ECW Home Video Collection: The Best of ECW: Volume 1 (1992)

ECW Home Video Collection: The Best of ECW: Volume 1 (1992)

Home video compilation. There’s no formal host to this, the matches are just introduced by title cards, with no background information. That’s some late stage Coliseum Video crap

Tommy Cairo v Damien Stone: From Philadelphia Pennsylvania on July 14 1992, in a Paddy’s Pub looking sports bar. Stone powers him around in the early going, but Cairo pulls off a few armdrags, and Stone wisely bails. Cairo brings him in the hardway, and a snap suplex connects, as the announcers make comparisons to Davey Boy Smith. Cairo tries another suplex, but Stone reverses, and grounds him in a chinlock. Cairo fights free and forces a criss cross, so Stone throws a knee, and add an elbowdrop for one. Back to the chinlock to wear him down some more, but Cairo fights free, and blocks a backdrop by landing on his feet. That allows Cairo a dropkick, but Stone fights him off with an inverted atomic drop to keep control, which the announcers describe as ‘ouchies.’ Criss cross allows Cairo a hiptoss, and he adds a superkick to send Stone to the outside. Stone drags him out with him for a slugfest, and Cairo reverses him into the post, before bodyslamming him on the floor. Stone goes to the eyes on the way back inside, and a bodyslam allows him a legdrop. Upstairs to finish, but he takes too long, and Cairo slams him off the top. That allows Cairo a backdrop, and a nasty looking powerbomb finishes at 5:15. This was not bad at all. * ½ 

Jim Neidhart v Salvatore Bellomo: From Philly, June 23 1992, also from Paddy’s Pub. Bellomo with a bunch of stalling to start, as I notice that the commentators are wearing suits for this thing, like this isn’t a freakshow in a sports bar. It just occurred to me that the place looks like wherever they shot the b-roll of the ‘audience’ for the AWA Team Challenge Series pilot. Too bad Verne didn’t live anywhere near Philadelphia, Greg could have been the Sandman! Bellomo tries a sneak attack, but Jim quickly fights him off, and delivers a bodyslam. Turnbuckle smash rattles Bellomo, but Anvil misses an avalanche, allowing Bellomo a full-nelson. Stevie Wonderful tries taking a cheap shot while Jim is trapped in the hold, but ends up hitting Bellomo, and Neidhart covers at 2:30. Per pre-match stipulations, Jim now gets five minutes with Wonderful, but Don Muraco runs in for the save before he can get much abuse in. This was terrible, and obviously only included because Neidhart has name value. DUD

ECW Tag Team Title Match: The Night Breed v The Super Destroyers: This is a tournament final to crown the first champions, from Philly on June 23 1992. Max Thrasher starts with one of the Destroyers, and a whole lot of nothing happens. Destroyer takes a cheap shot on a test-of-strength, but Max wins a criss cross with a bodypress for two, and he goes for the mask. The other Destroyer saves, but Glen Osbourne is able to tag in. He keeps control for all of two seconds before the Destroyers double team him, however, and they go to work on Glen’s leg. An unfortunate camera angle while Glen is selling exposes a giant bald spot that he’s obviously trying to cover up with his hairstyle. That looks ridiculously bad, like when Mick Foley was pulling his own hair out to get the Mankind character over, but sad. The Destroyers continue cutting the ring in half for what feels like forever, until Max grabs the tag, but quickly gets whacked with Hunter Q. Robbins III’s cane. That allows the Destroyers a flying elbowdrop, and Max eats the pin at 10:46. Man, those belts look like the ones I made from cardboard and tinfoil when I was twelve. Though, I actually like the half-cocked style of the old ECW belts, particularly around 1997 when they were using the knockoffs of WWF designs. This wasn’t good, but it’s nice to have the crowning of the first champions on tape. Most people may not care (and maybe rightly so), but archivists like me live for this stuff. DUD

ECW Title Match: Johnny Hotbody v Jimmy Snuka: From Philly, July 14 1992. Lots of stalling to start, like literally minutes and minutes of it, complete with the champion threatening to walk out on several occasions. Hotbody finally makes contact for the first time with a cheap shot at around the six minute mark, but he makes the mistake of trying a turnbuckle smash, and Johnny bails after Jimmy no-sells. More stalling, until Johnny tries a side-headlock, but Snuka forces a criss cross, and superkicks him out of the ring for more stalling. Well, at least he’s consistent. I should note that we’re nine minutes into the match, and there’s been, maybe, forty seconds of actual contact made thus far. Johnny grabs another headlock once finally getting back inside, so Snuka tries a criss cross, but telegraphs a backdrop, and gets clobbered. Johnny capitalizes with a ropechoke, and he takes the challenger down to work with a headscissors. Snuka fights to a vertical base, so Johnny grabs a headlock, and then clotheslines him for two when Jimmy tries criss crossing. Back to the headscissors, but Snuka keeps fighting, so Johnny puts the boots to him for two, and goes to the ground again with another chinlock. Snuka escapes and tries a sunset flip, so Johnny grabs the ropes to counter in a cradle, but gets busted by the official. That allows Jimmy to make a comeback - slowly. Backbreaker sets up the Superfly Splash to win his second ECW Title at 19:15. This was legitimately terrible. I’ve seen my share of super-stall matches like this, but usually they’re undercard comedy matches, this one was over the top title. Too bad they didn’t (or couldn’t) include the tournament final where he became the first champion in April ‘92. I’m sure it wasn’t a good match either, but just for historical purposes. But, then, the promotion was less than a year old at this point, and who would have guessed we’d even be talking about (or even remember) it thirty years later. I’m sure there was very little concern for historical context, and rightly so. This was really boring, and actively flirting with negative-stars, though it fell just on the right side of becoming offensive. DUD

BUExperience: About as good as a ‘best of’ tape for promotion that’s only a few months old is going to be.