[1994-02-17-NJPW-Fighting Spirit] Jushin Liger & Power Warrior vs Rick & Scott Steiner

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I thought this match was solid, but a little underwhelming at first. Then Liger starts taking quite the beating, and the heat builds every time he kicks out of something. They do a really good job of building heat and sympathy on Liger. But then they don't really do anything with it. Sasaki seems a little awkward as Power Warrior, but tries hard, and the Steiners feed him some great spots. Liger shakes off an extended beating a little too fast when they start working toward the finish. Sasaki has no intensity to go with the gimmick, but he's over doing it anyway. Lots of good and bad here.

[Kevin Ridge]

Steiners have been one of my favorites on this set so far. So with the men in this match I was expecting something really good. There are plenty of suplexes to keep me happy. Power Warrior was up and down here but I did like him clotheslining Rick and Scott one after the other. He hit some nice moves but wasn't showing the needed fire.

[Matt D]

I love how pissed off the Steiners seem after Liger makes the hot tag after they killed him dead for 6 minutes. I love how they don't really try to pin Liger for most of that time either, not til Scott hits the charging behind German. Then when he locks on the full nelson, you're sort of... "Aw, c'mon. Don't, Scotty." Then after the hot tag, they just swarmed Sasaki. I have a big problem with Liger just shaking off the beating though. At first it seems like he's not going to but the next second he's jumping off the top rope and running around.

 

Really fun finish though.

[shoe]

I would throw this on the ton of fun pile. Liger was great. The Steiners were their usual suplex machines selves. Power Warrior was ok. That finish was rad. Though Liger escaped death way too much.

[Exposer]

I thought this was a typical Steiners spot fest but was a disappointment too. Liger gets pummeled for several minutes and then they sprint through the finish with him barely selling a lick. That's quite annoying. Sasaki was awkward as shit and I didn't think he was that great at all in this. This was a still a pretty good match but it definitely had its flaws.

[soup23]

This felt really meandering for the first 10 minutes or so then they start to work over Liger and it goes into this great finishing sequence that may be my favorite of the set so far. Really fun match that drew me in at the end.

[PeteF3]

Fun spotfest of a match. As with most Steiners matches, don't expect too much in the way of depth--and Liger falls victim as well, as he takes a pounding but is back up ready to go about two seconds after making the hot tag. I like Sasaki's intensity and the zip that he performs all of his moves with, but man, he should not be taking it to submissions if he's going to execute them that loosely and incongruously. That Strangle Hold Gamma really stood out in a match full of guys being thrown all over the place. Rick catches Liger with his counter-the-doomsday-device-with-a-powerslam spot that he likes to do and that spells the end.

[Zenjo]

The 3rd Steiners match to impress me in 1994 already. They were having quite a run. This was a fast paced and compact tag bout, with plenty of stiffness and innovative suplay. The fans were hot as well. Certainly had exciting moments, yet there were also poor move choices and it erred towards randomness at times. Fortunately they had Liger in there to bring some semblance of order to proceedings. Nobody else knew how to construct. The finish took it up a level as Rick did this awesome mid air belly to belly counter from atop Ken's shoulders. That was the shit right there.