1992 Discussion

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Big Van Vader vs. Dustin Rhodes – Saturday Night 21/11/1992
Before the match Sting levels Vader with a 2x4... I think. Don’t actually see it on the beginning of this match lol, which kinda sucks. Bill Watts shows up and tells Race that the match is still happening, and Race is banned from ringside! Vader gets in Dustin’s face at the start, and Dustin shows no fear. Vader pie faces the young kid and Dustin responds with a right hand and a flurry of rights and clotheslines! As fun as that is though, it’s got nothing on Vader’s control segment. As usual, his offence is awesomesauce, but Dustin is such a great FIP that he makes Vader’s offence look even better than normal.

Oh man, I don’t know what else to say about this match other than the awesomeness of Vader’s offence and the awesomeness of Dustin’s selling of it. It really is fucking amazing. Dustin is young, he’s about what, 6ft 6? And here he is getting punched in the face repeatedly and selling it like fucking death. There are guys way smaller than Dustin that can’t take beatings from big men like Vader nearly this good. I remember reading Dustin’s book and him saying how he tried to pattern himself after Barry Windham, and watching him sell the way he does despite his size, essentially making him seem like a small guy, you really can see how he does his best to be like Windham. Think I might dig out some Windham matches later actually...

Oh man (again lol), Dustin takes one of those clotheslines where he flips over (as we see from many people, not just Dustin of course lol)... ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR. That HAD to fucking hurt. Looked amazing though, and led to the finish as well so it wasn’t some random wasted spot, which makes it even better. Loved this, gonna have to watch their match from 1994 that I have on hand now. Oh, and I’m fairly certain this is making my list.

Jake Roberts/The Barbarian vs. Ron Simmons/Barry Windham, WCW Saturday Night 9/26/92
Another awful match. Roberts was already starting to look pretty rough by the time he showed up in WCW and his ring work was abysmal. As good as WCW was in 1992, it took a dive in the second half of the year. This got the "skip ahead" treatment and didn't look good at any point.

Brian Pillman & Larry Zbyszko vs. Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton, WCW Saturday Night 8/8/92
In theory this should've been awesome since Zbyszko was looking for a measure of revenge and paid for his troubles, but Jesus Christ is this a boring match. One of the worst WCW matches I've ever see. Ross just drones on and on.

Dustin Rhodes vs. The Barbarian, WCW Saturday Night 11/14/92
Here we go, I've been wanting to see this ever since Loss pimped it a few years ago, but it never surfaced during the Smarkschoice WCW poll. Every few months, I check to see whether someone has put it on youtube or dailymotion and finally I hit pay dirt. That's a long wait in proportion to how short the match is, but it was every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be. For a sub-10 minute match they pack a lot into it, but never in a way that rushes things. There's simply an urgency to it because Dustin is hurt. It's a great example of selling well and not breaking character even in a minor bout. The urgency really helps the finish as well, which is a nice bit of booking against the run of play. Satisfying match.

Jake Roberts v Dustin Rhodes (Saturday Night 26/9/92)
--God this was great. Rhodes had a little too much shine at the beginning working Snake's arm, but it all looked really good and Jake's leg tapping and hand-biting is what I want in this sort of selling. It all came full circle once Roberts did the ol' "fake a leg injury" job and tosses Dustin out and does squats to mock him. He takes his sweet time tearing Dustin apart. Dustin going back to the arm whenever he was in trouble was terrific, and Jake being a wily prick to win was better.