WELCOME TO THE EXTREME!
To be honest, I never got ECW, and I mean that in the most literal sense. I don’t live on the east coast, so I never got the syndicated television show, I never ordered one of their PPVs, and I watched maybe one episode of their watered down cable television show on TNN. Most of my experience of ECW comes after it had already been bought out, I watched the Rise and Fall of ECW documentary dvd, I watched their first PPV Barely Legal 1997, and I watched a couple of matches such as Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko their final match, a Chris Jericho four way, and Chris Benoit vs. Al Snow. All of these gave me some idea on how ECW actually was. Unfortunately my knowledge on the promotion isn’t that great and my nostalgia is almost non-existent but after watching that documentary I still understand and appreciate the importance ECW had on the wrestling world. I think Paul Heyman said it best in the documentary (which reminds me, if you haven’t seen it, you should see it, it’s quite excellent) suggesting that ECW was a counter-culture, where people felt part of something special, got along, and actually felt like they were participating.
On June 12, 2005, WWE produced what was basically a tribute show to the fallen organization Extreme Championship Wrestling. It was basically the last true ECW show in the spirit of ECW. Splintered throughout the show are ECW superstars from its entire history, some get a split second of screen time, some get an entire match or promo to themselves. Overall, it’s all done to relive the times and celebrate the organization.
We start off with an introduction of the announcer, Joey Styles, and the color commentator, Mick Foley, for this show. Joey Styles gets a standing ovation and a chant of his name, in what is the first of many memorable moments on this show. Joey Styles typically announced all ECW shows by himself, which is a tremendous challenge, and he certainly rose up to it. But traditionally, there’s always been an announcer and a color commentator, WWE was certainly not going to let Joey do this show by himself, and Foley was a great choice for color commentary.
Lance Storm vs. Chris Jericho: This is how you open a show with a fast paced, high intensity match-up. Chris Jericho and Lance storm started out in the business together, had their first match together, and initially this was going to be Lance Storm’s last match as well. Due to their respect for each other and their knowledge of each other, there is plenty of counters, some great mirroring of each other’s moves, and a pretty clean match most of the way through. But if anybody is knowledgeable of Lance Storm’s history in ECW, they would know he took part in a tremendous tag team/stable called the Impact Players, and eventually they interfere when Lance Storm needs them most. The match is a great opener as it gets the crowd going, has some great wrestling, is fast paced, and tells a decent story. They packed about 14 minutes of action into an 7 minute match, it’s pretty stupendous. *** ¼
ECW Remembers: This segment is basically a tribute to any of the wrestlers who have died and were a big part of ECW. It’s tasteful and exactly what it should have been.
Tajiri V Super Crazy V Little Guido: ECW was notorious for their three way dances, many of their major main events were three way dances. So this was in a way a tribute to that style match as well as the quick cruiserweight style that WCW squandered and WWE later killed. The match is really a bunch of cool MOVES~!!~ but it’s a fun match. The interference actually helps tell a bit of a story for the match as Super Crazy is the only misfit who doesn’t have an entourage with him, and while Tajiri and Guido try and use their entourage to their advantage which ultimately eliminates Guido, Super Crazy uses his own craziness and skill to overcome the odds. ***
Early Days of ECW – Recap of some of the memorable moments in ECW History, these are spread throughout the Show, showing different time periods, and are really fun to watch.
Rey Mysterio vs Psicosis: Another tribute to ECW of old, is the lucha style, which Paul Heyman basically initialized in the states before WCW, again, squandered it from him. This was supposed to represent the lucha style of old, but I’ve seen Rey Mysterio vs. Psichosis in action at the Super J Cup 1995 and it’s far and away amazing the stuff they used to be able to do. Rey Mysterio has since adapted to a WWE style, lower-risk, and has had many knee surgeries by this point, the two men hadn’t had a match with each other in at least 5 years, and there was no way they could re-create the magic and the chemistry of their previous matches. And they didn’t, and they crowd killed them for it, as they worked a petty match with no meaning except for being a pale comparison, and one or two dives to make up for the match. Those two dives are cool, the rest of the match was nothing to write home about. **
Smackdown superstars enter the arena/ Joel Gertner tries to interview Smackdown superstars/ Rob Van Dam promo in the ring: These are some of my favorite segments but it really reinforces the anti-establishment spirit, and the smaller company facing off against the big bad corporations. It’s also a blast just because the Smackdown guys are really pissing off the crowd and the crowd is going balls-out on them with their chants. Also there’s nobody better than JBL to be the man to represent the WWE’s anti-ECW forces, he’s a dick in the biggest way and basically the devil when it comes to a crowd that’s as smart and rowdy as ECW fans are. RVD has never been the best promo, even his worked-shoots aren’t all that great, but you cant tell he really went all heart on this one and how upset he was that he couldn’t wrestle on this show. Also there’s no denying how important RVD was to the ECW company.
Rhyno vs. Sabu: Like I said I’m not familiar with the history between these two guys, but Sabu has always been an insane, high-spot machine. The perfect length, with Rhyno attacking RVD, Sabu helping out his friend, and RVD getting a measure of revenge. Some crazy stuff, especially with RVD hurt as he is, and perfect for what it was, awesome crowd reaction to Sabu’s appearance, and honestly it wasn’t all that good but it’s too hard to deny excellent booked. ** ¾
Raw superstars enter the arena: Again more of the same, with the Raw guys having a great time. Promo is cut off this time around and actually wasn’t as good.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit: What could have been a match of the year contender any other time is a mild match here. To be honest, I can only half blame the wrestlers (I heard Eddie was upset before the match because he was booked to lose), because frankly the crowd was only half interested, paying more attention and hounding Edge more than the action in the ring. It’s really square one, stripped down, and half-speed Eddie and Benoit. It’s unfortunate because these two are two of the greatest wrestlers of the twentieth century. ** ¼
Joel Gertner tries to interview Eric Bischoff: More hounding of the fans by the Raw superstars. On second thought this constant hounding is a great way to build to the fever pitch with the Heyman promo and the eventual ending.
Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome: It’s hard not to like this match because it’s pure, unadulterated, hard-hitting brutality. It’s got endless chair-shots and insane table-spots. The match is also incredibly risky and probably would be slammed if done today in a more wellness oriented WWE world. Nonetheless, the match is excitement inducing and that’s impossible to deny, the two men brutalize each other in attempt to put on a showcase of the Japanese and EXTREME stiff style. *** ¾
Paul Heyman promo: Paul Heyman gets his moment in the sun as he soaks in the cheers in another emotional moment and gets verbal revenge as he unleashes a verbal barrage onto Eric Bischoff, Edge, and JBL. Its entertaining, but at this point it’s very dated. But when this aired, man was it great. The Raw/Smackdown invaders took it in stride and had some great reactions as well, especially Edge doing a spit take. This was done to give Heyman his “final” moment in the sun and to add more fuel to the ending fire.
Dudley Boyz V Tommy Dreamer & Sandman: This match isn’t much of an actual match but is more of an ECW main-event clusterfuck complete with run-ins and interference galore, buckets of blood, weapon shots of all kinds, and call-backs to classic ECW matches of old. This is meant to be the ultimate ECW nostalgia match and it succeeds on that level as the Dudleys, Dreamer, Sandman, and a slew of guest stars really hit the punchline of what ECW was all about. As an actual match, it lacked fluidity, storytelling, and slick execution. But this night has always been more about moments than about matches. ***
Stone Cold starts a riot: This was the most WWE-like situation the entire show as it not only featured the WWE Anti-ECW crusaders but it featured current (or current at the time) WWE megastars on the ECW side as well, outside of TAZ moment. It’s still the segment that’s been built to all night, and it’s an absolute blast of a segment (outside of the terribly unprofessional scenario between JBL and Blue Meanie). Unfortunately I think the build to the segment was greater the segment itself and thus it is outshined a bit. Also the segment is a tiny bit overlong, but it ends with a great moment with Sandman and Steve Austin sharing the spotlight together.
Final Thoughts:
It’s not the greatest PPV match-wise, but it’s top to bottom a very monumental and entertaining PPV, one of the most entertaining ever in my view. It’s got a ton of moments, some really fun matches, and some bad-ass bloodshed and brutality along the way. Definitely get a chance to watch this. And if you can find the actual PPV show with the actual music, you’re better off than what’s on the DVD. 9/10
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