Posted August 22, 201015 yr comment_5454801 Danny Doring/Roadkill v. Billy Wiles/C.W. Anderson Funny to see Doring accuse Wiles of trying to "do" him "up the ass" since similar accusations from babyfaces was a staple of his heel run. I appreciated the heel arm work here, and the bulk of this was pretty good, but watching Lou E. botch a phone shot was pretty sad. Simon Diamond v. Mike Awesome This was okay as it was basically a demolition job by Awesome. Kid Kash/Nova/Jazz v. The Dupps This was okay. I liked Kash's highspots a lot but ultimately you wish The Dupps had gotten more of this. Lance Storm v. Jerry Lynn Lance Storm lifting Candido's headstand on the floor with the guardrail holding him up spot at the end of the initial offensive flurry was amusing. Match was actually not bad considering who was involved, though the finish was stupid. Super Crazy/Super Calo v. Tajiri/Ikuto Hidaka This show was two nights after the strangest show ever in Cookeville, TN and one night after the Nashville show that might have been the best ECW show ever, where Tajiri/Calo and Hidaka/Crazy occurred. These two teams matches up on the Cookeville show and it was actually fairly disappointing. This one was not. Opening exchange with Calo and Hidaka was subdued enough where I thought we might have another quiet match. Then Tajiri comes in and Crazy leans over the ropes to talk shit at him and Tajiri just thrust back with an out of blue kick that sends Crazy flying to the floor. It is a tremendous spot and the match pretty much explodes from that point forward with all kinds of awesomeness. Seriously there are so many awesome spots in this including a dive train (featuring a misdirection dive from Calo), some awesome crowd brawling with Tajiri acting nuts and tossing Calo wildly into fans and chairs alike while wading through chairs himself, tons of awesome Tajiri kicks including a repeat of the bridge out back kick to Calo off the sunset flip that they had worked the night before, and a bunch of shit I'm forgetting. This was like one of those crazy WCW six-man Luchadore spot-a-thons with Tajiri playing the role of La Parka, Crazy playing the role of Juvi, Hidaka playing the role of Psicosis, and Calo playing the role of Calo. Awesome. Kintaro Kanemura v. Masato Tanaka I almost nominated their Cookeville match, but Kanemura badly fucked up a key spot during the stretch run so I decided against it. This is Tanaka's only successful title defense so ought to be an extra anyhow, but it holds up on it's own merits. This is the same sort of crazy sprint as the first match, particularly the first five minutes or so which is just big spot after big spot. Kanemura takes another tornado DDT on the floor, gets launched onto some dude in the first row and gets hurled through a table off a blocked senton attempt. When they go back to the ring he takes over and they actually give Kanemura an extended control segment which includes him taunting the fans and generally beating the piss out of Tanaka. Tanaka takes one bump onto a chair that is horrifying and Kanemura hits the fat man senton for a good nearfall. Finish almost seems abrupt given what these guys have taken, but I still feel like this is something that should make the set. Spike Dudley v. Little Guido Pre-match Spike goes and gets the Sandman for back up so that he's not alone against Guido and Sal E. I really dug the opening with mat work and roll up exchanges here as they all looked really fluid and tight like legit hooks. It's a Guido match so there is some mixed in comedy mainly based around his interactions with Sandman. Spike gets the upperhand off of these distractions and then they do a great spot where he goes for acid drop and Guido drops into a Fujiwara armbar to block it. A few minutes later Spike goes for a splash and Guido traps him with the Fujiwara again. Then Sandman gets involved and you get the frustrating aspect of ECW as a potentially great match can always descend into utter nonsense in a matter of seconds. Damn. Tracy Smothers v. Sabu Sabu comes in with a heavily taped leg and Smothers is screaming about fucking him up so this could be interesting. Awesome spot as Smothers gets in his face off of a break and knees him in the injured leg when Sabu does his pointing up to the sky schtick. Sabu punches him so Tracy kicks at his legs from the ground to get him down which is also awesome. Then you get some stock Sabu spots. Sabu goes to set up a table and Rich pummels him. Tracy goes for a dive and Alfonzo crotches him on the top leading to a frankensteiner from Sabu. They do the spot with Sabu hitting his leg lariat and Smothers taking the nutty neck bump onto the chair for the second straight night. Then there is a really awesome spot with Sabu tossing Tracy into the crowd and going for his dive into the crowd but Rich shakes the ropes and Sabu crotches himself. Back in the ring Sabu decks Tracy with a chair and hits a legdrop through an upright table. Every time Tracy gets control he goes back to attacking the leg including his patent drop forearm onto it which is pretty awesome. Sabu keeps making comebacks and Tracy keeps going back to the leg. Finish sees Smothers run into a flying chair off of a splash attempt and then get put through a table. You wish Sabu would sell the fucking leg more than he does, but this is still a damn good match, sort of similar to the Billy Black v. Sabu match, and IMO at least better than the match they had the night before. Raven/Tommy Dreamer/Balls Mahoney v. Da Baldies There is something really strange about "Come Out And Play" being a babyface savior song in ECW. Just an odd role for Raven who comes to the aid of Balls with Dreamer after he gets jumped initially. The early crowd brawling came across as more intense than it was because of the atmosphere. This is one of those ECW matches where they brawl everywhere first and then it settles into a normal tag match which is odd structure but it works out okay here because the FIP segment is set up by a huge Balls bump and he is always good in that role. Heat section here is pretty good and the turning point with Grimes almost killing himself on a missed flip into an upright chair that Balls bailed on was really nasty. Finish is rushed but this is not terribly far from nomination territory. Rhino v. Rob Van Dam Looking at the lineup up to this point I was fearing this would be Van Dam v. Credible. Then Corino came out and I got excited. Then Rhino showed up and I got sad again. Having said that this was not terrible. Aside from Corino beating up Fonzy, there is a fair amount of deviation from the typical Van Dam match here and Rhino takes some impressive bumps for a guy his size. Whole finishing run is pretty much trash, but this could have sucked a lot worse.
