ECW Hardcore TV #22 07/09/1993

Stan Hansen vs Don E Allen & Herve Renesto

Allen and Renesto are billed here as Twisted Steel & Sex Appeal. They get utterly destroyed by Hansen, who doesn’t go easy on them. Short lariat on Allen gets the win.

The Headhunters & Freddy Krueger vs The Super Destroyers & Salvatore Bellomo

We’re joined in peril, because I guess time constraints meant we had to keep the opening ten minute skit with Eddie Gilbert’s increasingly terrible King of Philadelphia skit rather than show this in full. It makes total sense to fly in these WING guys to show a sub-five minute clip of their match. Liked the Headhunters doing some basic cheating, swapping over a chinlock on Bellomo behind the referee’s back, before we get a stupid ending. Super Destroyer #1 gets tagged in, and gets ganged up on by all three opponents….then Super Destroyer #2 joins in to make it 4-on-1. I mean, it’s good they’re continuing the storyline from the previous show, but why would SD1 still team with his partner after getting betrayed the previous week? It makes no sense.

JT Smith vs Masayoshi Motegi

This is for Motegi’s WING Jr Heavyweight title. Odd one this, I assume that neither party wanted their man doing the job, so we get a time limit draw that Motegi totally dominates from beginning to end. Smith is allowed the odd mat counter and I think one suplex, but the rest is just Motegi totally controlling him on the mat, locking in a nice Indian Deathlock and two STF’s. Motegi finally looks to have it won with a German suplex, and the time runs out. I guess the idea was it made Smith look tough hanging on despite being put in all manner of holds, but it just made it look like he couldn’t hang with this guy half the audience didn’t know.

Eddie Gilbert & the Dark Patriot vs Salvatore Bellomo & the Sandman

Two Bellomo matches on one show? These are blessed days indeed. Basically a team of two of the best guys in the promotion vs the two dirt worst. I like the irony, in hindsight, of Gilbert taking control of the Sandman by hitting him in the head with an empty can as a cheapshot. Dark Patriot bumps about for Sandman’s terrible offence, really putting in a good shift. We get another match cut off halfway through for a Abdullah the Butcher promo piece – this is the third main event in a row to suffer this fate, really stupid programming. Patriot looks good on offence when we return, and I dig the heels constantly distracting the ref in order to cheat. Sandman gets the hot tag and has some good energy, even if his missile dropkick is super sloppy. The heels finally get the win with a shot from Paul E Dangerously’s phone, and this was the best you’re going to get from Sandman and Bellomo at this point. Not terrible.