[1998-03-21-ECWA-Super 8] Ace Darling vs Mike Quackenbush

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[soup23]

Quack has without a doubt, the worst ring attire I have ever seen in this match. If anything screams indy more than that, I haven't seen it. The contrast between this and the early 2000's indy stuff is still glaring. Some of the athleticism is there as Quack does a few good dives but also some awkward one. Darling has some nice punches mixed in with this but also seems unmotivated and lifeless at points. He ends up winning this one on his way to winning the Super 8 this year. I didn't like this at all and it felt like more of an exhibition than a wrestling match. (*1/2)

[Loss]

For what it's worth, I did like this better than RVD-Scorpio. This was pretty basic but I liked that Quack seemed to be working hard to involve the crowd. This isn't going to light anyone's world on fire and did have a few silly spots, but overall it was pretty inoffensive. Perfectly acceptable. Not really good, but acceptable.

[Childs]

I agree this was fine, but it certainly wouldn't make you want to hunt down more late '90s indy wrestling. Chad's correct about Quack's gear--unbelievably bad. If I had seen this at the time, I might've known he'd go on to run a promotion with aesthetics I'd hate. Darling did nothing to suggest he'd become anything. And he didn't, so I guess that fits.

[Migs]

This was very NJPW Juniors influenced - the northeast indy style really took off when they incorporated some strong-style influence into the matches to give it a more physical base. Very curious to watch that aspect evolve.

[PeteF3]

Man, Quack's attire is bad but not THAT bad, is it? I've seen Jerry Lawler in uglier outfits than that. My completely uneducated, uninformed, and ignorant opinion of Quackenbush is that for whatever faults he has as either a worker or promoter, he did "get" the storytelling and dramatic aspects of puroresu more than many other indy guys, who seemingly only took away the big moves, near-falls, and head drops. He actually shows some nifty mat wrestling moves here and overall his execution is okay enough. Darling is bad other than a few nice punches. This match has the feel of a pre-choreographed dance routine more than a wrestling match at times and I put most of the blame on that on Darling. I'm with Childs on this--I'm not sorry I watched this, and there are worse indy matches of the time period that we've already seen on these sets, but I don't need to see any more of this tournament either. P.S.: "I Touch Myself" is a fairly inspired choice of ring music for an indy heel.

[TravJ1979]

My how the Indy's have progressed. I was bored by this although Quack was way ahead of Darling in effort.