WCW Saturday Night, Atlanta, GA
A request! It’s a turbulent time in The WCW, as Hulk Hogan has come in to fucking ruin my life and the life of everyone else whose biggest reason, end of the day, for enjoying WCW was that it was not 1989-91 WWF. Not to say we all hated the WWF, but it was a balance on television. You had the one style, and then the other, and they had similarities, but there were key differences.
And then here came Hulk Hogan. Nothing could ever be the same, really. Hogan himself might not have been so bad but he was insecure about his political power so he had to bring a bunch of dead weight with him to balance the odds.
(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)
Hogan had made his WCW in-ring debut 13 days prior, beating Ric Flair to win the WCW world title at Bash at the Beach. It’s a good match.
Sting not having his best spiky hair day. He wants to start with Flair, who teases doing so, but Ric steps out for Austin before anyone locks up, and so Sting tags Steamboat, who wants at Austin in the worst way. Sting and Flair have their forever issue while Flair’s real current rival, Hogan, is working his limited dates. Austin and Steamboat are in a feud for the U.S. title, which Austin will hold until the August Clash, about three weeks after this, losing it to Steamboat. Steamboat winds up having to vacate in September, so the belt goes back to Austin to pass to …….. Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
Thank you, Hulk Hogan.
Austin scurries away from Steamboat and manages to tag Flair in before the Dragon can get his hands on him. On commentary, Tony and Bobby are talking about the recent Dusty and Dustin Rhodes angle, which rules. Bobby asks if they’ve ever teamed before, and Tony says they did once in Japan, “but never here Stateside” and I say well hang on but then Tony adds “for WCW.”
So we’re starting with Flair and Steamboat, a pretty familiar matchup itself. Ricky hits a back body drop and tags Sting, who missed Bash at the Beach with a scratched cornea thanks to Sherri, who is in Flair’s corner.
Sting putting it on Flair, crowd’s hot. Austin comes over to try and stop a 10-punch in the corner, but Sting nails him, too. Sting with a backslide on Flair for two, Ric stumbles over to the babyface corner and takes an overhand chop from Steamboat, leading to a Flair Flop. Ric begs off from Sting and rolls over to Sherri, who helps pull him out to the floor, which helps Flair pull Sting out by a foot.
Flair chops Sting. Sting no-sells. Flair pulls Sherri in front of Sting. Sherri is daring Sting to hit her! Sting gets in her face and it looks like Don Zimmer and Jerry Crawford squaring up at Riverfront Stadium for a moment, before Flair uses that to rake Sting’s eyes.
Back in, Flair tags Austin quickly, and ol’ Stunning Steve, formerly Flair’s enemy, is in to take over the offense on the Stinger. Austin throws a couple chops in the corner, whip to the other side, but Sting gets a foot up and starts firing back. Big back body drop! Sting grabs an armbar and wants to tag Steamer in, and Steamboat’s in!
But Austin quickly pulls an over-emotional Steamboat by the tights, sending him through the ropes to the floor, where Austin tries to keep him, recklessly kicking through the ropes. Steamboat pulls him out, but Austin gets back in. Swinging neckbreaker from Steamboat, then a falling chop to the head.
Flair runs in and goes after Steamboat. Sting stops Austin from coming up behind Ricky blindly, and Steamboat is laying in chops.
Austin and Steamboat have this magnificent chemistry where everything really is running on emotion, Steamboat’s anger and Austin’s fear of that anger. Have said it before, but for a career babyface with a reputation for being nice, Steamboat had about the most believable “lost temper” demeanor in-ring that you’ll ever see, in part because he was great firing up, and in part because it often led to mistakes that cost him in matches. It really felt like emotion taking over him.
Steamboat hits an inverted atomic drop as the match heads to a break, Austin trying to get out of the ring but dragged back in by his trunks. After the break, Steamboat has a chinlock on Austin as Tony Schiavone wishes their “great friends at Lucha Libre” some luck in the near future.
Austin jawbreaks his way out of the chinlock finally, and that rocks Steamboat but good. God, he was just such a master seller, without ever going overly corny about it. Heenan notes that Austin is great and “a very young man” and still “relatively new in the sport.” Austin was, in fact, just 29 here, had only been wrestling about five years. But really, I think that WCW might as well have let him go; they weren’t going to get Stone Cold Steve Austin out of him. Never would have come up. If he’d wound up staying in WCW, chances are he would have been a good wrestler a lot of us remember fondly but never, ever would have reached the heights he did without getting fired the way he did. He’s said he always had a competitive nature, and that clearly flared something up in him during the brief ECW stint, and then once the WWF got done screwing up up for a minute, he found Stone Cold.
In this match his ass says JUST WIN BABY which is good, too:
Steamboat lands on his feet coming out of the corner and re-takes the advantage with a big double chop and a superplex! Once things are set in his favor, he makes the needed tag to Sting, who comes in with a scoop slam, then another. Sting goes for a big splash but Austin gets the knees up and tags out to Flair.
With Sting down, Flair is now filled with confidence. He taunts Steamboat a little while he’s at it. Sting no-sells a delayed vertical suplay and hits a clothesline, another, another is attempted with Sting flying and missing, Flair not quite low-bridging him but ducking back and Sting misses. It’s an unusual thing that doesn’t make sense in the flow, but they cover so well with Sting basically landing on his feet and getting back to Flair that you barely notice.
Austin comes from behind Sting, but Steamboat gets in there and that all doesn’t go anywhere. Sting tries a cradle on Flair to reset the match in the ring, but it’s a two count. Flair trying to keep Sting down, just can’t. Flair begs off, heads out to the floor with Sherri, and Sting basically just allows it.
Flair arguing with fans, Randy Anderson gets out there to stop that. Heenan is dismayed over Flair being distracted and having his confidence ruined by Hulk Hogan’s arrival. All of this stops the match and buys some time, too, so they can recalibrate from a moment that went goofy. And none of it seems totally unnatural.
Austin finally gets a tag in, Sting clotheslines them both. Austin gets another as Flair takes a shot from Steamboat on the apron. Flair goes up, Sting slams him off. I think Austin is legal, but we’re rolling with it, and he tags Austin again anyway.
Austin and Sting lock up, Austin goes to the wristlock, Sting reverses and grabs a headlock. Austin shoulderblocked, but he rolls Sting up with the tights for two. He does it again, schoolboy this time, for two. He tries the waistlock again, but no, Sting with more clotheslines and a short press slam, no hold, just up, over, and down.
Austin goes to the groin with a knee when Randy Anderson tries to break them up in the corner, and Flair gets in to toss Sting over the top to the floor. Sherri gets in there with a high heel and kicks him a few times, to boot! Ha! TO BOOT!
The tape machines will still be rolling for this upcoming break, too! Ah, nothing happened. Sherri’s got a stocking off and is choking Sting, so Steamboat has seen enough. But Anderson prevents him from getting all the way over there.
Heenan suggests Sherri is feisty. “My grandmother was feisty,” Tony says. “That’s not ‘feisty.'”
Flair in just stomping away at a battered Sting. Sherri truly is a thorn in Sting’s eye. Austin tags back in, gets on the second turnbuckle, and drops the flying knee. Austin grabs a chinlock. Crowd chanting, “Go, Sting, go!”
Sting gets up, but Austin backdrops him over and cuts off Sting’s attempt to get to Steamboat. Snapmare and Austin goes back to the second rope. This time he meets knees. Austin rolls over fast to tag Flair, and Steamboat gets the hot tag!
Steamboat and Flair! Steamer hitting everyone he can! Well, everyone he should. He could hit Anderson or Sting, too, I suppose. Flair is the legal man but Anderson loses track, and anyway Flair tags back in because he’s supposed to be in.
Flair and Steamboat do some Flair and Steamboat Basics, fighting over a backslide and what have you. Steamer gets it, but Austin breaks the count. Kneedrop from Flair misses. They collide on a shoulderblock and both are down, both have some distance to cover in order to tag.
Flair gets to Austin, and manages to grab Steamboat’s foot, too. Sherri rakes Steamboat’s eyes while Anderson is distracted by Sting, set up by Austin. Austin suplays Steamboat in from the apron and covers for two.
Abdominal stretch from Austin, over in the heel corner. Flair helps with some leverage from the apron. Tony acknowledges that this sort of thing actually can be the difference in a match at this level.
Legal tag to Flair, who stays on the attack. Short right hand to the nose. Chop in the corner. Right hand to the jaw and Steamboat’s down, so Sherri gets another rake in. Ricky tries to fire back and go get the tag, but Flair trips him up and keeps him in the ring. Repeated quick pin attempts from Flair, they all fail, but they succeed at driving Steamboat back toward Austin.
Steamboat gets free, Austin tags, and he just barely is able to cut Steamboat off from the tag to Sting. More pin attempts, making Steamboat burn energy, and another chinlock.
Just gonna stay there for a bit. Sting tries to get the crowd going. Steamboat gets up, finally lands a hail mary shot, and Austin quickly, rocked, positions himself between Steamboat and Sting, taking Ricky to the heel corner again.
Steamboat battles out! He does get the tag to Sting, but Flair is distracting Anderson, and Sting basically knows what has happened, just saying fuck it and racing over to attack Flair.
Military press on Flair, Sting is putting it on him! Stinger Splash! Steamboat taking it to Austin in the corner! Sting gets the Scorpion on Flair, Sherri goes up top and dives, but Sting catches her, then tosses her out to the floor, where Flair fails to catch her. In the ring, Austin rolls up Steamboat, and the bad guys win, all thanks to Sherri, let’s be real.
Sting is experiencing a displeasure:
They get plenty of time, as this clocks in at just shy of 25 minutes bell-to-bell on the taped television program, and for the most part, it’s a really good match. It never threatens to become great, because it’s a TV main event where you’ve got four fantastic wrestlers not exactly going balls to the wall, but the “you’ve got four fantastic wrestlers” part still does matter, as they can do something interesting even without doing anything particularly notable.
There is a bit of clunk along the way, including that Sting clothesline spot as the biggest portion of it, but Sherri chips in plenty, the commentary mostly focuses on the match and not Hulkamania Hogan, and it’s four bona fide Hall of Famers. They can sleepwalk and be decent. They do more than sleepwalk.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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