ECW on TNN 3/3/2000

Written by: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents ECW on TNN
Date: 3/3/2000
From: Milwaukee, WI & Cincinnati, OH

Matches:
1.) ECW World Champion Mike Awesome defeated Spike Dudley to retain the title
2.) Super Crazy defeated Tajiri and Little Guido in an elimination match
3.) Masato Tanaka & Tommy Dreamer defeated ECW World Tag Team Champions Impact Players to win the titles

Angle Developments/Notes:
1. ECW World Champion Mike Awesome says that he is going to kick Spike Dudley’s ass real good for putting his manager in the hospital.

2. We get a match after the ECW opening which sees Spike Dudley working on ECW World Champion Mike Awesome with a steel chair. Dudley gets distracted by Jeff Jones and is whacked over the head with a chair. Dudley was busted open because of the chair shot. Dudley comes fighting back with a hurricanrana but is quickly tossed over the top rope and crashes through a table on the floor. Dudley leaps off the stage to bulldog Awesome through another table! Dudley hits the Acid Drop back in the ring but the cover is broken up by Judge Jeff Jones. Awesome blocked a second Acid Drop by hitting a release German suplex. Awesome decides that he needs to power bomb Dudley three times but is still unable to get a three count. Awesome power bombs Dudley through a table set up in the corner to finally give him the win. These two have some interesting matches. I still find it odd that a guy like Awesome has so much trouble with a guy who weighs 110lbs.

3. Backstage, Masato Tanaka cuts a promo in Japanese. Dawn Marie comes over and yells at him for making noise. It appears as if Tanaka goes to kiss her but is instead attacked by Lance Storm and Justin Credible, the ECW World Tag Team Champions.

4. Steve Corino is in the ring with Erik Watts. Corino knows that Watts wants to know why he is in the ring with him. Corino was allowed to hand pick Watts as his opponent for the night. Corino says he and Watts believe in the same things like being against hardcore wrestling which Watts agrees with. Corino announces that he and Watts will be wrestling in a Texas bull rope match. Corino continues his promo ripping on the Brewers and the Crusher. HC Loc, the referee cuts Corino off and says he is from Milwaukee. HC Loc says that Corino wouldn’t last an hour on their streets. Corino hits Loc in the face with the cowbell. Erik Watts and Jack Victory attack HC Loc as well. Corino believes that he has caused Dusty Rhodes to retire from wrestling. Corino wants Dusty to come out of retirement for one last time to wrestle him in a bull rope match. Corino calls him a coward and believes he was the reason that Jim Crockett’s business went out of business and almost caused WWF to go out of business. He also says that Dusty Rhodes cut the brake lines on Magnum TA’s car! Corino doesn’t think Rhodes will accept his challenge.

5. For the one millionth time Super Crazy, Tajiri and Little Guido competed in a triple threat match. Crazy and Guido try to work together but Tajiri kicks Crazy and crotches Guido on the top rope before kicking him to the floor. Crazy takes both men out with a springboard moonsault on the floor. Big Sal grabs Crazy and goes for a splash against the guard railing but misses and falls into the crowd. Crazy takes Sal out with a cross body off the railing. Tajiri puts the tarantula on Crazy which allowed Guido to dropkick Crazy in the face. Crazy comes back with a swinging DDT on Guido followed by a springboard moonsault. Tajiri plants Guido with a brain buster to eliminate Guido first, which comes to no surprise. Crazy ends up low blowing Tajiri on a leapfrog attempt and wins the match following a top rope moonsault. Sure, the match was good but for me there is only so many times I can watch these three guys compete. ECW books the same matches far too often for my liking and this is a perfect example of that.

6. Cyrus is talking with Rhino who he has attacked Super Crazy by goring him into lockers. Cyrus says that no one messes with the Network.

7. We see footage of a different show where Francine said it was nice of Tommy Dreamer to apologize to herself and Raven. Francine believes that Dreamer hit her with DDT last week. She thinks that Dreamer has been trying to get rid of her for months. Francine begins to rag on Pete Rose, which means this segment happened in Ohio. Francine is convinced that she made Dreamer popular in ECW. Francine says that Raven wants her while Dreamer only needs her. Dreamer suggests she leave the ring and is slapped as a result. Dreamer goes to pile driver Francine but Raven enters the ring and saves her by planting Dreamer with a DDT. Francine leaves the ring with Raven. That was predictable. The Impact Players come out to the ring for a match against Tommy Dreamer. The champs beat down Dreamer until Masato Tanaka runs down to make the save.

8. Tanaka plants the champs with a double DDT and nearly pins Credible early on. Tanaka brawls with Credible in the crowd while Storm hammers away on Dreamer in the balcony and they brawl in the crowd as well. Back in the ring, Dreamer baseball slid a chair into Storm’s face. Credible whacks Dreamer with a kendo stick to allow Storm to deliver a super kick for a near fall of his own. Dreamer hits a Death Valley Driver on Storm through a table but he and Tanaka are hit with a kendo stick by Credible. Tanaka hits the Diamond Dust on Credible to win the titles! Not that great of a match, and I really don’t like the title switch at all.

Final Thoughts:
I found the show to be decent this week. Steve Corino did a fabulous job with his promo as I was fully expecting a shitty match with Erik Watts but instead we got a great promo by him. Awesome/Spike was a solid match as was the triple threat match but I want to see fresher matches. The triple threat match stuff has been happening for several months now. It’s kind of getting annoying.

The tag title switch was a bad way to close the show. Lance Storm and Justin Credible are a good tag team and I would rather have them get a lengthy run with the straps then the titles being on a makeshift team like Dreamer and Tanaka. Also, I’m kind of surprised they didn’t drag out Francine’s heel turn for another week or more. It seemed really abrupt for her to switch like that. And, her logic for doing so was really dumb since there is video evidence that she used last time she was hit with a DDT. It just didn’t seem logical to me, but whatever.

Overall, I thought it was an average show.

Thanks for reading.