Ricky Steamboat vs. Steve Austin

[8.0] "pretty good, at times really exciting, but also at times a little dull. Austin and Steamboat move incredibly well and pull out some very quick and exciting sequences. I like Austin's heel tactics and the fact Steamboat does the sportsmanly thing but gets cheated of the title anyways. Between a 7 and an 8 but feeling generous."

[6.0] "Two legends go at it and while this is competently wrestled, it dragged in portions and could have maybe benefited from a little less time so there were less low energy sections where they kinda lost the crowd's support. Both guys are good at what they do and most of this was pretty compelling and worth watching. I think these two have some better encounters out there though."

[5.0] "[2.5 Stars] Obviously these guys are great in ring but the match itself was a bit of a dud for me. It was surprisingly boring giving who was involved and storywise, I liked Austin as a heel trying to do anything to beat Steamboat but it all felt a little too slow and plodding for me."

[7.0] "This was very good in parts, but also had long rest periods. The structure, with long periods of heat with Steamboat only having very brief periods of success before going back to Austin on the advantage, was a bit too drawn out to rate this higher."

[7.0] "Both guys presented very decent in-ring work, but certain dull parts were a lackluster which doen't help in the general reception."

[7.0] "I thought that was a very solid work, a somewhat methodical match, weird at first, with the crowd not reacting to anything, specially that first low blow by Austin, that theoretically should've gotten a huge heat, but it was super awkward didn't work, because they were dead silent. Glady the progression of the match is great, and even that low blow had a story afterwards, with Steamboat hitting Austin in the nuts, but the referee didn't disqualified him, well, that explains the No DQ match that happened later. The first part was kinda dead like I've said, but the ending stretch is very exciting, with the roll-up sequences to end the match, and all the little stories going on - {***1/4}"

[7.0] "Exactly what you would expect from this pairing. A very well done, technical match with a great, fast pace and a clear babyface and heel dynamic. There was a nice story of Austin getting outwrestled by Ricky, so he started trying to disqualify himself, but Steamboat ultimately didn't let him do that. Austin was really looking better and better with every show and he should have been in the world title scene already."

[8.0] "A very solid match that had Austin needing to cheat to win after failing to get himself disqualified earlier on. These two have great chemistry together and the pacing here was excellent. The crowd didn't really help this one and I'm sure if it was in front of the NXT audience that Orlando would make rowdy years later the atmosphere would be much different. No less than 4 stars."

[7.0] "Steamboat and Austin had terrific chemistry in the ring together. This was a match with a slow burn, but it really got going by the end. Steamboat won't let the ref DQ Austin and pays for it with a cheap victory by Austin."

[7.0] "Both of these respective wrestlers are excellent at playing their assigned roles, with Austin being a great smarmy villain and Steamboat being a fantastic gallant hero, so this makes for a natural chemistry between the two and the resulting match is good fun"

[6.0] "Love Austin/Steamboat but this was just a good match. Austin was great in this match as a heel with milking a fake injury at one point, and his jumpstart on Steamboat to start the match was tremendous. The crowd has no interest in this match which makes the work lack the energy it should have. There is a big reaction at the end when Austin cheats to retain the US title however.***1/4"

[6.0] "I'll always be a huge Steamboat fan, but one has to wonder if his style of wrestling was feeling outdated by 1994. Both this match and his match with Flair at Spring Stampede suffer from quiet crowds and you can even hear a few audience members heckle the wrestlers for boring them in both matches. The constant milking of long holds seemed to have fallen out of favor. Austin grabs Steamboat's wrists and tries to force his shoulders to the mat in a bit that seemed to go on forever. The crowd might not have dug all of this, but I thought this was good, despite its very slow pace. This is the best Austin in WCW performance I have seen so far. He goes after Steamboat's knee as soon as the bell rings and he constantly mugs off to the crowd and the camera. He feigns a knee injury after a leapfrog, but Steamboat doesn't buy it. I love the spot where he forces Steamboat to wave to the camera. We do get a fun finishing stretch, featuring many near-falls and a sequence where Austin and Steamboat keep countering their way out of a tombstone. This featured solid wrestling between two men that have good chemistry, but I really think they need to up the pace if they want to put on a truly great match."

[8.0] "Even though the crowd did not get into this match until the end, it was a decent face/heel match. Although the length of the match is off-putting to some, the psychological matchup of the flashy but reserved Steamboat, and the more expressive attitude of the heel Austin, you could tell was building up to something. Numerous near-falls, good athleticism."

[7.0] "Another solid to great match between these two. Losing Rude and Steamboat within weeks of each other to back injuries was a tragedy of pro wrestling history."

[7.0] "This match was really good, but it suffered because the crowd was dead for parts of it. It also suffered from Bobby Heenan's terrible commentary."

[7.0] "Very good match, Austin was a great heel working over Steamboat, using underhand tactics to get on top. Steamboat hitting his flashy moves. Just a great match with seamless transitions and smooth wrestling. The flaw this match has is there is no energy from the crowd and it rubs off on the wrestlers and thus brings this match down. ***œ"

[6.0] "Generally boring match that features some nice psychology and some cool spots, but also terrible pacing and a few botched moves. I was excited to see this, as I love both Austin and Steamboat, but I was left disappointed. For some reason they don't seem to really gel together. Austin plays a great heel in this match, though, and the ending is cool. ***."

[9.0] "Great match, smart and well worked on both sides, no surprise there. Austin has got some great bumps and Steamboat breaks out some excellent offense, they compliment each other really well and tell a good story. I really enjoy when Austin started to try to get himself DQ'd and Steamboat kept blocking him, very unique sequence. Enjoyed this a lot."

[8.0] "Impressive match between a future star and a legend, with some five star matches. Steamboat vs Austin is really good, it's great to see Steve Austin doing a perfect heel job. It lasts for twenty minutes and has some nice reversals and tells a story without many complications. ****"

[9.0] "Great match. One of the many classics of both guys their careers. Steve Austin his heel tactics were great here, as he was trying to cheat himself out of the match or get DQ'd, and in the end it happened. Great match, ****1/4"

[8.0] "Good match that went at a real nice pace, told a good story and featured plenty of sharp in-ring work. A nice finish and right person went over."

[9.0] "If there's something you really gotta give some credit in this match, that was psychology. In today, there's complete hatred of psychology and disdain for anything that lasts longer than 10 minutes or so because the fans can't keep their interest in a show that long. Take this match for example, as this was really psychology based, which meant fans were booing because it was little slow paced and it was building to a climax. Also, this match got kinda overshadowed By Flair vs. Hogan, but that still doesn't change the fact that this did it's job pretty well."