BRM Reviews ECW Three Way Dance

[Big Red Machine]

ECW Three Way Dance (4/8/1995)- Philadelphia, PA

THE PIT BULLS vs. JOHNNY HOTBODY & TONY STETSON (w/Stevie Richards & Raven)- no rating, okay segment.
Before the match, Stevie told Stetson & Hotbody that if they lost, they would be fired from Raven’s employ. Then the Pit Bulls squashed them and pledged their loyalty to Raven. This segment gave Raven some lackeys who were actually intimidating, but Pit Bull #2 shouting “You are now our master!” while still trying to sound like the Pit Bulls’ typical angry promos was just kind of goofy.

RAVEN, STEVIE, & BEULAH SEGMENT- not a particularly good segment, but a very important one. This not only established that Raven and Dreamer went to summer camp together, but also first introduced us to Beulah McGillicutty.

TOMMY DREAMER vs. RAVEN (w/Stevie Richards & Beulah McGillicutty)- 4.75/10
I really didn’t like some of Tommy’s selling in this match.

RON SIMMONS vs. MIKEY WHIPWRECK- no rating. Great segment.

JOEY STLES INTERVIEWS CHRIS BENOIT- his promo started off very wooden, but once he called Sabu a pussy and the crowd went nuts, Benoit himself really seemed to get into. He called out Taz and they brawled until Malenko jumped Taz from behind and the we got a heel beatdown until Rick Steiner came out to make the save. The segment ended with Taz and Steiner standing tall in the ring while the crowd loudly chanted “F*CK SABU!” So much for tonight’s main event.

ECW TV TITLE MATCH: 2 Cold Scorpio(c) vs. Eddie Guerrero- 7.25/10
The crowd was very into Eddie here in his ECW debut.

HAIR vs. HAIR MATCH: Ian Rotten vs. Axl Rotten- 5.5/10
They hit each other with lots of stuff. Axl wins and cuts Ian’s hair, but Ian then hits Axl with some sort of weapon and starts to stab him with the scissors.

HACK MYERS vs. DINO SENDOFF- 3/10
The shine was about eight times as long as the heat, so I really didn’t care when Myers made his comeback.

NO SINGAPORE CANES ALLOWED MATCH FOR THE ECW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Shane Douglas(c) vs. The Sandman (w/Woman)- 3/10
The gimmick was that Shane, being a heel, got Tod Gordon to ban the Singapore Cane for this match, so that Sandman, the brawler, would be at a big disadvantage against Douglas, the traditional wrestler. Despite Shane being the heel, he got shined up in the beginning before the Sandman cut him off by just plain out-wrestling him. Despite the fact that he was the babyface and was already overcoming the odds and beating the heel at his own game, Sandman insisted that Woman slap Douglas while Sandman had him in the Camel Clutch. Woman refused to do so.
Sandman continued to out-wrestle Douglas and had him beat, but instead of pinning him, he heelish ordered Woman to go get the illegal weapon, then start cockily celebrating for the match was over by having a victory cigarette.
Woman then turned on Sandman by giving the Singapore Cane to Douglas, who hit Sandman in the groin with it and rolled him up. So either Shane was a babyface (though not a very good one if he got beaten at his own game and was having the commissioner bend the rules in his favor) and Sandman was a heel, and Woman turning at the end caused a double turn… or this was heel vs. heel and Woman turning made Sandman a babyface… or something. I’m confused.

SANDMAN BACKSTAGE PROMO- great, except for some confusion about the timing. First he said he was going to get Woman “right now” then apparently decided to wait until next week at Hostile City Showdown ’95 to get both Woman and Shane.

SHANE DOUGLAS & WOMAN PROMO- Great. This promo makes me think that maybe Shane was supposed to be a babyface going in to the previous match, which makes this not quite as confusing, but I’m not sure.
Wait. Nope. I spoke too soon. Shane calls Sandman out for bragging about beating women in his promo. SO CONFUSING!
Woman then claims all responsibility for Sandman’s success, saying that she was “the brains and the power.” Then, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER NEW CLIENT, claims that she is the same for Shane.

THREE WAY DANCE FOR THE ECW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko(c) vs. The Public Enemy vs. Rick Steiner & The Tazmaniac (w/Paul E. Dangerously)- 5/10
They hit each other with a lot of foreign objects, and occasionally the guys who weren’t Rock and Grunge would use their stand arsenal of suplexes, but never with any real psychology or attempt to tell a story other than “we are all tough and can take punishment”.
Taz and Steiner are eliminated first, but they just kept fighting with both teams for a good five minutes or so afterwards, so you really couldn’t tell. Apparently Tod Gordon called security to get them out of the ring, but security didn’t even try to do their jobs. When they finally did decide to leave, Paul E. hit a security guard with his cell phone just because… and speaking of things happening “just because,” apparently Hack Myers came out at this point, too, and started to beat up a security guard. Joey made sure to tell us Hack “has no affiliation with the Dangerous Alliance. He just likes to kick ass,” so apparently “kicking ass” is taking a shot at a man who just got knocked out by Paul E’s cell phone, and Hack, a babyface, decided to beat this man up for no reason.
The match continues, with TPE eventually winning. Instead of letting this important moment sink in (and the fans did pop huge for it), Taz and Steiner come out to start going after Benoit and Malenko, who have just lost the match. They brawl to the back, while the Public Enemy celebrate until The Pit Bulls attack them from behind. Joey calls this an “act of cowardice” (although he failed to mention that Taz and Steiner did pretty much the same thing to Benoit and Manlenko).

Overall, a pretty bad show from ECW with only one good match on it a few very bad ones, but it was definitely important as it not only established some important facts in the Raven vs. Dreamer feud, but also introduced us to Beulah, had the Pit Bulls join Raven, had a big double turn involving the world champ, and a tag team title change.