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This series is designed to help re-educate today's fans and let them know that WCW wasn't the 100% awful promotion it's remembered as, and clue them in to some of the things that made it a great company and the only real competition WWE ever had.
We continue with the second part of 1993 Week, as we look at two memorable feuds from 1993, as Rick Rude battled Dustin Rhodes for control of the United States Title, while the Unified Tag Team Title was at stake between the Hollywood Blondes and the team of Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas.
Dustin Rhodes vs Ravishing Rick Rude
Ravishing Rick Rude had had a tremendous year in 1992. After defeating Sting for the US Title in November of 1991, he went on to hold that title for nearly the entire calendar year of 1992. While champion, he engaged in a memorable feud with Ricky Steamboat that included a 30 minute Ironman Match at Beach Blast 92, challenged Ron Simmons for the WCW World Title, and made the finals of the tournament to crown a new NWA World Champion before being defeated by Masahiro Chono. He had probably his strongest year in the business at that point, and was almost certainly going to be a player in the World Title picture in 1993.
Unfortunately Rude suffered a neck injury shortly before he was scheduled to face Chono in an NWA Title rematch at Starrcade 92 and was forced to miss the event. His string of bad luck continued mere days later as he was stripped of the US Title he had held for over a year due to surpassing the 30 day title defense rule. While he was on the shelf, a tournament that was originally supposed to decide his next challenger instead became a tournament to crown a new champion, and the tournament was won by Dustin Rhodes, as he defeated Ricky Steamboat in the finals as Rhodes' former partner Barry Windham attacked Steamboat on the floor, leading to a countout win for Rhodes. The idea seemed to be to steer us toward a Rhodes vs Windham US Title feud, but that never happened as Windham was instead shifted into the NWA Title picture.
Instead, Rhodes soon found himself facing a recovered Rick Rude who was determined to win back the title he had never lost in the ring. They had a match on TV that ended inconclusively on the infamous German Suplex spot, where Rhodes suplexed Rude and held on for a pin, but Rude got his shoulder up right before the three count and was awarded the win. However, replays showed that Rhodes had also gotten his shoulder up, so the status of the title became disputed. Rude, having officially been declared the winner of the match, was recognized as the interim US Champion, with the US Title locked in a steel briefcase and bodyguards made up to look like Secret Service agents following him around at all times to keep an eye on the belt pending the final decision of WCW as to the status of the title.
Dustin, however, got tired of waiting, and stole the briefcase containing the belt from ringside during one of Rude's matches, forcing WCW's hand and causing them to declare that the US Title would be decided in a rematch between Rhodes and Rude in a 30 minute Ironman Match at Beach Blast. Rude went up 1-0 early and put Rhodes in the deep freeze for most of the match until Rhodes caught a surprise fall with minutes to go to even it up. Neither man was able to score a deciding fall in the time remaining, so the match ended in a draw and we still had no US Champion. Finally, the US Title would be decided in a best 2 out of 3 match series between Rhodes and Rude for the title, with Rhodes finally beating Rude to win the series and become undisputed United States Champion.
This was not only a long running and very even feud, but one which undoubtedly elevated Dustin Rhodes, who had previously been portrayed as the young up-and-comer who would one day be a star but wasn't there yet, to hanging with and defeating Rick Rude, who not only was a great US Champion in his own right, but had also been a World Title contender and had defeated several former World Champions in his own right. After this feud, Rhodes started looking a lot more like someone who had a real shot at being a star one day, and as we saw in the last installment, Rude wouldn't do too bad for himself either, as he used this feud to springboard himself into a feud over a version of the World Title with Ric Flair.
The Hollywood Blondes vs Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas
Speaking of young, up-and-coming future stars, that is the label Shane Douglas had been tagged with for several years. A good looking, well built guy with potential, he seemed every bit the opposite of the Franchise character he would later become in ECW. That being the case, the first step toward stardom had him teaming with Ricky Steamboat to defeat Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham to win the unified NWA/WCW World Tag Team Title in late 1992. It was a great formula that WCW had obviously used to great effect for many years, with Steamboat playing the veteran leader of the team, but Douglas more than holding up his side of the bargain.
Their first feud over the title saw Steamboat and Douglas feuding with Barry Windham and the recently-heel turned Brian Pillman. After Windham and Rhodes lost the title, Dustin had walked out on Windham, infuriating Windham to the point where he turned full blown heel himself by attacking Steamboat and Douglas in the locker room with a chair. Windham got himself a new partner in Pillman, and the two of them challenged Steamboat and Douglas for the title at Starrcade 92...and lost.
As 1993 began, Windham was informed that he would be moved up to the NWA World Title, so Pillman needed a new partner, and that's where Steve Austin came in. Austin, who had spent most of the previous two years as the WCW TV Champion, was in need of a new direction following the disintegration of the Dangerous Alliance, and so he and Pillman formed a team and, one dye job on Pillman later, rechristened themselves the Hollywood Blonds. Their new gimmick had them beating up their opponents, and then kneeling over them pantomiming that they were turning the crank on old-style cameras. It sounds hokey for sure, but at the time it was something that really pissed the fans off, and they were such smug heels that they couldn't help but get heat. I'll say right here that the legend of how good a team they were definitely overshadows how good they actually were, because they were really just two talented singles guys that formed a team for eight months, but in that time nearly every match they had was a blowaway classic with Steamboat and Douglas, which surely colored people's perception of them as a team. In fact, the matches became so good that it became impossible to judge which was better than the others because they were all so over the top.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Austin and Pillman finally won the title, but the feud continued. Once champions, the Blondes refused to give Steamboat and Douglas a rematch, and this led to the infamous Dos Hombres angle, where Austin and Pillman were defeated by what, at first glance, appeared to be a couple of masked Mexican wrestlers, but once unmasked were revealed to be Steamboat and Douglas, who had now undeniably earned themselves a rematch with the Blondes. Only problem was that Steamboat was the only one who ever unmasked, and the reason for that was because Douglas had been fired by WCW, so to continue the storyline they had Tom Zenk work under a mask and pretend to be Douglas. After one final bout at Slamboree 93 in a cage against Dos Hombres, Austin and Pillman emerged victorious and the Dos Hombres gimmick was retired as Steamboat returned to singles competition and Shane Douglas' name was never mentioned again for years until he finally returned to WCW a drastically changed man in the late 90s.
As for Austin and Pillman, their reign as champions lasted mere months before being defeated by Arn Anderson & Paul Roma, and they were broken up shortly afterward to give Austin a singles push with the US Title. They had a couple of matches but never really feuded, and then years later when both were in the WWF, their past was alluded to but again, they never really feuded, and Pillman passed away before they ever had a chance to. Like I said above, I think the streak of great matches with Steamboat and Douglas led to people remembering the Hollywood Blondes as being a better team than they were, but that said, they were awesome matches, and this was probably the best feud of 1993 in terms of the in-ring action.
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This wraps up 1993 Week here in the Best Of WCW, but there's plenty of great stuff to come, not only from 1993, but from all of WCW history. I'll be back with more soon, but until then, thanks for reading and remember to send along any suggestions for anything you'd like to see me cover in future editions of the Best Of WCW!
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