[1991-07-29-NJPW-Summer Crush] Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs Big Van Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Very good match. I really like Vader and Bigelow as a team. They didn't really work a Southern tag, but they did work an American-style match in terms of having a strong babyface/heel structure. Vader and Bigelow are both great athletes, but still understand how to work like monsters, not always bumping on the first dropkick or clothesline. Muto and Chono as a comparison to Misawa and Kawada as a team in the same timeframe is something interesting I should think about. Vader and Bigelow are definitely better than Doc and Gordy. The crowd gets really into this and the last few minutes are especially great. I think I liked this more than the multi-man tag earlier in the month, even though both matches are good.

[Childs]

Muto and Chono were impressive, channeling their inner Rockers. And I've always thought Vader and Bam Bam made an excellent super heavyweight team. They could've been good together just as easily in the U.S. The NJ tag division cranked out a bunch of good matches in this period, and what's cool, from a yearbook standpoint, is that they weren't all the same. I still love All Japan, but between the '80s projects and the yearbooks, I've become just as big a fan of New Japan.

[PeteF3]

Fun U.S.-style match in terms of Vader & Bigelow as bullying heels, complete with some hair pull complaints, and Muto & Chono having to play hit and run. The foreigners bust out some neat counters--I particularly liked Bigelow catching the handspring elbow and turning into a suplex. This sort of builds to an inevitable result but that's just fine, since Vader and Bigelow are the one who need to be established as the big dominant team.

[Kevin Ridge]

Vader tosses some chairs into the ring and Mutoh does the Hogan/Lawler move of just using the chair to sit down in the middle of the ring. Vader with Mutoh’s finger taunt! I always enjoy somebody blocking Mutoh’s handspring elbow. Vader and Bigelow do make a good team. Vader’s powerbomb looks very unforgiven to the recipient.

[soup23]

Vader and bam Bam are a really good team that work as monsters but give the opponents enough offense to make them look credible. KNowing what is to come in the G-1, I was a little weary of Muto/Chono losing here but as a way to get over Vader/Bam Bam as a tag it was effective. The finish is especially hot and all of the power moves by Vader looked great. Fun stuff heading into an exciting month for NJPW.

[garretta]

Vader and Bam Bam are the stars here. They have it all: size, strength. speed, clean moves, and a heavy dose of mean. The One Man Gang-style front suplex doubleteam should have been copied by more monster teams. Muto and Chono aren't squashed, but they're definitely outclassed. The monsters are such badasses that Bam Bam throws a chair into the ring at one point for Vader to use, only for Vader to throw it back because, quite simply, he doesn't need it. Maybe Muto should have found a way to use his Muta mist, but I'm not sure even that would have done the natives any good.

 

It's a shame that the Steiners were out of action, because Vader and Bam Bam would have been better challengers for them at this point than Murdoch and Slater. For that matter, I'm kind of surprised WCW didn't use them for the World tag team title tournament, since they had a working agreement with New Japan at the time.

[dawho5]

Loved Vader and Bam Bam as a team. I do always love when the heels will toss chairs in the ring and refuse to go back in there until the faces get rid of them. It's just such a great little psychological dig at the ref and the rules. You know that criticism that Vader and Hansen had about their team in AJPW? I think that could also hold true here.