Posted August 27, 201015 yr comment_5455035 Little Guido v. Chris Chetti Guido continues to be the only guy who can really make Chetti look like a good wrestler. Others can carry him, but no one else really seems to make him rise to their level the way Guido does. Chetti's dive looked really good in this, he sold well during the heat segment and Guido's heeling and offense were well played across the board. It was too short to go forward but it was good for what it was. Corporal Punishment v. Pitbull 2 Total squash. FBI v. Spike Dudley/Chris Chetti FBI getting chased out early and calling for timeouts on the floor was pretty funny. Basic heel tag stuff like that stands out so much in ECW which is another reason this act never gets old. Guido almost tosses Spike out of the ring on a back body drop to set up the FIP and it is a really fun segment. Spike sells with his whole body in a way that is very difficult to describe, but the way he crumples on impact from certain offense and the way he reacts to backhands from Smothers is awesome. This was on it's way to being a great match when Taz' music hit and he ran in and destroyed everyone. Fucker. Louie Spicolli v. Chris Candido Spicolli's leg is blown here and they do a pre-match angle with the Triple Threat so this is nothing at all but leads somehow to... Balls Mahoney v. Chris Candido There was a lot of this that I liked - especially Candido hitting a desperation powerbomb and selling himself by flying the floor - but the first half of this was sort of sloppy and very lazily put together. The longer the match went on, the sharper the offense looked and the more impressive both guys looked. I really loved the finish too as the super plex looked epic and Candido sold it like he literally stumbled into a victory. I'm really on the fence with this one because their were chunks of this that were very strong and I think this is the sort of match others might enjoy more than I did but it's not something that strikes me as one of the best matches in company history or even terribly unique. Terry Funk v. Axl Rotten I don't know if anyone has been as over in the role of "legend" as Funk was in ECW at this point. Axl's disrespect of Funk alone gets the crowd going and really sets the tone for this early. When Funk gets caught by Axl on the floor the floor he really batters him and they end up in the crowd. Axl starts hitting Funk in the face which just pisses Funk off. Seriously Funk's crazed old man Hulk Up is my favorite spot of it's kind and here it is awesome as he is shit talking Axl and ends up firing back and splitting Axl's head open with punches alone. Funk ends up breaking something over Axl's head on the stage and in the ring they do a pretty good false finish leading to a Funk win after a DDT. If this had been a little bit more developed as a match I would have nominated it, but it was still a lot of fun. Post-match the Dudleys and Brian Lee attack Funk which leads to a locker room clearing brawl. Spike Dudley v. Raven I continue to be amused at the number of guys who were working double duty on some of these ECW shows. This was a pretty fun competitive squash. Shane Douglas v. Pitbull 2 Man Pitbull 2 takes some really big bumps in this for a guy his size. I was half way getting behind the notion of this being good enough to vouch for and out came Rude and this match went straight in the shitter. Eliminators v. Sabu/Rob Van Dam This was a clusterfuck. The highlight was the opening backflip exchange between Kronus and RVD. The rest of this just felt like wild spots, many of which didn't look that great, leading to nowhere. Bubba Dudley/D-Von Dudley v. Sandman/Tommy Dreamer The opening stalling this was actually really tedious and this is coming from someone who likes stalling. Once this got going I thought this was a fairly enjoyable tag. Tommy made a good punching bag, the dives in this looked cool, I liked the stuff off the hot tag and I loved Sandman's bumps on the cut off spots when he was on the apron. Overall this was better than expected.
