The Year That Was 1996 - Part 3

Sabu vs. Stevie Richards (ECW 1/5/96)
The critiques of Sabu and his pension for botchiness is well known in wrestling circles. He has several full episodes of Bothchamania, entiled Sabuamania, dedicated to his mistakes in the squared circle. I am used to thinking its just Sabu, no big deal. What I see here is a younger more spry Sabu that is very impressive. This is not to say that he doesn't screw up, but it is not as noticeable as it would become later in his career. His trademark top rope springboard moves to the outside after coming off of a chair are performed so fluid it is amazing. I can see why fans were gaga over him in the early-mid 90s. Neither wrestlers are scientific masterminds, but what they pull off is an intense brawl that tells a solid story. ECW was a macho wrestling company with action tailored towards men. The story's are rarely of the scientific variety, which was smart since they wanted to be different from WWF and WCW, and they did not have the talent to pull off scientific matches night in and night out. This is a coming out party of sorts for Stevie Richards. He is able to take all of Sabu's best shots, and through a loss he elevates himself in the eyes of the fans as a wrestler that is tougher than his persona would indicate and if he faced Sabu again might be able to steal a victory. Stevie took a sunset flip to the floor which was brutal since ECW did not have any padding on the floors at this time. The highspots I remember the most is the Big Stevie Kick that takes Sabu's head off. This kick looked as if it could have hurt Sabu, it was that good. The Arabian Facebuster is vintage Sabu and enough to finally put Richards away.

Public Enemy vs. The Gangstas (Public Enemy Farewell) (ECW 1/5/96)
There isn't much to analyze here, it is four guys beating the tar out of each other. I only counted two wrestling moves, a spinning toe hold and figure four leglock, in the entire match. They find any and everything to hit each other with including pies and cheese graters. While it is packed with a lot of action, it starts to wear a bit thin by the end. Flyboy hits a Drive By through a table for the win. Kind of surprised with Paul E's penchant for good booking he didn't do something more epic for TPE's last match. The match is followed by a quick retrospective of the Public Enemy's ECW career.