El Gran Apollo vs. Dick Steinborn (February 1983)

[El Boricua]

El Gran Apollo vs. Dick Steinborn (February 1983)

[elliott]

Real fun little back and forth tv match. Nothing earth shattering by any means but perfectly fine match from 2 guys I’ve never seen before. Dick Steinborn is way cool working holds in a slightly unconventional yet conventional way. I can’t really explain it but I’d like to see more. Gran Apollo hits an awesome dropkick on Steinborn and they both really nail each other when exchanging blows. Not memorable by any stretch but a perfectly enjoyable 8 minutes.

[KB8]

I'd never seen either of these two guys before. Steinborn looked to be somewhere around his fifties and sure enough a quick check on cagematch.net tells me he debuted in 1951(!) and at one point went by the ring name Dick Gunkel, which for whatever reason just tickles me. He was also the brother-in-law of Jerry Oates, who spent a while in the NWA through the 70s and 80s and had a cup of coffee as a ham 'n' egger in the WWF in the early 90s. So...there you go. Steinborn was pretty damn fun in this as your tough old roughhouse. He had a few cool takedowns and carried himself like a guy who knew how to go, but if things were getting a bit out of hand he would duck under the ropes for a quick breather. You need to learn your limits as you get on in years, you know. If there's any Eisenhower-era Dick Steinborn floating around I may very well be tempted to check it out. I never got much of a handle on Apollo from this. He struck me as Puerto Rico's white meat midcard babyface - solid if unspectacular - but the match was about six minutes long, so it's hard to gauge anything from that. Another nifty studio match, though.

[WingedEagle]

Steinborn almost looks like a young Dick Stockton. Some quick mat action revolving around trading headscissors. Really basic but fast action. Apollo comes out ahead on most exchanges. Steinborn armbar but Apollo throws a few dropkicks to send him outside. Steinborn throws punch from headlock that sets up a nice chinlock. Apollo wins with a jumping forearm. This was a solid few minutes with sound action, but absolutely nothing that stood out in any way and a finish out of nowhere that didn't feel like a finish.

 

**

[Migs]

I thought Apollo had some good fire. Steinborn was solid. **1/4

[fishbaugh]

Standard 80s babyface technical showcase match -- worked fairly snug, allowed Gran Apollo to show that he's rough enough to throw some punches when pressed, but would rather keep it clean. Steinborn presses him too far, and eats a jumping forearm for a quick loss. You've seen this match hundreds of times, and I swear I've seen Dick Steinborn working behind the counter at Parts Plus, sneering at me when I ask if they've got an alternator for a '91 Chevy Beretta. Add a few more minutes to this and it felt like it would have jumped up into the "good" range. As is, the best you can say is that it was "fun".

 

Rating: 4

[dawho5]

Looked like Steinborn was an undercard vet leading a young guy through a quick TV match.  Nothing overly good or at all bad, just a solid midcard match.  Apollo comes off well here, even if his style is a little too NWA for PR at the time.  Was it common to have the young native babyfaces come up showing they could do the grappling against the Americans before they got into the heavy brawls and blood stuff?