[1991-07-27-WCW-Pro] Steve Austin vs Yellow Dog

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

At the very least, they could have given the Yellow Dog different entrance music. That's just lazy. Not really anything special as a match, but an interesting look at Austin in a long match with a game opponent. I'd rather see Pillman as Brian Pillman in this, because I think the heat would have been a little stronger. Austin worked his ass off in every match, but wasn't really great at building heat yet.

 

Post-match, the Diamond Studd attacks Yellow Dog and unmasks him, but no one can see who it is. Tom Zenk makes the save. The bounty continues, but Barry Windham, who is now a babyface, is the one who put it on him. So is Windham still funding the bounty? Um … let's not talk about that, I guess.

 

It also crossed my mind watching this how awesome Vince suspending Austin with Austin coming back under a mask would have been in the Attitude Era.

[PeteF3]

Even the WWF's Sledgehammer of Plot presentation would see fit to give the Yellow Dog a different entrance theme. Jesus, it's not like they didn't have access to 200,000 generic royalty-free themes lying around. Pillman takes some great little bumps here, and Austin provided an awesome-looking clothesline as the Dog was chasing Lady Blossom around the ring. Austin is still a little green but has all the potential in the world, and Blossom provided a lot of quality work as a second here. The gimmick sucks but Pillman has done a much better job hiding his style under the mask than Flair did. Time-limit draw and then an attempted unmasking by the Diamond Studd, but Z-Man makes the save and the Dog gets the mask back on. I don't recall this leading to any sort of payoff, the whole thing just got dropped and Pillman reinstated. Good match, though.

[Kevin Ridge]

I don't see the point of sticking Pillman under a mask. He changes his offense a bit and not for the better. Putting Lady Blossom with Austin is a good pairing as her outside inference adds for some good distracting. Austin's offense isn't there but you remember he still hasn't been wrestling long. Scott Hall makes an appearance at the end.

[soup23]

The music is ridiculous but Pillman does at least look different and wrestle a little different to try to get the gimmick over. Austin has looked a little more uncertain so far in his early WCW tenure than he did at the end of his USWA run. The match was fan but meandered too much and there was a lack of focus from Austin. INterested to see if the Havoc match is the first time Steve puts it together for the first time in WCW.

[PhilTLL]

Decent little match from the "Did You Know?" files. Saved by the bell finishes are so often botched that it's always a treat to see a passable one.

[garretta]

This was good, not much more than that. Pillman effectively hid his style and did well with a ground-based game that gave Austin fits throughout, while Austin wrestled your basic heel TV champ match: ground-and-pound (except for the Savage-style double axhandle off the top, which was well done), rely on interference, and wait out the time limit.

 

Jeannie was at her most effective here, especially when she dug her nails into Pillman's throat while she was choking him. I could be wrong about this, but it seems at the moment that Austin's actually going to lose a bit in the managerial department when Heyman takes over soon. The only thing Jeannie needs to be over like she was in Dallas is mic time; she's got the physical part nailed solid.

 

I wasn't a big fan of the saved-by-the-bell stuff, and Hall's interference was a bit random. Was the mask supposed to come off, or did Hall just pull a little too hard? If Dusty dumped the Yellow Dog angle as quickly as some of you say, the unmasking might have been a botch that he had no desire to see repeated. You usually see that kind of thing with slippery heels, not clean-cut babyfaces.

 

Zbyszko once again shone on commentary; hearing him is like taking a Master's level course in heel psychology and ring strategy. He does this without being too blatantly against the faces, which is something not even Jesse Ventura pulled off. The only way you knew he was batting for the heel side is when he referred at the beginning to "The Yellow Pillman" and "Flyin' Dog", which were both hilarious.

 

Tony continues to disappoint me. His reputation of being a good announcer up until the Nitro era isn't holding up well at all; he called a clear elbow to the side of Pillman's head a shoulder block in the first few minutes, and from there it was hard for me to take him seriously. He was audibly annoyed at Larry for calling Pillman anything but Yellow Dog, and like JR he's so earnest that it's difficult to tell at times whether he's working or shooting when it comes to annoyance with heel commentators. There's a definite vibe of "Will you shut your stupid mouth and let me call this match please?" that's too obvious for its own good at times. He also loses points for acting disgusted with Larry's line about how Refrigerator Perry could use someone like Jeannie to motivate him to stay thin. Come on, Schiavone, this is the local Chicago show, for heaven's sake. They do still follow the Bears during the other hundred and sixty-seven hours a week that Pro isn't on the air. If he wasn't such a good shill, I wonder if he'd have still had a job by the time Bischoff came along. The one thing he got right was appreciating Jeannie's dress, which was indeed fabulous

 

I noticed that when Tony ran down the Bash card for Chicago, he mentioned Hughes as being in Luger's corner against Windham, but not Harley. Was Harley only doing TV tapings and pay-per-views at this time?

[dawho5]

Good enough match for Pillman changing his style to not be such a dead giveaway and Austin being really green. Too bad WCW didn't get the memo about the entrance music. I liked Austin using the pitch through the second rope manuever when Pillman charged in. Seemed like a more veteran move, especially when you're dealing with time limits and being a heel champ. Larry Z on commentary was spectacular. His embracing of the stall tactics is such a Larry thing to do, and it makes a ton of sense.

[ajtroma]

It's 28 years after the fact, but, it just occurred to me that those lumps were supposed to be on the Yellow Dog's mask to represent canine-ish ears.
I just got that.
No matter what you do today, you will never feel as stupid as I did what that light bulb went off over my head.