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[1997-06-07-ECW-Wrestlepalooza] Raven vs Tommy Dreamer / Sabu vs Taz / Shane Douglas vs Taz


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  • 3 weeks later...

This 50 minute segment is just MAGIC and remains so to this day. I'm not sure there's a better definition of the mad genius booking of Paul Heyman than this little bit right here. For better or worse, the overbooking...the chaos....the sheer lunacy of seeing Jerry Lawler in the ECW Arena. So much fun.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I remember this and the follow up at the next arena show more vividly than just about anything else from that year. Easily two of the best hours of televised wrestling you can find. Call it overbooking, but it was all laid out and produced perfectly for the purposes of television. Great wrestling would follow, but for my money this was the peak of ECW's helter skelter creative.

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I won't recap everything because I would hate to spoil surprises for someone who has never seen all of this. The Raven vs Dreamer post-match stuff is the most fun I've ever had watching ECW. But everything after that just sort of slowly sputters to a conclusion for me. Pretty cool stuff at the time though I'm guessing, and I definitely don't want to take away from that.

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I won't recap everything because I would hate to spoil surprises for someone who has never seen all of this. The Raven vs Dreamer post-match stuff is the most fun I've ever had watching ECW. But everything after that just sort of slowly sputters to a conclusion for me. Pretty cool stuff at the time though I'm guessing, and I definitely don't want to take away from that.

 

I swear I'm not trying to coax you into an argument, but I think this is interesting because over the last few years I have watched a lot of the American TV from 97 and I honestly think this was the best single sequence of stuff on free tv that year and this is coming from someone who enjoyed the HF v. Americans angle more than just about any wrestling angle in history.

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Fantastic segment.

 

Wraps up a feud that's being going on for 2 and a half years(Raven/Dreamer). Advance's another feud that's being going on nearly as long (Sabu/Taz). And set 's up two new feuds (Dreamer/Lawler), (Taz/Douglas).

 

I think it's worth reiterating that this is Paul E's favourite hour of ECW tv.

 

2 months later with Hardcore Heaven, Heyman and ECW hit the wall creatively and they never really fully recovered.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I love how this whole thing made it unedited to yearbook because it was a really special thing to watch back in the day. Was just glued to TV watching it again even though I’ve seen it a bunch of times before. Raven/Dreamer wasn’t a great match but it was the right type of brawl for their blow off and I ate it up. As mentioned previous, the post match is the highlight with a great surprise visitor.

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  • 1 month later...

I had talked some about the stuff on the yearbook from ECW feeling lackluster since Barely Legal. This ended with a huge a vengeance here. This was one of the best intertwining segments I have ever seen. Tons of fun stuff in this and a blast to watch straight through. The Raven vs. dreamer match was a really terrific garbage brawl I thought with intensity, violence, plunder, and playing off the two plus year storyline with a conclusive finish. Things only amplify from there with the post match which is an absolute blast to watch. The Taz vs. Sabu match was probably my least favorite sequence but still really good and a clever finish that gets over Taz but still allows Sabu to win. The final payoff with the negotiations and match between Taz and Douglas made sense and ended the segment with a memorable moment. Awesome stuff.

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  • 1 year later...

Yeah, put me down as a guy who doesn't much care about Douglas or Taz, marginally cares about Sabu, and who doesn't hate Dreamer or Raven but doesn't really care about them, either. And this was a fucking awesome rollercoaster ride. I too am not going to go over everything, because there's too much to go over and new viewers shouldn't get spoiled, but a few quick bullet points:

 

- Raven vs. Dreamer as a match is pretty much everything you'd want. It's nothing great, but it's a worthy conclusion to a pretty epic and damned fun feud. Raven trying to run away, Dreamer throwing himself into every bump, and the climax. Maybe a few too many run-ins, but they all made some sense.

 

- The aftermath is holy-shit stuff. As I see it, there are three high watermark moments in ECW history: the double dog collar match between Raven/Richards and the Pitbulls, the Shane Douglas/Pitbull halo angle, and this. Huge heat, the Lawler/RVD/Sabu tandem pushed huge, and a great reaction by Fonzie explaining to Lawler how fucked they are when "War Machine" kicks up.

 

- Taz vs. Sabu is a match I actually liked quite a bit better than the one at Barely Legal. The counters were cooler, Taz's mat stuff was better, and the finish was better.

 

- Taz vs. Douglas wasn't something I cared too much about and the negotiations dragged on a bit, but I did like the amount of thought put into setting this up (which goes back to Taz's first mic spot) and the psychology of the match itself, with Taz and his bad neck going against the master of broken necks. Nothing great and I don't much care about Taz winning the TV title, but even in this I found things to enjoy.

 

ECW hasn't all aged well and the overbooked run-in-mania main events have been a major negative on the business as a whole. But on the rare occasions that it works, holy shit does it work. Calling this marathon a "segment" doesn't do it justice, but this is one of the better "things" of the year of any promotion anywhere.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1997-06-07-ECW-Wrestlepalooza] Raven vs Tommy Dreamer / Sabu vs Taz / Shane Douglas vs Taz
  • 1 year later...

Raven vs Tommy Dreamer - ECW Wrestlepalooza 1997

If you’ve never seen this before, do yourself a favor and watch this. Don’t watch the edited WWE version like I did on a WWE DVD. Watch June 10, 1997 episode of Hardcore TV on the Network devoted to this entire piece of fluid awesome TV. Heyman have a brief return to the peak of his powers after they had been slowly diminishing since 1995.

I have seen this before on a WWE DVD so I was familiar with Lupus and Chasity. They came out at the Buffalo Tag about a month prior with Richards vs Dreamer & Funk. Joey didn’t know their names. So it sounds like they didn’t have backstories. Their sole reason to exist was to replicate spots from the first Raven vs Dreamer match from over two years ago. Chasity did the hairspray gimmick and had a take catfight with Beulah nothing like the shit Francine and Beulah were doing in 1995. I remember Chasity in WCW as Raven’s sister and managing Hak aka Sandman. I can’t believe fucking Sandman and Whipwreck made it to WCW. I don’t know what happened to Lupus?

Pretty good Raven vs Dreamer brawl. The Mutants Chanting “We Can’t See Shit” during the Arena brawling is reason #69 Arena brawling sucks. As far as Arena brawling goes this was above average some good table spots and a couple crazy times the table didn’t break.

i thought this picked up in the ring. Raven does the drop toehold onto chair which is how he blinded Riggs and made him join the Flock, one of the first wrestling angles I vividly remember. The Rocket Launcher that crumpled the chair was insane. After that there was so much tomfoolery and DDTs that I can’t remember the order but Louie Spicolli got involved. I’ll leave who won as a surprise because the heat on the nearfalls was insane because the pinfall mattered so much. ****

lights out in the Impact Zone, it’s Sting up in the rafters...lol...sorry had too...RVD smoking Dreamer with the Van Daminator. Perfect booking. Dreamer, spirit of ECW, against the traitors RVD& Sabu and the invader Jerry Lawler. Amazing angle I had never see. It before wicked entertaining. 

After all had failed it’s Taz that clears the ring by his presence. He wants Sabu. Fonzie bitches and Taz is about to duplex him and the match is on. 

Sabu vs Taz - Wrestlepalooza 1997

Put me in the camp that liked this best than Barely Legal. Sabu had so much more energy, spring in his step, clean on his spots and good punches. He worked more on top and made Taz earn it. Sabu purposefully missing the Triple Jump Moonsault and crotching himself is peak heel Sabu. This was the Sabu I know and love. Taz missing a Somersault LegDrop from the top was a great missed spot. Sabu hit a wicked Twisted Bliss through the table for two. I didn’t love Taz pop up no sell Tazmission. Sabu does a version of Survivor Series 96 finish pinning Taz while in the move. I think this is my favorite Taz match ever. ****

ECW World TV Champion Shane Douglas vs Taz - ECW Wrestlepalooza 1997

Taz while pinned was not beat and so he unleashed his Path of Rage choking out hapless refs because this is his first loss since November 2 Remember, Goldberg before Goldberg. So Shane Douglas of all people tells Taz to scram. They make a wager. If Taz can choke out Douglas in 3 minutes or less then he wins the TV title. If he can’t Taz has to leave ECW for 45 Days. Douglas works the neck well hits these cool innovative snaps someone should steal. Tazmission of course and Taz wins! The Path of Rage continues and the Monster Babyface Push is fucking on! Great booking here as Douglas did all he could with the TV belt with Raven, Richards gone and Funk just being plain old. It was down to Douglas, Sandman or Sabu to get the belt back and Douglas made the most sense so he needed to drop the TV belt. Doing a Warrior like quick win over Honky Tonk Man here was great put Taz over strong and also gives Douglas a reason once he becomes World Champ to be scared of Taz and duck him. It also gave Taz his heat right back after the loss to Sabu and I like booking that loss as it gives something for Sabu to hang his hat on. Maybe the best one hour TV wrestling show ever! That covers a lot of ground but Paul e at his best!  

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