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[1990-10-13-NWA-World Championship Wrestling] Rick & Scott Steiner vs Midnight Express


Loss

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  • 2 months later...

Bobby Eaton kills himself for your entertainment. He's ridiculously good in this match, taking some big bumps, being thrown around like a ragdoll on the floor and in the ring, setting up some clever spots to get over Scott's power moves and getting his own awesome offense too. The claim that he was top five in the world in 1990 is actually spot on. This was an excellent, fast-paced match. I don't want to say the Steiners were bad, but Bobby Eaton was so good that I'm not sure I noticed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great match. Even Lane's standard offense stood out as looking good. Eaton has the physical skills to take everything the Steiners want to dish out and the ring smarts to have it all make sense. Scott busts out a funky counter to Eaton grabbing his leg to block a kick, and then a fantastic sequence of Eaton trying to superplex Scott and ending up on Scott's shoulders to set up the Steiner Bulldog. I normally wouldn't like such a killer move being rolled out early on but both Midnights sell it great, with Lane pulling Eaton out of the ring to recover. We get some comedy from Rick working the Midnights from all fours, some timely Cornette interference for a hot near-fall, and an ending that works. This is not far off from the highest-end tag matches of the year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Best Steiners match I've seen in a long time. The MX provided the structure, and the Steiners fit their neato spots into it without screwing anything up. Eaton was fantastic as the guy taking a huge bump off a Steiner power move and then flattening the same Steiner with a clothesline in the next breath. Really impressive pace and crispness to the finishing sequence.

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This match was a blast. My favorite spot was actually the sequence were bobby and rick are on their knees and Bobby extends his hand. Instead of Rick being a dope he fakes shaking the hand then clothesline Bobby out of the ring. The FIP on Rick was short but really effective and nasty. This might sneak into my top 100.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

I wish their were more Steiners vs MX matches that aired on TV. Much like 4-5 years earlier with the Road Warriors, Bobby Eaton knows what to do. The MX was just the perfect opponents for the Steiners at this point.

 

Artistically (for lack of a better word), the Midnights had one HELLACIOUS year, even though they were absolutely miserable and underappreciated by management.

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  • 1 year later...

It was hard to get into this one, even though what I saw looked good. I'm much more into storytelling than how the in-ring portion of a match looks; Bobby Eaton could be out there bumping his ass off for everyone but Bob Caudle, but if that bumping doesn't mean anything in the big picture going forward, it does nothing for me.

 

In other words, I knew going in (even from a 1990 perspective) that the Steiners were WCW's new Road Warriors, and that their big feud with the Nasties was getting blown off at Havoc, so there was no way that the MX were going to be allowed to really look good against them, and they didn't. There was no real sense that the belts were in any danger, so all the offense of the MX was just a bunch of gymnastics. When push came to shove, the Steiners still ran them over and looked damn near unstoppable doing so. When Rick kicked out of Corny's racquet shot, which seldom happened, everyone in the world knew that the jig was up. From a work perspective, it was the Steiners showcasing the awesome moves: Scott's double underhook powerbomb (which JR could barely call), the top rope bulldog, and a sweet-looking finish that I'd never seen before. Usually in an MX match, it's Stan and Bobby busting out the innovations.

 

Line of the match: Bob saying that an MX win would "throw a wrench into the monkeyworks" for Halloween Havoc. Hey, it works that way too!

 

I liked how JR and Bob briefly teased MX/Nasties several times, and if we hadn't seen the Nasties attack the Steiners so brutally, I might have bought that it was possible for the MX to pull the upset. It's interesting that they set it up so the MX would have inherited the Steiners' obligation to give the Nasties a US title shot instead of simply making their own match with Morton and Rich into a US title match. I guess that was a clue to who was going over here for those who knew enough to see it. I'm guessing that would have left us with Steiners/Morton-Rich at Havoc under that scenario.

 

I know that they had to promote the Omni cards, since TBS was still a local Atlanta station at this time in addition to being a nationwide superstation. But hearing about matches like the Eaton/Sid taped fist match, which I had no opportunity to see living in Pittsburgh, would have frustrated the hell out of my fifteen year-old self in 1990. (For the record, that match never took place. According to Graham Cawthon, Luger subbed for Bobby and beat Sid in a straight-up match which I assume was for the US title.)

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  • 1 year later...

Going into this I was wondering how it would play out, since I couldn't really see the Steiners bumping and selling like death for the Midnights. Turns out that didn't matter at all because Beautiful Bobby bumped and sold enough for all 4 men. Great match. I didn't think the Steiners were using the Steiner Bulldog for a finisher at this point, but I still didn't care for seeing it that early in the match. The Midnights managed to get some good looking offense in as well, and I thought Sweet Stan's kicks looked especially good in this match.

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  • 11 months later...

It was a faster pace and played to the Steiners strengths and covered up for their weaknesses. I've only seen a couple Midnight Express matches but, Bobby Eaton really does shine here. I really prefer the Steiners in this match than their more prominent matches in NJ.

 

Their offense was simple yet powerful. Too often in Japan, they would come across as super powerful and not vulnerable enough. Here they opt for scoop slams instead of suplexes for instance.

 

The MX were clearly at a size/strength disadvantage but had experience, craftiness, and a little bit of cheating on their side. So, it seemed like an even matchup. They made the Steiners look great without getting killed. Again, another improvement over the way the brothers worked in Japan.

 

A breath of fresh air and a recommended match.

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  • 1 month later...

So great. Really fast paced and action packed with Bobby Eaton bumping like a nut. The Steiners looked like absolute killers on offense but I liked how MX still brought some tension with Cornette's outside antics as well as their tag tactics that always play in nicely to a match. As a TV match to put over The Steiners for a big PPV blow off, this was absolutely fantastic. Everyone here looked awesome and Midnight Express matches are pretty much as pro wrestling as pro wrestling gets.

 

****

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  • GSR changed the title to [1990-10-13-NWA-World Championship Wrestling] Rick & Scott Steiner vs Midnight Express

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