Hardcore TV (Episode #134)

November 14th, 1995

Alright, so this is the final episode of Hardcore TV we will take a look at before November To Remember, which took place about 4 days after this was originally aired. This is all taking place just days away from WWF Survivor Series 95, and just a couple weeks away from WCW World War 3. The last episode was pretty much just a big infomercial for November to Remember. Let's see if this one is any different.

We start this week's episode off with Cactus Jack talking to the fans in the ECW Arena as he stands in the ring. This is what he says:

"...And I may have had my differences with this organization, but I've never been prouder in my life than when Mikey won that championship tonight.

But you people took what should have been a very special deed for me.... AND YOU RUINED IT!

So WHY DON'T YOU ALL JUST GO TO HELL! Strait to hell!

You people make me SICK!

I don't even feel like being here. If it was up to me......

I would have that TV tuned to TBS......Watching movies for guys who love movies.

....But I've got a higher purpose.

And you see Tommy Dreamer, my instinct is to come in here, and slap the shit out of you.

But that would give all of you too much enjoyment.

So you all sit down. Get a bag of popcorn, and get ready for the most boring match you've ever dreamed of.

And I know that they said that Raven would be in my corner, and you see, Raven is my spiritual guide, and the best friend I've ever had, and looking at you, he may be the only friend I've ever had.

But I don't need anybody in my corner to teach Tommy Dreamer a lesson. You see Tommy, you might need some has been hardcore hero, but Cactus Jack is his own man. He stands on his own two feet. And I'll take care of business all by myself.

BANG! BANG!"

For those that either never had American cable, or were too young, TBS was the network that aired WCW Saturday Night, and their slogan during this time was "TBS: Movies for guys who love movies". Cactus' heel run right here is complex. Foley is pulling off this character brilliantly, and really giving Cactus a lot of depth right here. Raven in there playing games with Cactus in order to turn him against Dreamer, plus all of the shooty anti-hardcore stuff he's saying in all of his promos where he blames the fans for the premature retirement of several wrestlers(punshing them for it by not giving them their moneys worth), and then on top of that he's a WCW fan now, Eric Bischoff is his uncle, and he wants to go back. The looks on his face during this promo are fucking fantastic. I laugh hard every time for the "Movies for guys who love movies" line. I love the way he keeps referring to his "Path to Righteousness".

I'm also just now realizing that pretty much all of the footage we've been taking a look at on these past 3 episodes of Hardcore TV has all been from the October 28th ECW Arena show, which was the same show were the fire incident occurred. No wonder why it was never released on home video.

The show cuts away from Cactus in the ring to Tommy Dreamer up close with the camera somewhere in a pre-recorded promo. Dreamer says that Cactus is in for a fight any time he steps in the ring with him.

Cactus Jack vs Tommy Dreamer

Tommy Dreamer comes out with Terry Funk as Alice In Chains "Man In The Box" plays.

Dreamer's pre recorded promo cuts in and out during this match. Cactus and Dreamer get it started with a tie up. Cactus pushes Tommy into the ropes in the clinch, and gives us a clean break when the referee steps in.

Dreamer taunts Cactus to punch him, but Cactus puts him in a.........Side headlock.

Cactus puts Dreamer on the mat with three successive Side Headlock takedowns. Bringing the pace of the match to a gruesome slow pace. Dreamer pretty much tells the story of the match in his pre recorded promo that cuts in and out during the match. They show it going to the outside where Cactus has a chance to use a chair on Tommy. Instead, Cactus opts for a....................

Side Headlock Takeover.

I love this.

Dreamer gets a low blow on Cactus, and takes him over the top rope to the outside. Dreamer busts Cactus in the face with a chair. Dreamer tries to give Cactus the chair to use, but Cactus refuses. Dreamer bashes him over his back.

Raven nails Dreamer from behind. Terry Funk comes over and chases Raven away. Cactus gets up on the apron as if he were about to do his trademark elbow drop, but instead he uses his arms in YMCA gestures to spell out WCW for the crowd. The crowd starts chanting ECW.

Cactus refuses to drop the elbow.

We cut ahead, and Cactus just throws all of that psychology out the window, and turns this into a typical brawl. Closed fist punches. Headbutts. Raven and Funk look on from the outside. Cactus grinds on Tommy with punches and kicks for several minutes.

Cactus acts like he hurt his hand. He gets a microphone, and says that he told everyone that he would never put his body on the line for the sorry motherfuckers(censored) in the ECW Arena again. He says that since he is clearly injured this match is a........NO CONTEST!



The way he says it is hilarious. He points his finger up in the air, and he has that serious look on his face.

Cactus thanks the fans for coming, tells them to drive home safe, and says "Lets support the Turner Family Tomorrow night".

The referee tells Cactus that this is ECW, and there are no "No Contests" in ECW. The ref orders Cactus to get back into the ring. Cactus tells the ref that if he can't have a No Contest, than he wants him to do his job, and "Count....Me.....Out!"

Cactus walks away. Terry Funk gets a microphone, and taunts Cactus by saying that his mother is a whore. His old lady is a whore. His girlfriend is a whore. "All you got is a bunch of whores hanging around". Dewey is a whore.

He keeps throwing jabs at Cactus until he comes back out. Dreamer and Cactus slug it out in the ring. Dreamer piledrives Cactus. Dreamer goes to DDT Cactus on a chair, but Cactus backdrops him. Dreamer hits Cactus with an Enziguiri, but he does it with the chair stuck around his leg. That was really cool.

Raven pulls Dreamer out, and DDT's him. Terry Funk drops Raven, and brawls with Cactus. Stevie comes out and fights with Funk. Cactus hits Funk with a crutch from the fans, and finally drops Funk. Raven fights Dreamer in the ring. Beulah hands Raven a set of Brass Knuckles. Raven busts Dreamer wide open with blood everywhere. Cactus kicks Funk in the groin with a loaded boot.

Cactus gets the double arm DDT, Dreamer kicks out. Raven gets a microphone, and orders Cactus to finish Dreamer off once and for all. Raven keeps angrily ordering Cactus to finish Dreamer off. Raven talks on the microphone in a soft voice, telling Cactus that he's there for him. Raven coaches Cactus to use the chair, but Dreamer beats him to it. Dreamer DDT's Cactus on the steel chair.

Dreamer pins Cactus for the win.

Raven drops Dreamer with a DDT. Blood all over the place.

This Tommy Dreamer promo they keep cutting into this match is god awful. Almost hard to watch after seeing so much Cactus and Austin in ECW recently.

That's where they end this segment, but what they didn't show was Terry Funk coming back out with a flaming branding iron. Funk attacked Raven and Cactus with the flaming branding iron until Cactus brought out a chair wrapped in a burning towel. The towel came unraveled from the chair, and badly burned Terry Funk's arm. Funk instinctively flung the burning towel out into the crowd, burning a couple of the fans. Just as the towel flew into the crowd, the lights went out in the Arena as part of the angle with Dreamer and Raven. As the lights were out, the Arena filled with smoke. The fans panicked, and a near riot broke out. The lights came back on with Dreamer crucified with ropes up near the balcony of the ECW Arena.

I wonder if the footage to all of this exists? They didn't show any of it here.

10/10

Love everything about this. Number one, Foley's incredible promo with the always hilarious "Movies for Guys Who Love Movies" line. Number two, Foley trying not to give the fans their moneys worth during the actual match was pretty damn hilarious. He was just always rubbing WCW in the fans faces, and it worked to draw him a bit of heat. This was just months after WCW raided ECW for their best workers, so there was quite a bit of substance to this storyline. Then there was Raven playing the mind games with Cactus during the end of the match. Really, really, really like the way they are using Raven here as this manipulative psychological zen master. Raven coaching Cactus to use the chair on Tommy was just really awesome. Anybody that is a big fan of the Raven character, or anyone that has salivated at the thought of a storyline with Foley and Raven working together needs to track this segment down. It's everything you thought it could be. Raven's feud with Dreamer really hit the next level after "The Chair Shot Heard Round The World". What a great feud. Absolutely one of the best ever.

We just now get the White Zombie intro highlight video. Pretty late into the show to be giving us this, but it's still fucking awesome. Love the song.

Joey Styles says we are just days away from November to Remember. He says that the show will be a sell out. Styles goes over the card with the Funk/Dreamer vs Raven/Cactus dream match. Sandman & Scorpio vs Public Enemy for the Tag & TV belts, with the man that gets the pin getting a shot at Mikey Whipreck's ECW World title that same night.

Enter Sandman vhs commercial.

Hardcore Hotline commercial. They don't give any details about what they talk about, just the same old "1.99 a minute, must be 18" spiel.

Lance Wright EC F'N W t-shirt commercial.

We cut to the Dudley Clan outside somewhere. Dances With Dudley teaches Buh Buh how do juggle. Buh Buh can't say his name because of his speech impediment. They are going for comedy here, but it's just not funny. Just corny.

Pulp Fiction Promos

Konnan and Rey Mysterio kick it off. Konnan talks about how much of a draw he is in Mexico. Konnan says he's just asking for once chance to be a part of team extreme.

Cactus talks about how he broke Tommy's nose in their match, just the same way Vader did to him in WCW. Cactus says that all of the things he has went through will be the same things that will happen to Tommy.

Bill Alphonso says he's going to beat the crap out of Todd Gordon.

More Dudley goofiness. Big Dick hits Buh Buh in the back, and all of a sudden he can speak just fine.

The Eliminators aren't scared of the Pit Bulls. Ok.

These promos just show one character after another. Bill Alphonso says ECW hates him, and he hates ECW. They show Dreamer in the locker room all bloody with The Pit Bulls and Taz in a "break the fourth wall" type of scene where they run the camera man off asking for privacy.

They show Francine and Beulah, and a brief clip of Austin's "Monday Nyquill" promo brings it all to an end.

Gangstas Paradise vhs commercial. What more can I say about this that I haven't said in the 1,000 times that it's been played in these past 4 reviews?

Hardcore Hotline commercial again.

Oh god, here we go with Lance Wright's "Hype Central" segment. He talks about the upcoming Todd Gordon vs Bill Alphonso match, saying that Beulah will be the special guest referee, and that he is hyped up about it.

Old school 1995 computer graphics flash across the screen showing upcoming dates as Mad Season's "I Don't Know Anything" plays on in the background.

La Parka & Psicosis vs. Rey Mysterio Jr & Konnan

I honestly did not know that La Parka wrestled in ECW prior to getting my hands on this video a few months back. This is just one of those matches that you just never heard about in ECW.

Mysterio and Psicosis start it off. Really fast chain sequence with Rey moving at the speed of light here. Rey hits Psicosis with a drop toe hold that sends him to the floor on the outside. Rey leaps off of the top rope down onto Psicosis with a hurricanrana.

Aw shit, this match is clipped. That sucks. I wanted to see the whole thing.

They show La Parka working Rey over until Konnan comes in. Konnan comes in, and looks better than I think I've ever seen the dude wrestle. He gets both Psicosis and La Parka with a simultaneous maneuver that I can't quite explain. Konnan gets Psicosis with a Crucifix Sit out Powerbomb, and throws La Parka around like a ragdoll with a series of German Suplexes.

Konnan lifts Psicosis up on his shoulders. Rey leaps off of the top rope, and pulls Psicosis down to the mats with a Hurricanrana. Nice spot. Mysterio hits La Parka with a nice Somersault Suicida. Psicosis and La Parka attempt a double Tope, but Konnan and Rey hit them with chairs on their way out. Konnan and Rey hit Psicosis and La Parka with Tope's of thier own.

Whoa....

Psicosis and La Parka are counted out!?!?!?

WFT!?!

I thought this was ECW?(*Randy Marsh voice*)

7/10

Well, that was fucking stupid. Some of the fans in the crowd chant bullshit. This match is hard to grade because it wasn't shown in it's entirety, but what they did show was pretty damn good. Konnan even looked good if you can believe that shit. He landed some nice moves. There was just a lot of action in the match, and action is good. I liked what I saw. Too bad they didn't show the entire match.

We cut back to the graphics flasing upcoming show dates on the screen as Mad Season's "I Don't Know Anything" plays on in the background. They advertise a show for Thanksgiving night called Ultimate Jeopardy, but that show was cancelled. I don't know why, but I do know the show was cancelled.

Gangstas Paradise vhs commercial. Man they need to throw some different ones in there every once and a while just to keep it fresh.

Joey Styles gives one final plug for November to Remember and we get a full Guns N Roses "November Rain" video.

My words can not describe how awesome this video is. Luckily, I was able to find this on Youtube. I'll say this right now, these videos were the best things ECW did. They made a lot of them through their existance, and they were my personal favorite thing to ever come out of the company. 

Keep in mind this is November 1995, just a couple of weeks after WCW did a dungeon of doom monster truck and mummy freak show Halloween Havoc, and WWF was still doing trash men, clowns, race car drivers, and yes, even evil school teachers. ECW was ahead of it's time in 1995 in my opinion.

Overall Show Rating: 9.5/10

Mick Foley was absolutely brilliant in this show. Loved everything about his character at this time in ECW. I got some really good laughs out of him in this show. The Raven interaction with him was really interesting as well. The Lucha match was clipped all to hell, but it was fun while it lasted. This was just a really good show. The music video at the end recapping all of the storylines that have been developing throughout the last year leading up to the big show was very nice. I loved it. This was a great ECW show.