PPV Rewind - ECW Barely Legal (1997)
05-24-2014
, 10:05 PM
These reviews may or may not become a regular thing. Grew up a huge ECW fan and thought I'd work my way through the ECW pay-per-views, starting with ECW's maiden voyage:
Barely Legal (1997)
Intro
- Joey Styles opens PPV in ring in front of an incredibly hot crowd, even by ECW standards.
- Indy-type atmosphere is very apparent within the first few minutes - microphone quality is poor and TV graphics look very outdated.
Match #1 - The Eliminators vs. The Dudley Boyz (ECW World Tag Titles)
- Dudley Boyz come out to a fair amount of heat from the crowd and cut their typical pre-match promo to create even more heat. "**** you D-Von" chant begins.
- Didn't remember Eliminators' music prior to watching but it was pretty good. Kronus is visibly excited as he walks down the aisle but Saturn is stoic. Not sure if this was part of their gimmick but it seemed strange.
- Match is largely disappointing as it's basically a spot-to-spot fest with very little flow. Almost all of the moves are tag-style moves, which is nice.
- Outside of an early Dudley Bomb / Diving Headbutt combo, the Dudley Boyz get very little offense. Can't remember them being booked to look so weak.
- Eliminators really showing off athleticism - spinning roundhouse sidekicks, twisting splashes, Saturnsaults, and a backflip Kronus Drop. Kronus moves very well for a large guy and much better than I remembered. Lots of tag-style and high flying moves capped off with Total Elimination. New ECW Tag Champs.
Rating: 2 stars.
Match #2 - Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam
- Prior to match Chris Candido cut a really poor promo. He was originally scheduled to be Storm's opponent but an injury forced him to sit out. Not even sure if he's heel or face; he's embarrassingly bad on the microphone.
- Styles plays up Storm as the next big up-and-coming star. He has a weird blonde ponytail that I didn't remember.
- RVD comes out to a mixed reaction. This PPV occurred shortly after his appearance on Raw.
- Match starts ff pretty even and both guys show off their athleticism and agility. RVD hits a leaping somersault outside the ring and it's at this moment that I realize ECW did not have padding on the outside of the ring. Pretty crazy.
- Match becomes somewhat one-sided and RVD is hitting all of his trademark moves. Throws a chair in Storm's face and Storm didn't get his hands up in time - looks like this hurt. RVD hits frogsplash but Storm shockingly kicks out. Was fully expecting match to end here.
- Storm has a solid offense attack and hits a couple of nice moves including a powerbomb on to a chair and a very good flying leg drop. Storm seems very tentative with his chair shots and the fans pick up on this and start booing. RVD comes back with a Van Daminator for the win.
- RVD cuts an OK heelish promo after the match, fans almost entirely against him at this point.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars.
Match #3 - The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, and Masato Yakushiji vs. Taka Michinoku, Terry Boy, and Dick Togo
- Based on Styles commentary this appears to be an impromptu match. Fans are given streamers to throw into the ring, which is pretty cool.
- Great Sasuke apparently fought Jushin Liger the night before in Japan for the J Crown.
- First thought is that Hamada moves incredibly well, especially for a guy who is much older than his opponents. He easily is keeping up with Taka and the two start off the match with a nice back-and-forth.
- Terry Boy and Sasuke have a really nice exchange.
- Taka with a nice escape out of Sasuke's boston crab. Constant action inside and outside the ring - lots of high flying action but plenty of good mat work as well.
- Taka hits a really awesome brainbuster. Styles refers to it as the Michinoku driver, which is not what it was in WWF.
- Team bWo continues with a strong offensive flurry, including several double and triple team moves. Really impressive stuff. Sasuke fights back and caps his flurry off with a moonsault over the guard rail. Fans are really into the match at this point.
- Hamada continues to impress. Very agile, hits all his spots, sells very well too. Hits a very nice spinning DDT off the top rope.
- Match ends with Sasuka/Taka in the ring with both hitting nice moves but Sasuke ending it with a suplex. Awesome match.
Rating - 4 1/4 stars.
Match #4 - Shane Douglas vs. Pitbull #2 (ECW TV Title)
- Douglas comes out to non-Deep Purple music. Probably because they are on PPV now. Francine looks great. Always thought she was the hottest diva for some reason.
- Match is very sloppy, very boring, crowd hates it. Pitbull #2 is not good at anything.
- Joey Styles randomly disses Sting.
- Guard rail gets thrown into ring. Crowd starts chanting "We want blood!" presumably this has something to do with the fact that Heyman agreed that there would be limited blood in order to get the PPV deal. No blood on PPV up to this point and it didn't happen in this match either.
- Weird 30 second run where Shane tries to pin Pitbull #2 a few times. I don't know if it's the referee or Pitbull #2 but the pins and kickouts are really sloppy and fake looking. Then Pitbull #2 mysteriously hulks up.
- Douglas wins seemingly out of nowhere with his belly-to-back suplex, after failing to pin him after using half a dozen foreign objects. Bad match.
- After the match a masked man with a 'Ravshing' robe enters, kisses francine. Douglas attacks but one of the cops come into the ring and stops him. Cop unmasks and is Rick Rude. Masked robe guy is Brian Lee. Fans seem into it.
Rating: 1/2 star.
Match #5 - Taz vs. Sabu
- Taz with a decent promo prior to the match. Promo plus Styles make for a nice build-up to the much anticipated grudge match.
- Good start to match - nice mix of mat spots, blows, and high risk moves. Sabu dives into crowd and crowd loves it. First blood of the night.
- Sloppy table spot early in the match. Both guys look confused and Sabu sort of just fell through the table for no reason.
- Styles selling match very well.
- Taz ends match with a variety of suplexes and a Tazmission. Match ends with the old "raise arm three times" test, which I didn't expect to see on ECW. Based on Styles commentary it sounded like they were booking the Tazmission to be unstoppable, so it makes sense I guess.
- Post match is really weird. Sabu and Taz shake hands. RVD interferes, attacking Taz. Sabu helps RVD and attacks Taz. Bill Alfonso joins the party and turns on Taz. Alfonso takes off his Taz shirt to reveal a RVD shirt. So it would seem like he made his mind up before the match, yet he helped Taz throughout the match. To make things stranger, Alfonso grabs the microphone and yells at Taz for costing him a lot of money for betting on him. If Taz won, why would Alfonso lose money? It didn't make any sense at all.
Rating: 2 1/4 stars.
Match #6 - Terry Funk vs. The Sandman vs. Stevie Richards (#1 Contender for World Title)
- Sandman enters without Enter Sandman music. Confirms what I suspected with Douglas' entrance.
- For some reason I didn't remember Stevie Richards being pushed, but here he is in a #1 contender match. Fans are oddly into the bWo.
- Tommy Dreamer is guest commentator. He's awful. It's almost worth watching the PPV to hear how back he is in this spot.
- Slow start to match, doesn't really pick up until Sandman brings ladder into ring.
- Terry Funk completely misses a moonsault off the ladder.
- Stevie eliminated and fans seem upset.
- Sandman wraps himself in barbed wire, which still has streamers from the six-man tag match caught up in it. Pretty funny sight. Stevie comes back onto the apron for some reason and Sandman attacks him while wrapped in barbed wire and streamers. Stevie lets out a bad horror movie-type scream.
- Match drags on; typical ECW hardcore stuff. Terry Funk wins with a moonsault that actually hits and earns a shot at Raven, who comes to the ring immediately.
Rating: 1 3/4 stars.
Match #7 - Terry Funk vs. Raven (ECW World Title)
- Raven begins an attack on a very bloodied Funk. Funks looks really beat up - picture Eddie Guerrero after being hit by the chair in that match vs. JBL. Fake doctor comes into ring and asks Funk how many fingers he's holding up.
- Overbooked mess starts. Raven's flock runs in and attacks Funk. Raven grabs mic and says he's going to end Funk's career in front of Dreamer. Big Dick Dudley randomly comes out (and according to Styles, he's "back from jail!") and attacks Dreamer but Dreamer reverses and chokeslams him off the balcony through three tables. Dreamer wasn't strong enough to chokeslam so it was more of a push than anything.
- Dreamer comes to ring, attacks Raven. Match is supposed to end but it gets botched. Funk pins, ref stops at two. Bell rings. Everyone kinda stands around for a second all confused before Funk rolls Raven into a small package which finally gets a three count. New champ!
Rating: 1/4 star.
***
Despite some matches getting very low scores, I thought this was a worthwhile PPV. Japanese six-man match was extremely good and the RVD/Storm match was nice too. Main events were definitely lacking and the fact that the crowd wasn't into it made it that much worse.
Overall Rating: 4/10.
Barely Legal (1997)
Intro
- Joey Styles opens PPV in ring in front of an incredibly hot crowd, even by ECW standards.
- Indy-type atmosphere is very apparent within the first few minutes - microphone quality is poor and TV graphics look very outdated.
Match #1 - The Eliminators vs. The Dudley Boyz (ECW World Tag Titles)
- Dudley Boyz come out to a fair amount of heat from the crowd and cut their typical pre-match promo to create even more heat. "**** you D-Von" chant begins.
- Didn't remember Eliminators' music prior to watching but it was pretty good. Kronus is visibly excited as he walks down the aisle but Saturn is stoic. Not sure if this was part of their gimmick but it seemed strange.
- Match is largely disappointing as it's basically a spot-to-spot fest with very little flow. Almost all of the moves are tag-style moves, which is nice.
- Outside of an early Dudley Bomb / Diving Headbutt combo, the Dudley Boyz get very little offense. Can't remember them being booked to look so weak.
- Eliminators really showing off athleticism - spinning roundhouse sidekicks, twisting splashes, Saturnsaults, and a backflip Kronus Drop. Kronus moves very well for a large guy and much better than I remembered. Lots of tag-style and high flying moves capped off with Total Elimination. New ECW Tag Champs.
Rating: 2 stars.
Match #2 - Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam
- Prior to match Chris Candido cut a really poor promo. He was originally scheduled to be Storm's opponent but an injury forced him to sit out. Not even sure if he's heel or face; he's embarrassingly bad on the microphone.
- Styles plays up Storm as the next big up-and-coming star. He has a weird blonde ponytail that I didn't remember.
- RVD comes out to a mixed reaction. This PPV occurred shortly after his appearance on Raw.
- Match starts ff pretty even and both guys show off their athleticism and agility. RVD hits a leaping somersault outside the ring and it's at this moment that I realize ECW did not have padding on the outside of the ring. Pretty crazy.
- Match becomes somewhat one-sided and RVD is hitting all of his trademark moves. Throws a chair in Storm's face and Storm didn't get his hands up in time - looks like this hurt. RVD hits frogsplash but Storm shockingly kicks out. Was fully expecting match to end here.
- Storm has a solid offense attack and hits a couple of nice moves including a powerbomb on to a chair and a very good flying leg drop. Storm seems very tentative with his chair shots and the fans pick up on this and start booing. RVD comes back with a Van Daminator for the win.
- RVD cuts an OK heelish promo after the match, fans almost entirely against him at this point.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars.
Match #3 - The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, and Masato Yakushiji vs. Taka Michinoku, Terry Boy, and Dick Togo
- Based on Styles commentary this appears to be an impromptu match. Fans are given streamers to throw into the ring, which is pretty cool.
- Great Sasuke apparently fought Jushin Liger the night before in Japan for the J Crown.
- First thought is that Hamada moves incredibly well, especially for a guy who is much older than his opponents. He easily is keeping up with Taka and the two start off the match with a nice back-and-forth.
- Terry Boy and Sasuke have a really nice exchange.
- Taka with a nice escape out of Sasuke's boston crab. Constant action inside and outside the ring - lots of high flying action but plenty of good mat work as well.
- Taka hits a really awesome brainbuster. Styles refers to it as the Michinoku driver, which is not what it was in WWF.
- Team bWo continues with a strong offensive flurry, including several double and triple team moves. Really impressive stuff. Sasuke fights back and caps his flurry off with a moonsault over the guard rail. Fans are really into the match at this point.
- Hamada continues to impress. Very agile, hits all his spots, sells very well too. Hits a very nice spinning DDT off the top rope.
- Match ends with Sasuka/Taka in the ring with both hitting nice moves but Sasuke ending it with a suplex. Awesome match.
Rating - 4 1/4 stars.
Match #4 - Shane Douglas vs. Pitbull #2 (ECW TV Title)
- Douglas comes out to non-Deep Purple music. Probably because they are on PPV now. Francine looks great. Always thought she was the hottest diva for some reason.
- Match is very sloppy, very boring, crowd hates it. Pitbull #2 is not good at anything.
- Joey Styles randomly disses Sting.
- Guard rail gets thrown into ring. Crowd starts chanting "We want blood!" presumably this has something to do with the fact that Heyman agreed that there would be limited blood in order to get the PPV deal. No blood on PPV up to this point and it didn't happen in this match either.
- Weird 30 second run where Shane tries to pin Pitbull #2 a few times. I don't know if it's the referee or Pitbull #2 but the pins and kickouts are really sloppy and fake looking. Then Pitbull #2 mysteriously hulks up.
- Douglas wins seemingly out of nowhere with his belly-to-back suplex, after failing to pin him after using half a dozen foreign objects. Bad match.
- After the match a masked man with a 'Ravshing' robe enters, kisses francine. Douglas attacks but one of the cops come into the ring and stops him. Cop unmasks and is Rick Rude. Masked robe guy is Brian Lee. Fans seem into it.
Rating: 1/2 star.
Match #5 - Taz vs. Sabu
- Taz with a decent promo prior to the match. Promo plus Styles make for a nice build-up to the much anticipated grudge match.
- Good start to match - nice mix of mat spots, blows, and high risk moves. Sabu dives into crowd and crowd loves it. First blood of the night.
- Sloppy table spot early in the match. Both guys look confused and Sabu sort of just fell through the table for no reason.
- Styles selling match very well.
- Taz ends match with a variety of suplexes and a Tazmission. Match ends with the old "raise arm three times" test, which I didn't expect to see on ECW. Based on Styles commentary it sounded like they were booking the Tazmission to be unstoppable, so it makes sense I guess.
- Post match is really weird. Sabu and Taz shake hands. RVD interferes, attacking Taz. Sabu helps RVD and attacks Taz. Bill Alfonso joins the party and turns on Taz. Alfonso takes off his Taz shirt to reveal a RVD shirt. So it would seem like he made his mind up before the match, yet he helped Taz throughout the match. To make things stranger, Alfonso grabs the microphone and yells at Taz for costing him a lot of money for betting on him. If Taz won, why would Alfonso lose money? It didn't make any sense at all.
Rating: 2 1/4 stars.
Match #6 - Terry Funk vs. The Sandman vs. Stevie Richards (#1 Contender for World Title)
- Sandman enters without Enter Sandman music. Confirms what I suspected with Douglas' entrance.
- For some reason I didn't remember Stevie Richards being pushed, but here he is in a #1 contender match. Fans are oddly into the bWo.
- Tommy Dreamer is guest commentator. He's awful. It's almost worth watching the PPV to hear how back he is in this spot.
- Slow start to match, doesn't really pick up until Sandman brings ladder into ring.
- Terry Funk completely misses a moonsault off the ladder.
- Stevie eliminated and fans seem upset.
- Sandman wraps himself in barbed wire, which still has streamers from the six-man tag match caught up in it. Pretty funny sight. Stevie comes back onto the apron for some reason and Sandman attacks him while wrapped in barbed wire and streamers. Stevie lets out a bad horror movie-type scream.
- Match drags on; typical ECW hardcore stuff. Terry Funk wins with a moonsault that actually hits and earns a shot at Raven, who comes to the ring immediately.
Rating: 1 3/4 stars.
Match #7 - Terry Funk vs. Raven (ECW World Title)
- Raven begins an attack on a very bloodied Funk. Funks looks really beat up - picture Eddie Guerrero after being hit by the chair in that match vs. JBL. Fake doctor comes into ring and asks Funk how many fingers he's holding up.
- Overbooked mess starts. Raven's flock runs in and attacks Funk. Raven grabs mic and says he's going to end Funk's career in front of Dreamer. Big Dick Dudley randomly comes out (and according to Styles, he's "back from jail!") and attacks Dreamer but Dreamer reverses and chokeslams him off the balcony through three tables. Dreamer wasn't strong enough to chokeslam so it was more of a push than anything.
- Dreamer comes to ring, attacks Raven. Match is supposed to end but it gets botched. Funk pins, ref stops at two. Bell rings. Everyone kinda stands around for a second all confused before Funk rolls Raven into a small package which finally gets a three count. New champ!
Rating: 1/4 star.
***
Despite some matches getting very low scores, I thought this was a worthwhile PPV. Japanese six-man match was extremely good and the RVD/Storm match was nice too. Main events were definitely lacking and the fact that the crowd wasn't into it made it that much worse.
Overall Rating: 4/10.
05-25-2014
, 08:55 AM
05-26-2014
, 08:31 AM
