the fall only. Austin is already working hard and his stuff looks really good, but he was still green and didn't really know how to feel out the crowd yet. It will be fun - when all the yearbooks are done - to watch Austin from the beginning as he evolved into a great worker and finally a major superstar.

[PeteF3]

Austin is still tentative at points during this, but this does have a nice finish with a sense of impending doom as Austin comes towards Adams with the chair, with Adams countering at the last second. Adams then hits a DDT on the chair, fights off Sheik Braddock and Jeff Gaylord, and gets the pin. Devastation Inc. beatdown follows until Matt Borne makes the save.

 

Austin may be a first in that his literal entire career is more or less preserved on tape.

[soup23]

Short match but I dug it a lot and thought Austin looked pretty good especially his punches. I also love the continuing them of Adams temper getting the best of him in certain instances.

[shoe]

The no ref rule was a kinda cool stip. Austin right off the bat has a lot tools.

[Kevin Ridge]

No referee except for the one on the outside. Adams can’t get the piledriver on the floor but delivers one in the ring. Austin ties up Adams in the ropes and gets a chair but ends up getting used on him. Adams does a DDT where it looked like he was going to do a suplex and the ref counts the three.

[Cox]

Good match and a good stip. Austin has already improved quite a bit since his first appearance on the yearbook. Worth mentioning, this feud at least initially appears to have been designed to put over the USWA Wrestling School, as they always mention that Austin was a trainee there and caught the eye of Adams, who was nice enough to give him a break before he was even ready, etc. Did anybody else come out of that school of note, or was Austin the only one?

[garretta]

Not as long and bloody as other matches of this type, but that was undoubtedly due to it being televised. Austin already shows a ton of promise, and Chris has all he can do to get the win thanks to Akbar's men, whom I can stand to see less of, at least in this particular feud.

 

Can't wait to see where this issue goes from here, as a match like this usually signals the end of a program, and I know that won't be the case with these two any time soon.

[drew wardlaw]

Alright a cool progression in the feud, this was a satisfying match. Adams obviously is talented and Austin looked good and it was cool to see them have a more straight forward match despite the implications of the stipulation.

[GSR]

No referee in the ring for this one, with Tony Falk outside and only there to count the fall. The match opens very similarly to the one from 3/9 with Adams hitting his nasty looking clothesline and a belly to back suplex, whilst Austin’s clubbing blows still look weak. Adams tosses Austin to the outside and goes to piledrive him on the floor, but Austin reverses it with a backdrop. Adams blocks an attempted Austin posting by posting him himself, and is again in charge. He hits a piledriver in the ring, but then misses a knee drop off the middle turnbuckle. Austin goes to work on his knee before tying him up in the ropes. He unloads with some punches on the helpless Adams and then gets a chair from ringside. He charges at Adams who gets his foot up to block the chair shot, and the chair rebounds off it and into Austin’s own face. Adams frees himself from the ropes and cracks Austin over the head with the chair, when Gary Young and Scott Braddock come out to help Austin. Adams handles them comfortably, DDT’s Austin on the chair and then gets the win. Devastation Inc. triple team Adams after the bout until Matt Borne makes the save.

 

Good little match that was smartly booked. Adams is clearly controlling the flow of the match and him being in control for most of it makes sense. Austin throws a great punch but his clubbing blows (and to a lesser extent his stomps) still need a bit of work. He is already very good at getting a response from the crowd though. Agree with what some others have said and I could do without Devastation Inc. being involved in this feud. Hopefully they disappear by the time that Toni and Jeannie get involved in it.

[dawho5]

For a guy as green as he is, Austin looks really good. It probably helps a lot that he's going up against his teacher. The Adams reversal into the finish was pretty easy to see coming, but that may speak to the general flow of the match being good. I second Adams temper being a nice touch for his character.