[1995-11-14-ECW-TV] Cactus Jack and Tommy Dreamer feature

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is a long, feature-like recap of a recent Cactus/Dreamer match. Cactus heels on the audience, and I always loved this line: "If it was up to me, I'd have that TV tuned to TBS, watching movies for guys who like movies ..."

 

Elsewhere, Dreamer does a sit-down interview interspersed with clips of Dreamer with Terry Funk. Dreamer mentions being at the Night of Champions in the Meadowlands with his dad cheering for Ric Flair and the Road Warriors, but having Funk in his corner trumped it. He mentions his being disgusted by Cactus giving a clean break twice in their match. The match is hilarious for Dreamer trying to goad Cactus into a fight, and Cactus just working a headlock. My favorite moment is Cactus teasing the apron elbow and instead doing WCW cheers! I also love that he calmly declares the match a no contest and tells everyone to have a night and drive home safely.

 

Funk tries goading him back in the ring by saying terrible things about his wife, girlfriend and mistress, even calling Dewey a whore! The action picks up from here, and I like the spot where Raven tapes brass knucks Cactus's boot so he could kick Dreamer in the groin.

 

There were things I liked about this, especially the Dreamer cut-ins, but at the same time, this is one of the biggest egofucks in wrestling history.

[Tim Evans]

This went on way too long. Cactus was funny in it though. I also liked Stevie's "R.S.P.W sucks" shirt.

[PeteF3]

Cactus cuts a scorched-earth promo on Tommy Dreamer and the ECW fans, in the ring this time. He would love to be at home watching Movies for Guys Who Like Movies on TBS, but he's got a higher purpose. And he'd love to slap the shit out of Dreamer, but that'd bring the ECW fans too much enjoyment. Instead, he promises to give them the most boring match they've ever dreamed of. Tommy Dreamer rebuts in a pre-tape interspersed with his ring intro.

 

Dreamer tries to goad Cactus into fighting him, but Jack responds only with clean breaks and headlocks. Joey Styles is a lot better now than he was in '93 but I still really hate how he telegraphs things--every time Styles says something is about to happen, you can bet your bottom dollar that the precise opposite will instead. Eventually Cactus starts hammering him, and I think this is what Foley talked about in his first book, trying to bust Dreamer's eyebrow open and only succeeding in getting Dreamer to say to him, "Please stop hitting me." Eventually Cactus suffers a crippling injury to his hand, and since he's vowed never to put his body at risk again, he asks that the match be declared a no contest. "Thank you for coming, drive home safe, and let's support the Turner family tomorrow night!"

 

Jim Molineaux won't declare a no-contest, so Cactus settles for taking a countout. Terry Funk tries to goad him back--"YOUR OLD LADY'S A WHORE! DEWEY'S A WHORE!" It works, and Cactus gets creamed by Dreamer, including a rather cleverly done spot where Dreamer enzuigiris him with a chair wrapped around his foot. Sounds horribly contrived but they made it work. Then Cactus gets into it with Funk. Then Richards gets involved. Then Raven again. Then Raven urges Cactus to use a chair, but Jack hesitates and Dreamer gets his own chair to use on Jack for the win.

 

There are some neat ideas here, but this goes on and on and on. Cactus is still bouncing from anti-hardcore to hardcore and back again without any real rhyme or reason over the course of the match, and I don't get why. The Dreamer cut-ins were generally pretty bad, but unlike the rest of this segment they actually got better as they went along.