Extreme Championship Wrestling
Cyberslam
February 17th, 1996
ECW Arena
Philly, PA
Cyberslam
February 17th, 1996
ECW Arena
Philly, PA
The angle developing on Hardcore TV in January was Raven's "Nest" growing to include Mikey Whipreck, who had become brainwashed by Raven's mind games. Raven had a David Koresh like mind control over Stevie Richards, Blue Meanie(Stevie's lackey. A lackey for a lackey), Cactus Jack, Mikey Whipreck, and his new valet, the vivacious Kimona Wanalaya.
Kimona was Raven's replacement for Beulah, who left him for Tommy Dreamer("pregnant" with his baby). She was a former dancer at a gentleman's club that Raven would frequent. On the January 27th show Raven was able to win the ECW World Title from The Sandman with help from all of his lackeys. Cactus delivered the fatal blow, putting a cap on his epic '95 feud with the Sandman(my pick for Feud of the Year in ECW 1995). Mick Foley was on his way to the WWF and everybody knew it. He would often wear t-shirt out to the ring saying WW "F'N" F. Cactus and a semi reluctant Mikey were both Tag Team champions during this time, but Tommy Dreamer would find a mystery tag team partner to help him take them on......The Franchise.
That's right. Heyman pushed Shane Douglas as a face after returning from the WWF. Shane Douglas as a face just doesn't work for me. We'll have to see if it worked for the rest of the ECW fans at this show. Douglas agreed to help Tommy Dreamer take on Mikey and Cactus, but Cactus would get the upper hand on his old training partner(at Domenic Denucci's school) for the victory. So they were using the fact that everybody knew about Foley going to the WWF to draw heat, with Shane cutting promos about how much he hated the WWF. Raven's "Nest" made it out of the January 27th show with the tag team titles and the ECW World title.
The next stop was the February 2nd show in Reading, Pennsylvania(in front of 550). Shane Douglas and Tommy Dreamer defeated Raven and Stevie Richards in tag team action. Also that night, the Eliminators continued their rise when they took out the team of Rob Van Dam & Chris Jericho(in his ECW debut) in a 15 minute match that I would love to see.
Then we had the infamous return to New York City for the second time since their record making debut(Holiday Hell '95). The Lost Battalion Hall in Queens was like a dingy old high school basketball gym, but they managed to break attendance records and make nearly $30,000 off of the gate so what do you do for the big comeback? BOOK THE SHIT OUT OF IT! Profit?! Who needs profit!?
I would love to see this entire show uncut, but I don't think it exists anywhere. The February 3rd show in Queens had Paul Heyman introduce a film crew from "A Current Affair."
The February 3rd show was a wild one. The Eliminators continued their climb when they managed to win the tag team titles from Mikey and Cactus. Raven came out and helped Cactus beat up Mikey after the match. Later on Francine came out(with her neck brace on) while Joey was interviewing The Eliminators. The Pitbulls jumped them while Francine distracted them. They held Saturn down with a chain and Francine shaved all of his pretty, long, black hair off. The February 3rd show was also Nancy "Woman" Sullivan's last show in ECW. I really enjoyed the depth that her character added to the Sandman as his manager. She was the brains behind all of his success. Woman came out to the February 3rd show for an interview with Joey Styles as the crowd chanted "You Sold OUT!". The interview snow balled into one of those classic ECW Heyman booked segments where all kinds of shit happened. First of all Woman made a remark about wresting on Monday Night, hinting at her departure to WCW. Then the Sandman came out and told her that he wouldn't go to WCW with her, calling her a bitch. This was kind of a face turn for the Sandman, but as we'll discover, he would be booked as a tweener for a little while. Woman responded to The Sandman's remarks by telling him that nobody could physically remove her from the building. 2 Cold Scorpio came out, put Woman over his shoulder, carried her out to the parking lot, and threw her into a limo. Scorpio slammed the door and told the driver "Take this bitch to Atlanta!".
Later during the same segment The Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards came out to confront the Sandman. They told him that he should back out of his upcoming rematch with Raven for the ECW World Title. Sandman refused, caned both men down, and proclaimed that he was coming for his title. Later in the same show Stevie Richards revealed to Raven that he was going to sue Missy Hyatt for sexual harassment for the way she violated him at the last show. Missy came out and insulted both Stevie and Raven before The Sandman came out and caned both of them down. The Sandman had a new valet, "The Walking Riot", Missy Hyatt.
Taz came out later on that evening and called out 911, but Todd Gordon would come out and bury him, saying that 911 was not in the building because he was scared of Taz. 911's heyday as one of the most over acts in ECW was officially over. Sometimes I think Heyman would bury guys on purpose because they were getting too over. As over as 911 was he should have been pushed to the moon, but he suddenly found himself off of television and being made to look like a pussy by Taz. I have read rumors that 911 got into a scuffle with a couple of the guys from the ring crew at a house show around this time. Heyman scolded him for it, and 911 gave him attitude in return. Heyman just kind of got rid of him. He would return at some of the future shows, but it was mostly to make someone else look good.
Taz attacked Todd Gordon until Bam Bam Bigelow made his ECW debut to make the save. Bigelow would make only a couple of appearances in ECW in 1996 before coming over full time in 97. Juventud Guerrera also made his ECW debut at the show, wrestling a classic 10 minute match against Rey Mysterio. Chris Jericho also defeated Rob Van Dam at the February 3rd show. So add up all of those names and imagine how much they were probably getting paid for that show, and you can start to see where ECW's profits were going through these years. Heyman was just overbooking shows, plain and simple. One thing about it though, a card like that was sure to bring all of those fans back to the next ECW show in New York for sure. The overbooked cards generated a lot of excitement for ECW's fans, but they kept the company from ever making any serious profit. Rather than use home grown talent that was cheap(and over) like Hack Myers and 911, Heyman would rather bring in some big money players. These were the same mistakes that Joel Goodhart made that killed ECW's predecessor, Tri States Wrestling Alliance. He would just get caught up in his own hype and book cards that he knew he wouldn't be able to afford.
So there we have it. We're cought up. This is one hell of a long show, so lets dig in and get started. Keep in mind that this is literally a couple of days after WCW Superbrawl '96, and a week prior to WWF IYH: Rage in the Cage. I think the deal with these Cyberslam shows was that there would be a meet and greet at some hotel lobby after the show(or before it) where the fans in attendance(and online in some AOL chat room) could ask questions to Heyman and a couple of wrestlers. This is the first Cyberslam show, but they would become an annual deal up until 2000.
Judge Dredd & Bad Crew vs Dino Sendoff, Don E. Allen & Dirt Bike Kid
This is a massive jobber shitfest. Bad Crew looks like a team of WWF tag team jobbers from 1989. Judge Dredd is a bigger looking guy similar to 911(rocking the mullet). This is Dredd's ECW debut. Sendoff, Allen, and Dirt Bike Kid were the kind of guys that floated around in the 490's of the PWI 500.
All 6 men fight each other simultaneously in the ring as the crowd chants "This match sucks!".
Joey Styles says that Tommy Dreamer had his shoulder separated by Raven at the February 3rd show in NY.
The crowd just tears into these guys.
Styles says that the Dirt Bike Kid is ECW's version of Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly.
Out comes the Sandman.
HUGE POP!
Sandman canes everyone down brutally. Wow, what a great fucking pop. One of the loudest I've seen up to this point. Sandman beats the shit out of all the jobbers as the crowd goes wild. He gets the microphone and says....
"NOW!........
NOW!.........
NOW LET'S GET EXTREME!!!"
10/10
What a great opener. I loved it. Sandman was a fucking ECW hero. Pretty awesome little ECW moment here, especially the crowd reaction.
Spiros Greco vs El Puerto Ricano
Ricano is a jobber that actually has a bit of respect from the crowd. He hasn't won a single match yet, but he really wasn't that bad in the ring. I have never seen this Greco guy outside of this ECW show. He's a European looking guy. Not much bigger than Ricano.
They go at it with some traditional wrestling exchanges early on. Greco botches a swinging neck breaker and the crowd really tears into him.
Greco dominates Ricano for several minutes with some sloppy stuff. The crowd boo's the shit out of him.
5 minutes into this shitty, boring match. I'm waiting for another Sandman run in with the subsequent cane down. Greco's tights say "The Greek God". The crowd starts chanting "YOU FUCK SHEEP!"
Greco dominates Ricano for one hell of a boring 5 minute squash match.
3/10
Who the hell was this dude? Why did he get a squash? This looked like the kind of match you would see on WWF Superstars with Doink the Clown and Rad Radford. The crowd shitting on it made it fun, but it's hard to give this thing anything over a 3. Definitely some fast forward material.
Taz vs Joel Hartgood
Taz looks like a fucking boss. He continues to get bigger and more muscular with each show.
Hartgood looks just the way you want a jobber to look. Skinny, frail, harmless.
The crowd chants "Taz is going to kill you!". Did you know that before it was Taz, it was Sandman's going to kill you?(the Konnan match). Taz is going to kill you did have a better ring to it.
Styles says that Taz ran 911 out of ECW.
Taz hits this dude with quite possibly the sickest lariat I've ever seen in my lifetime, and I've seen quite a few Hanson/Stiener matches. Good god almighty I'm surprised his head is still connected after that shot. Stiff is an understatement. Taz drops the guy with a head and arm belly to belly(did Taz invent this throw?). Hartgood gets a sunset flip on Taz for a 1 count, then Taz literally dumps the poor bastard on his head with another Tazplex.
Taz locks on the Kati-Hajime choke and forces Hartgood to tap out.
Taz gets the mic and says that Hartgood was just another victim. EMT's come out to pull Hartgood's lifeless body out of the ring. Taz dumps the stretcher over. Three jobbers come out to help Hartgood out of the ring and Taz dumps all of them on their heads with brutal motherfucking Dan Severn style German Suplexes.
That shit is just god dam awesome. I love it.
Mikey Whipreck comes out and lands a couple of offensive maneuvers before Taz dumps him on his head with the head and arm belly to belly. Taz puts Mikey in the Tazmission and chokes him out to end the segment.
8.5/10
Beautiful squash match. Taz looks unstoppable as he continues to roll through ECW. Call me crazy but I'm sure Eazy E had his eyes on this and used a lot of what he saw to build Golberg the way he did.
Intermission
The show cuts away to Joey Styles welcoming everyone to Cyberslam as he stands in the center of the ring.
All of a sudden the lights go out!
The lights come back on after a few moments and the crowd freaks out when this guy appears in the ring:
Pillman makes his ECW debut just days after his "Booker Man" incident at WCW Superbrawl 96.
Crowd marks out, literally. Some of the looks on their faces are just priceless. I know a lot of guys will tell me that I'm "Wrong", and technically I am, but to me the "Attitude Era" wasn't just a WWF thing. The Attitude Era to me was the WWF, WCW, and ECW altogether creating a one of a kind, unique atmosphere in the industry that will never again be duplicated or replicated. From 1996 to the Summer of 98 was the peak of this period in my opinion, and this moment right here was the very start of it. 3 months later the NWO is born and Austin cuts the 3:16 promo, but I think Pillman and this incident played a bigger part in kickstarting the era than a lot of people realize.
Styles asks Pillman, "What are you doing here?"
"Haven't you heard?
Ha.
I like you as an announcer. You know why? Because I just had an announcer in Atlanta Georgia.....take away.....my.....Constitutional rights.
I have been fired by Eric BISCHOFF!!!
He's a pretty popular guy. He's pretty popular with my legal department as well...hahaha.
BISCHOFF, OR SHOULD I SAY, JERKOFF!
You can't take away my constitutional rights BECAUSE I'M IN PHILADELPHIA WHERE The Constitutio......
Where the constitution was written.
Now, Mr. Gopher, Mr. 90's Wiz Kid.
The great success story of 96.
Former coffee gopher for Verne GAGNE!....
Is now leading the show in the BIG TIME HAHAHAHA!
You... are a piece, of FUCKING SHIT!"
Joey nervously tries to cut away to commercial break, but Pillman won't let him.
"No, Joey Styles. You're not running this interview.
I AM!
CAUSE I'M BRIAN FUCKIN' PILLMAN!
Let me tell you a little more.
You know what Eric Bischoff is?
Eric Bischoff is each and every one of these MOTHERFUCKING SMART MARKS ROLLED UP INTO ONE GIANT PIECE OF SHIT!
I guess you guys didn't get that.
Smart marks.
What's a smart mark?
A mark with a hight IQ?
Ok smart marks, ok.
You know what a mark is?
A mark is a guy that pays his last $20 on crack cocaine.
A mark is a guy.......that believes......
THAT OJ......Didn't do it!
A mark is each AND EVERY ONE OF YOU SORRY SON OF A FUCKING BITCHES!!!
So you know what?
I am going to do right FUCKING HERE, right now?
The only appropriate thing that Brian Pillman should do.
I'm going to yank out my johnson and piss all over this hellhole!"
Pillman throws down the microphone and starts undoing his pants to pull his dick out. Styles tries to stop him when all of a sudden Heyman and Todd Gordon come out to the ring backing Pillman up in the corner. Todd Gordon gets the microphone and starts telling Pillman, "This wasn't part of the deal brother".
The way he says it is fucking hilarious.
Shane Douglas comes out to the ring.
Heyman tells Pillman that this wasn't part of the deal. Pillman gets the microphone and says:
"Deal?
Deal?
I do whatever I want, whenever I want, AND I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU OR YOUR SMART MARKS......Booker man."
Gordon and Styles call security out. Police come out as Douglas and Pillman get up in each other's faces. Heyman pulls Shane back away from Pillman. Douglas can be heard telling Heyman "He's shooting!".
The police escort Pillman out of the ring as he and Heyman scream "FUCK YOU" back and forth at each other. The cops try to take Pillman away, but he breaks loose from them. He approaches a fan on the front row that is getting up in his face. Pillman spits in the guy's face. The guy takes a swing at him, and Pillman pulls him over the railing. Pillman takes the guy into the ring and pulls a fork out of his boot to attack him with. Shane Douglas comes out and chases Pillman off. Pillman runs out of the arena with the Cops hot on his tail.
Shane(wearing an EC F'n W shirt) gets the microphone and says that security can either throw that blonde, WCW piece of shit out or he can beat his motherfucking ass tonight! He says he won't let the show go one minute further until they throw is WCW reject ass out the front door. Shane gets a chair and waits in the ring.
Pillman comes back out dragging cops and security guards on his back. They handcuff him and take him through the crowd out of the front door of the ECW Arena.
The crowd starts the obligatory "NA~NA~NA~NA, NA~NA~NA~NA, HEY~HEY~HEY, GOOD~BYE!" chant as the police take Pillman out the front door in handcuffs.
This is a segment that will effect the overall score for this show so I'll save my opinions for the end of the review.
Buh-Buh Ray Dudley vs Mr. Hughes
This is clipped. It cuts to a later point of the match at the very beginning of the segment. Mr. Hughes actually wrestled in ECW quite a bit from 1993 to 1995.
Big Dick comes into the ring and cracks Hughes across the back with his crutch. Buh Buh lands a splash and gets the win.
That was literally the only action that made this DVD from that match, about a 13 second clip, so I'm not going to bother trying to give it a score.
We cut ahead to a point in the show where Mustapha comes out. Mustapha is one half of the Gangstas with New Jack, who is MIA for some reason.
Joey Styles says that New Jack is in jail in Atlanta. Mustapha gets the microphone and cuts a surprisingly decent promo saying that the Gangstas are still strong, and that he will take on the Headhunters by himself.
Styles starts listing tag teams from WWF and WCW that Mustapha could probably beat by himself. The American Males, The Body Donnas, The Smoking Gunns
.Damien Kane and his valet come out and insult Mustapha. Mustapha attacks him, then gets taken out by The Headhunters. The Headhunters were two 400 pound twins that often wrestled in FMW. Apparently Damien Kane was managing the Headhunters here. Damien Kane issues an open challenge for any tag team in ECW to take on the Headhunters. Ron and Don Harris come out.
The Bruise Brothers vs The Headhunters
They get one of those wild, sloppy brawls going immediately. All four men fight all around the Arena with a whole bunch of punches, kicks, chair shots, and standing around awkwardly wondering what to do next. One of the Headhunters does a moonsault as one of the Bruise brothers simultaneously does a big boot on the other Headhunter. We get a simultaneous pin, but the ref awards the Bruise Brothers with the win.
4/10
Nothing to see here. Some more of that fast forward material. ECW was building up one of the best tag team divisions in wrestling, and both of these teams were mostly fodder for the more established teams, like the Gangstas. Nonetheless tag team wrestling was very important in ECW, otherwise I would be questioning the relevance of this match. Just a sloppy punch/kick brawl around the arena with a shitty double pin finish.
After the match we cut away to Joey Styles in the ring doing introductions again. Keep in mind this show was cut up and used for 3 weeks worth of Hardcore TV episodes, so Styles would often come out 2-3 times with his "Welcome to ECW" Spiel.
Styles brings out Tommy Dreamer and Beulah. Dreamer comes out with his arm in a sling. Dreamer says that he's sorry because he couldn't compete due to his injury.
Raven comes out with......
GOOD GOD!
Kimona is amazing here.
Jeezus Christ almighty the Daisy Dukes!Raven is also accompanied by Stevie and the Blue Meanie. He tells Tommy that the shoulder injury wasn't a receipt for taking his girl. He goes off talking about how they cut peoples arms off in China for stealing. All of a sudden Shane Douglas and the Bruise Brothers come out and get behind Tommy Dreamer to watch his back.
Tommy emotionally screams at Raven at the top of his lungs, "YOU WANT FIGHT MOTHERFUCKER!" before telling Shane Douglas to get Beulah out of the ring.
The Bruise Brothers jump Tommy Dreamer from behind. They pull him to the ring post and rack his groin from the outside. Raven gets up in his face as he's down, then orders them to do it again.
Raven's "Nest" now includes The Bruise Brothers(Ron and Don Harris). Tommy is left in the ring crying out in pain.
JT Smith vs Axl Rotten
JT Smith and Axl were defeated in a tag match by the Dudley family at a past show. JT attacked Axl after the match. JT's Italian black guy gimmick has really grown on me. The dude is just fucking hilarious in this role, and he really wasn't half bad in the ring. JT clowns around with the legitimatly Italian ring announcer as Axl comes out. JT attacks Axl on the outside before he even gets a chance to enter the ring. They take the brawl into the crowd and the fans are just having a blast.
They work a pretty good, clean traditional wrestling match. Nothing real impressive, but watchable. JT Smith brings a chair in and tries to do a backflip off of the top, but he slips and falls. Axl see's him do it, but he turns his back on him to work the crowd. He just stand's there bracing himself for a chair shot for what seems like an eternity before JT gets up and clocks him in the back.
Smith gets the pinfall around 8 minutes in. He continues to beat on Axl after the match until Hack Myers comes out. The two men fight each other as their mid card feud continues.
4.7/10
Really wasn't a bad match until they brought the chair in and did the goofy finish.
Triple Dog Collar Match: Francine & The Pitbulls vs Stevie Richards & The Eliminators
I'm kind of digging this Pitbulls vs Eliminators feud since taking a closer look at it here in this fed. They started out taking jabs at each other in promos. Then Jason came out and hit Francine after insulting his former clients. The Eliminators dropped Francine with the Total Elimination move at the last review, putting her in a neck brace. Francine and the Pit Bulls would get revenge by attacking The Eliminators at the previous house show by superbombing them and holding Saturn down to let Franny cut off his long black locks.
Jason is not here at this show. The Eliminators are accompanied by Stevie Richards wearing a cut off Super Man t-shirt.
Stevie gives the ring announcer a piece of paper to read during his introductions. This is what he says:
"It's a bird.
It's a plane.
No, it's the man of steel.
King of swing esq.
One half of the Fabulous Ones.
SUPER STEVIE RICHARDS!"
Saturn and Kronus strike their trademark pose with the belts during thier intro. I love the Eliminators.
Francine takes off a big oversized t-shirt to reveal a really, really nice looking g-string outfit.
Franny is chained up to Stevie. Saturn is hooked up with Pitbull 2, Pitbull 1 with Kronus.
OH SHIT!
Stevie pops Franny with a SICK thrust kick as soon as the bell rings. Stevie had a really good looking(and sounding) superkick.
The fight is on. Stevie gets out of his dog collar as Francine lays down and out in the ring. Stevie helps The Eliminators overwhelm The Pitbulls early on. Pitbull 2 and Saturn's chain breaks. The chains are just getting in the way and making everything look sloppy at this point. No blood yet. I know it's got to be coming soon. Stevie and the Eliminators dominate the Pitbulls for several minutes, choking them with the chains. Stevie mostly taunts them as the Eliminators do most of the work. The fight goes to the outside where the front row fans all hold up their chairs. Pitbull 2 slams Saturn's head into everyone's chair, right down the line.
The Pitbulls overtake the momentum of the match and drag the Eliminators around the ring beating them with various objects from the fans. Really sloppy stuff. Six minutes into the match and they take it into the crowd. All 5 men fight through the crowd up through the bleachers towards the broadcasting balcony near the sound stage of the Arena. I look over to the corner of the shot and see two stacks of probably about 50 tables. Bingo hall FTW!
Both teams battle on the stage and up on the balcony. Saturn does a springboard moonsault off of Kronus' hands down to the Pitbulls below. Really cool spot.
Pitbull 1 climbs up on the balcony and suplexes Kronus through a table. They climb their way back down to the stage and back through the crowd. Stevie stands over Francine's unconscious body with a frying pan. Pitbull 1 knocks Stevie out and fights with Kronus. Saturn and Pitbull 2 finally brawl their way back to the ring.
No blood yet, and the crowd starts chanting "WE WANT BLOOD".
The Eliminators hit simultaneous powerbombs on the Pitbulls before targeting Francine for the Total Elimination. Pitbull 1 spears Francine to the ground before they can execute the move. Pitbull 2 drops them with a double clothesline. Saturn and Kronus are both dropped with Superbombs. Stevie begs for mercy, but he doesn't get it. The Pitbulls drop Stevie with a Powerbomb/neckbreaker combo move. Pretty nice.
The Eliminators recover and fight with The Pitbulls as Francine recovers and pins Stevie for the win.
Francine and the Pitbulls win after 15 minutes.
The Eliminators try to hit Francine with Total Elimination. Pitbull 2 grabs Saturn by the leg to try to stop them. They pull Pitbull 2 up and drop him with Total Elimination. They pull Francine back up and set her up for the move, but Pitbull 1 grabs Kronus by the leg to stop it. They pull Pitbull 1 up and drop him with Total Elimination. There's nobody left to save Francine.
Franny stands up to Saturn and smacks him in the face. Saturn drops her with a lariat. They pull her up and nail her with the Total Elimination.
The crowd boo's the shit out of Saturn and Kronus as they escape the ring with their tag team titles.
6/10
This wasn't a very good match. It was very sloppy with a lot of ringside/crowd brawling. The moonsault off of the stage was a pretty cool spot, and the match did have some overall cool moments, but just not enough of them. The story did progress though. You could say something about the violence towards women, but it wasn't like the Eliminators were being cheered for beating up Francine. They were the heels, and everyone boo'd them for what they did.
ECW TV Championship: Too Cold Scorpio vs Sabu
Scorpio just won this belt from Whipreck at the last show I've reviewed. Sabu is undefeated since his return from WCW at the November to Remember show. This match SHOULD be fucking awesome. Both of these guys have the skills to put on a great, action packed match if they really put in the effort. Lets take a look and see how it turned out.
Sabu lunges in on Scorpio early on with his traditional low single leg takedown shots. Scorpio avoids them and throws a spinning heel kick. Sabu ducks it and lands a really nice looking spinning heel kick of his own. Sabu quickly goes out of the ring and gets a steel chair. He lands a nice version of his "Air Sabu" off of the chair into the corner.
Scorpio gets knocked out of the ring out into the crowd. Sabu sets the chair up and does one of the best suicide somersault planchas I've ever seen him do. He flies directly from the chair, over the top rope, over the guardrailing(which wasn't moved) into the crowd with a somersault that was more like the style Hayabusa used. He straitened his body out in mid air and hung upside down until impact.
Really nice fucking spot.
All of that in just the first minute and a half of the match.
The camera moves around to show the fans as they all chant E! C! DUB! around Scorpio and Sabu sprawled out on the floor. Really nice shot. I just love this shit.
Scorpio lands a very stiff powerbomb a few minutes later, taking the momentum of the match. Scorpio lands a flying guillatine legdrop before getting up and walking around the ring taunting the crowd.
KEEP IT GOING MAN!
Scorpio gets out of the ring and brings another chair in. He sets the chair up and slams Sabu's face into it. He then walks around the ring slowly twirling his fingers around. Scorpio tries to slam Sabu's face into the chair again, but Sabu reverses it. Sabu springboards off of the chair to hit Scorpio with a clothesline, sending both of them out of the ring. Sabu then lands a somersault splash off of the apron before landing a few chair shots for good measure. Sabu takes the upper hand and lands his springboard leg lariat. Scorpio hits Sabu with a thrustkick that drops him down to the canvas before dominating him with chair shots, chest chops, corner splashes. Sabu slips out of a Rock Bottom attempt from Scorpio, and hits him with punches. Scorpio catches Sabu with a wheelbarrow suplex attempt, but Sabu rolls him up with a victory roll for a 2 count. Pretty nice sequence.
The action slows back down with both guys slowly hitting each other with punches. Sabu puts Scorpio into a Camel Clutch. Scorpio works his way out of the clutch, but Sabu quickly locks him into a different choke. Like a sleeper type of hold.
Scorpio gets out of the hold and punts Sabu in the balls.
Sabu scrambles to the outside in pain. Scorpio slowly beats on Sabu around the ring before suplexing him back into the ring from the apron. Scorpio continues to dominate Sabu in the ring, putting him in pretty nice modified surfboard maneuver that gets a nice reaction from the crowd. Scorpio puts Sabu into a half nelson with his legs to lock him into a pinfall for 2. Sabu slips out of the hold, and lands his slingshot somersault legdrop for 2.
Sabu locks Scorpio into a hammerlock. Scorpio uses Sabu's hair to break out of the hold. Scorpio lands a pretty nice moonsault off of the top, but Sabu gets the knees up. Both men lay on the mat in pain. Sabu gets up first and tosses a chair into Scorpio's face. Sabu lays the chair across Scorpio's body and hits his catapult moonsault where he bounces his thighs off of the ropes. Scorpio recovers and hits Sabu with the chair.
Scorpio drops Sabu with a sloppy ass Tombstone followed by a Vader style splash out of the corner.
Scorpio dominates Sabu for a couple of minutes with a really slow pace. Scorpio goes up top and tries to land his change of direction splash, but Sabu moves. Sabu goes up top for a move, but Scorpio quickly follows him up and brings him down with a sunset flip for 2.
Scorpio goes back up, but Sabu hits him with punches. Sabu goes up top and brings Scorpio down with a victory roll for 2. The crowd gives both men a standing ovation. Sabu backdrops Scorpio out of the ring and hits him with a suicide plancha through the ropes. They take it back into the ring where Sabu lands a couple of lariats. Scorpio kicks out of a pinfall attempt, but Sabu quickly locks him into a Fujiwara armbar type maneuver.
Scorpio gets free and drops Sabu on his face with a backdrop. Scorpio pulls Sabu up to his shoulders in a firemans carry and does an "F5" type manuever sending Sabu over the top rope to the outside. Sabu pulls Scorpio out with him and lands an Asai Moonsault splash.
GOOD GOD!
Sabu's ankles crash down into the steel railing pretty damn hard with a loud "CRACK!" sound.
Sabu quickly recovers and pushes a table over the railing into the crowd. Sabu sets the table up with Scorpio on it, then throws a chair into the ring.
Everyone in the arena stands up to their feet as Sabu does a triple jump somersault plancha out of the ring through the table. Scorpio rolls off at the last minute and Sabu smashes through it with his back.
The crowd gathers around the wreckage with a crazy E! C! DUB! chant.
Really awesome camera shot of a crazy fucking crowd. When I hear stories about those chants echoing throughout the south Philly neighborhoods, these are the moments I automatically think about. I can picture some kids sitting in their government housing apartment a couple of blocks away saying "Shhhhhhh, listen, you hear that?".
Scorpio and Sabu recover and fight their way back to the ring when Joey Styles says this:
"You know, you could talk about "Where the big boys play", or "The New Generation", but what you just witnessed is what separates ECW from all the rest.
WE'RE NUTS!
We are completely crazy. We've lost it, not playing with a full deck, both oars not in the water, cookoo for cocoa puffs, you name it WE'VE LOST IT!"
I love it.
Don't ask me why. Back in the ring Sabu reverses a powerbomb with a hurricanrana, hooking the legs for a 2 count. Sabu hits a moonsault press off of the ropes for another 2 count. Scorpio moves out of the way of a moonsault attempt by Sabu from the top rope. Scorpio then powerbombs Sabu again before going up to the top rope.
2 Cold Scorpio lands his moonsault into a legdrop. I liked his tumbleweed legdrop a lot better. Sabu kicks out at 2. Scorpio sets a chair up on Sabu's face and legdrops it into his face from the top rope. Sabu shocks the crowd by kicking out at 2 again. Scorpio goes back to the top, but Sabu tosses the chair into his face. Sabu leaps high up into the air with a super rana, and goes for a pin, but Scorpio kicks out again.
Both men collide into each other with a double lariat with only 3 minutes left.
Scorpio goes back up top and lands his 450 splash. I never get tired of seeing that move. One of my favorites. Scorpio was one of the best at it.
Scorpio goes back up to the top with chair for a splash, but Sabu moves out of the way with only 1 minute left on the clock. Sabu hits Scorpio with a legdrop with the chair followed by his Slingshot Somersault Legrop with the chair with only 30 seconds left.
Sabu goes for the pin again, but Scorpio kicks out.
The bell rings shortly after. Scorpio retains his TV title after a 30 minute draw.
The crowd chants "5 More Minutes".
7.2/10
This was close to being a pretty good match. It still had a lot of awesome moments, but I could see a lot of things that could be picked apart by a pickier wrestling fan. Myself, I thought the match was ok. Sabu landed some really awesome looking spots, and there was a good bit of action. There wasn't any selling or psychology to get all excited about, but I didn't think it was a bad match. It definitely could have been a lot better, that's for sure.
Shane Douglas vs Cactus Jack
Cactus Jack is dressed up in his three piece suit and tie(with cowboy boots) as the match just immediately gets going. Shane Douglas attacks Cactus before even getting his entrance gear off. Shane strips Cactus' suit and tie off as he beats him around the ring. Brian Hildebrand is the referee for this match for some strange reason. That's pretty random.
They brawl to the outside where Cactus gets the crutch from the handicapped guy at ringside that comes to all of the matches(Cactus' biggest fan, a guy that Foley would pick up and drop off before and after ECW shows). It's kind of weird here because Cactus is playing a heel and Shane is playing a face. The crowd isn't really reacting that way though. Cactus gets some pretty good cheers when he uses the crutch.
The crowd starts chanting "MANKIND SUCKS!".
Shane goes up top in the ring for a double axe handle to the outside before attacking Cactus with a crutch. The crowd starts to get behind Shane. The crowd starts chanting "DEAN IS DEAD!" after Shane quickly gets the microphone and makes a remark I couldn't quite make out. They take it back to the outside where Shane suplexes Cactus' back down onto the steel guardrail. FUCK!
Shane goes back to the ring and flies off of the top rope into the crowd with pretty fucking nice splash for a guy his size. Shane then sets up Cactus' leg in a chair and stomps on it.
There is a small, yet vocal group of fans in the crowd who refuse to cheer Shane Douglas. They start pretty loud chants of "AHMED JOHNSON", and "RAZOR".
Cactus works his way back into the match and manages to outbrawl Shane. Nothing spectacular about this match so far. They take it back to the outside where Cactus works Shane's knee over with stomps. Shane rolls back into the ring selling the knee pretty nicely. Cactus tosses a chair into the ring before re-entering. Cactus beats on Shane with punches and the crowd cheers him on. They take it back to the outside where Cactus sets a table up over Douglas propped up on the rail. Cactus elbow drops the table, breaking it down on top of him.
Cactus takes Shane back to the ring for a drop toe hold into a chair followed by a piledriver. Cactus backs Shane up in the corner with punches. Brian Hildebrand gets in between them and slips Shane Douglas a pair of handcuffs out of his back pocket.
WTF?
Shane drops Cactus with the handcuffs to the face.
Cactus' hands are cuffed behind his back. Shane picks up the steel chair and blasts Cactus with 4 unprotected shots to the head.
Cactus goes down. Shane hits him 4 more times as he tries to get up. Shane gets the microphone and says that he'll stop the beating if Cactus verbally gives up in the microphone. The ref puts the mic in Cactus' face, but he refuses to quit.
Cactus cries out "VINCE!"
Shane blasts him two more times with the chair. The ref puts the mic in Cactus' face again, but Cactus calls out for Mikey to come out and help him.
Shane drops him back down to the ground with another shot.
Cactus cries out for Mikey into the microphone. Pretty dramatic scene here as Shane and the ref beg for Cactus to just give up and end it, but Cactus just keeps crying out for Mikey. Shane lets Cactus get up again before blasting him with the chair.
Shane then puts Cactus in the figure four. Mikey comes out and drills Cactus with one of the all time hardest chair shots in wrestling history. Cactus looks like he was legitimately knocked out, which is not a good thing.
The ref counts the three count as Cactus lays flat on his back.
6.9/10
This wasn't any kind of a wrestling match. It was all brawling with Douglas landing a nice plancha out into the crowd, and that was it. The reason I want to give it a nice score is because of the dramatic finish. They used this same angle with The Rock and Mankind at the WWF Royal Rumble 99 "I Quit Match", and it drew The Rock a lot of heat when the WWF was trying to build him up into a worthy opponent for Austin at Wrestlemania XV. Shane Douglas' chair shots to Foley weren't even half as stiff as The Rock's at the 99 Royal Rumble. The shot Mikey gave him at the end looked really hard, and probably knocked Foley out for real.
The thing with this match though is that this was a very heelish thing to do to Foley. It was all a receipt for the way Cactus helped Raven attack Mikey at the previous show, but had you not known that one would probably assume that Douglas and Mikey were the heels during this segment. The crowd's chants and cheers were just all over the place, and they don't really know who to cheer for. Shane Douglas just doesn't work for me as a face. I don't like how Heyman was pushing him as this flag waving ECW loyalist, and I don't really like involving him in the Brian Pillman storyline. It just seems like they could have come up with something better to do with Shane Douglas during this time. I do know that Shane goes on to be the one of the top heels in ECW history through the later parts of 1996, so it will be interesting to see how long this face push lasted.
ECW Championship: Raven(C) vs Sandman
The show skips the entrances and jumps ahead to The Sandman standing in the ring with Missy Hyatt. Raven sits in the corner with Kimona. "The Fabulous Ones" Stevie Richards & The Blue Meanie are also with Raven here.
Raven jumps the Sandman before the ring announcer even finishes the introductions. The Sandman gets knocked to the outside where Raven hits him with his sloppy ass suicide plancha.
They brawl on the outside of the ring briefly before taking it back into the ring. The Sandman outbrawls Raven and controls the momentum of the match until The Blue Meanie gets up on the apron. The Sandman goes to knock The Meanie off of the apron, but Raven attacks him from behind. Raven drops The Sandman with a DDT and goes for the pin. Missy Hyatt distracts the referee. Raven gets up in Missy's face until The Sandman recovers and hits Raven with a DDT on the chair in the ring.
Sandman goes for the pin, but Kimona comes running into the ring. Kimona attacks The Sandman until Missy comes in.
CATFIGHT!
This looks like a Jerry Springer fight
Missy and Kimona fight outside the ring as The Sandman and the referee are distracted by it. Stevie comes into the ring and drops The Sandman with a superkick. Raven pins him, but Sandman kicks out at 2.
Sandman gets a couple of nearfalls until accidentally ko'ing the referee.
Stevie and The Blue Meanie come into the ring and The Sandman gets his cane and takes them out. The Bruise Brothers come into the ring and overwhelm the Sandman with a double chokeslam. Raven covers Sandman, but the referee struggles to count the 3. Sandman kicks out at 2.
Raven sets a chair up in the ring, and pulls The Sandman down into it face first from the top rope. Raven finishes it off with a DDT on the chair.
The crowd chants BULLSHIT!
Raven has weaseled his way to a successful title defense and the crowd hates it. Raven exits the arena with Stevie as The Blue Meanie remains in the ring.
Meanie mocks the Sandman while standing over his unconscious body holding a cane and a beer. He cracks the beer open and dances with it over Sandman's body, spilling it all over him.
Sandman gets beer in his mouth and is suddenly brought back to life. MEANIE IS FUCKED!
Sandman drops Meanie with the cane. Raven, Stevie and the Bruise Brothers all come back out and get caned down one by one. Missy cracks The Sandman a cold beer open, and lights him a cigarette. They stand in the ring looking at each other in the eyes as the show comes to a close.
7/10
Another shitty match that had some interesting storyline progression with characters that I've grown to care about over the course of watching through these shows. The bit with The Sandman being accidentally revived by The Blue Meanie with the beer was fucking hilarious, and bumped the score up a bit. I love the Sandman character, and shit like this is a big part of why.
This was the beginning of a feud that would get rather interesting through the next couple of shows that we will be taking a look at. Raven's "Nest" had evolved yet again, this time to include Stevie, The Meanie, Kimona, and The Bruise Brothers.
Overall: 8.5/10
Well, here we are again with another one of these ECW shows. I don't really know how to score a show like this because the actual wrestling matches weren't very good at all. If you want Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat style wrestling with matches that tell stories, look somewhere else. You aren't going to get that out of an ECW show like this. The closest thing to a good match was the Sabu vs Scorpio match, but I would hate to see what a real picky wrestling fan would have to say about that match(I didn't think it was that bad).
With that said though this was a really fun wrestling show to me. The opener with The Sandman caning down jobbers, Taz's epic squash, Pillmans amazing promo and all of the chaos he brought with him, and the way these storylines/characters progressed and evolved all added to what was a pretty decent show. The Pillman stuff alone make this worth checking out. He was on another level on the microphone than a lot of guys, and he was really on to something with the Loose Cannon character in ECW. He got into the wreck a couple of months after this, then went to WWF where he didn't seem to have the same edge to him that he did at this show. He really kind of reminded me of the Heath Ledger joker with his demeanor and mannerisms in his promo on this show. Dean Ambrose also reminds me of Pillman in ECW sometimes with his facial expressions.
ECW had a huge influence on both WCW and WWF in the late 90's, and you can see a lot of that influence with this single show. This was really the beginning of a new era. An era where all three promotions kind of started to do things a bit differently. They all started to acknowledge each other more, even going as far as creating storylines that took advantage of the fact that wrestling fans were a little bit smarter than they were in the past. Brian Pillman was only supposed to work in ECW for a couple of weeks while further developing the Loose Cannon character(and his hatred of Eric Bischoff) before bringing it back to WCW in the spring. It's interesting to think about where Pillman would have fit in with the NWO angle had all of this gone down the way they intended it to.
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