Background: After two years of battling in both professional & personal matters, Tommy Dreamer found himself in a terrible position in his quest to finally pin or submit Raven because his rival was moving onto WCW after this potential final encounter.
Wrestlepalooza ‘97
Philadelphia, PA
June 7, 1997
Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer
With the knowledge that Raven was leaving for WCW in the near future, the fans in attendance vehemently chanted not only in favor of Dreamer, but also shouted, “You sold out!” at Raven prior to the bell. Lupus – one of Raven’s followers – attempted to save his mentor from a thrashing, but Dreamer knocked him down and chased Raven to the arena’s entrance so he could beat him from one end of the arena to another with not only his fists, but also chairs and even some of the fans. Atop the bleachers, Raven was able to yank Dreamer forward to send his adversary careening through a table. As if that wasn’t enough, Raven went for the piledriver on another table, but the table slipped from underneath them and they hit nothing but concrete! Dreamer was the worst for wear as they made it near the “eagle’s nest” and a now bleeding Tommy got thrown through another table. A fourth table came into play with Dreamer reversing another piledriver attempt to set up the splash on his tabled opponent. Raven moved at the last second; causing “The Innovator of Violence” to put himself through the table. Making their way to the wrestler’s entrance, Dreamer and Raven where whipping each other against the guardrails and slamming each other face first into the floor. Raven’s face was starting to pour blood as, yet again, the fight ended up in the crowd. Hoping to toss Raven off the eagle’s nest, Dreamer put himself in position to have his own body toss from a great height atop a soda machine.
The action finally returned to the ring (to the audible happiness of the fans) with Raven setting up a chair to execute his dreaded drop toe hold into the object. Opening a chair in the ring’s middle, Raven wanted to superplex Dreamer. Tommy tried to fight through it, but still felt the chair as he was propelled through the chair. Tommy somehow recovered and countered an Irish whip with the DDT. Grabbing a fan’s sign, Dreamer revealed he had a stop sign that allowed him to bash Raven and piledrive him onto the steel. Lupus ran in to stop the pin. Furious, Dreamer’s valet Beulah entered the ring to DDT Lupus. Low blow from Raven stunned Dreamer and gave him the chance to beg Beulah to come back to him. Dreamer stopped Raven’s advancements with a low blow of his own, only for Raven’s new lady in Chastity to spray him in the eyes with something. Beulah took great exception to Chastity’s actions, causing a catfight! Raven saved his lady, pulling Beulah by his side. This proved terrible for Raven as Beulah hit him in the groin; right into a Dreamer DDT … that gave Tommy a near fall!
Before Dreamer could hit another DDT, Raven pushed them backwards to knock out the referee. Louie Spiccoli – a man looking to take Dreamer’s legacy and look – ran out to DDT “The Innovator of Violence” prior to waking the referee. Raven made the cover, only for Dreamer to kick out at the two count. Stopping the Spiccoli Driver, Dreamer utilized a DDT to put Louie out. When Dreamer got up, Raven spiked him with the DDT … to gain a near fall!
Dreamer countered the DDT attempt on the stop sign, hitting the Spiccoli Driver on Raven. Rather than go for the pin, Dreamer demanded Raven get up and face the man he had tormented for two years. Hooking Raven’s head, Dreamer shouted, “E-C-F***in’-W!” before dropping Raven on his head with the DDT on the steel stop sign to finally pin Raven to a thunderous ovation.
Winner: Tommy Dreamer (15:07)
Is It A Classic: This was the chaotic beauty of ECW at its finest. You had a hate-filled brawl featuring two men with no qualms brutalizing each other with an actual story concluding in the most fitting way possible. This is not only a classic ECW match, but it’s one of the classic ECW moments to add to a bona fide classic event.
