[1996-12-10-ECW-TV] Interview: Raven / Raven vs Sandman highlights

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Raven does an interview saying he was in rehab for the fifth time in seven years, which is why he lost the ECW title and Stevie Richards had to defend it. He then says the only reason he got a rematch was because Heyman and Gordon knew it would draw.

 

Then we get a highlight package of the title change to "Come Out And Play" and "Enter Sandman".

 

Hey, here's a bad match we can make look better with a nice video package. Wow was Raven's push a lot of smoke and mirrors.

[Robert S]

"Come Out And Play" was a strange choice for Raven's entrance music. They should have given him something much darker. Something like the Nine Inch Nails original of Hurt would fit much better to the Raven character.

[PeteF3]

Raven declaring that he's accomplished everything in his life by himself is pretty great heeling, one has to admit. As is his complaining that while he was in rehab, a guy with even more issues in Sandman was taking his title. This is a perfectly acceptable straight-up wrasslin' promo with Raven calling for challengers. The fake-out at the end where Raven's talking about the "man who's been trying to beat me since I was a little kid" (not Tommy Dreamer, but himself) was fun, too.

 

That's followed by a horrible video package highlighting his title win, with a shitty match edited in particularly shitty fashion.

[soup23]

I am a sucker for "Come Out and Play" as a song but yeah the match didn't look like it was any great shakes and Sandman is just a bad worker all around. Raven's promo beforehand was decent enough I guess but not a head turner. ECW in 1996 is a pretty weird year where a lot of stuff didn't land for me personally. I enjoyed the 1997 output much more.

[tim]

"I was in rehab ... for the fifth time ... in seven years." The overwrought drama of this line I just found hilarious. Actually, the whole interview was pretty funny in that respect. I liked the highlights with the song (actually, it got the song stuck in my head enough that I'm listening to it as I write this post!). The spot with Sandman in the ropes and Raven hitting dropkicks looked pretty good actually. Sandman's "dive" to the outside, much less so.