Match of the Day - ECW's barbed wire TLC match

Sabu vs. Sandman - Stairway To Hell match - ECW House Party (1998)

Even ECW had their own variation to a simple ladder match going in the late 90's to early 00's. The match was called a "Stairway To Hell" match and was much more like a pole match than a ladder match as the object was to retrieve a weapon hanging above the ring for use, but the retrieval did not end the match. The weapon of choice, of course, was a big ball of barbed wire.

This is ECW's first Stairway To Hell featuring the cane wielding, beer drinking, cigarette smoking, Sandman versus the homicidal, genocidal, and incredibility suicidal, Sabu.

Theme Results

TLC: All of 'em.

Match of the Day - Matt Striker teaches us how to be Sabu in 3PW

Matt Striker as Strikebu vs. Damian Adams - 3PW (2004)

Before Matt Striker was everyone's favorite former-teacher-turned-wrestler-turned announcer/commentator, Striker had a case of missing identity in Blue Meanies short-lived promotion, Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling or 3PW (since the latter doesn't sound like some kind of Hank Hill wet dream promotion). Each match Striker would come out to the ring as a different wrestler - and thus, the shenanigans ensued.

On this particular night in South Philadelphia, Striker dressed up as an all-to-familiar suicidal, homicidal, genocidal maniac to the former ECW arena, Sabu. Striker, err, Strikebu, had it all: the baggy pants, the lights-out entrance, the triple jump moonsault botch. Strikebu even had his whistle blowing manager, Bob Al-Eckos (played by Rob Eckos AKA Robbie E)!

The impersonations don't stop there... Striker would also imitate Rick Rude, Goldberg (as Strikeberg), and even Hakushi, through the course of the match. Unfortunately for Striker, his imitations did not pay off as well as he had hoped and ended up losing the match to Damian Adams after Strikebu's attempted "from parts-unknown" face-buster onto a slanted table went awry.

I always wished that Striker would bring this missing identity gimmick with him to the WWE. Instead he played the teacher gimmick as he really was a high school teacher in New York before making it into the business full-time. Of course, he was fired for taking too many days off to go wrestle because he didn't know the difference between a sick day and a personal day. 

This sort of "different wrestler each week" gimmick was however given to Charlie Haas before his last run in WWE.