This grudge match from the old ECW federation features Tommy Dreamer at war with Shane Douglas. Tommy was the top Baby-Face in ECW and cocky Shane Douglas was the ultimate Heel.
The two men are acting out the classic pro wrestling scenario known as “Selling the Ribs” — where the Baby-Face must wrestle despite an obvious rib injury.
Throughout the match, Dreamer sells the hellish effects of the rib torture IMMACULATELY, tossing his head back, his eyes popping out of his head like his dick is caught in a vacuum cleaner, his face all contorted and his teeth bared. The wrestler who is selling the ribs is considered a Tragic Hero, doomed from the start, and Dreamer sells those ribs like a champ!
Shane and Tommy had wrestled as Tag Team partners the previous week, but bad boy Shane betrayed the hapless Dreamer, and held his legs as their heel opponents whipped him with their championship belts to harm his ribs.
So Shane helped to inflict the damage, a common feature of this gimmick. Dreamer wants revenge, but he is clearly still injured, as the white tape around his lower torso indicates. Sadistic Douglas viciously targets those hurt ribs.
This scenario implies that Good is Stupid and Evil is Clever. Dreamer must foolishly believe that his hard work and desire are enough to overcome his injury — or he is naive and thinks his opponent will have mercy and not attack his vulnerability.
Shane, meanwhile, deliberately targets those injured ribs relentlessly like a hungry wolf, wisely exploiting the injury he himself helped to inflict. For wrestling fans, the frustration of seeing our hero foolishly place himself at the clever villain’s mercy is part of our excitement — “Come on Tommy, WHY did you ever agree to wrestle this cruel bastard while you are injured?!”
The Baby Face’s main job is to inspire sympathy from the audience, and Dreamer was great at this. He was forever putting himself recklessly in harm’s way, battling against the odds and finding himself beaten, humiliated, and crawling around like a dog or a slave. He had absolutely no shame in his game as he writhed around in agony.
The Baby Face’s other job is to make the Heel seem like a cruel bastard, and Shane Douglas appears absolutely evil as he tears into Dreamer’s injured ribs.
Shane is such a cocky dick, which is why we love him. “Don’t fuck with me, Tommy Dreamer! I will break your ribs again, and smile while I’m doing it.” Wrestling fans may not want to admit this to themselves, but watching pure, unapologetic evil at work can be quite a turn-on, and we will tune in week after week to see what the Bad Boy will do next to torture and harm our heroes.
And Shane Douglas is such a handsome devil, the kind of villain you love to hate because it’s a turn-on, so his cocky, spoiled Bad Boy antics were always a pleasure to watch. While torturing Dreamer’s ribs in a Body Scissor, Shane turns on one elbow to smile and flirt with the fans at ringside. It’s as if Tommy Dreamer’s agony means nothing to cruel Shane Douglas, as if he can’t even be bothered to pay any attention to the pain his legs are inflicting on Dreamer’s ribs. I tried to capture this moment in animated GIFs, but I am still new at these so bear with me…
In the end, Shane’s relentless abuse and dirty tricks are more than Dreamer can handle and Douglas is declared the winner.
The real outcome of the match is the effect on the fans who watched it: brave, heroic Tommy Dreamer now has our sympathy for getting in the ring despite his injury and taking his beating like a man. This is what “selling the ribs” is meant to accomplish.
And bad boy Shane has earned credibility as a sexy, sadistic villain who we want to see in action more often. He took advantage of Dreamer’s unfortunate injury, which Shane himself helped to inflict, using cruel tactics like ripping off the injured man’s bandages and clamping on that vicious Body Scissor. Wrestling fans love to see their heroes tortured, and the old taped ribs are a great way to make that happen.
On YouTube, you can check out the match where Dreamer is betrayed by Douglas and injured, as well as the revenge match described above where Dreamer sells the ribs.