ECW on TNN
Date: March 3, 2000
Location: The Rave, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Attendance: 2,250
Commentators: Joey Styles, Joel Gertner

This show has to be better that last week’s. Literally, it’s not possible to produce a show worse than last week’s so soon thereafter. We still don’t have anything announced for the PPV which is in nine days. Odds are there will be a tournament of some sort for the TV Title at the show but since nothing has been announced yet, it’s hard to say. Let’s get to it.

Mike Awesome says it’s personal between him and Spike Dudley.

Theme song.

ECW World Title: Spike Dudley vs. Mike Awesome

Spike jumps Mike with a chair but goes after Judge Jeff Jones, allowing Awesome to crush Spike’s head with a chair. More chair shots to the head follow and Dudley is busted open. Mike has a table set up on the floor but Spike rakes the eyes to escape a gorilla press slam. Dudley rains down right hands in the corner but charges into an elbow to put him back down. Now Spike is launched over the top and through the table….as we go to a PPV ad.

Back with Spike bulldogging Awesome through a table off the stage and the Acid Drop gets two on the ring with Jones breaking up the pin. Awesome breaks up another Acid Drop attempt and hits a wicked release German suplex to lay Spike out. Three BIG powerbombs kill Spike but he raises his shoulder to tick Awesome off again. A table is set up in the corner and a running powerbomb through the table finally ends Spike.

Rating: D+. Ok now can we get someone other than Spike or Tanaka for Awesome to defend the title against? This pairing has been done to death and we’ve got the idea down pretty clearly already. The match was the same as it always is: Spike tries hard but gets destroyed by power in the end. Somehow this was the best match in two weeks on the show.

Masato Tanaka rants in Japanese when Dawn Marie comes in to tell him to shut up. He yells at her and the Impact Players come in to lay him out.

Joel’s limerick is cut off again.

Steve Corino is in the ring to talk about something. Erik Watts, one of the most worthless wrestlers of all time, is his opponent tonight and has a belt of some sort with him, which apparently is the old Mid-South Heavyweight Title. Sure why not. Corino talks about how the two of them are a lot alike in their old school beliefs such as hating tables and chairs. He doesn’t want to bleed for these losers in Milwaukee and the fans aren’t pleased. Corino talks about how things were in the old days and insults Dusty Rhodes a bit. Tonight it’s a Texas bullrope match to keep it old school.

Steve Corino vs. Erik Watts

It’s the four corners variety but we’re still not ready because Corino has more cheap heat jokes. He talks about how the Crusher (the Man Who Made Milwaukee Famous) was a closet homosexual and a sexual deviant (Joel: “That’s a bad thing?). The referee (future indy guy H.C. Loc) says he’s from Milwaukee and insults Corino, leading to a big beatdown from Watts, Jack Victory and Corino.

The fans chant for Dusty but Corino says he retired Dusty last week (two weeks ago sport). However, Corino wants Dusty to come out of retirement for a bullrope match because Dusty is the reason Jim Crockett went out business, the reason the WWF almost went out of business in 1989 (not really) and the man who cut the brake lines on Magnum T.A.’s car.

Super Crazy vs. Tajiri vs. Little Guido

Elimination rules. Guido is knocked to the floor to start, allowing Crazy and Tajiri to fly around the mat for a bit as only they can do. Crazy goes to the floor as Guido comes back in for a kick from Tajiri. Guido takes Tajiri down into a Fujiwara Armbar as Crazy is down from something the camera missed. Guido chops Tajiri and double teams him along with Crazy.

Tajiri comes back with a kick to Crazy’s head and goes outside with Guido. Crazy busts out an Asai Moonsault to take both guys down and lands on his feet just to show off. Big Sal misses a splash on Crazy against the barricade, allowing Crazy to dive onto the big fat guy. So it’s Crazy alone in the ring until Tajiri comes back in for the Tarantula. Guido makes the save before catching Crazy in a kind of reverse powerbomb out of the corner for two.

Tajiri’s handspring elbow is countered into a Russian legsweep from Guido, only to have Crazy take him down with a running DDT for two. Tajiri brainbusters Guido for the elimination to get us down to one on one. Crazy kicks him out to the floor but misses the Asai Moonsault, allowing Tajiri to kick him in the jaw. Back in and the handspring elbow connects on Crazy but he no sells a low dropkick to the face. Because, you know, being kicked in the face doesn’t hurt or anything. Crazy hits a jumping Tajiri low (that came out of nowhere) and a top rope Lionsault gets the pin on Tajiri.

Rating: C. See, this is what ECW needs to do more often: throw talented guys out there and let them show off. There were no weapons used in this and the fans still seemed to like it. Yeah Sal interfered but that’s minor by comparison to what usually happens on this show. The match wasn’t great or anything but it was easy to sit through and by comparison to the drek I’ve been sitting through, it was a masterpiece.

House show ads.

Cyrus complains that the three way dance was a ratings killer so he has Rhyno Gore Crazy through a locker.

We get a clip from Hardcore TV of Francine coming out to face Dreamer after Dreamer apologized for DDTing her last week. She takes a sharp turn by saying people are here to see her topless rather than to see Dreamer fighting. Dreamer isn’t good enough to survive without her because she got him over in ECW. He never did anything without her and what about Raven Tommy, what about Raven? The difference is Dreamer needs her, but Raven wants her. Dreamer tells her to get out and loads up a piledriver but Raven makes the save with the DDT.

With Dreamer down, here are the Impact Players to pick the bones. Justin superkicks him down and they load up the spike tombstone but Masato Tanaka comes out for the save…..and to start a match?

Tag Titles: Masato Tanaka/Tommy Dreamer vs. Impact Players

And it’s a title match? Sure why not. The challengers clean house to start and they head into the crowd for the brawl. Storm throws Dreamer down some stairs and dives onto his body as Credible and Tanaka fight into the concourse. Dreamer and Storm head back inside with Lance getting crotched on the top rope so Dreamer can stand on his groin.

A baseball slide sends a chair into Storm’s face but Justin interferes, allowing Storm to superkick Dreamer down for two. Here’s the required table and Dreamer counters a suplex into the Death Valley Driver through the table. Everyone is inside again and Tanaka hits a quick Diamond Dust for the pin and the titles.

Rating: D. Well that happened. Seriously, that’s about all I’ve got on this one. The match was literally thrown toge…..wait a minute. Tanaka was attacked by the Players on the ECW on TNN show, but he teamed up with Dreamer on TNN, which showed a flashback to him winning the titles on Hardcore TV? The Players had the titles when they attacked Tanaka, so we had a flashback to a match that took place before the events that set it up. This show is done in a few months and it’s pretty clear why.

Overall Rating: C-. Defying the laws of time and space, this was one of the better shows they’ve had in awhile. At least they had some decent matches on this episode instead of the mindless brawling we had to sit through last week. It’s still not a good show and we still have nothing concrete for the PPV, but there’s one full show left for them to turn it all around right?

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews, and pick up my new book of Complete 2001 Monday Night Raw Reviews at Amazon for just $4 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E8HXYM2

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

ECW on TNN
Date: January 14, 2000
Location: Center Stage Theater, Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 780
Commentator: Joey Styles, Joel Gertner

We’re past Guilty as Charged and it’s another two months before the next PPV with Living Dangerously. The major change is that the Impact Players finally won the titles which they should have gotten months ago. Other than that, it’s your usual ECW PPV: it’s hit or miss and if you missed it, you’re probably going to be fine. This was taped before the PPV though so don’t expect any results to be revealed to the live crowd. Let’s get to it.

Joel and Joey are in the ring to open things up. Joel does his usual filthy intro but Cyrus cuts him off of course. Cyrus talks about how unfair it is for Gertner to use this time to “get himself over” and how there’s an executive decree that says he can’t do so anymore. Also there is to be NO sexual innuendo or smart remarks towards country/western music. This includes Dukes of Hazard jokes, inbreeding or negative remarks about Rollerjam. I actually liked that show. Cyrus announces a new TNN show called Rock-N-Bowl and the fans literally groan.

Opening sequence.

We get some clips of Awesome vs. Spike on Sunday.

Joel rants about Cyrus a bit.

Super Crazy vs. Little Guido

Guido immediately takes it to the mat and pounds on Crazy’s ears a bit. The fans want pizza. Big Sal distracts Crazy and Guido takes over again. There’s a Fujiwara Armbar which doesn’t last long at all. Guido sends him to the floor for a dive but hits Sal instead. Since Sal weighs about 600lbs, that doesn’t make much of a difference. Crazy dives on both of them and we take a break.

Back with Guido in control via a top rope clothesline. Crazy is sent into the barricade by Sal which gets two and it’s back to the armbar. The problem here is that between these two and Tajiri, there’s almost nothing they haven’t shown us yet. Crazy grabs a quick rollup for two and a baseball slide takes Crazy out. There are ten punches in the corner but Guido counters with a reverse powerbomb out of the corner. Crazy DDT’s Crazy on a chair (see how little selling you get here?) for two. Sal misses a splash which gets the same on Guido, but a spinning DDT gets the pin for Crazy.

Rating: D+. You know, for as much praise as you hear these matches get, they’re really pure spot fests. Even the WCW cruiserweight matches are better wrestling matches than this. The chair stuff was actually annoying because it goes completely against what the match was supposed to be and doesn’t add anything because it didn’t even get the pin. Nothing to see here as usual but it’s still likely going to be the best match of the night.

House show/website ads.

On Sunday, Fonzie said that Sabu would walk out if he lost to RVD. That happened, but we’re not sure what walk out means apparently.

We get a minute long version of what I just said.

RVD brags about winning.

From what I can find, Sabu actually did leave soon after this because he didn’t want to put over Super Crazy.

We get another recap of Steve Corino’s crew beating up Jerry Lynn and then Dusty Rhodes when the Dream made the save. I don’t remember Dusty being advertised or being in ECW before this so that’s quite a surprise. The locker room then saved the fat man. Rhyno did most of the beating and said he wanted the world title.

Apparently Dusty is going to be at the TV Tapings for the January 28^th show where he can pick whoever he wants as a partner to face Corino.

Da Baldies want to fight New Jack. Again.

Call the hotline!

Buy these tapes!

We get another clip from Awesome Spike.

Jerry Lynn vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri

Tajiri jumps Jerry during the entrance and we start fast. Jerry comes back with a headscissors to send Tajiri to the floor and adds a plancha. Tajiri rams Jerry into various objects on the floor as Joel goes into a weird rant about how evil people from Minnesota are. Back in and Tajiri stomps away in the corner and hooks the Tarantula. Jerry gets put in the Tree of Woe and there’s the baseball slide before Tajiri stands on Jerry’s balls.

Tajiri misses a big spin kick and Lynn hooks a rana followed by a sitout powerbomb to counter Tajiri’s attempt at a rana of his own. A German suplex gets two on Lynn and a tornado DDT gets the same on Tajiri. Joel: “Lynn is being culturally insensitive. They don’t have tornadoes in Japan.” A BIG kick to the head puts Lynn down and a second does the same for two. In a lame ending, Lynn goes low before hitting the cradle piledriver for the pin.

Rating: B-. For ECW, this was a near masterpiece. The ending was the right idea if they’re going for a Lynn heel turn which may have been where this was going. Anyway, this is one of those good matches you hear about in ECW with selling and everything. That’s all you can ask for out of shows like these so this was fine.

Same ads as earlier.

A clip of a catfight ends the show. Seriously that’s all they’ve got. Oh and the tag titles changed. The Impact Players brag a bit too. Storm: “Do you know how hard it is to get a strap off a guy from Calgary? Just ask Vince McMahon.”

Overall Rating: D. I get that they taped this before the PPV so they couldn’t give stuff away, but man this show sucked even with that being factored in. There are about eight and a half months of this show and you can see why it was canceled: it’s just not that good no matter how you look at it. The second match wasn’t bad at all though.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews