Welcome everyone to my first ever 'Restling Rewind! This is where I'll be taking a look at classic wrestling shows and for the first one ever I'm taking you back to the first episode of ECW on TNN. This show is kinda like one of Ring of Honor's road rage shows. Instead of using the footage of of their original TV tapping Haymen must have been unhappy with it and instead put together matches from various recent ECW events and showed a brief history of ECW.
The show opens with the voice of extreme Joey Styles. He tells us ECW is nothing like WWF or WCW. He name drops former ECW World Television champions and tells us our first bout is going to be a ECW World Television Title match.
It's between ECW World Television Champion Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn. Styles reminds us several times that Van Dam is the longest reigning champion currently in wrestling, holding the title for 18 months now. Styles annoyingly talks over the ring announcer before the match begins.
We are quickly introduced to what makes ECW unique. We get a lot of spots and both men go into the crowd several times. The only annoying thing during the match is Bill Alfonso's constant need to blow his whistle. I was alright for it a bit but damn it's too much. I understand that this was from the pay per view the night before but the commercial breaks really hurt my viewing of this match.
Another annoying thing during this match was a Extreme Replay. I don't mind having a replay but having music play with lyrics while Styles is talking was a horrible idea. Maybe they were in a rush after scraping the original tapping. They should have known better then to have done that.
Spot of the night was Alfonso throw a chair at Lynn and Van Dam jumping from the guard rail to perform a Van Daminator.
Joey Styles "Oh My God!" moment came when Lynn flipped Van Dam from the ring onto a table. Van Dam hit a Five Star Frog Splash but Lynn was able to kick out and Styles made a big deal of that. Rob Van Dam was able to win though after a second Five Star Frog Splash. Despite production issues this was a really fun match to watch and a great why to showcase the ECW product to new fans.
We're then given a history of The ECW World Heavyweight Championship beginning with part of the famous/infamous promo where Shane Douglas throws down The NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Joey Styles is also sure to mention that Mick Foley, Ron Simmons, Chris Benoit and Steve Austin have all challenged for The ECW World Title but was never able to win it.
Then we get ECW World Heavyweight Champion Taz wrestling Rhino, who Joey Styles calls a rookie monster. Steve Corino is outside the ring.
This match is a real disappointment. It was really just a squash match. And it's funny since Rhino would end up being the last ECW World Heavyweight Champion two years later. No doubt he's made to look stronger in future episodes.
After that we get a video package of Taz's nemesis Sabu. We're told its illegal for Sabu to wrestle in The United States anymore. No idea where they are headed with this but okay.
Styles plugs The ECW Hardcore Hotline. Call in and find out which WCW wrestler would rather be in ECW. I'd guess someone like The Sandman or Raven who was in WCW at the time and headed back to ECW.
Our third match of the night is Spike Dudley vs. FBI member Sal Garziano.
It lasts a minute and poor Sal gets squashed by Little Spike Dudley. The highlight of this is Spike dancing on top of the big fella.
Then we get a Impact Players promo. We're introduced to Jason who tries to act sexy in a very creepy manner.
Of course there's Justin Credible who Haymen promised to build the promotion around.
And can't forget about Lance Storm and Dawn Marie. Sorry. I just found Storm's facial expression kinda humorous here. Forgive me.
And out of nowhere pops out Cyrus "The Virus." He's here to tell us how under appreciated he is.
It's too bad for poor Cyrus though that the camera man gets distracted by Marie. Cyrus complains that he needs more camera time and mic time. I remember when TNA had Chris Harris complain the same way in Impact. Though I'll admit Harris was a lot funnier doing it. Didn't work well for him in the long run though. Poor poor Chris Harris. Well at least unlike Cyrus Harris was undefeated in ECW... well ECWWE or whatever.
Then The Impact Players do a promo how they are taking over ECW.
...mixed in with little clips of the majority of The ECW roster. I wonder how RF video is getting away with selling these DVDs with all this music on here.
And to close the first episode of ECW on TNN is The World Heavyweight Champion himself Taz! He talks about how he defeated WWF and WCW stars like Chris Jericho, Shane Douglas, Jerry Lawler and several others. Taz says we don't want our children to grow up to be him and that as ECW World Champion he's going to choke everyone out.
In Retrospect
Other then Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn and the Taz promo everything was skipable or bad. And the TV Title match had some production problems. Well like I said this was probably rushed and I guess TNN gave ECW little support. Well they would switch that policy around for TNA, paying to keep guys like Sting around.
Half the episode was good and I guess that match would make a person want to see more. Maybe the next episode won't suffer from the same problem since it will actually be a taped show rather then a "Road Rage" type deal.
