[1992-05-17-WCW-Wrestle War '92] Rick & Scott Steiner vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Tayayuki Iizuka

[WingedEagle]

For some reason they're not using the same ring as Pillman & Zenk. Maybe because they were told to work with a fresh scene for the CSIs? The stiffness begins with a lariat by Scott to Fujinami. Iizuka Then Rick breaks Iizuka's face with a knee from the top while Scott holds him up. Just a brutal spectacle that may be uncomfortable at times but is still riveting pro wrestling. You'd hope to see bullies like this get the favor returned but how often does that happen?

 

***3/4

[Zero]

I went and re-watched this. GOODNESS GRACIOUS. Brutal! One of the stiffer matches I've ever seen.

[PeteF3]

So is the claim that Iizuka got all the brunt of the Steiners' aggression? Because while he certainly got the shit kicked out of him, in no way were they gentle with Fujinami. Rick almost spikes his head into the mat on a German suplex and he and Scott exchange some brutal strikes. I have to say I enjoyed this, as I've generally been enjoying the Steiners so far. They're not deep, structured matches but most of their big spots do hit and this one in particular has the feel of a back-and-forth, shoot-type atmosphere, especially when it comes to the ultra-stiff matwork. Knowing this match only by rep, it was also far less one-sided than I'd anticipated. The Steiners never really look to be in serious trouble but they at least give the Japanese some openings to show their stuff. Iizuka gets to show off some flashy moves before dying and Fujinami looks as good as he has since his comeback. I was just fine with this.

[MikeCampbell]

This was much more brutal and stiff than I recalled. It's well known for Iizuka's facial injures, but considering the shots they dished out, someone was gonna get hurt. Credit to the kid for keeping going.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Watched this match for the first time, just now, and thought it was way more cooperative than I expected given what I had read on here. It was definitely brutal and stiff. They were working typical pro wrestling sequences that would only work if everybody was on the same page. Also, if you listen closely, Rick asks the ref during a chinlock "if Iizuka is alright". Not the big, bad demonic pricks they were made to be now are they. I thought they were just working a very friggin' good New Japan match albeit in a WCW ring. Did the Steiners botch some shit, yes, they did. Were they unprofessional in this match? I did not think so. Before, I write up a full review I am going to watch this again. My first reaction was this one helluva a great match and on par with the Doc/Gordy match from the Clash.

EDIT: Just wanted to add this does not excuse the Steiners from other unprofessional behavior in and out of the ring. They do strike me at the very least difficult people to work with to probably being assholes. Kudos to Iizuka for sticking with it and Fujinami giving as good as he got.

[ajtroma]

The wrestling fan in me doesn't give one good crap about all that Mitchell jive up there. I want hard-hitting, exciting wrestling. This delivered in spades.

[...TG]

If I'd heard about this before, I had forgotten about it, so I was going in cold. The Steiners are frightening people. Still, I'd probably use Rick as a realtor - who would have the balls to lowball him?

[garretta]

It's really hard to tell just how dirty the Steiners may have been here, with the exception of Rick's forearm off the top that closed Iizuki's eye. Everything else could have been Rick and Scotty stiffing the Japanese, or it could have been the Japanese selling their hearts out. One thing's for sure: They kept going and didn't complain, nor did they make any attempt at a receipt too obvious. The closest they might have come was when Fujinami kicked Rick hard in the head while breaking up a pin late in the match. The telltale sign that it might have been a potato was Jesse chuckling as he said, "He rung his bell, Jim Ross."

 

You wouldn't think that the Steiners would want to rough up anyone associated with New Japan, seeing as how they're scheduled to go back in June (their match with Vader and Bam Bam made the set, in fact). They're taking an awful chance on getting paid back sometime when no one's around to protect them, and Fujinami's experienced and knowledgeable enough to hurt anyone if he really puts his mind to it.

 

I noticed that JR covered Fujinami's resume by saying that he's won "too many championships to mention". That, of course, includes his controversial NWA World title victory over Flair last year at SuperBrawl I.

 

My guess is that they definitely wanted the Japanese team to look and act more like heels, which would explain Fujinami's mustache (which, by the way, does nothing whatsoever for his look).

 

I've never seen Iizuka before, and he looked like he belonged in the same ring with the Steiners for the first few minutes. Then Rick hit the foream from the top and he was (understandably) never the same. I hope we see more of him on upcoming sets, because he really impressed me (not to mention Jesse).

 

Did Fujinami and Iizuka ever team before this? JR made them out to be an experienced team, but that could have been just hype designed to make them seem like a big deal and thus make the Steiners' win look better.

 

I guess this was a non-title match, because neither Cappetta nor the announcers ever mentioned the WCW belts being on the line, even though Rick and Scotty were announced as champions and wore the belts to the ring.

 

JR pretty much had his way in this match. Jesse tried to make this about the All-American Steiners from Detroit defending the honor of the country from the dirty Japs who make our cars these days and thus put Americans out of work, but JR put a stop to that PDQ and probably warned Jesse nonverbally not to open his mouth in that way again for the rest of the match. Jesse got the message, apparently, because he was almost 100% neutral from then on.

 

Free to call the match his way, JR sounded like his old self, putting over the physicality of the bout and telling us again and again that we only get that kind of action in WCW. Being an American, he was naturally biased slightly toward the Steiners, but made sure to give the Japanese team the respect it deserved. This was helped by the fact that Fujinami and Iizuka wrestled a relatively clean match. It's going to be interesting to see how he and Jesse frame Steiners/MVC matches; how do you portray two Americans as dastardly foreign heels, especially when one of them is the son your new boss never had even though he has two biological sons of his own?

[ohtani's jacket]

#404

 

If nothing else, this is a match which holds your attention.

 

Scotty Steiner was pumped up to begin with. If there's one thing I like about pre-Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner it's his matwork. He just cannibalises guys on the mat. In fact, he may be one of my favourite mat guys of all time simply from an aesthetic point of view. He wouldn't budge an inch when it came to giving up position, but man did he look good. He was so fired up that it wouldn't surprise me if his brain thought he was in some legit competition. All of the Steiners' shit looked good in this match. Yeah, structure, and selling, and pacing are important, but I've got nothing against a spotfest when an amateur wrestling spotfest. I guess Kurt Angle really was the third Steiner brother after all. Iizuka took a licking, that's for sure. He would have been pretty sore in the morning. I thought they let up on him a bit after his injury and started pounding on him again when they wanted their shit to look good. Fujinami vs. each brother was the most fascinating wrinkle for me. I thought Fujinami looked pretty good in this. As good as you can look in a match where your opponents aren't being entirely cooperative. The Steiners did sell a bit for the Japanese and there was a brief Scotty in Peril segment, so it wasn't entirely uncooperative. Throughout the course of the bout I kept thinking would the stiffness have been so much of a factor in Japan or did it just stand out because it was so stiff for a WCW match (ala Regal vs. Finlay). I'm still not really sure. I'm not even sure if the Steiners would've taken liberties with Iizuka in Japan. Really interesting match.

[JKWebb]

http://placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-450-401/2/

 

#404

 

Crazy, stiff, brutal, memorable, unprofessional, entertaining - ***3/4

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW World Tag Team Champions Steiner Brothers vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Takahashi Iizuka - WCW Wrestlewar 1992

 

The match lives up to its rep as a brutal, violent spectacle, but still don't know if I would go so far to call it unprofessional. Scotty Steiner lets Iizuka shine early and the Steiners are still cooperative late into the match. I really think what it comes down to is that Steiners did some ridiculously dangerous shit in this match rather than being uncooperative or unprofessional. Scotty Steiner nearly piledrives himself on a flip powerslam. Then Big Brother, Rick tries to outdo him by catching Iizuka in the Electric Chair and doing a flip bodyslam from Fujinami's shoulders. That was fucking nuts. I don't think that has ever been attempted since. Rick does ask if Iizuka is ok to the ref in a chinlock after he explodes his face with an elbow. Rick Steiner was brutal with those elbows drops in the match. Some vicious Steinerlines. After Scott nearly breaks his own neck, he tries to decapitate Fujinami. Give Fujinami credit, he gives as good as he gets as starts stiffing the fuck out of the Steiners. Iizuka takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. Like I said throughout the match, the Steiners still take the Japanese offense, they just did three dangerous spots early and after that it was just the Steiners being the Steiners. Scott Steiner was incredible at integrating amateur wrestling into pro wrestling. He just gobbles up Iizuka. There is a great spot late where Steiner does a double over the top armdrag of the Japanese into a Top Rope Steinerline. Stuff like that require cooperation. They may have been hitting hard, but I don't think they ever lost respect for each other. Jesse & I both mark out for the SPIKE PILEDRIVER~! from the Japanese. Fujinami gets the Dragon Sleeper late. The Japanese still got offense down the stretch. It was not a squash match by any stretch. In a fracas, Rick Steiner hits a super Belly to Belly Suplex to win the match. One of the best Steiner spotfests because they just go balls out with 8 million suplexes, hard hitting Steinerlines and they have opponents willing to take a lickin and keep on tickin'. ****1/4

[JKWebb]

I agree with you.  I watched this again today and I really didn’t see this as unprofessional but more how you saw it Sleeze.  Anyways,  I love the moment when Fujinami and Scott look like they are about to legit shoot on each other that sets up the double clothesline... awesome stuff.   

[Makai Club #1]

Fujinami with a mustache!!! I believe that this match has a strong reputation for being super stiff and sometimes uncooperative. I can certainly see that in some cases. Iizuka getting a bruised/closed up eye is a perfect example. But it doesn’t really lead to the match falling apart. They do everything like normal, only super, super stiff. Some of the big spots of the match were crazy. Very intense and brutal looking which I loved. Iizuka took it all like a champ, not that he had a choice and even gave some back. Fujinami ruled in this match. The Steiners have that presence that glues you to the screen. The downside was that there wasn’t much structure to the match but with that being said, this was still a highly compelling, violent match. ****1/2

[dawho5]

I am no big fan of the Steiners, mostly due to the fact that their match structure tends to involve them suplexing people to death and guzzling them unless they make their own openings.  The suplexes and double teams are cool and look really good, when they don't damn near kill someone.  Maybe the reason this one looks so different from their matches against American opponents is they know how tough Fujinami and Iizuka actually are.  They aren't holding back as much s normal.  And yes, Scott does give Iizuka some really good offense early on.  I tend to fall on the side of not as unprofessional as first glance due to the Japanese wrestlers playing along for the finish, which would not have worked without them going with the move.

As a whole I do not love this match.  Watching the Steiners guzzle another tag team just doesn't do it for me.

[Mr JMML]

Rick & Scott Steiner vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Tayayuki Iizuka (WCW Wrestle War - 5/17/92)

It’s the first time I write about a regular tag team match in my Fujinami retrospective, I talked about tags and gauntlets but there were many people involved in those, this match is a 2v2 instead of the 4v4s or 5v5s like the famous multi-man matches of 80’s NJPW, if you want to watch a multi-man this show had Wargames in their main event, a match that I love so much that I included it in my GME list of 2023, Sting's Squadron (Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Nikita Koloff) vs The Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko & Bobby Eaton) watch it if you haven’t it already, I think this match overshadowed the main event in the violence department, I have to give credit to Jesse Ventura and Tony Schiavone for how they treated Lizuka and Fujinami here, they are completely aware of how the average american would react when watching japanese guys that he has never heard about ( it applies more for Lizuka, Fujinami had appeared in other WCW shows at that point), they praised them for their effort in a way I didn’t expect, specially Jesse Ventura considering how he behaved in the commentary box, the match isn’t only violent is also well structured, the Steiners were the better team but Fujinami and Lizuka struck back in multiple occasions, their comebacks were convincing enough to have the WCW crowd chanting USA at some point but the result was clear from the beginning to be fair the japanese team had no business winning but they proved their worth to the american crowd that’s for sure, Lizuka nose bleeding and overall a great match full of hard hitting action throughout, highly recommended.