Posted November 21, 201014 yr comment_5458475 Louie Spicolli v. Balls Mahoney balls was a pretty good heel in this. I thought the impact of his moves looked good too and he hit more of his shit than normal (his over the rope leg lariat looked good for example). He also took a really nasty looking bump on a German. Balls going to the nuts on a Louie Axehandle attempt was pretty great. REally big bump from Balls off the top on a leg drop which actually gets a "you fucked up" chant that isn't entirely smarky shit. Then Louie hits the DVD for the finish. Far from a great match and there was some weak shit in this, but this is one of the better Spicolli matches I've seen so far. Mikey Whipwreck v. G.Q Quartermine G.Q. is a very young Chetti under a mask. Basic mat work early that builds to Mikey hitting a dropkick and a nice rolling senton on the floor. Chetti cuts him off with a really good looking powerslam and takes over and it's fairly amazing how good his offense looks. Part of that is due to Mikey's selling which is really good, but another part of that is Chetti doing some basic shit well, like throwing a good looking elbow drop and a nice neckbreaker. Chetti ends up missing a top rope leg drop and eating a rolling cradle for the finish. Really seems pretty insane that they gave Chetti so much of this at this point, but this came across as a try out match and you can see how the guy got a job here, even if it is mystifying as to how he kept it. Chris Candido v. Spike Dudley Candido pre-match mic bit is pretty good and gets the crowd into this. Early Spike manages to escape Candido's clutches on the mat which only serves to piss him off as he grabs the mic and shit talks some more which leads to a really big "Fuck You Skip" chant. They run through another fast exchange that ends with Candido swatting off a dropkick, then another that ends with Spike monkey flipping Candido into the ropes. Spike takes over with a couple of arm drags, but Candido backs him into the corner and then Spike takes the Bret Hart face first corner bump. Candido ends up attempting this a second time and Spike makes a mini-comeback but Candido cuts off a splash with a nice powerslam then hits a cool looking jumping suplex both for nearfalls. Candido starts doing jumping jacks ala the Boddydonnas and now Spike is doing some great limp selling as they go to another hope spot with Candido powering out of a roll up and sending Spike shoulder first into the steel. Candido actually goes to work on the arm immediately with an armbar. Spike tries to comeback but Candido hits a nice looking gutwrench powerbomb for a nearfall. Candido goes for his diving headbutt but misses and Spike goes straight into comeback mode with a nice dropkick and rana followed by an enziguri that Candido took a nice flip bump for. Spike gets a couple of nearfalls in and Candido goes to an eyepoke before they go into one of the better looking sunset flip/trading roll up sequences I can recall as it wasn't overly long and it didn't look super contrived. Brief forearm battle and Spike hits the Acid Drop for a nearfall. He goes up top and hits a splash for another nearfall. Goes up again for what looks like a moonsault attempt but Candido crotches him. He is setting up for the top rope powerbomb but they both fall down into the ropes. Crowd chants "you fucked up" so Candido goes to the mat and does some push ups ala Skip which really was a pretty brilliant "fuck you" recovery, then goes back up and hits the top rope powerbomb on Spike for the finish. If not for the slight flub at the finish this would have been a serious candidate for top thirty ECW match ever and even with it I'm not sure that it really falls below that point. This was also the same week as Candido's great match with Mikey, so it is fair to say that Christmas of 96 was the apex of Candido in ECW. Bubba Dudley v. Brian Lee Strange early spot as Lee bails/sort of takes a dropkick and then spills to the floor with neither guy really reacting like you would think. Lee ends up chucking Bubba into the first row for a really wild bump. They start brawling around the Arena and they literally brawl into a second part of the Arena where a hocky game is going on. They actually spill onto the Hockey rink during the fucking game and lee takes a stick from a player and hits Bubba with it then throws him into a goal! Lee celeberates and the players of one of the teams literally mob him in celebration. They end up brawling through an arcade then Lee jumps off of a table onto Bubba. Bubba takes a chair shot to the head that wraps around his neck. Bubba back in the ring with a nice diving clothesline and then a Bubba Cutter for a good nearfall. Bubba gets back body dropped over the top but he catches himself on the ropes and pulls himself back up only to be chokeslammed off the apron through a table in a somewhat contrived looking spot that still had a cool pay off. Lee rolled him in and pinned him right after than punches out the ref. This was fun as fuck. I'm going to nominate it as an ECW garbage brawl that really delivered as a fun and unique match. At worst this should be an extra. Perry Saturn v. Sabu Pre-match Taz runs out and Sabu ends up doing a suicide dive over the top but he lands on Saturn and not Taz. This match is a bomb throwing sprint as these guys go straight into the high spots, dueling moonsaults, hitting twisting clothesline, et. Kronus comes out and pushes Sabu off the top and Saturn kicks a chair into his face hard as fuck. Camera ends up focusing on RVD/Kronus fight on the floor. This turns into Eliminators v. Sabu/Rob Van Dam v. The Gangstas Starts off with Elims wiping out the faces and hitting the Total Elimination. Gangstas hit the ring and I admit I sort of mark out for New Jack with a Nintendo and hitting dudes with rakes. Sabu puts a Gangsta through a table. Saturn hits a dive onto the floor. Saturn hit a really nice looking rana on Sabu. Funny spot as RVD throws a chair for Saturn to catch for Van Daminator and Saturn just throws it back at his head. Sadly the awesomeness of that is ruined by RVD repeating the spot two seconds later so he could hit the Van Daminator. New Jack hits a diving chair shot on Kronus but when he gets up to go for the cover he gets hit with a running chairshot to the face for the finish. Somehwere in here Sabu and RVD got eliminated I guess as they announce the Elims as still champs right after this. Truly a bizarre finish to a fun match. Taz out in the ring calling Sabu out. D-Von Dudley v. Pitbull 2 This went too long, but I thought it was a fundamentally good match with sound enough structure. D-Von got the crowd pissed early and they stayed interested in the match throughout. Some good power offense from both guys. Chairshots on the floor from D-Von looked brutal and the set up for the top rope fall away slam finish was good. Post-match Gertner announcing D-Von as winner and then D-Von ambushing Pitbull was fun too. Then the BWO of all people come down and make the save destroying D-Von and Gertner with Pitbull 2. Tommy Dreamer/Beulah v. Shane Douglas/Francine Pre-match bit with both teams hiding chains and Dreamer having a huge chain in his pants (cue EricR run-in) was pretty amusing. This was all Dreamer as FIP taking nasty bumps and then winning on a fluke roll up after a catfight. Post-match brawl was wild and saw Francine attacked by Pitbull 2. Decent for what it was. Sandman v. Raven Sandman goes to the back to get the title after the introductions and gets ambushed by a chair wielding Raven as he emerges from the curtain. Raven with a bunch of cane shots and Sandman is really looking like he is in extreme pain. Sandman reverses Raven into the steel then, suplexes him on the railing and hits his vaulting plancha/cane shot. Sandman chops Raven in the face and then hits him with some good punches. Raven retreats into the crowd and then pull Sandman over the barricade with him. Sandman carries Raven around the Arena bumping him into every object he can find. Sandman takes a wild flip bump onto and ultimately over a pile of chairs. The crowd starts chanting "hockey rink" and Sandman takes a wild leaping bump into the cage that surrounds the rink. Raven piledrives Sandman through a table. They brawl back to the ring and Raven sets up a chair but Sandman whips him into it. Sandman hits a DDT but Lori runs into the ring so Sandman rips her dress off and spanks her. Raven blindsides him with a cane shot and a DDT and goes for the pin but the BWO's music hits. They distract Raven and Sandman ends up spitting beer in his eyes. Raven hits members of the BWO and Richards ends up "accidentally superkicking Sandman for the finish after arguing with Raven. This is probably the best Raven/Sandman singles match I can remember seeing even with the overbooked finish.
