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It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 7 years since ECW debuted on Pay-Per-View. It was a mild success that they went from where they did to a legitimate contender to the WCW and WWF, at least for a while. Their PPV’s were always hit or miss after this one, generally miss, but it’s always nice to look back at this, the beginning of ECW’s brief run at doing PPVs.
Joey Styles is in the ring of the ECW Arena and the fans are pretty amped for this one. Joey runs down the matches on the card until the Dudley’s come down. We have Bubba and Dvon (the tag champs), Sign Guy and Joel Gertner. Dvon tells us to testify and we go to the opening video. After the video Joel Gertner gets on the mic to do the introductions.
The Dudley Boyz(c) vs. The Eliminators for the ECW Tag Titles
The Eliminators come down and Sign Guy attacks and he immediately gets hit with Total Elimination. The Duds attack from behind leading to Dvon hitting a reverse neckbreaker on Saturn while Bubba hits a Bubbabomb on Kronus leading to a Dvon headdrop for two. They hit Saturn with a tilt a whirl slam for two. The Duds keep up with the double teaming until Saturn flips over a clothesline and takes over until Bubba quickly sidewalk slams him. They try for the 3D but Saturn broke it up with a legsweep on Dvon. The Eliminator’s work their double team offense now. They hit simultaneous slams on the Duds followed by stereo twisting splashes. The Dud’s bail as The Eliminators rest in the ring. The Duds try to come back in but the Elims knock them off the apron. Saturn hits a reverse moonsault to the outside using Kronus as a springboard then Kronus follows a Space Flying Tiger Drop to the outside. Saturn hits a springboard spinkick to Dvon inside the ring as Kronus does the Hurricane Kronus. The Elims continue kicking ass as Saturn drops an elbow from the top on to Bubba. Saturn hits a double jump springboard lionsault on Bubba which is pretty neat to see as Kronus hits a 450 splash on Dvon. That got the crowd going. The Elims hits Total Elimination on Bubba and that’s good enough for their third ECW Tag Titles picking up the pin at 6:30. Just an extended squash-spot match, but it wasn’t too bad. **. Gertner gets on the mic, WHILE THE ELIMS are STILL IN THE RING to talk about the Duds being the winners. He takes Total Elimination which legit injured his neck.
Rob Van Dam vs. Lance Storm
Chris Candido was supposed to wrestle Storm in this match but injured his rotator cuff. No matter, he’s in the ring to talk. He complains that he should be in the main event. We totally bypass the entrances to go to the ring introductions. They lock up to start and Rob hits the waistlock. They break clean in the corner. Rob takes Storm into the corner but he doesn’t break clean. Usual RVD fare ensues which leads to a Storm clothesline. He forearms him a few times but RVD grabs a wristlock and turns it into an armdrag. He hits a flying body press for one then sends Storm to the outside. He follows with a tope con hilo. Back inside, RVD hits a legdrop from the top for two. He sends Storm to the turnbuckle but Storm springboards off the top and elbows RVD. He sends RVD to the outside but misses a pescado. They brawl on the outside and RVD hits a moonsault from the barricade. He sends Storm back inside and follows with a chair. RVD throws the chair into Lance’s face and wanders around a bit. He dropkicks the chair into the face of Lance Storm who was lying in the corner and again celebrates. The fans call RVD a SELL OUT because of his recent appearnences on Raw as RVD hits a double underhook slam. RVD hits the frog splash from the top (the ***** but before it was called such) and it gets a two. RVD gets another chair and tosses it into the face of Storm. RVD sends Storm to the corner but misses a somersault splash allowing Storm to slam RVD headfirst onto the chair. RVD misses a spinning kick but Lance hits one of his own. He sends RVD to the corner and splashes him then hits a flying press from the top rope for two. Lance Storm sends RVD to the ropes and rolls under him to grab a Boston crab then turns it into a one legged crab (later called the Maple Leaf). Lance charges RVD but RVD back body drops him over the top. Lance lands on his feet and charges RVD in the gut. This all turns into a RVD legdrop on Lance who is on the apron and RVD falls outside. RVD comes back in and eats a Tigerbomb on a chair for two. Lance rockerdrops Lance onto a chair from the top for another two count. They do a reversal of some sort and Lance gets an enzuguiri to the back of RVD’s head. RVD blows a slingshot elbow and Lance hits a nice German suplex with bridge for two. Lance nails RVD with some unprotected head shots with the chair but RVD hits a Van Daminator out of nowhere with a standing moonsault splash for the pin at 10:09. Match had little flow to it, and was just a bunch of spots. It wasn’t horrible though. **. RVD gives a no respect speech saying how he gets none. The interview gets cut off though I think.
Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Masato Yakushiji vs. Taka Michinoku/Mens Teioh/Dick Togo
Taka and Hamada start off with Hamada taking control of Taka with some armdrags and such. Masato works over Taka a while until Sasuke comes in. Taka takes over and KDX does some good ol’ triple teaming. Togo and Sasuke are left in the ring and Togo sentons Sasuke. Yakishiji comes in to make the save but Taka comes in to attack followed by Teioh. Togo and Masato are left in the ring now as Togo back bodydrops Masato. Masato quickly takes over with a hurricanrana and armdrags Togo to the outside. Taka comes in and a similar fate befalls him. Hamada comes in to take on Teioh and Hamada takes him down only to have Taka run in. Taka gets taken down as well and hits a belly to back suplex. Sasuke is tagged in and they double chop Taka and Sasuke applies a head lock until Teioh comes in. They do a series of reversals leading to a Sasuke body press. Yakishiji and Taka pair off now until Teioh comes in a few seconds later. He throws him to the outside a few times but Yakushiji comes right back in both times. This all ends up with Yakushiji hitting a headscissors take down on the outside on Teioh. Hamada and Togo pair off in the ring now with Hamada hurricanranning him for two. Taka runs in but gets cradled by Togo for two. The three take Taka in their corner and triple team him. Sasuke grabs a single leg Boston crab on Sasuke but Taka wiggles out and enzuguiri’s him. Taka tags in Togo and Togo and Teioh hit a double bulldog on Sasuke. They set up Sasuke and Togo poses on top of him! KDX is in control of Sasuke now. Togo suplexes Sasuke for two. He tags in Teioh who does the spinning toehold which Sasuke kicks off but Teioh hits a floatover DDT. Sasuke gets to the corner and Yakushiki comes in only to walk right into the Michinoku Driver for two. Teioh comes in and boots him in the face followed by some sweet triple teaming. Togo hits a somersault senton from the second rope and Teioh comes in hitting a nice belly to back suplex but Hamada makes the save. Taka back body drops him and they triple team him in the corner ending with a spike piledriver. They follow that up with a triple team powerbommb. Sasuke makes the save but the blow a spot. They repeat it and Sasuke hurricanrana’s Teioh. All hell breaks loose now as Sasuke hits an Asai moonsault to the outside as Taka hits a springboard plancha to the outside as Yakishiji dropkicks Teioh from the top rope. He hits a second rope moonsault for two. Teioh hits a swinging DDTfor two and chokeslams him down but Hamada breaks it up. Togo comes in and powerslams Hamada. Hamada hits a swinging DDT of his own for two but Togo counters a hurricanrana attempt into a powerbomb for two. He goes to the top but Sasuke blocks him. Hamada gets a hurricanrana from the top as Yakushiji heads to the top. He gets a top rope hurricanrana and follows with a suicide dive to the outside. Sasuke and Taka are left in the ring and Taka hits a nice dropkick from the top rope to the back of his head. Taka hits a Michinoku Driver on Sasuke but Yakushiji breaks that up. Taka goes back to the top rope but on his way down gets dropkicked in the gut by Sasuke. Sasuke hits a body press which gets a two count and follows with a powerbomb and a tiger suplex finishes it at 16:55. What a great match. Easy MOTN honors. Only black eye was the blown spot but it was still all-good. ****1/2.
Shane Douglas(c) vs. Pitbull #2 for the ECW TV Title
We go from awesome, to this. We get a recap of Shane breaking Pitbull #1’s neck and some video clips as Shane blabbers on. Pitbull #2 comes running down when Shane finishes talking and we start right away. They exchange blows with each other. The stip here is that is Pitbull #2 doesn’t win the TV title, the masked man following Shane around has to unmask. Pitbullof course takes over right away and works his neck as the fans chant, “break his neck.” Shane reverses and starts working on Pitbulls neck but Pitbull reverses to a side headlock on the mat. They do some “mat-wrestling” as Joey calls it but Benoit/Angle this is not. Shane grabs a headlock but Pitbull picks him up and crotches him on the top rope. Pitbull tries a backbodydrop but invariably blows the move. They try again and Pitbull atomic drops him for two. He works over Shane’s neck again as Francine starts crying on the outside. I’d be crying too if I was front row watching this crap. Shane hits what vaguely resembles a hurricanrana but Pitbull #2 no sells and tries for a powerbomb. Douglas hangs onto the top rope and takes Pitbull to the outside. The Franchise hits a piledriver back inside the ring and then hits another one. He hits another piledriver followed by a snapmare then a dropkick to the back of the head. Pitbull ends up on the apron and Shane suplexes him in. Shane harkens back to 1985 by using the camel clutch. Pitbull powers out and atomic drops him again then clotheslines him. He sends Douglas to the corner but he bounces off the second rope trying to crossbody Pitbull as Pitbull catches him looking incredibly awkward in the process. Pitbull carries him over and dumps him from the ring through the timekeeper’s table on the ground. They brawl outside and Pitbull #1 jumps the guardrail and starts pounding away on Shane as the Philadelphia Riot Squad take him away. All the while, Pitbull sends a piece of the guardrail into the ring. Pitbull picks up Shane but Shane “flips out” and picks up Pitbull to crotch him on the guardrail but it falls over as he tries to dump him. Ooops. Shane headbutts Pitbull in the groin. Pitbull ends up outside and Douglas takes the guardrail and drops it onto Pitbull. Shane crotches Pitbull onto the guardrail then hits him with a chairshot to the back. Shane works over Pitbull back inside the ring and starts pounding away. Pitbull hulks up but a knee to the gut sends thing back in Douglas’ favor. Douglas goes to the top and jumps on Pitbull but Pitbull catches him and sets him on the top rope. He tries for a suplerplex but Douglas shoves him off. He jumps at Pitbull but Pitbull dropkicks him as Shane is coming down. Double clothesline knocks both guys out. Pitbull is first up and he shoulderblocks Shane down. He follows with a clothesline then a powerslam for two. Irish whip and Pitbull hits Shane with an elbow for two. A Pitbull dropkick also gets two. He sends Douglas to the ropes and knocks him over. As Pitbull recovers, Francine hands Douglas something. Douglas hits Pitbull twice with brass knuckles then breaks a piece of table over his head and that only gets a two. Douglas smacks Pitbull with a chair but that gets two, a shot with a ring bell gets two, another shot with the table gets two and Pitbull has hulked up. He sends Douglas to the corner but while there Francine hands Douglas the title belt. Douglas hits Pitbull twice with the belt then goes for the chain in his boot but Pitbull hits a pumphandle slam for two. Pitbull finds the chain and wraps it around his fist. He nails Shane with it but Candido runs out only to get nailed by Pitbull. As Pitbull is distracted, Shane rolls him up for two. Pitbull hits a short arm clotheline. He goes to the ropes but Shane ducks a clothesline and grabs a belly to belly overhead suplex for win at 20:32. What a shitty finish to a horrible match. DUD. The masked man comes out wearing a Simply Ravishing robe. He looks kind of fat though. It turns out that Brian Lee is under the mask as Rude comes in and attacks Shane from behind. Underfaker hits a chokeslam as the crowd erupts.
A Raven promo that should’ve been here has been cut it should be noted.
Sabu vs. Taz
It’s gonna take everything in me to not type “Tazz” every time I type his name. Thanks WWE. This was a highly touted grudge match between the two and ECW fans had been itching to see these two men go at it for years. The two start with a staredown then exchange slaps. It ends up with Taz clotheslining Sabu down. Sabu bails to the outside. Sabu comes back inside and Taz quickly goes for the Tazmission which Sabu blocks for the first time ever, exclaims Joey Styles. They do some reversals and what not ending in Taz getting a leg lock. Sabu makes the ropes but Taz gets Sabu in a body scissors and throws big forearms into his face. Sabu gets his nose busted in the process and bails to the outside. Sabu comes back in and dropkicks Taz in the knee and follows with a blown slingshot kick off the ropes. Taz bails outside and Sabu hits a sliding baseball kick sending Tazz over the railing. Sabu follows with a double jump slingshot plancha onto Taz. They brawl for a while outside with nothing of note happening. Sabu goes for a flying clothesline off a chair but misses and lands plum on the guardrail and Taz clotheslines him over the guardrail, back to ringside. Taz hits a drop toe hold and stretches him out with a free style bow and arrow then just pounds away. Taz starts working Sabu’s arm but Sabu makes the ropes and enzuguiri’s Taz, then hits a somersault leg drop. Sabu throws a chair to Taz’ face and vaults off the chair connecting with a leg. He tries it again but misses and Taz drops him face first onto the chair. Taz goes for the cover but only gets a two. Taz hits a clothesline also for two. He spinebuster’s Sabu but Sabu fights back and sends Taz outside. He tries for s triple jump plancha but misses and Taz flips Sabu over the guardrail. A table gets set up on the outside but Sabu attacks from behind. He puts Sabu on the table and blows a spot of some sort. Sabu tries instead for a swinging DDT but Taz holds on and Sabu goes through the table instead in a horribly contrived spot. They chop each other on the outside and go back inside and do nothing of note again. Sabu sets up a Taz on the top rope and hits a hurricanrana from the top then hits a legdrop from the top rope. Taz rolls to the outside and Sabu follows. They go back into the ring a few punches later and Taz hits a head and arm Tazplex which Sabu took right on the neck. He follows with a headlock overhead release suplex but Sabu comes right back with a T-Bone suplex which Taz no sells. Taz goes got a clothesline but Sabu puts on the Tazmission which Taz reverses with a belly to back suplex. He then hits a T-Bone Tazplex and puts on the Tazmission to finish it at about 17:47. Pretty bad PPV match given all the hype and build. *1/2. Taz gets on the mic and talks about Sabu taking him to his limit and he wants to shake Sabu’s hand. They do the handshake thing and Sabu raises Taz’ hand in victory and do the hugging spot. Rob Van Dam runs in however and nails Taz from behind. Sabu and RVD square off but Taz gets up and Sabu and RVD start to double up on Taz. Sabu blows a post-match spot putting Taz through a table. Taz’ manager, Bill Alphonso then rips off his shirt revealing a Sabu shirt and raises the hands of Sabu and RVD. See he bet money on Sabu and he lost most of. Rob Van Dam cuts a promo calling himself a PPV superstar.
Terry Funk vs. the Sandman vs. Big Stevie Cool
The intros take what seem like forever. Funk comes out to no music it should be noted. Tommy Dreamer and Beulah are guest commentators here but they don’t say much.They all put headlocks on each other and Sandman ends up shoulderblocking Stevie. Funk and Stevie and Sandman all exchange chops with each other to the delight of the fans. Stevie rolls up Sandman for two and Funk puts on the spinning toe hold but Stevie breaks it up. Stevie and Sandman double team Funk for a while as Dreamer says he made a promise he wouldn’t interfere in this match. Sandman leaves the ring as Funk hits a few (4) neckbreakers on Stevie but Stevie kicks out. Sandman brings a ladder out to the ring and uses it for no good. Sandman DDT’s Stevie and starts to climb the ladder he set up in the ring. Funk follows up the other side and completely misses a moonsault kicking Stevie in the face. Sandman drops the ladder onto Stevie for good measure. Sandman is in firm control of this match now and that’s never a good thing. Stevie ends up hitting a Stevie kick into the ladder into Sandman’s face which gets a two count. Sandman tries to throw Stevie into the ladder but Stevie reverses and then covers fro two. The two double team Funk again and Stevie gets another two count. Stevie and Sandman climb the ladder but Funk gets up and staggers into the ladder knocking both guys over. He then picks up the ladder and airplane spins it around, knocking out Stevie and Sandman as Dreamer calls this the best three-way hardcore dance he’s ever seen. Sandman and Funk exchange blows as Stevie climbs the rope and jumps on the ladder propped onto the top rope and it slingshots onto Funk and Sandman’s face. Stevie superkicks Sandman for two and then Funk but Sandman breaks up the count. The three of them brawl on the outside as Funk uses a chair to his advantage. Back in the ring and Funk suplexes Stevie. Sandman tosses a trashcan into the ring that lands on Funk’s head but Funk covers Stevie for two anyway. Sandman suplexes Stevie onto the trashcan and Funk covers for two. Sandman and Funk hit a spike piledriver on Stevie. They put a ladder on top of Stevie and Sandman hits a senton slingshot splash onto Stevie for two. They do some more things to Stevie and finally pin him with a double team powerbomb and both men cover eliminating Stevie. That leaves Sandman and Funk to duke it out. Sandman manages to find some barbwire but Funk pulls Sandmans shirt over his face and starts whipping the barbwire across Sandman’s bare back. Sandman hits him with the sheet metal in the ring and wraps the barbwire around himself and charges at Funk. He hits a horrible looking legdrop from the top onto Funk for two but Stevie cool comes up on the apron distracting Sandman. Funk puts the trashcan on Sandman’s head and Stevie Stevie kicks him down. He falls down as Funk climbs the ropes and hits a moonsault for the pin and the chance to face Raven at 19:07. Too much stalling for my liking. *.
Raven(c) vs. Terry Funk for the ECW Title
A fresh Raven comes right out to battle Funk and goes right to work on him. Raven drop toe holds Funk int ot he chair as Tommy says he can’t do commentary and he can only watch. Funk is split wide open now and Raven boots away at Funk. They call for the doctor but he doesn’t do anything. Raven continues beating on Funk as Terry can hardly stand. Raven sets up a table outside and suplexes the table onto Funk who managed to crawl to the outside. Funk gets laid onto another table outside and jumps over the ropes down onto Funk through the table. The go back inside and Raven’s Flock comes in to brutalize Funk some more. Tommy can’t stand it anymore and challenges Raven to come up to the booth. Big Dick Dudley attacks Tommy from behind with a table as Raven DDT’s the referee. Big Dick tries to chokeslam Tommy through the tables but Tommy reverses and sends Big Dick through the three tables set up at the announce booth. Tommy makes his way to the ring and Tommy nailed a DDT on Raven. Funk crawls on for a cover but Raven kicks out at two even though the timekeeper ringed the bell (OOPS). Raven goes for a DDT but Funk reverses it with a small package which gets Funk the title at 7:36. Not a great match (looks to be a DUD in my book in fact) but the fans were into it and it was a pretty cool ending (albeit unbelievable) to ECW’s first PPV. Dreamer and Funk celebrate in the ring for a while and that closes the show.
Overall, it’s not a bad PPV, really. It’s a great look back as Paul Heyman’s first shot at stardom. Of course, in hindsight he totally blew it but this show was a start to what many thought would be a pretty good run at mainstream popularity. I’d recommend it as a PPV but as a DVD, the only plus is that you get a huge upgrade in quality from what most tape traders probably have. For some reason, it’s not complete. Is it that hard to just put all the promos, ring entrances and stuff on there? I know the company is dead and all, but c’mon! If you have it on tape that’s pretty good quality, this DVD is a waste of money. It’s not complete. If you want the VQ upgrade and don’t care about the absence of promos and just want the matches then try there’s worse things to waste you’re money on. As a DVD though, it could’ve been so much more. I mean, there’s no extras, the history behind the match is all written, they could totally have had clips to back it up, and it’s not even the complete PPV event!
Let’s call it a 5 out of 10; 5/5 for the PPV, 0/5 for the DVD.
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