Greg Valentine vs Ricky Steamboat, (6/21/85 MSG) Options

[(Mul)Doomstone]

[JNLister]

Some of the most entertaining nothing-happening you'll ever see. Steamboat always brings up that he tried to steal the show every night, even on house shows, yet you don't hear of him getting into trouble for showing people up. And why would he - he's not using people's finishers, doing fancy aerial stuff, brawling on the outside or using gimmicks. It's all classic working as described in the Buddy Rogers thesis: work a hold (work, not slap on and rest), build the tension, go into a quick action sequence, then back to the hold to give everyone a chance to get their breath back, repeat the cycle with ever increasing highspots, and head for the finish.

Talking of which, the finish here would have been awesome if it meant we got a cage match the following month.

We didn't.

[texanspaniard]

This was so much fun and so good! Both guys were so intense and so good! The action was really great! I wish it had gone on even longer and had a decisive finish. A rematch would be great!! I was all into this! So good!

[Shoe]

I really enjoyed this match. You had 2 pros really going at it. The crowd was solidly behind Steamer in this one. Good crowd heat really helps a match. The finish sucks because it didn't lead to anything. You have Steamboat working spots around the headlock. This really helps the structure to this match and actually all Steamboat matches. Then Valentine gets heat on Steamboat by working over his stomach. The majority of Valentines offense was attacking Steamboats stomach. They both brought the intensity and psychology. I wish they could have worked a long program with each other. A really good match.

[fidelityastro]

I did NOT really enjoy this match. It was definitely a good match, but very disappointing for me. It really felt just like nothing.

Valentine was great as always, but man, Ricky (whom I usually love) was really overdoing it on the karate gimmick here.


For the first several minutes it was sort of like he was pretending to be a really fruity Kawada.

[evilclown]

Steamboat drives me crazy with his "karate" gimmick. That said, this is a a really fun match. Valentine is so much better than I remember. He really puts a beating on Steamboat with a variety of stiff strikes. As always, Steamboat's selling makes the match. Two evenly matched stars in a match that will probably be at least top 20 for me.

[EricR]

I remember liking this the first time, but on second viewing I LOVED this match.

This was just fantastic. I agree that Steamboat was really overdoing the karate thing. Like, seriously. In fact, Steamboat is probably the guy I've been most disappointed in these DVDs. Most of his offense just seems so ineffective.

Valentine was the star here, though. He looked absolutely worldbeating here. Him getting backed off by Steamboat's kicks, and they way hey had his guard was just as cool as all those boxing tradeoffs in the rad Garvin match. Those rapid fire kicks to the chest and chin looked really great, and Valentine just dropping to his ass was the most perfect sell ever.

The stomach work was just fabulous, and that's where Steamboat actually excelled, really putting over all the damage Greg was doing. Greg ain't afraid to hit people, either, and he'll take it right back as much as he gives. The elbowdrops to the throat never ever get old, and the falling clotheslines from the apron the the floor had my girlfriend marking.

So, this match ruled (except the WWE 80s non ending), and will be in my top 35 EASILY.

This makes me want to go back and find the Valentine BattlArts stuff to see if I might dig it more now then I remember then..........


Eric

[antelope]

I'm glad Eric mentioned BattlArts because this match really made me think of older shoot-style stuff - sort of like a weird WWF-ized UWF.

I see people were not thrilled by the karate at first, but I thought it was terrific. Valentine is trying to outwrestle Steamboat (with a very real looking takedown to start), but Steamboat is faster and is able to pick his shots. He's so careful with his strikes and takes so long to set each one up that they all have a huge meaning behind them. So for the first chunk of the match it's a classic battle of the experienced striker outstriking a wrestler - which is something you NEVER see in the WWF.

Then Steamboat misses the splash (a spot he uses in every single match, but looks the best here) and Valentine gets control. Because he's brilliant, he works the ribs to soften Steamboat up. He transitions to the legs, but that's brilliant as well - Valentine has no finisher that will capitalize on injured ribs, so he uses the ribs to slow Steamboat down enough to refocus the attack on the legs, which will (hopefully) lead to Valentine getting the win. Simple but brilliant strategy.

Steamboat's comeback is awesome as well. When he's on the floor and just takes a few moments to walk around the ring and get himself ready to fight again you just KNOW it's on. He comes back in and they go at it again, ultimately leading to the ending, which I also loved. Steamboat has outstruck Valentine every step of the way, so in the end he wins with a strike. Valentine gets lucky by falling out of the ring, but make no mistake, he lost this battle.

At only 14 minutes this is not a particularly long match, but it comes across as the most epic 14 minute match I've ever seen. Look at how sweaty and exhausted both guys are at the end (and these are 2 guys with amazing stamina) - that right there should show how much they've poured in to this match.

So yeah, I really REALLY loved this. I think when all is said and done, this will be my #5.