This match never should have been booked. This is a poor man's Kamala, who has been presented entirely as ten second jobber fodder to Spike Dudley up to this point working upwards of fifteen minutes in a very competitive match against the top star in the company on a spot show in rural TN. And the match was good as fuck. As a rule I hate lengthy RVD matches, especially at that point in his career when he was working non-stop prop spots or back and fourth even-steven matches. This was nothing of the sort. Van Dam gets worked over in two lengthy heat sections that are really pretty awesome. He bumps huge for Uganda who is actually really great in this. The high points include Van Dam making a comeback off of a missed Uganda sit down splash on a sunset flip counter, Uganda almost killing RVD with a leaping legdrop to the back of his head, a great Uganada flip splash, and Uganda being a really fucking great base for all of RVD's splashes (including a high cross body, front flip, and a moonsault off the railing all of which came early in the match before Van Dam got cut off). Uganda basically worked a modern day Kamala gimmick as great as you possibly could, getting in all of the expected stuff (nerve hold, throat thrusts, belly slaps, yelping and moaning every time he's hit with a strike), and dolling it up with bigger offense. I could have really done without the late interventions of Fonzy, though I had no real problem with the finish as Uganda kicked out of a lot of RVD's stock offense before finally falling to the five star. Shockingly good match.

Dylan and I have a legitimate difference of opinion on this match. RVD looked ok and hit all of his spots semi-clean. However, Uganda really bothered me. The thing that makes Kamala work (even if the match quality suffers) is that he plays the role of untamed savage really well. The unpredictable nature of the Kamala character and the ideal that he could be a real savage is what makes you emotionally invested. Uganda has the big belly and the face paint but he wrestles like a guy who was trained by the ROH school dressing up like Kamala. For a Kamala clone, he never acted like Kamala... he acted like a wrestler pretending he was Kamala. About 10 minutes in, I just wanted this to end and that is a shame because I was really looking forward to this match.

I sort of understand this complaint even if it didn't really effect my opinion of the match. I thought Uganda basically worked a ECW safe version of the Kamala gimmick. If the original Kamala had worked the same way in Cookeville TN in 1985 I probably would have thought it bizarre and silly. But for the time I thought he actually did a reasonably good job mixing in savage gimmick, with the sort of style that is to be expected in an ECW match. I also thought he was clearly the better guy in the match and that he was a big part of the reason RVD connected so solidly with his highspots. Having said that I'm not wedded to this as a match that has to make the set. We'll see what comes through with the next batch and I'll save any further whining about this till then

ECW World TV Title: Rob Van Dam © vs. Uganda (12/16/99)

 

This was quite the match and odd pairing but it was a fun match for what it was although it wasn't enough for a nomination. Uganda wasn't very good here IMO plus this went way too long for someone whose gimmick recently has been Spike Dudley squash worker.