Gorman

It wasn't just Scorp and Bagwell. I took my dad on a pilgrimage from Ohio to Memphis in 1993. He had more fun watching the fans than the wrestlers. During one match, everyone behind us suddenly exploded into the "Whoomp! There It is" chant.

Very happy to see Xyon Quinn get the callup. We met him on vacation, and he was really cool with us. I told him he would be in one of my WWE history books one day.

Thoughts on House Party 96 Rey Misterio Jr. & 911 is the tag team we didn’t know we needed. They beat the Eliminators by goading them into a chicken fight and Rey Jr. hitting a hurancanrana for the win. Rob Van Dam looked great in his debut win over Axl Rotten. He’s another wrestler who moves in a completely unique way. Taz is the MVP for bullying Joey Styles, mopping the floor with Hack Meyers, antagonizing 911, and calling Sabu a coward. ECW held off on the Taz-Sabu match for about as long as WCW did with Hogan-Sting. Why is Mr. Hughes serving as the bodyguard for Jimmy DelRay? It’s just a prelude to the return of the Franchise, Shane Douglas, after a very brief run in the WWF. Before leaving for WCW, Johnny Grunge declared that the ECW Arena was The House That Public Enemy Built. Philly fans at November to Remember: Please don’t go! New York fans at Holiday Hell: You sold out! Philly fans at House Party: You’ll be back!

Nick: 7 Vince: 8

Thoughts on Holiday Hell 95: The New York Invasion JT Smith fell off the top rope, landed on his head, and lost to Hack Meyers again. Mikey Whipwreck won two more titles, beating "2 Gold" Scorpio for the TV and tag team titles. Cactus Jack helped Mikey and then helped himself to one of the tag team belts. That means Mikey is the MVP for the third show in a row. Is he going to win this thing? Missy Hyatt made out with Stevie Richards in an attempt to get a date with Raven. It must not have worked because Cactus shouted her out in the crowd before the main event. Mantaur showed up as Bruiser Mastino and beat El Puerto Ricano, who was curiously billed from Quito, Ecuador. Cactus tried to make his main event with Sabu into an Olympic rules match. Referee Pee Wee Moore painstakingly talked about all the rules and the scoring system, only to be chokeslammed and replaced as referee by 911.

Relief pitchers will enter the game riding on a camel backward.

Thoughts on November to Remember 95 Joel Gertner opened the show by introducing the Dudley Boyz. Little did he know that he would become a part of their act. Buh-Buh Ray and Sign Guy were part of the clan, with Buh-Buh as stuttering guest ring announcer (let's get ready to Ruh-Ruh-Ruh...). He and Triple H loved to spoof that line, but of course, Michael Buffer was laughing all the way to the bank. Sabu returned, Paul E. hugged him, and all was forgiven. He beat Hack Meyers in his return to the extreme family. Blue Meanie debuted by giving Stevie Richards a "Flock of Seagulls" half-T-shirt. Hey, that's the first band I saw in concert! Joey Styles asked, "Where did he come from?" Well, I'll tell you! Raven appeared on one of our Steel City Wrestling shows and added our moonsaulting big man, Brian Rollins, to the Flock. Taz helped Bill Alfonzo beat Tod Gordon and then adopted Fonzie as his manager. Taz complained that everyone gave sympathy to Sabu, Terry Funk, and Tommy Dreamer when they got hurt, but nobody cared about Taz when he hurt his neck ... except Bill Alfonzo. Sandman won a tag team match to earn a shot at Mikey Whipwreck's ECW title, but Steve Austin stole Sandman's title shot and cribbed his beer-drinking gimmick as well. For retaining the ECW World title over an unexpected opponent who became one of the biggest stars in wrestling history, Mikey Whipwreck is the MVP. Cactus Jack won the Top Two T-shirts award by starting with a homemade Dungeon of Doom shirt (Shark-Zodiac-Kamala) and later revealing an Eric Bischoff shirt. This allowed Tommy Dreamer to punch him right in Eric's face.

(raises hand) Well, I did announce his first ROH match, ROH title shot, and ROH title win. So, if it ain't broke ...

That's great - our Jimmy Cicero stable in Steel City Wrestling was High Society. After Cicero and Cueball Carmichael won the lottery, they staged a corporate takeover of SCW (but didn't dress fancy despite their newfound wealth)

I'll see your Mogul Embassy and I'll raise you a Trust Factory Wingmen Project (In my EWR game, Ari Daivari uses his money to buy up the other stables, only to find that he has a giant group of lower midcarders)

Does this amount to the Browns finally gaining revenge on the Ravens?

Thoughts on Gangsta's Paradise Tony Stetson dressed up in a Philadelphia Flyers outfit as the Broad Street Bully, but the fans thought he was pandering to them and booed him. The WWF must have loved the idea, as they dressed up Wild Bill Irwin as The Goon one year later. The Dudley Boyz shuffled their lineup, with Dudley Dudley and Dances with Dudley in the ring and Chubby Dudley and the injured Big Dick Dudley on the floor. JT Smith lost his balance, fell off the top rope and put himself through a table, causing him to get counted out against Hack Meyers. Smith also thought he was Italian. The Steiners lost a six-man to the Eliminators when their partner, Taz, had a neck injury and got pinned by Jason. Raven & Richards defended the tag team belts in a dog collar match against the Pitbulls, who would have to break up if they lost. This match was more about tables, as they led to Raven's win in the first fall and the Pitbulls' in the second. Pitbull 2 left with an injury, Tommy Dreamer took his place and pinned Raven to win the belts. Then professional wet blanket Bill Alfonzo came out and said it didn't count. This match was destined for a super-happy ending, though, as 911 finally chokeslammed Fonzie, and Pitbull 2 returned from his injury, and the Pitbulls won the belts. Rey Misterio Jr. fits into whatever promotion or decade in which he wrestles. Psicosis dove through the ropes and Rey Jr. blasted him with a chair. Fans: "ECW! ECW!" Mikey Whipwreck is the MVP. He dressed up as Public Enemy and proved himself before the match by swiping ring announcer Bob Artese's wallet and watch. He capped off the night by pinning The Sandman to win the six-man cage match. Mikey had progressed from overmatched joke to top contender to the ECW title.

That's an automatic like from me because he played for Akron.

I'm going to start treating Roman's challengers like the Cleveland Browns during their long losing streak. I am fully expecting them to lose and will be surprised and overjoyed when they finally win. My daughter said that Snoop Dogg has "won at life" and can now just float around and show up with the WWE and Martha Stewart whenever he wants.

Thoughts on Heat Wave 95 Hack Meyers beat Big Val Puccio after the 500-pounder missed an elbow drop. Wait a minute - this was the exact same match they had last month at Hardcore Heaven. Joey Styles was even making the same jokes on commentary. What's going on here? Before Stevie Richards stepped into the cage with Luna, he looked like he was thinking, "I hope she's not as tough as she is in the Royal Rumble game for Sega Genesis." Unfortunately, she was! Stevie lost a bloody brawl when he submitted to a testicular claw. Earlier in the night, he and Raven defended the tag team belts, but they lost by countout to Donn E. Allen & Broad Street Bully. This match featured a catfight (Beulah-Francine) and a dogfight (Pitbulls-Dudleys). The Pitbulls later teamed with Dreamer to beat the Dudleys and Raven with the superbomb. The Pitbulls were regaining the popularity that they had temporarily thrown away. The Public Enemy seemed to have their cage match with the Gangstas in the bag when Rocco put New Jack through two tables. But Mustafa sprayed something in Grunge's eyes and got the pin. After Stevie's loss to Luna, Raven invaded the cage, but that was a big mistake. Tommy Dreamer attacked him, handcuffed him to the cage and delivered the Chairshot Heard Round the World. It wasn't a victory in the ring, but Dreamer finally gained some revenge on Raven, as well as the MVP award.

I cracked up when they showed a replay of Dominick throwing his sister's drink into her face. My daughter said, "I get a kick out of how much you love this stuff."

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.