ECW House Show 10/15/1998

Written by: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 10/15/1998
From: Montgomery, AL

Opening Contest: Robert Gibson vs. Tommy Rogers: Rogers wants to shake hands, but Gibson isn’t interested in that. Gibson cheap shots Rogers with a clothesline, but Rogers comes back with strikes. Gibson dumps Rogers through the middle rope to the floor. Gibson sends Rogers into the railing and keeps control with strikes. Gibson whacks Rogers over the back with a steel chair. Gibson keeps control with a few knee drops. Gibson blocks a sunset flip attempt with a right hand and gets a two count. Gibson tries for a slam, but Rogers breaks free and clotheslines Gibson. Rogers boots Gibson to the floor and hits an axe handle off the apron to the floor. Rogers sends Gibson into the railing and slams Gibson onto a table, but the table doesn’t break. Rogers tosses Gibson onto the table against the railing. Rogers plants Gibson with a powerslam as Gibson comes off the ropes. Gibson crotches Rogers on the top rope. Rogers regains footing on the top but misses a crossbody attempt. Gibson continues with knee drops to keep Rogers on the mat. Rogers nearly wins with an inside cradle. Gibson knee lifts Rogers in the corner and nearly wins with his feet on the ropes, but the referee saw it. Rogers plants Gibson with an Un-Prettier and wins the match. (**1/2. Well, that was far better than it had to be. I was not expecting Gibson to go with the brawling aspect so quickly and it really kept the crowd hot for the match. I’m really baffled by how much I enjoyed that.)

Prior to the next match, there’s a dance contest between Tracy Smothers and Blue Meanie.

Second Contest: Tracy Smothers vs. Nova: Meanie gets attacked from behind and Tommy Rich sends Meanie into the ring post. Nova gets worked over by Smothers as Meanie is handcuffed to the ring post. Guido hits Meanie with a flag a few times. Smothers continues to beat on Nova, but Nova has an inside cradle. The referee was distracted by Guido and Smothers clotheslines Nova to keep control of the contest. Smothers connects with a side Russian leg sweep. Nova takes Smothers down with a backslide, but the referee is distracted again. Smothers stomps on Nova to keep him on the mat. Tommy Rich cheap shots Meanie on the floor as he’s still handcuffed. Nova fires back with right hands on Smothers, but a strike stops his momentum. Smothers flips off the crowd, but Nova leg drops Smothers. Smothers nearly wins following a dropkick and argues with the referee. Nova leg sweeps Smothers to the mat. Nova hits a powerbomb/elbow drop combo for a two count. Nova gets distracted by Guido allowing Smothers to deliver a heel kick from behind. Smothers with another leaping heel kick for a two count. Tommy Rich holds Nova in the corner to allow Smothers to deliver right hands. Nova leaps off the middle rope to clothesline Smothers and takes Smothers out with a slingshot crossbody to the floor. Nova heads to the top rope and hits a crossbody for a near fall. Rich trips Nova from the floor and Smothers nails Nova with a bicycle kick for a two count. Smothers climbs to the top, but Nova stops Smothers in midair air and hits a Flatliner. Rich manages to put Smothers foot on the ropes. Smothers low blows Nova and plants Nova with a slam for the win. (**. A decent encounter as they kept a good pace. I’m glad this was a singles match instead of a tag match. The angle of having Meanie handcuffed to the post and the heels still winning the match was a relief, too.)

Third Contest: Spike Dudley vs. Big Sal: Spike hammers away on Sal, but runs into a scoop slam. Sal chokes Spike over the bottom rope and Spike swings at Jeff Jones on the floor. Spike low blows Sal and hits the Acid Drop to win the match. (NR. Admittedly, this went longer than I ever expected it to. Spike’s over with the crowd making these segments worthwhile.)

Fourth Contest: FTW Heavyweight Champion Taz vs. Chris Chetti: Taz works over Chetti in the corner, but Chetti gets a boot up only to run into an overhead belly to belly suplex. Chetti fights back with strikes, but a knee strike to the midsection stops him. Taz continues with strikes and comes off the ropes to deliver a boot strike. Chetti kicks Taz several times, but Taz tosses Chetti with an overhead leg trapped suplex. Chetti hits a springboard heel kick to get some momentum in his favor. Chetti goes to the top and misses a moonsault. Taz decks Chetti with a clothesline. Chetti powerslams Taz coming out of the corner for a two count. Chetti heel kicks Taz followed by a scoop slam. Chetti goes to the apron to hit a springboard leg drop. Chetti misses a double springboard moonsault and Taz wins the match with the Taz Mission. (*1/2. Chetti got a few moments to shine, but Taz was enjoyable here and plays the role of being a badass very well.)

Fifth Contest: ECW Television & ECW Tag Team Champion Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Candido: Candido gets a two count on a rollup to start the match. RVD kicks Candido a few times to knock him down to the mat and gets a two count. Candido yells at the referee for not expecting that from RVD. RVD takes Candido down to the mat and keeps control of the contest. RVD kicks Candido and hits a double under hook face buster followed by a leg drop to send Candido crawling to the corner to regroup. RVD stomps on Candido, but Candido fires back with chops in the corner. Candido spears RVD in the corner rather weakly. The fans let him hear about it, too. They trade strikes in the corner. RVD hits a middle rope crossbody for a two count. Candido ducks a spin kick, but a second spin kick knocks Candido down. Candido eye rakes RVD to keep control and tries for a vertical suplex. Candido has to settle for a kick to the head after RVD broke free. RVD backdrops Candido over the top to the floor. RVD takes Candido out with a crossbody over the top to the floor. RVD is holding his ankle in agony for a moment.

Candido keeps control on the floor ramming RVD into the railing before getting back into the ring. Candido plants RVD with a back suplex for a two count. Candido comes off the ropes with a swinging neckbreaker and a middle rope leg drop for a two count. Candido knee lifts RVD to keep control of the action. RVD drops Candido following several kicks. RVD monkey flips Candido out of the corner and nearly wins with a crossbody. RVD gets stopped on the top turnbuckle. Candido manages to hit a superplex and goes back to the top missing a diving headbutt. RVD takes advantage and hits a top rope frog splash for a near fall. RVD gets a two count following a northern lights suplex. Candido ducks a spinning heel kick and powerbombs RVD for a two count. Candido gets a chair and drags Alfonso into the ring. RVD comes off the top and kicks the chair into Candido’s face to win the match. (**1/4. They did enough here to keep my interest, but I never felt that Candido was going to win the title by any means. Their offense was impactful and it didn’t feel like they were in there just wasting some time.)

Sixth Contest: Masato Tanaka & Balls Mahoney vs. Bubba & D-Von Dudley: Tanaka and D-Von kickoff the tag match as it appears there’s actually going to be rules for this. They trade pin attempts and have a standoff. Tanaka knee lifts D-Von but is met with a shoulder block. D-Von kicks Tanaka and follows up with a hip toss. Tanaka kicks D-Von away and delivers a clothesline off the ropes. Mahoney gets tagged in and goes to the top as Tanaka hit a powerslam. Mahoney hits a splash off the top for a two count on D-Von. Bubba enters the match and misses a clothesline. Mahoney and Tanaka double team Bubba with jabs and roaring elbows for a two count. D-Von slams Mahoney to the mat and comes off the middle rope to deliver a leg drop for a two count. Tanaka slams D-Von to the mat and Bubba gets met with a double snap suplex. Tanaka leaps off of Mahoney’s back to take the Dudley’s out with a crossbody to the floor. Mahoney goes to the top rope and is stopped by Big Dick who hits a superplex. Mahoney ducks a clothesline and low blows Dick followed by a superkick and a clothesline to the floor. Sign Guy hits Mahoney with his sign, but Mahoney no sells it. Mahoney plants Sign Guy with a Nutcracker Suite. Joel Gertner comes in with a chair shot, but Mahoney no sells it. Gertner is terrified. Gertner avoids being murdered with a chair shot.

All four men are in the ring with chairs and the fans love what this is leading to. They all swing chairs with Tanaka and Mahoney no selling a couple of chair shots. A third chair shot knocks them down for a two count. Dudley’s get met with stereo back suplexs. Tanaka and Mahoney deliver chair shots for a two count. Mahoney hits a Nutcracker Suite on D-Von onto a chair while Tanaka hit a tornado DDT on Bubba onto a chair for the win. (*1/2. This broke down into exactly what I was expecting. There wasn’t much of a match to this and more just simple brawling. The crowd loved it.)

Seventh Contest:ECW Tag Team Champion Sabu vs. Mikey Whipwreck: Sabu leg sweeps Whipwreck to the mat early on and they have a standoff. Sabu punches Whipwreck on the left knee to keep control of the contest. Sabu chokes Whipwreck over the middle rope to maintain the advantage. Sabu springboards off the middle rope to heel kick Whipwreck followed by a moonsault for a two count. Sabu hammers away on Whipwreck and avoids a springboard by hitting a middle rope leg drop to knock Whipwreck off the middle rope. Sabu springboards off the chair to clothesline Whipwreck. Sabu leaps off the chair to clothesline Whipwreck again for a two count. Sabu stomps on Whipwreck’s arm to keep control on the mat. Mikey trips Sabu to send Sabu face first onto a chair for a near fall. Whipwreck hits a swinging neckbreaker for a near fall. Whipwreck continues to strike Sabu in the corner and boots Sabu before hitting a tornado DDT. Sabu sends Whipwreck into the crowd. Sabu sets a chair up in the ring and hits a triple jump dive into the crowd to take out Whipwreck. Sabu sets a table up over the apron and railing. Whipwreck hits a slingshot crossbody from the ring to the floor. Whipwreck lays Sabu onto the table. Whipwreck goes to the top, but Sabu stops Mikey with a right hand. Sabu hits a hurricanrana off the top for a near fall. Sabu nails Mikey with a chair shot and gets crotched over the top on a springboard attempt. Sabu knocks Mikey to the mat and misses a leg drop.

Whipwreck nearly wins following the Whippersnapper. They trade more strikes with Sabu getting the advantage in the corner. Whipwreck delivers another Whippersnapper to Sabu’s leg. Mikey plants Sabu with a powerbomb for a near fall. Mikey has a chair and Sabu dropkicks Mikey to drop him face first onto the chair. Sabu hits an Arabian facebuster off the top and wins the match. (**. There wasn’t anything crazy going on here as Sabu hit his trademark moves and Mikey was just along for the ride.) After the match, Sabu sets a table up on the floor and lays Whipwreck onto the table. Sabu proceeds to put Whipwreck through the table with a springboard splash.

Eighth Contest: ECW World Champion Shane Douglas vs. Lance Storm: Douglas goes right after Storm with stomps and a backdrop. Douglas forearms Storm to the floor. Douglas scoop slams Storm and sends Storm back first into the corner. Douglas drives Storm down with a backbreaker. Douglas rams Storm head first into the turnbuckle a few times. Storm hits a middle rope springboard back elbow. Storm comes off the top to deliver a clothesline to Douglas arm. Storm walks the top rope, but Douglas tosses Storm off and misses a clothesline. Douglas ducks a clothesline and tries for a vertical suplex, but Storm counters with a rollup for a two count. Storm goes to the floor to go after Francine. Douglas misses a clothesline and hits the ring post instead. Storm wraps Douglas arm around the post to keep control of the contest. Douglas has Storm on his shoulders, but Storm counters by driving Douglas arm down and keeps an arm bar on. Douglas tries for a sunset flip, but Storm counters with a leg drop. Storm dumps Douglas to the floor. Storm sends Douglas shoulder first into the guard railing. Storm dropkicks a kneeling Douglas a few times leading to a near fall. Storm knee drops Douglas on the arm leading to a near fall. Douglas stops Storm with a low blow, but Storm connects with an arm breaker. Storm lifts Douglas up with a hammerlock bearhug until Francine gets in the ring. That leads to a catfight between Francine with Dawn Marie. Storm has Francine for a slam, but Douglas hits a reverse DDT for the win. (**. Well, the crowd was hot for the action, but the finish was a bit bizarre and not what I expected. I’m going to think Douglas was working hurt since it seemed like most of his work around this time was with a bad elbow and he didn’t lift his right elbow up afterward. For being a short title match, it wasn’t all that bad, really.)

Main Event: Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible in an extreme death match: Credible hammers away on Dreamer and tosses Tommy into the guard railing. Dreamer sends Credible into the railing back first a few times. Dreamer nails Credible with a drink to the forehead and plays to the crowd. Credible crotches Dreamer over the railing. Credible rolls Dreamer into the ring. Credible stomps on Dreamer before hitting a drop toe hold to send Dreamer face first into a steel chair. Credible leg drops Dreamer on the leg, and is apparently met with a low blow. Dreamer grabs Chasity and hits a Death Valley Driver. Jason runs into the ring and Dreamer delivers a piledriver. Dreamer hits a side Russian leg sweep on Credible. One Man Gang enters the ring and attacks Dreamer with a kendo stick. Gang comes off the ropes to splash Dreamer. Spike Dudley runs into the ring and goes after Gang with forearm strikes. Spike forearms Gang and tries for the Acid Drop, but gets tossed away. Gang misses a splash off the ropes. Dreamer and Spike punch Gang several times until Gang trips over Spike. Rod Price and Jack Victory have made their way down now and are beating up on both Spike and Dreamer.

New Jack and Kronus make their way out with a bunch of weapons and proceed to beat the crap out of the heels. Everyone is just brawling around ringside with a variety of weapons. It appears that nearly everyone in the match is bleeding, which should surprise nobody. Kronus hits a 450 splash and pins Price. (*1/4. So, it started off as a singles match and then somehow finished off as being an eight man brawl. If you’re a fan of weapon shots and nothing much else, you’d enjoy this more than I did. I was hoping for Credible/Dreamer match, but oh well.)

Final Thoughts:
This is the definition of an average wrestling show. The crowd was amped for everything, which helped the viewing experience.

Thanks for reading.