Hardcore Homecoming 2005

So, Lovefilm finally sent me one of the wrestling DVD's on my list in the form of this Shane Douglas booked ECW reunion show. It has the feel of ECW, with Joey Styles on commentary and filmed in the ECW arena. Question is, is it any good?

Simon Diamond & CW Anderson vs Mikey Whipwreck & Chris Chetti

You know it’s a hit crowd when even the heel team get huge pops. Perfectly decent formula tag match, where Diamond and Anderson take control on Chetti after some initial face offence. Styles prefaced this by pointing out Chetti was the only one of the four who wasn’t wrestling regularly, so it makes sense when he becomes face-in-peril. CW looks the best out of the four men, nailing a lovely looking superkick on Mikey, but even an out-of-shape Diamond or a semi-retired Chetti keep pace and don’t blow anything. This might well be the best match I’ve seen Chetti in. After things break down, we get a series of finishers, culminating with Mikey hitting a Whippersnapper on Simon for 3. Good Heat main event.

Tracy Smothers vs the Blue Meanie

Tracy is accompanied by JT Smith for an FBI reunion. Despite Smothers being awesome, the limitations of the Meanie mean this has to be a comedy match. Luckily, Smothers can do those really well too, leading to a sequence where he fails to slam Meanie, but both Meanie and referee John Finnegan manage to slam him. Finnegan even covers for two. Tracy doesn’t appreciate the negativity of the crowd, advising them to stop or “everybody dies!” Tracy challenges Meanie to a dance off instead. Spoiler: both are terrible dancers. Smothers attacks Meanie from behind during the dance-off, but Meanie isn’t down for long. A corner splash puts Smothers to the mat, but Smith belts Meanie with a chain on an attempted moonsault, allowing Smothers the pin (with foot on rope). Not great, but Tracy was fun here.

Kid Kash vs Too Cold Scorpio

This is the match most likely to steal the show. They do things so well, even the little things like Scorpio adjusting his legs when he has Kash from behind to ensure Kash can’t grab them to escape. Scorpio remains slightly ahead at first and seems to be having fun, but he soon takes things seriously as Kash starts uping the tempo. Scorpio makes his first mistake by missing a pescado, before Kash springboards out and hits a rana on the floor. Kash is in command on the floor as much as Scorpio was in the ring, which he shows by throwing Scorpio from the stage and following with a cannonball. Kash hits Scorp with his own GHC tag belt, but the insult causes Scorp to no-sell it. He gets Kash back in the ring and plants him with a powerbomb and 2^nd rope flipping legdrop for two. A top rope flipping legdrop gets two. Kash tries to fire back with a slightly botched rana for two, but Scorp regains control and hits another powerbomb and a 450 splash to win. Unsurprisingly, match of the show. Great display by both men, especially the contrast between Scorpio dominating in the ring, and Kash dominating on the floor.

 Kronus vs the Bad Breed

This was supposed to be an Eliminators reunion, but Saturn got injured. The Bad Breed go to the ring and mention that due to a stipulation ten years before, they can’t team up. However, they can beat someone up, which doesn’t seem legally enforceable. Also worth noting Ian’s “Operation Exterminate Vince”shirt, which I bet has Vince just shitting himself. Essentially, they batter Kronus, until some familiar music starts and New Jack comes out to even the sides. You know how this goes, they walk around hitting each other with weapons, guys bleed and it’s all pretty dull. At one point a huge scaffold is wheeled to ringside, which New Jack uses to leap from onto a Ian Rotten-covered table.  This isn’t a match as there’s no ref, so the Bad Breed roll to the floor, where upon New Jack takes the mic for a rambling promo. All four men fist-bump, New Jack gives the Bad Breed “much love” and I mourn 20 minutes I’ll never get back.

 Jerry Lynn vs Justin Credible

I like the way the opening section establishes the difference between the two: Lynn outwrestles Credible, so Justin uses brawling to try and take over. Lynn tries a cannonball from a table onto Credible really early which he misses, but both of the act like he hit, which is a bit sloppy. Credible is shown as being one step behind Lynn, only taking over when some Jason distraction allows him to superkick a chair into Jerry’s face. Jason’s usefulness is shown again, as he sets up a chairspot for Credible, making it a bit less contrived. Credible tries to dominate with powermoves, hitting a Bossman slam and a powerslam for two counts, but it’s hard to be convinced by the raw power of a thin man in a wifebeater. Both hit their finishers, both only get two. Lynn crotches Credible on the top rope, and ranas him through the table he used earlier that I’d forgotten all about, which is a nice touch.  Jazz comes out to prevent Jason interfering again, and Lynn reverses That’s Incredible into a cradle tombstone for the win. Surprisingly decent, leagues ahead of their TNA series that sucked.

Raven vs the Sandman

Raven is accompanied by the Blue Meanie and the Musketeer, which must be the worst entourage he’s ever had. Raven decides to substitute the Musketeer for himself, which leads to a Sandman beating for Meanie and Musketeer. Raven takes advantage of this distraction to take over. Raven dominates a lot of the match, fair to say Sandman doesn’t add much to proceedings. Meanie throws powder in Sandman’s face and the Evenflow gets 2 for Raven. Sandman gets in a bit of offence, putting Raven through a table and hitting a swanton onto a ladder with Raven underneath. Swanton through a table gets 2. Meanie comes in to help Raven and hits two shitty moonsaults for 2. A third one is much better, but still only gets two. Don E Allen comes in to help Raven to zero reaction, but Mikey Whipwreck sends him off. Mikey goes to share a beer with Sandman, but turns and hits a Whippersnapper to give Raven the win. Pretty much held together by Raven and overbooking, the result was a mess, but a watchable mess.

Shane Douglas vs Sabu vs Terry Funk

This is a barbed wire rope match, and instantly Douglas and Funk look smarter by the fact they’re wearing t-shirts (not that you would expect Sabu to do so). It seems even smarter as both men are in the barbed wire within two minutes. Indeed, a fair bit of the opening segment is dedicated to all three men getting pushed into the wire. The best of these spots sees Sabu go for a chair-assisted springboard, only for Funk to move the chair, sending Sabu flying into the barbs. As the match progresses though, the barbed wire spots really start to lose their impact through overuse. Things get worse as Funk gets his arm so stuck that they have to cut the wire to free him. At this point, the overbooking kicks in, but in a way that actually makes the match more fun. Firstly, Shane KO’s two referees in a row, the second with a chain wrapped round his fist. Styles then claims that the whole show was  a plot by Shane to cripple both Sabu and Funk, which is a brilliant storyline. Shane starts climbing a rickety ladder, but the lights go off. When they come back on, Mick Foley is in the ring in a ref shirt to a huge pop. He uses socko on Douglas to a chorus of boos, but then amends it to barbed wire socko to a huge cheer! Sabu hits Shane with a chain to the face to eliminate him. Funk recovers and puts Sabu on a table, but climbing the rickety ladder causes it to collapse, and Sabu hits the Arabian facebuster to win. The first half was dull, but the second half was overbooked enough to make it at least entertaining. The overall theme for the show is that the wrestling was below average, but enough smoke and mirrors were used to make the matches fun.