[2000-07-16-ECW-Heatwave] Sandman vs Rhino

[soup23]

This was shockingly good. Rhino has been built up the best of the young talent in ECW looking to take the next step and Sandman tells a simple but realistic story of him going for revenge on his wife Lori and the attack given to her. The match didn't overstay its welcome and the use of the guard rail was effective in allowing both men to do some pretty brutal looking spots without it looking like a contrived stunt show full of set ups. Sandman also didn't do any crowd brawling because he was out for revenge. Another schmozz finish but again one I enjoyed especially the gutsy Spike Dudley run in and him getting 3D'd. *** (6.1)

[AstroBoy]

I found this a tad plodding when Sandman was on offense though the spots with the guardrail come across brutal in the right way. It didn't wow me or anything but it's a tense kind of fight between two guys who hate at each and Rhino is really good at presenting himself as an intense killer. The messy finish is fine and Rhino gives two holy shit spots when he piledrives Spike through the table at ringside and then perfectly kills Sandman with a piledriver on the guardrail. Rhino is a bright spot in ECW so far.

 

***