The Furious Flashbacks – Hardcore Homecoming

The Furious Flashbacks – Hardcore Homecoming

The ‘other’ ECW nostalgia show from 2005

I already ranted last time out doing “Forever Hardcore” about the issues I have with the people responsible for this show. For those who don’t remember, or care about, Hardcore Homecoming it was a series of shows booked and promoted by Shane Douglas and Jeremy Borash. They decided to do these shows because WWE was doing a cash in on the success of their ECW DVD and decided to do the One Night Stand PPV. There were people out there who believed that the WWE wouldn’t do a genuine job of it and wouldn’t come close to the ECW experience so set about making their own show a mere two days before One Night Stand in 2005. They’d go for as much authenticity as possible and booked a bunch of available ECW stars and the ECW Arena. After the success this initial show they took Hardcore Homecoming on the road and had two Extreme Reunion shows and did another big show called November Reign. Despite making a fair bit of cash doing these shows they seem to have petered out. I’m guessing that the WWE getting most of the former ECW talent that’s any good under contract has left very little available for JB to organise more shows.

We kick off with an extreme warning that this isn’t affiliated with ECW in any way. June 10th 2005. Joey talks about how it was December 2000 since everyone was together. Joey shills the Funk v Sabu v Shane Douglas 3-way main event, a re-match from The Night the Line Was Crossed back in 1994. Raven v Sandman and Jerry Lynn v Justin Credible. JB has a lot of footage of interviews that he taped for Forever Hardcore, which is used to shill the show seeing as they have the rights to no footage at all.

We’re in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the old ECW Arena.

PROMO TIME – Tod Gordon. Nice to see Hat Guy and everyone in their usual seats. Tod says something. Horrible audio. Crowd cheers so loudly you can’t hear him anyway. He says that this show is happening because of the fans and does the “thank you” thing that Paul Heyman lifted for One Night Stand (II). The clips from the documentary are getting annoying already. Joey says it’s like a High School reunion. Joey says the ECW Arena used to be a real shithole but now it’s quite nice. Back in the arena Joey Styles and Cyrus come out here to celebrate. All the security are even the old ECW security. He just walks out there and says “Oh my God” and everyone goes nuts. Wow, the energy in that building is off the chart. Hey, there’s Mike Johnson in the crowd. He’s interrupted by Joel Gertner to INSANE heat. That’s the biggest fucking pop I’ve heard in years. This crowd is totally electric and into the nostalgia kick. Joel delivers his longest intro…ever. Including a fairy tale, a Paris Hilton gag and something about a runaway bride, which rhymes with inside, and leaving hair in her teeth. Cyrus gets the mic. “Fuck you Cyrus” and Cyrus looks impressed by the volume of the hate. He goes all babyface by saying how great it is to be here before calling Gertner a fat, pathetic piece of trash. Gertner attacks him. CATFIIIIIGHT! Cyrus brings the comedy selling and falls out of the ring. I’m loving this.

Host is Joey Styles.

Simon Diamond/CW Anderson v Mikey Whipwreck/Chris Chetti

Shame they have rights to no music so the generic music pumps in over everything. Mikey is seriously over. Simon offers a handshake but the crowd wants Mikey to “fuck him up”. This is an ECW crowd. Mikey just about manages a high crossbody for 2. Mikey’s timing is horrible. Simon dodges the Whippersnapper. “See fuckin’ Dub” and in comes CW. Chetti beats on him. Hey, Chetti is nearly as big as Tazz these days. Chetti avoids the Anderson spinebuster and hits a scissors kick for 2. Simon helpfully blasts Chetti with a clothesline off the apron. Joey talks about the Extreme Horsemen and how Simon & CW have been tagging frequently for years. CW spits at Mikey and draws him in to allow a no tag beatdown on Chetti. Simon punks out Mikey on the apron and they make tags to keep Chetti isolated. Double Downward Spiral gets 2. CW misses in the corner and Mikey tags in. He cleans house and hits a standing rana on CW. 10 count punches. “Count along with the babyfaces” – Joey. CW superkicks Mikey for his impertinence and pins for 2. Mikey goes for the tornado DDT but CW counters into the spinebuster. He celebrates too much so Chetti is able to hit the Amityville Horror. Again celebration lets him down and here comes Simon’s Series. Nice Gourdbuster to finish. Simon looks for the Simonizer but Mikey counters into the Whippersnapper for the pin. *1/2. The faces looked badly out of shape. Nothing too embarrassing but the heel team carried it. CW looked way ahead of everyone else.

Tracey Smothers w/JT Smith v Blue Meanie

JT quotes the Godfather, which is about as close as he gets to being Italian. MEANIE DANCING~! Tracey Smothers hasn’t aged in the last like 10 years. “Where’s my pizza?” – Philly. The crowd are just having a laugh. Joey makes a crack about how Meanie’s lost some weight – “about 110lbs, she’s in LA now”. BUUUUUUURN for Jasmine StClair. Smothers claims about a bunch of nonexistent cheating. Smothers goes for a slam but Meanie is a little weighty. Meanie slams him a few times so Smothers bad mouths the ref who also slams him. Double clothesline and John Finnegan pins for 2 with Meanie making the count. HAHAHAHA. Smothers gets to mic to say that if he hears anymore noise from the crowd about pizza “everybody dies”. Smothers complains about a bunch more illegal cheating and how they don’t do that in Nashville, Italy. “Shut the fuck up” – Philly. Smothers dances to the chants. He wants a rematch of the dance off. I remember that dance off! Smothers has more moves now. Smothers isn’t happy with Meanie’s dancing and jumps him from behind. JT sneaks in for a few illegal punches and stomps. Meanie gets his feet up and hits a bulldog for 2. People’s Legdrop gets 2. Avalanche scores and JT gets punked out. Another avalanche and Meanie goes up BUT JT stops the Meaniesault with a chain covered right hand and Smothers pins for the win. *. Really silly but booked to perfection to hide the weaknesses of the aging competitors.

PROMO TIME – Johnny Grunge & Gary Wolfe. Both guys whose tag team partners are dead. Grunge is too now. Sunny is also out here as they pay tribute to those former wrestlers who are now no longer with us. I’m not going to make any cracks about Sunny as she listens to the “Candido” chants. Big “Rocco Rock” chant as well for Ted Petty. He was an incredible talent but I never liked Public Enemy. Even if they were the act that lead the way in ECW. The ever classy Philly crowd chant “show your tits” at Sunny. She’s only here grieving Chris Candido. She talks about how everyone that has died since ECW closed had the best time of their lives working in ECW. This brings out Danny Doring and Roadkill for some reason. Crowd instantly wants New Jack to come out here and fuck up the visitors. Doring decides to cut a heel promo on Hat Guy claiming he’s trying to “pay homage”. Doring lays claim to being the greatest tag team in ECW history. Wolfe is a little pissed off and Doring/Roadkill jump Wolfe and Grunge. It’s in poor taste. Sunny runs to the back and gets 911. I’ve not seen him in years. Doring gets a chokeslam. Roadkill gets a chokeslam. Grunge just about splashes Roadkill through a table. Everyone celebrates Public Enemy style while 911 chokeslams Roadkill through the remains of the table. Where the hell has 911 been?

Kid Kash v Too Cold Scorpio

Joey claims to have named Kash himself because he looked like Kid Rock. Kash bails for a chair pre-match and sets himself up as the heel in this one. Hat Guy calls him a midget and a prick. Keep in mind that Kash hugged him on the way out. Nice. They jaw a bit before shoving and striking. They run a smooth near misses sequence. Crowd appreciates that. Scorpio takes it to the mat and works the arm. Arm ringers and switches follow. Scorpio has the advantage there because of his experience. They standing switch and Kash looks much faster doing that so Scorpio double legs for 2. We hit up the Indy Standoff and they’re doing a great job of this so far. Joey talks about how hot it is in the building and how he can’t imagine wrestling under the lights where it’s even hotter. Another near misses sees Scorpio land a dropkick, Kash springs back up and gets superkicked. Scorpio throws Kash outside but Kash dodges a pescado. Scorpio lands on his feet and Kash hits a slingshot rana. That sure looked ugly. Kash lays in some stiff kicks to compensate for it. That pisses Scorpio off and they head up onto the staging area. Scorpio gets thrown off it into the crowd. Kash follows with a senton. Is Pee Wee Moore counting Scorpio out? Count outs! They’re not extreme! Kash breaks the count to stop that. Scorpio beats the count so Kash dropkicks him back out. Kash grabs Scorpio’s GHC tag title belt and bashes Scorpio with it. That just pisses him off even more and he snaps off some wicked jabs. Scorpio takes it back inside and hits a powerbomb. Tumbleweed scores. No pin. Damn you Scorpio! Another Tumbleweed. That gets 2. More near misses, this time off the ropes and Kash hits a moonsault press for 2. Kash runs the ropes into a springboard rana for 2. Scorpio sure can’t sell those. More kicks from Scorpio and another superkick connects. He doesn’t even pin after that. Backflip attempt at a kick from Scorpio. That gets 2. Crowd politely doesn’t shit on it. Cross armed powerbomb and again no pin. 450 Splash finishes. **. Kash did his best to hold the match together but Scorpio was intent on just having his match, giving Kash a lengthy heat segment without warning and then hitting a bunch of high spots with totally random covers. Messy.

John Kronus v Axl Rotten/Ian Rotten

Oh good God. Now if there’s ever one team I’d never want to see again it’s the fucking Bad Breed. And Kronus is the worst deteriorated wrestler anywhere. Axl talks about how he wasn’t allowed to team with Ian Rotten again. But this isn’t tag team wrestling. This is beating the shit out of some motherfucker. Ian dropkicks a chair into Kronus’ face. He blades and that’s all he’s got of any use. Conchairto! The music kicks in…NEW JACK IS HERE! It’s the Gangstanators 2K5! New Jack has a pair of scissors. Axl blades off another weapons shot. Ian blades and New Jack uses the scissors on him. Axl kills Kronus with a chair shot. Oh, this is horrible. Ian uses the scissors on New Jack. Axl gets whipped through a table. Kronus stiffs the shit out of Axl with punches. So yeah, a bunch of bleeding and weapons shots, which is all these guys are good for. I also mark 90% less for New Jack without the music. Out comes a SCAFFOLD. Kronus and Ian nearly fall over each other. I wouldn’t have booked those guys against each other five years ago, let alone now. This needed more booking. It’s just brawling with blood and the only spot lined up is New Jack using the scaffold, which is 20 foot high. Kronus puts Ian on a table in the ring and New Jack uses the scaffold to dive off and put him through it. Ian is dead. New Jack decides that’s enough and gets a mic to “weave a tapestry of filth” – Joey. Jack gives props to the Bad Breed for taking a beating and then puts the crowd over for being loyal. Jack’s rambling incoherent and profanity loaded promo is kind of hard to follow but the basics of it is that he couldn’t get booked anywhere because all the wrestlers are scared of him. “I am the original violent nigga is this goddamn business” – New Jack. He says when everyone leaves tonight they’ll be real satisfied like they’d “had sex with a fine ass bitch”. Match was a DUD btw, if you didn’t guess.

Justin Credible w/Jason Knight v Jerry Lynn

Lynn’s first match in almost a year after he tore his shoulder up. Credible’s hankie suggests that he’s looking for a handjob off one of the male audience members this evening. No details on whether frottage is his thing or whether he’s after a circle jerk. Lynn controls with a headlock and shoulderblocks Credible out of the ring. “Aldo” – Philly. Lynn throws an armdrag and Montoya is such a bitch that Pee Wee Moore shoves him. Credible gets thrown into the crowd and Lynn dives senton style off the apron barely clipping Credible and back bumping on the concrete floor. Damn, Jerry, don’t break your back for this asshole. Back inside Lynn hits a DDT on a chair. Credible is bleeding from that. Lynn bites the wound. He’s hardcore! Jason tries to interfere with a chair, Lynn steals it and Credible superkicks it back into Lynn’s face. Jason holds the chair in front of Lynn’s face and Credible knee charges it. Sit out powerbomb on the chair for 2. Right on that surgically repaired shoulder. Perhaps a less hard hitting match, Jerry? Lynn does the Brisco corner roll for 2 but runs into the Bossman slam for 2. Jason takes a chance to throw a few elbows while Lynn is recovering on the floor. There’s a lack of noise during a few of the matches on this show. If you compare that to the constant noise that was One Night Stand I think you can tell which company got the overall vibe of their show right. Even if this one started insanely hot. Credible hits a powerslam for 2. Credible misses in the corner though and crotches himself. They run a really contrived set up to Lynn hitting the Kryptonite Krunch for 2. I miss Nova. CRADLE PILEDRIVER…gets 2. Boo! Lynn goes up top but Jason shoves him off. Credible goes up but Lynn uses the ropes to crotch him. Jason on the apron and Lynn springboard dropkicks him. Lynn goes up top too and RANAS CREDIBLE THROUGH THE RINGSIDE TABLE! Back inside Jason pulls the ref out to prevent a pin. Jazz runs out here to kick Jason’s ass and now it’s a one on one. Credible reverses the Tombstone but Lynn reverses it back and the CRADLE TOMBSTONE finishes this. **1/4. A little overbooked but the match was struggling to go anywhere so I’m not shocked. I think it’s mainly because Justin Credible sucks. Still they worked in some nice spots and the finish was hot. Justin gets crowd love post match showing that this audience is willing to cheer everyone eventually for the sake of nostalgia.

Raven w/Blue Meanie/Musketeer v Sandman

Sandman’s entrance takes forever although cunningly JB puts a Sandman interview over the top of it. Raven tells Sandman he got twice the pop he did because he’s twice the bigger star. Raven compares Sandman to Jason in terms of popularity. Raven reminds everyone he’s had an action figure in ECW, WCW, WWE and TNA. He’s not happy coming back to this damn bingo hall. He runs the crowd down who cheer (“they’re too stupid to know they’re being insulted”). Raven thinks Sandman can’t even beat the Musketeer so puts him in there first. He draws his sword. Sandman disarms him and canes the hell out of Musketeer. Raven comes in, steals the cane and nails Sandman with it repeatedly. Sandman no sells it so Raven goes to the balls. “Johnny Polo” – Philly. Now what does the manager of the Quebecers have to do with Raven? Oh. Sandman steals the Musketeer’s hat and kicks Raven’s ass while wearing it. Hey, he looks like a pimp. More so. There’s a ladder on the floor, which Raven suplexes Sandman on. Sandman takes a bunch of bumps on the floor as Raven dictates the pace. Ladder in the ring now and Sandman battles back with punches and a little seesaw action as the ladder bashes Raven in the mouth. Raven is bleeding profusely thanks to that. Table in and set up too. Meanie throws powder into Sandman’s eyes and Raven hits the DDT…for 2. Raven goes for a bulldog through the table but Sandman throws him through it. Sandman grabs the cane and canes the new Flock to stop them interfering. Ladder on Raven and the Rolling Rock connects. No pin because Sandman isn’t done. Another table set up and Sandman hits the White Russian Legsweep. Raven on the table and Sandman goes up for the frickin’ somersault senton. Pin gets 2 but Meanie pulls the ref out. Weird he was babyface an hour ago. MEANIESAULT…barely connects. Raven wants another one and again there’s minimal contact so MEANIESAULT #3 finally gets all of Sandman and Raven pins…for 2. Raven gets a chair for his usual hardcore spot but Sandman skips over it and throws the chair at Raven. He gets the ladder for some violent windmill action. The new Flock are seriously laid out and Raven gets DDT’d for 2. In comes DON E. ALLEN. Mikey runs in to beat him up. Mikey has beer for Sandman. They toast then Mikey inexplicably turns and hits the Whippersnapper on Sandman for Raven to get the pin and the win. *3/4. Don E. Allen? WTF? Some of the booking was fun. That’s about all the positive ness there is for that match.

Terry Funk v Sabu v Shane Douglas

Funk asks for 20 minutes of the fans time because he wants to get “wired”. Down come the ring ropes. Crowd chants “holy shit” because barbwire matches are not permitted in Pennsylvania but for some reason they’re letting it slide. This is a double nostalgia whammy. 1. From 1994’s The Night the Line was Crossed. The original 3-way dance. 2. The Born to be Wired match between Sabu and Terry Funk where Sabu taped up his bicep after gashing it open bad. This is all off the Forever Hardcore documentary and covered on the DVD. Shane Douglas has Francine in his corner for the first time since 1999. Shane is looking fat and out of shape. He looked awful the last time I saw him wrestle, which was several years before this. “Thank you Shane” chant the crowd knowing he put this together. I don’t get this “bringing hardcore back” thing. Does no one watch CZW? IWA-MS? Big Japan? Crowd sportingly chant “show your tits” at Francine. Always classy those fans. Shane threatens to send Terry Funk home a cripple tonight so he’d better make the Double Cross Ranch wheelchair accessible. Sabu is accompanied by Bill Alphonso. So everyone has a manager bar Funk. Oh but that’s not true because he has Tammy Sytch in his corner. Sabu once again neglects to wear a shirt in a barbwire match.

Sabu wonders around looking for a single leg. Three way tie up into a chain of headlocks. They reverse to avoid the barbwire one at a time. Shane ends up being pushed into it but Funk gets whipped the other way into the wire. Shane gets whipped too. Advantage Sabu! AIR SABU~! That gets 2. Shane slides under the wire there’s a 3-way brawl on the floor. Sabu goes back in and uses a chair to dive outside. Funk pulls out a table. They do a good job of covering for a Funk bladejob and the wire does its damage on Sabu before he gets whipped chest first into it. Shane becomes the third member of Club Gig and now there’s blood everywhere. Sabu manages to lariat the wire after Funk moves his chair. Sabu’s leg gets tied up in the wire too. Funk gives him a neckbreaker. Sabu tapes his leg up. Heh. Tribute! Sabu hooks up Shane in a sleeper but he elbows out. Shane reverses and we get a triple sleeper spot. Shane runs out of steam to hold Sabu up so he’s down and Funk pins for 2. Shane tries pinning everyone but when he’s kicked off he lands in the wire. Ow. Funk hits a stunner on Sabu and takes this to the floor. Piledriver on the floor for Sabu and he’s down. Shane doesn’t look well as Sabu gets thrown into the crowd. Sabu chair shots the stationary Douglas and the fight goes back into the ring. Shane goes low and dumps Sabu on the wire. More of Sabu’s ring gear gets torn up there. Meanwhile Funk is throwing chairs in. Funk finds only one is left around the ring crew remove most of them and he throws that at Sabu’s head. Then Shane’s. Then Sabu’s again. He falls into the wire, again, and again that looks painful. There is blood EVERYWHERE and the shirtless Sabu looks to be suffering the worst injuries. Funk gets his arm caught in the wire. He calls for help and the ref has wire cutters to get him out. Fonzie chokes Shane so Francine knees him in the nads and runs him to the back. Hey, there’s Francine’s ass. Neat. Sabu gets his fucking head caught in the wire. Foley lost an ear like that and that was just with regular ropes. Like Sabu needs any new freaky scars. Shane breaks that up with a chair shot and the ref gets one too. Funk looks up at him. “Goddamn you Douglas, you piece of shit”. Meanwhile Sabu is cut free. Pee Wee Moore is out here to complain about Finnegan getting punked out and counted Terry down for 2. Sabu crawls back inside and gets pinned for 2. Funk is back up and he just jabs away at Shane with stiff punches before chair shotting the fallen Franchise. Crowd has gone very quiet. Compare this to the rabid One Night Stand crowds. Douglas gets a chain off Francine and knocks out Moore. That’s two ref’s he’s punked out. Shane gets the chair and works over Funk’s neck with it. He’s trying to end Funk’s career. Rolling neck snap. Joey calls this a conspiracy with Shane plotting to end Funk’s career. Shane dumps Sabu on the ropes again. Shane has a ladder and up he goes but the lights go out. The lights come up and Mick Foley is in the ring. The crowd goes BATSHIT. Talk about a shock. He has a ref’s shirt and armdrags Douglas off the ladder. Mr Socko gets heat so Shane kicks Foley in the nuts. Foley hits a double arm DDT instead. Foley gets a length of barbwire and now there’s the BARBWIRE MR SOCKO! That was his debut. Shane takes it and Funk gives him the rolling leg split. Sabu chair shots him to help the pin and Shane is out of here.

Funk isn’t done with Douglas and gives him the Spinning Toehold. Sabu breaks it up so Funk catapults him through one of the sides of wire. “Cactus Jack” – Philly. Sabu climbs back into the ring as Funk sets up a table. That ladder is still in there. Just sayin’. Foley tries to steady the ladder but the ladder just collapses. Sabu takes advantage with a chair assisted Arabian facebuster for the pin. Sabu wins! ***. That sure was a lot of fun. The crowd was dead before Foley showed up though. “Please come back” is the final chant of the night as the crowd shows its appreciation.

There are some extras too with the footage of Francine meeting up with Shane Douglas for the first time in 5 years. And a Blue Meanie interview where he talks about how bad his head was busted by Sandman hitting him with a chair. He also talks about how he was always pleasant to JBL but called him a bully. Obviously he remembered that because he went right after him at One Night Stand. JBL punched him in the back of the head where he had 14 staples from the chair shot 2 days earlier and then punched him in the eye. “I called him a bully and John, you proved me right”. Nice to see Axl Rotten just hanging around with the people in the line before the show and taking photos. The fanfest sure was quiet too, wasn’t it? When I’m meeting wrestlers I tend to be pretty chatty. All these guys are just standing there handing over crap to sign.

The 411: Interesting how the WWE stole a few of the better spots from this show to use on their own ECW show the following year. The barbwire Mr Socko, the “thank you” to the audience etc. Compared to both the One Night Stand shows the crowd came off a bit flat though. I think that shows how superior the booking was in the WWE shows. There were only a few things I think that Hardcore Homecoming had the edge on. Getting the announcers back for the opening segment was one of them and having the progression of character in Shane Douglas and Raven was the other. Having Raven as a “star” elsewhere got his match over big time. The barbwire in the main event helped but the WWE version of ECW had a flaming table and a bunch of barbwire on the second show. So it’s not a bad nostalgia effort much like the original One Night Stand and it’s nice for ECW fans to have this to watch as well but the match quality is way below One Night Stand. But then I don’t think either show was engineered around having great matches. It was popping out all the old spots and having fun. It succeeds on that level.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]