On November 1, 1989, in Atlanta, Georgia, The Steiner Brothers defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. They held the title for over five months before losing it to Doom (Butch Reed and Ron Simmons) in Washington, D.C., at Capital Combat. The Steiner Brothers defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship on August 24, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. During their title reign, WCW withdrew from the National Wrestling Alliance (in January 1991) and the title was renamed the WCW United States Tag Team Championship. The Steiner Brothers competed in a WarGames match at WrestleWar 1991, which received a five star rating from "The Wrestling Observer". After winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship on February 18, they vacated the United States Tag Team Championship, on February 20. After they won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki at the WCW/New Japan Supershow on March 21, announcers began referring to them as "Triple Crown Champions".