The Briscoes vs Steenerico (8/10/2007)

Steen and Generico just have endless chemistry together. Even as a team, there’s something special about the oddball pairing of them. This may be their crown jewel as a team. It’s not their biggest match, the titles can’t even change hands here, but the violence and genius of all the men involved is incredible. It goes without saying that the Briscoes also have something special as a tag team, but to me, they always felt much more in the box as a pairing compared to Steenerico. The Briscoes are brothers, they've known each other their entire lives borrowing a year from Jay. While Steen and Generico have also known each other for ages, they lack the brotherly bond that makes the Briscoes feel like such a full tag team. Despite their differences, neither one stands out to me as the team with the better performance. The Briscoes are awesome, as always, and they bring a level of intensity that no other team could, and their chemistry with Steen and Generico is evident. Of course, Steen and Generico match their violence. While I think Generico falls back a tad during this match Steen makes up for it by being the most important wrestler throughout the match.

I really admire the opening portion of this match, it’s one of the best opening segments of any match. They don’t stop going, every camera cut is a new incredible spot and the ferocity of each spot flows into each other seamlessly. The match cycles the members in and out in an effortless way that manages to make the spots feel realistic and well-paced while also allowing a constant stream between them. The lack of commentary, despite making the Briscoes harder to tell apart, adds to the violent feeling this match attempts to present. The commentary chimes in very briefly during the beginning that they are leaving to protect themselves. This makes it feel like these men are willing to do anything to each other and that they are going to do everything possible to hurt each other.

While this match can be seen as just an awesome-looking spot followed by another, I think there’s something more here. As I mentioned earlier, the two teams completely contrast each other. Mark and Jay are brothers, the closest you can possibly be with a person, while Generico and Steen are almost polar opposites. This comes into play near the end as the Briscoes dominate by defending each other from Steenerico’s attacks and converting them into offenses of their own. They have an unspoken ability to communicate that is impossible to replicate. They only lose when Steen separates them, forcing one of the Briscoes (I apologize I really cannot tell them apart) to go for a risky move off the top of a ladder, giving Generico the opportunity to intercept with a cutter off the top. This separates The Briscoes just enough to allow Steen to hit a package piledriver on one and win the match, Generico being forced to hold the other down. The Briscoes can keep themselves close to each other at almost all times, only separated when they are either forced to or for strategical purposes, and even then, they know where the other is at all times. They’re a very compact team and in this case, even when they were separated the only reason the pin wasn't broken was because of Generico preventing it.

Image: ROH/AEW

Finally, my only major gripe is that the end starts to fall apart for me a bit. I don’t like the chair spot, it’s feels fake and has one of the Briscoes no sell a chair shot to the head. This is really the only instance of a bad spot in the match and it doesn’t hurt it too much as the rest of it is so grounded and gritty. Alongside this, the end is riddled with a lot of kick-outs that I could do without. The opening is so well done and the lack of any pinfalls at all is one of the reasons for this. The men can handle so much punishment because no one is going for a pin to win the match. Once they get into the stage of kick-out after kick-out, I don’t think it's done well or in a way that adds anything aside from artificial drama. Even then, there’s still some progression within these kick-outs. Eventually, the kick-outs slow down and the partners are forced to break up the pins instead. This is a neat little thing that shows that the punishment is taking a toll on all of them and that without their partners they wouldn't be surviving as long.

This is a great match that sets a high bar for violence throughout and somehow is able to meet and even exceed that bar over and over again.

Final Rating: ****½

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