The Wrath of Tito - ECW 'One Night Stand' Pay Per View review
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Monday, June 13, 2005 at 12:39 AM EST
EC fucking W!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've watched ECW since the Fall of 1996. I was a big fan of their stuff as a nice alternative to the WWF and WCW, and 1996-1997 was probably my overall peak viewership as a wrestling fan. Nitro/RAW on Mondays and ECW on late Saturday nights. I watched ECW through mid 1997 when the newly changed WB channel (they were UPN) became disgusted with the crowd chants that were uncensored from the ECW infomercial shows. They soon cut ECW and replaced it with WCW World Wide. I never saw ECW again until 1999 when they had ECW on TNN, which I actually recapped for LordsofPain.net.
During 1996-1997, I was captivated by ECW. The Eliminators, Dudley Boys in their early years, Gangstas (especially New Jack), Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stevie Richards, Terry Funk (though I liked him from NWA/WCW 1989), the Sandman (I wore his shirt tonight, one I bought at an ECW show in 1997), Full Blooded Italians (especially Tracy Smothers from Nashville, Italy), Taz (with one Z), Shane Douglas, Francine, Beulah McGillicuty (sp?), Rob Van Dam, Sabu, Bill Alfonzo, Big Dick Dudley, Spike Dudley, and much more became a roster of wrestlers I believed in and hero-worshipped during 1996-1997. It was a fun alternative to WWF and WCW, which I still enjoyed. ECW was just raw and a lot more human in character than the bigger 2 more corporate feds.
I caught bits and pieces of ECW Pay Per Views after I was blacked out, thanks to WB in Pittsburgh, but never fully paid attention to ECW until they were on TNN. ECW wasn't ECW when it was on TNN, with the exception of the Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka series of matches that rounded out the end of 1999. I even missed Christmas Eve church service to watch one of Tanaka vs. Awesome's matches on TNN! What I like about getting blacked out of ECW in 1997 was that I always remembered how good the fed was back then. This was before many wrestlers jumped ship, outside of Raven, Richards, and Perry Saturn. So it's always in the back of my head how good this fed was and that I was unable to watch during some great peak moments for the company.
Tonight, it was a great reminder as to why I enjoyed ECW from 1996-1997. To the WWE's credit, outside of the "invasion" angle, they let ECW be ECW. They allowed the essence of what made the company great, the fans and the wrestlers giving their all, come to life. The "invasion" was merely a hook, line, and sinker effect to get new fans to maybe watch the rebirth of an old brand. It was clearly one of the very best Pay Per View shows I've seen in my entire 25 years of my life and I severely recommend anybody to catch the replay to see what I'm talking about. This WAS ECW, despite the WWE glitter surrounding the product. And the invading WWE guys were merely pawns as to why ECW was so great and they were actually set up to look bad. Say what you want about Vince McMahon. He enabled this show to happen and has compromised his own WWE product to enable ECW to possibly come back to life.
WHAT A SHOW! In an age where the year 'round shows of RAW and Smackdown somewhat drag the product down and make wrestling less interesting, as well as a sucky TNA product, this was a total shot in the arm to the wrestling industry and I sincerely hope that it's the shot in the arm the business needs for a drastic kickstart. Here's my rundown on an incredible night......
-"Extreme Heat" sucked, I must say. Michael Cole and Coach seemed ackward doing the pregame and the WWE heavily recycled the "Rise and Fall of ECW". But hey, why measure the show based on its pregame? The WWE had their share of commercials here but you gotta pay the bills, so I'm not too worried about hurting the integrity of ECW. The matches spoke for the integrity of ECW.
-The opening match was quite killer in Lance Storm vs. Chris Jericho. Nice touch on calling Jericho by his old gimmicked name, "Lionheart". The WWE ought to ditch the Y2J gimmick, for it's quite old here in 2005. Lionheart wouldn't become quite as obsolete over time. Lance Storm looked as crisp as ever. Imagine if the WWE would just let Lance wrestle instead of always worrying about gimmicks or working the weak WWE kick/punch style. Storm can flat out work, even though he has obvious chemistry with Jericho. Nice solid back and forth warfare, with some excellent counters here and there. Storm won his "final match" when Justin Credible helped him cheat with a vicious Kendostick shot. Ouch! Impact Players reunited... This match could have been longer and that's my only complaint. [ ***1/2 ].
-Good ECW tribute to fallen wrestlers, though I agree with Dave Meltzer on clear admissions (Spicoli, Pillman, Rick Rude, a few others). Nice of Gary Wolfe to introduce it, too.
-The next match was Tajiri vs. Little Guido vs. Super Crazy. Super Crazy was as crisp as I've ever seen him. Man, the WWE is getting a great wrestler in Crazy. Nice touch to have all of the alliances with the wrestlers at ringside, which thus proves what a reunion show it was. I could have done without Guido in the match, for Tajiri and Super Crazy do have that incredible rivalry together (though Guido and Tajiri had theirs in ECW). Very graceful moonsaults by Crazy, especially the one off the balcony. Very ballsy moonsault on the balcony! Crazy won the match, which I'm assuming will be used to catapult him in the WWE. Pretty good, although short and could have been just one on one, no offense to Guido. [ ***1/4 ]
-Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis was next. Psychosis came out with a mask and what appeared to be his old fro'd hair, but he pulled a "FOOLED YOU" on the crowd by ripping it all off. Definitely not their best outing together, for they seemed to lack the chemistry they once had. Still, some impressive moves hit and that's pretty commonplace for two guys with a longtime history together. Kudos to the ECW fans for jeering the 619, for Mysterio only did the fake in ECW/WCW and not actually using it as a gimmicked move until the WWE. ECW fans are great fans. [ **1/2 ]
-WWE guys got a lot of nasty heat from the ECW fans. Classic "Fuck you Smackdown" and "shut the fuck up" chants made, especially when JBL and Bischoff seemed to talk too much. Angle's promo was excellent, though, for he actually has a legitimate backstory. If you saw it earlier on Extreme Heat or the Free for All preview show, Angle actually came to ECW in late 1996. He was in the ring with Taz and watched the rest of the show from the balcony. That night, it was the storyline where the Sandman was crucified by Raven. Angle thought about joining ECW at the time, but those plans quickly diminished and he got the hell out of there for good after that angle ran. Angle talks about it heavily in his book and on the ECW Rise and Fall DVD as well. Angle alluded to it tonight...
-The WWE talkfest was interrupted by Rob Van Dam, who's been definitely told to do the worked shoots that he's been doing lately. Great, heart-felt speech by Rob Van Dam who put over ECW heavily and more or less destroyed the WWE creative team for holding him back. I'm assuming Vince knew full well what RVD would say, so RVD should still have a job. RVD spoke from the heart and was in tears for a lot of the promo. Best promo of his career, period. Saying the parts about missing ECW meaning more than the WWE stuff, including Wrestlemania, had to hit below the belt of the McMahons. After a while, Rhyno had enough and attacked! The lights then went out, classic ECW style, and Sabu appeared!
-Impromptu soon followed, as Rhyno vs. Sabu was then started. Good for what it was, as Sabu is very banged up these days. I liked it and Sabu hit some good spots to hold up his end of the bargain. RVD showed balls by hitting some dangerous moves on Rhyno with the bum wheel. Sabu won with the Arabian Facebuster, which he didn't quite land as he intended... but it was still a devastating table spot and good for Sabu that he's at least able to put on a presentable match. [ *** ]
-Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero was up next... I figured this would steal the show, but it was too easy. Pretty solid outting between the two, as usual, though I sensed that Eddie Guerrero was holding back a tad. Very technically sound, though, and Benoit won via the Crippler Crossface. [ **** ]
-Joel Gertner certainly took abuse, didn't he? Couldn't even fire off a funny one liner...
-And then, the match of the night and maybe the year. I watched the show with some friends from work and I told them that Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome had a great series of matches in late 1999. Joey Styles confirmed that on commentary just as I was telling them! Heading into this match, I was worried at how bad it might be because both guys are older and I read they were wrestling hurt. They certainly didn't show it! It was just as good and very dangerous as the 1999 matches, for Awesome nearly killed Tanaka on occasion! Awesome took some crazy high risks and looked every bit as agile as he did during his ECW years or before this overseas. Styles may have been bitter about Awesome jumping to WCW, but Awesome will shut people up with that performance. Just sick dives over the top rope and some of the most devastating table spots I've ever seen. How is Tanaka even still alive? Awesome won, but only after nearly killing Tanaka! [ ***** ]
-An emotional Paul Heyman came out and cut a great promo. He ripped Bischoff for attending his show, broke major kayfabe by revealing to the world that Edge stole Lita from Matt in real life, and shot down JBL saying he wouldn't have been champion if HHH wanted to work Tuesday nights. OUCH. Clearly planned jabs, but nasty none the less. Fans were going absolutely apeshit by this point in the show, especially after the previous match. As was I!
-I'm guessing the usage of the White Zombie theme was paid for by Zombie's next film getting a trailer on the ECW show? But note, however, that Rob Zombie has been a longtime fan of the ECW product.
-The main event was chaos, ECW style, between Sandman/Tommy Dreamer vs. Dudley Boyz. This was an ECW style match, not the slower paced WWE matches with the weaker weapons shots. These 4 guys went at it hard and a lot of other cameo appearances were made to spice up the match, including a CAT FIGHT! Dawn Marie and Francine got into their usual classic stuff. Funny moment when Beulah tried to DDT Bubba and Bubba sold it too early. You could see the smile on Beulah's face. The Dudleys won the match after brutalizing Sandman and Dreamer, including putting Dreamer through the ignited table. Ouch. After the match, though, Sandman got his revenge and wanted a beer. Who could give him one? [ *** ]
-After the match, Steve Austin arrived. He said he came to see a fight between the WWE guys in attendance and ECW. The wrestlers came down and a big brawl happened while Bischoff made his way to commentating. The ECW wrestlers proved to have strength in numbers and won the battle. As the WWE guys were leaving, Austin suggested that Foley should bring Bischoff down to the ring. Foley did that and major kudos must be given to Bischoff for being made into a fool at this ECW show. For all the WWE and now ECW has done to Bischoff, he has yet to complain. After Bischoff took a severe beating, Austin had a beer toast with the ECW wrestlers, including paying some tribute to the Sandman, whom I'm guessing was influencial in Austin's use of beer at WWE shows.
LAST WORD: Fantastic show, top to bottom. One of the best Pay Per Views I've seen, period and end of sentence. Bravo to those who helped put this show together, the WWE for letting ECW trample over them, and to the wrestlers who poured their hearts into the ring. Long live ECW in this form and I give this show an [ A+ ]. Damn fine show! DVD of this will be purchased!
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