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Countdown to ECW One Night Stand
By
SLAM! Wrestling Staff
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The time for talk is over.
After months of speculation and build-up, ECW One Night Stand is finally here.
The buzz around the wrestling world has been greater than most WWE pay-per-views,
and there is a hightened sense of anticipation, especially when it comes to
just how much WWE talent will get involved.
Because this is not an ordinary PPV, where feuds have been established, the
SLAM! crew is taking a different approach this time 'round. Instead of our roundtable
predictions, three of SLAM!'s historians are going to offer a perspective on
each of the matches, and how they should unfold on Sunday. Let's get things
started.
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TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH
Sandman/Tommy Dreamer vs. The Dudley Boys
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Bob Kapur
Dreamer and Sandman's feud, described in detail on The Rise and Fall of ECW
DVD, elevated both of these men to hardcore icon status. Dreamer became the cornerstone of the company until it eventually folded, and even Sandman's
misguided venture into WCW couldn't hurt his popularity with ECW fans.
The Dudleys, on the other hand, may be the most hated team ever. It still
amazes me how much the fans despised these two. The only disappointing thing about their return is that it will be virtually impossible for them to play
the heel role, which they do so well - the crowd reaction to their return
to Raw this week confirmed that.
As for the match, after the obligatory 5-minute-plus entrance by the Sandman,
and (hopefully) a classic Dudley introduction by Joel Gertner, things will
get really ugly really fast. Expect a bloody brawling affair full of chairs,
canes, (flaming) tables, barbed wire, and maybe even the kitchen sink. I expect
this is the match that will feature the inevitable locker-room-clearing brawl
between the ECW roster and the WWE invasion force, and will end up in a pier-six
brawl in the stands.
Pick: No winner.
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GRUDGE MATCH
Lance Storm (with Dawn Marie) vs. Chris Jericho
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Chris Gramlich
Another interesting (read: odd) match-up, since Jericho was an ancillary wrestler
at best in his very, very brief ECW stay, and actually never faced Storm - a
major ECW figure, winning the tag belts three times and forming the Impact Players
with Justin Credible. Seeing as RVD, who would have been an excellent counterpoint
to Storm, as the two had a string of great matches in ECW, is returning from
an injury, a match between those two would have been a better fit for this ECW
show.
However, with Jericho, there is still an incredible amount of history. Storm's
first wrestling match was against Jericho (a 15-minute draw in August of 1990),
they teamed together in the indies as Sudden Impact, in FMW and in SWM as the
Thrillseekers (please, no jokes about Storm's charisma) and even briefly faced
each other in the WWE. Despite his charismatic deficiencies throughout his career,
Storm's technical abilities were/are beyond question, and with Jericho being
Jericho, this reunion of two Hart Brother students could steal the show. Winner:
Jericho
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GRUDGE MATCH
Chris Benoit versus Eddie Guererro
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Jon Waldman
Much like Jericho vs. Storm, Benoit and Guererro's history is not ECW-centered.
The two did lock horns in Philly on a few occasions (primarily in tag team matches),
but their wars are better known from their days in Japan and recent bouts in
WWE. Also like the Storm/Jericho encounter, this bout would probably have been
better served with Guererro vs. Dean Malenko, who had a memorable 2/3 falls
bout (among other standout matches) before moving to WCW. With Malenko retired,
however, that match seemed to be put on hold.
The difference maker in this match is the teased feud between these two from
Smackdown this past week. Eddie's character is incredibly strong as a heel right
now, so we know who the fans will be booing here. The match screams for a WWE-style
clusterfrick, with Guererro possibly bringing in someone (maybe fellow Radical
Perry Saturn, who has a neck injury and can't wrestle, and his ECW teammate John Kronus) to beat Benoit down until Malenko
comes in to even up the odds. Taking a singles match and developing a tag team
of six-man tag match is something ECW did on a few occasions, and it makes a
lot of sense here. Winner: Benoit('s team).
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THREE WAY DANCE MATCH
Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Little Guido vs. Super Crazy
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Bob Kapur
These guys had a series of three-way-dances on the company's too-short-lived
TNN show, and they never failed to entertain. Despite all of the cringe-worthy
chair shots, Super Crazy's suicidal lucha dives, and Tajiri's brutal kicks to
the head (or maybe because of them!), watching these three tear it up was always
some great fun.
It will be interesting to see if WWE will let Super Crazy showcase all of
his high-flying moves, or if they will ground him like they do with their
own cruiserweights. Hopefully, they let him go wild, which should result in
one of the better, if not the very best matches of the night. Pick: Tajiri
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EXTREME LUCHADORE MATCH
Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis
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Chris Gramlich
It's interesting that this match is being included as an example of the best
ECW had/has to offer, especially considering the number of signature players
who don't have matches or aren't even included on the card. (What about Raven?)
Neither Mysterio nor Psychosis spent more than a couple months in ECW in the
mid-'90s, aside from Psychosis' brief visit towards the end of ECW's run. However,
undeniably ECW opened North America's eyes (particularly with the death match
from A November To Remember '95, which Mysterio won, by the way) to the potential
cruiserweights and Luchadores had, which WCW would notice and exploit throughout
the Monday wars, to their advantage, and continued to push them until their
demise, with some of ECW's best three-way dances often comprised of such wrestlers.
If both Rey and Mysterio are healthy, it should be an incredible high-spot filled
match, just like back in the day. Winner: Mysterio
Final Thoughts
Chris Gramlich
Ahhhh, speculation, the most imprecise means of discerning any carbon-based
life-form has. While, unquestionably, ECW One Night Stand would be better
off without the WWE invasion angle -- an angle they could have built slowly if
they are serious about bringing ECW back in one form or another, as appearances
suggest -- which hopefully will be confined to a single burly brawl. Vince loves
to meddle with ideas not his own, to the point of ruination, so any number of
bad ECW vs. WWE match-ups have the potential of being made on the fly.
However, money bets include Taz(z) returning to Brooklyn bad-ass "Human
Suplex Machine" form and destroying someone/everyone, Sabu doing something
so incredibly death-defying (and possibly stupid) we'll wonder how he's not
dead yet and, hopefully, the Dudleys antagonising the crowd to the point of
a near-riot, in a return to abusive, foul-mouthed heel form.
Visit the SLAM! Wrestling store!
Pre-order ECW One Night Stand DVD
Get prepped for the new PPV -- Order The Rise and Fall of ECW
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