Bonus Episode: Cactus Jack vs Sabu (ECW Holiday Hell 1995)

In this Grapple City Rewind bonus episode, Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink jump back to December 29, 1995, to break down one of the strangest matches in ECW history: Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) vs. Sabu from ECW Holiday Hell. What begins as an absurd “Olympic Rules” challenge—complete with an NCAA referee and point deductions—quickly collapses into pure ECW chaos once 9-1-1 destroys the official and takes over.

Recorded at the cramped, smoky Lost Battalion Hall in Queens, this match captures everything fans loved about mid-90s ECW: hostile crowds, sarcastic Joey Styles commentary, broken chairs, reckless dives, and total disregard for the supposed rules. Foley tries to prove he’s more than just hardcore, Sabu throws himself at anything in sight, and the whole thing spirals into violent absurdity before a surprisingly flat finish.

A focused, single-match rewind that highlights ECW’s attitude, humor, and brutality at its peak.

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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.

Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.

Transcript

 hello and welcome to grapple city rewind bonus episode today we are not going back to a old pay-per-view but we are going back to 1995 for one specific match that occurred at ecw holiday hell it was mick foley versus sabu

29:24.73
Bradley Palermo
in an Olympics rules match. ah

29:27.68
Aaron
but

29:29.19
Bradley Palermo
The date was Friday, December 29th. By the way, I'm Bradley Palermo here as always with Aaron Fink. date was Friday, December 29th, 1995 1995 at the Lost Battalion Hall in Queens, New York.

30:10.04
Bradley Palermo
So we're in like an echoing, it looks like a high school gymnasium. I don't know what the Lost Battalion Hall is, but yeah.

30:15.83
Aaron
It probably was or like a yeah, like a VA hall or something. There were only 1200 people here for this.

30:19.28
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

30:21.78
Bradley Palermo
Okay, yeah. So it was very, like like I would say, like nowadays, GCW vibes. the The fans are pressed right against the guardrails. um There's wrestling mats laid around the ring to protect the bodies from being thrown into the basketball court floor, which is not always what we would have in ECW.

30:38.47
Bradley Palermo
Low ceilings, heavy like you know East Coast attitude going around.

30:38.80
Aaron
hmm.

30:43.77
Bradley Palermo
You can... You can kind of smell this place through your TV set. if you

30:47.37
Aaron
Yeah, yeahs he's Cactus Jack at this point.

30:48.03
Bradley Palermo
Cigarettes, beer. um Mick Foley comes out first. He's not in a Santa suit, but in a full like ECW, anti-corporate warrior mode. And And he...

30:59.37
Bradley Palermo
Oh, he is. Okay, yeah, yeah. And he immediately cuts a promo trashing WCW. WCW sucks because they're always talking about WCW at UCW. And he calls out the idea that you know people think he's only a hardcore wrestler and he's just tables and violence and that's it.

31:14.54
Bradley Palermo
But he insists that he's more and he's going to prove it by doing an Olympic rules match. He challenges Sabu to an Olympic rules match, which is a legitimate...

31:23.32
Aaron
No chairs, no tables.

31:25.40
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, a legitimate NCAA amateur wrestling match. And I don't know how many of you out there have ever amateur wrestled or been to an amateur wrestling match. i I have. It was a very, very long time ago. And I forgot that you have to start down on your knees like a dog.

31:41.71
Aaron
Yep, yep.

31:41.91
Bradley Palermo
And um so they've got...

31:43.03
Aaron
And they bring, he's like, oh yes, I have this Olympic or this NCAA referee here to talk more about the rules. He's like, give it up for Pee Wee Moore.

31:55.05
Bradley Palermo
God.

31:55.17
Aaron
who is this guy? And then, yeah, he explains the rules.

31:56.17
Bradley Palermo
and then he explains the rules so badly.

31:59.95
Aaron
There's no striking. There's no weapons. I wrote down, this is some funny heel shit right here. Cause.

32:05.16
Bradley Palermo
there's a He explains like the top position, the bottom position, the points for reversals.

32:09.90
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

32:10.45
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, no chairs, no weapons, no fun, et cetera, et cetera. And Sabu looks sabulus very confused. And the refs like gets down on all fours to like show him like how he starts.

32:19.28
Aaron
He's like, yeah.

32:21.19
Bradley Palermo
And he's looking at him like he's fucking nuts. He stares at him like he's from another planet. And um

32:25.80
Aaron
Yeah.

32:26.48
Bradley Palermo
and this

32:26.68
Aaron
Fortunately, we we didn't have too much of this, although Joey Styles on commentary does does keep making jokes about it. But eventually 9-1-1 9-1-1 comes out and just destroys the referee with a couple of choke slams.

32:38.68
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah, because the crowd is like pissed that they have to listen to this NCAA rules thing.

32:45.95
Aaron
Yeah.

32:45.98
Bradley Palermo
It seems like no one in the building, including the commentary, had any idea what those rules were.

32:46.22
Aaron
Yeah.

32:50.54
Bradley Palermo
And this wrestler 911 just smashes that ref and he's going to be the ref now. So the crowd erupts, EC dub, EC dub.

32:58.30
Aaron
yeah

32:58.68
Bradley Palermo
And the official, the Olympic rules officially dead, but it doesn't stop commentary the entire time to be like, he's used his fist. That's minus two points.

33:06.89
Aaron
Yeah.

33:07.52
Bradley Palermo
He's been knocked down.

33:07.78
Aaron
sort what

33:08.28
Bradley Palermo
in the Oh, he stomped his head. like That's at least minus three. How many, how far, how far in reverse can we go at these points?

33:13.95
Aaron
Far into the negative. Yeah.

33:15.35
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

33:16.01
Aaron
My favorite of ah Joey style, sarcastic commentary was he's like NCAA rules, referee nine one one. but

33:24.92
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

33:25.82
Aaron
it was pretty funny, honestly. I'm not going to lie.

33:28.89
Bradley Palermo
yeah

33:29.60
Aaron
It didn't make me laugh.

33:29.90
Bradley Palermo
That's a deduction for striking. and the Flagrant violation of Olympic rules. yes It was funny. I mean, it it got layered.

33:37.88
Aaron
Maybe went to it a few too many times, but it was funny.

33:40.41
Bradley Palermo
e de They stopped about halfway through the match with the NCAA joke and eventually just became like a new CW match between Cactus Jack and and Sabu.

33:43.55
Aaron
Yeah.

33:49.10
Bradley Palermo
But Sabu looks... um I always say his name. Sabu, right? Sabu.

33:54.03
Aaron
Yeah.

33:54.76
Bradley Palermo
Whatever.

33:54.90
Aaron
Sabu.

33:55.52
Bradley Palermo
Sabu looks crazy here. i never realized he was so covered in deep scars.

34:01.67
Aaron
Scars. Yeah.

34:02.70
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I mean, he's...

34:03.56
Aaron
I also think it's funny that they say he's from Bombay, India, and he's actually from like Michigan or something.

34:03.70
Bradley Palermo
i mean

34:13.59
Aaron
okay

34:17.75
Aaron
hmm.

34:17.74
Bradley Palermo
He doesn't just put them on something and jump into it or jump off of it. Like he's always flying through the air with his chair like a ninja flying with his samurai sword or something, you know?

34:27.45
Aaron
Yeah.

34:27.89
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

34:27.97
Aaron
Yeah. If he's not springboarding off of it, like set, you know, kind of like how Mark Briscoe does now a lot of the time, like he'll set it somewhere and then use it as as something to jump off of.

34:34.86
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

34:38.86
Aaron
If he's not doing that, it's like he's doing a leg drop, but the chair is in between his leg and the person he's about to hit or, you know, like, yeah, it's always kind of mobile.

34:45.62
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

34:47.99
Aaron
And and actually, The chairs were not normal steel chairs. They were like the cheap plastic ones with the metal frames. And it almost kind of looks like it hurts more in a way because it's like all curved and weird places.

34:57.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

35:00.03
Aaron
And.

35:00.41
Bradley Palermo
Pieces are all falling apart and stuff.

35:02.21
Aaron
yeah

35:02.49
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. um

35:04.26
Bradley Palermo
Fully, ah yeah, you know, heavy strikes, weapon spots, reckless bumps on the floor, lot of lot of ringside chaos. I mean, he's good with with being absurd and brutal and at the same time.

35:16.10
Aaron
Yeah, it's exactly what you would expect from these two guys. And that's not to say that it was disappointing at all.

35:19.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

35:21.54
Aaron
It was a brawl with weapons and Sabu doing super crazy shit, throwing himself over the top rope, throwing himself onto Cactus and through a table, you know, just usual stuff.

35:32.04
Bradley Palermo
Did you Joey Styles, he's the only announcer, right, in this one?

35:37.33
Aaron
Yeah.

35:44.39
Bradley Palermo
singer.

35:45.03
Aaron
okay

35:45.39
Bradley Palermo
he's He's denouncing it, and then he goes, my

35:48.46
Aaron
Yeah, he that was like his famous thing.

35:49.39
Bradley Palermo
But it's, yeah, okay, yeah.

35:52.03
Aaron
He did it like once every show, pretty much.

35:55.44
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and it it doesn't it doesn't sound natural. It's just so it's like ah he's putting on a voice. It's funny. It's weird. oh my God! Whatever.

36:02.54
Aaron
I can't even do it, but it's yeah it's pretty iconic.

36:10.12
Aaron
Yeah, you'll pop it in right here.

36:10.25
Bradley Palermo
But, yeah, I mean, right. Chairs flying, tables flying, wild dyes, brawling of Southern Ring. What else did I write down? This is exactly what Foley said he didn't want, and it's exactly what UCW fans...

36:19.30
Aaron
Yeah.

36:21.37
Bradley Palermo
Did want. um After all of the madness and after everything breaks in the room, Sabu pins Mick Foley cleanish.

36:31.65
Aaron
Yeah. It was kind of a weird, it was, it was very lackluster ending for all the craziness.

36:32.08
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

36:36.94
Aaron
Cause like cactus had Sabu up for a suplex and And then Sabu just kind of falls onto him and then gets the pin. i was like, huh, that was, couldn't really figure out how to get out of this one, huh?

36:48.96
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was just kind of over, but it was fun.

36:50.70
Aaron
Yeah.

36:54.68
Aaron
Yeah.

36:57.15
Bradley Palermo
Well, that's all the time we got for this GCR bonus episode. Don't forget, can always reach out to us on social media. We are at GrappleCityPod across all platforms. You can also call us 626-657-SLAM.

37:23.81
Bradley Palermo
We will be back in January for season two, and we'll be getting back into our full episode, full breakdowns of very old pay-per-views.

37:36.71
Bradley Palermo
Was there anything else I mentioned usually? Did I say email?

37:39.83
Aaron
Yeah, you did.

37:40.18
Bradley Palermo
Or more if you want to send us an email, grapplecitypod at gmail.com. Thanks for listening and we will see you soon.