ECW Eastern Championship Wrestling (June 1, 1993)

Original Airdate: June 1, 1993 (taped April 3)

From Radnor, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Jay Sulli, Stevie Wonderful, and Paul E. Dangerously

We start with a replay of the tag title switch from last week’s show, with the Suicide Blondes picking up the gold from Tony Stetson and Larry Winters. This show has a weird habit of doing full replays of earlier matches

 

Super Destroyer #1 v Salvatore Bellomo: I wonder if Destroyer #1 had to beat Destroyer #2 in a coin toss or arm wrestling, or something, to get the honor of defending the Destroyers... honor. They just kind of plod around trading shots for a while, until Destroyer puts him down with a backelbow, and works a chinlock. Bellomo reverses, and tries taking off the mask, but it goes nowhere. He actually manages to rake the eyes through the mask, and hits a splash for two. And then Destroyer #2 just runs in for the DQ at 3:58. This sucked. Afterwards, the Destroyers beat him down, until Tommy Cairo runs in to make the save, since apparently running in to make random saves is his gimmick. DUD

 

Jimmy Snuka and Eddie Gilbert v Tommy Cairo and Glen Osbourne: I'm surprised Cairo isn't too busy white knighting somewhere to work this match. Eddie and Glen start, and Gilbert goes to the eyes right away, allowing him to dump Glen to the outside. They spill into the crowd where Eddie beats on him with a chair, which, surprisingly, doesn't even draw Cairo over. Finally Cairo gets the tag, and now suddenly he's all fired up. Where was he when his partner was being beaten with weapons all around ringside? He and Glen work Eddie's arm, but Glen gets caught in the wrong corner, and double teamed by the heels. They hype up a Miss Peaches/Tigra match for Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular that can only end when the clothes are torn 'completely off' of one of them, which, 1) no, and 2) wow 1993. Eddie misses a 2^nd rope elbowdrop to allow the hot tag to Cairo, who promptly misses a dropkick, and eats a hotshot at 6:16. Another boring match. ¼*

 

JT Smith v Max Thrasher: Max attacks before the bell, and goes to work, as we cut away from the match completely for a pre-taped 'special announcement' from Jay Sulli. Which is just random highlights of other ECW shows. I don't get what about this was urgent, but there you go. Back to the match, with Smith unloading in the corner. Max trips him up and hooks a leveraged pin, but the referee busts him. As they argue, Smith hooks a leveraged pin of his own for the pin at 3:33. I have no idea why they felt the need to put away most of the match for non-urgent clips of a random battle royal, but whatever. We only saw, like, a third of this, so no rating

 

ECW Title Match: Sandman v Don Muraco: Sandman hooks a schoolboy for two right away, and a shoulderblock follows, so Don stops for advice from Paul E. Don tries pounding Sandman into the corner, but gets fought off, and a clothesline knocks the challenger to the outside. Back in, Don manages a cross corner whip, but Sandman rebounds with a clothesline, and the challenger ends up on the outside again. Back in again, Sandman uses a sunset flip for two, and a backslide is worth two, so Muraco bails. It's so weird watching Sandman carry a match. Inside, Sandman works an overhead wristlock, but Don throws an elbow to escape. He adds a kneelift to set up a 2^nd rope fistdrop, and Muraco is in control of the contest now. Tombstone, but Sandman gets into the ropes to avoid taking the move, and drops onto the apron. He tries a slingshot clothesline back in, but that goes fucking nowhere, so he just uses a small package for two instead. That was pretty funny. Sandman makes a comeback, so Dangerously trips him up, and here comes Peaches to attack him. That draws Rockin' Rebel out, and he full on stomps the shit out of Peaches, which is another thing that feels way out of place in 1993. Sandman gets wind of it and beats both Don and Rebel up, so Paul nails him with the cellphone, and Muraco covers for the title at 8:36. This wasn't great, but it resembled an actual wrestling match, unlike most of the rest of the card. ¾*

BUExperience: Despite a major title change, I’d call this one of the more boring episodes I’ve seen. I will say that it is interesting seeing a lot of stuff that would become mainstream in the late 90s on display here though, like Bra and Panties matches, or male workers attacking female workers.