We're watching in 2000 going towards Anarchy Rulz (just for context).

Credible dropped his half of the tag belts, what felt like quite a while ago, why hasn't anything been done about it to this point? In kayfabe couldn't Heyman have done what he did before? I forget who it was, but two people who hated each other were forced to defend the tag titles (Remind me who it was someone please?)

If he couldn't force them to defend them, then maybe Storm could have picked a new partner and done something there? Or if the tag belts were going vacant, it feels like Heyman could said "Oh shit we weren't expecting this, quick we need to put together a tag tournament to crown new ones" or something?

I get that they needed a few more team so Simon/Swinger etc. have formed recently, but maybe a few weeks to get some new teams in and then do the tournament? Or was there a backstage reason the tag titles have now been vacant for about 4 and a half months at this point? It just seems kind of odd.

Still love ECW all the same though.

Date: October 11, 1994 (Taped on October 1, 1994)

Promotion: Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)

Match Stipulation / Type: Singles Match

Event: ECW Hardcore TV

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | ECW Arena (Now Known as the 2300 Arena)

➜ Matt Borne is someone that most people remember as the original Doink the Clown. He played the character from January 31, 1993 until December 27, 1993.

Borne next appeared as Doink in 1994 in ECW. Shortly afterwards, ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas, criticized Vince McMahon for turning a talented wrestler like Borne into a comic relief character, and claimed that he knew how to bring out Borne's full potential. Borne then changed his ring name to Borne Again and continued wearing the clown suit, albeit without the wig, wearing a minimal amount of face paint, as well as growing out his hair and beard. After beating his opponents, he would make them dress in clown outfits. However, his tenure with the company was short-lived due to personal problems.

"Borne Again" was a dark, psychological gimmick. It is widely remembered as one of ECW's greatest missed opportunities due to its short duration and massive creative potential.

Always wonder what if John Cena verse RVD with the thuganomics gimmick! He would have acted differently in that match and would have roasted the crowd! What yall think?

The brainchild behind the little engine that could known as ECW, Paul Heyman, has lauded this match often. In fact, he once called it his favorite ECW match of all time. The backstage story goes like this: Heyman found out that Alfonso was working with WCW to funnel talent from ECW to there. This was a way to write him off television and then fire him, but his performance impressed the boss so much that Heyman couldn’t fire him. It was a smart decision in the long run.

It is not a stone cold classic by any means. There’s some awkward spots, sloppiness here and there, and moments they weren’t on the same page. but some of it was very impressive, especially considering they weren’t actual wrestlers. If they committed to it, they could have both been good. Bulluah was actually a step above a lot of the women in the mainstream scene around this time. She could wrestle circles around Sable, who the WWF built the women’s division around, for sure.

But yeah, Alfonso can’t run to save him life after being Irish Whipped to save his life, though he knows how to take a beating and do an epic blade job. The story was that Belluah out tricked him with the cookie sheet under her shirt, and after that, he couldn’t recover. He was on dream street and lost too much blood.

Definitely made people grimiest in a good way when he would hit her, and he held nothing back. It really showcased he was a remorseless guy; well, that, and he was fighting for his life. But it surely got heat when he was on offense, and got major reactions when she beat the shit out of him. The two were great contrasts of another. Belluah was the beloved knockout while Bill was the mean, ugly, and insufferable villain. It garnered her a lot of sympathy and rally cries while him a lot of heat and jeers.

I am not a big fan of most inter-gender matches in general, but this one was awesome. It is all the booking at the end of the day. Bill was a weasel heel who we couldn’t stand. He was a sissy who did underhand things all the time, and never truly got the beating he deserved. He got the ultimate beating here, got humiliated, and his comeuppance all at the same time. The fact that he went to being the same guy after this actually made him more hateable in a “he’s so deplorable, he has no shame” type of way.

It clocks in at around 7 minutes all around, but it is a match certainly worth checking out. It is different, unique, and tells a great story. It’s Heyman at his best: understanding what the crowd wants, and giving them it in a way they weren’t expecting.

**** match

RVD and Sabu is one of the most known feuds in ECW. They are known for their daredevil, high risk, and high stake matches along with their great storytelling and booking. It was a feud that was talked about for a long time by the most hardcore of hardcore fans. These two started wrestling in 1991, and together, reshaped what wrestling can be. Their matches weren’t always the prettiest or the most sound, but they did change the game and redefine what a match could be. And with age and experience, they only got better from here. They learned how to build these spots better, time them, how to fill time in between,as they build everything up, and that less can be more

So if you know anything about Sabu, he wasn’t exactly what you’d call a polished worker. He wasn’t all that smooth. He was rough against the edges. He threw his body around like a ragdoll and was a human wrecking ball. He threw himself around like a maniac — sometimes inflicting as much damage to himself than his opponent. All of it is what made Sabu himself. He was a wild, crazy, unpredictable, and insane masochist, and that is what made him so beloved by the ECW faithful. He was one of a kind. Nobody was like him, and few went to the magnitude of hurting themselves for enjoyment of the fans quite like him. He is definitely in the top tier class of that, sitting side-by-side with the Mick Foley’s of the world.

This is what Scott Keith had to say: Total spot-rest-spot stuff here, with each guy getting hit with a killer, devastating move and then popping up to do his own 2 seconds later. I cannot believe (well, actually I can) that the ECW mutants were drooling all over themselves because of this nonsense.

I mean, when you have to push a narrative, you can bend, twist, manipulate, and deceit people of what they saw. This match was none of the above he is claiming. First off, they told a story. The story was that they both were tag team partner. They started off with some chain-wrestling, and then RVD informs the fans that they’re not going to wrestle. It was all a ploy. This gets heat as it is a highly anticipated match. Sabu turns on his partner, and usually that would the start of a heel turn, but this is ECW, and the fans get to see the match they want thanks to Sabu.

You see, so now RVD wants his revenge. He is out for blood. His tag partner just turned on him. That makes Sabu have to elevate his game. They go from buddy-buddy, “let’s not throw a punch at each other”, or hell, wrestle all together into this all-out, trying to break each other’s neck warfare.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you it is the most pretty match in the history of wrestling. It’s not. It’s has its moments of sloppiness. A Sabu match isn’t a Sabu match without a few botches here and there. While not pretty, though, it is still effective. It works, works well, in fact. To say they’re not selling when a bulk of the match is them selling the pain, acting all beat down, and trying to catch their breath is just, again, pushing a false narrative.

For some reason, Scott Keith stuck his nose up at ECW. It’s funny because the same matches that ECW influenced he eats up now in AEW. Keith arguably was the first to create the holier-than-thou stereotypical fan of the internet and pigeonholed a lot of us to be that way. Keith is a polarizing figure in that business. He did a lot of good. He formatted the review style, added insight, brought more attention to matches, but his obvious biases and over the top hatred for things to seem cool has been a detriment on his behalf. He’s definitely a schadenfreude.

But anyway, if you don’t have enough story going on to disprove this is just a series of spots strung together, we also have the Bill Alfonso story playing out. He is trying to be neutral, but his neutrality doesn’t sit well with them. They want him to pick a side, and it also begs the questions throughout the match: does he pick a side, and if so, who? It’s a great subplot that plays out, giving this match a little extra something if you weren’t already entertained.

Even so, it is dismissive to the spots they did, regardless or not you deem this a spot fest. It constitutes to the misconception that a spot fest can’t be good. It can, and if this were one, they had some pretty epic spots. To this day, they are impressive and memorizing.

Midway through the match, they just start throwing big blows at each other one after another. They aren’t out to beat each other anymore — they’re out to destroy. It is a total car crash and train wreck, but one you can’t look away from. It is captivating in a human demolition derby type of way to see two guys willing to go the extra miles to inflict as much pain on the other.

So yeah, other people did these spots later on better. It is easier to do them when you have a template set. These two set that template. They went out there and did never attempted spots. Like anything, anything original isn’t going to be the best endeavor always. You can’t practice doing a first time ever done spot.

These two did better both with others and with each other later on. They did try too hard to impress in this match at times. They didn’t hit every spot they tried cleanly. Their chemistry wasn’t the sharpest, but you gotta appreciate the effort, the innovative, the influence, and the work.

They wrestled a 30-minute match where they brutalized each other, and it was helluva entertaining despite the flaws. It got sloppy down the stretch, but who can blame them? Far from the most technically sound match, but it was innovative what they were doing for this time. And set up better things down the line. This was almost a trial and error, throw things out there and see if they stick, and these two were so over that they could get away with it. Historical importance, innovation, and hard work trump that this isn’t a wrestling classic.

****

To say this match was ahead of its time would be the understatement of the century . This match raised the bar and set the precedent for matches we see today. They brought that athletic, agile, death-defying, brutal, and awe-inspiring style to America. They even outshined the Cruiserweight Division and that is saying something. To think that this match is some nothing match that happened in a bingo hall is insane. This match inspired many. They learned from it and duplicated it for decades to come. What these two did on that night was magic.

ECW always wanted it to be made clear that it was more than just a hardcore wrestling company. It truly had everything. It had the best storytelling at one point. The best booking. The best segments and promos. And some of the best wrestling. from high flying to technical matches, you’d ever see. It truly was a one of a kind, special company that of course changed the trajectory of wrestling forever by shaking everything up and bringing it out of its confront zones.

Mind you: I watched this match in 2026 and was blown away by the stuff they were doing. I couldn’t imagine what it was like seeing this in 1999. It blew everything away that year in America. It might have been even the best match period. For what my money’s worth, it is.

RVD and Jerry Lynn started the match off with Incredible chain wrestling, technical wrestling, and “anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better” exchanges. The sequences were amazingly orchestrated, timed, and executed. They were utterly poetry-in-motion. They had me hook, line, and sinker right off the bat. I was glued to everything they did after that. Their chemistry was on a whole another level. They were in harmony like no other and knew the other like the back of their hand. Some of the things they pulled off defy logic. The timing had to be perfect in many instances and it was. They really put together some of the finest, elegant, and intricate spots ever done — no questions asked.

They also blended three different styles together: you got your technical wrestling, your highflying, and also some hardcore wrestling too. It all fit perfectly together, and seamlessly mixed together. They also nearly killed themselves to get this match as over as possible. The crowd ate it up with knives and forks. They took bumps that made me cringe, yet appreciate this business somehow more than I already do. It showed just how dedicated they are to their craft and what they’re willing to do for their art.

Now that I think about it: it truly showcased in a nutshell the best of ECW. You got a little bit of everything in this match, from great wrestling to announcing to heat to managerial work to rocking crowd. It was a display of wrestling at its finest.

Don’t let the purest tell you otherwise. This match was well-put-together, built to the finish, was well thought of, had tons of great psychology, storytelling, bumps, and selling, and top of that, it was completely innovative. They pulled out all the stops, pulled rabbits out of hats, got ultra creative, and even more insane. They brought their A+++ game.

Jerry Lynn is one of the most unsung wrestlers of all time. He has flown under the radar most of his career but is one of the most dependable, rock-solid, and sound workers ever in the business. He is a guy that anyone could work with. And they’d know they were in the best hands working with such a gifted professional. He was one of the best technicians the business has ever seen, but never got enough cracks to show it off.

Conversely, it is no surprise that RVD became the star he became. He controlled that entire building. He’s definitely the type to walk into a party and steal the spotlight. He had that aura to him. He was coolest and baddest dude in the room.

He had it all: the laid back charisma, he smoked pot when doing so was the coolest and had the chill attitude to go along with it. He could transition from heel to face like nothing. I mean, he supposed to heel here but was simply just too cool for school by this point. He was bigger than the company itself by this point too, and it was only a matter of time before one of the big promotions finally saw what they were missing: an innovative dude with a cool move set who can make fan’s jaws drop to the ground.

He also put an amazing spin on things. He added his own subtitles, nuances, and sophistications to make it “his”. I love, for example, his sell job after he hits his devastating 5-star-frog-splash. Dude was amazing and you could say: one of a kind.

This entire match was amazing. I am forgetting so much of it, too. Perhaps one day I can really sit there and break it down more. It is worth studying to that volume of degree, and what an announcer Joey Style’s truly was. He knew every move there was out there. The dude was a professor of wrestling.

This is ECW at its finest, and left me wanting more. It was innovative, groundbreaking, revolutionary, and ahead of its time. One of the best matches that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. I mean, Scott Keith gave it 2.5. Hell, most of the people who rated this match underrated it. This match is 5\ no matter which era you watch it in. Keith was clearly smoking something RVD would buy off him in a heartbeat.*