For Better and Worse, Raven & Stevie Richards vs. The Pitbulls is Pure, Uncut ECW

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One of those matches where everything happens so much. Much has been made in the years since ECW’s downfall about the company’s general creative ethos of “accentuate the positives and hide the negatives.” Paul Heyman himself would be the first to tell you that ECW wasn’t working with a talent pool of A+ ring workers and technicians, and that’s a large part of what dictated the general hardcore stylings and violent underground presentation of the promotion as whole. What results is matches like The Pitbulls challenging for the ECW World Tag Team Titles of Raven and Stevie Richards in a double dog collar match where it feels like a million things are happening at once.

This is almost certainly a necessity to hide from the fact that this isn’t a line up of wrestlers that’s going to turn in the finest ring work we’ve ever seen. These are gimmick guys in the truest sense, and I mean that more for the Pitbulls than the heels here. Their whole act is being big dudes in leather that don’t even have names, just numbers assigned to them. Wild dogs that mostly deliver in walk and brawl gimmickry than anything else. Meanwhile Raven’s playing a more calculating, manipulative heel taking advantage of cowardly stooge in Stevie Richards as his partner.

A match with a little more finesse and talent behind it could probably get enough out of just that character dynamic to produce something great, but these four and the creative mind behind them opt for a smoke and mirrors approach instead. Honestly speaking, probably for the best if any of the action in between all the major setpieces is anything to go by. Far from the most creative use of the chain here, no one’s doing bits about leverage or ring positioning here that you might see in the better singles dog collars or even FTR/Briscoes (which would go on to basically perfect this particular form of the stipulation). The dog collars here are meant to function in the same way as a steel cage in other feuds, keeping the heels from being able to run, but once Pitbull #1 attaches himself to Stevie Richards early on, they cease to be too important to proceedings. The chain mostly gets delegated to being wrapped around fists for a few punches that are too distant from any of the cameras on hand to make any real audible sound. What results is a match, that at its worst, is some ineffectual brawling.

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However, at its best, it’s the sort of silly amped up fun that ECW made its name on.

What this match benefits most from is the willingness to just give the fans what they want. It’s about seeing the heels die, which they do in spectacular fashion. Raven and Stevie both take multiple grotesque table bumps both on their own and as a team at the very finish. Perhaps the best (and by that I do mean worst) example is Raven eating the Super Bomb off the top and knocking the back of his head onto the edge of the table which makes a truly disgusting sound. Stevie’s looks brutal as well, taking all the impact right on the lower back. And the climactic Super Bomb at the end looks awkward and dangerous in the best possible way, reckless enough that you wonder how anyone thought it could work but admirable enough for even attempting.

That’s sort of where I land on the match as a whole.

They do so goddamn much here that’s clearly paying off stuff they’ve been working towards and it’s hard to dislike it too much. Things like Dreamer coming in to replace a down Pitbull #2 and getting his first pinfall on Rave, only for it to be stripped away by Bill Alfonso, who then eats shit at the hands of 911. It’s just so fucking much, and arguably probably way too much. This often teeters on the verge incomprehensibility if it weren’t for Joey Styles bluntly hammering home every key plot point that Heyman and co. are trying to hit. For the most part, it stays on the right side of sensible probably because it leans towards gratifying the fans than outwardly trolling them. It’s a match booked to get big pops from the saves and the pay offs, and as far as a vehicle for the booking, it mostly does its job.

Bell to bell, not the best thing you’ll ever see, but an enjoyable enough sample of the chaotic atmosphere inside the ECW Arena.

Rating: ***1/4