Click here to see the Top 100 Tag Teams of All Time list so far.
This team was ranked number 103 on Cagematch and came in at number 88 on this list.
Rob Van Dam kicked off his career in AJPW. His run there got him signed by ECW, where his first feud saw him frequently standing across the ring from Sabu. Sabu dominated, losing only one in a series of matches against RVD. After his defeat, RVD moved on to a rivalry against a familiar All Japan opponent, Doug Furnas. Furnas recruited his tag partner Danny Kroffat into the mix and they challenged RVD to an ECW vs. All Japan dream match. Kind of silly since RVD had faced this team many times in Japan already, but the internet wasn’t yet what it is today and most American fans probably didn’t know that. So the enemies turned friends trope came into play and this now well-known tag team was born.
October 26, 1996 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rob Van Dam & Sabu def. Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas
From ECW Hardcore TV 186. The match is joined in progress with Sabu hitting RVD with an errant DDT through a table on the floor. The spot looked awful and unconvincing. Something I’ve never understood about tag team matches in ECW is if there are no disqualifications, why would the illegal man ever stand on the apron? Why wouldn’t all four guys just fight until one person is neutralized, and then the team with two conscious men attack 2-on-1 until the legal guy on that team pinned their remaining opponent. Only the legal man would be able to use a submission, I hear you say. Well no, because the illegal man could have a damaging submission on, and as long as the legal man did as much as lightly bend any of the the prone opponent’s appendages, the referee would have to attribute a submission to him. This match features traditional tags, but also plunder in the ring throughout the match. It doesn’t jive. I tuned that out as much as I could and the action that I was left with was rather entertaining. It wasn’t focused at all, but it was entertaining. The finish made Kroffat look like a goofy idiot, though. Sabu hit Furnas with an Arabian Press and dodged Kroffat’s Superfly Splash, causing a friendly fire collision for the AJPW guys. But then Kroffat just stood in the ring like a dope with his hands on his head in disbelief while Sabu pinned Furnas for the win at 8:17 (shown). It looked a bit like RVD was late on a cue to trip Kroffat, but Kroffat was also out of position to start and had to walk to the side of the ring in a way that didn’t make sense. Blah. **½
December 13, 1998 – Tokyo, Japan
Rob Van Dam & Sabu def. Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley {ECW Tag Team Championship Match}
From FMW Year End Sensation. This was the end of the Dudley Boyz fifth tag title reign and the start of RVD & Sabu’s second. I hate to give Bubba any kind of credit, but it’s impressive that he’s gotten into such great shape in middle age compared to how fat he was at 27 years old here. I think if I’d seen this match in ‘98 my brain would have exploded. They were so many cool counters and the pacing was very fast. On the other hand, watching Sabu fail four times in a row trying to hit a springboard dive to the outside was a bummer. And it happened very early in the match. Bubba held a lot of this together with his no-selling big man shtick, but then it started to become too unfocused near the end. D-Von got driven through a table on the floor, but was back on his feet less than a minute later. Bubba fell to a Van Daminator at 16:59 to move the titles over. I was ready to give this a higher rating until it came apart in the last three minutes. **¾
November 16, 1996 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rob Van Dam & Sabu tld. John Kronus & Perry Saturn {Number One Contender Match}
From ECW November to Remember. I was not aware that Kronus was hitting Sasuke Specials back in the day. The fans were energetically into this match until about 18 minutes in. That’s when everyone started selling their exhaustion and the ECW crowd did not know what to make of that. Luckily, the 20-minute time limit expired shortly thereafter (only 10 seconds shy of a true 20-minutes), and the whole match was able to reset. Frankly, everything up until the fans dying was totally solid. Saturn in particular was good at keeping things focused. The crowd immediately demanded a Three Way Dance for the titles, but Todd Gordon instead said the match would go five more minutes. The tag rules are firmly out the window, which is good because they don’t make sense in ECW, and everyone just tries to hit dives or big strikes and powerbombs to get a desperate win. The five-minute time limit expires at 3:52, and Gordon demands another five minutes. There’s a bit of brawling and a big spot that was probably well-intentioned but looked bad in execution, and then the final bell rings at 3:09 of the five-minute time limit. Had there not been the second extension I’d have liked this more. As it is, it’s a well-fought but flawed match. Both teams faced the champions the Gangstas later in the night in a Three Way Dance (which is unfair punishment for the champions and an unearned reward for two teams who couldn’t get a win), which the champions won. ***
February 1, 1997 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
John Kronus & Perry Saturn def. Rob Van Dam & Sabu {ECW Tag Team Championship Match}
From ECW Crossing the Line Again. The Eliminators beat the Gangstas for the tag titles two months earlier in December. This started out very similarly to their match in November, chaotic and quick. The final third of the match saw a table and ladders introduced, and felt more like a modern ladder mess than anything else. In that way, I suppose it was ahead of its time. And it was entertaining all the way through, but never emotionally engaging. I’d say that about the November match as well. There were never stretches during which one team had a sustained advantage over the other, so it never felt like that match could believably end. And then, the Eliminators hit Total Elimination on RVD for the win at 20:02. I was very concerned the Eliminators would be a drag to watch. I’m glad they weren’t because they’re going to show up again a little higher on the list. ***
August 2, 1998 – Dayton, Ohio
Rob Van Dam & Sabu def. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki {ECW Tag Team Championship Match}
From ECW Heat Wave. I am much more excited to watch this having read Shinzaki’s diary covering his initial WWE tour. I have a lot more love for him now. That said, he didn’t sell anything in this match. The first sign that his match was kind of off was RVD and Hayabusa botching a pretty simple spot early on. But not long after that, Shinzaki took a big chair shot to the chest and was fine literally ten seconds later. Because of stuff like that, once again there were no dramatic nearfalls. How could there be if there were no sustained periods of control for either team. That also meant that there were no exciting hot tags. Sabu & RVD hit a diving legdrop and Five Star Frog Splash onto both opponents (through a table (legs collapsed but no break)) at 20:51. At this point I’m starting to numb to this match model. **½
Like all of ECW, this team is lauded because of adolescent memories and the fact that there wasn’t much like it happening in America at the time. I maintain that everything ECW did well, ROH did a lot better just a few years later. That is especially true for how ROH used Japanese visitors. It’s pretty clear that RVD, Sabu, and their peers weren’t being educated by great wrestlers of the present or past, because the matches mostly just featured a series of moves with no consequences rather than engaging stories. But I was worried that these matches would be painful to watch and they were not. They were just average and uninspiring.