[1985-06-21-WWF-MSG, NY] Greg Valentine vs Ricky Steamboat

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs Ricky Steamboat - WWF, MSG 6/21/85

Gorilla Monsoon is the fucking worst. Nobody could take the sails out of hot comeback faster than him with his nonchalant "Nope, he is not going to get him." I will take Vince's bombastic and naive belief that every nearfall is a potential winning fall than Gorilla's constant undercutting of drama.

 

This is the Superstar Sleeze dream match on paper and I think this would be a dream match for most wrestling fans. It does not quite live up OMG RICKYSTEAMBOAT VS GREG VALENTINE~! The beginning is pretty pedestrian surprisingly. For whatever, Valentine did not seem very engaged in the beginning of the match. He was content to bump and sell, but he was not his usual chippy self. Then Steamboat kept locking these holds on Valentine as if to contain him, but Valentine was not supplying energy. I think those clamps are perfect to keep a runaway babyface down or I guess really any explosive wrestler. Valentine was not demonstrating that on this night. I think Steamboat needed to provide more of the energy. He was at times, but he needed to go full throttle. The Valentine heat segment was good. I expect greatness out of The Hammer, so I could not help but be disappointed. It was the standard stiff shots and then setting up for the figure-4. On the flip side, it was standard great Steamboat selling. The entire match up until the finish felt very routine. Basically, it was each guy doing what he did well, but not really responding to each other. Then Steamboat wakes up on the outside and sort of Hulks Up and the crowd's interest is piqued. Then all of sudden it becomes a couple Carolina boys doing Carolina boy things in the ring when they fucking start wailing on each other. This is what I wanted. Steamboat had a tremendous comeback showing great fire and exuding charisma. It was either on a big karate chop or the top rope cross body when the crowd and the match were at a fever pitch that fucking Gorilla said "Nope, he is not going to get him." What a fucking asshole.Valentine had a brief spell of offense before Steamboat Karate'd his ass out of the ring to lose by countout. I will say Steamboat's kicks look aesthetically pleasing in the sense that when his kicking the air it looks smooth and well-executed, but man he just is not connecting at all. Of course, kicks were never part of his repertoire, but hey now he is the Karate Kid so he needs to do KICKS~! This reminds me Jimmy Hart was great in this match first worrying about all the Karate bullshit and then when Steamboat was down and out taunting by calling him the Karate Kid. Great Mouth of the South performance. It is a good match, but not at level I wanted it to be at. ***

 

[JKWebb]

Yeah, Jimmy Hart is entertaining in this. But, you're right... it really does not have the energy that you would hope it would. I was hoping for more of brawl, or I guess expecting them to be at each others throats right out of the gate, But, instead, It was like Hammer was working defense and trying to stay out of the way of the possible Karate. To be fair, Steamboat was getting in some pretty stiff shots. Those kicks in the corner looked really good. Valentine was definitely bumping and selling well too. When Valentine was on top, he seemed very methodical. Then finally we get to the big blows... the "shootout." Valentine slows it back down again after that, but the crowd is fired up by that point. I enjoyed the quick battle after the bell. This is a good match, but it just doesn't hit the all-time classic level. ***1/4