[1997-01-25-ECW-TV] Shane Douglas and Masked Superstar

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Shane Douglas punches out the referee for no real reason. A masked guy comes out who looks willing to take him up on the offer. The crowd figures out that it's Rick Rude as soon as he starts talking and gets a huge pop from an excited crowd. Rude fits right in, swearing at Douglas and telling him he's hung like a hamster. He has a guy who's ready to come out and kick Shane's ass and it turns out to be Pit Bull #1. The crowd erupts.

[Migs]

Shane Douglas punches out the referee for no real reason. A masked guy comes out who looks willing to take him up on the offer. The crowd figures out that it's Rick Rude as soon as he starts talking and gets a huge pop from an excited crowd. Rude fits right in, swearing at Douglas and telling him he's hung like a hamster. He has a guy who's ready to come out and kick Shane's ass and it turns out to be Pit Bull #1. The crowd erupts.

Always liked the beginning of this angel, with Rude under a mask but it obviously being Rude, almost like it was a goof on mystery man angles.

 

The convoluted payoff with the Bigelow turn wasn't so great, though.

[soup23]

I didn't understand why Rude didnt take the mask off here with everyone knowing it was him. Pitbull probably gets the pop of his life with his run in.

[Kevin Ridge]

The crowd were chanting Rude as he was making his way to the ring so they were not fooled. Pitbull #1 makes a big return but I found him using so many Irish whips to be silly for what should be a more aggressive beatdown of Douglas.

[Robert S]

The pieces seem coming together for Barely Legal. Maybe they are even peaking too early, but let's wait.

[PeteF3]

Meltzer said they were making a genuine attempt to conceal Rude's identity with this gimmick, but it clearly didn't work. Rude is way, way over, though, and he cuts an effective promo. It ends with Pitbull 1 making his return to the ring and destroying Shane.

[KB8]

This is one of the only big ECW angles of the year I'd already seen, and it's one of my absolute favourites the company ever did.

First time I saw it was on Will's ECW set and I had no idea it was Rude initially. "Who's that? Juventud Guerrera?" Then the guy in the mask gets in the ring and Douglas looks him up and down like "shit, that's way the fuck not Juventud Guerrera." I flipped out as soon as he started talking and of course everyone else knew who it was straight away too. As far as ECW dick jokes go I imagine the hung like hamster line is up there as one of the better ones (and Francine's reaction ruled). The pop for Pitbull #1 is wild too and this whole segment came off great.