'Dr. Death' Steve Williams

[Loss]

I think it's a case where they failed for various reasons - some related to their performance and some not - but they were pursuing a noble cause. It's just something unique about his career that I thought was worth discussing.

[Childs]

Yeah, I get what you're saying. But if I didn't enjoy it aesthetically and it also didn't have a lasting impact, it's not going to move my vote. You're pretty mixed on MVC in general, aren't you?

[Loss]

I am and most of that negativity goes downstream to Gordy. I find them to be a pretty boring tag team, but WCW is the exception to that. I liked their matches with the Steiners and Windham/Rhodes where they dropped the titles quite a bit.

[JerryvonKramer]

When we get there Charles, we might have to have you on GAB 92.

[NintendoLogic]

I think jdw's comments on the NWA tag title tournament for the DVDVR Best of the 90s Project are quite apropos:

 

This was Watts trying to take wrestling back to "real wrestling", which meant killing a godawful amount of time on the mat doing not a fucking thing. Watts didn't have a clue that Dustin & Barry had been doing "real wrestling" earlier in the year with Larry & Austin... just of the Kick Ass variety rather than the Lay On The Mat kind. Damn... that tourney had the chance to produce a ton of MOTYC, but instead Watts was out of touch.

 

To echo jdw's point, the "lie on the mat and do nothing" school of matwork had died a well-deserved death by that point. All those coma-inducing MVC matches represented a significant step back from what WCW had been doing.

[jdw]

 

 

Love this guy in Japan, pretty much despise him in the U.S., particularly in WCW.

 

When you see how well other mediocre dudes like Johnny Ace, Spivey, etc (I'll be nice to Gordy and leave him out of this) did in All Japan, it makes you wonder if it was just a matter of working in a hot place with great booking & match structures with some of the greatest workers of all time.

 

But Doc hit a much higher peak there than Ace or Spivey, who didn't exactly crank out singles classics. I think it was the perfect setting for Doc's power and physicality to translate, but he also deserves credit for not getting lost in the complexity of those matches.

 

 

I'd put Ace's 1997 match with Taue above any match Doc had with the possible exception of the one where he won the Triple Crown from Misawa.

 

Anyway, MVC/Steiners is funny because it shows what matwork would look like if wrestling was real. Guy gets a takedown, other guy scrambles for the ropes. Repeat until they get tired of it and start beating the hell out of each other.

 

 

Heck... I like Doc's match in the 1994 Carny with Jun better than the 1997 Taue-Ace.

[PeteF3]

I don't know about Taue-Ace but that Doc-Jun match is the bee's knees. I don't know if I'd vote for Doc but anyone wanting to consider him OR dismiss him has to consider his 1994.

 

Holy SHIT. Doc is just absurd at this point--it's one thing to start putting on great matches with the Four Corners, but to have a match THIS good and THIS well-worked with Jun (who's still not a Corner, despite his tremendous rookie credentials), after where Doc was just a couple years ago, would have been beyond my comprehension. This opens with some of the best matwork seen in an All-Japan ring in years--I daresay I'd put it up against almost any '80s Project match outside of Robinson vs. Bockwinkel. Then we progress, and it's another star-making performance from Jun in defeat, but this may be the most star-making of all. Some great hope spots and comebacks from Jun here, set up perfectly by Doc. I particularly liked Jun taking a page from Williams' book and ramming his back into the turnbuckle before hitting the Northern Lights. Williams fails to put Jun away with the Stampede and then Jun counters the Doctor Bomb, leaving Doc no choice but to bust out the backdrop driver for a tough, tough win. Williams is making a strong Wrestler of the Year push, and he's still got a lot of big matches to go! I enjoyed this as much as almost any match I've seen so far on this Yearbook--it was THAT good. And a very different style of match by '90s All-Japan standards. Easily the best of Jun's career to this point--he deserves to get a pin over somebody before the year is out.

[Ma Stump Puller]

People tend to credit his mid-90's work as sensational (which it is) but I'd also direct people to his late 90's and even his early 2000's work before the first cancer scare. He goes through a very obvious decline from just how intense he was in his prime but I found that has been exaggerated to a great extent given the sheer wealth of quality matches he puts on after that timeframe. Him and Ace have a pretty good run as big tag threats in 96, a awesome stint in helping Albright get legit in the Triangle of Power stable during 97/98, concluding with a REALLY solid match against GET that arguably overshadows the Taue/Misawa main event that night. Even if he does start to slow in the years afterwards, he's still very well done when it counts: multiple big brawls with the Demon Army, a omega underrated Southern brawl with Omori in 2000, capping off with a surprisingly strong series of matches with 2001 Muto, getting one of his better matches during that year's Champion Carnival.

It's nothing that'll make him go from a top 50 to a top 10 overnight, but it definitely helps to reinforce his standing and show his qualities weren't just grounded in the era he was in. 

 

 

[Clayton Jones]

16 hours ago, Ma Stump Puller said:

Him and Ace have a pretty good run as big tag threats in 96, a awesome stint in helping Albright get legit in the Triangle of Power stable during 97/98, concluding with a REALLY solid match against GET that arguably overshadows the Taue/Misawa main event that night.

 

 

Thanks so much for these recommendations, this is just the type of stuff I need to fill in my gaps on Doc who I have penciled in as very borderline. What's the date on the GET tag? Are there any other standout Triangle of Power matches I should check out?

[Ma Stump Puller]

2 hours ago, Clayton Jones said:

Thanks so much for these recommendations, this is just the type of stuff I need to fill in my gaps on Doc who I have penciled in as very borderline. What's the date on the GET tag? Are there any other standout Triangle of Power matches I should check out?

No problem! Here's some of the dates for stuff I'd recommend in terms of specific Triangle of Power matches:

W/ Albright vs Misawa/Akiyama (the upset that gets them going) (18.05.1997)

W/ Albright vs GET (Summer Action Series 25.07.1997)

W/ Albright and Lacrosse vs Holy Demon Army + Honda (Summer Action Series 22.08.1997)

W/ Albright vs Misawa/Akiyama (Summer Action Series 26.08.1997)

W/ Albright and Lacrosse vs Duncum Jr/Smith + King (October Giant Series 21.10.1997)

W/ Albright vs Holy Demon Army (Excite Series 28.02.1998)

W/ Albright vs New Triangle of Power (Takayama/Kakihara) (25th Anniversary 01.05.1998)

W/ Hawkfield vs Inoue/Omori (Super Power Series 12.06.1998: Doc hard carries this one) 

 

 

[Clayton Jones]

Awesome, I can't wait to dig into that stuff. It's an era of Doc's career I'm largely ignorant of and I'm always down for more Albright as well.

[NintendoLogic]

Doc/Vader vs. Burning on 2/20/00 is also well worth checking out. It's probably better than every single MVC match, at least in All Japan.