Today in Wrestling History (June 7, 1997)

[Guest TSMAdmin]

Today in Wrestling History (June 7)

by Jared "JHawk" Hawkins

 

In an age where most feuds don't last longer than a month (and the ones that do are boring crap that we wish only lasted a month), it's always nice to look back on a feud that not only lasted for an extraordinary amount of time, but kept the fans on the edge of their seats the entire time. Six years ago today, one of the longest-running feuds in modern wrestling history came to an end, and it was the feud that became the one people pointed to when they talked about ECW.

 

The story so far: NOTE: The gaps are largely filled in by the match preview of the ECW Wrestlepalooza '97 DVD.

 

The storied rivalry between Tommy Dreamer and Raven began in 1994. Stevie Richards had an impressive win/loss record in ECW when he began copying the former identities of the wrestler then known as Johnny Polo. After a loss to Dreamer, Richards vowed that his idol would avenge the loss. Enter Raven.

 

Dreamer left on a tour of All Japan Pro Wrestling, and while he was gone, in came Raven. Having cut his usual unintelligible promos, nobody knew exactly what the connection between the two of them was. Raven took Richards under his wing. Dreamer returned in February 1995 at the Double Tables event, easily pinning Richards and immediately challenging Raven, who backed off. Thus the first shot was fired in the war that included as many mind games as matches.

 

Raven avoided Dreamer for weeks before Dreamer snapped and attacked from behind. A month later, Dreamer was forced into a gauntlet match, where he defeated Richards, Tony Stetson, and Johnny Hotbody for a chance to meet Raven, but this would be the first trap laid in by Raven, as he handcuffed Dreamer to the ropes and "crucified" him.

 

April 8, 1995 at ECW's Three Way Dance. Raven revealed that he and Dreamer went to summer camp together. They had been friends until Dreamer stole Raven's "fat girlfriend", who would be revealed to be the not-so-fat Beulah McGillicutty. That night was the first-ever official Raven vs. Dreamer match, as Dreamer had Raven beat with a DDT, but he became distracted by an altercation between Richards and Beulah. This enabled Raven to DDT Dreamer on the floor and gain a cheap pinfall victory.

 

April 15, 1995. ECW's Hostile City Showdown. Richards interferes in a Dreamer-Raven match, and no disqualification is called for. An irate Dreamer then knocks the referee down and gets himself disqualified.

 

May 1995. Enter the Sandman. Dreamer again gets himself disqualified, this time in a tag team match. This was when Dreamer started his own mind games, as when he began being outnumbered in a locker room brawl, Luna Vachon ran in to make a save.

 

June 1995. Beulah pins Luna thanks to Raven's interference, and Richards is once again beaten down when he tries to make the save. This would be the first time Raven ever broke an opponent's fingers, breaking several of Dreamer's by simply yanking back on them.

 

Hardcore Heaven 95. Tag Team Champions Raven and Richards succesfully defend against Luna and Dreamer.

 

July 15, 1995. Heat Wave 95. Luna defeats Richards inside a steel cage. After the match, Dreamer ran in, broke several of Raven's fingers, then, in a shot that would remain in ECW's TV opening until its demise, handcuffed Raven to the cage in a crucifixion pose and leveled him with a steel chair.

 

A month later, the Dreamer-Raven feud became a backstory to the birth of another feud, as Cactus Jack turned against Dreamer to allow Raven to score the pin in an eight man tag team match. Raven and Cactus did a series of double teams against Dreamer, which led to Dreamer calling his mentor, Terry Funk. This led to the infamous October 28, 1995 tag team match between all four men that saw Terry Funk nearly get burned thanks to Cactus Jack's fire chair. But more importantly to this feud was that when the lights came on following the ensuing blackout, a bloody Dreamer was hanging from the Eagle's Nest where Joey Styles did commentary. The message was clear at this point. No matter what Dreamer did, Raven always found a way to gain the upper hand. Dreamer finally gained a victory over Raven...when Funk pinned Raven to win the rematch at November to Remember. But Dreamer's first pinfall over Raven remained elusive.

 

Raven then claimed on TV that the real reason his friendship with Dreamer ended was that Dreamer wasn't there for support when his parents divorced. Dreamer attacked, bloodying Raven, all the while screaming "I was there for you!"

 

Dreamer's team beat Raven's team in an Ultimate Jeopardy match around this time, but Raven's team laid out all of their opponents after the match. Even in defeat, Raven would win the battle.

 

And then everything began to get...um...strange, for lack of a better term. At House Party 96, Beulah admitted she was pregnant and that it wasn't Raven's. An incensed Raven began to beat up Stevie until Beulah admitted that the baby was Tommy Dreamer's. Dreamer had once again stolen the girl from Raven. Dreamer ran in to save Beulah from a Raven attack. Part of this attack was the now famous "Tommy, Use My Sign" poster that had a stop sign underneath it.

 

Dreamer had finally gained a victory of sorts over Raven, but Raven would soon win the ECW World Title and bring in Kimona Wanalaya (my all-time favorite wrestling name). Dreamer would bring in The Bruise Brothers (Ron and Don Harris) to aid his war with Raven's Nest, but at Cyberslam 96, they would turn on Dreamer and align themselves with Raven. Dreamer was beginning to suffer injury after injury at this point as Raven continued to get further and further ahead in the feud.

 

A desperate Dreamer finally called on the services of an old enemy, Shane Douglas. Douglas volunteered to watch out for Beulah's safety, and when one of them won a championship, the other would receive the first shot. Douglas then cut a similar deal with The Sandman. Douglas, Dreamer, and The Sandman defeated Raven and The Bruise Brothers in a six man tag team match (the first ECW match I ever saw), but an irate Raven again went after Beulah in an attack that even Kimona tried to stop.

 

Raven eventually attacked Kimona and kicked her out of the Nest, and that's when Douglas had a revelation of his own. A revelation so newsworthy that Raven admitted it was true, and that it would destroy the relationship between Dreamer and Beulah. The revelation? That Beulah was not only never pregnant, but that she was having a fling with Kimona. They shared a public kiss that got ECW banned from many TV stations. Dreamer left with both women on his arms to gain a minor victory, but Kimona didn't stay in ECW long after this.

 

The Raven-Dreamer feud continued indirectly for months, as Dreamer spent as much time wrestling Brian Lee as he did dealing with Raven's mind games. Meanwhile, Raven was in the middle of his feud with The Sandman where he used The Sandman's own family against him. Raven would lose the title to The Sandman when Sandman defeated Stevie Richards, substituting for Raven, who was out with a "personal situation" to attend to. Raven quickly returned to regain the title, and now he found himself against Stevie Richards, who had formed the shockingly popular Blue World Order.

 

Injuries had taken their toll on Dreamer, but soon Terry Funk reentered ECW. Raven and Lee were scheduled to face Dreamer and Funk at Cyberslam 97, and Raven told Funk that if he pinned Raven, Funk would get a shot at ECW's first pay-per-view event, Barely Legal. Raven, however, tried to force Dreamer to get the pin, knowing that his mentor's title aspirations being destroyed would hurt more than gaining that elusive pinfall victory over Raven. However, Funk was bloodied and unable to finish the match. Sandman replaced Funk and scored the pin.

 

As ECW neared Barely Legal, the main event was set. Dreamer would face Raven's other two enemies, Sandman and Richards, in a three way dance with the winner to meet Raven for the title. But Dreamer did the noble thing: He stepped down to allow his mentor, Terry Funk, to take his place in the three way dance. Dreamer agreed to do commentary and vowed not to interfere, because he wanted Funk's victory to stand on its own.

 

Funk won the three way, but was immediately attacked by Raven to jumpstart the title match. The match was about to be stopped for blood, but Raven knocked the doctor out and continued to batter Funk for the sole purpose of torturing Dreamer. Dreamer finally left the booth to confront Raven, but was attacked by Big Dick Dudley. He got Dudley out of the way, DDT'd Raven, and Funk got a three count only moments later to win the title.

 

But Raven still held the wild card...Dreamer never got that pinfall victory. One final match was signed for the August 17 Hardcore Heaven event, but in order to hold onto that wild card, Raven signed a contract with WCW. Commissioner Tod Gordon stepped in, moved the match up to June 7, and the match is set. Can Tommy Dreamer vanquish his foe with a pinfall victory? Or is Raven's last ECW appearance also the night he forever remains in Tommy Dreamer's nightmares?

 

Without any further ado... let's go to June 7, 1997 at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Welcome to Wrestlepalooza 97.

 

Raven (w/Chastity and Lupus) vs. Tommy Dreamer (w/Beulah McGillicutty)

 

"You sold out" chants, as is the norm when the ECW crowd knows someone is leaving. Staredown to start, but almost immediately, Lupus tells Raven that it's his last night, so just leave and he'll take care of Dreamer. Raven makes a break for the front door of the ECW Arena, but Dreamer simply pie faces Lupus down to the mat, hops the guardrail, and the brawl in the crowd begins. Dreamer catches Raven and rams him face-first into the garage doors. Chair shot. Dreamer drags him through the crowd and hits him with a bottle of Powerade. Climbing the bleachers, and Raven throws Dreamer off of the bleachers and through the merchandise table. Raven tosses Dreamer into the broken table. And a piledriver onto the concrete floor. Raven kicks Dreamer, and now they fight behind the bleachers. Raven suplexes a table onto Dreamer, and Dreamer is bleeding already. Shane Douglas fans a towel for Dreamer from the Eagle's Nest. Raven sets up a table and goes for a piledriver, but Dreamer backdrops him, and Raven bounces off the table. Raven is lying on the table, and Dreamer goes for an elbow, but Raven moves and Dreamer goes through the table. Raven whips Dreamer into the guardrail at the entry way. He tries it again, but Dreamer reverses it and Raven hits the steel. Guardrail atomic drop by Dreamer. They finally get to ringside, and Dreamer whips Raven into the guardrail again, then bulldogs Raven face-first to the floor. That busts Raven open. Back into the crowd, and Dreamer hits Raven with a chair. Behind the bleachers again, and Dreamer slams Raven into a "cast-iron vending machine". Dreamer tries to climb to the Eagle's Nest, but Raven tosses him off the ladder and into the vending machine. A fan hands Raven a chair, and Raven uses it on Dreamer's back. We finally get to the ring after about 9 minutes of brawling. Setting up the chair...drop toehold onto the chair by Raven. Low blow, and Beulah cringes on that one. Boot to the face, and Raven calls for a chair. Lupus obliges him, and Raven sets Dreamer up on the top turnbuckle. Dreamer knocks him off with a headbutt and a low blow, but Raven simply launches Dreamer onto the chair and covers for the first 2 count of the match. Dreamer counters a hiptoss into a DDT, and he grabs a "Do not enter the Dream Land" sign. Fight for the sign, referee John Finnegan goes down, Dreamer hits Raven with the sign, and Dreamer reveals a "Do not enter" sign underneath. Dreamer drops the sign and hits a piledriver. Cover for 2, thanks to a save from Lupus (shades of Hostile City Showdown 95). Beulah in to DDT Lupus, and Raven low blows Dreamer and rolls him up for 2. Raven stalks Beulah back into a corner and apparently begs her to take him back, and Dreamer gets a low blow and a roll up for 2. Chastity in to spray Dreamer in the eyes with hair spray, and that sets Dreamer up for a Raven dropkick that gets 2. Beulah and Chastity go at it.....CATFIGHT! CATFIGHT! Raven pulls Beulah off of Chastity. Beulah with a low blow, and Dreamer gets a DDT onto the road sign for 2. Dreamer goes for another DDT, but Raven pushes Dreamer into Finnegan. Dreamer gets the DDT and covers, but there's no referee. In comes Louie Spicolli, who DDTs Dreamer. Raven covers and again only gets 2. Spicolli goes for a Death Valley Driver, but Dreamer counters into a DDT. That leaves Dreamer open, enabling Raven to hit a DDT for 2. Raven goes for another DDT, but Dreamer counters into a Death Valley Driver. Dreamer tells Raven to get up, hooks a front facelock, shouts "EC fucking W", hits yet another DDT, and covers to finally score that elusive pin over Raven at 15:06.

 

The brawl at the beginning, while necessary since you're blowing off a multi-year feud, was a bit excessive. And this had way too much interference and way too many DDTs. That being said, this was a very entertaining brawl with a ton of false finishes that the crowd completely bought into. Plus, they played off their previous matches, with Dreamer having the match won before a last-second save, the use of the road sign inside a sign, and teasing the table bump off the top of the Eagle's Nest that was pretty much a trademark of this feud. So I'm going to rate this ***1/4, with the acknowledgement that hardcore ECW fans will probably be disappointed that I didn't rate it higher and that people who hated ECW will probably mark it lower (a general statement that is NOT indicative of everybody).

 

Aftermath: Dreamer immediately became the top man in the ECW vs. WWF feud, as he was attacked by Rob Van Dam, Sabu, and Jerry Lawler as soon as the match ended. That led to the battle between Lawler and Dreamer at Hardcore Heaven 1997. Raven, as already mentioned, went to WCW and tried to recreate the Nest, but never got a chance to do anything with it.

 

As far as this being the blowoff of the feud, it was...until August 26, 1999, when Raven came back to ECW and shocked the world by helping Dreamer win the World Tag Team Championship...but that's for another column at another time.

 

Drop me a line with your opinions of this match or this article.