10 Best Matches In ECW History

4. Taz Vs. Sabu - Barely Legal 1997

Tajiri Super Crazy
WWE.com

Barely Legal was ECW's first foray into pay-per-view, and a lot of the build for the show centred on this most intense of grudge matches. The bout between Taz and Sabu was one whole year in the making. Taz had been calling Sabu for months with no response, until they finally met face to face in the ring at November to Remember in 1997.

The match was signed for ECW's first PPV (Heyman wasn't a great businessman, but he wasn't totally insane) and no other match in the history of the company can match it in terms of that intangible 'big fight feel'. The atmosphere was the sort of which WWE only seemed to replicate at WrestleMania. This was a 'dream match', and it was treated as such.

Taz would pick up the victory, but the intensity of the match is actually matched by what happens afterwards. Taz's manager Bill Alfonso would turn on him, siding with Rob Van Dam and Sabu. A year-long build, a dream match and a double turn to end things. 

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.