The “OH MY GOD!” Review: ECW In Middletown, NY 11/2/96

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1996-11-02 at Orange County Fairgrounds in Middletown, NY

Champions
World: Sandman
TV: Shane Douglas
Tag Team: Gangstas

Louie Spicolli vs. Steve Richards (w/ Blue Meanie & Super Nova)
The bell rings but Richards decides to cut a 4 minute promo before they start wrestling. The fans really on Richards’ case with lots of unfavorable chants. Spicolli takes down Richards and then humps his head. Stevie bails and Spicolli now grabs the mic and trash talks Stevie. Richards goes to the eyes of Spiclloi and tries to jump off a chair at Louie. He misses and crotches himself on the top rope. Louie hits him in the balls with the chair now. Stevie ducks a clothesline line and goes low on Spicolli. Lots of nut shots tonight. Stevie sets up for a powerbomb but instead again kicks Louie low. He goes for it again but Spicolli back drops him out of it. Stevie up and third times the charm as he finally hits the power bomb for 2. Stevie with a chin lock but Spicolli fights out. Nova jumps in but gets DVDed. Cutter by Stevie and then Meanie misses a moonsault. Louie with a DDT on Richards and both men are down. Stevie misses a corner charge and gets hit with a stunner and spin buster that almost gets him a 3 count. Northern lights but again Stevie gets the shoulder up. DVD but Meanie jumps up on the apron so Spicolli puts Richards down. Louie turns into the stevie kick but is able to kick out. Spicolli hits the DVD and gets the win in 11.34. I didn’t notice when but at some point Spicolli’s cut from last night opened up and the blood again started to flow from the forehead.

Too Cold Scorpio vs. Davey Tyler, ref John Finnegan
Mic work by Scorpio before the match. No idea what he says. After some back and forth Tyler drop kicks Scorpio to the floor and then comes off the top rope with a body block. Back drop into the crowd and Tyler and flies from the top rope with a body block. Back in the ring Scorpio decides that none of that had any impact on him and clotheslines Tyler. Superkick and back breaker. Scorpio just stands around between his moves. This is why I don’t like him. Powerbomb and he spends another 10 seconds walking around. Scorpio goes for a flapjack but gets hit with a rana. Scorpio right back up with a clothesline. They mess up a head scissor spot. Scorpio goes for a power bomb but its reversed into a rana. Top rope dropkick and top rope splash for 2 by Tyler. He goes up a third time and gets a 2 count off a cross body. Scorpio up with a front kick and body slam. Scorpio goes up top but Tyler dropkicks him. Super rana gets 2. Scorpio gets up and hits a superkick. Moonsault but Scorpio gets off the pin after 2. Tombstone and 450 ends it in 11.30. Taz hits the ring and attacks hitting a tbone and locking Scorpio in the tazmission. I wish he did this about 10 minutes ago. Taz again demands a match with Sabu.

Erotic Experience vs. Big Dick Dudley, ref John “Pee Wee” Moore
It’s really hard to explain just how little personality GQ Gorgeous Quartermaine has. Big Dick makes his in ring return! Worth the price of admission. Dick uses his power at first but is chop blocked. The Experience with a double suplex and GQ comes off the top rope with a leg drop to the knee. Double spin kick gets 2. Experience goes for a double clothesline it’s ducked and Dick chokeslams them both and gets the pin in 2.30. D-Von Dudley hits the ring and takes out the knee. Axl Rotten is right behind him with a chair that he uses on Dick’s knee. Double chair shot to the head of Dick. The rest of the Dudleys hit the ring to chase of D-Von and Axl.

“Primetime” Brian Lee vs. Pitbull #2, ref Jim Molineaux
Lee with the early offense hits a couple of clotheslines and blows to the back and head. The crowd starts a “Rest in piece” chant, nice. Suplex by Lee. Super belly to back is no sold by Pitbull but Lee quickly hits him with a powerslam. Lee goes up top but Pitbull cuts him off. Super fall away slam ends the match in 4.53. That was NOT good at all.

Dudley Boys (w/ Sign Guy Dudley) vs. Axl Rotten & D-Von Dudley
Dudleys hit the ring and the fight is on. After a giant brawl with lots of chair shots Spike pins Axl after jumping off of Buh Buh’s shoulders. Buh Buh had just previously hit a cutter on Axl to take him down. The time of the match was 6.01.

Pitbull #2 vs. Pittsburgh Steel Team, ref Jim Molineaux
Pittsburgh Steel Team consists of John Diamond and Rodney Allen. I once met Diamond at a free wrestling event on Father’s Day in 1997. He tried to tell me he was a huge star in ECW. Pitbull with a bunch of clotheslines. He throws Allen to the floor and nails him with a chair. TV Champion “The Franchise” Shane Douglas and Francine come down to ringside. Pitbull hits the super fall away slam on Diamond and gets the win in 1.10. “Primetime” Brian Lee shows up and attacks Pitbull. He and Shane beat on and bust open Pitbull against the wall of the arena. Stevie Richards, Blue Meanie and Super Nova come out and stack three tables by a production truck. Lee takes Pitbull to the top of the truck and chokeslams him through them all!!!! Shane locks in a full nelson as he tries to break the neck of Pitbull. Dreamer comes out and tries to make the save.

Raven (Lori Fullington, Super Nova, Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards) vs. Mikey Whipwreck, ref John Finnegan
Bell rings and again Stevie decides to cut a promo. Stevie shit talks Mikey but then tries to hug him Mikey pushes him away. Stevie then gets Mikey to do the Fargo strut with them. Mikey does it once but then attacks them. Now 4 minutes in it’s time to actually start the match. Mikey dumps Raven to the floor and dives onto Meanie. Raven goes after Mikey with a chair. Back in the ring Raven goes low on Mikey. Raven with the chair to the back of Mikey and he puts it in the corner then whips Mikey into it. Raven charges Mikey with the chair but Whipwreck gets his feet up and then dropkicks the chair into Raven. Ref gets taken out. Nova comes in but gets hit with a dana. Meanie grabs Mikey and Stevie goes for the steviekick but misses and Meanie is down. Raven hits a DDT and World Champion Sandman shows up at ringside. Raven tells Sandman to get in the ring. Mikey sneaks in from behind and gets a huge win with a school boy. Time of the match was 8.53.

TV Champion “The Franchise” Shane Douglas (w/ Francine) vs. Tommy Dreamer (w/ Beulah)
Dreamer charges the ring and they start punching away. Dreamer grabs the belt and nails Shane with it for a 2 count. Now he lays it across the face of Shane and leg drops it for another near fall. Shane sent to the floor and Dreamer baseball slides a chair into him. Francine tries to hit Tommy with a chair but he moves and it nails Shane. Back in the ring and Shane gets sent into a corner but comes right out and hits a swinging neck breaker on a chair. Piledriver on a chair follows and gets a 2 count. Shane with a suplex through two chairs. Shane puts a chair on Dreamer and comes off the top but Dreamer shoves the chair into Shane’s face. Dreamer with a powerslam on the chair and it gets a 2 count. Neckbreaker nearly gets 3. Dreamer puts a chair in the corner but Shane reverses and Dreamer hits the chair. Shane goes for a belly to belly but they go back and forth with the positioning. Dreamer hits a DDT but Francine puts Shane’s foot on the rope. Beulah goes after Francine distracting Dreamer and Shane is able to hit a single arm DDT and tombstone. Shane locks in the full nelson but Dreamer goes low and puts on one of his own. Brian Lee shows up and Dreamer goes after him. Shane with another single arm DDT on Dreamer. Lee comes in a chokeslams Dreamer while Shane takes out the ref with a belly to belly. Lee goes to chokeslam Beulah but Shane stops him and locks her the full nelson! A ton of wrestlers come out from the back but all get choke slammed down. Lee beats on Dreamer and busts him open. They finally leave and Beulah gets carried to the back. Call this a no contest at about 8.15.

World Champion Sandman vs. Too Cold Scorpio
Scorpio on the mic after the bell, not really sure what he says. He goes to shake Sandman’s hand and they hug but then he attacks when Sandman turns around. Bulldog by Scorpio. They go to the floor where Sandman gains control and drops Scorpio on the guardrail. Sandman tries a slingshot back into the ring but misses and Scorpio takes advantage with a power bomb for 2. Scorpio in control but he doesn’t do much. They go to the floor where Sandman takes back over. Scorpio though hits a plancha as we cross the 10 minute mark. Sandman slams a table onto Scorp. Back in the ring Sandman misses a corner charge and gets hit with a super kick. Sandman comes back with a DDT and a rocker dropper off the top rope for the win in 11.25. Raven comes out and they go face to face. Stevie Richards comes from behind with a steviekick. Super Nova and Blue Meanie join in and they all nail the champ with the cane. Sandman fights them off and they bail out. Stevie is being checked over on the grows backstage look like he was shaken up a bit from a cane shot.

Tag Team Champions Gangstas vs. Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs. Eliminators, ref Jim Molineaux
We get another shot of Stevie still down during the Eliminators entrance. The Gangstas hit the ring and get jumped right away and hit with multiple spike piledrivers. New Jack gets busted open. The Gangstas get thrown to the floor and Saturn grabs a mic and calls out Sabu and Rob Van Dam. They hit the ring and start fighting with the Eliminators. Everyone is jumping all over the place. Sabu goes for a triple jump onto Kronus outside the ring but Saturn comes off the top rope with a clothesline to break it up. Saturn with a pedigree on a table. Van Dam with a somersault plancha. Back in the ring and the Gangstas join back in the match and it turns into a giant brawl with flips included. Sabu hits a triple jump moonsault for 2 on Saturn. New Jack comes off the top with the 187 chair shot right away. Sabu attacks him to make sure he doesn’t get the pin but Mustafa sneaks in and gets the 3 ending the match in 9.25. Eliminators attack after the match and hit total elimination on everyone.

My thoughts on the show…
Some stuff worth seeing here, like everything involving Douglas/Pitbull. The chokeslam from the truck was awesome. Adding in Sabu and Van Dam to the brawl of the Gangstas and Eliminators added a really fun new element. Instead of just weapon shots and Saturn coming off the top rope 100 times we now get that plus the high flying of Sabu and Van Dam making for a real fun match. This one is worth checking out.

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