5. Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko -- ECW Arena, August 26, 1995
Perhaps never before have two men been so evenly matched. It would be their last match in ECW, and the intensity and emotion in the building was extreme. The Philadelphia crowd was red hot with "Bischoff Sucks!" chants on this night, as Malenko and Guerrero were heading off to WCW to apply their trade. "These two world class athletes will be allowed to face each other with no boundaries and no limits," Joey Styles declared before the match got started. "In short, this will be the last time they're allowed to take it to the extreme!" This showdown will be two out of three falls between the two second-generation wrestlers. It begins with Guerrero offering a hand shake, and Malenko takes it. "Please don't go!" chants echo throughout the arena in the opening minutes as Malenko and Guerrero connect with a Greco-Roman Knucklelock, followed up with an impressive array of leg sweeps, snap mares, monkey flips, standing dropkicks, hammerlock bridges, reversals, bulldog take-overs, and fisherman suplexes. Malenko catches Guerrero in a standing leg brace into a variation of the bow and arrow. Putting pressure on the spine of Guerrero, Malenko locks on a version of the STF, showing great tenacity as a shooter. Throughout the opening minutes of the match, Malenko is meticulous with his attack, before Guerrero fights back with a European uppercut, a belly-to-belly suplex, an enzuigiri to the back of the head, and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. The ECW Arena is filled with so much passion as Eddie gets the first pin fall with a quick roll up. And clearly, the overwhelming emotion is overtaking everyone in the building, including the athletes in the ring, both trained by their fathers and their brothers from childhood. The two lock up again, but after a short back-and-forth struggle, Malenko hooks Guerrero in the Texas Clover Leaf and makes him submit, tying things up at one fall apiece. After Guerrero walks off the pain, both athletes turn it up a notch for the third fall as Malenko delivers a running clothesline followed by a brain buster. Outside the ring, Malenko whips Guerrero into the steel guardrail, as both athletes seemingly abandon the mat wrestling for some high-impact maneuvers. Malenko hits Guerrero with a powerbomb back in the ring, but Guerrero kicks out at two. Valiantly fighting back and digging deep, Guerrero connects with a swinging DDT followed by a brain buster of his own and his signature Frog Splash from the top rope. Malenko kicks out. Back and forth with sunset flips, hurricaranas and rib breakers, the emotional crowd breaks out into "Shooter!" chants for Dean Malenko, before Guerrero goes for a second swinging DDT. But Malenko tosses him off like a frisbee and sends him flying across the ring. "Fool me once.." says Joey Styles, stating how well these two athletes have studied one another. The hard-fought battle finally ends with a bridging suplex -- but who pinned who? Both men's shoulders were flat on the mat. The referee declares the bout a draw to the delight of the fans who have witnessed another Guerrero/Malenko classic. Once again, and for the last time in ECW, Eddie and Dean took technical wrestling to the extreme.