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.

The Best of Mikey Whipwreck

Digging through some old tapes, I found this Mikey compilation I bought about 10 years ago. For the most part, it's his best known matches from ECW, rather than his best matches, but there are a few gems here...

Mikey Whipwreck vs the Pitbull
An ECW TV title match, with Gary Wolfe defending against the highly mismatched Mikey. The Pitbull basically destroys Mikey, sending him crashing to the mat with a standing enzuigiri. Mikey flies over the top rope from a clothesline before getting catapulted over a safety rail. Back in, Whipwreck takes a belly to belly and a powerbomb before the Tazmaniac turns up on the apron to distract Pitbull. Taz takes a kick to the head, but avoids a second one, causing the Pitbull to crotch himself. Mikey rolls on top of the Pitbull and, even though Wolfe raises his shoulder on two, gets the win and the TV title. Basic squash, but a fun angle at the end.

Mikey Whipwreck & Cactus Jack vs the Public Enemy
Terry Funk missed his flight, so Cactus picks a reluctant Mikey to be his partner. Whipwreck tags out right away, and runs off to the back. This leaves Jack on his own to get beaten up, but Whipwreck actually comes back with a small piece of plywood which he uses to clear the ring. Mikey’s first bit of offence is being used by Cactus as a weapon, getting whipped into Rock, before being used as a battering ram to send the Public Enemy to the floor. Mikey actually dominates Grunge in the ring, but is soon getting pummelled again following a DDT onto a steel chair. Whipwreck is face in peril and takes a trademark battering, including a huge powerbomb by Rock and a piledriver from Grunge, but Whipwreck manages to keep kicking out. Mikey is unconscious, so Jack brawls with TPE in the crowd whilst Mikey starts to recover. Back in the ring, Rock moonsaults Jack through a table before going back to Mikey. TPE go for the Drive By, but Jack manages to crotch Rock on the top rope allowing Mikey to cover for the three. Another match that is focused on the angle, but the action was plenty of fun.

Mikey Whipwreck vs the Sandman
This is for the ECW title, and Steve Austin joins us before the match to cut a blistering promo to essentially declare himself the next ECW champ. The big problem with this match is that neither guy really sells much, despite the fact they keep hammering each other with ladders. Indeed, Mikey takes a real beating here, including a Fameasser onto the ladder, but still keeps on getting up. At one point, Sandman props a ladder up on the railings and barrels out with a tope to seesaw the ladder into Mikey’s face, which should have killed Mikey off for good. Instead, Sandman misses a slingshot elbow and Mikey hits a top rope splash onto the Sandman, and a ladder, for the title. Too spotty to be any real good.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Rey Mysterio Jr
Sadly, this is all clipped, making it more of a highlight reel. We do get to see an insane Mysterio tope before it cuts to Mikey winning with La Majistral.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Steve Austin
This was scheduled to be the Sandman taking on Mikey, but Austin beat up Sandman en route to the ring and took his place. Austin is clearly dominant here and, unlike the Sandman match, this provides the match with some structure. Some fans chant “Hogan”, so Austin hits a big boot and legdrop for two in a fun spot. Mikey takes some huge bumps, including a monster over the top rope to the floor. The Stungun gets two for Austin before Mikey wins with a sunset flip. Decent enough.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Taz
This is from Raw in 97, and is a total Taz squash. Mid-match, Sabu dives from the Raw sign onto Taz’s entourage, so Taz responds by throwing Whipwreck over the top rope onto Sabu. Tazmission earns an easy win, but this is a fun curio.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Kidman
Mikey’s WCW debut, and it’s a PPV title match. It was all downhill from here. That said, I liked this more than any previous match on the tape. Mikey plays heel here and, being bigger than Kidman, bullies the smaller guy, which provides a nice change of pace. Mikey’s different attitude allows him to show some nasty looking offense, including wheelbarrowing Kidman face first onto a safety rail. Mikey even gets to reverse a headscissors attempt and powerbomb Kidman! Kidman does get to pop the crowd with a few high spots, including a nice crossbody to the floor, but Whipwreck pops up on a SSP attempt, sending Kidman crashing to the outside. Whipwreck continues to dominate, with a swank top rope clothesline and a monstrous top rope belly to back suplex both getting two counts, before Kidman reverses a powerbomb and hits the SSP for the win. Kidman gave loads to Mikey here, and let the scruffy looking guy most of the fans didn’t know look like a killer. Mikey wasn’t as flash as the other WCW cruiserweights of the time, but his offence looked like it really hurt and he could’ve had a great run as a cruiserweight dick bully. Sadly, he’d be jobbing to Scotty Riggs by the next PPV.

Mikey Whipwreck vs 2 Cold Scorpio
Or 2 GOLD Scorpio as he’s referred to here, putting both the TV title and the tag titles on the line. This starts pretty evenly, but once 2 Cold takes control he starts to decimate Mikey. After getting one or two hope spots, including a flying headscissors and a pescado, Whipwreck misses a crossbody and the Scorpio onslaught is on. Scorpio blitzes Mikey, hitting a tombstone, a moonsault, a powerbomb and a moonsault legdrop, but picking Mikey up on two to be a dick. The ref gets bumped following some brief Mikey offence, but Scorpio is soon well in control with a superkick and another powerbomb. However, his cockiness comes back to haunt him as Cactus Jack takes advantage of the ref bump and knocks 2 Cold off the top rope before hitting the double-arm DDT to allow Mikey to grab the gold. More angle than good match, though cocky Scorpio was a lot of fun to watch.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Sabu
Sabu is wearing a neckbrace. Wonder how much this will affect him. In the early stages, he actually acts like it is, grounding Mikey and positioning his body to stop him reaching the ropes. This is sadly the one time he acts like his neck hurts, as his next move is to hit a top rope rana on Mikey. From this point on, Sabu says “fuck it” and forgets that he’s got a neck injury, using a chair to dive on Whipwreck on the outside. To his credit, Mikey doesn’t forget Sabu has a neck injury, hitting him with a DDT, an enzuigiri and then ripping the neckbrace off before elbow dropping Sabu through a table on the outside. Mikey goes for a countout win, but Sabu doesn’t even hint at building tension, getting in on a 4 count. Sabu gives up all pretence of selling, hitting Mikey with continued highspots, before hitting him with a DDT through a table on the floor. Back in, this gets the win. Mikey tried, but Sabu was awful here.

Mikey Whipwreck & Tajiri vs Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger vs Tommy Dreamer & Jerry Lynn
This is a triple threat elimination match. I liked the opening section which saw Lynn and Tajiri in a blistering sequence whilst Simon just knelt on the mat open mouthed. It soon breaks down into a brawl and the camera man follows Tajiri and Dreamer through the crowd. Being handheld, this becomes impossible to follow. After what feels like forever, the action returns to the ring, where all four faces dropkick chairs into Simon and Swinger’s faces. Dreamer hits Mikey with the DDT, but CW Anderson pulls him out of the ring. This distraction allows Simon and Swinger to eliminate Dreamer with the Problem Solver. They then try a Doomsday Device on Tajiri, but he spits green mist in Diamonds face, leaving him prone on the top rope for a Whippersnapper, which gets the win. Too messy to be any fun.

Mikey Whipwreck & Tajiri vs the FBI
This is essentially a squash for the vast majority of the match. That said, a Guido/Tajiri sequence at the start of the match is terrific. The chemistry between Whipwreck and Tajiri is incredible here, as the decimate Guido and Mamaluke with double teams. I also dug the use of a table here, using it to slide chairs to the outside of the ring into Big Sal to stop him interfering. Whipwreck hits a vile looking one-man conchairto on Guido busting him open. The FBI get granted a small heat section until Mikey reverses a Mamaluke flying headscissors into a stungun to make the hot tag to Tajiri. Tajiri is so fucking good, everything he does is here is gold. Mikey hits a Whippersnapper through a table on the outside (which makes no sense as he goes through the table first), but inside Guido takes advantage of Big Sal distracting Tajiri to hit a Tomikaze onto a chair for the win. Plenty of fun.

Mikey Whipwreck vs Little Guido
This is from Border City Wrestling, and is billed as Mikey’s last match, which would last two years. They play a lot of this for comedy, with Guido stooging for Mikey’s offence, including getting hit with comedy weapons like a plastic sword and a straw doll. Guido sells a custard pie to the face as death. The match is pretty enjoyable given the context, though Mikey is noticeably not as smooth as Guido in the ring. Mikey mists the ref by accident, meaning a Guido Tomikaze doesn’t get counted. A second effort gets a 3 count, but the ref then spots Whipwreck’s foot under the rope. A top rope Whippersnapper through a table (still makes no sense) gets the win for Mikey.