Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 2/25/2000
From: Toledo, OH
MATCH #1: SCOTT D’AMORE VS. CHILLY WILLY
FINISH: Willy wins following a sit out slam.
Bob’s Take: I don’t think I have ever realized that Scott D’Amore had worked ECW shows. Yes, this is the same D’Amore of TNA fame. The ring announcer called him “Scott Hunter”, but it’s D’Amore. Willy hits a sit out slam in the early stages, but the crowd doesn’t care for basic shoulder blocks, which is the approach they went with to kickoff the show. D’Amore stops Willy with a neckbreaker and keeps his offense fairly basic. D’Amore almost wins following a sit out powerbomb. D’Amore overhead suplexs Willy and misses a top rope moonsault. Moments later, Willy puts D’Amore away. It’s a fairly basic match and the crowd responds okay to Willy, but they were crapping on D’Amore. They didn’t do anything hardcore related
Match Rating: *1/4
Lou E. Dangerously cuts a promo insulting the crowd prior to the next match.
MATCH #2: CHRIS CHETTI & NOVA VS. BILL WILES & CW ANDERSON
FINISH: Chetti pins Anderson after a sunset flip. After the match, Wiles and Anderson attack Chetti briefly.
Bob’s Take: Wiles and Nova kicked off the match. Wiles mistimed falling for a middle rope bulldog spot, but the crowd didn’t crap on the missed spot. Chetti scissors kicks Anderson as they get involved in the match, and Anderson is double teamed briefly. Wiles nailed Nova with a heel kick allowing for an extended beating with Anderson hitting a hammerlock slam. Wiles and Anderson can’t put Nova away, though. Anderson drops Nova with a spinebuster. Nova battled back with a flatliner leading to the Chetti hot tag. Chetti kicks Wiles a few times and the match breaks down with all four in the ring. Chetti slams Wiles leading to a swanton by Nova, but Dangerously pulled the referee out. Nova low blows Anderson leading to a sunset flip by Chetti for the win. This felt like a typical tag team house show match with nobody standing out and it was just going through the motions.
Match Rating: *1/4
MATCH #3: SIMON DIAMOND VS. LITTLE GUIDO VS. KID KASH — ELIMINATION MATCH
FINISH: Guido pins Kash following the Un-Prettier.
Bob’s Take: They do a triple lockup spot at the start, which is to be expected. Kash got some offense with a double arm drag, but Diamond catapults Kash into a clothesline from Guido moments later. Kash hits a springboard dive to take Diamond and Guido out along with their sidekicks. Guido nails Kash with a slingshot leg drop from the apron. Diamond delivers his trio of suplexs onto Guido for his moment of shine. Kash delivers a hurricanrana on Diamond, who then gets splashed by Big Sal in the corner allowing Kash to eliminate Diamond after a bulldog. Kash seems to break out of an arm lock by shoving his fingers up Guido’s butt, and this is far before Corino’s ROH run. Guido jumps off of Sal’s shoulders to deliver a leg drop and Sal got involved causing Jazz to come out and attack Sal, which is kind of hilarious. Guido casually dropkicks Jazz on the face. The finish is a bit surprising as I thought for sure Kash would win once Jazz came out, but that’s not the case. There’s not much to this one either.
Match Rating: *1/2
MATCH #4: MASATO TANAKA & TOMMY DREAMER VS. THE DUPPS (BO & JACK)
FINISH: Dreamer and Tanaka pickup stereo pins after a roaring elbow and DDT.
Bob’s Take: Seems like an odd choice to have Tanaka regulated to working the Dupps, but whatever. The teams brawl into the crowd quickly. The crowd enjoyed the brawling. Dreamer delivered a chair assisted baseball slide into the corner, but gets worked over by Bo. Dreamer is worked over for a bit by the Dupps. Tanaka gets the hot tag and cleaned house with forearms followed by a double DDT. A double pin finish is no surprise, and this wasn’t very good. I’m feeling bad for the Toledo crowd. There just isn’t a lot of effort going on here.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MATCH #5: ECW WORLD CHAMPION MIKE AWESOME VS. SPANISH ANGEL
FINISH: Awesome pins Angel after delivering a powerbomb through a table. After the match, New Jack comes out to save Awesome from a beating and that leads to the next match.
Bob’s Take: Awesome is a major draw for me on these house shows, but to give him a challenger in Spanish Angel seems a bit odd. Awesome has the early advantage and takes out the other Baldies on the floor. Angel gets control and delivers a dropkick that he’s apparently quite proud of. Awesome double leg slams Angel and hit a top rope splash, but still didn’t win. DeVito saved Angel from going through a table once, but Awesome still finished off Angel anyway by hitting the powerbomb through the table. It’s as if the crowd didn’t care about anything before the table spot.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MATCH #6: NEW JACK VS. VIC GRIMES
FINISH: The finish isn’t taped, but lets assume Jack won following a top rope weapon strike.
Bob’s Take: As you’d expect, these two do a lot of brawling and weapon shots. This is the kind of violence that most ECW crowds want to see from ECW matches. Jack uses a fork on Grimes and other random weapons found in Toledo. They brawl into the crowd for a good bit of time. Grimes misses a corkscrew dive, and the tape cuts out as the match is not fully taped… so I’ll assume Jack won following a top rope weapon strike.
Match Rating: NR
MATCH #7: SABU VS. MIKEY WHIPWRECK
FINISH: Sabu pins Whipwreck following a top rope leg drop through the table.
Bob’s Take: It’s a slow start to the match with the crowd chanting heavily for Sabu. They are focusing with mat wrestling where Sabu takes Whipwreck down a few times. Bill Alfonso is seen in the crowd and not at ringside. Sabu delivers a springboard tornado DDT to show some impactful offense. Sabu lays a table over the apron and railing, and the crowd loves the idea of a table being used. Whipwreck avoids a top rope hurricanrana by holding onto the ropes and nearly won with a top rope clothesline and a missile dropkick. Sabu sets the table up in the corner and smashes Whipwreck with a chair shot. There was an awkward moment where Whipwreck waited for Sabu to kick a chair into his face instead of continuing his approach. Sabu hit a triple jump leg drop. Alfonso takes the chair away and tossed it to Whipwreck. Whipwreck smashes Sabu with the chair and delivers a modified Pedigree onto the chair for a near fall. Sabu hit a top rope hurricanrana, where Whipwreck was suppose to go through the table, but hte table wasn’t positioned correctly. Sabu hit a top rope leg drop through the table for the win. This is probably one of the sloppiest matches I’ve seen out of both Sabu and Whipwreck in a while. However, compared to the other matches it was enjoyable and had some productive offense. Also, this is Sabu’s second to last appearance in ECW.
Match Rating: **
MATCH #8: ECW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE IMPACT PLAYERS (CREDIBLE & STORM) VS. DANNY DORING & ROADKILL
FINISH: Credible whacks Doring with a kendo stick shot from the floor allowing Storm to pickup the win.
Bob’s Take: After a significant amount of stalling, Credible and Doring kickoff the title match. They do basically nothing prompting Roadkill to get tagged in and gets a good pop for his involvement. Credible baseball slides himself groin first into the ring post. Roadkill turns Credible inside out with a clothesline and Doring returned to the match to headbutt Credible on the groin. Storm and Doring trade chops and counter each other a few times until Dawn Marie tripped Doring from the floor. There’s almost a catfight between Electra and Dawn, but they are stopped and the crowd hated that. Credible superkicks Doring to get control of the match. Doring fights back on Storm with a crossbody and a clothesline, but is cutoff by the champs. Credible continues to keep Doring on the mat with a clothesline, but Doring delivers the Stroke to Credible and a jaw breaker to Storm leading to a hot tag for Roadkill. Roadkill side slams Storm followed by a top rope elbow by Doring for a near win. Hart Attack on Storm, but Credible made the save. The match is bit chaotic with all four men in the ring. Credible dumped Roadkill to the floor, but Storm accidentally superkicks Credible. Doring almost pins Storm with a double under hook piledriver. Dawn Marie gets involved, and now we get the catfight spot. Credible using the kendo stick for the finish is not a big deal, as I thought this was a pretty good tag match with the challengers getting a couple of good near falls. Easily the best match thus far on the show.
Match Rating: **1/2
MATCH #9: RAVEN VS. STEVE CORINO
FINISH: Raven wins following a DDT.
Bob’s Take: There’s quite a bit of stalling before Corino delivered a few jabs, but Raven responded with a snot rag to the face. Raven is doing a bit more comedy than usual as he rubbed his groin in Corino’s face in the corner. Raven also rubbed his ass into Corino’s face. They go to the floor where Raven uses the snot rag again. They also brawl into the crowd where Raven continued to beat up Corino and poured drinks on Corino. This is feeling like Raven is bullying Corino and isn’t making Corino look like a serious heel or anything. Corino has mustard on his face. Raven uses his rag for a third time, but this time he rubbed it on his groin under his shorts. Corino tries to do a bronco buster to Francine, but is met with a low blow. Moments later, Raven finished off Corino with a DDT. This was not good, at all. Raven didn’t seem to care at all and completely made this look like a joke of a match. I’m a bit baffled by this approach. I had hopes for this to be a good one, but Raven went the comedic route.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MAIN EVENT: RHINO & TAJIRI VS. SUPER CRAZY & THE SANDMAN
FINISH: Rhino accidentally GORES Tajiri through a table in the corner allowing Crazy to pin Tajiri.
Bob’s Take: Sandman’s entrance took about five minutes, probably longer. Rhino and Crazy kicked off the main event with Rhino controlling Crazy at the start. Sandman quickly introduces a couple of tables into the mix as Crazy dropkicked Rhino a few times. Crazy is basically only doing dropkicks to Rhino until a springboard moonsault to the floor. Rhino works over Sandman with basic offense, as well. Sandman brawls with Rhino on the floor while Tajiri and Crazy work in the ring. Sandman hit a top rope hurricanrana on Rhino, but Rhino no sold it. Tajiri kicks Crazy and Sandman several times. Tajiri baseball slides a chair into the faces of Crazy and Sandman while they were in the tree of woe. Tajiri accidentally misted Rhino, and a blinded Rhino GORES Tajiri through the table in the corner for the finish. A horrible main event. There was no effort and these guys mostly didn’t care, at all.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Final Thoughts:
I feel tricked and betrayed having watched this show. The card looked strong on paper, but I didn’t realize nor think that this crew would give Toledo one of the worst ECW shows I’ve ever seen in my life. Avoid at all costs.
Thanks for reading.