1996-11-30 at Boomerang Nightclub in Bensalem, PA
Champions
World: Sandman
TV: Shane Douglas
Tag Team: Gangstas
We learn that Taz isnt here tonight. Tod Gordon comes out to offer a refund but tells the fans that tonight’s show is going to be awesome. Bill Alfonso comes out and they fight. Little Guido comes out and breaks them up. He makes nice with Gordon but then turns on him and attacks. Tag Team Champion New Jack comes out and chases him off. Alfonso for some reason hangs around in the ring so New Jack goes after him. D-Von Dudley hits the ring and we get a bell.
Tag Team Champion New Jack vs. D-Von Dudley, ref Jim Molineaux
They go to the floor. Piledriver on a bar by Jack. D-Von comes back and brings it back into the ring but misses a head butt off the second buckle. New Jack grabs his belt and comes off the top rope with a shot to the face of D-Von. Jack gets the fast win in 2.42. Joel Gertner comes out and announces D-Von as the winner. New Jack goes after him but D-Von saves him before any damage is done. Axl Rotten comes down and joins in on the action. Buh Buh Ray Dudley returns the favor from the past few weeks and makes the save for New Jack.
Axl Rotten vs. David Morton Tyler Jericho, ref Jeff Jones
Can Axl duplicate his wrestling classic from last night? Well he makes it through 3 and a half minutes before going to the floor and using a weapon. Its only once though and then they head back into the ring. Axl misses a top rope elbow that looks awful. Morton hits a flying forearm and top rope drop kick for 2. A cross body from the top gets another 2. Axl finishes things just like last night a big clothesline as Morton is coming off the top for a third time. Axl got in the win in 5.34.
Some local TV or radio guy comes to the ring to announce the next match. The fans of course shit all over him.
Pitbull 2 vs. Rick Rage, ref Jim Molineaux
This was the SAME EXACT match as last night. Move for move it even ran the same length! Pitbull 2 picks up the win in 1.52.
The Eliminators vs. Dudley Boys (w/ Sign Guy Dudley), ref Jim Molineaux
Spike starts with Saturn and hits two ranas and a head scissor but then he eats a super kick. Tag to Kronus and they hit some of their kicks. Buh Buh comes in but he is also nailed with some kicks and dumped to the floor. Total elimination to Spike and this one is over in 1.43! WOW Saturn and Kronus make super short work of the Dudleys. Another spirited match from the Eliminators.
Chris Candido vs. Rob Van Dam, ref Jeff Jones
I’m excited for this match, should be a good one. Feeling out process between the two has the crowd chanting boring because its been 3 minutes and the match isn’t over yet. Were about five minutes in with things still pretty even between the two when out comes the BWO to a big ovation. They stand on a stage and pose distracting Van Dam. Candido attacks from behind and now has the upper hand. Van Dam makes a come back and hits the double under hook flap jack. Split legged moonsault and Van Dam gets the pin but Candido has his feet on the rope and the ref says the match must continue! Candido uses the confusion to get back into things and hits a swinging neck breaker. Headbutt off the middle rope for 2. Van Dam comes back with a power slam and then he goes up to the second rope. Candido stops him and gets a super rana. Cover gets a 3 but now Van Dam gets his foot on the rope and the ref says the match will go on. Candido gets into a shoving match with the ref and Van Dam rolls him up but only gets 2. Candido with an overhead belly to belly for 2. They each get a few near falls on roll ups. Candido with a power bomb and he’s inches away from the win. Van Dam comes back a bit and we get a bell at 14.24 for a time limit draw. Fans want 5 more minutes. They shake hands and hug. Candido then keeps trying to sneak up on Van Dam but he keeps turning around and Candido makes like he just wants to shake his hand again. Candido leaves and they dont come to blows.
TV Champion Shane Douglas (w/ Francine) vs. Tommy Dreamer (w/ Beulah), ref Jim Molineaux
HAHAAHHAHA Douglas promo before the match. He says he has a bone to pick and wants Tod Gordon to come out so he can pick it out of his ass. Douglas is pissed because he wants to have a wrestling match with a wrestler but instead has to fight a brawler. Dreamer says if that cunt Francine gets in the way he’s going to beat the living shit out of her. I think he would probably be arrested for saying that. Douglas attacks from behind and they go to the floor. Camera goes out and we jump ahead to Dreamer piledriving Francine. Douglas hits a low blow on Dreamer and belly to belly on Beulah. Pitbull 2 hits the ring as does Primetime Brian Lee. Douglas with a single arm DDT on Dreamer and he gets the pin. 5.14 is filmed and the match is announced as 8.13. They’ve been pretty close with their announced times tonight also so we missed around 3 minutes. Pitbull and Dreamer run off Lee and Douglas.
World Champion The Sandman vs. Raven (w/ BWO), ref John Finnegan
Pretty sure you guys know how this one goes by now. Raven attacks in the crowd, they brawl. Ref bump Sandman with a DDT and cover. Out from the back comes Lori Fullington, she gets smacked. Raven with a DDT for 2. Steviekick nails Raven by accident. Tyler comes out now. Steviekick connects this time. Sandman back up attacks with the cane. DDT on Raven and Sandman picks up the win in 5.18.
My thoughts on the show…
This show was held in a night club where it was standing room only. With only 36 minutes of wrestling I feel it was booked perfectly. The fans wouldn’t have been able to hang for long matches. They were getting bored with the Candido/Van Dam match and that wasn’t even very long, and while not awesome it certainly wasn’t boring. A pretty solid show.
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TV 1996-12-03 (Taped 1996-11-22 at The Town Hall in Webster, MA & 1996-11-29 at Farmers Market in Downington, PA)
Champions
World: Sandman
TV: Shane Douglas
Tag Team: Gangstas
We see what went down to end last weeks episode with Taz and Sabu. Something I hadn’t noticed the other two times watching this is the wrestlers at ringside are freaking out over the stare down right along with the fans.
Opening video.
Joey Styles is our host and he is hyped over what happened last week and has been the talk of the wrestling world since N2R.
We go to ECW Fan Cam footage from the 29th of November for the match between Taz and Rob Van Dam. Remember a few months ago Van Dam told Bill Alfonso and Taz about Sabu’s hurt neck. Joey says now that Sabu has told Van Dam about Taz’s weaknesses. Taz locked in the tazmission and wouldn’t release it until a bunch of guys came from the back and pulled him off.
Joey talks about the match between Chris Candido and Mikey Whipwreck from N2R. Joey talks about how close of a match it was and that Candido showed his respect for Mikey at the end.
Back on November 22nd Mikey was scheduled to tag with Hack Meyers to take on the Eliminators. Since Hack lost a loser leaves town match to 2 Cold Scorpio back at N2R Mikey found himself alone. Candido came out to his aide and said he would be Mikey’s partner. Mikey got isolated in the match and the Eliminators destroyed him with tons of kicks. Candido got repeatedly knocked off the apron and continued to hold his eye making no attempt to help Mikey out. The Eliminators finally end things with total elimination.
Joey talks about how Candido didn’t exactly abandon Mikey but wasn’t very helpful. Candido shows up and says he was doing great until he tagged Mikey and then Mikey got the crap kicked out of him. Candido questions if his lip is still bleeding and says he has been having trouble hearing and seeing since the match.
Hype Central with Joel Gertner is next. ECW heads to Jim Thorpe, PA on the 6th and they return to the ECW Arena this Saturday the 7th for Holiday Hell! Gertner brings in the undefeated D-Von Dudley. Dudley talks about how he is unbeaten and righteous.
Joey talks about the Gangstas run on top of the ECW Tag Team Title scene. New Jack and Mustafa join Joey via satellite. Joey questions if they are worried about all the teams that are coming after them. New Jack says he doesn’t care who is after them.
Joey talks about the feud between Raven and World Champion Sandman and what has gone on over the past few months between them. This Saturday Raven and Sandman will have a barbed wire match.
Joey reviews what has happened between Francine and Beulah in the past and how it as lead up to today with their feud being reborn because of TV Champion The Franchise Shane Douglas and Tommy Dreamer. Joey says a mixed tag team match has been signed. Tommy Dreamer cuts a promo and says everything that has happened is his fault because he brought Shane back to ECW. Beulah does some posing with some song playing in the background. My lord she is hot. They edit in lots of footage of Dreamer and Beulah to the video.
Dreamer took on Douglas on the 29th at the Farmers Market but was unsuccessful in his bid for the TV Title thanks to Primetime Brian Lee. Pitbull 2 made the save as Douglas was about to hit Beulah with a belly to belly. The b.W.o. is backstage and Taz comes up with Bill Alfonso and tells them if they ever interfere in his match again he will choke them all out. Blue Meanie says they were just having some fun and gets slapped.
My thoughts on the show…
Some good led into Holiday Hell coming up this weekend. Taz and Van Dam continue their battles that started at N2R tonight and will face each other again this weekend. A mixed tag team match is coming up steaming from all that’s been going on between Dreamer, Beulah, Douglas and Francine which we saw more from tonight. The Eliminators have been on an absolute tear the past few weeks as we saw here as they continue to look towards the tag team titles. Good episode tonight.
