Written by: Arnold Furious
This is a famous ECW show. It contains the ECW match of the 90′s and seeing as ECW folded early in 2001 it’s probably considered ECW’s best match, ever. I’m a big fan of the Lynn-RVD encounters in 1999 though so I’m not sure I’d give it that level of prestige. Which match am I speaking about? Well you’ll just have to wait and see. Rest of the card blows. So let’s try and get it out of the way.
September 16th 1995. We’re at the ECW arena in beautiful south Philadelphia.
Broadstreet Bully v Bull Pain
Bull hits a back suplex that pisses the Bully off and he hits a flying clothesline. Hockey stick beating follows. Outside the Bully eats a chair. Joey calls this one a “slobberknocker”. More plunder shots on the floor. Bully gets suplexed and then DDT’d through a ringside table. Powerslam from Bull gets 2. Joey talks about ECW breaking tables and badmouths WCW. Couple of low blows from Bull. They run a ‘clothesline while Bully is sat on a chair’ spot and botch it. Bull dumps Bully on the guardrail. Bully fights back with a beer shot. “You both suck” – Philly. Superplex from Bull and that’s the first crisp move either one of them has hit. Bull DDT’s Bully off the ropes for the finish at 8.09. That was mainly bad. *. I’m feeling generous. The effort was there but the talent wasn’t. Both men lacked a certain crispness that would have made the match better. But then neither one of them is a good worker. Kind of makes you wonder why they kicked the show off.
DW Dudley/Dudley Dudley w/Sign Guy/Chubby/Big Dick v Chad Austin/Don E. Allen
What is this show? Jobbermania? I’ve not seen a real wrestler out here yet. DW Dudley is announced from Oklahoma. Reverse suplex from DW. Dudley comes in to demonstrate what an appalling wrestler he is. Snap suplex gets him 2. Backbreaker with a DW elbow drop. Don E. tags in and gets powerslammed for 2. Brawl at ringside sees Austin get dumped through a table (that’s 2 tonight). Vertical suplex gets 2. Outside Big Dick is pounding on Chad Austin. Dudley hits a splash on Don E. and it’s over at 4.48. DUD. Just terrible. Nothing to redeem this at all.
Hack Myers v JT Smith
You can probably guess how good this is. For whatever reason they try to do some mat basics and UGLY doesn’t even begin to sum it up. JT runs his goofball gimmick and gets beaten down. My tape is clipped (I’m not complaining). JT misses a pescado, which I’m duty bound to point out that Joey incorrectly called a tope. Into the crowd JT can’t get a piledriver. Back inside they run the ugliest backdrop sequence I’ve ever seen. JT tries for the top rope move and falls off through a table at ringside (that’s 3 tables tonight). It’s part of his gimmick so I’ll not mark him down for that. JT is counted out at 4.56 shown. What? A count out in ECW? That’s the only one I’ve ever seen. DUD and the parade of ECW jobbers continues. How about a real match with actual wrestlers in it? This tape is only 90 minutes long for Christ’s sake.
Clips of Tazz/Steiners fighting Eliminators/Jason/Scorpio. Why on earth did we have all of the first 2 matches and yet just clips of the Steiners v the Eliminators? Looked like a decent match too. Lots of suplexes from the Steiners. Match ends with a bloody Jason pinning Tazz after Scorpio interfered.
2/3 falls double dog collar match – Raven/Stevie Richards (c) w/Beulah v The Pitbulls
Lots on the line here. The Pitbulls will split if they don’t win. Raven is left alone as Stevie isn’t out as the match starts. Durante predictably beats Raven down. Wolfe goes to look for Stevie. Raven takes a nasty chair shot. Wolfe returns with Stevie who’s already busted open. Durante brings a table into the ring while Wolfe waffles Stevie with a chair. Raven counters Durante and piledrives him through the centre of a table for the 1st fall at 2.08 and in the process broke the 4th table of the night.
Double DDT on Wolfe gets 2. Superkick from Stevie sends him back down again for 2. Another table in from Durante. He’s busted but he manages to get Stevie up for the table superbomb. Stevie is dead at 4.19. We’re tied at 1-1 and that’s table number 5 dead for the evening.
For some reason we get clipping so they can show the 1st 2 falls again. When we come back Stevie is wearing the crimson mask. This goes to an insane brawl on the outside. Durante brings another table into the ring. Ref gets bumped in the process. Dudleys do a run in and assault the Pitbulls. They help Raven/Stevie hit a pair of superbombs, which are no sold. Pair of double DDT’s for Raven/Stevie and the Dudleys. Superbomb on Dudley. Superbomb on DW. Pitbulls set up another table and superbomb Raven into the side of it. Good God that could of killed him. But Raven kicks out! Raven gets out the ether rag and takes out Durante with it. Durante gets legdropped through a table and then through another table (those 2 make it 7 tables here tonight). Wolfe suplexes Stevie through a table (that’s 8) but Raven breaks the count after unhooking himself from Durante. Francine does a run in and catfights Beulah until Raven DDT’s her. Durante is stretchered into the back because he hasn’t moved in ages so out comes Tommy Dreamer. He chains himself to Raven. They brawl. DDT from Dreamer gets 3 at 14.42 but what the hell is that all about? He’s not even in the match.
Out comes Fonzie though and he tells Dreamer that he’s not legal in the match. He tells Dreamer that he’s never beaten Raven either. Fonzie awards the belts back to Raven/Stevie. Todd Gordon comes out and orders the match to continue. Big Dick is out there and he chokeslams Dreamer. Fonzie lifts the chokeslam ban and this brings out 911. He chokeslams Fonzie and the crowd is going BONKERS. Durante comes back out at this point and he superbombs Raven and Stevie at the same time for 3 at 19.44 and that’s the end of the match. For those of you who couldn’t guess this was the match voted match of the decade in ECW but frankly I don’t see it. ***1/2. I think I’m more than generous with that grading. Sure, the match was hot with the crowd but that doesn’t mean it’s a great match. There wasn’t much wrestling going on (which was pretty much the problem in ECW until they toned their image down and actually put on some wrestling action) and the brawling was just standard stuff. It was all well executed though which is why I’m not completely slating this but MOTY candidate this ain’t. Also it was overbooked all the merry way to hell with EIGHT run in’s in total. Furthermore it’s yet another example of ECW marks overgrading the company’s earlier matches when in reality they were bingo hall quality. Right, I’m done. Onto the next match.
Rey Mysterio Jr. v Psicosis
For those of you who don’t know I like the puro junior style better than lucha libre. So this one starts out with lots of pointless flippy floppy stuff that the crowd loves. Powerbomb from Psicosis but he doesn’t cover. Big farewell on poor ickle Rey. Press drop into the buckles from Psicosis. Running dropkick from Psicosis. Spinning slam and legdrop from Psicosis. Does he know about pinfalls? He’s not gone for one yet. Split legged corner splash from Psicosis. He goes for another and lands on his head. West Coast Pop from Rey gets 2. Leaping spinning rana and a flying headscissors from Rey. Corner flying splash gets buckles and nothing else for Rey. Tijuana Jam gets 2. Powerbomb from Psicosis gets 2 (I guess he remembered about pinfalls then). Spinning heel kick and Rey bails. Psicosis goes for a tope and Rey hits him with a chair. Now that spot RULES! Corkscrew moonsault gets 2 for Psicosis. A corner charge follow up gets knee into buckles. Rey fakes with a 619 and hits a plancha to the floor. Botched super rana from Rey gets the 3 count at 10.18. **1/2. Spotty but not good. Total lack of psychology and although I’m up for exciting spotty matches there’s something about the rana loaded handholding style of lucha that bugs me.
Steel cage – Mikey Whipwreck/Public Enemy v Sandman/Scorpio/New Jack
Hard to tell who the babyfaces and heels are in this. The fans kind of like everyone until New Jack lays into the PE with one of the more profanity loaded promos ever to be unleashed on any wrestling show. The only guy I like in this match is Mikey. Sandman gets thrown into the cage and lands with his cigarette still in his mouth. Rocco steals it, takes a drag and throws it into the crowd. Asai moonsault press into a Russian legsweep from Rocco. Cool. They spill out of the cage. Most of the guys are now busted open. The cameras try to follow Grunge-New Jack out in the fans while Sandman-Mikey brawl on the top of the cage and Rocco-Scorpio run a few basic sequences on the mat. Mikey hits a rana on Sandman for 2. Sandman suplexes a table on Mikey. Sandman throws a table off the top of the cage onto Rocco. Scorpio follows in with a superkick. Some plunder shots follow. PE stack tables in the corner of the ring until they’re level with the top of the cage. Rocco and Scorpio fight over the tables. They throw each other off through the tables (another 3 makes 11 busted tables for the night). Sandman suplexes a table onto Rocco to prevent a 3 count. Scorpio and New Jack are thrown out of the cage leaving Sandman on his own. Double vertical suplex with a Mikey crossbody gets 2. Sandman-Mikey fight on the top and Mikey hits a rana from the top for 2. Mikey goes back up and hits a top cage splash for the win at 15.06. *1/2. Scrappy match with lots of blown spots. No wrestling at all to boot. I’ve seen worse I suppose but that wasn’t the best of garbage matches. At least there were a few entertaining spots – like the triple table spot but that probably should have been the finish.
Overall event rating – D
More horrible, horrible messy crap from ECW – back in the day. My advice is to simply not bother with any ECW shows prior to their PPV debut at Barely Legal in 1997. After constant disappointments from this time era I know I’m not going to bother with them anymore. I’ve heard it said that Todd Gordon was a genius and his work with ECW made them a great company. I completely disagree. The company sucked before Paul Heyman took it over. He had a dream and that dream was PPV. When he got there he accomplished everything he said he would. Gordon on the other hand didn’t see anything beyond the shortsighted hardcore wrestling brand. When Heyman took over he made sure that actual wrestling appeared on the shows. So kudos to Paul Heyman and to hell with Todd Gordon. His shows sucked. I don’t care if they had “great” wrestlers on them they never bothered to actually wrestle.
