Here's my first attempt at an online video. I'm pretty satified with it.
It's from this past Saturday night's SWA Warzone event in Poplarville, MS. It's a highlight package of the Wade Garrett vs. Ron Horn ECW Rulz main event. It was a wild and bloody brawl and no mistaking!!! Watch for the spot where Horn rides a ladder down from the second rope onto Garrett. It actually smashes Garrett in the face!!! Sick stuff!!!
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Recently a Stevie Richards appreciation thread started on TNAWrestling.com. Thought I'd share my posts with everyone who reads this blog:
About the photograph:
I met Stevie in 2003 and had this picture taken with him. (You'll have to ignore the quality, I do have eyes.) A true mark out moment. My wife worked at a venue WWE was holding a show at which meant I was able to get into the building before the show (you can see the ring and chairs set up in the background).
This picture is a great keepsake for two reasons:
1. I'm a massive Stevie Richards fan dating back to 1994 ECW. Nobody could have played Raven's hilarious sidekick flunky like Mr. Richards. And his chemistry with The Blue Meanie was some of the best chemistry you'll ever find in wrestling.
2. Look at our clothes. I was wearing an Alliance WCW shirt (and I promise it was a joke, I was no mark for the Alliance, there are no such thing as Alliance marks) and Stevie is wearing a pair of XFL shorts. It's a shame my wife couldn't have gotten in the picture wearing a WBF shirt too!
Some of my favourite Stevie moments:
Stevie meets The Blue Meanie in 1995.
Stevie and The Blue Meanie strut out of the ECW Arena with Mick Foley at 1996's Big A-- Extreme Bash.
Stevie and the Meanie parody Diesel and Shawn Michaels as Big Daddy Fool and the Heart Burn Kid. If memory serves me correctly Stevie started stripping and throws his daisy dukes into the crowd. When the fans wouldn't throw them back, the Meanie gave Stevie his shorts which ended up being many sizes too big.
At a house show, which was released commercially as Just Another Night, I think Sandman knocked out the Meanie with his cane. Stevie tries to revive him with mouth to mouth and pumping on his chest. When that didn't work he gave him mouth to mouth and pumped on his groin. Hilarious!
I know these are Stevie Richards moments, but when Blue Meanie dressed up as Bluedust on ECW television, Stevie tried to wash off the blue make-up with a hose. Meanie started dancing while singing "I'm a maniac, maniac!' ala Jenifer Beels in Flashdance! Nearly p---ed myself watching that.
The KISS parody.
The formation of the bWo. One of the biggest mark out moments of my life was laying my hands on a bWo T-shirt which still takes pride of place in my collection.
Stevie returning to ECW at the 1997 November To Remember. A few weeks later he became Superstar Stevie Richards, using the Jesus Christ Superstar music. He cut an interview on TV like he was above everyone then closed out the promo by stumbling as he left the room.
Man, great moments. Anybody have any to add. ECW was awesome back then. There's so much more material for WWE to release.
Posted by MarkOut @ 2:31 PM
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Just got finished watching the SciFi debut of ECW. If at any time I seem agitated during this post it's because being the clever son of a gun that I am I managed to delete it off my DVR moments ago. I had such high hopes for collecting every episode on DVD+Rs. That isn't happening now. Excuse me...ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!...I feel a little better now.
So what did I think? Not a lot really. It came across as an episode of Sunday Night Heat compared to the new cutting edge brand it was touted as being.
It opened with a ten minute angle featuring Heyman/RVD/Edge/Lita/Cena. A ten minute opening angle is fine for a two hour WWE show, but this being only one hour it took up a full sixth of the show. Overkill.
I must admit I did like the Sandman/Zombie match. Kind of reminded me of 911 chokeslamming Santa Claus. I guess the new ECW is going to rip on the SciFi Network just like they did with TNN.
Angle squashed Justin Credible in a very convincing fashion. I understand Angle has to get over as the new killer, but they could have brought in some unknown job guy for this spot. The ECW roster isn't big enough for Angle to run through everybody. If he squashed one person every week like he did tonight it would only take fifteen weeks before there'd be nobody left.
Can somebody please tell me what the point of the stripper show was? Exactly what did it accomplish?
The main event was an all weapons legal battle royal with the winner facing Cena at Vengeance. It was a nice surprise seeing Trinity debut as the valet for the FBI. Big Show was just out there mowing through people (and killing their credibility). In the end Sabu came out on top. At first I thought the win was to establish him as one of the top stars. Then I realized they were just building him up a little steam before he loses to Cena at Vengeance.
Well, I was extremely underwhelmed by this debut. I feel embarrassed for all of my "give it a chance" posts on several forums. Lets just hope they can just produce a better offering next week.
Posted by MarkOut @ 8:09 PM
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I give it a mild thumbs in the middle. I guess with last year's One Night Stand being such a hard act to follow, my expectations for this were unreasonably high. But really, apart from a few memorable moments, it came across as very much a B show.
Here are my thoughts on the show:
Tazz vs. Jerry Lawler. I was hoping they were going to keep the match short but this was way too short. I was looking forward to some good Memphis mic work but it never happened.
Angle vs. Orton. Technically this was a good match but it came acroos as more of a WWE TV match than anything ECW associated. This really killed my enthusiasm for the first half of the show.
FBI vs. Super Crazy/Tajiri. I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately the WWE road agents appeared to have gotten in these four's ears before the match. The fast paced style that made these guys so interesting to watch six or seven years ago was nowhere to be seen. Don't get me wrong it was a good match, just not the match I was expecting.
Sabu vs. Mysterio. A mixed bag. Sabu was the spot blowing Sabu of old during the early going, but he managed to get back into the game during the second half. I loved the chair/springboard/DDT through a table spot by Sabu, but felt ripped off when the heel New York State Athletic Commission official (I guess that's what he was) threw out the match. I would have preferred a decisive finish.
Dreamer/Funk vs. Foley/Edge. Total blood bath with all the weapons spots thrown in. It was great seeing Funk have one final match on the big stage. A lot of sick spots. This left me fairly well satisfied.
Balls Mahoney vs. Masato Tanaka. Is it just me or does the future look fairly bright for Balls? This couldn't hold a candle to their Hardcore Heaven 2000 match, but was reasonably acceptable.
Sandman caned the crap out of Eugene. Okay, I consider myself an ECW hardcore fan, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for the Eugene character. It contained two of my favourite lines from the show: Eugene saying that he'd like to hug Balls Mahoney and picnic with Sabu. Absolutely priceless! Don't think much of Sandman's new theme.
RVD vs. Cena. Cena got the expected hostile reaction during this match. And when I say hostile I mean down right barbaric. I have something I want to admit. I don't rate John Cena as a wrestler but having met him in person at a house show last year I have to say I like the guy. He stayed outside in the pouring rain signing autographs and taking pictures with kids when all the other Superstars just high tailed it. The guy has my respect. Now as for the finish, it came across as really silly. Edge, the number one contender for the WWE title at Vengeance, attacks Cena during the match. Paul Heyman makes the three count on Cena and RVD becomes the new WWE/ECW champion. Hmmmm, let me guess what will come of all this. I'm going to make a bold prediction. ECW must return to title to WWE because Heyman was not a sanctioned official. Edge, who kept his heat with Cena during the match, then goes on to face Cena at Vengeance. I guess they could throw a curve ball by adding RVD to the match. But ECW will continue to recognize RVD as the ECW champion and thus the new title is created.
I'll be honest. I loved the heck out of Wednesday's WWE vs. ECW show. But this show just left me feeling ripped off. If this had been the Wednesday show I would have been disappointed but having not paid forty bucks I wouldn't have felt ripped off. But as it was I did. I rate the WWE vs. ECW show above One Night Stand. Any momentum the Wednesday show built for me has definitely worn off. I hate to admit it but I'm looking less forward to the Tuesday night debut than I was four hours ago...
Posted by MarkOut @ 7:52 PM
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It's been a while since I last posted my thoughts on here. The reason being that I've been hard at work on another blog. But having seen tonight's WWE vs. ECW show, I had to get on here and make some comments.
All in all, I loved the show. I had a feeling going in that my already waning interest in this ECW revival was going to worsen. But that's not what happened. I think I'm beginning to warm to this new WWE ECW era.
Cena vs. Sabu surprised me. These are two of the most inconsistent wrestlers I can imagine and they managed to piece together a respectable effort. Granted it came across as a very choreographed and psychologically retarded match but the blown spots, blunders and goof ups that I anticipated were nowhere to be scene. Kudos to both Cena and Sabu.
RVD vs. Mysterio was a very solid effort. RVD showed glimpses of his past greatness and Mysterio demonstrated that he is all up for wrestling ECW style. I'm looking forward to Mysterio vs. Sabu more than ever, and given the main event on this show I'm actually looking forward to RVD vs. Cena.
The battle royal was okay for what it was. When Big Show turned on WWE and became ECW after the match, it seemed more like nWo moment than ECW. Are they planning on making The Big Show the 2006 version of 911?
Edge vs. Dreamer appeared to be decent but I was having a hard time taking it in with Lawler and Tazz having their screaming match on the head sets. Funk battering Foley after the match was definitely memorable. Funk really brought out some decent swelling on Foley's eye(probably not as much as Foley would have wanted though). Foley's face is going to look like crap come this Sunday.
Why the heck did Lawler seem to be getting the upper hand in his brawl with Tazz?Doesn't do much for one's credibility getting beaten down by Jerry Lawler.
All in all I thought the night was a success. My fire of enthusiasm is burning once again for WWE's ECW. Roll on Sunday!
As an added note, I just read on the Wrestling Observer web site that the July 4th episode of ECW on Sci-Fi will be an episode taped in Philly's ECW Arena. Totally marked out for that one. I had started thinking about what a squandered opportunity it would have been to have a house show in the birth place of ECW and not have the camera's present. Thank you WWE, I'll be watching on July 4th.
Posted by MarkOut @ 10:06 PM
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