[1997-03-23-WWF-Wrestlemania XIII] Legion of Doom & Ahmed Johnson vs Faarooq & Savio Vega & Crush (Chicago Street Fight)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Kind of an ECW lite precursor to the WWF hardcore division that would come under Russo. I'm not really a fan of this match, but this was pretty novel at the time. Animal not being able to piledrive Faarooq on the table was a bit sad.

[Childs]

I just couldn't get into this. It didn't feel wild at all compared to a lot of what we've seen on the yearbooks or even compared to Bret-Austin from the same card. And I didn't care about anyone in the match. The Road Warriors might have made the biggest swing from "act I loved as a kid" to "act I dread watching now."

[goodhelmet]

We only included it because so many people over the years have claimed to have enjoyed it. Where are you guys!

[FLIK]

Colt Cabana loved it

 

[soup23]

I used to like this match a lot and would have compared it to the Nasty Boy brawls of 1994 before this watch but it lacked a lot of urgency and mainly just featured guys hitting each other with stuff that you don't see used everyday in a WWF ring. Blah.

[Kevin Ridge]

It didn’t hold up over time but I’m still fine with watching the full thing. PG13 and D’Lo take bumps early on. Ahmed hit a big shoulder block over the guardrail which went unnoticed in the background. They are playing up the everything but kitchen sink angle with the sink being out there. That was a sad piledriver attempt by Animal. Ahmed with the forceful bodyslam of Faarooq through the table. Ahmed and Faarooq had been feuding for a while now. That one security guy doing crowd control earned his money that night. Faarooq takes a nasty bump from the top rope to the floor. Ah, heck this thing is still enjoyable to me. Yes, I thought it was better back in the day but still more than fine to watch now. PG-13 take a great double Doomsday Device to finish it off.

[PeteF3]

I don't know if it was a good idea to have this immediately follow the submission match, which featured more hatred and more intense brawling. There are some neat spots here--a few good weapons shots, and Ahmed doing a somersault over the guardrail onto Crush. Also, I had no recollection of Clarence Mason actually taking a bump here, and didn't know that that ever happened. I also can't believe more wasn't made out of the NOD using a noose on Ahmed. I think I liked this more than anyone here--no, it's not great, and it doesn't compare to the best Nasty Boys brawls much less the best ECW brawls. But it was energetic and I wasn't bored, the partisan Chicago crowd loved LOD, and Ahmed looked downright good at points. PG-13 take two tremendous bumps off a double Doomsday Device afterward.

[Exposer]

Fun match that went a bit too long & should never have followed Bret-Austin. The crowd is still really hot for it, but two stipulation matches like that should never go back to back on a card. The Animal piledriver spot is less sad & more terrifying to me. Faarooq almost died. In fact, Faarooq almost died twice in this match as he takes an insane free fall bump to the floor on his side from the top rope. The noose stuff is pretty wild. Ok finish. Fun post-match with PG-13 taking big bumps off the double Doomsday Device.

[cactus]

Yeah, I still enjoy this a lot. By no means a perfect brawl, but LOD and Ahmed Johnson look larger than life handling the entire Nation of Domination. LOD are well past their prime, but you wouldn't of noticed due to the chaotic pace of the match (if you can ignore that horrific piledriver spot). This type of ECW garbage brawling just wasn't seen in a major federation at the time. This is the only street fight than WWE have done that actually lives up to it's name. 

★★★½

[Beast]

Really weird match order choices with this as the palette cleaner between Austin/Hart and the main event.

As stated above, this is totally ECW-lite so I can see how it could have worked at the time for fans who had only read about hardcore wrestling in PWI.

But yes, it compares very poorly to stuff like the Nasties vs Cactus/partner from 3 years earlier. There aren't really any peak spots, everything just blended together other than the "piledriver" by Animal on/off the announce table, multiple fire extinguisher sprays and lots of African-Americans being hung (which really, really didn't age well).

It works as a blood feud blowup between NoD and Ahmed & friends, but lacks creativity, flow and momentum-building moments. The ending is strangely flat, with the Doomsday Device acting as a setup to Crush being hit by a weak 2x4 clothesline. D'Lo and PG-13 took the best bumps during and after the match, which is what they were there for I guess.

Also, I thought this match was where the Pearl River Plunge on the car moment happened, but that was months earlier...