ECW Hardcore TV 1/3/1995

ECW Hardcore TV 1/3/1995

Joey Styles welcomes us to the show. He says The Pitbulls face The Bad Breed in a losing team splits up forever match.

We see Mikey Whipwreck come out for his match and Joey tells us what will be on the show. We are also told Ron Simmons has a fractured shoulder due to Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Don E. Allen

Mikey hits a russian legsweep and multiple legdrops for 2. We cut back to Joey as the match goes on. He says Ron Simmons can't compete tonight and says we will see more of Stevie Richards. We go back to the match. Mikey boots him out of the corner and bulldogs him off the buckles to win.

Thoughts: What the heck was this? They cut away DURING THE MATCH and we only saw half a minute of it.

We see clips of Mikey Whipwreck's 1994. 

 

Joey Styles interviews Mikey Whipwreck at ringside. Joey says Mikey was the 3rd runner-up in the PWI Rookie of the Year. The sound has issues and we can't hear much. I think they interview an old tag partner of Mikey's named Paul Lauria. Paul Lauria calls Mikey awesome and they shake hands. Paul Lauria then nails Mikey and hits punches. Paul chairs him and says Jason is his new manager.

Paul slaps Mikey in the ring and Jason rips off Paul's shirt. Paul slaps Mikey with the shirt. Mikey is busted open and Joey Styles helps Mikey to the back. Paul asks who's Mikey and says he doesn't have a body like this.

We get the ECW intro video with the old theme, not the more famous one.

Joey Styles says he can't believe what just transpired. He says Mikey is being attended to and may have a concussion. He says Jason keeps trying to ruin the life of Mikey as he became something Jason will never be - a winner and champ. He says Jason poisoned Paul's mind and says Paul is nothing but a rat and backstabber.

Joey interviews Jason. Jason says Joey is thinking how the sexiest man on earth can have such a brilliant mind. Jason calls Paul "The Giant". He says what better way to destroy Mikey than to ruin him emotionally, mentally, physically and morally. Joey says Jason should admit he's jealous of Mikey. Jason says the spot of glory Mike is standing on belongs to Jason and Paul. He asks Mikey what he was thinking of when he thought he could get all this recognition and not pay dues. He says things like this don't happen.

Joey says Mikey will take out Paul Lauria this Saturday.

Woman and The Sandman do a promo. Woman says men everyday want her to show her stuff on the beach. Woman says on January 14 and 16, they will show their stuff to Cactus Jack. She says they will show they are politically incorrect and d@mn proud of it.

Joey says this Saturday night will be the biggest title defense in ECW with Shane Douglas defending the belt against an unknown opponent. We see clips from 1994 with Sabu getting his neck broken, Paul E. Dangerously being moonsaulted through a table by Public Enemy and Sabu being put through a table by Public Enemy. Joey says we have a 4v3 this weekend with Benoit, Malenko and Public Enemy vs Sabu, Taz and 911.

We see clips of Chris Benoit vs Hack Myers from last week. Hack takes a dragon suplex and is holding his neck. Hack isn't getting up and the crowd tastefully chants "break his neck". The match is then stopped and Hack is stretchered out. Dean Malenko then comes out and knocks the stretcher over. Benoit talks about wanting to crack more necks and says something about Sabu which starts a Sabu chant.

Paul E. Dangerously brings out Sabu and Taz. They fight with Malenko and Benoit. Public Enemy then come out and pounds on Taz with the tag titles. Various wrestlers then try to stop it.

We see Public Enemy in an alley. Rock says it was a merry Christmas this year and they talk about their new coats. They imply they stole the coats. Rock says ECW are making figures of the wrestlers. He then shows some stuff animal toy. Grunge says the toy isn't fat enough and is better looking. Grunge tells Paul E to bring down Sabu and Taz. Grunge says they already beat them once and say they will rise to the occasion. Grunge says Sabu, Taz and 911 are going down. Rock then starts rapping.

Thoughts: Well this was something and definitely not your cookie cutter promo.

Joey Styles talks about Holiday Hell where Public Enemy fought Sabu and Taz. We then go to the match

No DQ - Public Enemy vs Sabu and Taz

PE dance in the ring. Sabu and Grunge trade then Sabu does a flying kick. Sabu elbow drops and slams Grunge. Sabu does a seated moonsault on Grunge but the ref isn't there to make the count. Sabu slams Grunge and hits a top rope moonsault. The ref misses the count again and Rock breaks the count up. Rock dances and gets hit by Sabu. Sabu plancha's Grunge.

Taz hits a release dragon suplex on Rock but the ref isn't paying attention again. We cut ahead. Taz chairs Grunge and Sabu slingshot swantons Grunge through a table outside. Taz hits a dangerous looking belly to belly suplex on Rock for 2.

We cut ahead. Sabu chairs Rock then jumps off the chair onto him. Taz gets a 2 count off of it. PE have their heads banged together. Taz belly to belly suplexes Grunge. We cut ahead. Taz exploders Grunge. Rock hits Taz with a pot. Grunge chairs Taz for 2.

We cut ahead and Sabu and Rock are going up into the stands to fight. Grunge chairs Taz in the gut and head. Taz exploders him for 2. Grunge atomic drops Taz. Rock has a goalie mask. Sabu chairs PE then Taz release germans Rock.

Sabu arabian facebusters Rock with the chair then 2nd rope arabian facebusters him with the chair. We cut ahead and a table is knocked over. Sabu is knocked off the top into a table. Benoit and Malenko come out. Sabu takes a double ddt. We cut ahead again and Rock dives on Taz and Sabu on a table. We cut ahead again and Sabu dives outside. Taz hits a suplex on Grunge.

We cut ahead. Taz and Paul E Dangerously get stomped on. 911 comes out to help. He double chokeslams Benoit and Grunge. We cut ahead to more clips and 911 hits a double chokeslam on Benoit and Malenko.

Thoughts: Who knows what we didn't see here as there were almost endless cuts. They had trouble breaking a table here and they said it went over 20 minutes. What we saw looked like an okay brawl. The referee was horrible here though as he was late on multiple pins.

Paul E. Dangerously does a promo. He says there is a form of sports entertainment that try to give you your dollar's worth. He says the fans stood in unison and chanted ECW. He says they didn't earn though and didn't give them what they paid to see - Public Enemy getting their @sses kicked. He says in the 4v3 this weekend, it'll be the best wrestling show you've seen. He says you will get your money's worth and will appreciate that your dollar was earned.

Joey Styles says ECW is expanding into NYC's TV at Club Expo. He says Shane Douglas faces someone who doesn't wrestle for ECW this weekend.

We see clips of Stevie Richards getting a win via superkick 2 weeks ago. We then see Stevie beating JT Smith last week with a superkick while his feet were on the ropes. We then see Stevie getting pinned by Tommy Dreamer. Joey says Stevie told him he will produce the real Johnny Polo to fix this situation.

Shane Douglas talks in the ring. He says Steve Austin didn't show up and Ron Simmons got his shoulder injured by Benoit and Malenko. Ron Simmons comes out in a sling. He asks Shane what he just said and hits Shane with a mic.

Shane Douglas vs Ron Simmons

Ron hits a punch and a kick to the gut. Ron back body drops him for 2. Ron hits lariats for 2. Ron hits kicks to Shane's leg and falls over both times. Ron is then pushed into the rails. Ron hits a nice punch on Shane outside. Ron is then sent into the post arm first.

Ron takes his cowboy boot off and hits Shane with it. The ref hesitates to count and Shane kicks out. Ron whips Shane with his belt then hits Shane with his boot. Ron uppercuts him with the boot. Ron misses a corner charge. Shane hits Ron in the arm and shoulder with the boot. Shane rips the sling off and kicks Ron in the arm.

Shane drops him with a punch then whips Ron with the belt. Shane hits Ron with his boot in the shoulder. Shane ducks a clothesline and hits a dropkick. Shane goes up top and is hit with a boot on his way down.

Ron misses a running shoulderblock. Shane rolls him up and pulls on his pants to get the win.

Thoughts: Shane was a little bit buried here as he had to cheat to win against an injured man. However, the work here was really good. Shane bumped well and Ron's shots looked like they hurt even more with the other arm. This match was done well and would have made anyone cheer for Ron. Ron was fantastic in this. This was good.

Joey Styles is now going to tell us Shane's opponent for Saturday. He opens the envelope and says "oh my God". He says The Horsemen are coming for revenge and says Shane will defend against Tully Blanchard.

Thoughts: That probably worked better in 1995 than it does now (due to Benoit and Malenko later becoming Horsemen). I assume this was referring to Shane constantly calling out Ric Flair, but I don't know.

Overall thoughts: Obviously, it's 2024 and I'm probably not going to give you the opinion I would have in 1995. I didn't like the opening segment at all as they cut away to Joey Styles during the match and then the audio had issues so we couldn't hear what was said. I thought they did a good job of building up the 4v3 match though I would have liked to have seen the full match instead of just highlights. But they had tickets to sell and VHS tapes to sell, so I get it. Public Enemy's rapping segment was something different. I really liked the Shane Douglas vs Ron Simmons match. Ron was an excellent face and came across as double tough. Shane was good too in it. I liked the show and thought it went by quickly, but, I don't know how much enjoyment the average person would get out of in 2024 with the audio issues and with the matches being clipped. I'll give this one a 5 out of 10, but I did like it a little more than the rating suggests. I think it's just too hard to defend it with the clipped matches and the issues with the Mikey Whipwreck/Paul/Jason segment.