Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 1/30/1996
From: Philadelphia, PA
Matches:
1.) ECW World Tag Team Champions Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck defeated Tommy Dreamer & Shane Douglas to retain the titles
2.) Raven defeated ECW World Champion The Sandman to win the title
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Stevie Richards declares that he and Blue Meanie will be known as the Fabulous Ones from now on. They do some dancing in the ring and it’s a mockery, of course.
2.) Cactus Jack cut a promo saying he will kiss the ass of Vince McMahon instead of kissing the ass of Shane Douglas or Tod Gordon. Cactus says that the fans will chant his name when he is wrist locking Mabel. That’s hilarious and the promo was clipped, of course.
3.) Stevie Richards talked to Francine about how he gave her up for Raven and he appears to be regretting that. Richards apologizes for super kicking Francine and claims that he didn’t know anything. Richards has a jar or Fluff and reminds her of the times he would lick it off her belly as they watched television. He puts Fluff on his finger and she sucks it off. Richards asks if Francine is pregnant and she gets upset with that kind of question. Richards says something that is censored and is attacked by the Pitbulls. The Eliminators enter the ring and attack the Pitbulls and Richards gets some shots in on the Pitbulls. Saturn uses a chair on the Pitbulls, who are now busted open. The Gangstas are in the ring but they are just standing there watching the attack because it makes for an easy night for them. 911 enters the ring and cleans house to save the Pitbulls.
4.) Bill Alfonso and Tod Gordon have a brawl with Gordon getting the better of Alfonso until Taz comes in and attempts a suplex. 911 stops that and attempts a choke slam but the Eliminators prevent Taz from taking the move. Taz gets on the back of 911 looking for a choke while the brawling from the previous segment continues. Taz chokes out 911 in the middle of the ring.
5.) The fans are singing “hit the road Jack, and don’t ya come back.” towards Cactus Jack who is going to the WWF. Mikey is offended that Dreamer isn’t paying attention to him in the ring. Mikey takes Dreamer down with an arm drag followed by a head scissors a couple of times. Dreamer nails Mikey with a clothesline to put an end to the brief offense. Douglas gets a tag into the match and works over Whipwreck with some strikes. Douglas power slams Whipwreck over the top to the floor. Douglas hammers away on Mikey on the floor and has a steel chair but Dreamer stops Shane from using it wanting him to use that on Cactus later on. Douglas wants a piece of Cactus on the floor but gets kicked into the railing by Whipwreck. Mikey whacks Douglas over the head with the chair sending him into the crowd and Mikey decks Dreamer over the head as well. Whipwreck leaps off the top and takes Douglas out with a somersault dive in the crowd!
The match is clipped as Cactus wants Whipwreck to beat on Dreamer, but they won’t need a chair to beat on a guy like Douglas. Cactus wants to find out who the better man is between himself and Douglas right now. Cactus works over Douglas with forearm strikes in the corner. Douglas leaps off the middle rope to hit a clothesline on Jack followed by a dropkick. Shane continues with a snap suplex and kicks Cactus to the floor. Dreamer sends Jack over the railing into the crowd and breaks a Nintendo over the back of Jack. Dreamer has a dummy in the ring and whacks Cactus over the head with it. Tommy baseball slides a chair into the face of Cactus on the floor. Douglas helps Dreamer out with a chair shot to the back of Cactus to get Dreamer freed from a choke. Douglas and Jack brawl on the floor where Cactus sends Douglas into the ring post followed by a swinging neck breaker. Douglas slingshot atomic drops Mikey onto a chair and delivers a clothesline to a bleeding Whipwreck. Douglas plants Whipwreck with a delayed vertical suplex. The fans are chanting “Dean is Dead”.
Cactus knocks Dreamer to the floor from behind and Douglas rolls Dreamer back into the ring. Mikey spikes Tommy with a DDT onto the Nintendo. Raven comes out and spikes Dreamer with his DDT. Raven had sprayed Dreamer in the face with hairspray moments earlier. Dreamer thinks he has Raven but hits Douglas with a DDT and nearly costs them the match. Douglas drops Cactus face first across the top turnbuckle. Douglas whacks Cactus over the head with a steel chair. Cactus drop toe holds Douglas face first onto a chair and gets the win. (***1/4. It may have been a little clipped, but this was a really enjoyable tag match. Mikey was just a victim of circumstance and it plants the seed for an obvious Douglas/Dreamer feud down the line if not sooner rather than later. Raven’s involvement was obvious to happen, but it was perfectly fine to include it. Again, this was a fun match that served a purpose.)
6.) Shane Douglas cuts a promo on Cactus Jack about how he brought the extreme to Cactus Jack in Philadelphia. Shane says that is was by designed that Cactus would smash his face into a chair. Douglas will meet Cactus Jack on February 17th in Philadelphia and they will get it on hardcore and extreme.
7.) The main event is clipped as we see Sandman hitting Raven with a kendo stick and plants him with a DDT for a near fall. Sandman goes back to whacking Raven over the back with the kendo stick several times. Stevie Richards enters and so does Blue Meanie but they get decked with the cane. Raven gets the cane and viciously nails Sandman with the cane. Tommy Dreamer arrives and low blows Raven followed by more kendo stick shots. Cactus Jack enters to plant Sandman with a DDT. Dreamer brawls with Cactus on the floor. Shane Douglas is out there as well to get in on the brawling. Raven has the cover but Sandman kicks out at two. Dreamer sends Meanie into several chairs. Sandman sends Raven chest first ingot eh corner a couple of times. Sandman scoop slams Raven and smashes a chair on Raven’s face. Sandman heads to the top but misses a leg drop. Raven plants Sandman with a DDT onto the chair and pins Sandman to win the championship. I’m not rating this one due to the clipping, but Raven as the champion is perfect and gives even more attention to the Dreamer feud. Heck, Raven can have two major feuds going on at once.
8.) Raven cuts a promo with Kimona, who is his new girl. Raven doesn’t need Beulah now that he has the gold and he never needed her. Kimona seems annoyed by that, but walks off with him anyway.
9.) Footage of Woman in the ring with Sandman following his loss is shown. Woman says it is okay that Sandman loss the match. Sandman is pissed about losing while Woman says it is great. She says that Sandman can come with her to nationwide television. She wants Sandman to come to WCW with her. Sandman tells Woman that he is the king of extreme. Sandman has a little bit of loyalty to ECW unlike her. Woman says she made Sandman and can break him. Sandman asks who she thinks she is. 2 Cold Scorpio comes out and Woman dumps the beer. Scorpio wants to see how much money Woman is talking about for national television. Woman says you’re with her or Sandman. Scorpio is given an ultimatum on who he chooses. Scorpio says he isn’t getting ass from Sandman and points to Woman. Scorpio decides to align himself with Sandman after faking out Woman. Woman leaves the ring and they tell Woman to leave through the backdoor. Scorpio carries her out of the arena over his shoulder. The fans chant for Sandman and it would appear that Sandman is a face now.
Final Thoughts:
Well, we got two solid matches, a title change, and a face turn. ECW is seriously clicking very well right now and I’m hooked on the angles taking place at the top of the card. Thus far, ECW has been can’t miss TV it feels like.
Thanks for reading.