I should preface this review by admitting I’m not an ECW guy. Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Mikey Whipwreck, the Dudleys … the ECW originals just never really scratched the itch. It’s a blind spot, but one I’m willing to accept. There are some exceptions, though. Most of those exceptions occurred when wrestlers were passing through for a cup of coffee. Think Rey Mysterio’s brief foray after he left AAA or Steve-A-Mania.
This match is one such example.
Eddie Guerrero, Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner, Cactus Jack, Dean Malenko, and 2 Cold Scorpio are all ships passing in the night. The Steiners had just left WWF and were heading back to WCW. Cactus and Scorpio had just left WCW and were heading to the WWF. Eddie and Malenko were WCW-bound, slated to debut at the end of the month. In this instance, we’re the benefactors of tremendous circumstance.
Of course, larger ideas are at play here. Guerrero and Malenko are in the midst of their heated rivalry, which the Wrestling Observer Newsletter called the “feud of the year” in 1995. The Steiners are helping Taz rehabilitate his legitimately broken neck, which he suffered at the hands of 2 Cold Scorpio. And, contrary to what Raven says from the outset of this match, Cactus Jack is here because Chris Benoit couldn’t make it. I’ll take it, though.
The setting is the mecca of hardcore wrestling, the ECW Arena, on Aug. 5, 1995. Contrary to how Paul Heyman has romanticized the “WrestlePalooza” IP since ESPN revived it as a “premium live event,” this was just a glorified super-indie show, spliced into two episodes of “ECW Hardcore TV.”
If you’d like to recommend matches for us to review on “Pillar to Post Pro-Wrestling,” please email me at [email protected] or message me directly on Twitter. My DM’s are always open.
The television quality is less-than-stellar, but polished enough to not feel like found footage. Admittedly, I enjoy the roughness of it, though. I firmly believe wrestling’s lost some of its mystique since the advent of high-definition television.
The ECW fans are raucous. Like Romans in the Coliseum’s cavea, they’re a bloodthirsty bunch. The only other means of satiating that sort of sadism is offering superb wrestling. All six men are more than suited for the task.
From name recognition alone, the talent leaps from the page, and it’s only magnified by the uniqueness of it all. Malenko had wrestled Rick Steiner before, but never Scott. More interestingly, though, despite all of their overlap, this is the only time Eddie Guerrero and Mick Foley ever shared the ring.
I’m impressed by the construction of this match. It doesn’t adhere to the tried-and-true formula of the southern tag. And, that’s because the division between heel and face is minimal. Ostensibly, the team of Cactus Jack, Malenko, and Scorpio are the heels, but my working knowledge of ECW canon isn’t strong enough to support that claim. Nevertheless, this match adopts more of a Japanese approach to six-man tag team wrestling (less King’s Road and more WAR or New Japan in the early-to-mid nineties), where all of the wrestlers approach this more neutrally. The exception is the ECW Television Champion, Eddie Guerrero, who is clearly a beloved babyface. The only quasi-control segment happens two-thirds of the way through the match, when Malenko and Cactus Jack isolate Guerrero and prevent him from making a hot tag to the Steiners.
In lieu of the southern tag style, there’s a greater emphasis on firepower—accentuating the weaponry that everyone brings to the table. Inherently, there’s something vapid about that. It’s the sort of formula that lends itself to exercising in excess. Where this match succeeds is in all the little pairings it produces.
Dean Malenko and Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner and 2 Cold Scorpio, and Eddie Guerrero and Cactus are all fun matches within the match; that I’m happy were committed to film. If this were 15 years earlier, it’s quite possible that it would be lost media. Fortunately, we’re the beneficiaries of this glorious bounty.
There are some fantastic spots here, too. Scott Steiner taking a side-suplex over the ropes and onto the concrete floor, Guerrero’s arm drag on Scorpio, Cactus Jack taking a belly-to-belly suplex onto the concrete floor, Scorpio’s reverse moonsault into the leg drop, Scott Steiner giving Cactus Jack a Tiger Driver ‘91… For a fireworks extravaganza, it’s a delight on the senses. It’s efficient, too. The match clocks in at nearly 22 minutes, but is shortened by a few commercial breaks.
While there’s not a great deal of substance to sink your teeth into, this is wrestling junk food. It may be indulgent, but it scratches the itch.
RATING: ****
Support AFP
Share
