Mike Reviews ECW House Party 1999 – 16.01.1999

Happy Extreme Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some more ECW for you today with House Party 1999. The big story on this one is that The Public Enemy are returning to ECW following a stint in WCW, with The Dudley Boyz calling them out. Elsewhere, Taz is the new ECW World Champion after winning it at Guilty As Charged and has challengers to deal with.

You can view the full card for House Party by clicking the link below

ECW House Party 1999 Card

House Party is emanating from the 2300 Arena in Philly, PA on the 16th of January 1999

Calling the action is Joey Styles

Opening Match
2 on 1 Handicap Bout
Danny Doring and Roadkill Vs Little Spike Dudley

Doring and Roadkill were graduates of ECW’s wrestling school, with Doring being a cocky ladies man whilst Roadkill was a big violent Amishman. Doring and Roadkill troll the fans to start by entering to The Public Enemy’s entrance music, leading to Doring doing a terrible impression of Johnny Grunge, whilst Roadkill can only say “chickens” in response, because he’s an angry Amish chicken-plucker you see. This goes on for too long and isn’t especially funny or entertaining. Doring could actually cut a serviceable cocky Heel promo, but this sort of skit was outside of his wheelhouse and thankfully Spike’s music hits in order to bring it to a merciful end.

Despite being at a numbers disadvantage against two larger opponents, Spike fares pretty well in the bout itself. He gives Doring an Acid Drop onto the metal railings at one stage and then leaps off the railings with a rana onto Roadkill. Something seems to go awry when Spike tries a dive off the apron, as it looks like he misses the two, but they just keep going as if he made contact. Doring and Roadkill eventually use the Lancaster Lariat of Lust (Hart Attack Clothesline) to knock Spike down and work some heat, with the work being okay and Spike taking some nice bumps for it all. Roadkill misses a splash from the top rope though, leading to Spike making a comeback and pinning both men for the win.

3 Minutes

WINNER: SPIKE DUDLEY
RATING: *

Thoughts: Spike was surprisingly effective in the role of “small dude who can overcome the odds” but this match didn’t really do much for me. It got Spike a win against a team that weren’t really getting pushed that much and the crowd seemed to like Spike winning, so it had that going for it at least

Second Match
Steve Corino Vs “The Extreme Rookie” Chris Chetti

Corino was pretty new to ECW at the time, with him doing a whiny anti-hardcore gimmick. Chetti wouldn’t have the rookie gimmick for much longer, with him eventually taking on a Ricky Martin styled gimmick during his team with Nova. Chetti was also a graduate of the ECW wrestling school, and was the first to graduate I believe. Bob Artese announces Corino as weighing in at “199 and 3/4 pounds” which Corino seems legitimately amused by and that makes me think it was some kind of rib or inside joke.

Growing a beard in 2000 was definitely the right call for Corino, as he looks very young and a bit weedy when he’s clean shaven here, whilst the beard added something to his look. Corino’s whole thing here is that he teases things the extreme ECW crowd would like to see, such as dives to the floor and crowd brawling, but then he snatches it away and taunts them. It’s a pretty cheesy gimmick, but perfect for drawing cheap heat from this audience. Corino would have remained in the mid-card and as a glorified manager still doing it though, which is why he eventually evolved his character in 2000.

The match here is decent, as Chetti is raw but has good athletic ability, whilst Corino is solid in the ring and his whiny Heel gimmick gives the crowd something to root against. Corino works some heat on Chetti and constantly keeps taunting and jawing with the crowd, playing to the back row with it and giving Styles plenty of chances to be disgusted and offended on commentary. Eventually the two bonk heads and that leads to Chetti accidentally falling head first into Corino’s nether regions. Chetti makes the comeback following that, and he’s got some nice execution but he lacks a bit of fire.

Chetti is lacking personality in general here, although his work in the match itself has been fine. Corino has had to carry things on the personality front, and he’s generally done well there. Corino stops to taunt the crowd one too many times though and that allows Chetti to take Corino down with a flying kick before following up with a Moonsault for the three count. I remember seeing a Corino shoot interview where he said that one time Chetti was supposed to beat him with a roll-up but Corino actually volunteered to take the Moonsault and that helped him get over with the ECW locker room. I wonder if this was the match in question?

9 Minutes

WINNER: CHRIS CHETTI
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was a decent undercard match. Chetti was lacking polish and personality, but he had good athletic ability and you can see why the WWF was apparently interested in signing him to a development deal in 2000. Corino would end up going through quite an evolution in the remaining two years of ECW’s life, going from being an undercard whiny loser here to eventually winning the ECW World Title and becoming potentially ECW’s last great breakout babyface star until they failed to stick the landing with him

Third Match
Little Guido w/ Tracy Smothers, Big Guido, Big Sal E. Graziano and Tommy Rich Vs Antifaz del Norte

Little Guido is part of the Full Blooded Italians, a comedy troupe made up of mostly fake Italians. However, eventually Smothers and Rich would leave the group and it would just be Little Guido, Big Sal and Tony Mamaluke left. Antifaz is a Mexican luchador from Promo Azteca who had a bit of run in ECW in early 1999 but didn’t stick around. These two would go on to wrestle one another on the Living Dangerously 1999 pay per view. Guido had mostly been a comedy figure during the majority of his ECW run, but he had legitimate credentials and even worked for UWFi in Japan at one stage, so ECW were starting to try and present him as more of a serious wrestler, hence why they gradually stripped away the fake Italians from the group and focused more on his wrestling abilities.

We see that focus in the early stages here, with Guido going for a Kimura/Double Wristlock and just generally taking the fight to Antfaz in an aggressive fashion. Antifaz gets to do a few Lucha styled pinning holds and also does some high flying when he can, including a very nice Missile Dropkick and a snazzy looking Torneo from inside the ring out onto both Smothers and Guido. Guido keeps going for the arm of Antifaz, locking in a Fujiwara arm bar a couple of times, but none of them bring Guido a victory. Guido’s work generally looks good, except for his stomps which look overly phony and cheesy. Eventually Smothers and Rich head into the ring to attack Antifaz, which isn’t a DQ because ECW, and that leads to Nova running down to help Antifaz. Nova hits about 20 moves in roughly 2 minutes, as he was want to do, and that leads to Antifaz getting Guido with a Gourdbuster for the three count.

8 Minutes

WINNER: ANTIFAZ
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was a mostly okay match that turned into classic ECW chaos at the end when everyone just ran in. Interestingly, they play Nova’s music at the end of that, even though technically it was still a singles match that Antifaz won. One bonus of ECW is that you can have all the assorted nuttiness of a match like this and still actually get a pin-fall at the end of it, which wasn’t always the case with WCW and the WWF, as they both loved a non-finish

Fourth Match
Super Crazy Vs Yoshihiro Tajiri

These two had many matches against one another in ECW, with this being a rematch of their first battle on pay per view back at Guilty As Charged 1999. Tajiri won that battle back at GAC so Crazy wants to avenge that defeat here. I have seen these two wrestle against one another so many times at this point that I almost have fatigue for the very notion of seeing it again, and it’s like the two wrestlers almost know that as they waste zero time here and just go straight into busting out the high impact offence. It’s not long before Crazy has flung Tajiri into the front row and followed with a Moonsault. Start as you mean to go on eh?

There’s a very cool spot when they get back in where Crazy sits Tajiri on the top rope and then follows with a big Spinning Wheel Kick to Tajiri’s back, which gets the expected big reaction from the House Party crowd and looked suitably brutal. Speaking of brutal; Tajiri demolishes Crazy with some kicks in return and the crowd loves that as well. Tajiri gets revenge on Crazy for the earlier Moonsault by sending Crazy into the front row and getting one of his own, although Crazy quickly recovers and gets a Torneo in response. Even by the standards of a spot fest; that was a ludicrously quick recovery in order to do the next spot. They keep going at it back inside, with Tajiri getting a bunch of near falls with moves like a spin kick off the top and a Brain Buster, but Crazy manages to keep kicking out and eventually gets a Tornado Reverse DDT for the three count.

8 Minutes

WINNER: SUPER CRAZY
RATING: ***

Thoughts: Much as I complain about watching these two wrestle one another so many times, there’s no doubt that this stuff absolutely blew my mind when I first watched it 27 years ago and it definitely played a big part in me becoming an enduring fan of this wacky faux sport. In many ways the Crazy Vs Tajiri rivalry at this point was essentially just the two of them doing an exhibition of high spots, which is a style that remains in Pro Wrestling to this day. I know there are plenty of fans that loathe that style of wrestling, and to each their own, but if you do like seeing that kind of wrestling on television every week then you should certainly hunt down some Crazy Vs Tajiri, as I’m willing to bet that you’ll enjoy it, even if you do think the pace is a tad more sedate than you’re used to

Fifth Match
Extreme Three Way Dance
Justin Credible w/ Jason, Jazz and Nicole Bass Vs Lance Storm w/ Tammy Lynn Bytch Vs Tommy Dreamer

Credible and Dreamer had the issue at the time, with Credible brutally caning Dreamer and then stealing his mentor, Terry Funk. Jazz looks practically petite here compared to how hench she would get in the following years. This is originally supposed to be a singles bout between Credible and Dreamer, but Lance Storm heads out and demands to be added to the contest because he’s bitter that folks are calling the Credible/Dreamer match at the recent pay per view better than the bout he had with Rob Van Dam on the same event. Dreamer has his right hand in a cast here, which makes me think they added Storm to this to help cover for that injury. Anyway, Dreamer insults all of the Heels on the mic, complete with Andrew Dice Clay “OH!!!” at one stage, and the ECW arena crowd eats it up because vulgar insults were what they were all about.

The payoff to Dreamer insulting all the Heels, including the looks of the three women out there, is that Francine joins us in order to try and remove her top for the fans, which Storm ends up preventing to make himself even more of a Heel to the ECW Arena crowd. Styles does get an admittedly good line on commentary when Francine states on the mic that “you’ve been asking me to show my t*** for five years now”, to which Joey replies “You’ve only had them for a year and a half”. Credible takes a horrifying bump early on where he knocks Credible off the apron and Credible seemingly lands leg first onto the metal railings before tumbling into the front row and landing on a fan. I’m sure that was freaking Paul Heyman out when he saw it. Credible seems to be okay from it and ECW security quickly swarms where the fan is.

Storm and Credible tease their eventual alliance by teaming up on Dreamer and dropping him crotch first on the metal railings at ringside. Yes, Tommy Dreamer got dropped nether regions first onto something in a wrestling match, I’ll give you all a chance to recover from the shock of it. Dreamer sells well whilst getting worked over, probably because he likely was already in a lot of pain just from the general wear and tear that comes with working the ECW style when you already have a litany of legitimate injuries slowing you down. Credible and Storm show some decent chemistry together and you can see why they were eventually teamed up together soon after House Party. Dreamer manages to fight back somewhat by clocking Credible right in his Portuguese Man O War’s, and that leads into the Storm and Credible alliance eventually crumbling.

Dreamer enters a ladder into proceedings following that and uses it to wear the two Heels down, with Storm and Credible taking some big bumps in order to make Dreamer’s offence look as devastating as they can. The Heels rally though and put Dreamer through a table at ringside, but he kicks out of the resulting pin attempt back inside the ring. Credible ends up punching Storm by mistake, leading to Dreamer giving Credible a DDT right onto Storm’s crotch. Jazz and Dawn Marie head into attack Dreamer following that, but then they end up having our contractually mandated catfight, because ECW. Storm hits Credible with his own Singapore Cane following that, leading to Dreamer snatching a roll-up on Credible to eliminate him before then immediately pinning Storm with a White Russian Leg Sweep to eliminate him as well.

12 Minutes

WINNER: TOMMY DREAMER
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: You could tell that Dreamer was struggling in this one, with him moving slower than usual due to his body falling apart and relying on Storm and Credible to essentially wrestle around him. In that regard, Storm and Credible entered a good performance and both looked impressive in there. In-ring they were two of the smoothest operators that ECW had at the time, especially when it came to doing the basics and working a solid wrestling match. I do have to question having Dreamer going over two of your hottest up and coming Heel stars in the same match like this, but they at least presented it as the two Heels essentially undoing each other’s chances and Dreamer picking his spots, rather than Dreamer dominating and defeating the two on his own merits

Sixth Match
ECW World Tag Team Titles
Champions: Rob Van Dam and Sabu w/ Bill Alfonso Vs The Hardcore Chair Swinging Freaks (Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney)

RVD was also the TV Champion at the time, whilst Sabu was also the FTW Champion. Rotten and Mahoney never held the belts together as a team, although Mahoney did get to have brief runs with both Spike Dudley and Masato Tanaka, with Rotten sometimes managing those teams during their spells with the belts. They don’t really bother with tags here, as all four are soon going at it in the ring with the referee just letting it go, because ECW. The fans don’t seem that invested in the action, and the brawl is a bit messy.

It’s not an abomination, but these two teams don’t have a lot in the way of chemistry and I’m not sure the fans actually think that the challengers might win. Sabu does manage to wake the crowd up with an insane dive out onto the other three though, with Sabu getting bent in half over the metal railings on the way down, which he thankfully survives. RVD, not to be upstaged, does a dive of his own, flipping from the top rope onto Mahoney whilst he’s standing in the front row. Sabu ends up putting Mahoney through a table at ringside, but Mahoney is soon up again and we keep going, with Mahoney even surviving the Rolling Thunder double team finisher back inside the ring.

A second table gets brought into play though, this time in the ring, and Mahoney ends up taking a stereo leg drop through it from the Champs for the three count, although Rotten almost got there to break it up and had to pretend that he couldn’t because RVD wasn’t quick enough on the draw to stop him. RVD looks legitimately mad at Rotten for that and even attacks him after the bell, but really RVD needed to be more aware of what was going on, especially as Rotten had been down for a while and would have looked like a chump if he hadn’t at least tried to break up the count.

9 Minutes

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: RVD & SABU
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This didn’t really do it for me. They looked to be on different pages from each other and the crowd didn’t really buy that the challengers had a chance. It gave the Champions a somewhat battling win, but it was a mess for the most part

Seventh Match
ECW World Title
Champion: Taz Vs Chris Candido w/ Tammy Lynn Sytch

Candido got involved in Taz’s match back at Guilty As Charged, betraying former stablemate Shane Douglas in the process. Speaking of Douglas, he attacks Candido to get revenge for Guilty As Charged, and that leads to Candido getting carted out before the match can even get going, meaning that it’s a no contest. Douglas then grabs the mic and asks for a rematch with Taz here for the World Title. Seeing as Candido can’t wrestle, and Taz wants a fight, the match is on.

NO CONTEST
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: This was an angle rather than a match, but it allowed Douglas to essentially turn babyface and also meant they could run the Taz Vs Candido match later on in the year without Candido having to lose this one here. They were trying to push on commentary that Candido was going to be a more serious character going forwards, but I think the ship had already sailed when it came to ECW fans taking Candido seriously as a World Title level guy by this stage, especially against someone like Taz

Eighth Match
ECW World Title
Champion: Taz Vs Shane Douglas w/ Francine

Douglas actually sends Francine to the back before the match starts, but it wouldn’t shock me if we see her again before the night is out. They work this on the mat to start, and the crowd sticks with it for the most part. It’s not the slickest technical wrestling you’ll ever see, but it’s scrappy in a good way as it feels like two people going in there and trying to out wrestle one another in a combat sport. The crowd seems to be more into Douglas than they do Taz actually, which wasn’t especially good news seeing as they’d been building up Taz’s win for over a year and now some of the fans seemingly want the belt to go right back on the previous Champ.

They eventually head outside the ring for some brawling, leading to Taz giving Douglas a vertical suplex through a table before both men head into the bleachers to fight up there. Douglas takes yet another bump through a table, as Taz flings Douglas off the bleacher down into what looks like the merchandise area. Despite getting flung through two tables, Douglas keeps fighting and even dives off the eagle’s nest onto Taz with a crossbody block at one stage. Douglas ends up clocking Taz with a tray full of video tapes, as I shed a tear for the tapes getting broken in the process. Look after your VHS’s folks, they deserve tender loving care, not being thrown at an angry Italian man during a World Title bout at the ECW Arena.

They actually brawl outside the building for a bit here, as they are using every bit of smoke and mirrors they can here to cover for the fact that Douglas is walking wounded and still not really in good enough shape to work a long Main Event. And in fairness to them, it’s worked reasonably well as it’s been an entertaining spectacle for the most part and the crowd have dug it. Some of the punches getting thrown towards the end of the bout look a bit overly fake, but probably better for that rather than them throwing live rounds I guess. Douglas puts a table into the ring, but that ends up going badly for him as he takes a Taz-Plex through it and Taz ends up getting the three count.

15 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: TAZ
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was a good match, especially when you consider that Douglas had spent most of 1998 injured and still wasn’t really close to his best here. They both put the effort in and the crowd enjoyed it. Yes, it was mostly the two walking around the building brawling, but it was an entertaining brawl and Douglas entered a strong performance as a gutsy babyface giving everything he could in hopes of taking down the man that had surpassed him before coming up short in the end after a brave effort. The fans show their appreciation for Douglas after the bout, as does Taz, with this feeling like it could be Douglas getting written out of the promotion. That wasn’t the case, as he’d be with ECW for a few more months after this until eventually leaving for WCW in the summer

Buh-Buh Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Big Dick Dudley, Sign Guy Dudley and Joel Gertner head down to the ring. Buh-Buh tells the fans that The Public Enemy haven’t shown up tonight, and that TPE are sell outs who have chosen WCW over ECW.

Tenth Match
Skull von Crush Vs Sid w/ Jeff Jones

Crush would go on to become Big Vito in WCW. He was seemingly doing some kind of white supremacist character at the time. Sid being a talentless lug with a body supposedly stood against everything ECW was of course, but the ECW Arena fans cheer for him as he squashes Crush here. Crush takes a tumble from inside the ring through a table on the outside, and the Powerbomb is academic once they get back inside.

2 Minutes

WINNER: SID
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: I don’t care for Sid, but I appreciate that he has his fans, and if you are a fan of him then you’ll probably enjoy this

Joel Gertner and Sign Guy Dudley head down to the ring for Gertner Vision, seeing as The Public Enemy still supposedly haven’t arrived. Gertner talks about being the bell ringer back in 1995 and watching TPE wrestling for ECW and he has less than complimentary things to say about them. As is usually the case when people discuss TPE, Gertner is pretty mild when it comes to being mean about Rocco Rock, but he goes in two footed on Johnny Grunge, as he was the designated jerk of the team whilst most people tended to like Flyboy Rocco. This leads to our second instance of a TPE fake out on the show, as their music hits but Buh-Buh, D-Von and Big Dick come out instead mocking TPE’s entrance moves. The Dudleyz make fun of TPE on the mic and then get serious, saying that TPE aren’t here because they were afraid that the fans wouldn’t welcome them back. However, the music hits for a third time and this time it actually is TPE, as they head out for a brawl with The Dudleyz. Despite the comments of The Dudleyz, the crowd actually does seem happy to see TPE here. TPE runs wild to start, but they’re at a disadvantage with Big Dick out there, so New Jack shows up to provide some help for TPE, leading to The Dudleyz getting hit with weapons and seemingly bailing. New Jack seems to disappear into the ether somewhere as well, whilst Johnny Grunge cuts a promo and TPE dances with the fans to close out the show.

In Conclusion

Despite getting to stand tall here, the reunion between ECW and The Public Enemy didn’t end up lasting that long. They’d have a miserable time in the WWF and eventually ended up heading back to WCW. So, memorable though this moment at House Party 1999 was, it didn’t really lead to anything of substance and TPE were in the WWF soon after (only to get brutally beaten up by Faarooq and Bradshaw in one of the more blatant examples of unprofessional behaviour in of the whole Monday Night Wars).

Overall House Party 1999 wasn’t a particularly good show. Crazy Vs Tajiri hit their baseline of good with their match, and the ECW World Title bout was fun as well, but aside from that there isn’t really much of any value on this one. It’s a passable enough 143 minutes of ECW, but not something you need to go out of your way to see. I’d say the Cyber Slam 1999 show was a better event overall if you want to watch an ECW Arena show from the first half of 1999.