ECW One Night Stand (June 2005)

By the summer of 2005, with the WWE having won the rating wars, and the wounds healing, the nostalgia was starting to creep in. Now that the WWE owned ‘everything,’ Hall of Fame ceremonies started taking place. Classic clips were again played. A live episode of RAW rewound to 1993. And countless DVDs have been released acknowledging the history of wrestling.

One of the most well received of these nostalgia trips was ECW One Night Stand. Before the WWE ‘revived’ the ECW brand with WWE stars the next year, they held what was supposed to be a one-time only tribute/reunion show for ECW fans – using old ECW talent, ECW booking, and running it in an ECW venue.

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Joey Styles and Mick Foley. Throughout the evening, we get a series of great video packages highlighting some of the more memorable moments from the original ECW.


Opening Match: Chris Jericho v Lance Storm: The Canadians exchange a handshake before exchanging holds on the mat, and going to a stalemate. Jericho wins a second go by taking Storm down into a surfboard, and a 2^nd rope dropkick when Storm gets uppity. Baseball slide puts him onto the padded floor (probably the only real noticeable aesthetic difference from the original ECW), but Jericho's dive out hits the old school steel guardrails. Inside, Storm blasts him with a dropkick for two, and a hanging vertical suplex gets two. Storm tries tying him up on the mat, but an attempt to springboard at Jericho gets him dropkicked. Jericho with an enzuigiri, and a victory roll for two - reversed by Storm for two. Leg lariat sets up a piledriver, but Jericho backdrops him, so Storm fires off a superkick for two. Frustrated, he takes Chris to the top rope - but Jericho drops him with a forward falling superplex, and a flying backelbow gets two. Criss cross allows Storm to roll into a half-crab, but Jericho counters into a slingshot. Bulldog, but the Lionsault hits the knees - only for Chris to immediately regroup into the Liontamer. Justin Credible runs in, however, and blasts him with a Singapore cane for Storm to pin at 7:22. This would have been right at home as the opener of a Heatwave or Hardcore Heaven. *

Three-Way Dance: Tajiri v Little Guido v Super Crazy: Guido tries going after Tajiri right away, but Crazy dumps him, and gives Tajiri a backbreaker on his own. Everyone flips and flops out to the floor, and into the crowd for the patented ECW tour of the arena - with Super Crazy pulling off an insane moonsault off of one of the balconies to take out Guido. The celebration doesn't last long, however, as Tajiri hooks him in a Tarantula inside the ring, and the rest of the Full Blooded Italians take both guys out as Guido recovers. It all ends with Mikey Whipwreck giving Guido a stunner off of the top rope for Tajiri to pin at 4:09 - only for Crazy to springboard moonsault onto him. Another pair of moonsaults and a final flying version finish for Super Crazy at 6:14. Not a good match, but certainly captured the spirit of an ECW spotfest - down to the big crazy bump in the crowd. ¼*

Rey Mysterio v Psychosis: Psychosis tosses the mask during the entrances, which is just bad form. They trade wristlocks to start, and do a sloppy armdrag sequence. Test-of-strength goes Rey's way with a sunset flip for two, but a bodypress is countered into a forward falling suplex. Psychosis whips him into the corner for two, but a second try allows Rey to springboard into a moonsault for two. Psychosis responds with a sleeper, and dumps him to the floor... and just steps out after him instead of some sort of ridiculous dive. He quickly makes up for it by draping Rey across the rail, and then bringing him down to the floor with a flying legdrop from the top rope. Inside, that gets two, but a dropkick into the corner misses, and Rey with a faceslam for two. Psychosis falls to the floor off of a blind charge (and into the front row to feel some chicks up), but Rey breaks up the party by diving out into the crowd after him. Inside, Rey with the 619, and a springboard rana finishes at 6:22. Short, disjointed match - obviously this is a tribute show so they were trying to work in their stuff within the allotted time, but it just didn't click. It didn't help that Rey was in total WWE mode here, either. *

Sabu v Rhyno: This is an impromptu match, as an injured Rob Van Dam comes out to gush, gets attacked by Rhyno, and old pal Sabu saves. They get right to it - Rhyno unloading a belly-to-belly suplex, but a chair knocks him to the floor. Sabu with a baseball slide, and springboard bodypress after him to trigger an 'ECW' chant. Sabu whips him into the rail, and grabs a table to moonsault Rhyno through - only to get knocked back into the ring before he can. Rhyno with a big boot for two, and a powerslam - but Sabu catches him on the top rope with a rana. Springboard leg lariat gets two, and another sets up a legdrop for two. Another springboard, but Rhyno trips him up, and Sabu falls face first into the seat of an unfolded chair. Rhyno with a cutter for two, and a stungun sets up the spear - only for Sabu to block by using the referee as a human shied. That brings Van Dam in with a chair to blast Rhyno, and he sets up a table for Sabu to Arabian Facebust Rhyno through for the pin at 6:29. Good match? Not remotely. Quick, and exactly what the crowd paid to see? Absolutely. ¾*

Chris Benoit v Eddie Guerrero: Benoit powers him into the corner out of the initial lockup, and Eddie is not shy about using the ropes to break. Again, but this time Eddie goads him into trying (and missing) a knife edge chop - but can't capitalize. Benoit with a pair of armdrags, and they try a test-of-strength, which ends up in a go-behind trading stalemate. Guerrero bails to the floor to regroup, and uses the break in momentum to unload on Benoit as he climbs back in. Backelbow triggers a chopfest - which Eddie needs to cheat to win, of course. Chinlock, so Benoit with a side suplex to break - only to miss another chop, and get cut up in the corner. They spill to the outside for Guerrero to clobber him with a chair, and a superplex brings Benoit back in for two. Guerrero with the Frog Splash, but Chris rolls out of the way, and hits a Northern Lights suplex for two. Superplex for two, and the rolling German suplexes set up the flying headbutt - but it only gets two! Eddie tries to take it back to the main, but it's in vain, as Benoit quickly counters into the Crossface for the submission at 10:36. Obviously we didn't know it at the time, but this was very near the end for both men. Watching it now, it's glaringly obvious that something was up with Eddie - his timing way off, and looking like he hated being there while going through the motions. This would have disappointed me if I had seen it in '05 - today it just makes me sad. *

Mike Awesome v Masato Tanaka: Big slugfest goes Awesome's way to a belly-to-belly suplex, and a slingshot shoulderblock puts Tanaka on the floor. Mike with a plancha out after him, but a blind charge gets him backdropped into the crowd, and smacked with a chair. Awesome responds by powerbombing him through a table, and hitting a flying splash on the way back into the ring for two. Piledriver, but Tanaka backdrops out - only to have Awesome bridge back out, and powerbomb him. He goes for a chair, but Tanaka grabs one of his own so they can properly do the dueling chairs bit. Tornado DDT onto a chair gets Tanaka two, and a flying chair shot gets two. Discus punch, but Awesome counters into a German suplex, and a spear before hitting his own flying chair shot. He takes too long setting up a superplex through a table, however, and Tanaka counters into another tornado DDT through it for two. Tanaka to the top to follow-up, but this time he gets caught, and Awesome sitout powerbombs him through the remnants of the table for two. Thoroughly sick of him now, Awesome sets up another table on the floor, powerbombs him through it from the ring, and then hits a plancha for the pin on the outside at 9:51. Fun spotfest - nice bumps from both, and gave the crowd the highlight reel they wanted. * ½

Main Event: The Dudley Boyz v The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer: After sitting through Sandman's usual eight minute intro, the match is finally about to get underway... but first, here's the bWo to cut a promo, and Superkick Sandman. The look on Eric Bischoff's (in the balcony, along with a host of other WWE stars) face while watching the bWo is priceless, though, and practically makes the whole segment worthwhile. The kick triggers a big brawl, of course - with Kid Kash, Balls Mahoney, Axl Rotten all making cameos to hit guys with various weapons. The match now 'officially' underway, Buh Buh Dudley and Tommy Dreamer exchange weapon shots - including Dudley doing a disgusting job on Dreamer's forehead with a cheese grater. Sandman saves by blasting both Dudley's with a ladder, and Tommy makes sure to work in the old airplane spin spot with it. The Dudley's take over with tandem offense, but Sandman ducks a shot with his own Singapore cane, and Russian legsweeps D-Von Dudley. He and Dreamer put the Dudley's in stereo figure fours, drawing Lance Storm and Justin Credible back out to make the save. That draws a conservatively dressed Francine out to kick Dreamer in the nuts (it wouldn't be an ECW reunion show without someone abusing his nuts), and naturally that draws Beulah out - and they're rolling around like it's 1996 again. Beulah and Tommy embrace (Tommy covering her in his blood in the process, as he's wearing a full crimson mask), and they hit stereo DDT's on the Dudley's for two. Tables get involved for the Dudley's to put some people through, but Dreamer and Sandman keep kicking out, so they summon Spike Dudley (somehow looking even smaller than he did during the old days) to set up a flaming table for them to powerbomb Dreamer through for the pin at 10:14. The pinfall is just a technicality, however, as everyone keeps going at it until Steve Austin comes out (answering the Sandman's hilarious pleas for someone to 'get (him) a beer' as he stands over his burned and bloody tag partner), and the locker room empties for an in-ring beer bash. That draws the ire of the WWE guys in the balconies, and the show ends in the best way possible: all the ECW guys kicking the crap out of Eric Bischoff in the center of the ring. Exactly what it needed to be - this captured the spirit of the overbooked, chaotic, influential ECW tag brawls of the 90s perfectly, and the fans' bloodlust for Eric Bischoff getting paid off was just the right cherry on top. **

BUExperience: Not great wrestling, but much like the original ECW, sometimes that wasn’t what was needed to put on a good show. This one got everything right (atmosphere, sets, outfits, referees, production values), and even with a few people missing (notably Shane Douglas, Raven, Terry Funk, New Jack – though they worked Hardcore Homecoming literally only two days before this at the ECW Arena, a non-WWE event promoted in part by Shane Douglas) it worked wonderfully. As flawed as the ‘rebooted’ ECW ended up being, this was pitch perfect. **