Superstar Sleeze

Pitbulls turn babyface because goddamnit they have scruples and their momma taught them not to Superbomb a lady! Hey gotta give ECW some points at least they did turn babyface because they wouldnt attack a woman. So thats something right. The Original Dudleys have become Raven's new flunkies. The Pitbulls feel like Raven & Stevie had neglected them but I forget why. I remember the Raven/Stevie promos as Tag Champs being the best part of their character work together that should be coming up. The Pitbulls were pretty fucking over in 1995 and 1996. I think people forget how just damn over they were.

Douglas has great cadence, conviction but shitty content. Id give him a pass on content if he was not so interminable. I dont know if Douglas is the best actor in the world or if he worked himself into a shoot but when the fans started thunderously chanting "We Want Flair" he got hot and I mean DOUBLE HOT! And it was worth for that. Good job Mutants! Woman comes out looking hot and I mean DOUBLE HOT! I skipped a couple months in my ECW rewatch for match watching purposes so this whole Douglas/Sandman/Cactus thing has not ended? Sandman saves Woman so Cactus saves Douglas and Cactus is the babyface? Well Cactus turning heel soon. I thought Douglas getting wicked angry at the "We Want Flair" chants were worth it.

Pete but then everyone would scream "Bait and switch". You get the heat for the Fonzie stoppage, but I think you have to deliver on this once it is advertised. I watched the Fonzie portion which was gold, but didnt feel like watching this. I have watched some Japanese Death Matches just try it but yeah now my cup of tea.

Let your freak flag fly, Pete! Get down with your bad self! Thanks to PWO I made sure to seek this out during my rewatch of ECW. Incredible. I already really like Woman, but I really loved Woman here. She does a really good job being smoldering. I really think she does but you can still tell its an act, a really good act. Here she was using her natural speaking voice it was much more organic and visceral. Now, it was definitely uncomfortable. "Assume the position little boy" is definitely pushing the envelope and not content I would want to watch with my mom. It is also doubly uncomfortable because of her death and saying how she gets off on violence. I know it is all an act, but it is hard hearing Woman say that and for me it triggers thoughts of her murder. Just absolutely terrible that's all I can say. I liked the idea of a voyeuristic character and getting off on pain. I dont know if Paul E into any kinky shit but he definitely likes incorporating into his product (the Vampire in WWECW was based on the underground biting clubs at time). Sex is such a great, important life I do think its good for wrestling to have overtones of it to be a completely fleshed out form of entertainment. I loved all people trying to stand up for Mikey and Woman not letting them because she wants to feast off the pain of the fan favorite, the loveable Mikey. Really deep, hard-hitting stuff. Fonzie ensures it is 10 was a great heat-seeking tactic. A Fonzie like character should make a comeback. Sandman hurdles over the top rope to floor delivers a wicked cane shot to Mikey. That was pretty damn athletic for Sandman. He ends up going bezerk and well over ten and Marty Jannetty saves. I wonder if ECW had big plans for Marty Jannetty because he cut a pretty good promo on the Sandman after. Mikey's line "My mom is going to kill me." popped me and the he manned up and said he was going to get revenge. Happy Mikey won the title in 1995! Excellent angle to kick off the program!

ECW World Champion Shane Douglas vs Marty Jannetty - ECW Return of the Funker 1995 Shane Douglas' ECW World Title tour as Paul E. brings in any ex-WWF, ex-WCW star willing to do a job to his New Franchise. Pretty smart booking by Paul E. and this is the best match of the bunch and I think its the best singles match Ive ever seen from Douglas including the Scorpio match I watched earlier. I think this match was tighter and made more sense down the stretch. They basically said fuck you to ECW and wrestled a traditional championship match. This was Douglas' big chance to work the NWA Touring Champ style and he did it pretty well. Bret Hart was much better at than Douglas. Marty gets a series of quick nearfalls early to establish he is here for a good time not a long time. Douglas powders. He regroups. Back in, it is a Jannetty Victory Roll and a Superkick attempt that has Douglas getting the Hell out of Dodge. Great babyface shine. Jannetty is able to get his fist drop and a clothesline after a ballshot to complete a very strong shine. I would have liked the ballshot used later in the match as a stronger transition but thats a nitpick. Douglas is able to lure Jannetty to the outside with some arena brawling and thats where the Franchise is in his element. He hits a wicked front suplex on the railing and uses a crutch to cement his advantage. Jannetty takes a wicked bump off a clothesline nice inside out sell. Jannetty really throws himself into the ringpost bump and then takes a suplex on chairs. Really good stuff. Throughput Jannetty would pepper in hope spots to make sure we all knew he was alive. Douglas hits his shoulder on the post. Jannetty works that a bit and then goes into his finish sequence. Rocker Dropper for 2. Big time Superkick. Doesnt cover, not a good side. Goes up for the fist drop but Douglas moves but Marty wisely lands on his feet. DDT! 1-2-FOOT ON THE ROPES! Awesome nearfall! Jannetty goes for a Victory Roll and Douglas THROWS HIM DOWN WITH A POWERBOMB!1-2-3! Tight, impactful finish. Jannetty got in plenty of white meat babyface offense and got a nice hot finish run. I liked the heat segment a lot Jannetty did a lot of great selling and bumping. There are some issues with transitions that I didnt cover in my main review and Douglas also can be a bit bland. I would have liked to seen more heel character work out of him. Overall, I really enjoyed their ode to 1980s championship wrestling. ****

ECW World TV Champion Pitbull #2 vs Chris Jericho - ECW Hardcore Heaven 1996 I am a big confused why Pibull #2 was being pushed? I know Pitbull#1 was injured but I dunno Pitbull #2 always struck me as the lesser of the two Pitbulls so I can understand having him on the lower card. That being said I watched his ECW World Title match with Raven and TV Title win over Shane Douglas all on the show prior to this and he was definitely over. So it goes to show you what I know. I dont have too much to say about this. It is a good, basic standard power vs speed match. Theres not much struggle to it. It is very "my turn, your turn". They establish Pitbull's power advantage early. Liked the catch on the spinwheel kick into the slam. The Press Slams were great especially the one into the tombstone. Jericho in 1996 has a penchant for overreaching and doing spots that look like they will get him or his opponent killed. Even though he did some crazy spots that could have gone wrong most of them involved tombstone variations, they pulled them off without being too egregious. Did Pitbull blade off a Victory Roll? If so that has to be the most bizarre bladejob after. Jericho takes control. Now Pitbull feeds for him. It is a very neat match not a lot of struggle. Jericho does his springboard dropkick but instead of a dropkick he did a moonsault which I thought was pretty cool. He also busts out a missile dropkick. Ill be honest all the offense kind of just runs together. Douglas comes out to argue with Francine and try to steal the belt. Pitbull #2 interjects himself but steamrolls Francine. Pitbull #2 Clobbers Douglas and then Jericho crashes down on Douglas by accident. Pitbull #1 with an arm in a sling takes Francine back while Douglas tries abscond with the title but the refs stop him. They do the less complicated version of the Hurricanarana/Splash Mountain Finish where Jericho hits a Frankensteiner off the Superbomb. Great looking finish! Douglas throws a fit. Pitbull and Jericho bro it out. This all leads to the Fatal 4-Way between the four most recent champions. It was a very clean match which was surprising because at any moment I thought it could go sideways. Jericho would learn how to add connective tissue and psychology to his matches in WWF. Here he shows a basic grasp of power vs speed but is missing those crucial transitions that would really make a match like this pop. ***

Sabu vs Rob Van Dam - ECW Doctor Is In Stretcher A pretty famous feud that put RVD on the map. Paul E was able to make RVD & Taz into stars on the back of Sabu pretty impressive. Im a pretty big Sabu mark and think RVD is useless. This didnt do much for me. I watched the whole feud about 15 years ago when youtube first came out. Basic gist was Sabu extended his hand in respect and RVD didnt take it. This led to a Matter of Respect which was two parts this and the Douglas/Scorp feud. At some point RVD gets "insider" info that Sabu has injured neck doesnt everyone know about the Benoit match anyways he targets and the neck and Sabu is carried off in a stretcher. Volia here we are. I couldnt remember if I watched this match but the Sabu Asai Moonsault onto the Stretcher and his shins whacking the guardrail reminded me I had. Fuck that had to hurt.Up until then it was both guys doing their schtick. Sabu is at his best when he is unpredictable and finally all around. This was too slow. RVD had some nice karate kicks but other than that it didnt feel fluid. Felt stilted. They blew a couple spots. The table spot came off really, really well. That should have been the finish. Great Brainbuster through the table looked awesome and I guess it was a callback to how RVD targetted the neck previously. They teased carting Sabu out but RVD stopped it. Some lame action followed. The real finish which was also a good spot was RVD doing a somersault splash from the top rope on the stretcher. The best wrestling match was the wrestling the "EMTs" had to do to get the stretchers to work. Some of the spots were alright but yeah this is bad Sabu and I like Sabu.

ECW World TV Champion 2 Cold Scorpio vs Shane Douglas - ECW Matter of Respect When did Scorpio turn babyface was it just because Sandman turned babyface? After Benoit/Guerrero/Malenko left, Paul E turned to Scorpio to fill his workrate void first with a great 30 minute draw with Sabu and now we get another long title defense against The Franchise. This is a pretty famous storyline. Douglas thinks the TV Title is beneath him. Scorpio takes umbrage with that. He is going to make Douglas Respect the championship and the champion. Douglas claims to not want the title but is he a liar? Gold can be alluring by any name. I still have not watched the Jannetty match so I dont know how this compares. Douglas whups Scorpio for most of the 15 minutes. This is an anti-Flair NWA Championship defense. I am not going to assert that was intentional. Given Douglas' animosity to Flair, it could be seen in that context but I dont think thats what is happening here. At first, I thought they were going to do the NWA Championship standard babyface bests the heel on the mat, but Douglas actually wins most of the sequence causing three powders by Scorpio. First on a dropkick, then they do a finisher tease and Douglas wins with a Butterfly Suplex and then on the third Douglas hits a plancha. It felt like a babyface shine for Douglas. If he wasnt such a pompous prick, Id believe it. He hits Scorpio with a dangerous front suplex onto the guardrail. Just when you think Scorpio is going to mount a comeback, Douglas sends him flying into the crowd in a cool spot. Scorpio tries another comeback but Douglas kicks him in the balls and hits a hellacious powerbomb on the cement floor. I wouldnt think a Douglas squash would be so appetizing but he is actually a good squash wrestler. ECW really believed that the best way to earn respect was through takin' a lickin and keep on tickin. Thats how they got Dreamer over. It is definitely one school of thought. I think offense is a better way to go but thats just me. Scorpio ends up kicking Douglas in the balls twice, chair shot, Flying Space Tiger Pele Kick and an Asai Moonsault finally put Scorpio in the drivers seat. I have found the match enjoyable so far. I think the transitions are solid which is usually the weakest part of ECW. I dont feel the heat is quite at the classic levels, but this has been good. Scorpio cant hit his dive on the table because Douglas moved and well-done sneak attack because the cameras intentionally lost Douglas. The end of the match is bizarre. Are we sure that Douglas wasnt the babyface? Scorpio hits a moonsault. He gets up at 2. And just laughs. I feel like Scorpio doesnt respect Shane-O. 450 Splash and Legdrop no covers just high steeping. No transitions Douglas just gets up and starts hitting suplexes. This is trash. I liked the Superbomb. The cherry on top is the shitty finish. Scorpio says he is going up top, flips off the fans and then goes up and Douglas hits a low blow and Scorpio no sells it. Super Belly 2 Belly was a good finish. Douglas feigns respect only in a dick move to ask Scorpio to strap the belt around his waist. Scorpio smokes him with the TV title belt and beats the shit out of him. This match is overrated. This is a workrate championship match in ECW and so it feels different but it pales in comparison to the great championship matches of history. I liked the beginning Douglas was great on offense and worked compelling sequences. Once Scorpio took over the match fell off the rails. ***1/4

Terry Funk & Arn Anderson vs Sabu & Bobby Eaton - 5/14/94 Total clusterfuck. I thought this was actively bad for the majority of the match. Arn wants to build to him vs Eaton as the marquee pairing when Arn vs Sabu is the cool dream match here. Arn vs Sabu is pretty disappointing. Arn just treats Sabu as his ragdoll doing what he wants when he wants. They work Arn's knucklelock spot at the stupidest time. Like I said Clusterfuck. Sabu vs Funk work a finish stretch in the middle of the match for no reason. Sabu moonsaults 1-2-NO supposedly a big nearfall. Funk gets up hits a powerbomb. I literally rewound just to make sure I didnt miss a transition. Nope Funk just got up and hit a powerbomb. Neckbreaker for another nearfall. This is like a shitty All Japan match aka a 21st century Indie "epic" involving Joey Janela. Thats when they do the nearfall. Arn does take some moonsaults from Sabu. Theres no real fun interaction. It is just taking spots. Arn DDTs three times while Funk hits a hard to see Piledriver on Eaton in the Eagle's Nest. Anderson hits a Spinebuster so that the ECW Arena can go home happy. Here comes Public Enemy to attack Funk's knee. Funk accidentally hits AA in the fracas. Sabu tries to make Funk submit to his Spinning Toehold. Anderson turns on Funk, which anyone with half a brain can see coming from miles away because this match is the drizzling shits. Surprisingly Funk submits to Sabu's Single Leg Crab. I am surprised BABYFACE hardcore legend & tough as nails Terry Funk submitted. I should be praised as a Hardcore Legend for not tapping out ten minutes earlier. Dreadful.

I have only deeply watched two Johnny Ace tags from 1994 recently but I have to say I was pretty impressed. Could keep up with the workrate and the stiffness. In the December 1994 tag, he heel'd it up like a champ. Working perhaps the greatest heel spot in the history of Japan...maybe the world. I marked out like crazy when I saw this. Greatest Thing Ever.mp4

ECW World Champion Raven vs Terry Gordy - Hardcore Heaven 1996 if you just watch this & Gangstas Paradise you’d be fooled into thinking Raven was a great wrestler. Not quite as good as the Pitbulls match but this shows the Raven act at top form. Gordy looked great on offense! Tons of energy and uptempo! Crowd was lapping this up with a spoon huge pop on entrance and when he said hailing from Badstreet also a big pop. Gordy kicked Ravens shit in and Raven bled buckets to get this over huge. Chairs, ballshots, blood, barbed wire and liberal interference make this a joy to watch. Richards/Nova try to pry Gordy off the Asiatic Spike. Dreamer saves and DDTs both. Here’s Brian Lee. The pop Gordy gets for powerbombing Lee is fucking massive! StevieKick->Raven DDT is perfect way to finish it fast. Timed the climax perfectly. Sandman comes out swinging the Cane. This is the very beginning of the Tyler/Peaches Angle. “Daddy you’re a drunk, I worship Raven now” I have seen before. It is heavy duty stuff. As a fan of soap operas (General Hospital fucking rocks!), I like this stuff but at the same time I feel bad for Tyler. They are treating his mom like shit. Calling her a whore and Raven is pulling her hair to show he controls her. That’s fucked up for a kid. I think they could have fleshed this out more to make it more convincing and ditched the kid. Kudos to Raven for the Crimson Mask and having the Barbed Wire tangled in his hair looked like a psycho. The rant that Dreamer wasn’t potent enough to get Beulah pregnant was awesome insecure dick heel shit. Match was a blast, post-match I get it but I can’t approve it a kid shouldn’t be at an ECW show as a fan never mind partaking especially where they are denigrating his shoot mother. ***3/4

Best of All Japan 1993-1994 Part 2 Yesterday, I explained how I discovered Japanese pro wrestling and what it has meant to me over basically my whole life. Today, I don't even know how to put in words the greatness of the pro wrestling that is covered in today's blog. I think the word that great Romantics of the 19th century would use to describe Misawa vs Kawada, Kobashi vs Hansen and Misawa/Kobashi vs Holy Demon Army would be simply, "sublime". This 58th edition of the esteemed Pro Wrestling Love series is the Top 6 matches to take place in All Japan Pro Wrestling during 1993-1994, but honestly any match in the Top 5 could be my pick for the Greatest of All Time, any country, any time that's how damn good these 5 matches are on top. I just went with this order for now, but I think I will re-watch again before I submit my final list for the Greatest Pro Wrestling Match Ever project in August. What will finish #1? Any pro wrestling fan worth his weight in salt knows these dates: 7/29/93, 12/3/93, 5/21/94, 6/3/94 or 7/28/94 (Goddamnit I know that match aint known by its date but it should be! Dr. Death SHOCKED the World!) It is the most competitive, loaded edition of Pro Wrestling LOVE!!!! So don't just sit there eyes wide open, slackjawed click the link and revel in the glory. https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/05/pro-wrestling-love-vol-58-best-of-all.html

Bam Bam Bigelow vs Spike Dudley - ECW As Good As It Gets A big step down from their Hardcore Heaven match. There are two blown spots. One is a normal whiff on a dropkick that sends Bigelow over the top rope and knee first through a table that looked painful. Anyways I can understand a whiff. But the earlier one is bizarre. Spike takes the Bret Bump hard into the buckles and ricochets back. Bam Bam just takes a front bump for no reason clutching his head. It was pretty bad. The layout was off too. ECW Arena was MOLTEN for this match. We are taking nuclear heat. They wanted a replica of Hardcore Heaven and they wanted Spike launched into the crowd. "Over here" chants and a very funny "We Want Spike" chant. When Spike made his comeback, the fans were not too happy and were chanting for Bam Bam because they wanted the crowd throw so bad. They should have done the crowd throw early and then done the Spike comeback, crowd would have been more into it and less preoccupied with the fact that the crowd throw may not happen. The crowd throw is the more famous of the two as it would go into the opening video package. I can still hear Paul E. shouting the "lewdest and crudest" as this clipped played as an advertisements for ECW in Waltham, MA during Nitro. I remember a lot of ECW ads during Nitro. It always included this crowd throw. They do the body surfing which was cute, but undercut the brutality from Hardcore Heaven. Big splash ends it. This was fine, but not as cool as the Hardcore Heaven. Though the childhood nostalgia factor is much higher for me on this one.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs Spike Dudley - Hardcore Heaven 1997 This is the greatest Squash ever, right? I mean it has to be. Spike beat Bam Bam to set this up on TV. Spike come out all piss n vinegar during his entrance like a tiny Stan Hansen and wants to prove this is no fluke. He comes charging right at Bigelow. It ends up being legalized murder. The biel Spike took was insane. Bam Bam threw him across the ring and Spike landed hard. Spike did get a modicum of offense including the Acid Drop, but nothing doing. He gets caught and Bam Bam THROWS SPIKE DOWN WITH AUTHORITY WITH A POWERBOMB! How wicked was this powerbomb? It got a fucking Holy Shit Chant. He Akira Taue'd Spike rolling Snake Eyes but lawn darting him onto the exposed turnbuckle and Spike taps a gusher. The whole match Bam Bam had been taunting that he was going to throw Spike into the crowd and they were chanting "Over Here". He made good on his promise. He HURLED Spike from the ring, with quite gap on the ringside area. He must have thrown into at least the third row. SPIKE WENT FLYING! It was insane. Bam Bam does a cartwheel which makes me think in everyday life when Bam Bam was pleased with himself he would bust out a cartwheel. Bam Bam's weird moonsault for a sidesault diving headbutt wins it. Greatest Squash Ever! Defies rating. Worth watching.

It is a very clever feud. Watching the blood dripping from Dreamer's forehead while he pressed a bandage to his head was powerful.

I agree with you Pete more wrestlers actively looking to settle a grudge with an active member of the roster is a great idea. Adds depth to both characters. Terry Funk who has aligned himself with Sandman & Woman against Cactus, has decided the friend of my enemy is my enemy and thus the enemy of the friend of my enemy is my friend. He comes out and cuts Raven's cuffs. This is a gauntlet match. Dreamer does a nice tricked out Enziguiri to pin Richards. He comes to attack Raven but the handcuff is already off and Raven suckerpunches him and DDTs on the concrete floor. Raven pummels him and loads up the boot. Dreamer does a five-alarm bladejob. Raven handcuffs to the ropes and BOOM unprotected chairshot to the ropes. First legitimately great angle from this storyline. I skipped this ECW Arena show and went from Return of the Funker to Three Way Dance. I was skipping the unnamed ECW Arena shows which was kinda dumb in retrospect. I love that Raven loads the boot it is so him to use every heel trick. This really elevates this feud from lets see where this goes to ok this shit is hot now.

Messing with Terry Funk that Funk has played characters in the past and did a job for Patrick Swayze was a good retort. I'll have to watch the Cactus/Douglas vs Funk/Sandman. Also on this episode, 911/Simmons was wicked over. They had 911 take Simmons' Spinebuster. You could tell the crowd was a little worried this was the end of 911 but he gets the Chokeslam! 911 was a such a genius gimmick. Public Enemy mocks WCW's Uncensored by wearing a dress because of Flair (I need to see that angle) and the overall weakness of the matches by hitting each other with balloons. They get serious and say they are coming for Benoit/Malenko & Sabu & Taz.

Man Pete is fired up about Cactus & Douglas! I liked Shane-O alright here-o. They both trash talked Funk no-showing an ECW show in August of 94. I know Funk was working in WCW as a member of Studd Stable is that why. Sandman tries to stir up trouble between Douglas and Cactus. Funk really doesnt have much time to talk. Woman did the best out of all them correctly calling out Douglas as a Horsemen wannabe and she could have taken him to the top well now her boys are going to take him. This apparently didnt get captured on the yearbook so I want to give my boys, Public Enemy, a SHOUTOUT! The majority of the episode was devoted to them trying to track down the other two teams to sign a contract for their Three Way Dance. Paul E. signs up Sabu & Taz right away. 911 blocks PE from getting to Paul E. Grunge goes "I gots no problem, I didnt call 911" PE messes with Joey lifting his watch and pickpocketing. They go find Jason who I guess is still managing Malenko but is he managing the Triple Threat. I dont know. Jason acts like he is going to sign but doesnt. Public Enemy feeds the contract to him and Jason's Pitbulls attack the Public Enemy and kick ass. This sets up Pitbulls vs Public Enemy and if PE wins then we get the Three Way Dance. I kinda like Jason. He can be a little forced at times, but when he was goofing around Pitbull #1's back that was pretty funny. The Pitbull #1 tell Jason they want the Champs once they beat PE. Pitbull #1 is a solid musclehead promo, Pitbull #2 is useless.

La di da di we's like to party! Johnny Grunge gets sentimental because Rocco Rock had to go to the ER. He ain't cried about none of his hoodie friends because they chose the life of a hoodie but Rock is different. He shed a tear and now he wants Benoti's ass. Good brawl in the ECW arena with Rocco Rock in the wheelchair. I was thinking to myself Rock looks classy in white but he has a blood packet under his shirt to make it look he ripped some stitches after Benoit steamrolled him with a lariat while in the wheelchair. I liked Rock mocking Sabu/Taz for losing stolen property. Looks like they are turning Public Enemy babyface I would imagine for the impending arrival of the Gangstas.

Cut em some slack Pete, it has literally only be one ECW Arena show. Logically, Douglas can have an allegiance to his ol pal Cactus back from Dom DeNucci's school and his Triple Threat. Let see how it plays out come April, brutha. I didnt think was Cactus' best. He plays off his masochistic tendencies but in this case he didnt like the beating and was asking for help. I thought this was going to go somewhere interesting but he just does the standard pro wrestling promo that he was going to beat up Terry Funk as revenge.

Terry Funk does not believe in the old adage "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." He feels disrespected that hack like Cactus is trying to emulate him and has actually duped fans into believing that Cactus is actually the second coming of Terry Funk. He shoots a little close to home calling Cactus a mockery to the business because he doesnt know how to wrestle and focuses too much on bumping and doing his Masochistic Theatre of Pain bullshit.

ECW Tag Team Champions Public Enemy vs Sabu & Tazmaniac - ECW Double Table 1995 This to surprise of no one shocked. I have seen one good Public Enemy in my life and it is when Knobbs & Saggs stiffed the fuck the out of them on Nitro. Terrible meandering brawling. Taz may be my least favorite wrestler of all time. Useless. They have an even worse match believe it or not a couple weeks prior in Florida. The only redeeming quality of this match is Sabu is awesome. The dive through the ropes while Grunge was sitting on the chair was the spot of the match. Selling his shin after Rock ricocheted off a table into his leg was also great. The finish was absolutely dreadful. Public Enemy are the heels and Sabu/Taz are the faces, but Public Enemy were the main event headliners for ECW so they needed protection. It is not enough that this is tables match probably the first which should be enough protection. Heyman has an absolute brainfart here. Grunge/Taz both go through a table to eliminated themselves which is all good & dandy to eliminate themselves. Taz gets powder in his eyes and the ref checks on him and misses Rocco Rock splashing Sabu through a table. Fucking eh! Why are we giving the heels a visual pinfall! Sabu ends up putting Rock through a table shortly thereafter. So dumb! The Benoit Superbomb of Sabu onto Rock on a table was pretty wicked! I dug that. Match was absolute garbage.

Stevie Richards vs Tommy Dreamer - ECW Double Tables 1995 This is shockingly good. It consists of chair shots, eyepokes and ballshots, but I love that shit so I lapped it up with a spoon. The issue with these can be meandering brawling. That was not the issue here at all. It was efficient, slam bang get out match that I dig. Richards got a little heat Dreamer mounted his comeback. Dreamer wearing All Japan style tights (around his waist instead of hips) is funny I hear there is a Akira Taue vs Tommy Dreamer on tape. I am morbidly curious. Raven gets involved. Holds Dreamer for the Superkick. Stevie nails it, still cant get the job done. Goes for it one more time but Dreamer does a reverse dropdown and punches him square in the nuts! I popped huge! That was pretty genius. Shawn should have had that spot done to him. Or imagine Otis doing it now to Ziggler (we will see how that comment ages.). Raven does the whole hold me back hold me back thing but really isnt showing a lot of drive. Dreamer leads the Mutants in an ECW Chant because he not Francine was always the Head Cheerleader. ***1/2

I became very intrigued by all this and now I am an hour and 45 minutes deep in a Shane Douglas shoot. He comes off well-spoken and calm, not bitter. He earned my respect by sticking up for a student who tried but may have been a little overzealous and was being ridiculed by another student when he was a teacher. He does mention being fed up with the politics for both stints of WCW. First he was pissed because it sounds like Jim Ross jerked him around teasing him with a main event push only for Jody Hamilton to shut the door on that. So he went to WWF the first time. The second time was more to do with money. Bill Watts was stringing him along with an hourly guarantee while Steamboat, Austin and Pillman were on six-figure contracts. Watts tells he will get converted to contract. Watts get fired. Ole is like what are you bitching about thats plenty of money. Then he got injured. He was soured by the money and Dos Hombres mask situation. The only time he brings up Flair is that he tried to get Flair to change the name of the Dynamic Dudes and Flair at that point knew he had to pick his battles and didnt want to fight that one. So yes EL-P you are right this more like a work than a shoot. Douglas was pissed at WCW. WCW was public enemy no. 1 in ECW not WWF. But Douglas never really worked with Bischoff and the smarty, savvy ECW fans would have seen through that. Douglas bitching about Herd, Ole, or Watts just would not have the same ring to it as going after a more public figure like Flair. Douglas did end up talking himself into a program with Flair in dying days WCW. He couldnt do that with Herd, Ole or Watts so it wasnt a half-bad strategy. I am interested to hear what he says about the Kliq because like I said he seems calm and not bitter but I feel like the Kliq jerked him around pretty good but I believe that was also during the time Watts was there and he seems to like Watts from getting his break in the UWF. He is an easy interview too. He is very verbose and has his story pretty chronologically straight. A lot of these shoot interviewers are hacks so it is good that with Douglas you can just carry the interview himself. I had no idea that Shane Douglas of all people was going to be my new obsession, but here we are!

We all had to start somewhere and for me it was Scott Keith on the old Wrestleline.com website. Scott Keith reviewed all the 1995 ECW shows. I must have read his reviews a millions times between 1998-2010 for these shows. I watched a lot of 1995 ECW but I stuck mostly to Raven/Dreamer and even though I know about the DC Drake angle from the Keith reviews I never seen this angle. Sandman vs Cactus have an amazing match down in Florida in mid-January. Totally overachieves and everyone should see it. It is shockingly good. Sandman tried to blind Cactus with a lit cigarette after the match because he lost. So Cactus wants revenge. Then there is the infamous Texas Death Match where Sandman is concussed for a shoot and his health is clearly being endangered. Cactus just sickeningly compounds the issue by whacking Sandman in the head unprotected really hard with metal objects. Foley actually jokes about this in his WWE DVD set. I remember getting really pissed about it a couple years ago on here. Anyways, now Sandman wants revenge but the rub is Sandman isnt medically cleared. We get a mystery box. I know they are a joke because they are associated with Jim Cornette and hokey Southern wrestling but fuck we need more mystery in wrestling. Mystery tag partner, mystery opponent, mystery attacker, give me something hooks me in week to week. We get DC Drake who I have never seen before but looks like father of every random 2010s alternative-looking Indy wrestler. This is an underwhelming surprise. The match is a nothing match. Sandman CRACKS Cactus in the back of the head with the Singapore Cane and the brawl is on. Cactus overtakes Sandman and puts him back in the box. Cactus collects Sandman out of the box with the curtain covering him and we are pretty sure it is the Sandman because this dude also has Old Glory Zubaz on. He takes off the curtain and it is Terry Funk! Big pop and it is asswhupping from Funk and Cactus. Were those fans that jumped the rails to save Cactus? Thats what it looked like to me. Funk looked like he cracked one of them hard with a left. Then I got to thinking is Funk a heel because I thought he was a babyface. Then Dreamer comes out and Joey confirms my suspicions that this is indeed a turn because Funk was Dreamer's mentor and Dreamer cant hit his father-figure. Funk paintbrushes him and just as Dreamer was getting ready to clean his clock Sandman blasts him from behind. Here's the part I had forgotten, Then we get Shane Douglas. This is interesting. I was just thinking they are going from one heel to another as champion because I know Douglas is leaving soon and Sandman wins. I was just researching Douglas and found out him & Cactus trained under Dominic together and Joey right on cue says this. Oh shit! Douglas is going to turn! This is fantastic. They do a little hemming and hawing. Woman throws up Triple Threat and Douglas does. I cant tell if Woman is telling Douglas to ditch Benoit &Malenko and join with Funk & Sandman or unify the groups but either way it is to align. Funk is very aggressive in his shoving. They are goading the Franchise to smash the championship belt upside Cactus' head. I thought they were going to go Nitro and cut out and make you tune in next week but no he blasts Sandman and then Funk to save Cactus. Genius! I know they ran the "will he or wont he" angles into the ground in the 90s but they gotta bring those back. 1 or 2 a year would be great. It is great suspense. Pro wrestling at its finest. So many moving pieces coming together for multiple climaxes, awesome.