Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 11/15/1996
From: Plymouth Meeting, PA
Opening Contest: European Junior Heavyweight Champion Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Dirt Bike Kid: Kid attacks Whipwreck before the bell with a clothesline and works over the arm of the champion in the opening moments of the match. Whipwreck knocks Kid to the floor with a dropkick and follows up with a baseball slide. Mikey takes Kid out with a somersault dive over the top to the floor. Kid whacks Mikey over the head with a bowl or something of that nature. Kid hits a top rope cross body for a near fall. Kid cheap shots Whipwreck following a clean break against the ropes. Kid sends Whipwreck over the top to the floor. Kid botches a springboard cross body attempt to the floor and whacks his head on the wooden floor. Kid tosses Whipwreck over the railing into the crowd. Kid hits a middle rope leg drop but Whipwreck kicks out at two. They trade a few rollups until Kid connects with a standing hurricanrana for a two count. Kid leaps off the top hitting Whipwreck with a moonsault for a near fall. Mikey stops Kid on the top rope hitting a hurricanrana off the middle rope for the win. (**. Kid had a few sloppy moments, but their attempt to have a high flying match went decently well. The fans weren’t into the match largely due to the green Dirt Bike Kid.)
I was wondering why Candido got a big reception when he was introduced, and it’s because this is his second match in ECW since being released from the WWF. Candido makes a point to say that he quit that “shit hole” and he didn’t come back here for people to cheer him. He brags about having a lot of money since he was Skip in the WWF.
Second Contest: Spike Dudley vs. Chris Candido: Spike takes Candido over with a hurricanrana and dropkicks Candido to the floor. Spike comes off the apron to take Chris out with a somersault dive. Dudley went for a bulldog in the corner but looses his footing so they switch out of it. Candido plants Spike with a power bomb and hits a nice looking slingshot back suplex. Candido gets a two count following a gut wrench sit down power bomb. Candido low blows Spike and sends him hard chest first into the corner, twice. Spike takes Candido over with a head scissors and tries for several pin attempts but Candido gets out each time. Spike successfully hits a bulldog out of the corner this time around. Candido crotches Spike on the top rope and that might setup the top rope power bomb. Sure enough, Candido hits a dangerous top rope power bomb for the win. (**1/4. A quick match between these two that could have been really good if they were given more time and they wanted Spike to look better. The top rope power bomb is so dangerous but yet cool to see at the same time.)
Third Contest: Rob Van Dam vs. David Jericho (Kid Kash): Van Dam takes Jericho down with a few kicks but Jericho comes back with a leg sweep. Van Dam botches a leapfrog and the fans let him know about it. Van Dam lifts Jericho up and slams him gut first down to the canvas. Van Dam drives Jericho down with a double under hook face plant. Jericho hits a nice hurricanrana and dropkicks Van Dam to the floor. Jericho baseball slides Van Dam sending him into the crowd. Jericho leaps off the top and takes Van Dam out in the crowd with a cross body! Van Dam kicks Jericho over the railing back towards ringside. Back in the ring, Jericho hits a springboard leg drop and gets a near fall. Jericho dropkicks Van Dam in the corner but soon runs into a back elbow. Jericho jumps on Van Dam while he is across the middle rope but misses a second attempt and crashes to the floor. Van Dam comes off the top to take Jericho out with a somersault dive to the floor. Van Dam places Jericho over the guard railing to deliver a leg drop. Van Dam leaps off the top to drop Jericho with a kick to the face. Van Dam has a chair and leg drops the chair over Jericho’s chest on the apron. Van Dam dropkicks the chair into Jericho’s face in the corner. Jericho comes back with a DDT onto the chair for a near fall. Jericho takes Van Dam over with a head scissors and a hurricanrana. Jericho whacks Van Dam over the head with a steel chair a few times. Van Dam kicks the chair into Jericho’s face and hits a split legged moonsault for the win. (**1/2. I was enjoying this a lot more until they got to a point where they seemed to get lost and didn’t know where to go. Probably could have kept this four minutes shorter and it would have been more memorable undercard match. It’s clear that Kid Kash at this point has a lot of potential and it’s not a surprise he’d be a feature player for ECW some three and a half years later.)
Fourth Contest: Axl Rotten & Bad Crew vs. Rick Rage, Hack Myers & Devon Storm: This feels like a complete filler of a match and I don’t have any interest in this one. D-Von Dudley comes out late in the match to allow Axl to whack Myers over the back with a steel chair and wins the match for his team. After the match, Axl continues to hit Myers with the chair and hypes up November to Remember while taunting Myers. Hack gets up and attacks Rotten until D-Von gets in the ring and attacks Myers.
Fifth Contest: D-Von Dudley vs. Bubba Ray Dudley: They trade strikes to start the match until D-Von hits a back suplex. D-Von scoop slams Bubba followed by a falling head butt for a near fall. Bubba ducks a clothesline to hit an ace crusher. Bubba hits a leaping clothesline sending D-Von to the floor. Bubba leg drops D-Von from the apron to the floor. They use a chair on the floor on each other with D-Von getting the better of the exchange. Bubba crotches D-Von on the top rope but is met with a chair shot anyway. D-Von leaps off the middle rope with the chair but Bubba dropkicks the chair into D-Von’s face for a two count. Bubba plants D-Von with a side slam. D-Von counters a power bomb with a reverse DDT onto a chair and gets the win. (*1/2. I’m glad it was a quick match. These two in singles matches against each other have never been something I get excited to see. This is was probably better than I expected.) After the match, New Jack shows up and helps Bubba Dudley beat the crap out of everyone. Jack hangs D-Von over the top rope briefly, as well.
Sixth Contest: JT Smith & Little Guido vs. Perry Saturn & John Kronus: Guido and Saturn kick off the match but neither man gets the clear advantage until Guido hit a side slam. Saturn stops Guido with a snap power slam and tags in Kronus. Smith enters as well with Kronus hitting a handspring back elbow in the corner. Smith avoids another attempt dropping Kronus with a clothesline. Guido and Smith continue to work over Kronus with Smith delivering a back breaker and a handstand splash off the ropes. Kronus catches Smith on a spinning heel attempt hitting a back suplex. Kronus kicks Smith and Saturn nails JT with a super kick. Saturn scissors kicks Guido. Kronus and Saturn hit moonsaults on both Smith and Guido. Total Elimination on both Smith and Guido to put an end to this one. (*1/2. They did a lot in a short period of time, I’d say. Saturn and Kronus are a very good tag team and this effectively displayed their skills.)
Taz comes out to ringside to be in the corner for Louie Spicolli since Brian Lee and Francine are in the corner of Shane Douglas for the following bout. Or, perhaps not instead Taz cheap shots Louie after a promo on Sabu allowing Douglas to go on the attack.
Seventh Contest: ECW Television Champion Shane Douglas vs. Louie Spicolli: Douglas pummels Spicolli in the corner with strikes and stomps. Douglas hits a standing dropkick and taunts the crowd before hitting a vertical suplex. Spicolli comes back with a dropkick and scoop slam on Douglas for a two count. Douglas plants Louie with a swinging neck breaker. Spicolli is sent to the floor where Brian Lee sends him into the ring post several times. Douglas tries to get the pin but Louie kicks out at two. Douglas takes Spicolli down with a gut wrench suplex. Louie stops Douglas with a jaw breaker but runs into a big boot in the corner. Douglas scoop slams Spicolli and heads to the top rope hitting a sloppy missile dropkick for a two count. Spicolli hits a spine buster but can’t followup on a pin attempt. Spicolli hits a northern lights suplex for another near fall. Spicolli backdrops Douglas and knocks Lee off the apron. Louie hits a belly to belly suplex and Francine enters the ring. Spicolli gives her a kiss and decks Douglas. Francine slaps Spicolli but Douglas saves her from anything. Lee enters and goes for a choke slam on Louie but Spicolli counters to hit a death valley driver! Douglas stops Louie with an arm breaker and wins the match. (**. Okay, it’s evident that Spicolli is quite over with the crowd and the closing sequence of the match was entertaining. Give these guys 15-20 minutes and they would have had a gem of a match. I wonder what Spicolli could have accomplished in ECW had he stuck around longer.)
Eighth Contest: ECW World Champion The Sandman & Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven & Stevie Richards: Dreamer and Richards start the match after they taunted each other on the microphone. Richards goes to work on Dreamer with strikes at the start of the match. Dreamer plants Richards with a side Russian leg sweep and sends Richards to the floor. Dreamer sends Richards into the guard railing but Stevie begs off in the ring. Dreamer hip tosses Richards out of the corner. Dreamer hits a vertical suplex and hits Richards with a telephone a few times. Sandman enters the match and continues to use the phone on Richards. Sandman dumps Richards to the floor. Sandman drops Richards across the guard railing and hits a leg drop off the apron onto Stevie. Richards manages to super kick a chair into Sandman’s face and Raven tags in to get a near fall. Raven sends Sandman face first into a steel chair in the corner. Richards plants Sandman with a modified Fame-Asser. Richards leaps off the top but misses a swanton bomb. Dreamer gets the hot tag and cleans house on the heels nearly pinning Raven.
Richards accidentally super kicks the referee and Raven spikes Dreamer with a DDT but there isn’t a referee. Dreamer low blows Raven and hits a DDT of his own but again there isn’t a referee. Sandman wakes up the referee and Raven kicks out at two. Richards pulls down the ropes and Dreamer flies over the top to the floor. Dreamer is put on the table at ringside and Raven tries to put Dreamer through with a splash but the table doesn’t break. Raven puts Dreamer through the table with a middle rope elbow drop. Raven tosses Dreamer into the broken table against the railing. Raven has Sandman’s son, Tyler, on the apron so he can spike Dreamer with a piledriver for a near fall. Dreamer is double teamed but Sandman breaks up a cover attempt. Richards puts Dreamer in the figure four but isn’t able to get a submission. Raven and Richards take Dreamer over with a double suplex. Raven has a Boston Crab on Dreamer but lets go before any kind of submission.
Richards stops Dreamer with a low blow in the corner and delivers a leg drop to the lower midsection area. Stevie scoop slams Dreamer and heads to the top rope where Dreamer crotches Stevie. Raven decks Dreamer from behind while Sandman was shaking the ropes. Raven and Sandman get tags with Sandman cleaning house on the heels with left hands. Raven and Richards are sent into each other in the middle of the ring. Dreamer and Sandman are controlling the match knocking the heels down. Dreamer baseball slides a chair into Nova. Sandman has his kendo stick but Tyler is in the ring standing in front of Raven. Lori, Sandman’s wife, hits Sandman with a kendo stick from behind and Raven hits a DDT only getting a near fall. Dreamer weakly hits Raven with a DDT and Sandman gets the pin anyway. (**1/2. The incorporation of Tyler and Lori into the match was fine, but this was a really basic match that had a rather weak finish, I thought. This was at the level that I figured it was going to be at.)
Main Event: Sabu vs. 2 Cold Scorpio: Looks like this will be roughly twenty minutes of flips, so get ready for that. They both attempt dropkicks and cross body block and we have a standoff at the start. Scorpio drives Sabu down to the canvas with a neck breaker. Sabu comes off the ropes to head scissors Scorpio sending him to the floor. Scorpio returns to the ring and low blows Sabu upon entry. Scorpio crotches Sabu on the railing and delivers a heel kick to knock him into the crowd. Scorpio slams Sabu into the ring from the apron followed by a leaping leg strike to the throat. Scorpio hits a top rope moonsault and a leaping kick to send Sabu to the floor, again. Scorpio fakes a suicide dive and plays to the crowd instead. Sabu misses a slingshot leg drop from the apron into the ring. Scorpio is obsessed with these leaping kicks as he delivers another one before putting Sabu on the top turnbuckle. Scorpio hits a superplex but Sabu powers out at two. Sabu fights back with a springboard heel kick to send Scorpio to the floor. Sabu places Scorpio on a table but misses a leg drop and goes crashing the table himself instead. Scorpio sends Sabu face first into the steel chair and taunts him by pointing to the sky.
Sabu plants Scorpio with a tornado DDT onto the chair for a near fall. Sabu uses the chair to deliver a leg drop for another two count. Scorpio stops Sabu with a somersault kick and a super kick. Scorpio attempts a handspring attack with Sabu on the apron but Sabu delivers a kick to the back of the head. Scorpio attempted a sunset flip power bomb but Sabu held on and eventually Sabu hit a sunset flip power bomb. Sabu looks to leap off the chair but is met with a clothesline from the middle rope. Scorpio kicks Sabu to the floor and eventually hits a cross body to keep Sabu down on the outside. Sabu tosses a chair at Scorpio and hits a springboard splash in the corner. Sabu continues his offense with a top rope hurricanrana for a near fall. Sabu misses a triple jump moonsault and Scorpio hits a top rope big splash for a two count. Scorpio hits a modified head scissors off the top rope but Sabu continues to kick out. Sabu hooks Scorpio for a superplex but gets slammed off. Scorpio misses a twisting big splash and is almost pinned.
Scorpio clotheslines Sabu in the corner and puts him on the top turnbuckle again. Sabu leaps off the middle rope to hit a tornado DDT. Sabu leaps off the chair to hit a springboard leg drop but Scorpio will not stay down. Scorpio drops Sabu with a kick but misses another moonsault attempt. Sabu plants Scorpio with a triple jump DDT but there appears to be a botch by the referee on the count. Wait a minute, Scorpio hits a simple German suplex and the referee counts a three as if he just wanted the match to end. What makes it even weirder is that he awards the match to Sabu. I have no idea what the hell just happened there. (*1/2. The fans were excited for this match and within the first three minutes I could sense they didn’t want this to happen. They did a bunch of spots and it never captured me with entertainment. The finish, if it was designed that way, was just bizarre and made no sense. Certainly a disappointing main event to a ECW show.) After the match, Sabu and Scorpio attack the referee and eventually shake hands.
Final Thoughts:
RVD/David Jericho was the best match on the show, and that was average at best. It seems that the ’96 ECW house shows are very generic and nothing sticks out all that much. I know I have several more shows with a Sabu/Scorpio match on them, and I’m quite honestly not looking forward to that. This gets a recommendation to avoid,
Thanks for reading.