Watching an old Steiner Brothers match,
specifically the one against Road Warrior Hawk and Kensuke Sasuke
(https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00114_1_8)
which is a really good match even though I didn't review it, which
inspired me to really go through the back catalog of matches that
NJPW has instead of just watching the recent stuff. I avoided any of
the singles matches and just stuck to their early tag team work in
NJPW, especially as a counter to what I remember of them from WCW
during the attitude era.
Steiner Brothers vs. Manabu Nakanishi &
Kensuke Sasuke
Pretty standard tag match from two good
teams here. It's fun to see Nakanishi back in his prime instead of
the slow moving guy he is now when he shows up in NJPW. Scott and
Nakanishi start the match with some grappling in real amateur
wrestling style. Eventually Nakanishi gets an advantage then hoists
Scott up for a big powerslam. Scott rolls out of the ring to recover
then comes back in and hits a big exploder suplex. The match goes
back and forth with a mixture of powerful strikes and big suplexes
from each team before Scott lifts Nakanishi up on his shoulders and
Rick hits the bulldog off it. A really good standard tag match from
the two teams. Not a crazy main event type match, but just good
wrestling.
6/10
Steiner Brothers & Keiji Mutoh vs.
The Outsiders & Masahiro Chono
A fun six man tag match between the two
teams. Back and forth early with everybody paired off to fight in
turn. Eventually Scott plays the face in peril for the good guys and
Rick gets a hot tag where he t-bone suplexes everybody. The heels
start to just come in whenever and use the numbers advantage as Scott
is still down and out from the beatdown to get the advantage. The
Steiners manage to hit an electric chair bulldog on Hall, but his
teammates come in and save him and four of the men brawl to the
outside. Rick gets the advantage in the ring and climbs to the top
for a bulldog on Hall, but Nash climbs onto the apron and punches him
a couple of times to stop him. Hall grabs him off the top and hits an
outsider's edge. Mutoh breaks up the pinfall then Chono throws him
onto the ramp and they brawl out there. Nash rolls into the ring and
hits a jackknife powerbomb and Hall covers Rick for the three count.
At one point Rick came off the top for a crossbody block and Scott
Hall caught him and hit a fall away slam. Scott Hall is really strong
is what I'm trying to get at.
6/10
Steiner Brothers vs. Vader & Bam
Bam Bigelow
A good tag match between these two
teams and three out of the four guys really get to highlight what
makes them great. Scott does too, but he's a little sloppy in this
match and doesn't look that great, although he does a good job of
playing the face in peril in this one. He did that in the previous
match I talked about, but in that one Chono was the big hero, in this
one we get to see Rick get a hot tag and he's impressive. Because of
what Scott looked like in his biggest run we always think of him as
the strong one, but Rick looks really impressive in this one. He hits
a really good backbody drop on Bam Bam at one point. Bam Bam and
Scott start the match off with a lockup that ends with a beautiful
enziguri from Bam Bam. He spends a lot of this match proving he's
agile for his size which is fun to watch. Vader looks good in the
match as well and hits a brutal powerbomb on each of the Steiners
that just barely falls to get a three count. Bam Bam hits a big
rolling senton on Rick and would get the pinfall, but he had knocked
the ref over on the powerslam preceding it and when he helps the ref
up Rick grabs him with a belly to belly suplex and gets the three
count.
This match would have been a bit better
if Scott had been on his game, but he slipped coming off the top
once, his frankensteiner was sloppy, and he just looked a little off.
Thankfully his job was to get beat up most of the match so it worked
out pretty well. And as I said earlier its cool to see Rick get the
showcase in a match from these guys. Vader and Bam Bam were both
killing it for their part as well. Just good stuff from those three
guys.
7/10
Steiner Brothers vs. Hiroshi Hase &
Keiji Mutoh 1994
This match is great. Back and forth mat
wrestling to start between Hase and Scott. They eventually move to
stand up and Scott grabs a single leg, but instead of a takedown just
suplexes Hase over his head. Rick and Mutoh tag in and Rick just acts
like a dog for a bit and pretends to pee on Mutoh then grabs a single
leg and bites Mutoh who complains to the ref. Lots of back and forth
wrestling between the teams here. Eventually Mutoh and Scott are the
legal men and Mutoh throws Scott out of the ring onto the ramp and
takes him down with a suplex then runs about twenty yards up the ramp
then comes down with a clothesline on Scott. Rick comes over and
Mutoh suplexes him and Hase runs up the ramp then comes back with a
clothesline. Back in the ring Mutoh gets armbreaker on Rick who rolls
him over onto his back then slowly lifts him up and hits a belly to
back suplex, some guys can just lift a big guy up in that short
armbar position quickly, but damn it looks impressive when Rick
slowly hoists him up and over. Rick gets a tag and Scott comes in
hot. Hase gets tagged in and we start to build to the finish. Scott
starts hitting big moves and that culminates in him hitting a Steiner
driver and getting so excited about it he starts taunting the crowd.
I don't blame him it was perfectly hit. Scott lifts Hase up and
starts slapping him and hitting steiner-lines, but Hase refuses to go
down for a couple of them. Rick grabs Mutoh off the apron and brawls
with him ringside. Scott picks Hase up on his shoulders and Rick
comes off the top with a bulldog. Scott makes the cover and gets the
three count just before Mutoh comes off the top rope to break it up.
Great back and forth action and lots of
great work from all four men in this match. Which isn't really
surprising considering who they are. I kind of forgot how good Rick
Steiner was as a wrestler, because he didn't do much in WCW. I kind
of undersold the offense that Mutoh and Hase got in, because I'm too
focused on the Steiners, plus they hit a lot of suplexes and I love a
good suplex. This is the kind of tag action that I love to see and
definitely a match to check out.
10/10
Steiner Brothers vs. Hiroshi Hase &
Keiji Mutoh 1995
This match is the follow up to the
previous one at the next years Tokyo Dome show. This match builds up
more slowly and has some nice callbacks to the match that occurred
the year prior, but never builds up to the high points of the
previous match. I like when Mutoh takes Rick outside for the ramp run
clothesline that Rick ducks it and Scott nails Mutoh with a
clothesline, and Mutoh runs almost the entire ramp this time. He is
tired by the time he gets clotheslined. Early in the match we get the
Steiners hitting a stereo gorilla press slams and Mutoh and Hase
rolls to the outside and Hase gets a kiss from a fan who I'm assuming
is his wife. Rick goes outside and gives a fan a kiss on the cheek
that she is not into. Scott plays the face in peril for a large part
of the match with Hase and Mutoh working on his legs. Rick gets a hot
tag and cleans house for a bit. Scott gets back in and goes for a
steiner driver, but Mutoh counters by landing behind him and lifting
him up for a tombstone. It breaks down into chaos for the end of the
match and we get Scott going up for the DDT off the shoulders of
Rick, but Hase counters with a victory roll for two then Mutoh climbs
up and hits a hurrincanranna to take Scott off the top rope. Hase
hits a northern lights suplex and gets the three count just before
the kick out.
A good match, but not as fun as their
first encounter. Everybody's got some good stuff and it builds up to
the climax so for a certain kind of fan this match might be more
entertaining than their first encounter. Its still a really good
match though, just not the great match that the first one was.
8/10
Everything I watched of the Steiner
Brothers on NJPWworld was worth watching. It went from well done
basic matches to top notch main event caliber tag matches against
some of the best talent from Japan. Their style blends amateur
wrestling with the pro style very well and the explosiveness of their
suplexes is great. Their tag team maneuvers are really good and are
what really elevated them above most of their opponents, who don't
really have anything special going on with their team work beyond
just being good wrestlers. Definitely a good dive into the back
catalog and hopefully some of the other ones I do will be as much
fun.
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