Damien vs. El Puerto Ricano (Pablo Marquez)
Pablo Marquez is pretty well respected (the first use of the pun yet) figure within Puerto Rico as a trainer and a wrestler later in his career but here he is just a tool for Sabu. Damien 666 is a comedy wrestler who emulates other wrestler’s spots so he is perfect for this opening spot. The match was JIP but we didn’t need to see anything more. Sabu came out and put both through a tale and kicked off the show. NR
Damien Kane & Devon Storm vs. The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley)
The pre-match promo was a laugh with Joey Styles ripping Damien Kane apart or looking like Lou Albano and Buh Buh Ray doing his stuttering gimmick, eventually spitting out “big tits” referring to Kane’s girlfriend. That was rather amusing. The match itself wasn’t half bad. It was a match to highlight the Dudleys with a short shine spot or the heel duo before the Dudleyz took control and they transitioned into the inish. Devon Storm had a sick, pin-point dropkick off the top rope that nailed D-Von in the head and took a nasty backdrop bump on-to Dances with Dudley on the outside. There was another funny moment in the match where everyone jumped to the floor to gra the chair. After that, D-Von attacked everyone, including his rothe, with the chair, causing the rare DQ. The Dudleyz argues with each other to close out the segment. **
Axl Rotten & Hack Myers vs. The FBI (JT Smith & Little Guido)
JT Smith serenading Little Guido was beautiful. The match was pretty much nothing note-worthy thought. The FBI stalls for a while, then comes back. There wasn’t a lot offered here. *
ECW World Heavyweight Title Three Way Dance: Raven (c) vs. The Sandman vs. Pitbull #2
I love the pairing of the uber serious Raven and the comedy duo of the Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards. How Raven keeps a straight face while they strip and dance, doing a Shawn Michaels parody is beyond me. It’s certainly an impressive feat. Everyone is out here or this match. Each man has their seconds and thirds (men and women) which pack the ringside area. It’s a great visual that adds to the chaotic nature of the match. The match had an outstanding job of making Pitbull #2 look like a serious threat with his overwhelming power. Pitbull #2 pushes both wrestlers to the floor in a lock up and reverses a double irish whip into the rail. It never happened, even after the hot Douglas/Pitbull feud in 1997 but it wouldn’t be inconceivable if they pulled the trigger at some point with him. When #2 is eliminated, it’s a big deal that the crowd reacts strongly to. The finishing stretch follows the rest of the match with a fast paced sprint to the win with innovative spots involving weapons and interference. Sandman’s inability to execute a leg drop actually plays into the inish o the match. Early in the match, he injured his leg doing one and then it cost him at the end when his knee gave out, giving Raven the chance to win. Awesome match with a few cool interesting stories that pay off. ***1/2
Mikey Whipwreck vs. Chris Jericho
This was a solid cool-down match after the World title match. They worked the mat with Jericho dominating most of the offense with Whipwreck trying to counter and mount a comeback. The ECW and are idiots and chant “boring” (but they jerked off to Eddie and Malenko’s snoozefest, sure) but this wasn’t dull at all. Jericho brought some cool heel work to the match which suits Mikey. Plus the rawl was super fun as well. The match should've been cut shorter though. I’ll say that. ***
ECW World Television Title Match: Too Cold Scorpio (c) vs. Shane Douglas
The story of this match is one that I love wholeheartedly. Two Cold Scorpio challenges Douglas to a title match, but since Douglas is upset at not winning the ECW World title, he dismisses the Television title outright and doesn’t want the title at all, even if he respects Scorpio. So Scorpio is determined to make Douglas respect the title. That’s a perfect way to bring importance to the secondary title, should you execute the finale correctly. One of the criticisms that I can throw at this is that it’s very self conscious. They go out to have a classic match. But fuck it, it’s a classic match. Self-conscious or not, it’s a real epic match. They not only go through the usual classic match moments notes, but they use that to tell the on-going story as well. The opening pure grappling stages were excellent and they built upon that, getting more and more aggressive, turning into a brawl when Douglas blasts Scorpio in the face with the chair. Douglas gets more frustrated with Scorpio and starts to cheat in order to win but Scorpio isn’t relenting and forces Douglas to fight and struggle to everything. I swear Douglas couldn’t even execute his Belly to Belly suplex until the end. This was a wonderfully executed match with great technical wrestling, great brawling, great bumps from Scorpio and Douglas and a great narrative from bell to bell. Douglas cuts a great promo afterwards, appreciating his win, putting over everyone, including Two Cold Scorpio and ECW, but Scorpio nails him anyway. Weird way to end the promo but the promo was great. Probably my favourite ECW match. ****1/2
Respect Match: Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam
I couldn’t get into this too much, although I do acknowledge that there is some good wrestling in this match. It’s a decent, competitie spotest with some huge neck bumps like the brainbuster of the second rope from RVD. The result is a huge one as RVD actually scored the pin over Sabu, being the first to do so. Sabu looks to have agitated his neck injury and to add insult to injury, RD calls him a piece of shit. He’s ahead of the curve, clearly. **3/4
Brian Lee & The Eliminators (John Kronus & Perry Saturn) vs. The Gangstas (Mustafa & New Jack) & Tommy Dreamer
One thing I dislike about ECW is these main events. They are always grossly long and rarely any good. It’s mostly just endless brawling spots upon endless brawling spots. It’s horrid. I couldn’t tell you a singular moment that stood out because it was so meandering and meaningless. *
A Matter OF Respect 1996 was a good show mostly. The opening undard matches were alright and didn’t waste too much time. The World title match was chaotic and made use of what it had with Raven being the glue. Pitbull #2 looked great and Sandman got to drink beer. Score. The Douglas/Scorpio match is a true classic and one of the best ECW matches of all time. Sabu/RVD was interesting enough and had interesting implications on the future. The main event stunk though.
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