[2000-09-08-ECW-TNN] Rhino vs Kid Kash

[soup23]

Joey and Gertner start the show. You know the drill here with Joel giving us a poem. Cyrus interrupts and gets into it with Joel. The neck brace comes off and blows are about to happen when Paul E comes out with his phone and whacks Cyrus to a huge pop. Rhino jumps Paul E and gores him through the table. They have a “fan” jump the ring which looks well and good until Rhino gores one of the cops. Then we get a big brawl between the whole locker room. I don’t really have no idea why this happened but ok. Kash mosh pitting in to face Rhino was fun to see but pretty random in how the match starts. Brawl clears out as Enter Sandman fires up and Sandman wastes 5 minutes making his way down. After a couple of cane shots, Rhino gores him. Huge dive by Kid Kash onto the outside onto the entire roster. Then RVD comes out and he attacks Rhino. This finally accomplishes the goal and Kash is able to gain the win and title. I guess this was essentially the blow off to the Network storyline but it didn’t really work for me and felt like it was grasping for straws. Nice moment but everything up to it was a mess. *

[AstroBoy]

The Kash dive into the crowd of humans is a pretty awesome visual and seemed like a pretty great moment. Rhino matches are beginning to feel like what I imagine Goldberg matches feel like to everyone else. I love Rhino. I don't care about anything else, I don't tire of him mauling people, hulking up through cane shots and anything else, and then goring the hell out of everyone. He was presented perfectly and it's a shame he didn't get a chance to develop a bit more in that role. Not sure how I feel about Kash being practically handed the belt by his friend but this was a fun spectacle.

 

*1/2

[GSR]

Joey Styles welcomes us to Extreme Championship Wrestling when he and Joel Gertner are interrupted by Cyrus, not before another of Gertner’s smutty little poems though.  The ‘Quintessential Studmuffin’ removes his neck brace, ready for a fight, as Cyrus claims that the show is now cancelled and there is no more ECW on this network.  He notices what Gertner has done and wonders if he wants to fight the Network, but says that just like all these pieces of New York crap he doesn’t have the guts.  Cyrus is strongly emphasising New York and how he doesn’t think a New Yorker can stand up to the Network, which is the signal for Paul Heyman to make an appearance and he breaks his clunky mobile phone over Cyrus’ head.  Rhino is out to save face for the Network, puts Heyman over his shoulder and drives him through a table which had been placed in the corner by Cyrus and dodgy referee Danny Daniels.  Cyrus goes back to insulting all the fans, calling them “pieces of New  York crap” and challenging anyone to get in there with he and Rhino.  It looks like some fan gets part way in when he’s stopped by security and the police.  As one of the cops is trying to restrain this fan he’s gored by Rhino who then starts throwing punches at him.  The entire locker room has emptied in an attempt to calm the situation but that just leads to them fighting each other.  A TV title match is scheduled and rather than waiting for the ring to clear, Kash makes his entrance, gets body surfed from the top turnbuckle to Rhino and the two start swinging before getting lost in amongst the masses.  ‘Enter Sandman’ kicks in and conveniently at this point the ring does begin to empty.  Styles talks about Sandman wanting a piece of the World Television champion, although he’s clearly not that desperate to get his hands on him as he stops off for a drink beforehand, Rhino left stood waiting for his arrival.  Sandman breaks a cane over Rhino’s head but that hardly phases him and as the Sandman turns to the crowd to celebrate, he’s gored.  Rhino follows Sandman to the outside where the roster are lingering and Kash with an almighty springboard flip dive onto everyone who tumble like falling cards.  That was a great visual.  Double jump springboard huracanrana doesn’t have the impact Kash had hoped for and he’s next to be gored.  With Rhino standing tall here comes Rob Van Dam to try his luck.  ‘Van Daminator’, ‘Van Terminator’, he then drags Rhino to the middle of the ring and comes off the top turnbuckle with a ‘Five Star frog splash’ while at the same time from the opposite one Kash lands a legdrop.  All that is enough to put the ‘Manbeast’ away and we have ourselves a new TV champion.

Is this even a match?  The kind of thing that only ECW could get away with and it feels like more of an elaborate angle.  The crowd baiting and the ‘fan’ trying to attack Rhino came across as legit, that is until Rhino attacked the policeman!  Notice how despite this no other security or police came to take him away.  The finish doesn’t put Kash in the strongest of lights either, needing help from both Sandman and RVD, the latter doing the majority of the damage, to get the win.