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[1993-12-26-ECW-Holiday Hell] Terry Funk vs Sabu


Loss

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  • 4 months later...

Glad this made the yearbook as it's really their first high-profile ECW match against each other. Many of the things that would eventually become cliche are fresh, like Sabu using the chair as a propeller to jump on Funk in the corner. Stuff like the camel clutch really feels arbitrary considering the style they are working, and the fans feel the same way, screaming for blood through most of this. The mutants are multiplying! Add in a few table spots and a Shane Douglas run-in, and ECW is almost ECW as we wrap up the year.

 

I will also again complain about Funk using the spinning toehold in matches like this. Sherri attacking Paul E. is super fun. I love that she shows up pretty much everywhere throughout this yearbook.

 

I guess this was the set up for The Night The Line Was Crossed?

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  • 2 years later...

Funk has a weird piledriver where he does the falling back version but takes a few steps backwards before dropping down. Crowd screaming for blood which was annoying since both guys were brawling. Referee took a big bump off the table which led to a Sabu chant. Douglas and Sherri gets involved. The lights went off. I wonder if they missed the cue. Funk wins title back.

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  • 1 month later...

Joey Styles AND Tony Rumble??! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

 

Okay, so they're both kind of reigned in, and Styles seems to be morphing into the traditional announcer's role rather than awkwardly trying to play a character. Another fun match, though not quite as good as their indy handheld. The ECW we know is pretty much here, and Sabu's act still feels fresh. I don't know what the fuck was up with the ending, or who's supposed to be aligned with whom, but you can't accuse it of being boring. Missed cue or not I was surprised they were doing the "lights out" trick this early.

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  • 2 years later...

Well, this was about what I expected.

 

They tried to work an almost regular match at first, and Sabu did some great work on Terry's back. Then the "We want blood!" chants started, and that was enough of that stuff. From then on, it was typical ECW mayhem from all concerned, and I include the guy who edited this for home video. The cuts seemed to come about every ten seconds by the end of what we saw, as all they seemed to be interested in showing was the highspots, forgetting that without at least part of the rest of the action, said highspots made next to no sense. Then we get a run-in from Sherri and Shane, followed by a blackout (the order should have been reversed) and then Terry's the champion and Sabu takes out a table for absolutely no earthly reason. So what else is new from ECW? The later stuff is so full of needless weapons and violence that even the early stuff feels like it's been done a thousand times before whether it has chronologically or not.

 

I couldn't hear a whole lot of the commentary, but from what I managed to pick up Joey was still too cutesy by leaps and bounds. Rumble wasn't too bad, and I liked his reference to the then-popular Miller Lite commercials where they combined two totally different sports for laughs; he called this match "table wrestling", and he was more right than he ever could have known. Unfortunately, Joey ruined the reference with about five minutes of awful tennis jokes and bad segues. I think I like him better when the only words out of his mouth are "OH MY GOD!"

 

I don't know exactly what this says about Terry, but the ref's table bump looked about as good as his did. On another note, I actually liked ​Terry going for the spinning toehold, since Sabu hurt his knee when he missed his first moonsault. It was a nice piece of psychology in a match which was otherwise nearly devoid of it.

 

The sad thing is, as bad as this was in spots, it's only going to get worse from here, at least for the most part.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I thought this match was really fun. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of when Sabu is "unleashed" he goes absolutely nuts throwing chairs everywhere. The match did have a good bit of out of control feel to it. I wish the crowd would've been patient instead of screaming for blood.

 

The piledriver that Funk always uses looks weird but I guess that fits his wild man aura. The run ins and the blackout was ill fitted.

 

I believe this is my first time watching this match as I've only seen the ending with Sabu destroying the table were in highlight videos.

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  • 1 month later...

ECW Heavyweight Champion Sabu vs Terry Funk - ECW Holiday Hell

 

WE WANT BLOOD! WE WANT BLOOD! WE WANT BLOOD! This was a fun mess. Sabu with his original Hannibal Lecter gimmick on the stretcher and the mask was great. Sabu was a violent maniac and I loved his mannerisms at the beginning. Always moving forward. He was a monster. Some great punches and loved the chairs. Funk's piledrivers looked great. I watched the Hardcore TV version so it was pretty clipped, but I feel like the fans got their money's worth even if this was not a classic. The Rotten brothers are Terry Funk's back up, hilarious. I loved Sabu throwing Funk and then the ref into the table and getting a huge pop for throwing the ref into the table. Yep it is the 90s and it is ECW BABY! Sabu all of sudden does a moonsault to the outside on the Rotten brothers and takes me off guard. I loved the finish run because it was energetic. Sabu crashes and burns on the table and then Funk puts the Spinning Toe Hold on him like he is facing Harley Race in 1975, great. Paul E. cracks the phone, but now Shane Douglas attacks and it is a clusterfuck. Douglas puts Funk on Sabu to win the title. I think because Douglas has a match with Funk on January 7th because Paul E pimps that about seven times in his post-match promo. Funk's dog story always kills and it is funny that the Rotten brothers are involved. I have no idea who the hell the heel or babyface is in this three way cluster fuck is, but I think that's the point. It is about chaos. Entertaining enough and recommended for historic purposes. I imagine Sabu fucks Funk/Douglas and that leads to the Night the Line Was Crossed.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-12-26-ECW-Holiday Hell] Terry Funk vs Sabu
  • 2 weeks later...

A brawl that shows the template of ECW to come and interesting to watch but not my favorite style of brawling at all and too inconsequential feeling within the spots. This felt more about them being “crazy” and portraying their character than having hate at each other. The finish also was a failure for me with Douglas involvement. **3/4

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