[1995-08-08-ECW-TV] Eddy Guerrero vs Dean Malenko

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This I liked much better than the other matches in the series. Hostile City Showdown is the best match of them all for me, but this I think this is the one I enjoyed the most. This isn't a parity match. Malenko is way more dominant than normal and throws everything at Eddy, who keeps hanging on. Dean spends a lot of time working over Eddy's ribs and there's at least a takeaway from this match that one wrestler is better than another. One thing I HATE about this feud is that the guy who looks the worst in the body of the match seems to be the one who wins every single match, but that's ECW. The Jeff Hardy lookalike on the front row getting heat from other fans was the best heel in the match.

[Tim Evans]

Good match but I'm already sick of seeing these guys wrestle each other. At least it was short and told a story.

[PeteF3]

I'd love to offer a review of this match, but I spent most of the body of it vainly wishing that shirtless asshole in the front row would take a bullet to the head.

 

As a match, it was pretty whatever. There was an attempt at a greater story here, with Dean trying to destroy Eddy's ribs, but it's another match where one guy gets dominated and wins on a flash pin. So really we again learn nothing except, "These guys are evenly matched." I would credit Paul E. for having the temerity to just tell these guys to go out and wrestle, but the '80s sets and '90-'91 Yearbooks were filled with a shit ton of "Go out there and wrestle" TV and arena matches, so it's not really as revolutionary as it seems. So far the Tampa match is the best of a solid but ultimately underwhelming series.