A Matter of Respect (1996)

A Matter of Respect (1996) was the first A Matter of Respect professional wrestling supercard event produced by Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It took place on May 11, 1996, in the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A Matter of Respect (1996)
The ECW Arena.
Promotion	Extreme Championship Wrestling
Date	May 11, 1996
City	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Venue	ECW Arena
Attendance	1,000
Event chronology
← Previous Hostile City Showdown Next → Fight the Power
A Matter of Respect chronology
← Previous First Next → 1998

The event marked the culmination of the feud between Rob Van Dam and Sabu, who faced one another in a bout in which the loser was required to shake the winner's hand and declare their respect for them. Van Dam defeated Sabu and subsequently refused to shake Sabu's hand, establishing his cocky persona.[1]

Event

Before the televised portion of the event, Taz defeated Beef Wellington by forcing him to submit to the Tazmission in a non-televised match.

Preliminary matches

In the first televised match, Damien took on El Puerto Ricano. The match ended in a no contest after Sabu interfered in the match and attacked both men.

Next, Damien Kane and Devon Storm took on The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley). D-Von hit chair shots to both opponents as well as his own partner and finally the referee, which led to the referee disqualifying Buh Buh and D-Von.

In the following match, The F.B.I. (J.T. Smith and Little Guido) took on the team of Axl Rotten and Hack Meyers. Guido blocked a sunset flip attempt by Meyers and grabbed Smith's hand for leverage to pin Meyers for the win.

Next, Raven defended the World Heavyweight Championship against The Sandman and Pitbull #2 in a three-way dance. The first elimination occurred when Sandman tried to perform a superplex on Pitbull but Pitbull countered with a superbomb and Raven hit Pitbull with a loaded boot to eliminate him. Raven blocked a suplex attempt by Sandman onto the guardrail and nailed a DDT to Sandman on the rail to retain the title. After the match, Sandman and The Pitbulls attacked The Blue Meanie and Sandman helped Pitbulls in superbombing Meanie and then celebrated with each other.

Next, Chris Jericho took on Mikey Whipwreck. Jericho caught Whipwreck from the top rope and delivered a butterfly suplex to Whipwreck from the top rope for the win.

Later, 2 Cold Scorpio defended the World Television Championship against Shane Douglas. Near the end of the match, Scorpio climbed the top rope but Douglas tripped him and executed a belly-to-belly suplex from the top rope to retain the title.

The final match on the undercard featured Sabu against Rob Van Dam, with the stipulation that the loser would be forced to shake the winner's hand. After a back and forth match, RVD delivered a split-legged moonsault to Sabu for the win. As a result of losing the match, Sabu was required to shake RVD's hand but Sabu was taken away on a stretcher. A few moments later, he came back to the ring to shake RVD's hand but RVD slapped his hand away by uttering "not only do I not respect you, you're a piece of shit" and left with Taz and Bill Alfonso.

Main event match

In the main event, Tommy Dreamer and The Gangstas (Mustafa Saed and New Jack) took on Brian Lee and The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn). Jack nailed a 187 to Kronus for the win.

Results

No.	Results	Stipulations	Times
1^D	Taz defeated Beef Wellington by submission	Singles match	4:35
2	Damien fought El Puerto Ricano to a no contest	Singles match	N/A
3	Damien Kane and Devon Storm (with Lady Alexandra) defeated The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) (with Chubby Dudley, Sign Guy Dudley and Dances with Dudley) by disqualification	Tag team match	14:01
4	The F.B.I. (J.T. Smith and Little Guido) defeated Axl Rotten and Hack Myers	Tag team match	10:55
5	Raven (c) (with Stevie Richards, The Blue Meanie and Miss Patricia) defeated Pitbull #2 (with Pitbull #1 and Francine) and The Sandman (with 2 Cold Scorpio and Missy Hyatt)	Three-way Dance for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship	18:26
6	Chris Jericho defeated Mikey Whipwreck	Singles match	12:00
7	Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio (c)	Singles match for the ECW World Television Championship	26:31
8	Rob Van Dam defeated Sabu	Singles match	18:47
9	Tommy Dreamer and The Gangstas (Mustafa Saed and New Jack) defeated Brian Lee and The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn)	Six-man tag team match	20:46
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match D – indicates the match was a dark match

Three-way Dance eliminations

Elimination no.	Wrestler	Eliminated by	Elimination method	Time
1	Pitbull #2	Raven	Pinfall	15:10
2	The Sandman	Raven	Pinfall	18:26
Winner:	Raven

References

1. Scott E. Williams (13 December 2013). Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of ECW. Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated. pp. 132–. ISBN 978-1-61321-582-1.