Candido pre-match mic bit is pretty good and gets the crowd into this. Early Spike manages to escape Candido's clutches on the mat which only serves to piss him off as he grabs the mic and shit talks some more which leads to a really big "Fuck You Skip" chant. They run through another fast exchange that ends with Candido swatting off a dropkick, then another that ends with Spike monkey flipping Candido into the ropes. Spike takes over with a couple of arm drags, but Candido backs him into the corner and then Spike takes the Bret Hart face first corner bump. Candido ends up attempting this a second time and Spike makes a mini-comeback but Candido cuts off a splash with a nice powerslam then hits a cool looking jumping suplex both for nearfalls. Candido starts doing jumping jacks ala the Boddydonnas and now Spike is doing some great limp selling as they go to another hope spot with Candido powering out of a roll up and sending Spike shoulder first into the steel. Candido actually goes to work on the arm immediately with an armbar. Spike tries to comeback but Candido hits a nice looking gutwrench powerbomb for a nearfall. Candido goes for his diving headbutt but misses and Spike goes straight into comeback mode with a nice dropkick and rana followed by an enziguri that Candido took a nice flip bump for. Spike gets a couple of nearfalls in and Candido goes to an eyepoke before they go into one of the better looking sunset flip/trading roll up sequences I can recall as it wasn't overly long and it didn't look super contrived. Brief forearm battle and Spike hits the Acid Drop for a nearfall. He goes up top and hits a splash for another nearfall. Goes up again for what looks like a moonsault attempt but Candido crotches him. He is setting up for the top rope powerbomb but they both fall down into the ropes. Crowd chants "you fucked up" so Candido goes to the mat and does some push ups ala Skip which really was a pretty brilliant "fuck you" recovery, then goes back up and hits the top rope powerbomb on Spike for the finish. If not for the slight flub at the finish this would have been a serious candidate for top thirty ECW match ever and even with it I'm not sure that it really falls below that point. This was also the same week as Candido's great match with Mikey, so it is fair to say that Christmas of 96 was the apex of Candido in ECW.

Spike Dudley vs. Chris Candido (12/21/96)

- I have this flipped with Dylan in that I thought the Jericho match was a slam dunk and I thought this was low end. It was fine for what it is but there wasn’t one moment that stood out to make me think I was seeing anything special. There was nothing wrong with the work but I don’t know if I will remember it 3 days later. Addd the shit crowd and botched spot and I am not feeling this nearly as much as Dylan. Low-level nomination.

"No Gimmicks Needed" Chris Candido vs. Spike Dudley (12/21/96)

 

Candido was good at getting the crowd riled up and they let him have it throughout the match which was the highlight of the match overshadowing the action in my eyes. They worked a good match but the fans were way more into shitting on Candido than getting behind Spike which hurt the match. Candido was in really good form here and Spike was a great opponent of course but to me it didn't have the spark that a match between these two should've had in my eyes. Good enough for a low-end pick but that is it.