DVDVR WWE Network Viewing Club - ECW Anarchy Rulz 99

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

Tried to watch this last night and it didn't show up on my PC. I'm going to attempt again tonight. Only saw the Lynn/Storm match and it was great.

[Captain Kronos]

I may try to watch this one later today. I caught part of Living Dangerously 2000 last night because I was in the mood for that Dusty/Corino bloodbath. The opening with Gertner and Cyrus reminded me why I do not love ECW most days.

 

But I am always open-minded.

[supremebve]

Anarchy Rulz 99

 

Masato Tanaka pulls gets out of a car looking like the last person on the face of earth that you would want to fight.  This show is the very first time I watched Masato Tanaka wrestle and I have to say that his introduction at the time was very effective.

 

Lance Storm out first with Dawn "Yes, you can have all my time, money, and even my car" Marie.  She just looks like she would find some poor sap, and take him for everything he's worth.  She'd run out on him once he's broke and while he'd tell his friends that she is a bitch, part of him would still love her.  That is the girl Bell Biv Devoe was warning us about.  Jerry Lynn comes out to some obviously overdubbed music, and I remember really liking this match when I watched this match live.  They start with a really long, complicated, and pretty good choreographed chain wrestling sequence.  Lance hits his beautiful dropkick and then sleazily crawls over to Dawn Marie and as much as he gets shit for being a charisma vacuum, he is a really good cocky heel.  He comes off like that kid who was held back a year so he is a year older, bigger, stronger, and faster than everyone in P.E., but he acts like he's hot shit because he can beat all the smaller kids in basketball.  Jerry Lynn on the other hand has the personality of a chalkboard eraser.  I really liked this match in '99, and it is still pretty good, but I have to say the ending of the match was strange.  It kind of just ended, Lance Storm got him in a 3/4 nelson roll up for the anti-climactic ending. 

 

Simon Diamond is out and he is the first person that I just plain don't remember.  Based on this interview, I wish I could forget him all over again.  Jazz comes out to be Simon's tag team partner, and Simon berates her about her flat chest, ghetto booty, and $1.99 hair weave.  I want to give everyone reading this some potentially lifesaving advice.  If you think you can talk about a black woman's hair weave and it will be all fun and games, think again.  I don't care if it looks like there is a dead raccoon on her head, keep your jokes to yourself.  Your jokes won't be appreciated, and you will probably get cut.  Eventually Danny Doring, Roadkill, and Miss Congeniality (A young, not so good looking Lita)come out, followed by 25 other people, and  finally New Jack.  New Jack was good for one thing and one thing only, making me wonder why I don't listen to Natural Born Killers more.  They overdubbed this with the world's most generic rap song, and I will never get the last five minutes of my life back. 

 

Little Guido v. Tajiri v. Super Crazy in an extreme three way dance.  Tajiri may have been my favorite wrestler at the time, and he had really good chemistry with both of these guys.  These guys put on a really fun spotfest with a couple of Asai moonsaults into the crowd, a camel clutch boston crab combo, and about 765 kicks to the face.  This isn't some ***** classic or anything, but it was exactly what the fans wanted it to be, and that is fine and dandy to me. 

 

Justin Credible is out with a microphone, and says he has a restraining order against Sabu.  Justin Credible is probably on the short list of my least favorite wrestlers, he came off as such a talentless loser.  ECW shoving him down our throats as a big deal just didn't work for me.  Sabu hits an insane triple jump flipping plancha into the crowd, and this match is quickly turning into setup, spot, setup, spot, etc.  These upside down table spots are hard to watch, so much could go wrong and forgive me if I don't think that Sabu is going to take a lot of care making sure things go right.  Bill Alphonso and Jason may be the two most useless managers of all time, they are really just there to put tables and chairs in the ring, and annoy me.  Justin Credible hits a stunner as a transitional move, and I believe Jerry Lynn used it in the opener.  This is 1999, I remember thinking it cool then, but in retrospect I think it is a fairly chickenshit thing to do.  Austin is the middle of the most profitable run in the history of the business, and his finisher is about as credible as finishers get at the time.  Having some douche like Justin Credible hit a stunner in the middle of a match that had maybe five wrestling moves in it just makes everyone look bad.  Austin's popularity made wrestling as a whole more popular, which increased the pot for guys like Credible and Lynn to get decent pay days outside of the big two companies.  Using a stunner as a transition in 1999, takes credibility away from all finishers.  If the Stunner, which has put down everyone at this point, isn't a coffin nail in 1999, nothing is. Credible wins with a That's Incredible on a chair for the win in a pretty entertaining match.

 

Masato Tanaka v. Mike Awesome v. Taz for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.  This is strangely the third Awesome v. Tanaka match I've watched since the network launched, which I have to say surprises the hell out of me.  Taz does the job quickly, losing his title and leaving ECW for-almost-ever.  The crowd is chanting, "Fuck this you Taz."  Taz did the job and passed the torch like a professional, which is more than you can say about Mike Awesome when he left.  History shows that both Taz and ECW would have been better off if Taz stuck around, but I'm not really one who disparages people about getting a better job.  Tanaka and Awesome are about as compatible as opponents get, they are both willing to get brain damage to entertain the fans, and as soon as Taz is gone, they start giving each other concussions.  The Awesomebomb to the outside is the first one that I've seen that didn't almost kill the guy taking it, but it still looked like it hurt like a summama bitch.  Series of unprotected chairshots to the face of Tanaka, which gets more uncomfortable every time I see it.  Tanaka hits the Diamond Dust, which is a move someone needs to bring back.  It is one of those moves you could hit on anyone, and it looks fucking painful.  Awesome finishes Tanaka with a top rope Awesome bomb through a table, and this is the best Awesome v. Tanaka match I've ever seen.  They did all of their big spots without getting too ridiculous with the chairs and tables.  Taz comes back to give the belt to Mike Awesome in a really emotional moment.  This is how to leave a company.  Taz signed a contract to leave, did the job, and put over the next guy.  Say what you want about the guy, but he handled this about as good as possible.

 

Tommy is out with Francine, they look like one of those couples that were at the swinger party that was happening at the same restaurant as a work event.  They were basically all chubby guys wearing clothes that were 5-10 years out of fashion, and women wearing skirts that couldn't consistently cover their asses.  That work event was way more entertaining than Tommy Dreamer's interview, but Dreamer's interview was still pretty good.  Corino and Rhino make their way out and start the match.  I wouldn't know how to describe this, other than chaotic.  Dreamer and Rhino wrestle the majority of the match, while Corino and Jack Victory cheat.  Francine tries to interfere, before Rhino hits her with a Michinoku driver that leaves her face down and ass out.  Raven comes down and finishes the match without even taking his championship belt off.

 

Axl Rotten is out, and this is probably going to suck.  The impact players interrupt, and you know your faction sucks when Lance Storm is the best talker in the group.  I was going to call him the best mic worker, but I'd have to say Dawn Marie probably works a hell of a mic.  The Impact Players put the beat down on Axl, before Balls Mahoney and Little Spike Dudley make the save.  This sets up a main event of Balls Mahoney v. Rob Van Dam…this company is out of business for a reason.  I really hate the fact that ECW used licensed music, because all of the replacement music sucks.  They brawl on the floor and Balls drinks multiple fans beers while brawling with RVD.  Back in the ring, Balls hits a really good looking Belly-to Belly and some spin wheel kick/leg lariat/Cactus clothesline thing.  They brawl into the crowd where RVD hits the Van Daminator, followed by his crazy ass summersault plancha into the crowd.  I always thought that RVD was the king of doing two unnecessary flips and a 360 before doing something simple, but Fonzie just did a front summersault to leave a chair in the ring.  That may be the most needlessly complex thing I've ever seen in a wrestling match.  A cameraman just gave Balls a chair, which seems strange, but I guess if you don't have a Fonzie or Jason you have to have someone hand you a chair, might as well be the cameraman.  Balls gets his special Anarchy Rulz chair and hits RVD like he is trying to shatter his skull.  I don't understand why people agreed to take those chairshots, even before all of the concussion research people had to know that was a terrible idea.  Fonzie distracts Balls before RVD hits a top rope Van Daminator before hiting the 5-Star Frog Splash for the win.

 

I remember loving this show when it happened, and even though I liked it a lot less now, it has its moments.  Storm v. Lynn was a really good technical wrestling match, the 3-Way-Dance with Tajiri, Guido, and Super crazy was a fun spotfest, and Awesome v. Tanaka put on their best match yet.  Everything else was basically everything you'd expect, so even when they weren't great wrestling matches they didn't disappoint.

[The Natural]

I still own the VHS release of this show. The best PPV from 1999 and might be my favourite ECW PPV. If you want to watch other ECW PPV's from this year, go for Living Dangerously and Hardcore Heaven. Think I liked Guilty as Charged as well.

[Ace]

.  Taz comes back to give the belt to Mike Awesome in a really emotional moment.  This is how to leave a company.  Taz signed a contract to leave, did the job, and put over the next guy.  Say what you want about the guy, but he handled this about as good as possible.

 

And amusinglly, it didn't even end up being Taz's last show, since his debut was put in January 2000, so he stayed even longer to put over RVD and Sabu.

[supremebve]

 

.  Taz comes back to give the belt to Mike Awesome in a really emotional moment.  This is how to leave a company.  Taz signed a contract to leave, did the job, and put over the next guy.  Say what you want about the guy, but he handled this about as good as possible.

 

And amusinglly, it didn't even end up being Taz's last show, since his debut was put in January 2000, so he stayed even longer to put over RVD and Sabu.

 

Not to mention coming back when Awesome fucked them over.  Taz comes off like a douche to me a lot of the time, but I really respect how he handled leaving ECW.  I swear Paul has to simultaneously the best guy to work for and the worst guy to work for.  Everyone who ever worked for him swears by him, except when it comes to getting paid.  You know how good of a boss you have to be for people to like you after you didn't pay them?  I don't know about you guys, but if my job doesn't pay me there is going to be a mother fucking problem.

[notoriusvig]

RVD was a real spectacle in 1999.  He liked to ham it up for the cameras a lot and he seemed like a big star in a small company.  His match with Balls was pretty decent and Balls worked hard for being a big guy.  Fonzie really helped out RVD in the match and he probably would have lost without him. 

 

The 3-way title match was good but stiff.  It's hard watching Tanaka taking those chair shots.  As a teen, I loved that shit though.  Gotta love that Awesome mullet and that stare he always had.  This was like every other Tanaka/Awesome match and it makes me want to watch their ONS match.

 

I still think Lynn/Storm was the best match on the show.

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

Damn. This show was good. Very entertaining.  The WWE edit of Dawn Marie's intro is beyond lame. I was promised uncut material. ECW viewing in 2014 is going to be very interesting, if this is any indication to go off. Lynn/Storm and the 3 Way was good. This show showed me way some guys, who I think completely suck, were over and over huge. One guy who is still a head scratcher to me is Justin Credible. Lame promo, lame look, and anothing 'incredible' about him. Mike Awesome was in fact Awesome and after the match I was left feeling a bit down knowing the bad booking that awaited him in WCW. Love the main event as well. Overall a good show and I consider it recommended viewing.

[cubbymark]

The New Jack music edit is a crime.