Glass Hand Dissolving: Rob Van Dam & Sabu

vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Sandman (ECW 1/24/1998)

This is supposed to be RVD vs Bam Bam, but Sabu gets involved, and Bam Bam doesn't have a partner. He asks Taz to be his partner, but Taz says fuck a lot and gets attacked by Brakkus. RVD says nobody is dumb enough to team with Bigelow, which brings out Sandman. He comes to the ring, attempts to drink a beer, but gets attacked, and we are off. A lot of brawling, a few weapons shots, then Lance Storm and Chris Candido hit the ring. Shortly after that, Shane Douglas is out there, too. In the melee, Sabu puts Sandman through a table, Bigelow fights off the 3 on 1 assault, and is able enough to powerbomb Sabu, and climbs the rope to hit a flying headbutt on Sabu, but somehow kinda hits Sandman, and in such a way that Sabu gets up, hits Bigelow with a cane, Sandman with a ladder, and Sabu gets the pin. This whole thing is a total mess. 

vs Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney (ECW 7/3/1998)

This is just guys doing stuff for 8 minutes. RVD does stuff with chairs. Balls does big moves. Axl does stuff with chairs. Sabu does stuff with chairs and tables. That's the match. It is pretty much what the crowd wanted, but that doesn't mean it's a good match or that I have to like it. 

vs Chris Candido & Lance Storm (ECW 7/5/1998)

This is a pretty coherent match, especially compared to some of the other stuff on this list. Candido carries a lot of the early parts of the match, and Lance doesn't really do a whole lot in this match at all. Eventually, we brawl outside, and then the weapons get involved. Fonzie is holding chairs for RVD, Sabu is putting guys through tables; it is the stuff that they do. I suppose that this is fine, the closing section just happens because that's what these guys do, but I suppose this team is capable of much worse. 

vs The Dudley Boys (ECW 9/12/1998)

This was okay. The Dudleys work a numbers game that Sabu and RVD have to overcome. It ends up with Sabu having to sell quite a bit, which is fine, but not exactly what I'd ask Sabu to do for extended periods of time. D-Von actually has a few nice spots here, catching RVD with a cutter off the top and interrupting Sabu jumping off a chair to the outside. The end here has a lot of stereo spots and Bubba hoing through a table. Pretty good all things considered. 

vs The Hardy Boyz (WrestleCon SuperShow 3/28/2015)

Both teams are ovbiously past their peaks, and that makes this an interesting and crowd-pleasing match, but I don't know if it rises above that level. The Sabu and Jeff Hardy segments are interesting in that you can view Hardy as a successor to Sabu, but that doesn't make for a great match. Outside of that, this is a very RVD and Sabu match. It is a pretty standard match: both teams tag a few times, then we break out the weapons, and somebody gets pinned. The Hardys use a ladder, Sabu uses a chair, Matt hits a Twist of Fate on Sabu, Jeff hits a Swanton, but then RVD makes a comeback, hits a frog splash, and it's all over. 

 Verdict

These guys were over with the ECW crowd; they do stuff that the ECW crowd likes, but the matches aren't really that good. They sometimes have a pretty disjointed formula, and they always devolve in the same way. I'm sure if I watched 100 of these matches, they'd all start out with wrestling, brawl to the outside, get weapons involved, and then go to the finish.