ECW A Matter of Respect wasn't a PPV, it was a supershow and, later, a popular VHS for tape traders and other ECW acolytes. Available on the Peacock, I opted to check it out for myself based solely on my interest in one of the billed main events...
The tape begins with Sabu bumrushing Damien 666 and El Puerto Ricano during their match. I wasn't surprised to see Damien appeared in ECW as, over the course of his remarkable 25 year career, he wrestled all over the world, including FMW (the Japanese company that undoubtedly inspired ECW) and later WCW. What was more surprising was that El Puerto Ricano, a wrestler I'd never heard of, actually worked for the WWE for a minute (as Tiger Ali Singh's manservant). Anyway, there's not enough here to review.
The first actual match (on the tape at least) is Damien Kane and Devon Storm vs. The Dudley Boys. In my research I discovered that this was only the second time that D-Von wrestled as part of the Dudley crew, having debuted just a month prior. This is a quintessential ECW "match" in which it is mostly chaos from beginning to end, no structure, just chair shots and violence and brawling, and the crowd absolutely loves it. Its also one of those matches where, watching it 25 years later, its hard to understand what the audience's chants mean or why Storm and Kane get such tremendous heat. In the end, D'Von not only hits his partner Bubba with a chair for no clear reason, but gets DQ'd for bashing the ref in the head with a chairshot too. In terms of wrestling, this would probably be a 1, but one can't ignore how hot the crowd is for whatever this is. (2/5)
Next up, another tag match as Little Guido and JT Smith take on Hack Myers and Axl Rotten. Guido and Smith are a very fun team of heels and, like the opener, this one is more about heating up the crowd with character work and heeling than it is actually having a competitive, legitimate wrestling match. Credit to Paul Heyman, though, nobody wants to see Hack Myers and Axl Rotten do headlocks. The match went 10 minutes supposedly, but we don't get the full version. What we do get makes Little Guido look particularly great in this, to the point where I wonder if he was offered a chance to jump to WCW around this time but didn't take it? There's an alternate universe out there where he was part of the Cruiserweight Division and tore it up against Malenko, Mysterio, Eddie, and others. This is hard to judge as a "match" because its edited, but whatever. (2/5)
According to Cagematch.net, there was a Tazz squash on this show, but its not shown on the Peacock version as we go right into a 3-way dance for the ECW Heavyweight Championship as Raven defends the title against Pitbull #2 and The Sandman. This is where this show really picks up. Raven is accompanied by Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie, doing hilarious Diesel/Shawn Michaels impersonations that would eventually morph into the Blue World Order parodies. Pitbull #2 has his tag partner and Francine, the Beastmaster, at his side while The Sandman comes out with 2 Cold Scorpio and Missy Hyatt. The entrances eat up a huge amount of time but that's part of what made ECW what it was so there's no sense complaining. The crowd is absolutely jacked for this, I'm guessing because even if they knew Raven would likely leave with the title, there was still a guarantee of some insanity with so many people at ringside and most of them being legitimate maniacs. These three don't waste any time with mat wrestling or "feeling out" each other, going balls-to-the-wall within minutes. Unlike the opener, though, the chaos is actually controlled and the biggest spots are laid out with enough time between them to make them register with the crowd and build upon each other. A wrestling purist would call this "garbage wrestling," but its not that far removed from the matches that Austin and Foley and The Rock would have 2 years later, where anything can happen and there's no such thing as a disqualification. There's actually more than a couple actual wrestling moves delivered too, some of them not looking too excellently executed but devastating nonetheless. The Sandman is a limited worker, no doubt, but I've always had a soft spot for his over-the-top selling and surprising athleticism (at one point he hits a hurricanrana on Pitbull #2 that somehow isn't the worst one you've ever seen). I like Pitbull #2 and Sandman teaming up at one point too - the babyfaces both looking to maim their longtime rival but can't cooperate long enough or well enough to keep Raven down. There's a ref bump and then some more insanely dangerous spots that, by the grace of god, don't leave someone paralyzed. Raven eventually loads up his boot to eliminate Pitbull #2 but because this is ECW, Francine and the Pitbulls don't just leave the ring, we get a catfight between Francine and Blue Meanie's girlfriend, Miss Patricia, instead. Again, this sort of stuff is not for wrestling purists, but were part-and-parcel with the ECW brand and style by this point and the crowd loves it. Again, 2 years later, WWE would lift this sort of nonsense wholesale. Missy Hyatt clears the ring and we get a series of nearfalls that the audience bit on hard, including where Stevie Richards hits the Steviekick on Raven but Sandman only gets 2.9. Sandman gets a piece of the guardrail and shoves it into the ring, leading to the eventual finish where Raven manages to connect on an Evenflow DDT to retain the championship. If you're into the car-crash style of ECW, this match is not going to win you over, but if you are, this would fall into the category of ECW at its best. I'm not sure that makes it "must watch," but its close to it. (3.5/5)
Chris Jericho vs. Mikey Whipwreck is next, a match that highlights the variety that ECW offered, especially in 95'-96', when guys like Jericho, Mysterio, Psychosis, Malenko, and Eddie made appearances. Watching Jericho here, its hard to see that he would go on to have the tremendous career he had. He's essentially gimmickless, wrestling as the vanilla Lionheart character he would use on WCW's B-shows before morphing into the cocky, arrogant heel that made him a breakout star on Nitro. That being said, Jericho and Whipwreck do not hold anything back and make the most of their 15 minutes, delivering an absolute war of a match that features a little bit of everything - suplexes and submissions, nasty spills to the outside, lots of high-flying, and even some chairs lest the ECW die-hards go one match without someone pulling in a foreign object. I wouldn't call this one of Jericho's all time great matches because he has way too many higher profile and objectively better matches on his resume...but if we're limiting ourselves to just his 90s output? Yeah, this would make the list. Very good match and, if you're a Jericoholic, a match well worth checking out. Oh, and Mikey Whipwreck remains one of those guys that I'm always embarrassed to not having seen more of because he's never less than great. (3.5/5)
And now...2 Cold Scorpio defending the ECW World Television Championship against the former ECW World Heavyweight Champion, Shane Douglas. This is a long-simmering feud based on these two competing in the finals for the NWA World Championship years prior (Douglas won that match and then trashed the title to birth ECW) and, in the build to this match, Douglas claiming that he doesn't even want the TV Title because its so worthless. Scorpio and Douglas proceed to put on a match that would likely rank on many ECW superfans' Top 20 list, if not Top 10. What makes this match a classic, to me, is that it blends many of the best things about ECW into one epic battle. Douglas and Scorpio start things off with actual wrestling and, while we do gets lots of insane spots on the outside of the ring, including a nasty powerbomb on the floor and a ridiculous suplex on the guardrail, the match never devolves into just a bloody, wild brawl. Intentional or not, the character work is also interesting and fresh, with Scorpio and Douglas both toeing the lines of heel/face in (and after) the match. Scorpio gets overconfident in the end, refusing to make what could've been an easy pinfall, in order to prove his point that he's the better man...only to get belly-to-bellied off the top rope and lose the match to Douglas, who has essentially won in a valiant babyface way...who then cuts a full-on babyface promo not only praising ECW as a whole but Scorpio himself...only to ask Scorpio to show him "respect" by putting the title on him, something a cocky, arrogant heel does...only for Scorpio to beat him down after the match in an almost heelish fan. Its a messy story, but its interesting and different and very much not something you'd see in May 96', months before the nWo made "heels" cool and years before Steve Austin's Don't Trust Anybody attitude had him stunning everyone regardless of face/heel alignment. I'd consider this a "must see" match just because it might be a career match for both guys and shows that, even with Guerrero, Malenko, and Benoit gone, there were still workers in ECW that could do more than just high spots. (4/5)
Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu is the co-main event of this show, another bout built up all about respect, specifically Sabu trying to earn the respect of RVD. I haven't seen the other Sabu/RVD matches, but from what I understand, this is not considered their best offering. I still found it plenty entertaining, mostly because both guys have such wild, high risk offense and the crowd is into all of it. What many ECW fans remember most about this match is actually the post-match angle, which sees RVD join up with Bill Alfonso and Tazz and Sabu essentially leave the ring in a broken down heap on a stretcher. This match could be considered a "spot fest" and if you're into those type of matches, you'll be pleased to watch this, though I don't think it quite hits the level of being "must see." (3/5)
Main event time - The Eliminators and Brian Lee taking on The Gangstas and Tommy Dreamer. As expected, this is an all-out brawl for the very first moment, everybody grabbing hold of weapons and the crowd going crazy. On Peacock, the first 4-5 minutes are soundtracked by generic hip-hop. It makes for an awkward, not so great viewing experience, but its clear they had to do this because they didn't have the rights to the Gangstas actual theme song ("Natural Born Killaz" by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre). Though the song finishes, the match doesn't get much more organized, Lee and New Jack fighting in the crowd, Mustafa and Kronus brawling in the aisleway, Dreamer deconstructing the guardrail to add even more chaos to this match. Its amazing that Saturn actually attempts and hits a handful of actual wrestling moves because everybody else is perfectly fine just doing weapon spots, eye rakes, and right hands. Speaking of Saturn, he and Mustafa end up on the raised stage behind the bleachers, as do Lee and Dreamer, who climb to an even higher area before Dreamer gets put through a table and launched off the stage. Back in the ring, the Eliminators and the Gangstas go at it but there's still little semblance of an actual match happening. The mayhem continues but because there's really no escalation of violence or raising of stakes, it gets a bit tedious to me as its all just structure-less brawling going on ad nauseum. Stevie Richards eventually gets involved, hits a Steviekick on Dreamer, and then gets dragged to the back of the ring by his crotch by Beulah. The match doesn't end there, though, as that would make too much sense and these guys still have a few more minutes of aimless brawling in them. Saturn eventually gets DDT'd through a table and the crowd explodes into an ECW chant...but even this doesn't end the match because why end a match with the best spot? Instead, a minute or two later, New Jack comes flying off the corner with a weapon (a chair I think?) to get the W. Wilder than your average match, for sure, but not something I'd seek out unless you're super into this sort of wrestling (and not even the best version of it on the show). (3/5)
I'm not sure this is the best ECW supershow/tape/PPV ever, but with a very respectable Kwang Score of 3.0-out-of-5, I'd wager that its up there. ECW was not a company known for its consistency or for being a company's whose essence was best captured by hard (or shaky) cams. There was a "You Had To Be There" quality to it, especially in this era, but this collection of matches is surprisingly strong throughout, no match being a real dud and some matches ranking among the best in the company's history (Douglas/Scorpio and the 3-way in particular, but I could see the argument for Jericho/Whipwreck being something approaching a career match for both guys). As someone who is not super versed in ECW and finds himself often losing interest when I attempt to watch full ECW shows, this one had a great card and matches that delivered on their promise.
FINAL RATING - Watch It
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