BRM Reviews ECW Just Another Night 96

[Big Red Machine]

ECW Just Another Night ’96 (2/23/1996)- Glenolden, PA

BAD CREW vs. J.T. SMITH & JOEL HARTGOOD-
J.T. Smith assaults Goodhardt before the match, then leaves him for the Bad Crew to destroy. After the match ends, Sandman comes out and canes the Bad Crew… then Sandman canes Hartgood just because. This sort of treatment was par for the course for Hartgood, who was a jobber whose name was a rib on former Philly promoter (and Tod Gordon’s former business partner in the TWA) Joel Goodhart.

STEVIE RICHARDS & THE BLUE MEANIE vs. THE PITBULLS (w/Francine)- 4/10
Pitbulls are stong. Meanie is fat but can do a moonsault. Stevie gets beat up.

BILL ALFONSO (w/Taz) vs. Tod Gordon (w/Bam Bam Bigelow)- no rating. Good segment
I wasn’t too happy with Bam Bam jumping Taz from behind, but Taz did flip him off. Anyway, Taz and Bam Bam brawled on the outside for the majority of this match, with Bam Bam having the advantage for most of it while Fonzie and Tod seemed evenly matched. Taz managed to slip away from Bam Bam and cost Tod the match. After the match, Fonzie went to hit Tod with a chair but Bam Bam got into the ring to stop him. Fonzie handed the chair to Taz who hit Bam Bam with it… but Bam Bam no sold it, causing Taz and Bam Bam to flee in fear. A great segment which got heat on Fonzie and really made you want to see a Taz vs. Bam Bam match because it seemed certain that Bam Bam would kick Taz’s ass.

ECW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Eliminators(c) vs. “The Extreme Shah” Hack Myers & Bubba Ray Dudley- 4/10
The Eliminators brawled with the Dudley Family before the match, resulting in Bubba being left alone before Hack ever showed up. The Eliminators beat Bubba up for a bit until the Shah came out to be Bubba’s partner.

THE SANDMAN vs. AXL ROTTEN- 4/10
A decent brawl, with Axl going after Sandman’s arm once the opportunity presented itself. Axl then decides to be a heel a taunt the downed Sandman by standing over him a drinking his beer. After the match, puts Axl over on the mic and offers him a beer, which Axl accepts. Despite all of the stuff they did in this match, the crowd was upset that they didn’t get any blood. What the hell is wrong with them?

BAM BAM BIGELOW vs. CACTUS JACK (w/Stevie Richards & the Blue Meanie)- DUD!
Stevie and the Meanie come out to strut with Cactus but Bam Bam clotheslines them. Cactus then cuts a great promo on Bam Bam and we get down to the match. The match was quick and dull. With these two in the ring together I was expecting something that was at least good, but this was sorely disappointing. Bam Bam gets the win and beats up all three heels until Taz jumps him from behind and locks in the Tazmission. The camera focuses on this rather than the action while a big brawl is going on in the ring with people trying to save Bam Bam.

ECW TV TITLE MATCH: 2 Cold Scorpio(c) vs. Sabu- 7.25/10
Scorpio tells Sabu that Sabu needs to beat him to win the belt because Scorpio won’t just give it to him. Yeah, that’s generally how it works. Not sure why Scorpio felt the need to remind everyone of that.
They have a great match which Scorpio would have won if his desire to show off all of his cool high-flying moves hadn’t gotten in the way. Time expires just as Sabu hits the Arabian Facebuster to help set up another rematch. Scorpio offers a handshake afterwards, but he then attacks Sabu. Sabu dives on Scorpio and they brawl to the back.

ECW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Raven(c) (w/Kimona Wanalaya, Stevie Richards, & the Blue Meanie) vs. Shane Douglas-5.25/10
Joey Styles describes Kimona as “not the kind of girl you bring home to mother. She’s the kind of girl you bring home to father. On his birthday. When mother is out of town.” Shane’s ring jacket is horribly ugly.
The match was okay. At one point Brian Pillman came out with a camera and a press pass and flashed his camera in Shane’s eyes. Shane wanted to brawl with Pillman, but Pillman was escorted out by security. After the match the heels try to hit Douglas in groin with a chair but Sandman makes the save. Douglas proposes that they work together to take out Raven and his pals, and whichever one of them wins the ECW World Heavyweight Title gives the other one the first shot at it.

The show is shot entirely with the fan-cam, so if you don't like that angle much, don't get this show (but I will say that Gabe, Doug or whoever was behind the camera at this point) did a good job getting as much of the action as possible). Actually, even if you do like the fan-cam angle... still don't get this show. At the beginning of the DVD, Joey Styles told us that this show was called "Just Another Night" because any standard night in ECW is better than anything WWF or WCW would put on. When you do something like that, you need to make sure that your own show doesn’t suck.