Good evening, students, and welcome to another fascinating and insightful lesson from the Dean Of Pro Wrestling. First things first, an update from last week's lecture-everyone's favourite Canadian Chris Benoit requested that his match with Steven Regal at the Pillman Memorial be moved down the card due to his wife being in the midst of labour that night. I guess he didn't want to be in a public place where Kevin Sullivan could get a bead on him. Thanks to all the kindly students who pointed that out this week, but I'm afraid it's detention for all of you for being so insolent. Now onto this week's subject, an extremely interesting match, if you'll forgive the pun, ha ha ha. Back from the annuls of history, in the dark ages of 1994, a match that changed the face of wrestling. I am, of course, referring to Sabu Vs. Shane Douglas Vs. Terry Funk.

The Setup
Now I will warn you in advance, avid proteges-my memory on past ECW events is pretty darn sketchy, especially pre-TNTLWC(The Night The Line Was Crossed). However, what I DO know is that there was a pretty standard chain of events leading to the booking of the match. On the 2nd of October 1993, Sabu defeated Shane Douglas for the ECW Title-not yet the World Title-and held on to the belt until Boxing Day, when he lost it to Terry Funk-thanks to Shane. Following that, Shane went to a 45 minute draw with the champ, and so the chain of events was set in motion. Booked for The Night The Line Was Crossed on February 5th 1994, Shane Douglas would take on Sabu in a number one contendership match, and the winner would face Funk directly afterwards. If the match went the full fifteen minutes, then there would be....a Three Way Dance.

This match has widely been publicised as the first-ever Three Way Dance. While that may not be true, it is certainly the first-ever Three Way Dance of any true significance-as will become clear, after the review. On with the match!

The Match

As a note, the fans in attendance are RABID, as is expected for an ECW show. So to clarify, the match starts off as Douglas Vs. Sabu, with Funk scheduled to join in should the first two men go to a fifteen minute draw. Shane enters first, with Sherri Martel in her Meng Afro stage. He's also wearing an extremely gay-looking jacket. Sabu enters with Paul E. Dangerously, and before the bell even rings Paul slides in the ring and nails Sherri with an ancient Dangerously-model cellphone. Shane smacks him down, and the bell is rung. Sabu lays into Shane with right hands in the corner. Irish whip, clothesline, and Sabu pounds him some more. Irish whip, but Shane gets his boot up and hits Sabu with an atomic drop. Sabu into the ropes, and Shane nails a backbreaker and a kneelift, then Sabu rolls to the apron. Shane suplexes him back in for the first two count. Chinlock, but Sabu elbows out. Shane ducks a swing, and snapmares Sabu into a sleeper as a Sabu chant fires up. Shane breaks the hold and slams Sabu face-first into all four turnbuckles. Sabu fights back, and a heel kick sends Shane to floor, where Sherri checks on him. Sabu follows with a baseball slide, and tosses Shane back in. Bodyslam and a bad corkscrew quebrada get two for Sabu. Nervehold, into a Dragon sleeper, and Shane reverses to a neckbreaker, but misses an elbowdrop and Sabu stomps his shoulder. Armbar into a short-arm scissors, and Sabu breaks and legdrops the arm. Back to armbar, and then a deathlock variant on the arm. Armbar, short-arm scissors. I think this is Sabu's attempt at mat wrestling. It gets a one-count, in any case. Shane turns the scissors over and Sabu breaks then pounds him some more. Irish whip, leg lariat and an armdrag gets two for Sabu. Back to the armbar, and Shane stands up and breaks the hold, then elbowdrops Sabu. Inverted atomic drop, and Shane kicks him in the face. Ten minutes gone.

Another big boot for Sabu gets a two count for Shane. Sabu wrings Shane's arm and works the shoulder. He hammers Shane in the corner, but Shane reverses an Irish whip and tosses Sabu to the floor. Sabu thrown into the guardrail, then the apron, but he reverses a third whip and sends Shane crashing into the crowd. Did you ever see THAT anywhere else in '94? Sabu follows and he and 911 set up a table, then lay Shane out on it. Sabu climbs to the apron and goes for an Asai moonsault, but Shane moves and Sabu is left in a pile of splinters in the crowd. They all stand around a bit, and 911 basically hands Sabu to Shane. Shane tosses him back in the ring and hits a kneebreaker, then stomps him-and Funk joins us about two minutes shy of the fifteen minute mark. He lays into Shane and they brawl out of the ring and into the crowd, with Shane taking the advantage. Back in the ring and Shane hits some weak forearms and kicks, then bearhugs Funk. Funk punches out and tosses Shane to the floor, then piledrives him at ringside. Again, an absolute shocker in '94. Funk messes around with the ringsteps, then tosses Shane back in. A pair of DDTs on Shane gets two, and Sherri puts Shane's foot on the ropes. Funk punches Shane to the floor and follows, then lays out Sherri. DDT on the floor to Shane and Funk starts tossing chairs in the ring. He tries to get the fans to follow suite, but it only gets six or seven-this time. Twenty minutes gone.

Funk stacks the chairs in the centre of the ring and DDTs Shane onto them , but hurts his own back in the process. Sherri tries to drag Shane out of the ring, but Shane gets up and climbs to the top floor. Double sledge to Funk, and a belly-to-back gets two. Front facelock by Shane, and he tosses Funk to the floor and whips him into the guardrail. They brawl down the aisle and Shane tosses Funk into a ladder. Back into the crowd, and Shane bodyslams Funk onto a chair. They climb back over the rail and Shane whips Funk into the ringpost, then rams him back-first into the apron. Some attempt at psychology, at least. Shane gets a hold of Funk's boot and smacks him with it, then DDTs him in the ring for a two-count. Shane argues with the ref, and Funk rolls him up for two. He trips Shane and tries for the dreaded spinning toe hold, but Shane cradles him for a two then clotheslines him. He celebrates, to big boos. Funk's bleeding, and Shane rakes the wound for cheap heat. Shane tosses him into the turnbuckle, and Funk smacks the ref as he rebounds out of the corner. Shane ignores it and rips the turnbuckle padding off, then slams Funk repeatedly into the corner. Funk stumbles through the ropes and hangs from the apron, and Sherri gets in some cheapshots. He falls to the floor, and Shane kicks him in the head from the apron. The ref is stirring in the ring, and when the two combatants get back in Funk sends Shane into the exposed turnbuckle. Funk bitchslaps him, then potatoes him down. Shane gets up, so Funk pounds him in the corner and bitches him out. Funk hits some chops and a back elbow, then tosses Shane back to the floor. They go through the crowd again, and out of sight. Thirty minutes gone.

They reappear a couple of minutes later and Funk gives Shane an atomic drop in the crowd, then crotches him on the guardrail. Funk stands on the apron for something or other, but stops to chase off a photographer. Both men get back in the ring and Funk chokes Shane with a length of tape. Funk into the ropes, and he and Shane collide, sending him to the floor-and the crowd pops bigtime as Sabu stumbles back down the aisle. A Sabu chant goes up as he chases Shane around the ring and Funk lurches through the crowd to the announcer's position. Sabu and Shane brawl, and Funk gets on Joey's mic and hurls obscenities at both. Sabu gets a half crab on Shane in the ring and Funk "runs" back to the ring. Lockup with Sabu and Funk goes down, but he ducks a clothesline and goes for the spinning toehold. 911 distracts the ref and Paul E. makes the save with another phone shot-this one to Funk-leaving all three men down. Funk is up first and he hits a Haku headbutt on each man, then neckbreakers both, which gets a two count on Sabu, thanks to Paul E. putting Sabu's foot on the ropes. Shane hammers both men and works Sabu's knee as Sherri gets in some more shots on Funk. Funk shoves her down and covers Sabu-who Shane has in a leglock-for two. Sabu punches his way out of the hold and another Sabu chant goes up. Shane puts Sabu in a sleeper and Funk nails Sherri, then slaps a sleeper on Shane for the first-ever triple sleeper spot. Shane lets go of Sabu and elbows free from Funk, then clothesline's Funk to the floor. Shane kicks Sabu's knee a bit, and applies the figure four. Sabu rakes Shane's eyes, but he doesn't break. Two count for Shane, and Paul E. rakes his face to get him to break the hold. Forty minutes gone.

Sabu keeps Shane down with some punchy-kicky, then bodyslams him, but he completely blows a top-rope quebrada. He hits a second try for a nearfall. Sherri gets in the ring, and Sabu chases her out and around ringside. Shane gets hold of Funk on the floor and pounds on him with a chair-and the Rotten Brothers join the party, for no apparent reason whatsoever. Shane gets the Pittsburgh Plunge on Sabu for two, and Sabu blows a rana as the Rottens help out Funk on the floor. Sabu gets a guillotine legdrop on Shane for two and puts him in the Camel clutch, but those chair-swingin' freaks the Rottens lay into both men. Ian chokes Shane with his chair, and Axl throws Sabu to the floor. Drop toehold/legdrop combo on Shane, and Sabu climbs back in, so Axl chairs him again. Shane sends Ian to the floor and Axl does the same to Sabu, leaving Shane standing alone like a doofus in the ring. Axl and Sabu fight to the back and only Sabu emerges, and he goes to work on Ian. Shane meets them in the aisle and he and Sabu fight back into the ring. Sabu comes off the ropes but his knee gives out, and Funk re-emerges from the back. Shane stomps on Sabu then fights with Funk on the floor, and 911 holds Ian Rotten for the third Paul E. phone shot of the night. The three combatants all meet up and fight through the crowd, then out of the exit. They reappear soon after and brawl back to the ring, where Funk beats up the ref and donkey kicks his two opponents low. Fifty minutes gone.

Funk headbutts each man and Sabu clotheslines Shane down. ANOTHER Sabu chant and he knocks Funk down. Bodyslam and he flubs another quebrada, then hits a top-rope moonsault instead. He slams Shane and gives him the same. Double cover by Sabu and Funk, but the ref is still down. Shane is up and he piledrives Funk, then suplexes Sabu onto him and tries to wake the ref up. He succeeds and covers Funk for two, and Sabu stomps both men. A pair of standing twisting splashes on Funk get two for Sabu. Shane with a snapmare on Funk, legdrop, suplex, and Sabu splashes both men for two. Double Camel clutch, but Shane starts raking Sabu's face and both men break. Funk headbutts Sabu and gets the spinning toehold on Shane. Sherri jumps on Funk's back, so he calmly suplexes her. He goes for the toehold on her, but Shane clotheslines him to stop it. Shane with a belly-to-back on Sabu and he nails Paul E. on the apron, but Sabu backdrops out of a piledriver attempt. Funk hits Sabu low with Sherri's shoe and sticks the heel into Shane's ear, then Sabu jumps him and all three men go to the floor again. Funk drop toeholds Paul E. and all three climb back in the ring, and Shane gets a top-rope crossbody on Sabu. Funk breaks up the cover and tries to cover both men, but Sabu gets up and stomps them. Shane chops him down and covers, but the ref is still down. Shane holds Funk for Sherri, but Funk ducks and Sabu splashes Shane. Funk and Sabu dogpile Shane for two, and they all roll around until time expires at 57:35. The crowd give them a standing ovation as 911 helps Sabu to the back, and Funk and Shane lay in the ring and on the floor respectively.

Post-Match Interviews: Funk is up first and he gives a quiet old-timer promo, trashing WCW and praising the work ethic he saw in action tonight. Sabu and Paul E. follow, and Sabu is basically held back by 911 as Paul E. insults everyone in a classic interview. Finally, Shane bitches and moans, and Funk returns and offers him the title belt, but Shane refuses and they brawl as the show goes off the air.

Analysis: And there you have it. Possibly the single most important match of the wrestling world. Well, to be honest it is a pretty damn awful match by today's standards-there's no psychology, a lot of downtime and precious little wrestling. But let's go back through the match and look at some of the things on display that, while today are commonplace, back in '94 established ECW as the wildest promotion around.

1. Paul E. clubbing Sherri right at the start of the match. Unheard of in the Big Two.
2. Brawling into the crowd. Even in old-time hardcore matches, the action stayed in and around the ring.
3. Sabu going through a table. Ya wanna know why Ramon/Michaels is so fondly remembered? Because it was the first bigtime match where both men bumped like freaks. And Sabu took a bigtime bump there-with furniture wrecking thrown in too.
4. The piledriver at ringside. That remains brutal to this day.
5. Funk tossing chairs in the ring-and encouraging fans to do the same.
6. Funk bleeding-and Shane trying to make it worse.
7. Funk cursing out his opponents freely midway through the match.
8. The cheating, the run-ins and the gratuitous violence-all being ignored by the referee.

THAT is what made this match so special. It MADE ECW, it put it on the map and got it more attention than it had ever received, and because of that the company grew, producing some of the best storylines around in the '95-'96 period. ECW was the best, thanks to this night-and more importantly this match. And in turn both nationwide companies became the profanity-spouting, breast-shaking sleazefests that catapulted wrestling back into the mainstream. Without any hyperbole, I can tell you that this match made wrestling what it is today.

The match itself? Horrible.

Grade: C+.

Well, another lesson draws to a close, and I am going to the staff room to drink some Irish coffee. Keep your assignments coming in at quoththeraven99@hotmail.com, and if you have any suggestions for lesson plans, feel free to give them in as well. Next week, another VERY influential match. Which one? Wait and see, class, wait and see....Dismissed!

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