Mike Reviews ECW Hardcore TV #148 (Brian Pillman in ECW)

Happy Extreme Friday Everyone!

Back with some more Hardcore TV today, as we look at an episode where Brian Pillman makes his ECW debut. We’ve also got wild collection of matches from CyberSlam 96, including a Triple Dog Collar Match!

You can view the full card for Hardcore TV by clicking the link below;

ECW Hardcore TV #148 Card

Pics come courtesy of Classic Wrestling Review and Wrestling 20 Years Ago

Hardcore TV is emanating from The Arena in Philly on the 17th of February 1996, and then aired on television on the 20th of February 1996

Calling the action is Joey Styles

Missy Hyatt trades innuendo’s with The Sandman

Match 1
Judge Dredd and The Bad Crew (Dog and Rose) Vs Dino Sandoff, Don E. Allen and The Dirtbike Kid

Dredd is a tall dude that worked some ECW shots and also did some tours of FMW. Bad Crew mostly worked ECW and other smaller companies in the Tri State area. Sandoff was mostly used as an enhancement guy in ECW, and this would be his last night in the company. Allen is another enhancement guy who was mostly there to get battered by the stars. TDK’s most famous contributions to wrestling are that he gave Alex Shane work as a referee early in Shane’s career and that he also got beaten up for real by The Great Sasuke in a wildly unprofessional moment from the Sasuke, but also something that could have been easily avoided if TDK hadn’t been such a putz. The fans seem to hate all six of these guys, although it’s only really the Dredd & Bad Crew team that are actually getting an offence here. None of the wrestling is really any good, with Dredd in paryicular looking especially sloppy and dangerous. The Bad Crew gets a double team move on Sandoff and that’s the three count after a particularly crummy opener.

WINNERS: DREDD & BAD CREW
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: This was no good

The Sandman runs out and attacks everyone in the match, which the crowd appreciates.

Joey Styles is in the ring hyping up the fans, but the lights go out and Brian Pillman shows up in the ring to a massive reaction from the crowd. Pillman had recently done the “I respect you…bookerman” angle at SuperBrawl VI, so he’s of course super over with the rebellious ECW fans, especially when he starts insulting Eric Bischoff, who was basically the antichrist to ECW fanatics at the time. However, Pillman isn’t here to be a babyface, so he expertly turns the fans against him by calling them all a bunch of “smart marks”. It’s honestly a masterful bit of work on Pillman’s part, as he totally strung the crowd along thinking he was going to be a wild unhinged babyface, but then he starts taunting them with jibes of “smaaaaaart maaaaaaarks” and you can hear the air going out of the building as they go from shock to genuine anger at being worked. I actually saw Jordyne Grace do a similar type promo in PROGRESS one time where she teased she was going to be a Face before turning on them and the reaction was similar. Pillman teases that he’s going to urinate in the ring, which leads to Todd Gordon, Paul E. Dangerously and Shane Douglas coming down to the ring to put a stop to it, leading to Pillman attacking a “fan” and then getting taken away by security/police. Man, if ECW could have got on pay per view around this time then Pillman Vs Douglas would have probably been one heck of a match for them to build it around. This was of course a cracking angle, but sadly it didn’t lead to anything due to Pillman both getting injured and signing with the WWF.

We get a recap of Taz’s path of rage, with 911 and Rey Mysterio Jr being two of the recent people to fall victim. This led to Bam Bam Bigelow entering ECW to feud with Taz, and we get a promo from Bill Alfonso and Taz, which is mostly Fonzie yelling at the camera about how good life is for him now he manages Taz.

New Jack can’t be here tonight due to legal troubles, which leads to Mustafa Saed beating up manager Damien Kane until The Headhunters run down to attack Mustafa.

Match 2
The Headhunters (A and B) w/ Damian Kane and Lady Alexandra Vs The Bruise Brothers (Ron and Don)

The Hunters are two large blokes from Puerto Rico who can do Moonsaults. The Bruise Brothers would likely be better known as The Harris Brothers. So we’ve got two teams of brawling twins here, meaning we immediately get the two tandems brawling into the crowd whilst the camera crew desperately try to keep track of the action. This sort of action was gradually starting to work it’s way into the WWF’s product, and WCW had been doing it for a year or so prior to this as well with The Nasty Boys being the main culprits, but this was a style of wrestling that ECW mostly specialised in during this timeframe. It’s fine, if rather sloppy. A Bruise Brother pins a Headhunter at the same time a Headhunter pins a Bruise Brother, but the referee counts the pin of the Bruise Brother for the three count.

WINNERS: THE BRUISE BROTHERS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This didn’t go on for very long, but it wasn’t terrible, just aimless brawling with a dodgy finish

Match 3
“Dancin” Stevie Richards and The Eliminators (Saturn and Kronus) Vs The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 and Pitbull #2) and Francine

Richards and Francine used to date in storyline (leading to Joey Styles delivering the famous “I’ll be darned, Stevie likes women!” line) but they’ve split up now and Franny has teamed up with The Pitbulls in the quest for vengeance. Stevie is dressed like a protoypical Chris Hero here, complete with a Superman t-shirt. This one is a clip show, so I can’t really review it, but it looks like the usual wild action you’d expect from these folks. #1 actually manages to deliver a top rope rana to Kronus at one stage, which isn’t a move I knew he had in his arsenal. Francine is mostly there to get beaten up it seems, with #1 having to save her from TOTAL ELIMINATION at one stage. Eventually both of The Eliminators get Super Bombed by The Pitbulls, and that leads to Stevie getting his from the babyfaces so that Francine can get the pin.

WINNERS: THE PITBULLS & FRANCINE
RATING: N/A

Francine takes TOTAL ELIMINATION as part of a Heel beatdown post-match, so I’m guessing that this feud will continue. We get a backstage promo from The Eliminators following that, and they seem pretty unrepentant.

Match 4
“The Roughneck” Mr. Hughes Vs Buh-Buh Ray Dudley w/ Big Dick Dudley, Dances With Dudley and Sign Guy Dudley)

Hughes would show up once in a while in ECW, usually just to put over one of the homegrown ECW guys that needed a combative win over a guy with television cred. Buh-Buh was a stuttering dancing babyface here, which is a far departure from the foul mouthed bully he’d eventually become, both off-screen and on. Hughes makes the mistake of hitting Big Dick before the match, so Big Dick hits Hughes with a crutch and Buh-Buh quickly comes off the top rope with a splash for three. Okay then

WINNER: BUH-BUH
RATING: N/A

The Pitbulls cut a promo backstage. They growl a lot.

Joey Styles interviews Tommy Dreamer w/ Beulah McGillicutty in the ring. Dreamer has his left arm in a sling due to an attack from Raven. Dreamer tries to cut a promo, but Raven, Kimona Wanalaya, Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie interrupt, with Raven making threatening statements about corporal punishments in other countries, which leads to The Bruise Brothers and Shane Douglas joining us for some backup to Dreamer. Douglas gets Beulah to safety, but The Bruise Brothers turn on Dreamer and drag him crotch first into the ring post, which is Raven’s revenge for Dreamer shacking up with Beulah. Was there ever a set of testicles in wrestling more assaulted than those of Tommy Dreamer? This was a good angle, with The Bruise Brother Heel turn seeming to genuinely shock the crowd.

In Conclusion

The Pillman angle was the highlight of the show, with the wrestling bouts not really matching it for quality. As a show this episode of Hardcore TV flew by though, making it a frantic and exciting watch for the most part, even though there was a distinct lack of good in-ring wrestling, which is a testament to how good Paul Heyman was at covering for the weaknesses of his roster in order to put on an entertaining 40-45 minutes of television most weeks

Mildly recommended show