Watched some more of Goodhelmet's Vader set last night (send Goodhelmet your money, btw. Buy something from him. Do it now). I shall now ramble about it.
Vader & Mr. Hughes v The Steiner Brothers (WCW Clash of the Champions XVIII, 1/21/92)
I'm struggling to remember much about this specifically (that'd be the booze, I guess), but it's not the kind of thing one watches in hopes of a "deep wrestling match" or whatever, and going on who's actually in the match, provided you're familiar with any of them, you should have a decent idea of how it's worked, anyway. As in, they throw each other around a whole lot. Match only goes about 10 minutes, but like most Steiners matches, they manage to cram in a heap of bombs in that time. Hughes is a guy I've seen very little of, but I guess I should go and watch some of his WWF stuff because I dug him a bunch here. Wasn't aware he played football at Kansasa State (thanks, Jim), but I suppose that would explain his ability to eat some really cool big "athletic" bumps. He takes an overhead belly-to-belly from Scott at the start and I was expecting him to wind up crippled via 'spine-jarring-head-drop', but to my surprise he managed to rotate all the way over and take it on his back. I can't imagine any of his WWF stuff being anything remotely similar to this, though, unless he was matched up with the Steiners again while they were in the WWF, because I don't think anybody else could throw him around like this. Vader takes some big bumps as well, including an overhead belly-to-belly, which might've been even better than Hughes', and a Rick Steiner German suplex. There's a couple moments where a Steiner takes a stint at sort of playing face in peril, but this is largely about who can toss a fatty the farthest. Big heavyweight sprint and I dug it.
Vader, Mr. Hughes & Cactus Jack v Sting & The Steiner Brothers (WCW Main Event, 2/9/92)
Another heavyweight sprint with the Steiners tossing people around and Vader and Hughes chipping in with some bombs of their own, only this time Foley and Sting are added to the mix. I liked Foley quite a bit here. He still manages to come across as this unhinged crazy dude, but he almost seems like his team's glue, making quick tags and doing a good job keeping a babyface in the heel side of the ring. Like "there's a method to his madness" type guy. The Vader/Sting exchanges were good here; Sting was never afriad to let Vader punch the shit out of him. Finish is similar to the Clash tag with a pier-sixer erputing and someone catching Hughes with something off the top. Poor guy. Gotta watch out for those bastards.
Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow v Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase (New Japan Pro Wrestling, 3/1/92)
I really liked this. Vader and Bigelow are just two big burly motherfuckers that are almost impossible to topple while Hase and Mutoh are the native babyface champs, trying to chip away at the monster gaijin. Hase in particular seems to have pissed in Vader's cereal because Big Leon really lays waste to him here. There's one point where he's got him in a seated abdominal stretch and he's hucking off punches flush on Hase's nose, so Hase gets pissed and starts slapping him only to be socked with a straight right that floors him again. I was a little surprised at how little the natives were actually given, though. Both of them are worked over for an extended period of time, but other than a few hope spots, Vader and Bigelow control about 90%. I guess that's to be expected, but I dunno... still kinda caught me off guard. Finishing run is pretty choice and I was half expecting Mutoh and Hase to pull it off at a couple points. The nearfall off Mutoh's moonsault was especially dramatic and shit. Vader and Bigelow have this really simple yet awesome signature double team move where they both stand in opposite corners and wait for an already half-dead Mutoh to struggle to his feet before simultaneously running towards each other, crushing Mutoh like Paul Bunyan just clapped his hands and killed a flee. Then they both hit a splash and Mutoh's dead as shit. Vader even manages to punch Hase in the head again as he tries to save his partner. Some parts kinda drag, but on the whole I was a fan. The match versus Hash and Chono and then the rematch with Mutoh and Hase coming up on the disc have me sorta giddy.
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