Inspired by the 'PG-13 vs. The World' thread on PWO. Southern tag style is my favoutite kind of wrestling, and if anything is going to get me out of this rut, it'll be that. I'll probably ramble about a bunch of Rockers matches over the next few days, too. Two entries in two days?! FUCK OUTTA HERE!
Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas v Brian Pillman & Steve Austin (Clash of the Champions XXII, 1/13/93)
Well this was awesome. Ross points out at the start that this has a 30 minute time limit as opposed to the 60 minute time limit usually given to title matches, so we can probably expect a much faster paced match than we'd normally get. And well these guys just go peddle to the floor for almost 20 minutes. Was this peak Shane Douglas as a worker? I mean the stint where he was teaming with Steamboat? It's been a long time since I watched any ECW Douglas, and even then ECW is pretty much a total blind spot for me, but shit, early 90s babyface Douglas was a legitimately bossy tag worker. Sure, teaming with Steamboat isn't likely to turn you into a shitty wrestler, but still, every time I've seen the Douglas/Steamer team, Douglas has been working his ass off. All of the early stuff with Austin and Pillman on the back foot is GREAT, and it's mostly Douglas in there with them. The "Austin was a great technical wrestler before he broke his neck" talking point doesn't make (and has never made) much sense to me, but one thing that's pretty clear is the fact he was a total bump freak before the injury, and watching something like this before watching something from him in 1998 WWF, you can see how much he loved to really "snap" back on bumps. He just flings himself around like a nut for everything here and it's really awesome. Pillman is of course Pillman and he pinballs like a freak as well. His throat-first guardrail bump from the apron is complete lunacy and every time I've seen him do it the crowd totally loses its stack. Eventually Austin and Pillman take over and Steamboat plays FIP, which is one of the safest bets for producing something good in wrestling history. If pressed I'd still say Ricky Morton is *the* all-time face in peril, but there isn't much daylight between him and Steamboat. Couple great teases of the hot tag, and this crowd is fucking rocking by the time it actually comes around. Also thought the DQ finish was a Hell of a DQ finish. If you're gonna get DQ'ed, you might as well do it in style, right? Oh and that nearfall off the top rope elbow drop cheapshot was fucking ace. Great stuff.
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