Posted October 7, 201014 yr comment_5456903 Cyrus gets chased out of the ring by Joey Styles. New York, New York introduction Joey Matthews/Christian York v. Hot Commodity The early dives, ranas, et. all looked really sharp and seemed like great tempo setters for a big show (this was the first Hammerstein show). This is moving along well but they pretty badly botch up the faces set up prior to the finish. Still a fun opener overall. Clips of Balls Mahoney dancing on a burning bar. Simon Diamond/Johnny Swinger v. Nova/Chris Chetti This kind of sucked. Swinger/Diamond winning was sort of a swerve, but the rest of this was a really by the numbers match between two teams who's by the numbers stuff isn't any good. Rodney Mack at a bar. Tajiri/Mikey Whipwreck v. FBI Opening segment with Guido and Tajiri is really great as they do two standoff spots that are actually entertaining, a great Fujiwara spot, et. Then Mamaluke comes in and just flies around bumping like crazy, taking nasty double teams and kicks to the head, et. This is the sort of match where a lightning pace is not a hindrance because both teams do such a good job of hitting their shit cleanly and they actually work control segments on top of that. Mikey getting kicked in the face and then eating a nasty triple rotation DDT from Mamaluke was really great. Mikey's stunner is a move that I usually think looks sort of stupid but the FBI take it so well here. This is really short, but almost a picture perfect sprint. Everything you would want out of these two teams, a clean finish, no interference, and a super hot crowd. This may have been on SC list, but I am going to tag it as a nomination anyhow. Jerry Lynn/Tommy Dreamer v. Rob Van Dam/Kid Kash I like Kash, am higher on Lynn in ECW than you might think, and believe RVD can be tolerable in small doses. But god I was begging for Dreamer to tag in to this. First several minutes are the aforementioned three running through highly choreographed and uninteresting dance routine disguised as wrestling with a non-existent payoff. Dreamer comes in and hits a cool looking diving elbow but then tags back out in short order. Ugh. They do a bunch of double teamed flippy shit that looks awful. To be fair the split legged moonsault looked really cool here and I loved the way Dreamer sold RVD's hilo convulsing on the floor wildly like he'd taken buckshot in the face. Finishing run to this was really ridiculous though entertaining enough in large part due to Dreamer's overselling and RVD's wild pop up bump for both the Rhino gore and the Dreamer piledriver. This is a match that had it's moments, but I can't imagine how terrible this match would have been without Dreamer. Sinister Minister/Tajiri/Mikey promo from streets of New York Finish to C.W. Anderson v. Jerry Lynn Roadkill/Danny Doring v. Simon Diamond/Johnny Swinger v. Nova/Chris Chetti Nova and Chetti jump in after the heels work over the faces a bit which really annoys me as it drastically reduces the odds of this being any good. Chetti turns heel on Nova with a chairshot after Nova hits a swanton. Diamond takes a really great bump off of Roadkill's diving clothesline but is up two seconds later to hit his piece of shit finisher on Doring. Clips of Elektra dancing on a bar and throwing dudes off of it. New York, New York introduction. Cyrus mid-ring screaming at Styles and Gertner. Heyman runs in and blindsides Cyrus with a phone shot. Rhino runs out and picks Heyman up and hits a running gore through a table. Cyrus gets on the mic and starts challenging people to hit the ring. A plant jumps the guardrail and the cops grab him. Rhino gores a cop which is actually really awesome. The whole locker room clears out and a massive brawl breaks out. Rhino is left alone with Kash which brings out the Sandman. Sandman canes him to shit but Rhino hits a gore. Kash gets back up and hits a massive flip plancha onto everyone. Kash hits a rana on Rhino, but then Rhino gores Kash for a great bump. RVD runs out and hits the Van Daminator on Rhino. Van Dam hits the Van Terminator on Rhino. Kash and RVD hit a rolling thunder on Rhino. A ref runs in and makes a count for Kid Kash to win the TV title in the most ridiculous "match" I've ever seen. Still a great, great segment for what it was. Still exciting to watch years after the fact. EXTRA Bilvis Wesley promo in the ring. Balls comes out and destroys him, along with the Prodigy and Prodigette. Replay of Jerry Lynn/CW Anderson finish. Scotty Anton v. Rob Van Dam Pre-match Fonzy gets powerbombed by Anton. Early crowd brawling is actually really spirited in part because the crowd is so hot, in part because Anton is working on the biggest stage of his life, and in part because Atlas Security is tossing people around which amuses me. There is a spot I really liked with RVD crotching Anton and then looking around for Fonzy to put up the chair but Fonzy has been taken out. He then does a typical RVD flip spot and looks for the chair for Fonzy but no-Fonzy and RVD gets caught with a clothesline and then gets dumped to the floor for a massive bump. Anton does an insane leaping dive smashing RVD into the guardrail and landing in the first row in the process. Anton keeps selling his ribs throughout this which I really liked. Anton is not the best offensive wrestler, but he looks fine powering RVD around. Transition back to RVD offense was pretty weak, but the split legged moonsault looked good. I really liked the fact that this was an RVD match where a superplex was a really big highspot. Fonzy fighting back to life to set up Van Daminator really pissed me off as I was hoping we could be spared Fonzy/RVD bullshit, but I must admit it was sound psych. Post-match Rhino runs out and gores RVD. He goes after Fonzy but RVD leaps onto him as the show goes off the air. This was probably not that great a match but I thought it stood out as a different RVD match and as a match that no one ever talks about, it was enjoyable.
