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Best ECW tv matches


Hey Scott,

Long time reader. May have read almost all of your material. Curious about ECW Hardcore tv and any other tv matches. Watched ECW exposed 1 and 2, which are very good by the way. It was mentioned that Malenko and Guerrero had a 2/3 falls farewell match. Could there be some hidden gems and **** plus matches? Any plans to review Hardcore tv after Raw and Nitro?

ECW is a really hard TV show to review because it's not typically a show that builds to anything, and is frequently just bits and pieces of the bigger arena shows cut into hour long pieces.  It wasn't until the PPV era that it started to become more serialized.  Plus I hate ECW, so there's that.  

Comments

  1. You said "Arena" but I think the word you were looking for was "Bingo Hall".

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  2. Just a bunch of violent crap.

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  3. Not sure if it's up yet, but I really like the episode from the summer of '96 focused on the Douglas-Scorpio-Jericho-Pitbull 2 four way dance.

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  4. ECW was more proof that match quality only means so much. There were some entertaining matches, but ECW got over on the storylines.

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  5. The match that would never end. I still don't think I've ever gotten through it without dozing off.

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  6. And if there was smell-o-vision on my TV, I would swear we could call it "men's port-o-potty." 'Cause it looked like that.

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  7. Hidden gems? Fuck yes. **** matches? Ummm...not really. If you haven't seem the extreme lucha stuff I'd check that out for matches but otherwise I don't think you'll see much else.

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  8. I always enjoyed the Royal Rumble style match (king of the hill?) From late 96. Mostly storyline but it was fun.

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  9. Cactus/Mikey v TPE, Double Dog Collar Match, Rey v Psicosis, all the Dean v Eddy matches, Benoit/Dean v Taz/Sabu, Shane v 2 Cold and one of my favorite matches of all time Sabu/RVD v Furnas/Kroffat.

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  10. Love that match, storyline and work rate is great.

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  11. Another lost classic is Raven v Sandman v Pitbull 2 from A Matter of Respect. The first 12 minutes is super sloppy but once Pitbull 2 gets eliminated the near falls at the end of the match are crazy good. The Arena just goes bonkers.

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  12. There's a shit ton of great matches from 95-early 97.

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  13. That's why I have no problem with 97-99 WWF. Loved the flow, storylines, and characters

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  14. if you love around the arena brawling, weapons, and crazy spots, sure. But they are on the RF videos in full not generally on the TV show. Funny how at the time that stuff seemed fresh to me (not being someone who watched Japanese wrestling) and now seems totally played out. The booking from 93-98ish remains awesome, but the matches don't hold up. Tried to watch Guilty as Charged 2001 last night (last ECW ppv) just for shits and gigles and god it was awful. Every match was a clusterfuck with run-ins that led to new impromptu matches. Just spot fest, gratuitous cursing, it was just awful. ECW near the end was probably even worse than WCW near the end.

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  15. Just as bad is that ECW PPV from Georgia where Shane Douglas tries to put himself over as the most courageous, toughest man that ever lived, and then goes over Al Snow with a busted arm. That show was horrible.

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  16. I would say ECW was more about fun TV matches rather than technical classics. There are opening matches with Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible without "violent crap" that are not 4-star matches, but they are entertaining to watch.

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  17. Disagree, Mikey/Tajiri v Crazy/Kash from Massacure on 34th Street is sneaky one of my favorite matches ever. Also from the same shoe CW Anderson v Dreamer is a brutal, great match.

    As for the brawling, yes, theres a lot of it and it doesn't hold up all too well but I look at it like how songs from the mid 90s don't always hold up well, but I still love them and they bring me back to a time when life is much simpler, just like when I watch ECW.

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  18. I watched part of Cyberslam 96 the other night and I find it so interesting how ECW could be both so good and so terrible at the same time, sometimes in the same segment.

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  19. putting 1997 in there seems odd, because there were tons of great matches (in terms of "workrate") that year.

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  20. Gunther the Nasty LoserNovember 21, 2014 at 9:58 AM

    I agree. Their "best of" series was good

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  21. Gunther the Nasty LoserNovember 21, 2014 at 9:58 AM

    Yeah, it's like 45 minutes long

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  22. On ecw, is it just me or is Mike Awesome one of the most underrated wrestlers of the turn of the Millennium? I know his wcw run was forgettable, but the dude was an absolute freak for a big man. He could fly and was so much more agile than someone his size has any right to be. His title run is probably my favorite world title run in ecw.

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  23. Haha, so true. I only watch wrestling if there are more than ten thousand people in an arena because that matters for some reason.

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  24. CruelConnectionNumber2November 21, 2014 at 10:17 AM

    Certain Hardcore TV episodes are better than any hour of WWF or WCW ever produced.

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  25. Awesome had some choice matches with Booker T and Kanyon in WCW. And a solid tag team with Storm in WWE.

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  26. The best ECW match was on April 5, 2001.

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  27. I only watched ECW TV in 1995 and 1996 before losing interest. Scott's description of the shows at that time is correct, but that doesn't mean they didn't show some great matches in their entirety.


    They were showing full Eddie/Dean matches for months leading up to the farewell match and they are all great.


    The first Mysterio/Psicosis match is tremendous. Same with the first Rey/Juventud match early in 1996.


    I remember Steiners vs Scorpio/Benoit being really stiff and good.


    The four corners match with Douglas/Jericho/Pitbull #2/Scorpio.


    And of course the Raven/Richards vs Pitbulls match was shown in full on one of the episodes.


    Those are just the ones from the top of my head. I'm sure there are others because I remember loving the fact that they gave you full matches from arena shows (the equivalent of PPVs for ECW at the time).

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  28. oh there is still some great stuff here and there. Nothing wrong with a good brawl in moderation and certainly nothing wrong with a great spotfest like Super Crazy, Tajiri, and Guido could do. But after being so great up to 98 ECW really went down the toilet. The continued loss of talent plus the need to cut talent costs after the TNN deal flopped led to guys doing pale imitations of what they thought ECW was, rather than being what ECW was (if that makes any sense).

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