ECW Eastern Championship Wrestling (May 11, 1993)

Original Airdate: May 11, 1993 (taped April 2)

 

From Radnor, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Jay Sulli and Stevie Wonderful

Tod Gordon opens the show to announce that he's signed a Texas Chain match between Terry Funk and Eddie Gilbert. That draws Gilbert's manager, Paul E. Dangerously, out to let Tod know that this won't be happening, and if he's not careful, Paul will sue him into next week. Apparently he knows some pretty influential lawyers. It's a shoot!

Over at the Double Cross Ranch, Terry Funk is dealing with varmints and perverts, when 'Doug Gilbert' shows up to challenge him, so Terry runs him (a dummy) over with a tractor while cackling like Giant after crushing Hulk Hogan's motorcycle in '95 WCW

ECW Tag Team Title v Hair No Disqualification Match: The Super Destroyers v Larry Winters and Tony Stetson: In addition, the champions' manager Hunter Q. Robbins III is handcuffed to Tommy Cairo at ringside to prevent interference. The challengers attack before the bell, and it quickly spills to the outside for a brawl. The challengers dominate, but run into trouble as things head inside, and the Destroyers work over Stetson. He manages to fight him off long enough to tag Winters, as Cairo makes a spectacle of himself at ringside. Back to Tony, who quickly takes a low blow, and gets dumped to the outside to give the champs the advantage again. Here's a thought: maybe stop tagging Stetson? Just try it, see what happens. Robbins throws in his cane to try and help his charges, but it backfires, and we have new champions at 6:40. As a match it was junk, but I appreciate the booking, as weeks worth of build actually went somewhere, and paid off the angle. ¼*

Eddie Gilbert and Jimmy Snuka v JT Smith and Max Thrasher: Paul E. Dangerously takes over for Wonderful on commentary for this one, and the show is immediately 100x better right away. Snuka and Smith start, and Smith works a headlock. Jimmy tries whipping him into the ropes, but Smith is ready with a hiptoss and a dropkick, as we ignore the match to watch Paul E on commentary. I know ECW was really low rent, even as far as indy promotions go, but they do understand that we can hear him, right? Smith runs into trouble in the heel corner, and gets dumped to the outside for some abuse. Max gets the tag, but quickly eats the Superfly Splash at 3:53. DUD

Salvatore Bellomo clarifies that he doesn't like sports, doesn't like women, but he does like kids. Um

Salvatore Bellomo v Canadian Wolfman: Bellomo wins a slugfest at the bell, and he takes Wolfman down for some stomping. Bellomo with a standing dropkick, a bodyslam, and a splash at 2:11. Just a squash. DUD

Lumberjack Match: Sir Jonathan Hotbody v Tommy Cairo: Cairo is making less of a spectacle of himself now that he's in the ring than at ringside earlier. Tommy beats the piss out of Hotbody to start, but the lumberjacks keep him inside. Cairo dumps him again, but the lumberjacks roll him back in for Cairo to suplex. Cairo with a leg lariat, and Hotbody bails, but cue the lumberjacks again. Nice to see wrestling lumberjacks actually working for their money for once. So they just keep repeating the scenario with Hotbody getting dumped and forced back in, until Hotbody manages to trip him up, and he uses a somersault cradle for two. Superkick follows, and he dumps Tommy to the outside for the heel lumberjacks to abuse. Back in, Hotbody with a dropkick for two, and somehow Cairo's kick out turns the tide. Wow, not even Hulk Hogan was ever booked that strongly. Tommy with a 2^nd rope clothesline, but the referee is caught up with the lumberjacks, and Hunter Q. Robbins runs in to whack him with his cane as payback for the title change earlier. That allows Hotbody to cover for three at 5:06. This was really repetitive, and learned really heavily on the gimmick, but was fine as a TV match. ½*

Mixed Tag Team Match: Sandman and Peaches v Rockin' Rebel and Tigra: Rebel attacks before the bell, and beats Sandman down, before dumping him over the top. Tigra, meanwhile, is hanging out on the floor, so maybe no one has bothered to explain the concept of a mixed tag to her. Sandman makes a comeback on the way back in, so Rebel tries tagging out, but Tigra wants none of it. That allows Sandman to work a chinlock, and he keeps knocking Rebel around with Tigra refusing to tag. Rebel finally fights him off in the corner, and a clothesline is worth two. Backelbow, but Sandman ducks, and throws his own clothesline for two. Tigra still refuses to tag, so Sandman tags Peaches in, thus forcing Tigra into the contest. And she actually comes quite willingly, which is some weird character motivation. Anyway, we get the obligatory catfight, and we're out of TV time at 3:51 shown. It's a taped show, why make your promotion look even more bush league? I feel comfortable rating this at ¼*

 

BUExperience: Most everything presented was both logical and to the point. And Dangerously was great in his role. And we saw a title change. Even so, this was still somehow boring as hell.