Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #395 (18/11/2000)

Hello You!

Last week’s show was just recaps of the previous pay per view event, so hopefully this week something new will happen and they can start setting up the card for Massacre on 34^th Street on the 3^rd of December 2000.

This week’s matches were taped from Poughkeepsie, New York

Calling the action are Joey Styles and Joel Gertner

We open up with Cyrus cutting a promo where he puts Jerry Lynn over, once again trying to recruit him to the dark side. Cyrus is a great weasel and this was a fun promo. What I like about it is that it’s not like he’s lying either. For the past three years ECW itself has been telling the story that Lynn is overlooked and under-appreciated, so a heel manager using that to try and get him on side is completely logical.

Joey and Joel do the usual intro in the ring. The Poughkeepsie crowd are jazzed for some ECW and pop for Joel’s dirty poem. Francine and Justin Credible join them, and of course Joel is delighted to see Francine out there. I dunno, this version of Francine has just never done it for me. I’ve always been more partial to her during her days as The Beast Master when she managed The Pitbulls. Credible mentions that he pinned Jerry Lynn at November to Remember but has nothing to show for it. He says he cares about two things only, winning the ECW Title and getting himself some action from Francine.

Joey puts over Scott Hall showing up in ECW on a recent house show and ponders what it will mean. It means he did a random job to Big Sal at one stage, I know that much.

Opening Match
Blvis Wesley and The Prodigy w/ Prodigette and some trainees from Shawn Michaels’ wrestling school Vs Danny Doring and Roadkill

I think the music they dub in for Doring and Roadkill is one of the rare instances of them managing to find a theme that actually suits the people it is for. We get a replay of a Doring and Roadkill promo from last week, where they said they wanted a shot at The FBI. We head back to the ring following that, where Doring and Roadkill are making pretty easy work of the heel team.

Doring dives out onto the heels and then destroys the trainees for good measure, as this has been a complete squash thus far. Eventually a sly chair shot from Blvis leads to the heels ganging up on Doring for the cut off, which leads to him taking some heat. Doring sells that well and the heel teams stuff looks alright, as Blvis was a solid enough lower mid-card heel and Prodigy’s offence was usually fine, he just didn’t have a lot of charisma.

Doring eventually manages to make Prodigy Breathe a little bit harder following a kick to his Firestarter, which leads to the Roadkill hot tag. That leads to all of the heels and their lackeys getting a battering from the faces, leading to them landing in a lewd pose after getting squished in the corner. That was dirty but also funny, so I’ll let them off. That leads to The Buggy Bang on Prodigette, which also leads to a three count even though she wasn’t an actual competitor in the match.

WINNERS: DORING & ROADKILL
RATING: *1/2

The finish made no sense, but the match was fun enough for some TV tag action.

The FBI jump Doring and Roadkill post-match and cut off Doring’s hair along with Roadkill’s beard. Oh it’s on now!

Joey and Joel ascertain that The FBI are worried about facing Doring and Roadkill, and hint that we’ll see a match between the two teams at Massacre on 34th Street.

Rhino is in the boiler room, where he cuts a promo on all of his potential challengers. This was the usual snarling and spitting Rhino promo. It would be nice to see if he could actually cut a different type of promo, but I guess Paul Heyman preferred him to do this?

Match Two
EZ Money, Chris Hamrick and Julio Dinero w/ Elektra Vs Yoshihiro Tajiri, Mikey Whipwreck and Super Crazy

The music they dub in for EZ Money really is awful. I say this every time, but why not just dub his WCW Theme in? It’s basically an instrumental of his Jackyl song anyway and they clearly own the copywright as it’s still on the WCW shows on The Network. They also dub in Mikey’s Beck styled theme here, even though Tajiri’s evil theme makes far more sense for this time.

The babyface trio run wild to start and the crowd loves it. It’s good action actually, especially when Hamrick is in there for the heels due to how well he bumps and sells. It’s basically a tornado match in the early going, with everyone going at it and no tag rules to speak of, and it’s pretty darn exciting.

Eventually though there is some babyface miscommunication when Crazy catches Tajiri by accident with a missile dropkick, and that allows Hamrick to come off the top with a leg drop onto Tajiri, and that’s enough for the big upset win for the heels.

WINNERS: HOT COMMODITY
RATING: **1/2

Fun spot fest

Mikey is happy to forgive Crazy following that, but Tajiri isn’t so forgiving, leading to the bizarre image of wacky Mikey having to be the peacemaker. Crazy slaps Tajiri back though, and we would appear to have a match between them. Wow, Tajiri Vs Super Crazy, how fresh and original!

Main Event
Tajiri Vs Super Crazy

I’m beyond fucking sick of watching these two wrestle one another. Yeah, the wrestling is good like it always is, but I’ve probably seen these two wrestle one another more than I’ve seen any other combo of guys and I honestly never want to see it ever again. Tajiri, Mikey and Crazy as a babyface trio was a fun idea that they could have got some mileage out of, but they’ve already split them up after just one show. I know Paul E was pretty stressed out at the time, but this is scatterbrained napkin booking even by his own very low standards. Flips happen, tables get broken and Tajiri wins when Mikey hits Crazy with The Whippersnapper.

WINNER: TAJIRI
RATING: ***

The commentators play that up like it’s some kind of shock, but Mikey has been tagging with Tajiri for months, so of course he was going to side with him over Crazy

Joey states that Crazy will now need to find a partner to take on The Unholy Alliance. If ends up being Little Guido then I’m never watching this show again.

Next week it’s Steve Corino Vs Jerry Lynn for the ECW Title.

Corino cuts a backstage promo. He’s still sour about Lynn busting him open at Heatwave 2000, and he has the forehead to show for it. Corino mocks Lynn, clearly positioning himself as a heel again. You know, I get that they kind of botched his babyface run and probably felt they had to turn him back as a result, but the fact they barely got 3 months out of Corino as a face when he was super over at the end of August in that role really rams home just how bad a job they did with him. Interestingly we see after the promo that Francine was in the locker room watching on. She starts coming on to him, which leads to Credible storming in. Corino covers for himself, telling Credible that Jerry Lynn has said he won’t be giving Credible any Title shots if he wins the belt next week. Credible is angry following that, which may have consequences for Lynn next week. Foreshadowing!

In Conclusion

They did some good storyline advancement this week, and I’m looking forward to Lynn Vs Corino for the belt, so I’ll give the show a thumbs up as a result.