ECW 10-11-96

Another angle with Fonzy/Gordon

Samoan Gangsta Party v. The Gangstas

This was fun. I liked New Jack hurling a chair at one of the Samoans heads and later the Samoans drop what appears to be a VCR on his head. Fun for what it was.

Doug Furnas v. Johnny Smith

Smith targets Furnas arm which is okay but Furnas counters with his overhead belly-to-belly. Furnas hits his big dropkick for a nice nearfall and then his snap powerslam for another. Furnas locks on a boston crab, but Smith immediately gets to the ropes. Smith ends up coming back with a powerslam and then a missle dropkick/lariat combo for a nearfall. Good German for a nearfall. Furnas hits a flash frankensteiner for the pin. Fun while it lasted though really rushed.

Devon Storm v. Louie Spicolli

Storm hilariously overbumping for a chop and Spicolli pulling him down from an attempted guardrail bump was awesome. Actually I really liked the early going of this as they were moving fast but executing pretty well. Storm takes over with shots to the nuts and oddly Storm decided to slow it down. At one point he executes the strangest looking hold I've ever seen as he starts to apply a Boston Crab but just sits back clutching Spicolli's feet for a good thirty seconds. Storm hits his slingshot flip plancha a few minutes later. Spicolli fights back and hits a big superplex and eventually the DVD for the finish. Storm's goofiness made a Spicolli match fun at least.

FBI v. Bubba/Spike Dudley

Holy shit this is one of my dream ECW matches. Pre-match J.T. sings Fly Me To The Moon while Guido shadow boxes and gets progressively more and more pissed off. Bubba and Spike come out and Spike has to be held back from storming the ring by Bubba at the same time J.T. is holding back Guido from storming Spike. Acid induced little man syndrome v. ethnic stereotype little man syndrome as storyline for a match is actually really great. At one point Bubba actually drags Spike off the apron onto the floor face first to control him and then leads the crowd in a Spike chant. J.T. sucks chant starts so the FBI start to leave but are coaxed back. J.T. gets on the mic and tries to teach Bubba how to sing Fly Me To The Moon, then slaps him for not being his name so Bubba paintbrushes him and J.T. sells this like he was just hit by a bus. Then they go straight back to holding back their respective little men. Bubba shoves J.T. down after the initial collar and elbow and J.T. and Bubba end up holding back Guido and Spike again. Man this is awesome. Bubba slaps J.T. damn near out yet again and AGAIN they do the holding back the little men spot. Bubba rolls up his litle finger at a front row fan as Sign Guy laughs in his face. J.T. backs Bubba into the corner and unloads with some punches that had to have been intentionally shitty then turn around and says "I kicked his friggin ass huh?" Of course Bubba then lays him out with a clothesline and a dropkick and actually propels himself into a front flip over the ropes because he is celebrating so hard. Then he gets back in the ring and knocks Guido off the apron. Hilariously J.T. now complains of a hai rpull which is utterly ridiculous and awesome. Crowd chants "We Want Spike." Guido has already tagged in and J.T. holds him back and releases him into a drop toehold. Tremendously awesome spot with Spike and Guido exchanging shoulder tackles and strongman facial expressions, then slaps, then Guido ducks down on an attempted rope spot sending Spike to the floor. J.T. is screaming at him to "kick his freaking ass!" and Guido delivers with a stiff clothesline for a nearfall. Bubba starts a "Little Shit" chant directed at Guido. Guido tags in J.T. who whips Spike into the turnbuckles face first, then they do the paisan drop elbow and J.T. kisses his fingers in approval. J.T. hits his forward flip into the ropes/splash combo for a nearfall. Spike tries to comeback and leaps into an electric chair position, J.T. drops down and goes to a waste lock but Spike spins J.T. off. Spike runs the ropes and gets fucking KILLED with a clothesline from J.T. J.T. drags Spike to the corner and they do the fake tag spot behind the refs back with Guido coming in and hitting a back body drop, complaining about a slow count and then dropkicking Bubba on the apron. Ring is cut off on Spike and J.T. gets tagged back in. J.t. with a delayed vertical suplex and Guido is stomping on Spike's head while Bubba tries to get in the ring but is kept at bay by the ref. Fuck awesome spot as the FBI go for a double clothesline but Bubba - standing on the apron - catches Spike lifts him up and tosses him onto the FBI for a double body press. Bubba gets the hot tag, tosses Guido onto his fucking face on the floor. He hits a huge side slam on J.T. and then sits on the top rope. Spike leaps off of his shoulders and Spike's head literally hits a rafter for a great nearfall as Guido just makes into the ring for the save. Bubba gets pissed and picks up Guido and chunks him onto the ref with a gorilla press. D-Von sneaks in behind Bubba and kills him with a chairshot allowing J.T. to score the pin. Spike and Guido keep brawling and Spike takes an insane face first bump onto the ring post, a hot shot on the guardrail and then Guido stands on a fucking lunch counter and leaps off with a stomp. Big Dick hits the ring and destroys the FBI with chokeslams. Dick chases D-Von off and the FBI try and calm him down at ringside but Bubba hits a fucking tope onto all of them as Spike comes back from the dead to throw forearms. Bubba puts an end to this segment by breaking Sign Guy's sign on Guido's back. This is the Cowabunga v. Jim Cornette of the ECW Set. Extremely entertaining match with everyone looking good. Fun, unexpected spots. Great schtick. Good nearfalls. Awesome pre-match and post-match stuff. To me this is a stone cold lock. Guaranteed personal pick regardless of what anyone else thinks.

Mikey Whipwreck v. Taz

I enjoyed watching Mikey get demolished as he takes everything well and sells perfectly, but you really wish Taz would have given him more. He squashes him like he's Donn E. Allen here and that just pisses me off.

Rambling Gangstas promo

Pitbull 2 v. Shane Douglas

This is chopped up. They cut shortly after Douglas bumps through a table and when they come back they are brawling near what appears to be a concessions stand. The first minute that was shown was good. The rest was better than a typical match between these two but still not good.

Brian Lee v. Tommy Dreamer

I always had a soft spot for their matches and this was no exception. The crew brings out a ton of weapons pre-match so naturally they brawl outsidw where they pinball around. Lee crotches Dreamer on a railing and then throws him into the seating at the Food Court. Wild scene as fans start stampeding through chairs and RF loses the action as they get back to the ring. Dreamer hits the DDT for the finish almost as soon as he catches up. Post-match Lee drags Tommy to the concessions and chokeslams him through a merch table. Fun.

Erotic Experience v. The Eliminators

Holy shit, the fat guy from EE keeps escaping Saturn's grasp and then slaps him and I actually think I might like the match at this point. They do a handshake spot that ends with Saturn punching him in the ear which is also awesome. Chetti comes in and gets taken down with a fireman's carry of all things and then the Elims clear the ring with dropkicks. Chetti walking around ringside pointing to his chin is amusing. Chetti comes in and does a long rope running spot that ends in Kronus hitting a fall away slam. Elims with a forward roll slam/big splash combo onto Chetti for a fun nearfall. Holy shit Chetti tags out after an eyepoke and kicks Saturn from behind on the ropes. The fat dude lays out Saturn and he does a tame version of the Roger Rabbit dance move to celebrate. Saturn is now FIP and is getting double teamed and effectively worked over by the Erotic Experience of all people. He even gets a hope spot with a moonsault and then gets clotheslined to shit for his trouble. Man the fat guy from Erotic Experience actually works up from a chinlock and hits a back body drop on Saturn and then a crossbody for a nearfall. Then Chetti comes in and actually hits an above average clothesline! Chetti hits an AWESOME bombs away leg drop for a nearfall and then pitches Saturn to the floor. God damn they are still working over Saturn and he tries to comeback again and gets floored again with a clothesline. Saturn ends up hitting a shitty looking double japanese arm drag of all things for the hot tag. Kronus is Kronus, but he does almost kill the fat guy with a spinkick. Then they hit the poor kick with a brutal looking backbreaker/diving knee combo. Chetti gets hit with some double thrust but the fat guy makes the save. Saturn with a wipe out plancha on Chetti and then he and Kronus hit the total elimination for the finish. This was far and away the most shockingly good match I've seen so far. Right up there with the FBI v. Elims match and Erotic Experience were a seriously good tag team. Chetti peaked in 96.

Too Cold Scorpio v. Sabu

Man the beginning of this is incredibly great as Sabu dives for his trademark single leg so Scorp hits him with a short kick to the face and then a leaping high kick with the crowd audibly gasping at both. They follow this up with a pretty decent mat exchange and then they take turns punching each other in the face hard as fuck. Scorp gets the upperhand and kicks the shit out of Sabu again. Scorp recovers on a relatively minor Sabu botched kick and they end up going back to it a second later with Sabu hitting a follow up plancha. Then Sabu throws Scorpio directly onto a fan. I mean Scorp essentially plancha'ed a dude in the front row. Sabu follows this up with a spring board dive into the crowd dropping a chair right onto Scorp's face. Sabu sets up a table bridging the gap between rail and ring and goes for an inside out rana but Scorp just drops him with a powerbomb and then hits a slingshot splash for a nearfall and a diving clothesline for another nearfall. Sabu does a really neat counter from a crucifix position and then hits a slingshot side kick that Scorp really took well as it was on the way to being a pretty questionable spot. A bit off on a reverse crossbody from Scorp though it actually made the move look more brutal so fuck it. Crowd starts chanting table and Scorp gives them the "one more second" hand gesture. Scorp hits a standing enziguri and a urange for a nearfall. God damn he just drills him with a standing knee drop and grinds his forearm into his fucking face on another nearfall. Sabu comes back with a tornado DDT and a slingshot moonsault for nearfalls and I really liked the way this was set up as it felt like Scorp had been taking too much time to put Sabu away. Sabu goes to the arm of all thing so Scorp rolls over on an armbar attempt and knees the fuck out of Sabu's face several times. Then he picks him up and powerbombs the shit out of him. Then we get an awesome diving legdrop for a nearfall. Scorp unloads on the floor with punches and kicks and then tosses Sabu into the crowd where he throws some more nasty strikes. They actually brawl to the back of the building and unfortunately the camera misses some of this. It picks up with Sabu getting thrown into a wall with his leg knocking a whole in it. Back in the ring Sabu wins a punch battle and hits a twisting splash but Scorp gets the knees up on a moonsault attempt and it looks like it might have killed Sabu. Scorp with a splash for a nearfall. Scorp face plants on a flip splash and Sabu follows up with a slingshot legdrop. This is the first thing in the match that really felt flat to me but I can't criticize it too hard because Scorp follows up by kicking Sabu's face in again and just casually suplexing him face first to the floor. Scorp takes the spine of a chair and drives it into Sabu's face, but Sabu fights back by knocking around with the chair a bit. He goes for a table spot but Scorp slides through his legs. Sabu lands on his feet and Scorp hits a forearm and runs the rope going for a crossbody onto the table but Sabu ducks and Scorp ends up hitting a plancha onto the table and god dam does it look nasty. Sabu goes to use a chair for a vaulting leg drop but Scorp ends up setting the chair up so Sabu leg drops the fucking chair. Scorp goes up top for a moonsault but misses. Sabu runs the ropes, leaps off the chair and Scorp gets to his feet so Sabu adjusts and instead of the triple jump hits an awesome spinning DDT for the finish. Spotty as fuck but totally awesome match. Post-match Scorp literally kicks Sabu in the face all the way to the dressing room.

Steve Richards v. Sandman

Richards blindsides Sandman and canes the shit out of him. This does no last long as Sandman ends up running around ringside bashing himself and Richards in the head with shit handed to him by ringside fans. Sadly he did not use the pinata. Richards briefly comes back with a superkick, but Sandman just tosses him back to the floor. Sandman takes a pumpkin and breaks it over Richards head. Sandman gets a hold of pinata and rips it apart. Richards comes back with yet another superkick after meanie interference. Ridiculous spot with Nova accidentally hitting a rana on Richards that almost kills both of them. Sandman brings a piece of the guardrail into the ring and suplexes it onto Richards. Sandman gets superkicked again this time twice pinballing into the railing and getting DDT'ed for a nearfall. Meanie runs in and hits a moonsault allowing Richards to get another nearfall. Sandman ends up avoiding a Nova dropkick and DDTing Richards for the finish. Finish was kind of a let down but the match was fun.