[1994-07-08-NJPW-Summer Struggle] Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Pretty sloppy in quite a few spots, but lots of personality. It's fun seeing the Steiners bitch out over all the Hase/Muto showboating. The spot where Rick struggles to apply the powerlift to get out of Muto's hammerlock is pretty great. They play off the Dome match a little, as Hase runs in to block Scott attempting the screwdriver on Muto. Scott takes a lot of punishment in this match -- a suplex from the apron to the floor followed by the giant swing. Rick runs in and tries to save Scott and he looks like he's about to club Hase and instead is met with a uranage in a fun moment. Muto does one of his dumbass running lariats on the entrance ramp. From an execution standpoint, the Tokyo Dome match is much better, but this one is pretty fun for drama and big moves.

[Kevin Ridge]

Steiners make their return to the yearbook as haven’t been seen since earlier in the year. Mutoh replaces Sasaki from the earlier match. Hase does the Rick Rudes hips wiggle and Scott takes big time offense to this. Rick tosses Mutoh away after this cartwheel elbow attempt. Scott practically drops Mutoh on his face with a belly to belly suplex. Hase interrupts a Steiner Screwdriver attempt. Boo! Bad looking Frankensteiner attempt by Scott. Barely even got Mutoh. Had plenty of suplexes to satisfy me but agree that the Tokyo Dome match was better. Last few minutes were very good.

[Exposer]

Rick was terrible in this match but I enjoyed the spot where he attempted to powerlift out of an arm lock. That was tremendous. There was some fun mockery of the Steiners from Muto and Hase here as well. They did a lot of big moves and the drama came with them but the Tokyo Dome match was better. The sloppiness and Rick hurt this some for me.

[soup23]

I didn;t like the dome match much at all and this was worse. I just don't see any structure or story between these matches and it just looks like a power move spotfest.

[PeteF3]

Slower-paced than the usual Steiners match, to its detriment. There's really nothing new under the sun here--all the Steiners moves, all the native moves, and even the Mutoh & Hase mocking spots have been seen before. I'm fine with a tag match sticking to the basics but Money Inc. actually did a much better job of getting that sort of match out of the Steiners than Muto & Hase. There are some nice spots here, but Rick in particular pretty much blows off everything that's done to him. The only time the Steiners ever seem in danger of losing is when Mutoh hits the moonsault, right before the inevitable save. A step behind the Dome match which was a step behind their match in '92.

[Zenjo]

Scott was afflicted by Roid Rage, Mutoh liked his magic mushrooms, Rick was barking mad and Hase actually stood out as the more disturbing individual in a singles against Yoshiaki Fujiwara one time.

 

Wrestlers are weird people.

 

Steiner Brothers matches always had an air of unpredictability. Nobody watching or participating knew quite what was coming next. In Mutoh and Hase they had opponents who were both willing and able to take all their high risk suplay. As well as all the funky moves there was some nice rivalry psychology and crowd involvement. An enjoyable watch, although the structure was too loose and chaotic. These Yearbooks are ideal for showcasing the Steiners, as their matches are fun and different viewed in moderation.