Mike Reviews ECW Hostile City Showdown 1995

Happy Extreme Friday Everyone

Back with some more ECW, as we return to the golden days of 1995 with Hostile City Showdown. We’ve got Shane Douglas taking on The Sandman, Raven facing off with Tommy Dreamer, and one of the many battles between Dean Malenko and Eddy Guerrero. I don’t see how a show with all of that on it could be bad, so let’s see just how hostile this showdown truly is!

You can view the full card by clicking below;

ECW Hostile City Showdown 1995 Card

Pics come courtesy of IMDB

Hostile City Showdown is emanating from The Arena in Philly

Joey Styles is calling the action

Opening Match
“Dancin” Stevie Richards w/ Raven Vs Mikey Whipwreck

Stevie was already entrenched as Raven’s lackey at this stage, whilst Mikey was still an underdog but not a total chump that couldn’t get any offence anymore. Raven trips Mikey right from the beginning of the match, so Mikey heads to the back and brings Hack Meyers with him as some backup. We then get the standard babyface shine following that, with Mikey throwing dropkicks and delivering arm drags whilst Richards bumps around. It’s a little bit sloppy due to Mikey still being rather inexperienced at this stage in his career, but the crowd seems to like it at least and Stevie is happy to bump around in order to make his babyface opponent look good. Stevie does a good job playing to the crowd, especially when they start riffing on him for wearing Daisy Duke shorts. Raven again gets involved, which leads to Meyers tripping up Stevie in order to even things out, but Stevie manages to catch Mikey with a flapjack styled move and that leads to Stevie getting to work a little bit of heat on the underdog babyface. Mikey manages to catch Stevie with a rana OUTTA NOWHERE though, and that gives Mikey the three count.

WINNER: MIKEY WHIPWRECK
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was fine as an opener. Mikey was over with the crowd, and Stevie was roundly disliked, so even if some of the work could have been tighter this match had decent crowd reactions and was a reasonable way to kick off the show

Raven, Stevie and The Pitbull’s batter Mikey and Meyers following that until The Public Enemy run down to make the save for the babyfaces. This was a decent post-match angle that allowed the Heels to get their heat back and also set something up for later.

Match Two
Tsubo Genjin Vs Tony Stetson

Genjin is a Fujiwara student, and thus seems a bit out of place in ECW, who usually attracted Japanese wrestlers who could work hardcore style such as W*ING Kanemura and Masato Tanka, or smaller high flying guys like The Great Sasuke. Genjin looks to be a weird Jimmy Snuka meets Great Muta themed wrestler, and I’m kind of amazed that he even got booked to begin with. Stetson had received a reasonable push in the early days of ECW, but by this stage he was essentially just enhancement talent. This one is joined in progress, with Stetson working a bit of heat. Genjin eventually starts fighting back with really awful strikes and the crowd totally turns on the match. Genjin gets a terrible weak looking leg drop and that’s enough for three as the crowd almost riots.

WINNER: TSUBO GENJIN
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: Couldn’t rate it because we didn’t get to see all of it, but what we did get to see was horrendous

Stetson attacks Genjin post-match and the crowd CHEERS because they hate Genjin so much.

Match Three
Barbed Wire Baseball Bat
Ian Rotten Vs Axl Rotten

These two used to team, but now they’ve split up and are having a different, more violent, gimmick match on every show in a effort to finally settle things. Their last match was Hair Vs Hair, and Ian is basically bald here so I think we can all guess who won that one. Axl cuts a babyface promo before the match to fire the fans up, but Ian jumps him and the match is on, at which point we go straight to brawling, weapon shots, bleeding and more brawling. The ECW Arena crowd seems to enjoy it, and if you’re into bloody brawls then this should probably tick the boxes you want. If two wrestlers raking one another with barbed wire and bleeding minutes into the contest isn’t for you though, then this match will do absolutely nothing to convert you. There’s no actual wrestling really happening as such here, it’s ultimately all about how much claret can be shed with little else really mattering. Ian eventually wraps Axl in the wire and clatters Axl in the face with a chair shot for three.

WINNER: IAN ROTTEN
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: I really had no idea what rating to go for with this, and I never really do when The Rotten’s fight one another. Every bout they had was essentially the same, in that it featured copious amounts of weapon shots and brawling, with no real storytelling in the matches outside of “who can lose the most blood this time?”. There’s definitely an audience for this kind of wrestling, and this was at least part a feud and not just folks being violent for the sake of it, but if you’ve seen one of these Rotten Vs Rotten battles then you’ve basically seen all they have to offer. I’ll go with the rating I have, just because I guess it was an okay match when it came to the genre it was operating within, but I didn’t especially enjoy it that much personally

Match Four
Raven w/ Stevie Richards and Beulah McGillicutty Vs Tommy Dreamer

This was the second singles match between these two in the ECW Arena, after Raven initially won the first one back at Three Way Dance. For those not au fait with the backstory; Raven, Beulah and Dreamer all went to summer camp together, where Dreamer stole Beulah from Raven, only to then cast her aside. Thus Raven and Beulah have shacked up in order to get vengeance on Dreamer. This is another brawl, although this one has more storyline elements to it and we actually get a bit in the ring without weapons where they actually wrestle one another a bit. That being said, it’s not long before Dreamer is bleeding as the two fight all over the arena. A kitchen sink even gets introduced into things at one stage, as Dreamer wears Raven out with that. We get one of the first appearances of a toy plastic dinosaur, as Dreamer clobbers Raven right in the flamingo’s with it, and then adds a shot with a dozen eggs as well.

Man, all I can think about is how many delicious breakfast’s those eggs could have contributed to and now they’re all cracked and lying on the cold arena concrete, not unlike my dreams of becoming the world’s snazziest dressed man. Dreamer manages to survive some Raven DDT’s back inside the ring by kicking out at two, so Raven goes for one on the floor instead. However, Dreamer blocks that and gets a DDT of his own out there. This looks to be leading to Dreamer finally getting a win over Raven, but Stevie and Beulah all get involved, which leads to Stevie getting DDT’ed and Beulah taking a Piledriver. This violent display of misogyny of course succeeds in making Dreamer a huge crowd favourite, because ECW, and it looks like the official finish is that Raven ended up winning by DQ, because the referee took a DDT from Dreamer during the chaos.

WINNER: RAVEN BY DQ
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was a good match, as Dreamer managed to get a little bit of payback on the Heels and managed to get over with the crowd as a top babyface finally, but Raven was still ultimately the winner and it continues the story of Dreamer never being able to pin his rival. It’s of course not especially pleasant that the big move that made Dreamer such a hero to the fans in the arena was him brutally attacking a woman, but the 1990’s were a different time and if you watch these ECW shows expecting modern sensibilities then that’s only going to be a pathway to disappointment

Dreamer celebrates in the crowd, now finally a firm fan favourite after nearly a year of trying

Match Five
ECW World Television Title
Champ: Eddy Guerrero Vs “Shooter” Dean Malenko

Guerrero defeated Too Cold Scorpio for the belt back at Three Way Dance, with Malenko now coming to try and take the belt from Eddy. Early on they show that Eddy isn’t going to be a pushover even though he’s the babyface here, as he replies to Malenko raking his boots across the face of the Champion by adding some face raking of his own. The crowd thankfully responds well to the good wrestling here, as the two grapplers go through some impressive counter sequences before having the standoff you see in the picture above. Joey Styles brags on commentary that other companies wouldn’t allow two wrestlers like this to go in there and fight over a major Title like this, but it was happening all the time in Mexico and Japan, and even in Europe as well where size was less of an issue. If he’d focused his diatribe to just North America then he might have had a point.

One person in the crowd doesn’t seem to dig the action, so the other folks demand that he be thrown out. I wonder if that’s because they really were enjoying the match so much or more because they didn’t want to give ammunition to the “see, they only care about blood and brawling” critics who were targeting the promotion at the time? Malenko and Guerrero ignore the commotion in the crowd and continue to focus on wrestling, as the technical battle progresses and continues to be well-executed. Malenko eventually focuses on weakening Eddy’s legs, which gives Eddy a chance to sell whilst Malenko puts the Champion in a series of punishing looking holds. Eddy’s selling is really good, and Malenko actually gets some polite applause at points for some of his leg based submission offence due to it looking so violent.

Eddy’s selling definitely makes the holds feel like “working holds” instead of “rest holds”, as it’s played that Eddy is in jeopardy when he’s locked in them and Eddy still feels the effects of the attacks when he’s eventually able to fight back. Case in point; Eddy manages to catch Malenko with a Swinging DDT at one stage, but landing the move hurts Eddy’s leg and it slows him down in making the cover, thus giving Malenko a window to kick out. Eddy actually busts out a version of his Lasso From El Paso submission hold at one stage, which I didn’t think he was doing until the 2000’s so it’s cool to see a prototypical version of it here. Things eventually escalate between the two wrestlers, as Malenko suplexes Eddy from the apron to the floor, but Eddy then dodges a Malenko dive attempt and follows with one of his own.

We move into Head Drop Territory following that, as each wrestler delivers a Brain Buster back inside the ring, as the metaphorical arms race between the two continues to escalate. Malenko actually manages to kick out of the Frogsplash at one stage, with Eddy then kicking out of a Northern Lights Suplex soon after that. The crowd stays with the action for the most part and appreciates the effort on display from both competitors, as well as getting into the near falls and submission teases. Eddy is definitely the crowd favourite here, but Malenko still gets respect for his wrestling ability as well, especially when the challenger plays his part in an exciting fishtails pin counter sequence that sees both competitors trade some nail biting two counts. Eventually the time limit runs out and that’s a draw following something like 25 minutes of wrestling (they say it was 30 minutes but I don’t think they actually wrestled 30 minutes for a shoot there)

TIME LIMIT DRAW
RATING: ****

Thoughts: They built this one really well, starting with the counter sequences and technical wrestling exchanges before gradually getting to bigger moves both inside the ring and outside of it too. The crowd responded really well to this, which was good to see as sometimes the ECW Arena faithful couldn’t always be trusted to show themselves in the best light when it came to a style of wrestling that they weren’t familiar with or weren’t usually into. However, Malenko and Guerrero both wrestled their tails off here, and it produced a match that was so good that the crowd couldn’t help but get into it. It wasn’t just a showcase of MOVEZ either, as the wrestlers started small and built up to the bigger spots towards the end of the contest so that they felt “earned” and the finish allowed Eddy to retain without making Malenko eat a pin in the process, thus setting up more matches between the two. The fans didn’t get a clean finish, but they did get a great match and the draw was done in a way that made sense, with the idea being that if they were to wrestle again with a longer time limit (or no time limit at all) then we might be able to get a clear winner that time

Malenko shows respect to Guerrero following that and Guerrero then celebrates with the crowd on retaining his belt.

Match Six
ECW World Heavyweight Title
Champ: Shane Douglas w/ Woman Vs The Sandman

Douglas helped Cactus Jack out at Return of The Funker, setting up a feud between Funk/Sandman and Cactus/Douglas. Woman had previously managed Sandman, but she’s dropped him in order to manage the Champion here, which she highlights by cradling the World Title belt when Douglas passes it to her during her entrance. This is the usual Douglas Vs Sandman match from this era, in that Douglas mostly uses wrestling whilst Sandman mostly uses brawling, with the two styles colliding and that leading to Sandman being on the defensive inside the ring whilst Douglas is on the backfoot outside of it.

It’s not a great match as such due to Sandman’s limited wrestling skills, but it is a watchable spectacle for the most part. Sandman is capable of selling and brawling, so he can get beaten up by Douglas in the ring and then hold his own once the two start fighting. The big SWERVE is that Woman is actually still aligned with Sandman though, as she clocks Douglas in the leg with the Singapore Cane when Douglas goes for a Cross-face Chicken-wing, and that leads to Sandman falling back onto Douglas for three. And somewhere in the WWF Magazine headquarters, a young scribe probably started taking very vigorous notes….BRO

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: SANDMAN
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: Not especially good purely from a wrestling aspect, but they told the Wrestler Vs Brawler story well enough, the crowd was into the action, and the finish was actually quite clever, so I’ll be generous with the rating

The crowd taunts Douglas over his poor judgment, whilst Sandman celebrates his Title win with a smoke and cold one. Douglas then puts on a Monday Night Raw shirt to signify that he’s leaving ECW for the WWF and storms off through the crowd.

Match Seven
ECW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Public Enemy (“Flyboy” Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) Vs The Pitbulls (#1 and #2) w/ Stevie Richards

They start as they mean to go on here, with Rocco getting flung through a table by #2 in the early going. The Pitbull’s dominate the match for the most part early on, with neither member of TPE managing to have any joy against the challengers, especially when #1 and #2 combine their powers for some tandem attacks. The crowd sticks with TPE though, and in fairness to Rocco in particular, he does sell the beating really well so it’s easy to feel sympathy for him whilst two jacked up lads put a beating on him. Rocco eventually manages to catch #1 with a springboard Moonsault and that leads to TPE making a comeback, meaning we get some brawling at ringside and also inside the crowd. Hey, it’s The Public Enemy, the brawl was always coming.

Soon everyone is bleeding on both teams, with Grunge and #2 fighting in the ring whilst Rocco and #1 have a tour of the building. The crowd of course enjoys it all for the most part, although we’ve already had A LOT of brawling so far on this show so it’s starting to get a bit overkill for me. As an example of the genre though; this would be a “perfectly cromulent” exhibition as Scott Keith would say. Stevie even takes some licks as well, which you’d expect, as #2’s face and upper body is soon CAKED in claret. The Pitbull’s try to use their dog collar as a weapon, but Grunge procures it and uses it as a weapon himself, which leads to Rocco rolling up #1 for the three count in order to give the Champs the old skin of the teeth victory.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: TPE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was he usual TPE wild brawl, with it being light on technical wrestling but having plenty of blood and violence. On a show where there wasn’t already so many bloody brawls, this match might have been more effective. It had all the ingredients you needed for a good wild brawl match, with an invested crowd, weapons, plenty of claret and crazy dudes who were happy to take all of the big bumps and weapon shots. Unfortunately it just felt like more of the same here. It was still a solid example of the genre though, hence the rating, but ECW never really understood the concept of less sometimes being more

Match Eight
Ron Simmons Vs 911 w/ Paul E. Dangerously

911 was great at coming down to the ring and Choke Slamming goofs in angles, but he couldn’t actually wrestle. However, he REALLY wanted to, so Paul Heyman finally relented and booked him against Simmons, an experienced former World Champ who could hopefully carry 911 through it. The match ended up being a bit of a stinker, and as a result we only get a clip of the finish where 911 catches Simmons with a messy looking Choke Slam off the ropes. ECW essentially tried to pretend that this didn’t happen and moved on quickly.

WINNER: 911
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: When pretty much the entire match is cut from the tape, that’s usually a good barometer as to the actual quality of the bout in question

Main Event
Terry Funk Vs Cactus Jack

Funk jumped out of a box at Return of The Funker and attacked Cactus, so now they’re wrestling. Funk’s dubbed music here sounds like the Antiques Roadshow theme crossed with the menu music from Worms. Cactus doesn’t even want to get in the ring here and wants to start the fight in the crowd, which Funk seemingly agrees to, leading to both insane brawlers fighting their way up the bleachers to the stage area near where the hard camera is. Cactus tries coming off the stage with an elbow drop through a table, but Funk moves and Cactus ends up getting all table and none of his opponent in one of those bumps that Mick Foley probably ended up regretting in later life.

Cactus comes up limping following that, so Funk naturally attacks Cactus’ leg with a chair, because if you have the good fortune of someone getting banged up in your match then you may as well work it into the storyline. Cactus just keeps taking brutal bumps in this one, including getting thrown off the apron down to the concrete floor at one stage, with the splat Cactus’ body makes on the floor being about as unpleasant as you can imagine. Amazingly Cactus keeps coming after that though, and he even brings in a plastic bin full of what looks like genuine rubbish into the ring.

Funk gets clobbered with the bin, but he finds a broken bottle amongst the contents of the bin and uses it and open Cactus up in yet another gruesome spot in a series of them here at Hostile City Showdown. Mikey Whipwreck tries to assist Cactus at this point, as does Hack Meyers, but both of them get dealt with, as they’re doing an excellent job of making Funk look like an unstoppable hardcore madman here. Funk tries to win things with the Funk Spinning Toehold, but Cactus counters that and then gets a DDT onto a chair. Sandman seemingly breaks up the pin too early, so Cactus has to send Sandman from the ring and then get the DDT again so that he can actually get three.

WINNER: CACTUS JACK
RATING: ***

Thoughts: Bungled finish aside, this was a good match, with it being the usual hyper-violent fight you’d expect from these two. Cactus was very good as a gutsy babyface who wouldn’t give up and Funk was very believable as a psychotic Heel who was mercilessly trying to destroy his opponent. Again, on a show without so much brawling this one might have stood out a bit more, but it was still a good effort from both competitors

Sandman canes Cactus Jack following the match and seemingly pours lighter fluid onto Cactus so that Funk can blow fire at Cactus, as this is getting more FMW by the minute. Cactus manages to grab hold of the burning branding iron though and sends Funk packing, with Cactus seemingly now in line for a Title shot at Sandman.

In Conclusion

Hostile City Showdown was almost too much of a good thing at certain points, with there being so many matches that had blood and brawling that it almost ceased to matter when the latter matches came on. That’s not to say that the match quality was bad overall, as most of the brawls on display here were solid examples of the genre and the ECW Arena crowd was mostly into everything.

Malenko Vs Guerrero was a refreshing change of pace, and it was good that ECW was able to provide that kind of action alongside the brawling and bleeding, as it broke things up a bit and gave the company a much needed additional string to it’s bow. That excellent match combined with some good storyline advancement and some solid matches are more than enough to make Hostile City Showdown a thumbs up, but a bit more variety in the match types would have been appreciated by me.

Recommended show

If you’d like an alternative opinion then Logan has reviewed this show as well