ECW Hardcore TV 8/1/1995

Written by: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 8/1/1995
From: Tampa, FL

Matches:
1.) Mikey Whipwreck won a battle royal to earn a ECW World Championship match
2.) ECW World Champion The Sandman defeated Mikey Whipwreck to retain the title
3.) Dean Malenko defeated ECW Television Champion Eddie Guerrero to win the title
4.) ECW World Champion The Sandman defeated Mikey Whipwreck in a Singapore cane match to retain the title.

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) The program continues to show the brawl that ended last weeks show between Dreamer, the Pitbulls, Raven, Luna, Vampire Warrior and Stevie Richards. Dreamer and his crew stand tall as the Florida crowd went nuts for them.

2.) The last two people in the battle royal are Marty Jannetty and Mikey Whipwreck. Sandman got on the microphone and taunted Whipwreck saying he doesn’t think Mikey can beat Jannetty nor win the title from him. Jannetty nails Whipwreck with a super kick at one point. Whipwreck counters a clothesline and dumps Marty over the top to the floor to win a championship match. The fans have completely bought into Whipwreck being an underdog, and it’s great. After the match, Jannetty shakes Whipwreck’s hand. Sandman enters with a kendo stick to whack Jannetty over the head with it. Jannetty is escorted out of the area as he went to get a chair to attack Sandman but is prevented from doing so.

3.) Mikey misses a running attack on Sandman and is met with a kendo stick shot to the back of his head. Sandman drops Mikey gut first across the top rope and leaps off the top to hit a guillotine leg drop. Sandman shows Mikey scares on his body while beating on the challenger. Sandman spikes Whipwreck with a piledriver and wins the match quickly. The match won’t get a rating, but it’s an enjoyable series of segments.

4.) Mikey Whipwreck is interviewed by Joey Styles. Whipwreck says that Sandman has been a monster since he won the championship. Mikey challenges Sandman to a kendo stick match and if he loses he will take ten lashes. Whipwreck is going to prove he is as bad as Sandman and takes a puff from a cigarette but coughs after doing so.

5.) Taz and the Steiner Brothers share some thoughts. Taz is wearing a neck brace since his neck injury. Scott Steiner says they are coming to ECW only because they can be crazy. They are going to kick the ass of Malenko, Scorpio and Benoit. Rick barks and whatnot but Taz says he is going to do his talking in the ring. I guess Taz will still wrestle with a broken damn neck. Or not, apparently Eddie Guerrero replaces Taz in those matches, but Taz probably appears.

6.) 2 Cold Scorpio is backstage opening his suitcase getting ready for action. Scorpio is bragging about breaking the neck of Taz. He knows that Taz is scared and ran off to get the Steiner Brothers. Scorpio says the Steiner Brothers can kiss his ass, too. Scorpio puts over his partners Benoit and Malenko to kick ass as well. He says Shane Douglas couldn’t keep up with Benoit and Malenko and that’s why he was brought in to replace him. He is ready to kick some ass.

7.) Apparently, if Malenko can’t win the title here he wouldn’t ask for any further title shots against Guerrero. They start off with some mat wrestling with Eddie getting the better of the exchange. They have a standoff after some pin attempts. Neither man can get much of a advantage as they do another standoff. Fans aren’t finding the slow nature of the match to be all that appealing as they are chanting that it is boring, and they are right. Guerrero hits Malenko with a spinning heel kick followed by a scoop slam and a somersault splash from the apron for a two count. Dean gets control with a standing bow and arrow but Eddie isn’t about to give up. Eddie backs Dean into the corner and works over his rival with some uppercuts. Guerrero sends Dean chest first into the corner and hits a head scissors but Malenko comes back with a head scissors of his own. Eddie dropkicks Malenko to the floor to end the fast sequence. Eddie stops Malenko with a dropkick to the knee and focuses his offense on the left knee, but Malenko won’t submit to the various submission holds put on him. Malenko drives Guerrero down with a gut buster, across the same knee that Eddie was just working on and didn’t sell the impact of it. Dean is actually not selling the knee at all at this point.

Guerrero hits a pump handle back breaker for a two count. Eddie has a Gory Special locked in but Dean won’t utter that he quits and counters with a rollup for a near fall. Guerrero power slams Malenko and heads to the top rope where he hits a frog splash but Dean still kicks out at two. Eddie hits the corner chest first and Malenko hits a cross body for a near fall. Guerrero spikes Malenko with a brain buster and goes to the top rope but Dean stops him. Eddie is able to hit a sunset flip power bomb for a near fall. Dean counters a back suplex and lands on top of Eddie for a near win. Dean power bombs Eddie and gets a two count. Dean plants Guerrero with a brain buster of his own but Eddie kicks out. Eddie nearly wins with a hurricanrana but Malenko quickly kicks out. Dean stops Eddie from going to the top but they both fall over the top to the floor. Eddie manages to hit a missile dropkick and a German suplex but Dean still kicks out. Eddie hits a fisherman suplex but Malenko refuses to stay down. Dean nearly wins with the Tiger Bomb. They counter a few pin attempts but Dean is able to keep Guerrero down long enough to get a three count and wins the title. (***1/4. A slow start, but it finished strong and I enjoyed the action even if it was a ECW style spot fest. These two have always worked very well together and their action doesn’t bore me.) After the match, Eddie shakes Malenko’s hand only to drop him with a clothesline and walks out of the ring.

8.) Mikey goes on the attack on Sandman on the floor to start the title match. Mikey gets a near fall with a dropkick in the ring. Sandman avoids a third dropkick attempts causing Whipwreck to hit the canvas hard. Whipwreck fights back with a spinning heel kick but is met with a punch in midair after he came off the middle rope. Whipwreck hits a double axe handle and follows up with a leg drop. Sandman doesn’t seem all that bothered by the offense and works over Mikey until Whipwreck runs out of the corner to deliver a bulldog. Whipwreck spikes Sandman with a piledriver! Mikey heads to the top rope but slips off the top and crashes to the canvas hard and Sandman takes advantage of that and pins Whipwreck to retain the title. (*1/2. That had to be a planned finish. Regardless, it wasn’t a horrible match. It was more of an angle advancement, and enjoyable at that.) After the match, Sandman and Woman enter the ring ready to give the ten lashes to Mikey. Mikey assumes the position and Sandman begins to deliver the lashes. The referee says that Whipwreck doesn’t have to do this and offers to take them. Woman doesn’t like that and says the referee doesn’t have enough money or fan support. She wants Whipwreck to take the lashes. The ring announcer offers to take the lashes, but Woman says that’s not good enough either. Bill Alfonso comes out and reminds us that the loser had to take ten lashes with the cane. He counted seven as Whipwreck is being carried from the ring. Alfonso wants the other three lashes to happen. He claims fraud and false advertising if Whipwreck doesn’t take the other lashes. Sandman leaps over the top rope to deliver another cane shot. Sandman whacks Tod Gordon and Marty Jannetty who was protecting Whipwreck.

9.) Marty Jannetty cuts a promo to end the program. Jannetty says he use to have respect for Sandman. Mikey Whipwreck is neck to Marty. Marty says what he did to Whipwreck was sick and calls Sandman a pig whom he doesn’t respect. Jannetty will not backdown from any fight and says that Sandman is going to see a side that nobody has ever seen. Marty says he is going to kick Sandman’s ass and tells Mikey he is a brave man. Mikey says “my mom is going to kill me.” Mikey talks about Sabu forgetting the fans and Shane Douglas wuss out to the WWF. He has seen Taz get hurt and knows that he can get really hurt. Mikey says it is time that he takes Sandman to the extreme.

Final Thoughts:
This is the episode that makes Mikey Whipwreck a star in ECW. I’ve never been a huge Mikey fan, but the booking of his character this week is virtually perfect. I don’t like that Marty is trying to make himself a bigger focus in the feud because it’s just not there. However, this is a very good episode focusing on Sandman/Mikey feud plus a fine Eddie/Dean match, as per usual.

Thanks for reading.