Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #392 (28/10/2000)

Hello You!

We’re 8 days out from November to Remember, the event that traditionally acts as ECW’s version of WrestleMania/Starrcade as the big show of the year. This year’s show doesn’t feel like it’s on that level, but neither did last year’s either if I’m honest. Let’s see if they can speed up the hype train this week to really get us jazzed for the pay per view.

This week’s matches were taped from Battle Creek, Michigan

Calling the action are Joey Styles and Joel Gertner

We open up with Balls Mahoney powerbombing The Prodigette through a flaming table, for what reasons I can’t say. Credit to her for taking the bump though. It’s Balls and Chilly Willy Vs Da Baldies in a flaming table match at November to Remember. They way they’re hyping that one up you’d think it was the feature bout on the card.

Joey and Joel are in front of the ECW Banner, where Gertner does his usual dirty intro.

Opening Match
EZ Money w/ Julio Dinero and Chris Hamrick Vs Kid Kash

No Elektra at ringside for Money this week, as she’s apparently off having a photoshoot. Why would you schedule a photo shoot on the one day during the week where you’re supposed to be managing someone? What, was she running an ice cream parlour on the other six days of the week? Hamrick and Dinero make their presence known early on by distracting Kash, which leads to the usual quick counter sequence between the two competitors.

These two had some good chemistry and the crowd is into Kash, so the opening babyface shine is good, with Kash getting a fantastic dive out onto the heels at one stage. Eventually the heels keep getting involved and that allows Money to cut Kash off. Watching Money here you can see why the WWF eventually offered him a development deal due to his reasonable size and charisma, although his spotty in-ring style is probably why he never managed to make it up to the main roster.

Money gets passed a chain from Dinero and wears Kash down with it. Kash bleeds from that, but keeps kicking out of Money’s pin attempts and eventually makes the comeback, getting a rana but not the win due to Hamrick distracting the ref. The constant interference and distractions from Money’s buddies has successfully drawn heel heat from the crowd and they pop big when Kash kicks out of a Hamrick leg drop. Kash manages to catch Money with the Money Maker, and that’s enough for the win.

WINNER: KID KASH
RATING: **1/2

Decent match, with the constant shenanigans from the heels getting the desired reactions.

The heels beat Kash down 3 on 1 following the match, leads to acting commissioner Spike Dudley running down for the save, giving Money the Acid Drop on just one leg.

CW Anderson cuts a promo backstage on Steve Corino. He faces him tonight, with the winner getting an ECW Title shot.

Match Two
Simon Diamond Vs Nova

Nova was getting really lean and muscular here, even more so than he’d been earlier in the year, and he’s working a much more aggressive style than usual as well due to anger at Chris Chetti turning on him. Diamond is working as a single here due to Swinger having a cracked orbital bone. Nova shines on Diamond to start, even cussing him out whilst doing so to show off his new intense personality, but Diamond pulls the referee in the way as a distraction and then cuts Nova off to work some heat.

The heat segment is fine, if a bit on the short side, as Nova sells well and Diamond’s stuff looks good. It’s just a generally solid match, although it feels a bit rushed, which happens with TV matches sometimes. One thing I’ll say for WWE these days is that they are willing to give mid-card guys 8-12 minutes on shows like Raw and Smackdown sometimes in order to let them have a proper match. Chetti and his new manager Lou E. Dangerously run down and Nova manages to mostly fend them off, but it allows Diamond to catch him with a cheap shot and heel ref Danny Daniels counts the three.

WINNER: SIMON DIAMOND
RATING: **

Standard TV match with a screwy ending to put heat on the Chetti/Nova issue

Chris Hamrick tries to start a fight with Spike in the toilet, but Spike breaks a bottle and Hamrick backs off.

Match Three
Phoenix and Chris Krueger Vs Danny Doring and Roadkill

Phoenix and Krueger are two lads from Shawn Michaels’ wrestling school, whilst Doring and Roadkill were trained by Perry Saturn and Taz, so they push this as a match between the two schools. Another lad from Shawn’s school called Oz gets involved as well, and he gets taken out, as do the other two lads, as Doring and Roadkill finish off Krueger with the Buggy Bang in a sprint.

WINNERS: DORING & ROADKILL
RATING: SQUASH

Well, that was pretty definitive. I’m sure Shawn was thrilled about his guys getting smacked around like that

Joey recaps the show so far; as Joel reveals that he’s put a camera in the women’s bog. Also, it’s Spike Vs Hamrick next week.

Lou E gives Chetti a pep talk. Simon Diamond walks over to say that he’s got a problem with Chetti getting involved in his business.

Meanwhile, we get clips of Francine and Justin Credible arguing in the ring following Credible’s loss to New Jack a couple of weeks ago. It looks like Francine is going to hit Credible with a metal bin lid, but he catches her before she can swing it, so she acts like she wasn’t going to do it.

Main Event
#1 Contender Match
CW Anderson Vs Steve Corino w/Dawn Marie and Jack Victory (HIGH SPOT)

This one starts hot, with both men dodging the others’ attacks and doing some nice counter wrestling. Corino should really win this, but only if it means he then goes on to win the belt. Failing for the third time in roughly six weeks would officially kill him off as a top card guy. Losing here and then earning his way back into contention would probably be better than winning the contender spot and then failing in the Title match again. The fight heads outside, where CW attacks Corino’s arm in vicious Anderson style before putting him back inside for the heat.

Corino sells the heat well, getting the right mix between selling the pain whilst also being gutsy and fighting back, which isn’t always easy, especially when you consider the fact Corino was a heel as recently as August and thus hadn’t had to do this stuff for a long time. Corino fights back and makes a good one armed combat, selling the body part throughout and doing his Flip, Flop and Fly spot with his left arm hanging by his side. We head outside, where Corino tries to suplex CW through a table but gets Stun Gunned onto the metal railings. CW follows that up by flinging Jack Victory through the table, as they are doing a great job at making CW look like a viable threat recently.

The fight heads back inside, where CW accidentally takes a stray chair shot from CW. Heel ref Danny Daniels runs down to cheat Corino, but Dawn Marie puts a stop to that. Corino tries to help her, but ends up kicking her by accident, which leads to a series of quick counts from Daniels, only for Corino to manage to keep kicking out. HC Loc ends up taking out Daniels before he can successfully fast count Corino, which allows the original ref to resume his reffing duties. Corino gets the Old School Expulsion and that’s enough for three.

WINNER: STEVE CORINO
RATING: ***

Good match there, although the stuff at the end got a bit silly

Credible runs down to attack Corino with his Singapore cane following the match, with Corino blading from that. Surprisingly though New Jack comes down to rescue Corino. New Jack tries to cut Credible open with a sickle, but Rhino runs down to help Credible and the segment ends with Corino and New Jack getting laid out by the heels.

We get a Pulp Fiction Montage, featuring Rob Van Dam, Rhino, Justin Credible and Francine.

In Conclusion

Good show from a wrestling stand point, but they kind of need to announce a Main Event of some kind for the pay per view.