Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 4/4/1998
From: Buffalo, NY
This event was taped for ECW Hardcore TV which had three matches used. Since I’ve covered that ECW Hardcore TV episode, I won’t include those matches in this review. You can check out the following three matches on the April 8th edition of Hardcore TV HERE.
1.) FBI vs. Blue Meanie & Nova
2.) Justin Credible vs. Mikey Whipwreck
3.) ECW Television Champion Bam-Bam Bigelow vs. Rob Van Dam
Opening Contest: Doug Furnas & Bobby Duncum Jr. vs. Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney: Rotten and Duncum start the match with Duncum controlling Axl’s arm but Axl comes back with arm drags. Axl tags in Mahoney to work over Duncum’s left arm. Duncum stops Mahoney with a right hand and Furnas tags in to kick Mahoney in the corner a few times. Furnas connects with a standing dropkick on Mahoney to keep control of the match. Duncum tags back in and big boots Mahoney followed by a clothesline. Furnas comes back in hammering away on Mahoney. Mahoney nails Furnas with a super kick and Axl tags back in to get a near fall on Furnas. Rotten back elbows Furnas and hammers away on Furnas against the ropes. Furnas drops Axl on his head with an overhead belly to belly suplex after Duncum hit Axl with a knee lift on the apron. Duncum takes Axl over with a suplex for a near fall. Dunum and Furnas double team Axl in the corner with strikes while Mahoney distracted the referee. Furnas scoop slams Axl and puts a Boston Crab on Rotten right in the middle of the ring. Mahoney enters the ring and decks Furnas to save his partner. Duncum slams Mahoney and comes off the middle rope with an elbow drop for a near fall. Duncum slams Mahoney and heads to the top rope missing a big splash. Mahoney gets the hot tag and cleans house with right hands. Mahoney slams Furnas and clotheslines Duncum. Furnas tosses Mahoney with a German suplex. Axl has a chair as Mahoney clotheslines both men. Mahoney has a chair too and they whack both men with chairs to win the match. (*1/2. The finish was pretty good and what you’d expect. Furnas impressed me with his ability to take over larger opponents with some crisp looking suplexs. A rather standard, inoffensive match.)
Second Contest: Danny Doring & Roadkill vs. John Kronus & Spike Dudley: Dudley runs over Doring with a shoulder block and then takes both Doring and Roadkill over with a headlock/head scissors combo. Kronus baseball slides Roadkill into Doring and helps Spike drive over the top onto both men and their manager Droz. Kronus kicks Doring followed by a leg drop to the back of his head. Kronus drives Doring down with a side slam for a near fall. Kronus leg sweeps Doring for a new fall. Spike tags in and hip tosses Doring followed by a dropkick to his back. Spike slaps the back of Danny’s head on the canvas. Droz clotheslines Spike on the floor to help his buddies. Doring stomps on Spike and overhand strikes. Roadkill tags in and side slams Dudley. Roadkill works over Dudley with overhand strikes but misses a clothesline. Roadkill puts Dudley in a tree of woe and stomps away on him. Doring tries for a cover with his boot on the ropes but Spike kicks out. Doring dropkicks Dudley and taunts the fans before getting a two count. Spike gets double teamed in the corner but tries to fight back on Doring with right hands. Doring plants Spike with the Money Shot and struts for the crowd in a rather awkward manner. Roadkill power slams Spike and heads to the top rope. Roadkill leaps off missing a big splash attempt. Kronus tags in and spin kicks both Roadkill and Doring. Kronus spin kicks Roadkill again followed by a slam. Kronus heads to the top but gets shoved off by Droz. Spike takes Droz out with a somersault dive off the apron. Doring and Roadkill hit the Hart Attack but Kronus kicks out at two. Spike hits a bulldog out of the corner on Doring. Kronus comes off the top to hit a 450 splash on Roadkill for the win. (*1/2. Not too bad of a match but there just wasn’t much of a reason to care of the match. I could get behind more of Kronus and Spike as a team.) After the match, Droz attacks Spike until New Jack’s music hits and that leads to the usual New Jack attacks the heels segment.
Third Contest: The Sandman & 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Dudley Boys: Sandman spits beer into Bubba’s face during his entrance from the floor. Well, these guys have wasted about twenty minutes with entrances, promos and now Bubba Dudley claiming he’s a better dancer than Scorpio. Naturally, this leads to them trading dance moves. Bubba tries to clothesline Scorpio and is instead met with a right hand. Sandman and Bubba kick off the tag match with Bubba controlling Sandman with a headlock. They trade hammerlocks but Bubba knocks Sandman down with a shoulder block. Bubba slaps Sandman in the face suggesting to him that he have another beer. Bubba snap mares Sandman and controls him with a sleeper hold. D-Von gets tagged in and Sandman takes him down with a drop toe hold. Sandman continues with an arm drag and controls the left arm of D-Von. Sandman punches D-Von with a left hand and tags in Scorpio. Scorpio and D-Von counter wrist locks for a few moments. Scorpio avoids a leapfrog and hammers away on D-Von knocking him down to the canvas. D-Von battles back with a shoulder block. Bubba works over Scorpio in the corner and the Dudley’s try a double clothesline but Scorpio counters knocking them both down. Bubba catches Scorpio in the corner to hit a back suplex/neck breaker combo. Scorpio nearly pins Bubba with a rollup but settles for a super kick to knock Bubba down. Sandman enters and hammers away on Bubba. Bubba side slams Sandman for a near fall. Bubba chops Sandman in the corner and tags in D-Von. D-Von decks Sandman with a right hand a few times to keep him on the canvas. Bubba and D-Von trade hitting Sandman with punches and Bubba works over Sandman with basic strikes.
Bubba misses a splash in the corner and Sandman nearly wins with a rollup. Bubba quickly gets up to stop Sandman with a quick clothesline. D-Von tags in but gets dropped across the top rope by Sandman throat first. D-Von clotheslines Sandman and tags in Bubba to keep control of the tag match. D-Von slams Sandman and goes to the middle rope to deliver a headbutt to his groin as Bubba was holding Sandman’s legs open. Scorpio enters to spin kick Bubba to help out his partner. Sandman puts Bubba on the top turnbuckle hitting a hurricanrana and Scorpio tags in connecting with dropkicks. Scorpio scoop slams Bubba while Sandman is getting attacked by Big Dick on the floor. Scorpio nails Bubba with a spinning kick coming off the ropes. Scorpio slams Bubba before going to the top rope. Scorpio plants Bubba with a 450 splash and super kicks D-Von. Sign Guy gets involved as does Joel Gertner but they don’t do much help. Scorpio slams Sign Guy and comes off the top to hit a moonsault on the Dudley’s but they botched it. Bubba clotheslines Scorpio and moments later hit the 3D for the win. After the match, Sandman attacks with his kendo stick to get some revenge. Big Dick has Scorpio in a Torture Rack switching it to a neck breaker. Sandman gets in the ring and this Big Dick with a kendo stick over the head, but it has zero impact. Big Dick decides to bail to the floor. (*1/2. The finish would have been cool if they had caught Scorpio in the moonsault and hit the 3D from there. Anyway, there wasn’t much going on here to keep me compelled. Fans were more interested in chanting about Sign Guy than focusing on the match itself.)
Fourth Contest: Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn: Early on, Lynn takes Sabu down with an arm drag causing Sabu to roll to the apron. Sabu takes Lynn down to the canvas and they trade some mat wrestling holds. Lynn slams Sabu and connects with a knee drop followed by a forearm strike. Lynn clotheslines Sabu in the corner but misses a splash and crashes to the canvas. Sabu follows up with a quick dropkick and stomps on Lynn. Sabu snap mares Lynn and hits a springboard heel kick for a two count. Lynn kicks Sabu but is backdropped to the apron. Sabu knocks Lynn off with a right hand and baseball slides Lynn over the railing into the crowd. Sabu sets up a chair in the ring to hit a triple jump dive into the crowd! They trade strikes around ringside until Lynn backdrops Sabu into the crowd. Lynn brings a table over towards the railing and runs off the apron, leaps off the table and takes out Sabu in the crowd with a dive. Sabu dropkicks the left knee of Lynn in the ring a few times. Sabu locks in a half Boston Crab but can’t get a submission on Lynn. Lynn fights back with strikes in the corner and drops Sabu face first onto a steel chair. Lynn rams Sabu into the corner and hits a dropkick in the corner. Sabu stops Lynn with a few strikes in the corner. Sabu clotheslines Lynn for a near fall. Sabu tries for a submission with a cross arm breaker but can’t get a submission. Sabu hammers away on Lynn in the corner followed by a kick for a two count. Sabu heads to the top rope but gets crotched by Lynn. Lynn grabs a steel chair and brings it into the ring. Lynn puts Sabu on the top turnbuckle managing to hit a top rope hurricanrana and Sabu lands on the chair giving Lynn a near fall. Lynn goes to the top rope but Sabu tosses a chair at him Lynn. Sabu leaps off the chair to splash Lynn in the corner. Sabu puts Lynn on the top turnbuckle. Lynn plants Sabu onto the chair with a tornado DDT for a near fall. However, Bill Alfonso enters to break up the pin attempt. Alfonso trips Sabu and Lynn misses a baseball slide. Alfonso holds Lynn onto the table and Sabu puts Lynn through the table with a slingshot leg drop! Oh Jesus, there is a second RVD dressed up, and it’s RVD who prevents Sabu from entering the ring and pins Lynn to steal the spotlight from Sabu. That’s actually pretty funny. (**. The finish is more to continue the tensions between Sabu and RVD, but the action was decent throughout here. I mean, it was a little clunky, but Sabu hit his trademark stuff and Lynn wasn’t a complete jobber for the match.)
A few people are in the ring tossing out fake heads for the crowd to use for Al Snow’s upcoming entrance.
Fifth Contest: Al Snow vs. Chris Candido: Snow starts the match by having Candido hit himself with a microphone and backdrops Candido. Snow baseball slides Candido on the floor and plays to the crowd that has several fake heads in the crowd. Snow brings Candido into the ring from the apron with a suplex. Candido shoulder blocks Snow and they counter a few moves. Snow plants Candido with a wheelbarrow German suplex. Candido goes chest first into the corner and Snow connects with a clothesline. Snow plants Candido with a power bomb and looks at Head for motivation. Snow leaps off the top but misses a moonsault. Candido battles back with a power bomb and taunts the crowd. Candido circles the ring and stumbles to the floor unable to followup with the advantage. They begin to trade right hands and they hit each other at the same time causing them to both stagger. Candido backdrops Snow over the top to the floor and Candido comes off the top with a cross body. Candido sends Snow back first into the guard railing. Snow fights off of a table, but in the ring Candido drops Snow with a delayed vertical suplex. The fans are heavily behind Snow but continues to get worked over by Candido. Snow is going crazy no selling some chops in the corner. Snow returns the chops with Candido selling it. Candido cuts Snow off with a strike in the midsection. Snow heel kicks Candido in the corner. Candido plants Snow with a snap power slam. Candido comes off the middle rope to hit Snow with a leg drop for a near fall. Snow gets out of a suplex and kicks Candido in the face followed by clotheslines. Snow backdrops Candido followed by a right hand and hits Candido with Head in the corner several times. Candido takes Snow over with a fisherman suplex for a near fall. Canddio stops Snow with an eye rake but Snow plants Candido with a sit out spine buster. Snow heads to the top rope but Candido cuts him off with a right hand. Candido chops Snow several times and taunts the fans. Candido has Snow on the top turnbuckle managing to hit a superplex! Candido heads to the top rope but misses a diving head butt. Snow is up and finishes Candido off with the Snow Plow for the win. (**1/4. A fairly entertaining match between these two. They kept a good pace and it was fairly competitive. This is by far the most over Al Snow had been in his career. The fans loved this gimmick.)
ECW World Champion Shane Douglas wants to know what Chris Chetti has done to earn a title shot against him. He was around in the business longer than one year. Douglas thinks that Chetti is getting the shot because his cousin in Taz. Well, speaking of Taz… here he comes. Douglas says that ECW TV Championship means as much as the World Championship now that Bam-Bam Bigelow has it. Douglas wants Taz to shake his hand. Taz doesn’t care about Douglas nor does he care about his own cousin. Taz slaps Chetti and takes him over with an overhead suplex. Taz wants to fight Douglas and Douglas says they don’t need to fight for the belt they can just find out who the better man is. Taz only wants to fight if the belt is on the line. Taz wants Douglas to shut his mouth and have a fight. Douglas declares there is not a title shot tonight. Taz tries to get a title match but Douglas isn’t going to have it. Douglas is taunting Taz bumping into him telling him to leave the ring. Douglas shoves the back of Taz’s head. Douglas isn’t going to backdown from Taz. Taz wants Douglas to hit him in the face and Douglas is conflicted but he foes for it. Taz blocks the right hand and takes Douglas down by his elbow. Taz knocks Francine down and Douglas is selling his right elbow. Paul Heyman has run into the ring and is pissed with Taz for injuring Douglas it appears. Taz goes after Bigelow taking him down to the canvas and they brawl for a bit as Douglas is brought to the floor. I don’t really understand how the block by Taz could have caused that much damage to the elbow, but I’m pretty sure Douglas was already legit hurt by this point. Taz goes to teh floor to try and get his hands on Douglas but is still brawling with Bigelow on the floor. Honestly, I would have preferred the title match between Douglas and Chetti.
Main Event: Tommy Dreamer & Mikey Whipwreck vs. Justin Credible & Jason Knight in a falls count anywhere match: Credible and Jason try baseball slides but miss and they are both crotched over the guard railing. Whipwreck and Dreamer have chairs and hit them over the head. Dreamer sends Credible back first into the guard railing. Dreamer whacks Credible over the head with a fake head, as does Mikey with Jason. They return to the ring where Dreamer puts Jason in a tree of woe and Credible is put in a tree of woe in the same corner. The chairs are laid in front of their faces and they hit double dropkicks. Whipwreck walks backstage to grab something and returns with Dreamer that has a car door and a trash can full of weapons. Whipwreck scoop slams both Jason and Credible. Dreamer puts the car door on top of them to hit double leg drops. Dreamer places the car door in the corner while Mikey hit Jason with a cookie sheet. Credible gets sent into the car door in the corner. Jason has been busted wide open. Chastity trips Mikey and Dreamer to help her men. Dreamer takes her out with a piledriver on a street sign. Credible and Jason deliver low blows to get control of the match. Jason chokes Dreamer with a rope while Credible hammers away on Whipwreck and slams him face first onto a chair. Jason plants Dreamer with a DDT onto the street sign. Credible has a mini Buffalo Bills helmet and whacks Whipwreck with it before smashing the helmet with a chair. Dreamer and Whipwreck get sent into the guard railing at the same time a couple of times. Dreamer and Mikey are able to drop Credible and Jason chest first over the guard railing. They brawl into the crowd with Dreamer sending Credible face first into the wall. Mikey does the same with Jason. They walk all the way up the bleachers with Dreamer and Mikey getting tossed down the stairs. Jason sends Mikey over the railing and they return to the ring. Credible hits the That’s Incredible on Dreamer. The referee decides to not count for them. Jeff Jones comes out, who is the heel referee, and confronts the referee. Dreamer and Mikey get rollups for a near fall. Jones misses a clothesline and the original referee takes him out with a stunner. Credible and Jason set up a table in the front row. Mikey is laid onto the table as Credible heads to the top rope. Dreamer cuts him off on the apron and press slams Credible off the top onto Jason to go through the table for the win! (*1/2. The finish was pretty cool, but everything leading up to that was really basic and not all that entertaining. I’ve never really liked when a face referee screws over the heels. It just hurts the face wrestlers in their attempt to get over with the crowd, or at least me. I don’t think this should have been the main event.)
Final Thoughts:
I like the Buffalo arena and the crowd as it gives a great atmosphere for the action. However, this one was below average aside from the Bigelow/RVD match that was covered earlier. From a pure house show standpoint, I can’t give it a recommendation.
Thanks for reading.