Gorman

Thoughts on Hardcore Heaven 95 Raven stopped waiting for The Pitbulls to win the tag team belts for him and won the gold with Stevie Richards on the night before this show. He dragged Stevie and Beulah away from Francine again, and the distracted Pitbulls lost to the debuting Dudley Boyz (Little Snot Dudley & Dudley Dudley, with Big Dick Dudley). The Pitbulls got mad and brawled with Raven & Richards after their title defense against Dreamer & Luna. She challenged for a men's title four years before Chyna did it in the WWF. Shane Douglas quit ECW, interfered in an ECW title match, and was fired from ECW all in the same night. 911 added the exclamation point. Tod Gordon put Bill Alfonso in charge of the Taipei death match because there were no rules for him to enforce. So Fonzie stopped the match at the first sign of blood. Then Fonzie left the building to stop a brawl between the Gangstas and Public Enemy, so the Rottens could destroy each other in peace. Does anyone know why 2 Cold Scorpio was fighting Taz? They were partners on the last show, and here they were fighting with no explanation. The Public Enemy was really a big deal in ECW. They were in the main event over the ECW title match, beat The Gangstas after using a croquet mallet, and invited the fans into the ring for a show-ending party. Now that's an MVP performance.

Cavaliers have made the playoffs without LeBron for the first time since 1998.

Thoughts on Barbed Wire, Hoodies and Chokeslams Beulah McGillicutty seemed overmatched in her pro wrestling debut against Luna Vachon, but she won in eight seconds after a chairshot from Stevie Richards. Francine showed up in the crowd as a Stevie superfan, but Raven put an end to the high-school drama by dragging Stevie and Beulah backstage. This robbed the Pitbulls of the 3-on-2 advantage that Raven earned by disclosing Tommy Dreamer's fingers. Taz & 2 Cold Scorpio ended up beating the Pitbulls. Mikey Whipwreck channeled early UFC with a Keith Hackney-like barrage of low blows to beat 500-pound Big Val Puccio. Axl Rotten introduced his mystery partner to challenge The Public Enemy for the tag team title ... his brother, Ian Rotten! Wait a minute, weren't they banned from teaming up again? Why yes, and here's Bill Alfonso to remind everyone of that fact. Axl & Ian started brawling again. Rock & Grunge seemed to get the night off, but they were attacked by The Gangstas. 911 is the MVP for chokeslamming the Jersey Devil a record-breaking four times ... and then breaking his own record by chokeslamming Jungle Jim Steele FIVE times. Cactus Jack's barbed wire match against Sandman for the ECW title was like a preview of his tenure in the WWF. When Sandman dropped Cactus crotch-first on the barbed wire, Joey Styles called it "the most extreme move of the decade." Of course, Mick Foley would be the victim of the most extreme move EVER three years later. Cactus seemed to win the title by knocking out Sandman for a 10-count, only for Alfonso to ruled that the title couldn't change hands that way. That's exactly what happened at In Your House 26: Rock Bottom when Mankind knocked out The Rock with the Mandible Claw but somehow didn't win the WWF title.

I'm in the 10th row here - the Demolition/Fuji turn happened on our side of the ring.

Did we ever get an answer to who drove the Hummer? If so, I need to get it into the WCW book before it's published. I was even there in Cleveland on the night it happened!

Thoughts on Enter the Sandman Unlike the nearly Funk-free Return of the Funker, Sandman was a big part of this show. For successfully defending the ECW title against Cactus Jack and Shane Douglas consecutively, Sandman is again the MVP. Just like the very existence of WCW was threatened by the new World order, ECW faced its own existential crisis when Shane Douglas brought in Bill Alfonso as a hypervigilant referee. I played this same role one night in Steubenville, Ohio, and Big Bully Busick threw me out of the ring on my head. But at this point, nobody dared to touch Fonzie or he would have the entire promotion shut down. Tommy Dreamer was the first victim of Alfonzo's refereeing, as Dreamer lost to Raven (again), getting disqualified for throwing a punch. Tony Stetson brazenly stole Bret Hart's nickname, but it wasn't enough to help "The Hitman" score a win over Hack Meyers. Ian and Axl Rotten wore the same T-shirt touting their blood feud. This bout was a barbed wire baseball bat/chair match. I hope they used their combined T-shirt sales to buy Momma & Poppa Rotten a barbed wire Christmas tree. Taz made his commentary debut as Eddy Guerrero and Dean Malenko had another classic 30-minute draw for Eddy's TV title. Before the Pitbulls-Public Enemy double dog collar match, Tod Gordon went all "early UFC" on us by declaring, "There are no rules!" Public Enemy won the match and earned five minutes in the ring with Stevie Richards. Raven interrupted, followed by Dreamer and ... Luna Vachon? She helped Dreamer close the show with another crowd-pleasing Beulah Driver.

Butcher and Blade almost always win their YouTube matches.

Great to see Nick Lendl get an opportunity on this show to be timekeeper and backstage interviewer.

Thoughts on Hostile City Showdown 95 Sandman is the MVP for winning the ECW title from Shane Douglas. This show took place just a week after The 3-Way Dance, and Woman swerved right back into Sandman's corner and helped him win. This show featured four classic ECW matchups: Axl vs. Ian: Which of the weapons in the garbage can will the fans vote for in the Viewer's Choice match? All of them! Dreamer vs. Raven: Tommy was disqualified for giving the ref a DDT. He then piledrove his future wife Beulah and soaked in the fans' cheers Hogan-style. Guerrero vs. Malenko: The ECW fans appreciated this technical wrestling showcase just as much as the previous hardcore match. Eddy hung onto the TV title in a 30-minute draw. Cactus vs. Funk: Cactus scored another big win, just like over Sandman, who attacked him after the match. Funk disposed of Mikey and Hack, and Shane had walked off to the WWF in a huff. So nobody was available to save Cactus from Funk setting him on fire.

If so, they should have teamed him with The Butcher.

This was hilarious. They could be brothers. Does anyone know why the show is called "Hey (EW)?"

First match signed for the House Rules show in Troy, Ohio this Saturday: Blackpool Combat Club's Mox & Claudio vs. The Firm's Lee Moriarty & Big Bill. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/tag-team-match-set-for-aew-house-rules-live-event I offered to drive to the show and do commentary for future digital content.

Everyone will be well-dressed.

Thoughts on The 3-Way Dance Stevie Richards told the Broad Street Bullies that if they lost, Raven would fire them. Then Stevie brought out The Pitbulls to destroy the Bullies. The Pitbulls abandoned their burgeoning popularity and pledged that they would win the belts and hand them to Raven. Stevie had another surprise for Raven: Beulah McGillicutty, who was not as "fat and disgusting" as Raven had remembered from when she attended summer camp with teenage Raven and Tommy Dreamer. Raven battled Dreamer, but Stevie decided to plant a kiss on Beulah, who slapped him. Stevie attacked Beulah, but when Dreamer came to her rescue, it was a setup! Beulah squirted hairspray in Dreamer's eyes, leading to Raven scoring the first of many wins over Dreamer. Best fan sign: We Want Raven's Blood (that's supposed to be red) Spoiler alert: they got it. Mikey Whipwreck continued to be the James Bond of ECW. Instead of just pinning Mikey, Ron Simmons had to chokeslam him twice and then get disqualified for chokeslamming the ref. Of course, this brought out 911. Simmons actually chokeslammed 911. When several wrestlers came to help, 911 said thanks by chokeslamming them. Eddy Guerrero looked fantastic in his win over 2 Cold Scorpio, avenging brother Hector's loss to Scorpio at Return of the Funker. Ian Rotten entered the hair vs. hair match against his brother looking like he had already lost, as his head was 80 percent shaved. Axl won the match and finished the job. Of course, Ian gained control of the scissors and attacked Axl, because this is the feud that will not end. Woman lit Sandman's victory cigarette before he could win the ECW title from Shane Douglas. But Sandman did not prove to be the Red Auerbach of wrestling. Woman slipped his Singapore cane to the Franchise, who used it for the win. Sabu no-showed the biggest match in ECW history. The fans were not pleased. They popped huge for his replacement, Rick Steiner. He and Taz suplexed everyone. They were the first team eliminated, but they beat everyone up again before they left. Benoit and Malenko seemed to have the win in the bag, but The Public Enemy rallied for the victory. Even though the Pitbulls attacked them after the match, Rock & Grunge became three-time champions and the MVPs of this show.

Thoughts on Return of the Funker The Pitbulls (without any Jasons) opened the show with a squash win. The fans were on their side and the superbomb was getting over as a finisher. While the masked Jason wasn't on the show, another guy in a weird mask attacked Hack Myers and caused him and Mikey Whipwreck to lose to Paul Lauria and manager Jason, who was wrestling more often. Before facing his brother in a barbed-wire baseball bat match, Ian Rotten ran to the ring and grabbed the bat from the guy who was trying to attach it to the pole. Brilliant! This show should have been called "Return of a Lot of Old ECW Guys." Stevie Richards brought back The Broad Street Bullies to help Raven battle Tommy Dreamer. Cactus Jack's mystery opponent in a surprise box was DC Drake. So we get to the end of the show, and before we can liken it to "In Your House 12: It's Time (to watch everyone but Vader)," Terry Funk also pops out of the surprise box. ECW kept trying to build up Shane Douglas as World champion by pitting him against former WWF and WCW stars like Road Warrior Hawk, 2 Cold Scorpio, Tully Blanchard, and here, Marty Jannetty. For surviving this challenge and spurning Woman's invitation to join Funk and Sandman in attacking his former training partner Cactus Jack, the Franchise is the MVP. Not only that, but the Franchise's Triple Threat group collected all the gold. Malenko already had the TV title when he and Benoit won the tag team belts from Sabu & Taz. Before the match, The Public Enemy talked too much smack about Benoit & Malenko because with Rocco in a wheelchair, they were sitting ducks for an attack.