NWA (ECW) Eastern Championship Wrestling (January 18, 1994)

 

Original Airdate: January 18, 1994

Your Host is Joey Styles from the studio. Everything this week was taped on January 8 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Shane Douglas is backstage, getting taped up by Sensational Sherri

ECW Champion Terry Funk clarifies what he’s doing here in ECW: this is his last stand. His last stand in a business he loves more than anything. Terry is the best part of these shows

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Tazmaniac, Kevin Sullivan, and Johnny Hotbody v Tommy Dreamer, Pat Tanaka, and Paul Diamond: Hotbody gets into trouble right away, and gets worked over, but he manages to slip away from Tanaka long enough to tag Sullivan. Tanaka goes at Kevin with closed fists, but Sullivan no-sells, so Pat goes low. That gets his attention. Tags to Tazmaniac and Diamond, and the heels take control on Paul. They work him over, until Tanaka gets the hot tag… and promptly gets suplexed by Tazmanaic. Hotbody takes Tanaka upstairs for a superplex, but it only gets two, so Sullivan hits him with a hammer. Well, that’s certainly taking it up a notch. The heels wreck Tanaka, but Hotbody gets distracted by his partners doing some theatrics, and Pat schoolboys him at 12:24. Afterwards, Hotbody complains, and gets beatdown by his own partners. *

Shane Douglas music video

Paul E Dangerously comes comes out to cut a promo, but Chad Austin steps to him, so 911 (at this point unnamed, just referred to as ‘Sabu’s handler’) beats him up

Matty in the House catches up with Jason, who narrates clips of Pitbull beating guys up. I’m pretty sure Jason is some descendant of Peter Lorre 

ECW Title Match: Terry Funk v Shane Douglas: Funk dominates on the mat to start, and they spill to the outside, brawling up the aisle. It’s pretty funny watching Funk work a headlock on the floor in the middle of the aisle. Inside, Shane gets a hammerlock on, and he works on that for a while. Funk throws a series of headbutts to escape, and they spill back to the outside, where Shane throws him into the guardrail. Back in, Shane keeps working the arm and shoulder with holds, so Terry starts throwing chops. That breaks him free, but Douglas starts bashing the arm into the post, then beats him with a chair. Back to the arm, and Terry starts bleeding from the appendage. One armed Terry still manages to slug Douglas down, and he DDTs the challenger on the floor, as Joey proclaims this one of the greatest matches of all time. He must not have seen very many matches. I’m not even sure if this is going to be the best match on this show yet. Sherri interferes to allow Douglas a piledriver for two, and another piledriver causes Funk to fall out of the ring. Shane with a flying fistdrop for two, but Funk fights him off again, and starts going after the leg. A slugfest results in both guys collapsing, and we nearly get a double pin before Funk kicks out. Terry with a piledriver of his own, followed by a neckbreaker for two. Back to the outside for another brawl, and a criss cross is won by Funk with a shoulderblock, but Terry collapses as well. He staggers over for a lateral press, but Douglas gets a shoulder up at two. Headlock, but Shane turns it into a leveraged cradle at 34:49. But Bad Breed run out to protest, so Dangerously tries to cut them off. All that draws Tod Gordon out, and he rules that the match will continue. The combatants fall out of the ring, and Shane gets the better of it. He covers for two on the way back in, so Funk dumps him over the top for the Breed to attack. Sherri attacks them, but the damage is done, and Shane is reeling as he gets inside. Funk unloads on him, and Shane falls out of the ring, but beats the count with Sherri’s assistance. And then time expires at 40:27. This felt like those Triple H matches that are too long for their own good, where the length is there for the sake of it. There’s nothing about this that warranted this much time. * ¼ 

BUExperience: This was a supersized episode, running 90 minutes (with commercials). Less is more.

Though, I think everyone should at least see the title match once, if only to get it out of your system. I’ve been hearing about it for twenty years, it sucked, but at least I’ve seen it now.