[1993-12-05-UWFi] Gary Albright & Dan Severn vs Salman Hashimikov & Vladimir Berkovich

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was lots of fun, almost what I imagine what the Steiners in UWFI would be like with all the takedowns and suplexes.

[Childs]

One of my favorite matches of the year, if not one of the best. You had these four behemoths, seemingly hanging onto Cold War animosities, and the whole match felt a knife's edge away from all-out mayhem. I loved Hashimikov's throws and fire on the New Japan set, and he never disappoints me when he resurfaces. Really, I'm just a total sucker for Russians in shootsyle scenarios.

[Zenjo]

The shoot style tag format is deeply flawed and I wasn't that into Severn or Berkovich. However there were some fun moments here and plenty of bad blood. Hashimikov looked like such a beast and Albright was impressive as usual. I was left wanting to see a singles instead of the tag match. Although I doubt that it would've been much good.

[Kevin Ridge]

I still cannot accept this style in a tag team format. I do enjoy Albright suplexing opponents though. Some nice ones here and Hashimikov got a couple in himself. Severn was disappointing.

[PeteF3]

There was a little too much laying around for my liking--Berkovich pretty much sucked, actually, and was only good for cheap-shotting guys on the ropes like a UWFI Memphis heel. I enjoyed watching the Soviets in '89 NJPW and I was looking forward to watching four big beefy guys suplex the shit out of each other and there wasn't as much of that as I'd hoped. Still, the visceral hate on display here was something dramatically different from standard shootstyle and it was enough to make this memorable.

[garretta]

Wow. The Americans were running the Russians out of the building, with Albright in particular looking like a world beater. The match was seemingly in the bag........and then Severn tapped to an armbar out of nowhere. Talk about a stunner!

 

Count me as another one who doesn't see the point of tag team shoot-style. Just break this up into four singles matches over two cards and have done with it. I liked hearing Albright cheer Severn on from the corner, but that's not enough to get me to like the overall setup,

 

I was surprised at the heat for this, particularly since no natives were involved and it had been over four years since the U.S. and Russia had last officially been enemies. This makes up for almost all of the dead silent shoot-style crowds I've heard before.

 

Did Albright ever work pro-style? Even if he couldn't talk a lick, he seems like he'd have been effective as a mauler heel in the right promotion.

[soup23]

Watching this after The American's finale is a hell of a 1-2 punch combo. I was happy to see the hate conveyed here even with all the grappling. Even something like Albright using his body weight to lay on someone was done in a hateful manner and to prove dominance. Severn is real spry here and the long hair flying around is surreal. The finish worked in that it was a shocking moment and kept building up the feud for later iterations. ****

[superkix]

Similar to the previous tag, the energy surrounding Hashimikov/Albright was off the charts, the crowd is lovin' it, the referee trying to insert himself when there's no break on the ropes, the throws early on. Unfortunately, we don't get enough of that pairing and we get more of Severn's awkward strikes and Berkovich not understanding a rope break and kneeing the referee. The groundwork is anything but excited - lots of big man smothering holds - but you don't watch Albright matches for the groundwork. Hashimikov hits a very pretty armwhip on Severn -- for a man his size, he's very smooth. I liked Hashimikov fighting off Albright's full nelson after taking the German and he gets the win after dumping Severn with the waterwheel and tapping him with a neck crank. Too much Berkovich/Severn and not enough of what the fans (including us) wanted but still a fun match.