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RVD vs. Sabu


goodhelmet

Flying High Again  

36 members have voted

  1. 1. Who was better?

    • Mr. Monday Night
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    • Homicidal Suicidal
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Sabu for me. Both guys have their faults, but Sabu's tend to annoy me less. I like my wrestlers to have legit looking offense, and RVD's horrible punches and clotheslines almost always take me out of the match. Both guys have their annoying "grind the match to a halt" habits. RVD does it when he stops to gain approval from the crowd or do gymnastics, Sabu does it to set up contrived furniture spots. I think it works better for Sabu because the blown spots and awkward moments almost fit with his characters mentality. Sabu is willing to invent new ways to maim himself to kill his opponent. I do get the feeling that he's trying to win a match. With RVD, I don't feel like he's trying to win, I feel like he's trying to inflate his * ratings. Neither guy is a promo, but Sabu is silent so he doesn't have to be. I might take RVD's 2001 over any stretch in Sabu's career, but I would much rather watch a single Sabu match in isolation than an RVD match. Sabu for me.

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Sabu is a guy like Necro or Abby where even when he's not at his best their is a great novelty to watching him. The more random an opponent the more I want to see the match even if I suspect it will be a trainwreck. Van Dam I could care less about unless he's working a match around big bumps which he rarely does anymore

I LOVED Sabu's WWE run for those reasons. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say his 2006 was friggin' awesome. And not in a "guilty pleasure" way (a term I hate). He had some legit good matches with Show, Cena, Rey, and some tags with RVD. He also had a bit of a career renaissance in TNA before the ECW revival. I'm fully aware I'm probably in the minority on that one.

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During my ECW watch, I never got tired of Sabu. Never. He's a fascinating guy to watch for me. Sure, his matches can end up like total trainwrecks, but it's also part of the appeal. He's one of the most unique wrestler I've seen. He always tried new things and never got complacent, you can see him evolve and get better during his entire ECW stint.

RVD sucks. Superb athlete, shitty worker, unbearable character. Fonzie made him tolerable for a while by jumping around like a fool and somewhat making sense out of those ridiculous chair spots, but really I'd be happy to never watch a RVD match in my like at this point.

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Five years ago I would have answered RVD. But having re-watched all of 1995 ECW, and currently working on '96, my opinion has changed.

 

RVD and the stuff he does was super exciting back in the 90's. I had never seen anything like the matches he was having with Jerry Lynn. Unfortunately by the mid 2000's, the opening match at most Ring of Honor shows were running those spots. Not to mention that RVD himself has basically been doing all of the exact same spots since 1996. So I have grown increasingly tired of the whole act.

 

Sabu was a guy who I always enjoyed, but going back and paying attention to more than his crazy bumps, watching the character, the psychology, and the timing of the crazy spots, I have come to enjoy him far more. Sure he fucked up a ton of spots, but when your going balls to the wall doing crazy shit, that tends to happen. Also for a guy who is supposed to be crazy and could probably just shrug off any selling he needed to do, his selling is worlds better than RVD's.

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I'll cop to being a mark for both guys back in the day. My tastes have matured in some ways, but I still enjoy the insanity of the early Sabu matches a great deal. Van Dam really clicked in the WWE setting but fizzled out in TNA.

 

No idea who is better. Both have some strong stuff:

 

1993.4.17 - Sabu vs. The Lightning Kid - NWA

1996.2.17 - Sabu vs. 2 Cold Scorpio - TV Title, ECW Cyberslam

1996.4.13 - Sabu vs. Mikey Whipreck - ECW Massacre on Queens Blvd.

1997.8.9 - Terry Funk vs. Sabu - No Ropes Barbed Wire, ECW Title, ECW Born to be Wired

1998.1.10 - Sabu vs. The Sandman - Stairway to Hell, ECW House Party '98

 

1995.6.9 - Rob Van Dam vs. Dan Kroffat - AJPW

1996.8.24 - Rob Van Dam vs. Doug Furnas - ECW Natural Born Killaz

1998.4.4 - Rob Van Dam vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - ECW TV Title

2002.5.27 - Rob Van Dam vs. Eddie Guerrero - WWE IC Title, Ladder Match, RAW

2002.8.25 - Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Benoit, SummerSlam

 

Who carried their tag team? Who looked better in their feud?

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It's an issue of excess I think. With Sabu I can pretend I am watching a different sort of wrestling with different rules. It's a genre all of its own with trappings all of its own and the very laws of physics work differently. Tables are somehow magnetic. Time loops in upon itself if something doesn't work right. It's the splintered wood twilight zone of wrestling.

 

With RVD, I just kind of see a guy who can't consistently sell for shit and likes to hit all of his stuff.

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I think Sabu had the better performances with his Funk matches that were really good. However, I think RVD is actually more consistent and didn't fuck thinkgs up as much. Both are sloppy as fuck but if you told me to watch a Sabu match or an RVD match, I would pick RVD 9 times out of 10.

Sabu also has the Scorp matches, which are better than any series RVD ever had. And the Mikey matches which are better than any RVD series as well.

 

Honestly RVD is the closest thing to a channel changer for me in modern wrestling.

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I think Sabu had the better performances with his Funk matches that were really good. However, I think RVD is actually more consistent and didn't fuck thinkgs up as much. Both are sloppy as fuck but if you told me to watch a Sabu match or an RVD match, I would pick RVD 9 times out of 10.

Sabu also has the Scorp matches, which are better than any series RVD ever had. And the Mikey matches which are better than any RVD series as well.

 

Honestly RVD is the closest thing to a channel changer for me in modern wrestling.

 

Where do you stand on Miz when he's not wrestling Cesaro?

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I voted for Sabu. I think RVD became a lot better in WWE, when his style became more focused and he was forced to drop a lot of the extemporaneous shit out of his routine. Less posing, less to no reliance on the Van Daminator, more bumping and better use of his athleticism. But even at his WWE best, he was never as unique as Sabu or had the aura Sabu held. I'd rather watch a bad Sabu match than a good RVD match, because even a bad Sabu match can be fun as hell to watch.

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I think Sabu had the better performances with his Funk matches that were really good. However, I think RVD is actually more consistent and didn't fuck thinkgs up as much. Both are sloppy as fuck but if you told me to watch a Sabu match or an RVD match, I would pick RVD 9 times out of 10.

Sabu also has the Scorp matches, which are better than any series RVD ever had. And the Mikey matches which are better than any RVD series as well.

 

Honestly RVD is the closest thing to a channel changer for me in modern wrestling.

 

Where do you stand on Miz when he's not wrestling Cesaro?

 

Miz is more likely to be in a good match than RVD

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There was always an element of real danger when watching a Sabu match, due to the fact that he was completely reckless and blew so many spots. You never knew when he was going to nearly kill himself, and that was part of his charm. In an odd way, that's more interesting to me than watching somebody who is so smooth and flawless that they never ever miss a spot, like Christopher Daniels or something. Sabu fucking up ended up becoming part of the package, with him rolling around and selling before setting up his props again and nailing it the second time. Probably my favorite wrestler to watch live during the ECW Arena days.

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Guest TheGreatPuma

Sabu to me is what wrestling is supposed to be. The man is a legend who earned it. One of my all time favs. I like RVD too and respect how powerful a connection he has with the audience.

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Five years ago I would have answered RVD. But having re-watched all of 1995 ECW, and currently working on '96, my opinion has changed.

 

RVD and the stuff he does was super exciting back in the 90's. I had never seen anything like the matches he was having with Jerry Lynn. Unfortunately by the mid 2000's, the opening match at most Ring of Honor shows were running those spots. Not to mention that RVD himself has basically been doing all of the exact same spots since 1996. So I have grown increasingly tired of the whole act.

 

Sabu was a guy who I always enjoyed, but going back and paying attention to more than his crazy bumps, watching the character, the psychology, and the timing of the crazy spots, I have come to enjoy him far more. Sure he fucked up a ton of spots, but when your going balls to the wall doing crazy shit, that tends to happen. Also for a guy who is supposed to be crazy and could probably just shrug off any selling he needed to do, his selling is worlds better than RVD's.

Oh geez, wait until you get to 1999 or so. The RVD TV title defenses against random dudes are long and unbearable.

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