wrestling / Columns

My Take On The Original ECW 1.22.08: ECW Hardcore TV (2.11.96)

January 22, 2008 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Introduction:
Welcome back to the latest edition of My Take On! With the addition of WWE 24/7 to my cable system, I have decided to have some fun and do some columns on “The Original ECW.” I plan to work this similar to the “My Take on MMA” columns, where it isn’t a recap as much as it is an analysis piece. Much like the Monday Night Wars pieces I am running, this is for entertainment purposes. I loved ECW back in the day, sitting with friends and watching the Monday Night Wars, and also have a love for the original ECW. I remember finding it at 2am back in the day in Pittsburgh and was just amazed at what I saw. I even went to a few shows in Pittsburgh. So with 24/7 jumping into my cable lineup, this will be another thing I bring you. I hope that you enjoy it.

For those that have asked, these columns don’t have a set schedule. They will appear as a fill in for when another 411 writer needs the day off.


ECW HARDCORE TV!


From the Los Battalions Hall in Queens New York

  • Match/Segment: Styles Interviews Bill Alfonzo and Taz
    Larry’s Enjoyment Index: 6.0
    Final Thoughts: Bill Alfonzo explains that 911 is finished in wrestling, due to his man Taz. This brings out Rey Mysterio Jr. Alfonzo slaps Rey and demands respect, and we get a brawl. Rey blows a RANA, gets another that sends Taz on his head, only to eat a TBONE suplex. Another release suplex leaves Rey laying and Taz stands tall over “the 110lb punk.” JT Smith is out and ends up laying the boots to Rey as well. Damage control to help Rey and Styles plans to “start the show over.” Woman now makes he way to the ring to talk to “Joseph.” She hypes “Monday Night’s” for action, but she will stay around. The Sandman is out to horrible dubbed in music to tell Woman that he isn’t going with her because she is a bitch. And now Scorpio is out to explain that he talked business with Woman, and business looks good. But he explians that she is out of here and removes her to her limo. Scorpio then says, “Take that Bitch to Atlanta!”

    Stevie and the Meanie are here to law down the law to Sandman, which is to back out of the ECW Title match with Raven. Meanie then tries to Stevie kick Sandman and eats a cane shot. Sandman promises to come for the belt. Stevie knows Raven is going to kill him and then he comes out with Kimona. He slaps Stevie around a bit, and it is actually very funny as Stevie begs off of the slaps. This whole time the Meanie is still out on the mat, which is also funny. Stevie then promises to make him happy because they will be on all of the major news shows. He picks Meanie’s pockets for a letter, saying that Stevie is suing Missy Hyatte for sexual harassment. He was violated you see. This of course brings out Missy Hyatte, who states that her encounter with Stevie was the best day of his life. Raven says he can make it go away if she joins with him, because she has been there before. Raven wants to beat her ass and Sandman makes the save. This is the segment that doesn’t end, yes it goes on and on my friends. Missy wants to nurture the Sandman. She was such a skank, and I mean that in the greatest possible way. What a perfect fit for ECW.

    This was one of those never ending ECW segments that either works or doesn’t. Back then I dug this shit to a huge degree because it seemed so different, but now it comes off as a semi-organized cluster fuck. You could tell they had a direction, that they laid it all out and in a way it had a great flow. And in reality they had to do this because of the limitations of the show being an hour. Unfortunately in hindsight it doesn’t come off as cool as I remembered.

  • Match/Segment: Redundancy/Taz is Offensive/Highlights from ECW Home Video
    Larry’s Enjoyment Index: 6.5
    Final Thoughts: Styles runs down what happened in the segment that we just watched for 20-minutes. I appreciate video recaps, but to do a recap of a segment that we just saw is extremely redundant. They then chronicle the fact that Taz has been trying to break people’s neck, which is offending wrestlers around the world. That’s a great hook to keep putting over Taz as a killer. Wow, the Headhunters! Mancuso would be happy! Stevie and Meanie do the FABULOUS FUCKING FARGO STRUT~! Oh shit, a Bubba Ray Dance off! We see some Sabu vs. Mr. Hughes, which sees Sabu about break his back off of a table bump and then transition to highlights of the Gangstas, before New Jack was completely insane. Overall this was very effective at the time and in hindsight, due to ECW having to get people to buy videos and go to events to survive. I always liked how they get these things together.
  • Match/Segment: Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas w/Beulah vs. Stevie Richards and Raven
    Larry’s Enjoyment Index: 7.0
    Final Thoughts: All right. Right now we are in the never-ending (and I mean that kindly, since I liked the feud) saga of Raven vs. Dreamer. Also, Shane Douglas has returned from his Dean Douglas stint in the WWF. This was after the “HBK Syracuse Attack,” which saw him hand over the IC Title to Douglas, only to lose it the same night to Razor Ramon. Douglas basically felt that the KLIQ was holding him down and departed from the company to return to ECW. They even play off of that in the match as Stevie puts on a Razor shirt, does all of his mannerisms and tosses a toothpick into Douglas’ face. Douglas of course beats him down and wipes his ass with the shirt. We get clipping and see run ins by Cactus and Sandman, who canes EVERYONE including the referee. Raven earns my love for going old school with a chain from the boot and using the piledriver during the match, God bless old school. The basic story is that Douglas is dominated for the majority of the bout as they kept Dreamer on the floor a good deal of the match, rendering him ineffective. Raven and Stevie just abuse Douglas, which was the plan as at the time Douglas was to the be returning baby face, and they feared backlash to a point since he “Sold out to the WWF.” Eventually Dreamer runs wild with a frying pan, that’ll leave a mark kids. He overall match is a ton of fun, good pin saves and the booking was smart. Beulah tapes a frying pan to Dreamer’s boot and he gets an Enziguri to Stevie for the pin. Take note that again, Dreamer did NOT pin Raven, but his lackey. A trend that would help continue the feud for the duration, allowing Dreamer to get wins and look strong, but continually come up short against Raven; usually through nefarious means.
  • Match/Segment: Taz vs. The Shark Attack Kid
    Larry’s Enjoyment Index: 7.5
    Final Thoughts: Taz kills this young man with various versions of the TAZPLEX, in what would be his usual squash style that worked very well, because people did believe that Taz was the baddest man in wrestling. Accentuate the positives, de-emphasize the negatives, it is what Paul E did very well. The Taz-mission finishes it. We even see the “EXTREME TAZPLAY~!” After the match Taz calls out 911, his music plays and Tod Gordon comes to the ring. He says 911 left the building and he doesn’t know why. FONZIE runs down 911 and Gordon. Fonzie challenges Gordon, he answers and Fonzie gets the first shot, Gordon answers back and Taz is in to do the damage. It is then that BAM BAM BIGELOW makes his ECW debut to save Tod Gordon. Styles sells that “he doesn’t even work here!” Bam Bam stands tall as the crowd loves it. In the wrap up Taz said he didn’t know it would be Bam Bam because Paul kept it a secret. Taz puts him over, says he misses him and says that it was a huge signing for ECW as they wrap things up.
  • The Overall:
    Best Match/Segment: Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas w/Beulah vs. Stevie Richards and Raven and Taz vs. The Shark Attack Kid 7.0
    Worst Match/Segment:: Styles Interviews Bill Alfonzo and Taz 6.0
    Final Thoughts: I liked the episode overall, but it wasn’t great. I am having a blast going back and watching this stuff, and I hope you are enjoying looking back on these shows. The show was angle heavy, as it had to be to get Douglas back into the picture the right way, which they did and the debut of Bam Bam Bigelow was huge for the company. I look forward to reliving Bam Bam’s ECW run over the next few months.
    Show Score: 7.0
  • NULL

    article topics

    Larry Csonka

    Comments are closed.