Well, it's been a while since I've done a wrestling review (or any review, for that matter), so I decided that today I'd watch a few matches and review them right here. So, here's a post about the pride and joy of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, none other than Lance Storm. Lance Storm is a wrestler that I always thought was better in theory than in execution. By that I mean Storm was a guy that knew all the holds, was very athletic, could cut a decent promo and was versatile in many different styles. But for whatever reason, when I watched Lance Storm, he didn't come across as a guy that was a top-notch talent, despite what his reputation on the internet might have been. I mean, it wasn't like he was terrible or anything, but he was rather forgettable. But maybe I'm wrong and I should have been on the Lance Storm bandwagon years ago, so let's begin this review with Storm getting a shot at the WCW Title.
Match 1: Lance Storm vs. The Rock, Monday Night Raw, August 20, 2001
This match took place the night after Summerslam and is the first WCW Title defense for The Rock, who had won the title the previous night. Earlier this episode, Lance Storm interrupted a Rock interview and kicked a little person impersonating Booker T in the face. Lance tries to attack early, but that doesn't work and Rock gets a two count after a Samoan Drop. The two do an exchange of missed clotheslines, then Storm hits a superkick that sends The Rock flying out of the ring. Storm moves quickly to roll The Rock back in and goes for the cover, but Rock kicks out at two. They exchange some blows, then Storm comes off the top with a clothesline that gets another two count. Storm stomps away on The Rock, then foolishly charges into a Rock spinebuster. Man, this match feels rushed. Rock hits his trademark punch combination, then follows with a DDT for a two count. The two brawl in the corner for a few seconds, then Rock hits the Rock Bottom for the three count. Post match, Rock brings the little Booker T impersonator out, who can barely climb up the stairs. Little Booker tries a People's Elbow, but he trips over Storm. So Storm gets back up, Rock spinebusts him back down, and on the second try Booker gets it as right as he was going to get it, which is still subpar even for a midget. Then Little Booker does a Spinarooni and everyone is happy. Well, not me. Match was way too short and the post-match stuff was embarrassing. I'd give it a 0.8 out of 5.
Match 2: The Unamericans (Lance Storm and Christian) vs. Booker T and Goldust, WWE Tag Team Title Match, Summerslam 2002
Storm and Christian are the champions at the time. Booker comes out to a huge reaction, while the Unamericans come out with the American flag upside down because, you see, they're Unamerican. Goldust and Christian start, and Goldust goes to work early, hitting a butt bump and then an uppercut from the ground to get a two count. Storm is tagged in, but takes an arm drag and atomic drop for his efforts, then Goldust tags in Booker T. Booker continues to run roughshod over Lance, with a sideslam and a knee drop that gets a two count. That great American patriot Goldust is tagged back in, but a cheapshot from Christian and a thumb to the eye by Storm gives the Unamericans the advantage. Storm throws Goldust over the top rope, which would have been a disqualification in the NWA. After Christian works him over, he rolls Goldust back in and Storm gets a two count. The crowd chants 'USA' to try and Goldust back into the match, but the Unamericans use quick tags and underhanded tactics to keep Goldust isolated. Storm misses a dropkick though, and Goldust gets a quick two count. He tries to get to Booker, but Christian cuts that off. Front facelock by Christian, but Goldust forces his away into the corner and backdrops Christian. Tag to Booker, but the ref didn't see it so it's not allowed. Meanwhile, he doesn't see the other team make a tag but allows it anyway. I don't know about you, but I hate that spot as it makes no sense and makes the ref look like an idiot.
Anyway, a clothesline gets two for Storm, and the Unamericans continue their isolationist tactics. But Goldust fights back, catapults Christian into Storm on the outside and then rolls Christian up for a two count. Double clothesline, and Goldust and Christian are down. Before Goldust can get over to tag Booker, Storm goes over and trips Booker off the apron, forcing Booker to lose his cool and give chase. That's the same tactic I would use while playing a tag match in any Smackdown game. Christian is able to get Goldust away from his corner, and Storm sneaks in a chair. Actually, two chairs, and Storm and Christian attempt a Conchairto on Goldust, but luckily the big golden patriot ducks, and follows with a double clothesline. Finally, Booker gets the tag, and he starts wailing away at The Unamericans. A missle dropkick on Christian almost gets a three count. Booker and Christian each try their finishers to no avail, and Booker ends up delivering a flapjack to Christian. Storm tries a leaping heel kick, but Booker ducks and the ref ends up taking the blow. Booker gets both Unamericans with the Scissors kick, then follows up with a Spinarooni and a Harlem Sidekick to Christian. But the ref is down so that's all for naught. Storm comes in with a belt, but he's quickly taken care of by Booker T and Goldust. With the ref still down, fellow Unamerican Test (and a former Tag Team champion with Booker T), comes in and flattens Booker with a big boot. Christian covers, and the ref recovers to administer the three count. Wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either, so I'll give it a 2.5 out of 5.
Match 3: Lance Storm w/Tammy Lynn Bytch vs. Rob Van Dam w/Bill Alfonso, ECW Television Title Match, Guilty as Charged 1999
Before the match begins, Storm says something about not having to compete in a previously scheduled match with Spike Dudley and Jerry Lynn, so he challenges RVD to a match for Van Dam's TV Title Out comes Van Dam, and after a two minute entrance, he's ready to go. The bell rings, and nobody does anything for a minute and a half before the two do a basic exchange of holds that ends with both men at a standstill. Storm backs Van Dam into the corner, firing away with shoulder blocks and chops, before whipping him into another corner. But Van Dam reverses it and eventually monkey flips Storm to the other side of the ring. Storm backs into the corner while Alfonso keeps Van Dam hydrated by handing him a water bottle. Quality managing there, Fonzie. A thumb to the eye by Storm, but after a few blows, Van Dam gets the advantage back with a dropkick and a two count, followed by a snap mare which also draws a two count. Storm reverses an Irish whip and rolls Van Dam up into a single leg crab. So Alfonso goes over to the other side of the ring and starts messing with Bytch (yes, that's what she was known as at the time, so that's what I'll call her here). That distracts Storm, who grabs at Alfonso. However, he's in perfect position to take an apron leg drop from Van Dam. RVD gets thrown into the guardrail, but rebounds and then sets Storm over the guardrail to deliver a corkscrew legdrop from the apron, which RVD connects on. Back in the ring, RVD hits a double-underhook lifting facebuster for a two count. He whips Storm to the ropes, but Storm does a leapfrog and then lands a superkick to Van Dam for two. Storm traps Van Dam in a corner and delivers a series of strikes, including a dropkick to a seated RVD. Out of the corner, Van Dam tries a springboard manuever, but gets dropkicked out of the ring into the guardrail. Van Dam oversells a baseball slide by flying over the guardrail and landing eight rows back. In the crowd, Storm is whipped into the guardrail, backdrops Van Dam over, but Van Dam catches himself and does a somersault dive off the railing onto Storm. Van Dam tries to slam Storm on the floor, but Storm counters with a inverted DDT, which is a stupid move to do on the floor since you land on your back before your opponent, causing both participants to take damage. But Storm ignores that, and while RVD attempts a springboard off the guardrail, he gets dropkicked back into the crowd by Storm. Storm then follows with a dive from the top rope, over the guardrail, and onto Van Dam. While Joey Styles tries to sell the notion that Storm is in control, Van Dam does his own brand of selling by joking with the crowd. Ok then.
Back in, RVD tries for a springboard move out of the corner, but Storm catches him again and crotches Van Dam. Back Suplex is attempted, but Van Dam flips over on his feet and catches Storm with a leg drop before he can get up. Van Dam follows up with a drop toe hold and a Surfboard. Instead of holding him up, Van Dam kicks him off and catches Storm with a rolling senton for a two count. Storm is whipped into the corner, but he catches Van Dam with a springboard back elbow and gets a two count. Storm then does a cartwheel clothesline which Van Dam just shrugs off to catch a chair tossed by Fonzie. RVD tries for the Van Daminator, but Storm dodges the blow and ends up tapping RVD in the head with it. Unfortunately, Storm picks the chair back up, and gets caught with a Vandaminator. Storm sells the heck out of the move, but he was playing possum as he caught Van Dam with a low blow and nearly got a three count from a small package. Van Dam catches Storm with a spinning heel kick which "almost cut Lance Storm clean in half", according to Joey Styles. Like hell it did. Van Dam goes for another Van Daminator, but Storm ducks and the chair goes into the ref's face. Storm follows with a Van Daminator of his own, but the ref is out. Fonzie brings in a chair, which Storm takes away, but all that does is allow Van Dam to come off the top for a Van Daminator into Storm's face. Storm kicks out at two. Back up, RVD hits a crappy looking clothesline and goes for the Five Star Frog Splash, but Storm moves. Storm goes for a powerbomb, but RVD reverses into a rollup. The two men do a nice exchange of holds before Van Dam hits a German Suplex with a bridge, which is enough to get the three count. Ten years ago, I probably would have told you that this was a great match and these two men are what wrestling is all about or whatever. However, while there were a few solid spots, the match was hurt by RVD's indifferent selling and Storm's weak chair shots. Still, it was rather decent, so I'll give it a 2.35 out of 5.
Match 4: Lance Storm vs. Triple H, WWE Smackdown, May 21, 2002
Before the match, Storm gets on the mic and says that, despite Triple-H's victory over Chris Jericho in Hell in a Cell, he's nothing but a barbaric animal, and Storm will teach him a lesson like only a true technical wizard can do. Storm sets out to teach Triple-H a lesson by taking two hard clothesline and a high knee lift. But Triple-H's knee is all bandaged up from his last match, so the big dummy ended up hurting it after the move. Storm hits a jawjacker and some punches, but Triple-H follows up with a driving knee to the face, this time using his good leg. Storm reverses an Irish whip and dropkicks HHH down to the mat. Storm shows off his technical wizardry by attacking Triple-H with a series of punches, kicks, and other various blows. Even Tazz, on commentary, notices how Storm's actions differ from his words and calls him a hypocrite. It's effective, though, as Storm has re-opened Triple-H's headwound and nearly gets a three count. Storm lands a clothesline from the top and gets another two count. Storm continues to pound away, but Triple-H has had all he can take so he starts firing back with blows of his own. Storm misses a Stinger Splash, and HHH then lands a neckbreaker, followed by a spinebuster that gets a two count. Storm ducks a clothesline and lands a superkick, following up with a Canadian Mapleleaf on Triple-H's bum leg. But Triple-H gets to the ropes. Storm hits another superkick, and climbs to the top rope while the ref checks on Triple-H. HHH, ever the ring general, pushes the ref into the ropes, knocking Storm off. A Pedigree follows, and Triple-H holds Storm down for the three count. All in all, not a bad TV match and probably my favorite of the four. I'll give it a three out of 5.
So, what did I learn from all this Storm watching. That Lance Storm should never pick up a chair in a wrestling ring again. Other than that, I stand by my previous statement, Storm's a decent to good wrestler who got about as far in wrestling as he should have been. He had a nice career of producing matches that were neither bad nor great, just in the middle. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post or about Lance Storm in general, or you have ideas for future post, then please feel free to send them to me either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label ECW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ECW. Show all posts
Friday, July 1, 2011
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Canon Wrestling Review: ECW It Ain't Seinfeld: May 14, 1998
On May 14, 1998, while the rest of the world was watching the final episode of Seinfeld (actually, in my house we taped Seinfeld and watched WCW Thunder that night, then watched Seinfeld the next day), ECW decided to hold a wrestling show at the Elks Lodge in New York City, and many ECW diehards came out to see the show. In hindsight, it was probably the right decision, as the Seinfeld finale was probably the most disappointing in the history of television, but that's a topic for another day. But was It Ain't Seinfeld a better show? Well, there's only one way to find out.
The first match of the night is between Justin Credible (w/ Jason and Chastity) and "Dynamic" Jerry Lynn. Joey Styles claims that Jerry Lynn is underutilized in ECW. Well, that would change. The two do a series of tieups to start, then Credible gets frustrated and shoves Lynn down. Lynn responds with a takedown and punches. After a series of leapfrogs, Lynn catches Credible with a spinning back elbow that gets a two count. Lynn whips Credible and Justin flips over the turnbuckle onto the apron, where Lynn charges and knocks Credible into the guardrail. Lynn then catches Credible with a baseball slide that sends Credible over the rail, and then performs a running somersault plancha off the apron onto Credible. Back in, Lynn gets a two count, then uses the "Minneapolis Jam" legdrop to get another two count. Lynn attempts a suplex, but Credible sneaks out and drops his opponent with a reverse DDT. After brawling with Lynn, Jason throws Credible a chair, and Justin uses it to steal Raven's drop-toe-hold into a chair, which gets a two count. More brawling by Credible in the corner, and a powerbomb from a seated position in the corner gets a two for Credible. Credible slows the match down with a chinlock. Back up, Lynn comes off the ropes with a sunset flip and a two count, then gets flattened by a diving clothesline. Credible gets a chair and dives off the top rope, only to get the chair jammed into his face by Jerry Lynn's boot. Dropkick by Lynn into the chair in front of Credible's face, then Lynn follows with a bulldog out of the corner onto the chair. Cover, only gets two. Lynn charges at Credible, but Credible ducks and Lynn goes flying to the outside of the ring. Jason interferes with a backbreaker on Lynn and rolls Lynn in. That gets two, and so does Credible's sloppy looking running spinning DDT. Vertical suplex attempted by Credible, but Lynn counters with a snap suplex while Chastity goes to distract the ref. Lynn to the top, only to be shoved off by Jason. Credible sets up Lynn for That's Incredible, but Lynn reverses, and hits Credible's own finishing move on him to get the three count. Not a bad opening match at all. I'll give it a 3 out of 5.
Next is the legendary Sabu (w/ Bill Alfonso) against the decidedly less legendary Danny Doring. Sabu is all over Doring to start the match, attacking him with punches and an elbow drop. He sits Doring up, and then catches him with a slingshot side-kick. Sabu sets up Doring in the corner, grabs a chair, and throws it in Doring's face, which made me laguh, at least. He then launches off the chair to dropkick Doring in the face. Cover, but Doring kicks out. Sabu continues the assault with a drop kick to the knee and a back body drop. Doring reverses an irish whip, only to take another dropkick to the knee. Sabu sets up a table between the guardrail and apron. Doring takes off with a suicide dive, only for Sabu to shrug him off. Sabu sets Doring up, sets up a chair and the ring, and launches himself off the ropes to elbow drop Doring through the table. Back in the ring. Alfonso holds a chair over Doring's head, and Sabu legdrops the chair into Doring from the top rope. A camel clutch is applied by Sabu, and Doring taps out. Really, this match was just an exhibition to show off Sabu, but at least it was entertaining and Sabu didn't blow anything, so I'll give it a 1.85 out of 5.
Jamie Dundee comes out to the ring, and dances some (quite poorly, I might add) before grabbing a mic. Dundee doesn't seem to think highly of the women of New York or the fans in the crowd, stating that one fan reminds him of his nuts (I don't know how, but that's what he said). Dundee continues to insult the crowd, and throws a remark about Francine's promiscuity in before his opponent, Dundee's opponent is one-half of the Tag Team Champions, Chris Candido, who is accompanied by Francine. Before the match starts, Dundee propositions Francine to dump the zero and get with the hero, which proves to be unsuccessful. The match starts, and Dundee surprises Candido with a springboard body-press out of the irish whip and a pair of hip tosses. Candido consults with Francine while Dundee flexes. Back to action, Candido unloads on Dundee with knife edge chops, and goes to whip Dundee into the corner, but is reversed. Dundee follows up with a cartwheel into a karate chop to the shoulder. Well, I haven't seen that before. Candido is unimpressed and shoves Dundee down a couple times. Dundee decides to try and intimidate Candido with some crazy-looking martail arts poses, but gets clotheslined for his efforts. New Jersey Jam by Candido gets a two count, but Candido follows up with a delayed vertical suplex which also gets a two count. The two do a series of moves out of the corner which ends with Dundee bulldogging Candido from the second rope and getting a two count. Candido catches Dundee with a back suplex and goes for another vertical suplex, but Dundee gets out and eventually throws Candido to the outside, then catches Candido with a plancha. Some brawling on the outside of the ring follows, with finishes with Dundee rolling Candido back in and climbing the top rope, only to get caught and take a superplex from the top rope. Candido follows with a diving headbutt, and gets the three count and the victory. Not too bad of a match, although Dundee's constant obnoxiousness kind of took away from the match. I'll give it a 2.5 out of 5.
Up next is the team of the Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tracey Smothers w/ the Big Don Tommy Rich) to take on the team of Super Nova and the Blue Meanie. I expect that there will be at least one dance-off in this match. Tommy Rich asked to be introduced as the newly elected President of Italy. Well then. The match starts with Nova and Smothers in the ring. Smothers takes the advantage with punches, but Nova counters with a series of arm drags before Smothers tags out to Guido, who also takes an arm drag. After an irish whip and leapfrog sequence, Guido tries to hurracanrana Nova, but takes a powerbomb instead. Meanie comes in, and Guido retreats. Tommy Rich grabs the mic, and yes, we're about to have a dance off. Smothers, the winner of the 'John Travolta dance award' according to Rich, cuts a rug, then Meanie somehow does even worse than Smothers before getting referee John Finnegan to dance, and he outdances everyone. Dropkick from behind by Smothers onto Meanie, and the FBI get into Finnegan's face. They go to attack, but Finnegan ducks, bounces off the ropes, and clotheslines both FBI members, and then follows up with a pair of hip tosses. Rich comes in, only to get shoved down by Finnegan, who is on fire right now. Guido charges at Finnegan, but he ducks, and Meanie catches him with a backdrop. Smothers follows, only to get knocked back by Meanie, and Meanie and Finnegan double clothesline Smothers over the top rope to the outside. Only in ECW. Nova with a suicide dive on both FBI members. Rich then gets involved and attacks Nova, eventually crotching him on the guardrail and rolling him back in the ring. The FBI double team Nova with a double clothesline and the Paisan elbow drop, which gets a two count. Guido and Smothers continue to attack Nova while Finnegan, apparently calling the match evenly again, restrains the Meanie. Smothers irish whips Nova, is reversed and tries for the Sunset Flip. Nova counters with the legdrop, but Smothers then catches Nova with a forceful dropkick that gets a two count. Tag to Guido, who is in control for a few seconds until Nova uses a reverse Russian leg sweep to send Guido down. Tag to Meanie, who fires a pair of dropkicks on Guido and Smothers, and then powerslams Guido out of the corner for a two count. Here comes referee Jeff Jones, and he squares off with Nova as Meanie and Smothers brawl on the outside. After a shoving match, Jones kicks Nova low, and Guido tries to take advantage with a swinging neckbreaker. But instead, Nova reverses it, and hits the Novacain (a reverse STO, and rather poorly done I might add) on Guido while Finnegan DDTs Jones. After Finnegan disposes of his fellow official, he delivers the three count and Nova and Meanie win the match. Well, that was strange, but entertaining enough. I'll give it a 2.1 out of 5.
Lance Storm, the other half of the Tag Team Champions, comes out to wrestle the next match against Balls Mahoney, probably the best wrestler ever with the first name Balls. Although I must say I do like Balls' Pantera T-Shirt. Lance and Balls start out trading basic wrestling holds, and not surprisingly, Lance gets the advantage on most of them. Lance comes off the ropes after an irish whip and misses a cross body block as Mahoney ducks out of the way. Balls follows up with a spinning heel kick that makes Lance Storm land face first on the outside of the ring. Balls uses a bell and a broken table leg to continue his assault on Storm. Then Balls takes a chair to Lance Storm's back, and follows up by dropping him throat first on the guardrail. Balls tries to dive on Lance from the apron, but Lance moves and Balls lands chin first on the guardrail. Back in the ring, Storm gets a two count after a dropkick, and comes back by whipping Balls into the corner and hitting a cartwheel body splash on Balls. Two count after a bulldog by Storm, and Lance slows the match down with a chinlock. Balls gets back up, and catches Storm's superkick attempt and counters with punches and a superkick of his own. Balls then decides that now would be a good time to take his shirt off, which doesn't do the viewing audience any favors. Powerslam by Balls gets two, and Mahoney goes to the top for an elbow drop, but misses. Storm hits the slingshot clothesline from the apron, and gets a two count. Storm goes to the top and dives, but is caught by Mahoney who sets him up for the Nutcracker Suite. However, Storm gets out and gives a spinning heel kick. Storm grabs a chair and gives Mahoney one of his trademark chair shots, which predictably does not effect Mahoney at all, and Balls fires back with punches. Storm reverses an irish whip into the corner and charges, but Balls drops him over the apron. Unfortunately for Balls, Storm lands on his feet, and as Balls goes to hit Storm with the chair, Storm uses a springboard dropkick to drive it into his face to get the pinfall victory. Nothing really worth writing home about, so I'll give it a 1.4 out of 5.
Joey Styles is in the ring while the fans chant 'Seinfeld Sucks', but is interrupted by Taz, who I guarantee is about to drop a few f-bombs. Sure enough, Taz uses the f word to describe his new belt, the FTW championship. Since he can't get a shot at Shane Douglas's world title due to Douglas's injuries, caused by Taz, Taz has decided that the next logical step is to make his own championship. He challenges Douglas to come out and take his title, but instead Bam Bam Bigelow comes out. He disputes Taz's claim of being a World Champion, and states to Taz that if he wants a piece of Douglas, he'll have to go through Bigelow to get him. Taz has no problem with that, but ECW does, as referees come out to keep the two apart. Bigelow decides to pick up one referee over his head and chuck him into the crowd, and oh here go hell come as the two trade punches and drop to the mat before additional security breaks it up.
Mikey Whipwreck gets a chance to regain the Television Title he once held against the current champion, Rob Van Dam (w/ Bill Alfonso). The match starts with Van Dam hitting a couple of punches, then flatting Mikey with a lifting double underhook facebuster. When Mikey sits up, Van Dam knocks him back down with a spinning heel kick. Back up, RVD irish whips Mikey and catches him with a dropkick on the rebound. Another spinning heel kick by RVD, who follows up with a corkscrew leg drop. To the outside we go, and RVD tries to whip Mikey into the guardrail, but Mikey is able stop himself and Russian leg sweep him into the guardrail. Whipwreck follows up with a suicide dive, but Alfonso then interferes, and RVD is able to regain the advantage. Whipwreck is whipped into the guardrail, and like he's done after every single move thus far, Van Dam showboats for the crowd. Mikey gets crotched on the guardrail, and Alfonso holds up a chair in front of Whipwreck so Van Dam can hit a modified Van Daminator. Back in the ring, Van Dam sets up a chair and monkeyflips Whipwreck spine first onto the chair. Five-Star Frog Splash from Van Dam, but he doesn't attempt a cover and Whipwreck gets back up. Van Dam kicks out quickly after a Sunset Flip, and Whipwreck tries to attempt a Victory Roll, but Van Dam drops him and uses Sabu's camel clutch. Mikey gets crotched on the top rope, and Van Dam uses a standing heel kick to send Whipwreck flying to the outside. Van Dam an Alfonso take forever to find a table, and eventually set one up between the apron and the guardrail, in the exact same spot where Sabu set up a table earlier tonight. Van Dam then crotches Mikey on the guardrail, and nearly clips the table as he corkscrew leg drops Whipwreck. Back in the ring, Van Dam goes for another monkeyflip, but Whipwreck counters with a bulldog onto the chair, and nearly gets a three count after a sunset flip. Whipwreck then uses the chair to his advantage, by drop toe-holding Van Dam face first into the chair, then driving his head into it with a legdrop. Mikey goes to the apron, but Alfonso grabs his leg, and this allows Van Dam to hit the Vandaminator. Alfonso sets up Mikey on the table while Rob Van Dam tries to mimic Sabu with a triple jump dive, but here comes Sabu, and he stops RVD to elbow drop Whipwreck through the table himself. Van Dam is not happy, so he springboards off the chair to hit Sabu with a kick. The two fight it out until Candido comes out, and the two double team RVD because they are teaming up together in a future match against RVD and Lance Storm. Sabu hits Air Sabu off Candido's back, and Candido power bombs RVD before Lance Storm comes out, The four fight it out until the locker room empties to separate the men, making this match a no contest. Just as well, because it was just one RVD spot after another without any cohesion and there was too much time in the match where nothing happened. Plus, RVD was just terrible at selling back then. I'll give it a 1 out of 5.
Up next we have Bam Bam Bigelow coming out for the second time tonight, this time to face Axl Rotten, who comes out wearing an Insane Clown Posse shirt. Bigelow starts the match by attacking Axl from behind, and is all over Rotten as he backs him against the corner. Bigelow charges into the corner and hits one avalanche, but Axl moves after a second attempt and grabs his chair. Rotten hits Bigelow in the back three times with the chair, and the third one sends Bigelow down. Axl charges at Bigelow and tries to hit him in the head, but Bigelow moves, and then scoops up a stunned Axl to deliver the Greetings from Ashbury Park. That gives Bigelow the victory. Well, that was quick. 1.1 out of 5.
The Dudley Boys (Bubba Ray, D-Von, Big Dick) come out to the ring with Joel Gertner and Sign Guy Dudley and grab the mic. D'Von starts by telling the crowd to 'shut the f up', and promises to mess up anyone in the crowd who says anything, which does not silence the crowd to say the least. Bubba Ray takes the mic, and from there the crowd only gets more riled up, as they nearly entice an overweight man to jump into the ring. Trash fills the ring, and some idiot even throws a chair, yet Bubba and D'Von continue to egg the fans on. Some kid threatens to jump from the balcony, so the Dudleys try to goad him into it some more before the kid elects to simply moon the Dudleys instead. Joel Gertner is handed the mic and goes through his usual introduction, but in the middle of it, the kid jumps from the balcony, and eventually jumps the guardrail before security gets in there to keep him from the ring. Good thing, because the kid was about as big as one of Dick's legs. Anyway, the trash is eventually shuffled off to the side of the ring, and here comes the Dudley's opponents in the main event, Tommy Dreamer, the Sandman, and Spike Dudley (w/ Beulah McGillicutty).
Sandman has to get his pre-match smoke and six pack of beer in, so his team's entrance takes about five minutes overall, what with everyone throwing down a few and all. There's a big standoff to begin that takes a few minutes and involves both Bubba and Beulah insulting the other's appearance in between. Finally, Dreamer and D'Von start the match for their respective teams. They tie up, seperate, and stall some more. After some punches by D'Von and a rope-running sequence, Dreamer's sunset flip is blocked by D'Von for a two count, then Dreamer rolls back D'Von for a two count of his own. Back up, Bubba Ray and Spike are tagged in for their teams. Spike charges Bubba twice but is shoved down, then gets caught, picked up, and slammed down to the mat with the Bubba Bomb. Irish Whip into a backdrop by Bubba Ray, and he continues to pound away on Little Spike. Bubba backs Spike into the corner and charges, but Spike moves and fires away at Bubba with shoulder blocks and punches. Spike climbs on Bubba Ray's shoulders and delivers a huracanrana. Spike comes back with a pair of running flying forearms sandwiching a headscissors takeover, and Bubba has to back away into his corner. Big Dick Dudley is tagged in, so Spike decides to do the smart thing and tag in the Sandman. The match slows to a crawl as the two stare each other down and the Sandman tries to go after the other Dudleys on the apron. After a pair of tie-ups, Sandman goes after Bubba again before locking Big Dick in a side headlock. However, Dick shoves Sandman into the ropes and knocks him down hard with a shoulderblock on the rebound. Sandman flips out of a back suplex and clotheslines Big Dick, who answers with a clothesline of his own to knock down the Sandman. Powerbomb attempt by Big Dick, but the Sandman punches his way out of it and knocks Big Dick flat on his back and gets a two count. Sandman clotheslines Big Dick over the top rope, and oh here go hell come as all six man battle on the outside. Bubba gorilla presses Spike and drops him throat first onto the guardrail. Everybody's fighting everybody now and eventually both Bubba and D'Von get thrown over the guardrail, allowing Spike to dive off the turnbuckle onto Bubba and D'Von in the crowd. Dreamer and Bubba are back in, and Dreamer nearly gets a pinfall after a slingshot splash. Irish whip, Bubba ducks a clothesline and flattens Dreamer with a back suplex. D'Von and Spike come back into the ring, and Spike slips out a body slam and huracanranas D'Von down to the mat. Stratusfaction by Spike gets two. Back up, D'Von reverses a whip into the corner, only to get a boot in the face. Spike leaps to the top and jumps, only to land into a waiting D'Von's arms, who then powerslams Spike down. The two roll out, and now it's Big Dick and Sandman enter the ring. Big Dick climbs the top rope (huh?) but Sandman catches him and ties him in the tree of woe. Bubba Ray and Dreamer come back in, and Dreamer and Sandman proceed to tie him up in the tree of woe in another corner. D'Von and Sign Guy also get tied up in trees of woe, I guess and chairs are planted in front of their faces. Dreamer, Sandman, Spike, and Beulah all baseball slide right into the chairs, knocking the Dudleys out. Gertner comes in to challenge Beulah and do his best Ric Flair impersonation in the process. A tie-up ends when Gertner plants a wet one on Beulah. Bearhug by Gertner, but Beulah gets out of it and low-blows Gertner, following that up with a DDT. Dreamer and Sandman line up to annihilate Gertner, but the Dudleys come to the rescue. Spike leaps from the top, only to get caught by Big Dick. Total Penetration by Big Dick (yes, that's the name of his finisher, which is basically a Baldo Bomb) and the Dudley pile on Spike for the three count. But they're not done yet, as Bubba smacks Sandman with his own cane. New Jack comes out with his trash can of weapons, and each Dudley (save Spike) takes a variety of cookie sheets and trash can lids and other various weapons, including a doll with a wooden stick in the middle of it, to the head, clearing them all out of the ring. Gertner for some unknown reason challenges New Jack, and Sandman grabs him from behind, allowing New Jack to annihilate (actually, he barely hit him) Gertner with a guitar. Post match, Dreamer, Sandman, and the rest stand tall in the ring. Wow did this match take a long time to get going, between the Dudleys nearly causing a riot, the Sandman and his team's rather long entrance, and all the stalling in between. I mean, it's one thing to build suspense, but this was a bit much. The match itself suffered from too much down time, so I'll give it a 1.78 out of 5.
Overall, the show started out well, but the last three matches kind of brought everything down. Still, it wasn't too bad of a show, and there were some definite highlights. So I'd give It Ain't Seinfeld a 4.7 out of 10, as it wasn't the best ECW show, but it wasn't too bad. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future posts, than let me know about them either by leaving a comment on the blog or sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
The first match of the night is between Justin Credible (w/ Jason and Chastity) and "Dynamic" Jerry Lynn. Joey Styles claims that Jerry Lynn is underutilized in ECW. Well, that would change. The two do a series of tieups to start, then Credible gets frustrated and shoves Lynn down. Lynn responds with a takedown and punches. After a series of leapfrogs, Lynn catches Credible with a spinning back elbow that gets a two count. Lynn whips Credible and Justin flips over the turnbuckle onto the apron, where Lynn charges and knocks Credible into the guardrail. Lynn then catches Credible with a baseball slide that sends Credible over the rail, and then performs a running somersault plancha off the apron onto Credible. Back in, Lynn gets a two count, then uses the "Minneapolis Jam" legdrop to get another two count. Lynn attempts a suplex, but Credible sneaks out and drops his opponent with a reverse DDT. After brawling with Lynn, Jason throws Credible a chair, and Justin uses it to steal Raven's drop-toe-hold into a chair, which gets a two count. More brawling by Credible in the corner, and a powerbomb from a seated position in the corner gets a two for Credible. Credible slows the match down with a chinlock. Back up, Lynn comes off the ropes with a sunset flip and a two count, then gets flattened by a diving clothesline. Credible gets a chair and dives off the top rope, only to get the chair jammed into his face by Jerry Lynn's boot. Dropkick by Lynn into the chair in front of Credible's face, then Lynn follows with a bulldog out of the corner onto the chair. Cover, only gets two. Lynn charges at Credible, but Credible ducks and Lynn goes flying to the outside of the ring. Jason interferes with a backbreaker on Lynn and rolls Lynn in. That gets two, and so does Credible's sloppy looking running spinning DDT. Vertical suplex attempted by Credible, but Lynn counters with a snap suplex while Chastity goes to distract the ref. Lynn to the top, only to be shoved off by Jason. Credible sets up Lynn for That's Incredible, but Lynn reverses, and hits Credible's own finishing move on him to get the three count. Not a bad opening match at all. I'll give it a 3 out of 5.
Next is the legendary Sabu (w/ Bill Alfonso) against the decidedly less legendary Danny Doring. Sabu is all over Doring to start the match, attacking him with punches and an elbow drop. He sits Doring up, and then catches him with a slingshot side-kick. Sabu sets up Doring in the corner, grabs a chair, and throws it in Doring's face, which made me laguh, at least. He then launches off the chair to dropkick Doring in the face. Cover, but Doring kicks out. Sabu continues the assault with a drop kick to the knee and a back body drop. Doring reverses an irish whip, only to take another dropkick to the knee. Sabu sets up a table between the guardrail and apron. Doring takes off with a suicide dive, only for Sabu to shrug him off. Sabu sets Doring up, sets up a chair and the ring, and launches himself off the ropes to elbow drop Doring through the table. Back in the ring. Alfonso holds a chair over Doring's head, and Sabu legdrops the chair into Doring from the top rope. A camel clutch is applied by Sabu, and Doring taps out. Really, this match was just an exhibition to show off Sabu, but at least it was entertaining and Sabu didn't blow anything, so I'll give it a 1.85 out of 5.
Jamie Dundee comes out to the ring, and dances some (quite poorly, I might add) before grabbing a mic. Dundee doesn't seem to think highly of the women of New York or the fans in the crowd, stating that one fan reminds him of his nuts (I don't know how, but that's what he said). Dundee continues to insult the crowd, and throws a remark about Francine's promiscuity in before his opponent, Dundee's opponent is one-half of the Tag Team Champions, Chris Candido, who is accompanied by Francine. Before the match starts, Dundee propositions Francine to dump the zero and get with the hero, which proves to be unsuccessful. The match starts, and Dundee surprises Candido with a springboard body-press out of the irish whip and a pair of hip tosses. Candido consults with Francine while Dundee flexes. Back to action, Candido unloads on Dundee with knife edge chops, and goes to whip Dundee into the corner, but is reversed. Dundee follows up with a cartwheel into a karate chop to the shoulder. Well, I haven't seen that before. Candido is unimpressed and shoves Dundee down a couple times. Dundee decides to try and intimidate Candido with some crazy-looking martail arts poses, but gets clotheslined for his efforts. New Jersey Jam by Candido gets a two count, but Candido follows up with a delayed vertical suplex which also gets a two count. The two do a series of moves out of the corner which ends with Dundee bulldogging Candido from the second rope and getting a two count. Candido catches Dundee with a back suplex and goes for another vertical suplex, but Dundee gets out and eventually throws Candido to the outside, then catches Candido with a plancha. Some brawling on the outside of the ring follows, with finishes with Dundee rolling Candido back in and climbing the top rope, only to get caught and take a superplex from the top rope. Candido follows with a diving headbutt, and gets the three count and the victory. Not too bad of a match, although Dundee's constant obnoxiousness kind of took away from the match. I'll give it a 2.5 out of 5.
Up next is the team of the Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tracey Smothers w/ the Big Don Tommy Rich) to take on the team of Super Nova and the Blue Meanie. I expect that there will be at least one dance-off in this match. Tommy Rich asked to be introduced as the newly elected President of Italy. Well then. The match starts with Nova and Smothers in the ring. Smothers takes the advantage with punches, but Nova counters with a series of arm drags before Smothers tags out to Guido, who also takes an arm drag. After an irish whip and leapfrog sequence, Guido tries to hurracanrana Nova, but takes a powerbomb instead. Meanie comes in, and Guido retreats. Tommy Rich grabs the mic, and yes, we're about to have a dance off. Smothers, the winner of the 'John Travolta dance award' according to Rich, cuts a rug, then Meanie somehow does even worse than Smothers before getting referee John Finnegan to dance, and he outdances everyone. Dropkick from behind by Smothers onto Meanie, and the FBI get into Finnegan's face. They go to attack, but Finnegan ducks, bounces off the ropes, and clotheslines both FBI members, and then follows up with a pair of hip tosses. Rich comes in, only to get shoved down by Finnegan, who is on fire right now. Guido charges at Finnegan, but he ducks, and Meanie catches him with a backdrop. Smothers follows, only to get knocked back by Meanie, and Meanie and Finnegan double clothesline Smothers over the top rope to the outside. Only in ECW. Nova with a suicide dive on both FBI members. Rich then gets involved and attacks Nova, eventually crotching him on the guardrail and rolling him back in the ring. The FBI double team Nova with a double clothesline and the Paisan elbow drop, which gets a two count. Guido and Smothers continue to attack Nova while Finnegan, apparently calling the match evenly again, restrains the Meanie. Smothers irish whips Nova, is reversed and tries for the Sunset Flip. Nova counters with the legdrop, but Smothers then catches Nova with a forceful dropkick that gets a two count. Tag to Guido, who is in control for a few seconds until Nova uses a reverse Russian leg sweep to send Guido down. Tag to Meanie, who fires a pair of dropkicks on Guido and Smothers, and then powerslams Guido out of the corner for a two count. Here comes referee Jeff Jones, and he squares off with Nova as Meanie and Smothers brawl on the outside. After a shoving match, Jones kicks Nova low, and Guido tries to take advantage with a swinging neckbreaker. But instead, Nova reverses it, and hits the Novacain (a reverse STO, and rather poorly done I might add) on Guido while Finnegan DDTs Jones. After Finnegan disposes of his fellow official, he delivers the three count and Nova and Meanie win the match. Well, that was strange, but entertaining enough. I'll give it a 2.1 out of 5.
Lance Storm, the other half of the Tag Team Champions, comes out to wrestle the next match against Balls Mahoney, probably the best wrestler ever with the first name Balls. Although I must say I do like Balls' Pantera T-Shirt. Lance and Balls start out trading basic wrestling holds, and not surprisingly, Lance gets the advantage on most of them. Lance comes off the ropes after an irish whip and misses a cross body block as Mahoney ducks out of the way. Balls follows up with a spinning heel kick that makes Lance Storm land face first on the outside of the ring. Balls uses a bell and a broken table leg to continue his assault on Storm. Then Balls takes a chair to Lance Storm's back, and follows up by dropping him throat first on the guardrail. Balls tries to dive on Lance from the apron, but Lance moves and Balls lands chin first on the guardrail. Back in the ring, Storm gets a two count after a dropkick, and comes back by whipping Balls into the corner and hitting a cartwheel body splash on Balls. Two count after a bulldog by Storm, and Lance slows the match down with a chinlock. Balls gets back up, and catches Storm's superkick attempt and counters with punches and a superkick of his own. Balls then decides that now would be a good time to take his shirt off, which doesn't do the viewing audience any favors. Powerslam by Balls gets two, and Mahoney goes to the top for an elbow drop, but misses. Storm hits the slingshot clothesline from the apron, and gets a two count. Storm goes to the top and dives, but is caught by Mahoney who sets him up for the Nutcracker Suite. However, Storm gets out and gives a spinning heel kick. Storm grabs a chair and gives Mahoney one of his trademark chair shots, which predictably does not effect Mahoney at all, and Balls fires back with punches. Storm reverses an irish whip into the corner and charges, but Balls drops him over the apron. Unfortunately for Balls, Storm lands on his feet, and as Balls goes to hit Storm with the chair, Storm uses a springboard dropkick to drive it into his face to get the pinfall victory. Nothing really worth writing home about, so I'll give it a 1.4 out of 5.
Joey Styles is in the ring while the fans chant 'Seinfeld Sucks', but is interrupted by Taz, who I guarantee is about to drop a few f-bombs. Sure enough, Taz uses the f word to describe his new belt, the FTW championship. Since he can't get a shot at Shane Douglas's world title due to Douglas's injuries, caused by Taz, Taz has decided that the next logical step is to make his own championship. He challenges Douglas to come out and take his title, but instead Bam Bam Bigelow comes out. He disputes Taz's claim of being a World Champion, and states to Taz that if he wants a piece of Douglas, he'll have to go through Bigelow to get him. Taz has no problem with that, but ECW does, as referees come out to keep the two apart. Bigelow decides to pick up one referee over his head and chuck him into the crowd, and oh here go hell come as the two trade punches and drop to the mat before additional security breaks it up.
Mikey Whipwreck gets a chance to regain the Television Title he once held against the current champion, Rob Van Dam (w/ Bill Alfonso). The match starts with Van Dam hitting a couple of punches, then flatting Mikey with a lifting double underhook facebuster. When Mikey sits up, Van Dam knocks him back down with a spinning heel kick. Back up, RVD irish whips Mikey and catches him with a dropkick on the rebound. Another spinning heel kick by RVD, who follows up with a corkscrew leg drop. To the outside we go, and RVD tries to whip Mikey into the guardrail, but Mikey is able stop himself and Russian leg sweep him into the guardrail. Whipwreck follows up with a suicide dive, but Alfonso then interferes, and RVD is able to regain the advantage. Whipwreck is whipped into the guardrail, and like he's done after every single move thus far, Van Dam showboats for the crowd. Mikey gets crotched on the guardrail, and Alfonso holds up a chair in front of Whipwreck so Van Dam can hit a modified Van Daminator. Back in the ring, Van Dam sets up a chair and monkeyflips Whipwreck spine first onto the chair. Five-Star Frog Splash from Van Dam, but he doesn't attempt a cover and Whipwreck gets back up. Van Dam kicks out quickly after a Sunset Flip, and Whipwreck tries to attempt a Victory Roll, but Van Dam drops him and uses Sabu's camel clutch. Mikey gets crotched on the top rope, and Van Dam uses a standing heel kick to send Whipwreck flying to the outside. Van Dam an Alfonso take forever to find a table, and eventually set one up between the apron and the guardrail, in the exact same spot where Sabu set up a table earlier tonight. Van Dam then crotches Mikey on the guardrail, and nearly clips the table as he corkscrew leg drops Whipwreck. Back in the ring, Van Dam goes for another monkeyflip, but Whipwreck counters with a bulldog onto the chair, and nearly gets a three count after a sunset flip. Whipwreck then uses the chair to his advantage, by drop toe-holding Van Dam face first into the chair, then driving his head into it with a legdrop. Mikey goes to the apron, but Alfonso grabs his leg, and this allows Van Dam to hit the Vandaminator. Alfonso sets up Mikey on the table while Rob Van Dam tries to mimic Sabu with a triple jump dive, but here comes Sabu, and he stops RVD to elbow drop Whipwreck through the table himself. Van Dam is not happy, so he springboards off the chair to hit Sabu with a kick. The two fight it out until Candido comes out, and the two double team RVD because they are teaming up together in a future match against RVD and Lance Storm. Sabu hits Air Sabu off Candido's back, and Candido power bombs RVD before Lance Storm comes out, The four fight it out until the locker room empties to separate the men, making this match a no contest. Just as well, because it was just one RVD spot after another without any cohesion and there was too much time in the match where nothing happened. Plus, RVD was just terrible at selling back then. I'll give it a 1 out of 5.
Up next we have Bam Bam Bigelow coming out for the second time tonight, this time to face Axl Rotten, who comes out wearing an Insane Clown Posse shirt. Bigelow starts the match by attacking Axl from behind, and is all over Rotten as he backs him against the corner. Bigelow charges into the corner and hits one avalanche, but Axl moves after a second attempt and grabs his chair. Rotten hits Bigelow in the back three times with the chair, and the third one sends Bigelow down. Axl charges at Bigelow and tries to hit him in the head, but Bigelow moves, and then scoops up a stunned Axl to deliver the Greetings from Ashbury Park. That gives Bigelow the victory. Well, that was quick. 1.1 out of 5.
The Dudley Boys (Bubba Ray, D-Von, Big Dick) come out to the ring with Joel Gertner and Sign Guy Dudley and grab the mic. D'Von starts by telling the crowd to 'shut the f up', and promises to mess up anyone in the crowd who says anything, which does not silence the crowd to say the least. Bubba Ray takes the mic, and from there the crowd only gets more riled up, as they nearly entice an overweight man to jump into the ring. Trash fills the ring, and some idiot even throws a chair, yet Bubba and D'Von continue to egg the fans on. Some kid threatens to jump from the balcony, so the Dudleys try to goad him into it some more before the kid elects to simply moon the Dudleys instead. Joel Gertner is handed the mic and goes through his usual introduction, but in the middle of it, the kid jumps from the balcony, and eventually jumps the guardrail before security gets in there to keep him from the ring. Good thing, because the kid was about as big as one of Dick's legs. Anyway, the trash is eventually shuffled off to the side of the ring, and here comes the Dudley's opponents in the main event, Tommy Dreamer, the Sandman, and Spike Dudley (w/ Beulah McGillicutty).
Sandman has to get his pre-match smoke and six pack of beer in, so his team's entrance takes about five minutes overall, what with everyone throwing down a few and all. There's a big standoff to begin that takes a few minutes and involves both Bubba and Beulah insulting the other's appearance in between. Finally, Dreamer and D'Von start the match for their respective teams. They tie up, seperate, and stall some more. After some punches by D'Von and a rope-running sequence, Dreamer's sunset flip is blocked by D'Von for a two count, then Dreamer rolls back D'Von for a two count of his own. Back up, Bubba Ray and Spike are tagged in for their teams. Spike charges Bubba twice but is shoved down, then gets caught, picked up, and slammed down to the mat with the Bubba Bomb. Irish Whip into a backdrop by Bubba Ray, and he continues to pound away on Little Spike. Bubba backs Spike into the corner and charges, but Spike moves and fires away at Bubba with shoulder blocks and punches. Spike climbs on Bubba Ray's shoulders and delivers a huracanrana. Spike comes back with a pair of running flying forearms sandwiching a headscissors takeover, and Bubba has to back away into his corner. Big Dick Dudley is tagged in, so Spike decides to do the smart thing and tag in the Sandman. The match slows to a crawl as the two stare each other down and the Sandman tries to go after the other Dudleys on the apron. After a pair of tie-ups, Sandman goes after Bubba again before locking Big Dick in a side headlock. However, Dick shoves Sandman into the ropes and knocks him down hard with a shoulderblock on the rebound. Sandman flips out of a back suplex and clotheslines Big Dick, who answers with a clothesline of his own to knock down the Sandman. Powerbomb attempt by Big Dick, but the Sandman punches his way out of it and knocks Big Dick flat on his back and gets a two count. Sandman clotheslines Big Dick over the top rope, and oh here go hell come as all six man battle on the outside. Bubba gorilla presses Spike and drops him throat first onto the guardrail. Everybody's fighting everybody now and eventually both Bubba and D'Von get thrown over the guardrail, allowing Spike to dive off the turnbuckle onto Bubba and D'Von in the crowd. Dreamer and Bubba are back in, and Dreamer nearly gets a pinfall after a slingshot splash. Irish whip, Bubba ducks a clothesline and flattens Dreamer with a back suplex. D'Von and Spike come back into the ring, and Spike slips out a body slam and huracanranas D'Von down to the mat. Stratusfaction by Spike gets two. Back up, D'Von reverses a whip into the corner, only to get a boot in the face. Spike leaps to the top and jumps, only to land into a waiting D'Von's arms, who then powerslams Spike down. The two roll out, and now it's Big Dick and Sandman enter the ring. Big Dick climbs the top rope (huh?) but Sandman catches him and ties him in the tree of woe. Bubba Ray and Dreamer come back in, and Dreamer and Sandman proceed to tie him up in the tree of woe in another corner. D'Von and Sign Guy also get tied up in trees of woe, I guess and chairs are planted in front of their faces. Dreamer, Sandman, Spike, and Beulah all baseball slide right into the chairs, knocking the Dudleys out. Gertner comes in to challenge Beulah and do his best Ric Flair impersonation in the process. A tie-up ends when Gertner plants a wet one on Beulah. Bearhug by Gertner, but Beulah gets out of it and low-blows Gertner, following that up with a DDT. Dreamer and Sandman line up to annihilate Gertner, but the Dudleys come to the rescue. Spike leaps from the top, only to get caught by Big Dick. Total Penetration by Big Dick (yes, that's the name of his finisher, which is basically a Baldo Bomb) and the Dudley pile on Spike for the three count. But they're not done yet, as Bubba smacks Sandman with his own cane. New Jack comes out with his trash can of weapons, and each Dudley (save Spike) takes a variety of cookie sheets and trash can lids and other various weapons, including a doll with a wooden stick in the middle of it, to the head, clearing them all out of the ring. Gertner for some unknown reason challenges New Jack, and Sandman grabs him from behind, allowing New Jack to annihilate (actually, he barely hit him) Gertner with a guitar. Post match, Dreamer, Sandman, and the rest stand tall in the ring. Wow did this match take a long time to get going, between the Dudleys nearly causing a riot, the Sandman and his team's rather long entrance, and all the stalling in between. I mean, it's one thing to build suspense, but this was a bit much. The match itself suffered from too much down time, so I'll give it a 1.78 out of 5.
Overall, the show started out well, but the last three matches kind of brought everything down. Still, it wasn't too bad of a show, and there were some definite highlights. So I'd give It Ain't Seinfeld a 4.7 out of 10, as it wasn't the best ECW show, but it wasn't too bad. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future posts, than let me know about them either by leaving a comment on the blog or sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Let's talk about Bam Bam Bigelow
Earlier today, I had a sudden and strange desire to watch Bam Bam Bigelow matches. Why I have that urge is a mystery, but heck, I need something to blog about, so I'm going to watch and review a few Bam Bam Bigelow videos in no particular order. So let's talk about "The Beast from the East", shall we.
Video 1: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Nikolai Volkoff, WWF Superstars, Aired September 12, 1987
Before the match, Volkoff gets the crowd fired up by singing the Russian National Anthem. Bigelow is accompanied to the ring by his manager Oliver Humperdink. Volkoff tries to jump Bigelow early, but Bigelow instead gets the advantage, and eventually knocks Volkoff out of the ring with a right hand. Bigelow than does a cartwheel to celebrate. The rest of the match pretty much goes like this, Volkoff tries to brawl with Bigelow, but then Bigelow turns it around using kicks, punches, headbutts, a standing dropkick, and a shoulder block. Even when Volkoff tries to use cheap tactics such as eye gouges, Bigelow shrugs it off and goes back to punishing Volkoff. The finish comes when Bigelow ducks a clothesline with a somersault, and then catches Volkoff with a flying headbutt to get the pinfall. Mostly a one-sided match, full of brawling tactics, but the match lacked any sort of intensity and was just filler. I'll give it a 1.5 out of 5.
Bam Bam Bigelow vs Nikolai Volkoff
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Video 2: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldberg, SuperBrawl 99
Bam Bam comes out to no entrance music, Goldberg comes out without the security guards for once. A staredown and some jabber-jawing starts the match. Bigelow knocks Goldberg down with a shoulder block, which Goldberg gets right back up from, picks up Bigelow and slams him down to the mat. Goldberg continues to dominate Bigelow with a flying shoulderblock, and an unnecessary fireman's carry slam into cross arm-breaker. Man, you've got to love Goldberg's random moves to prove he is some sort of technical wizard, as usually he either does a weak rolling leg bar or some random combination of moves like this that really do not link together. Anyway, Bigelow is in such shock that he has to go to the outside. Goldberg gets too close, and Bigelow trips him up and starts working on his leg with some elbow drops. Bigelow continues working on the leg inside the ring with various stomps and leg holds. When he tires of that, Bigelow delivers a couple of diving headbutts on a downed Goldberg. Out of a chinlock, Goldberg stands up and back suplexs Bam Bam, but Bigelow gets up first and slams Goldberg down. To the top, and Bigelow connects with a diving headbutt, which gets two. Bigelow goes to climb the ropes again, but is thrown down by Goldberg. Spear attempt, but Bigelow moves and pounds on Goldberg some. An Irish Whip by Bigelow is reversed, and Goldberg spears Bigelow down. He goes to set up for the Jackhammer, but for some reason decides to give Bigelow a standing side kick and another spear, before finally Jackhammering Bigelow down to the mat to get the three count. Not a bad match, although there were a couple of awkward moments between the two. I'll give it a 2.27 out of 5.
Goldberg vs Bam Bam Bigelow
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Video 3: Goldberg vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, WCW Monday Nitro, November 16, 1998
Okay, this is not really a match, but it would of been had Bam Bam not attacked Goldberg while he was making his entrance. Instead all that happens is a minute of brawling which the announcers yell themselves hoarse over, before the crack WCW security team comes to break it up, and the show ends. A million billion points out of 5.
Goldberg vs Bam Bam Bigelow
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Video 4:Bam Bam UWF Interview
This clip is only 11 seconds long, but Bigelow shows off a great vocabulary on the mic, rhyming two words with mobility. Which words, you ask? Well watch the video to find out.
Video 5: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Spike Dudley, ECW As Good as it Gets, 9/20/97
A slight mismatch in size, as Bigelow weighs about three times as much as Dudley. Bigelow wastes no time by press slamming Spike at the start of the match. He then continues to dominate his smaller opponent before Spike counters an overhead lift with a high dropkick in which Spike nearly landed on his head. Spike delivers a jumping DDT, and then a top-rope clothesline gets a two count. Spike is undaunted, and dropkicks Bigelow, forcing Bam Bam out of the ring and through the ringkeeper's table. Spike gets a chair and slams Bigelow in the back, before climbing the rope and delivering a diving chair shot to the head, which almost got the victory for Spike. Spike goes for another top rope chairshot, but misses, and that's when the tables turn, as Bigelow suplexes Spike onto the chair. Bigelow then picks up Spike, and gorilla presses him into the crowd! The crowd then carries Spike around the crowd, as Spike is involuntarily surfing the crowd as if in the mosh pit before security stops him. Bam Bam goes out and gets Spike, rolls him back in, and body splashes the much smaller Spike from the top rope and getting the victory. Post-match, the crowd chants for Bigelow to throw Spike back into the crowd, and Bigelow delivers, as Spike goes for another ride into the crowd. Interesting match, I'm willing to bet you won't see another wrestler thrown into the crowd, but that's ECW for you. As for the match, I'd give it a 2.4 out of 5.
Spike Dudley vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
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Well, I think I'll end it here. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post or Bam Bam Bigelow, or you have an idea or two for a future post, than send them this way either by leaving a comment on the blog or by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com
Video 1: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Nikolai Volkoff, WWF Superstars, Aired September 12, 1987
Before the match, Volkoff gets the crowd fired up by singing the Russian National Anthem. Bigelow is accompanied to the ring by his manager Oliver Humperdink. Volkoff tries to jump Bigelow early, but Bigelow instead gets the advantage, and eventually knocks Volkoff out of the ring with a right hand. Bigelow than does a cartwheel to celebrate. The rest of the match pretty much goes like this, Volkoff tries to brawl with Bigelow, but then Bigelow turns it around using kicks, punches, headbutts, a standing dropkick, and a shoulder block. Even when Volkoff tries to use cheap tactics such as eye gouges, Bigelow shrugs it off and goes back to punishing Volkoff. The finish comes when Bigelow ducks a clothesline with a somersault, and then catches Volkoff with a flying headbutt to get the pinfall. Mostly a one-sided match, full of brawling tactics, but the match lacked any sort of intensity and was just filler. I'll give it a 1.5 out of 5.
Bam Bam Bigelow vs Nikolai Volkoff
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Video 2: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldberg, SuperBrawl 99
Bam Bam comes out to no entrance music, Goldberg comes out without the security guards for once. A staredown and some jabber-jawing starts the match. Bigelow knocks Goldberg down with a shoulder block, which Goldberg gets right back up from, picks up Bigelow and slams him down to the mat. Goldberg continues to dominate Bigelow with a flying shoulderblock, and an unnecessary fireman's carry slam into cross arm-breaker. Man, you've got to love Goldberg's random moves to prove he is some sort of technical wizard, as usually he either does a weak rolling leg bar or some random combination of moves like this that really do not link together. Anyway, Bigelow is in such shock that he has to go to the outside. Goldberg gets too close, and Bigelow trips him up and starts working on his leg with some elbow drops. Bigelow continues working on the leg inside the ring with various stomps and leg holds. When he tires of that, Bigelow delivers a couple of diving headbutts on a downed Goldberg. Out of a chinlock, Goldberg stands up and back suplexs Bam Bam, but Bigelow gets up first and slams Goldberg down. To the top, and Bigelow connects with a diving headbutt, which gets two. Bigelow goes to climb the ropes again, but is thrown down by Goldberg. Spear attempt, but Bigelow moves and pounds on Goldberg some. An Irish Whip by Bigelow is reversed, and Goldberg spears Bigelow down. He goes to set up for the Jackhammer, but for some reason decides to give Bigelow a standing side kick and another spear, before finally Jackhammering Bigelow down to the mat to get the three count. Not a bad match, although there were a couple of awkward moments between the two. I'll give it a 2.27 out of 5.
Goldberg vs Bam Bam Bigelow
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Video 3: Goldberg vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, WCW Monday Nitro, November 16, 1998
Okay, this is not really a match, but it would of been had Bam Bam not attacked Goldberg while he was making his entrance. Instead all that happens is a minute of brawling which the announcers yell themselves hoarse over, before the crack WCW security team comes to break it up, and the show ends. A million billion points out of 5.
Goldberg vs Bam Bam Bigelow
Uploaded by smithjoe. - Basketball, baseball, pro wrestling and more sports videos.
Video 4:Bam Bam UWF Interview
This clip is only 11 seconds long, but Bigelow shows off a great vocabulary on the mic, rhyming two words with mobility. Which words, you ask? Well watch the video to find out.
Video 5: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Spike Dudley, ECW As Good as it Gets, 9/20/97
A slight mismatch in size, as Bigelow weighs about three times as much as Dudley. Bigelow wastes no time by press slamming Spike at the start of the match. He then continues to dominate his smaller opponent before Spike counters an overhead lift with a high dropkick in which Spike nearly landed on his head. Spike delivers a jumping DDT, and then a top-rope clothesline gets a two count. Spike is undaunted, and dropkicks Bigelow, forcing Bam Bam out of the ring and through the ringkeeper's table. Spike gets a chair and slams Bigelow in the back, before climbing the rope and delivering a diving chair shot to the head, which almost got the victory for Spike. Spike goes for another top rope chairshot, but misses, and that's when the tables turn, as Bigelow suplexes Spike onto the chair. Bigelow then picks up Spike, and gorilla presses him into the crowd! The crowd then carries Spike around the crowd, as Spike is involuntarily surfing the crowd as if in the mosh pit before security stops him. Bam Bam goes out and gets Spike, rolls him back in, and body splashes the much smaller Spike from the top rope and getting the victory. Post-match, the crowd chants for Bigelow to throw Spike back into the crowd, and Bigelow delivers, as Spike goes for another ride into the crowd. Interesting match, I'm willing to bet you won't see another wrestler thrown into the crowd, but that's ECW for you. As for the match, I'd give it a 2.4 out of 5.
Spike Dudley vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
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Well, I think I'll end it here. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post or Bam Bam Bigelow, or you have an idea or two for a future post, than send them this way either by leaving a comment on the blog or by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Fun with YouTube Recommendations: July 17, 2010
First of all, sorry for the lack of activity lately around here, as things have been a bit wacky the last few days. Hopefully, I will get back to a more consistent schedule at The Canon Review in the upcoming days. For now, to ease myself back into posting, I decided to watch a few videos that YouTube has recommended for me to watch based on previous videos I had viewed before. So, let's see what the machine has for me to watch today.
Video 1: 1987 NBA Draft - 12 - Tyrone Bogues, Wake Forest
First we get an interview with then Boston Celtics president Red Auerbach, one of basketball's most legendary figures. He agrees with San Antonio's selection of Navy center David Robinson with the first pick, a pick that was heavily criticized at the time due to Robinson having to serve a two-year commitment in the Navy and therefore, not being able to play right away. Looking back, the Spurs made the right pick. Auerbach also is surprised that so many guards were taken this early, and wondered how the Indiana Pacers fanbase would react to the team selecting Reggie Miller over local favorite Steve Alford. Of course, Miller had a hall-of-fame career with the Pacers, so I think the fans ended up satisfied with the picks. After the interview, the Washington Bullets turn their selection in the while the announcers speculate just who will be picked or if the trick will be traded. Commissioner David Stern announces that the Bullets selected point guard Tyrone Bouges with the 12th pick in the draft, which gets a mixed reaction from the announcers, but the crowd seems to like it. Bouges, nicknamed Muggsy, is a 5'3" guard from Wake Forest who the announcers say was projected to be a second-round selection. I think the Bullets may have reached here, but anytime you can team up the shortest (Bouges) and tallest player (Manute Bol) in NBA History, you've got to do it. Plus, Bouges is from the Washington D.C. area, so at least the fanbase will be happy. We get a highlight package of Bouges from his Wake Forest days, and the anaylsts seemed to think he had a good chance of becoming a decent NBA player. Also, we get an interview from Bouges himself, who expresses his excitement about playing for the Bullets. Well, Bouges only played one year for the Bullets before the Charlotte Hornets took him in the 1989 expansion draft. After that, Bouges settled in as the Hornets point guard for the next nine years, and currently ranks 16th all-time in assists in NBA history. So while the Bullets didn't get much out of the pick, it wasn't a bad pick, and the mistake the Bullets made was getting rid of Bouges too early.
Video 2: Eternal Champions Commercial
Remember the Sega Genesis game Eternal Champions? Well, Eternal Champions was Sega's attempt to cash in on the fighting game craze of the early 90s caused by Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II. It wasn't quite as good as those other two games, nor was it as popular, but overall it wasn't too bad. This commercial, however, is just awful. Apparently, playing Eternal Champions is such an intense experience that it will twist your face into all sorts of grotesque positions. Um, ok. After seeing that commercial, I don't exactly want to play Eternal Champions right now.
Video 3: Raw 15: Shane McMahon on Nitro
I guess this clip is from some DVD or something, because it includes interviews from a couple of guys in between showing Shane McMahon showing up on the last edition of WCW Nitro. Edge was shocked, SHOCKED by this turn of events. Anyway, the video's basically a clip of Shane McMahon showing up and saying he "bought" WCW, and that's how one of the biggest companies in wrestling history ended, with Shane freakin' McMahon on the screen. Whoopee. I'm not going to go into what happened after this clip, because it would just make me angry.
Video 4: TNA Impact 7/15/10 Part 10/10 (HQ)
Ok, this wasn't on my recommendations page but dang it, I wanted to watch it and comment on it anyway. In their never ending quest to make themselves relevant on the wrestling scene, TNA has decided that now is the time for yet another ECW invasion. First of all, they tried this sort of thing like seven years ago and nobody cared about it then. Second, the WWE did it already five years ago, and since they own all of the ECW copyrights and had a more talented group of wrestlers available, they were able to make a success out of it with One Night Stand. Of course, that led to the ill-fated ECW brand a year later, but still it was a huge success at the time. Now it's been almost ten years since ECW had their last show, most of the wrestlers involved are either broken-down, retired, or dead, and TNA decides that now is the perfect time to stage an ECW invasion. So they bring in Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, and Raven, team Rhyno up with them, and have all of them beat up on security and other TNA wrestlers. Of course, it doesn't look very extreme, and seems more like a standstill than a full-out beatdown, but whatever. Then you have the president of TNA get a mic and say, hold on a minute, I invited these guys. Why? exactly, were these people invited to beat up the roster, well tune in to Impact next week to find out. Look, I was as big a fan of ECW as anyone else, but this whole angle stinks, and just seems like another desperate attempt by TNA to get some people to watch their crappy show. Instead of relying on wrestlers successful a decade ago and tired and recycled ideas, TNA should, try something, anything, that's an original idea, but their braintrust is all stuck in the 1990s and even the rumors of Paul Heyman taking over the book won't change that mindset. Enjoy the video!
Well, thanks for reading, and I hope to have something else up over the next 12 hours or so. Until then, if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, than feel free to leave a comment. And if you ideas for future reviews, than send them to me at kthec2001@gmail.com
Video 1: 1987 NBA Draft - 12 - Tyrone Bogues, Wake Forest
First we get an interview with then Boston Celtics president Red Auerbach, one of basketball's most legendary figures. He agrees with San Antonio's selection of Navy center David Robinson with the first pick, a pick that was heavily criticized at the time due to Robinson having to serve a two-year commitment in the Navy and therefore, not being able to play right away. Looking back, the Spurs made the right pick. Auerbach also is surprised that so many guards were taken this early, and wondered how the Indiana Pacers fanbase would react to the team selecting Reggie Miller over local favorite Steve Alford. Of course, Miller had a hall-of-fame career with the Pacers, so I think the fans ended up satisfied with the picks. After the interview, the Washington Bullets turn their selection in the while the announcers speculate just who will be picked or if the trick will be traded. Commissioner David Stern announces that the Bullets selected point guard Tyrone Bouges with the 12th pick in the draft, which gets a mixed reaction from the announcers, but the crowd seems to like it. Bouges, nicknamed Muggsy, is a 5'3" guard from Wake Forest who the announcers say was projected to be a second-round selection. I think the Bullets may have reached here, but anytime you can team up the shortest (Bouges) and tallest player (Manute Bol) in NBA History, you've got to do it. Plus, Bouges is from the Washington D.C. area, so at least the fanbase will be happy. We get a highlight package of Bouges from his Wake Forest days, and the anaylsts seemed to think he had a good chance of becoming a decent NBA player. Also, we get an interview from Bouges himself, who expresses his excitement about playing for the Bullets. Well, Bouges only played one year for the Bullets before the Charlotte Hornets took him in the 1989 expansion draft. After that, Bouges settled in as the Hornets point guard for the next nine years, and currently ranks 16th all-time in assists in NBA history. So while the Bullets didn't get much out of the pick, it wasn't a bad pick, and the mistake the Bullets made was getting rid of Bouges too early.
Video 2: Eternal Champions Commercial
Remember the Sega Genesis game Eternal Champions? Well, Eternal Champions was Sega's attempt to cash in on the fighting game craze of the early 90s caused by Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II. It wasn't quite as good as those other two games, nor was it as popular, but overall it wasn't too bad. This commercial, however, is just awful. Apparently, playing Eternal Champions is such an intense experience that it will twist your face into all sorts of grotesque positions. Um, ok. After seeing that commercial, I don't exactly want to play Eternal Champions right now.
Video 3: Raw 15: Shane McMahon on Nitro
I guess this clip is from some DVD or something, because it includes interviews from a couple of guys in between showing Shane McMahon showing up on the last edition of WCW Nitro. Edge was shocked, SHOCKED by this turn of events. Anyway, the video's basically a clip of Shane McMahon showing up and saying he "bought" WCW, and that's how one of the biggest companies in wrestling history ended, with Shane freakin' McMahon on the screen. Whoopee. I'm not going to go into what happened after this clip, because it would just make me angry.
Video 4: TNA Impact 7/15/10 Part 10/10 (HQ)
Ok, this wasn't on my recommendations page but dang it, I wanted to watch it and comment on it anyway. In their never ending quest to make themselves relevant on the wrestling scene, TNA has decided that now is the time for yet another ECW invasion. First of all, they tried this sort of thing like seven years ago and nobody cared about it then. Second, the WWE did it already five years ago, and since they own all of the ECW copyrights and had a more talented group of wrestlers available, they were able to make a success out of it with One Night Stand. Of course, that led to the ill-fated ECW brand a year later, but still it was a huge success at the time. Now it's been almost ten years since ECW had their last show, most of the wrestlers involved are either broken-down, retired, or dead, and TNA decides that now is the perfect time to stage an ECW invasion. So they bring in Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, and Raven, team Rhyno up with them, and have all of them beat up on security and other TNA wrestlers. Of course, it doesn't look very extreme, and seems more like a standstill than a full-out beatdown, but whatever. Then you have the president of TNA get a mic and say, hold on a minute, I invited these guys. Why? exactly, were these people invited to beat up the roster, well tune in to Impact next week to find out. Look, I was as big a fan of ECW as anyone else, but this whole angle stinks, and just seems like another desperate attempt by TNA to get some people to watch their crappy show. Instead of relying on wrestlers successful a decade ago and tired and recycled ideas, TNA should, try something, anything, that's an original idea, but their braintrust is all stuck in the 1990s and even the rumors of Paul Heyman taking over the book won't change that mindset. Enjoy the video!
Well, thanks for reading, and I hope to have something else up over the next 12 hours or so. Until then, if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, than feel free to leave a comment. And if you ideas for future reviews, than send them to me at kthec2001@gmail.com
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Canon Wrestling Review: ECW Hardcore TV, February 27, 1997
The second of two posts about ECW shows in the last 24 hours. Let's see if this show is any good, shall we?
- We start from Cyberslam 1997 with Joey Styles in the ring, who brings out the Pitbulls for an interview. Pitbull #1 (Gary Wolfe) has just recently come back from a broken neck, and wants revenge on the man that broke his neck, Shane Douglas. Wolfe compares Shane Douglas to Shawn Michaels, which apparently is fightin' words in ECW, because the Franchise gets on the mic from a stage in the arena. Douglas curses about 11 times in two minutes, because nobody in wrestling could work in swear words like The Franchise. Really, Taz is the only other wrestler that comes close to working in swears to Douglas. Douglas invites the Pitbulls to take him on up on the stage, and the Pitbulls follow, but Douglas's Triple Threat members Chris Candido and Brian Lee are lying in wait, and the three take out the Pitbulls. Lee chokeslams Pitbull 2 through a table, and the Triple Threat stand proud over their fallen foes.
- Up next is a Tables and Ladders Tag Team Match from Cyberslam 1997 with the Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) defending their ECW Tag Team titles against the team of Sabu and Rob Van Dam.We get a handshake between Van Dam and the Eliminators at the beginning of the match, while Sabu does his trademark point to the sky pose. The match starts with Van Dam and Saturn trading holds, the two then start to trade punches. Van Dam with a standing dropkick gets two, Kronus and Sabu are tagged in, and since both of these men are a little crazy, Styles expects wackiness between the two. Instead the two trade some holds and Kronus eventually gets the advantage with a uranage suplex. That gets two. Sabu puts Kronus in a camel clutch, but Saturn dives off the top with a clothesline to break the hold. Saturn tags in, but Sabu regains the advantage with some punches. Sabu tags in RVD, puts Saturn in a camel clutch and holds him while Van Dam dropkicks him in the face, nearly breaking Saturn's nose in the process. That gets two. Both men are up, and Van Dam and Saturn attempt hammerlocks before Saturn gets the advantage and crotches Van Dam on the top rope. Saturn with a springboard clothesline to the outside and RVD is down. Saturn gets a ladder, but Van Dam is up. While the two fight for the ladder, Sabu dropkicks the ladder into both men, and the fight is now ON! Both teams brawl on the outside for a couple of minutes, Sabu gets whipped into a wall at one point. Now everyone is back in, and Sabu throws a chair at Saturn. Triple Jump Moonsault by Sabu gets two. Van Dam with a moonsault off the second rung of the ladder gets two. Sabu and RVD place Saturn on the ladder and sets up for Rolling Thunder. It connects, but Kronus breaks up the pin. Van Dam gets kicked in the face by Saturn, and gets the ladder thrown into him. Saturn sets the ladder in a corner, whips RVD in, than tags Kronus, who does a double springboard elbow. Sabu breaks up the count, while Saturn returns with another ladder. Saturn just throws the ladder straight into the side of RVD's head. That probably hurt. Saturn sets up the ladder in the corner, whips RVD in, but Van Dam reverses and Saturn goes down after hitting the ladder. RVD has Saturn in a Surfboard, and Sabu dives off the top and clips Saturn in the chest, barely connecting. Sabu uses a ladder to hit the Arabian Face Buster on Saturn, but Kronus breaks up the count. Sabu is tagged in, the two try to double clothesline Saturn, but Saturn delivers clothesline to both men. Saturn is still down, so Sabu gets up and slingshots himself from the apron to do a flipping leg drop. That gets two. Kronus is tagged, and the Eliminators tag Sabu with double superkicks. Kronus with a bodyslam and a twisting senton on Sabu, but RVD breaks up the fall with a dropkick to Kronus. Falcon arrow by Saturn on Sabu, but Sabu kicks out. Somehow Saturn and Sabu end up in the crowd, while Kronus gets whipped into the corner, where a ladder has been set up. RVD runs into Kronus but gets dumped over the top rope, while Sabu dives onto Saturn. These guys look tired. On the other side, Van Dam does a moonsault off the guardrail onto a standing Kronus. Back in the ring, Saturn hits a Frankensteiner on Sabu. That gets a two count. Van Dam and Kronus come back in, and Van Dam gets body slammed. The Eliminators set up a six foot ladder, and Saturn dives off the top onto Van Dam. It would have been more impressive if Saturn did that off the top turnbuckle, but oh well. Sabu dropkicks the ladder into Saturn, drags Kronus outside of the ring and sets him up on a table. He then slingshot leg drops Kronus through the table. Van Dam takes forever to set up the next spot. He puts a ladder in the corner draped over two ropes, sets Saturn on it, ducks under the ladder to get on the top turnbuckle and attempts a split-legged moonsault onto Saturn. He ends up overshooting his target and nearly land head-first onto Saturn. Nice try, but that would be nearly impossible to hit perfectly. Sabu and Van Dam with slingshot kicks onto Saturn, Kronus breaks up the cover with his fist. Saturn eats another slingshot kick from Sabu, than Van Dam sets him up in the corner, and the two do the "Whisper in the Wind" move that the Hardys lifted from their repertoire. Van Dam tries to catch Saturn with a kick, but nearly hits Sabu instead. The two stare at each other, which allows Saturn to dropkick RVD into Sabu. The Eliminators hit two sloppy looking Total Eliminations on RVD and get the victory. Post match, the Eliminators shake hands with Sabu, but RVD refuses, and he and Sabu have words. I see what they were trying to do with this match, but somewhere in the middle it kind of fell apart and became a spotfest, and not a very good one at that. I'll give it a 1.7 out of 5.
- Taz comes out with Bill Alfonso and some jokers wearing "Team Taz" merchandise. He's here to wrestle Tracey Smothers in another match from Cyberslam. This is Smothers' first match at the ECW Arena, and he gets a mixed reaction. Taz starts the match by slapping Smothers straight in the face. This causes Smothers to get angry and the two start trading blows on the ground. Front headlock Taz plex from Taz gets a two count. Smothers is able to keep Taz off balance with a series of punches and kicks, and uses a sunset flip and a flying body press to get a pair of two counts. Jawjacker elbow (hey, that what Styles called it, so I'll go with it) from Smothers gets a two count. Smothers whips Taz in, but Taz ducks a clothesline, goes behind Smothers and hits him with a German Suplex. That spells the beginning of the end for Smothers, as Taz gives Smothers a T-Bone suplex before sinking in the Tazmission, causing Smothers to tap out. Short match that showcased Taz and gave Smothers some credibility. I'll give it a 2.3 out of 5.
- Chris Candido does an interview saying he could be a hardcore legend just like Terry Funk. Candido does a good Terry Funk impression, I must say. Raven and Brian Lee come out to the ring. The Eagles' "Desperado" plays and Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer come out to the ring for a big time tag team match. The stipulation is that if Terry Funk pins Raven, than he gets a shot at Raven's ECW Title at Barely Legal, ECW's first pay-per-view coming up about two months after this. The introductions are given in the match starts, but Raven grabs a microphone. He says to Tommy that Dreamer hasn't pinned him in two years, but tonight Raven will let Tommy pin him, if he wants to cost his mentor Funk a shot at the World Title. Raven says Tommy doesn't have the stones to do it, which sends Tommy into a rage, punching a prone Raven. Back up, Dreamer hits a powerslam on Raven and covers him, but quickly gets up because he can't cost Funk his title shot, even though he's become obsessed with beating Raven. Tommy's dilemma will continue next time, because that's all the time for this week.
Well, this show featured a rather lengthy title match and Taz doing his thing, so it wasn't all bad. But I liked the show I watched earlier a little better than this. I'll give it a 6 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post or about ECW in general, or ideas for future posts, than share them by leaving a comment on the blog, or send me an e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
- We start from Cyberslam 1997 with Joey Styles in the ring, who brings out the Pitbulls for an interview. Pitbull #1 (Gary Wolfe) has just recently come back from a broken neck, and wants revenge on the man that broke his neck, Shane Douglas. Wolfe compares Shane Douglas to Shawn Michaels, which apparently is fightin' words in ECW, because the Franchise gets on the mic from a stage in the arena. Douglas curses about 11 times in two minutes, because nobody in wrestling could work in swear words like The Franchise. Really, Taz is the only other wrestler that comes close to working in swears to Douglas. Douglas invites the Pitbulls to take him on up on the stage, and the Pitbulls follow, but Douglas's Triple Threat members Chris Candido and Brian Lee are lying in wait, and the three take out the Pitbulls. Lee chokeslams Pitbull 2 through a table, and the Triple Threat stand proud over their fallen foes.
- Up next is a Tables and Ladders Tag Team Match from Cyberslam 1997 with the Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) defending their ECW Tag Team titles against the team of Sabu and Rob Van Dam.We get a handshake between Van Dam and the Eliminators at the beginning of the match, while Sabu does his trademark point to the sky pose. The match starts with Van Dam and Saturn trading holds, the two then start to trade punches. Van Dam with a standing dropkick gets two, Kronus and Sabu are tagged in, and since both of these men are a little crazy, Styles expects wackiness between the two. Instead the two trade some holds and Kronus eventually gets the advantage with a uranage suplex. That gets two. Sabu puts Kronus in a camel clutch, but Saturn dives off the top with a clothesline to break the hold. Saturn tags in, but Sabu regains the advantage with some punches. Sabu tags in RVD, puts Saturn in a camel clutch and holds him while Van Dam dropkicks him in the face, nearly breaking Saturn's nose in the process. That gets two. Both men are up, and Van Dam and Saturn attempt hammerlocks before Saturn gets the advantage and crotches Van Dam on the top rope. Saturn with a springboard clothesline to the outside and RVD is down. Saturn gets a ladder, but Van Dam is up. While the two fight for the ladder, Sabu dropkicks the ladder into both men, and the fight is now ON! Both teams brawl on the outside for a couple of minutes, Sabu gets whipped into a wall at one point. Now everyone is back in, and Sabu throws a chair at Saturn. Triple Jump Moonsault by Sabu gets two. Van Dam with a moonsault off the second rung of the ladder gets two. Sabu and RVD place Saturn on the ladder and sets up for Rolling Thunder. It connects, but Kronus breaks up the pin. Van Dam gets kicked in the face by Saturn, and gets the ladder thrown into him. Saturn sets the ladder in a corner, whips RVD in, than tags Kronus, who does a double springboard elbow. Sabu breaks up the count, while Saturn returns with another ladder. Saturn just throws the ladder straight into the side of RVD's head. That probably hurt. Saturn sets up the ladder in the corner, whips RVD in, but Van Dam reverses and Saturn goes down after hitting the ladder. RVD has Saturn in a Surfboard, and Sabu dives off the top and clips Saturn in the chest, barely connecting. Sabu uses a ladder to hit the Arabian Face Buster on Saturn, but Kronus breaks up the count. Sabu is tagged in, the two try to double clothesline Saturn, but Saturn delivers clothesline to both men. Saturn is still down, so Sabu gets up and slingshots himself from the apron to do a flipping leg drop. That gets two. Kronus is tagged, and the Eliminators tag Sabu with double superkicks. Kronus with a bodyslam and a twisting senton on Sabu, but RVD breaks up the fall with a dropkick to Kronus. Falcon arrow by Saturn on Sabu, but Sabu kicks out. Somehow Saturn and Sabu end up in the crowd, while Kronus gets whipped into the corner, where a ladder has been set up. RVD runs into Kronus but gets dumped over the top rope, while Sabu dives onto Saturn. These guys look tired. On the other side, Van Dam does a moonsault off the guardrail onto a standing Kronus. Back in the ring, Saturn hits a Frankensteiner on Sabu. That gets a two count. Van Dam and Kronus come back in, and Van Dam gets body slammed. The Eliminators set up a six foot ladder, and Saturn dives off the top onto Van Dam. It would have been more impressive if Saturn did that off the top turnbuckle, but oh well. Sabu dropkicks the ladder into Saturn, drags Kronus outside of the ring and sets him up on a table. He then slingshot leg drops Kronus through the table. Van Dam takes forever to set up the next spot. He puts a ladder in the corner draped over two ropes, sets Saturn on it, ducks under the ladder to get on the top turnbuckle and attempts a split-legged moonsault onto Saturn. He ends up overshooting his target and nearly land head-first onto Saturn. Nice try, but that would be nearly impossible to hit perfectly. Sabu and Van Dam with slingshot kicks onto Saturn, Kronus breaks up the cover with his fist. Saturn eats another slingshot kick from Sabu, than Van Dam sets him up in the corner, and the two do the "Whisper in the Wind" move that the Hardys lifted from their repertoire. Van Dam tries to catch Saturn with a kick, but nearly hits Sabu instead. The two stare at each other, which allows Saturn to dropkick RVD into Sabu. The Eliminators hit two sloppy looking Total Eliminations on RVD and get the victory. Post match, the Eliminators shake hands with Sabu, but RVD refuses, and he and Sabu have words. I see what they were trying to do with this match, but somewhere in the middle it kind of fell apart and became a spotfest, and not a very good one at that. I'll give it a 1.7 out of 5.
- Taz comes out with Bill Alfonso and some jokers wearing "Team Taz" merchandise. He's here to wrestle Tracey Smothers in another match from Cyberslam. This is Smothers' first match at the ECW Arena, and he gets a mixed reaction. Taz starts the match by slapping Smothers straight in the face. This causes Smothers to get angry and the two start trading blows on the ground. Front headlock Taz plex from Taz gets a two count. Smothers is able to keep Taz off balance with a series of punches and kicks, and uses a sunset flip and a flying body press to get a pair of two counts. Jawjacker elbow (hey, that what Styles called it, so I'll go with it) from Smothers gets a two count. Smothers whips Taz in, but Taz ducks a clothesline, goes behind Smothers and hits him with a German Suplex. That spells the beginning of the end for Smothers, as Taz gives Smothers a T-Bone suplex before sinking in the Tazmission, causing Smothers to tap out. Short match that showcased Taz and gave Smothers some credibility. I'll give it a 2.3 out of 5.
- Chris Candido does an interview saying he could be a hardcore legend just like Terry Funk. Candido does a good Terry Funk impression, I must say. Raven and Brian Lee come out to the ring. The Eagles' "Desperado" plays and Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer come out to the ring for a big time tag team match. The stipulation is that if Terry Funk pins Raven, than he gets a shot at Raven's ECW Title at Barely Legal, ECW's first pay-per-view coming up about two months after this. The introductions are given in the match starts, but Raven grabs a microphone. He says to Tommy that Dreamer hasn't pinned him in two years, but tonight Raven will let Tommy pin him, if he wants to cost his mentor Funk a shot at the World Title. Raven says Tommy doesn't have the stones to do it, which sends Tommy into a rage, punching a prone Raven. Back up, Dreamer hits a powerslam on Raven and covers him, but quickly gets up because he can't cost Funk his title shot, even though he's become obsessed with beating Raven. Tommy's dilemma will continue next time, because that's all the time for this week.
Well, this show featured a rather lengthy title match and Taz doing his thing, so it wasn't all bad. But I liked the show I watched earlier a little better than this. I'll give it a 6 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post or about ECW in general, or ideas for future posts, than share them by leaving a comment on the blog, or send me an e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Canon Wrestling Review: ECW Hardcore TV, March 26, 1996
Sorry for yesterday's lack of activity, I had a lot to do and the whole day was just bonkers, so by the time I sat down on the computer, I was too exhausted to come up with anything to review. But fear not, as I plan on double dipping today, so you fine people get not just one, but two whole Canon Reviews! Isn't that exciting? What do you mean you don't care? Anyway, this review, as you could probably tell by the title, is an episode of ECW Hardcore TV, the weekly television show that ECW had back in the day. Since all the wrestling I've reviewed seems to be WCW shows, I wanted to switch it up a bit, and what better way to do that than watch some Extreme Championship Wrestling at the peak of their run. So I will, by golly. This episode was originally shown on March 26, 1996.
ECW Hardcore TV: March 26, 1996
We start with clips from a brawl taking place in the crowd between The Bruise Brothers and the unlikely duo of Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas. Somebody gets thrown through a door, one of the Bruise Brothers gets hit with half of a table by Dreamer, just another night at the ECW Arena. The ECW Intro plays, and Joey Styles welcomes us to the show. Styles starts by talking about Cactus Jack, who recently had wrestled his last match in ECW at the Big Ass Extreme Bash (great name, by the way) against Mikey Whipwreck.
Highlights of the Jack-Whipwreck match are shown. We start with Mikey hitting a Russian leg sweep on Jack on a chair. Mikey tries for a victory roll near the ropes, but Cactus dumps Mikey off his shoulders onto the timekeeper's table outside the ring. The table doesn't break, so Mikey just bounces off the table in what had to be a painful bump. Jack sets the table up against the ring post, and gives Mikey a back suplex onto the table, which once again does not break. That table's as tough as a two dollar steak. Inside the ring again, and Whipwreck has a chair. He hits Cactus as hard as possible in the head with the chair twice. Despite those hellacious chairshots, Cactus kicks out at two. We get some brawling out in the crowd, and Whipwreck snap suplexes Cactus on a stage. Mikey climbs up to a higher stage of the arena, and dives some eight to ten feet onto Cactus. Back inside, Whipwreck tries an aerial attack, but eats a Cactus Jack forearm on the way down. Cactus has a chair, and pounds a downed Mikey in the back three times with it. Cactus picks Mikey up, and piledrives him on a chair. OUCH! That gets three, and Cactus wins his last ECW match. Post-match, Cactus crawls after Mikey, who tries to scurry away like a scared child. But Cactus catches Whipwreck, picks him up on his feet, and raises Mikey's hand in a show of respect. As the song "New York, New York" plays (because Cactus is going to the WWF, which is based in New York). Cactus calls out the two men that "without them, there wouldn't be an ECW" One's a creative genius, while the other is a visionary. That's right, it's none other than . . . Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie? The three then do one of the worst Rockettes dance routine in the history of mankind, and then embrace in the ring. Now that's an exit, there, a million, billion stars. Cactus Jack then went to the WWF, where he did okay for himself, all in all. I'll give this whole segment a 4.8 out of 5, good stuff here.
- It's time to sell some merchandise. Brian Pillman plugs his 1-900 hotline. Did anybody actually call his hotline? If so, let me know. Hey, you can buy a Sabu T-Shirt for the first time for 20 dollars, or an EC F'N W shirt. In between all of these ads, a highlight video of Cactus Jack is shown. The video ends with a screen that says "Cactus Jack, 1985-1996, Bang Bang, He's Dead". Jack would come back to life a year later, albiet in the WWF, but still. After all that, Joey introduces us to the next match, which also took place at the Big Ass Extreme Bash between the "last survivor of the Hart Dungeon" Chris Jericho and the "One-Man Crime Spree" Taz.
- Jericho comes out to "Electric Head part 2" by White Zombie, while Taz comes out to Kiss's "War Machine" with his manager, Bill Alfonso, who blows his whistle every three seconds. As you can imagine, that gets annoying quickly. The match starts, the two tie up, and Taz counters with a Fujiwara armbar. Jericho reaches the ropes, and the two tie up again, Jericho gets a top wrist-lock, but Taz bridges out. Taz tries a German suplex, but Jericho goes behind and hits a German of his own. That gets two. Taz goes to the outside, he climbs back on the apron, but Jericho hits a springboard dropkick from the turnbuckle, sending Taz back to the outside. Jericho runs to the turnbuckle and dives on Taz on the outside of the ring. Back in, Jericho does the Superfly splash and a Lionsault, but both moves only get two. Taz whips Jericho into the corner, goes for the German suplex again, but Jericho turns around, only to take a Northern Lights suplex. That gets two. Both men get up, and Jericho superkicks Taz. Jericho climbs to the top, but Taz catches him and sets him up for a super back suplex, but Jericho flips out of it and clotheslines Taz. Jericho whips Taz into the corner, but Taz bounces off and catches a running Jericho to deliver a T-Bone Taz plex. Jericho landed on his head after that move, and the referee calls for the bell. But Jericho gets up and demands a restart. He knocks Taz down, but after missing a punch, Taz German suplexes Jericho on the back of his head. That looked like it hurt. Taz locks in the Tazmission and Jericho has no choice to give up. Taz keeps the hold on, despite the best efforts of Little Guido and the Eliminators to break it up, but Brian Pillman, who Styles claimed helped train Jericho (never mind the fact that the two men hadn't met until 1996) comes in the ring and jumps around like a crazy man, causing Taz to let go and stare down Pillman. Taz then Germans Little Guido just because he can, and Pillman leaves, only to clothesline an oncoming El Puerto Ricano and back suplex him on the floor. That brings out Shane Douglas, who tries to get to Pillman but Pillman escapes through the crowd. Douglas and others check on Jericho while Taz leaves the ring. The match was pretty good, so I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5.
- The main event of the show is next, as Raven defends his ECW World Championship against Shane Douglas. Raven comes out on crutches and with his flunkies Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie. A video is shown highlighting the relationship between Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, and the Sandman, three rivals that have come together due to a common hatred of Raven. Douglas comes out, but before the match starts Richards gets the mic. He tells Raven not to wrestle because Raven has gout. Ok then. Raven says there will be no match tonight, but Douglas takes umbrage and hits Raven with the microphone. Richards with a Stevie kick, and both men are down at the start of the match. Raven hits his patented Evenflow DDT, but only gets two. To the outside, Raven throws Douglas agianst two guardrails and gives Douglas another Evenflow DDT, this time on a chair. Raven gets in the ring and tells the ref to count Douglas out. Douglas gets to the apron at eight, only to eat a kneelift by Raven. Douglas gets back up, only to receive a running punch from Raven. This time Douglas doesn't get back on the apron until the count of nine. Raven tries to suplex Douglas in, but Douglas counters and drapes Raven over the turnbuckle. Douglas knees Raven in the head and Raven flies to the outside. Douglas with a suicide dive on Raven's lackeys, and then turns his attention to Raven. Back in, Douglas with a chairshot on Raven, and a DDT on the chair for Raven. Raven's valet Kimona Wanalaya breaks up the count, but gets spanked for her efforts. Raven with a low blow and Douglas is down. Raven whips Douglas into the corner and charges after him with a chair, but Shane pulls the ref into his path. Raven knocks the ref down. Douglas hits Raven with his own crutch, and delivers belly-to-belly suplexes to Richards, Meanie, and Raven. But the ref is down. The Bruise Brothers come out and deliver a double big boot to Douglas. Raven with the cover, but it only gets two. Raven charges with a chair, but Douglas kicks it into Raven's face. Hotshot onto Raven gets a two count. Douglas sets up the chair, and atomic drops Raven onto it. A clothesline knocks Raven out of the chair, and gets a two count. Douglas tries to throw Raven head first into a chair in the corner, but Raven counters and throws Douglas into it. Evenflow on a chair by Raven, and that gets the three count. Post match, the Bruise Brothers come out and try to post Douglas crotch first, but Dreamer makes the save. Dreamer gets overwhelmed by the Bruise Brothers and Raven, but here comes The Sandman, with Singapore cane shots for both the Bruise Brothers, Raven, Stevie, and Meanie. Dreamer DDT's Raven, puts a chair on Raven's foot, and tries to take out Raven's gout ridden leg, but the Sandman stops him, indicating he wants to do it. While the two are arguing, Douglas dives off the top rope onto Raven's leg. Raven leaves while Douglas, Dreamer, and Sandman have a standoff. Match was a bit of a mess, but it was ok. I'll give it a 2.6 out of 5.
Well, that was fun. This show was a lot of fun to watch and showed what ECW was all about, a hard-hitting wrestling show with great characters such as Raven and Cactus Jack and interesting storylines. Overall, I'll give this episode a 7.4 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post, or ideas for future posts, than let us know about them either by leaving a comment on the blog or by sending an e-mail to KtheC2001@gmail.com.
ECW Hardcore TV: March 26, 1996
We start with clips from a brawl taking place in the crowd between The Bruise Brothers and the unlikely duo of Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas. Somebody gets thrown through a door, one of the Bruise Brothers gets hit with half of a table by Dreamer, just another night at the ECW Arena. The ECW Intro plays, and Joey Styles welcomes us to the show. Styles starts by talking about Cactus Jack, who recently had wrestled his last match in ECW at the Big Ass Extreme Bash (great name, by the way) against Mikey Whipwreck.
Highlights of the Jack-Whipwreck match are shown. We start with Mikey hitting a Russian leg sweep on Jack on a chair. Mikey tries for a victory roll near the ropes, but Cactus dumps Mikey off his shoulders onto the timekeeper's table outside the ring. The table doesn't break, so Mikey just bounces off the table in what had to be a painful bump. Jack sets the table up against the ring post, and gives Mikey a back suplex onto the table, which once again does not break. That table's as tough as a two dollar steak. Inside the ring again, and Whipwreck has a chair. He hits Cactus as hard as possible in the head with the chair twice. Despite those hellacious chairshots, Cactus kicks out at two. We get some brawling out in the crowd, and Whipwreck snap suplexes Cactus on a stage. Mikey climbs up to a higher stage of the arena, and dives some eight to ten feet onto Cactus. Back inside, Whipwreck tries an aerial attack, but eats a Cactus Jack forearm on the way down. Cactus has a chair, and pounds a downed Mikey in the back three times with it. Cactus picks Mikey up, and piledrives him on a chair. OUCH! That gets three, and Cactus wins his last ECW match. Post-match, Cactus crawls after Mikey, who tries to scurry away like a scared child. But Cactus catches Whipwreck, picks him up on his feet, and raises Mikey's hand in a show of respect. As the song "New York, New York" plays (because Cactus is going to the WWF, which is based in New York). Cactus calls out the two men that "without them, there wouldn't be an ECW" One's a creative genius, while the other is a visionary. That's right, it's none other than . . . Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie? The three then do one of the worst Rockettes dance routine in the history of mankind, and then embrace in the ring. Now that's an exit, there, a million, billion stars. Cactus Jack then went to the WWF, where he did okay for himself, all in all. I'll give this whole segment a 4.8 out of 5, good stuff here.
- It's time to sell some merchandise. Brian Pillman plugs his 1-900 hotline. Did anybody actually call his hotline? If so, let me know. Hey, you can buy a Sabu T-Shirt for the first time for 20 dollars, or an EC F'N W shirt. In between all of these ads, a highlight video of Cactus Jack is shown. The video ends with a screen that says "Cactus Jack, 1985-1996, Bang Bang, He's Dead". Jack would come back to life a year later, albiet in the WWF, but still. After all that, Joey introduces us to the next match, which also took place at the Big Ass Extreme Bash between the "last survivor of the Hart Dungeon" Chris Jericho and the "One-Man Crime Spree" Taz.
- Jericho comes out to "Electric Head part 2" by White Zombie, while Taz comes out to Kiss's "War Machine" with his manager, Bill Alfonso, who blows his whistle every three seconds. As you can imagine, that gets annoying quickly. The match starts, the two tie up, and Taz counters with a Fujiwara armbar. Jericho reaches the ropes, and the two tie up again, Jericho gets a top wrist-lock, but Taz bridges out. Taz tries a German suplex, but Jericho goes behind and hits a German of his own. That gets two. Taz goes to the outside, he climbs back on the apron, but Jericho hits a springboard dropkick from the turnbuckle, sending Taz back to the outside. Jericho runs to the turnbuckle and dives on Taz on the outside of the ring. Back in, Jericho does the Superfly splash and a Lionsault, but both moves only get two. Taz whips Jericho into the corner, goes for the German suplex again, but Jericho turns around, only to take a Northern Lights suplex. That gets two. Both men get up, and Jericho superkicks Taz. Jericho climbs to the top, but Taz catches him and sets him up for a super back suplex, but Jericho flips out of it and clotheslines Taz. Jericho whips Taz into the corner, but Taz bounces off and catches a running Jericho to deliver a T-Bone Taz plex. Jericho landed on his head after that move, and the referee calls for the bell. But Jericho gets up and demands a restart. He knocks Taz down, but after missing a punch, Taz German suplexes Jericho on the back of his head. That looked like it hurt. Taz locks in the Tazmission and Jericho has no choice to give up. Taz keeps the hold on, despite the best efforts of Little Guido and the Eliminators to break it up, but Brian Pillman, who Styles claimed helped train Jericho (never mind the fact that the two men hadn't met until 1996) comes in the ring and jumps around like a crazy man, causing Taz to let go and stare down Pillman. Taz then Germans Little Guido just because he can, and Pillman leaves, only to clothesline an oncoming El Puerto Ricano and back suplex him on the floor. That brings out Shane Douglas, who tries to get to Pillman but Pillman escapes through the crowd. Douglas and others check on Jericho while Taz leaves the ring. The match was pretty good, so I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5.
- The main event of the show is next, as Raven defends his ECW World Championship against Shane Douglas. Raven comes out on crutches and with his flunkies Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie. A video is shown highlighting the relationship between Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, and the Sandman, three rivals that have come together due to a common hatred of Raven. Douglas comes out, but before the match starts Richards gets the mic. He tells Raven not to wrestle because Raven has gout. Ok then. Raven says there will be no match tonight, but Douglas takes umbrage and hits Raven with the microphone. Richards with a Stevie kick, and both men are down at the start of the match. Raven hits his patented Evenflow DDT, but only gets two. To the outside, Raven throws Douglas agianst two guardrails and gives Douglas another Evenflow DDT, this time on a chair. Raven gets in the ring and tells the ref to count Douglas out. Douglas gets to the apron at eight, only to eat a kneelift by Raven. Douglas gets back up, only to receive a running punch from Raven. This time Douglas doesn't get back on the apron until the count of nine. Raven tries to suplex Douglas in, but Douglas counters and drapes Raven over the turnbuckle. Douglas knees Raven in the head and Raven flies to the outside. Douglas with a suicide dive on Raven's lackeys, and then turns his attention to Raven. Back in, Douglas with a chairshot on Raven, and a DDT on the chair for Raven. Raven's valet Kimona Wanalaya breaks up the count, but gets spanked for her efforts. Raven with a low blow and Douglas is down. Raven whips Douglas into the corner and charges after him with a chair, but Shane pulls the ref into his path. Raven knocks the ref down. Douglas hits Raven with his own crutch, and delivers belly-to-belly suplexes to Richards, Meanie, and Raven. But the ref is down. The Bruise Brothers come out and deliver a double big boot to Douglas. Raven with the cover, but it only gets two. Raven charges with a chair, but Douglas kicks it into Raven's face. Hotshot onto Raven gets a two count. Douglas sets up the chair, and atomic drops Raven onto it. A clothesline knocks Raven out of the chair, and gets a two count. Douglas tries to throw Raven head first into a chair in the corner, but Raven counters and throws Douglas into it. Evenflow on a chair by Raven, and that gets the three count. Post match, the Bruise Brothers come out and try to post Douglas crotch first, but Dreamer makes the save. Dreamer gets overwhelmed by the Bruise Brothers and Raven, but here comes The Sandman, with Singapore cane shots for both the Bruise Brothers, Raven, Stevie, and Meanie. Dreamer DDT's Raven, puts a chair on Raven's foot, and tries to take out Raven's gout ridden leg, but the Sandman stops him, indicating he wants to do it. While the two are arguing, Douglas dives off the top rope onto Raven's leg. Raven leaves while Douglas, Dreamer, and Sandman have a standoff. Match was a bit of a mess, but it was ok. I'll give it a 2.6 out of 5.
Well, that was fun. This show was a lot of fun to watch and showed what ECW was all about, a hard-hitting wrestling show with great characters such as Raven and Cactus Jack and interesting storylines. Overall, I'll give this episode a 7.4 out of 10. Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this post, or ideas for future posts, than let us know about them either by leaving a comment on the blog or by sending an e-mail to KtheC2001@gmail.com.
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