Review: ECW 2/4/96, from the Lost Battalion Hall in Queens, NY.
I'm not sure quite how to open this up, so for once, I'm at a loss for words.
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The first match is Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Mysterio Jr., for the AAA Welterweight Championship. Just seeing that matchup made me want to watch the show more. Juventud picks Rey up in a fireman's carry, and slams him to the mat. He gives him an armscissors rollup for 2, and Rey applies a headlock. Rey gives Juvi two armdrags, but Juvi kips up and gives him two of his own. Juvi chops Rey twice, and gives him a spinebuster for 2. Both men do this strange thing, where their legs are locked together and both bridge out to a headstand position, and they slap each other. Both men slap each other while standing up, but Rey misses a springboard moonsault. That looked a million times better than the Lionsault. A monkey flip by Rey only puts Juvi on the ring apron, and Rey goes up top, giving Juvi a rana to the floor. That whole sequence was awesome. Juvi comes in and gives Rey a somersault legdrop, but gets clotheslined quickly, to stop his rally. Rey gives him a flying headscissors, and a springboard hurricanrana, so Juvi bails. THEN, Rey goes out to the floor, with a TOPE CON HILO, landing on Juvi. Rey puts a chair around Juvi's neck, and rams him into two ringposts. Heh, Extreme Lucha Libre indeed. Juvi grabs a light bulb from a fan, but notices what it is, and puts it down before entering the ring. Light bulbs in wrestling are not something I'm a fan of, so good. Juvi comes in and gives Rey a dropkick, then a release german suplex. Juvi goes to the apron, and springboards in with a spinning heel kick. Wow. Juvi gives Rey a sitout powerbomb for 2, and a legdrop. He then gives Rey a press slam to a fallaway slam with a bridge, and that gets 2. Rey chops away, and Juvi misses a charge to the corner. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned this yet, but Juvi's mask is funny looking. Rey gives Juvi a rana for 2, and then another, and a powerslam. Rey goes up top, but Juvi crotches him and goes for Splash Mountain. I've seen very few matches where this move hits, as Rey counters it with a hurricanrana at 9:30, for the win. Not clipped, thank God. Well, I've only seen WCW do this finish 20 times. But this was before those, so I'll rate it accordingly. It's ***1/4. Had it been longer, it probably would have been just as awesome as Rey/Psychosis. This wasn't a spotfest, but to clarify, I rate those on their own scale. Which is whether or not I find it entertaining, accompanied with a regularly weighted star rating. I really, really want to see their 2 out of 3 falls match from March of that year, now.
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Lance Russell does his bullshit with the marcea hatt omves lal runoda, and then, CACTUS JACK(!) and Mikey Whipwreck make their first appearance of the show. Cactus has a Mr. Potato Head, and does a little reenactment of him losing his own ear in Germany against Vader. That was strange to watch. Cactus asks Mikey if he'd kill for him, and Mikey says, he guesses so. He says he and Mikey can face the Smokin' Gunns at Madison Square Garden if they win the match tonight. And, oh, his shirt. WWF'nF. Awesome.
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To follow up with that, it's the Eliminators vs. Cactus Jack and Mikey Whipwreck w/Raven, for the ECW Tag Team Championships. Where's Jason? Mikey hates Raven, remember. So they both push each other during the ring introductions. Kronus and Mikey start, and there's a sign that says, Mikey: If Titan calls, please go sign. Ouch.
Kronus pushes Mikey to the ground twice, and applies a wristlock. Mikey reverses it to a headlock, and gives Kronus an armdrag. Kronus bails, but back in, Mikey gives Kronus a droptoehold, and a headlock. Kronus throws him off, and tags in Saturn, who gives Mikey a shoulderblock. Mikey gives Saturn an armdrag and a hiptoss, then takes him over with a headlock, prior to tagging in Cactus. Cactus gets on the mic, and tells Mikey to get his ass out of the ring if he's not going to help Cactus the way he wants him to. This character is fucking gold. GOLD, I tell you. Cactus gives Saturn a headbutt and an elbow, then a big boot and legdrop, not Hogan style, for 2. Mikey tags in, but won't team up with Cactus for a move, so Saturn superkicks Mikey. He gives Mikey a RELEASE slingshot back suplex, forcing Mikey to land on his head. Holy fuck. See though, this is what I was saying about headdrops at the Pit. While I may like this, and it's within the context of the match...it is HIGHLY unnecessary. Kronus tags in, and both he and Saturn give Mikey a double STO. Kronus puts Mikey in the corner, and gives him a handspring back elbow. It looked just as good as the one Muta uses, maybe even better. No lie. I'm a believer in, the original is not always the best. Kronus goes to the chinlock, which certainly is not the best. It doesn't last long, though, as he powerbombs Mikey, while Saturn comes off the top with a kneedrop. Saturn gives Mikey a clothesline for 2 as he tags in, but tags in Kronus again, awfully quick. They do a sidesuplex with a legdrop type thing, but Cactus saves Mikey at the count of 2. Kronus gives Mikey an overhead belly-to-belly suplex, and Cactus finally gets the hot tag, after Mikey makes his way to the corner. He jumps on Saturn, who's draped along the 2nd rope, and gives Kronus the repeated forearms in the corner. Cactus goes to the apron after giving Kronus the CACTUS CLOTHESLINE!!!! and springboards to the floor, giving Kronus a back elbow which drives Kronus into the guardrail. Awesome. Cactus comes back in and gives Saturn a piledriver, and grabs a bottle from under the ring. He breaks it, and goes to stab Saturn with it. However, Mikey won't let him use it. Mikey dropkicks Cactus, but Saturn's unable to use the bottle too, as Mikey gives him a superkick. I love the, "he's against both sides" thing Mikey has goin' on. Mikey clotheslines both Eliminators and goes up top, giving Saturn a rana on the way down. He hits Kronus with a boot, but gets Totally Eliminated. I've watched quite a bit of ECW, and I just now noticed how much I love that finishing move. It's so fucking brilliant. It can't be understated. I'd say that a current team should rip it off, but that's blatant gimmick imitation. Even I can't condone that, although I said the original isn't always the best. But there's no topping that. The Eliminators pick up the pinfall and the tag titles, at 12:10.
Raven attacks Mikey right after the pinfall, but Cactus pushes Raven away. SWERVE!!! as Cactus starts beating up Mikey. Typical ECW, but this is when you didn't really expect it, but at the same time you did, so it was ok. Not the, "oh fuck, I saw this coming from a mile away and it fucking sucked so hard, bro, even a mark would see that shit" kind of SWERVE you see now. Anyway, Russo couldn't write something as good as this show if he dreamed. Yeah, I said it. Raven hits Mikey with a plastic folding chair, and Cactus gives him the Double Arm DDT on the chair. No Bang, Bang. I've never seen this, and it's already my favorite Foley moment of all. He went from sometimes funny with Mikey to dead ass serious in a matter of seconds. I want to rate the match and post match ***1/2, so I will. Great stuff.
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We clip away, and Joey Styles is in the ring with the Eliminators. Francine shows up, and plays nice with them. Unfortunately, her New York-ish accent is too strong for me to take it all that seriously. Now the Pitbulls come to the ring, and hang Saturn with their chain. OH MY GOD, IT WAS A SETUP. Kronus gets SUPERBOMBED, and Francine grabs a pair of scissors. They cut off Saturn's hair, as the crowd goes into raptures, and chants E-C Dub. Well, that was certainly a cool moment.
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It's multiple promo time, as we go to the end of the show. The Gangstas want the Eliminators, it's as simple as that. Mustafa's laugh is great. Tommy Dreamer has a melting candle, and the wax is burning onto his hands. It's supposed to signify the desire he has. Wow. Cactus talks about Mikey, and how Mikey doesn't have an desire. Mikey drug him down, so he had to handle the situation his way. He says Vince told him to bring Mikey, but since he's not coming, Cactus will have to slap him like he was his own child.
Ok, time out. That was one of the best promos I've ever seen. EVER.
Shane Douglas makes an appearance and doesn't say anything, but...JT FUCKING SMITH! I listen to ah, Dean Martin, ah. Bill Alfonso and Taz follow, I don't really need to describe what they said. Fonz rambles like a nutcase, and Taz tells you how he's going to kick your ass. To the Pitbulls, and they'll get the Tag Titles. The Gangstas again, and they're getting the Eliminators. Beulah says something that doesn't matter much. Raven talks about the one thing in his life that matters...he doesn't say what it is, but he's talking about that ECW Title. Beulah again, more that doesn't matter. Scorpio loves women, and right now his is the ECW TV Title, but now that he has that, all the ho's is for 2 Cold (that was a great one too). Pitbulls...but we quickly cut to Saturn cutting off the rest of his own hair. He doesn't care about his hair. He doesn't care about being hung via the chain. All he cares about is the gold.....end show.
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Rating: Excellent. An outstanding television show. A complete 180 from the last ECW show. The last one was everything I hated about ECW. This one was everything I loved about it. Loved that the matches were unedited, and the interview roll at the end was great too. They ran the show the night before, so they certainly rushed to get this show out. It was still great.
Best Segment: Cactus' promos. Awesome stuff.
Worst Segment: Beulah's promos. I just didn't care.
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The Boston show is next. I haven't watched it yet, but I'm mildly interested. Wait, scratch that. Not doing it, cause it'll probably suck and I don't want to waste paper taking notes. Plus, there's quite a bit of fastforward material, and it's just a non-MSG house show. MSG shows are the ones that matter.