|
/wrestling /guests /Pitbull3 |
|
|
/wrestling /guests /Pitbull3 |
| Guest Columns | Pitbull 3 |
MainBLAH |
RAVEN VS. TOMMY DREAMER For the benefit of those newbies to ECW, I did this for the nWWWo discussion board. I thought it would be cool to repost it here this week. With Raven returning to ECW, I can only pray that this feud is restarted. Enjoy this recap of a beautiful 2 year-long feud. Tommy Dreamer was this bright-eyed (almost disgusting) babyface. He was a good technical wrestler, who spent lots of time on the mat. His finisher used to be the "Dream Weaver", a sleeper. After wrestling in various indies (including USWA), he moved into E(astern) Championship Wrestling. Right away, there was talk about how he and Dreamer were great friends growing up. Raven betrayed Dreamer somehow (detailed later), and Dreamer was a severely hurt as a result. After such a long, close friendship, this betrayal was more than Dreamer could bear. Not much is mentioned after the betrayal, but then Raven shows up in ECW and immediately starts a feud with Dreamer. Raven picked up Stevie Richards as his goofball lackey. He also added Tommy "Hitman" Stetson (aka Broadstreet Bully) and Tommy Cairo as followers, though not in the Flock manner...just as associates. I think there was a match set up between Raven and Dreamer. Raven introduced Beulah (drool~) to ECW. She was Dreamer's (formally) fat girlfriend from childhood. It was HER that Raven stole from Dreamer, betraying him. Apparently, they had either stayed together or reunited over all those years. Anyway, she basically worshipped the ground Raven walked on, and Dreamer was still in love with her (though, every guy who watched ECW was in love with her~). So, it looked like she was going to try to make amends with Dreamer and Raven. She seemed to be trying to make the peace between them. Anyway, they began wrestling, and Dreamer ended up on the floor. Beulah sprayed Dreamer in the face with hairspray, Stevie steviekicked Dreamer, and Raven won by pinfall after debuting his DDT (now called the Evenflow). For a little bit, Raven got in shots on Dreamer every once in a while, triple and quadruple teaming him whenever humanly possible. Then, they set up a gauntlet match where Dreamer had to fight Cairo, Stetson, Stevie, and then Raven. The three guys on the outside were handcuffed to the ring post so they couldn't escape. Dreamer debuted HIS DDT in this match, running through the first 3 guys. During the third match, Terry Funk returned to ECW and used boltcutters to free Raven. Raven suckerpunched Dreamer and DDT'ed him on the floor for the win. Right around this time, Cactus Jack came to ECW and started up his feud with Funk. To summarize the next 8 months or so, Luna helped Dreamer for a while before leaving after getting brutalized by Raven, Richards found Francine at the ringside area (as an admirer of his and brought her in). She hated Beulah for some reason, and they had catfights whenever possible. The Blue Meanie was brought in as a lackey for Richards. Meanie would always get beat up, Richards would get blamed, and Raven never got hurt. Raven broke Dreamer's fingers (in an absolutely disgusting, bloody visual--quite graphic). Raven employed the Pitbulls to help him. Then, the Dudleys, and then the Heavenly Bodies. The Pitbulls turned on Raven when Raven walked out on them in a match and began a feud with the Dudleys (Dudley Dudley, Big Dick, Dances with Dudleys, and eventually BuhBuh Ray). The Pitbulls teamed up with Dreamer. Raven grabbed the title, and eventually dropped it to Sandman after a series of exciting, though inconclusive matches against Dreamer, Cactus, and Sandman. He also destroyed his foot during this period and had to take a month or less off to have it fixed. I believe it was during this time period that they did the CHAIRSHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD~. Raven and Dreamer had fought in a cage match. Somehow, Raven got a victory. Dreamer then handcuffed Raven to the cage in Raven's signature crucifixion pose. Then, he stepped back, and put all his effort into the chairshot. It nearly broke Raven's spirit, and gave Dreamer a taste of what it felt to be victorious over Raven. And then they did the pregnancy angle! Beulah announced she was pregnant. Raven got pissed at her for not using the birth control right. She announced that it was NOT Raven's. He got pissed and started to beat up Richards, thinking it was his. Beulah said that it was not Stevie's. In a HILARIOUS scene, half the people in the ECW Arena started chanting MEANIE! Meanie denied it. The OTHER half of the crowd either claimed the baby for themselves or named someone around them! The Hat Guy pointed to himself as did Sign Guy, The Guy with the Sunglasses, and The Hare-Krishna Guy. --sorry for that sidetrack, but indicative of the ECW Arena crowd at the time-- She announced that it was Dreamer's. Raven snapped, but Dreamer came in and ran him off. He embraced Beulah as the crowd went nuts. Dreamer brought Shane Douglas back in to protect Beulah from harm. Raven brought in Kimona Wanaleia (sp?) --sounds like Come on, I want to lay ya.-- Raven and Richards snagged the Tag Title Belts sometime around this time. Then, they did the LESBIAN angle. Raven had some sort of secret that he knew about Dreamer. It brought great pain to him, but he loved it because it would hurt Dreamer even more. Finally, it was revealed that Beulah had lied to Dreamer about the pregnancy. She was cheating on Dreamer. No one could figure out who it was, and then Raven, Kimona, Stevie, Dreamer, and Beulah were in the ring together. Kimona announced that is was HER~ that Beulah had been cheating with. As it turns out, Beulah had developed this lesbian relationship with Kimona right before she debuted. Dreamer was crushed at first, but then...they did THE KISS HEARD ROUND THE WORLD~! Kimona and Beulah ran at each other and began making out. Dreamer grabbed Beulah and Kimona in each hand by the hair and separated them. He brought Beulah in and kissed her, then did the same to Kimona. Then, he forced the two together. Then, he joined in and the three of them made out. Raven was duly crushed as he had just lost Kimona to Dreamer and Beulah. The Pitbulls had began a feud with Raven and Richards around this time, and had a series of brutal, bloody, and innovative matches. Then, in what was rated one of (if not the only) ***** match in ECW (and my personal favorite ever), Richards and Raven defended the tag titles against the Pitbulls in a 2/3 Falls Dog-collar match. After a phenomenal, bloody match, mixed with good wrestling, insane brawling, seriously sickening table bumps, the injury of Pitbull2, an attack by the Dudley Boys, and the replacement of Pitbull2 with Tommy Dreamer, Dreamer pinned Raven to win the tag titles. Bill Alfonso came down and reversed the decision. Tod Gorden (then paper commissioner) fought with Fonzie leading to 911 chokeslamming Bill Alfonso (in what is still a huge mark out moment for me~). Gorden restarted the match and Pitbull2 returned. They double pinned Raven and Richards to take the titles. Soon after, Raven sent Richards out on a search for the skankiest, sluttiest, dirtiest, bitch in the world to be his valet. This resulted in the appearance of Divine Brown (Hugh Grant's prostitute) and other Class-A skanks. No one was good enough until Richards brought out Lori Fullington (Sandman's ex wife). Raven and Sandman had some matches and Raven brought out Kyle as a worshipper of his. It was VERY edgy and VERY painful to watch, because all the parties played this angle PERFECTLY~! In the end, Sandman got his son back, but I am not sure what happened with Lori. Raven once again got mixed up in the World Title situation, winning it. Then, they did the Three Way Dance at the second ECW PPV, with Funk winning to get the shot at Raven. Dreamer helped Funk, and Funk took the title from Raven. Soon after, Dreamer finally got his pinfall victory in Raven's last match before leaving for WCW. HUGE reaction for a good match. This was a feud that lasted from early 1995 until mid 1997. It NEVER got stale, and I am eagerly awaiting its renewal in the future as Dreamer and Raven are back in ECW. This is the type of genius that Heyman can deliver as a booker. There are many other instances of these types of epic feuds in ECW history, and I am sure there are many more in the hopper. Pitbull 3 [slash] wrestling Mail the Author |
BLAH |
Main |
||