[1994-10-29-NWC] Cactus Jack vs Sabu (Falls Count Anywhere)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Kevin Ridge]

Announcer requests everyone stay in their seats for safety reasons. Pinfalls count anywhere in the building. A Desert Death Match. Oh my, there are some random old people sitting at a table. Cactus sets his sights on the table and these old people seem to have no idea what they are getting into. One lady is pulled aside at the last second as Cactus suplexes Sabu through the table. Cactus gets on the mic to tell the crowd on what he plans to do to Sabu. Cactus gets his suplex reversed and ends up getting suplexed on the floor. Cactus tries to take some old guy's cane and the old guy won't give it up. This isn't your Philly crowd. They take over a popcorn machine but we can't get a good look from our camera view. Sabu starts crawling over the crowd who scatter. We lose both guys for a few until they end up in a casino. Don't interrupt those gamblers. Finally they get back in the ring. Cactus does the hangman hold in the ropes. Sabu hits Air Sabu when Cactus is still hung in the ropes. The crowd are really getting into this pounding on the mat. I love that the announcer yells to get back to your seats and the crowd do as he says. Sabu wins with a leg drop with chair combo. Not a great match but an overall entertaining experience with the crowd.

[Loss]

Finally, a Cactus/Sabu match that lives up to the hype. Really wild! Lots of brawling all over the building, table smashing, weapons use, etc. They sell the crazy stuff really well, which is the main reason I like this so much. The camera having trouble following them really gets over the chaos of this. They brawl into the casino by the slot machines, with Cactus piledriving Sabu on a casino table! This is organized chaos, is smarter than you'd think and I love it!

[Exposer]

This was a really wild and fun brawl that I thought went a little too long. The craziest part about this was the fans and them brawling in the casino of all places. There was some good wrestling mixed in towards the end as well. This was good but still too long in the end.

[soup23]

Crazy ass brawl that conveys an out of control nature and intensity missing from all the ECW stuff we have seen so far this year. The camerawork while annoying that we miss so much does work in the confines of the match. All spots were hit cleanly and the legdrop on the hung Cactus looked especially awesome.

[Loss]

Date on this is October 29, not October 30 as originally stated.

[PeteF3]

Quite a coup getting Gene Wilder to guest ring announce, in his Willy Wonka outfit. I've always wanted one of these "falls count anywhere in [x]" stips to be enforced literally--e.g., Cactus gets 2 on Sabu at the arena entrance, but Sabu *just* gets his leg outside the door to break the pin.

 

Crazy-ass match, easily the best of the series so far. The setting is rather different from ECW Arena, lots of kids and blue-hairs there, like an old Showboat Pavilion AWA show. The reaction of the seniors is possibly the funniest part, especially Cactus unsuccesfully attemping to wrest a cane from an old man in the front row. And I can only imagine the reaction of the gamblers when they spilled into the casino, with Cactus piledriving Sabu onto a blackjack table in a spot that we sadly miss. All the spots hit here, and the finishing legdrop with the chair looked like it killed Cactus dead. One of the best indy matches of the year, easily.

[ohtani's jacket]

#337

 

This was pretty good! Loss was right about it being smarty worked. Some nice selling from both guys, and I thought the way they used the tables and chairs was really effective. Nothing screams 90s wrestling more than tables and chairs, but the spots came naturally here with both men looking to up the ante to literally win a fall anywhere. I wish we could have seen more of the action on the gaming floor, but that was the only bit where they lost me. Super finish capped off a success trip to Vegas. I was going to say junket, but it looked like they were somewhere off the Vegas strip.

I know it's my own fault for watching it, but Sabu's post match shtick has got to be one of the dumber things from the 90s? No? Don't get me wrong, I thought he was excellent in this, but that's a "WTF are doing?" if ever there was one.

[JKWebb]

#337 - placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-350-301/

 

Yeah, the gaming floor stuff was favorite part. This was pretty fun. I would assume if you're looking to watch something with these two, this has to be on the higher end. This is one of the few Sabu matches I've enjoyed watching over the past few years. I thought when Cactus got his neck caught in the ropes it looked really good. Most of the time, those spots look overly staged to me, but that looked legit. Also, I agree the Sabu post-match stuff is dumb as hell haha. There was a time Jeff Hardy was doing stuff like that post-match on the indies in between one of his TNA runs... I think...