[1992-08-12-NJPW-G1 Climax] Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Kensuke Sasaki

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I keep wanting to watch Watts and Dusty at ringside react to something, but they're pretty stone-faced in all of these. Anyway, I really loved this match. Super fun. Muto and Sasaki mocking the Steiners pose was awesome. I thought this was a small glimpse of what a Steiners heel run may have been like because they do fake tags in and out and get shown up. Lots of bomb throwing and stiff shots, as usual for a Steiners match. Big fun.

[Tim Evans]

I really enjoyed this. I've been down on New Japan so far on the yearbook but they have some really good tag matches. Steiners rule and I agree about Muto/Sasakin mocking the Steiners was awesome. Sasaki looked like he almost broke Scott's neck a couple times.

[shoe]

This is pretty great. I loved the Scott Steiner/Muto mat exchange. Muto/Sasaski mocking the Steiners was great. Just chalked full of great stuff.

[Kevin Ridge]

Mocking the Steiners was nice. Crowd got a kick out of that one. Liked Muto coming into the ring and trying to put additional pressure on Sasaki while he had the Steiners in the scorpion death lock. Fun match between the two teams.

[Zenjo]

The Steiners were in an unusually good mood. There were some fun moments and nice suplay. A bit on the sloppy side though.

[WingedEagle]

After a brief Scott/Muto exchange to start, the Steiners clear the ring with power moves and you can tell right away just how hot their act is. The natives then pull the same move and mock the Steiner's barking & crawling in a great spot. I thought this was a really great performance by Muto, as he had his working boots on but also didn't hesitate to throw in a lot of the Muta showmanship responsible for that great character. Strong finishing stretch that put the Steiners over big after Muto really held his own for a while.

 

***3/4

[PeteF3]

It's a cool theme and all but why do the Steiners always use Sid's music in Japan? Anyway, Mutoh doing the Rick Steiner taunt = Spot of the Decade. Then Sasaki follows up by doing Rick's slam-into-the-turnbuckles move on Scott. The natives are having way too much fun for the first half of this. The Steiners respond by throwing fits on the outside and doing some subtle heeling. It's a Steiners match so naturally it's built around bombs but there are some subtler touches as well, like Mutoh assisting Sasaki on the scorpion deathlock and the Steiners switching off in the Boston crab while also having counters for Mutoh trying to make the save. Mutoh does the job--Choshu booking strikes again! Really fun match, and there is just shitloads of great tag work in 1992 to go along with the great work in just about every other genre.

[El-P]

Really fun match, with Mutoh & Sasaki being priceless. Sasaki doing Rick's reverse powerslam to Rick was terrific. Rick kicking out at one wasn't. Rick actually got quite sloppy at the end, especially with Mutoh, who was a house of fire in this match. Very good bomb throwing match, with some structure brought by the NJ guys. Not sure it's one of the Steiner's best though, because of the slopiness at points.

[garretta]

Interesting that they booked the two semifinal losers in the tournament as a team and gave them a shot at the Steiners. I guess it's supposed to be a sort of consolation prize.

 

Muta and Ssaski were great here, and I liked most of the same spots that everyone else did. They worked well as a team and didn't let the Steiners push them around. They were also good with the subtle heel stuff, like Muta pushing on Sasaki's shoulders to give him extra leverage in the Boston crab. So were Rick and Scotty with the switch in the Boston crab.

 

Rick didn't seem to like having his posing and barking mocked by Muta, but he wisely chose not to try to take it out on him during the match.

 

The finish was unnecessarily confusing. I love a good bonzo gonzo finish, but this one took so long that I not only lost track of who was legal in the ring, I forgot who was pinned until I saw Mura lying on the canvas. It's not enough to take away from the rest of the match, but it's something I could have lived without.

 

I was paying attention to what was going on in the ring, so I didn't see Dusty and Watts. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen Watts at either G-1 match involving WCW talent, though I saw Dusty during the Rude-Shinya match.

[Superstar Sleeze]

IWGP Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers vs Keiji Mutoh & Kensuke Sasaski - NJPW 8/12/92

 

This is actually non-title. The Steiners won the IWGP tag team championships from Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow in late June of 1992 and would have two title defenses on this tour against Norton & Bigelow and Chono & Hashimoto. This is an usual native team, most of the time you will see these two tag with Hase rather than each other.

 

Big, big fun! Absolutely loved the first five minutes. Great amateur wrestling. Who the hell is this Keiji Mutoh and where is he everyday? He has having so much fun. This crowd was rocking. I loved the Steiners suplexing the hell out of Mutoh & Sasaki only to do their usual pose. Then the natives get back in and Mutoh sends Rick Steiner into a Kensuke Sasaki Steinerline and then Mutoh hits a wicked stiff dropkick on Scotty who tumbles through the ropes. Sasaki & Mutoh do the Steiners pose with Mutoh playing Rick and the Sumo Hall ERUPTS! I was marking out so hard! I thought the heat segment on Scotty was great. Mutoh hitting his trademark elbow and back handspring elbow onto Scotty on the floor. Sasaki showing off his strength with the Argentine Backbreaker. The stuff with the Scorpion Deathlock was great with Mutoh pushing on Sasaki when the ref was not looking. I am having so much fun. I was a bit bummed the natives just gave up on the hold and the tag to Rick was a bit lukewarm. Rick came in and just stiffed the hell out of Sasaki. That slam into the buckles was OUTTA CONTROL! Great tight Boston Crab by the Steiners who switch out behind the ref's back. Sasaki hits a big powerslam on Rick (Rick's usual feed bump to his opponent). Tag to Mutoh and shit just breaks down. Suplexes, moonsaults, Frankensteiners, you name it and happened. Steiners had invented the Steiner Bulldog yet but instead do the Steiner DDT from Rick's shoulders. Looked awesome. Super fun, crowd pleasing match. You don't see many of these in Japan and you know what judging by the crowd reaction this style could really get over. Lots of fun! ****

[dawho5]

I want more of the Keiji Mutoh who is here to entertain first and foremost that we got here.  Amazing performance and Sasaki was really game here as well.  Not much to add on this one, just a super fun bomb-fest with all four guys seemingly having a good time.

[Mr Wrestling 2000]

this match was super fun. Muto is so over him doing the hogan ear taunt during his entrance was perfect. This felt like a houseshow match with how much fun both teams seemed to be having. Early heel stuff like when Scott didnt tag in and told the ref to ask the crowd if he did. I dont think ive ever seen a tag partner push on the wrestler doing a crab or anymove like that. there was one point where muta tagged in and scott immediatly back drop suplexed him and muto just crawled right back to his corner and tagged. Well worth watching ****