Posted September 4, 201015 yr comment_5455318 Little Guido v. Taz Boy I loved this more than I should have. Early this is all Guido bailing and stalling after Taz takes him on the mat. This is great stalling as Taz is getting pissed, so the crowd is getting pissed and Rich is there ringside to get the place really going bananas. Taz gets on the mic and shit talks and Rich goes fucking nuts on the apron which of course leads to Guido taking over. Guido control segment is a lot of fun as Taz actually works as a traditional babyface with mini-comebacks, good selling and a fired up comeback for the finish. Of course Smothers and Rich were freely interfering and working the ref the whole time which again just made this better. Rich takes an awesome and nutty bump right before the finish. This is a really great performance from the FBI and one of the better Taz matches I've ever seen that wasn't worked as a tough guy v. tough guy brawl or heavily gimmicked. Mikey Whipwreck/Chris Chetti v. Doug Furnas/Phil Lafon Really liked the early segment with Mikey and Lafon as they ran through some really fluid exchanges and good spots. Furnas looked fine early too but he was noticeably a step down in terms of quality even when paired with Mikey. FIP gets set up when Chetti whiffs on his triple jump moonsault. Lafon ends up standing with Chetti on a table and driving him through it which was a really incredible, original and brutal looking spot. Furnas hit his sweet powerslam when they were back in the ring and Chetti did a good job as FIP though it was really too short. Mikey was an awesome house of fire here rattling off some big spots and double ranas and then we get a ref bump off of a Mikey crossbody. Of course the faces have the Can Ams covered for the pin but evil ref comes in just in time to count the three after a Lafon chairshot. Even with the somewhat overbooked finish this was really good. Al Snow v. Lou Marconi Snow is heel here and is working the hometown guy. He works the fake injured leg angle to reasonably decent effect though his overacting comes across as silly and not threatening at all. I did like Marconi's brief comeback spots here and the psych in this was fairly strong. Tracy Smothers v. Marty Barrett Another great performance from Rich and Smothers. Barrett is a cookie cutter, clean cut, babyface the crowd doesn't really know. So Smothers and Rich proceed to work the crowd into a frenzy with mic work, stalling, bitching to the ref, et. Barrett dominates early in this but ends up going down to a Tommy Rich trip to start the FIP. Smothers and Rich work tons of heel schtick into this segment including Rich choking him up against the barricade, the kid choking Rich back, Smothers raking his fucking back off of a break, stiffing him with shit, working the ref, et. Smothers really unloads his offensive arsenal in this one and lets the kid kick out of a lot of stuff which is really better than letting the kid get in a lot of offense on his own as Barrett doesn't appear to have the best timing even if he does have decent fundamentals otherwise. Heel ref Jeff Jones DQ's Barrett for attacking Rich which is actually pretty funny. This was good shit. Justin Credible v. Paul Diamond This is by far the best I've seen Diamond in ECW. Good early pace with smooth work and a couple of big bumps by Credible leading to Diamond taking a big bump and some really great selling from Diamond on the floor. Actually Diamond's selling is good throughout and much more sustained than anything I've seen out of him so far. Diamond's comeback leg lariat and rolling samoan drop were pretty brutal looking though the float over DDT still looked like shit. Not really enough to nominate, but this was a pretty good match. Balls Mahoney/Axl Rotten v. New Jack/John Kronus Balls bump after the New Jack guitar shot was pretty funny. Kronus almost bleeds to death in this and there is a stabbing spot with Axl that looks really disgusting. Decent for what it was. Bam Bam Bigelow v. Spike Dudley Total sqaush for Bam Bam, but a fun one. Spike pretty much takes everything Bam Bam's got including a really brutal looking splash off the top for the finish. Fun for what it was. Blue Meanie v. Jason Pose down, Meanie roll up, the end. Shane Douglas v. Sabu The premise behind this was actually pretty smart as Douglas hit the steal and they work the match around an injured arm. Douglas even sells the arm off of a Sabu dive which I thought was a nice touch. The problem is that Douglas though Douglas does sell well, he is not sympathetic at all, and though Sabu does focus on the arm he really doesn't work it a compelling way. I actually think they would have been better off working reversed roles but that's neither here nor there. It was a good effort but there are some things that just can't be worked around. The run-ins sucked as well of course.
