Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 1/9/1996
From: Queens, NY
Matches:
1.) Taz defeated Koji Nakagawa
2.) Bruiser Mastino defeated El Puerto Ricano
3.) Raven defeated Tommy Dreamer
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Fonzie is in Taz’s corner. Nakagawa slaps Taz. Oh, he’s dead. Release German Tazplex and Nakagawa lands on his head. Good lord, he’s dead. Taz no sells a dropkick and a shoulder block. Belly to belly Tazplex. Head and arm Tazplex and Nakagawa lands on his head again. Hardway Tazplex and a Tazmission and it’s over at 2.34. 1/2*. Complete squash. Crowd chant for “Sabu”. (Credit: Arnold Furious, Holiday Hell ’95 Review)
2.) The Gangstas cut a promo saying that they don’t care about anyone now that Public Enemy is gone. They are going getting crazy and wild now. They are going to be foolish, too.
3.) Mastino is a 400lb fatty. Ricano hits a few clotheslines and a dropkick but Mastino doesn’t go over. Mastino kills Ricano with a clothesline. Vertical suplex from Mastino. Belly to belly suplex from Mastino. 3 missile dropkicks from Ricano don’t get Mastino over. Mastino catches a fourth and hits a slam for 3 at 3.12. DUD. Total squash and not even an entertaining one. 911 comes out and chokeslams the shit out of Mastino. Fonzie comes out to claim the chokeslam had been banned so Todd Gordon comes out and kicks his ass. Taz comes out and squares off to 911. Mastino attacks 911 and gets shrugged off and chokeslammed again. The locker room comes out and breaks up Taz and 911. That was far more entertaining than the match and went on longer. (Credit: Arnold Furious, Holiday Hell ’95 Review)
4.) Stevie Richards, the Blue Meanie and the Dudleys are left in the ring. Bubba Dudley comes out as well with Big Dick. Bubba dances. Meanie takes exception to Bubba’s foot skills. Richards isn’t impressed. Bubba’s facial expressions are magnificent here. He looks heartbroken when Richards tells him that “Raven isn’t going to be happy with you”. Bubba gets the mic “Stevie – f*ck you and your Blue Meanie”. (Credit: Arnold Furious, Holiday Hell ’95 Review)
5.) Prior to the main event, Dreamer fights off Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards after Richards said that Raven couldn’t wrestle due to a broken leg. As Dreamer was going to hit a piledriver on Beulah, Raven came out to make the save and the match takes place as scheduled.
6.) Raven throws Dreamer into the guardrail a few times. He puts Dreamer on a table at ringside and hits a running pescado through it. Dreamer fights back and hits a DDT. Richards does a run in and gets a DDT too. Another DDT for Raven and another for Stevie and another for Raven and another for Stevie. That was a lot of DDT’s. Out at ringside Dreamer hits a chair shot. Cheese grater to the head of Raven. That brings out the blood. Dreamer nails Raven with fan plunder. They fight outside the building and onto Queens Boulevard and then back inside again. Raven takes over. Dreamer is busted big time. They get back into the ring and Dreamer hits the ref with an accidental flying forearm. Beulah interferes with hair spray and sprays Raven. Stevie comes in and Raven DDT’s him because he can’t see. Cool. DDT from Dreamer gets….2. Raven kicks out. Dreamer hangs Raven in the tree of woe and hits the 10 count punches to the groin. Ouch. Dreamer grabs a chunk of table and piledrives Raven through it for 2. Raven pulls the referee in the way of a chair shot. Superkick from Stevie Richards. Raven pins but the ref is down. Meaniesault misses. Raven hits a DDT on the chair for 3 at 11.36. ***. Good stuff. There was always something epic about their matches. (Credit: Arnold Furious, Holiday Hell ’95 Review)
6.) ECW World Champion The Sandman and Woman share some thoughts. Woman agrees that Sandman is a beer drinking kendo stick swinging son of a bitch.
7.) Bill Alfonso is calling out 911 saying that the games are over when he meets Taz. Taz is begging 911 to choke slam him. Alfonso hates MSG and hates everything about New York.
8.) Damien Cain is sick and tired of people asking who Damien Cain is and he says that he was hardcore before it was cool. I don’t think Cain lasted long in ECW, at all.
9.) Shane Dougla appears during a segment that Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie were in. They use improper English and Douglas portrays the Dean Douglas character saying that things have gone downhill since he left. “Oh my God, that’s the Franchise.” – Joey Styles. The show ends with Douglas letting out his trademark laugh.
Final Thoughts:
Well, shit, Shane Douglas is quickly back in ECW it would appear after a not so great WWF run. This was another solid week for ECW TV with the advancement of the Raven/Dreamer feud. I have a feeling that TV will revolve around them for awhile and I’m not about to complain about it.
Thanks for reading.