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(Taped Sept. 20 in Philadelphia, Pa. at ECW Arena)... Joey Styles introduced the show from mid-ring. He said he would prove he doesn't have a say in who he has to interview by introducing Jason, "the sexiest man on Earth." When Jason arrived in the ring, Styles began scratching his suit, saying he breaks out into a rash whenever Jason comes near. Jason introduced his newest find. Styles said he recognized him as P.J. Walker and said "the clowns in Connecticut" underutilized him. Fans chanted, "Aldo Montoya." Jason introduced him as Justin Credible. He declared himself "incredible" and gave Styles a shove... This week's on-screen intro graphic read: "More explicit than Raw? Just impossible. More explosive than Nitro? Just imagine. Hottest new talent? Justin Credible." A new, jazzed up ECW opening montage then aired...
(1) Justin Credible (w/Jason) pinned "Dynamic" Jerry Lynn at 12:00. Justin dove off the ropes toward Lynn at ringside, but when Lynn moved Justin took an amazing looking bump right on the guard rail rib-first. He recovered quickly, though, and Lynn gave him a bulldog off the railing to the floor. Lynn then leaped off the top turnbuckle on to Justin on the floor. Styles pointed out this was the ECW Arena debut for both wrestlers. Justin won with a corkscrew tombstone and a flying DDT for the clean win. Very good match. It's worth booking them in a feud against each other so they can put together a series of matches... Styles plugged the home video of the entire Sept. 20 ECW Arena show with a song from Oasis's latest CD playing in the background. If the WWF really wanted to set its Raw program apart from Nitro and instantly triple their "hip quotient," they'd pay the appropriate fees to get rights to play current music as bumpers on the show and in the background of video packages...
Lance Storm [artist Joseph Borzotta (c) PWTorch]
(2) Chris Candido pinned Lance Storm in 14:00. Good back and forth action with everything solidly executed, much like the previous match. Candido went for a pin but had his feet on the ropes for leverage. The ref stopped the count. Candido got up and shoved the ref. Styles then uttered the funniest line of the night, unintentionally -- "You don't want to shove the referees in ECW." Yeah, right. Like there's an organization in the history of wrestling where referees have been any more impotent and abused and disrespected without a big deal being made out of it. Storm's use of elbows to the side of his opponent's head is a refreshing change from most wrestlers who resort to worked-looking punches in the same position during matches. At 11:00 Storm kicked out of a powerbomb pin attempt by Candido. Storm then blocked a top rope superplex attempt and came off with a top rope sunset flip, but Candido sat down on it for a two count. They continued to exchange near falls until Candido hit the Blond Bombshell (top rope powerbomb) for the three count...
(3) Tommy Dreamer & Beulah beat Rob Van Dam & Bill Alfonso in 15:00. Van Dam began complaining about having to wrestle a ridiculous mixed match in front of the losers in ECW Arena. Styles said: "ECW will always call that bluff. If you don't want to be here, wrestle somewhere else." Van Dam's mic work and swearing (bleeped, of course) had more impact than usual (even in moderation) because the previous two matches were not full of the same thing. The impact of the brawling in the match itself was more effective for the same reason. Diversity is good. Early in the match ref Jeff Jones took a chair out of Dreamer's hands as he went to hit Van Dam. Van Dam then kicked the chair into Jones's face, so the ref was down for a while. A limping Dreamer hit a frog splash at 3:00. Sabu then charged the ring and attacked Dreamer. They set Dreamer on a table in mid-ring and Van Dam leaped off one corner onto Dreamer with a splash and Sabu followed a split second later with a legdrop across his face. As Dreamer received medical attention at ringside, Van Dam left after saying he had better things to do. That left Beulah vs. Alfonso. Beulah bashed Alfonso with a cookie sheet and he bladed big time. She threw a bloody Alfonso into the crowd to bleed on fans once again, then returned to the ring to brawl some more. (This aired the same week "E.R." made a huge deal out of a guy bleeding on a co-worker and the co-worker needing to be tested for HIV, even though he didn't have any open cuts. From a p.r. perspective, ECW continues to play with fire with their loose policy on bleeding in the laps of fans.) Beulah was great in her role in the ring, as was Alfonso. In the end Beulah reversed a top rope powerbomb attempt by Alfonso into a "Beulahcanrana" for the win... [WK]
ECW NEWSWIRE (from PWTorch Newsletter #462)
ON THE ROAD
Oct. 10 in Rostraver, Pa.: Spike Dudley beat Road Kill in the opener. Mikey Whipwreck beat Paul Diamond (w/Destiny) after Destiny hit Diamond with a chair by mistake. Al Snow beat Lou Marconi, after which Snow beat on Marconi. Kronus & New Jack beat The Dudley Boys in an extreme death match when Kronus pinned Buh Buh Ray after a 450 splash. Wild brawling including New Jack breaking a stereo over D-Von's head. The Full Blooded Italians (Tracy Smothers & Little Guido) beat Balls Mahoney & Axl Rotten. Balls hit ref Jim Jones with a chair after Jones got in Axl's face about rules infractions in a similar angle to what aired on television two weeks ago. The ring announcer said Tommy Dreamer was unable to face Phil LaFon due to ailing injuries. Dreamer came out and DDT'd the announcer. Then Doug Furnas (who was scheduled to wrestle Taz) and LaFon came out and beat on Dreamer. Taz then came out to help. Sabu and Rob Van Dam joined in the brawl followed by the rest of the ECW locker room. Dreamer vs. LaFon and Taz vs. Furnas never took place. Sabu and Van Dam remained in the ring for their main event match. Shane Douglas & Bam Bam Bigelow beat Van Dam & Sabu after Douglas pinned Van Dam with the belly-to-belly suplex. [Rennie Detore]
Oct. 11 in Beaver Falls, Pa.: Taz beat Little Guido, Furnas & LaFon beat Mikey Whipwreck & Chris Chetti, Al Snow beat Lou Marconi, Tracy Smothers (w/Tommy Rich) beat Marty Baron via DQ after Baron figure-four leglocked Rich, Justin Credible beat Paul Diamond, Kronus & New Jack beat Balls & Axl, Bigelow beat Spike Dudley, Blue Meanie beat Jason (Super Nova and Meanie imitated KISS and did the YMCA bit), Douglas beat Sabu (Rick Rude's mystery man) to retain the ECW Title followed by run-ins by Bigelow and Van Dam.
ECW NOTEBOOK
On the ECW 900 commercial, Paul Heyman said: "A conversation between Taz and Eric Bischoff at the specific request of ECW? It's on the record." He also said they'd talk about Missy Hyatt's adult video and called her a pig... ECW has upgraded its customer service by adding a new number for ordering advanced tickets -- (215) 755-4177 which is up and running during normal business hours... ECW did a ten bell salute to Pillman at their weekend house shows... Tickets for the Nov. 30 pay-per-view "November to Remember '97" went on sale on October 13. Tickets are available through TicketMaster. There is talk of Taz vs. Pitbull 2 (Anthony Durante) as a match. Sandman vs. Sabu in a gimmick match (probably ladder) is slated, but Douglas's opponent (presumably a big name "hand-picked" by Rick Rude) has yet to be determined. Durante isn't pleased with his April PPV payoff which just came last week since it was for less than one-third of what Douglas was paid for being in the same match. Pitbull 1 (Gary Wolfe) still is unable to wrestle due to the injury he suffered in the cage match on the Dennis Coraluzzo NWA show...
The power structure and locker room hierarchy without Tod Gordon behind the scenes hasn't changed much. Heyman, obviously, still runs the show with Chris Candido and Tommy Dreamer still being the two top "deputies" for him. Buh Buh Ray Dudley is a "junior deputy" of sorts, helping Heyman with a lot of promotional duties outside of his wrestling role. Sandman is not especially tight with that group, but is seen as a locker room leader because of his seniority. Taz is the least popular main eventer among other wrestlers. The accusation from several ECW wrestlers is that he "takes his gimmick way to seriously" and is hard to get along with and is inflexible when it comes to planning the content of his matches with other wrestlers, most of which Taz openly acknowledges are what his critics say about him. Sabu (who doesn't get along with Taz at all) and Douglas get along with Heyman, but not at the level of Candido and Dreamer. The locker room is said to not be the united family that legend says it was at one time. With so many new faces (Furnas, LaFon, Snow, Justin, Lynn, Duncum, and some other lesser names) there isn't a feeling of unity like there was when everyone knew everybody. That said, there isn't as much feuding between factions as there was earlier this year, either...
Dreamer and Beulah have more than just an on-air partnership as they are good friends behind the scenes... Raven and Stevie Richards have yet to be paid for their ECW pay-per-view appearance... This weekend's line-ups: Thursday, Oct. 16 in Queens, N.Y. features New Jack & Kronus vs. Dudleys with Joel Gertner's hair on the line; Oct. 17 in Downingtown, Pa. features Great Sasuke in a match, New Jack & Kronus vs. The Dudleys, Douglas & Bigelow vs. Sabu & Van Dam, Furnas & LaFon vs. Whipwreck & Spike, Balls & Axl vs. FBI; Oct. 18 in Philadelphia, Pa. at ECW Arena... The following weekend shows are Oct. 24 in Waltham, Mass. and Oct. 25 in Revere, Mass... Paul Heyman called to stress two "glaring errors" in last week's "ECW Newswire." (1) The report said Taz negotiated with WCW "with Paul Heyman's full knowledge." Heyman said: "He negotiated with Eric Bischoff with my encouragement and my direction. I see that as a glaring error on your end and what you have put forth as a story is inaccurate. I not only encouraged him to do that, I gave him Eric Bischoff's cell phone number. The fact is he didn't negotiate with my knowledge, he negotiated with my encouragement and at my direction." (2) "The other glaring error you had was that Tod Gordon negotiated the deal with WTGI after leaving the company," Heyman said. "The negotiations took place far before Tod Gordon was revealed to be 'the mole,' using your words. The negotiations took place several months ago and he finished up the negotiations because they finally called him back when the slot opened for us that we were looking for, a weeknight prime time slot. He closed the deal with my blessing. My opinion is he did it because we handled our business like gentlemen and why make enemies when you don't need them. On both cases, I figure I handle my business in the proper fashion"...
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