Rob Van Dam & Sabu vs. Lucha Brothers (Fenix & Pentagón Jr.) - Impact Wrestling United We Stand 4/4/19 – 5
I was in attendance at ECW Heat Wave ’98 when Sabu & RVD faced off against Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki. Then again, I was also in attendance (in the same city, conversely) for WWE vs. ECW Head To Head an all but forgotten TV special that aired live on 6/7/06 and saw RVD work the opener versus Rey Mysterio, and Sabu headline against John Cena. Needless to say, I have a vested interest in their extreme pairing, and seeing them trotted back out in 2019, nearly 20 years after I saw them live light the wrestling world aflame against the invading FMW team, caught my attention. Lucha Brothers were all the buzz in 2019 having been two of the biggest stars to materialize out of (sorely missed) Lucha Underground. They took their act across the globe showing up in PWG, AAA, AEW, APW, IWRG, AIW, AAW, MLW, wXw, and dozens of smaller lucha organizations. And now they were set to main event against the scarred, stoned, and semi-retired duo of RVD & Sabu. Cero Miedo, indeed!
Awesome ring gear by the Lucha Brothers. Kind of new age shiny samurai outfits. Pentagón’s was dark and purple like if Ivan Ooze and Super Shredder melded. Fenix was resplendent in gold and would have fit in snuggly with Chikara during the How to Hatch a Dinosaur era. I got worried when I looked at the remaining duration of the show and saw we only had about 8 min. left.
Melee to begin. I forgot that I dig Sabu’s punches. Sabu tossing chairs like his ringside valet Super Genie does salads. Spot where Sabu on his knees waits ever so patiently for the Lucha Bros. to simultaneously kick him – looked like he was sitting in a dentist office waiting room thumbing through an issue of Highlights. Wonder if RVD ever smoked out with Jeff Hardy and classified himself as obsolete? You absolutely had to get the dual flying leg drops from opposite corners by Sabu & RVD through a table both Lucha Bros. were splayed on and they delivered with zeal.
Finish saw Pentagón hit his Fear Factor package pildriver on Sabu with an assist from Fenix spiking it with a flying stomp off the top. Look I’m giving this a “5” on the famed NHO scale but with some caveats. In terms of its actual “worth” it’s no great shakes. But a “4” was the ceiling for a lot of those 4 min. 2005 Raw matches I’d jot notes on in the infancy of NHO. Didn’t feel right going that low. But couldn’t go any higher and it earned its score almost exclusively on vibes. This was a compelling match on paper and the super abbreviated version we got of it was gleeful and stupid in equal, loving measure. Didn’t love Sabu taking a clean pinfall in a < 9 min. main event match; kind of like seeing Third Eye Blind live and shrugging after, “at least they played Semi-Charmed Life” and driving home thinking about where you were going to go on lunch breaks that week at work and all that Mid-Atlantic you still need to watch on Peacock.
