Mike Reviews ECW Big Apple Blizzard Blast – 03.02.1996

Happy Extreme Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some more classic ECW for you today, courtesy of that fine purveyor F+C, with Big Apple Blizzard Blast.

I’ve never actually seen this show before and decided to watch it mainly because we’ve got Juventud Guerrera battling Rey Misterio Jr. We’ve also got Heel Cactus Jack, more of the Raven Vs Dreamer feud, the early days of Taz’s Path of Rage, and an appearance from Sabu. Pretty loaded for a 1996 ECW show I think we can all agree.

Sadly the main match I wanted to see; Rob Van Dam Vs Chris Jericho, has been omitted from the tape, which is a shame as I would have liked to have seen it. I can only assume that ECW was saving it for something else or the match was a bit of a mess and we never got to see it for that reason.

You can view the full card by clicking below;
ECW Big Apple Blizzard Blast 1996 Card

Big Apple Blizzard Blast is emanating from the Lost Battalion Hall in Queens, New York City on the 3rd February 1996

Calling the action is Joey Styles

Fans apparently had to brave really terrible weather to make it to Big Apple Blizzard Blast, hence why the event has it’s name. Paul Heyman heads to the ring before the show officially starts and introduces a television crew who work for the “A Current Affair” television show, which is something I don’t think we got over here in the UK.

Opening Match
“The Human Suplex Machine” Taz w/ Bill Alfonso Vs The Shark Attack Kid

Taz had gone Heel back at November to Remember 1995 after being angry that Sabu was allowed back into ECW after splitting on them earlier in the year whilst Taz had remained loyal, leading to Taz going on a Path of Rage where he’d destroy people until Sabu would finally face him. I have no idea who Shark Attack Kid is and he doesn’t even have a Cage Match profile. Styles on commentary makes a point of knocking John Tenta, due to the Dungeon of DOOM being one of the main punching bags for “smart marks” on the internet at the time.

This ignores that a healthy and in-form Tenta would comfortably be one of ECW’s better in-ring performers should he ever have jumped there of course. Taz easily controls Shark Attack Kid here, out wrestling him with some submission based stuff early on and then throwing the Kid around with some signature suplexes. Shark Attack Kid does a good job bumping around for Taz and making Taz’s offence look good. Taz allows Shark Attack Kid to get one token dropkick, but Taz shrugs that off with ease and delivers some more punishing suplexes before locking in the Tazmission for the clean win after 4 Minutes.

WINNER: TAZ
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: A really effective squash that made Taz look like a monster. The fans clearly got into this whilst the match was going on too, showing that there was always potential for Taz to be a babyface once this Heel run was done

Taz calls out 911 after the match, but ECW Commissioner Todd Gordon heads out to let everyone know that 911 has left the building. I believe this was ECW essentially writing 911 out, although he would make an appearance at ECW Heat Wave 1996to get choked out by Taz eventually. Anyway, with 911 not being there, Alfonso and Gordon have a quick brawl instead, which Gordon is winning until Taz attacks Gordon. However, Bam Bam Bigelow is here and he rescues Gordon, setting up Taz’s next feud. This was an effective angle that the crowd enjoyed and set up stuff for later whilst also essentially replacing 911 with a much better wrestler.

Match Two
Axl Rotten and El Puerto Ricano Vs The Headhunters (Headhunter A & Headhunter B) w/ Damien Kane and Lady Alexandra

Rotten was previously in a team with storyline brother Ian, with him then becoming a singles guy for a feud with Ian, although Ian has since left the promotion. Ricano would end up going to the WWF as Babu. The Headhunter’s are two big lads from the Puerto Rico territory and Japan who could do Moonsaults and occasionally have an entertaining brawl, like they did when they represented the IWA Japan promotion at the Bridge of Dreams event in 1995.

The Headhunters of course have the advantage here due to being a regular team against a makeshift one, with Ricano mostly bumping around for them, taking some admittedly impressive tumbles for them. Eventually one of the Hunters misses an elbow drop from the top rope and it’s hot tag to Rotten, who doesn’t really get that far with the big lads outside of throwing some punches.

The Headhunters do he usual big man tag team thing of “we can only really be hurt if we accidentally hit one another, or run into something”, which limits how exciting a match can be, but it is effective big man booking usually. Rotten makes the mistake of tagging Ricano back in and that leads to him taking an impressive looking Moonsault for the three count after 7 Minutes.

WINNERS: HEADHUNTERS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: As a showcase for The Headhunters this worked well, with Ricano basically just there to get clobbered whilst Rotten was allowed to not look like a total chump. The crowd definitely responded to The Hunters once this was over, so it was some effective booking in that regard

Match Three
ECW World Tag Team Titles
Champions: Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck w/ Raven Vs The Eliminators (John Kronus & Perry Saturn)

Cactus was an anti-hardcore character at the time, and was on his way to the WWF. Mikey won the belts by himself but then Cactus inserted himself as Mikey’s partner, with this all building up to Mikey being Cactus’ final opponent in ECW. It’s clear even before the opening bell that Mikey isn’t happy being aligned with Cactus and Raven. This strange feud did lead to Cactus delivering one of his better crazy promos at one stage though where he yelled about Mikey accidentally leaving some Doritos in the car, which Cactus saw as Mikey making light of his eating disorder, followed by Mikey giving a confused “Doritos? Eating disorder?” response. Cactus reveals a “W W F’N F” shirt here, complete with “Join the New Generation” on the back, just to try and wind this partisan ECW crowd up even further.

Mikey does an okay job with some mat wrestling against the challengers to start, but Cactus berates Mikey and then tags himself in, giving us Saturn Vs Cactus in a combination I think we only saw here and briefly in 2000 WWF. The issue between Cactus and Mikey seems to be that Cactus wants Mikey to cheat and brawl, whilst Mikey wants to out wrestle the challengers, which doesn’t make a tonne of sense considering that surely the more violent fans would rather see the fighting and brawling and thus be forced to agree with the Heel Cactus? Mikey and Cactus’ arguing leads to Mikey getting cut off and worked over by the challengers for a bit, with Mikey selling it well, although the crowd doesn’t really seem sure how to react to it all, as there’s really no clear team to cheer for as it’s essentially Mikey who is the lone babyface with 3 Heels in there.

Mikey does eventually get some scattered chants, and Cactus gets some cheers as well when he does a traditional hot tag segment and actually looks to be wrestling like his more classic hardcore self. However, Mikey stops Cactus from attacking Saturn with a glass bottle, as I’m again unsure why that would make Mikey the babyface and Cactus the Heel here. The Elims are clearly Heels and the ECW fans like violence and blood, so Mikey denying them that doesn’t seem like a babyface move in that promotion. Mikey and Cactus end up accidentally colliding anyway, and that leads to TOTAL ELIMINATION to Mikey for the three count after 12 Minutes.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: THE ELIMINATORS
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: This was more about the storytelling than the wrestling, and the story didn’t really land for me, so I didn’t particularly enjoy the match as a result. The crowd didn’t seem to really follow it that well either. One of the examples of ECW getting too cute for it’s own good with storytelling sometimes

Raven and Cactus beat up Mikey following the match, to seemingly end that association. The Eliminators make fun of Mikey following that, which leads to Francine heading to the ring to begin her character arc as a belt whore by pretending to like The Elims now that they’ve won the belts. However, it’s all a sham, as The Pitbulls run down to attack the new Champs in order to escalate that feud. Francine gets a measure of revenge for taking TOTAL ELIMINATION previously by cutting off Saturn’s naff mullet

The Gangstas are coming for whomever the Tag Champs are. This was the usual intimidating and wild promo from New Jack, which established the team as a scary duo you wouldn’t want to mess with

Match Four
Shane Douglas and Tommy Dreamer w/ Beulah Vs Raven and Stevie Richards w/ Kimona Wanalaya and The Blue Meanie

The story here is that Douglas has returned to ECW and is still essentially a reprehensible jerk, but Dreamer has done a “deal with the devil” agreement with Douglas where Douglas will help Dreamer in his feud with Raven in order to allow Douglas to get into the ECW World Title picture, as Raven was the Champ at the time. Beulah was supposedly pregnant with Dreamer’s child as of the time of Big Apple Blizzard Bash, so that was partly why Dreamer felt the need to make the deal with Douglas in order to have sufficient protection for her. Stevie and Meanie do a wacky dance before the match, establishing themselves as the new Fabulous Ones. As always, Stevie and Meanie are very effective goobers.

Raven being the nihilistic jerk who seemingly only cares about Beulah, thus making it even more painful for him that she’s ditched him for Dreamer, is actually an interesting character wrinkle for him, especially as it was a rivalry over Beulah at summer camp that supposedly started the blood feud between Raven and Dreamer to begin win. It’s also an example of how layered this storyline got that Beulah initially came into ECW aligned with Raven because she hated Dreamer as well, but I guess he’s managed to work his Yonkers charm on her and now it’s escalated the feud to yet another new level and dragged Douglas into it’s orbit as well so he can immediately return to ECW into the hottest storyline in the company in a way that makes sense. This feud and storyline is one of the best ever, is essentially what I’m trying to say with this paragraph.

Stevie gets worked over by the babyfaces in the early going, so he puts on a Razor Ramon shirt in order to offend Douglas, who notably hates The Kliq. This leads to Douglas firing up on Stevie in a funny moment, with Stevie of course doing his usual strong job as the human pinball for the babyfaces. Honestly, peak Stevie Richards is possibly one of the best lackeys in Pro Wrestling history. Excellent at playing an absolute buffoon in angles and interviews, and then a great bump machine once the actual matches starts. Dreamer even clobbers Stevie with a Nintendo Entertainment System at one stage, as I’m just glad that he didn’t damage an actually good video game console in the process of beating up Stevie. Had that been a SEGA Master System then it could have been a real travesty.

Raven eventually does the work for his lackey by wearing out Dreamer with a chair for the cut off, leading to Stevie nearly killing Dreamer with a terribly botched Powerbomb that Dreamer thankfully managed to survive. That looked horrendous. Dreamer sells well whilst getting worked over, doing a really good dramatic “reaching for the tag and almost making it before the Heels manage to stop him” sell job in particular. We get a second big botch here, as Raven goes for a Pump Splash when Dreamer is actually up on his knees, leading to Raven landing on Dreamer’s head and neck. The Heels seem determined to shoot send Dreamer to a medical facility here at Big Apple Blizzard Blast!

Eventually its hot tag to Douglas, who does a very effective hot tag sequence where he runs wild on the Heels. Shane Douglas is actually kind of a decent babyface, which shouldn’t really surprise me as I liked his team with Ricky Steamboat in WCW, but I’ve just always thought of him as a career Heel due to his runs in ECW and the dying days of WCW. Cactus Jack tries to help the Heels pick up the victory, but Douglas manages to survive his interference. This brings Sandman into the ring, and he canes everyone, including the referee, as he hates all of these people as they’re getting in the way of him winning the ECW World Title again. Douglas manages to survive Raven’s pin attempts following that, but he’s been severely weakened and it gives us our second heat segment of the match, with Douglas going back to his early 1990’s days by being an effective babyface in peril.

The crowd are totally into this, with Dreamer eventually getting our second hot tag and running wild on the Heels with a frying pan, as was the style at the time. Meanie tries to help out the Heels following that, but ends up accidentally giving Stevie a Meanie-Sault in a fun moment, as they are just busting everything out in this one to get the crowd out of their seats. Beulah is the next to interfere, as she tapes a frying pan to Dreamer’s boot, which Dreamer the uses when he delivers a sloppy looking enziguri to Stevie for the three count after a wild 20 Minutes.

WINNERS: DOUGLAS & DREAMER
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was the usual ECW insanity combined with some nicely executed tag team formula, and it ended up working really well. It kept the storyline going between Raven and Dreamer, gave Douglas a way to get over as a babyface and also allowed Sandman to run down and remind everyone that he was still a person of interest in the ECW World Title picture. Whereas the storytelling elements of the Tag Title match didn’t work for me earlier on, they did work for me in this match and it compensated for what was some sloppy work at times, especially with the Heel team nearly breaking Dreamer’s neck for a shoot on a couple of occasions

Match Five
WWA World Welterweight Title
Champion: Rey Misterio Jr. Vs Juventud Guerrera

ECW pioneered using the Rey/Juventud/Psicosis/La Parka generation of luchadores in the USA, with WCW eventually signing most of them up to bolster their Cruiserweight division. Joel Gertner is the ring announcer for this show and can speak Spanish, so he actually does that here to give the introductions a genuine Lucha flavour in a nice touch. They quickly display their Rudo/Technico alignments, with Rey offering a handshake and Juventud spitting in his face. We get one of my favourite spots at one stage where their legs are tied up, leading to them both doing a handstand and then trading slaps. Johnny Saint would bust that out sometimes and I love it. Juventud makes the mistake of taunting on the apron soon after that, giving us our first insane high spot of the match when Rey gives Juventud a rana off the apron down to the floor.

The highflying Lucha insanity continues, with Rey doing a TOPE CON HILO out onto Juventud before taking things to the extreme by trapping a chair over Juventud’s head and flinging him into the ring post. Juventud replies by grabbing a lightbulb from one of the fans at ringside, but seemingly thinks better of using that and just comes in with a dropkick. The one big critique of this one is that the moves don’t really seem to have any lasting effect. Both Rey and Juventud will do a big dive or move, but they’ll then walk around a bit, the other wrestler will recover, and they’ll just do something else. I can see that bothering some viewers, although if you’re just here for the adrenaline boosts then you’re getting what you ordered at least. The finish sees Juventud going for a Splash Mountain Bomb off the top rope; but Rey counters it into a sloppy rana for the three count after 9 Minutes.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: REY MISTERIO JR
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was ground-breaking stuff for the time, and it really gave ECW something special to hang it’s hat on. Looking back at it today though, this was really just an exhibition of spots and MOVEZ without much in the way of connecting tissue or storytelling to hold it all together. It still worked as an exhibition of dives and spots, but that sort of thing will have a ceiling for most viewers, especially when we’re 30 years removed and what we’re seeing is no longer cutting edge like it was in 1996

Taz and Bill Alfonso are talking trash about 911 in the ring with Joey Styles, which leads to Rey Misterio Jr. heading to the ring to defend the honour of his big buddy. Alfonso talks some smack to Rey, so Rey gives him a spin kick and takes Taz down with some flips and ranas. Taz manages to catch Rey with a pair of suplexes though, seemingly setting up a match between them down the line. I like how Rey used Lucha even in a brawl situation like that. This leads to JT Smith attacking Rey, meaning that Hack Meyers then chases Smith to the back.

Joey Styles tries to do the Hardcore TV intro following that, which leads to Woman showing up and trying to poach Joey for WCW. This leads to Woman’s former charge, The Sandman, heading down to the ring. Sandman also refuses to go to WCW (although he’d change his mind in 1998). This leads to Too Cold Scorpio showing up and teasing like he’s going to join Woman in WCW, but he decides against it as well and ends up carrying her out of the building. Woman was managing Ric Flair in WCW at the time, so this was done to essentially write her out

Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie then head down to the ring to talk to Sandman and try to get him to back out of a future ECW World Title match with Raven. Sandman of course refuses to back out of the match, leading to Meanie threatening to give Sandman a Super Kick. That goes about as well for him as you’d expect, and Sandman reiterates that he’s coming for Raven and the World Title. This was an effective segment in making Sandman look like a dangerous challenger, as well as beginning his eventual babyface turn. Raven and Kimona head down to the ring following that, where Raven chastises Stevie for failing him once again and slaps poor Stevie around before threatening to fire him. You actually kind of felt sorry for Stevie here, which is probably why his eventual babyface turn in 1997 was quite effective until he injured his neck. Stevie has a surprise for Raven though, which he hopes will help him keep his job. The surprise is that Stevie is suing Missy Hyatt for sexual harassment. This was a reference to a lawsuit that Hyatt brought against WCW in real-life. Sandman runs down and canes Raven and his goons, leading to Sandman and Hyatt becoming an unusual duo going forwards.

So yes, that was three interview/promo segments all chained together into one interconnecting glorious whole. This is certainly an ECW show alright! A lot was achieved with it though, as we now have a Taz Vs Rey Jr feud, Woman has been exiled from ECW, and Missy Hyatt is now the manager of Sandman

Match Six
The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 & Pitbull #2) Vs The Headhunters (Headhunter A & Headhunter B)

This match doesn’t make it to the tape for some reason, but it supposedly happened if Cage Match is to be believed.

WINNERS: PITBULLS
RATING: N/A

I can understand why they cut that match just because they’d just spent a decent amount of effort making The Headhunters look like beasts so having them come out and lose almost immediately probably wouldn’t have been smart booking, so making it a “dark match” as such made sense

Match Seven
Chris Jericho Vs Rob Van Dam

Jericho had been making a name for himself in Japan, Europe and Mexico, as well as having an SMW run, with ECW being the next USA based promotion to take a chance on him before he moved on to mainstream promotions WCW and the WWF. RVD had been in WCW as Robbie V and had also worked over in Japan, with this ECW run being the thing that really moved his career onto the next level, with him eventually ending up in the WWF in 2001. Jericho supposedly got the win here after 11 Minutes. It’s just a shame we didn’t get to see any of it

WINNER: CHRIS JERICHO
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: From doing a quick Google search, Paul Heyman supposedly thought the tape quality wasn’t good enough to include this on the Big Apple Blizzard Blast tape. That and Jericho supposedly thought the match wasn’t very good. Hence it didn’t make the final cut

Match Eight
Buh Buh Ray Dudley w/ Big Dick Dudley, Sign Guy Dudley and Dances With Dudley Vs JT Smith

Buh Buh was a fun loving goofy dancing babyface at the time, whilst Smith was a comedic faux-Italian. Smith tries to low blow Buh Buh to start, but Buh Buh shrugs it off and pins Smith a Buh Buh Bomb for the three count after 45 seconds.

WINNER: BUH BUH RAY
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: Smith came out with a bandage on his head due to the Meyers attack from earlier, so this was always going short, and short it went. Barely any point it being on the show really

Match Nine
“The Roughneck” Mr. Hughes Vs “The Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal Maniac” Sabu

Hughes got quite a few chances in ECW, despite him being a pretty useless big slugger who couldn’t even really have entertaining brawls. Despite ECW supposedly being above silly gimmicky stuff, Joey Styles still mentions Hughes’ feud with Undertaker as a way to try and get Hughes over on his way to the ring. Hughes, to his credit, does take a huge bump over the metal railings into the crowd at one stage, which Sabu follows up with a big chair assisted dive into the front row. Well that is certainly one way of trying to make a Curtis Hughes match somewhat exciting. Hughes manages to catch Sabu on another dive and drives him into the ring post, as this match essentially becomes the standard David Vs Goliath match, although far sloppier.

In fairness, Sabu clambering all over Hughes and desperately trying to find a way to stun him or keep him down is probably the best way they could have worked this, and Sabu’s manic energy actually adds a layer of realism to it all. Sabu tries to put Hughes through a table at one stage by knocking him off the apron, but Hughes dodges and Sabu goes flying over the top rope onto the table, which doesn’t break. Someone send a clip of that to Maffew please in case he doesn’t have it. Sabu keeps doing his best to wriggle out of Hughes’ attempts at moves and attacks, with Hughes usually popping up after whatever Sabu tries as offence. The thing Hughes probably sells the most is when he accidentally head butts the ring post at one stage, which is standard big man antics.

Even a leg drop through a table sees Hughes popping up almost right away, as there is seemingly nothing Sabu can do to make Hughes stay down for more than a couple of seconds. I get that Curtis Hughes was a big imposing looking man, but him being this unstoppable tank who can’t be hurt doesn’t really work with me, especially when just as impressive scary big men like Vader would be happy to sell for babyfaces like Sting and take impressive bumps for them. The next move that Hughes really sells is when he misses a splash from the top rope, as seemingly the only person who can hurt Hughes is Hughes himself. Sabu immediately follows up with a chair assisted leg drop and that’s enough for the three count after 13 Minutes.

WINNER: SABU
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: If this was any sloppier you could have used it to make 67 Sloppy Joe’s, but it had a decent energy to it and it was probably the most entertained I can remember being for a match with Curtis Hughes in it, so I’ll have to give it that at least. It felt like a giant unstoppable man taking on a wild unpredictable violent man in a bout of extreme combat, so I’d argue that the two met the brief, even if the actual wrestling itself wasn’t really that good and Hughes’ no selling got annoying after a certain point. My annoyance was offset somewhat by the fact that Hughes did eventually lose in the end, but the two moves in the match that Hughes even remotely sold were when he missed attacks and hurt himself, which is big man 101 and why so many people don’t like big man booking a lot of the time

Main Event
The Sandman and Too Cold Scorpio Vs The Gangstas (Mustafa & New Jack)

Scorpio was the TV Champ at the time, and formed a reasonably effective tag team with Sandman, even though you’d think they wouldn’t work well together at all. Sadly The Gangstas enter first, meaning that we only get Natural Born Killaz for their entrance and then the rest of the match sees them wrestling to no music. BOOOOOOOO. It’s actually quite an entertaining wild brawl, even if it just blokes hitting one another with weapons. The NES makes another appearance, and you can tell that Eric Bischoff didn’t see this match because his response would have been to have someone use a 3DO as a weapon on Nitro so that WCW could show how much more money they had in comparison to ECW. The finish sees Sandman and Scorpio sneak it when Scorpio sprays something in Mustafa’s eyes for the three count after 9 Minutes.

WINNERS: SANDMAN & SCORPIO
RATING: NEW JACK MATCH

Thoughts: You know what you’re getting with one of these, so if you like watching four people wander around and hit one another with plunder whilst the crowd has a good time, then this is something you’ll enjoy. If that’s not your jam then this one won’t convert you.

Scorpio revives Sandman with some beer, Popeye style, at the end of the match and the two do some dancing in order to send the fans home happy

In Conclusion:

Big Apple Blizzard Blast is hardly essential viewing, but it’s your typical early 1996 ECW show. You have solid storyline advancement, some wild brawls, some crazy high spots, and the show moves along at a decent pace. Not something you have to go out of your way to see, but not a bad show either. I had fun with a few of the matches and the Raven Vs Dreamer feud (along with all the other satellite feuds that surrounded it) was really dynamic cutting edge stuff at the time and I always enjoy returning to it

Mildly recommended