Wednesday, June 21, 2006


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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Thursday, June 15, 2006

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.

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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

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.

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Sunday, June 11, 2006

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...

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Wednesday, June 07, 2006

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.

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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

During yesterday's SmackDown tapings it was revealed that Rey Mysterio would defend the World heavyweight title against Sabu at One Night Stand. It was also teased that Tazz and Jerry Lawler would have some kind of face-to-face confrontation on the show as well.

I'm really looking forward to Mysterio vs. Sabu. To the best of my knowledge these two have never faced each other before. It's a shame It's happening in 2006 and not 1996. There's just some really interesting dynamics in there. It's doubtful Sabu is getting the title so it'll be interesting to see what kind of finish they have in mind. I'm assuming that either Sabu or RVD will win one of the WWE's titles, so I'm assuming it's going to be RVD getting the WWE title.

Tazz/Lawler sounds interesting. It's not going to be anything too earth shattering but it should make for a good segment.

So now we've got RVD vs. Cena, Sabu vs. Mysterio, Dreamer/Funk vs. Foley/Edge and a Tazz/Lawler face off. It's not exactly a dream card but I'll definitely be getting this on PPV. I just wish it didn't have an ECW vs. WWE theme. I'll probably be getting ECW's December 3rd PPV too. Can't afford to buy many WWE PPVs these days. $39.95 is just too much...

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Monday, May 29, 2006

The evolution of the new ECW continued tonight on RAW when it was announced that Kurt Angle was moving from SmackDown! to ECW. Paul Heyman was given two draft picks from Mr. McMahon from the WWE roster (one from RAW and one from SmackDown!). He chose RVD from RAW and Kurt Angle from SD!. An interesting choice. RVD was a given but the Angle move really surprised me. I know that this is a WWE endorsed ECW and moving from a WWE brand to ECW is more of a lateral move, but I was shocked. Angle has always been outspoken about his lack of respect for ECW. I'm going to have a hard time believing that Angle is overjoyed to be in ECW. It'll be an interesting journey. The real question is what does WWE have in store for SD!? An anemic SmackDown! roster just became that much more anemic. Maybe there are plans to merge RAW and SD! back together. They could go back to running two prime time shows per week using the same bunch of characters. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

What can I say about Kane facing off with Kane tonight? Absurd yet peversely entertaining. I wonder if Brian Lee is under the mask? Or maybe it's Brian Lee's younger brother who was scarred for life when his older brother started a fire in the Lee family home during their childhood...

Had a moment of enlightenment during this week's RAW. They had a tag match where Beth Phoenix and Torrie Wilson, accompanied by Trish Stratus, faced off against Victoria and Candice Michelle who were accompanied by Mickie James. It suddenly struck me that all the babyfaces were blonde and all the heels were dark haired. Is there some subliminal message in there about certain women of certain hair colours?

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(L-R: SWA commissioner, Damian LeVaye, Wade Garrett, Barry Wolf, Richtor Reinhart, Rainbow Warrior, Night Rider)

Attended two shows put on by my favourite U.S. indy over the weekend, SWA Warzone. Hattiesburg, MS had it's annual May Fest over the weekend and SWA contributed to the festivities by putting on two shows. The first was Saturday with the "May-Fest Challenge". Sunday saw a Fan Appreciation show with all tickets priced at $5.

SWA has a great bunch of guys. They've got Wade Garrett who comes across as a throwback to "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Area veteran Riki Idol who bridges the gap between the old school and the new school. Great up-and-comers like Richtor Reinhart, Lil Shooter, Damian LeVaye and Steve Punk who look like they all have great careers ahead of them. Great promo men like Night Rider, Barry Wolf, Ron Horn, Tony Vegas and many others who can DEFINITELY get it done in the ring. And a true oddity in the Rainbow Warrior who never fails to get a reaction from the crowd.

The lead storyline going on at the moment in SWA is the SWA babyfaces (Garrett, Wolf, Reinhart (SWA CW champ), Night Rider, Rainbow Warrior etc.) feuding with Ron Horn's Clique (which includes Jessie Reynolds (SWA champ), Riki Idol, Tony Vegas etc.) When you pay your $8 for admission you definitely get your money's worth! They have their next show on June 17 at the National Guard Armory in Poplarville, MS.

In results from this weekend:

"May-Fest Challenge" (5/27/06)
CW title: Rictor Reinhart b. Steve Punk, 2 Quik and "Big" Steve Cheetum to win the title, Rainbow Warrior b. Aaron Bradley, SWA title: Jesse Reynolds b. Night Rider to retain title, Ron Horn & Minotaur b. Monty Warbucks & Lil Shooter, Barry Wolf & Wade Garrett & Damian LeVaye NC Riki Idol & Tony Vegas & Justin Stone.

Fan Appreciation Day (5/28/06)
Non-title: Richtor Reinhart (CW champ) b. Rainbow Warrior, Russian Bear b. Night Rider, No Rules: Ron Horn b. Lil Shooter, Barry Wolf b. Riki Idol, non-title: Wade Garrett b. Jessie Reynolds (SWA champ), Garrett's Army NC The Clique.

The main event on the Fan Appreciation show was the wildest brawl I have ever seen in person at a wrestling event. Bodies were flying everywhere. Ron Horn got thrown out of a window by Garrett. Garrett then threw him back into the building through it. Reinhart then did an elbow drop from the window ledge onto Horn! Awesome stuff. Roll on June 17.

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