[1993-06-19-ECW-Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular] Terry Funk vs Eddie Gilbert (Chain)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Nice match and I love the controversial finish. There's nothing here that doesn't happen in pretty much every chain match in history, and of the three chain/strap matches so far on this set, this is the least of them all, but I'm still glad I watched it, and I still enjoyed it. Eddie Gilbert is now the King of Philadelphia! Also, we got to see Paul E. sneak attack Todd Gordon.

[Kevin Ridge]

My usual comment about how I dislike four corner chain matches. Not a particular violent match in any means which goes against why Terry was talking up in his previous promos. Heyman clocks Tod Gordon which will always get a good cheer out of me.

[PeteF3]

I did like the build to the first use of the chain, with both guys avoiding each other for the opening minutes. Slow going after that, but a heated finish. Kevin Christian takes over the officiating when John Finnegan gets creamed, and he and Paul E. conspire to screw Funk over. Tod Gordon fires Christian afterward and earns a cell phone to the head. Serves him right--he attacked Christian first.

[soup23]

I enjoyed Tenryu and Hashimoto taking more of a conservative approach in the early goings but it annoyed me here based on the billing that this would be a fight unlike seen before. Once things spilled out to the crowd and the blood started flowing, this picked up but it was the weakest of the chain matches we have seen so far this year. Still, quite the accomplishment that we have gotten 3 very good of those type of matches in a calendar year. ***1/2

[garretta]

Having seen the two months of aftermath from this bout, I can say that it wasn't worth the trouble.

 

The action was actually fairly good, although they spent far too much time outside the ring. That's par for the course even this early on in ECW's life, but the whole point of the chain match is to touch the buckles inside ​the ring. There are plenty of other match types you can have if you want a lot of action on the floor.

 

That wasn't my main complaint, though; that's reserved for the finish. I admittedly couldn't hear what Tod Gordon was saying to Kevin Christian (Lawler)- or anything else said on the mic for the whole evening- but I could see enough to know that there was nothing from Kevin about why he did what he did, and that made Gordon's actions after the match seem a lot like sour grapes because Terry didn't win. To be honest, the seed was planted by his commentary; he was openly rooting for Terry all match long and putting down Eddie and Paul every chance he could.

 

The explanation was tailor-made if they'd chosen to go with it: Kevin's dad (who's known in Philly from his indy dates, don't forget) has kept the rightful king from his throne for too long, driven him out of Memphis, in fact. Not only that, he helped Kevin's brother Brian become a wrestler, but not him. So this is his payback: to help his dad's sworn enemy become the king of a much bigger city than Memphis could ever dream of being. I don't think we ever saw Kevin in Philly after this, though, so maybe he was just brought in to do this angle. At any rate, they could have had a story similar to the one I told, and instead, we get half-baked "comedy" sequences that even the supposed star couldn't have cared less about. What a waste of a perfectly good angle.

 

I should also mention the commentary, which barely deserved the name. It seemed like Jay Sulli and Tod Gordon were in a contest to see how many times they could mention the full names of Jay Sulli and Tod Gordon, and that's the main thing I'll take away from what I heard. Well, that and the unabashed rooting for Terry, which all babyface announcers do to some extent but few are so ham-handed about. Even Vince McMahon at least pretends to give the heels credit from time to time, and he doesn't take a massive dump on the angle that's been promoted for two months just because the commissioner got knocked on the head by Heyman's cell phone. Concern for the man is one thing; stating that Eddie being crowned King of Philly is irrelevant just because Gordon was dumb enough to get physical in the ring, even with a ref, and got himself clobbered for his trouble is something else. Thank God Joey Styles shows up before too much longer.

 

They should have just given Terry either the crown or a legend's title and had him defend it against the likes of Muraco, Snuka, and whoever else they could get to come in. This match and what came after it was a tremendous disappointment, especially considering the buildup it got. If this was the best Eddie could do as ECW's booker, thank God for Heyman.