On The Road: ECWA SUPER 8 1999
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS! wrestles to the converted! CHRISTIAN YORK! really stinks! MATT AND JEFF HARDY! get a warm reception! ORO comes back from the dead! We finally find a steak house and other stuff from the DVD Playboyz trip to the Super 8…
2/27/99 – ECWA
Newport, Delaware
THE SCORECARD
DR: DEAN RASMUSSEN – Steak and All you can eat Shrimp w/Salad Bar and a Diet Coke. Four and Half hours from Richmond, VA. Pierroth Jr mask (on loan from Pogo Pete with string from Schnieder’s El Hijo del Santo mask).
RR: REV RAY DUFFY – Steak and Mashed Potatoes. Mind you I ordered a Baked potato but that bastard Schneider stole my steak and I had to wait for his. 4 Hours via bus to DC, then 2 hours by car up to Delaware. Histeria mask.
PP: “POGO” PETE STEIN – Steak and Fries. Same route as RR. Ultraman Jr. mask, plus Kendo, La Parka and Pierroth extras.
PS: PHIL SCHNEIDER – Steak and Rev. Ray’s Baked Potato, plus the Salad Bar. Caught a ride with Deano and Mike Tyler. Blue Panther mask I bought for 3 dollars in Mexico
PR: PHIL “THE RIPPER” RIPPA – Steak and Mashed Potatoes with Salad Bar. Drove 10 minutes to Schneider’s to catch a ride with the Rasmussen Taxi service. Ultimo Dragon mask that Phil gave to me after buying it for $3 in Mexico.
BACKSTORY
DR: We all had a big ole time at the cool as hell Super 8 Tournament this year – as it seemed that almost everybody on the East Coast who is on the net showed up, so a TRULY FAT ASS time was had by all. ECWA has done a great job of making a real event out of this tournament and lots of folks drove a long way to be a part of it.
PP: ECWA is a fun promotion based on what I saw of them here. Very much a family-oriented group, with damn near the highest percentage of kids I’ve ever seen at any show. And St. Matthews is the prototypical “smoke-filled arena.” *cough*
PS: This is my second and a half ECWA show (last year’s Super 8, and the time me and Dean drove up to Delaware got to the show, realized the Mike Quakenbush vs. Jeff Peterson match had already happened and drove back) This was definitely a better show then last year’s Super 8, and was the best non-OMEGA, non-IWC Lucha, non-WCW houseshow I have ever been to.
RR : This is my second ECWA show, my first being the previous year’s Super 8. I don’t go to as much wrestling as I used to and it’s actually fun to go to a show that is sort of wholesome. You know, the kind of show where you don’t have to wash your hands to get the imaginary blood off your hands like you were Lady Macbeth.
PR: Add me to the list of second time ECWA show. Last year’s Super 8 was quite poopy. This year’s rocked like a hurricane.
RR : Pete and I hook up in the wee hours of Saturday to catch a bus out of the Port Authority. This is extra fun since the earlier bus to DC was overfilled and we deal with happy people who try to hop on our bus to go to Silver Springs. After 18 million hours on the bus, we make it to Silver Springs so we can ride another bus. Let me say this… whoever laid out the bus spots in this town is the laziest person on earth. The bus doesn’t go more than 30 seconds between stops. This is mind bendingly annoying. We hang out with Steve the Insane who’s pimping Erols accounts to the local mall folk. We do a tour of the mall which is having a collectibles show. There was one place that had some funny signs from the area like “No Dogs or Sailors allowed on the Grass”, “Street Women with Sailors must pay in advance before checking into the Hotel” and “Fancy Women” and “Gamblers must check in before boarding the riverboat”. We also check out the mall where they’re selling “College Barbies” We make jokes about there not being “drunk at sorority Barbie.” We also not there are multiple versions of Ken dolls now. Ken, “Cool Looking Ken” and “Totally Cool Looking Ken”. Why make a “Cool Looking Ken” when you can get a “Totally Cool Looking Ken”? We hook up with Jon and his friend Joe and head on up to Delaware. Dean marvels at the trading cards I picked up for him for wrestlers (here’s a surprise, Takashi Ono had bad hair 3 years ago too.) I also show them the Yoji Anjoh: Love Master, card which I have to scan and put up on the web at some point. Steak and Ale isn’t man enough to put up 10 internet wrestling Freak Boys so we go to the Sizzler where Schneider steals my steak.
PP: I hook up with the Reverend at Port Authority for the 7:30 am bus to DC and we almost get a Tijuana riot at the bus as some folks who got screwed out of an earlier bus try to make a bum-rush for this one. Our Don Cornelius – like bus driver somehow manages to hold off the infidels as we haul ass on there before someone either a) pulls a gun, or b) throws a dropkick at the bussie ala the riot back in ’97 in TJ. Subsequent travel on the SOOOOOOOOOOOUL BUS to the mall where Steve works is uneventful, and I get some quick cash out of a guy on the bus who is so damn thirsty that he’s willing to pay $5 for an unopened drink. WOO-HOO! ECWA coloring books on me! We start to make fun of Corporate Steve behind his customers’ backs, but he smartly ignores us and we head off to explore. Apparently Devil Masami has a little sister who works at the mall’s info desk; my guess is that every 28 days she comes in as Super Heel Devilcito.(Thank you!) We finally check out this funky video game that uses giant robots as fighters, marveling at the kid playing it who apparently shoots up with Surge injections every time he heads over here. It’s called Prozac, mom- look into it.
DR: I left at 11:00 to pick up Wrestling Vault caretaker Mike Tyler and head to DC to pick up the Phils. We all pile into my PHATASS Crown Vic and go to Arby’s and baffle the woman at the drive-thru despite the fact that we all ordered the exact same thing (Giant Roast Beef Combo- GIANT-SIZED!! WHIP ASS! mmmmmm……horsey sauce…… ).
PR: I watched Schneider get his ass beat in NBA Live because he played as the Warriors. And his roommate was playing as the NUGGETS! Dean greeted us by gangstering us into the car saying he needed to eat sooner not later. You would have thought that the woman was trying to give us directions back to Brooklyn or something.
DR: We drive two hours and meet up with Dynamic Pennsylvania Dynamo Josh Holmes- who has grown a goatee to get the college co-eds that were first drawn to his spunky boyish good looks, but who now want their Hunk O’ Josh more rugged and outdoorsy these days- and I show him my SWANK BattlARTS poster that the Godlike Christopher Trimborn sent me. I see young Josh and the assorted Phils turn every shade of green, devoured by their envy of me and my KING-SIZED B-CUP POSTER! Ray, Pete, Jo(h)n, Steve and Joe- clownlike- pile out of Steve’s tiny car and a million tapes trade hands. I finally meet the Legendary Pogo Pete Stein and he’s Beyond The Scope Of Mortal MEN!!
PR: POGO PETE! I thought he’d be taller 🙂 We also see Tim “Wrestling Power 99” Noel and Dave “Mat Classic” Layne in the parking lot. Phil gets angry because Tim is also wearing the OMEGA Japan shirt. Dave is pissed because the WWF won’t let him take pictures of the talent.
DR: Pete has ALL THAT LUCHA for me and I have All That Wrestling of Puerto Rico (the other Lucha White Meat) for young Pogo Pete. Rev Ray gives me MOTHERFARKING LWO T-SHIRT AAAAND assorted Takeshi Ono and Koji Kanemoto cards and I wept deeply in gratitude. Josh had actually scouted the steak house this year (see last year’s report for the horror of the Barry Casino Flying Dutchman in Shangri-La Steak house) and we head to the Newport Steak and Ale.
PP: We got a great laugh in the second car as whoever was riding shotgun with Dean appeared to rip the wheel away from him just as he was about to miss the turn-off to the restaurant.
PR: That was me and it wasn’t Dean’s fault as Joshua got all confused because he couldn’t figure out the difference between turn or straight. But Dean made up for it by almost missing the Exxon on the way back.
PS: We arrived 10 deep to the steak house, who took a look at nearly a dozen wrestling fans and fabricated an hour long wait, forcing us to the Sizzler. I gank Rev. Ray’s steak because I am from the streets and shit.
DR: After hearing the hour waiting time at Steak and Ale, we cross the street and BUM RUSH THE SIZZLER!! 12 MEN! ONE MISSION! NOT TO GET THROWN OUT!
PP: Folks, you had to see the tip this woman got at the end. Sucker literally looked like a church plate after going through 15 rows.
PR: Schneider showed surprising quickness and agility has he high stepped it past our overwhelmed waitress towards the salad bar. But the waitress kept us all in line and kept filling us up with various colas. Man, she could retire on the tip we left her.
THE SUPER EIGHT TOURNAMENT:
RR: The night opens with all the wrestlers coming to the ring and receiving metals and getting a group picture. They also have the heel commissioner present Lance Diamond with a plaque to mark commemorate winning last year’s tournament.Lance takes time to deliver a speech as we chant “K-Mart Plaque” at him. It also should be noted that we all have brought masks which we wear on and off through the night.
PP: I’m so glad I brought the extras. Dean had a total (Fat)Assassin vibe going with the not-quite-big-enough-for-him Pierroth mask, and I quickly teach him how to do the Pierroth laugh.
PS: I was sporting the Blue Panther that I got from a street vendor in Mexico, while I loaned Josh Holmes my form fitting Black Warrior (which I am going to have to get steam cleaned now)
STEVE BRADLEY vs. ACE DARLING:
DR: Steve Bradley was a last minute replacement for Reckless Youth who was too physically ill to perform but luckily this Bradley guy was pretty frickin good. He was the thickest and stiffest of the field and did some cool powermoves to augment his highspots. HEY! It’s another good WWF light heavyweight destined to wrestle for two minutes on Shotgun every other week. Ace Darling, who is still riddled with indie level stiffness, worked a good little opener, not hitting anything spectacular, but didn’t blow anything before being put away by the new-comer with a roll-up.
PS: This wasn’t bad at all, as Steve Bradley is quite the unspectacular but solid independent light heavyweight. Ace Darling is about the most Vanilla wrestler in the world, but he never really screws anything up, and seems to have good matches with good opponents.
RR : Steve Bradley was sort of an unknown quantity to me and he was filling big shoes as Reckless Youth couldn’t make it. Bradley looks a little bit like Rob Van Dam and Louie Spicolli’s love child. Bradley looked solid and pulled out a nice Quebrada to the floor. Ace is sort of spotty. He’s not as sharp as I’ve seen him look about 2 or 3 years ago. This was enjoyable and Bradley pulls out the win.
PR: Bradley struck me as a poor man’s Venom as he had that same look Venom did (sans nipple rings). He had surprising quickness and had an offense that wasn’t just punch, kick and slam. He didn’t do anything jaw-dropping and he didn’t really show the could work with the real little guys like Venom has but he has a future ahead of him. I have no beef with Darling but he seemed like he was more interested in getting himself a slice of pizza than actually doing something noteworthy.
PP: Nice upset to start the show, as Ace won the inaugural Super 8 back in ’97.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs JEFF PETERSON:
DR: Hey! Jeff Peterson debuted in the battle royal at last year’s Super 8 and we were all impressed by his highflying even then. Here he looked to be a quite promising young high-flyer (I think he’s – WHAT? – 16?) and luckily for him, the WAAAAY good Daniels was guiding the little youngster along. Peterson did the super cool Tope Con Hilo and the Rana to the floor that I was digging. Daniels had to spell out a lot of stuff to him in the ring, so that part wasn’t so good, but Peterson is looking to become a Northeastern Kid Dynamo at this rate.
RR : Christopher Daniels is the shit. He works heel tonight and gets on our cases for cheering him. You rule to much for us not show our love. This is my second look at Daniels live as I saw him at the NWA 50th Anniversary show where he teamed with Kevin Quinn and he looked great there. Daniels comes out wearing a priest’s outfit so he’s got that whole Nicolas Cage in the opening Face/Off vibe going. Peterson who looks like he’s about 14 gets in a lot of offense which Daniels makes look great. Jeff’s got some keen offense and hopefully he’ll be totally kick ass like Juventud when he gets to be 20. Daniels works the crowd like a pro and busts out the Yamakawa underhook face driver and a totally whip ass move which was set up with a dragon sleeper. He then spins like for a swinging neckbreaker and drops Peterson face first on the mat. Peterson did throw a great top rope drop kick which was Japanese women’s wrestling level good.
PP: I was stoked for this one, having watched Daniels cut his teeth back in the day on Windy City Wrestling TV some years back. He was rocking our entire mask bedecked group. In retrospect, I guess Ray and I could’ve been kinder to Peterson than we were.
PS: I thought this match might have been the best of the night, and it smoked everything in last year’s tourney. The priest outfit it anka collar is about the coolest wrestling gear I have ever seen. With Peterson sporting the silkscreened American flag t-shirt as the big fashion contrast. Peterson definitely had the most spectacular offense, with the big dropkick from the top, and the springboard tope con hilo. I thought Daniels kept him together during the down spots, and delivered the choice feign neckbreaker into an elbow to the face. I definitely want to see more of both guys.
PR: Daniels was the complete wild card for me since I knew absolutely nothing about him and GOLLY was he great. This match was great but there were a couple of points were everything almost stopped because Peterson wasn’t 100% positive on what he was supposed to be doing. But Daniels had no problem taking Peterson by the hand and walking him through some things. MAN was that elbow to the nose choice.
MATT HARDY vs CHRISTIAN YORK:
DR: BOY! THIS WASN’T GOOD! I dunno. The Super 8 Tournament, you’re in with the best worker you’re ever gonna be in with when in with Matt FRICKIN Hardy and you deliver THIS?!? Not a good Moneytime match for York- as he blew a batch of stuff. York still has a ways to go yet, but I can’t figure out why this was this bad. We were all assuming they had worked with each other in Carolina at some point but this looked like they weren’t even speaking the same language at points. The OMEGA chants were fun. York called us fatboys. That ruled. There is hope for him yet. Hardy hits a SWANK Megahertz for the pin.
PR: I was praying that Christian was going to no show like he did for all those shows that I went to where he did. Because if he did then they could stick Quackenbush in here and the match would have been beyond words.
RR : I’ve heard a good buzz about York in the past but he has yet to live up to it. He seemed really off. He tried for a few moves that he either had to give up on or do real slow. Basically, they were things that made you say… Hey! if he did those a little faster and a little sharper, it would have been cool. This was really a whole lot of nothing. Maybe he can get his job back as the lead singer for Skid Row. It was cool watching Matt mark out for the Omega chants.
PS: York continues to underwhelm, as this was the worst Matt Hardy match I have seen, and the blame can be squarely laid on the shoulders of Christian. York blew about five things, and the stuff he didn’t blow seemed out of sync. Maybe I am just bitter because York called me a fatboy.
PP: Matt appeared shocked that anyone in the building had even HEARD of OMEGA, no less find two guys in our group wearing the tres cool “OMEGA Japan” tees. I have GOT to get me one of those.
PR: Matt had spotted Phil’s OMEGA shirt before the show and said he would look for us. I don’t think he was expecting 10 MUTANTS in masks chatting OMEGA.
DEVON STORM vs JEFF HARDY:
DR: I figured out that it was my OMEGA fanboy side taking over and me being a mark for making too much over the fact Storm went over a freakin Hardy and that this was clouding my perception of how good this match was- as opposed to the work in the ring. I dunno. Devon Storm has never had a good singles match that I can remember seeing and Jeff Hardy has been in about 20 Good to Great to REALLY MOTHERFRICKING GREAT singles matches that I’ve seen, so I was looking at everything negative about Storm and expecting your basic miracle match from Hardy- so I had too much baggage going in to gauge this fairly. Ah fuck it. This never kicked in at any point and I blame Storm. There you go.
PS: For a second there I thought that the ECWA bookers would bend us over for a second year in a row and push Devon to the finals over both Hardy Boys. Devon looks exactly like the love child of Kanyon and Kronos. Jeff tried some stuff but him and Devon just weren’t clicking. I would be much harder on Storm if he didn’t have a pretty good match later in the night, but this should have ruled more.
RR: Devon Storm is the lesser member of the Extremists. I’ve seen him look better and I’ve seen him look worse… but this wasn’t really that good. It was funny to note that Matt Hardy was getting cheered by Hawaiian Boy at ringside, but Jeff was getting booed. Jeff did try to kill himself a few times and Storm won with a crappy version of the move that Misawa, Genki and Dreamer stole from him.
PR: I still can’t fathom the fact that Jeff was outbumped on this show. He just didn’t get the chance. We did creep the younger Hardy out with our “WILLOW” chant.
PP: I have nothing to say about this match that is either true or relevant.
MR. OOH LA LA vs INFERNO KID:
DR: The drinks were one dollar and so were the hot dogs! WOO-HOO! Inferno Kid hit some nice stuff when I got back actually.
RR: Mr. OH LA LA gets a ton of heat. Dean misses the strip tease. I envy Dean. Hey, there was a run in! Oh La La wins the prestigious Mid Atlantic Title. Why wasn’t Devon challenging for this coveted title and Mike Quackenbush in there in his place in the Super 8.
PP: I think the St. Matthews folks could’ve poured those Pepsi’s into shot glasses. Was there a match here?
PS: I leave the Ripper to talk about the match, I still have some residual hatred for Inferno Kid for last years push, I don’t see the appeal of Mr. Ooh La La at all. The end was ECWA – A in it’s overbooked nonsensical.
PR: Hey, I was using the restroom during this match but I do remember it being booked by chimps or something like that.
STEVE BRADLEY vs DEVON STORM:
PR: Thanks to some screwy booking by ECWA, they change the brackets around in mid stream to deliver these two matches. Originally, it should have been Bradley vs. Daniels; Storm vs. Matt Hardy. That is why we were convinced that Devon was going over both.
DR: Steve Bradley does what even the great Jeff Hardy couldn’t do- have a REALLY good match with Devon Storm. Storm sold the arm; they did a bunch of missed Moonsault spots that were really cool- as it worked to the finish. Plus Bradley went over so we got to see him wrestle again. Storm looked better in this than any other time I’ve seen him- live or on tape.
PS: This was weirdly good, as Devon didn’t blow anything, and they did a bunch of missed moonsaults which was cool, and Bradley hits a nice Black Tiger Bomb. Storm delivered here, which as a rule, he never does.
RR: Bradley continues to impress. Devon did look better in this one, but that could have been because he knew he didn’t have to wrestle anymore and kicked it up a notch, including a spot where Devon teases a tope suicida and face first into a plastic chair shot. Bradley whips out a kick ass BT Bomb to kill Devon and advance. Hey, this Bradley guy’s not bad. He’s using the Raw theme so we guess he’s one of the WWF developmental guys.
PP: Both guys embrace afterwards, and it’s warm fuzzies all around. Or something to that effect.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs MATT HARDY:
DR: This was the match of the night. Matt Hardy is SO AWESOME. Christopher Daniels is SO AWESOME. MAN! There was a lot to love in this match. I loved the way they both worked heel at some point during the match but Matt is so cool that he switched back and forth and nobody in Delaware was actually confused. They start from the mat and end up hitting some highgrade highspots by the end- with everything being hitting damn near perfect inbetween. The Malenko roll-up sequences were fast and SO un-indie at the end. Plus add that to the fact that this was as un-indie stiff as you could imagine and it all added up to an easy choice for match of the night. After ALL THIS WRESTLING, Daniels kills Hardy with a Jumping Rotation Underhook DDT and I was freaking out. Hell, this should have been the opening match for the Super J Cup 1999. This was about as good as it gets.
PR: Matt would work face to us as he would ask us to start up the OMEGA chant which lead to 1) Daniels telling Hardy that he was going to beat him in front of his friends. 2) Our OMEGA chants got the rest of the crowd behind Daniels. (ex: the rest of the crowd would add “sucks” after we said OMEGA. yadda, yadda, yadda.) This match was the best match of the night. Win, place and show.
RR: I show my love for ECWA as they provide the match I wanted to see, Daniels v. a Hardy and improve the quality of wrestling by letting this lead into one of these two against Bradley in the finals. This just rocks as both guys are sharp and the bumps rock and this is everything you want to love about wrestling. Great work and both guys work the crowd like pros. Christopher Daniels is my savior.
PP: If the rumblings WRT Terry Taylor trying to rescue the LHW division in the WWF are true, he’ll bring in Daniels full-time LAST MONTH. Sign that boy up, size be damned! And Matt throws about the best worked punches I’ve ever seen.
PS: I have seen a lot of Matt Hardy in the last couple of years, and I have never seen him punch like that, Dory Funk Jr. must have shown him something. Both of these guys had their A games in this one, as they had batches of great wrestling. Daniels responds to our OMEGA chants, by threatening to unmask us all, AND SHOW THE WORLD OUR UGLY FACES.
BRUTE FORCE (Viper, Carnage, and Stud) vs GLEN OSBOURNE/ J.R. RYDER/J.J. THE RING CREW GUY:
DR: Viper (?) hits a nice Death Valley Bomb. The rest was all kicky and stompy.
PS: Viper has a Oro mask on, as I comment that the buffets must be great in Heaven because Oro had really let himself go since he died. Brute Force wrestles in tuxedo’s which is cool. The Death Valley Bomb was about as nasty as I have seen in the U.S. . The angle was kind of cool, although the viciousness of the whole thing was kind of diluted by Osbourne and I’ll say Stud having the worlds most implausible fist fight near the end, showing more Daylight then an Alaskan Summer Day.
RR: The heels are announced first, but they don’t come out. The faces come out in jeans and t-shirts which means it’s either a street fight or casual day at the ECWA arena. The heels run out and handcuff J.J.’s partners to the post and the referee Thunder to the post and lay a beating on J.J. for a while. Eventually the referees get the faces free and they run off the heels. This was a no dq match, but the heels get DQed… go fig. It was pretty neat though for the Death Valley Bomb and the heat it got. J.J. is pretty over.
PP: Kind of weird here… the lights went out the second Brute Force hit the ring, and the rest of the ring crew were divided between cheering J.J. on and frantically trying to re-wire the lights. That DVB was N A S T Y, and there was a ton of heat on Brute Force for the extended beat-down on J.J. that followed.
PR: The beat down was SOOOOOO much better than any match would have been. Plus it speed up the process to the Finals.
LANCE DIAMOND vs CHEETAH MASTER – exemptoraneous oratory match:
DR: Lance Diamond and Cheetah Master spoke to each other FOR SEVENTEEN MINUTES and never actually wrestled each other. I do my taxes in my head.
PS: ECWA is AWCE
RR: This was sports entertainment at it’s best… meaning… no wrestling! It was pretty good. This is hilarious since an indie in Delaware put together a video piece for an angle which was better than something that Nitro would produce. They interview a bunch of people about the title controversy with Christian (Cage) and Lance Diamond and interview a few of the WWF guys they’ve had in as well as Bill Apter and Dennis Coraluzzo who I am forced to boo even though he’s on tape. Cheetah comes out and works the crowd for like an hour, but it gets heat. I don’t get it, but I’m not a 14 year old girl. Cheetah is scary over, Lance does have some great reactions to this whole thing. Lance talks about how he’s carried ECWA. How he’s carried Cheetah to good matches. How he’s carried Boogie Woogie Brown. I wonder how he carried Boogie without a fork lift. They agree to a match, heel commish comes out and asks if Cheetah has a doctor’s release, when he says no he declares Diamond the winner. Cheetah gets a chair and gives the Commish a Happy 53rd birthday shot.
PR: You know how the heel commish got real heat. By sitting at the ticket table and charging me $11 for a ticket. I should have taken the fat bastard out then.
PP: All goodwill ECWA had previously earned with me is erased the instant Dennis Coraluzzo appears on-screen- I was afraid Doug Gilbert would show up next and start picking fights with the fans on tape. And everything people say about Cheetah Master being amazingly over is 100% true. I’m talking Von Erichs heat, folks… for whatever reason, this kid is over like it’s 1984 and Kerry’s coming out to face Jimmy Garvin for the American title at the Sportatorium.
STEVE BRADLEY vs CHRISTOPHER DANIELS:
DR: This was real damn good. Daniels does this totally freaked-out Beyond Lucha full extension roll-up and I was baffled with wonderment. This Bradley guy is real damn good. Real damn good.
PS: Real good match with both guys going all out, Daniels is over as a motherfucker in is first night in ECWA. The roll up ending was a little anti-climactic, but the match was a good end to a good night of wrestling.
RR: This was good. They had taped comments with both guys and Daniels is pretty good on THE STICK. He further tries to get heel heat by coming out with a “Steve WHO?” sign for the finals. This was pretty boss as both guys hit moves they won previous matches which but kick out of them, we don’t get cool move Daniels beat Peterson with in round one. Throughout the night there were lighting problems where guys would take a bump in the ring and it would knock something loose and the ringside lights would go out. Daniels even worked this into the match by declaring “LIGHTS OUT!” after they went off and he hit a big move. Post match, Daniels tries to be the American Kanemoto by being a total dick by not joining everyone in the ring for the post match party or congratulating Bradley on his victory.
PR: I now have that STEVE WHO? sign. Why I keep it is beyond me. I think I was still jealous from all the trading that was going on outside before the card. Anyway, Bradley did this weird chokeslam on Daniels as Daniels was straddling the ropes that was way better than Paul Wight or The Giant Silva could have produced. I am sure that they just said to Bradley “Hey, Reckless Youth was going to take the whole thing so just go ahead and we aren’t going to change our booking that much.”
PP: Bradley was definitely a pleasant surprise, but I was hoping that Daniels would go all the way here since he was IMO the class of this year’s show and because he came the longest distance, especially since I doubt ECWA paid for his tran. Bradley has some real potential.
AFTERMATH:
DR: The Hardy’s should work more for ECWA since this is a lot like OMEGA- in that it’s for the kids and they seems to demand some sort of actual wrestling at some point in the card (as opposed to OMEGA where actual wrestling is usually up and down the card) and you gotta love a promotion that only runs one building and has such a community feel to its operation. As for the Super 8 1999, this was WAAAAY better than last year- the talent was deeper and they didn’t push any lesser local guys through to the final at the sacrifice of the quality of the matches (which was my beef about Inferno Kid getting to the final last year). Thus there was only one REALLY bad match and there were three good matches, one very mediocre match, and two GREAT matches. This was agood tourney. And where the fuck was Quackenbush?
RR: I had another good time at ECWA. This time it was real good because they weren’t afraid to have two non-regulars make it to the finals. Daniels should move to the East Coast and work on every show I go to. It was also cool that ECWA worked out the bugs they had with their TV last year (like cutting to the back for a live interview when you could see “PLAY” appearing in the upper left corner of the screen). Super 8, how I love thee…
PS: ECWA engenders a lot more goodwill with me after this Super 8, then they did after last years. If Daniels or the Hardy’s come back, I will make my way up to Delaware again with no hesitations.
PR: I wish ECWA would bring in a big batch of guys from the South since this is such the easier trip than to North Carolina.
PP: This was my intro to non-NWA indies, and I was impressed. ECWA already gets more props from me with one juniors tournament than any Gilbert Memorial Coraloser has ever tried to ru(i)n. Afterwards we all slap on our masks for group photos, and the children of Newport, DE will never be the same.
ECWA SUPER 8 LOOT!
Here’s what we got as it was CHRISTMAS IN FEBRUARY as we showered each other in gifts, tapes, and steak sauce. Misty-eyed, we ventured to Delaware to see swanky indie wrestling and have a GOOD time in Fellaship Togethah!
Who GOT what at the Super 8:
REV RAY: six tapes- two Glenn tapes, BattlARTS.
DEAN RASMUSSEN: 12 tapes- 3 lucha, one latest ECW tv tape, Jericho on the dating game w/ the best of BENOIT~! tape, three Rippa indexed WCW permanent tapes, the cool ass Minnesota Indie and THEN rev ray FEARLESSLY supplied the frickin AAWESOME LWO/airbrushed Eddy T-shirt AND the SWANK cards ! I was the luckiest man on the face of the earth!
PETE STEIN: Three tapes of Puerto Rican loveliness.
PHIL SCHNEIDER: Rev Ray’s steak.:)