MOTW 142: Taz vs Tanaka vs Awesome
"M.O.T.W. #142: Taz vs. Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome (Three Way Dance)" - ink & digital illustration
Today brings us to the 142nd edition of our Chris Things Art 'Match of the Week' illustration series! And this week we travel to back to 1999, Villa Park, Illinois for a 'Wrestling Club with Chris Things' special!
This positively delightful car crash of a match (that may be the most quintessentially late 90s ECW match ever) took place on September 19th, 1999 at Extreme Championship Wrestling's Anarchy Rulz '99 PPV at The Odeum in Villa Park, IL.
So this past Sunday, we had the opening night of my latest art show at The Scratch & of course we had to have a special return of Wrestling Club! I'd been saving this match for a special night & this one felt very fitting.
The Awesome vs Tanaka Pro Wrestling rivalry has got to be one of my favourite ever & this is for sure one of my favs of their matches. The fact that it involves Taz (on his way out of ECW) defending the ECW World Championship makes for an interesting icing on the cake. The ECW faithful had clearly turned on their former hero for "selling out" & heading to the competition but all things considered, I thought this was done perfectly. Putting the focus for this where it belonged; on Awesome & Tanaka.
This had everything I love about this rivalry. Absolutely stupid chairshots, lots of hard, high impact wrestling, big man flying & some incredible table spots! It also does a great job of acknowledging the big moments & finishes of their prior matches for those who were paying attention.
This match is everything I love about wrestling! And exactly what I want to show to a bar full of folks to see what makes this thing so magical! Man, I miss ECW so much.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
ENJOY!!
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