The “OH MY GOD!” Review: ECW TV 1996-06-11 (matches taped from “Fight the Power” 1996-06-01 from ECW Arena in Philadelphia, PA
I’m skipping the review of the June 8th show from Bodyslam Arena in Reading, PA for now so as to not spoil the results on tonights TV. The June 8th show will be reviewed next.
– Our show opens with Joey Styles standing behind a table. Seated from left to right on the TV are Bill Alfonso, Taz, Paul Varelans and Tod Gordon (Joey is in the middle). Team Taz our standing behind their guys with the ECW referees on the side of Varelans. Styles tells us that the contract has been signed and on June 22nd at Hardcore Heaven the two men will fight. Varelans says he was at the arena to have some fun and now he’s ready to rock and roll. Taz says he’ll fight Varelans because Sabu won’t fight him. Taz gets up and shakes Paul’s hand and says he looks forward to fighting. Varelans says may the best man win and Taz says “oh I will”.
Opening video
Joey welcomes us to the show and reviews the press conference and we see some clips of some of the guys Taz has choked out. Brian Pillman returns to wrestling tonight. Joey sends us to the ring for our first match.
F.B.I. vs. Dudley Boys (w/ Dances With, Sign Guy & Chubby Dudley) ref John “Pee Wee” Moore
This is a rematch from Massacre on Queens Blvd. back in April. JT Smith tries to sing their theme song but he doesn’t actually know the words. Highway to Hell hits and the crowd breaks out into a large “Buh Buh” chant. The Dudleys come to the ring with chairs in hand. Buh Buh gets the mic after the ring introductions and we get a “What’s your name” chant. Buh Buh sings some Sinatra. Smith grabs the mic and talks trash. D-Von grabs the mic and calls Buh Buh an idiot. D-Von tells the F.B.I. they should have remembered the three rules. Buh Buh attacks from behind and they dump Smith to the floor. Buh Buh hits a slingshot gord buster on Little Guido and presses him over head and throws him onto Smith on the floor. Back in the ring D-Von starts with Guido. Shoulder block by D-Von and both teams make a tag. Smith dropkicks Buh Buh in the knees taking him down. Half crab by Smith and we go to commercial. We come back and D-Von slams Smith and climbs the rope but slips off and falls to the mat. Guido hits the ring and attacks D-Von. Buh Buh attacks Guido and D-Von hits Smith low. Buh Buh hits Smith with a chair in the back. D-Von grabs a chair and chases the ref and hits him with the chair getting the Dudley Boys DQed. 3.52 of the match was shown. Guido slams D-Von. D-Von gets up and uses the chair on the F.B.I. The Dudleys are in the ring Buh Buh is on a crutch hurt from the drop kick to his knees. D-Von hugs him and then hits him with the chair. The rest of the Dudleys get in the ring and D-Von takes them out. Highway to Hell hits again and it’s the return of Big Dick Dudley as he comes through the crowd!! D-Von is already in the locker room and we aren’t sure if he saw Big Dick or not.
Mikey Whipwreck vs. Rob Van Dam ref Jim Molineaux
Mikey is limping to the ring and we cut to Joey who lets us know that Mikey has had fluid drained from his knee a few times in the past week. We get out bell and the match is underway. They lock up and Van Dam forces Mikey to the corner and hits a few forearms. Brian Pillman comes down the aisle in a wheel chair demanding that match be stopped and the fans get on their knees and bow down to him. Mikey looks on in angree and Pillman tells him to come and face him and express his anger. Mikey drops to the floor and slaps Pillman. Pillman hits Mikey with his crutch and Van Dam comes outside the ring and joins in with a chair. Van Dam puts Mikey in the ring and hangs his head on the apron under the bottome rope. Van Dam places a chair over Mikey’s face and slingshots over the rope and lands a leg drop drop. Back in the ring he throws the chair at Mikey and absolutely DESTROYS Mikey by kicking it into his face. Van Dam hits a standing moonsault and gets the win at 3.15.
We see a replay of basically the whole match just in fast forward and go back to ringside as Joey is getting ready to interview Pillman with Van Dam hanging out in the background. Pillman trash talks the fans and WCW. He is here tonight to celebrate what Van Dam has done to Sabu. Pillman threatens to leave if the fans don’t stop booing so they boo more and Van Dam and him leave.
Back to Joey backstage and he talks about the suicidal style of Sabu. Surprising to him though it wasn’t Sabu’s style that put him out. Part 3 of this feud is coming up at Hardcore Heaven. Paul E Dangerously basically rehashes his promo from a few weeks ago about Van Dam getting inside information from Taz and Alfonso. He hypes the match coming up at Hardcore Heaven.
Hype central for Hardcore Heaven weekend. Friday night June 21st Sabu vs. “The Franchise” Shane Douglas and 3 man tag team action. At Hardcore Heaven it’s Sabu vs. Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer takes on “Primetime” Brian Lee in a weapons match, and Taz vs. Paul Varelans.
Back to Joey who tells us that 2 Cold Scorpio could not make it to his match with TV Champion Shane Douglas because he was hospitalized with a 106 fever.
Douglas comes to the ring for what was supposed to be his match and he drags the title that he doesn’t want behind him. Douglas throws the belt into the ring and kicks it into a corner. Douglas grabs the mic and says Scorpio took the low road and went to the doctors. Douglas calls out El Puerto Ricano for a title match.
TV Champion “The Franchise” Shane Douglas vs. El Puerto Ricano ref Jim Molineaux
Obviously an easy match for Douglas here. The bell rings Douglas hits a vertical suplex followed by the belly to belly for the win in .27.
Douglas gets on the mic and throws the belt down saying he doesn’t want it. We cut to him belly to bellying Don E. Allen and pinning him. Again he pushes the belt away.
TV Champion “The Franchise” Shane Douglas vs. Devon Storm ref Jim Molineaux
Douglas kicks storm low and hits the belly to belly for the win in .09.
Douglas kicks the belt out of the refs hand as the previous three men he defeated are all laid out in a corner. Douglas is on the mic begging for someone to give him a work out. Mikey Whipwreck comes down the aisle.
TV Champion “The Franchise” Shane Douglas vs. Mikey Whipwreck ref Jim Molineaux
Joined in progress Douglas ducks a clothesline and clips Milkey’s knee to take control of the match. Douglas legs in the Texas cloverleaf and Mikey gives up. Only .23 shown. Douglas keeps the hold on.
A bunch of wrestlers are carrying all the defeated guys to the back including Pitbull 2. Shane gets on the mic and asks “Are you a pitbull or a pussy?” “Try to take this piece of shit belt off of me.” Francine tries to get Pitbull 2 to go to the back. And Shane taunts her and calls her the ugliest bitch in ECW. Francine gets in the ring and slaps Douglas HARD. Shane flings her halfway across the ring with a devastating looking belly to belly. Pitbull 2 gets in the ring charges Shane and he gets smacked across the face with the TV title.
TV Champion “The Franchise” Shane Douglas vs. Pitbull 2 (w/ Francine) ref Jim Molineaux
Pitbull 2 gets right up and Shane goes to run. Irish whip and Shane gets pressed high up in the air and slammed down for 2. Pitbull 2 hits a powerslam for 2. Irish whip and he goes for another press slam but Shane slips out and hits a head scissor. We cut to Shane being hung on the guardrail. Pitbull two jumps off the apron but Shane moves and he lands directly on his groin on the guardrail. We cut again to Shane locking in the cloverleaf in the ring. Pitbull is able to roll back over and breakout. We cut again to Shane attempting a superbelly to belly but Pitbull fights back and hits a super bomb to win the title. 2.37 of the match was shown and it was announced as being 14.20. Pitbull holds up the belt and Shane reaches for it from the ground.
We go to Joey in the back and Shane shows up yelling that the belt belongs to him and he wants it back!
“Misirlou” promo has the Dudley minus D-Von welcoming back Big Dick. Saturn showing off his wound from the Extreme Lottery. Divine Brown getting paid by Stevie. Sandman and Missy Hyatt love violence. Bill Alfonso is in a hot tub. Tommy Dreamer with Beulah and Kimona Wanalay hypes the weapons match. Brian Lee is going to carve out Dreamer’s soul. Raven poses but says nothing.
My thoughts on the show,
Another must see show this week. From top to bottom everything was enjoyable. The tag match was kinda a mess with some blown spots but the story that was there was good. D-Von continues to be a loose canon that even Big Dick may not be able to control. Mikey gets killed by Van Dam and Pillman makes his return. The last segment with Shane Douglas was brilliant. Douglas has proven again and again why he is truly ECWs number one guy no matter what belt he has. Thumbs obviously way up on this one!
