ECW on TNN: These Guys Had Potential

ECW on TNN
Date: January 28, 2000
Location: Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Joey Styles, Joel Gertner

We’re getting closer to Living Dangerously and the showdown between Mike Awesome and Rob Van Dam. You might not have heard about that match and we’ll get to the reason why at the end of this. Other than that the Impact Players are still feuding with Raven and Dreamer who still have problems of course. Other than that it’s hard to say where you’re going to get from ECW. Let’s get to it.

Francine marches into Raven’s locker room but he’s sitting on the floor. He doesn’t want to be in his match tonight because it’s not for him. Raven complains about losing everything when he does stuff for other people. Dreamer comes in and calls him Scotty but Raven won’t go.

Joel and Joey do their in ring intro. Joel goes into his poetry about Cyrus and various sexual acts but we cut to Cyrus in the control room. He says that there are five wrestlers who will walk if Gertner doesn’t step down as commentator.

We cut to the end of last week’s show with Awesome and RVD which was interrupted by Sabu and resulted in a beatdown of Van Dam and Spike Dudley who tried to save. We get the whole segment because there’s nothing new to air instead.

Opening sequence. We’re over ten minutes in so far and that’s all we’ve seen.

Living Dangerously ad.

Buy our action figures! Including Taz who has already debuted in WWF!

Little Guido comes out for a match but first let’s have more non wrestling with Judge Jeff Jones and Mike Awesome talking about Spike Dudley.

Little Guido vs. Tajiri

Before the bell we take ANOTHER commercial, putting us about twenty minutes into an hour long show before the first bell. They speed things up to start with Tajiri escaping a sleeper and firing a kick to the ribs. Tajiri loads up a powerbomb…..AND WE TAKE ANOTHER BREAK??? Are you kidding me? Either way we come back with Guido getting slammed down before he heads to the floor.

A big moonsault takes out both Guido and Big Sal and we head back inside. There’s the Tarantula to Guido and the Buzzsaw Kick for no cover. Little tries a Fujiwara Armbar but Tajiri makes it to the rope. The handspring elbow takes Guido down and the double feet to the face.

Guido immediately comes back with a top rope Fameasser for two. Apparently a starting tight end for the Saints is replacing Raven as Dreamer’s partner. There’s a random pairing for you. A baseball slide into a chair crushes Guido’s face and a dropkick puts Sal on the floor. Tajiri kicks Guido in the face and hits a brainbuster for the pin.

Rating: C. Decent stuff here but it was basically a squash by Tajiri. Luckily for me Tajiri is one of my favorite ECW guys so I was hardly bored by this. Guido barely got in anything here and Tajiri beat up both him and his lackey with ease. As usual, neither guy is going anywhere though.

RVD is ready for Mike Awesome but wants Sabu first. Rob looks more stoned than usual here. This goes on for like two and a half minutes.

Rhyno/Steve Corino vs. Tommy Dreamer/Josh Wilcox

We start with Corino and Wilcox in three point stances but Corino gets called for offsides. Off to Rhyno who charges into the corner and it’s off to Dreamer. Dreamer gets beaten down immediately and pounded on the floor for a bit. A spinebuster and spear in the corner from Rhyno get two and it’s back to Corino. Tommy punches him in the ribs so it’s right back to Rhyno for more power stuff. A top rope splash misses and Dreamer Gores Rhyno down. There’s the tag to Wilcox who immediately turns on Dreamer, allowing Rhyno to piledrive him for the pin.

Rating: D. So we have a handicap match with a football player making a one off appearance and turning on his partner so the comedy heel’s team can win. This is after we spent twenty minutes on recaps and a feud involving an announcer. Yet people wonder why this show fell apart.

Wilcox rips into his hometown fans because of reasons that I don’t care enough about to remember. Something about fans booing the team or something. Corino calls out Dusty Rhodes who sneaks up on them and pounds away.

ECW World Title: Mike Awesome vs. Little Spike Dudley

Spike jumps Awesome to start and is immediately slammed down to the floor. Spike fires back but gets whipped into the barricade to keep the champion in control. After a quick brawl in the crowd we head back inside for Awesome to charge into a boot to the face. The champion hits a release German suplex for two and a lifting powerbomb for the same. A table is set up on the floor but Spike manages to bulldog Awesome through it instead.

Spike hits a top rope chair shot to Awesome but the champion is down on the floor. The Acid Drop is countered so Spike hits Awesome in the head with a chair instead. The fourth chair shot to the head in a row gets two but Awesome gets his foot up in the corner to block a charge. A BIG Awesome Bomb puts Spike down but the Awesome Splash gets two. Another table is set up in the corner and a running Awesome Bomb through said table retains the title.

Rating: D+. There was some drama here with the near falls but man alive could you have Spike do ONE SINGLE WRESTLING MOVE? I know he can do them because I’ve seen them use them before, but instead it was nothing but chair shots here. That’s a major reason I don’t like ECW: they thought swinging a chair in a wrestling ring meant wrestling.

Awesome calls out RVD but before he can get to the ring, Sabu jumps him from behind. Mike dives on both guys but only hits Sabu. Van Dam hits a big flip dive to take them both out to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Terrible opening third aside, the main event stuff is really taking off at the moment. The match at Living Dangerously looks to be great….and then the next night RVD broke his leg and would be out for three and a half months. That was pretty much the final straw for ECW as they were counting on RVD vs. Awesome to bring in some cash but it never happened due to the injury.

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