Mike Reviews The Final ECW Show (Original ECW)

Happy Extreme Saturday Everyone!

A couple of weeks back I reviewed WCW’s last pay per view, so I decided to “complete the set” as it were when it came to promotions that died in early 2001, by watching a fan cam recording of ECW’s final ever show. This event was a sold show in Pine Bluff, and going in it wasn’t promoted as the official last ECW show, but the roster could pretty much see the writing on the wall and did a curtain call to close the show and say goodbye to the fans that showed up.

I expect this to be a bit of sad event to watch in some ways, with the original ECW going out with a whimper instead of a bang. However, looking at the card there might still be some enjoyable wrestling to watch until the lights go out on ECW for the last time. If you’d like to view the card for the final ECW show you can click the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=7924&page=3

The event is emanating from Pine Bluff, Arkansas on the 13th of January 2001

Opening Match
Tom Marquez w/ Oz Vs Nova

Marquez also wrestled as The Prodigy, and actually made it onto one of the ECW Video Games, but he was never really a pushed commodity within the promotion. Nova by comparison was getting a bit of a push as a crazed hot head during the dying days of the company. Marquez enters to Papa Roach, so he wins some points for that if nothing else. Nova had switched to “Bang Your Head” by Quiet Riot here after using the Beastie Boys “Intergalactic” for quite a few years. Nova has a great physique and a beard here in an effort to look more like a bad ass.

Gabe Sapolsky would appear to be handling the camera tonight, as Nova looks into the camera and mentions him by name at one stage. This is your standard opening bout, with Marquez climbing the ropes to get booed so that Nova can then climb them to get a cheer. The classics are still the classics for a reason, and both wrestlers are doing a decent job of drawing reactions from the crowd. It’s fun to see this sort of thing on an ECW show actually, as usually you wouldn’t have guys working the formula so much on an ECW event. This was a paid show which likely attracted a more casual audience though, so it makes sense that they’d do the House Show Special here in the opening match in case some of the people in the crowd weren’t normal wrestling show attendees.

Nova bumps Marquez around and Marquez does a good jump bumping around for it all, with even Oz taking a couple of pratfalls as well, and the crowd genuinely seems to be enjoying it all. Eventually Marquez distracts the referee and that allows Oz to cheap shot Nova so that we can have the cut off and heat segment. Again, that’s standard opening match hi-jinx when you’re working a live event like this, as it gives the fans a chance to boo the Heel and get behind the babyface, as well as getting any of the more casual fans in the crowd into the flow of a regular wrestling match so that the latter matches can then play with the formula if they want to without it confusing them too much.

Nova eventually starts Novaing up, no selling punches and then getting an enziguri for two. Oz tries getting involved again, and that allows Marquez to try and get a Uranage of some kind. Nova manages to avoid that and then counters a Reverse DDT attempt from Marquez into a twisting neck breaker (think Test’s old Test Drive finisher if you were watching the WWF in 2001-03) and that’s enough for three.

WINNER: NOVA
RATING: **

Thoughts: Solid opener there, with Marquez and Oz being bumbling Heels and Nova being a good traditional fiery babyface. It hit all the beats it needed to and did a good job of warming up the crowd for the evening of wrestling ahead

Match Two
Hot Commodity (EZ Money and Julio Dinero) Vs Christian York and Joey Matthews

Money was not only on the last ever ECW show, but he was also on the last ever WCW pay per view as well, which means he was part of two companies that died within months of each other. I wonder if his dog ran away and his wife left him for a country singer too? Matthews arguably achieved the most success of anyone in this match, as he was part of MNM in WWE, although he did suffer from personal demons and had his face crushed by a ladder whilst in WWE, so peaks and roundabouts I guess.

There’s a lot of chicanery early on in this one, with York and Matthews shining on Hot Commodity, with the Heels stooging around to put the babyfaces over, including Money having his pants pulled down at one stage (which all the ladies in the crowd seem to appreciate). It’s the right kind of southern tag team action for a crowd like this, just with some more modern moves worked in, such as when Money clocks York with the Buckshot Lariat for the cut off. York sells well when he gets a chance to during the heat, as the vast majority of the heat segment sees Hot Commodity hitting wacky big moves that could easily be finishers in a different setting.

Seriously, if you like MOVEZ then this is the heat segment for you! Money eventually misses a Moonsault and that gives us the Matthews hot tag segment, as he runs wild on the Heels and even kicks both of them in the groin, which isn’t a DQ because ECW. Both teams get some near falls, as the action continues to come thick and fast. Eventually York and Matthews catch Dinero with a Double Powerbomb and that’s enough for the three count.

WINNERS: YORK & MATTHEWS
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: This was a mixture of regular tag formula and comedy with the high impact more indie style that you saw in ECW at the time. Hot Commodity hit practically every move in their arsenal during the heat segment for instance, which I can definitely see some thinking was overkill. I was entertained by it, but I can also accept that there were some issues with it

Match Three
The Japanese Buzz Saw Yoshihiro Tajiri Vs The Insane Luchadore Super Crazy

Well, it wouldn’t be right if these two didn’t wrestle one another on this one I guess, seeing as this is probably the singles match that happened the most in ECW. We get our first “EC-Dub” chant of the evening here as the two perform the usual counter sequence that they could probably do in their sleep at this point and then follow that up with the Central American Standoff. The fight heads to the floor following that, which I never really liked in matches between these two as they were good enough in the ring that we didn’t need brawling outside the ring when they matched up. Save that for the Sandman’s matches and focus on doing wrestling in the ring.

Crazy does the ten punches in the corner and the crowd is able to chant along in Spanish, so bi-sexuality may be frowned upon in Arkansas but bi-linguism is seemingly alive and well! They just stop wrestling at one stage and go in search of tables due to the crowd wanting to see them so much, with Tajiri eventually finding one under the ring. However, the table doesn’t get set up at first and they just go back to doing Japanese inspired Lucha Libre, as was the style at the time. Tajiri of course clocks Crazy with some trademark kicks at one stage, but Crazy then rolls through a rana into a pinning hold of his own and that’s the three count.

WINNER: SUPER CRAZY
RATING: **

Thoughts: That was pretty disappointing to be honest compared to some of the matches they had prior to this one. And, after derailing the match to look for tables, the table didn’t even get used in the end, so what was the point of finding one to begin with?

Match Four
ECW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: Danny Doring and Roadkill Vs The FBI (Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke)

This was another long running feud in the promotion, with the winning team closing the books as the final ever ECW Tag Champs, as the WWE never bothered bringing those belts back when they launched their own ECW brand in 2006. However, only Doring shows up for the match as Roadkill supposedly has transportation problems, so Doring announces that Tommy Dreamer will be filling in as the tag partner tonight. I think Dreamer might be wearing a Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 t-shirt for this one actually, although I can’t quite get a good view of the logo. I know Dreamer didn’t really wrestle in proper gear from roughly 1995 onwards, but this is possibly the laziest he’s ever looked from a ring gear perspective, as he’s wearing a white t-shirt tucked into slacks and looks like he just came in from moving furniture on the next street over.

Doring steals Simon Diamond’s Simon Series of triple suplexes at one stage, and even mocks Diamond’s taunt as well. I’m guessing that was a cheeky rib and not something done out of spite on Doring’s part. Doring does most of the difficult stuff in this one, with Dreamer mostly doing some comedy and the occasional power move, because The FBI are slight and nimble enough that Tommy Dreamer can actually look like a powerhouse wrestler against them. The FBI has no joy wrestling in the early stages, so they up the ante by challenging the babyfaces to a dance off, which gives us Tommy Dreamer dancing like a less coordinated Rikishi to DMX whilst Mamaluke tries doing an Irish Jig at one stage.

I must admit, that dancing segment was pretty fun, but eventually The FBI attacks the babyfaces and the fight picks up again, with Dreamer getting dropped crotch first onto the metal railings at one stage, because I think he likely had it written into his contract by this point. Guido starts bullying the referee, so the referee Body Slams him! I’d’ve liked to see Earl Hebner try that with One Man Gang in the 1980’s. Doring gets worked over for a bit in The FBI corner, with Doring selling it well enough and The FBI looking good on offence for the most part. Eventually it’s hot tag Dreamer, which leads to him getting some punches and some more power moves on the babyfaces such as a Powerslam and a Spine Buster. Doring and Dreamer get the Buggy Bang (wheelbarrow and leg drop combo move) for the three count, although Dreamer held Mamaluke a little too high I think.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: DANNY DORING & ROADKILL (DREAMER SUBBED FOR ROADKILL)
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was your standard House Show tag match, with some comedy in the early going until we got the heat segment and they then took it home pretty quickly following the hot tag. They’ve done a good job of mostly putting on matches that focus on the Heel/Face divide thus far, which has given the crowd something to get into and has kept things simple

Match Five
CW Anderson w/ Lou E. Dangerously Vs Jack Victory

Well, this is a random match. I’m guessing it was supposed to be Steve Corino wrestling here instead of Victory but he didn’t get transport sorted and stayed home? Lou E and CW insult the crowd on the mic to start before Victory arrives to get the match started. I couldn’t really hear much of the promo due to the mic quality not being great, but it seemed to be standard “bad guy insults town, good guy defends town, a wrestling match happens”, which is what you’d expect from a live event like this. They immediately head to the floor, which I’m less bothered by than in the Tajiri/Crazy match because Victory was getting on a bit at the time so walking and brawling was probably the best thing for him to be doing at this current juncture.

It’s not long before both wrestlers are bleeding, as weapons also get involved following that, with Anderson hitting victory with the ring bell and some chairs, whilst Victory gets some chair shots of his own in. Lou E tries to fling Anderson his comedic big 80’s phone, but Victory gets hold of it and clobbers Anderson. However, dodgy referee Danny Daniels joins us to help the Heels get one up on Victory, which leads to Little Spike Dudley heading down to take out Daniels, as this has become even MORE of an ECW match. Anderson takes an Acid Drop and Victory gets draped on top for the three count.

WINNER: JACK VICTORY
RATING: *

Thoughts: Just walking, brawling and bleeding, with some run ins

Match Six
Oz Vs Michael Shane

I don’t know who Oz is, and he doesn’t even have a Cage Match profile, but Shane is a cousin of Shawn Michaels and did a HBK cosplay for much of this time period. Oz is kind of a doing a Buddy Rose meets Adrian Adonis styled gimmick here. Shane was already using “Caboose” as entrance music here, which he would take with him to ROH and he’d eventually have a remixed version of whilst he was TNA so that they could avoid getting sued by Sugar Ray. Shane is being a hand slapping babyface here, which is a bit of a departure from the cocky Heel character that he would be more known for whilst in ROH and also during his initial TNA run.

Shane gets an initial babyface shine on Oz, but Oz manages to catch Shane with a Swinging Neck Breaker before taunting the crowd. Oz at least is taking the time to work the crowd here, which adds a little something to the match. Shane fights back and we get the rarely seen Aloha-Oz, which is followed by Shane getting a Sweet Shane Music for two. Shane manages to fight off a Superplex and then comes off the top with a sloppy looking Axe Handle Smash and that’s enough for three, although Oz kicked out at 3.1.

WINNER: MICHAEL SHANE
RATING: *

Thoughts: Not much of a match and the finish looked kind of borked, like they were told to just take it home abruptly and Shane hit the first move he could think of

Match Seven
ECW Unified World Title
Champ: Rhino Vs Little Spike Dudley

Rhino had unified the World and TV Titles at ECW’s last pay per view, and he had storyline broken Spike’s leg back in 2000, so Spike spent the dying days of ECW looking, and failing, to gain some payback. Spike sticks and moves to start, getting some punches and then a rana out of the corner before getting his own GORE for two. Rhino of course doesn’t like that and starts putting the beat down on poor Spike, which Spike sells really well as usual. The fans want to see tables, so Rhino denies them it as a way of drawing cheap heat, and it mostly works with the crowd groaning at being denied some table related fun.

Spike is soon bleeding, with his blood making a big splodge on the ring mat in a gruesome image. Spike continues to try and find a way back into the match, but Rhino keeps cutting him off, whilst the fans continue to chant for tables. Hey, that tables guy sounds pretty popular, maybe ECW should make them the Champion instead of Rhino? Spike finally manages to get a bit of a foothold in the match by clocking Rhino with a chair a few times. I don’t know if it’s because they know it’s the last show, or it’s just generally the work ethic the ECW locker room had, but these guys are working darn hard here, with Spike bleeding all over the place and Rhino taking all kind of painful looking chair based offence.

The crowd eventually gets their wish of seeing a table bump, as Spike goes for the Acid Drop but Rhino counters it by flinging Spike over the top rope through a table at ringside. Spike looks to have been blunted following that, as Rhino adds a Powerbomb onto a stack of chairs…for two. That was an Inoki styled “barely raise your arm” kick out though, and Rhino soon adds a Piledriver onto the chairs for three.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: RHINO
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: These two always tried to emulate the matches Spike had with the likes of Bam Bam Bigelow and Mike Awesome, but Rhino just didn’t have that same kind of chemistry with Spike as those other guys did. This was decent at least due to the high effort level from both wrestlers, with Spike in particular blading and taking some gnarly bumps in an effort to get the match over

Main Event
Justin Credible w/ Francine Vs The Sandman

There are better matches they could have ended ECW with I think, namely Rob Van Dam or Tommy Dreamer wrestling someone, but Sandman was one of the biggest in-house stars that ECW made and Credible was one of most pushed guys they had in their final years, so this isn’t the worst match they could have gone with. We get some long promo stuff before the match, although I can barely make out what Credible is saying due to the quality of the mic. Credible seems angered by something at any rate, and Sandman seemingly agrees with whatever he’s saying. I do catch a bit where Credible asks Sandman to have a straight wrestling match with him instead of doing a brawl. Sandman agrees, but says that Credible owes him one.

Thus we get Sandman doing waist locks and whatnot, and he’s actually not that bad, which leads to Credible getting annoyed and frustrated that old Sandy is better on the mat than Credible thought he would be. Eventually Francine pulls Sandman’s leg on a suplex and Credible lands on top for the three count. However, Sandman points out that Credible owes him one and demands the match restart, but this time as a brawl. Sandman heads to the back and brings out a New Jack amount of weaponry, and we’re officially going again, with Sandman giving Credible both a bulldog and a suplex onto a ladder for a two count. Credible takes some bumps for everything, whilst Sandman mostly does basic brawling stuff in his own unique drunken manner.

Both wrestlers trade near falls in the ring following a litany of weapon based offence, with neither being able to keep the other down. Again, considering that this is a paid show in the middle of nowhere that wasn’t even televised, these two are working really hard here, which is a reason why ECW live events were usually worth attending, because even if the wrestling wasn’t great you’d know that the folks in the ring were putting in the effort to entertain you as best they could. Francine even gets involved at one stage and gives Sandman a Bronco Buster. However, Franny doesn’t quit whilst she’s ahead and that leads to Credible accidentally kicking her when Sandman ducks. Sandman gives Credible a Piledriver onto a some sort of metal thing after that and that’s enough for three.

WINNER: THE SANDMAN
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was quite fun, although your own mileage may vary depending on how you feel about weapons based brawling. All three involved in the match did their best to put on a show, and the technical wrestling portion at the start was a nice diversion into the match starting properly

Both wrestlers hug following that, as some fans seem to be throwing stuff into the ring for some reason.

The locker room empties following that, with most of the wrestlers heading down for a curtain call, as Tommy Dreamer grabs the mic to officially say goodbye and the original ECW meets it’s sad demise.

In Conclusion

This wasn’t the most auspicious way to close the book on ECW, as you didn’t really get to see the best of the promotion for the most part. However, this seemed like a perfectly fun evening of wrestling to attend, with a solid level of effort from all of the wrestlers involved and very few matches that could actively be described as bad. There wasn’t anything great here, but it was a reasonably breezy watch and it was good that Sandman, Spike and Dreamer all got to wrestle on the last original ECW event, as they were stalwarts of the company who all achieved arguably their greatest success there.

Obviously it would have been nice to see the likes of Rob Van Dam, Jerry Lynn, New Jack, Steve Corino, Balls Mahoney, Mikey Whipwreck and others make an appearance here, seeing as it was the last show, but that’s what can happen when a random paid show in Arkansas is the last event a company puts on. Had it been known in advance that this would be the company swansong, then it wouldn’t surprise me if more people showed up to wrestle on the show knowing that it would be their last chance.

As far as looking at this as just a show without the last ever original ECW event connotations, this is a relatively inoffensive use of 2 hours that features some mostly okay wrestling in front of a responsive crowd who came to have a good time and mostly did. It made for easy enough viewing, but I don’t think there’s much reason to watch it other than to say that you saw the original ECW’s last ever show.

Mildly Recommended if you’re a nostalgic ECW fan, but not really recommended if you’re not