| 1 | 28.07.2024 | Mizzle Assault Ant | 9.0 | As often happens in ECW, this one was chaotic as hell right from the start. In fact it was meant to be Sandman vs. Raven, but Raven attacked Sandman before the bell, broke his cane in half, and stabbed him in the face with the jagged end... Raven's eternal rival Tommy Dreamer came out and they got into it as well, and things snowballed from there... eventually the ring was cleared and Raven was left just with Stevie Richards, formerly Raven's abused minion but now riding his own unlikely wave of popularity as the leader of the parody stable the Blue World Order. Raven, in a foul mood as ever and resentful of Richards, challenged him to a fight as well and from there we got right into it. A chaotic and at times brutal fight, Raven as usual was a totally captivating presence for me. He is far from the most athletic but everything he does carries the flavor of his bitter melancholy, he is at all times lashing out in a kind of despairing anger that I find fascinating, and it juxtaposed well with the hopeful underdog spirit of Richards. They put on a very fun fight, nothing to blow the mind but highly entertaining title match. As is common for this era, Richards achieved a moral victory by getting the visual 3 count but only after the ref was down, and in the chaos of replacing him Raven eked out the victory. |
#