Dark Pegasus Video Review: Eastern Championship Wrestling (04.06.93)

Eastern Championship Wrestling (04.06.93) by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 Ah yes. The precursor to Extreme Championship Wrestling. This was back in the days when the promotion was built around former WCW and WWF rejects and a few garbage wrestlers on the east coast. The TV deal was pretty sweet for an indie, though. ECW was seen on SportsChannel, a companion to Prism, the channel that used to show all the WWF house shows from the Spectrum. ROH could learn a lot by watching these shows. They do some things right and a lot of things poorly. April 6, 1993 From Philadelphia. Your hosts are Jay Sulli and Stevie Wonderful. ECW President Tod Gordon announces a tournament to crown the ‘first’ ECW TV Champion. In reality, there had been a few champions dating back to the previous year, but with ECW starting afresh on SportsChannel, it behooved them to make this special. Gordon also announces that the Living Legend– Eddie Gilbert will be joining the announce team. Oh, no, Gilbert was just trying to muscle his way in. Instead, it’s Terry Funk. Gilbert is apoplectic. Funk says if Gilbert wants to do something about it, he can walk over, but he’s limping back (or words to that effect). They show a guest spot from Funk’s appearance on “Quantum Leap.” Funny moment. My tape has commercials intact, and one of them is for “Game Plan U.S.A.,” a professional film/video company that focuses on presenting “professional-looking sports-related video packages.” And they advertised on ECW?! ECW Tag Team Titles: The Super Destroyers (w/Hunter Q. Robins III) vs. The Hell Riders. Sulli’s commentary voice sounds like Officer Barbrady. The Destroyers are AJ Petrucci and Don Stahl in masks. Petrucci is one of the few genuinely great stories in professional wrestling. He was a routine jobber in the WWF and NWA (the kind of guy you’d see under a mask as “The Terrorist” or “The Masked Iranian”). This was probably the peak of his career, although he’d go on to hold minor singles titles. In the early 00s he trained Gene Snitsky. That’s all well and good, but the really great thing is that he holds a Criminal Science degree and, when he’s not wrestling, he spends his time counseling at-risk teens. So for all those who blame “the business” because they can’t get it together long enough to keep from assaulting women, or smuggling drugs, or tazing their girlfriends, or trashing hotel rooms, I cordially invite you to go fuck yourselves. The problem is with *you,* not your occupation. If Petrucci winds up killing his wife and kid, remind me to erase this. The Hell Riders are H.D. and E.Z.. That’s really all you need to know. H.D. went on to become a lesser Dudley. Super Destroyer #2 (I’ll guess Stahl) hits a flipping senton for the win at 3:00. Just a squash. The Destroyers looked like low-rent Demolition, which is fine by me. 1/4* Music video package to introduce ECW Champion Sting. Oh wait. That’s not Sting. That’s the Sandman! And he’s a surfer. And he has Billy Joel music! Wonderful reviews the tournament bracket for the TV title. They actually have seeding instead of randomly drawn brackets. Nice. ECW TV Title Tournament, Round One: Tommy Cairo (#4) vs. Sal Bellomo (#6, w/Cosmic Commander). The Cosmic Commander looks a lot like the Grand Wizard of wrestling. Bellomo is probably most famous as a jobber in the WWF. He has famous losses to Roddy Piper and Bobby Heenan. He actually came in as a decent midcarder. Not sure what happened to turn him into a Barry Horowitz precursor. Cairo was your typical bodybuilder-turned-wrestler. He’d go on to be one of Sandman’s first major feuds in 1994. Bellomo works Cairo over, but Cairo makes the big comeback. Cosmic Commander distracts the referee while Johnny Hotbody comes down and tries a double ax-handle. Cairo avoids it, though, and Hotbody takes out Bellomo. Bellomo gets counted out to send Cairo to the next round at 5:32. Cairo actually looked pretty sharp out there. Bellomo was, as always, a professional and he played “the wild man” very well. This was too short to get into, though. * After the match, Hotbody returns to attack Cairo, but Cairo fights him off. A sample commercial of the time: Tony Stetson vs. Rockin’ Rebel. Oh, the mullets! Rebel wrestles like a sluggish Marty Janetty. Stetson wrestles like your typical PrimeTime Wrestling jobber. Stetson hits a flying forearm, but Rebel is in the ropes. Stetson moves in to take advantage, but Rebel scoops him up and puts his feet on the ropes for the win at 4:39. Bleh. After the match, Rebel lays out a verbal challenge to the Sandman. 1/2* ECW TV Title Tournament: Jimmy Snuka (#1) vs. Larry Winters (#8). Before the match, Snuka shocks everyone by introducing Eddie Gilbert as his not-manager (Gilbert doesn’t like that term). Winters, who was ECW’s first booker before Gordon removed him from his duties after a racist angle where J.T. Smith got painted white, gets some joberrific offense in, including a crossbody for a close two. He hits a Hoganesque legdrop, but Gilbert has the ref distracted. Winters knocks him off the apron, but Gilbert trips him up. That sets up the gutbuster and the Superfly Splash at 4:31. Entertaining squash. Snuka’s heel turn, while low-concept, was genuinely surprising. *3/4 Ernesto Benefico is hanging out in the ring for no particular reason because Funk and Sulli are signing off. Salvatore Bellomo returns and says he wants a match. Salvatore Bellomo (w/Cosmic Commander) vs. Ernesto Benefico. Bellomo mauls Benefico and finishes in :20. 1/4*

The 411: Not much in the way of wrestling, but Eddie Gilbert did a fine job of booking the TV show Bill Watts style. It's very lean. Every segment means something. We get a good idea of who everyone is and how they relate to one another. I appreciate efficiency in my TV programming.
Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]