by Scotty Szanto-Nicodemus 
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

ECW: History in Review
#9 and #8

(Disclaimer:  This is not meant to be a “History of ECW” piece.  There are plenty of places where you can go to get the historical minutia that you desire, and I am not the man to give that info to you anyway.  I started watching ECW regularly just before they got their show on TNN, and so I was really only a die-hard fan of the fed for a little over a year before they went out of business.  But, in that time, and since that time, I have collected as many ECW tapes as I could afford to get my hands on.  Based on the tapes in my collection, I have gathered together a few Top Ten Lists.  Once again, these are not meant to be universally accepted as the top moments/matches/whatever in ECW history; rather, they represent some of my favorite moments/matches/whatever that appear in my tape collection.)

#9

Joel Gertner Poem:

During the first few shows on TNN, Joel didn’t have Cyrus to act as his foil, and so he was left to rag on Joey Styles, despite the fact that they were both essentially babyfaces:

Joel…  
“I bring you tonight’s show from the heart of South Philly,
With Joey Styles, who has less talent than Milli Vanilli.”  
…Gertner

Joey… 
“Blame it on the rain, Joel.”

As you can see, sometimes it wasn’t Joel’s poems that were so funny, but the reaction that we saw from Joey!

Promo:

Shane Douglas throws-down the NWA Title.

The E didn’t always stand for Extreme…up until this promo, basically.  As part of the NWA: Eastern Championship Wrestling, Shane Douglas, who was already the ECW Heavyweight champion, won the NWA World Heavyweight title in August of ‘94.  He threw it down and spit on it, thus vacating the title and declaring the ECW Heavyweight title as a WORLD Heavyweight title.

This is probably one of the most famous promos in ECW history, and the only reason that I ranked it so low on the list is because I was not watching ECW at the time, and so have only seen the promo in clips…such as this one that was taken from the first show on TNN.

Angle:

Corino attacks H.C. Loc in Milwaukee.

Steve Corino was scheduled to take-on Eric Watts in an old-school Bullrope Match…but not before Corino gets some cheap heat by berating the great city of Milwaukee.  He tells us that the Milwaukee Brewers are such a poor baseball team that they are begging to move to New Jersey, and of course he makes several comments about everyone from Milwaukee being sexual deviants…which prompts Joel Gertner on commentary to say, “He says that like it’s a bad thing!”  Eventually, the referee H.C. Loc gets in Corino’s face and says that he (Loc) is from Milwaukee, and everyone knows that Corino “wouldn’t last an hour on the streets of our city!”  That got a huge pop from the crowd, but really, I used to live in Wisconsin, and I can tell you that the streets of Milwaukee are not exactly known as a hotbed of gang violence.

Corino attacked H.C. Loc with the cowbell, and Eric Watts even joined-in on the beatdown as they bloodied the hardcore official.

Moment:

Jerry Lynn learns that the ECW Arena really is a Bingo Hall.

This was a promo from early in ECW’s time on TNN, and it starts with Cyrus backstage on a cell phone, with papers strewn about the table in front of him.  He hangs-up the phone as Jerry Lynn walks into the frame, and as Cyrus stands to shake Jerry’s hand, we see a Bingo scoreboard with a small piece of paper taped to it that says, “Creative Department”.

“Welcome to the office,” Cyrus says.  Jerry looks up at the scoreboard and replies, “Wow!  It really is a Bingo Hall!”

Match:

Jerry Lynn v. Rob Van Dam (champ): TV Title Match.

In many ways, this was the hottest feud in all of wrasslin’ leading up to ECW’s debut on TNN.  Van Dam’s move set was not overexposed yet, and was still considered fresh and innovative…to me, at least, I am sure that there were some long-time ECW fans that had grown tired of RVD by this time.  My usual response to RVD-haters is this: the fans eat Van Dam’s gimmick up with a big ass spoon, and part of his job is to get that exact reaction from the fans.

This particular match is from Hardcore Heaven ’99.  It is also available on the Best-Of ECW tape, Extreme Evolution, and when introducing the match on that tape, Joey Styles refers to it as “the greatest title match in ECW history”.  I’m not sure that I concur with that.  In fact, I don’t even consider it the greatest Lynn v. RVD match.  I would offer that this is the rematch to the greatest match between the two, but more about that match on Wednesday when I debut my #4 rankings.  (Since I will be recapping another match between these two in a couple of days, I am not going to go into my usual depth on this match…I’ll hit a few of the highspots in order to convey the story and explain its inclusion on this list, and then after Wednesday you can read a recap of my very favorite Lynn v. RVD match.)

The match starts with a chant of “Whole f’n Show”.  That was one of the great things about ECW…everything was f’n this and f’n that.  Jerry Lynn was the New f’n Show, in fact.  Lots of technical chain wrasslin’ to get started, followed by gratuitous showboating by Van Dam.  They tie-up, and when RVD gives Lynn a clean break out of the corner, he POINTS TO SELF as he backs out of the corner.  That kind of disrespectful showboating was why I was convinced at the time that Lynn was going to win…because Lynn always kept his cool.  The action gets slightly more and more athletic, each time ending in a square-off and a bit of showboating to the fans from Van Dam.  Until Lynn busts him open hardway, that is.  You know, I’ve only seen Van Dam bleed in a handful of matches, and off the top of my head I can’t think of any in which he bladed.  Huh.

Back to the match, where Lynn has gained control after Dropkicking Van Dam off the ring apron.  Flying Plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor, but they don’t spend long outside the ring.  Lynn brings him back in with a huge Bulldog off the top rope.  The tide is turned, as it is in so many RVD matches, by interference by Bill Alphonso, shoving Lynn from the top turnbuckle and crotching him on the ropes.  Lynn is able to duck the Van Daminator when Fonzie returns with a chair, and then hits RVD with a Chairshot (one of the rare times in wrasslin’ that you will see someone struck with the bottom of the chair seat, for whatever that is worth).  RVD catches Lynn however, and crotches him again on the top rope, and hits a Side Kick that sends Lynn crashing to the floor below face first.  He landed squarely on the concrete floor between two blue mats.

Lynn isn’t moving, and a small pool of blood is collecting below his forehead.  Van Dam picks up Lynn’s lifeless body, and just when you thought he was going to roll him into the ring and pin him, RVD whips him into and over the steel guardrail.  Lynn lands sitting in the first row of seats, and Van Dam runs and dives over the guardrail with a Flying Clothesline that takes out Lynn, as well as about four seats!  The ref checks on Lynn’s condition as they make their way back into the ring, an it looks like he is going to continue.  Lynn attempts to lock-in the Cradle Piledriver, but Van Dam stands up to reverse the hold, and hits Lynn with an absolutely wicked Powerbomb.  RVD goes for the Rolling Thunder Tumbling Senton, but Lynn sits-up, so at the last second Van Dam switches from the Senton to a Spinning Kick that nearly decapitates him.  That sets up the Rolling Thunder, but this time Lynn rolls out of the way.  After putting Van Dam down with a Short Arm Clothesline, Lynn gets a table from under the ring and sets it up in the aisle.  They hover above the table battling for position on the top turnbuckle, when RVD lifts Lynn up and dumps him backwards, sending him through the Timekeeper’s table on the other side of the ring!  Nice bit o’ ring psychology, that was.

Back in the ring, where RVD gets the first nearfall of the match.  One Van Daminator later, and they are again battling for position on the apron above the table.  It was just another tease, though, as Van Dam sends him back into the ring and the match continues.  Until RVD winds-up back on the apron, and sticks his head through the top two ropes, attempting a shot to the gut.  Just when you expect Lynn to Legdrop Van Dam between the ropes, he Monkeyflips over him and sends Van Dam crashing through the table with a Monkeyflip Powerbomb to the floor!  Chair to the head of Bill Alphonso, and the fans are thinking upset as Lynn gets a two-count.  One Van Daminator by Lynn later, and he gets the 1, 2, no!  Reversal, into a reversal…and Lynn is able to lock-in the Cradle Piledriver, but RVD flips him over before Lynn could drop down.  But wait, Lynn held on and rolled through…1, 2, and no!!  I really thought that was going to be the finish the first time that I saw this match, and you probably did too!

Not one, but two Five-Star Frogsplashes later, and RVD retains the World Television Title.  “Re.  Spect.  Walk.”  Before celebrating with his fans, Van Dam shows Lynn respect by sending him to the back with a high-five.

I want to offer one piece of editorializing before I continue with the column…part of the reason why Van Dam’s move set is seeming stale these days is probably related to the fact that he has to cram everything (as well as all of his opponent’s key moves) into five minutes or less most of the time in the WWE.  Back in the day of this match he was given a solid twenty minutes to work with…every single time.  That made for the opportunity to interact with the crowd (“showboat”), and build excitement and anticipation by including the fans as part of the experience of the match itself.  ECW approached just about every match that way, and that, in a nutshell, is probably the singe biggest reason why I was and am an ECW fan.

#8

Joel Gertner Poem:

Once Cyrus started to exert himself against Gertner, is when the real fun began.  At the very beginning of this feud, Cyrus hadn’t yet revealed that he was aligned with “The Network”, and was making vague references to “The Office”.  Cyrus’ use of “industry” terms in his commentary was aimed directly at us smarks, and one of my favorite instances of such language by Cyrus is this exchange:

Joel… 
“He wanted me to be G-rated, so that’s just what I did.
He looks like Alanis Morrisette and Pee Wee Herman had a kid.
So if you’re here for the man in charge, I guess you’re out of luck,
‘Cause TNN is for the A-team, folks, not for that Cyrus schmuck.”  …Gertner

Cyrus,           
  “Excuse me…Excuse me…You people have all got a lot of heat with the office!”

The “You People” that Cyrus was referring to was the fans, of course.  Eventually, Cyrus would get the crowd going by asking, “Do you know what I am?”  The answer he was fishing for was “I’m Network”, but of course the answer that he got was, “Asshole!”

Promo:

Jason ignores Dawn Marie.

As the Impact Playas were preparing for a promo, Cyrus burst into the room to tell them that the Network is very happy with them as Tag Team Champions.  He tells them that ratings are up, and looking at Dawn Marie, he goes on, “Everything is up, it’s all up!”  When Cyrus leaves the room, Jason (The World’s Sexiest Man) steps into the foreground and says, “Thanks, I do my best,” and starts to flex for the camera.  Meanwhile, Dawn Marie is in the background, and she whines, “Not you Jason, me…He means me…I’m attractive, too!”  Jason gets a confused look on his face, and asks the cameraman, “Do you hear something?  I think I’m hearing strange voices.”

Angle:

Kid Kash wins the TV Title.

Joey and Joel opened this show from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City in normal fashion, which of course resulted in Cyrus coming out after Joel’s poem.  Cyrus says that he is going to cancel ECW’s contract with TNN (this show was from 9/8/00, so it wasn’t far off the mark, there).  Through the course of his banter, Cyrus says, “You think a New Yorker can stand up to this network?”  Enter Paul E. with his cell phone.

After the phone shot, Paul stands in the ring and soaks in the cheers until Rhino hits the ring and takes-out the boss.  Cyrus sets a table up in the corner, and Rhino gores Heyman through the table.  Cyrus gets back on the mic and challenges several fans to come into the ring and take-on the Network.  Finally, someone whom we are told is a fan from the audience rushes the ring, and a swarm of uniformed cops rush on him and pin him down in the corner.  Just then Rhino Gores one of the cops, and proceeds to beat on him in the corner!  At that point, things really start to breakdown, as the entire locker room empties into the ring, and they all just start to brawl randomly.  Kid Kash’s music starts to play, and it looks like his scheduled TV Title Match against Rhino is going to happen right now!

Kash hits the ring and climbs to the top turnbuckle immediately, instead of leaping though, because the ring is totally full of bodies, he actually bodysurfs his way to Rhino!  Finally the ring empties except for Kash and Rhino, but everyone else continues to brawl outside the ring, as the Sandman’s music starts to play!    The Sandman delivers some cane shots to Rhino, but it wasn’t enough, and he eats a Gore.  Sandman rolls to the outside, where the entire locker room is still brawling in the entryway, and Rhino follows him out.

Kash has finally come to his senses in the ring, and in one of my favorite visuals in all of wrasslin’, he springboards off the top rope and takes down the entire ECW roster in the aisle with a Pescado.  Rhino takes Kash back into the ring, where he delivers another Gore, and it is at that point that we discover that there was at least one member of the locker room that hasn’t made his entrance yet.  Hit RVD’s music!

Van Dam rushes the ring with a steel chair and hits a Van Daminator on Rhino, and then with Rhino down in the corner, RVD leaps and connects with the Van Terminator.  Kash and RVD go up on opposite corners and deliver simultaneously a Big Legdrop and Five-Star Frogsplash, respectively.  Kid Kash on top for the 1, 2, 3.

Moment:

It’s Sabu!

I realize that ECW used this same scenario a number of times, but this particular one surprised me as I was watching it “live” as it was being aired…and it is from the ECW Arena, and so that is why I have included it here.

Mike Awesome is in the ring, and when he refers to himself as the most awesome champion in all of wrasslin’, the crowd starts to chant, “RVD! RVD! RVD!”  Hit his music!  The World Television Champion makes his way to the ring, to confront the World Heavyweight Champion.  “Listen to what you’re saying, big man, because you’re confusing all of my fans.”

Awesome says when he looks at Van Dam, all that he sees is “a puny-ass Television Title…I’m the World Heavyweight Champion.  In fact, here’s my belt (he lays it in the middle of the ring), so why don’t you just try and take it from me?”  RVD tosses a couple of pot references into his reply, but the short story is that he accepts Awesome’s challenge.  They start to circle, and then the lights go out.

That’s when I actually hit pause while I was recording it because the screen went black, and I assumed they were going to commercial.  The audio never stopped, however, and when flashbulbs started to blink in the darkness, I got the VCR recording again just in time for the lights to come back on and reveal Sabu standing in the ring!

Awesome said that he would take both RVD and Sabu on in a Handicap Match, but before that can get started, Sabu attacked his former tag team partner.  For the record, I have little doubt that RVD was being groomed to take the World Title from Awesome, unfortunately it was only a week or two later that Van Dam broke his leg and was out for several months.

Match:

C.W. Anderson v. Tommy Dreamer: “I Quit” Match.

I’m sure that a lot of people considered C.W. Anderson as little more than a mid-card jobber, but I was really into his old school gimmick, and appreciated the minor push he received by feuding with Tommy Dreamer.  That feud culminated in this “I Quit” Match from Guilty As Charged 2001, ECW’s last-ever ppv event.  They start to brawl before the ring announcements are even finished, and they immediately go outside the ring and brawl around ringside.  Dreamer suplexes Anderson on the mats outside the ring, and then tosses him back in.  Anderson tries to go after him before he makes it back into the ring, but Dreamer drops down with a Shoulder-Stunner across the top rope.  Tommy slingshots himself back into the ring, landing a High Crossbody on the prone Anderson.  He locks-in a Dragon Sleeper, but Anderson will not surrender.  Anderson starts to come back, first ramming Dreamer’s shoulder into the ringpost, and then hitting a Shoulder Stunner before locking-in an Armbar.  Dreamer will not quit, and again we go outside the ring.  Dreamer intertwines Anderson’s arm between the ringpost and a steel chair, and hits it with another chair!  Dreamer looking under the ring for another weapon to use, and he brings out a huge wrench, which he introduces to C.W. Anderson’s head.  Anderson is busted open, and he is leaning against the ring apron.  So, Dreamer places the ringbell against Anderson’s head, and hits it with the wrench!  Dreamer uses the wrench to further open Anderson’s laceration, before the Enforcer tosses the Innovator of Violence into the railing at ringside.

Back in the ring, where Anderson uses a Drop Toe-Hold to send Tommy crashing into the back edge of a chair (rather than the seat, as Raven usually does it).  Dreamer is also busted open after that move, and blood is literally streaming out of his eyebrow.  Anderson switches his offense from the arm to the leg by attacking Dreamer’s knee with the steel chair.  When Dreamer won’t give up to a submission hold on the leg, Anderson decides to change his offense again, this time he will attack the head!  That’s just what he does with the chair, but Dreamer won’t go down.  Anderson rushes him in the corner, but Dreamer gets the boot up, and Anderson eats the chair himself.  Tommy comes off the ropes with an Elbowdrop onto the chair.

Tommy then gets a box wrapped like a Christmas gift from Towel Boy (who was instrumental in costing Anderson a previous match against Dreamer), and when Dreamer opens it, he pulls out a length of razor wire.  “Look what Santa brought Tommy,” Joey shouts.  Anderson takes Dreamer down before he can use the wire, and then turns his attention to Towel Boy.  He drags Towel Boy into the ring, only to be hit by what appears to be the lid to the gift box.  Dreamer puts Anderson in a Full Nelson version of the Camel Clutch, and Towel Boy gives Anderson another shot to the head.  Dreamer then unwraps it to reveal that it was two cookie sheets, which he and Towel Boy then use to deliver a Con-Chair-To to Anderson.  Towel Boy goes up top as instructed by Dreamer, but Anderson is to his feet, takes out Tommy, and then brings Towel Boy into the ring via a Delayed-Vertical Suplex from the top.

We are back to a one-on-one, and Anderson hits a Spinebuster onto the razor wire.  With Dreamer down on the mat, Anderson brings two chairs into the ring and Suplexes Dreamer onto them.  On commentary, Cyrus predicts that this is the end of Tommy Dreamer’s career.  Anderson wedges Tommy’s head between the seat and back of the chair, and then sends him crashing into the turnbuckles.  While Dreamer is down in the corner, Anderson brings a table into the ring and sets it up next to Dreamer in the corner.  Anderson starts to climb the turnbuckles behind Dreamer, but Tommy catches him there, and brings him off with a Spicoli Driver through the table.  Dreamer uses the rubber piece that goes around the edge of the table to lock-in a Crossface on Anderson, and the Enforcer says, “I Quit.”  Tommy Dreamer gets the win, and Anderson shakes his hand before leaving the ring.

Closing:

I don’t really have anything to add right now, so I guess I will hype tomorrow’s column (#7 & 6), and tell you that it will involve Mikey Whipwreck in no less than three segments, more Cyrus, more Rhino, another Jerry Lynn match, as well as the Title Unification Match between Taz and Sabu.  Oh, and some censored (as well as some uncensored) words from Joel Gertner.  Until tomorrow…

PEACE
 

E-MAIL SCOTTY
BROWSE THE OO FEATURES ARCHIVE

All contents are Copyright 1995-2014 by OOWrestling.com.  All rights reserved.
This website is not affiliated with WWE or any other professional wrestling organization.  Privacy Statement.