Posted August 22, 201015 yr comment_5454811 Mike Awesome v. Mikey Whipwreck Jesus Mikey takes a beating in this, getting thrown all over the ringside area, bumping on his face, on his head, et. The beating is so bad that by the time he gets an offensive flurry you don't buy it at all as he should be dead by all rights. Then Awesome kills him with a powerbomb from the ring through a table on the floor and a big splash for the finish. Just a brutal mugging, albeit an entertaining one. Nova v. Chris Candido About five minutes into this my wife asked if all of Nova's offense was based around jumping in the air and smacking his crotch into Candido's face, so that will tell you how much he contributed. On the other hand, I did think Candido looked really sharp in this offensively, hitting all of his big moves brutally and effectively. Chetti coming out and kissing Tammy was stupid and Nova getting the win was stupider though based on the post-match stuff I'm guessing this was Candido's last ECW match. Spike Dudley v. Little Guido v. Super Crazy Always interesting to watch Spike in these workrate sprints because he wasn't booked that way all that often. I thought he was really awesome in this doing diver chair pots into the crowd, hitting misdirection rolling planchas, multiple cool ranas, et. Crazy looked really good here hitting a Crazy moonsault into the crowd and takign lots of Spike's shit. They broke this up pretty good for a three way with no real "guys laying around" shit that hurts so many of these. Spike getting eliminated first sort of sucked, but I really dug the elmination with him taking out Sal E on the floor but paying for it with a Tomikaze from Guido as soon as he hit the ring. Stretch run with Crazy and Guido was pretty fast and furious but Guido got a good control segment and they did a bunch of cool shit. Crazy wiping out Sal E's attempted interference by baseball sliding the chair into his face was really cool and Guido escaping the third moonsault right after really had me thinking he might take this. Instead we got another definitive Crazy finish. This was a really good three way dance. Jerry Lynn v. Tajiri Lynn's ribs are taped so Tajiri kicks him to shit in the ribs of course. Man Tajiri beats his ass with chairshots and kicks, locks on the tarantula which is more than a vanity move with Lynn's taped ribs, et. Really loved him stabbing Lynn in the face with a tire iron and then tossing it out to the floor with the clank echoing throughout the Arena. Lynn reverses a spot where Tajiri is choking him with a tie (I think?) to make a mini-comeback but Tajiri ends up cutting off his run with this really sweet looking backbreaker from a tombstone position. Lynn keeps fighting back in this and is a bloody mess but Tajiri is always coming forward. The end of this pisses me off as Lynn fights back to hit the cradle piledriver and then Corino comes in and eats one and then Lynn goes after Victory before Tajiri hits the mist and a nasty brainbuster for the pin. This was on it's way to being an incredible match prior to the interference, but the right guy won so I can't say it totally kills the bout. Too good not to pass on. Tom Marquez v. Kid Kash Baldies interupt this quickly though Kash hits a couple of nice spots before they do. Da Baldies v. Balls Mahoney/Axl Rotten This might have been a match? All I know is it went to a "no contest" when New Jack ran in and got gratered in the eye in a "this is a shoot!" ECW moment. Sabu v. Rob Van Dam I do not like there 96 matches at all as they are car crash affairs with tons of botched shit. This was a car crash affair but nothing was really botched and most of the big spots looked almost murderous. Even simply shit like RVD's rolling plancha looked like it may have concussed Sabu. They were even laying in some nasty punches to go along with the table and chair spots. This also had the added benefit of Fonzy being a neutral party and a camera angle that made his inane bullshit inaudible. The longer this went the more of a chore it became to sit through. Just as it started to get laborious though they went to the "draw" finish and then on the restart Sabu hit a roll through Camel clutch spot which I have to admit was pretty damn awesome and a legit "this feels like the end" moment. Of course it doesn't end and amazingly enough the OT period is actually really good as it is Sabu unloading everything onto RVD, with RVD folding up like an accordian and playing defense nearly the whole time. There is even a really good cross armbreaker spot in there. Then there is another five more minutes call and RVD tries to walk away and gets nailed with a diving plancha and then a sweet splash from Sabu and I can't believe it but this match is actually becoming really awesome. Sadly the rest of the second over time isn't all that compelling though Sabu does kick out of the five star which was sort of surprising even to me. Still I think this has to make the set as it is easily the best Sabu v. RVD match. It sort of comes across as a "Sabu's last stand" match and looking back I'm not sure that's inaccurate. Raven/Tommy Dreamer v. The Impact Players This is Raven and Tommy as feuding partners which would be okay except for the fact that Dreamer's long FIP segment was set up by a Raven Pearl Harbor crotch spot. Then Raven gets the crowd going for the hot tag. WTF? Anyway the whole match is a vehicle for the return of The Sandman at the end and I"ve got to say even now the pop he gets gave me goosebumps. Also love him coming to the ring and caning the piss out of Jason and the Impact Players, Corino and Victory running out to hold Rhino back only to get caned to utter shit by him. Great moment to end a very good wrestling show.
