BRM Reviews ECW Barbed Wire, Hoodies, & Chokeslams (sh*tty)

[Big Red Machine]

ECW Barbed Wire, Hoodies, & Chokelsams (6/17/1995)- Philadelphia, PA

“THE BROAD STREET BULLY” TONY STETSON vs. THE NEW JERSEY DEVIL- short but fun opening segment.
This played off of the fact that the Devils knocked the Flyers out of the playoffs. Stetson squashed the Devil in what looked like a one-sided hockey fight. The Devil got back up and attacked Stetson from behind with his stick, but 911 came out and gave the Devil multiple chokeslams. This was a good segment that got the crowd riled up, and as a Rangers fan, I both support and enjoy any segment involving violence against something that is supposed to represent the New Jersey Devils.

“BIG” VAL PUCCIO vs. MIKE WHIPWRECK- DUD!
Mikey punches Puccio in the nuts a bunch of times, then DDTs him and gets the pin. I fail to see how this helps anyone.

“THE EXTREME SHAH” HACK MYERS vs. THE VAMPIRE WARRIOR- 3.5/10

SEGMENT WITH VAMPIRE WARRIOR, STEVIE RICHARDS,LUNA VACHON, & TOMMY DREAMER- Dreamer offers to shake Vampire Warrior’s hand, but Vampire Warrior says he is here to get Tommy away from his woman, and they brawl. At some undetermined point, this apparently turned into a match, which Tommy won. I wasn’t happy at all with Tommy’s selling at the end, and putting Tommy over clean right here doesn’t do anything for anyone. Score for the match/brawl/thingy is 4/10

TOD GORDON & BILL ALFONSO SEGMENT- eh.

EXTREME ENCYCLOPEDIA VIDEO PACKAGE- funny, and a good lead-in to…
“JUNGLE” JIM STEELE vs. 911 (w/Paul E. Dangerously)- no rating. Okay segment. I can’t deny that the crowd was into it, but watching it on DVD it feels boring and repetitive. We get it. 911 likes chokeslamming the Ultimate Warrior parody, Paul E hates WCW.

LUNA VACHON vs. BEAULAH MCGILLICUTTY (w/Stevie Richards & Raven)- No rating. AWESOME segment.
Stevie quickly knocks Luna out with a chairshot to the back of the head, allowing Beulah to make the cocky pin. Raven beats Luna down, prompting Tommy to come out and make the save, but Tommy eats a chairshot, then Raven breaks Tommy’s fingers. Raven then crucifies Luna on the ropes and goes to hit her in the head with the chair, but Tommy takes the blow for Luna.

HANDICAP MATCH: Too Cold Scorpio & Taz (w/Paul E. Dangerously) vs. The Pit Bulls & Raven (w/Stevie Richards & Beulah McGillicutty)- 6.75/10
This was originally scheduled to be Scorpio, Taz & Dreamer vs. Raven & the Pit Bulls but Raven broke Tommy’s fingers in the last segment so he can’t wrestle. Hack Myers comes out to replace Dreamer and cleans house on the heels, but then Bill Alfonso comes out and makes Myers go to the back because Tommy Dreamer is officially still listed as a participant. This got great heat.
Very good match between the Pit Bulls and Taz & Scorpio. The only thing Raven really did in this match was walk away and yell at Stevie when Beulah got into an argument with a fan who would eventually be introduced as Francine. For some reason, Raven decided to walk off after this.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY vs. IAN ROTTEN & AXL ROTTEN-
The gimmick here was that Axl was allowed to pick his partner, so he chose Ian. Fonzie comes out and reminds everyone of the stip from back in January which said that they could never team together in ECW again. Axl gets on the mic and says that he doesn’t want to screw the fans and he wants to give the people their money’s worth, so he assaults Ian. The official record states the TPE win via forfeit so they start to celebrate… and then the Gangstas jump the guardrail and make their ECW debut by assaulting Rock & Grunge. A good segment. Or more like two good segments.

BARBED WIRE MATCH FOR THE ECW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: The Sandman(c) (w/Woman) vs. Cactus Jack- 5.5/10
Nowhere near good enough for a main event. This didn’t have any story other than “let’s use barbed wire!” Cactus originally wins the match when Sandman is unable to answer a ten-count, but then Fonzie comes out and says that the rules state that the ECW Title can’t change hands via ten-count, (which makes the original referee look really dumb- how do you ref for ECW and not know the rules about how the ECW World Heavyweight Title is allowed to change hands?!) so he restarts the match. Sandman wins when Fonzie deems Cactus unable to continue, even though he probably could have, but Fonzie decides to screw Cactus just to be a dick. Tod Gordon comes out and shoves Fonzie, so Fonzie clotheslines Tod.

Overall, an atrocious show from ECW. It is historically significant because of the debuts of both the Gangstas and Francine, but as a wrestling show, it just stinks.

[cero2k]

the name of the show was pretty awesome

[Big Red Machine]

the name of the show was pretty awesome

Yes, but the name should never be the most awesome thing about a show.

[cero2k]

the name of the show was pretty awesome

Yes, but the name should never be the most awesome thing about a show.

lol yes, so that's why TNA chose so terrible names for their shows

[Big Red Machine]

the name of the show was pretty awesome

Yes, but the name should never be the most awesome thing about a show.

lol yes, so that's why TNA chose so terrible names for their shows

Most of them weren't that bad the first time around (watch the opening voice-over video packages to their first round of PPVs. The voice-over guy makes it work). TNA's mistake was keeping them when they were no longer relevant to whatever was going on. Lockdown, Bound For Glory, Destination X, and Slammiversary should have stayed, and Sacrifice and No Surrender are generic enough that you can pretend they fit even if they don't. I don't like the rest of them, though.