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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW Guilty as Charged ’99

Guilty as Charged ‘99
January 10, 1999
Kissimmee, FL

There are two last hopes for ECW at this point: Taz and Rob Van Dam.

Guilty as Charged ’99 is Taz’s shot at the top title. After teasing this title match for about 18 months (back when Taz beat Douglas for the TV title in 1997) we’re finally getting the payoff.

There’s not much else to say. As I’ve written for two PPVs in a row there’s nothing special about ECW anymore. It doesn’t have the best storylines, the best angles and definitely not the best matches. The best hardcore matches are in the WWF with Stone Coldand Mankind. The best wrestling is in WCW with the Cruisers, Benoit, Malenko and Guerrero.

But that’s no excuse for ECW. All they have to do is put on consistently good shows. November to Remember was really bad and there was no reason for it. ECW has shown me two good PPVs since they began running PPVs. Otherwise it’s been mediocre to really bad. 1999 could be the year ECW comes together if Paul Heyman plays his cards right and busts out some decent shows. He definitely has the talent to do so, even if some of them are leaving (like Bam Bam Bigelow).

The Card

Paul Heyman tells us right at the outset that Masato Tanaka is not coming in as previously advertised and Jerry Lynn is still injured. I do like that he does this, but I mean people already bought the show, no?

The FBI vs. Danny Doring and Roadkill

The FBI has Big Sal and Big Guido at this point.

While the FBI matches usually aren’t good, I do get a good kick out of Tracy Smothers and Little Guido doing the FBI gimmick.

A random guy in the crowd busts out a camera and Danny Doring poses for him on cue. I’m a bit of a Doring fan and wished he and Roadkill had an ECW ’06 run.

For some reason the Chair Swingin’ Freaks, Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten, come out mid Doring strut and this turns into a Three Way Dance.

Axl Rotten calls this match in the ring a homosexual dance party. Gay jokes were par for the course in 1999 as the crowd erupts.

Guido impales himself on the guardrail when he misses a dive. Match really picked up when Rotten and Mahoney came in.

Joey Styles says Axl Rotten is the most underrated wrestler in professional wrestling. Hyperbole Joey. Hyperbole.

Mahoney flies off the top rope into a crowd of wrestlers. Didn’t expect that there and it got a great reaction.

“You love sheep!” Quite the chant towards Roadkill there.

Doring with a front Russian Legsweep. Probably the best one I’ve seen. A hell of a lot better than Jeff Jarrett’s.

Double Fisherman’s Suplex by the FBI takes out Doring. Nice move.

Sick belly to back suplex by Mahoney on Guido! Really liking this.

The Chair Swingin’ Freaks win by double pin in 10:43. Nutcraker Suite and Aerial Skullcrusher gets the win. Really fun brawl here and a good start to the show. Axl and Mahoney take out Big Guido and Big Sal too.

Yikes, we’re still doing this Terry Funk heel deal on Tommy Dreamer. Promo is interesting at least, about a jackass kicking his dad in the nuts and the dad got revenge. Funk’s upset that Tommy picked Jake Roberts at November to Remember as his mystery partner. I don’t remember a match to conclude this though.

Super Crazy vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri

This was when Tajiri was sane, had no beard and didn’t wear the Great Muta pants.

Joey Styles points out that Crazy wrestled in the WWF before…but doesn’t mention the same for Tajiri (who wrestled there a little bit in 1997 as well).

Fast paced start that leads to a Tornado DDT from Crazy!

Tajiri works on the knees with his kicks. Great psychology here as the idea is if Crazy’s knees are out, he can’t fly around. And Joey Styles says this too. It’s nice when the announcer’s tell the story of the match.

Tajiri’s Asai Moonsault has always been awesome.

Super Crazy just shows total disregard for his body and hits a suicide somersault plancha to the outside. He follows that with a moonsault off the guardrail. Everything is crisp from both men.

Great surfboard into a dragon sleeper spot from Crazy!

Corkscrew tope from Crazy. Great high flying spots everywhere in this one.

Sky Twister Press misses from Crazy! Wow!

Tajiri wins by pin in 11:37. Dragon Suplex gets the win. Spotfests can be awesome and this was a prime example of that. Sure the psychology early on was forgotten, but who really cares here. Really fun and really good. If ECW just got some more talent they could have rivaled WCW’s Cruiserweight Division. Unfortunately we’d just get these two and Little Guido for the next few years…although Tajiri’s gimmick change would get a short main event run in the summer.

John Kronus comes out. Judge Jeff Jones comes out (the judge deal is a new gimmick) and he’s here to get revenge on Kronus. Jeff Jones was a referee that Kronus beat up. Admittedly, this is a cool payoff early on to this.

John Kronus vs. Sid Vicious

Sid is a pretty good surprise here, a hell of a lot better than Mabel two months ago.

Two seconds in and Sid chokeslams Kronus over the top rope through a table.

Sid pins Kronus in 1:31. Some chair shots and a Powerbomb wins it for Sid. Bringing in Sid as an ass kicker who chokeslams and powerbombs people would be awesome. Leave it to Heyman to book Sid better than the WWF and WCW did and would. Of course, as soon as one of the Big Two saw that Sid had something in the tank he didn’t stay in ECW much longer. He was in WCW by the summer.

By the way, ECW fans would spend all their time mocking the Sids and Hogan’s of the world, but Sid shows up in an ECW ring and he gets one of the biggest reactions in the history of the promotion. Can’t help but laugh at that one.

We see what happened at November to Remember ’98. I don’t like that they are already building up Sabu as a title contender even though we haven’t done Douglas vs. Taz yet. Apparently Taz broke Sabu’s neck as revenge for stealing the pin on Douglas at November to Remember. Then Taz let Sabu pin him to win the FTW Title, making the point that he only wants the ECW World Championship at this point.

The Dudley Boyz have made an “unscheduled” appearance. Open challenge is made. Of course, New Jack answers.

The Dudley Boyz vs. New Jack and Spike Dudley

When I was younger I enjoyed these New Jack brawls, but looking at them now this has to be the worst aged thing in the entire promotion. It’s just New Jack and Spike hitting the Dudleys with random weapons and that’s it. There’s nothing of substance in these things.

Bubba throws Spike into the crowd and Spike bodysurfs for a little bit. This is always a cool spot, although it was cooler when Bam Bam did it to Spike.

Bubba throws Spike into the crowd again. Aren’t ECW quite lucky fans never got hurt in these spots?

Joey had to throw in some dick jokes for Big Dick Dudley.

3D on the ramp is totally botched. New Jack’s whole torso landed on Bubba.

The Dudley Boyz pin Spike in 10:01. 3D for the win. A really messy brawl that was a lot less fun than the opener. Not much else to say about this…but New Jack would be attacking the Dudleys all the way through the end of the Dudleys tenure in ECW. Dudleys beat the hell out of New Jack at the end.

Joey Styles tells us we’ll get a replacement for Masato Tanaka in the upcoming ECW TV Title match. We get some RVD highlights to hype us up for that.

ECW TV Championship
Rob Van Dam© vs. Lance Storm

Storm gets some mic time first. Still a bit wooden, but not too bad at all.

Storm says he’s not the whole F’N show, just the best damn part of it. I like that line.

RVD goes for a springboard moonsault, but Storm dropkicks him off the top rope and he goes flying into the guardrail.

Unfortunately, the crowd is more interested in chanting things at Tammy Lynn Bytch.

As RVD crawls back to the ring after getting hit with a reverse DDT on the floor, he has a whole conversation with the camera/crowd. It’s perfect for the RVD character too.

Second surfboard of the night!

Referee eats a Van Daminator!

Storm hits a superkick into the chair into RVD’s face…but the ref is out afterall…

Rob Van Dam pins Lance Storm in 18:50. Great wrestling sequence ends with RVD hitting a bridging German Suplex for the win. I really like that being the finish as sometimes it’s pretty cool to see something that’s merely a good move and not a finisher end the match (you never see this today). While it was a bit sloppy, I enjoyed this for the most part. Great athleticism from both guys and I really liked how cocky RVD was in this one too.

Stairway to Hell Match
Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible

I’m sorry but Nicole Bass doesn’t need to be here. What was the point? The WWF didn’t learn from this either.

Some back and forth brawling with some spots using the ladder. Nothing great but nothing bad either.

Nice flip from Justin Credible after hitting the ladder. Say what you want about Credible, but he did try.

Jazz, who I think is making her debut here, actually suplexes Dreamer.

Justin uses a ladder to dump Dreamer through a table, which I find to be a creative if not unnecessary spot.

Dreamer hits a Diamond Cutter off the middle of the ladders. While the first half of this was merely okay, this did pick up.

Justin Credible pins Tommy Dreamer in 18:45. Ok, this finish sucks and ruins the entire point of the match. Dreamer gets the Singapore Cane and hits Credible with a DDT. After he fails to tie Credible up in the ropes, he goes to hit Credible with the Cane for the big finish. Only Terry Funk shows up and nails Dreamer in the head with a garbage can. Credible hits Dreamer once with the cane then hits That’s Incredible for the win. Despite the whole point of the match being getting the cane (which is a lame weapon here even if it fits the story. At least Sandman-Sabu got barbed wire in theirs), the guy who gets it never uses it and the weapon itself is used once. While the match did pick up, I wouldn’t call it good or anything. This was merely okay and a bit long with a bullshit finish. Funk beats down Dreamer for good measure. I did not like this Terry Funk heel turn…and once again I don’t think this ever paid off with a match either.

Quick Taz promo that’s nothing new (Beat Me if you can…). Douglas has a promo too where he randomly calls out Sid and tells him its easier up north or down south to win the World Title…then botches the Immoveable object vs. irresistible force line (he says indestructible force). Not the best promo from either man.

ECW World Championship
Shane Douglas© vs. Taz

This had a real big match feel to it. This really was about 16, 17 months in the making.

Early on Taz hits a belly to belly and Douglas rolls to the outside. For some reason, the ref starts a count like he’s going to count Douglas out. I’m sure that was going to be the ECW PPV main event finish.

They fight all over the arena now, but to be fair that’s pretty boring. This whole thing has been pretty boring so far.

We get our first exciting moment where Taz hits an overhead belly to belly over a railing onto a platform. Other than that, this has been awful so far.

Taz finally gets a Taz-plex through a table in the ring. After the two count we get Sabu’s music. Sabu runs n and takes out both guys.

Sabu botches his springboard dive to the outside and turns it into a moonsault…but he only gets Taz and Douglas sells it anyway.

Sabu drives Douglas through a table!

Taz is next as Sabu drives him through a table too!

Douglas calls for the Triple Threat…even though the group had been disbanded as Bam Bam Bigelow left the company. Chris Candido and Tammy Lynn Sytch show up though and Tammy and Francine have a cat fight in the middle of this World Title match. Candido turns on Douglas as well, knocking him down with a punch.

Taz wins the title when Douglas passed out in 22:15. With Douglas calling out to Candido, Taz locks in the Taz-mission and Douglas passes out. This was absolutely terrible and an embarrassing main event. The most action packed part of the match involved Sabu. The crowd segment was boring and took up nearly half the match. We had a silly run in with Tammy and Candido. Taz didn’t even get a good win as Douglas had been beaten up by both Sabu and Candido. Absolutely terrible. Why couldn’t this just have been Taz beating the crap out of Douglas for 10 minutes? Why all the stupid stuff? The focus was barely on Taz!

The show wasn’t too bad overall, but an atrocious main event ruined that. Shane Douglas had been quite a letdown as champion in big match main events, citing back to the match with Al Snow and the six man back in November. The world title main events would get better throughout 1999 for sure.

I’ll give some credit for the solid undercard. But ECW still showed to be in a lot of trouble

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW November to Remember ’98

November to Remember ‘98
November 1, 1998
New Orleans, LA

There’s nothing special about ECW anymore.

I wrote that last time but it’s truer than ever at this point. Unfortunately for ECW, the WWF has mastered the extreme style and ECW just doesn’t have the talent to keep up. ECW did have enough talent to run good shows though, evident by their last PPV Heatwave ’98. It was easily the best PPV in company history. The momentum from the Taz vs. Shane Douglas feud and the budding popularity of Rob Van Dam has kept ECW afloat.

November to Remember is the Wrestlemania of ECW. Can Paul E. deliver a Wrestlemania-type show?

The Card

New Jack beats the crap out of Jack Victory in a parking lot. I never really liked New Jack outside of hid feuds with the Dudleys.

New Jack gets taken away, I guess he won’t be on the show tonight.

Another good venue choice. The Lakefront Arena looks bigger than the standard ECW arena.

Terry Funk shows up with a graduation cap on. A good surprise so far.

Funk for some reason turns heel by running down Paul E. and Tommy Dreamer. What a bad way to start. I mean what the hell?

He’s apparently angry no one invited him to the show. This sucks.

Super Nova and the Blue Meanie vs. Roadkill and Danny Doring

Doring and Roadkill don’t even get an entrance.

Terry Funk wanders back out here and he’s still bitching. Who thought this was a good idea. Honestly?

Nova and Meanie have a move called the “Super Duper Double Looper”. How about that.

For some reason Terry Funk gets on the apron and slaps Meanie, and Meanie lets him have it.

Funk legdrops himself through a table. WHAT IS GOING ON?!

The Blue Meanie and Super Nova win when Meanie pinned Doring in 10:54. Really fun finish where Nova hits a Frog Splash, Meanie hits the Meaniesault, then they hit the Blue Light Special (DDT/Inverted Powerbomb) for the win. Fun little match here that got a bit screwed up from the Funk thing. Speaking of Funk, he’s back and he takes out Meanie and Nova. Just ugh.

Paul E. comes out and gets Terry away from ringside.

Tracy Smothers vs. Tommy Rogers

Chris Chetti is with Rogers and Ulf Hermann is with Smothers. So this will probably be a tag.

Smothers looks really old for some reason.

This didn’t turn into a tag but since Ulf kept getting involved, Chetti fights him on the outside.

There’s a pin where Rogers’ shoulder is CLEARLY off the mat. What the hell is this?

Tommy Rogers pins Tracy Smothers in 7:51. Tamikaze for the win. Joey Styles makes it a point to explain that the move is the most imitated move in professional wrestling, which is a shot at the WWF’s Christian as it is the same as the Unprettier. Anyway, this was boring and really sloppy.

The Full Blooded Italians tease a break-up, but then Tommy Rogers get attacked.

Suddenly Mabel of all people with a FBI shirt comes out. Huh?

Mabel and Hermann beat the crap out of Chetti before Spike Dudley shows up. Dudley takes both out with Acid Drops, and a ref counts the pin. I guess the fans reacted to Spike.

By the way, if this is the Wrestlemania of ECW, the promotion should have just given up at this point.

Lance Storm vs. Jerry Lynn

Mikey Whipwreck and Tammy Lynn Sytch are our referees.

Part of the story here is that Sytch and Storm’s valet Tammy Lynn Bytch hate one another. Bytch is the future Dawn Marie of course.

Great wrestling sequence to start.

Sytch fast counts Storm of course.

We get a really fast paced solid match…until the gimmick gets involved…

So Bytch and Sytch go at it, to which Sytch strips Bytch. Whipwreck tries to get Bytch out and eventually hits her with a Whippersnapper (which she accidentally no sells, ha!). Then Whipwreck Whippersnaps Lynn, but Storm low blows Whipwreck and shoves him out. Sytch then makes the slowest count in the world for Storm so Lynn can kick out. What a way to screw up a good match.

Lance Storm pins Jerry Lynn in 16:48. The overbooking gets worse. Sytch nails Storm with a Whippersnapper. Whipwreck nails Sytch with a botched Whippersnapper (as Styles says it, it’s because he must have thought she low blowed him earlier). Lynn rolls up Storm, but Mikey reverses it and fast counts Lynn out so Storm can win. What a mess. It was good before all of that.

And now more Terry Funk. I love Funk, but he’s been horribly misused here. He says he’s gone forever and he’s sorry for making an ass out of himself.

ECW World Tag Team Championship
The Dudley Boys© vs. Masato Tanaka and Balls Mahoney

Axl Rotten is hurt, which is why we have Tanaka.

Masato Tanaka hits a nice plancha off of Balls’ back.

Balls heads to the top…then botches the spot by falling off. Mahoney needs to stick to just crawling and fighting.

Bubba Ray Dudley is doing planchas now. Cool I guess.

We get a huge chair showdown, to which Mahoney and Tanaka no sell some chair shots. The Dudleys telegraph the reversal as well and take Roaring Elbows into the chairs into their faces (which looks terrible). Referee Jeff Jones though fakes an injury and doesn’t count the Dudleys out. More overbooked garbage.

Tanaka survives 3D. Shame that spot is wasted here.

D-Von actually botches getting a table into the ring as he brings a wire with it. That was hilarious.

Tanaka and Mahoney win the title in 15:01 via double pin.RVD and Sabu come in and drive the Dudleys through a pair of tables. Man these finishes are a mess. Match was drawn out and bad. Another run-in finish. Just not good all around. Masato Tanaka is pretty much wasted here. They would hold the belts for like a week I believe.

For some reason we get the battle of the Triple Threat promo video a little early, as we have one more match before it. To be fair, Six Man Tag or not, the main event does feel like a big deal.

Justin Credible and Jack Victory vs. Tommy Dreamer and a Mystery Partner

And that mystery is Jake Roberts. In 1998. Yikes.

Jake didn’t even try with his attire. He looks like he’s about to go golfing or something.

We get a decent Dreamer vs. Credible match, then for some reason Credible tags in Jason. Jason isn’t a participant in this match.

Rod Price and One Man Gang run-in! What’s a match on this PPV without some kind of bullshit run in now?

Here we go with New Jack…we get John Kronus too. Usually clusterfuck commences.

Kronus hits the 450 Splash…and the ref was about to count Credible out there. The refs don’t even know what’s going on.

I wonder if Jake looked at all this and wondered what the hell happened to his career.

Mr. Wright flips in and botches the landing. Jake takes him out anyway.

Now we have Nicole Bass in there. Jake drops her with a DDT.

Tommy Dreamer and Jake Roberts win when both pin Credible in 12:26. Jake drops Credible with a DDT on the ladder for the finish. What a mess. What a damn mess. That’s all there is to say really.

God it’s Terry Funk again. He’s mad Dreamer picked Jake Roberts and not him. Awful. Dreamer turns his back on Funk and Funk lays him out. This absolutely sucks.

RVD really wasn’t that bad of a promo guy in ECW.

Taz, Sabu and Rob Van Dam vs. Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Candido

The main part of this story is Taz’s 15 month chase of the ECW World Title held by Douglas. Douglas has been hurt for months and is somehow still the champ. As a side note, RVD, Sabu and Taz have all had their problems.

This definitely was the top three faces against the top heel faction. As I said before, if it delivers it will be a worthy main event.

The Dudleys attack RVD and Sabu on the ramp. I can’t take this anymore. At least it made sense since RVD and Sabu attacked them earlier.

For some reason, Sabu spends the entire match as the face in peril. I have a few issues with this. One, this is a waste of Sabu. We don’t wait for Sabu in the main event to get beat down by three heels in a wrestling manner. Two, Taz is the one who has the real issue with the Triple Threat and the heat should be on him.

RVD makes the tag I think (so much for the hot Taz tag), but then after some brawling Sabu’s getting beat down again. For some reason Chris Candido puts Taz through a table on the outside but we don’t see it.

There are tons of botches here too. Sabu misses a slingshot legdrop that’s supposed to hit. RVD whips Douglas into the corner and Douglas expects to be hit with something and instead RVD attacks Bigelow. There’s a weird rolling spot where Douglas turns before RVD. Tons of bad stuff.

The crowd is dead for when Taz finally gets Douglas in the ring, and then RVD steals the crowd with a flip into the crowd.

Sabu, Rob Van Dam and Taz win when Sabu pinned Douglas in 12:57. Even the finish is botched. Taz locks Douglas in the Taz-Mission, but Sabu comes off the top with the Arabian Facecrusher (and really only hits Taz). He pins Douglas for the win. What a bad main event. Nothing clicked and it was full of botches. The booking set up Taz vs. Sabu in the future, but we haven’t even done Taz vs. Douglas yet. Which by the way, the crowd seems sick of Douglas overall at this point.

That’s the flagship PPV for ECW? Yikes. The Terry Funk stuff was embarrassing. Jake Roberts looked like he didn’t really care to be there. Mabel? Storm vs. Lynn and the opener is just enough to get me away from F. Barely.

Final Grade: D

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW Barely Legal

Barelylegal97

ECW Barely Legal
April 13, 1997
Philadelphia, PA
Reviewed on March 11, 2014

Background: This was it. ECW for years had tried their damnest to get on Pay-Per-View. Companies thought they were too violent. Companies thought they were real. ECW actually got on the PPV schedule for 1997, but the Lesbian Kiss angle, SandmanCrucifixion and most importantly, the Mass Transit incident got them kicked off. ECW found a way back on though. Amazingly if not sadly, things wouldn’t be that great for ECW much longer. Their talent rosters had already been raided (mostly by WCW) and the more notable they got, the more that would happen. Nonetheless, this is a big moment for ECW, so let’s dive into it.

The Card

Joey Styles runs down the card…but The Dudley Boyz show up.

Dudleyz cut a promo. They weren’t ridiculously offensive yet, but still riot inducing heels.

We get the ECW Opening Video. Weird order of things.

Joel Gertner with his limericks!

ECW World Tag Team Championship
The Dudley Boyz© vs. The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn)

Sign Guy Dudley “attacks” the Eliminators…and gets hit with Total Elimination!

This is more of a Texas Tornado match early on.

Springboard backflip from Saturn into a double dropkick. Nice.

Saturn would be in WCW in September of 97.

Double Feliner (that’s all I know it as, damn Cat) from the Eliminators!

Double twisting top rope splashes. This is all Eliminators.

Kronus catapults Saturn in a backflip/moonsault from the ring to both Dudleyz on the outside.

Space Flying Kronus Drop!

Totally forgot that Saturn once had one of the best top rope elbow drops in the business.

Double jump springboard moonsault from Saturn. Really a shame he tore his ACL a couple months from this.

Kronus with a nice 450 splash!

The Eliminators win the title when Kronus pinned Buh Buh Ray Dudley in 6:11. They double kick Buh Buh, then hit Total Elimination for the win. Match was 95% Eliminators. It works because ECW was trying to be different, and this was. How many total six minute ass kickings did you see on the WWF and WCW at the time? Also, great idea to start the show with a title change, makes the show feel important right out of the gate. As for the wrestling, it is a bit sloppy, but some of the spots you just didn’t see on a national stage in the US at the time. Perfectly good way to start the show. I’d even bet this match is how Saturn got signed away to WCW.

Joel Gertner states that in his scoring system, the Dudleyz win 86-83 and they are still the champs. He also gets Total Elimination…which led to the broken neck cast for his career (he even uses it at One Night Stand!)

Sandman hype video. He was the #2 guy behind Raven over the past year.

Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam

This match has some historical significance. Chris Candido, fresh off being Skip, got injured and was supposed to face Storm. RVD replaced him. RVD was legitimately upset over this as he felt he was overlooked. Smartly, Paul Heyman took advantage of this, first convincing RVD to stay, then running with the Mr. Monday Night gimmick and how everyone wants RVD. Of course, RVD is the biggest star to ever come out of ECW.

Surprisingly, neither of these guys would get a WWF or WCW deal until 2000 (Storm).

Some okay chain wrestling early.

RVD always had a great leaping somersault plancha.

Storm jumps to the top rope cleanly and hits a back elbow.

Storm goes SPLAT.

RVD with a moonsault off the railing!

RVD has the arrogance thing going on.

Sell-out chants for RVD. You know, Paul Heyman knew how to do the REALITY thing.

Frog Splash from RVD. Kick out from Storm. It wasn’t his finisher yet.

Storm with a nice last second splash off a cartwheel.

Storm gets the floatover Crab, but it wasn’t clean.

Storm with the weakest chair shot of all time…but when a very nice powerbomb on a chair. How confusing.

Storm tries to hit a top rope guillotine legdrop on RVD and an open chair, but it doesn’t quite work.

RVD botches one of my favorite moves. He crotches Storm on the top rope (not a corner) then goes for the springboard flying back kick…but he falls and only hits an elbow.

Rob Van Dam pins Lance Storm in 10:10. WEAK chair shots. But…RVD punishes Storm with a Van Daminator (the coolest move in the industry in my opinion at the time). Match was designed to get all of RVD and Storm’s spots in to show them off on a national stage. But, the match was pretty damn sloppy and some stuff was just botched. You don’t hear this match as one of those where RVD stole the show. Nonetheless, RVD does a “No Respect” promo which launched Mr. Monday Night.

Gran Hamada, The Great Sasuke and Masato Yakushiji vs. Taka Michinoku, Terry Boy and Dick Togo

When Jim Ross said Sasuke vs. Taka was each of those two’s first North American PPV match at Canadian Stampede…he missed this.

Michinoku Pro are honorary members of the BWO.

Streamers! Must be a Japanese thing according to Styles.

Sasuke would have some more ECW matches, most notably putting over Justin Credible.

Taka would be WWF Lightheavyweight Champ by December.

Dick Togo is like a great power cruiserweight.

The crispness of these moves is awesome.

Hamada with a lightning fast armbar. Nice.

AMAZING sequences of moves between Terry and Sasuke. I can’t even explain it, but it had about 10 reversals and some cartwheels. Wow.

Ouch, they stand Sasuke on his head and Taka dropkicks him right in the gut.

Michinoku Pro with an awesome group taunt and they included Sasuke!

Terry Boy is named that as a tribute to Terry Funk. He busts out the Spinning Toe Hold.

Wow Terry Boy props up Masato with a weak slingshot…so Togo can clothesline him down and Taka can come off the top with a flying knee drop!

Michinoku Pro gets a triple powerbomb on Masato, but they botch it on Sasuke. The only mistake this whole match.

Bad Sasuke hurricanrana counter as well.

Sasuke with a Asai Moonsault and he lands in the crowd!

Hamada with a really nice leaping swinging DDT.

Sasuke, Hamada and Yakushiji win when Sasuke pinned Taka in 16:55. Sasuke hits a Tiger Suplex on Taka for the win. Very good match, although I recall this being heralded as one of the best matches of the year (it wouldn’t even crack my top 3 matches on PPV that year). But nonetheless very fun and very good.

Big Stevie Cool backstage skit. BWO! He didn’t think he was a man being Raven’s flunky. He was in WCW in three months as well.

ECW TV Championship
Shane Douglas© vs. Pitbull #2

Story here: Douglas broke the neck of Pitbull #1. Revenge for Pitbull #2, maybe. Francine was also the former manager of the Pitbulls.

Francine is pretty damn hot.

Pitbull #1 is in the front row.

Douglas interview, talks about breaking Pitbull #1’s neck. Also about the masked stalker he has.

By the way, the Triple H Game gimmick was done first by Douglas. Although Douglas never evolved.

Headlock start really killed the crowd. Bad start.

It’s early, but this match is missing on all accounts right now. Very boring.

Blown spot where Douglas does a twisting crossbody and the Pitbull catches him…but then has to drop him.

Pitbull does a weak Fall Away slam for Douglas to go over the top rope and though a table, but even that looks weak.

Pit Bull #1 gets involved, and crowd didn’t even pop for it. This is not a good match.

Pitbull #2 throws a steel guardrail in the ring.

They botch crotching Pitbull #2 on the guardrail. Jeez.

Even the brass knuckles spot is boring and unexciting.

Shane Douglas retains by pin at 20:43. Overhead belly to belly out of nowhere for the win. Match was awful. While Douglas seemed off, Pitbull #2 had to put in the laziest performance of any wrestler I can remember, Vampiro included. Horrible punches. He wouldn’t even kick out right at the end. No surprise that he was gone in a few months and never caught on with WWF or WCW. Terrible match that went 12-13 minutes too long. Paul Heyman apparently apologized for it as well.

Here comes the masked man! He’ll take off the mask if he gets the girl!

Everyone seems to know it’s Ruck Rude, including Joey Styles.

Shocker…it’s not Rude…as Rude comes out from being disguised as one of Douglas’ bodyguards! It was Brian Lee who’s turned on Douglas. No idea why this all happened, but it was better than the 20 minute snorefest we just got. Crowd agrees. By the way, both Lee and Rude were in the WWF in 4 months. I feel bad for ECW sometimes.

Raven interview! He kinda gives away the fact that Terry Funk is going to win the three way to face him later. You know, since he’s cutting a promo on him.

Taz promo. Last hype job for the grudge match of the century!

Sabu vs. Taz

This match had been built up since 1995 I believe, when Sabu left Taz while they were World Tag Champs. It turned into a lot of moments where both men were close to coming to blows, but never would. Each claimed to be scared of the other. To be honest, the build was absolutely fantastic.

Taz is the heel and Sabu is the face.

This just has a big match feel.

Taz with the early Taz-Mission attempt…although Sabu escapes and Styles calls it as a huge deal.

Focus is mostly on Taz outwrestling Sabu, which I don’t really think is the way to go to be honest.

I always thought Sabu’s springboard leg lariat was a real creative move.

Sabu with the plancha into the crowd! Landing was a bit off…but it incites a serious ECW chant nonetheless.

Nice submission holds from Taz (Bow and Arrow), but this isn’t what the crowd wants.

Some nice chair spots.

Sabu misses Taz on an chair springboard dive, then Taz overhead belly to belly suplexes him over the top (which makes Douglas’ finish look awful anyway). Unfortunately, while I’m sure it hurt, it didn’t look great.

Sabu goes for a swinging DDT though a table off the apron, but Taz counters and sends Sabu through the table. Bill Alfonso, who is Taz’s manager here, starts begging Sabu to get up. Styles calls it mocking, but this makes sense in a few minutes.

Sky high legdrop from Sabu! Very nice.

Taz wins when Sabu passes out in 17:49. Sabu escapes a Taz-Mission with a suplex…but Taz suplexes Sabu in return on his head. Sabu though then busts out his own T-Bone Tazplex! Sabu locks in the Taz-Mission on Taz! Taz counters and drops Sabu on his head twice with two suplexes…then the Taz-Mission ends it. Watching Alfonso here is also quite telling as he looks disappointed, too bad it isn’t referenced. Sabu and Taz shake and hug to boos…but here comes Rob Van Dam! They double team Taz! Sabu botches driving Taz through the table, then dangerously does it a 2nd time (where we easily could have broken his neck). Sabu chokes out Taz with his own hold. Alfonso then reveals a Sabu shirt! How often does the manager end up siding with the loser of the team (he bet money on Sabu to win)! Anyway, this began the awesome RVD-Sabu team. RVD says he “loves to work Mondays”. Awesome.

Let’s talk about this match for a bit. It’s a good match, but this is the problem. This was supposed to be the greatest grudge match in history. Taz said it best in the ECW Rise and Fall documentary that there was no way the match was going to live up to expectations and unfortunately he was correct. I do think they should have done a different type of match though. Maybe because it wasn’t late enough yet or something, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of violence on this show. This match (and Douglas-Pitbull #2) needed hardcore matches, not wrestling matches.

Here comes Tommy Dreamer for some commentary for the main events. I wonder why he didn’t wrestle on this show.

#1 Contender to the ECW World Championship
The Sandman vs. Terry Funk vs. Big Stevie Cool

BWO!
BWO!

Here comes the Sandman. Dubbed entrance, but I do like Megadeth’s Trust anyway. This may be a while.

Sandman starts the match off by drinking and spitting the beer in Stevie’s face.

Tommy says he won’t interfere in this match or the one with Raven for Funk. Again, just giving it away are we?

The crowd is hot for this, which is good, because this has been some sloppy wrestling so far.

Four neckbreakers on Stevie Cool. Sandman just throws a ladder in the ring and nails Funk, what a throw.

Funk with a moonsault off the top of the ladder (nutcase) which totally misses Stevie…except for a boot. Still, crazy old man with a crazy spot.

Sandman takes the ladder and comes off the top and smashes Richards. You don’t even see that in Ladder matches today!

Funk with the spinning ladder! Styles with the accurate assessment: Funk’s nuts.

Catapult move seem to get botched somehow, as the ladder doesn’t come up.

Crowd clearly wants Stevie to win this thing by the way. Stevie Kick gets 2 on the Sandman…crowd chants bullshit.

Some crazy Sandman over the top rope dive to catapult the ladder into Stevie’s face. Ouch.

Sandman with a PERFECT toss of a trash can into the ring…as it lands with a crash on Terry Funk’s head!

Another ladder catapult! The ladder goes flying and almost ends up in the crowd. Sandman must be drunk.

Double powerbomb eliminates Stevie. Fans are not happy. I never realized Stevie was so over here.

Sandman finds barbed wire in the streamers that were thrown earlier! Funk though, gets it and whips the hell out of the Sandman with it. Ouch.

Terry Funk wins when he pins Sandman in 19:07. Sandman legdrop from the top only gets two. Richards on the apron, but Sandman (who wrapped himself in barbed wire) body splashes him off. Funk gets control by getting the can on Sandman’s head. Stevie Kick, then a Funk Moonsault for the pin. Very sloppy…but I guess it could still be classified as a fun brawl. Raven’s out right away, as there is only ten minutes of show time left.

ECW World Championship
Raven© vs. Terry Funk

This is booked smartly early, as Raven beats the crap out of Funk. Funk just wrestled a 20 minute violent brawl. So it makes sense.

Funk is bleeding everywhere. There’s a doctor in the ring, but Funk continues on.

Commentary from Dreamer is awesome, as he’s near tears as he promised he wouldn’t help his mentor.

Doctor’s in there again. The Funker fights on.

Raven drives Funk through a table with a flying dive over the top rope. That looked very cool!

Raven takes out the doc!

Reggie Bennett is out here. No Idea who she is, but she attacks Funk (Raven’s Nest did own).

Raven gets on the mic. He says he’s going to end Funk’s career right here.

Big Dick Dudley attacks Dreamer with a hard trash can shot! Dreamer turns the tide though and chokeslams (kinda) Dudley off the stage through a stack of tables! OH MY GOD from Styles!

Dreamer’s coming for Raven!

Dreamer throws a trash can at Raven…who catches it and throws it back at Dreamer. It gets Dreamer good…and he awesomely no-sells!

Terry Funk wins the ECW Title when he pinned Raven in 7:20. Dreamer DDT. 1…2…no…? Fans thought it was over. THE BELL EVEN RANG….but Raven kicked out. Small package…and that gets the three! Big pop for the title win. Match wasn’t even a match really, in fact the small package was the only move Funk got in. But it was a fun mess of interference and Raven kicking Funk’s ass…with a great moment at the end.

This is a tough one to grade. If I grade it purely on its quality of matches, it is a disappointing show overall, somewhere in the C+ range. One great match quality wise, a couple of good ones (even if one of those didn’t live up to the hype) and some crazy brawling.

If you grade it on the historical aspect, this PPV launched RVD’s career. It launched Taz’s top run as a face. It put ECW on PPV, and it lasted four more years in a very competitive era for wrestling. It had great moments. This was an ECW fan’s dream.

Sometimes you have to go with history. It’s almost a B+ and would be if not for the disappointing hype around Taz vs. Sabu (still a good match)….and the disaster that was Douglas vs. Pitbull #2.

Final Grade: B