NWA (ECW) Eastern Championship Wrestling (April 19, 1994)

 

Original Airdate: April 19, 1994

Your Host is Joey Styles from the studio

ECW Champion Shane Douglas thinks Road Warrior Hawk’s muscles are more funny than anything else

Kevin Sullivan and Tazmaniac v Jimmy Snuka and AJ Powers: From Philadelphia Pennsylvania on April 16. Really getting the A-list partner for Snuka here. Tazmaniac and Powers start, and Tazmaniac dominates him with suplexes. He dumps Powers to the outside for Sullivan to beat on with a walking cane, and Tazmaniac uses a snapmare to set up a headbutt drop on the way back in. Tag to Sullivan for a turnbuckle smash, and they continue to work him over, cutting the ring in half. They put him through a table, but Snuka catches the tag. They beat him down as well, until Powers tags back in. He manages to suplex Tazmaniac, and a flying bodypress looks to finish, but Sullivan saves, and Roseanne Barr the door. Powers misses a dive on Tazmaniac, and gets suplexed for the pin at 8:41. The brawl continues after the bell, and Woman comes out to beat on Hunter Q Robbins III. ¼*

We get clips of Pitbull defeating JT Smith to win the ECW Television title on the April 16 show

Matty in the House catches up with ECW Tag Team Champions Public Enemy, who are just generally riding high 

Clips of Mr. Hughes brawling with the Bruise Brothers on the April 16 show

Terry Funk v Sabu: From Philadelphia Pennsylvania on April 16. Funk attacks Paul E Dangerously with a plastic bag, but Sabu saves, and they brawl. They spill to the outside, where Funk gets whipped into the guardrail, and Sabu nails him with a chair on the way back in. Sabu with a springboard clothesline that sends both guys tumbling over the top, and Sabu feeds him the post out there. Inside, Sabu lands a leg lariat for two, but a slingshot legdrop misses, and Terry tosses him out of the ring. Funk with a DDT on the floor, and he delivers a piledriver on a chair on the way back in. Funk whacks him with the chair, so Sabu bails to the apron, but Funk knocks him off with a running chair shot. Terry starts asking fans to throw their chairs into the ring, which seems like a stupidly dangerous idea, but luckily there are only a few takers. Funk sends Sabu into a table, but Sabu fights him off, and hits a somersault plancha on the floor. Funk is up first, and uses a pump-press on the floor, and he stops to beat up the ring announcer for no discernible reason. That allows Sabu to recover, and he hits a springboard leg lariat in the corner. Funk fights him off with a chair, and decides to deliver a piledriver off the top, onto a chair. Both guys kind of get the worst of that. Sabu ends up putting Funk on a table on the outside, but misses a slingshot legdrop through it. Inside, Funk goes for the spinning-toehold, but a masked man distracts him. Funk fights him off and goes back to the toehold, but another masked man runs in, and breaks it up. The masked man comes off the top with a flying elbowdrop, and Sabu capitalizes with a legdrop for the pin at 12:21. This was consistently engaging, even if it was technically a mess. Afterwards, the masked man is revealed to be Bobby Eaton, and he works with Sabu and Dangerously to beat up Funk - until Arn Anderson makes the save! The crowd loses their mind for these reveals, and rightly so! It’s really cool seeing both of them in ECW. Apparently, Paul Heyman wanted to borrow Steve Austin and Brian Pillman from WCW for the spot, but WCW didn’t want to give them up so close to Spring Stampede, so they had to make due to Arn and Bobby instead. * ¼ 

BUExperience: The Funk/Sabu match was more fun than its star-rating would indicate, and the Anderson/Eaton shocker was a great moment. That’s enough to carry this episode, even if the rest was junk.