Vader vs Dustin Rhodes (WCW, 11-16-1994)

WCW Clash of the Champions, Jacksonville, FL

This is a request via Ko-fi. I was gonna do some Vader-Sting matches but I’ve watched those a million times and kinda wanna fuck with some more underrated Vader. And this is underrated Vader, baby.

Vader’s got Harley ace in his corner, and Harley has a satin jacket with sparkly wrists and sparkly collar and sparkly letters on the chest that say WCW CHAMP. Paid-off Hogan fans do the exaggerated thumbs down for the big man’s entrance.

WELL THEY CALL HIM THE NATURAL. Dustin’s no small man, tall and thick, but looks relatively small next to Vader, not in height but just in pure girth. They lock up, Vader shoves him to the corner and just smacks the hell out of him, right in the face. “Come on, boy! This ain’t no tea party! It’s a fight!”

They lock up again. Vader again shoves him to the corner. He throws a body shot and then a left hook to the face. “Come on, boy!” He repeats the tea party line. Vader barks and spits in Dustin’s face. Absolutely no respect for “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes.

Vader challenges Dustin to come at him, and Dustin tackles him down! Dustin unloading with right hands! He slams his knees into Vader’s body and swipes at his face with slaps from both hands! Vader’s mask is off and Dustin has the crowd rocking! Vader reverses a whip, Dustin ducks a clothesline, ducks another, and hits a crossbody for two!

Rhodes clotheslines Vader, and the big man falls over the top to the floor. Dustin follows out and keeps up the assault, then nails Harley Race off-camera, so Harley’s down on the floor. Race ruled as a manager because he refused to not take a bump at some point.

Rhodes into the ring, Vader slow to follow, and Dustin jumps right on top of him. Dustin pounding Vader down in the corner with right hands and a kick to the chest. The big man looks stunned by this onslaught from Dustin. Rhodes hits a vertical suplex! Tony and Bobby are calling the hell out of this match, their pure surprise that it’s not a Vader rout, that Vader is reeling, that Dustin is putting up such an intense fight.

Vader to the floor again, but referee Randy Anderson doesn’t let Dustin follow. That allows Vader a moment to recover, and when Dustin charges at him again in the ring, Vader just plows into and through him. Back into the corner and Vader unloads with his trademark rights and lefts. Vader with an overhand forearm in the corner, just pounding Dustin down to the mat.

Right hand to the jaw from Vader, then a corner-to-corner whip. Vader’s charge misses, Rhodes rolls him up and gets two. But Dustin walks right into a left-arm lariat from Vader, taking an inside out bump on the impact. Right hands from Vader in the corner again as Tony tells us these man had “no standing feud,” and yet the match is this hard-hitting, this violent.

Vader charges the corner again and DUSTIN CATCHES HIM WITH A POWERSLAM. Dustin can’t cover, but he gets up and goes for a sunset flip. Vader drops down, Dustin moves and hits a basement lariat. Again, doesn’t cover, and just mounts Vader, pounding away. He swipes Pee Wee Anderson away in the middle of it.

Dustin calls for the bulldog, but Vader catches him mid-move and just hurls him over the top to the floor. The back of Harley’s jacket says VADER at the top and RACE at the bottom so it says VADER RACE in sparkly letters.

Dustin struggles back into the ring, Vader sends him off the ropes and cleans his clock with another lariat. Vader whistles and points to the sky, then goes to the middle rope. VADER BOMB! He covers, kinda, but Dustin gets a foot on the rope or under. Vader smacks Dustin in the face. “Count it!”

Instead, Vader back to the second rope — VADER BOMB! Cover, two, and Dustin kicks out again. Dustin refusing to die no matter how badly he’s being beaten here. Vader stands Dustin up in the corner again, clubs him with another forearm, and another. Left to the body, right up top, repeat that in combination until Dustin just falls apart and drops to the mat.

Vader gives space, and Dustin tries to rally the crowd behind his effort. Vader picks him up and just dumps him with a slam. Back to the second rope, this time facing the ring, and he flies off but gets semi-caught and slammed down by Dustin. Dustin blocks a right, fires back with right hands of his own and a big elbow to the top of the head! Vader staying up as Dustin hits him with running right hands and another elbow. A clothesline and Vader falls into the ropes.

Dustin going up top now, and flies off with a clothesline, finally putting Vader down! Dustin puts Vader on the middle turnbuckle and looks for a goddamned superplex — no it’s a DDT from the second rope! One, two, Vader gets a shoulder up.

Dustin calls for the bulldog again. He hits it! Harley Race distracts and Dustin releases the pin, then Vader hits Dustin from behind and knocks Harley down in the process. Wheelbarrow slam from Vader! Vader gets the win there.

Vader looks to continue the attack on Dustin after the match, but Hacksaw Jim Duggan comes down and pulls Dustin out of another Vader Bomb attempt. Duggan has the 2×4 and Vader backs down. The crowd wants to see them rumble. Vader and Harley bail.

Rating: 4.5/5. I’m not telling you it’s as good as the famous Vader-Sting trilogy, but it ain’t miles off, either. Dustin was a GREAT fiery babyface worker, taking his dad’s formula and making it his own over time. There is a wider belief, I think, that Goldust was the peak of Dustin’s career, and he’s been doing it for like 23 years now with a few breaks in the middle, so I get that. But Dustin in WCW was truly great, too. He was involved in lots of terrific singles matches, a boatload of fantastic tags during the Dangerous Alliance period of the company, and then there’s this match with Vader, where they take a lot of the Sting formula and use it really effectively. The crowd believes in Dustin, believes he can win, and it makes it a ton of fun to watch, with Vader in his usual dominant mode. This is a rough period for WCW artistically, but these to go out there and try to save the show from the influx of Hogan goons and their watered down WWF bullshit wrestling.