Latest / The ExtraCooler Show / 185 | Sabu vs. Taz - ECW Barely Legal 1997

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185 | Sabu vs. Taz - ECW Barely Legal 1997 · The ExtraCooler Show

0:01
Welcome to the Western show you continue to.
0:05
Talk like you're talking right now.
0:07
You'll be history on this. Program.
0:09
Cooler show. Nobody eats beefaroni on a
0:14
boatman. That's a problem, Yokozuna.
0:20
Blew my mind. What you did, Jack?
0:25
Tony. Let's go.
0:38
I've got Under your skin. I'm ready for this episode now.
0:41
Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome
0:49
back to the Extra Cooler show. My name is Nick, otherwise known
0:52
as Extra Cooler. And this week we're all back.
0:55
We got Matt, Mike and Jim and as usual, you can find us on
0:59
Instagram at Extra Cooler and at the Extra Cooler show.
1:04
Join us over on our Discord channel, Show Notes.
1:07
You know where to find it by now.
1:09
We've got a special one for you. We've kind of pivoted this week.
1:12
We had something planned that we're kind of putting back in
1:15
the chamber and we're going to celebrate the the career of Sabu
1:21
after his recent passing. So again, little bit of short
1:25
notice on this episode, but I think we're going to have some
1:27
fun breaking down what appears to be a classic.
1:31
Can I say real quick that what's in the chamber we're still going
1:34
to do? I'm not going to say what it is,
1:36
but it was kind of a Mikey workrate birthday special, if
1:39
that, if that gives you an idea of what kind of match it is.
1:45
Why? Why do you say that?
1:46
Well, you like a certain kind of match.
1:50
You know. Infamously, yeah, if you.
1:55
If there's match. What?
1:57
What do you say? A bear match Stairs Playboy.
2:01
Show big show versus row. Night match.
2:05
We'll cross that bridge next month, though.
2:09
Oh, man. All right, Matt, you got some
2:11
housekeeping from our our last episode, I believe.
2:15
I sure do well. Enough.
2:16
There's enough and it's time. For.
2:18
Housekeeping. So last week we talked about the
2:25
I Quit Match between John Cena and Randy Orton as we were
2:28
getting ready for them to face off in 2025 yet again.
2:34
So of course we we bagged on how we don't necessarily love the I
2:37
Quit match format and the fact that the microphone needs to be
2:42
a part of it. So there were a lot of questions
2:44
around how many times X happened, right?
2:47
So the first thing was how many times did John Cena say no?
2:52
And seven times. So he got asked if he was ready
2:56
to quit 7 different times and he of course said no every single
3:00
time. And Randy Orton only got asked
3:03
if he quit once and the answer was yes.
3:06
So that was the first piece. And then because we were
3:09
watching Breaking Point, Michael Cole, throughout the entire
3:13
point of this match, surprisingly only said breaking
3:17
point twice. One, of course, was at the the
3:19
end, and it was shocking against McMahon placed.
3:23
But you assholes made me go back and watch this match for a
3:27
second, probably third time. So yeah.
3:30
I should have just asked ChatGPT.
3:32
Isn't that what it's? Good for now, would have been
3:34
the better way, but then I wouldn't be able to do this.
3:36
Go fuck yourself. Matt has reached his breaking.
3:46
.0 Wow, wow. Breaking point may need to make
3:50
it into the board. I'm going to have to go back and
3:52
dig that one up. I think I still have the file.
3:54
I was, I was searching for it. I was hoping to drop it
3:56
somewhere, but you. Deleted it.
3:58
You deleted them all. Yeah.
3:59
All right. So let's dive right in.
4:02
You guys ready? So we're not going to, again,
4:05
this is short notice this this pivot that we took and we're
4:09
going to be talking about Sabu versus Taz at barely legal from
4:13
1997. Normally we would spend this
4:16
time and and kind of discuss what else was on the card, but
4:21
not tonight. This is about Sabu and diving
4:25
into a little bit of Sabu, tapping into a little bit of
4:28
Sabu. We went through list of matches
4:32
and this is where we landed because this is considered a
4:34
classic. So this takes place April 13th,
4:39
1997 in ECW in Philadelphia from the ECW Arena.
4:44
There's just a little over 1000 people in attendance, which I
4:47
think is pretty sick. Yeah, it's about 1170 people.
4:55
They're loud though. It's impressive.
4:56
Very loud, and so is the ring. Yeah, Oh yeah, the ring is loud.
5:01
The ring, like the ring sounds like the scene in Home Alone
5:05
where he puts the firecrackers in the the pot by the door to
5:09
scare off. Yeah, pretty good.
5:11
You know what it reminds me of? If you ever walk across over the
5:14
top of a highway, you know, like one of those little bridges and
5:17
it's just, you hear the trucks. Yes, that's what.
5:20
It sounds like. Oh man, this is the inaugural
5:23
pay-per-view for ECW and there's, there's a lot of behind
5:28
the scenes stuff and they, they had some troubles getting this
5:33
pay-per-view again. We, we were never ECW guys,
5:39
right? It was like that kind of thing
5:40
you sporadically caught. Yeah, it was late night
5:44
sleepover, flipping through the channels, and then MSG had
5:47
wrestling on. What is this, the MSG Network
5:50
where the Knicks and Rangers play?
5:52
And then all of a sudden you were watching this unbelievable
5:56
style of wrestling that you'd never experienced on the
5:59
cartoony, you know, beginning of the Attitude Era, WWF.
6:04
From for us, this felt like something you shouldn't be
6:06
watching, like it's like salacious and like it's only on
6:09
it late at night. And if your parents, you know we
6:12
you know you'd flick when sometimes WF was on.
6:15
But this would be like don't even.
6:17
Oh my God, don't. Chance you might as well be
6:19
watching Playboy, you know? Yes, yeah, 100% in.
6:22
Particular. Yeah, I can remember seeing like
6:26
the the like watching some other pay-per-view stuff like a Tyson
6:31
fight or something in the commercials for ECW would be on
6:34
and and like you'd be like, oh, my parents are never going to go
6:37
for this. Like not don't even chance.
6:39
Don't even ask. Away, don't bother, don't
6:41
bother. They could just tell by the
6:42
crowd, which Speaking of that crowd, and you know, really a
6:47
lot of ECW crowds, it's like, what would you say, 90, 8%
6:52
dudes? 8. 100 percent, 100% It's
6:56
possible. No, there's like one woman.
6:58
There's two women towards the front like rows which I thought
7:01
were interesting, but the rest? Two out of two out of 1000.
7:04
Mikey was in advanced math. Work that out for us. 99.8%.
7:12
There we go. Thank you.
7:13
They had. Difficulties getting the
7:14
pay-per-view companies to air Barely legal back in in 96.
7:20
They originally cancelled the show that was scheduled after
7:24
Wade Keller alerted them about the N96 mass transit incident.
7:30
You know the infamous New Jack mass transit incident where he
7:36
bladed him too deep, severing 2 of his arteries?
7:38
What's Wade Keller's problem? Yeah, right, Right what?
7:41
Is like little. Yeah, he's like a little tattle
7:44
tale. Nerd.
7:45
Yeah, nerd. Then like they then they pitched
7:49
it to other companies to get the pay-per-view out there.
7:52
Their concern was the amount of violence.
7:54
They didn't want it, you know, to be seen by children.
7:58
Completely understandable. Then through the efforts of of
8:01
emails from hundreds of fans, finally premiered decided to
8:05
carry the event. Emails Yeah 97.
8:09
A lot of AOL emails. AOL 3 Point O baby.
8:12
Do you know there's still people that use AOL as their their main
8:16
source of e-mail? Isn't it?
8:17
I work at the library. Yeah, Yeah, Mikey, we, we know
8:21
about AOL e-mail address as soon as you see it, you're giving a
8:24
lot of tech help. That's for.
8:26
Sure, yes. Absolutely.
8:27
Oh my God, it's amazing. Like the amount of people that
8:30
still have an AOL e-mail account and that is their primary mind
8:35
boggling. How many?
8:37
What do you? Think the these were a, these
8:40
were probably AOL emails too, right?
8:42
Because that was like the primary, primary way of getting
8:44
on back then. So like the screen names for ECW
8:48
fans, what's the percentage of them that had 69 or 420 also?
8:54
Very high. What's like 98.5%?
9:00
But it's true. Like nobody back then was doing
9:02
like nickcamia@aol.com. Like no, no, you were doing Big
9:07
Digger. Yeah.
9:10
Yeah, go back a few. Episodes if you only got that
9:12
one. Anyway, so they the deal that
9:19
was struck with this was that the start time was from 7:00 PM
9:23
to 9:00 PM and no excessive amount of blood was allowed at
9:27
this pay-per-view. Yeah, poor, poor thing.
9:33
That's ridiculous. It's.
9:35
A pay-per-view. Right, Yeah, People pay money
9:38
for this. It's not like it's on like.
9:41
You look, if you have to pay money for it, children aren't
9:45
buying it. Like right, you have to embedded
9:49
by the parents exactly. Yeah.
9:52
But seven, the 7:00 PM start time had to have played a role
9:55
in that, even with it being a pay-per-view and, you know,
9:59
making a purchasing decision in order to watch this.
10:02
But 7. 7:00 PM on a Saturday or Sunday.
10:05
Right, You know what The thing is, I guarantee these companies
10:07
just simply did not watch any of the programming to to see what
10:12
they were all about. And they probably just thought,
10:14
oh, wrestling, like, let's make some money off these guys.
10:19
It's. Crazy, crazy stuff.
10:21
There's you know, this is ECWS first pay-per-view.
10:25
There's a ton of classic names, all the I would say any of the
10:29
classic ECW names that you can think of, you know, a majority
10:33
of them are on this card. But once again, we're here for
10:37
Sabu and and Taz. So before we dive into our main
10:42
event of the week, you guys want to talk about what's in
10:45
everybody's Schooler. Sure.
10:48
You stupid show me something great.
10:54
I'm going to let one of you guys go first, so.
10:57
Vodka. Yeah, just simple vodka, several
11:00
shots straight up and seltzer. No, yeah, vodka, straight up
11:03
vodka. Man, it is almost Memorial Day
11:07
weekend going full pull out, baby.
11:10
Just straight vodka in. A cup.
11:13
No, I. Got Tito's Kirkland what you
11:15
got? Tito's, of course, that's the
11:16
only the only thing we buy is Tito's in this.
11:18
Yeah, Tito's the only way to go. Handle of Tito's always flowing,
11:22
cycling through. There's not a handle of Tito's
11:24
in this house where like our legs twitching.
11:27
You know that's what I can get the Tito's instead of get the
11:32
tables, get the Tito. 'S I see something shiny in
11:35
Matt's hand right now and I can't tell if he's brought a
11:38
drink. I have the black stuff, I have
11:40
Guinness here. I thought that I would
11:43
participate here. I wanted to raise a glass to
11:45
Sabu, so I had to have a bruise in it in some way, shape or
11:48
form. So cheers boys, I'm glad to be
11:50
back. Poor went out for Sabu.
11:52
He did die. What?
11:53
What? Was in early May, right?
11:56
We're recording this on the 20th.
11:58
Just several weeks. Yeah.
12:01
Did we get an official like coroner's report?
12:04
I have not seen anything myself so but.
12:06
He didn't. He just recently have a match
12:08
against Joey Janella and I believe it looked, it looked it
12:12
was bad. The promotion denied any
12:14
responsibility though, right? That's, that's the only thing I
12:16
know. Oh, it seems like oh, we have
12:19
nothing. To do with it, right, Right.
12:21
There was a whole story about him not being able to walk for
12:25
whatever reason, and then he was given some drug, which I can't
12:29
remember the name of it off the top of my head, that enabled him
12:31
to get through the match. That's not good.
12:33
That's not. Good.
12:35
Joey Janella came out and was like making comments on it.
12:38
And, you know, that's when the, the the GCW was like, Nope, I
12:42
didn't, I didn't have anything to do with this and yadda,
12:44
yadda, yadda. There's a whole long story that
12:46
we shouldn't even get into today as we're trying to pay homage to
12:49
the man. But yeah, it's certainly, it was
12:53
a barbed wire match essentially, and took some gnarly bumps.
12:56
And for a second we thought he was knocked out unconscious.
12:58
And yeah, it was, it was a little rough at the around the
13:02
edges, but the match went off. The crowd was rabid.
13:05
They enjoyed every second of it. But yeah, there's definitely
13:08
some controversy around this last match, which just happened,
13:11
you know, short not too long ago.
13:12
Yeah, Mike, what do you got? I got a corona light with a
13:17
little lime in there a. Little lime.
13:21
At least you're not drinking that premier garbage.
13:23
No. 90 calories watching that figure.
13:27
The stellas are are out of the ground.
13:30
You're not digging up stellas anymore, which is?
13:32
I forgot about that. The well is.
13:34
On Hall the Well. Oh, man, this week, you guessed
13:40
it. Any excuse to use a drop, I will
13:46
use it. Yeah.
13:48
Tequila Trace, Agave's. Like Jim said, Memorial Day
13:52
weekend is upon us. My school district gave us back
13:55
Thursday and Friday, so I have a five day weekend ahead of me.
14:00
Oh yeah, baby. That's incredible.
14:03
It's. My kids never Friday, Monday,
14:05
Tuesday, so I've got to figure out two days with the kids home
14:10
where I was not playing for it. I was Thursday, Friday, Monday,
14:14
Tuesday. What My God?
14:18
I was excited about a three day weekend and now I'm not.
14:22
I got gypped. Bullshit.
14:28
Here's where I wish we had like that classic ECW music to play
14:32
right now. But the.
14:33
Best. That music's so good.
14:35
But again, we we came about this pretty late, very last minute
14:39
last week, actually back in the last week, I think I suggested
14:42
let's do a Sabu match, let's pivot real quick.
14:45
And yeah, so here we are, barely legal. 1997 Tazz with Bill
14:50
Alfonso. Wait.
14:53
Oh hell yeah. I'll say it again, barely 1997
14:59
Taz with with Bill Alfonso versus Sabu in a singles match.
15:07
This match is billed as the one of the main events on the card,
15:12
and it's the grudge match of the century.
15:15
The Century. Apparently you wouldn't know
15:18
because they they don't even talk about that.
15:21
It's so it's really interesting. So they they highlight it as a
15:28
big, big match, right? It's like, I think over a year
15:31
in the making this match, right? These two used to be tag team
15:34
partners. Two years in making.
15:36
Yeah, they used to be tag team partners.
15:39
Then Sabu got hurt, he went out, he came back.
15:43
And that's when this feud starts.
15:44
Taz is like on a on a rager. He's absolutely annihilating
15:50
everybody and that's really what they highlight before the match.
15:53
You get a a backstage promo with Taz, which I gotta tell you man,
15:57
I've never been a Taz guy, but anytime I watch his like
16:02
backstage promos in ECW, I'm always into a man.
16:06
This one went a little long towards the back half of it and
16:09
a little repetitive at times, but it's like it's gripping it.
16:14
It pulls me in. See, and I thought the beginning
16:17
of it felt a little disingenuous because he's of course he's got
16:21
he's in full gimmick. He's got the black towel over
16:23
his head, the little rips are in front of his face and whatnot.
16:26
And it, it looks dingy and dirty, like you would expect to
16:30
have an ECW promo. And I loved it.
16:32
But in the very beginning, he's like staring off camera.
16:35
Like it looked like to me that he was visibly reading off of a
16:39
card, which is a first instance for me where I'm like, all
16:42
right, I'm checked out. This doesn't feel genuine.
16:45
And it was like a little rough around the edges of the
16:47
beginning. And then as he cuts away from
16:49
that stare and then he's looking dead on down the barrel of the
16:52
camera. Then I was like, oh, shit, All
16:54
right, I'm all in on this point. You know, from there folks, and
16:57
I think that hearing Taz's voice now so frequently in a AEW
17:03
capacity really draws you and makes you feel more comfortable
17:07
with his voice. Where you then hear this promo
17:10
and you're like, oh shit, this is a completely different
17:11
version of this voice that I'm used to hearing.
17:14
And I thought that is what made it interesting to me.
17:19
I love too that the the way they sell it to the production value.
17:24
You're never going to like mistake for WWE or WFS at the
17:27
time, right? But they sell this guy who is a
17:30
shorter guy as of legitimate badass and he probably is.
17:34
And then he goes off WWF and they like make a joke of it
17:37
where because it's not Vincent Mann's action figures like Orton
17:40
and seen any slapping together. I I just respect that so much.
17:44
The way they sell this. And he's such a legit bad ass,
17:48
right? It's just incredible.
17:49
And the way they build it up, he taps out Bam Bam and whoever
17:53
else is on the roster. Yeah.
17:56
And ECW was so good at this back then.
17:58
They'd build a guy up, they'd lose them to WFWCW, wherever,
18:03
right? Like soon as they're champ,
18:04
they're off somewhere else. But then they'd build the next
18:06
guy. And like this is Taz, you know,
18:09
his rise here and it's just such an incredible cell job of this
18:12
guy and I it's you're you're sold immediately, I think.
18:17
Yeah, so I send this off. Air you bring up the WWF
18:21
entrance, he comes in at the Royal Rumble 2000 and and at MSG
18:25
to a crowd who obviously knows who the hell is coming and who
18:28
the hell is going on. And he was built to be an
18:32
absolute killer taking out Kurt Angle like instantly.
18:35
And then, like you said, it was made to be a joke.
18:37
By the end, it was a joke, yeah. And they put him on commentary,
18:40
like, yeah. Which is wild that he stuck
18:42
around in WWE as long as he did, you know, it was like.
18:48
Wish I had the $1,000,000 man theme.
18:50
Yeah, exactly. Money, money, money.
18:53
So like like like Jim said, he Taz was known for his tough, no
18:57
nonsense, strong grappling abilities and build building up
19:02
to this. He had been on an absolute tear.
19:05
He took out so like the the Taz mission and all the suplexes,
19:09
just it really sold his character.
19:13
And he to me, he was a legitimate badass.
19:16
And I'm again, never been a Taz guy.
19:20
I was spoiler alert, I was all in on Taz in this match for
19:24
whatever reason. But you, you took the easy way
19:28
out and you called it a TAZ mission.
19:29
You didn't go for the actual name here.
19:32
No, you got it, because I don't. I'm a hot Jamaican.
19:35
Yeah, I didn't want to listen, listen, listen if my wife were
19:40
on this podcast right now. My wife makes fun of me every
19:43
time we go out to a restaurant and I can't pronounce what I'm
19:47
ordering. I used to always just be like,
19:50
I'm going to have this. Yeah, I'm going to have, I'm
19:52
going to have this, you know, like, no, sound like a Mexican
19:56
restaurant or something, or an Italian restaurant.
19:59
Or if it's an Italian one, that's even worse.
20:00
She'll be like, didn't you take Italian?
20:02
You are Italian, right? Like.
20:04
Olive Garden, That happened to me.
20:06
My son at the Italian restaurant the other night.
20:08
He goes kind of the gameli a la vodka.
20:11
He's like, oh, Raiders, like, yo, you want the gameli a la
20:13
vodka? He's like, oh.
20:15
I did it wrong. But you take a chance.
20:19
You take a leap of faith. You have to pronunciation.
20:21
You have to. Try I had to I, I actually put
20:24
the the the what's it called the closed captioning on to see like
20:29
read what it was. I had the phonetic spelling
20:32
down. I was like, OK, KA-TA-H A J-A
20:37
dash. May I?
20:39
Was like right? I can work with that.
20:40
And then I actually looked up like the closed captioning and
20:43
they spelled it KATA, one word, HA, another word.
20:46
And then Jamai was J IME. But anyway, there's my
20:52
housekeeping trying to put that away.
20:54
They're speaking a different language with a lot of that
20:56
stuff. This is also the, I think the
20:58
second time we've covered a TAZ ECW match, right?
21:01
We watched a entire pay-per-view a couple of years ago, which is
21:06
probably one of my favorite episodes.
21:07
I don't know the number, but go back and watch that.
21:09
It's the one at Atlantic City. Correct me if I'm wrong.
21:12
It was during our summer of 97 we went back part episodes of
21:17
pretty much the big summer bash at the beach and then the ECW
21:24
summer summer heat right now. He starts with him outside on
21:27
the boardwalk talking shit. It's awesome.
21:29
Yeah, yeah, Taz. That's what I'm.
21:32
That's my point though, is Taz. They the ECW at this point does
21:38
and I, I feel like this is really what, and maybe I'm
21:41
wrong, but this is what put them over was the fact that they were
21:44
able to do on a regular basis what WCW and WWF would do every
21:51
once in a while. And fans would love.
21:53
They would like give that little bit of peek behind the curtain
21:55
like occasionally, and they would be able to name drop guys
21:58
from other companies and get away with it.
22:01
Whereas the other two like you know, God forbid they they name
22:04
someone else that is a professional.
22:07
Wrestler. But yeah, you heard something
22:08
like that back then. You're like, Oh my God, it's
22:11
arousing. Almost.
22:12
Yeah. And then you, there's a lot of
22:14
these like on any ECW card you watch, you're you're going to
22:17
get it. And we get it later on in this.
22:20
Yeah, Jericho, they, they say Jericho, he's tapped out.
22:23
I know Jericho is like going back and forth on his thing but.
22:27
So like we said, the build to this match was huge.
22:33
It's a lot of fun in this match. I completely forgot to write
22:38
down how long it goes. It's definitely under 20 minutes
22:41
or over 17. I was going to say it's it's a
22:44
little under 20, but with all the bells and whistles at the
22:46
end, it definitely goes a little over.
22:49
But it's one of those matches where the psychology of it is is
22:53
kind of the match. But the two of them are such
22:57
drastically different style of wrestling, right.
23:00
Taz is like this big dominant, like submission hold guy.
23:04
And then Sabu is just like, you know, throws caution to the
23:08
winds, the high flying just that extreme style willing to take
23:14
these even seen bumps throughout it.
23:18
Yeah, and that's really where where you were going with the
23:20
story of the match here is that Sabu wants to take it outside
23:24
the ring, wants it to be high flying, and Taz just wants it
23:27
back in the middle of the ring. He wants to neutralize Sabu by
23:31
getting them on the mat and just beating the hell out of him and
23:36
putting them in the the the the Taz mission as I take the easy
23:40
way out. This is this is one of those
23:42
things. So, OK, so Taz comes out first
23:44
with Bill Alfonso and I'm I have it in my notes later on in the
23:49
card. What is the the crew called
23:52
those? Those 4.
23:53
Tests. Team tests.
23:54
Team tests. Team tests?
23:55
What? Like what is their purpose?
23:57
Like they don't do anything. Essentially, I mean, yeah, they
24:01
might necessarily get involved in the match, but it's I will.
24:04
Almost like a boxing. Yeah, that's what it looks like
24:07
more than anything. Yeah, so.
24:09
For sure you. Know that entrance was
24:11
incredible I I was I love the entrance of taz why am I gushing
24:16
over taz in this episode of big big taz guy I never thought this
24:20
would happen but I really dug the entrance and then so he's in
24:25
the ring he's just got this like stoke stance in the middle in
24:28
the in the corner I'm sorry and out of nowhere boom saboo's in
24:32
the ring he decides he doesn't want music he doesn't want an
24:35
entrance he's just he's ready to go which.
24:39
I found it to be really strange, like there was no hot start to
24:43
the match either. Like if a guy doesn't get an
24:45
entrance and he just like hits the ring instantly, it's usually
24:48
ring the bell right out the gate.
24:50
Yeah, sure. This is a WWE mentality, maybe
24:52
even more so at WWE 2025 mentality, which isn't the best,
24:56
but like it usually starts with a hot start.
24:59
And instead he just shows up. He like kind of Sabu just comes
25:03
into the ring very unprompted. The, you know, Joey Styles on
25:06
commentary doesn't even really acknowledge it too much.
25:09
And he like takes this wild step towards Taz and then backs off
25:14
immediately. And it was such a strange way to
25:17
start this match. And then they have the intros
25:18
afterwards. And they still do that.
25:20
That's like, if you're going to do that, like cut that stuff out
25:23
just like start like the match should go.
25:26
There's a lot of very like gritty stuff in this, which I I
25:30
understand that that's the appeal of ECW.
25:33
But also when we're almost 30 years later, it's very easy to
25:38
nitpick. And like there's multiple times
25:41
throughout this card that I wondered like Sabu, OK, like, is
25:46
he all there? Like what is going on?
25:50
Like, and this was really the first thing, like, did he jump
25:55
like his lead and just say, screw it, I'm going out there.
25:59
And you know, because this whole beginning was a very staggered
26:02
start. And then after, you know, after
26:05
they do the pomp and circumstances and the
26:07
introductions and what not, I love the energy of the start of
26:10
the stare down to get it started.
26:11
So you've got Taz, who is just absolute killer, motionless in
26:15
the middle of the ring, staring a hole through Sabu.
26:18
And Sabu is like jittery. He's moving around, he's seems
26:21
anxious but ready to just get this match underway.
26:24
And it was just a cool different visual than you you would
26:27
usually get in this. You know, maybe WrestleMania 18
26:31
stare down is kind of the way I'm like positioning it in my
26:34
head. This is completely different and
26:37
I love that. Oh yes, face to face slaps and
26:40
punches back and forth. And then finally we get a
26:43
clothesline from Taz to Sabu and Sabu like, just like scurries
26:48
out out of the ring. And again, goes back to what
26:50
Matt said earlier, you know, Sabu wants to do everything
26:53
outside the ring and Taz wants to keep it inside the ring.
26:56
It's kind of like this cat and mouse game that they play
26:58
throughout throughout the match. Styles tells you as much too,
27:03
right, And it's it's a nice bit of psychology for sure that to
27:07
avoid the submissions, he wants them outside in the fans classic
27:11
ECW style. But no, that's it's great.
27:15
The again, there, there's just a lot of things that I could
27:19
nitpick in this match, but a lot of back and forth in and out.
27:25
Taz is going for his submission match.
27:28
Submission moves throughout it. If it's not a submission move,
27:32
he's he's going for a suplex. Yeah.
27:35
Yeah, and that, that's, that's Taz, man.
27:37
You know, he's every single Taz Mission, Taz Plex, everything in
27:41
under the sun. He was Suplex City before Suplex
27:44
City was without a doubt for sure, if you really break it
27:47
down and look at it that way. But you know, you said, Nick,
27:49
that you were really questioning whether or not Sabu was OK in
27:53
the very beginning of the match. You know Taz goes for the Taja
27:56
Hajime or I fucked that one up. I think that sounded pretty
27:59
good. And, and Sabu gets out of it and
28:04
Joey Styles goes crazy telling us that's that's never been
28:07
blocked before and makes this to be a huge ordeal.
28:11
Yeah. But then the more important part
28:14
is Taz just lays in some stiff shots while he's mounted on, you
28:18
know, was Sabu face down on the mat.
28:20
And Sabu comes up with this bloody nose.
28:24
And Joey Styles again, is, is screaming that his nose is
28:28
broken. And at this point, the match
28:30
like stops for a second, which was very off putting.
28:33
It was it didn't feel like it fit this ECW environment because
28:38
the match slowed down instantly and Sabu rolls out of the ring.
28:41
And from that point forward, I was legitimately, you know,
28:44
concerned whether or not Sabu was OK.
28:46
So exactly those same feelings that you had.
28:48
It was from that broken nose or those stiff shots that was like
28:52
that mounting punching that you see kind of Oxley do now.
28:56
It's the same thing that Taz is doing, and yeah, it made me feel
29:01
that same exact way. He does break his jaw during the
29:03
match, is that correct, Sabu? Wow, I know Taz tears a muscle
29:09
to his arms. He's holding it that way.
29:11
Holding it at the end. Yeah, it will check that.
29:14
It's it's pretty wild. There's a a bunch of really
29:17
rough forearms, but it's Sabu has like no offense for what
29:22
feels like the longest time. He comes back in the ring,
29:25
performs a a pretty nasty looking dropkick on Taz's knee
29:30
and then he he hits a slingshot kick off the second rope.
29:34
Then that's when we get things to the outside.
29:36
Things are really starting to pick up now, right?
29:39
Taz gets dumped over the guardrail.
29:41
Sabu sets up a chair and and everything's so chaotic feeling,
29:45
right? He clothes lines him over the
29:47
the guardrail. Sabu then pretty much runs like
29:51
completely around the ring to go grab a chair, drags it into the
29:55
middle ring. He sets up a double jump
29:59
springboard plancha on to Taz into the crowd.
30:03
Yeah. This is classic taboo stuff
30:05
right here man. Like it's great everything.
30:07
You think? Of the camera work works
30:09
benefits to them because it's all about the sequence.
30:13
It's not about like what he lands and how he lands it
30:15
because if you look at the landing, he barely like graces
30:20
him. It looks like a like a macho man
30:21
double axe hammer like to him, you know.
30:25
But but about the risk, never the reward with exactly.
30:28
Exactly. That's beautiful, man.
30:30
I love that so much. That's all about the risk, never
30:33
the reward. I love that.
30:35
It is funny though, you get the EC dub chant and that's part is
30:38
that part is that right? Like, and it's like, all right,
30:40
well, like, I don't know, like watching it and like was that,
30:43
is that worth the? Chant no like.
30:45
But it but you have to put yourself in 97 shoes I think
30:47
too. I struggled through that.
30:49
I I say that a lot. I think when we do these RE
30:52
watches and going back in time, like trying, it's so hard to
30:56
watch it through a 97 lens when all of this stuff that you're
30:59
seeing Sabu do in a questionable way, it's never clean, it's
31:04
never pretty. And now everything in 2025 is so
31:07
clean and pretty. When people do these, you know,
31:09
triple jump Pelagias off the springboard, yadda yadda yadda.
31:12
Like that stuff in 97 was. Oh God, yeah.
31:17
I was never practicing it like and these guys practice it like
31:21
hundreds of times a day. Plus you just flash over from
31:25
yeah, but you flipped over from WWF and it's like, you know,
31:28
Mantor versus maybe not 97, but you know, my you get my point.
31:31
Like it's like, yeah, it's some dog shit over there and you turn
31:35
on this and you're like, Oh my. Oh Flash, you are so funky.
31:42
So we we work our way back into the ring.
31:44
Sabu still, even though after all of this he can't work much
31:48
offense in. So rewinding for one second, Jim
31:51
was talking about the ECW chance that are happening.
31:54
And there is, of course, they're in the crowd now.
31:56
They're fighting through the crowd.
31:57
All this and you get this close up of this one fan, that
32:01
complete asshole. And do you remember those 90s
32:03
hacks? But did he have a sign?
32:06
I don't even remember. I was so distracted by those 90s
32:09
college hats. You remember they were like 3
32:12
bars. It was always white.
32:14
And it would have like the the school's mascot in big letters
32:19
and then the university of whatever underneath.
32:22
Of course, like South Carolina had cocks across the top of it.
32:27
Of course, this one asshole who wouldn't get wouldn't stop.
32:30
He wouldn't move out of the camera.
32:32
And of course, he's got shockers right across his stupid white
32:36
hat and I want to punch him through the screen.
32:38
It was so annoying. Yes, Nick is leaning up to the
32:41
screen right now the entire time.
32:43
Oh, man, it pissed me off. Yeah, I.
32:46
Agree. All right, your mom saw you on
32:50
ECW pay-per-view. Like, don't worry, right nerd?
32:55
Go get. Meanwhile, Bill Alfonso is doing
32:57
his Bill Alfonso thing in the ring and.
32:59
Holding. OK.
33:00
Yeah. All right, go ahead.
33:01
Thank you. Let's talk about Bill Alfonso.
33:04
What do you think Bill Alfonso was on in this?
33:07
Or do you think he's just a dumb?
33:09
Fan of man? Looks he looks.
33:13
He's got meth vibes for sure. So here's my thing, like to A to
33:18
a non ECW fan, I think Bill, if you watch this match and you
33:23
take the Taz shirt off of Bill Alfonso, right?
33:26
Why would we do that? I don't want to see him naked.
33:29
OK, whoa, whoa, whoa. All right.
33:32
Wasn't going there, but but but put Bill Alfonso in like a solid
33:39
black T-shirt. Mike, OK.
33:40
Now the history on this program I can guarantee you.
33:44
That, but put Bill Alfonso in in a neutral color, like all black,
33:48
right? He doesn't come down with Taz.
33:51
Do you have any clue who he's aligned with in this match?
33:54
Because there's times where he's like, on his knees, you know,
34:01
telling Taz, like, get up, get up.
34:03
But he's not like, telling him in like, a malicious way or
34:06
like, in a way that he's against Taz.
34:09
Do you know any? I don't know.
34:11
Maybe it was just me. Bill Alfonso seemed like he was
34:14
on another planet. I I.
34:16
Think, I think we need to revisit this a little bit later
34:18
as we tell the story of what unfolds and later on.
34:21
OK. But but the yeah, so there's
34:26
there's one point. Sabu is very erratic and misses
34:32
a lot of his spots in this match.
34:34
I thought, I thought. That's the Bureau, man.
34:37
It is, That's it. It is, Mike.
34:39
Mikey said it perfectly. It's all about the risk and not
34:41
the reward. And that's exactly what you
34:43
expect to see from Sabu, whether it's a Miss Plancha or it is
34:47
having to do things over and over again.
34:49
But. Right.
34:50
So that's no, so that's that's what I have in my notes.
34:53
Next is if you're watching this in the moment, I'm not really
34:58
sure you're picking up on it, but being that for this podcast,
35:01
we're we're sitting here, we're analyzing the match.
35:04
I can't help but notice some of those spots, those botched
35:07
spots, they feel like botches, especially this day and age with
35:10
social media where we're presented like these platforms
35:14
that that show us all these botched spots.
35:17
But I think it's interesting. There was one spot towards the
35:21
the back half of the match right Taz and and Sabu are on the hard
35:27
Cam side with Bill Alfonso. Then they work their way back
35:31
into the ring and out of nowhere Taz like looks behind him and he
35:36
notices that there's a table set up right.
35:39
Did you pick up on this? The table just gets set up out
35:42
of nowhere right team Taz is just like sitting there.
35:45
You just they're calm the entire match just like arms crossed on
35:49
the ring apron. All four of them side by side
35:52
and out of nowhere they come in and Taz looks behind him and he
35:55
sees the this table set up that's bridging from the ring
35:59
apron to the guardrail and it's almost like he and Sabu don't
36:05
know what to do next. I felt like I don't know.
36:09
Did am I alone there? I kind of got the same vibe, the
36:13
table just setting up out of nowhere.
36:15
I I, while I was watching, I chalked it up to just, you know,
36:18
bad production, if you will, like the cameras not being able
36:22
to capture all this. And we're used to, again, even
36:25
in 97, you're used to all of these angles that WWF is giving
36:28
us. And now in 2025, every single
36:31
wrestling show has multiple camera angles and multiple
36:34
cameras, even down to the Indies that you're going to.
36:37
So it it's definitely a different vibe.
36:39
And I thought I just, you know, the camera missed something
36:41
wasn't a big deal, but I definitely just was like, oh
36:44
shit, there's a table. I didn't see that.
36:45
And then you they're like waiting for them to use it and
36:48
it took longer than you would have expected.
36:51
Sabu goes to set up the chair and he goes to do move and he
36:54
like steps onto the seat of the steel chair and then he almost
36:59
realizes, oh shit, I'm not supposed to do my spot here, and
37:02
he stops and then he goes on to the outside to go DDT Tazz
37:08
through the table and Tazz holds on to the top rope.
37:11
Sabu goes through the table. This is really to me where Bill
37:15
Alfonso is making no sense. He's down on his knees and he's
37:23
he's telling Sabu to get up and he's like slapping his hand on
37:26
the table, telling him to wake up.
37:27
He even then at one point does the Sabu like the pose with the
37:31
finger point like to a point where like it didn't feel like
37:35
he was mocking him. It felt like he like was jumping
37:39
the shark on what is going to happen later on in this match.
37:44
Yeah, it there was definitely sometimes and some spots, and
37:47
this is certainly one of them, where I thought the spot itself
37:51
was cool. The back and forth, you know, he
37:54
goes for the suplex and can't get it, goes for the tornado,
37:57
DDT, yadda, yadda yadda, goes through the table.
37:59
All of that is all well and good, but then Alfonso yelling
38:02
and screaming in his face. I mean, sure, it looked like he
38:05
and and of course Joey Styles is selling of of him taunting him.
38:09
He's getting in his face, but there was definitely some
38:11
disjointed things that were going on.
38:13
But remember, this is that outlaw promotion, and you know
38:16
what you're going to get, and you're never going to know what
38:18
state the. Rest is no.
38:19
I agree it did it. It felt like Joey Styles was
38:22
doing some damage control on short commentary.
38:26
I also thought Joey Styles wasn't really Joey Styles of
38:30
Norm. Yeah, I agree.
38:33
Dude, he felt really like, I don't think we got an Oh my God
38:37
at all. Like I I probably would have
38:39
pulled it for audio if I had it, but there was there was nothing
38:42
through this match. He was subdued and I feel like
38:45
the crowd was a little subdued too.
38:48
IA 100% have that and when we get to cans in the cooler, that
38:51
was something I was going to speak to of like this.
38:53
The crowd is definitely subdued for a ECW Arena crowd.
38:59
Pay-per-view. Yeah.
39:01
And these two guys especially. Yeah, the the, the, the, the.
39:06
Face of the. Company.
39:07
Yeah, this is what they called it.
39:08
Sure. You know, they're getting ready
39:10
for Terry Funk in the main event, which is coming up next.
39:12
And, you know, maybe those are types of things that are going
39:15
on, but makes me want to go back and watch the entire card
39:19
because, you know, as as we talked about this late pivot and
39:23
I didn't get to see the entire card, which I usually like to
39:25
do, but they felt like they were at a low point.
39:27
And I wonder if there were any other high points for this crowd
39:31
during it. I watched the Takumichinoku
39:34
trio's match before this, or a couple matches before, and the
39:37
crowd is kind of dead too, and they should not be dead for that
39:40
match. It's a lot of fun.
39:42
Now, is it because these are underneath the, you know, the
39:45
pay-per-view rules that Nick talked about right out the gate?
39:48
Like it wasn't the brand of ECW that you would normally get.
39:52
It wasn't this, you know. Car crash.
39:54
That you'd normally get. And sure, there's some car crash
39:57
moments in here, but this isn't a extreme, bloodthirsty crowd.
40:02
And maybe that they just weren't insatiated with what they
40:05
needed, you know? Yeah.
40:07
All right, so the end of the match, you get Sabu in the ring.
40:10
He's mocking Taz with his signature like arms crossed in
40:14
the middle of the ring. He turns around, Taz is doing
40:17
the same thing. I thought this was a cool
40:19
moment. And then we get the the Sabu
40:22
applies the Taz mission, Taz reverses it with a suplex, and
40:26
then Taz performs a series of suplex variations followed by
40:30
the Taz mission. Sabu's not able to respond to
40:33
the referee, resulting in Taz winning the match is.
40:36
That what it is doesn't respond. Yeah, yeah, Hand.
40:40
Raised. Three times.
40:42
Those suplexes look mean too though.
40:45
It's like it looks like he's getting dropped on his head, his
40:47
neck, every time, sideways inside different ways like for
40:52
sure. And and again, that's what Joey
40:54
Styles is telling us throughout this match too, of like the the
40:57
wear down and they go Joey Styles goes back to the table
41:01
spot that really, you know, Sabu lands on his shoulders and neck
41:04
and that's when he's injured and that's where Taz really is going
41:07
after. And that's the whole, you know,
41:09
the part of the match. But these these bumps and these
41:11
suplexes really did look gnarly, man.
41:14
And he's he's landing really high on those neck and
41:17
shoulders. Oh my God, yeah.
41:19
So following the match, Taz, he's praising Sabu.
41:23
He offers to shake his hand. Sabu accepts.
41:26
They they you know, they embrace in the middle of the ring.
41:29
And then out of nowhere and again, production value RVD Rob
41:34
Van Damme enters the ring, attacks Taz out of nowhere.
41:37
And then we get a double team attack by Van Damme and Sabu.
41:41
And this is where Bill Alfonso awkwardly aligns himself with
41:46
the pair as he takes off his orange short sleeve button down.
41:52
Team Taz rips that off. He's got a Taz shirt, black Taz
41:56
shirt on underneath that. Then he takes that off.
42:01
It felt very like late 90s wrestling, professional
42:06
wrestling type of movie, like DXNWO.
42:09
Yeah. And he's.
42:10
Taking off the sting mask to a sting face paint.
42:14
He's got the the Sabu T-shirt on and you know, they all the hug
42:18
and. Let's that's that Sabu T-shirt.
42:22
The like hands on it was friggin awesome.
42:26
Oh my God, yeah. I wanted to pause it, get a
42:29
screenshot and send it to you I. Tried.
42:32
Oh man, I couldn't get a good enough view of it.
42:35
I'm sure Ted has a. Yeah, right.
42:37
Picture of it, man that. That's awesome and it really
42:40
does. I'm surprised it's not
42:42
circulating out there after his passing.
42:44
That's a good call. On the back had this like drippy
42:47
blood from a stone kind of text and you know, genocidal,
42:49
homicidal, suicidal. It was.
42:51
It was really, really cool. So we get just the most bizarre
42:57
moment of the match. Like again, this goes back to
43:00
Alfonso. He gets on the mic and he starts
43:03
yelling at Taz that Taz cost him a lot of money.
43:08
The winner's purse, That's the only thing I could think of.
43:10
That's the only thing I could think of.
43:12
And he's the Alfonso's the real winner, and Taz is the loser
43:16
and. But the way that, like, RVD rips
43:18
the microphone from him and then starts talking makes me believe
43:22
that RVD's like, well, Alfonso's got no clue what the hell he's
43:26
talking about. Well, no, Alfonso does say
43:28
before the match, or I think Taz says that Alfonso bets on his
43:34
matches too. Is that on Sabu?
43:39
Right. Oh, OK.
43:41
Oh, I see. He bet on Taz and he lost so
43:44
much money because he lost his bet betting on Taz.
43:49
But Taz won. Yeah, but Taz won.
43:51
Yes, he bet on Sabu. Right.
43:54
So that's why he's like helping, he's like doing Sabu thing like
43:58
in the match I think. Yeah, it's, it's weird
44:01
foreshadowing that I think goes over I, I don't know, maybe it
44:05
just went over our head and my head because of the fact that I
44:08
wasn't like. You know, yeah, it's not.
44:10
Deep in the product. Yeah, no, he's not fan dueling
44:13
it or whatever like so it's. Like hopping on his.
44:16
He's got his bookies and stuff. It's a little over our head for
44:19
the time we didn't understand that fully.
44:21
But RVD's up. For the match either.
44:25
It goes back to what I was saying earlier, RVD like works,
44:29
really works the crowd and gives that peek behind the curtain
44:31
saying how he's available on Monday nights, which that I
44:35
thought was. He says, you know, he's got his
44:38
family together now with RVD and Sabu and now Fonzie joining him.
44:44
And if you need me, call Fonzie. And you know, I love to work
44:47
Monday nights. Oh man, it was good stuff.
44:53
There was a great spot before the turn where the Taz is doing
44:58
the handshake stuff and he's Sabu's a great, you know,
45:00
competitor and he gave him gave him his all and he goes, I don't
45:03
want to sound corny. And someone in the crowd goes
45:05
you corny. And like with 1000 people, you
45:09
can hear if someone gets like a solo shot like that, you hear
45:13
everything. And before that?
45:15
Somebody screamed that's bullshit and he goes even if it
45:17
is bullshit. Yeah, he's got.
45:20
He's got to respond. To everybody.
45:22
In the building. Yeah.
45:24
So again, I know we like to beat the dead horse and this was a
45:30
last minute pivot. So this feud is something that
45:35
really requires like a deep dive, you know, being that it
45:39
spans 2 years. But this match between Taz and
45:42
Sabu at Barely Legal in 1997 is considered a legendary match, an
45:46
encounter in the history of ECW especially.
45:49
So my question to you guys is, did it live up to the hype and
45:54
where do you give it in terms of cans and the cooler?
45:59
Oh, who wants to go first? We're all like, are we supposed
46:03
to give it? I love this game of chicken that
46:05
we all play when Nick inevitably asks us for cans in the cooler.
46:09
And I've got mine. I've got mine.
46:13
So for me, I feel like I, I gave it three cans in the cooler.
46:18
I, I wrote it down. I felt like it was not nice.
46:22
I felt like giving it three. I wanted to, I came in wanting
46:26
to give it more. Corny.
46:30
I, I enjoyed watching this from a historical standpoint, like
46:34
the being able to go back, the timeliness of it.
46:37
Of course, paying homage to Subbu is really what we want to
46:39
do here. But I was expecting more
46:43
extreme, so to speak. I didn't know the details around
46:46
the pay-per-view regulations and things that were put in place.
46:51
You know, coming into this match, the rabid fan base that I
46:55
expected to see didn't deliver. The match was entertaining for
47:00
sure. I definitely loved watching
47:02
these two square off. The storytelling, The basic
47:05
storytelling of, you know, Matt submission wrestling versus this
47:09
high flyer risk taker was all really good.
47:13
I loved it, but it just didn't deliver on the level that my
47:18
expect, my expectations were coming in.
47:22
Yeah, yeah. Do you want to follow that up,
47:24
Mikey? Yeah, Mike, what do you got?
47:26
What do you? Give it.
47:27
I also gave it three. I was going to go lower at
47:30
first, but it was like, yeah, like 2, two and a half, 2.75.
47:36
But I I just landed at 3:00. I was like you.
47:38
Know we're paying. Tribute to Sabu.
47:40
I don't want to like tear the guy down like it's it's we're
47:44
trying to watch it like, you know, he's but.
47:49
But there's some really cool Sabu spots here.
47:51
We didn't even talk. About.
47:52
Absolutely. Absolutely.
47:54
We didn't even talk about one in particular where he's on not
47:57
only just the top rope, but he goes up to the the post, the
48:01
corner post, which is something you don't see in 1997 for sure.
48:05
And he almost jumps off like you would on a diving board.
48:08
He like jumps off of the ring post onto the top turnbuckle and
48:12
then catapults himself 3/4 of the way across the ring for a
48:15
leg drop, which I thought was tremendous.
48:18
And his Arabian face Buster was a lot of fun to see.
48:22
And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take away from from your cans in
48:24
the cooler, no. No, no, no, I'm with you guys.
48:27
I, I gave it a three as well. I was thinking 3.5, but I don't
48:32
know, three. Like I think that's the thing,
48:33
underwhelmed is the word. I I was expecting more from it
48:37
And I I don't think it's just because we don't watch ECW often
48:40
and we didn't know the story because we have watched the ECW
48:42
stuff and we've given it high ratings on the show for sure.
48:46
But this I don't know, it just didn't.
48:48
It's fun to watch. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be like I
48:51
have to go back and rewatch this.
48:53
This is, it's just and I, you know, we've given threes to like
48:56
some Dick head match on like, you know, WrestleMania,
49:00
WrestleMania, whatever. And argued over it, yeah.
49:03
We like yeah, we give it 3 and like.
49:05
Raku versus Hacksaw Jim Duggan or.
49:07
Something. Yeah, exactly what I say,
49:08
usually three. I say it's a wrestling match,
49:11
right? It's a wrestling match.
49:12
And that's kind of what this feels like.
49:14
It's a wrestling match. That said, Sabu, I mean and we
49:19
haven't even said the ring gear is excellent.
49:20
I love that the pants are great, right, But he's such a ECW
49:24
creature, more so than a lot of the guys that make you think
49:27
about like he like he's ECW to the core, right?
49:32
Like where like, I don't know, the Dudley boys or whoever, like
49:36
they went off the WF and had other glory there where this guy
49:39
is so distinctly he's in this the Sandman.
49:42
Territory right like agreed that's.
49:45
He's probably on you put him on the Rushmore.
49:47
I think maybe an ECW fan would do that.
49:49
I wouldn't feel comfortable coming up with that, but.
49:52
He's almost like a. Sting of ECW like yeah.
49:56
He's the guy like and he he exists perfectly there and when
50:00
he's outside, I don't know, he's done a million other things, but
50:02
like that's this is his shit. What we remember him for at
50:05
least. Well, I.
50:07
I love the Mount Rushmore VCW kind of conversation here and
50:10
he's certainly, certainly up there.
50:12
I think that Tommy Dreamer fits the Taz bill, excuse me, the
50:16
sting bill a bit. Maybe it's just because it's the
50:22
babyface role and all that and you know, the beloved character
50:25
and so on so forth. But man, these Nick, I'm
50:29
interested in yours now because we've given 3 threes.
50:31
Are we? Are we sent to a shot?
50:37
Yep, I had three. I I like Jim actually took the
50:41
words right out of my mouth because I like there was part of
50:43
me that wanted to give it a 3 1/2, but I I can't there,
50:48
there's there's not one spot that sticks out as like this,
50:52
like amazing turning point of this match to me.
50:55
It's just, it was fun. It's a little.
50:58
Bloody but. Yeah, it wasn't what I was
51:01
expecting. I wasn't hoping.
51:03
And I've got to imagine and and I did a little bit of a dive
51:07
today as I watched. Now I also give it three cans
51:11
and a cooler because I watched this match three times kind of
51:13
looking for something like did I miss something?
51:16
Am I not paying attention? I I was hoping for more.
51:20
And then when I dove a little bit into the the Internet
51:25
community, which, you know, can be a little harsh, it's got a
51:28
very similar reaction. There's people that absolutely
51:31
love it who were probably watching it in the moment.
51:35
But then there's also people. Yeah, there's in the storyline
51:38
and then there's people like us who just say they don't think it
51:42
lived up to the hype and maybe it's a classic because it's
51:45
their first pay-per-view. Kind of like, you know, Andre
51:48
slamming, Hogan slamming Andre type situation.
51:52
But I I can't go higher than three.
51:55
It it was fun. I'm glad we watched it, you
51:58
know, but again, 3 nothing stands out.
52:01
Not one spot stands out. And not only that, I just want
52:05
to say like, it's supposed to be this grudge match for like 2
52:10
years. Joey Styles doesn't really talk
52:13
about like any of the past between these guys at all.
52:16
Good point. Like.
52:18
He just talks. About for somebody, for somebody
52:21
who's just going back like us, who weren't really watching it
52:24
at the time, yeah, you know, that it's hard for us to, like,
52:28
get in the zone there. It needed a the video package
52:32
Nick. Yes, package.
52:34
It would have benefited from a video package one. 100% Joey.
52:39
I have two things. First, Meltzer gave it 3 1/4, so
52:43
we're not terribly off. And that's somebody that's
52:45
rating it as an ECW guy watching week to week and invested in the
52:51
storyline, I would imagine. And then my other side note of
52:55
all of this, watching the ECW creatures in the crowd, you
52:59
know, the 90s style is, is, is a thing in 2025, right?
53:03
So I think it's time for us to bring back the champion jerseys.
53:08
Like we saw a lot of jerseys tucked into a pair of jeans and
53:11
pulled out just a little bit. So it looked baggy.
53:14
I think I saw a Panthers jersey in the front row.
53:17
I, I missed the merino. I saw a Niners Montana jersey
53:20
where the guy didn't necessarily fit the jersey and his gut was
53:23
hanging out the bottom. The way to represent the Niners
53:25
asshole. And then Steelers jersey,
53:28
Vikings, NHL Flyers and Rangers like.
53:32
There were a ton of jersey, which is an interesting choice.
53:36
Like I'm going to this I'm going to this wrestling match, I'm
53:38
going to wear a jersey like give me my let me put on this jersey
53:42
for let me put on my merino jersey.
53:45
So I mean. That's that's probably what I
53:47
would have done, probably. Let me put that jersey on this
53:50
ugly hat. I didn't think you owned
53:52
anything other than Bill's jerseys and Zubaz.
53:55
But then no, I no, it's more of a wind.
53:57
Wind pants, man. Oh, man.
54:02
All right. Well, I, I'm glad we pivoted.
54:05
I'm still excited about what we're going to cover what we, we
54:08
put back in the chamber for a month from now.
54:11
But I'm I'm glad we celebrated the career and just a little
54:16
small portion of Sabu's career. This was a lot of fun, but
54:23
moving right along guys so. Obviously at the start of the
54:27
next episode we owe the audience the shot, you know, like it
54:31
doesn't happen very often though.
54:33
Perfect, Perfect 4. Out of four, that's that's hard
54:36
to do. Yeah, it it really is, because
54:40
usually we all tend to land in the same range, but to actually
54:45
pull through with three with four threes?
54:47
Is I know it's good timing too, because I think this would fit
54:51
or maybe we'll save it for like we've got some double shot
54:53
episodes coming up where we're going to record the whole thing
54:56
and release himself twice. But like we do that at the start
55:00
of the second one might be the wheels might come full.
55:03
Oh my. God, so I peek behind our
55:08
curtain. Before we hit record, we did
55:09
some mapping out and planning for the summer.
55:12
You're gonna hear me talk about it a lot, but we we have have
55:15
planned out two very spectacular pay per views coming up and
55:21
you're just gonna have to wait for our next episode for that.
55:23
But just want to thank you guys for taking the time out.
55:27
I know there's a lot of wrestling podcasts out there and
55:29
we appreciate you guys listening to the Extra Cooler show and
55:33
choosing us. Don't forget, follow us on
55:36
social media at the Extra Cooler show at Extra Cooler and join us
55:40
over in our Discord. You know, even if you're a
55:44
Pacers fan, you're lying. We might RIP you apart, but you
55:48
know Jim. Jim may have something else to
55:50
say about that. All right, cheers guys, and
55:55
thank you for listening to the Extra Cooler show.
55:58
Cheers. Thanks in the hands of.
56:05
Taz in a wonderful display of sportsmanship here at East.