Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 10/24/1997
From: Waltham, MA
It is announced that on Thursday night in Queens, NY Bam-Bam Bigelow won the ECW World Championship from Shane Douglas. Bigelow has left the Triple Threat, as well.
MATCH #1: ECW WORLD CHAMPION BAM-BAM BIGELOW VS. AL SNOW
FINISH: Bigelow pins Snow after the Greetings From Asbury Park. After the match, Snow throws a temper tantrum. Snow can’t take it anymore and tells the fans they can kiss his butt.
Bob’s Take: Snow is still wearing his New Rockers gear and quickly goes after Bigelow before the bell sounded. Snow drops Bigelow with a nice superkick after avoiding Bigelow in the corner. The fans are heavily behind Bigelow to beat up Snow and he responded with a short arm clothesline. Snow stops Bigelow quickly with a DDT. Bigelow runs through Snow with clotheslines before hitting the finish to retain the title in just over three minutes. Snow got a bit of offense in, but Bigelow steamrolling Snow to retain the title is the right call and a strong way to open the show. Snow hasn’t reached the level of popularity that he’s known for in his ECW run.
Match Rating: **
Al Snow refuses to leave the ring even as Jerry Lynn is introduced for the next match. Lynn tells Snow he doesn’t five an F if he stays there. Snow proceeds to attack Lynn with a steel chair before departing the ring.
MATCH #2: JUSTIN CREDIBLE VS. JERRY LYNN
FINISH: Late in the match, Jason kicks Lynn off the top rope allowing Credible to hit That’s Incredible for the win.
Bob’s Take: Credible worked over Lynn at the start to take advantage of the cheap attack by Snow. Credible sends Lynn into the railing to continue the onslaught. Credible showed off some rare high flying offense with a missile dropkick. Credible continued with a sunset flip powerbomb out of the corner and a sloppy twisting DDT. Lynn started his comeback with a kick to the head and a head scissors. Lynn continued with a clothesline sending Credible to the floor and a somersault dive onto the floor. Lynn crotched Credible onto the railing and delivered a clothesline. Lynn nearly wins following a sit down powerbomb and a top rope hurricanrana. Moments later, Jason got involved leading to the finish for Credible. Honestly, for a six minute match this was pretty good and a good idea of what these two can do given an extended amount of time. Credible is a guy who greatly benefited from ECW existing.
Match Rating: **1/4
Prior to the next match, PG-13 insult the crowd throwing out homophobic slurs and other stuff that generated some heel heat.
MATCH #3: THE BLUE WORLD ORDER (NOVA & MEANIE) VS. PG-13 (ICE & WOLFIE)
FINISH: Wolfie hits Meanie with a hubcap to win the match.
Bob’s Take: Nova and Wolfie started the match and it’s mostly your average tag wrestling format. There’s nothing to get excited about for hip tosses and dropkicks. PG-13 gets all their heat by JC Ice insulting the fans and using homophobic slurs. Meanie pops the crowd by slamming Ice when he gets involved. Ice does some odd movements after a shoulder block and still gets beat up by Meanie. Nova takes out Ice with a slingshot crossbody, but Wolfie hit a somersault dive to the floor. Meanie fakes a dive prompting everyone to hide and the crowd liked that spot. Wolfie knocks Nova off the apron into the railing to get the first bit of offense for his team, but botched dropping Nova over the ropes and it looked a bit dangerous. Nova tries to fight back with a headbutt off the ropes, but missed and that continued PG-13 working over Nova. PG-13 hit a piggyback splash in the corner on Nova. PG-13 is not getting much of a reaction for their offense. Meanie gets the hot tag and cleans house with Nova hitting a bulldog and he hit a splash on Ice, but Jeff Jones is a corrupt referee and put Ice’s foot on the ropes and that lead to the finish. A mostly standard tag match that only saw a crowd reaction for the dives to the floor and Meanie faking a dive. PG-13 doesn’t connect with this audience unless they are on the microphone. This was a bit long for twelve minutes of action.
Match Rating: *
MATCH #4: PAUL DIAMOND VS. CHRIS CHETTI
FINISH: Diamond pins Chetti after a DDT.
Bob’s Take: Chastity, the manager for Diamond, is getting the most crowd heat as the fans make sure to point out that she has an STD. I’m not sure how a thousand fans would know this, but they do. Diamond delivers a nice short arm clothesline early into the bout. Chetti head scissors and clotheslines Diamond followed by a crossbody to the floor for his comeback. Diamond cuts Chetti off quickly by hitting a front suplex moments later. Chetti hits a springboard dropkick for a near fall and a standing hurricanrana. These two are certainly trying, but the crowd seems to be a bit indifferent for the action. Chetti dives off the apron to get some reaction, but not much. Chasity is chased around ringside allowing Diamond to sneak attack Chetti. Diamond focuses his attack on the midsection of Chetti. The crowd expresses disinterest in the action quite a bit by Diamond as he slowed the match down considerably. Diamond delivered a spinning heel kick in the corner and a rolling fireman’s carry, but the crowd just doesn’t care about him. Chetti completely misses a springboard moonsault, but makes up for it by missile dropkicking Chasity. However, Diamond finishes Chetti off right after. I’m not sure I was expecting Diamond to win here, at all. Chetti is a rookie, so it shouldn’t be too surprising, I guess. This went thirteen minutes, and would have been better going eight minutes or so.
Match Rating: *1/2
MATCH #5: MIKEY WHIPWRECK & SPIKE DUDLEY VS. DOUG FURNAS & PHIL LAFON
FINISH: Furnas and LaFon hit a top rope Hart Attack on Spike to win the match.
Bob’s Take: The fans are excited to see Furnas & LaFon back in ECW. Neither one of them worked Waltham before this for ECW, and they have been back in the promotion for a month. LaFon and Whipwreck started the match with LaFon showcasing his superior wrestling, but Whipwreck responding with a hurricanrana and dropkick. Furnas tries his luck with Whipwreck and is almost pinned several times for his troubles. Furnas gains control by dropping Spike with a spinebuster. Spike gets worked over by Furnas and LaFon for a bit. Furnas delivering a nice snap powerslam. Spike is driven down with a big double backdrop. Spike slips on an Acid Drop attempt, but still hits it on LaFon. Whipwreck also takes both men over with a headlock/head scissors combo. Whipwreck drives Furnas down with a tornado DDT. Spike missile dropkicks Furnas lead to a near fall for Whipwreck. Spike bulldogs Furnas, but is caught on a crossbody off the top leading to the finish by LaFon and Furnas. As an older wrestling fan, I have much more appreciation for Furnas and LaFon being wrestlers. In an era where characters were a driving force, these guys are just good in-ring workers. I enjoyed this match as they kept a good pace and the mixture of high risk by Whipwreck & Spike vs. the wrestling aspect of LaFon and Furnas made for a fun encounter.
Match Rating: ***
MATCH #6: ECW TELEVISION CHAMPION TAZ VS. BILL WILES
FINISH: Taz forces Wiles to tap out to the Taz Mission in less than two minutes. After the match, Taz tosses the referee with an overhead belly to belly suplex.
Bob’s Take: It should come as no surprise that Taz absolutely destroyed Wiles. Wiles was never going to be getting any sort of offense. Taz tossing Wiles around with suplexs and the fans just loving it is exactly what you’d want to see from a Taz squash.
Match Rating: SQUASH
MATCH #7: ECW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE FBI (GUIDO & SMOTHERS) VS. AXL ROTTEN & BALLS MAHONEY
FINISH: Late in the match, there’s a referee bump and crooked referee Jeff Jones does a fast count after Tommy Rich used a weapon on the challengers.
Bob’s Take: Axl controls Guido early on and the chair swinging freaks focus their attack with a mat wrestling based approach. Smothers gains control on Mahoney briefly with basic strikes, but is stopped by a powerbomb, superkick and middle rope elbow drop. Tommy Rich gets involved dropping Mahoney over the railing and that allows the champs to have an extended heat segment. Mahoney drops Guido with an electric chair slam. Rotten enters and cleans house to help out Mahoney. The challengers hit their finishers, but there was a referee bump seconds earlier. Crooked referee Jeff Jones comes out, and the audience is aware of what he’s going to do. For the most part, this didn’t even feel like a title defense and is the kind of segment you’d expect to see on TV.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MATCH #8: TOMMY DREAMER VS. CHRIS CANDIDO
NOTE: Francine and Beulah are at ringside.
FINISH: RVD and Sabu run out and ruin the match quickly. After the match, Alfonso low blows Francine and Beulah to take them out of the match. Shane Douglas comes out and that leads to a tag match.
Bob’s Take: Okay, this literally goes ten seconds before RVD and Sabu crash the match and attack both men. They destroy Dreamer’s right leg with a chair. We do get a catfight, so there’s that. However, there’s no real match here between Candido and Dreamer, at all.
Match Rating: NR
MATCH #9: ROB VAN DAM & SABU VS. CHRIS CANDIDO & SHANE DOUGLAS
FINISH: Late in the match, Bam-Bam Bigelow comes out and attacks everyone. RVD and Sabu hit stereo top rope moves on Douglas leading to Sabu pinning Douglas for the win.
Bob’s Take: Douglas and Sabu kickoff the tag match trying to make it look like a fight on the mat by rolling around. Candido and RVD square off trading strikes and keep the basic nature of the tag match. RVD nails Douglas with a elbow strike right to the face. Douglas is worked over by Sabu and RVD for a bit. Sabu delivers a somersault leg drop from the apron. Douglas stops Sabu with an atomic drop, but is dumped over the top to the floor. Sabu proceeds to dive to the floor to take out Douglas. Douglas tries to fight free from Sabu, but RVD helps out his partner and Candido brawls with RVD on the floor for a bit. Sabu and Douglas actually brawl outside and brawl in the parking lot. They make their way back into the building through the front and continue to brawl in the crowd. Candido superplexs RVD in the ring as Sabu introduces a table to the match, but the table broke before getting into the ring. RVD nails Douglas with a top rope hurricanrana and hit Candido with a chair to save Sabu from a press slam. This has turned into a chaotic kind of brawl that I was not expecting to see. Candido powerbombs both RVD and Sabu after they missed top rope attacks. Sabu and RVD are sent into several chairs in the corner and Candido misses an attack hitting the chairs, too. Douglas hit a dive over the ropes to the floor. RVD and Sabu work well together hitting the trademark double team moves, but Bam-Bam Bigelow comes out to attack them despite not being in the Triple Threat. Bigelow powerbombs Candido and hit the Greetings From Asbury Park on Douglas leading to the finish. I enjoyed the action as the chaotic brawling made the sixteen minutes fly by much faster than it would have otherwise. Bigelow’s involvement protects Douglas and continues their feud that is just heating up over the title.
Match Rating: ***
It is announced that tomorrow night in Revere, ECW TV Champion Taz is defending against Sabu. There was not a huge response to this announcement.
Prior to the next match, Joel Gertner announces that New Jack has been arrested and Kronus will be on his own. However, that proves to not be true as New Jack arrives with Kronus and the crowd went nuts.
MAIN EVENT: DUDLEY BOYS (BUH BUH & D-VON) VS. THE GANGSTANATORS (KRONUS & NEW JACK) — WEAPONS MATCH
FINISH: Kronus pins D-Von after hitting a top rope 450 splash.
Bob’s Take: As you’d expect, these two teams are just brawling all over the place and using a bunch of weapons. These kinds of matches are always just uses for New Jack to pop the crowd with his violent nature. We got a referee bump in a weapons match for goodness sake. This was seven minutes of mindless brawling and a 450 splash by Kronus. Fans got their bloodshed. Simple way to end the show.
Match Rating: *
Final Thoughts:
There’s some good wrestling on the show, and nothing truly awful by any means. Waltham was an electric audience for the most part, and this was fairly easy to watch. I’ll give it an average rating for ECW house show perspective.
Thanks for reading.