Rated R Reviews: ECW Ultra-Clash ’93 – 9/18/93

ULTRA-CLASH '93
September 18, 1993

Eastern Championship Wrestling had already been around for over a year, but this show is generally considered to be the “birth” of ECW. It started the process of ECW going from being just another Indy, to being the top of the independent food chain.

J.T. Smith . . . almost ends his career with a scaffold bump that would make Jim Cornette cover his eyes.
Salvatore Bellomo . . . puts on a better in-ring performance than Shane Douglas.
The Sandman . . . actually knows a few wrestling moves, but also shows why he’s more known for drinking and caning than he is wrestling.

ROCCO ROCK/JOHNNY GRUNGE vs. JASON KNIGHT/IAN ROTTEN
This really isn’t much of a match, but it’s easy to see why the typical tough crowd in Philly embraced Public Enemy the way they did. They never give Jason or Ian a chance to get anything going, they guzzle them before the bell and don’t stop until Ian doesn’t get up. There’s not much to the match other than a bunch of brawling, Rocco’s flying, Johnny reverse DDT, and their sweet double tombstone, but there doesn’t really need to be. It’s not that long, and it more than gets across the message of PE being guys to keep an eye on.

TONY STETSON © vs. TOMMY CAIRO (ECW Pennsylvania Title)
Stetson is good at getting the crowd riled up, but that’s the only aspect that makes this any good. They both have some good spots to add, but they just don’t seem to be able to pull off anything too complex, such as Cairo catching Stetson with an overhead belly to belly as he’s charging. Instead of being done in one fluid motion, there’s a pause while Cairo actually hooks up Stetson to toss him. It’d have also been a good idea if Stetson’s manager didn’t distract the ref when Stetson was trying for the pin, after a not-bad lariat. While he’s distracted, Stetson grabs the belt and (eventually, after dropping it twice) KO’s Cairo to win. Both of these two had been around for a while, but neither had really been noticed, and this probably shows why.

SUPER DESTROYER #1 vs. SUPER DESTROYER #2 (Mask vs. Mask Match)
There really isn’t anything to see here either, both of the Super D’s are slow and plodding and are almost identical save for their respective choices of armband. Number Two works over the arm a bit, and then Number One works on the leg, but neither of them is very interesting about it. Number Two gets knocked a bit loopy from the turnbuckle and Number One hits a big senton to win the match and keep his mask. Number Two has to unmask, Styles seems to recognize him, but I don’t know who he is (nor do I especially care).

DARK PATRIOT vs. J.T. SMITH (Scaffold Match)
J.T. is lucky to be walking today, with the bump he took from the scaffold. It wasn’t the typical hanging drop, Patriot chucks him off and Smith lands knees first. Aside from the fall, they try to put on a show while up on the scaffold, Smith takes a couple of DDT bumps, including DP doing a Randy Orton hanging DDT from some kind of pipe. DP is also good at getting the crowd riled up, by using powder and choking out with the drawstring to his tights. As if nearly crippling him with that throw off the scaffold wasn’t enough, DP continues beating on Smith afterwards.

TERRY FUNK/STAN HANSEN vs. ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER/KEVIN SULLIVAN
There’s no order at all to this. It’s just a crazed fight with all four going at it, and some props getting involved. It’s the type of thing that’s fun to watch, but doesn’t really lend itself to be written or read about all that well. Eddie Gilbert runs in for a lame DQ win by Team Texas. Sullivan turns on Abby for no particular reason, a few prelim guys run out to restore order and that gives Hansen a second wind to lay down a beating and the craziness continues!

BATTLE ROYAL
This looks more like a video game than a match, there’s only six participants and everyone stays out of the way while two of them work until one gets eliminated. Sensational Sherri pretty much dominates eliminating the three males involved, then she eliminates herself to chase down a ref, and then Tigra (who hadn’t done a thing other than sit on the turnbuckle) sneaks up and eliminates Angel to win the whole thing. It’s lame, but at least it’s short.

SALVATORE BELLOMO vs. RICHARD MICHAELS (Strap Match)
I wonder why Michaels never made to to the big two, aside from a stint as a TV jobber for the WWF? He certainly a good look to him. If this is any indication (which it really shouldn’t be, seeing as the match is mostly brawling and cheap heat from the interfering heel manager) he didn’t have much talent to work with, although his splash from the top looked great, but that never stopped dozens of others from having sucessful careers. Bellomo looks as far away from his days as WWF jobber as he can, but still impresses on occasion with his agility, especially the double mule kick.

This isn’t a strap match in the traditional sense, but the loser of the match gets whipped with a weight belt. Michaels misses the splash, and Bellomo hits a big splash of his own to win. He gets three good shots on Michaels, but then Michaels’ manager, Hunter Q. Robbins (who I’m already sick of seeing) and Sherri both get involved, Rockin’ Rebel attacks Bellomo and Michaels takes a powder.

SHANE DOUGLAS © vs. THE SANDMAN (ECW Heavyweight Title)
The novelty of seeing Sandman using a few wrestling moves make this something worth checking out, but the match is pretty bad. The match itself is mostly punching and kicking, and not all of it looking all that good, such as Sandman bumping too early on a mule kick that wound up barely making contact. Sandman’s use of wrestling moves is surprising, but his dropkick looked awful and he didn’t even hook one of Shane’s arms on the susnset flip.

Shane seems to be more worried about doing things that make Shane look good, rather than making the match work. He gets pounded for a few minutes and gives Sandman a good near fall, only to leap to his feet and drop him with a lariat to take over. The finish sees him almost incapacitated from a low blow, but then roll through a flying body press and grabs the tights to win. Considering that Shane had been around the proverbial block a few times already, his performance looks even worse. He’s more content to sit in restholds or brawl than he is to wrestle, and this is someone who was teaming with Ricky Steamboat less than a year before this, and he’s coming into the match with the belt around his waist.

CRASH THE TERMINATOR/MIGUEL PEREZ vs. HEADHUNTER A/HEADHUNTER B (Baseball Bat Match)
According to Joey, the Headhunters actually have names, but I couldn’t find any confirmation of a spelling for them, and it’s not like you can tell them apart anyway. I imagine that this is the sort of match that one could expect to see on a W*ING show, given that all four of these guys were regulars over there. Take the Hansen/Funk tag match, amp up the violence and blood, lose the silly finish, and this is what you get. You know it’s on when Crash chucks one of the Headhunters through the wall. It’s got some of the usual drawbacks that these sorts of matches have, just look at how Crash swings the bat and you’ll know whether or not he’s going to actually make contact. Miguel also gets a near fall from a moonsault that makes almost zero contact. There’s some teasing of the scaffold coming into play, when Perez and one of the ‘Hunters start climbing, but nobody takes the plunge (a 400 lb. Headhunter crashing down may have been the only way to follow the fall that Smith took). Amidst all this insanity and chaos, one of the big guys moonsaults Crash to win the match, but the fight continues.

The 411: It's fun at times, especially the two tag matches, but this is not a good show in the least.
Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]