Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 6/14/1996
From: Jim Thorpe, PA
Prior to the opening bout, D-Von Dudley cut a promo calling the Bad Crew a homophobic slur and lead to a pre-match attack.
MATCH #1: DUDLEY BOYS VS. THE BAD CREW
FINISH: D-Von Dudley hits the referee with a chair causing a disqualification. After the match, D-Von blames Bubba for the loss and for getting his ass kicked the whole match. Eventually, D-Von gets a chair and whacks Bubba over the head with it and calls him an idiot. D-Von left, but then came back and continued to beat up Bubba.
Bob’s Take: The early part of the bout is a basic tag match with the Dudley’s keeping control. Bubba missed a top rope diving headbutt allowing for Bad Crew to get the advantage and they use a chair on Bubba. Dog hits a top rope somersault dive onto Bubba in the ring. Dudley’s regain control quickly and Bubba uses a chair on the floor several times on Rose. Bubba also delivered an awkward looking elbow drop off the apron to the floor. D-Von destroys the referee with a chair after Bad Crew delivered a Hart Attack, and the match appears to be thrown out. Bad Crew actually looked pretty good in this one with some good tag moves. There’s not much to this action wise by any means and the crowd reacted to the chair shots because they want violence.
Match Rating: *
Prior to the next match, Devon Storm notes that he doesn’t have a tag partner for the tag match. Storm is beatdown for a bit.
MATCH #2: DEVON STORM & SAL BELLOMO VS. JT SMITH & LITTLE GUIDO
FINISH: Smith pins Storm with his feet on the ropes to win the match. After the match, Storm attacks Bellomo and hit a somersault dive onto Bellomo, who was sitting on a chair.
Bob’s Take: Storm fights back rather quickly against Smith and Guido and holds his own for a good bit of time. Storm powerbombs Guido onto Smith and hit a springboard moonsault. However, Storm decides to play to the crowd and that leads to an extended two on one beating. Sal Bellomo joins the match to even the odds. Bellomo cleans house with strikes to help out Storm. Storm hits a nice somersault cutter off the top onto Smith as Bellomo is stuck in the ropes. The finish with Smith pinning Storm seemed a bit odd because it was just after Guido did a basic seated dropkick. Felt a bit weak of a finish. Storm looked good here, though.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MATCH #3: PAUL VARELANS VS. JASON HELTON
FINISH: Varelans delivers one elbow to the head of Helton to win the match by knockout.
Bob’s Take: Paul reached the finals of UFC 7 back in September of 95. I’m not kidding this was one strike and win for Varelans. The crowd did not buy into this at all. I’m sure this is leading to Taz destroying him.
Match Rating: NR
MATCH #4: STEVIE RICHARDS VS. MIKEY WHIPWRECK
FINISH: Whipwreck pins Richards following a top rope hurricanrana.
Bob’s Take: Whipwreck starts off with the advantage attacking Richards before the bell by hitting a backdrop and a leaping back elbow in the early stages. Whipwreck continued with a crossbody to the floor. Whipwreck jumps off of Richards back to takeout Meanie on the floor with a somersault dive. Richards stops a hurricanrana attempt with a sit down powerbomb. Whipwreck battles back, but misses a splash off the top. Richards delivers another powerbomb, but can’t put Whipwreck away. Whipwreck stops Richards with a DDT, but is superkicked off the top to the floor. Richards plants Whipwreck with a DDT for a near fall. Whpwreck crotches both Richards and Meanie on the ropes at one point. Whipwreck bulldogs Meanie face first onto Richards groin and Meanie accidentally splashed Richards. Moments later, Whipwreck finishes off Richards. I’d say this was a pretty good match with consistent action. Whipwreck stood out to me here with his high risk approach in the match and Richards bumped around fairly well throughout. An enjoyable undercard bout.
Match Rating: ***
MATCH #5: ECW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE ELIMINATORS VS. THE GANGSTAS
FINISH: Total Elimination finishes off New Jack.
Bob’s Take: The match starts with both teams already brawling in the crowd and using trash can, which is not a surprise, at all. Saturn is worked over by the Gangstas with Jack hitting a diving headbutt after a suplex by Mustafa. Gangsta’s music doesn’t play the entire match. Kronus powerbombs Mustafa on some kind of table, but it’s very sturdy and it doesn’t break. As you may expect, this is a complete and utter brawl with weapons. Gangstas hit a back suplex/top rope clothesline combo on Saturn, but can’t put him away. There’s a referee bump causing the chaos to go on unchecked. It’s a short match and there’s not any real structure to this. The hardcore aspect is quite tame compared to what some may expect from a Gangstas match.
Match Rating: *1/2
MATCH #6: THE BRUISE BROTHERS VS. AXL ROTTEN & HACK MYERS
FINISH: Myers gets a chair kicked into his face and is pinned to end the bout.
Bob’s Take: Bruise Brothers are essentially on the same level as the Bushwhackers for me in that I completely dread having to watch their matches. They never entertain me and their matches drag on forever. Myers and Rotten work together for the early advantage, but their offense isn’t overly compelling by any means. Rotten missed an elbow drop off the ropes allowing for the Bruise Brothers to gain control. They end up brawling on the floor similar to the previous match, but I feel like it kind of loses it’s value since the other teams matter more and are better brawlers. The finish seemed to fall flat and the crowd doesn’t seem to care much for the Bruise Brothers.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Prior to the next match, Bill Alfonso attacked Tod Gordon. There wasn’t much to that.
MATCH #7: THE SANDMAN VS. TAZ
FINISH: Taz chokes out Sandman to win the match. After the match, Gordon attacks Alfonso, but also gets choked out by Taz. Taz cuts a promo, but the microphone isn’t great and it’s difficult to hear what he’s saying.
Bob’s Take: Sandman used his kendo stick on Taz early on, which seemed to surprise the audience. Alfonso distracted Sandman to allow Taz to put the Taz Mission on Sandman. Sandman tried to fight off with his kendo stick, but couldn’t do it. This lasted just over a minute.
Match Rating: NR
Before the next match, Shane Douglas cuts a promo and seems to be roasting the audience and the company from Atlanta, as per usual.
MATCH #8: ECW TELEVISION CHAMPION PITBULL #2 VS. SHANE DOUGLAS
FINISH: Pitbull pins Douglas following a modified powerbomb to retain the title.
Bob’s Take: Douglas stalls for a bit trying to avoid Pitbull, but ends up getting in the ring for a fight. Pitbull suplexs Douglas from the apron into the ring to gain the advantage and continued with a running powerslam. Douglas battles back with a bulldog out of the corner and boots Pitbull into the corner. Douglas randomly does a somersault dive off the top. Pitbull battles back with a press slam and keeps arm control on the mat. Things get a little bit sloppy at some points in the match, and the crowd instantly turns on the match calling it boring when Douglas screwed up a spot. Douglas grabs Francine, who is associated with Pitbull, but is slapped. Douglas pie faces her away and used a chair on Pitbull on the floor. Douglas continues with a piledriver, but can’t put Pitbull away. Douglas continued with a swinging neckbreaker, but Pitbull has far too much power left to stay down on the mat. Douglas delivers a belly to belly suplex, but stopped the cover to taunt the fans for some reason. Moments later, Pitbull finished off Douglas. This felt a bit odd and the whirlwind of reaction from the crowd was a bit confusing. I’d say this was a bit disappointing as they probably should have gone with a more brawling focused match rather than make this a wrestling match.
Match Rating: *1/2
MAIN EVENT: ECW WORLD CHAMPION RAVEN VS. TOMMY DREAMER — FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE
FINISH: Late in the match, Brian Lee comes out and chokeslams Dreamer allowing Raven to pin Dreamer. After the match, Beulah hits a DDT on Meanie while Dreamer did the same to Richards. Axl taunts Dreamer about the decision, despite Axl not being an official. Dreamer thought they were friends and Dreamer spikes Axl with a DDT to send the fans home happy.
Bob’s Take: This has a big match feel and I don’t normally get that feeling on ECW house shows. There is a buzz in the audience for this and they are all standing for the main event. When the ring announcer announced that this was falls count anywhere the interest seemed to rise even more. Raven controlled early on with a cheap shot. Raven nearly wins with a piledriver in the opening minute of the match. Raven continues to work over Dreamer sending Dreamer into a chair in the corner. Dreamer battles back by putting Raven in the tree of woe and punching his groin several times. Dreamer clotheslines himself and Raven to the floor. It’s noticeable that the crowd isn’t reacting strongly because they are waiting for the floor brawling. Raven is bleeding as they are brawling in the crowd and the fans suddenly care. They brawl to the upper level, which I’ve never seen before. Dreamer spikes Raven with a piledriver on the floor, but can’t get a three count. They end up brawling outside throwing each other into the ring truck and walls. Dreamer slams a merch table onto Raven at ringside. Stevie Richards gets a referee shirt and decides to be the referee. Dreamer almost wins with a rollup as a shirtless referee tries to make the count. Axl Rotten comes out and doesn’t want a crap finish and puts the referee shirt on to make sure there’s a finish. Axl pretended to tie his shoes when Lee interfered so we still got the crap finish despite. So, Axl is basically a heel then? The brawling was fine, but the intensity was lacking here and the crowd did not like the crap finish.
Match Rating: **
Final Thoughts:
I was hoping for a bit more out of the last two matches, but they were rather underwhelming. I mean, to do Taz/Sandman in under ninety-seconds is a bit mind blowing. This is an overall skippable ECW house show despite a decent looking card on paper.
Thanks for reading.