ALL TIME MOTY LIST Head to Head 1990: Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster V. Midnight Express v. Steiner Brothers

Midnight Express v. The Steiner Brothers WCW 10/20/90

PAS: Someone uploaded a WCW Handheld from October 1990. While there are some really classic WCW stinkers on this card (Mike Rotunda v. JW Storm, Sting v. Black Scorpion), we do get an awesome chance to watch the Midnight Express, one of the greatest bumping and stooging teams of all time, take on the Steiners, one of the greatest offensive teams of all time. It is great to see all of the shtick the MX break out on a house show, Jimmy Cornette takes a bump off the apron and challenges the ref to a fight, the MX do a Brazos style dissension spot which included Cornette slapping Bobby. We move into a classic face in peril section, with the MX breaking out a ton of cool double teams and Cornette cheap shots. Rick Steiner is an all time great hot tag, he is so explosive and is so much fun to watch running wild. Finish was pretty cool with the Steiners hitting Steinerlines from the front and the back to pin Bobby, kind of wanted to see one of the insane Steiner finishes, but it was still decisive.

ER: Wow, pro wrestling is fucking great! This is a real classic and had it been on PPV it would still be talked about fondly today. And because of some true hero in New Jersey, we get to see it. And it's great. It's as great a match in execution as it looks on paper. And you really get the best of both worlds, with class house show stooging, with taped for a larger audience spots. It starts with a bunch of amusing spots with Lane complaining about non-existent tights pulls off hip tosses, gets into things with the ref, gets Cornette into things with the ref, watches as Cornette makes the worst "put up your dukes" pantomime and then falls into the ropes when the ref throws back, Lane gets into things with Bobby, which leads to Bobby taking a nasty apron bump when those weren't common, which leads to Cornette slapping Bobby, which leads to the crowd momentarily turning Bobby face as he grabs Cornette by the jacket to threaten him before making up. Really if this is the most we got from the match, all of us would have been satisfied as hell. Except we get a lot more.

When the Midnights are finally on the same page, Eaton tries to beat Scott with speed. Scott looks like an absolute monster and moves like Eaton, and when it looks like Eaton might get the duke after some leapfrogs Scott fakes him out and gets him in an electric chair, and Rick does a nasty bulldog off the top. Lane blasts Scott with a racket and throws some wicked stomps to Scott's ribs, Eaton bashes him with a chair, and then we get to see what a great FIP Scott was. Eaton is athletic as hell and had nasty offense that doesn't get enough credit. We all know he has great punches (and he shows off several varieties of them, and a guy in the crowd exclaims loudly after each one, and I love a man whose favorite part of a wrestling show is Eaton's punches), but watch him hit a shockingly forceful fist off the top, really leaping into it, and in my favorite spot of the match watch him shove Scott into the turnbuckles and blast him with one of the hardest lariats I've seen as he stumbles back out. Did you know Eaton threw one of the greatest western lariats? Because apparently he does. Scott gets some great flash comebacks, a sunset flip, and some beautiful big windup punches that looked like Rocky swinging for the fences. The ending is a bit sudden, but total dynamite: Scott hits the frankensteiner (a truly amazing spot) and Rick comes in with a huge Steinerline. Phil is right about Rick being a tremendous hot tag, it's something that really doesn't get talked about enough. And the end being so sudden is always believable with the Steiners, as they're clearly so powerful and explosive that they look like anything they do could be a finish.

Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster review

Verdict: 

PAS: I loved this tag match, one of my favorite things in wrestling is to discover and watch hidden gems like this, and I have never heard anyone talk about this match before, especially cool because these two teams have only matched up a couple of times on tape. Still that FMW tag is such a perfect slice of violence, I have to go with it, it feels like picking the WCW tag would be recency bias.

ER: Damn this was great. Tag team wrestling done properly might be my absolute favorite wrestling (or fat guys, or punches, or guys pointing at their head, or elbow drops, or...) and this was white hot. There is definitely recency bias at play, as oftentimes the newest thing is going to feel like the coolest thing, but I loved this so much I'm having a hard time remembering how damn much I love that FMW tag, and how I've watched that tag like 4 times this year. This tag feels like it could have those legs, and I think with a slightly escalated finish I'd vote for this match in a heartbeat. This wasn't a blowout at all, this was a worthy, awesome challenger, but I gotta go FMW.