Miracle Violence Connection

[Parties]

Recommendations (updated 05/22/15)

MVC vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, 7/10/90)

MVC vs. Joel Deaton/Billy Black (AJPW, 10/13/91)

MVC vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, 12/6/91)

MVC vs. Ricky Steamboat/Nikita Koloff (Great American Bash, 7/12/92)

MVC vs. Steiners (WCW Worldwide, 9/16/92)

Seems like a team that could definitely be among the All-Time Top 25, but I want to rewatch their stuff to see if it holds up and what their best matches were.

MVC vs. Tiger Mask II/Shinichi Nakano (AJPW, 3/31/90)
Looks to be their earliest readily available pairing online. Not sure if their Bunkhouse match from the Bash ’87 tour against Eddie Gilbert/Murdoch made tape, but that seems like an awesome pairing if possible. Here’s Misawa three months away from unmasking. Pretty dull until halfway through when Misawa hits a tope and Williams catches him perfectly, as if someone tossed him a basketball. Not a complete squash, but MVC controls the majority, and it starts to feel like a match where they took the night off. But then: home stretch, about three-quarters of the way, they start hitting crazy slams and suplexes. Gordy sells well for Misawa’s flying dropkicks. Good pin breakups too. Nasty finish that establishes them as killers.

MVC vs. “Crusher” Bam Bam Bigelow/Davey Boy Smith (AJPW, 6/1/90)
Here they are against WWF-style guys of the era. Bigelow starts the match by mouthing “Fuck You” to his opponents twice, so we’re off to the races. They both have to start taking enormous bumps and selling huge for Davey Boy, who’s definitely working a WWF face-strong opening. Williams is press slammed overhead by Smith. Narrative of this seems to be that MVC gave Bigelow some of whatever they smuggled onto the plane. Davey has some too, but he’s so juiced that he doesn’t even notice. Causes Bigelow to do some goofy overselling and bug-eyed crotch spots. MVC have to cover for their opponents weird choices. Davey botches a monkey flip, staring at Williams like a deer in strobe lights. MVC get credit for working hard to salvage this, and the end result works. Another really stiff finish: one negative to watching this team’s matches now is that every power bomb and suplex looks like a concussion in the making. But hey, only four months until football.

MVC vs. Misawa/Kawada (AJPW, 7/10/90)
Gordy continues to sell well for Misawa. MVC put a stomping on Kawada on the outside. Gordy throws a torpedo of a dropkick at Kawada. Williams is a guy whose physique and subsequent move set varies from match to match, and he is a tank in this. Finish of Misawa/Kawada working 100mph around Gordy is entertaining - great stuff where everyone comes off really well.

MVC vs. Giant Baba/Andre the Giant (AJPW, 11/21/90)
Gordy and Andre both achieve so much with their mannerisms alone here. And there’s something to this where Oklahoma and Texas both have ideas of respecting elders, and you can see Gordy in particular (by working Fritz?) knows how to get old broken-down vets over. Not a good match at all as Baba and Andre really can’t go by this point, but it’s an interesting bit of theater. Baba and Andre would be instantly destroyed by MVC in a more legit booking, but the puppet show is performed finely by all. In some ways Andre is still so impressive to watch here, his signature spots fun as ever. Falling to catch both arms in the ropes, his face is amazing. The Americans oversell the Old Dudes’ offense, but in some ways this is one of the most versatile and impressive MVC performances, despite not being a good match.

MVC vs. Dynamite Kid/Johnny Smith (AJPW, 11/15/90)
i liked Williams using really aggressive collegiate pins and arguing with the ref over the count. Picture an upper midcard match in AJPW 1990 between a British-Canadian team and two Watts guys and you’ve got it. Worked like a meeting between four drug mules: a mix of calm, scattershot tension, and abrupt, deadly surges.

MVC vs. Joel Deaton/Billy Black (AJPW, 10/13/91)
This is the same Deaton who came up on the Crockett ep of “Exile on Badstreet", working in Japan a few years after the story told on the show. Right away, Black takes a crazy suplex from Gordy. Competitive match while still establishing MVCs as higher on the food chain. Deaton is a strange character and the team look kind of low rent, but they also keep fighting back and I'm rooting for them. Plus they both sell very well and the match feels big time in its near falls. Keaton’s stuff is goofy and kind of uncoordinated, but he has lots of fire, even when he’s looking weak in comparison to MVC. Really impressed by the pace of this: probably the best MVC match of these first six.

MVC vs. Ricky Steamboat/Nikita Koloff (WCW, 7/12/92)
From Phil at Segunda Caida: “This was another damn good match, the opening had Steamboat do some very cool mat wrestling with both Doc and Gordy, which is an aspect of his game you don't see very much. He would squirm in and out of holds using his speed to avoid the power of the MVC. Gordy and Williams then have a long section of beating on Steamboat. Few give beatings like Gordy and Williams and few take them like Ricky Steamboat, Williams hits a nasty backbreaker, and Steamboat spends much of the FIP section selling his ribs. When he finally tags Nikita, Koloff comes in with some cool shoulder blocks, before being spiked head first into the mat by Gordy. They then work over Nikita until the big cluster finish with Williams hitting an awesome Stampede spinebuster. This was a little one sided, with MVC really dominating, but the bursts of Steamboat and Nikita offense were great and it never dragged.”

MVC vs. Barry Windham/Dustin Rhodes (WCW, 7/12/92)
From Phil: “These two teams have a classic match up a month or so later on WCWSN, but this was a little disappointing . Crowd was deflated after the huge world title match which precedes it. Format was similar to the other Gordy and Williams match, with more greco wrestling then mat wrestling at the beginning, but Gordy and Williams really took about 80% of the match, Dustin is really great at face in peril as is Windham but I think they needed a bit more offense to really make this a great match. I did like the last couple of minutes with Dustin have a great firey comeback to almost get the tag before being cut off, and Windham dropkicking Rhodes in the back when Williams had him up for the Stampede. Still the first half of this match was a little dull. Still a fine match, but this PPV set a hell of a standard.”

[Parties]

MVC vs. Stan Hansen/Danny Spivey (AJPW, 4/18/91)
Hansen bleeds a bucket, and this is probably a match to make the case for him as a top 10 singles guy than MVC as a top 10 team. Budokan setting made this feel like something out of the 80s more than the 90s. This breaks down too quickly into a bunch of pin breakups - would have liked to have seen more of the high-end tag stuff they were doing. Some historic significance to the finish, but not a great match.

MVC vs. Kobashi/Kawada (AJPW, 5/19/91)
Context here is that MVC had been AJ tag champs from Dec-April, lost it to Hansen-Spivey, and would regain the belts a few weeks after this. Clipped to eight minutes. Good stuff, especially in the chaotic Williams and Kawada brawl on the floor at the end, but I’d have liked this more if it had been more competitive. A critique of MVC is that (esp. early in their run) they eat other teams up. On the food chain, Kobashi and Kawada were still below the Americans here, but I’m eager to see the more competitive stuff to come.

MVC vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, 5/24/91)
MVC have some signature spots (double team stomps, double power bomb) that they’re utilizing here, and Williams is good about throwing in some contempt for opponents whenever he works Misawa or Kawada. This was much more competitive that Kobashi/Kawada a week earlier, which kind of establishes that Misawa was becoming the Man. Hard work from all, and a significant match in the history of 90s AJ.

MVC vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, 12/6/91)
This is the rematch for the title change earlier that year, as the gaijin return for revenge. Hard hitting stuff: I particularly liked the Misawa work with Gordy as he hits his big forearms and topes well here. Some incredible kicks from Kawada here too. Gordy’s got a big finish here as well where he looks like such a gargantuan juggernaut.

MVC vs. Steiners (WCW Worldwide, 9/16/92)
This is MVC in taped house show heel mode. Pulling hair, barreling out of the ring, taking back body drops, and treating the Steiners as competition. Wild match as you’ve got a hot crowd and everyone’s beating the hell out of each other. Almost no selling until hit with something vicious: Scott was sort of unfazed by Williams’ punches until Gordy jumps off the apron and kind of just curb stomps him. In the middle, some jumbo-sized FIP. Ten minutes of chaos from four psychopaths at work. Really hot Detroit crowd for the Steiners, and while this is too short to be their peak, this is really entertaining stuff from everyone involved.

MVC vs. Stan Hansen/Johnny Ace (AJPW, 12/20/92)
Clipped to eight minutes. This is mayhem immediately, with Hansen throwing tables around and trying to tear Gordy’s arm off. Whole match is built around Gordy’s arm, and Ace holds his own here while working it. Gordy makes a tag by throwing one hell of a left handed punch that clocks Ace in the jaw. While MVC are often the ones steamrolling opponents, here they’re working underneath against the onslaught of Hansen. The finish is either sloppy or a football scrum race against time depending on how you see it.

[TheU_2001]

I really enjoyed the 1990 RWTL finals of the MVC vs Hansen/Spivey as well. It is a pretty great brawl that is worth checking out. I'm pretty sure it is on YouTube. I'll have to find it later and check it out for a review.

 

The MVC is one of my favorite teams. I bought a DVD set of them from highspots a few years ago that has a very good collection of their matches, (from AJPW) including many of the ones listed in previous posts.