Tommy Platinum

I've still not really seen much from ECW. I've only seen hardcore matches, and I pretty much hate the hardcore style used in ECW. So over the top and sloppy. Anyway, people keep telling me that it was about more than just hardcore, and with so many talented wrestlers there towards the end (RVD, Rey, Eddie, Jericho, Benoit, Malenko, Psychosis etc) I'm inclined to believe them. I have a feeling I have made this thread before way back and never got round to checking anything out, but I definitely want to this time.

Basically, what matches can you recommend that showcase the good of ECW?

I know the RVD/Lynn feud gets talked up a lot, and I hear the Rey/Psychosis matches mentioned a fair bit. How good are these matches? What shows were they on? Also what else is notable?

I'm basically asking for a list of every very good-great match you've seen from ECW, and a summary of whether it was good/bad/overrated etc as a promotion.

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Y 2 Jake

I've heard that people say ECW wasn't just about hardcore wrestling, which it wasn't, but you couldn't have had certain matches without ECW rules & regulations.

I'd recommend a show over a particular list of matches. Heat Wave 1998 had it all. It's probably the best all round PPV I've ver seen.

There's a great Bam Bam Bigelow/Taz match where the size difference isn't important and Taz is a believable opponent. There are two good examples of the alternative to the hardcore matches that ECW fans rave about in Chris Candido vs. Lance Storm & Jerry Lynn vs. Justin Credible. A good, although the norm, Dudley match. Masato Tanaka Tanaka have a great match together, as always. And the RVD/Sabu vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki match highlights how good RVD was in ECW and how poor he was in WWE by comparison.

The promotion is only overrated because it was elevated to being the number three US promotion. But if you look at it for what it was, an indy fed, it's not overrated at all.

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The Postman

My knowledge of the original ECW isn't great, but the two matches from the Eddie Box Set are worth checking out. They are:

vs. 2 Cold Scorpio (Hardcore TV, 8/4/95)
vs. Dean Malenko (Hostile City Showdown, 15/4/95)

Can't say I've seen alot else that's jumped out at me as "great". Mostly fun stuff, and the shows are enjoyable, just nothing to rave about wrestling wise.

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"Fix him up so I can break him again!"

Sam

OK here are a few ECW matches for you:

-Definitely the Malenko/Guerrero Classics (that's the name of the tape btw)
-Sabu/RVD vs. Eliminators-November to Remember '96 (which later turned into Sabu/RVD vs. Eliminators vs. The Gangstas)
-Pitbull #2 vs. Shane Douglas vs. Chris Jericho vs. 2 Cold Scorpio for the television championship Cyberslam '96--I think. But it was a great four way that featured Francine's Heel Turn and the legit breaking of Pitbull #1's neck.
-Anything that features Taz from late '95 to Early '97 Seriously, he was that awesome.
-The entire Raven vs. Sandman feud because it tells such a complete story highlighted by the barbed wire match they had when Raven wins the belt back.
-Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka from November to Remember '99
-Any Cactus Jack Promo
-Tajiri vs Steve Corino from Hardcore Heaven 2000 this is the match I believe put Tajiri on the map.
-Chris Benoit vs. Al Snow Hardcore TV Winter of '95
-Lance Storm vs. Chris Candido Anarchy Rules '99
-The Rhino vs. Sandman angle. Rhino gored Sandman's wife through a table and piledrove her through a table too.
-Singapore Cane match: Sandman vs. Konaan Hardcore TV Dec. 1995
-Gangstanators (New Jack & Kronus) vs. The Dudley Boyz (ECW As Good as it Gets Sep. 1997)
Shane Douglas vs. Taz--Guilty as Charged 1999
Furnas & Lafon vs. Chris Candido and Lance Storm Nov. 1997
Furnas & Lafon vs. Sabu/RVD--Matter of Respect 1996 and Hardcore TV Aug 96

If I can think of more I'll post them for ya.

King Steventon

Just saw this, and thought I'd give a quick reply. There aren't a lot of really great four star matches from ECW, but theres a lot of stuff that is just plain fun because of how overbooked or insane it is. I don't think much of any of the RVD/Lynn, RVD/Sabu or Taz/Sabu stuff. Exception to the rule being that one RVD/Lynn match on TNN where they did an injury angle with Lynn, I liked that.

The Malenko/Eddie matches are all very good, borderline great matches worth checking out. The Raven/Sandman stuff isn't exactly high-end match quality but is cool because of the storyline and the barbwire ring match is an entertaining trash match. The Tanaka/Awesome matches are all really epic spotfests, they did a really good job of mixing HOLY SHIT moments, with hard-hitting hate without getting shitty. Most of them are no longer than 15 minutes which helps.

Tajiri vs Corino is one of the very best ECW matches ever and is really awesome. It's basically an extended squash but its such a huge payoff to the angle. Corino gets the fuck beat out of him, blades deep, takes nasty bumps, etc and Tajiri looked like a world beater. The finish is also epic.

There was the FBI vs Doring/Roadkill match which I know Jim likes a lot that is also a fucking epic match for the length it goes that features all sorts of cool shit and is a great moment to boot.

I will come back to this a bit later with more.

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Tommy Platinum

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll check some of these out.

Just to make sure, this is the Corino/Tajiri match right Steve?


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EDIT:

Just watched it. Didn't know much about the backstory but from the commentary at the start I'm guessing it had something to do with Corino racially abusing Tajiri? Anyway, I wouldn't say it was a great match by any means but I really enjoyed watching it. Pretty brutal with a nasty blade from Corino and a lot of fun spots. Loved stuff like the dropkick into the table into Corino's face. Not seen that before. Tajiri's crazed offensive flurry just before the finish was great. Definitely a very good match for what it was.

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horrorfan_1986

I watched a couple of the latter PPV's last year when I was without a computer. What I remember:

Anarchy Rulz 2000
Steve Corino vs CW Anderson - A good brawl right around the time that both men were really exploding with popularity.

Rhino vs RVD - Great bout with the star RVD having so many problems trying to beat Rhino. Rhino looked like a beast.

Jerry Lynn vs Justin Credible - Lynn's big title win is one of Credible's better title defenses.

Massacre on 34th Street 2000
CW Anderson vs Tommy Dreamer - Another good brawl from Anderson. Once again he shows so much potential as a future ECW champion.

Rhino vs Spike Dudley - Rhino was still killing people left and right while Spike was in super underdog mode. It actually had me believing that Spike could pull out the huge upset.
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I'll try to find my two reviews I wrote on the shows to recommend any other matches or just give you more details as to why I loved the above matches.

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King Steventon

Just watched FBI vs Tajiri/Crazy from N2R 2000 and its hardly a MOTYC but its still awesome. It started off with Tajiri and Whipwreck but Mikey got injured. Plenty of big bumps, stiff shots, bigtime spots and fun sequences. Tajiri and the FBI were particularly awesome and Crazy does his role well and hits one huge balcony moonsault that was pretty cool. For teams that lasted about late 90's-2001, the FBI were a lot better than, say, Edge & Christian.

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Mikk

Living Dangerously 99 - Tajiri vs Super Crazy

Anarchy Rulz 99 - RVD vs Balls Mahoney and Taz vs Mike Awesome vs Tanaka

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