Brian Pillman/Jushin Liger v Chris Benoit/Beef Wellington (Clash of the Champions 16/6/92)
--I've seen this overrated to hell but otherwise it's good. Benoit is pretty great even at a stage this early in his career. Not "Pretty great" in the sense where he's the best wrestler having the best matches, but I don't remember seeing a guy play a young lion while also looking like a guy who others would shit their pants to get in the ring with because he's going to grind at your face with his knuckles. Wellington seemed fine, he looked like the resthold guy for this which was cool in a match built mainly around the sensationalism of Pillman and Liger's flying spots (hope it doesn't sound like I'm knocking that). The dives were cool and if I have the right match I remember a pretty nasty outside bump by Benoti or Wellington. The announcers really don't shut up about there not being any mat covering on the concrete floor either, and Jesse Ventura lost his mind for Liger's Asai Moonsault. This wasn't a great match, but I wouldn't have a problem watching it right now; it was good.
Steve Williams/Terry Gordy v The Steiner Brothers (Clash of the Champions 16/6/92)
--When watching the Beach Blast main event with the same match-up, I honestly thought it was this one until Jim Ross said "We hope you're enjoying Beach Blast," so it blew my mind to think they could have a better match out there (from opinions I'd heard, anyway). I pretty much thought there was no way I'd prefer this one to that one in the end. Note to self: BULLLLLLSHIT. This was excellent, and basically the Beach Blast with a lot of the fat of the mat restholds and stuff trimmed off with a better crowd. I think it went a max. of 15 minutes, and without that downtime you have Doc and Gordy basically dropping control segments with restholds in favour of control segments with bullldozing killing. This still had the Williams/Rick mat work, and what was done of that was really good, but it's basically a more focused version of bombfest that gets me loving this. Actually the Gordy/Scott stuff may have been better. They worked this bridging segment, and by the looks of it Gordy could legitimately not lift himeslf up and collapsed each time. That might be called a "botch", but watching what was Scott (kayfabe) not being able to get a guy in a bridge was amazing. The suplexes her threw around were obviosuly great as well. Williams blowing of all of the mat work in favour of a slap to the face was beautiful and really got this going to the eleventh number. MVC did NOT relent on that leg either and the finish with the chopblock was sweet. This is my highest 2-on-2 tag right now and unless my re-watches of MX/Southern Boys and MX/RnR hit my sweet spot like this did, it's staying there.
Showing posts with label Steve Williams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Williams. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Friday, 19 August 2011
'DEM BIG BOYS PLEH BUT 'DEY DON'T PLEH NICE~
Scott Steiner/Rick Steiner v Steve Williams/Terry Gordy (WCW 20/6/92)
--Sort of went into this expecting something great. Forget "great", man; this was fantastic. Almost seemed like a dream match between the two teams who had all the power and mat presence in the world, and it came off like that Rock vs. Brock vibe you WANT. Obviously not as big or anticipated, but it's something to take seriously. Doc and Gordy are Japan tourists of sorts, and it has that same deal as when Vader was brought in at the Great American Bash a month later. Point is; it's no regular tag match. Scotty Steiner being the mat wrestler of the bunch outclasses Gordy's attempts at building some kind of offense. Williams at one point is yelling his bloody head at Gordy to keep hold of a leg while in a submission himself, and Gordy's tugging on that thing for his life. The Rick/Doc parts in particular felt like the big this-is-the-motherfucking-load showdown stuff. It gets the Varsity Club history mention from Jim Ross, and he says he's been waiting on this one. Williams has that football past and he's bulldozing Rick like an elephant mother who's had her child attacked. Rick eats like three shoulder-blocks to the thigh area and when Williams rampages him for the third he pulls a Steinerline out of his arse and Doc's completely wiped. Doc gets thrown with a belly-to-belly and he sold it excellently, he gets out of the ring and tries to weed it off and in turn is putting the suplex over as a really big deal. I seriously dig that kind of smallish stuff. It gets to the point where they're channelling their inner-puroresu and bombing each other with the mother-set of suplexes. These aren't regular US suplexes either, they're those motherfucking AHHHHHHH suplexes you'd want parading an All Japan main event. Gordy was getting planted on his head in a mad heap of arse and elbows. Totally level ballgame; Steiners can wrestle, MVC can wrestle, Steiners can throw, MVC can throw, and that's more little shit points I dig. One thing Steiners have that trouble doing is getting Doc and Gordy down for longer periods of time, which Doc and Gordy themsleves master. There's this really terrific grounding part where MVC are literally not letting Scott get past the middle of the ring. I felt the hot tag was almost a mistake, though. Williams had a Boston Crab and Scott's scurrying towards his corner to get to Rick, and when he actually hits the tag the referee goes to look at Gordy in the MVC because he was probably supposed to interfere or something. I'm not making no complaint, though; house-o'-fire Rick Steiner isn't something you want to miss. WCW around this time could be notoriously shitheaded with bullshitting time limits, so when they ht the 30 minute draw the time's really clocking in at about 25 or less, but they shove in all the really cool nearfall stuff you see when the announcer's counting down on his mic. Scott gets his Frankensteiner in once he counts to one and you could tell he wanted the pin despite keeping those big ol' belts. Time limit draw only helps the level ballgame deal and sets up a possible re-match between two teams that have that SCORE TO SETTLE. I would've been perfectly settled with this being the only match they had, though. Seriously exceptional and maybe a top five WCW match of 1992. Forty seven fuckin' stars.
--Sort of went into this expecting something great. Forget "great", man; this was fantastic. Almost seemed like a dream match between the two teams who had all the power and mat presence in the world, and it came off like that Rock vs. Brock vibe you WANT. Obviously not as big or anticipated, but it's something to take seriously. Doc and Gordy are Japan tourists of sorts, and it has that same deal as when Vader was brought in at the Great American Bash a month later. Point is; it's no regular tag match. Scotty Steiner being the mat wrestler of the bunch outclasses Gordy's attempts at building some kind of offense. Williams at one point is yelling his bloody head at Gordy to keep hold of a leg while in a submission himself, and Gordy's tugging on that thing for his life. The Rick/Doc parts in particular felt like the big this-is-the-motherfucking-load showdown stuff. It gets the Varsity Club history mention from Jim Ross, and he says he's been waiting on this one. Williams has that football past and he's bulldozing Rick like an elephant mother who's had her child attacked. Rick eats like three shoulder-blocks to the thigh area and when Williams rampages him for the third he pulls a Steinerline out of his arse and Doc's completely wiped. Doc gets thrown with a belly-to-belly and he sold it excellently, he gets out of the ring and tries to weed it off and in turn is putting the suplex over as a really big deal. I seriously dig that kind of smallish stuff. It gets to the point where they're channelling their inner-puroresu and bombing each other with the mother-set of suplexes. These aren't regular US suplexes either, they're those motherfucking AHHHHHHH suplexes you'd want parading an All Japan main event. Gordy was getting planted on his head in a mad heap of arse and elbows. Totally level ballgame; Steiners can wrestle, MVC can wrestle, Steiners can throw, MVC can throw, and that's more little shit points I dig. One thing Steiners have that trouble doing is getting Doc and Gordy down for longer periods of time, which Doc and Gordy themsleves master. There's this really terrific grounding part where MVC are literally not letting Scott get past the middle of the ring. I felt the hot tag was almost a mistake, though. Williams had a Boston Crab and Scott's scurrying towards his corner to get to Rick, and when he actually hits the tag the referee goes to look at Gordy in the MVC because he was probably supposed to interfere or something. I'm not making no complaint, though; house-o'-fire Rick Steiner isn't something you want to miss. WCW around this time could be notoriously shitheaded with bullshitting time limits, so when they ht the 30 minute draw the time's really clocking in at about 25 or less, but they shove in all the really cool nearfall stuff you see when the announcer's counting down on his mic. Scott gets his Frankensteiner in once he counts to one and you could tell he wanted the pin despite keeping those big ol' belts. Time limit draw only helps the level ballgame deal and sets up a possible re-match between two teams that have that SCORE TO SETTLE. I would've been perfectly settled with this being the only match they had, though. Seriously exceptional and maybe a top five WCW match of 1992. Forty seven fuckin' stars.
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