ECW House Show 1/16/1998

Written by: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 1/16/1998
From: Waltham, MA

Matches:
1.) Jerry Lynn defeated Chris Chetti
2.) Justin Credible defeated Spike Dudley
3.) John Kronus defeated Paul Diamond
4.) Al Snow defeated Roadkill
5.) Balls Mahoney, Axl Rotten & The Sandman defeated The FBI
6.) Blue Meanie defeated Jason Knight
7.) ECW World Tag Team Champion Chris Candido & Lance Storm defeated the Dudley Boys to retain the titles
8.) ECW Television Champion Taz fought Rob Van Dam to a no contest
9.) Sabu defeated Bam-Bam Bigelow

Angle Developments/Notes:
1. The crowd really gave the opening contest next to zero chance to succeed. They were chanting that the match was boring about eight seconds into it. Lynn and Chetti put forth a good effort after a few moments of stalling. Chetti hit Lynn with a top rope spinning heel kick and kicked out of a sunset flip power bomb off the top by Lynn. Lynn almost won following a top rope leg drop. Chetti misses a double springboard moonsault. Lynn won the match after connecting with a top rope elevated DDT.

2. Spike Dudley was the victim of a corrupt referee. The referee was actually Jeff Jones, who would later be known as Judge Jeff Jones. Spike had several chances to win the bout but Jones would slow count him and prevent Spike for winning the match. Spike hit the Acid Drop but Jones screwed him out of a sure win. Credible ended up planting Spike with the That’s Incredible and Jones did an unnecessary fast count.

3. The hometown boy John Kronus was in action against Paul Diamond. A young Danny Doring and Roadkill were by Diamond’s side for this match. Kronus is able to pin Diamond after rolling through a top rope cross body. After the match, Kronus is beaten up by everyone until Al Snow comes out.

4. Al Snow is wrestling Roadkill and it lasts less than three minutes. Snow spears Roadkill before delivering a sit out spine buster. Snow puts Roadkill away with the Snow Plow.

5. You would think that the six man tag match would be a wild brawl considering the guys involved, but it actually wasn’t. It wasn’t a long match and nothing note to worth mentioning, really. Sandman used his kendo stick on the heels and Mahoney put Guido away following the Nutcracker Suite.

6. Ugh, I have no interest in a Blue Meanie vs.. Jason Knight match even if it lasts two minutes. Meanie was able to get the win after hitting the Stunner.

7. Brakkus comes to the ring to attack Meanie and his friends. His manager says that Taz will meet Vince McMahon’s ultimate revenge at some point later tonight.

8. The ECW World Tag Team Championships were on the line when the Dudley Boys met the champions Chris Candido and Lance Storm. It was a competitive match with the champions taking out both challengers with cross body blocks on the floor early on in the match. They all brawled on the floor with Bubba actually slamming Candido on a stage and used a podium to issue pain on Candido. Bubba nearly won following a power bomb but Candido fought back with a big splash off the top for a two count of his own. Storm cleaned house with a spin kick and a suplex on Bubba to allow Candido to hit a diving head butt on D-Von to retain the titles.

9. The match between RVD and Taz didn’t last all that long. They did brawl into the crowd for several minutes with RVD leaping off the guard railing to hit a somersault dive in the crowd. RVD missed a dropkick with a chair in the corner but avoided a Taz Mission. Taz was eventually able to get the hold on RVD but Sabu ran out and attacked Taz. Sabu hit a top rope leg drop. Here comes Bam-Bam Bigelow to help Taz. Taz doesn’t like the help because he doesn’t need it and is held apart from Bigelow.

10. Bigelow military press slammed Sabu early in the contest but RVD hit Bigelow with a chair to help out Sabu. RVD holds Bigelow on a table so that Sabu could hit a springboard splash onto Bigelow through the table. Bigelow recovers to deliver a German suplex and RVD accidentally splashes Sabu from the top rope. Shane Douglas runs out and nails Bigelow with the ECW World Championship! Lance Storm and Chris Candido also run out but Bigelow takes care of them until they are able to suplex him. Sabu pins Bigelow after he and RVD hit a rolling thunder/sling shot leg drop combo. After the match, Taz runs back out to suplex Sabu and attacks RVD. He and Bigelow trade blows when Brakkus comes back out but he is suplexed by Taz to close the show!

Final Thoughts:
It was a rather weak all around show. Aside from the opening contest and the tag team title match the matches on the show weren’t all that good. Taz/RVD put on a decent outing but they weren’t given the chance to put on a lengthy match, which isn’t surprising. The fans were hot for the whole show, but to me it fell flat and wasn’t a good show by any means.

Thanks for reading.