Comparison: Ricky Steamboat vs Vader

Cap's Categories:

Top Matches – I’ll give the edge to Steamboat. Flair matches, Final Conflict, Savage matches, Funk match, Luger match, any number of tags.

Versatility – I went with a draw and thought a good deal about this and couldn’t pick either guy. My gut reaction is to go Steamboat on the virtue of his ability to have matches like the classics with Flair. But then Steamboat was never the successful world traveler like Vader. Steamboat worked in Japan sure, but he didn’t stand out or get particularly over in a memorable fashion. But the more I think about it, the more both guys seem kind of one note to me making the versatility question even more difficult. However, the notes were classic wrestler archetypes and they each perfected their roles as in ringer performers to the point where you wouldn’t want them doing anything else. More than anything their strengths were in their ability to be the best version of exactly themselves regardless of opponent or setting, not in their ability to work a bunch of different styles & roles.

Consistency – Draw. These two were among the most consistent wrestlers of their era. Almost the heel/face version of each other. If you were a babyface in the and couldn’t have good match with Vader, seek other work. Same thing if you were a heel up against Steamboat for basically his entire taped career.

Charisma/"It" Factor" – I went with Steamboat because he’s among the most handsome guys in wrestling. Vader’s appeal for me was never about charisma and always more about workrate. I don’t think I would go so far as to say Vader wasn’t charismatic. But if I was listing out his best qualities, I’m not sure charisma would be one of them. He’s a weird one.

Promos – I’ll go Steamboat. Neither of these guys is a top 100 promo, but Steamboat has more memorable outside of the ring stuff.

Elevating Others – I’ll go with Vader. Both guys were great at making others look good by bumping and selling. But everyone kicked Steamboat’s ass. Slamming a 450lb man will always be impressive even if Vader did sometimes bump too much.

Offense – I like Steamboat offensively, but Vader is one of the best offensive wrestlers ever. This is like a 95-55 NCAA 1st round game. Steamboat’s offense is like a fine small school that upset a couple of better teams on the way to a surprise tournament bid. Vader is getting 4 guys picked in the lottery.

Selling – I know some people think Steamboat’s selling is way too over the top, but WM III made me a fan for life so Steamboat’s babyface selling will always work for me. And if it does he’s one of the definitive guys ever.

Rewatch Valley – Kind of tough because neither guys is someone I really seek out much these days. They’re two guys I feel like I’ve kind of closed the book on in a lot of ways as I’ve watched them for like 30 years. I probably haven’t watched any of their matches since GWE (and even then, very few) I did watch several of their matches within the last 6 months or so (including an excellent one together) and it was a nice reminder how great they were. I would say if I had the choice of all of the unavailable footage to suddenly become available, I’d pick Steamboat because of all that 70s Mid-Atlantic. So maybe slight edge to Steamboat? I dunno.

Bonus Elliott's Question (Brody vs Nigel or best work associated with a crappy wrestler).
I’m struggling to think of a really good match either guy had with a Brody or Nigel level worker. The Steamboat/Snuka match from AJPW sucked, but it was too long. I don’t think Snuka was that bad at that time. Maybe there’s a Muraco match. My gut is telling me there’s like a 3 ½ star Vader vs Kane match, but I can’t for the life of me remember when it was, if it really happened, or if it was against Sid…oh was Davey still smoking crack in 1993? I’m going to give the edge to Vader here though because I think against a really shitty opponent he could at least impose his will on the guy and we’ll probably get a huge suplex or some stiff shots.

Steamboat - 5
Vader – 3
Draw 2

Even closer than it looks honestly. Both guys only really have one category with an obvious an advantage (offense for Vader, selling for Steamboat) with the others being toss-ups. Steamboat padded his stats with promos/outside the ring stuff and basing Rewatch Valley on the hope that unavailable footage might become available. This is probably closer to 1-1-8 in reality.