Posted January 31, 201312 yr comment_5532028 Steve Strong v. Carlos Colon - NO DQ 1989 This is the blow off to the feud as Colon puts his career on the line v. Strong's career in Puerto Rico. Chicky Starr is banned from the building and this is No DQ, No Time Limit. On paper you think "this is gonna be an out of control brawl" and you get the feeling that if this was held in a stadium it would have been. But this is at an in door arena and my guess is to avert a riot nearly the entire match stays in the ring. Even weirder this is actually worked as a pretty straight match for the most part. First part is dominated by Colon who is targeting the leg. The implication is that Strong can't compete with Colon absent Starr or gimmicks so he keeps bailing. Everything he tries back fires. Colon gets him in the figure-four mid ring, but that ends up being the turning point as Strong reverses it. Now this part probably goes on FAR too long, but as an interesting way to do a reset it actually works. At first both guys come up selling the leg and it's unfortunate that got blown off down the stretch, because it would have been a nice story. In any case Strong's offense looked better than normal here (actually Colon's did too). Strong is actually dominating when he throws Colon to the floor. Much like Colon thinking the figure-four was his ace in the hole only to be proven wrong, Strong trying to turn it into a fight ends up back firing on him Colon takes advantage and makes a run, but he gets cut right back down. There is a great spot in here as Strong gets a near fall and Colon just barely gets his foot on the bottom rope. Strong just stares at it for what feels like forever. Comes across as a total "this was my chance and I fucked it up" moment. Strong continues his run and goes to an overhead back breaker. Looks to be going for a second one and/or a second jumping piledriver, when Colon floats him over and pins him. Post-match the fans swarm the ring and Colon which was a really cool visual. This is not the match you expect on paper and in some respects it was probably asking too much of both guys (especially Strong). Still this really works in a lot of ways and if you had told me these guys would have a match like this, with psychology that worked as well as this did, I wouldn't have believed it.
July 1, 201312 yr comment_5549542 I'll copy the match details from the link. Match from November 23, 1989 billed as the final battle between "Sadistic" Steve Strong and Carlos Colón. The WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship was help up after a match on October 28, 1989 and this match had the stipulations below. Match for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship: 1. Chicky Starr can't be at ringside 2. No disqualifications 3. No time limit 4. There must be a winner 5. If Carlos Colón loses, he has to retire. 6. If Steve Strong loses, he has to leave Puerto Rico.
May 13, 20169 yr comment_5752569 This is the ultimate blowoff match to this long feud with all the stipulations in the world and like Dylan said it's worked totally different then you would expect from these two men as this is worked completely like your standard wrestling match not a wild insane brawl all over the building. It seemed like these two men wanted to prove to each other who the better man was with no gimmicks needed just a straight fight. When Carlos locked on the figure-four leglock the building went nuts and there were fans who were actually shooting firecrackers in the building before Strong reversed the hold and it was here that with both men selling their leg this match started having a big fight feel. Strong would hit Colon with a big DDT that really turned the tide in his favor then he would take Colon to the floor where he beat on some before Colon threw him into the ringpost a couple of times and it looked like Colon was getting ready to finish Strong off as he has bloodied him. Strong though came firing back with a clothesline and back to work he goes on Carlos stuffing him with a piledriver with Colon barely kicking out. Strong at one point has Colon pinned near the ropes and Colon gets his foot on the rope at the last second which stunned Strong. Colon is still in trouble as Strong gets a Canadian Backbreaker but puts Colon down who floats over to get the pin as the fans go absolutely crazy mobbing Colon at the ring as security tries to stop them. This is an insane scene and the icing on the cake for this as a definite nomination.
