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ECW One Night Stand PPV


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Guest Dazed

Fuckin' wow. Anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

 

Heyman: "The only reason you [JBL] were champ for a year was because Triple H didn't want to work Tuesdays"

 

Heyman: "As for you, Edge, I have two words: Matt freakin' Hardy"

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Guest treble

I couldn't believe how good that Tanaka/Awesome match was.

 

I could have done without the ending, as Austin posing is a little too WWEish for my liking, but the last hour or so of the show was really entertaining.

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Guest Big Papi

That was a fun show. Well worth the money. None of the matches were great, actually most weren't even good, but the atmosphere made up for it. It was EC-F'N-W!

 

And Buelah was there for christsakes.

 

Thumbs up!

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Guest Bruiser Chong

It was either going to be a pile of shit show, a bomb, or one of the all time classic shows. If you ask me, it was without a doubt one of the all time classic wrestling shows.

Is this accurate or just more hypebole?
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Complete results

 

***SPOILERS*** (if you haven't seen the show)...

 

 

Sometimes I think wrestling is so simple, and then when I see Michael Cole hosting the pre-game show, maybe it's not as simple as it seems.

 

No Heat match, but now I've seen everything. There are fans chanting "ECW" in the lobby with Cole and Coach hosting, holding up a large Ultimate Warrior circa 1990 towel. And on the satellite pre-game show, Marc Loyd in his final hard sell talked about how tonight you can see, in this order, the stars from Raw, Smackdown and ECW all under the same roof.

 

Lance Storm vs. Chris Jericho is opening up. Jericho was using his current music, but was announced as Lionheart Chris Jericho from Winnipeg. Very appreciative crowd. Justin Credible and Jason intefered, and Credible used a cane shot to lead to Storm pinning him. Good match but too short.

 

Gary Wolfe introduced a film clip honoring people who passed away like Rocco Rock, Terry Gordy, Mike Lockwood, The Sheik, Mike Lozansky, Anthony Durante, Big Dick Dudley and Chris Candido. Nicely done but many notable ommissions like Spicolli, Pillman and Gilbert.

 

Tajiri (w/Jim Mitchell & Mikey Whipwreck) vs. Super Crazy vs. Guido (with Big Guido, J.T. Smith, Tony Mamaluke & Tracy Smothers). Highlight was Crazy doing a balcony moonsault on all the FBI. Whipwreck gave Guido a whipper snapper off the middle ropes after tons of interference to set up Tajiri pinning Guido. Finish saw Crazy pin Tajiri after a moonsault. Realistically, this match was way too short and aside from the dive, a pretty significant disappointment. Nothing like Tajiri-Crazy from the past.

 

Lots of classic clips, lots of memorable ones from the video. They showed a lot of Shane Douglas.

 

Rey vs. roided up Psicosis is up next. And they spelled it like the ECW days. Wonder if Rey will be Jr. Psicosis came out without a mask. Nope, not Jr. The announcing by Joey Styles was better than the wrestling. Mysterio visibly knew he blew the match. Fans wanted to see a Lucha Libre match and they did too much of a WWE match. Way too short. They booed the 619 something fierce. Unless Benoit & Eddie tear down the house, this show will be a big disappointment.

 

The WWE guys have just showed up. And Joey is putting over WWE while saying they shouldn't have come. This is definitely the wrong kind of heat for this night, but it is violent heat. "F*** you Smackdown" may not be the reaction WWE wanted to hear.

 

More old clips including Bubba Ray doing the pre-Matt Morgan stutter. Morgan is here by the way. If you wanted to see classic old ECW clips, you will like the show.

 

Angle and JBL did a promo. They got a lot of heat. JBL bragged about how he single-handedly sells out MSG and they can barely sellout a Bingo Hall. I think he wasn't aware this wasn't a Bingo Hall. JBL did a big promo saying how WWE was above them. Well, it'll be okay since they're getting humiliated by the time this is over. JBL claimed the only way this PPV succeeds is because he's on the show. RVD is coming out to end this.

 

RVD did a lengthy interview. No doubt the best interview of his career. He did some burying of WWE as well, writers, creative team, but praised Vince for doing the show. Fans didn't want to hear praise for Vince.

 

Rhyno gored him to end this leading to

 

Sabu vs. Rhyno is up. They should have had Rhyno with the belt. Sabu won with the Arabian facebuster putting Rhyno through a table. RVD interfered dropkicking a chair into Rhyno's face. RVD & Sabu paid homage to The Sheik at the finish. Another short match, but this got over great.

 

More old clips.

 

Eric Bischoff and the Raw crew came out. Styles called Edge a wife stealer.

 

Chris Benoit vs. Eddy Guerrero is up. Benoit won clean with a crossface. Guerrero played his character. Good match. I'm sure nowhere near expectations. Fans were paying more attention early on to doing chants at Bischoff than the match, so his being there took away from the bout.

 

Joel Gertner is interviewing Bischoff. He was begging for a job. Now that was funny. Bischoff told him hell no and did an anti-ECW rant. The heat for this wasn't there at all.

 

Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka is up. You're not going to believe this, but these two guys tore the house down and then some, doing their old style FMW match. This blew away everything on the show and they put Awesome over like a monster. It appeares he may have blown his knee. Tanaka took the sick chair shots. All sorts of chair and table spots. The finish was the Awesome bomb over the top rope through a table, followed by Awesome doing his second dive over the top to splash on Tanaka for the pin. This turned the show around.

 

Paul Heyman came out to a huge ovation. Loud "Thank you Paul." He's crying. Hey, I'm almost crying. Well, he worked hard for this moment. He did an incredible promo, ripping on Bischoff for having to watch ECW when WCW has long been dead, ripping on Edge screwing Matt Hardy and did use that name, and told JBL that the only reason he was champion was because HHH didn't want to work Tuesdays.

 

And then we got a Rob Zombie movie preview.

 

Dudleys vs. Dreamer & Sandman are next. Fans are pretty wired from the promo.

 

Main event was exactly what you'd expect. Tables, objects, blood, tables and lots of interference. Bubba asked for a beer and Steve Austin showed up to give him a beer. There was the BWO scene. Kid Kash doing a running flip dive off Jim Molineaux's back onto a bunch of guys. Lance Storm & Justin Credible came in with barbed wire for That's Incredible on Dreamer. Francine and Beulah had the cat fight spot. The match ended with Dreamer being power bombed through a table on fire. Cheese graters. It was exactly how the show should have ended.

 

All of the ECW guys who worked the show have just hit the ring to do a beer bash with Austin.

 

Austin challenged all the WWE guys to come down and fight.

 

The fight was on. Swinger was among the ECW troops. Of course the ECW guys prevailed with the big spot being Rhyno goring Angle into Taz's choke.

 

When it was over, Foley threw Bischoff into the ring with dozens of ECW guys. Austin called moves. 3-D on Eric. Benoit diving head-butt. Austin asked for 619. Fans booed this again. Austin should have paid attention. Austin ended with a stunner. The Dudleys carried Bischoff to the back. Everyone was in the ring and drinking beer.

 

Rocky start. Tremendous finish.

 

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Guest Dazed

Several people live, as well as WWE sources, have confirmed that during the brawl at the end of tonight's ECW PPV, that JBL went after Blue Meanie and threw several real punches at his face, bloodying him up. A lot of the wrestlers who were in the ring and saw this looked really mad. Reports were Al Snow, who trained Meanie, visually looked the most upset. The two have heat dating back to Meanie's days in WWF, and JBL cut a promo on Meanie on Smackdown which was edited off the show a few weeks back.

 

http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com/wo/news/...t.asp?aID=13466

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Well he can get away with anything.  He's friends with the right people and Vince likes the gimmick so he can do whatever he wants as long as he doesn't get caught murdering a hooker on the 6 o clock news.

I don't think THAT would stop him from getting the same push he's been getting. Gotta go something worse, I think...
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So I had a change of fortune at the last minute and was able to see One Night Stand in all its glory. Overall, I'll say this -- the show *should* be a wakeup call to WWE, not because they need to give ECW another chance, not because they need to hire anyone specifically, not because they need to change their wrestling style even, but because it shows that when you really make an attempt to do something different, it will be appreciated. Wrestling fans will be loyal and they will support a good product. There were so many elements in place that I have to give the show props for -- I never once felt like my intelligence was being insulted; when the crowd did something unexpected, the announcers *acknowledged* it; backstory was explained and there was a strong effort made to keep continuity; wrestlers were encouraged to be gritty and heartfelt. The show had a messy, chaotic feel to it that benefitted it tremendously. WWE is so polished and planned, and while this was every bit as planned as a typical WWE show, maybe even moreso, it came off as being far more spontaneous. Fans who ordered the show no doubt knew they were watching something truly special, and they were made an important part of the show. There was never an attempt to override them to stick to any type of pre-planned vision; this was "real", at least as real as pro wrestling can be. I just hope this served as a wakeup call to those who have the power to change things in WWE that fans are willing and able to invest themselves emotionally in a storyline, in characters and in a company.

 

There's another point I want to make, and I think it's an important one. Individually, everything was pretty ordinary on this show. Jericho/Storm was the best of the workrate matches, which should tell you everything you need to know. Rey/Psicosis and Benoit/Eddy were the worst matches those guys have ever had against each other. However, and this is the key, the strength of the entire show was so much greater than the sum of its parts, and that's what makes it work. That's why the crowd chants "EC-Dub!", because all the experiences and matches and interviews taken together as one viewing somehow manages to work. Compilations don't do it justice, and I'd never for a second suggest any of this stuff be put on a comp of any kind, and unless one was striving to make a "Worst of the Vanilla Midgets" set, so my recommendation is to watch the show from start to finish. Great wrestling is going to be minimal, if not totally absent, but this is how you put together a card from top-to-bottom. The structure, the build, the timing, the sequencing ... the bad seems tolerable and the good seems great because of it. Proof that Jim Cornette is a wrestling genius is evident once again -- it's like he's always said: wrestling isn't about the content, it's about the presentation.

 

Joey Styles coming out at the beginning was a nice touch. There's a time to call him on the carpet for being a fucking hypocrite even working this show, considering the way he's used his available forum to bash WWE in recent times, but he added a lot to the show, and it wouldn't have been the same without him. Mick Foley ROCKED as a color commentator -- he was subdued enough to never overshadow the product, but he was still very much Mick. Get him on RAW and put Jerry Lawler elsewhere, and do it pronto!

 

First match of the night was Chris Jericho against Lance Storm, for which the announcers did a nice job of explaining the backstory. You have two best friends who had their very first professional match against each other, and now Storm is going to have his very last match against the same guy. Jericho was billed as "Lionheart" from Winnipeg, and wore his old ring jacket and tights to give as authentic a feel as possible. Sadly, they still used his WWE entrance music. I don't even remember what he used in ECW, but that's probably what they should have used here, but I also understand that Vince didn't want to pay too many royalties on this show. Storm was accompanied by Dawn Marie and there was a quick handshake before the match started. This was nothing more than a decent match, but it was quite decent, and it probably seemed better than it was because of Jericho bringing the big moves, doing all sorts of things he hasn't done in years. Storm was still Storm, and lacked aggression. My biggest problem here was that Storm teased the cradle piledriver, which the audience popped huge for, but they never actually delivered it. Having Credible interfere was nostalgic, and the finish was the right finish, with the right guy winning. This could have gone longer, and it would have been better for it.

 

They cut to Pit Bull #1 who introduced a tribute video of all the ECW wrestlers who have died. Those who criticize them for missing Pillman and Rude are not getting the point here, as the video was to pay tribute to all the ECW talent that died AFTER THE COMPANY FOLDED. I watched this with a casual fan friend, who immediately asked why all these guys are dying so young. I kept it simple and just said wrestlers make a lot of sacrifices to get noticed, and that sometimes life on the road is hard to deal with. There are answers, though, and this is just a sad reminder that tough questions need to be asked. What was especially chilling was that the oldest person in the video package was Rocco Rock, who died at the ripe old age of 49.

 

Next up, we had the Three Way Dance with Guido, Crazy and Taijiri. This wasn't much of a match, and at six minutes, it was way too short, considering that it had two pinfalls. The highlight was Super Crazy's dive, which may have been spot of the night, but honestly, this wasn't even a good spotfest. The fans seemed to like it, though, and from watching this, I do think Crazy might have a future in WWE if he's programmed against guys that can work against him, and he does need a new look.

 

I'm proud of them for using the ECW library to its fullest tonight, as next up, they played some great clips, and also to their credit, plenty of them featured Shane Douglas prominently. Whether things were missing or not, the clips captured what ECW was about nicely.

 

Rey v Psicosis was the next match. Psicosis seemed game and took some amazing bumps, but the crowd couldn't get over the fact that he was wrestling without his mask. I do agree that Psicosis is another guy who'll need a bit of an image makeover before debuting on TV, but it's nice to see that his bumping ability is still there in spades. It was obvious that Rey knew he missed the mark here; you could see his frustration. The 619 got huge boos because that's not what fans wanted to see, and this match needed about 10 more minutes and more balls-out highspots to really be what the fans expected it to be. Unbelievably, the match was only given six minutes.

 

The Smackdown guys showed up at this point. I have stayed quiet about the WWE involvement in this show on purpose, because it all depended on how the angle was paid off. I'll get to that a little later, but I do agree with Wade Keller saying that he thinks guys like Angle, Edge and JBL will walk out of this as better heels because they'll have experienced huge heat and the bar will be raised for what they think they can accomplish.

 

Roadkill introduces the next set of clips, which was also well done.

 

Joel Gertner approached the Smackdown guys at the balcony, but Angle and JBL knocked him on his ass. Angle did a great heel promo, one of the better ones I've seen from him, but I know they'll play it up for comedy on Smackdown. The crowd chanted "You suck dick" at him, to which he replied, "Your momma taught me how." As great as Angle's promo was, though, JBL's was far better. The guy did a Fred Sanford impersonation and about that time, Rob Van Dam's music (his WWE music) played and he did what was easily the best interview of his career. Some have expressed disappointment that he didn't take any potshots at HHH, and I did expect him to and was wrong, but this interview wasn't about that. This was about showing that he had the goods to do a good, long promo, and he showed that he could. Him talking about a time when his vocabulary wasn't just limited to the words "cool" and "whatever" was fun, and he made sure to bury the creative team for not doing anything with him in WWE. Van Dam will be huge upon returning, whenever he does return, and it will be the last chance WWE has to make him a bonafide superstar. He needs to be pushed very hard out of the gate, and put against heels that can work his style, bump well and won't try to sabotage him politically. That eliminates HHH, Angle and JBL from the equation immediately. The one weakness RVD's promo had is that he had already said some of these things verbatim on his website just days before the show. Rhyno interrupted by goring him, and Sabu made the save, giving us an impromptu match.

 

With everything I'd heard about Sabu's state, I was honestly surprised he could even walk to the ring, much less perform all the highspots he did. The match was fun enough, and Sabu having a match was pretty much a necessity, so they handled it well enough by keeping it short and letting RVD get some post-match revenge. This segment, and others, was hurt by all the censoring, which they really shouldn't have worried about at all, considering that anyone who bought this show knew what they were getting.

 

Al Snow and Head introduced the next set of ECW clips, this time focusing more on the big highspots and weapon shots.

 

Benoit v Eddy was not what it was hyped to be at all. It was hyped to be wrestled in the style they used in Japan, but this was total WWE style, with the only difference being Benoit busting out the Northern Lights suplex. The crowd was distracted for much of this, as the RAW guys arrived right before, and they were making chants at Edge involving Lita and herpes, so they weren't really paying attention to the match. Eddy, to his credit, did a Larry Zbyszko-style stalljob until they were ready to pay attention that rocked, but it didn't lead anywhere, so it was useless.

 

Joel Gertner approached Eric Bischoff and begged him for a job and Bischoff cast him aside and did a short little heel promo to further the big angle that would come later.

 

It's funny that Awesome/Tanaka was the only match that got more than 10 minutes, and it's also funny that they had the best match of the night. If you liked their series in ECW, you'll like this, because it was just as good. I'm not a huge fan of that style, but they took all the risks here, worked in all the cool spots, and delivered. No way Awesome should ever work in WWE, as limited as he'd be, but he was portrayed as a major monster here, despite the match being totally carried by Tanaka. The false finishes are what totally carried this match.

 

I'll let Keller sum up the Heyman promo, because he said pretty much everything I would have.

 

-Paul Heyman stepped out. Styles called him "The Boss." Foley said, "The mad scientist has arrived." Heyman walked to the ring. Styles said: "His vision, his life's work, his dream..." Foley jumped in, "It's been resurrected." The crowd chanted "Thank you Paul." Heyman began crying, his emotions spilling over. He put his hand to his heart. A loud "ECW" chant rang out. "I want you know I'm not crying. My eyes are red because I was in the back smoking a joint with Rob Van Dam," said Heyman. "I thank Tod Gordon for giving me a chance to be creative and book for you crazy bastards." That was a classy and necessary mention of the ECW founder. He pointed to Ron and Charlie, who were standing in the front row, for their help producing the show (in his parents' basement) for years. He told the fans he loves each of them. A loud "Paul E." chant rang out. Heyman said he was going to take the high road and just say thank you and leave, "but I have something to say to you!" he said, looking up at the Raw and Smackdown crusaders. "I've been waiting a long time to say this to you, Eric Bischoff. In case you didn't notice, it's not Paul Heyman with his tail between his legs going to a WCW pay-per-view. You are in our house, bitch!" Bischoff smiled and shot Heyman a middle finger. Heyman stood on the second rope and said, "Wait a minute, hide your wives, it's Edge!" Edge laughed and pointed at himself. "You screwed Matt!" chanted the fans. "Edge, I know nobody with a written promo has the balls to say this to you, but I have two words for you. Matt Frickin' Hardy!" [Cheap Plug: My interview with Matt and Jeff Hardy will be available on DVD later this month right here at PWTorch.com!] Edge pointed out that was three words, not two. Everyone up in the Raw booth held up three fingers and laughs. Heyman said, "I almost forgot about you, Mr. Shoot Promo himself, bounced checks, ECW we're out of business. Hey, John, on a person note from all of us just to you, since you want to shoot, cowboy, the only reason you are WWE Champion for a year is because Triple H didn't wanna work Tuesdays." JBL laughed and feigned a heart attack. Heyman then screamed that this isn't Raw, this isn't Smackdown, this is "E-C-F---in'-W!"

Finally, we have the main event, which was extremely typical of a normal ECW main event. The Dudleyz are in awesome shape, actually. Their whole act is stale as fuck, despite them not even being on TV in six months, but this was the right main event featuring the right guys. And holy run-ins, Batman, everyone from the Impact Players to Kid Kash to the bWo to Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney to Francine and Beulah McGillicutty showed up at some point. A few things stand out here. First, Balls Mahoney is a no-talent bum, but this shows how you can totally get over just about anyone if you allow the crowds a reason to care and give them some audience participation spots. I still think it's hilarious that the crowd says the word "Balls" every time he punches someone. Sandman's entrance was done perfectly, and he held his own in the match as well. The post-match with Austin being involved was so wrong, just because I would have had the ECW guys beat him up and throw him out of the building too, and I didn't like the idea of him sitting back and bossing around all the WWE guys and ECW guys, but the audience was definitely glad to see him. Foley in that spot would have been so much better though, just because Austin is identified too much with WWE. The interplay with Bischoff and Styles at the broadcast booth was fantastic, and at least the WWE guys got their comeuppance to end the show. This wasn't perfect by any means, but the night was chock full of excitement and emotion unrivaled by anything WWE has put out in probably five years.

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The fans seemed to like it, though, and from watching this, I do think Crazy might have a future in WWE

Coincidentally, I just saw a Super Crazy match, as Super Loco, when he was fighting in the Jr. Title tournament held on RAW in 1997. HE blew a spot and I never saw him on TV again.

 

 

I kept it simple and just said wrestlers make a lot of sacrifices to get noticed, and that sometimes life on the road is hard to deal with. There are answers, though, and this is just a sad reminder that tough questions need to be asked.

You should have just told him the truth. painkillers and steroids kill. The business is cummy and people do scummy things to stay in it.

 

 

It was obvious that Rey knew he missed the mark here; you could see his frustration. The 619 got huge boos because that's not what fans wanted to see,

Yeah, this was how Meltzer felt about this segment.

 

 

Benoit v Eddy was not what it was hyped to be at all. It was hyped to be wrestled in the style they used in Japan, but this was total WWE style, with the only difference being Benoit busting out the Northern Lights suplex.

This, along with the Rey match really disappoint me in terms of early online feedback. After reading the results, it really seems like the guys who had no business being entertaining tried the hardest and gave the fans what they came to see. Then you have the workers who couldn't break their habits and make me feel like I would be letdown because of all the mediocre matches I was looking forward to.

 

 

The post-match with Austin being involved was so wrong, just because I would have had the ECW guys beat him up and throw him out of the building too, and I didn't like the idea of him sitting back and bossing around all the WWE guys and ECW guys, but the audience was definitely glad to see him. Foley in that spot would have been so much better though, just because Austin is identified too much with WWE. The interplay with Bischoff and Styles at the broadcast booth was fantastic, and at least the WWE guys got their comeuppance to end the show.

Yeah, but I guess fact that he spent a short time in ECW was good enough for them. Plus, I am sure many of the fans were going nuts when Sandman drank beer with Austin.

 

As for Foley, I agree with you but would you sacrifice his commentary for this segment?

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