Awesome opening as Ricano hits a snapmare dropkick combo and then leads the crowd in "Puerto" chant. God damn Storm punches the shit out of him, then holds his head up by the hair and paint brushes him. Fuck another cool punch. Ricano blocks a hiptoss, then reverses out and hits one of his own followed by a springboard dive. Some more fun back and fourth and Puerto counters a powerbomb with a neat looking arm drag, but gets caught trying to go to the floor with a baseball slide and ends up getting repeated smashings into the guardrail. Storm hits a nice moonsault in the ring but walks away from a nearfall. Storm is actually working over the back and locks in an insane looking submission that is like a cross between a Scorpion and a Deathlock. Totally sick spot as Ricano hits a desperation victory roll over the ropes wiping them both out on the floor and follows it up with a spring board Vader bomb to the floor. Fuck! They botch a monkey flip in the worst way and even though they follow up with a nice top rope rana it was a real momentum killer. Storm with a Gory special into a sick splash mountain. Storm gets a chair and puts it on Ricano but walks around the ring arguing with the crowd about what to do. This allows Ricano to get up and drill Storm with chairshots. Ricano hits a rope walk rana and then a top rope sunset flip for a nearfall. Storm drop toeholds Ricano and then smashes his face over and over into the canvas. Then he slams Ricano over the top to the floor. He fucking kills Ricano with a front suplex onto the guardrail which really looked sick. Storm does his insane wipe out tope con hilo onto Ricano who is seated in a chair and it looks like it nearly killed both of them. Storm hits his reverse blockbuster for the finish. This got a ridiculous twelve minutes, which is insane for an ECW opener with two no gimmick, undercard guys. Some of it was sloppy and there was the one bad botch but I'm nominating it anyhow as a unique and fun match.

Devon Storm vs. El Puerto Ricano (6/29/96)

- Really pretty work from both guys in this one. It was real flippy-floppy but everything was executed nicely. The biggest issue was the selling… it didn’t exist. Both guys were working pretty hard and it seemed more like a job audition than a match until the end when Storm displayed some viciousness. Still, on a best of ECW set, this might stand out for its participants but this is like picking the 150th best match in ECW, not a Top 50 contender. No vote.

"Dangerous" Devon Storm vs. El Puerto Ricano (6/29/96)

 

I really dug this as it was a very fun spotfest with both men going all out and the crowd being pretty hot for everything. There were some botches in this but this had the feel of two guys who were trying to put on the best match they could to impress the fans and the people in charge. Lots of big moves with no context other than they were big moves and I didn't expect great psychology here so it didn't bother me. Pablo was pretty much nothing but a job guy at this time so him getting a match with this much time was a treat. I think we should move this forward just for the effort these guys put out.