Hello hello and welcome back, it’s time for another trip through time with this installment of my look back at the land of extreme. Last time out, I was impressed by the show as a whole, some sour points mind you, but there were some highlights, including an insane spot between JT Smith and The Dark Patriot. I don’t have much to ramble out this time around, so let’s get right into the action.
ECW Hardcore TV
Episode 13
June 29th, 1993
Watching the into video package offers more hardcore and action packed action than most of these episodes, which makes me wish I could just get those matches and segments instead of what I’m watching week after week. Down at ringside, we have Tod Gordon, Jay Sulli, and Paul E. Dangerously, the trio runs down the card for the evening, including yet another “grudge” match between Tony Stetson and Larry Winters. Gordon also mentions the crazy end to last week with the massive brawl and how it wasn’t something he’d stand for, blaming Paul E for what happened.
Next, Sulli and Gordon are sitting I assume in the locker room of the arena, talking about the Summer Sizzle event and how much of a success it was, which was obviously a good thing, as the more successful the event, the better. Sulli mentions that the finish to the main event made no sense, which without context, makes it seem like he’s breaking kayfabe and trashing the booking of the show. Oh boy! This is good news, we’re getting highlights of the Texas Chain Match, which is the match and the finish they were talking about.
They talk about how they hired a young ref by the name of Kevin Christian and Gordon speaks highly of him, but they go on in detail about the finish of the match, where Christian ignored Terry Funk touching the corners, allowing Eddie Gilbert to piledrive Funk on a chair and win the match. It’s revealed that Kevin Christianson isn’t actually his real name, but he’s related to Eddie Gilbert, the third Gilbert brother. However, they lied, we don’t get footage of this match this week, instead, next week we’ll see it. Which is a let down to me.
Never mind, apparently they will air this footage now, as I’m watching it right now. It really seems that they are taping and airing some of these things out of order, as last week was the “debut” of the Dark Patriot, despite wrestling one week prior and now we get confusion over if we’ll see this match or not. I can understand it slightly, since I’m assuming they have a general plan with the stuff taped from the arena and promos shot backstage or elsewhere are probably inserted in, but it still wouldn’t hurt to have a clear cut time table of things and have things flow week to week, considering it’s all stuff under your control.
I won’t call this the opening bout of the show, as it’s in highlight form, but this is the chain match main event between Funk and Gilbert, which I was hoping to see in full. Although I do believe, on a side note, the two had a chain match in Tri-State Wrestling which was ECW before ECW, ran by Gordon and having some of the same talent that would be part of ECW during the early years. They don’t go too deep with the clips, but the short package was wild and makes me want to see the whole match, so maybe one day it’ll be aired on the TV show or the show itself will be put on the Network.
Backstage, we get a promo by Terry Funk, talking about the match and how he was upset by what happened. He rambles on about the Dark Patriot and how he wants him and Gilbert in a match, he then goes on about how he wants the mask of the Patriot and the hair of Gilbert or something like that…it was a very confusing promo. As if he had no idea what he was supposed to say or what he was trying to get over, so he just winged it. Promos continue with one by the Koloffs, despite like a minute at best of action from the chain match, we are ten minutes in and we have seen no real in ring action.
Ivan and Vladimir Koloff vs Herve’ Renesto and Glen Osbourne
Vladimir is the third member of the Koloff clan, the other being Nikita, I honestly don’t know much about Vlad as I’ve never seen him before this(well, aside from the promo from last week), only today did I research him to see what the story was. He has quite the resume though, as ran down by Paul E. Vlad destroys Renesto before tagging in Ivan who traps Renesto in a unique variation of the bear hug, trapping his arm behind him before applying the hold. The duo continues to tear apart the arm of Renesto before Vlad delivers a wicked belly to belly, breaking his own pinfall to trap Renesto in a submission hold, forcing him to give it up.
Winners: Ivan and Vladimir Koloff
Thoughts: Much like I say about a lot of these squash matches, it served a purpose and I was impressed by Vladimir, while he may not have done anything amazing, he was still a beast and it was an alright squash match.
We get another vignette straight from Paul E in the production van, of Eddie Gilbert parading around as the “king of Philadelphia”. Gilbert, Gordon, and Sulli are out in Philly, Gilbert is in his wrestling gear, which I find weird. It’s like James Ellsworth wearing his gear out shopping this past week on Smackdown, for those who watch the current product. Do these people not have a change of clothes? It’s comical to me, anyways, nothing really happens here, moving on.
“Grudge Match”
Tony Stetson vs Larry Winters
How many grudge matches have we seen here? It’s like one a week and rarely do they feel like it’s a match between two people who don’t like each other. Anyways, these two have broken up after an incident in a battle royal a few weeks back where Winters eliminated Stetson on accident and Stetson turned on Winters, eliminating him and assaulting him. Winters jumps Stetson at the bell and the action spills outside, Winters bashes him with a chair, the action is back in the ring, but quickly the pair head back outside where Stetson now batters Winters with a chair and some other objects. It breaks down quickly, we see one ref go down, then another, then the ball is called for, a third ref is attacked, then the locker room clears out and tries to pull the two apart.
Result: No Contest
Thoughts: Another one of those things that just ends too quickly, I get it, you want to sell that these two men hate each other and want to build to a final conclusion, so you do something like this to extend the feud and build to a bigger match. But, after seeing far too many matches like this where there’s no finish or it’s over in a flash, it just kills it for me. We could’ve gotten the same thing out of an 8 minute match that ended the same way, but no it’s in and out as usual and nothing really lands for me.
TV Title Match
Jimmy Snuka(c) vs Tommy Cairo
You should all know the drill by now, not to be a Debbie Downer, but despite not being officially charged with anything and the passing of Snuka last week, there is still a lot of controversy surrounding him and it makes me feel uncomfortable watching his work, same with Chris Benoit. So, I skipped to the finish, Snuka lands a splash, but Funk comes out and informs the ref that Don Muraco got involved and the ref reverses the decision.
Winner via DQ: Tommy Cairo
Thoughts: Can’t give any, but at least the belt is defended and that’s something.
Sal Bellomo with another wild and insane promo, his promos may not make any real sense, but I sure could watch him talk for hours on end. Also, we get a promo by Richard Michaels and Hunter Q. Robbins. This leads us to our next match.
Sal Bellomo vs “Sir” Richard Michaels
Standard start, quick back and forth action, the early highlight is Bellomo kissing the ref, as Robbins confronts some fans, a dropkick by Michaels takes the big man off his feet, the two try to stuff a candy bar into each other’s mouth, based on the promo by Bellomo calling him and the Super Destroyers “the 3 Musketeers” that’s something I guess. Bellomo moves just a bit too early, which causes Michaels to jump anyways into the turnbuckle, just looks poor from my standpoint. MIchaels tries to roll up Bellomo with his feet on the ropes, but gets caught. However, Bellomo does the same thing and is able to get away with it, scoring the victory.
Winner: Sal Bellomo
Post match, the Suicide Blondes rush the ring and beatdown Bellomo, but not for long as the Super Destroyers hit the ring and the show ends with another brawl between the two trios. As the credits roll, we see that the faces clear house and get the upperhand to send us out for the week.
Thoughts: Eh, passable match, nothing of interest really, it was short, but felt fleshed out enough to get the story across. The post match stuff was alright, a step down from last week’s brawl, but still fun.
Overall Thoughts
A step down from last week, no real follow up to the angle with the Dark Patriot and Smith, no follow up to Dangerously and his crew getting involved with the Blondes/Destroyers/Bellomo situation last week either. Perhaps though, the latter isn’t a big deal, but there was no explanation why they got invovled. Grudge match felt weak and it’s just another miss here for me.
So, yeah another weak episode. I have no real strong points to mention, it’s like they can book a strong episode of TV, but it’s so few and far between. With that said, that wraps this up, I thank you all for reading this, I hope you enjoyed, and on a side note, I hope you enjoy the Royal Rumble, which by the time you read this, will have happened and who knows what will have happened. I’ll see you all next week.