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This is the worst match, I've ever been in...

tiger_rick

By tiger_rick
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tiger_rick Grand Master

tiger_rick

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Right, let's have another go at this one. First one was a bit wet because Randy Savage is too fucking awesome. (Topic here) so someone a bit more inclusive here.

 

Steve Austin.

 

Tons of matches over a long period for all the big promotions. Sure there were probably some wet farts when he was The Ringmaster but I'd go for:

 

Steve Austin vs. Rikishi (No Mercy 2000)

 

I get what they were trying to do here. Too often you see a hot angle run and then when the two guys go face to face there isn't the required heat. They lock up or something instead of bursting into each other.

 

This takes that approach too far. What sort of babyface tries to run someone over? Should a baby get involved in "eye for an eye" stuff? Austin absolutely mauls Rikishi which means that making money from this feud (which if I'm honest was pretty unlikely anyway) goes out of the window as a concept and Rikishi as a heel act is completely useless.

 

There's nothing enjoyable about the match. At no point can you get behind Austin as the babyface in peril and most of it crosses the line into uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is OK if you are trying to put heat onto a heel but never good when you want people to cheer a babyface.

 

I think the other reason I hate this match is because it marks the point where the WWF's red-hot run of awesome TV and PPV's came to a shuddering halt. 2000 was their best year ever to this point. Then the fun ended. Then it became the Steve Austin show again. The Royal Rumble had no suspense whatsoever and the Austin/Triple H feud was the biggest disappointment of your life. Culminating in that "three stages of hell" match. "Three stages of hell" decribing the viewing experience rather than the stipulation.

 

By April, Austin was so over-exposed they had to turn him heel. I think it all comes back to this stinker with Rikishi. He'd forgotten how to show ass. How to make someone a threat and create a new opponent.

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zep81 Proficient

zep81

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He had a match with The Undertaker one year at Backlash which was absolutely dire. Genuinely one of the worst matches I have ever seen by any standards.

 

Backlash 2002. Austin in 2002 was pretty much on his downers in the ring, stark contrast to his mostly amazing 2001.

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air_raid Grand Master

air_raid

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How long does a match have to be in order for it to be worth mentioning? Because watching "Stunning" lose the United States title to Hacksaw Duggan is the most depressing (hence worst) moment of Austin's career for me. Never mind the fact that it's WCW not realizing the value of Steve Austin and treating him like shit, never mind that we had been robbed of another Steamboat/Austin belter because of Ricky's injury... it's DUGGAN. I think I'm in the minority, but even as a kid when you just cheered for the "goodies" regardless, I hated him. He was a moron, and he was a cheat, running around whacking people with his wood. I didn't see anything likeable about him, and him winning the second most important singles belt in WCW at a time when he'd seemed anachronistic and outstaying his welcome during the last year of his WWF run... it just struck me as WCW living up to their (sometimes unfair) image of the retirement home for WWF wrestlers that were past it.

 

If that's too short to be worth considering, his match with Savio Vega at WrestleMania XII was a crushing bore that felt like it lasted for days and the result was such a foregone conclusion, I was gobsmacked that it had made it onto the show.

 

The Royal Rumble had no suspense whatsoever and the Austin/Triple H feud was the biggest disappointment of your life. Culminating in that "three stages of hell" match. "Three stages of hell" decribing the viewing experience rather than the stipulation.

 

I think that must be one of the more polarizing matches of the last 15 years. There seem to be plenty of people that really hate it, but I know quite a few lads that thought it was great. I can understand why people didn't like it ; at over 45 minutes with entrances and replays it's a long slice of wrestling TV and there is too much sledgehammer-related nonsense which can be hard to believe - like every time they ever used/use the sledgehammer, really. However at the time it felt to me like the epic war it should have been between arguably the fed's top babyface and indisputably the reigning top villain, and when I re-watch it now it takes me back to that feeling of emotional investment, and I still find it exciting.

 

He had a match with The Undertaker one year at Backlash which was absolutely dire. Genuinely one of the worst matches I have ever seen by any standards.

 

I think you're thinking of the one from Judgment Day 2001, which by and large I've blanked out. All I remember about it is that not only was I underwhelmed at the thought of the pair of them wrestling each other yet again and that it was wholly overshadowed by the Kane/HHH match underneath which was much more exciting than it had any right to be.

 

Unless you're thinking of the match from Over The Edge 99, which should realistically be excluded for consideration for obvious reasons.

 

EDIT - Or you could be thinking of Backlash 2002. Wow, felt to me like Undertaker was having crap matches with everyone for a while there.

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tiger_rick Grand Master

tiger_rick

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Steve Austin vs Yokozuna, pre-show of Summerslam. Has to be the worst by miles, surely? Can't find it YouTube, what a shame.

 

The 'not even running against the ropes in case the flimsy top rope collapses', is comedy in itself.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMZT-T_RKvM

That's amazing. I've never seen that match before. I've seen the finish though.

 

I'm not having that as his worst match. It's too short to be offensive and the finish is creative. That rope not-running might well be his worst ever spot, mind.

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DCW Veteran

DCW

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That was the one with Flair as the ref, and Austin's foot was under the rope (or something equally as weak) for the bollocks finish,which brought about a shit Flair heel turn and matches with Austin that absolutely nobody wanted to see.

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Arch Stanton Grand Master

Arch Stanton

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I think that

is Austin's own answer to this question. Link isn't the full match unfortunately. Austin has discussed this a couple of times on his podcast when Dave Meltzer has been on as a guest, because Meltz gave it a hilarious minus snowflake rating back in the day so they have a laugh about it.
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CleetusVanDamme Veteran

CleetusVanDamme

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Any* from the end of the Invasion angle up until he walked out is a good shout. He was in dreadful form.

 

*Except for that match with Flair on a Raw or SD, that was ace. All Flair, though.

 

Wow, felt to me like Undertaker was having crap matches with everyone for a while there.

 

Yeah, he had an awful year, the back-to-back main events against Hogan and HHH might be the two worst in company history. I spent most of that time wishing he would fuck off forever. He seemed finished. (Don't think I need to explain how monumentally wrong that looks now).

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darkship Contributor

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Undertaker would be a good shout for the next one of these threads actually. Between Khali, Gonzalez and the 2001-02 reign of crap (Kronik immediately springs to mind), he's been in so many dogshit matches that it's tough to choose a winner.

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NEWM Mentor

NEWM

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The Undertaker matches are great shouts, but in a similar vein to Rick's original post and Austin being a selfish cunt, I'm going with Jericho at No Way Out. Austin (who you have to assume called the match based on the fact he says he called all his matches) gobbles up what feels like hours of time on boring offence completely negating the generic flow of a match, then sells embarrassingly so for a guy he obviously didn't feel was on his level. I'm no Jericho fan but Austin chewed him up and spat him out that night. Contrasting this to Jericho's matches with The Rock (where Jericho had to be the chickenshit again) are night and day.

 

I'm not sure if it was to sink Jericho or just because he was in such an arse around this time, but it's such a dreafully shit match that should have been better considering the talents. Austin pulled a similar stunt at Summerslam 01, but at least he was a heel so it made sense within the context of an ace match (if not at all the storyline they were running).

 

Austin was the pits from the end of 01 till he fucked off.

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