Posted December 13, 201014 yr comment_5460257 Devon Storm v. El Puerto Ricano Awesome opening as Ricano hits a snapmare dropkick combo and then leads the crowd in "Puerto" chant. God damn Storm punches the shit out of him, then holds his head up by the hair and paint brushes him. Fuck another cool punch. Ricano blocks a hiptoss, then reverses out and hits one of his own followed by a springboard dive. Some more fun back and fourth and Puerto counters a powerbomb with a neat looking arm drag, but gets caught trying to go to the floor with a baseball slide and ends up getting repeated smashings into the guardrail. Storm hits a nice moonsault in the ring but walks away from a nearfall. Storm is actually working over the back and locks in an insane looking submission that is like a cross between a Scorpion and a Deathlock. Totally sick spot as Ricano hits a desperation victory roll over the ropes wiping them both out on the floor and follows it up with a spring board Vader bomb to the floor. Fuck! They botch a monkey flip in the worst way and even though they follow up with a nice top rope rana it was a real momentum killer. Storm with a Gory special into a sick splash mountain. Storm gets a chair and puts it on Ricano but walks around the ring arguing with the crowd about what to do. This allows Ricano to get up and drill Storm with chairshots. Ricano hits a rope walk rana and then a top rope sunset flip for a nearfall. Storm drop toeholds Ricano and then smashes his face over and over into the canvas. Then he slams Ricano over the top to the floor. He fucking kills Ricano with a front suplex onto the guardrail which really looked sick. Storm does his insane wipe out tope con hilo onto Ricano who is seated in a chair and it looks like it nearly killed both of them. Storm hits his reverse blockbuster for the finish. This got a ridiculous twelve minutes, which is insane for an ECW opener with two no gimmick, undercard guys. Some of it was sloppy and there was the one bad botch but I'm nominating it anyhow as a unique and fun match. Dances With Dudley v. Steve Richards Stevie and Nova (in a cape) ambush DWD. He ends up coming back and double up and hitting a sweet rolling senton onto the heels. Richards takes a nice big bump to the floor and DWD really does some cool offense including a missle dropkick and a flip splash for a nearfall. DWD controlling Richards with mat holds and building up to a missed Richards dropkick was even pretty cool. DWD throws a stiff punch and clothesline and hits a second rope flip splash for another nearfall. Richards takes over with a low blow. Richards is strutting around and now working over the leg of DWD. DWD fires up with a nice comeback but gets distracted and eats a superkick for the finish. This was a lot of fun actually. Slow in parts but any interesting match up. Big Dick/Bubba Dudley v. FBI Pre-match FBI bit is fun as usual. Holy fuck Guido gets killed with a bump off of a gorilla press onto the time keepers table which has no give at all. This gets even more absurd with Nova beating the shit out of Sign Guy on the floor which prompts Big Dick to leave the room to kick the shit of Nova who he takes all the way to the back of the Arena. Bubba is left alone for an FBI double team which of course prompts Bubba to hit the ring and destroy everyone with chairshots. Taz v. Hack Myers Okay for a Taz match of this type. They botched one spot, but Hack sold the fuck out of his arm throughout which was a nice touch. Mikey Whipwreck v. Shane Douglas Man Douglas stalls forever at the beginning of this. The opening exchanges in this are very basic but I liked them because Douglas really bumped huge for everything and did a good job making Mikey look like someone who was on his level. Test of strength spot is really awesome as it ends with Douglas isolating Mikey's arm and just crunching it with his boot. Awesome corkscrew suplex by Shane. Shane just hovering over Mikey for the cover and shit talking him was pretty sweet too. Mikey takes a nice backbreaker and bails to the floor while the wildly anti-Shane crowd chants "where's your skateboard?" Mikey takes a fucking crazy bump on his back over the security railing. Then Shane suplexed Mikey on the unbreakable time keepers table with Mikey falling on his head. Mikey comes back with a running dropkick in the corner and then throws Shane to the floor where he whips him into the steel, chops him and takes a chair to him. Mikey then hit a really nice flip plancha and paid Shane back with his own suplex on the unbreakable table. Mikey with a nice missle dropkick for a nearfall. Semi-strange spot as Mikey charges and gets got with a strange forearm blow, but counters by going low. Awesome Cactus clothesline from Mikey puts them back on the floor. MIkey with a neckbreaker, rocker dropper and DDT for nearfalls. Cool spot as he goes to get a chair and just chucks it at Douglas from the outside in. Cool finish as Douglas catches Mikey with a quick belly to belly onto the chair. These guys had several good matches with each other over the years and this is as good as any of them. Chris Jericho v. Pitbull 2 Some of the early exchanges in this are fun with a good looking high kick, Jericho getting caught in a spinkick attempt and powerbombed, et. Pitbull catching Jericho and hitting the tombstone is a spot he does with everyone, but it always looks good. Pitbull denting a plastic trashcan on Jericho sounds stupid but it was done with such contempt that I liked it. I also liked Jericho's counter of the press slam into a rana and that leading to his diving dropkick and inside out splash was a pretty smart transition. Jericho's control segment was brief and not terribly compelling, but I did like the way he took the hotshot cutoff from Pitbull. Pitbull 2 hits his top rope over head but this leads to Douglas coming out and a wild scene with Francine getting kissed and slammed, Shane hitting everyone with the TV title and Pitbull 1 coming out in a sling to make the save. Back in the ring there is a really great sequence with a lionsault, into tombstone attempt, into reverse tombstone, into escape of tombstone, ending in a sick German from Jericho to Pibull 2. jericho hit the top rope rana for the pin. I would have liked this a whole fucking lot without the Douglas run-in though that didn't effect the outcome and didn't ruin the match. Still worth a nomination. Eliminators v. Gangstas Notable because Natural Born Killaz isn't playing throughout. New Jack's diving clothesline to Saturn who had a trashcan on his head was a neat spot. Some of the props spots in this looked brutal and both Saturn and Kronus whipped themselves around like crazy to make this interesting. This was mostly meandering bullshit and went on way too long, but it really should have been a lot worse than it was. Tommy Dreamer v. Brian Lee Kimona and Beulah wheeling a bunch of weapons to the ring made me laugh for some reason. Cool spot with Lee countering a bump into a wall by bumping Dreamer. They brawl outside and Dreamer is running around with a football helmet on holding a hockey stick which is funny as hell. Tommy takes a really nutty bleecher bump and then gets killed with a sick looking shot from a keyboard. Not as fun as some of their other matches but not a complete waste of time either. Raven v. Sandman The whole dog and pony show with Missy, Raven's geeks and Tyler pre-match. This was basically all angle with tons of run ins and bullshit. Okay for what it was but I've seen this a thousand times now.
