ECW on TNN – September 24, 1999: The Streak of Good Shows Ends At One

ECW on TNN
Date: September 24, 1999
Location: Flickinger Center, Buffalo, New York
Attendance: 3,960
Commentators: Joel Gertner, Joey Styles

Back with the fifth episode of this show. We’re past Anarchy Rulz now and the most important thing is that Mike Awesome is the new world champion. Tazz lost the belt because he’s heading to WWF which was a major blow to ECW, especially after losing the Dudleys two weeks earlier. This is around the time I started watching the show infrequently so I’ll probably remember some of this stuff. Let’s get to it.

Joel and Joey open the show. Joe is like Fred Flintstone because he makes the ladies’ bed rock. Joey invites Dreamer to the ring along with Francine. He asks Dreamer about his bad back but Gertner cuts him off to talk about Francine. She isn’t pure apparently but Joel has a girl in the back that certainly is. That would be Miss Congeniality. She comes out and is pretty clearly a hooker. CATFIGHT! Congeniality came out with Doring and Roadkill and it’s time for a brawl. Since this is ECW, it becomes this.

Tag Titles: Tommy Dreamer vs. Danny Doring/Roadkill

The two of them beat up Dreamer to start because there’s no partner. Raven runs in after about 45 seconds and pins Doring with a DDT. The champions leave separately. Congeniality takes a DDT as well.

For those of you unfamiliar, Miss Congeniality is probably better known to you by her other wrestling name: Lita.

Opening sequence.

Dreamer calls out Raven for a fight. Dreamer comes back out but won’t get in the ring.

House show ads.

November 2 Remember ad.

Call the ECW Hotline!

We look at the history of Taz with the world title, starting with him making Shane pass out.

We get a clip from the PPV of Tanaka arriving and being interviewed when Judge Jeff Jones (Awesome’s manager) arrives and yells at Tanaka. Tanaka rams him into the car and walks off.

Post break Heyman is holding Joey back from killing Joel. Joel insults Heyman so Joey has to hold Paul back. Funny, but I have no idea what the point was.

We get highlights from Storm vs. Lynn with Storm scoring the upset. We also see Sabu beat up Justin Credible, only to lose to That’s Incredible.

We see from the beginning of the world title match up until Taz being eliminated. Here’s the pasted part from the PPV review.

ECW World Title: Masato Tanaka vs. Taz vs. Mike Awesome

No intro or anything. Joey just says it’s time for our world title match. The fans throw a TON of stuff into the ring because of Taz. He sold out apparently. No. Heyman screwed up the booking of him because no one cared about him as a face after he whined for a year and Shane Douglas wouldn’t drop the title like he should have. I still say that had as much to do with killing ECW as anything did. That and not putting the belt on RVD about 5 months before this.

Mike Awesome is in the crowd and Taz says send him in there too. Heyman comes out and holds Awesome back. I love how the fans go from YOU SOLD OUT to yelling his catchphrase with him inside of a minute. Remember that officially Taz hasn’t been announced as leaving yet but it’s the worst kept secret in wrestling. Heyman makes it a threeway.

So yeah add Mike Awesome to the title because I’m lazy. Oh and Awesome is in wrestling gear in the crowd. I’m shocked too. They double team him and that doesn’t work at all. Tanaka takes an Awesome Bomb. And then the Roaring Elbow and Awesome Splash puts Taz out in about two minutes. There you go then.

The locker room empties so that everyone can say goodbye to Taz.

Little Guido vs. Super Crazy

Joey’s voice is messed up so Joel is on his own. They feel each other out to start with Guido hooking a cross armbreaker on the mat. The speed continues and Guido gets thrown into the corner. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker sends him to the floor so Crazy hits a hard suicide dive and they go into the crowd. HUGE top rope Asai Moonsault into the people has the crowd screaming like…well like an ECW crowd.

A superplex brings Guido back in and gets two. This has been one sided so far, and that would probably be the sign of Guido’s comeback. Surfboard by Crazy which he shifts into a Dragon Sleeper while the legs are still hooked. Lionsault misses and Guido hooks a sweet seated full nelson into a dragon suplex position for two. He works on the arm a bit and throws Crazy to the floor where Big Sal throws him into the barricade.

Back in for a Fujiwara Armbar, followed by a top rope Fameasser for two. Guido distracts the referee so Sal (weighs about 600lbs) can splash Crazy for two. The beating continues but Crazy grabs a DDT out of nowhere for two. He loads up the three moonsaults but hits knees on the second. Sal comes in again but his powerbomb is countered. A brainbuster pins Guido a second later.

Rating: C+. This was the usual great stuff between any combination of these two and Tajiri. The thing here though is that Tajiri and Crazy actually moved up the card after this, which is something WCW never quite got right. I could have done with a lot less Sal in this, but that goes for almost any Guido match.

Post match Sal jumps Crazy so Spike comes out and beats him up. There’s a three count so this was officially a match but whatever.

House show ad.

Here are Storm and Dawn Marie for a chat. We go to a break before they get in and when we come back, RVD is saying Lynn from an Impact Players beating. Johnny Smith runs in for a 3-2 beating when the lights go out. It’s Sabu of course and the beating is on. Sabu takes out Justin as Lynn makes his comeback.

We cut to the announcers and when we cut back the ring is full of people brawling. I mean there are like 15 guys in there and here’s New Jack for the big beating.

And never mind as it’s back to the announcers with like 2 minutes left to tell us who won the world title at the PPV. It’s Mike Awesome and Taz hands the belt to him. The locker room hugs Taz and that’s it.

Overall Rating: D. What a mess this was. These 20 second “matches” that are out of nowhere are really getting old as they don’t advance anything and are there to pop the live crowd. That’s the opposite of what WCW did, as everything was about the TV crowd. To paraphrase Lance Storm: “You look at the TV camera because there are a few thousand people in the arena and millions on the other side of the camera.” It’s common sense, which is something ECW lacked at times.

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