Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - ECW World TV Championship match - ECW Living Dangerously (1998)
In one of ECW's most memorable matches, the TV champ, Taz takes on the giant journeyman, Bam Bam Bigelow in a grueling brawl at Living Dangerously '98. The most memorable part of the match, of course, is the finish that saw Taz performing his signature Tazmission on a standing Bam Bam Bigelow which leads to Bam Bam falling backwards - sending both himself and Taz under him through the ring!
From what I've read, and heard on Jeremy Borash's ECW documentary, Hardcore Forever, Terry Taylor admits that he saw this classic spot at the time and brought it to WWF where it was redone in the form of Big Show chokeslamming the Undertaker through the ring in 1999.
Here's a better look at Taz and Bam Bam collapsing the ring:
Theme results
Ring Destruction: A big hole in the ring filled with Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow.
Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Steve Corino - ECW Hardcore Heaven (2000)
Steve Corino takes on his former managee, "The Japanese Buzzsaw" Yoshihiro Tajiri who turned his back on Corino's dastardly faction, The Network. Steve Corino looks to extend the olive branch at first to Tajiri - by making racial remarks, a move that leads to Tajiri kicking Corino's head off. The assault on Steve Corino doesn't stop there though as Tajiri pretty much just decimates the "King of Old School" from beginning to bloody end. A very convincing win is an understatement.
Tony Mamaluke vs. Mikey Whipwreck - ECW on TNN (2000)
Taking the name of his former Italian family he managed in WCW, The Mamalukes, post-Tony Marinara made a surprising debut on ECW TV where he quickly joined the ECW mob squad, FBI (Full Blooded Italians) and wrestled Mikey Whipwreck. During the match, Mamaluke decides to take a dive head first into the laps of the front row before getting put away by Whipwreck back in the ring. After the match, Mamaluke gets sidewalk slammed by the blinded giant FBI manager, Big Sal and then thrown once more into the crowd... this time three or four rows back.
Sabu vs. Sandman - Stairway To Hell match - ECW House Party (1998)
Even ECW had their own variation to a simple ladder match going in the late 90's to early 00's. The match was called a "Stairway To Hell" match and was much more like a pole match than a ladder match as the object was to retrieve a weapon hanging above the ring for use, but the retrieval did not end the match. The weapon of choice, of course, was a big ball of barbed wire.
This is ECW's first Stairway To Hell featuring the cane wielding, beer drinking, cigarette smoking, Sandman versus the homicidal, genocidal, and incredibility suicidal, Sabu.
Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka - ECW One Night Stand (2005)
It's my birthday, so here's one of my favorite matches.
The Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka match from ECW's One Night Stand show in 2005 is not the two's first outing together. These two had been fighting each other for the sake of fighting since the early/mid 90's from ECW to FMW in Japan with little to no remorse for each others well being. What makes this particular encounter so special is really pretty much random other than the fact that the crowd was red hot for them and the atmosphere that night was incredible. The two just go out to the ring and continue where they left off from their last match like it was still Heat Wave 1998. There's unprotected chair shots, a brutal Awesome bomb from the apron to a slanted table, an almost 300 pound man continually diving to the outside like this was a PWG All-Star Weekend, and, of course, Joey Styles' nonstop bad-mouthing of Mike Awesome on commentary.
This match might be remembered most for Joey Styles "shoot" on Awesome for being a terrible human being business-wise and the line after Awesome completed his first suicide dive to the outside, "...and it's unfortunate he did not succeed in taking his own life"; a foreshadowing of Awesome's demise as he would actually take his life 2 years later. That's not what makes this match special to me, but it is something that always gets brought up.
Regardless of all Joey Styles stuff, this match and the whole Awesome/Tanaka feud is really a sight to see from their days in FMW to this final battle at One Night Stand. These two put on simple yet brutal matches together that required little to no explanation. Destroying each other was just what they did.
It has come to my attention today that New Jack has retired from wrestling. I guess there's one less liability to worry about.
Rather than posting his retirement match (against Necro Butcher at this years' PWS Super Card), I've decided to just post this match instead for no reason other than I didn't want to post his notorious scaffold match with Vic Grimes yet or any match where he tries to stab his opponent to death.
That's New Jack's thing. Stabbing people to death.
New Jack vs. Sandman - Finals for the Hard 10 championship - NWA:TNA (2003)
Back in '03, TNA decided to add a little hardcore to their menu. So what better way to do this then by making a tournament revolving around a few ECW alumni mixed in with some guys who wrestled a couple times for ECW (Devon Storm, Vampire Warrior, Wolfie D) along with Mike Sanders and Sonny Siaki from WCW's Power Plant. But here's the catch - because this is TNA remember: there's got to be a catch on top of a catch - there was a point system.
A hardcore point system!
Apparently the way to win a match in this tournament was to get 10 points by using the weapons that were strategically placed around the ringside area and held by fans. The weapons that the competitors brought to the ring themselves did not count, however. Also, using a table was 5 big ones alone. So basically this tournament was just an excuse to see wrestlers get hit with random objects for five minutes like WWF's hardcore division circa 2000.
But it had a hardcore point system!
New Jack and Sandman, the two people hardcore enough to make it to the finals, battled it out in a back and forth struggle for points using the weapons they could find just laying around. Towards the end of the match, everyone loses count of the points and New Jack and Sandman make their way to the nearest balcony for New Jack to fall off of.. I mean get pushed off of.
Classic New Jack.
All that's missing is "Natural Born Killaz" being played on repeat throughout the duration of the match.
Shark Boy vs. Chris Chetti - XPW Exit Sandman (2002)
Tale of the tape:
Taz's first cousin and ECW alum, Chris Chetti takes on the only wrestler from 2000 leagues under the sea* in Shark Boy's first match for Xtreme Pro Wrestler. The match itself is a little slow but as it progresses the crowd really starts to get behind the finned superstar who would eventually defeat Chetti using his top rope stunner. The crowd did not stop cheering for Shark Boy once this match was over, however, and in a sequence that is documented on Botchamania - the crowd demanded "We Want Shark Boy!" clap clap clap-clap-clap and even, "Holy Shark!" "Holy Shark!" "Holy Shark!" for the rest of the night.
Sinister Minister's Unholy Alliance (Mikey Whipreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri) vs. Super Crazy & Kid Kash - ECW Massacre on 34th Street (2000)
Sorry for my absence... Once you start playing catch-up it's easier to just give up. I'm not back now though and trying to clean up this place.
Despite almost on their way out the door as a company at this time (this was their second to last PPV), ECW still had a lot of young talent that were trying their best to put on a show. An ECW show even for that matter. Some can argue and say that once ECW hit the limelight on Television, it was no longer cool. But as a kid hearing about ECW for the first time at this point and actually getting to watch it at some obscure time for a couple Friday nights, it was still awesome to me.
Though I never watched this match on the few occasions that I got to watch ECW, this is still a really well worked match from right around that time. It's the Unholy Alliance of Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck led by their Sinister Minister, James Mitchell, taking on Super Crazy and a partner of his choosing. And who did he choose? No one. But as soon as the match kicks off, Kid Rock starts playing from the speakers and out comes Kid Rock himself!
Steve Corino vs. Dusty Rhodes - Bullrope Match - ECW Living Dangerously (2000)
In one of ECW's last hooray's, a rising star named Steve Corino came on board much like CM Punk had with WWECW and quickly began making a name for himself during a time when Extreme Championship Wrestling was on its last leg and had lost most of its original talent. Corino, a wrestler who often criticized hardcore wrestling and called himself "The King of Old School", would find himself in a surprising feud with a true old school competitor in the one and only... "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.
Steve Corino and Dusty Rhodes's feud for "who's the most old school" would eventually be contested at Living Dangerously 2000 in one of Dusty Rhodes's signature matches: the unforgiving Bullrope match. A match that can be called one of, if not thee best matches of TV-era ECW.
In good fashion while getting into the part, Steve Corino would rock the jean plus cowboy boot look that Dusty Rhodes would often sport when going into such a brutal environment whether it be a street fight, a Bullrope match, or any match after the 90's.
Corino may not have won this match after falling victim to The Dream's killer Bionic Elbow, but his feud with Dusty Rhodes that we see displayed here is really what got him over in ECW and eventually led him to Extreme gold.
Their feud would resume once more in 2004 when they faced off in a one on one match for the Japanese promotion, HUSTLE.
Tommy Dreamer w/Luna Vachon vs. Vampire Warrior - ECW (1995)
Sometime after Luna Vachon's departure from WWF in 1994, crazy Luna surfaced on ECW as Tommy Dreamers' valet during his long-running with Raven (who also worked in WWF around the same time Luna was there). Things started to get really semi-crazy though when the real life husband of Luna Vachon, David "(pre) Gangrel" Heath showed up and demanded to take Luna back from Dreamer. Heath, not yet know as that guy with the Seinfeld shirt that spat blood everywhere, appearing in ECW as Vampire Warrior would take the fight to "The Innovator of Violence" all over the ECW arena - providing Dreamer to grab weapons that fans brought to the show to use and so neither of them actually had to rassle.
Though Tommy Dreamer gets the win with the DDT off of a chair and Vampire Warrior seemingly doesn't get his wife back, this was not the last time Heath would be seen in ECW. As far as wrestling matches go for Heath in ECW, I have only seen one other match featuring Vampire Warrior... It was a match he tagged with Dudley Dudley (the only pure-Dudley in the family) against the team of The Steiner Brothers. I also want to say that this was not Vampire Warriors' debut match in ECW; his first match actually being against Hack Myers.
I also meant to throw in a "Dark Phantom" joke in there somewhere but lost steam.
Oh well... Here's Luna's husband at the time taking on Tommy Dreamer in classic ECW fashion.
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs. Raven - ECW Crossing The Line Again (1997)
After Steve Williams left WCW to make a name for himself as one of the best American wrestlers in Japan in the better part of the 90's, he decided to take his tough guy reputation and the decade-long undefeated streak he had built to the mean streets of South Philadelphia as he entered the dirty bingo hall known as the ECW arena for some Extreme Championship Wrestling blood.
While appearing on the Crossing The Line Again card in 1997 against Axl Rotten, Williams proved himself a World title contender by winner the match in 2 minutes tops. So after calling out Raven, the ECW World champ at the time, Williams didn't have to wait for his championship match - an impromptu match for the title was announced and the fight took off just like that...
The match probably seemed frantic not only because Williams wanted to win the title so quickly but also because there was still four more matches to be had that night. Unfortunately for Williams however, American wrestling isn't as faithful to some wrestlers as Japan is as Williams doesn't end up with the title and instead ends up losing for the first time in a decade.
Overall reaction to this match: First off, the pacing for this match is great - remember that Williams just had a match against Rotten and he was rearing to go - there was even the classic table at ringside ECW spot. But what really takes me aback about this match would clearly have to be the ending. Not only does Williams not win a title he could have easily won, he loses his undefeated streak... to Stevie Richards no less! Yep, Stevie Richards: The Dave Grohl of wrestling (I don't know about you, but I think they look very much alike).
Sometime after the match gets underway, blue World order along with bWo shirt-wearing Raven's son and girlfriend (?) show up to distract Raven and try to get "Dr. Death" to become the first international wrestler to join their crew. Williams refuses the offer of the bWo belly-shirt handed to him by Stevie, so he decides to take matters into his own hands and become The Heart Break Kid Shawn Michaels and delivered Williams with three sweet chin music. Stevie must have really tuned up the band nicely because after Raven came in to finish Williams of with a DDT, Raven got the 1-2-3 and retained his title.
I always read that Williams had such a terrible time once he tried to break into the WWF, but looking back on this match, it seems that Williams was just one of those guys who did super well for himself in Japan but never really had it in the States. Maybe Williams just had a little something I like to call, 'Japanese wrestling syndrome'.
But hey, Japan-based wrestling is one of the most well-respected and true 'professional wrestling' forms this world has to offer. So... yeah.
