I really liked the early going of this with the isolated arm work on Bubba, Candido taking some nice big bumps and selling well, the ricidulously long Candido/D-Von rope running spots, Candido dropping Bubba with a back suplex, et. Also enjoyed the sequence with Candido hitting a rana, turning right into a D-Von clothesline and thne D-Von getting caught with a diving Storm clothesline which set up a double dive onto the Duds spot. Candido and Bubba brawl onto a stage and there is a cool spot with Candido getting slammed on a wooden support and narrowly avoiding a dangerous looking Chairshot from Bubba. The punch exchanges with Bubba and Chris are really strong as well. Candido ends up doing his punch drunk sell stumbling around ringside almost pulling shit over, et. Candido ends up isolated and gets worked over by the Duds with double teams. They even break out the old "tag behind the ref back" hopespot which surprised me pleasantly. Awesome cutoff spot with Candido firing off but eating a huge Bubba powerbomb followed by an elbow drop for a nearfall. Bubba catches Candido on a cross body attempt but STorm throws a shitty dropkick into him to break up the slam attempt. Candido gets crotched on the top and then hit with a huge superplex but the Duds miss a rocket launcher and Storm gets the hot tag. All hell breaks loose and in the midst of it Candido hits the diving headbutt for the finish. I didn't really care for the stretch run and it was clear that the hot tag build was flubbed toward the end by some miscommunication but the reality is this relative lack of Storm in this made it a really good "tag" match.

ECW World Tag Titles: "No Gimmicks Needed" Chris Candido & Lance Storm © vs. Buh Buh Ray & D-Von Dudley (1/23/98)

 

Really good back and forth action to start with really good bumping and selling going on especially by Candido. There was some good brawling on the floor which went up to the stage in the building which I loved buildings like this. Candido works the bulk of the match which was good considering Storm was on the other side and he was great at taking punishment. Lance would come in after forever and ran wild on the Dudz before the 4-way brawl started with Candido getting the win. This had some hits and misses but overall it's good enough to push forward.

D-von/Bubba Dudley v. Lance Storm/Chris Candido

Solid Nomination - ECW 1/23/98

- Indied this was fun but they had “Runtheropeitis” early on. Every fucking move was off an Irish whip. Outside, you could tell they wanted to do some fun shit with the props but Candido either no sold something or the spot was awkwardly set up (the crotch was cool but then Candido in safety first mode casually walks down the steps). Inside, it was more my turn, your turn and I was not digging this at all. I started chanting “end this shit”.