[1994-05-14-ECW-When Worlds Collide] Arn Anderson & Terry Funk vs Bobby Eaton & Sabu / Interview: Paul E. Dangerously

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I'm surprised Joey Styles was able to take all of these shots at WCW when they were lending WCW talent. I expected to really like this, but surprisingly, it didn't do much for me at all. There just wasn't anything memorable about it. It was probably a better match than some of the wild ECW brawls from the glory years that came later, and it's cool seeing Arn and Eaton in ECW Arena. But besides that, it was just there. The spinning toehold looks ridiculous happening in the middle of a wild brawl. Arn turning on Funk surprised me, but didn't really make sense. Not good or bad. I am indifferent.

 

I really loved Paul E.'s promo after the match, but it felt too scripted.

[Kevin Ridge]

WCW must have not been paying much attention to Styles. Joey seems to really enjoy himself taking all those shots. Match was good. It was cool to see all these guys in this match at ECW. Funk with a powerbomb? Terry did look pretty good in this match. Decent brawling towards the end. Perfectly acceptable match to watch. Funk mistakenly hits Anderson with a chair. Anderson returns and his are on purpose. Funk ends up submitting which was surprising.

[Exposer]

This is a weird match. I didn't think it was terrible but it wasn't anything special either. There were some things I enjoyed and there were even some nice near falls but they didn't lead to anything. Public Enemy's involvement then Arn's turn were aggravating. The brawling was solid and I thought it was quite the novelty seeing Arn and Bobby Eaton work in the ECW arena. I just don't have anything interesting or compelling to say about this match. I'd probably say it was more bad than good? I don't know but all that really happened is this match occurred with a good promo at the end by Paul. E.

[soup23]

Good match but real disappointing given there were three all time greats and someone who when motivated was really good. It lasted too long and the ending fizzled out with Public Enemy bringing terrible brawling and Arn's turn being a head scratcher.

[Jingus]

Funk ends up submitting which was surprising.

Why? Funk's one of the few top guys from his era who is willing to do submission jobs. His world title loss, against Flair in the I Quit match... hell, he even tapped out to Punk in their incredibly disappointing ROH bout.

 

As for the weird feeling to this match, apparently there was some backstage friction. Arn mentioned once that Funk and Sabu weren't happy about having Arn and Bobby involved in this, for whatever reason, so they structured the match to put the spotlight more on themselves and less on the guest stars. Which would easily explain why it didn't work like it should.

[PeteF3]

That's odd, because Arn works the majority of the match. Arn vs. Sabu looks WEIRD, as expected, but they actually work pretty well together. Parts of this are quite good, other parts are eye-rolling. Despite the "hardcore" image they're still making token attempts at keeping the referee distracted when the chair's in use, which starts to look ridiculous. Arn constantly DDT'ing Sabu and not covering, and then rolling Funk in the ring after he's been brutalized by Public Enemy, makes him look like an idiot. (And if you're going to tell me that Arn didn't cover because the turn was a set-up, then why the fuck is he killing Sabu at all?) I'm not sorry I saw it, just for the novelty of Arn and Bobby in the ECW Arena and for the fact that for all its faults, it did keep me guessing as to what would happen next.

 

This is a fairly effective way to bring Dory in and set up Funks vs. PE, actually. Despite his proto-ECW battles with Abby & the Sheik, I expect Dory to fit into this environment about as well as Abdullah would on a World of Sport broadcast.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Terry Funk & Arn Anderson vs Sabu & Bobby Eaton - 5/14/94

Total clusterfuck. I thought this was actively bad for the majority of the match. Arn wants to build to him vs Eaton as the marquee pairing when Arn vs Sabu is the cool dream match here. Arn vs Sabu is pretty disappointing. Arn just treats Sabu as his ragdoll doing what he wants when he wants. They work Arn's knucklelock spot at the stupidest time. Like I said Clusterfuck. Sabu vs Funk work a finish stretch in the middle of the match for no reason. Sabu moonsaults 1-2-NO supposedly a big nearfall. Funk gets up hits a powerbomb. I literally rewound just to make sure I didnt miss a transition. Nope Funk just got up and hit a powerbomb. Neckbreaker for another nearfall. This is like a shitty All Japan match aka a 21st century Indie "epic" involving Joey Janela. Thats when they do the nearfall. Arn does take some moonsaults from Sabu. Theres no real fun interaction. It is just taking spots. Arn DDTs three times while Funk hits a hard to see Piledriver on Eaton in the Eagle's Nest. Anderson hits a Spinebuster so that the ECW Arena can go home happy. Here comes Public Enemy to attack Funk's knee. Funk accidentally hits AA in the fracas. Sabu tries to make Funk submit to his Spinning Toehold. Anderson turns on Funk, which anyone with half a brain can see coming from miles away because this match is the drizzling shits. Surprisingly Funk submits to Sabu's Single Leg Crab. I am surprised BABYFACE hardcore legend & tough as nails Terry Funk submitted. I should be praised as a Hardcore Legend for not tapping out ten minutes earlier. Dreadful.