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FREE THIS WEEK: WRESTLING LARIAT ARCHIVES #70: ECW OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES DEBUT PPV, THE DUDLEY BOYZ TEAM FOR FIRST TIME, 42 MINUTE MISAWA VS. KOBASHI CLASSIC, USWA AND LOTS MORE

The Wrestling Lariat # 70 --- February 10, 1997

DONE DEAL!

ECW Announces PPV To Rabid Crowd

The ECW Report
by Dave Scherer

ECW returned to their home base of the ECW Arena on 2/1 with a strong show that was made special by this “little announcement” that they had to make to their sellout faithful crowd. The show started with ring announcer Bob Artese and timekeeper Rocco coming out to the ring. As Bob was doing his welcome to the crowd, all of the heels in the promotion filed out onto the top stage. Shortly thereafter, all of the faces followed suit and came out to the ring, along with promotion owners Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon, all while the intuitive crowd chanted ECW. They all knew something was about to happen and many of them knew what that something was. Heyman took the microphone, and the party began.

“Five years ago, a jeweler from Center City Philadelphia took personal debt, with three kids at home and one on the way, and from the ashes of Joel Goodhart’s promotion he ran local bars and called the promotion ECW.” The crowd began chanting the promotion’s name. “From this day five years ago, this man has put up with more aggravation, more bullsh**, more personal loss than any of you could ever imagine but he never NEVER stopped dreaming of what we can tell you about tonight.” The crowd popped and started chanting “Pay Per View!”

Heyman continued, “At personal risk to friendships that he developed in this business, to people to people who told him not to f***king do it, to people who told him it would never work, he gave a kid who wasn’t even thirty years old the chance to hire the right people and let them do their thing in the ring. Since September 18th 1993, I have thanked God every f**king night of my life for the opportunity that this man has given me.” The crowd chanted “Tod” while Gordon squirmed somewhat uncomfortably. You see, in spite of what some people have said about Tod Gordon, he is not just a “mark with money who wants to put himself over.” He never was, and he never will be. ECW has always been about a lot more than that to him, and everything Heyman said on this night was a shoot.

Heyman then continued by saying to Gordon, “Don’t be so f**king shy, you’ve earned that and a lot more, trust me.” Again, another shoot.

“For three and a half years, through WCW’s bullsh**, through Vince McMahon’s jealousy, through our own mistakes, for three and a half years, we have seen things like Terry Funk endorse our product.” The crowd chanted “Terry.” Heyman went on to call Funk a true legend, and surely no one could disagree. Heyman continued, “With my right hand to God, this man put us on the map. His matches against Sabu, his matches against the Public Enemy, his matches against Shane Douglas, this is the man that gave us the chance to be what we are.” The crowd popped huge and from my view it was obvious that Funk got misty-eyed in the ring and began to cry, and who could really blame him?

Heyman said, “We have seen a man come out to the ring drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette.” And the crowd gave a deafening pop for their icon, the Sandman, and chanted his name loudly. Heyman continued to talk about his workers, with each getting put over by a man who appeared to be a fan of every one of them. I would like to recap everything said about everyone, but space prohibits that. I would be remiss if I did not mention Heyman’s deserved tribute to Tommy Dreamer though. Heyman spoke of Dreamer’s great friendship and commitment to the company both in the ring and behind the scenes, and it was a tribute well paid. Dreamer is ECW after all. He lives it and bleeds it.

After Heyman finished paying tribute to everyone, he went on. “On Monday night, April 14th, WCW has decided to run a Nitro right up the f**king block.” A large portion of the crowd, in classic ECW, ‘us against them’ style, chanted, “F**k them.” This, of course, allowed Paul Heyman to use his now signature line of, “I wouldn’t f**k them with Vince McMahon’s dick.” Heyman went on, “The reason that they booked that Nitro on April 14th is because they know, in their hearts, that they can not match the main event that will be presented here on Sunday night, April 13th.” Huge crowd pop and “ECW” chant.

“And that main event, on April 13th, will pit that man, Taz, against that man, Sabu! Now I know you’ve read the articles and I know you’ve read the stories, and if you’ve been on the internet you know that there are a lot of f**king rumors, so I’ll just tell you like it is. That show will not only be seen by the people in the ECW Arena, because that very night, we get the show the whole f**king world what we’ve got.”

He went on and said that despite all of the obstacles presented them by both outside parties and themselves, because of the fans support and calls and emails, “That show will be carried live on pay-per-view.” Heyman’s voice just had enough gas left in the tank to finish the speech, as he talked himself hoarse during the process. Heyman tried to leave the ring but Gordon stopped him, took the mic, and paid tribute to Heyman, while the fans “chanted Paul E.” and “Thank You.”

It was a Paul Heyman revival meeting at its finest, it really was, but unlike some others in the past, this one had a feeling of a “love in” with the fans. A few people I spoke with thought that it went a little long, and maybe it did, but this was a moment of celebration fans, and to me personally, it was something that every person in the company deserved to enjoy and bask in, and I would never even think to criticize them for it or take that moment away from the people who worked so hard to get there and enjoy it. That may sound melodramatic, and if is so be it. On a personal note, I was at the first ECW Arena show, and almost every single one since then. Going into that crazy building has been a ritual for me since its inception, along with a lot of you reading this, and this whole scene was something I found to be very special. Absolutely it was one of the best parts of being of fan of and covering this business for me.

Unfortunately for them, Mike Awesome and Louie Spicoli had to follow this up. The crowd, after being whipped into an emotional frenzy, was understandably a little down for this match. And the early work in this match did not help much to pick them back up. Awesome did a nice belly-to-belly suplex early, and Louie countered with a slow-motion frankensteiner that was dubbed a “sloppycanrana” by some smart ass sitting near me. The match was not much until Awesome clotheslined Louie to the floor and then did a psycho tope. I guess Spicoli saw the tapes of the match Awesome had with J. T. Smith, where Awesome damn near killed with a tope that damn near snapped Smith in half, and as Awesome was coming, Louie appeared to move at the very last second, hanging Awesome out to dry. Big Mike grazed Louie’s shoulder but took the vast majority of the bump by crashing trunk-first into the guardrail. Ouch. Awesome, amazingly enough, got up and when both guys made it back in the ring, hit an Awesome Bomb on Louie. Mike went up to the top and hit a monster frog splash, but Louie kicked out at two. Mike then went for a Razor’s Edge, but Louie got out of it and rolled up Mike with a small package. The finish came off really weak, and made Awesome look weak as well because Big Mike practically killed Louie the whole match but could not put him away and then Louie pinned him easily with a crappy finisher. There were a few good spots, but not too hot overall. After the match, Awesome hit the Razor’s Edge on ref Jeff Jones, presumably for making a crappy count, practically killing him. I don’t think this was planned because Jones had no idea what was coming.

We then saw the long talked about debut of Lance Storm, who took on the apparent “first match” opponent for any new wrestler here, Balls Mahoney. For those of you who have never seen Storm, he is kind of in between a cruiserweight and a heavyweight. He has a good build and can really work. Early on, they went back and forth, doing nothing special, until Balls bumped over the top rope to the floor, for no apparent reason, and Storm hit a senton splash on him. Storm followed with a springboard clothesline. Balls then took over and did some power moves and a Vader splash until Storm turned the tide again with some nice flying spots. Balls used a groin shot and a piledriver but missed an elbow from the second rope. Storm went to the top rope and nailed Balls with a reverse leg lariat to get the pin. Balls was OK, but Storm, once he got going, looked good and will fit right in here. The fans got very much into his highspots.

The next match saw Big Stevie Cool take on Ricky Morton. Morton came out first with his girlfriend (or wife, depending on who you believe) Andrea. Andrea, who was going by her “professional” name of Austin, was wearing a leather outfit that was completely devoid of any seat in her pants, which kind of means the moon was over Philly. Stevie and the BWO came into the ring through the front door. The fans were chanting “BWO” and then “Show your tits,” which no doubt makes all debuting females feel at home. Anyway, while they were chanting that, the Blue Meanie lifted his shirt and showed his, which was pretty funny. The match was kind of flat early, which surprised me given who was involved. It got going when Super Hollywood Nova distracted the ref while the wrestlers were out on the floor. This allowed the Meanie to grab Morton from behind and smash Ricky’s head into the ringpost, which got a big pop from the crowd. Stevie then hit a tilt-a-whirl slam, did the “ten punches to the head while the crowd counts” spot, and then hit a jackknife for a two count. Stevie them pinned Morton after hitting a Steviekick. While Ricky was laid out, Stevie presented Austin with a BWO shirt, which she gladly took and hid from Ricky by using it to cover her once full “moon” so that Ricky would not see it when he came to.

Steve Williams made his return here by squashing Axl Rotten. Axl started out by beating on Doc, but that lasted about ten seconds. Doc hit an Oklahoma Stampede for a two count and then got the pin with the very aptly named “Dangerous Backdrop Driver,” in which he basically dumped Axl, from a belly-to-back position, onto his head. It lasted maybe two minutes. Doc celebrated in the ring until he helped Axl up. When Axl saw him come near, he acted as if he saw a ghost. Eventually, Doc helped him up and they shook hands.

Joey Styles then went to the ring and did his first interview with Doc. Joey said that Doc was the “toughest man on the face of the planet” and thanked him for endorsing the promotion. Doc, “thanked him from the bottom of his heart” and then went on to say that he did not come to ECW for thanks. He said he’s been everywhere and he is here to get the title, no matter who holds it. Terry Funk. Terry Gordy. Bill Clinton. BILL CLINTON? If you say so Doc, you ARE after all the toughest man in the world. Anyway, Doc rambled a bit more until Raven came out, wearing the title. Doc blew raspberries into the mic and said, “Did anybody invite you into my squared circle?” Yeah Doc, YOU DID when you said you wanted the belt! Raven took the mic and said, “Hey a**hole, you want the belt, take it.” Raven then laid it down in front of Doc and Doc attacked him.

Tod Gordon came out with ref John Finnegan and said that if they wanted a title match, they got it and sent the ref in the ring. These guys brawled their asses off, with Raven creaming Doc with chairshots and guardrail shots on the floor. Raven laid Doc across a table and climbed back into the ring, up to the second rope, and came off with an elbow. Doc moved and Raven went crashing through the table. Doc then took over, hitting Raven with a chair until he ran the champ headfirst into the remnants of the demolished table. By this time, as Jim Ross used say before he became a joke, “Both men had been lacerated.” They went back in the ring and were wailing on each other until Doc hit the Stampede as Raven was coming off of the ropes, getting a two count. Doc hit a few short clotheslines and a back suplex, again getting a two count. Doc then did a diving shoulder tackle from the top rope for a two count. Raven made a comeback and hit a suplex on Williams while Doc was sitting on the top rope.

Raven stood up and did his crucifix gimmick as the BWO music began to play The regular group of Blues had two new additions, Lori Fullington and son Tyler, both decked out in BWO shirts. Those two and Stevie stood up on the ring apron while Raven and Richards argued about his valet and protégé being in BWO garb instead of his trademark grunge look. Raven attacked Stevie for this until Doc made a comeback and press-slammed Raven onto Meanie and Nova, who were on the floor. Stevie went in the ring and put his arm in the air and presented Doc with his BWO shirt. Doc laughed at it, ripped it in half, and threw it at Stevie. Stevie responded with a superkick on Doc. Doc got right up and urged Stevie to do it again, which he did with the same results. Stevie loaded up to do a third, but Doc caught his leg and went for a clothesline. Stevie ducked it and hit Doc, this time “not ready for it,” with a nasty superkick and Doc went down. Raven came in and DDTd him for the pin. Yup, that’s right, Doc did the job. Personally, I can’t remember the last time that happened in the US, which I think says a lot about how he feels about ECW. I really liked the match, as they both worked hard.

The last match before intermission saw The Sandman take on D-Von Dudley. There were a ton of Beel throws, hammerlocks, and flying headscissors. Uh huh, sure there were. Part D-Von’s new gimmick is that he does not come out to any music. Sandman, of course, does. As usual, Sandman giggled himself by smashing a beer can into his head. As Sandman was walking around the ring, D-Von attacked him and the brawl began. Sandman was worked over on the floor early by D-Von until the former champ came back. Sandman dumped him on the floor and then dropped a leg on him from the apron. Sandman twice did the spot where he suplexed a table on D-Von but both times the table hit the ringpost. Sandman went back in the ring and used the cane on D-Von and then hit a DDT. He went outside and got a chair, laid it on D-Von’s face, and then dropped a leg on it for the pin. Joel Gertner then came in and said that it finally happened and he had to give credit where it was due. He was working everyone to think he was going to finally announce that D-Von lost, since he has continually said that D-Von won on points every time he loses a match. Gertner, after he opened his jacket and showed that he was wearing a New York Rangers shirt, went on and said that yes, by a four to two decision (which was the score that the Rangers beat the local Flyers by that afternoon) your winner was D-Von. Sandman took his cane and toasted him in the head. D-Von came up from behind and attacked Sandman with his cane.

Buh Buh Ray, Spike, and Sign Guy Dudley came out to make the save. Or so one would think. Instead of hitting D-Von, Buh Buh instead turned heel and creamed Sandman in the head with a chair. Spike went nuts, beating both D-Von and Buh Buh, and he too was killed when D-Von picked up Spike and Buh Buh hit the Diamond Cutter on him. The Duds then beat on Sandman until the Gangstas came running out. Mustafa even used an actual kitchen sink (insert your own one liner here) on Buh Buh. New Jack worked over D-Von with a crutch. The Gangstas were on offense for a bit, including dropping D-Von face first on a chair, until Buh Buh attacked Jack from behind. The Duds took over and then laid out the Gangstas, big time, getting color onto both of the former champs. With all three faces laid out, Buh Buh and D-Von hugged. As the Duds were leaving, Buh Buh slapped the fan known and “Lithgow” or “Hawaiian Boy” who, if you watch ECW TV, always sits ringside with a straw hat and wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Buh Buh then spit at another ringside fan and stuck a broken crutch in the chest of yet another fan, who he happens to dislike intensely, before he left. The heel turn surprised me, for sure. I hope they go all the way and drop the stale Dudley gimmick. I know that part of the reason for the turn was the need of having another heel team. I am very curious to see the line of reasoning that they use to explain why Buh Buh chose to side with D-Von.

The first bout after intermission was a rematch of one of the best matches I saw last year, Sabu and Rob Van Dam vs. The Eliminators for the ECW Tag Titles. The stipulation here was that, unlike their match at the November To Remember, there had to be a winner. This match was absolutely and totally awesome. The Eliminators are just fantastic wrestlers and Sabu and Van Dam worked a lot better as a team after spending the last month working in All Japan rings together. I won’t write down every spot because it will take a page to do so, but here are some highlights: The Elims did double spinning leg lariats on Van Dam, Van Dam hit a double arm front suplex on Saturn, a surfboard by Rob on Saturn in which Sabu came off the top with an elbow to the gut, Saturn with a Saturn-bomb on Sabu, Sabu did a springboard plancha into the first row on Saturn while Van Dam did a moonsault off of the guardrail on Kronus on the floor, a frog splash by Saturn, a beautiful reverse senton splash from the second rope by Kronus onto Sabu, and much more. Sabu and Rob were trying to set Kronus up for a table spot when Saturn knocked Sabu from the top rope.

Sabu brought the table into the ring and laid Kronus on it after he hit Saturn with a leg lariat. As Sabu went to the top, Saturn pushed him from the top turnbuckle down to the floor. Saturn then landed on him a splash. Saturn and Kronus got a ladder from under the ring and Kronus held Rob’s arms behind his back. Saturn went to the top of the ladder but as he was about to come off of it, Sabu hit a dropkick on him from the top rope, knocking Saturn off the ladder and onto his partner. Sabu and Van Dam did a double clothesline on the Elims using the ladder. They followed that with double somersault legdrops on the ladder, with the Elims being trapped underneath. The faces set the ladder back up and climbed to the top to do spots but the Elims got up and did Total Elimination on the ladder, sending both men flying. Saturn then set the ladder up on the table, climbed to the top, and was about to come off onto Van Dam when Sabu came off of a chair into a springboard leg lariat onto Saturn, sending him sprawling ten feet to the mat.

The faces were on the offense until Saturn reversed a hold by Rob as Sabu was coming off of the top, which caused Sabu to accidentally hit his partner. Van Dam groggily stood up and was hit with Total Elimination and pinned by Saturn. Sabu came in and the champs hit Total Elimination on him as well. Bill Alfonso and Taz then came out. Taz hit Van Dam with chairshots and then choked him out while both Elims held Sabu and made him watch. Taz said, “Look at your future, this is you. You want to play with weapons, let’s play.” Taz teased hitting Sabu with a chair and then spit on him instead. The Elims did Total Elimination on Sabu again. Taz said he does not need weapons or the Elims for Sabu, he just needs him to show up on the 13th. The fans cheered for Taz. They just want to see the match, and are not necessarily against Sabu because when both guys got up after the heels left, they were cheered. Sabu went to shake Rob’s hand, but Van Dam pushed him away and teased a breakup. Finally though, they did shake. Again, awesome match.

Terry Funk beat Tommy Rich with a spinning toe hold in a very plain match. Terry got the deserved massive pop. This match was a lot of old style brawling. Early on Rich tried to walk out so Funk caught him and beat on him with a chair. Both guys bled. For some reason, Rich DDTd the ref twice and began to do spinning toe holds on Funk. Funk came back and won with one of his own. Funk hugged and high-fived fans as he left.

The main event had Shane Douglas, Chris Candido, and Brian Lee taking on Tommy Dreamer and the Pit Bulls. It was a psycho brawl, as one would expect, but the work was really tight and good. Tommy brought in a guard rail from ringside and the faces threw Lee, then Candido, then Douglas into it. Douglas’ bump actually snapped the thing in half. Then Pit Two press slammed Douglas onto what was left of it. The heels managed to make a comeback and Douglas suplexed Dreamer onto two chairs. Pit Two got busted open here somehow. The heels dominated for the next few minutes until “Cloudy” of the Bodydonnas (Candido’s pal Jimmy Shoulders who did the gimmick in the WWF) came out to the ring to get involved and promptly got her, er his, ass kicked by Beulah. By now, Pit One was bleeding as well.

All three heels did Rude Awakenings onto the faces when the masked man, Rick Rude, joined the fray. His voice came over the mic as he came to ringside and said, “You three a**holes think you’re going to f**K with me?” He taunted them for a while until the faces got back up. Rude said, “Look behind you a**holes” and when they did, the faces were there to tear them up. Tommy and Lee brawled around the building, bumping off of the bleachers, the walls, and the lower stage, while the Pits did a press slam and a Rude Awakening on Shane. Francine came up on the apron to get involved and Rude, still wearing the mask of course, draped her over the top rope and spanked her bare ass. Hard. So hard, her ass turned red. As a journalist, I felt it was my, ahem, duty to pay close attention to those proceedings. It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it.

Tommy DDTd Lee on the lower stage and went back to the ring. Tommy set up a table in the ring and put Shane on it. Tommy picked Pit Bull One, handed him off to Pit Two, and Pit Two superbombed his partner through the table. They played it off that both Pit One and Shane were laid out. Lee carried Shane out over his shoulder while Pit Two and Damage Control took Gary away. Oh, and Francine’s ass was still red as she left as well. Just thought you’d want to know! Very good match and a very good show.

Show Notes & Thoughts:

Something very important that needs to be said here is that the promotion has toned down a ton of the out-of-the-ring brawling in the Arena and the crowd has accepted it, and even done so largely without complaint. There are still some “out of control” spots and sequences, but since they are now the exception instead of the rule, they mean a lot more in the course of the match when they occur. The crowd was just great during the opening speech, and with the exception of a few morons, good all night. Hey, if we rip them when they are bad, we have to be fair and do the same when they are good.

A lot of people in the company heard a report on the Observer hotline where Dave Meltzer said, in essence, that the Eliminators were overrated and that they were kind of like the Public Enemy in that Paul Heyman has made the fans think they are better than what they (supposedly) really are. Needless to say, Meltzer is not seen as overly impartial by many folks in the company.

Gary Albright broke his toe on the last All Japan tour and that was why he missed his match here with Steve Williams. Apparently, he has diabetes as well and this did not help the injury.

For those of you who were at the show and wondered why smoke poured out of the back during the match with Stevie and Morton, apparently someone in the back left their coat too close to one of the heaters and it caught on fire. In any case, it was quickly extinguished and was not a problem.

In a legit poll on the ECW hotline, Sabu was chosen the wrestler of the year.

“Desperado” is just too sedate a song for Terry Funk to come out to.

There were three or four fights by fans in the crowd. The offending parties were promptly thrown out except for one woman, who was just downright nuts and actually hit a security guard. The cow also caused a hard time for my pal, and good fan, Brett Schwan.

I don’t know where Mike Awesome stands with ECW. His future here is not in stone, that’s for sure. As I said above, I don’t think his bumping the ref was planned and since it wasn’t, that hindered what Heyman could book all evening as he only had two more refs at his disposal.

I talked to some people who think they are dragging the Stevie/Raven angle out a little too long, but I don’t think so. I think they are brewing it at just the right speed.

I really think that Sabu needs to quit shaking hands with people, hugging them, and just acting like a “human being” in general. I mean really, is he supposed to be the most homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, lunatic in the world, or he is supposed to be Ned F**kin’ Flanders? I mean really, put him back in a muzzle, wheel his ass out on a gurney, and let him go back to trashing people and just being a psycho who beats the crap out of people. Hey, the gimmick has worked for Taz right? They could have Heyman do a one time interview where he tells the fans that Sabu realizes that he has gotten soft and he is going to go back to what made him a champion in the first place. They have to do either that or turn him because if they don’t, Taz will get the lion’s share of the cheers at the PPV. He is just too cool a heel to boo.

PPV Notes:

For those of you looking to come in live for the ECW PPV, ticket prices will be 100 dollars for reserved seating and 40 dollars for general admission. The company has announced that they extended their club ECW plan to the general admission seating. What that means is that if you buy tickets in advance for the next four shows, you get a 10% discount on the price of tickets (and also merchandise). Tickets will be going on sale for Club ECW members on 2/24. After that, what’s left will go on sale to the general public on 3/3.

If you are a club ECW member, you will also get a free event T-Shirt, free event program, and admission to the big gala press conference/get together with the the wrestlers the Saturday night before the PPV. In fact, anyone who has a ticket to the PPV will be invited to the meet and greet the night before. The company wants to make the weekend special for all who come in for it. Somehow, I don’t see that being a problem. For more info, call the office at [deleted].

ECW Notes:

ECW TV this past week opened with the closing seconds of Mikey Whipwreck beating a guy only announced as “The Rookie” but was Chris Vandal, now Chris Chetti. They next spent the next several minutes recapping the feud with Shane Douglas and the Triple Threat vs. Tommy Dreamer and the Pit Bulls, since it was the main event at the Arena this past weekend. Shane Douglas did interview where he referred to Rick Rude as “him” and the shot the angle where Mike Awesome became Francine’s bodyguard.

Terry Funk then did an awesome interview, the kind which only he can do and you never forget. He spoke about how a loss (to Brian Lee) can bring things into perspective. He talked about the desire of Tommy Dreamer and how Tommy reminds him of his father. He spoke about how his father died in the ring when, in his fifties, he was going for the world title in 1973. He said that his father had a heart attack and that he and his brother went with him to the hospital. He said that on the way, his father asked how much further they had to go. “Not much farther Dad, just a couple more miles. And he said, ‘Dadgummit, I can’t make it. I’m going.’ Well, those were his last words.” He said it was the saddest day of his life and would be forever. He said that here he was, 24 years later, a little older, and after a loss, and he had to figure out what he wanted. And he did, he wants the world title. He said that he thinks that if he can get in there against Raven, he knows he can do it. He said he wants to do it for the hardcore fans, and for the old farts. And most importantly, for his father. He said he could not guarantee victory, but he would give it his best shot and he would not give up. He then started crying and said, if he could beat Raven and they presented him the belt, “I don’t want to stand out there and say that I did it my way. I want invite every one of you ECW fans that are in the arena that night to come in the arena and stand with me. And I want us to hold arms in the air, and I want to invite anyone who is watching it on television to hold their arms in the air, and say, (as he was shaking his fist) ‘We did it our way. Not like the WWF, we did it our way. Not like the WCW, we did it our way. Not like Triple A, New Japan, All Japan, FMW, we did it our way. Not like the Ultimate Fighting organizations, we did it our way. And what is our way? That’s the ECW way. And what is the ECW way? It’s the only way.” He went on and said, “And we did it that way, because we love it that way!” Whether you like ECW or Terry Funk was really immaterial. It was just as good an interview as you will ever see, anywhere, and if you are a fan of this business, you have to see it. And man, what a visual image it will be to end the inaugural PPV with Terry Funk and hundreds of fans, arm in arm, in the middle of the ring. Awesome, for sure.

After that, they did an interview from Taz’s dojo. Taz admitted that he had shoulder surgery in December. He said it had to be done. He went on that he was running roughshod through ECW at 80% and now he is healed, so watch out.

They then aired the Raven vs. Sandman match from 1/18, recapped here last week. They went off the air with the angle from 1/18 where the Triple Threat took out the Pits and Dreamer, and then Rude took out Mike Awesome with the Rude awakening as Douglas says in fear, “It’s him, it’s him!” Overall, an excellent show, even though there was not much actual wrestling. The Scranton venue looked very good on TV.

The promotion runs this weekend in Downingtown, PA on 2/8 and Hamburg, PA on 2/9. The following weekend they swing through Massachusetts before the semi annual fan convention the following weekend with shows on 2/21 in Queens, NY and 2/22 at the Arena. The card for the next Arena show is not yet finalized but look for the Gangstas vs the Dudleys for sure. They may run Shane Douglas vs. Pit Bull One. There may also be a monster rematch with the Elims taking on Sabu and Van Dam, and if that does not happen, it will probably be Sabu vs. Candido and Taz vs. Van Dam.

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