Mike Reviews ECW Gangstas Paradise – 16.09.1995

Happy Extreme Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some more 1995 ECW for you today as we take a look at Gangstas Paradise. We’ve got Raven and Stevie Richards defending the tag belts against The Pitbulls, along with Rey Mysterio Jr taking on Psicosis in some Extreme Lucha Libre. That alone should be good, but we’ve also got a ruddy big six man tag cage match to finish things off as well. Wow ambassador, you are really spoiling us!

You can view the full card for Gangstas Paradise by clicking below;

ECW Gangstas Paradise Card

Gangstas Paradise is emanating from the ECW Arena in Philly, PA on the 16th of September 1995

Calling the action is Joey Styles

Opening Match
“The Broad Street Bully” Tony Stetson Vs Bull Pain

Stetson was one of the old Tri-State Wrestling crew that Paul Heyman kept around for a bit to essentially fill the role of enhancement talent. Pain was an independent worker who actually made it onto some episodes of Nitro to do jobs for the likes of Konnan. Stetson actually gets to do a bit of offence on this one, getting some clotheslines and even using his hockey stick as a weapon. Pain ingratiates himself with the ECW Arena faithful by hitting Stetson with a chair and suplexing him through a table, here in this opening match. Start as you mean to go on I guess!

Stetson is of course up seconds later after getting suplexed through a table, so Pain gives him a DDT onto the remains of the table at ringside. Styles on commentary even jokes about the fans counting how many tables are going to get broken on this particular ECW event. Outside of the weapon based stuff, the action isn’t especially good here and the fans never really get on board with it. Stetson’s offence looks pretty weak outside of the occasional move, whilst Pain’s looks okay and has a bit more “oomph” to it if nothing else.

They have a quite horrendous fight outside the ring at one stage, as they seemingly can’t agree on what move they’re going to try and kind of just linger around until Pain gives Stetson a terrible slam onto the metal railings that looked awkward as all heck. Joey Styles does his best to try and make this lousy mess of a match sound like it’s exciting, but he fails and the crowd starts chanting that both of the wrestlers in the bout aren’t very good, albeit less politely. Pain ends up getting some kind of modified Gourd Buster and that’s enough for the three count.

8 Minutes

WINNER: BULL PAIN
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: A pretty awful choice for an opener really. Neither wrestler was over with the crowd and they filled the match with brawling and weapon spots. That diminished the effectiveness of those spots later in the night because the enhancement guy and the outsider who was probably only in for one night had already done them and shrugged them off in a lousy opening match. It should shock no one that Pain didn’t manage to turn this appearance into a regular gig with ECW

Second Match
The Dudley Family (Dances With Dudley & Dudley Dudley) w/ Big Dick Dudley, Chubby Dudley and Sign Guy Dudley) Vs Chad Austin and Don E. Allen

The Dudleys had debuted earlier in the year as henchmen for Raven. The idea behind the gimmick is that Daddy Dudley was a travelling salesman and had a bunch of kids out of wedlock whilst on his journeys. Dudley Dudley is the only “pure” Dudley, in that he’s the child of Momma and Daddy Dudley, whilst DW Dudley is a result of Daddy Dudley paying a visit to a Native American reservation. Austin and Allen are more Tri-State guys who had also been associated with Raven in the early stages of the character but they’ve fallen down the pecking order since then.

Joey asks where Dudleyville is on commentary. It’s about 10 miles south of Narnia and 22 miles west of Parts Unknown. DW Dudley does the standard stereotypical Native American offence popularised by the likes of Tatanka, complete with a “war dance” at one stage. The Dudleys mostly just do strikes, which Styles even comments on during commentary that they’re not giving him much he can actually call. They do an okay version of Demolition Decapitation at one stage onto Austin in fairness though. Austin and Allen get basically no offence here and eventually The Dudleys pick up the win with a top rope splash from Dudley Dudley onto Allen.

4 Minutes

WINNERS: THE DUDLEY FAMILY
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: An effective squash for the most part that made The Dudleys look like a dominant team. Austin and Allen performed their roles competently and the match achieved what it was put there to do

Third Match
JT Smith Vs “The Extreme Shah” Hack Myers

Smith was originally a babyface who usually got his butt kicked but was liked by the fans regardless, but by this stage he’d started pretending to be Italian, which would lead to him forming the Full Blooded Italians group with the likes of Little Guido. Myers is a hefty lad who likes throwing strikes, with the crowd chanting “Shah” when he does them and “S###” when his opponents hit him back. This one is clipped, with Smith drawing some decent heat at points by wilfully behaving like an absolute buffoon whilst Styles chastises him on commentary. Smith allows the distractions of the fans to cause him to miss a body press to the floor, leading to the two lads brawling in the crowd, which doesn’t end well for Smith when he takes a back body drop onto the bleachers. Back in the ring, Smith sets up for a top rope move of some kind, but he stops to taunt the crowd and ends up falling off the top rope through a table for the count out loss.

10 Minutes

WINNER BY COUNT OUT: HACK MYERS
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: I can’t rate it because we didn’t get the whole match. Smith’s character work was coming together, but the match itself didn’t look like it was anything ground-breaking. The live crowd seemed to be okay with it in the snippets we got to see

Fourth Match
Jason Knight and The Eliminators (John Kronus & Perry Saturn) Vs Taz and The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner)

Knight had a business relationship with Too Cold Scorpio, who Taz has been feuding with, hence we get this match with Knight stepping into the match in place of Scorpio here to give his client a break. The Steiner Brothers are here as mystery partners for Taz, and they get a big pop for their entrance. Sadly this match is clipped as well, as the potential of seeing The Eliminators and Steiners going at it feels like one of those wild matches that could ever be super entertaining or super awful depending on how they gelled as opponents.

Taz was dealing with neck issues at the time, so he’s largely kept out of the action, but The Steiners are happy to get in and suplex/clothesline/generally destroy the opposition team. Thus the match essentially becomes a clip show of The Steiners throwing everyone around and looking good whilst doing so. Eventually Knight and Taz are the legal competitors and go at it, but the referee gets bumped, which leads to Scorpio running in, cheap-shotting Taz and draping Knight over him for the three count, meaning Taz has to lose to the weedy manager.

20 Minutes

WINNERS: KNIGHT & THE ELIMINATORS
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: I can’t rate it because it was clipped, but what we got to see seemed exciting. Taz would partially get his revenge at November to Remember 1995 by costing Knight a match against Konnan. However, Taz’s subsequent Heel turn meant we never really got the full payoff of him hunting Knight and his associates down once he was healthy again.

Fifth Match
Luchas de Apuestas
Pitbulls Must Breakup If They Lose
ECW World Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Double Dog Collar Bout
Champions: Raven and Stevie Richards w/ Beulah McGillicuddy
Vs
Challengers: The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 & Pitbull #2)

The Pitbulls had originally been Raven’s hired henchmen, but he decided to kick them to the curb in favour of The Dudley Family, so The Pitbulls have been looking for revenge ever since, hence this match was booked with the aim of finally settling the matter. Should The Pitbulls lose here then they will have to split up as a team. Beulah cuts a quick pre-match promo to say that Richards can’t wrestle in the match so asks that they add the 2 out of 3 rules seeing as Raven will have to go it alone, which everyone agrees to.

First Fall

This leads to #2 brutalising Raven whilst #1 heads to the back and dragging out a bloody Richards, with the idea being that Richards wasn’t actually hurt he was just holding out for a sneak attack at some point. However, whilst #1 is fighting Richards outside the ring it mildly distracts #2 and that allows Raven to catch #2 with a Piledriver in the ring through a table for the three count. Raven and Stevie kind of played themselves there, as if they’d done the same ruse in a one fall match they would have retained their belts by now.

Raven pins Pitbull #2 after 2 Minutes – Piledriver through a table

Second Fall

All four wrestlers head into the ring at this point, leading to wild tornado match. It’s not long before another table is in the ring and Richards gets Super Bombed through that so that The Pitbulls can tie it up.

Pitbull #1 pins Stevie Richards after 4 Minutes – Super Bomb through a table

Third Fall

We head to the floor following that, with all four fighting in the crowd, with Richards and #2 now both bleeding. They’ve paired Raven up with #2 here whilst Richards is fighting #1, which makes sense seeing as #2 is the most erratic of the four so having Raven alongside to coach him through the bout as it’s going on is a smart idea. The Pitbulls are in the ascendancy, which leads to The Dudley Family heading down to help their boss. The Dudley’s help Raven and Richards deliver Super Bomb’s to the challengers, but they pop back up and deliver DDT’s to all four of the Heels as the crowd goes loopy.

This has been overbooked to all heck and back, but it’s worked as a wild spectacle and the crowd have dug it. It’s been very Attitude Era actually, as the WWF took this sort of stuff and did it on a national scale with world class production values to ultimately win the Monday Night War. Raven takes a terrifying Super Bomb onto the edge of a table, but manages to kick out because the referee was still recovering from being bumped earlier on. That both protects the move somewhat but also shows that Raven, despite being a devious Heel, is still a tough customer who should be respected as a dangerous competitor.

Raven busts out the ether soaked rag so that he can stack #2 on some tables, but he can’t get high enough to put #2 through both tables with a leg drop so he has to drop an elbow off the apron to put #2 through the second table. Normally a botch like that would take away from a match, but in this environment it fits the general madhouse messy vibe this bout has going on, so I can’t deduct too much from the contest. #2 is helped by paramedics following that, as Francine runs down for our contractually mandated cat fight with Beulah, as Francine had previously been Richards’ girlfriend but now she’s fallen out with him and wants some revenge.

Raven takes out Francine with a DDT, as this is like the ECW match checklist at this stage. We’ve had blood, brawling, table breaks, run-ins, cat fights, blokes hitting birds, you name it! Dreamer heads down to seemingly take #2’s place in the match, but evil official Bill Alfonso heads down to say that the result doesn’t stand because Dreamer wasn’t an official competitor in the bout. This leads to Big Dick Dudley heading in to give Dreamer a Choke Slam. The Choke Slam was banned at the time, but Alfonso allows it again so that Big Dick can get away with it. This brings out 911, whose whole thing was that he did a Choke Slam, and this leads to Fonzie taking the Choke Slam as the arena erupts. #2 heads back out following that, leading to Raven and Richards getting stacked on top of one another and Super Bombed, meaning that The Pitbulls get the pin, with ECW Owner Todd Gordon doing the counting no less!

The Pitbulls pin Raven and Stevie after 20 Minutes

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: THE PITBULLS
RATING: ****

Thoughts: #2 seems genuinely emotional about picking up the win there, whilst the ECW Arena goes nuts at seeing the Heels vanquished. Some folks have given this match the Full Monty, including Scott Keith, who is normally pretty harsh about ECW. I can’t go that high because the match really was sloppy in lots of areas, to the point that I was genuinely worried that someone was going to get hurt at certain points. That being said, this was a great Dog and Pony Show that paid off months of storylines and gave the crowd a big feelgood moment, and it was also really entertaining. You watch stuff like this and you can see basically everything the WWF used in 1998 to overtake WCW. No wonder Paul Heyman was on the WWF payroll after a certain point, he basically built the entire template for the WWF to win the ratings war, so he technically earned said payment!

Sixth Match
Psicosis Vs Rey Misterio Jr.

With Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit and Eddy Guerrero all jumping to WCW, ECW needed to find a way to replace the exciting brand of wrestling they brought to the company. Paul Heyman knew Konnan and called him to find out who some of the hottest talent in Mexico were, with Konnan naming Psi and Rey Jr, hence why we’ve got the two battling now in the ECW Arena. Apparently Paul Heyman was a bit vague on what he actually wanted from the match when the two asked him and basically just told them to go out there and make stars of themselves, which they thusly went off to do.

Psi and Rey Jr immediately start out doing traditional lucha spots, and the crowd gets into it from the off, which is good to see. Rey Jr uses his speed to put Psi on the backfoot to start, with Psi then using his size and power to bully Rey Jr around. As usual when these two battle, they have excellent chemistry and the size difference just helps with the story they want to tell. Psi leans into being a Rudo here, playing to the crowd and acting heelish, although he still gets cheers at points because he has a natural cool factor and is wrestling really well, so the fans respect that.

Rey Jr starts making the comeback with ranas and head scissors, which the crowd goes nuts for, as these two and their in-ring style are automatically over just one night in. Psi manages to fight back and connect with a Guillotine Leg Drop from the top rope, but Rey Jr actually manages to kick out of the move that Psi would go on to use as a finisher in WCW. The Luchadores eventually decide to make use of the Extreme rules of ECW, when Rey Jr uses a chair to counter a Psi TOPE SUICIDA at one stage.

Psi fights back with a Twisting Plancha off the top rope, but Rey Jr manages to kick out once again and sends Psi into the front row where he follows him out with a dive. These two totally “get” what ECW is and have managed to mix in those elements with what they normally do in order to create a hybrid style that both honours their home style whilst still catering to an Extreme audience. It’s really impressive. Psi tries coming off the top with something back inside the ring, but Rey Jr cuts him off before he can and follows up with a rana off the top for the three count.

10 Minutes

WINNER: REY JR
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was excellent, as they went in there and did all the stuff you’d expect to see them do in Mexico but they added an Extreme flavour to it as well, which led to it feeling like an exciting hybrid style of wrestling that was perfect for ECW. I must give ECW credit for realising that losing The Radicalz was going to leave a serious hole in their roster and doing something about it by bringing in fresh talent who could still have great matches but in a totally different way. It’s a shame WCW couldn’t replace those same Radicalz as efficiently as ECW did when they flew the coop there as well, especially as WCW had both a bigger budget to work with and better connections with promotions like New Japan

We see that Da Gangstas and The Public Enemy are getting into an argument backstage. Joey Styles heads down to see what’s going on, and finds Steve Austin dressed as “The Stevester”, where he does a pretty funny Hulk Hogan impression. And thus Steve Austin’s brief, yet hugely entertaining, ECW run begins.

Main Event
Steel Cage Six Man Tag Team Bout
New Jack, The Sandman and Too Cold Scorpio Vs Mikey Whipwreck and The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock)

Whipwreck had begun a feud with The Sandman, with TPE backing Whipwreck up and helping to train him for the eventual encounter. Mikey is dressed like a member of TPE here, complete with hoody and dreadlocks, and robs ring announcer Bob Artese of both his wallet and watch before the match in a funny gag. Mustafa Saed, New Jack’s regular partner, apparently has some legal issues so Scorpio is stepping in as a replacement here, which led to Sandman and Scorpio becoming a semi-regular team for quite a while after this, with the two remaining allies on screen whenever Scorpio would make brief returns to ECW from 1997 onwards.

The problem with this one is that all six have to wrestle in the ring at the same time, meaning that it gets a little crowded and there’s not a lot of space to do stuff. As if they can hear what I’m thinking, New Jack and Grunge eventually head outside of the cage to brawl, freeing up some space in the ring. It’s mostly folks walking around and brawling, with the likes of Scorpio occasionally trying to do something a bit flashier when the opportunity presents itself, such as Scorpio doing leap frogs and rope running spots with Rocco.

New Jack and Grunge are soon bleeding as they fight all over the arena, whilst Sandman gets hung up on top of the cage by his leg at one stage, and is lucky not to tear every muscle in his leg in the process. This was before New Jack matches would have “Natural Born Killaz” playing over the top of them, and this match loses some of the anarchic thrill those bouts would tend to have. A table finds it’s way into the ring somehow, with Sandman suplexing it onto Mikey at one stage. Two more tables eventually find their way into the cage, giving us a stack of three tables.

Scorpio and Rocco end up tumbling off the top of the cage through the three tables, although it looked like there was a tad too much cooperation with it, so it loses some of it’s effectiveness. Still, at least it looked like it was done safely, or as safely as you CAN make something like that. Scorpio and Rocco are up pretty quickly from that, as they head outside the cage to brawl along with New Jack and Grunge so that Sandman and Mikey can focus on fighting one another inside the cage. Mikey gets a two count from a top rope Franken-Mikey and then heads up to the top of a cage with a big splash for the three count.

15 Minutes

WINNERS: MIKEY WHIPWRECK & THE PUBLIC ENEMY
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was messy, with the best action taking place outside of the cage. However, the finish gave Mikey a pin over Sandman and set up a ladder match between the two where Mikey would improbably win the Title, so the match served it’s purpose and the crowd liked the big spots, so it wasn’t a disaster

Sandman locks Mikey in the cage and beats him up in there in order to continue their feud and build up further to their eventual match for Sandman’s ECW World Title. TPE rescues Mikey from that though and eventually all six are going at it again, with Mikey hitting Sandman with Sandman’s own Singapore Cane.

In Conclusion:

The Dog Collar Match and Extreme Lucha Libre made Gangstas Paradise an easy thumbs up. Both of those matches were supremely entertaining in completely different ways, and are well worth seeking out if you’ve never seen them before. The rest of the show was mostly just “there”, but some of that stuff kept the storylines moving along at least.

1995 is one of ECW’s better periods, with the Raven and Tommy Dreamer feud providing constant twists, the likes of Rey Jr re-inventing styles of wrestling for a whole new audience, and a great mixture of interesting characters and storylines intermixed with some folks who could really go in the ring. I can only imagine what watching that Raven and Richards Vs Pitbulls match must have felt like back in 1995 if you’d only seen WCW and the WWF prior to that.

You can also check out Logan’s review of this show right HERE