Posted December 2, 201014 yr comment_5459050 Axl Rotten v. Spike Dudley Really good match that I think may have been on tv. Spike works the arm early and Axl is good bumping around for him and giving off some great mannerisms. He eventually stiffs him with a punch and tosses him to the floor where he teases a chair shot before giving the fucker finger to the crowd. Spike hits his forearm, dropkick, rolling senton off the apron combo which is one of my favorite sequences of any of the ECW guys. Axl and Spike are really beating the fuck out of each other with stiff shots. Axl escapes from a Spike hammerlock with a nasty clothesline that almost kills Spike, followed by another which was almost as nasty. Then he hits one of the sickest looking vertical suplexes I've ever seen. Axl goes to the top but misses an elbow drop. Spike keys in on the arm and does a crazy, twisting, arm snapper on the top rope, then shoots to the top and hits a missle dropkick to Axl's arm which Axl sells really well. Spike goes for the Acid Drop but Axl drops him back with a back suplex and then hits him with his insane reverse spike DDT for an epic finish. This was actually a pretty incredible match, with really strong psych, stiffness, good highspots, and a quality finish. FBI v. Jimmy Shoulders/Chris Chetti Shoulders got the home town pop and a slap in the face from Guido to start things off, but then cleared the ring after a splash from Chetti which he followed up with a shitty dropkick. I am a mark for a good rope running spot and Smothers can run ropes with the best of them, but Shoulders pay offs have been fucking terrible. They did do some good stuff in this - mostly standard FBI stuff - but this is not a match I feel compelled to go to bat for. Wing Kanemura v. Kevin Quinn Kanemura is the heel which I love. The opening of this is fast and furious with lots of big spots though not all of them looked good. I did like Kanemura's bump over the guardrail a lot. Kanemura ends up working over the leg which I thought was a decent way of slowing things down. Cool hope spot with Kanemura missing a moonsault but then catching Quinn in a drop toehold and going back to the leg. Kanemura ends up getting caught in the ropes on a missed move and then takes a plancha from Quinn. They do a chop exchange that ends with Kanemura taking a head bump off of a suplex and then a backflip bump off of a clothesline. Kanemura rattled off some offense and the fat man senton for the finish. Kanemura was good in this, Quinn not so much. D-Von/Big Dick Dudley v. Eliminators v. Gangstas New Jack dive is always a nice novelty and some the chairshots were prety sick, but this sucked as much as you would expect. Tommy Dreamer v Corporal Punishment This was slow and really kind of stunk to the point that when Spicolli ran in I was kind of excited about it. Shane Douglas v. Balls Mahoney They had done an angle earlier in the night with Bam Bam being in the crowd so that is part of the feel and context for this. This was really just a vehicle to set up Bammer joining the Triple Threat and the match was really tedious and hard to get through up until that point. TV version of the Bam Bam angle should make the set as an EXTRA and aired on the 5/8/97 ECW TV. Billy Wiles v. Louie Spicolli Wiles hit a good deep armdrag early, but then badly missed a moonsault press which Spicolli was forced to sell. Speaking of Spicolli, he sucks and wins after two DVDs. Blah. Taz/Chris Candido v. Sabu/Rob Van Dam Candido is a bump machine in this flying all over the place, taking blind bumps over the ropes and guardrail, et. He ends up hitting a really nice dive on Sabu after a chairshot and then RVD and Taz come in the ring like this is a Lucha match and immediately run through a string of unconvincing spots. Seriously Taz is probably the last guy that should be working with RVD and vice versa as their respective gimmicks collide head on and realstically gimmick is all either guy really has to offer. The Sabu/Taz stuff was charming, albeit stupid. Really this was only worth watching during the Candido/Sabu segments which thankfully comprised most of the match. Raven v. Sandman v. Steve Richards This sucked horribly and was barely a match. Existed just to set up. Terry Funk v. Steve Richards This was a good match up until DReamer and Raven ran out and ruined it. When ECW booked something shittly they really fucked shit up badly. Fuckers.
