Stan Hansen and Johnny Ace vs The Youngbloods

I came across this the other day scanning thru the AJPW 1993 TV season I got. I was surprised the guys Hansen was mauling were the Renegade Warriors. I remember these dudes from 1990 WCW and they were not good. I can remember Arn Anderson and Barry Windham struggling to have good matches with them.

Fast Forward to 1993 and these guys are good. They look like they were in better condition here. Hansen is so much fun in this match and he brings everybody up to his level. Gotta hand it to the Youngbloods. Normally these lower card guys seem apprehensive about mixing it up with Hansen. Almost like they close their eyes and think of England. But both Renegades really lay into Hansen with hard chops. It almost looks like it surprises Stan, who beats the shit out of them.

Ace came in and held up his end of the match. His offense from the Powerslam to the belly to belly suplex to a flying clothesline look good. I love the parts where Hansen comes in long enough to kick a Youngblood in the head and go back out.

Long haired Youngblood catches Ace with a flying enziguri and tags in short haired Youngblood. He hits Ace with a flying forearm chop thing. Hits him with a running ax kick in the corner. He spends too much time whooping it up and Ace catches him with a clothesline. This got a good reaction from the crowd. He tags in Hansen and they get even louder. Hansen here is a force of nature. Running roughshod over both Youngbloods. They are trying to fight, but its like fighting a tornado. He powerbombs short haired Youngblood and clobbers long hair when he breaks up the pin.

Then nails the Lariat on short hair for the win. Then for good measure nails long hair with a Lariat.

This was awesome.

Dustin Rhodes, Terry Funk and Bradshaw vs Jerry Lawler, Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor

This is a match I was told about by Matt D. Its weird to see a match like this on Shotgun. Seems it was done especially for the live audience in Texas. Today the Texas trio would have jobbed clean.

Anyway everyone in this match looks great. Too Much are both tiny compared to the faces. Especially Dustin and Bradshaw. Bradshaw does not sell much for Too Much, but he really shouldn't have been.

Dustin starts off clowning Scott Taylor. Before tagging in Bradshaw who mauls Taylor. He goes in the corner and tags Christopher and Lawler hops down before he can get to him. He gets back on Taylor in the corner and super backdrop suplexes him.

Now Christopher is in. Which if you believe old rumors makes this pretty awkward. After Christopher gets on offense briefly, Bradshaw tags in Terry Funk. Funk demands to face Lawler.

Lawler gets in and gets the best of a punch exchange then piledrives Funk twice. Kevin Kelly on commentary, really gets over how important the Piledriver is. He also covers slightly for Lawler not pinning him. Lawler takes a big bump over the top rope and Funk batters him on the announce table.

Back from commercial and Funk is mixing it up with Christopher. The heels get the advantage. Before Funk tags out to Dustin. But the heels quickly get heat on him. Hitting a Hart Attack on Dustin.

Dustin gets the tag to Bradshaw, who tears things  up. Hitting a big boot on Christopher, a fallaway slam on Scott Taylor, then powerbombs Christopher. Lawler comes in, bringing back Dustin and Funk. Triple backdrop by the faces. Christopher ducks a Funk/Dustin double clothesline. Only to take the Lariat from Bradshaw.

They crammed a ton of stuff into ten minutes. This is as good or better as any US TV match you'll find in 1998.