Defrost Reviews – Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger

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This edition: Brian Pillman vs Jyushin “Thunder” Lyger

Jushin “Thunder” Liger is, in the opinion of DRS2EBRaSAGG, the greatest junior heavyweight pro wrestler of all time. Flyin’ Brian Pillman was a great worker prior to his car accident that caused his ankle to be fused and heavy drug use that led to his death. So these are good matches. Superbrawl II, which was the first match on the show try following that, is one of the greatest matches of all time. These are three similar matches. Kinks that were worked out in the first match show up shiny and mesmerizing in the second and the third match plays like Superbrawl’s greatest hits.

The first and second match have many similarities and a few notable differences even down to the finishes which are a microcosm of this. In the first match Pillman gets the heat for a bit and then they go nuts on a final stretch. First there is an awesome slap fight that enrages Pillman to the point that he puts Liger on the top rope dropkicks him to the floor, exposes the concrete, and piledrives Liger on it who barely beats the count. Liger is caught on the apron, but blocks the suplex in and teases suplexing Pillman to the exposed concrete. Pillman blocks it and gets Liger into the ring. Pillman whips Liger into the ropes and gets hit with the Rolling Koppu Kick when he puts his head down. Pillman fights off Liger with headbutts and comes off the top with the missile dropkick which gets 2, but then misses a Superfly Splash. Liger hits a top rope flying headbutt for 2. Then Liger nailed a Ligerbomb where Pillman lands on his head. Pillman stops another Liger top rope move, but gets dropkicked coming off the top. Liger drops him on his head again with a Tombstone Piledriver and goes up top for another flying headbutt which gets the three count.

There is no heat sequence in the Superbrawl II match since they go balls out the whole way through, but the finishing sequence is easy to identify. They go move for move equal with each other for the last five minutes or so. Pillman returns the favor on Liger from the first match by dropkicking him when Liger came off the top. However, Pillman goes up and Liger catches him with the drop kick. Then they both go for the spinning heel kick at the same time. Pillman catches Liger for a powerslam that gets 2. Liger then gets a bridging german suplex for 2. There are a few more near falls until Liger superplexes Pillman off the top and goes back up. He comes down with the flying headbutt, but this time Pillman is ready and moves out of the way and flips him over with his legs and get the pin with a bridge avoiding his fate and the finish of the first match.

As mentioned the second match they go all out with everything they have for the duration as opposed to a more normally put together match in their first encounter. What must be remembered is that Junior Heavyweights were an accepted part of Japanese wrestling whereas in America it was the land of the giants even outside of Vince McMahon’s sphere of influence. The WCW Light Heavyweight Title was only months old at this point so they needed something special there to get it over. So that night Liger and Pillman went out to get it over and they had one of the great matches of all time with many callbacks to their first match. As mentioned earlier the finish of the first match, the flying headbutt, plays a huge part of the finish at Superbrawl II. That teased suplex out of the ring and to the floor from the first match is followed through in this match when Pillman suplexes Liger out of the ring and out to the floor then comes off the top with a plancha onto Liger as he had done in the first match.

The story of Superbrawl is that Pillman and Liger are equal. Starting off with them countering in and out of arm locks into a standoff off of a double dropkick. Or Pillman with the mule kick while Liger was out of the ring but being caught with a moonsault when he brought him back in. Pillman using the wacky octopus stretch on the mat he used in all three matches, and escaping Liger’s surfboard more than once. Pillman was great selling the desperation to avoid that move. There was a great reversal of the shotei into a crucifix by Pillman, but Pillman misses a corner knee and Liger works over the leg including the figure four. Pillman made a comeback and led into the amazing back and forth finish already chronicled in this review.

The third match exists as a lesser miniature version of the Superbrawl match. It was the first match on the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro which emanated from the Mall of America which had the benefit of being a very interesting looking place to hold a wrestling show. By lesser we, the royal we, are not only meaning the time discrepancy, which is actually not all that noticeable, but the execution and ambition. For instance a famous spot in the Superbrawl match is Liger coming off the top with a hilo onto Pillman on the floor. For the Nitro match Liger comes off the apron for that spot instead.

The Ligerbomb in the Superbrawl match had Pillman landing right on his head whereas it was tons safer on Nitro. The Liger moonsault spot is far less out of nowhere and less convincing as a possible finish. There is a badly botched Frankensteiner by Pillman. Then you have some greatest hits. Like Pillman suplexing Liger out followed by the plancha. The finish is a play off a near fall near the finish of the Superbrawl match. Liger goes for a german suplex but Pillman is able to cradle Liger for the three in the first salvo in the Monday Night War.