ECW TV 1998 18

Lance Storm introduces Tammy Lynn Bytch (aka Dawn Marie to ECW Arena) EXTRA

Lance Storm v. Chris Candido

Storm bumps very well in the early going which is some what shocking. Loved the table spot as Candido takes a hiptoss on it and it doesn't break so Storm elbows him through it. Candido hits a nice rollup and dive in this as well. Longer this goes worse Lance gets and this was the debut of the Tammy pins Lance spot that they worked around the horn. Half of this was real good at least.

Sal E. Graziano v. John Kronus

Squash for Sal E. followed by Jeff Jones talking shit challenging any giant in the back.

Spike Dudley v. Sal E.

Squash for Spike.

Tommy Rogers v. Tracy Smothers

This is the best Rogers singles match so far aside from maybe the Roadkill match from Halloween Stamford show. For that reason I am nominating it despite it's relative brevity. I thought the spot with Rogers taking the flagpole to the back and then getting dragged through the ropes and dropped awkwardly face first on the railing was sick. Axl/Balls come out and bust open Guido and chase off him and Rich to make it one on one. Tracy dominates with his kicks but can't put Rogers away. Rogers "big" offense really wasn't "big" by this point, but I thought it looked good and worked well for nearfalls. I liked the finish with Smothers going for a front kick, Rogers ducking, hooking Tamikaze, Smothers nut shot to break the move, and then a pumphandle slam for a relatively clean Smothers finish.

Sandman v. Jason/Justin Credible (Singapore Cane Match)

Not terribly interesting. Sandman pins Jason. Jason tries to walk out and then gets in the ring and begs on his knees for Sandman not to cane him. Jason and Justin get caned to shit and then Sandman beats up Nicole Bass. Credible hits the ring and canes Sandman severely.

Fonzy mid-ring interview. Calls out Taz. Fonzy tries to cut a deal with Taz to help his guys in feud with Triple Threat. Triple Threat hit ring and then Tripple Threat/Taz have a verbal confrontation. Fonzy ends up calling Douglas a little dick and said he has to fuck his girl. This leads to a brawl. Just as Bigelow is about to destroy Fonzy, Sabu/RVD hit the ring for save. Solid segment.

Highlights from last weeks Storm/Candido match

Storm promo.

Jerry Lynn v. Mikey Whipwreck

This was an escalating match as they worked from stuff like basic headlock exchanges, to more "complicated" submissions, to fighting on the floor/highspots. In a sense this was good because there was some build to it, but you get the feeling watching this that this would have been better as a sprint, as Lynn in particularly looks almost annoyed at times by the deliberate pace. Mikey takes a crazy bump for the top face first to the floor to set up the Lynn dive which always looks good. God the tornado DDt looks murderous and reckless as hell in this.

Tommy Dreamer v. Jack Victory

Tommy ends up battling with all of Lance Wright's goons early. God Victory and Dreamer both take some insane bumps in this. Victorys bleeds a pretty big gusher. Guardrail ends up in the ring and they take even more crazy bumps. Doring ends up on grabbing the mic and dancing around like a fool while the heels beatdown Dreamer. Meanie and Nova make the save. Victory loses after a bowling ball to the nuts.

Masato Tanaka v. Bam Bam Bigelow

Tanaka selling for Bammer early was semi-shocking. I actually liked this match a lot more when Bigelow was on offense, not so much because it was sharp (though it was), but because Tanaka worked really different against him then he did Tanaka/Mahoney and it was interesting. The botches happened at the worst possible time in this and there was an RVD/SAbu run in making it unnominatable, but I am going to toss it out there as a potential extra as I think it is a match people would like to see and these guys work a different style than normal here. EXTRA