tommy dreamer

Wrestling Recap: Dreamer vs. Raven (Wrestlepalooza ’97)

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The Date: 6 June 1997
The Venue:  ECW Arena; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Stakes: Loser Leaves Town Match

The Commentary: Joey Styles and “Ravishing” Rick Rude
The Referee: Billy Silverman
Cagematch Rating: 7.79

The Build-Up:
After wrestling guru Paul Heyman established a cult following in Philadelphia, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) produced their first-ever pay-per-view on this day in 1997. One of ECW’s biggest stars, Raven embarked on a lengthy and memorable feud with beloved underdog Tommy Dreamer that saw them fight over Beulah McGillicutty and Raven constantly best Dreamer. With ECW colliding with the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and Raven due to leave for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the two were set to end their personal feud in a match that would banish the loser from ECW.

The Match:
Accompanied to the ring with Chastity and Lupus from his extremist “Nest” stable, Raven was showered with jeers of “You sold out!” from the ECW faithful, who historically had no love for the “Big Two” of professional wrestling. Despite this, Raven remained focused on his lifelong rival, who came to the ring with the gorgeous Beulah McGillicutty, whom Tommy Dreamer had wooed away from Raven’s clutches prior to the match. The two rivals briefly went nose-to-nose once the bell rang and then circled each other apprehensively before Lupus awkwardly took to the microphone and urged his “boss” to simply walk away as he had no reason to fight and nothing to prove. Although Raven took the advice and fled the ring, Dreamer shoved Lupus and pursued his archenemy through the raucous crowd, ramming him into a shutter door and smashing a steel chair across his spine amidst the braying masses. Dreamer bashed a fan’s juice bottle over Raven’s head, took a swig, and spat the red liquid into Raven’s face before they tumbled off the bleachers and through a merchandise table. Raven recovered first but failed to drive the bloodied Dreamer through a table as the hardware tipped over, spilling both to the concrete. Undeterred, Raven forced Dreamer onto a small stage on the bleachers and suplexed a table onto him before propping it against the wall and driving Dreamer through it. Raven then set a second table up and tried for a piledriver, only to bounce his tailbone off the wood when Dreamer countered with a back body drop. However, Dreamer crashed through the wood when Raven rolled off to avoid a running jogging body splash, leaving Dreamer favouring his elbow as “The Franchise” Shane Douglas and Franchise gleefully watched on.

The animosity between Dreamer and Raven saw them brawl and employ any advantage they could.

Although Raven capitalised by tossing Dreamer into a steel barricade, Raven ate the metal and landed crotch-first on the barricade when Dreamer reversed a second attempt. Finally back at ringside, Dreamer planted Raven to the concrete with a running bulldog, splitting his forehead open, before tossing him into the crowd to whack a steel chair over Raven’s head. Fighting near the Philadelphia Eagles’ private box, Dreamer tried to haul Raven up a small ladder and ended up being dropped onto a vending machine and taking a few shots to the back from a steel chair. Once they returned to the ring, Raven tripped the dazed Dreamer into the chair with a drop-toe hold and dropped a fist to Dreamer’s balls. Raven then muscled Dreamer to the top rope and teased a superplex onto the chair. Although Dreamer fought back with a low blow, Tommy still took the bump when Raven tossed him from the top and into the chair with a Rocket Launcher, though Dreamer kicked out at two. Dreamer then countered a hip toss with a DDT and grabbed a fan’s sign, resulting in a tug of war that saw the referee get knocked down. Nevertheless, Dreamer bashed Raven with the sign and planted him with a piledriver onto it, only for Lupis to break up the cover and launch an ineffectual assault on Dreamer that Beulah ended with a DDT. Distracted by his woman, Dreamer got hit with a low blow and barely kicked out of a roll-up, only to return the favour and almost score the victory. Chasity then blasted Dreamer with hair spray for another near fall, leading to a cat fight between her and Beulah.

Sadly, Dreamer’s hard-fought victory over his rival was overshadowed by the WWF invasion angle.

When Raven pulled Beulah off and tried to reconcile with her, he took another shot to the balls and ate a DDT from Dreamer, though he still kicked out before the three. When Dreamer signalled for a second DDT, Raven muscled him into the corner, taking the referee out again so there was no one to count the pin when Dreamer hit the DDT. Dreamer’s other rival, Louie Spicolli, then attacked Dreamer with a DDT, only for Dreamer to kick out of Raven’s follow-up pin. Although Dreamer countered Spicolli’s Death Valley Driver, he got drilled with Raven’s beautiful Evenflow DDT…for a two count! When Raven tried for a second, Dreamer landed a Death Valley Driver and triumphantly stood over his exhausted rival before hitting a DDT to finally get the better of Raven. Tommy Dreamer’s hard-fought victory was short-lived, however, as “Mr. Monday Night” Rob Van Dam suddenly attacked, egged on by his ever-annoying manager, Bill Alfonso, and aided by “The Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal, Death–Defying Maniac” Sabu, who threw a chair in Dreamer’s face and joined the “Whole Dam Show” in stomping Dreamer as Raven wandered from the ring. When Dreamer fought back with a double DDT, Jerry “The King” Lawler arrived and had his cronies assault Dreamer and the ECW roster with boots and steel chairs as part of the WWF/ECW invasion angle. After finally getting the mic to work, Lawler mocked the crowd and ECW, before eventually being chased off by the “Human Suplex Machine” Taz. Sadly, this all completely distracted from what was supposed to be a massive win for Dreamer, though it was honestly more memorable than most of the match, which was mainly a messy brawl through the crowd more than a brutal and personal war between these two hated enemies.

The Aftermath:
As per the match stipulation, Tommy Dreamer’s victory saw Raven kicked out of ECW. He made his dramatic return to WCW later that same month, watching matches from ringside to scout recruits for his newest band of misfits, the Flock, who eventually secured him the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship in 1998. Dreamer was unsuccessful at getting payback on RVD and Sabu at the following month’s Orgy of Violence event as he and the Sandman were defeated by Lawler’s flunkies thanks to a surprise appearance by Jim Cornette. To make matters worse, Dreamer ended up in hospital getting his testicles drained after an errant low blow with a Singapore cane! This wasn’t the last time Dreamer and Raven crossed paths, however, as Raven was back in ECW by 1999 and unexpectedly won the World Tag Team Championship with his nemesis. When ECW folded in 2001, Raven and Dreamer ended up in the WWF prior to and during the ill-fated “Invasion” story. While they only had one match, it did result in Raven’s banishment to Heat being lifted…though Raven was released shortly after. Raven and Dreamer also fought with and against each other in Total Nonstop Action (TNA) and Pro Wrestling Superstars (PWS), but never recaptured the magic of their memorable and personal feud in ECW.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy this Loser Leaves Town match between Tommy Dreamer and Raven? Do you agree that their rivalry was a high point of ECW? Were you disappointed that so much of the match was basic brawling? What are some of your matches and moments of these two competitors? Whatever your thoughts on Dreamer, Raven, and ECW, leave them below and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other ECW matches for the site.

Wrestling Recap: Raven vs. Terry Funk (Barely Legal ’97)

Dr. K2 Comments

The Date: 13 April 1997
The Venue: ECW Arena; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Commentary: Joey Styles
The Referee: John Finegan
The Stakes: No disqualification singles match for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship

The Build-Up:
Back in the nineties, the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) were the undisputed “Big Boys” of the professional wrestling scene, vying for television ratings and poaching talent on a weekly basis, but Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) stood out as an alterative product to its mainstream rivals. Initially founded as Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1992, the company was re-branded by wrestling guru Paul Heyman in 1993 and soon established a cult following with the rabid Philadelphia crowd at the ECW Arena. While best known for its violent and controversial matches and content, ECW also delivered pure wrestling and was instrumental in inspiring the WWF’s “Attitude Era” and giving future wrestling stars a stage to hone their craft. Prior to 1997, ECW primarily hosted non-televised supercard events from the ECW Arena but that all changed when Heyman negotiated a deal to air their first pay-per-view, Barely Legal, on this day in 1997. Easily one of ECW’s biggest stars was Raven, a morose manipulator who was seemingly the embodiment of grunge, whose later rivalry with Tommy Dreamer delivered some of the company’s most intense storylines. At the time, Raven was reigning as the ECW Champion and had been embroiled in a deeply personal feud with the Sandman over the belt, while also dealing with issues with his stablemate, Stevie Richards. Richards had faced Raven’s wrath after costing him the ECW Championship at Ultimate Jeopardy the previous year; though Raven had regained the belt from the Sandman, tensions continued to brew between he and Richards until the latter finally snapped, turned on his leader, and broke away from Raven’s “Nest” of followers. Although Richards had previously come up short against Raven in a championship bout, he and the Sandman got another chance to face Raven for the belt at Barely Legal when they tangled in a triple threat match with the legendary hardcore icon Terry Funk, with the winner of that contest getting to face Raven in the main event of ECW’s first-ever pay-per-view event.

The Match:
As difficult as it was for to watch even WWF and WCW programming as a kid, it was pretty much impossible for me to watch ECW as I have no idea if it was even shown on Sky TV back in the day. So my exposure to the product has always been through their competitors showing up in the WWF and from videogames and documentaries produced around this time, but I distinctly remember watching the bout between Tazz and Jerry “The King” Lawler from Unforgiven 2000 and being shocked when a raggedy guy interjected himself into the match, hit Lawler with a DDT, and helped Tazz secure the victory. Of course, years later I would find out that Raven’s time in the WWF paled in comparison to his runs in ECW and even WCW, but Raven was always one of my favourite wrestlers simply because of his look. Before getting into the match that’s the subject of this review, I think it’s only fair to talk a little bit about the three-way dance that preceded it. This was a triple threat elimination-style match between the Sandman, Terry Funk (who found himself in that match thanks to his protégé, Tommy Dreamer, graciously stepping aside to allow his mentor the chance to challenge for the championship), and “Big Stevie Cool” Stevie Richards (who was accompanied by his newfound friends, the “Blue World Order” (bWo), one of wrestling’s most successful parody groups). After the Sandman’s ridiculously long entrance and shenanigans with alcohol, the match started with the three exchanging chops and a short-lived alliance between Funk and the Sandman that ended in emphatic fashion when the Sandman randomly brought a ladder into the match. Not only did Funk get blasted in the face by the ladder, he also clambered up it for a Moonsault, the damn thing was sent catapulting into the audience courtesy of the Sandman(!), and Funk used the ladder to repeatedly knock down both his opponents with an airplane spin.

Following a grueling three-way dance, a bloody and battered Funk was easy prey for Raven.

The three brawled viciously, though it was the elderly Funk and the upstart Stevie who took the brunt of the damage, with the latter eating a nasty-looking piledriver, getting buried under the ladder, and finally eliminated from the match following a double powerbomb from Funk and the Sandman. This was the Sandman’s cue to whip out a length of barbed wire that had reams of streamers from a previous match stuck to it, but Funk quickly used the weapon against the Sandman, lashing his bare back repeatedly. Undeterred, the Sandman wrapped the barbed wire around his body and repeatedly splashed into Funk, tearing both of them up in the process, but ultimately it was Stevie who was the deciding factor in the match’s end as he returned to the ring, hit a Superkick on the Sandman (who was blinded by a garbage can) and allowing Funk to get the victory off a Moonsault. Battered and exhausted, Funk was given exactly zero time to prepare for his championship match as Raven immediately entered the ring and clobbered Funk with the ECW Championship. Raven then set up a chair in the ring and smacked Funk head-first into it with a drop toehold before delivering a massive chair shot to the downed Funker’s head, turning his face into the literal crimson mask. Raven continued to dominate his helpless challenger, ramming his face into the canvas and pummelling the punch-drunk hardcore legend before awkwardly suplexing a table onto him on the outside of the ring. After a brief struggle, Raven then set another table up between the ring and the metal barricade; he laid Funk over it and then crashed himself through his opponent, and the table, with a running dive from the inside of the ring to the outside!

Thanks to the timely intervention of Tommy Dreamer, the elderly Terry Funk dethroned Raven.

Although a doctor continuously tried to see to Funk’s injuries, Raven simply knocked him down with a punch, rolled Funk back into the ring, and called for his followers. Reggie Bennett attacked Funk with a terrible sit-out powerbomb and Raven took to the microphone to taunt his long-time rival Tommy Dreamer, who had been doing guest commentary; although Dreamer had refused to get involved since he wanted his mentor to win through his own efforts, the interference and Raven’s words were enough to trigger Dreamer. Despite a sneak attack from Big Dick Dudley, Dreamer reversed a chokeslam into one of his own and sent the tie-dyed terror crashing through a stack of tables piled up near the commentary area. Dreamer then took out the rest of Raven’s Nest and nailed Raven with a jumping DDT off an Irish whip attempt, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Although Raven kicked out of the subsequent pin attempt, Funk immediately caught the champion with an inside cradle, which was enough to keep the champion down for the three count, awarding Funk the victory and the ECW Championship. Exhausted and covered in blood, the fifty-three-year-old hardcore icon celebrated in the braying crowd alongside an emotional Tommy Dreamer, and the strained elation of Joey Styles. Even for ECW, this match was cluttered and chaotic; Funk was clearly gassed after the previous match and got basically zero offense in on Raven, only winning because Dreamer made the save. This did play into the story being told, that being that Raven’s arrogance and mind games saw him dismiss Funk’s threat and be more focused on riling up Dreamer, which ultimately cost him despite him dominating the entire match. The ending seemed to be a bit of a botch as the bell rang when Funk covered Raven off the Dreamer DDT but the crowd didn’t seem to care; they were too busy losing their minds over Funk’s big victory, so I’d say it was a mess, but a reasonably enjoyable mess.

The Aftermath:
Despite all the rigmarole of even getting a network to air the event, Barely Legal 1997 proved to be successful enough that pay-per-views became a regular occurrence for the upstart ECW. A few months later, in August, they aired Hardcore Heaven but, by that point, much of the landscape had changed. Although Terry Funk successfully defended the ECW Championship against the likes of Raven, the Sandman, and “The Franchise” Shane Douglas, he was ultimately defeated by the “The Homicidal, Suicidal, Genocidal, Death–Defying Maniac” Sabu in a brutal barbed wire match at the Born to be Wired supercard event. He challenged for the belt again at Hardcore Heaven in another three-way dance but ultimately came up short and later left the company, celebrated for his achievements, in one of his many infamous “retirement” matches. Raven’s issues with Funk, Dreamer, and Richards would continue up until June, where Dreamer defeated his rival and banished him to WCW for about three years. Although Raven never quite reached the same level of main event status in WCW, he made a considerable impact as a mid-card player with his newest stable, the Flock. He briefly returned to ECW in 1999 to team up with Dreamer before jumping ship to the WWF; after the WWF rebranded to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), all three men would eventually be involved in the WWE’s various revivals of the ECW brand in some form or another and Raven would continue to cross paths with both Dreamer and Funk during his stints in Total Nonstop Action (TNA) and various independent promotions.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think to the ECW Championship match between Raven and Terry Funk? Who did you want to see win the match at the time? Were you a fan of Raven’s time in ECW? What did you think to Terry Funk being the ECW Champion? Were you invested in the ongoing issues between Raven and Tommy Dreamer? Did you watch ECW back in the day and, if so, who were some of your favourite wrestlers and what were some of your favourite matches and moments? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to leave them below or drop a comment on my social media and be sure to check out my other ECW content across the site!