[1996-02-17-ECW-Cyberslam] 2 Cold Scorpio vs Sabu

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This may be my favorite ECW match. Quite the struggle, with Scorpio having a really good understanding of how to work with Sabu. Scorpio was Sabu's best opponent. You'll notice that while he definitely does his share of high-risk moves, Scorp does tone down the highspots from his normal level to make Sabu's highspots to stand out more. Really good, and maybe the one Sabu match that not only do I like, but I would actually take a step further and argue as being really good in a wrestling match sort of way.

[Jkeats]

To this day, this match holds up as one of the best matches I've seen in person. You can even see me at the point where Sabu obliterates the table in the crowd haha. I'm standing right behind it, kind of scared for my life

[Kevin Ridge]

I don’t know how Sabu was able to walk around after crushing his leg against the guardrail on the moonsault to the outside. I do go up and down on my feelings about this match after each watch. It felt more fresh this time around with the benefit of watching it in yearbook setting and agreed that Scorpio made a strong opponent for Sabu.

[PeteF3]

Sheesh, that just kept going, didn't it?

 

Not nearly as wild about this match as everyone else. This had that problem where both guys have gone through every possible finisher and they all get kicked out of, so at around the 20-minute mark, all you have left to do is count the minutes until the practically-inevitable time limit draw. And not that it's the fault of either wrestler, but Styles' telegraphing of every single kickout (where he declares the match over) continues to piss me off mightily. Lots of announcers do that but Styles makes it more obvious than most and completely kills the drama for anyone watching at home who's seen more than wo episodes of ECW TV. Also wasn't really crazy about the way they went from wild highspots to start into matwork. There was some enjoyable stuff here and some loony bumps, especially Sabu springboarding from the ring over the guardrail and wiping out through a table. But this would have been way better at 15-20 minutes.

[soup23]

Agree this was too long at points but man were some spots and sequences great. I understand the idea of working a draw but the best 18 minutes from this match are probably the best ECW match there ever was. I think Scorpio is fitting in ECW well and producing some neat promos and now matches and he reigned in some aspects of Sabu's act here while allowing him to retain his aura. Looking forward to more ECW stuff which has been a rarity of me going through the years. ***1/2

[tim]

I really loved this; I loved it for what it is, but even still there's a much better match buried in what we got. Without the long rest period for the commercial break, without going all the way to the draw and shaving off several minutes, this could have been a really great match. But I still love what we got. Watching ECW in the full context of 1996 makes me appreciate it even more, and I generally enjoy ECW. In 1999, or 2000 when I was watching it live, WWF and wrestling in general had already fully embraced excess. But in 1996 you see ECW as fans at the time saw it, as the avant-garde of something really significant. Whether you like what it was leading to in wrestling or not, there's a feeling of being ahead of the curve, and of seeing something totally different from what you could get from WWF or WCW. The crowd is so enthusiastic and rowdy; you don't get crowds like that anywhere today. And although ECW is very self-conscious in its pushing the envelope, it still feels sincere.

 

This match was excessive, bloated and at times stupid; but felt totally unlike what you'd see anywhere else in American wrestling, had totally insane spots and was hugely entertaining. Watching this I really felt an appreciation for how fans of ECW at the time related to the product.

[Superstar Sleeze]

ECW World TV Champion 2 Cold Scorpio vs Sabu - ECW Cyberslam 96

Raucous Mayhem! It almost feels like a Sabu workrate match. With Benoit/Dean/Eddie gone, this was ECW's response lets throw Sabu out there for 30 minutes and see what happens. It was just fucking insane. Most of it made no sense, but it was entertaining as fuck. This was not a WWF house show 30 minute draw. This was balls to the wall from jump. Sabu got a steel chair and was throwing it around within two minutes of the opening bell. Sabu is so interesting he is the guy that is going to take insane risks, but also the guy that grabs double wristlocks during his pinfall and also the guy that will sell the hell out of a ballshot. Thats what makes Sabu so damn great. Was this spotfest? Yes! Was selling blown off? Yes! Was it unpredictable as hell? Yes! Yes! Yes! Today's spotfests feel so routine. Like they are just walking through the match. Sabu's are organically chaotic. You always forget who good of a punch he had. Scorpio to his credit was laying his shit. That superkick that busted open Sabu's mouth was gnarly. Great punch exchanges. The transitions for the most part were piss poor, but the action was great. I loved all the ballshots, but then Sabu was up doing slingshot flip legdrops and Arabian Facebusters. There was a 5 star classic in here, but they were just so scatter-brained. There was a part where Scorp missed a tumbleweed and Sabu was too injured to take fully advantage. They were building to a classic babyface comeback that I really thought they had something but they kinda pissed away that heat with spots. You can actually tell it was during that Sabu dive that the crowd was at a fever pitch. It shows that formula does work. But then again absolutely destroying a table in the crowd got the loudest pop so what do I know. After that spot and Scorpio not getting the win on Drop the Bomb, I knew they were going for the draw. I thought they telegraphed it too much with the time call as the boo birds came out. Petered out towards the end, but still helluva match. If all spotfests were this good, I would never complain. Highly entertaining. ****