Welcome to the first (and hopefully not only) of my retro reviews.
To give a little background: I’ve been a proud subscriber to the WWE network for the last 4-5 months. At first, I’d just watch scattered matches/ppvs with no real method to my madness. In more recent weeks, I began watching the ECW ppvs in chronological order. After awhile, I figured I’d start doing written reviews for each event to give myself a little chore/hobby. Wrestlepalooza is actually the 5th of 21 ppvs. Depending on how things go, I might go back and retroactively review the first 4 ppvs at some point.
Now this is the first time I’ve ever watched these ppvs. I got into ECW back in 99 and have seen many individual matches, but few full events. I know standards are different now-a-days then they were in the late 90s, so I’ll do my best to critique aspects of the show with that mindset. All match scores are based on a 5 star scale. No negative star ratings.
Wrestlepalooza 98 – Cobb County Civic Center. Georgia. 1998.
We open with Joey Styles in the ring welcoming us to the show. That leads into a general ECW video package. Feels more like the beginning of a tv show then a ppv. It’s very non feud specific.
1) FBI vs BWO
We cut back to the FBI midway into their entrance. FBI = Little Guido and Tracy Smothers w/ manager “the Don” Tommy Rich. They’re taking on the BWO (the Blue Meanie and Super Nova). The Don gets the most generic of heel heat.
Guido and Nova start off as we get an awesome “where’s my pizza” chant from the crowd. Nova w/ a chokeslam atomic drop into a spinning heel kick. In a comedy spot, Smothers ducks getting tagged in.
More comedy as Smothers, Meanie, and the ref have a dance off. Smothers Pearl Harbors Meanie. Tons of comedy included a spot where the ref goes for the pin on Smothers and Meanie counts the fall (1 count). Things break down even more and Nova takes a top rope dive to the outside onto the FBI.
Heels take control. Lovely straight kick from Smothers to Nova. Hot tag to Meanie who gets caught on the rope trying to enter the ring. Sloppy double team action. Meanie with a beautiful moonsault (that he misses). Sloppy finish as Nova picks up the win with the Novacane. Faces do some sort of YMCA celebration.
**1/4. Fairly poor match but it had some fun moments and the crowd was hot for it.
Mikey Whipwreck vs Justin Credible video package. It’s a good time to mention there are several juggalos in the crowd. Dear god, I can’t stand juggles.
2) Justin Credible vs Mikey Whipwreck
Credible makes his way to the ring with “the sexiest man on earth” Jason and Chastity. I hate Jason, he sucks. Whipwreck comes out looking like the indie-est of the indie wearing a massive graphic tee. He’s a bit on the chubby side as well.
Fast start as Whipwreck hits a spear on Credible. Whipped into the corner, Credible takes a Flair bump to the outside. Credible then takes a bump over the guardrail onto a child that can’t be more then 8. If anyone’s wondering why Heyman got sued so often…. More brawling as both men make it back into the ring.
Whipwreck takes a nasty bump from the apron onto the outside guardrail. Nothing fancy as Whipwreck has his face smashed into a chair. Crowd does some stupid chant about Chastity. Fuck off crowd, pay attention to the match. Whipwreck eats a sit out power bomb onto the chair. Crowd hits Credible with an “Aldo” chant.
At one point, Whipwreck no sells the beating he’s taken to throw a chair at Credible…. But misses…. And Credible sells like it connected. Back on the outside, Credible takes a suplex off the guardrail through a table.
In the ring, Credible gets a chair shot to the head. Then a slingshot into a chair on the corner turnbuckle into a school boy. Kick out. Franken-Mikey. Kick out. Whipper Snapper to Credible and Jason. Top rope Whipper Snapper to Chastity. Credible hits that’s incredible onto a chair for the 3 count.
***1/2. Much better match then I thought it would be. Very indie garbage wrestling but both guys worked hard and the action was fluid for the most part. It felt like a heated feud.
Axl Rotten/Balls Mahoney cut a shouty face promo. It’s fine. They challenge Chris Candido and Lance Storm and yeah… they get the match…. Right now.
3) Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney vs Chris Candido and Lance Storm
Candido/Storm come to the ring together but then Candido goes back…. and comes out solo. Awesome stuff. He’s playing the cocky heel. They start to get introduced “Lance Storm and Chr…” but then Candido has a world with the ring announcer. ” Chris Candido and Lance Storm.” Bit of an awkward moment as Balls and Axl look confused and head to the ring. Candido cuts a fun selfish promo.
Axl and Candido in the ring. Straight wrestling to start. Tag to Balls. Crowd chants “balls whenever he connects with a move. Double team torture rack/smash combo by Balls/Axl onto Storm.
Balls, Storm, Candido to the outside. Axl with a sling shot Senton to the outside. Back in the ring, Candido tags himself in and chucks Storm to the outside. He’s awesome. Incredible stall suplex on Axl. A “Chris takes steroids” chant. Yes, yes he does. Pro Flair crowd as Candido gets a pop for doing the Flair Strut but eats a clothesline right after.
Sunny comes out of nowhere and slaps Balls. Balls hits the nutcracker suite onto Candido but the idiot face goes for a chair instead of the pin. Balls eats a spring board drop kick from Storm as the chair gets pushed back into his face. Storm goes for the pin but Candido hits him with a chair. Candido gets the pin. Heels continue to scuffle post match.
***1/2. Another pleasant surprise. Much more in-ring work then I would have expected. A tag match is the perfect environment for the likes of Axl and Balls since they’re both fat windy dudes. And Storm and Candido are just great.
Back in the ring, Joey Styles introduces some Georgia wrestling legends: JYD, Dirty Dick Slatter, the Masked Superstar, and Bullet Bob Armstrong. A nice segment meant to pop the live crowd.
Next up, Styles introduces Shane Douglas. Douglas cuts a “Douglas” promo. He shoots on Flair, Michaels, and the WWF. He has a (shoot?) elbow injury but says he still plans to wrestle.
Taz comes out. “Shut the music.” Taz says he’s the uncrowned champion and demands Douglas hand over the title… For some reason. When Douglas declines, he eats a punch and gets choked out. Taz is restrained by officials and out comes Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow and Taz brawl until Taz is restrained again and cuffed. He’s placed inside a car outside the arena and he kicks out the window(!) before the car drives out.
Back in the ring, Douglas sells his injury and also sports a bloody mouth.
Bam Bam stays back in the ring and, fuck me, New Jack comes out. Fuck New Jack and fuck his AWFUL WWE Network entrance song. I get they couldn’t get Natural Born Killaz (amazing song), but this new track is rubbish.
4) Bam Bam Bigelow vs New Jack
New Jack enters the ring with a trash bin full of weapons. Bam Bam takes control early. Standard “New Jack” wrestling. Outside the ring, New Jack takes two chair shots to the head and juices. Bam Bam flings classroom chairs (IE: metal legs, non-folding) at New Jack with FULL force.
New Jack looks absolutely out of it. His eyes are glassy and vacant. He’s so fucked that security CARRIES him to the next spot…. Which is him JUMPING OFF THE SECOND STORY WALKWAY to hit Bam Bam with a guitar. Despite taking the guitar shot, Bam Bam is first to his feet because… Yeah, New Jack is done.
Bam Bam carries Jack to the ring and delivers the safest Greetings From Asbury Park possible. Three count, Bam Bam wins. Post match, Bam Bam throws a trash bin at New Jack.
*. Horrible. Just disgusting stuff. I do think New Jack has his place in wrestling but this was wretched to watch. Bam Bam was no better either the way he stiffed Jack with those chairs. At least it was short.
Video Package for Dudley’s vs Dreamer Sandman
Back in the ring, we’re going to get a Joel Gertner promo, Yes! But it’s cut off by the Sandman’s music, No! The Sandman has a smoke and he, along with Dreamer and Beulah, have a beer. Faces have their backs to the heels as they drink by the crowd on the outside and yeah…. the heels just watch. On the ring apron, Dreamer drinks some beers off Beulah’s tits… Heels still just watching. Long ass entrance.
5) Buh Buh Ray and D-Von Dudley (w/ Joel Gertner, Sign Guy, and Big Dick Dudley) vs Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman (w/ Beulah McGillicutty)
Man, just a bunch of fat dudes in the ring (aside from D-Von). Match begins w/ heels having beer spit into their faces and a botched double team clothesline on Big Dick. Brawling ensues. Nice top rope hangman’s neck breaker from Dreamer to D-Von.
Sandman tosses a link of guardrail into the ring. Bad idea as he takes a bump onto the guardrail and… ah… he’s stretchered out. Whatever.
Heels work over Dreamer. Lovely side suplex by D-Von. The most random failed “powder into the face” spot ever. More working over Dreamer. The Dudley’s were tagging in at one point but fuck it, now they’re just both in the ring.
AWFUL missed con-chair-to by the Dudley’s. Crowd shits on it but I’m actually a little happy Dreamer didn’t take the blow.
Spike Dudley enters! And he’s now a part of the match…. For some reason. Fun poetry in motion spot off Dreamer and Buh-Buh into D-Von. A bunch of heel and face interference. Sandman comes back with a neck brace. Disgusting chair shot to the head by Dreamer to Buh-Buh that’s in-sync with a cane shot to the head by Sandman to D-Von. Duel pins. Faces win.
**1/4. Fat dudes doing garbage wrestling. Sandman is the absolute worst. Thank god he was gone for part of the match. No rules, just chaos. I don’t mind a good garbage match/brawl (see Credible v Whipwreck) but this was not very good.
Rob Van Dam/Sabu video package.
Bill Alfonso (who manages both men), cuts an interview back stage basically saying he won’t pick sides, and will simply stay with whoever wins the match. The camera work during this promo is absolutely seizure inducing. Why would either guy want him there if he could potentially double cross them?
6) RVD vs Sabu
I have no idea who’s suppose to be heel and face in this match. They both “behave badly” but have crowd pleasing offense. They’re both also managed by heel Fonzy. Also, fuck Fonzy and his awful whistle gimmick.
Typical RVD staling to start (though he’s actually quite funny as the cocky, airhead heel). “Stand off” wrestling.
RVD cuts an egotist promo, saying he won’t fight his partner. Sabu opts for the quick double cross and goes on offense. RVD turns the tide and goes to work on Sabu’s leg. A little submission wrestling as RVD puts Sabu in the surfboard and then a poor looking half crab.
RVD goes to the outside to set up a table and eats a suicide dive for his troubles. Sabu places RVD on the table but RVD rolls off as Sabu botches a dive to the outside.
Throughout the match, Fonzy shows subtle support for one guy over the other. He places a chair in front of Sabu’s face but then removes it when RVD goes to deliver a kick.
This a long match with a lot of spots but on 6 or 7 occasions, Sabu just throws a chair in RVD’s face.
RVD hits the Van Daminator. Kick out. 5-star frog splash. Kick out.
Sabu hits a triple jump leg drop. Kick out. There’s a lovely monkey flip where Sabu lands on a chair. Kick out.
Sabu places a table into the ring and it just breaks.
RVD returns the favor and throws a chair in Sabu’s face. 5-star through a table! And, um, Sabu barely sells it. Sabu takes a double under-hook face plant. Kick out. More near falls.
The bell rings. 30-minute time limit draw. Did I miss the part where there was a 30 minute time limit? Heels bicker and RVD sneaks off with the title.
****. Really fun match and both guys work hard. A little more storytelling would have been nice as the spots were hot and heavy. There were a few botches but considering the match went a half hour, it’s forgivable. Thumbs up.
A Douglas backstage interview. Talks his injuries and how he’s still going to compete but won’t promise victory… what a heel. At least he puts over the tile.
A Douglas video package… That mentions Al Snow near the end.
An Al Snow backstage interview. Basically says the title win is a career in the making.
Cut back to the ring and there are thousands of mannequin heads being held by the fans in the crowd.
7) Shane Douglas (w/Francine) vs Al Snow
Snow gets a “rave” style entrance complete with obnoxious camera work. Joey Styles gets in the prerequisite “getting head” joke.
Douglas removes his arm brace. Still not sure if it’s a shoot injury but we’ll get to that later.
Douglas and Snow lock up. Douglas uses the injured arm for a lot of his offense. Al Snow takes control and works over…. Not the arm. Douglas gets crotched on the ring post.
Back and forth match. Douglas clotheslines Snow with the injured arm. Awkward atomic drop chair spot to Snow. Snow power bombed onto chairs.
We get some Candido interference. Snow tosses him onto Bam Bam on the outside. Douglas hits the belly to belly (his finish) on Snow. Kick out.
Snow hits a moonsault to the outside onto Bam Bam and Candido. Snow Plow (his finish) to Douglas. Kick out.
It’s around this point the entire ECW roster surrounds the ring. I’m assuming it’s to give the feeling of “oh man, Snow is going to do it….” Even though Douglas is positioned as the underdog due to his injury and getting attacked by Taz earlier.
Snow Plow to Francine.
A botched top-rope float-over roll-up by Snow. Douglas sits down, traps Snow, and gets the pinfall win.
**. Not good. A short match that had no chance of being able to follow RVD/Sabu. And the story was just rubbish. Douglas is trying to be this respect demanding heel, which is fine, but he comes across more baby face then anything. I hate the whole injury angle. I’m assuming it’s a shoot because it never factored into any part of the match. Snow worked over the injured arm I think once for about 10 seconds. It didn’t help that Snow felt out of place in a main event match. He was barely even mentioned in any of the buildup.
Post match, the entire roster enters the ring. They hoist up Snow AND Douglas. Heels and faces celebrate together in an absolutely fucking stupid ending.
I get it, you’re ECW, you’re the rebels, you got to band together but that ending was trash.
Final Thoughts:
Mixed bag but I came out with 3 matches that exceeded my expectations (Credible/Whipwreck, Rotten and Mahoney/Candido and Storm, RVD/Sabu). Post watching the event and taking my notes, I checked out what Meltzer thought about the event at the time and he hated the whole thing.
Anyway, thanks for reading…. Or skimming and checking out how I scored the matches.
Hopefully I’ll be back soon with another review or blog of some kind.
