ECW House Show 11/2/1996

Written by: Bob Colling

Extrema Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 11/2/1996
From: Middletown, NY

Joey Styles is in the ring saying that fans are in for a treat tonight if it’s their first time seeing ECW. There is a television camera crew there so some of these matches were likely taped for ECW Hardcore TV. Stevie Richards cuts a promo before his match, too. Richards thinks he is the most over baby face in New York today. His idol is Shawn Michaels and thinks he is a sexy mother fucker. Richards is going to beat Spicolli with the Stevie Kick, which he claims Spicolli was afraid of in the WWF. He’s referring to Shawn’s super kick.

Opening Contest: Stevie Richards vs. Louie Spicolli: Early on, Spicolli takes Richards down to the mat and humps his forehead causing Richards to bail to the floor to regroup. Spicolli gets a microphone and asks if Richards wants to perform oral on him. Louie says afterwards Richards can suck off Shawn Michaels, too. Louie hammers away on Richards in the corner with right hands and stomps. Spicolli backdrops Richards and Stevie goes to the corner to beg off. Richards eye rakes Spicolli to get the cheap advantage and chops him against the ropes. Stevie has a chair but misses a springboard cross body off the chair and falls to the apron. Spicolli has the chair but the referee takes it away. Spicolli settles for a headbutt to the groin area. Spicolli takes Richards over with a snap suplex. Richards low blows Spicolli after ducking a clothesline. Richards low blows Spicolli a second time after faking out a piledriver for a two count. Richards gets backdropped as Spicolli avoids a piledriver but misses an elbow drop. Richards plants Spicolli with a power bomb for a near fall. Richards controls Spicolli with a sleeper hold and taunts the fans. They trade strikes with Spicolli getting the advantage pulling Stevie’s shirt over his head. Nova enters the ring and decks Louie from behind. Spicolli plants Nova with a Death Valley Driver. Richards hits an ace crusher on Spicolli for a two count. Blue Meanie heads to the top rope but misses a moonsault. Spicolli plants Richards with a DDT. Spicolli boots Richards in the corner but misses a clothesline. Spicolli hits a stunner on Richards. Spicolli plants Richards with a spine buster for a near fall. Spicolli connects with a fisherman suplex for two count. Spicolli goes for the Death Valley Driver but goes after Meanie on the apron. Richards decks Meanie on accident but still super kicks Spicolli for a near fall. Spicolli plants Richards with the Death Valley Driver for the win. (***. A good opening match and they managed to tell a story with the super kick with Louie kicking out. They had some good action throughout and the fans are for sure behind Spicolli. I’m liking him the more I watch him.)

Second Contest: Davey Taylor vs. Too Cold Scorpio: As a reminder, Taylor would be better known as Kid Kash later on in his career. Scorpio makes fun of Taylor saying he’s going to kick his ass rather easily. Scorpio backs away in the corner and taunts Taylor calling him too small of a challenger. Taylor makes the jerk off motion towards Scorpio to taunt him too. Scorpio tosses Taylor across the ring. Scorpio takes Taylor down to the mat but Taylor gets out with a head scissors and they have a standoff. Scorpio knee lifts Taylor to the canvas to get control of the match. Scorpio lifts Taylor in the air and drops him gut first to the mat. Scorpio avoids Taylor in the corner but is nearly pinned with a rollup. Taylor dropkicks Scorpio to the floor and comes off the top with a cross body to the floor. Scorpio sends Taylor into the railing but gets backdropped into the crowd. Taylor leaps off the top rope and takes Scorpio out with a cross body into the crowd! Scorpio punches Taylor upon getting back into the ring and clotheslines Taylor. Scorpio continues with a standing somersault leg drop. Scorpio decks Taylor with a super kick. Scorpio comes out of the corner to knee lift Taylor. Scorpio hits a pump handle back breaker and slowly goes to the corner as Taylor is laid out. Scorpio plants Taylor with a power bomb. Scorpio knee drops Taylor for a one count. Scorpio sees a fan wanting him to hit a 450 splash so he continues the match. Scorpio clotheslines Taylor over the top to the floor and comes off the middle rope with a cross body. Taylor comes back with a nice hurricanrana but gets stopped with a clothesline.

Taylor avoids a tilt a whirl slam, which the fans think they messed up but Scorpio saved it. Taylor counters a power bomb attempt with a sloppy hurricanrana that Scorpio didn’t bump for. Taylor hits a missile dropkick off the top for a two count. Taylor comes off the top to hit a big splash for a near fall. Taylor goes to the top hitting a cross body but Scorpio kicks out at at two. Scorpio nails Taylor with a bicycle kick and drives Taylor down with a scoop slam. Scorpio gets dropkicked on the top rope. Taylor takes Scorpio over with a hurricanrana off the top. Scorpio super kicks Taylor followed by a head butt. Scorpio hits a top rope moonsault with his legs hitting Taylor. Scorpio plants Taylor with a tombstone piledriver. Scorpio heads to the top rope hitting the 450 splash for the win. After the match, Taz enters the ring and attacks Scorpio hitting a clothesline and locks in the Taz Mission. Taz cuts promo saying he just took out the guy who busted his neck and tells the fans that Sabu isn’t coming out here. Taz thinks that Sabu fears him and rightfully so. (***. It may have gone a little too long, but I really enjoyed the action. Taylor is a good high flyer and Scorpio worked really well with him trading those kind of moves. It doesn’t surprise me that Taylor would get a major role with ECW years later.)

Third Contest: Big Dick Dudley vs. The Erotic Experience: As you might have guessed, this is just Big Dick Dudley destroying to jobbers for a few minutes. Well, it’s not a complete squash as the Erotic Experience managed to hit a double suplex and Chetti came off the top rope to leg drop Dick’s leg. Dick powers out of a cover and finds a second wind. Dick plants them both with a choke slam and won the match. After the match, D-Von Dudley and Axl Rotten entered the ring and attacked Big Dick with a steel chair. They hit Big Dick with two chairs over the head at the same time. They have busted Big Dick open but here comes Spike and Bubba to make the late save.

Fourth Contest: Brian Lee vs. Pitbull #2: Lee cheap shots Pitbull in the corner with a right hand with the referee out of position. Lee works over Pitbull with a few strikes in the corner. Lee clotheslines Pitbull in the corner and another one drops Pitbull to the mat for a near fall. Lee chokes Pitbull over the top rope. Lee works over Pitbull with a few more right hands. Pitbull runs into a big boot in the corner and Lee comes off the middle rope with a clothesline. Lee controls Pitbull on the mat with a chin lock. Lee big boots Pitbull to stop his momentum. Lee drives Pitbull down with a vertical suplex for a near fall. Lee continues to work over Pitbull putting him on the top turnbuckle delivering a few strikes to the back. Lee connects with a back suplex but Pitbull no sells it and clotheslines Lee. Lee power slams Pitbull and goes to the corner but gets crotched on the top. Pitbull hammers away on Lee managing to hit a fallaway slam for the three count. (*. It felt a little clunky and there wasn’t much substance to the match. I guess it’s a good win for Pitbull in his singles role. I’m glad it was kept fairly short and I didn’t expect that finish.)

Fifth Contest: Bubba Ray Dudley & Spike Dudley vs. Axl Rotten & D-Von Dudley: Bubba and Spike enter the ring and all four men are brawling to start it off. Bubba and D-Von head to the floor while Spike battles with Axl. Axl runs over Spike with a clothesline for a two count. D-Von sends Bubba into the guard railing back first. Bubba blocks a chair shot and whacks D-Von over the head with the chair a few times. Axl whacks Spike over the back with a chair, too. D-Von hits Bubba with the ring bell but Bubba just slaps him. D-Von whacks Bubba over the head with a steel chair and taunts the fans. Axl nails Spike with a back elbow shot while Bubba is hitting D-Von with Sign Guy’s sign. Axl tosses Spike over the top to the floor and Bubba hits D-Von viciously over the head with a chair. Bubba spears D-Von into the guard railing as well. Bubba whacks D-Von with a chair over the head. This match has had no rules attached to it and has been a complete brawl. Bubba hits an ace crusher on Axl and Spike leaps off of Bubba’s shoulders off the middle rope and wins the match. (*1/4. It’s just a brawl and had the similar finish that they had the previous night. I didn’t mind that it was short, too.)

Sixth Contest: Pitbull #2 vs. The Pittsburgh Steel Team in a handicap match: Honestly, there probably isn’t much need for this match. At least it should have gone on prior to his match with Brian Lee. Anyway, the fans are crapping on the jobbers since they know they have no chance against one guy. Shane Douglas and Francine come down to ringside to watch the match showing the actual purpose of the match. Pitbull won quickly after a middle rope fallaway slam. After the match, Pitbull brawls with Douglas on the floor before sending him into the ring. Brian Lee comes in and splashes Pitbull across the middle rope. Douglas stomps on Pitbull along with Lee. Lee hammers away on Pitbull in the crowd Pitbull has been busted open due to the attack it appears. Blue Meanie sets up two tables with Nova and Richards by the ring truck it looks like. Lee and Pitbull are on the top of the ring truck. This can’t be good. Lee proceeds to choke slam Pitbull off the truck through two tables! That was insane. Douglas stands over Pitbull to taunt him. Douglas puts a full nelson on him as Todd Gordon has come over to try and stop it but he gets punched by Lee. Douglas and Lee runaway when Tommy Dreamer comes out with a steel chair to make the save. Okay, so that actually did serve a purpose and that was a crazy spot.

Seventh Contest: Raven vs. Mikey Whipwreck: Whipwreck bulldogs Richards and Meanie after Richards cut a promo and Raven is ready to fight now. Raven controls Whipwreck with a headlock for a few moments. Raven whiplashes Whipwreck to the canvas. Whipwreck takes Raven down with a head scissors and a dropkick. Mikey dropkicks Nova off the apron and takes Raven out with a somersault dive to the floor. Raven knee lifts Mikey off the apron dropping Mikey over the guard railing. Raven low blows Whipwreck coming off the ropes with a fist drop. Raven delivers another headbutt to Mikey’s groin. Raven works over Whipwreck with a steel chair over the back. Raven sends Whipwreck into a chair in the corner. Raven smashes Mikey over the back with a chair although it looked like Raven wanted to hit a running chair in the corner. So, he goes for it again and Mikey kicks the chair into his face followed by a dropkick. Mikey sends Raven into the referee in the corner and here comes Nova. Mikey takes Nova over with a hurricanrana but Meanie clotheslines Mikey. Stevie Richards misses a super kick knocking out Meanie. Raven plants Whipwreck with a DDT. Sandman appears on the aisle way staring down Raven. Raven wants Sandman to enter the ring but Sandman spits beer at him. Whipwreck comes from behind and pins Raven with a rollup for the win. (*1/2. Well, this was mostly used for angle advancement between Sandman and Raven. Whipwreck did well with the underdog role and thought the action was decent enough to hold my interest.)

Eighth Contest: ECW Television Champion Shane Douglas vs. Tommy Dreamer: Dreamer hammers away on Douglas at the start of the match and rams Douglas head first into the corner. Dreamer nails Douglas with the championships for a two count. Dreamer puts the championship on Shane’s face and connects with an elbow drop for a two count. They got to the floor where Dreamer rams Douglas face first onto the announcers table and they continue to brawl on the floor. Dreamer tosses a chair into the ring and the action resumes in the ring. Dreamer comes off the ropes to drop Douglas with a swinging neck breaker for a near fall. Douglas comes back with a swinging neck breaker of his own onto a steel chair. Douglas attempts a piledriver onto a chair and spikes Dreamer on it for a near fall. Douglas chokes Dreamer over the middle rope and splashes Dreamer across the ropes. Douglas pummels Tommy in the corner with several right hands. Douglas distracts the referee to allow Francine to choke Dreamer in the corner. Douglas clotheslines Dreamer coming out of the corner. Douglas sets up two chairs in the ring and dangerously power bombs Dreamer onto the chairs where Dreamer smashed his head onto the chair. Douglas sets up the chairs again and puts Dreamer through the chairs with a suplex. Douglas has the cover but Dreamer kicks out at two. Douglas whacks Dreamer with a steel chair and goes to the top rope. Douglas leaps off but Dreamer is able to smash Douglas face first with it. Dreamer gets a two count. Dreamer power slams Douglas onto the chair for a near fall. Dreamer drives Douglas down with a neck breaker for a near fall. Dreamer puts a chair over the top turnbuckle as Douglas struggles to get up. Dreamer gets rammed face first into the chair and they counter a few belly to belly suplex attempts. Dreamer plants Douglas with a DDT but Francine puts Shane’s boot on the ropes. Beulah comes over and brawls with Francine.

Douglas takes Dreamer down with an arm breaker. Douglas attempts a tombstone and spikes Dreamer on the canvas. Douglas puts a full nelson on Dreamer but Tommy breaks free with a low blow. Dreamer puts a full nelson on Douglas and decks Brian Lee off the apron. Douglas takes Dreamer down to the mat and Lee choke slams Dreamer. Douglas takes out the referee. Lee nails Dreamer with a trash can shot. Beulah is in the ring and Douglas tells Lee not to choke slam her. Instead, Douglas puts a full nelson on Beulah! Mikey Whipwreck comes in and is choke slammed by Lee. Douglas has Beulah in the corner and Lee is forcing Dreamer to watch this happen to her. Lee choke slams security and Francine kicks Dreamer several times. Louie Spicolli comes out but is taken out by Lee. Francine slaps Beulah a few times. Beulah is laid out as Lee pummels Dreamer on the canvas. Dreamer and Beulah are left laid out as Douglas also sends Spicolli head first into the ring post. (**. This was mostly an angle advancement too, which shouldn’t be surprising since this is being filmed for TV. I thought it was effective in getting the angles between Dreamer/Douglas advanced and put even more heat on Douglas.)

Ninth Contest: ECW World Champion The Sandman vs. Too Cold Scorpio: Scorpio tells Sandman that he appreciates the second chance for the gold despite his injury. He wants to shake hands and they do plus a hug. Sandman turns around and Scorpio clotheslines him from behind to get the cheap advantage. Scorpio knee lifts Sandman to the canvas. Scorpio connects with a bulldog and a bulldog coming off the ropes. Sandman sends Scorpio through the middle rope to the floor. Sandman rams Scorpio back first into the guard railing. Sandman sends Scorpio chest first into the guard railing and puts Scorpio across the railing. Sandman leaps off the apron to hit a leg drop. Sandman rolls Scorpio into the ring but is met with a spinning heel kick. Scorpio drops Sandman with a kick to the chest. Scorpio plants Sandman with a sit down power bomb for a near fall. Scorpio chops Sandman in the corner a few times. Scorpio spin kicks Sandman to regain control of the match. Scorpio drives Sandman down with a face buster. Scorpio nearly wins with an inside cradle. Sandman cuts Scorpio off with a quick clothesline and blows snot at the fans. Scorpio plants Sandman with a power slam for a near fall. Scorpio low blows Sandman to keep him on the canvas. Scorpio leg drops Sandman’s groin area. Sandman tosses Scorpio to the floor to give him time to regroup. Sandman punches Scorpio and gets backdropped onto the table at ringside. Scorpio takes Sandman out with a cross body over the top to the floor. Sandman pulls Scorpio to the floor and scoop slams him on the floor. Sandman slams the table onto Scorpio on the floor. They return to the ring but misses a splash. Scorpio drops Sandman with a super kick for a near fall. Scorpio hammers away on Sandman several times. Sandman plants Scorpio with a DDT and heads to the top rope hitting a leg drop to the back of Scorpio’s head to get the three count. After the match, Raven enters the ring and confronts Sandman. Stevie Richards sneaks in from behind and super kicks Sandman in the back. Nova whacks Sandman with a kendo stick and so does Blue Meanie. Richards gets a kendo stick shot in as well. Richards misses a shot and Sandman plants Richards with a DDT. Sandman has his kendo stick and destroys Nova, Meanie and Richards with it to end the match. (**. While it wasn’t earth shattering the match was fine for what it was. It wasn’t very lengthy and it had a clean finish. I believe Scorpio is close to finishing up in ECW which would explain all the jobs he has done recently.)

Main Event: ECW Tag Team Champions The Gangstas vs. The Eliminators vs. Rob Van Dam & Sabu: Saturn and Kronus hit the champs with steel chairs to start the match. Jack quickly gets driven down with a spike piledriver. The same happens for Mustafa moments later. Jack is planted with a second spike piledriver and so does Mustafa. Kronus nails Mustafa with a championship belt and Saturn works over Jack with a steel chair. Saturn piledrives Jack for a third time and Kronus power bombs Mustafa. Jack appears to be busted wide open as Saturn decks him with a nightstick. Saturn grabs a microphone to promote their upcoming match with Sabu and Rob Van Dam at November to Remember. He says they’ll kick their asses if they come out.

Here comes RVD and Sabu for a match, apparently. Sabu and RVD hit springboard heel kicks on Kronus, Saturn cuts them off with clotheslines. Sabu takes Saturn down with a Boston Crab and RVD takes a top rope hitting a leg drop. RVD power bombs Kronus and Sabu hit a springboard moonsault followed by a kick to send Kronus to the floor. Sabu brings a chair into the ring and misses a triple jump hitting the railing chest first as he lost his footing on the top rope. Kronus and Sabu brawl on the floor with Sabu laying Kronus on a plastic table. Saturn clotheslines Sabu from the middle rope in the ring. Saturn press slams Sabu over the top onto the plastic table that doesn’t break. RVD takes Saturn out with a somersault dive over the top to the floor. Kronus hits a cross body over the top to the floor onto RVD and Sabu. Sabu gets kicked by the Eliminators and RVD returns to the match getting kicked as well. The Eliminators taunt the Gangstas and they come back out to attack them for doing so. Mustafa works over Kronus while Jack hits Saturn. Sabu and RVD get involved essentially making this a three way brawl between the teams. Now the Gangstas have their song playing for the rest of the match for whatever reason. They are all brawling on the floor and this becoming a mess of a match as expected. Jack whacks Sabu with a chair in the ring. Jack takes Sabu down with a suplex. Mustafa big boots Saturn and Kronus whacks RVD with a chair over the back. RVD takes Kronus out with a moonsault off the railing. Sabu hammers away on Jack in the corner. Saturn grabs Sabu hitting a sit out vertical suplex. RVD hits Kronus with a broom while Jack nearly pins Sabu. RVD is choking Kronus on the floor.

Sabu whacks Saturn and Mustafa over the head with a chair. Saturn kicks Sabu off the apron and Sabu lands on the table. It’s actually not plastic and just a hard wood. Saturn hits an elbow drop off the apron but the table still doesn’t break. Kronus is going crazy with chair shots. Sabu dropkicks a chair into Saturn’s face. Sabu connects with a chair assisted leg drop for a near fall on Saturn. Mustafa takes Sabu over with a double under hook suplex. Sabu hits a triple jump moonsault onto Saturn for a near fall. Jack gets a chair tossed to him and he comes off the top to splash Saturn for the three count. Sabu was too distracted hitting Jack on the canvas that Mustafa for the pin. After the match, the Eliminators hit everyone with chairs and Total Elimination on RVD and Sabu. They also hit Total Elimination on the Gangstas. (*1/2. Well, I was thinking I had avoided seeing Eliminators vs. Sabu/RVD, since it wasn’t on the advertised card but of course it still took place. It wasn’t a bad main event especially if you like guys just brawling with each other and using various weapons for fifteen minutes.)

Final Thoughts:
It probably helps that some matches were used for Hardcore TV because I thought this was actually a pretty solid house show event. The show got off to a good start with some solid matches and the bad stuff was kept fairly short. I’ll give this one a thumbs up.

Thanks for reading.