[1980-06-29-Maple Leaf Wrestling] Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood vs Jimmy Snuka & Ray Stevens

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[SAMS]

1980-06-29
MLW
Jimmy Snuka & Ray Stevens (c) vs. Jay Youngblood & Ricky Steamboat
NWA World Tag Team Title Match
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Card
★★★★ ¼ 

Stevens & Snuka had won the titles from Steamboat and Youngblood a week or so earlier at a Mid-Atlantic show so the faces were trying to regain their lost titles.
The early portions were very drawn out, punctuated by brief explosions of action. Steamboat and Snuka didn’t even lock up until a few minutes had passed, but the tension kept growing and the crowd were losing their minds. This felt like a BIG deal. Once the action got underway they did a rapid fire rope running sequence and Steamboat got the upper hand with a body check. They brought the pace back down for a minute or so before it exploded to life once again. The entire first half of the match was an extended shine for Steamboat and Youngblood and it was an excellent example of making a heel in peril sequence work. Their offense had spark, they tagged frequently and effectively but most importantly they were working hard.
Finally the heels made the tag and gained some control, while their manager (Gene Anderson) caused distractions for the referee. From here we ended up with two separate FIP sequences. The first had Youngblood being worked over hard before he managed to get to Steamboat for the hot tag. After a flurry of action he had a golden opportunity to tag back out but instead made the mistake of going after Snuka in the opposite corner. This allowed Stevens to blindside him and they gained the numbers advantage again. We built again to a hot tag, this time with Steamboat suffering, and Youngblood came roaring in, wiping out both Stevens and Snuka. He had things firmly in control but they just couldn’t put the champions away and before I knew it the house lights were up and the match had ended. Curfew time limit draw and the champions retained.
I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to say that Steamboat and Youngblood carried this match. Snuka was serviceable but I can’t recall anything in particular that Stevens did throughout the entire match. When they were on top their offense looked great, a mountain of various chops and dropkicks, and they injected considerable energy into these sections. When they were being worked over, both guys were able to sell the shit out of their opponents' attacks, they created enormous sympathy and it really engaged me throughout. Really an example of elevating what could have been mediocre into something truly substantial.
While Steamboat was excellent for most of this match, I thought that Youngblood was the absolute star here. Steamboat often is credited with being perhaps the best babyface of all time, well here I think Youngblood shows off why he could potentially have been even more of a “pure” babyface than Steamboat. He had a certain verve in his movements and personality that made him incredibly endearing and so far I’ve found watching him so rewarding, it’s a real shame that he died so young.
Perhaps with a better champion team this could have been an all time classic, but Steamboat and Youngblood are making a push for being the best tag team of 1980 (granted it has felt like a pretty paltry year on that front).

[tcg91]

We got 22 minutes out of 33, so not bad but about a third of the match wasn't broadcasted. This was pretty good, mostly because the challengers cared and they managed to get the fans on their side. The champions didn't impress me that much, they were involved in plenty of stalling at the beginning and the match didn't deliver until later on. Actually, Snuka and Steamboat had a looooong faceoff, that was interesting but also a bit weird, as this is not a decisive match of a long feud. While the match never accomplished greatness, they did 3 different hot tags and they all worked, so kudos to them. The curfew time limit was a flat finish, anyway.
***