The Quest for the Whitest Match in History: Day 5

Sandman vs. Raven (Barbed Wire)
Uploaded by wwemanic6000

The Sandman vs. Raven
ECW - 12/7/1996
Barbed Wire Match for the ECW Title

ECW was an odd mish-mash of archetypical white guys and white guy motivations. Indy promotion rallied around because they stuck it to the man, even as the man paid them to stay in business, and the boss stiffed the workers on their payments while aiming at urban, east coast, working class whites. The Sandman was the perfect embodiment of that audience, really the kind of guy you could imagine Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi romanticizing in song. Raven represented another classic white guy archetype, the guy who reads a few things about Friedrich Nietzsche and suddenly thinks they know shit about shit. It's played totally straight, and as a result, Raven's stuff probably ages the worst of all ECW stuff. Think of the ground that covers. I saw Raven in TNA and found myself wondering when he forgot how to cut a promo, and then I watched something he did with Richards and Meanie where he rambled on about "the forgotten playground of my tortured youth" or whatever, and I realized that he could never cut a promo that didn't devolve into "Eye of Argon"-esque bullshit. But as a worker, he could deliver every now and then. This is one such time.

As of late, I've been of the belief that the only ECW match that holds up today as a real, honest-to-God classic is the barbed wire match between Sabu and Terry Funk. This isn't quite as good as that, but it may only be a step below. On a certain level, it seems odd to me that the two ECW matches that hold up really well are barbed wire matches. I have a love/hate relationship with barbed wire matches. When you have a barbed wire match where dudes are unafraid to throw themselves full speed into the stuff, I'm down with that. When you have barbed wire matches where guys who are other unable to resist the force of an Irish whip into the ropes, turnbuckles, steel barricades, steel steps, other painful things to run into can now stop short before running into barbed wire, you violate wrestling physics on a level that just bugs the hell out of me. This happens once and only once near the top of the match, and afterwards, both men prove unafraid to eat hot, barbed wirey death. The Sandman was one of the hidden great workers of the 90's, and while his offense is limited (he's got an elbowdrop that he's not afraid to bust out A LOT in this match), he brings the crazy in spades. Not afraid to drop a table on Raven's head, or do a plancha through a table while wrapped in barbed wire. Raven hits a few nice fistdrops to Sandman's balls, but really, this is the Sandman show, and what a show it is.