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Dark Pegasus Video Review: ECW Extreme Rules 2-DVD Set
February 5, 2007 | Posted by
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| ECW Extreme Rules 2-DVD Set by J.D. Dunn They dub Sandman’s crappy new theme over his real one, which wouldn’t be a problem, but his entrance takes 4-5 minutes so it’s just that same repetitive generirock throughout. Oddly enough, Cactus doesn’t get his WWE theme, but a weird RHCP-ish riff. Sandman stalls forever until Jack gets distracted by Woman. Then, he hops in and casually canes Jack. Sandman busts out a crazy running plancha over the top. Remember when the Sandman was somewhat athletic? Neither did I. Back in, Jack ducks a swing and hits a DDT. Jack grabs the cane and knocks Sandy to the floor with it. Back in, Sandman puts up a chair to block a barbed-wire punch. Boredom ensues. Woman daintily brings more barbed-wire down to the ring as Sandman gets two off a legdrop. Sandman piledrives Jack on the chair and wraps the barbed-wire around his own body, turning himself into a big, fat, drunken porcupine. He hits a barbed-wire splash for two, but Jack dumps him to the floor and drops a chair-assisted elbow. Back in, Jack pulls Sandman’s shirt (and, thus, the barbed-wire) up over his head and legdrops the chair into his face. That gets two. Cactus tries to choke Sandman out with the barbed-wire, so Woman hops in. Jack shoves her down, but that gives Sandman the chance to jump him from behind (and knock the ref down in the process). That brings out Shane Douglas to hit his promised piledriver on the Sandman. He stops to jab Cactus right in the face to put over what a piece of shit he is and then tells ECW to kiss his ass (as he left to become Dean Douglas in the WWF). Sandman flops on top for the successful defense at 13:10. Alternated between sick and boring. ** Basically, it’s a cage match with some guys standing on the outside with weapons to hand to the wrestlers (the second part of that stipulation should give you a heads up). Brawl outside to start, and they take it out into the crowd. Saturn climbs to the top of the cage and dives out on everyone. Kronus and Mustafa get in the ring for some semi-wrestling while Saturn uppercuts Nu Jack into the cage by his nuts. That is hardcore! Saturn follows him in with a clothesline. It turns back to the usual cage brawl after that with lots of grinding of faces into the mesh and lots of blood following. Saturn hits the Falcon Arrow (or Saturn Bomb) on Mustafa and splashes him off the top of the cage. The Gangstas get really hardcore with cookie sheets. Face – IT’S WHAT’S FOR DINNER! Saturn comes back with a diving elbow off the top of the cage. Yes, Saturn is attempting to carry three other guys to a good match all by himself. He goes up again, but Nu Jack tosses a garbage can into his face. Mustafa actually hits a decent dropkick. One of the masked executioners hands Nu Jack a keyboard. Nu Jack tries to Ctrl, Alt + Del Saturn but gets dropkicked. One of the executioners crawls up to hand Nu Jack a guitar, but it turns out to be Shane Douglas who pops Nu Jack in the head with it instead. Saturn adds a splash off the top for two. See, mere common sense says that should be the finish if you’re going to do a big reveal like that. Saturn goes up again, but Nu Jack tosses a garbage can at him and knocks him through a table. Powerslam on Kronus, and Nu Jack adds a chairshot to retain at 14:56. After the match, Saturn blames Kronus for losing, and they get in each others’ faces, but Douglas gives the Triple Threat symbol to calm them down. I don’t remember anything ever coming of that. The Douglas interference could have started something huge, but nothing ever came of that either, so I’m not sure what the point of all this was. Saturn managed to hold the match together, but a lot of it was indy amateur hour. *1/2 This has alternate commentary from Jonathon Coachman and Dreamer, which I’ll pick over Joey simply naming all the spots any day. If you’ve never seen a scaffold match, well…you haven’t missed much. In this match, there’s a big scaffold about 20 feet up and a pyramid of tables underneath. This is an offshoot of the Raven/Dreamer feud as Raven brought Lee in to kill Dreamer. Basically, it amounted to Lee chokeslamming Dreamer a half dozen times to set this up. Sadly, Brian Lee does not get the Undertaker’s music. Dreamer jumps Lee from behind in the aisle. Funny moment as a fan dumps a drink on Lee, so Lee just stops selling, even when Tommy hits him in the head with a garbage can and glares up at the fan. Professionalism is for pussies! They brawl all the way to the ring and up to the scaffold (which Dreamer reveals was slapped together the night before by the Sandman of all people). Dreamer gets crotched on the chain holding up the scaffold. He climbs back and pummels Lee but can’t toss him off. He blocks a chokeslam and unleashes an infamous flurry that sends Lee falling backwards through all the tables at 8:47. Dreamer leaves through the crowd. Not much of a match outside of that ending shot, which became iconic on ECW TV. * This is an infamous match more for one botched Sabu spot than anything else. This is also a rematch from one of the worst matches in ECW history at November 2 Remember ’97. It’s kind of like a ladder match, but there’s barbed-wire hanging from the top that you can use if you climb up and grab it. Sabu dropkicks the ladder and tosses it into Sandman’s head. Alphonso provides an assist, holding a chair over Sandy’s head while Sabu legdrops his throat across the ladder. The Arabian Facebuster gets two, and Sandman rolls to the floor for a breather. Sabu follows him out with a springboard plancha, and they brawl all the way up to the stage. Sabu puts Sandman through a table, which was already losing its luster by 1998. They brawl all the way back to ringside where Sandman see-saws a ladder into Sabu’s face. Sandman sets up a table between the guardrail and the apron and then sets a ladder next to it. He sets Sabu on the ladder and then slingshots into a legdrop, putting himself through the table. Well, that was rather involved for the result. Sandman goes up and grabs the barbed-wire, but Sabu dropkicks the ladder, tipping it over and sending Sandman through a ringside table. Sabu tries to follow up with a springboard, but he winds up clanging his own chin into the railing. Sickening. He’d be okay, though. He’s a wrestler. Back in, Sabu puts Sandman in the tree-of-woe and sets the barbed-wire and a chair in front of his face (with Sandman helpfully holding the barbed-wire in place). He springboards off a chair into a dropkick as Sandman is bleeding all over the ring now. Fonzie quickly tapes up Sabu’s gaping wound – the one on his chin, you pervs. Sabu goes up for an Arabian Facebuster. Sandman is supposed to move but doesn’t get out of the way in time. He pretends he does, though, and hits one cane shot for the win at 17:48. Well, that was anticlimactic after all those violent spots. If you’re going to do mindless violence, you might as well go all out with it. **3/4 This is back when the Dudleys had balls and were still cool. D-Von and Dreamer actually try a little wrestling to open. Tommy hits a rope-assisted neckbreaker. Spike and Bubba go next, with Bubba collapsing under the tremendous weight of the little runt. Spike tries a rana but gets powerbombed. Bubba abuses Spike for a while, but Spike fires back and knocks Bubba into the corner. Big Dick and Sandman tag in. Oh, this should be good! Yeah, I’m kidding. It quickly spill to the floor to disguise the fact that neither guy is much of a wrestler. Big six-man brawl on the floor. Back in, Sandman and Bubba pair off with Sandman hitting the huracanrana. D-Von crotches Dreamer (as per Tommy’s contract) on the railing as Spike climbs a ladder. He dives out on everyone. Back in, Bubba sentons onto a ladder on top of Dreamer. Spike hits Bubba with the Acid Drop, but D-Von tosses Spike onto the ladder. Dreamer busts out an actual wrestling hold with a figure-four on the injured Sign Guy. Jeff Jones mocks Dreamer’s piledriver but stumbles back into the real thing. The faces (and referee Jim Molyneaux) team up for quadruple tree-of-woe dropkicks. Dreamer hits the Dreamer Driver (the Emerald Frosion), which Joey says someone from WCW or the WWF will steal. Yeah, those thieving bastards. Bubba misses a splash and goes into the ladder, so Dreamer DDTs him on the ladder for the win at 14:28. Jack Victory appears behind Dreamer and smashes a guitar over his head. That brings out Nu Jack to destroy everything in sight. Just a bunch of spots and brawling strung together with no rhyme or reason. *3/4 Alternate commentary from Taz and Styles is available on the second track. Taz actually came up with the FTW (fuck-the-world) Title because he wasn’t getting any respect, but Sabu is holding the title here, and Taz is the World champion. Taz makes it a Falls Count Anywhere match. At this point, Taz was hugely over with the crowd, probably because he was one of the few regular wrestlers that had actual wrestling skill. We some of that skill on display as he and Sabu do a little wrestling sequence. Don’t worry. It won’t last. Taz lays in some forearms to work Sabu’s broken jaw (which Taz broke the night before). Sabu tosses a chair right into Taz’s face and pushes Taz into the crowd. Sabu tries a double-jump plancha into the crowd, but Taz blocks with a chair. They brawl all the way up to the top and back down to the ramp again. Taz tosses Sabu off the ramp into one of the fans. Sabu is right back up a few seconds later, though. They head back to the ring where Sabu sets up a table between the ring and the apron. It works against him, though, as Taz belly-to-bellies him over the top and through the table, knocking out a cameraman. Taz starts to cut a promo on Flair and Hogan, but even Sabu is sick of that, so he gouges his eye out. Fonzie tries to toss in the towel, but Sabu cuts him off. Fonzie takes a shot at Taz and gets chased away. Back to the ring, Taz goes up but gets rana’d off the top. He powerbombs Sabu as Fonzie returns to ringside. Sabu tries a sunset flip powerbomb, but Taz admits he didn’t want to take the bump, so he lands on Sabu instead. Smart man. Sabu puts Taz on a table stretched across the guardrail and splashes him through. Back in, Sabu covers. ONE, TWO, TH-Taz gets his foot on the ropes – in a Falls-Count-Anywhere match. Joey explains it by saying, yeah, you can do that. Taz works in a trio of suplexes in between Sabu spots. A Gargoyle Superplex gets two, and Taz Dragon Suplexes him through a table for two. The Tazmission gets the win at 18:27. Taz offers a handshake after the match. Taz was basically suplex and attitude at this point, which got him over enough to join the WWE where they promptly watered down his suplexes and personality. **1/4 FMW staple Tanaka took the title in a good impromptu match the week before. Awesome jumps Tanaka during the intros and hits his over-the-tope tope. Tanaka comes back with a running chairshot. Back in, Awesome slingshots into a splash for two and SMASHES a chair into Tanaka’s head. Tanaka no-sells (that’s kind of his thing) and dropkicks the chair back into Awesome’s face. Another chairshot sets up the Tornado DDT onto a chair for two. Tanaka goes up and hits a chairshot to Awesome’s face. That gets two also. Diamond Dust (front flip into a stunner) gets two. Tanaka no-sells a German Suplex but runs right into a double-choke bomb. The Running Awesomebomb gets two. Awesome sets up a table in the corner and Awesomebombs Tanaka through it after a countered attempt. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! He sets up another table, but Tanaka reverses and DDTs him through it. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Awesome blocks the Roaring Elbow, but Tanaka stays with it and hits one. It also gets two. I believe that’s future ROH champion Xavier working security. Awesome hits a frogsplash for two. They battle on top, and Awesome hits one of the best Sitout Superbombs you’ll ever see to regain the title at 11:48. Awesome would engage in a brief feud with Spike Dudley before jumping to WCW and burning his bridge with ECW. This, though, was pretty about as good as you’re going to get from ECW singles matches. Although the mounting spots nearly spilled over to eye-rolling level, it worked with their characters. Not as good as people were saying at the time, but probably the last great singles match ever wrestled over the ECW Title. **** This is during the dying days of ECW and was one of the last title matches ever. It’s odd because the house is still packed, which goes to show you it was Paul’s bad business skills and not lack of interest that killed the promotion. I shouldn’t have to go into that, but there are still “new ECW” apologists who want to revise history and say that the original ECW died due to lack of business. I should also point out that Corino was about a year away from credibility, and it’s amazing how far he’s come. Speaking of Corino coming far, earlier in the night, he sought out Francine for a quickie before the match, but Francine wouldn’t give it up and told him to go find Missy Hyatt who was, at that very moment, fucking Justin Credible. Corino tried to get sloppy seconds by dropping Jack Victory’s name (and how’s *that* for desperate?!). Of course, the joke is Missy couldn’t remember who she was fucking fifteen years earlier. Justin works in Terry Funk’s whirlybird ladder spot. Sandman gets whipped over the top and through a table. Although, why he leapt over the ropes is beyond me. He tosses Justin through a table as Cyrus tries to explain some sort of psychology on commentary. Justin pops right back up, though, because Sandman is going up the ladder. The ladder collapses under his weight, though, and Credible has to stall. Corino slingshots Credible into the ladder and goes for the Old-School Expulsion, but Justin counters to the Tombstone. Francine hits the huracanrana on Sandman —which Joey dubs “Coochiecanrana” (she’s a “coochadore,” after all) and Cyrus calls “Tuna Canrana.” Justin and Corino go up the ladder, but some mysterious person is raising the belt. That allows Sandman to cane everyone and go up for the belt himself at 13:19. Horrible match with no flow and a lot of clumsiness. Corino actually did look like he was trying hard in there, which just makes it that much sadder. Compare this with the stuff that the Hardyz, Dudleyz and Edge & Christian were doing at the time. 3/4* Disc Two For those of you who were nostalgic for last June. Interestingly enough, they went the extra mile and used “Bodies” for this disc as opposed to the ECW Theme found on the first disc. Thankfully, I get to cut and paste! Dreamer has to settle for a ripoff of “Man in the Box”, but Sandman actually gets “Enter Sandman”! Sandman’s entrance takes up the whole song, which I don’t mind one bit. Before the match can even start, the Blue World Order (Steven Richards, Simon Dean, and the Blue Meanie) interrupts. They say they’re…takin’…over. The BWO and Dudleyz team up to attack Dreamer and Sandman. Suddenly, here comes Kid Kash (Total Nonstop Attitude, sayeth Styles) along with Balls Mahoney and Ian Rotten to make the save. They all pile up in the aisle as Kid Kash springboards into a somersault plancha. Finally, the match starts, and Bubba rips Dreamer’s face with a cheese grater. The Bubba Senton misses, but the Dudz team up for a neckbreaker. Dreamer does the Terry Funk ladder spot and returns the cheese grater violence. Sandman and D-Von go at it back in the ring. Bubba atomic drops Dreamer on the ring barrier as Sandman somersaults into a senton onto the ladder onto D-Von. Bubba levels him with a chair and splashes him off the second rope for two. D-Von misses a cane shot and takes out Bubba. Dreamer and Sandman get stereo figure-fours, but The Impact Players run in and break it up. Justin Credible hits That’s Incredible on some barbed wire. Francine runs down and kicks Tommy in the balls. Wait! It’s Beulah McGillicutty! CATFIGHT! CAAAATFIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!! The Impact Players try to doubleteam Beulah, but it backfires. Beulah and Tommy embrace and then double DDT the Dudleys (sorta). Dreamer hits a sign shot into a chair that was laying on D-Von’s crotch. Styles: He just crushed his balls! The Dudleyz come back by putting Sandman through a table and hitting a 3-D on Dreamer. Little Spike Dudley runs down and brings some lighter fluid! Bubba lights the table on fire and POWERBOMBS Dreamer through the blazing table. ONE, TWO, THREE! (10:14). ** for the match. ***** for all the crazy-ass shit that went down. Pointless interjection: watching that again makes me shake my head at how bland the revival has been. Oh, and the Sandman’s music has been redubbed for the DVD release, so no “Enter Sandman” this time around. These guys were tag champions together two years ago. It’s very a very respectful matchup, unlike Tazz and Lawler (or JR and Styles for that matter). RVD gets his press slam into a moonsault. He avoids the 619, but Mysterio blocks a springboard move with a dropkick. Van Dam messes up his legdrop off the crowd barrier and misses a second attempt, allowing Rey to hit a springboard plancha into the crowd. EXTREME LUCHA LIBRE! We come back to Rob crotching Rey on the top rope and hitting a flying thrust kick to send Rey to the floor. Back in, Rob dropkicks a chair into Rey’s face. The announcers continue to jaw with one another. I wish they’d really start shooting on each other with Tazz bringing up Lawler crapping his pants and running away from Harley Race. Rey turns the tide with a bulldog to the chair. He misses a springboard legdrop. FIVE STAR FROGSPLASH and it’s over at 10:43. Good stuff if a bit sloppy at points. Rob raises Rey’s hand after the match. *** Rey has the old school tight-ankle tights and “ECW” stitched to the back of his head, just in case you’re interested in fashion. He needs the reflective eye protectors. They open with a brief feeling-out period and decide to just duel with chairs. Sabu hits his springboard legline, but Rey drop toeholds him into the chair and hits a rana. Rey avoids the triple jump plancha, but Sabu breaks up the sunset flip back in and hits a guillotine legdrop. Sabu sets up a table on the outside, but Rey dropkicks him on it and puts him through the table with a springboard vertical senton. Back in, Sabu avoids a springboard move and hits his own springboard legline. The Triplejump Moonsault gets two. The Atomic Arabian Facebuster misses, but so does Rey’s springboard seated senton, and Rey winds up crotching himself on a chair. Sabu knocks him out with a SICK chairshot. He sets Rey up on the table again and hits a TRIPLEJUMP SPRINGBOARD DDT THROUGH THE TABLE! They bring out a “doctor” who says the two guys can’t continue, and they stop the match at 9:08. The crowd is not impressed. Good stuff until the non-finish. It wasn’t at all the big spot, wander around, big spot, lay around for a few minutes, big spot type of match that you’ve probably come to expect from Sabu. **3/4 Edge and Dreamer do a little exchange before Mick gets in and calls out Terry Funk. Terry takes him to the outside early and pummels him. They pair off, and Edge pulls out a ladder. He javelins it into Dreamer’s face and preps to spear him into it, but Dreamer counters to a hiptoss onto the ladder. Terry Funk gets a hold of the ladder and does the helicopter trick, taking out Edge & Foley. Funk climbs the ladder for a moonsault, but Edge pushes it over, dumping Funk off. Dreamer hops in and goes for the DVD, but Lita breaks it up with a low kick. Edge and Foley introduce a barbed-wire board into the match. Well, this can’t be any kind of healthy. They sort of suplex it on Dreamer, taking out a chunk of his head when they pull it off. Funk sneaks up on Edge & Foley and yanks their feet out from under them, putting THEM underneath the board. The crowd chants “this is awesome” as Foley is shoved into the barbed-wire. That’s a bit generous. Funk gets tied up in the barbed-wire and winds up at Foley’s mercy. Foley tries to rip his eye out, so the medics come to drag Funk to the back. That leaves Dreamer in there with Foley and Edge…oh, and a BARBED-WIRE BAT! Lita legdrops the bat into Dreamer’s crotch, prompting chants of “We want Sandman!” Mick then goes way over the line, way too hardcore, by bringing out – SOCKO! Beulah takes the Mandible Claw first, then Dreamer. Edge spears Dreamer but doesn’t want to go for the pin. Instead, he stops to humiliate Beulah. Oh, but here’s Terry Funk, returning through the crowd with a bandaged eye and his own barbed-wire 2×4! Edge & Foley see him coming, but that just provides enough distraction for Dreamer to lowblow them. Funk lights the board ON FIRE AND KNOCKS FOLEY THROUGH THE BARBED-WIRE BOARD WITH IT! Dreamer DDTs Edge and strangles him with the barbed-wire! Lita makes the save, but Beulah grabs her from behind. CATFIGHT! CAAAAATFIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! Dreamer grabs Lita and gets a little revenge with the DVD. Edge sneaks back up and gives Dreamer the barbed-wire assisted Edge-o-matic. He spears Beulah and pins her Paris Hilton-style at 18:45. Well, the WWE guys had to get one. You know how I say there is a difference between “heavily booking a match” and the overused cliché of “overbooking?” Well, this was a heavily booked match in just the right place. They disguised the limitations of three of the four guys perfectly, so while it wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, it had just the right mix of action and drama. **** Styles says that you really have to see the Big Show up close to get an idea of how big he is. Good one. Never heard that one before. Now tell me how his hands are like a skillet and his head is as big as a typewriter. Show and Van Dam brawl into the crowd, and Van Dam hits his spinning legdrop as we go to break. We come back to Van Dam hitting his springboard dropkick. Show catches him on top, though, and superplexes him, drawing a generous “holy shit” chant from the crowd. The Hog Log gets two. The crowd starts a “marijuana” chant. Show really gives it to the crowd with a bearhug. Good thing this is under extreme rules. Van Dam starts hitting kicks, but Show catches him in mid-air and tosses him to the floor. Van Dam grabs a chair, but Show swats it away and hits a chokeslam. ONE, TWO, THRE-RVD kicks out. That pisses off Show, so he tosses the ref away. Show picks Van Dam up for a powerbomb, but Van Dam hits him with the chair. The Van Daminator sets up the Five-Star Frogsplash, but there’s no ref. Paul Heyman runs down and pulls a Shane McMahon by counting two and then screwing Rob over by letting Show chokeslam RVD and counting the three to give Show the title at 18:01. I’d say the ring fills with garbage, but that happened a long time before the match ever got under way. ** Remember when they used to chant “Flair is dead” when Shane Douglas would wrestle? This is just like every Flair vs. Big Man match he’s ever wrestled. Flair bumps around while Show stands there and no-sells everything. Flair gets busted open and, ironically, tries to go hardcore by digging out plunder from under the ring. Big Show catches him though. Flair goes low, which is legal because this is under “Extreme Rules.” Flair goes low again…and again…and again…and again. I’m sensing a theme here. Flair finally does go under the ring and brings out a barbed-wire baseball bat. He busts Show open with it and hits him in the gut. A few chairshots put Show down finally. Flair goes to his bag of Back and forth stuff to start until Van Dam cuts off a springboard with his own springboard sidekick. That looked awkward, but it was a good idea. Sabu crotches Van Dam on the top and tries to springboard off the chair. Van Dam crotches him and tries to leap to the contract from the top rope. He has about as much luck as George Costanza trying to reach Jerry’s awning. Sabu makes him pay with a springboard clothesline that sends Van Dam over the top. Sabu gets a ladder from under the ring, but Van Dam pescados onto him for a car wreck spot as we go to break. This is already better than any free TV match in the last month. We come back to Van Dam hitting the spinning legdrop off the apron. Back in, Van Dam picks up the ladder, but Sabu dropkicks his knee out from under him, causing him to plant his face on the ladder. Sabu then one-ups himself with an Arabian Facebuster to Van Dam on the ladder. Sick. Sabu goes up, but Van Dam tips him over. Sabu tries a Triple Jump Moonsault involving the ladder, but the ladder flips over. Well, honestly, it was stupid to even try that one. Sabu goes facefirst into the ladder and avoids a monkeflip, but Van Dam monkeyflips the ladder into Sabu’s face. Ha ha! Sabu avoids Rolling Thunder and hits the Triple Jump Moonsault with the chair. Van Dam avoids the Atomic Arabian Facebuster, and Sabu nearly breaks his own tailbone. FIVE STAR FROGSPLASH! Sabu rolls out of the ring (Joey explains out of instinct to avoid getting pinned, but pinfalls don’t count in this match. Nice psychology there). Van Dam goes up the ladder, but The Big Show runs in and slams him through a table. Show calls for the contract to be lowered to him so no one else can get it. Sabu goes up and tries to come off with a huracanrana (zuh?). Show holds him up and staggers around long enough for Sabu to capture the contract for the win at 14:45. Show chokeslams both men after the match. I don’t have a problem with the sloppiness because it actually added to the match, and this was shaping up to be a classic before the mind-numbingly stupid finish. Why couldn’t they have just had Show do the run in after the match? Do they think they have to protect Van Dam that much? ***1/2 Talk about your contrast in styles. Knox takes over on Sabu early, so Sabu tags out and grabs a chair from under the ring. Van Dam comes back on Test and nearly brains himself falling over the top rope on a running spinkick. They set up a table, and Test tries to press slam Sabu, but Van Dam comes off the top with a kick to break it up. RVD fights with Knox and Test on the apron, so Sabu springs off a chair and knocks all four of them through the table. Oh, that wacky Sabu! When we come back from commercial, Sabu has Test in the ring for the Triple-Jump Moonsault. Instead, Test trips him up, sending Sabu’s face into the chair. RVD sneaks in and dropkicks a chair into his face. Knox breaks up the Five-Star, though. Sabu and Van Dam bust out the old Michinoku Pro Camel Clutch/Dropkick only with the added value of a chair. Sabu hits Test with the Triple-Jump Moonsault for two. Sabu and Van Dam set up Knox on a table and come off the top just like old times for the win at 12:54. Crazy brawl, and hopefully this is part of an effort to create a tag team division. Knox and Test took some good bumps for guys their size. ***1/4 Van Dam dominates with his educated feet. He stops to play to the crowd, so Holly yanks him to the floor so they can brawl extreme style. Van Dam hits the stretch-across-the-barrier legdrop and gets a table, but Bobcore stops him from using it. Back in, Van Dam charges right into a boot. Holly beats on him for a while and then suplexes him off the apron through the table! OH MY GOD! We come back to find Holly with a sickening gash on his back. Holly won’t be stopped, though. He drops Van Dam’s throat on the edge of a chair. Van Dam is crazy to sell that. Holly sets the chair on Van Dam’s face and then drops an Alabama Jam on it. This actually is hardcore! Van Dam reverses a suplex and suplexes Holly on a chair. Van Dam follows up with a thrust kick and the skateboard dropkick to the face. ROLLING THUNDER! It only gets two, though. Van Dam goes for a monkey flip, but Holly counters to a powerbomb on the chair! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Van Dam tries to come back with the Five-Star, but Holly tosses the chair at his face! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Holly grabs the chair, but Van Dam kicks it back into his face and hits the Five-Star Frogsplash. ONE, TWO, THREE! Van Dam picks up the pin at 17:07! Spiffy little match. Holly gets a nice round of applause in the loss. ***1/2 |
The 411: Well, if you stack up the first disc of original matches vs. the second disc of the revival, it makes the original look like a big, steaming pile of crap – and one wonders if that isn't by design to shut up the critics. Interestingly, most of the original matches are on the Hardcore History DVD with music intact, so if you can find that one, I'd recommend it over this. The "new ECW" matches, while superior, lack any kind of long-term meaning, and they hardly merited being immortalized like this. So, I guess, unless you're a huge Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka fan, there's no reason to pick this up. Thumbs down. |
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| Final Score: 5.0 [ Not So Good ] legend |
