ECF'NW
So, because they love cash, the WWE decided to do an ECW PPV last night. Considering I was a fan of ECW from beginning (I say Shane Douglas throw down the NWA World Title on TV) to End (I watched what would ultimately prove to be the final ECW show on PPV), I had to see this PPV. Had to. Unfortunately, the WWE had been hyping a ridiculous WWE vs. ECW showdown at the Pay Per View, and I was nervous that things would suck. Here's the rundown.
There was a real high nostalgia factor going for the show. There were tons of clips of ECW in its glory days (I was surprised how many I already have on tape or DVD...) and a very large cross section of ECW alumni made cameo appearances. Joey Styles did commentary (and, nostalgia aside, he didn't miss a beat all night long) with my Hero, Mick Foley serving as color (and he didn't do half bad either). Hell, in a rare, truly classy moment, they even had a tribute to ECW wrestlers who had passed on, like Pit Bull2, Chris Candido, and the legendary Terry Gordy. Yep, I probably coulda wallowed in nostalgia all night long. But this was a wrestling show, so, let's see how that went.
The wrestling had its ups and downs. The Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis match had a lot of hype and hystory going in, but not a lot of payoff. There were some good moments, buy Psychosis seemed off his game. I'm told Mysterio was running on a bum leg as well. Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerro was also disappointing. They had a good enough match for say... WWE TV, but a lackluster match for ECW PPV. Frankly, something seemed wrong with Guererro. He almost looked drugged up or something. Maybe he's just working on a new gimmick. I dunno.
Chris Jericho (using his old "Lion Heart" nickname) vs. Lance Storm was a match of utter technical artistry. In the first true surprise of the night, Justin (that stupid egg-headed nimrod) Credible and Jason (the lamest wrestler ever) stormed the ring and caned Jericho, leading to Storm's first victory in years. I may hate Credible, but it was pretty cool to see the Impact Players together again.
The International Three Way Dance was cool, and featured Little Guido (none of that Nunzio crap here) vs. Tajiri vs. Super Crazy. It wasn't the best match those three have ever had (there were some obvious miscues...), but it was a great match, and Super Crazy did a Moonsault from a balcony. The big up in this match was the return of both Mikey Whipwreck (WOOOOO!!!!!!!! YES!!) and the Sinister Minister. Although Mikey's retired (sniff) and wasn't an active participant in the match, he still managed to hit Guido with a top rope Whippersnapper, which made my entire weekend.
RVD came out and did a shoot (unscripted) interview, then got attacked by Rhyno, who then got attacked by Sabu. A massive beat down followed, and Sabu ultimately won by driving Rhyno through a table with the Arabian facebuster. Don't see that kinda anarchy on TV no more.
Course, 3 Tables got blown the hell up during the Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka match. How cool was this match? The crowd started chanting "This match Rules!" at one point. Personally, I thought Masato was legally dead at least twice. Awesome won (no big surprise there), but it was a hell of a match.
The Main Event was supposed to be Tommy Dreamer/Sandman vs. the Dudley Boys. Course, in ECW we had to have, like, 20 run-ins, so before the end of the match, the BWO (Stevie Richards, the Blue Meanie, and Nova), Balls Mahoney and Axle Rotten, Kid Cash, Beulah McGillicutty, and Impact Players (with Francine no less) all did run-ins. It was fun. The two teams beat the ever loving shit out of each other, and ultimately, Tommy Dreamer got power bombed through a flaming table leading to a Dudley victory. Oh dear Lord it was Awesome.
The ECW vs. WWE shananigans took place most of the night, with FAR too much time being spent on WWE wrestlers insulting the fans. Boring. Anyway, at the end Stone Cold Steve Austin of all people came out (I honestly didn't see that one coming) and challenged the WWE guys to fight the ECW guys. Long story short, ECW won, Taz choked out Kurt Angle, and Eric Bitchoff got his ass kicked. Truly a perfect end to a damn near perfect night.
There was a real high nostalgia factor going for the show. There were tons of clips of ECW in its glory days (I was surprised how many I already have on tape or DVD...) and a very large cross section of ECW alumni made cameo appearances. Joey Styles did commentary (and, nostalgia aside, he didn't miss a beat all night long) with my Hero, Mick Foley serving as color (and he didn't do half bad either). Hell, in a rare, truly classy moment, they even had a tribute to ECW wrestlers who had passed on, like Pit Bull2, Chris Candido, and the legendary Terry Gordy. Yep, I probably coulda wallowed in nostalgia all night long. But this was a wrestling show, so, let's see how that went.
The wrestling had its ups and downs. The Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis match had a lot of hype and hystory going in, but not a lot of payoff. There were some good moments, buy Psychosis seemed off his game. I'm told Mysterio was running on a bum leg as well. Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerro was also disappointing. They had a good enough match for say... WWE TV, but a lackluster match for ECW PPV. Frankly, something seemed wrong with Guererro. He almost looked drugged up or something. Maybe he's just working on a new gimmick. I dunno.
Chris Jericho (using his old "Lion Heart" nickname) vs. Lance Storm was a match of utter technical artistry. In the first true surprise of the night, Justin (that stupid egg-headed nimrod) Credible and Jason (the lamest wrestler ever) stormed the ring and caned Jericho, leading to Storm's first victory in years. I may hate Credible, but it was pretty cool to see the Impact Players together again.
The International Three Way Dance was cool, and featured Little Guido (none of that Nunzio crap here) vs. Tajiri vs. Super Crazy. It wasn't the best match those three have ever had (there were some obvious miscues...), but it was a great match, and Super Crazy did a Moonsault from a balcony. The big up in this match was the return of both Mikey Whipwreck (WOOOOO!!!!!!!! YES!!) and the Sinister Minister. Although Mikey's retired (sniff) and wasn't an active participant in the match, he still managed to hit Guido with a top rope Whippersnapper, which made my entire weekend.
RVD came out and did a shoot (unscripted) interview, then got attacked by Rhyno, who then got attacked by Sabu. A massive beat down followed, and Sabu ultimately won by driving Rhyno through a table with the Arabian facebuster. Don't see that kinda anarchy on TV no more.
Course, 3 Tables got blown the hell up during the Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka match. How cool was this match? The crowd started chanting "This match Rules!" at one point. Personally, I thought Masato was legally dead at least twice. Awesome won (no big surprise there), but it was a hell of a match.
The Main Event was supposed to be Tommy Dreamer/Sandman vs. the Dudley Boys. Course, in ECW we had to have, like, 20 run-ins, so before the end of the match, the BWO (Stevie Richards, the Blue Meanie, and Nova), Balls Mahoney and Axle Rotten, Kid Cash, Beulah McGillicutty, and Impact Players (with Francine no less) all did run-ins. It was fun. The two teams beat the ever loving shit out of each other, and ultimately, Tommy Dreamer got power bombed through a flaming table leading to a Dudley victory. Oh dear Lord it was Awesome.
The ECW vs. WWE shananigans took place most of the night, with FAR too much time being spent on WWE wrestlers insulting the fans. Boring. Anyway, at the end Stone Cold Steve Austin of all people came out (I honestly didn't see that one coming) and challenged the WWE guys to fight the ECW guys. Long story short, ECW won, Taz choked out Kurt Angle, and Eric Bitchoff got his ass kicked. Truly a perfect end to a damn near perfect night.
3 Comments:
Yeah, the ECW PPV was spectacular. I miss one of those every three months or so.
I guess the reason the Blue Meanie was so bloody last night was that JBL targeted him in that brouhaha due to bad blood between them when BM was employed full time at WWE. JBL threw legit punches that opened hm up pretty good. Al Snow tried to put a stop to it but couldn't. So f*** JBL even more.
you can actually go to www.myspace.com/thebluemeanie and see a photo of meanie's face and then scroll to the right and read his blog entry to get the details on what went down. oh yeah, f*** JBL
The ECW ppv was the first one I purchased from WWE in a looong time. And probably will be the only one in a looong time. It totally rocked and I loved every minute of it, well, except for the Psycosis vs. Mysterio match. heh.
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