Posted August 21, 201015 yr comment_5454761 Chris Chetti/Louie Spicolli v. FBI This show appears to be in a near capacity high school gym which is pretty much perfect for the FBI. Pre-match Rich says the Georgia Family is taking over and laughs at the babyfaces before saying they are going to have to die. Awesome. Crowd fucking hates the FBI here and they are working the shit out of that, running out of the ring before the early lockup, inviting Spicolli to leave the ring after winning an early exchange, et. When the bail out a second time they run to regroup and Chetti and Spicolli hit them with back to back dives while the Big Don freaks out on the ref. The do a spot where Rich accidentally gets decked by Tracy to a huge pop and Guido has to try and play peace maker while they exchange pieface slaps before hugging it out. Then Guido accidentally knocks Rich off the apron and the babyfaces try for a duel roll up spot which the worst wrestler of all time Chris Chetti somehow manages to fuck up. He quickly pays for this sin by getting hurled over the ropes and taking an uncomfortably stiff crotch bump on the rail from Rich. FBI double team/heel tactics on Chetti are really great here as they break out all the staples you would expect and then some. At one point Smothers kicks Chetti hard as fuck in the face for an awesome cutoff spot. The babyface hot tag explosion is pretty good and features on over the top bump from Tracy, Rich getting double dropkicked and Spicolli Driver/Big splash on Guido for the finish. Post-match Smothers says the towns Unsportsmanlike Conduct means they are never coming back. Another sweet FBI match. Taz v. Spike Dudley Boy this was an awfully good competitive squash. Taz gives Spike a lot here and he actually comes across as a crafty little guy in this one. His early explosion came out of nowhere and Taz sold his running senton of the apron more than Taz usually sells anything. I also really liked how Taz seemed to catch on to Spike's schtick and would respond to each repeated attempt with a suplex of some sort. Some decent nearfalls from Spike before the finish and a post-match Taz v. Sabu showdown. This was a fun match. Balls Mahoney v. Pitbull 2 I have no clue why they would book a face v. face "respect" match with these two but there you have it with these two doing early chain wrestling and the Pitbull actually doing the "escape the hammerlock send opponent flying to floor" spot which was pretty hilarious given who was involved. Pitbull gets run out in a similar fashion and Balls checks on him and nails him with a chair and that is more like it. Balls starts working as a heel at this point and is crushing Pitbull with punches and elbow drops and dancing around like a fool and jawing with neck brace wearing Gary Wolfe and fuck he's actually pretty good here. 2's comeback is a little rushed but the reaction Mahoney makes to getting hit in the...Balls is pretty funny. Way better than I would have guessed coming in. Steve Richards v. Raven (EXTRA) Pre-match is actually really great as Sandman hits Raven with a cane and then Brian Lee comes out and they bloody the fuck out of Sandman who gets taken to the back which brings out Dreamer who is getting mauled when the BWO comes out and Raven challenges Richards to take Sandman's place. Match itself was a lot of fun as the story isn't just can Richards beat Raven but rather or not he will bring the fight to him. I am not a Raven fan, but he is really awesome in this just going straight to Richards punching him and practically begging him to punch back. He beats the fuck out of Richards here, dives on the BWO, crashes Stevie through a table and drags him all over the Arena. Raven brawls with him to the back and Terry Funk pulls a switcharoo and beats on Raven all the way back to the ring before Lee comes back out and they fight with an ironing board which sounds ridiculous but came across as fairly brutal. Back in the ring Richards finally gets the upper hand and they repeat the previous nights spots with Richards punching out the refs and the match ends up going to a no contest. This was one of the better Raven performances I've ever seen so even with the bullshit I think it ought to be looked at as a potential Extra. Brian Lee v. Terry Funk This absolutely destroys their match at the Arena as this is just two rednecks beating the piss out of each other. I was impressed by the out of the ring bump Funk took at his age and the spot with Brian Lee hitting the guardrail to a massive pop was awesome and made even better when Funk through him into the crowd and punched his face off. Lee's punches didn't look great in this, but the standoff spots were visually impressive. Funk murdering Lee with a piledriver on the floor was sweet and Candido bringing back the iron board so they could beat the shit out of each other with it some more ruled. This was just the right length as the intensity never wore off and Funk looked good getting the win. Shane Douglas/Francine v. Beulah/Tommy Dreamer The opening segment of this is just as awesome as the night before maybe moreso. I mean Dreamer and Douglas are just beating the shit out of each other with nintendos and other random shit, taking huge shots onto the rails, clubbing each other with forums, et. Dreamer really sells his ass off in this, and I fucking loved Douglas hitting the single arm DDT which was the move of death at this point since that what took out Pitbull 1. Tables turn when Beulah hits Douglas in the nuts while he does the Rude swivel. Eventually Rude comes out during another Douglas offensive run right after Douglas crushes Beulah with an elbow straight to the boobs that actually looked needlessly stiff. Same finish as the night before with Rude distraction and Dreamer DDT'ing Douglas and putting Beulah on top for the pin. This was awfully good for a mixed tag but the Rude stuff hurts the flow a lot and I can't see anyone considering it a must see match. Gangstas v. D-Von Dudley/Bubba Dudley I actually thought this was amazingly good for a match involving these two teams. Yes there were prop shots and crowd brawling but it was done unusually well. There was no New Jack dive in this, but the match was actually better for it. Really loved the wild brawling with D-Von and Jack double juicing. At one point Jack has D-Von on the floor and is just slapping him in the face talking shit to him and that moment really sums up their segment well. Really loved the finish to this as New Jack climbs to the top with a chair and nails Sign Guy with it and turns to jump at Bubba but gets hit with the cutter for the finish. Gangstas were a big enough team in ECW history where it seems like something of theirs ought to make up the set and so far this is the best candidate. Eliminators v. Sabu/Rob Van Dam Sabu punching people early was cool and I actually liked some of the early cutesy "mirror" spots with each team doing the same shit to each other but this got really boring quick with guys just doing "stuff" left and right. Don't get me wrong - there is some cool shit in this, but it's just too much and a lot of it is blatantly fake and ridiculous.
