NWK reviews ECW Wrestlepalooza

[NWK2000]

Joey Styles starts the show with his usual "Welcome to ECW" then channels his inner Goldust and tells everyone "You will never forget the name Wrestlepalooza after tonight."

The FBI (Little Guido and Tracy Smothers w/Tommy Rich) vs The BWO (Meanie and Nova)
-Tommy Rich gets on a mic and tells the crowd they'd better shut up, or they're going to beat everyone up, everyone.
- The crowd starts chanting "Where's my pizza" and, keeping in character, Smothers dances to the beat of the clapping.
- Nova does some super althetic stuff, like bulldogging Rich while leg dropping Guido
-They have a dance contest mid match. God bless Blue Meanie for just dancing his heart out.
-A series of miscommunications by the FBI, including Blue Meanie essentially forcing Guido to double elbow drop Smothers with him
-The ref is one of the stars of the show, who after doing the cabbage patch in the dance contest, slams Guido, covers him, and causes another miscomunication between the FBI.

7.5/10, great comedy stuff that went into some great tag team stuff.

*We get a video package about how Mikey Whipwreck was injured by Justin Credible for breaking his undefeated streak and since his return, Justin has been trying to break Mikey's leg again.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Justin Credible w/ Chasity and Jason.
-Mikey sells being pissed by immediately attacking Justin
-Sick Russian Sweep by Mikey into the guard rail.
-Whipwreck dodges a table spot by Justin on the guard rail by throwing at him, but instead it misses Credible and hits a few people in the front row.
-Carapult into a chair on the turnbuckle.
- Everyone eats a Whipper Snapper (Chasity taking an off the top rope one)
-Mikey teases hitting hitting That's Incredible on the chair, but Justin reverses into That's Incredible to pick up the win.
6/10, would've been a 7 or maybe even a 7.5 if they did ANYTHING with the "leg snapping obsession" storyline, or if Mikey had won.

Joey Styles is running down the last match, furthering the angle that Mikey couldn't take out Credible, then who should show up but everyone's favorite trash wrestlers, Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney (did they go through some kind of MTV name generator game to pick their ring names?) Anyway, they're pissed about Candido and Storm running away from them. Rotten says that Candido is whipped, and Lance just can't handle them. Axl says he beat them both by himself. He calls them out.
Lance and Chris come out, Lance steps in the ring, Chris walks back through the curtain, demanding to have his own entrance, and gets it. Candido flips when he doesn't get top billing when he and Storm are introduced. Now we get....
Candido and Storm vs Rotten and Balls for the ECW Tag team Titles.
-Axl and Christ start by actually going hold for hold, not what I expected
- Lance ends up accidentally crossbodying Candido on the outside.
-Random Sunny interferences
-Balls takes a missle dropkick and the chair he's holding hits him in the face, Lance goes for the cover, but Candido breaks it up to get the pin for himsef. Candido and Storm brawl to the back.
5.510 Great "dysfunctional tag team" stuff by Storm and Candido, other than that completely average, which is good, given what I expected.


Joey Stules introduces some Georgia legends, including my favorite (not) Junkyard Dog, Dick Slater, The Masked Superstar, and Bullet Bob Armstrong, very nice tribute segment.

Joey now introduces Shane Douglas, who has a shitton of injuries, He comes out. He cuts a promo about how the legends of the business wrestled with many injuries, and how in WCW people work with garunteed contracts and use any excuse to take off. He shoots on Shawn Micheals (UGH) mentioning the WWF by name and how Douglas was handed the IC belt, by HBK during his tenure in WWF. He then buries the WWF Intercontinental title (and, in this reviewers opinion' buries himself, by not putting over the belt he held) And now he's burying Ric Flair again, telling the audience that he "sucks Bischoff's ass" (he really couldn't come up with a better insult?) He said he's been calling Ric out for FOUR YEARS and that Ric is too chicken to answer his challenges. He says he's going to wrestle tonight because it could be the last match of his career before he gets surgery. He tells us that we will tell future generations about how great he was. And Taz interrupts. Taz tells Shane that instead of whining, tell them who beat him up (Taz) and is the uncrowned champion Douglas gets heated but Taz says he's not leaving until he gets the belt handed to him. Taz ends up choking out Douglas, being led out of the ring by sexurity, and being ambused by and brawling with Bam Bam Bigelow. They end up cuffing him and leading him through the crowd. Douglas spits up blood, and Taz kicks out the window of the police car Alright segment, but it could've don without the Douglas shoot.


Joel Gertner introduces the Dudleyz, but is cut off by Sandman/Dreamer, Joey sells us on the fact that the 3D put the four people it was used on in the hospital, including Sandman, so now we get...
Sandman and Dreamer (w/Beullah) vs Bubba Rey Dudley and D-Von Dudley (w/Big Dick, Sign Guy, and Joel Gertner)
-Sandman, who is working injured, gets re-injired, and carted off.
- Tommy gets desrroyed until Spike Dudley shows up and starts kicking the crap out of the Dudleyz.
- We get a Tommy Dreamer Plancha, and a two person Poetry in Motion before Spike gets destroyed, then Sandman comes back, and they hit stereo cane/chair shots on the Dydleyz and then a double DDT for the win.
7 out 10 for a great hardcore brawl.


We get a video package explaining that it was supposed to be Sabu vs Bam Bam for the TV Title, but RVD beat Bam Bam for the title,so it's....

Rob Van Dam vs Sabu for the TV Title (both managed by Bill Alphanso somehow)
-Joey Styles is pissed that Jeff Jones (the ECW's attempt at a corrupt referee) is refereeing the match.
-Styles is also convinced that because Alphonso came out with Sabu, he's managing Sabu, even though he had just said in a promo that he was managing both men.
-Rob Van Dam comes out looking blazed as fuck
-They tease a Bash at the Beach 2000 style lay down, but Sabu double crosses Van Dam during an attempt to Poetry in Motion Jeff Jones.
-Other than that, exactly what you'd imagine from a Sabu/RVD match, except the darn thing ends in a time limit draw.
6.5/10, would've been much much higher, if not for Styles building up the crooked referee angle and then having very little come of it, the swerve at the beginning, and the draw.

Shane Douglas promo and blah blah blah blah
-Shane Douglas video package, hyping Douglas throwing down the title, him doing heelish things with the Triple Threat, and oh by the way, Al Snow is the number one contender.

Al Snow cuts a standard babyfave promo about how he's worked for 16 years and has been held back, and while Shane's talented, this is his moment.

Shane Douglas w/ Francine vs Al Snow for the ECW Title.
-Okay, the "strobe lighting/styrophoam head thing was REALLY cool
- Really great match, so much so that the entire locker room empties to watch the match, really fun match, until an anti-clamatic block of a sunset flip ends it for Douglas. The entire locker room celebrates with both guys, which I'm nto sure how I feel about it.

7/10 would've been a 7.5 if not for the finish.


Final thoughts
There was nothing on this card that was abyssmal, nor a 10 star match, but ECW is just unadulterated fun throughout, especially here, so I would reccommend watching to anyone reading this.

[badnewzxl]

1. Oh, this is Wrestlepalooza 98; there's a Wrestlepalooza 97, too, you should check that one out.

2. I've gotta be a mark here for one of my fav wrestlers: Sabu NEVER hits 'poetry in motion;' he hits 'Air Sabu,' which he was doing long before Jeff Hardy was doing anything (he tore his arm open trying it on Terry Funk in the Barbed Wire Match just a year before). Also, when you say 'Bash at the Beach 200 type lay down' not only does that not apply, but the fact that this was two years efore that, makes that a weird comparison. This was a kyfabe lay-down; B@daB 2000 was NOT kayfabe

[NWK2000]

1. Oh, this is Wrestlepalooza 98; there's a Wrestlepalooza 97, too, you should check that one out.

2. I've gotta be a mark here for one of my fav wrestlers: Sabu NEVER hits 'poetry in motion;' he hits 'Air Sabu,' which he was doing long before Jeff Hardy was doing anything (he tore his arm open trying it on Terry Funk in the Barbed Wire Match just a year before). Also, when you say 'Bash at the Beach 200 type lay down' not only does that not apply, but the fact that this was two years efore that, makes that a weird comparison. This was a kyfabe lay-down; B@daB 2000 was NOT kayfabe

1. I'm going offwhat WWE Network tells me, and according to it, there was only 1 Wrestlepalooza event.
2. I usually attempt to describe a move by the name people most know it as. No disrespect to Sabu, but he has a lot of special move names for generic moves. I mean, who calls the Moonsault an "Arabian Press" Context would've indicated that it was some kind of suplex, so in calling it that I would confuse readers. As far as the Bash at the Beach plug, I couldn't think of how else to describe it. This also has prompted an eventual Bash at the Beach 2000 review.

[NWK2000]

1. Oh, this is Wrestlepalooza 98; there's a Wrestlepalooza 97, too, you should check that one out.

2. I've gotta be a mark here for one of my fav wrestlers: Sabu NEVER hits 'poetry in motion;' he hits 'Air Sabu,' which he was doing long before Jeff Hardy was doing anything (he tore his arm open trying it on Terry Funk in the Barbed Wire Match just a year before). Also, when you say 'Bash at the Beach 200 type lay down' not only does that not apply, but the fact that this was two years efore that, makes that a weird comparison. This was a kyfabe lay-down; B@daB 2000 was NOT kayfabe

1. I'm going offwhat WWE Network tells me, and according to it, there was only 1 Wrestlepalooza event.
2. I usually attempt to describe a move by the name people most know it as. No disrespect to Sabu, but he has a lot of special move names for generic moves. I mean, who calls the Moonsault an "Arabian Press" Context would've indicated that it was some kind of suplex, so in calling it that I would confuse readers. As far as the Bash at the Beach plug, I couldn't think of how else to describe it. This also has prompted an eventual Bash at the Beach 2000 review.

[Big Red Machine]

1. Oh, this is Wrestlepalooza 98; there's a Wrestlepalooza 97, too, you should check that one out.

2. I've gotta be a mark here for one of my fav wrestlers: Sabu NEVER hits 'poetry in motion;' he hits 'Air Sabu,' which he was doing long before Jeff Hardy was doing anything (he tore his arm open trying it on Terry Funk in the Barbed Wire Match just a year before). Also, when you say 'Bash at the Beach 200 type lay down' not only does that not apply, but the fact that this was two years efore that, makes that a weird comparison. This was a kyfabe lay-down; B@daB 2000 was NOT kayfabe

1. I'm going offwhat WWE Network tells me, and according to it, there was only 1 Wrestlepalooza event.
2. I usually attempt to describe a move by the name people most know it as. No disrespect to Sabu, but he has a lot of special move names for generic moves. I mean, who calls the Moonsault an "Arabian Press" Context would've indicated that it was some kind of suplex, so in calling it that I would confuse readers. As far as the Bash at the Beach plug, I couldn't think of how else to describe it. This also has prompted an eventual Bash at the Beach 2000 review.

Actually, and Arabian Press is a slingshot split-legged moonsault

[NWK2000]

My point still stands. Who has referred to a Moonsault as a "Press" since its invention? Therefore not many people would automatically associate a press with a Moonsault.

[badnewzxl]

my point was that Sabu innovated Air Sabu/Poetry in motion, so when he does it (esp) I gotta call it Air Sabu. The Arabian press I think he also innovated that.

It'd be like saying DDP used the rKo. It just sounds weird to me....

[Big Red Machine]

my point was that Sabu innovated Air Sabu/Poetry in motion, so when he does it (esp) I gotta call it Air Sabu. The Arabian press I think he also innovated that.

It'd be like saying DDP used the rKo. It just sounds weird to me....

I'm with Badnewz on this one.

[badnewzxl]

1. I'm going offwhat WWE Network tells me, and according to it, there was only 1 Wrestlepalooza event.

There's a Wrestlepalooza in 95, 97, 98, and 2000. You should check out the one from 97; it has Raven's last match in ECW before he goes to WCW and the sequence of matches that follows is AWESOME! I think they have the whole show on youtube; if so, I'll post it. It's worth watching just for the Raven match and the two matches that follow....

[Big Red Machine]

1. I'm going offwhat WWE Network tells me, and according to it, there was only 1 Wrestlepalooza event.

There's a Wrestlepalooza in 95, 97, 98, and 2000. You should check out the one from 97; it has Raven's last match in ECW before he goes to WCW and the sequence of matches that follows is AWESOME! I think they have the whole show on youtube; if so, I'll post it. It's worth watching just for the Raven match and the two matches that follow....

I actually thought that Wrestlepalooza 97 sucked.

[badnewzxl]

1. I'm going offwhat WWE Network tells me, and according to it, there was only 1 Wrestlepalooza event.

There's a Wrestlepalooza in 95, 97, 98, and 2000. You should check out the one from 97; it has Raven's last match in ECW before he goes to WCW and the sequence of matches that follows is AWESOME! I think they have the whole show on youtube; if so, I'll post it. It's worth watching just for the Raven match and the two matches that follow....

I actually thought that Wrestlepalooza 97 sucked.

everything else was forgettable, but Raven v. Dreamer "for the final time" was an awesome moment and the chaos that ensues afterwards is GREAT. The two impromptu matches that just roll together, That's a style of transitioning from match to match that worked perfectly with the unpredictable ECW feel. I love it when ROH does it (perfect e.g. Delirious v. Brent Albright breaks down and rolls into Tag Scramble with Age of the Fall, Vulture Squad, Hangman's Three, and Steenerico at Rising Above) but ECW really took good advantage these kinda situations.

[Big Red Machine]

There's a Wrestlepalooza in 95, 97, 98, and 2000. You should check out the one from 97; it has Raven's last match in ECW before he goes to WCW and the sequence of matches that follows is AWESOME! I think they have the whole show on youtube; if so, I'll post it. It's worth watching just for the Raven match and the two matches that follow....

I actually thought that Wrestlepalooza 97 sucked.

everything else was forgettable, but Raven v. Dreamer "for the final time" was an awesome moment and the chaos that ensues afterwards is GREAT. The two impromptu matches that just roll together, That's a style of transitioning from match to match that worked perfectly with the unpredictable ECW feel. I love it when ROH does it (perfect e.g. Delirious v. Brent Albright breaks down and rolls into Tag Scramble with Age of the Fall, Vulture Squad, Hangman's Three, and Steenerico at Rising Above) but ECW really took good advantage these kinda situations.

Gabe did that on purpose for the PPVs, but it never occurred to me that he got it from Paul. Makes a lot of sense, though.

[badnewzxl]

When I first saw Forever Hardcore, I saw Gabe and thought: "who the fuck is this chubby Tommy Dreamer?" Then I realized he booked alot of the ECW I saw and alot of the ROH I REALLY enjoyed. HE may be my all time fav Booker, now that I think about it.....

[Big Red Machine]

When I first saw Forever Hardcore, I saw Gabe and thought: "who the f**k is this chubby Tommy Dreamer?" Then I realized he booked alot of the ECW I saw and alot of the ROH I REALLY enjoyed. HE may be my all time fav Booker, now that I think about it.....

I didn't think Gabe ever actually booked ECW, though I guess he might have gotten some input towards the end when Storm and Raven left.

[badnewzxl]

When I first saw Forever Hardcore, I saw Gabe and thought: "who the f**k is this chubby Tommy Dreamer?" Then I realized he booked alot of the ECW I saw and alot of the ROH I REALLY enjoyed. HE may be my all time fav Booker, now that I think about it.....

I didn't think Gabe ever actually booked ECW, though I guess he might have gotten some input towards the end when Storm and Raven left.

I think they list him as a former booker on the Forever Hardcore DVD....

[Big Red Machine]

When I first saw Forever Hardcore, I saw Gabe and thought: "who the f**k is this chubby Tommy Dreamer?" Then I realized he booked alot of the ECW I saw and alot of the ROH I REALLY enjoyed. HE may be my all time fav Booker, now that I think about it.....

I didn't think Gabe ever actually booked ECW, though I guess he might have gotten some input towards the end when Storm and Raven left.

I think they list him as a former booker on the Forever Hardcore DVD....

Really? I wonder who else they book. To my knowledge, the only people who ever booked it were:
1. Eddie Gilbert (until Ultra Clash 93)
2. Paul E.
3. Eventually a committee of Paul, Dreamer, & Lance Storm- joined by Raven when he came back in 99.
4. Eventually back to just Paul again after Raven & Lance left.