The opening of this is absolutely awesome. They exchange disrespect slaps. Van Dam freaks out after getting punked and unloads with rapid fire "karate" strikes rattling Jericho. Then we get RVD doing the one thing he does well which is bump big. He takes three consecutive massive bumps on the floor, including an inside out bump, a rewind bump back to the floor off the apron and a face plant off of a moonsault bump before Jericho hits him with a missle drop kick from the top to the floor. Just an awesome early sequence. When it comes time for RVD to transition back to offense it's as a result of Jericho being over aggressive and it feels really organic. Even "injured" RVD vaulting onto Jericho with a flip plancha off the railing doesn't come across as excessive because of the pacing and his subsequent choice to bury Jericho in chairs rather than try anything else really cute. Second half of the match has some Jericho offense that I thought was a little iffy, but i was shocked by how good some of the RVD bullshit that would be so tired and contrived looking just a few years later came off here. This match had one of the only Van Daminators I ever bought as somewhat credible, a slingshot legdrop with chair on the face spot that worked and a definitive finish without the match devolving into absurdist RVD prop road show. Of course Van Dam was a lot better in 96, and he's way better as a heel, but watching this really makes me think Fonzy really ruined his act because this was a really fucking good match and honestly he was the better worker in it.

I couldn't help but compare this to their King of the Ring match a few years later. Both guys looked solid and the ECW crowd once again proved fucking idiotic as Jericho hit a pretty nice hurrancanrana on RVD on the chair and they chanted "You Fucked Up". I agree 100% about Fonzie. Fuck Fonzie. No whistles was a bonus and this should go on the set.

Rob Van Dam vs. "Lionheart" Chris Jericho

 

RVD is working the disrespect gimmick here with Sabu and it carries over to this match as he slaps Jericho then backflips so Jericho returns the favor. RVD is pretty great here as he isn't into fullblown RVD match mode yet and he does some different stuff here as in using actual strikes than just jumping all over the place while pointing to himself. Jericho lost RVD on a Tiger Suplex for a nearfall but other than that hit some big spots here trying to finish off RVD before RVD brought a chair in the ring that would backfire on him as Jericho used it to his advantage before he ate a vicious Van Daminator. RVD again before he became the RVD of the last 12 years was working total heel in his mannerisms telling the fans to fuck themselves and asking where Sabu was before finishing off Jericho with his flying kick off the top rope. I loved this RVD more than any incarnation because he was doing his high flying moves but he had an edge to him and didn't act like a pothead douchebag just an arrogant douchebag. This was great stuff and an easy nomination.