[ECW] ECW Arena results -- 12/6/97

[enzi...@usa.net]

Anyone who has AOL and remembers "View From the Second Row" knows who I am.
Here's ECW results from the December 6 Arena show, which we'll call "No
Announced Matches and Probably Booked At About 4PM That Day."

Despite the spontaneity and all, it was an overall good show. Some friends
I talked to even said it was one of the best.

Show began at a bit past 8PM. No matter what time I get to the Arena (this
time near 7:15), I'm stuck outside in a line anyway. I'm about fed up with
it. Anyone else?

MATCH #1--TOMMY ROGERS/JERRY LYNN pinned THE FBI. The now-ex-champs and the
new team of Rogers/Lynn had an excellent match. It was pretty traditionally
tag-team fought, complete with hot tags and all the rest. The crowd (which
was another record-setting crowd; i.e., another overcrowded mass of bodies
crammed in despite fire codes and all that...I had to fight to squeeze my
seat in which the rest of the morons in the row squeezed out) was hot and
active throughout the match. No mind-boggling new moves executed; a lot of
dropkicks and whatnot. Like I said, it was a good, traditional match. In
the end, Rogers executed his awesome Tomikaze on all three FBI members over
the space of a minute or so. Lynn was out as well from an earlier beating
by the FBI. When Rogers checked to see all other FBI-ers unable to make a
save, Rogers pinned Smothers for the pin. Rogers and Lynn got a great
response and the fans seem to accept them as a legitimate team. Deservingly
so.

MATCH #2--MIKEY WHIPWRECK pinned JUSTIN CREDIBLE. Fool me twice...I never
thought Mikey would win again. Another good bout between the two, about as
good as the PPV battle. Justin appeared to shave the bulk of the facial
hair. Referee for the match was Perry Lee, who looked like the offspring of
Bret and Owen Hart. No lie. I'd seen Lee coming out in the past breaking
up brawls, so I guess he's a grad of the wrestling school. At any rate, he
did a good job as ref. What sold him on me was when he counted near falls,
unlike that oaf Paul Richard who used to ref, he wouldn't obviously pull up
and hold off on making a third count, totally exposing the business. Lee
did well. As far as the match, it ended when Jason got involved and
accidentally collided into the corner where Credible had climbed the ropes.
Mikey gave Jason a Stunner and then the Whippersnapper to Credible (Stunner
off the middle rope) for the pin. Credible and Jason argued afterwards, but
peace reigned supreme.

MATCH #3--AL SNOW pinned PAUL DIAMOND. Snow is so damn over and so damn
funny. The Head got tons of heat. Fun chants throughout the match: "We
Want Head", "Al Got Head", and when Al hit Paul with the thing, "Paul Got
Head." This was a much better outing between the two than the last show.
Snow was working with a taped shoulder. The bulk of the match saw the two
fight at ringside. Madame Chastity, who appeared to borrow Lori
Fullington's wardrobe for the night, took her obligatory hits as well. At
one point, she stole the head and immediately, Snow exploded in an offensive
flurry on Diamond before chasing after her screaming, "Don't touch my head!"
She put it right back where she found it. Snow won after hitting both
Chastity and Diamond with successive Northern Lights Bombs, a move that
popped the crowd big.

So far, 3 for 3. Good bouts.

MATCH #4--It was announced to the crowd (many of whom didn't seem to know)
that Friday in Waltham, MA, the tag belts went to Doug Furnas and Phil
LaFon. They came out along with Lance Wright and (I still can't believe I'm
about to type this) Brakus. Brakus isn't as huge and I would have thought
he'd be. That is, heightwise, I guess. Wright spoke for a short while and
said nothing anyone cared about, as usual. Out came the opponents, Balls
Mahoney and Axl Rotten (who have an official and great-looking T-shirt now
available). After Axl did a great job on the mic, "Back in Black" blared
and out came Lance Storm and Chris Candido, with Francine. She challenged
them all for a 3-way dance, and that's just what we had. Trouble is, I
don't think anyone ever said whether or not it was a title match. After
about 7-8 minutes of all 6 brawling in and around the ring, the new champs
were pinned and eliminated. 6-7 minutes later, Storm and Candido hit a
double-superplex on Balls. Francine's crutches came into play and Storm and
Candido wound up winning the bout. They were announced as the new tag
champs.

MATCH #5--Out came Joey Styles. He thanked everyone for making the November
to Remember a success, and a LOT of folks boo-ed. I don't know if they were
booing it being in Pittsburgh or, more likely, booing it being such an
average show. Either way, Joey shot an intro for a future "ECW" program and
explained that Furnas and LaFon had won the tag belts in Waltham, but the
shot was supposed to go to New Jack and Kronus. However, they were jumped
by the Dudleys before the show and Kronus sustained a broken thumb on one
hand and a broken pinky on the other. Out came Kronus for an interview.
The Dudleys all came out and were about to beat on Kronus some more, but New
Jack stormed out. Big Dick and Kronus fought outside while New Jack took on
both other Dudleys in the ring. A few minutes later, out ran Spike Dudley
to help out. Spike did a great job and the crowd was jumping. (Somewhere
here, a couple of security guards--Shapiro and the
newly-resembling-Sgt.-Slaughter guy--were having a HEATED argument at
ringside. I think one of them might have gotten hit by a wrestler and the
other was trying to calm him down.) The Dudleys soon overpowered Spike,
though. Buh Buh Ray Dudley, AKA Mark Lomonica, AKA Unbelievable A***OLE who
should have been fired a long time ago, AKA Unbelievable A****OLE who needs
to learn his role as a professional wrestler, threw full-force the rubber
garbage can that New Jack had brought out into our section. People were
extremely pissed off. I understand that Paul Heyman, who was on stage, was
even more pissed off. The Dudleys destroyed Spike and pinned him. New Jack
bladed deep again and was carried out again and everyone gave him sympathy
applause again. He's another disaster waiting to happen. If he doesn't
know how to blade, he needs to stop. And Heyman better get Lomonica's ass
straight or fire him NOW, because his berating of select fans and shoving
cameramen and completely disregard for everyone and everything is
inexcusable and disgusting and ridiculous, and Heyman kee
MATCH #6--STEVIE RICHARDS pinned CHRIS CHETTI. Richards came out to "Jesus
Christ Superstar" and all the hypocrites in the Arena who razzed him on June
7 for being injured cheered him as if he was Jesus Christ indeed. Pretty
good match overall. At one point, Chetti missed a double-springboard, but
he kept his concentration. At the end, Chetti powerbombed Richards but made
"a rookie mistake" and allowed him 30 seconds to get up. Chetti did the
setup and superkick like Richards does, but only got 2. Chetti then missed
his double-springboard moonsault (and overshot Richards, who had moved, just
like he overshot Credible, who had moved, at the last show). Richards hit
his finisher for the pin (just like Credible hit his finisher for the win at
the last show). Richards then told the crowd Those Two Words (and I really
think and hope he meant it from the bottom of his heart).

MATCH #7--The next bout was announced as the main event. It was 10:10, only
2 hours and 10 minutes into the show, and everyone seemed surprised and
kinda disappointed as a result. The main event was never officially
announced as any type of match, or the participants named, so we were all
waiting for the music to see. First we heard "It's Alright", so out ran
Sabu and Rob Van Dam. We all knew right away who the opponents were.
Indeed, "Enter Sandman" played and out came The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer.
They brought a ladder with them, so I guess it was a ladder match. The
match didn't have an overabundance of ladder spots, and it didn't need them
either. It was pretty much the same match they did 5 and 6 and 7 months ago
at the Arena, stealing each other's moves and whatnot. Beulah went after
Alfonso at one point, but Jeff Jones carried her to the back. In the end,
Richards interfered and superkicked Dreamer, and Van Dam pinned him. Same
damn thing as 5 and 6 and 7 months ago, and the crowd didn't like it. After
the bout, Sandman was draped over a step on the ladder and had a chair over
him, and Sabu came off the top with a legdrop. Out came wrestlers to cart
him off. So to send everyone home happy, Alfonso challenged someone to
fight Sabu. The one guy left on the roster who hadn't been seen or heard
from then came out...Taz. They fought for a whole six seconds before Van
Dam interfered. Brakus came out and everyone held him back. The Dudleys
and the FBI came out as well, followed by Snow and the Head. Taz had a look
of "What are you freaking doing?" on his face and Snow, via the Head, yelled
at Brakus. Out came a team, but I don't remember who, to beat Snow up. I
lost track of who else may have come out, but all the names of importance
are out as of now, and it all culminated again by the blaring "Natural Born
Killaz" and New Jack. Everyone brawled with everyone else for a bit. Big
Dick Dudley went backwards over the top rope and his shins smashed the
railing in front of us. Amazingly, h
Well, the end was almost silly, but cool enough. The show overall was good,
especially considering it was a flying-blind thing going in. Next Arena
show is either January 3 or 10 (I think 10) and maybe we'll all get lucky
and see Buh Buh Ray not there. More likely, Heyman will slap his wrist and
say "Bad Dudley" and he'll be back out there doing something else stupid.
It's Heyman's own reputation he sours by allowing for it.

See y'all next show, and enjoy the holidays to all our Arena friends who we
ran into last night. :)
--EMQ
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