[2000-10-21-ECWA] Mark & Jay Briscoe vs Johnny Maxx & Vincent Goodnite vs Mozart Fontaine & Eddie Valentine vs Patch & Glenn Osbourne

[soup23]

The Briscoes have their cheering section again. Goodnite and Maxx were two people I was not familiar with and they didn’t leave a great lasting impression since they were the workhorses here for a first part of the match before going down to a Patch powerslam. Jay having the heat was smart as that got the crowd invested. Fontaine and Valentine didn’t do much on top but energy from crowd was still there. Mark is still really coming into his body physically at the ripe age of 15 here so his strikes on the comeback are weakened. Valentine gives him a Ganso Bomb to regain the advantage. I don’t think Osbourne has tagged in once. A minute after taking the Ganso, Briscoe is back on offense and finally tags Osbourne. Osbourne eliminates Valentine and the big sleazy heels are out. Final two teams isn’t that inspired and Patch is really heeling it up. Osbourne turns on him and hits him with a chair and the Briscoes win. Haas Brothers attack immediately. Someone runs in and goes all Bill Kazmier style on them and they get beat down. Kevin Kelly is on the outside trading shots too. Hopefully someone can clue me in on who this is that is getting the beatdown. Someone else in Briscoe clan comes in and they beat her down. Kevin Kelly of all people almost incites a riot with the Briscoe fans. Match overall was a weird mixture of mundane action but great crowd heat. The angle afterwards was a shit ton of fun and a Briscoe vs Haas blood match should be good coming up. **1/4

[Tim Evans]

Match was pretty blah except for the Briscoes getting beaten up. I can't believe they were only 15 around this time.  None of the other guys looked to impressive except for maybe Osbourne and he didn't do much. This was all about the post match. Who knew Kevin Kelly was such a heat magnet? Loved him and the Hass brothers going in the crowd and yelling at Hat guy. Was that Papa Briscoe that went into the ring? 

[GSR]

Glenn Osbourne has got the Nate Hatred face paint and looks like a heart attack waiting to happen.  The Briscoes get another strong ovation, their fans having brought giant sized letters with them to spell out their surname.  Great choice of entrance music, RHCP’s cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’, the same music that Josh Koscheck would use in the UFC.  I’ll forewarn you, I have no idea who is Johnny Maxx and who is Vincent Goodnite, they’re not making the strongest of first impressions though as they go at it with Fontaine.  Standing moonsault by Mark on Mozart, the Briscoes seemingly working together with Maxx and Goodnite as they try to wear him down.  Face jam by Fontaine and he’s finally able to tag out to his partner Fast Eddie.  Valentine struggles on a suplex and then struggles with a Scorpion Deathlock.  One of either Maxx or Goodnite saves the other and all eight men are in the ring fighting it out.  Patch catches one of them with a powerslam, hooks the tights and Johnny & Vincent are the first team out of there.  Double gourdbuster by the Briscoes on Valentine.  Combination side slam/middle rope legdrop.  Fast Eddie with a low blow as he and Mozart take over on Jay.  Some weird walking Boston crab where Valentine drags Jay around the ring.  Brainbuster and Mark is in there to break up the cover.  Jay blocks a second roaring elbow, connects on the enzuigiri and hot tags to his brother.  It looks like Patch and Osbourne are content to let the other teams do all the work here.  A unique flatliner/top rope bulldog by the Briscoes.  Mozart accidentally drops a big elbow on Eddie and Jay tags the ‘walking heart attack’, making his first foray into the match.  Immediate ‘Dominator’ on Valentine and we’re down to two.  No messing around by big Glenn.  The final fall follows a very similar pattern to the previous one, only this time Mark is the FIP as opposed to Jay.  It looks like Patch and Osbourne have got this in the bag, when, for unknown reasons, Osbourne collects a chair from ringside and cracks it over his own partner’s back.  There had been no miscommunication spots between them, the only thing I can think of is that Patch on a couple of occasions picked Mark up at the count of two when he had him beat to dish out more punishment.  Maybe that old adage of “not getting paid by the hour” applies to Osbourne and he didn’t appreciate Patch dragging the match out any longer than necessary?   Patch is easy pickings and the Briscoes come off opposite turnbuckles with a splash and legdrop respectively for the win.  Now number one contenders the tag team titles they are jumped by the Haas brothers, Kevin Kelly even taking out the referee with a forearm.  Some old, out of shape guy rushes the ring and starts doing football tackles and throwing bad looking clotheslines until he’s beaten down and handcuffed to the ropes.  Now we’ve got another civilian in there (a female?  I can’t tell), the Haas brothers giving them the much missed Banana split/flying elbow to the groin.  Kelly is drawing some serious heat from the fans, security and event staff getting between them as they want to fight him.  Long after they’ve gone there is still this one guy having to be calmed down and it looks like he ends up leaving the building to cool off.

Switch the Briscoe brothers with any other team the calibre of the opposition they’re facing and you’ve got a fairly unappealing match; they’re the only thing that holds your interest here.  It’s crazy to think how young they were back in 2000, but at the same time how good and even innovative they were with some of their double teams.  Both heat segments are pretty meh, not helped by the fact that the teams in control are neither exciting nor dynamic.  Post-match shenanigans is far more exciting than the match itself especially with the antics of Kevin Kelly and he way he incites the Briscoe section.