Picture heavy thread.. and some of the photos are not for the the younger members of this forum. Parental descretion is advised. Forgive the contstant typos like FOLY instead of Foley etc.



ECW PPV : One Night Stand
June 12th, 2005
Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City

This was the site of the last ECW PPV that aired before Paul Heyman/ECW filed for Bankruptcy Protection in New York in 2000/2001. Since then, Vince McMahon/WWE bought the ECW Library, Props, and Name and Logos and most of the other ECW property and trademarks.

We heard rumours of this ECW PPV for months now.. actually.. almost since the ECW: Rise and Fall DVD set was released to critical acclaim. The DVD set is now WWE second best selling DVD set of all time.. and will likely take the top spot shortly.. if it hasn’t already.

Almost as soon as the rumours of an WWE sanctioned ECW PPV started.. Shane Douglas (the “Franchise”, currently in TNA) was hawking his “ECW” Hardcore Homecoming show slated for June 11th, 2005 at the Viking Hall (yes.. that Viking Hall) in Philadelphia.

So.. the recruiting began. Shane Douglas representing the independent show.. and Tommy Dreamer with WWE backing representing the Coroporate ECW show. Months of back and forth bitching, negotiations, and threatened lawsuits resulted in 2 shows. Shanes on Saturday featuring (as scheduled):

Terry Funk vs. Sabu (with Bill Alfonso) vs. Shane Douglas (with Francine)
Raven vs. The Sandman
Kid Kash vs. 2 Cold Scorpio
Jerry Lynn returns to the ring for the first time in a year vs. Justin Credible (with Jason)
The Blue Meanie vs. The FBI's Tracy Smothers (with Tommy Rich & JT Smith)
Mikey Whipwreck & Chris Chetti vs. CW Anderson & Simon Diamond
A tribute to "the fallen heroes of hardcore"
With Apprearances by Axl Rotten, Danny Doring, Roadkill, Don E, Allen, Don "Cyrus" Callis, Joey Styles, Joel Gertner, Johnny Grunge, Pitbull Gary Wolfe, John Kronus, Tod Gordon
Thanks to Scottshadow / wrestlingdaily.net for the list

.. which would air run on June 11, 2005 from Philidelphia. It would be taped for later distribution on DVD.

Due to some of the back and forth legal ramblings between the WWE and Douglas, many stars from the ECW era wouldn’t work both shows.

Despite the WWE ECW show not having Douglas, Raven, Funk, Lynn.. the WWE ECW show had a good scheduled line-up of their own…

Lance Storm w/ Dawn Marie vs. Chris Jericho
Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis
Super Crazy vs. Tajiri w/ Sinister Minister vs Little Guido
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit
Tommy Dreamer & The Sandman vs. The Dudley Boys
Plus special appearances by Paul Heyman, Rob Van Dam, Bill Alfonso, Tazz, Spike Dudley, Al Snow with Head, Sabu, Balls Mahoney, Danny Doring and Roadkill, CW Anderson, Rhyno, Joel Gertner, Axl Rotten, Justin Credible, Kid Kash, Masato Tanaka, Mikey Whipwreck with Sinister Minister, and The BWO (Big Stevie Cool, Hollywood Nova, and The Blue Guy)
*Thanks again to ScotShadow / wrestlingdaily.net

With the back-story aside..

ECW: ONE NIGHT STAND

Show opens with the obligatory ECW ECW chants we’ve heard year after year from the fanatical ECCW fans, and then the crowd pops for the original EXTREME theme intro music. The building only hold s few 1000 people, but it was clear people there were up for this show.



Joey Styles is introduced, and the crowd pops again. Joey is clearly emotional. First time in years he’s worked an official ECW show. (he worked the hardcore homecoming the day before though) Working an indpendant show without the logos, sounds, and majority of the stars of ECW clearly didn’t match up to the emotions he felt being in the Hammerstein Building. One Night Stand was lucky to have him, as negotiations were long and ardurous. Joey felt slighted years ago by the WWE when they offered him a measely 500 per week to do some minor broadcast work for WWE when they has first acquired ECW.

Joey then enlightens us as to whom would be riding shotgun during the PPV beside him….



Mick Foly/Cactus Jack/Mankind/Brother Love walked to the ring to the cheers of the packed Hammerstein Ballroom.

The broadcast then cuts to the ECW intro, which is a video montage of classic ECW stars doing what they do best. Cross paning over the audience, and then a wide shot of the classic cardboard “ECW brick wall entrance prop” where Lance Storm and Dawn Marie walk to the ring to a ECW chant and a video history showing his ECW Impact Players Days.

Chris Jericho show up, dressed in classic ECW attire, and with the moniker Lionheart Chris Jericho. (loved to know if he’s held onto that outfit all this time or did he have WWE whip one up based on old footage)

Interestingly enough, Lance Storms first ECW match was against Lionheart Chris Jericho.



The match was okay.. by any standard. It was the opening match for and ECW show.. so it had a lot to live up to.. and a lot of high expectations. It fell a bit short. As emotions and pops goes, Lance was more alive than he was in his WCW and WWE on air stints. Jericho, put on his usual Mid-Card performance. (he hasn’t put on an awesome performance since his Undisputed Championship Reign years ago in the WWE)

The saving grace of this match was the timely interference by Justin Credible and Jason (Original Impact Player stable) who brought us a quick and decisive ending to this yawner. Foly on the mic wonders if this is how Lance wants to end his Wrestling career. Little does Mick realize Lance’s career has been dead for years now. (although. He’s enjoyed a short run as Agent for WWE recently)

Jericho milks the “injury” sustained by the impact players.. and steals an extra minute of satellite time.

Joey Styles.. likely prompted to do so.. shifts the focas away from the still staggering Jericho, and directs the PPV audience to the empty second floor Balcony seating which would later seat the WWE RAW and SMACKDOWN crusaders. (yawn)



continued next post.

ECW Remembers.. with an introduction by Pitbull Gary Wolf.. as he leads into a video montage of ECW stars who are no longer with us…
















With the ECW Remembers video montage over.. we are now introduced to what will warm a lot of old ECW fans hearts.. a classic ECW Triple Threat Match.



First to the ring is Yoshiro Tajiri (accompanied by Mikey Whipwreck and the Sinister Minister). He’s followed, by Little Guido (Nunzio) and the rest of the oldschool ECW FBI. (minus Big Sal though). The Final contestant of this three way dance is Super Crazy(loco). This is a match we’ve seen maybe 2 dozen times on ECW TV and house shows.. and they never fail to entertain.

The match is everything we can expect from these 3 wrestlers. Plenty of high spots.. lots of high speed maneuvers, and at times.. wrestling clinics.

Super Crazy took out the entire FBI with a flip off the second floor balcony…



With the predictable amount of interference by the FBI and Sinister Minister.. Tajiri manages to get the pin on Guido leaving the two superior combatant in the ring to face off in one on one action.

Tajiri Vs Super Crazy. Super Crazy gets the duke over Tajiri. Aweomse match all around.. props to all three wrestlers. This was the first real taste of oldschool ECW of the night. But not the last.

Joey Styles opens with another trip down memory lane.. “1994 February 5th, The Night the Line was crossed” with clips showing the classic Shane Douglas vs 2 Cold Scorpio Match for the then NWA title. Bunch of unforgettable clips follow.. Sabu being suicidal.. Dreamer being canned., Sandman getting.. drunk. Foly/Funk getting buried byu the audiences chairs. Funk branding Foly. Ends with Douglas shitting on the nwa belt and proclaiming himself the ECW world champ. More clips follow including the memorable public emeny incident with the audience entering the ring until it broke.

Foly breaks the silence and directs us to the still unmanned WWE crusader seating.



Psicosis enters the ring for an extreme Lucha Libre match.. wearing his old mask. Interestingly enough.. he’ hasn’t “worn” it really since his WCW days.. when most of the WCW Mexican talent had their masks “removed” by Biscoff and the NWO assholes. Mysterio arrives to the typical cheers and fanfare. Expectations are high. Both wrestlers are old friends.. have wrestled in arenas across the planet. Both have a high speed and aggressive high flying style. (or at least they used to..)

The match fell flat. Lack of energy? Heat in the building? Whatever. Both appeared to wrestle in slow motion. Nothing technically wrong with the match.. but every move was so visibly telegraphed. The fans.. bored.. even yelled for Psicosis to put his mask on half way through the bout.



Mysterio pulls the match up toward the end.. withi his crazy leg drop onto Psicosis who at that point was in the audience. Mysterio ends this stinker with a quick 619 for the pin.

Smackdowns Crusaders finally show.. Angle, Carlito Cool, Bradshaw and his cabinet. They are welcomed to the ECW show with a fuck you SMACKDOWN chant.

They then cut to a lame Doring/roadkill promo.

Next.

Some awesome oldschool footage of the Dudleys.. Sandman.. Dreamer.. Big Dick.. Austin.. Franchise. Lawyer invading.. and then Benoit “crippling” Sabu. Dreamers eventual victory over Raven. Beulah’s pregnancy story. Taz making Franchise tap for the belt.

Joel Gertner then goes upstairs to address the Smackdown crew. Angle grabs his mic.. Bradshaw does what he does best and bullies the little guy. Angle take the opportunity to cut a promo/shoot against ECW. ECW let Angle know he still sucks. Bradshaw then chimes in.. and lets the internet geek fans know that ECW isn’t really hardcore.

Bradshaw is then interrupted by…



Rob Van Dam and Bill Alfonzo.

Bradshaw mic goes conviently dead as RVD starts his shoot.. (5 to 10 minutes worth) RVD starts to reminisce about the old ECW days. He slams the Smackdown boys for even being in the building. RVD promises One Night Stand will be one of the best selling PPV of the year. RVD claims he’s totally unscripted and shooting from the heart. Sure sounded like he was untethered.

“remember Fonzy how RVD had more in his vocabulary other than dude and whatever..”

“remember what RVD 420 means… I just smoked your ass..”

“.. that was the best time of my career..”

“.. I went to the boss man.. and said Vince.. have you ever thought of doing and ECW PPV..” .. “ it would be huge”

“.. he liked my idea..”

.. and apparently that is how the PPV was conceived. RVD than goes for pity points and talks about his injury and his “inability” to perform on that show. Rhino shows up.. spears RVD.. and puts and end to RVD bitchfest.

The lights go out.. and Sabu arrives.. and Rhino and Sabu go at it.



Rhino looks to be in the best shape of his career. Guess getting axed from WWE..Rhino had few optins.. and put in some time in the gym. It paid off.. he looked great. Sabu.. despite his recent hospital stays.. loks to be in great fighting shape as well. Rhino. Is probably the only one on the show considered an ECW champ. As he was the outgoing TV and world ECW champs on their last PPV. Funny.. during the early part of the match.. Foly goes into an ECW tirad.. how he used to hear how ECW was only about chairs.. and at that same moment.. Sabu clobbers Rhino outside the ring with a chair. Priceless.

RVD decided to interject himself..take down Rhino with a chair.. and then sets up Rhino for a low quality Van Damninator.



With RVD’s assist.. Sabu takse out Rhino with the Arabian Skull Crusher for the 3 count.



Al Snow opens the next segment.. blaming HEAD for the WWE Smackdown asshles being in attendance. That opens a new bunch of classic clips.

BWO, RVD, Bigelow and taz through the mat. Dreamer Scafold match. A bunch of table shots. Some chair shots. Heyman promos. Sabu and Taz. Too many clips to list here.

Bischoff and the WWE Raw Crusaders show up. Joey shoots a bit on EDGE and EDGE’s wife problems (a la Lita/Matt Hardy) Joey then goes into a Biscoff bitchfest. Clearly.. Styles still got issues with Eric.

Benoit walks to the ring with deliberate intensity and caution.



Interesting moment.. as Benoit looks up to the combined crusader rosters on the second floor balcony. RAW.. his home 2 weeks ago.. and Smackdown. His home as of last week. Both groups.. look down on Benoit with contempt.

Eddie Guerrero arrives.. somber.. depressed.. indignant.. Looking much like his old depressed and repressed days of WCW. He sure didn’t look like he wanted to be there. Regardless.. Benoit and Eddie put on a clinic. Even at a slower than usual pace for both grapplers.. the match was enjoyable.



Shockingly.. Eddie taps out clean to Benoit. Not that he looked happy about it.

Commercial Promo for Batista / Triple HHH II (yawn)

Joel Gertner then goe to Eric Biscoff begging for a Job.. (almost pee’d myself here) Eric respectfully declines. Tosses his beer on Gertner. (after a 3 minute bitching)


Mike Awesome comes to the ring.. (much to the dismay of Joey Styles who spend most of the match beratting Awesome. Awesome was hired away from ECW when he held the ECW belt towards the end of the ECW era.. for a million dollar TBS contract with an upfront quarter million in cash. (After a few weeks in WCW though.. Awesome was saddled with the Big Chick Thriller gimmick and summarily buried)

Even more interesting.. was the fallout of Awesome leaving ECW.. showing up on WCW Nitro Monday night as the ECW champ. Heyman did what he could to sanction Awesome.. (which wasn’t much..) with the help of Vince McMahon and the WWF at that time, a unique match was set up for Awesome to drop the ECW belt.

Tazz (two z’s.. WWF name) was sent to ECW for a short period.. and on that night.. WCW’s Awesome dropped the ECW world title to WWF’s Tazz in an ECW house show. History was made that night. It was a piss poor match. When it ended.. Awesome left via the audience.. and didn’t say a word to any ECW staff or grapplers. (clearly.. ashamed.. or fearful)

Masato Tanaka arrives.., long time Awesome nemesis.. they’ve faught all over the planet.

We get what we expect.. another incredible Awesome/Tanaka match.. ripe with chair shots, table shots, and a lot of violence and air born assaults.



Awesome ends the match throwing Tanaka out of the ring, over the ropes, through a table, and then dive bombs Tanaka for the win. A small consolation to those who think Awesome sold out all those years ago.. Awesome blew out his knee in this match.

Paul Heyman Arrives. Proud.. emotional



.. he barely makes it to the ring without crying.

Heyman starts thanking those that brought ECW to the dance way back when. Todd Gordon.. his old video staff.. etc.



Yes.. and he thanks those bastards too. Clearly.. HatGuy and a few opther old ECW fans regulars are in attendance.



Paul decides he’s going to shoot.. first up.. Eric Biscoff..



Heyman notes that this isn’t ECW going to an WCW ppv.. that this is an ECW ppv and that Eric is in their house. Nice.

“Hide your wives.. it’s EDGE…”



“no one with a written promo had this to say to you.. “
“I got two words for you.. Matt Freaking Hardy”

..in reference to EDGE sleeping with Matt Hardy’s fiancé.. and eventually stealing her away from Matt.. and ultimately getting Matt fired from WWE. This is the first time on any WWE programming that Matt Hardy’s name has been mentioned since this situation started. WWE 5 weeks ago decided to run with it.. and put Edge together with Lita on TV to try and turn this negative into a positive.. or at least to help solidify Edge as a heel. It’s slowly working.

“I almost forgot about you.. mister shoot interview himself..” referring to John Bradshaw..

“the only reason you were WWE champion for a year, is because HHH doesn’t work Tuesdays…” that was just cold.. 



Bradshaw hams it up.. blowing off Heyman’s shoot on him.

.. and one more time.. “this is E C f’n W”



Paul Leaves the ring with the universal sign of peace and good will on each hand directed to the crusaders.

Commercial : Rob Zombies “devilsrejects” movie

ECW returns.. with the Dudley Boys.



The crowd gives what is the biggest pop of the night.. (short of Heymans) to the Dudleys entrance to the ring. Dreamer comes out with a smile on his face. This.. despite his chronic back pains that have stayed with him since his ECW days.



Literally.. this was a dream come true for Dreamer.. and few have laboured as hard as he did to get ONE NIGHT STAND out there.

Enter Sandman plays on the speaker.. the crowd goes wild.. the camera pans around looking for where “he” would make his entrance..

Sandman..



With music playing.. and a few beers already down.. Sandman works his way down from the second floor.. to the arena floor.. to the ringside.. and enetually.. by the end of the song.. he finds himself finally on the floor with Dreamer at his side.



Sandman looks like he is happy to be back on an ECW PPV..



What Sandman can do.. Dreamer figures he can do better with ECW old valet Elektra



Scheduled as the Dudleys with Dreamer and Sandman.. it doesn’t quite get that far.



BWO – Blue World Order show up. Big Stevie Cool, the Blue Meanie, and Nova

Stevie cuts a mini promo.. classic BWO style.. “we’re taking over” Stevie gives Sandman a Stevie kick to launch the chaos. Axel Rotten and Ballz Mahony show up with their Chairs.. and start throwing down with the BWO..

After Ballz and Axel deal with the BWO.. Dudleys deal with Axel and Ballz.

Kid Kash shows.. and decided to nail them all..

Bodies everywhere.

The match as it was intended.. finally gets underway. The Cheese grater makes it way into the match early.. Cookie sheets, garbage cans.. ladders, signs. All get used and abused.. but it isn’t until Bubba uses the cheese grater that things get..



Extreme.

Sandman brings a ladder in.. and Dreamers innovates some violence on the Dudleys. Dreamers finds the cheese graters.. and exacts some revenge on Bubba Ray.



Sandman uses the ladder and get s real personal with DVon. Bubba helps out with some other furniture. Bubba give Sandman a frog splash while Sandman is still stretched out on the ladder. Gruesome. For a change of pace Sandman and Dreamer get the upper hand and try some wrestling holds on the Dudley’s.

That doesn’t last long.. after all.. this is ECW.. even if it is a watered down WWE ECW

The Impact players break up the Sandman/Dreamer upper hand.. with Justin bringing some barb wire for Sandman to get pile driven into. Francine gets involved.. and kicks a field goal into Dreamers sack. Beulah shows up.. and tackles Francine. She gets manhandled a bit by thwe impact players, but side steps an assault. Dreamer and Beulah have a tender moment.. which the Dudleys try to break up. A double DDT on the Dudleys put Sandman/Dreamer back in charge.

Sandman grabs D-Von.. put a folded chair on his nuts..



…Dreamer grabs a sign and creams them with a sign.

Bubba evens he score.. a cane to bpth Dreamer and Sandman a few times puts the Dudleys in the center of the ring with a table and in control. The christen the table.. putting Sandman through it. Bubba brings in some more furniture in the ring.. and summons Spike Dudley to the ring. Spike.. got a bottle of lighter fluid in his pocket, and hands it over to Bubba.

Turns away if you don’t like to see people burn..











Dudleys win by pin fall over dreamer. No shit. 

Sandman returns.. canes all the Dudleys. And in his serious concern for Dreamer.. demands beer.

Stone Cold Steve Austin Shows up.. and promises to oblige the Sandman.. but only after he says what he has to.



Austin calls for the ECW locker-room to come to the ring. Every ECW star that wrestled or cut a shoot or promo that night shows.. minus Eddie Guerrero. Austin overall liked the show.. but wants to see the promised ass kicking the WWE crusaders promised.. so he calls them to the ring. They reluctantly come down from the balcony and join the ECW stars in the ring.

Biscoff sends his troops into the ring.. while he goes to the announce team area to “hide”

The ring has easily over 40 stars in the ring.. when TAZ (with one “z”) shows.



Once he gets to the ring.. Taz and Angle face off.. and the impromptu battle royal ensues. Taz takes Angle out with a Tazmission.



Wanted to show that picture. 5 years ago.. that scene would have been impossible given Biscoff was on Nitro, Foley was on Raw.. Biscoff and Foley hated each other, and neither would have been able to call color commentary on an ECW PPV. Shame Joey styles arm was the only part of him to make that historic scene.

I know it’s hard to see from this…



But Bradshaw beat the living snot out of the Blue Meanie in that ring…

As you can see here…



Just more of Bradshaw taking liberties with the yonger talent and acting like a bully. Austin then requests Foley brings Biscoff to the ring so that they can address Biscoff personally.

Austin then orders the Dudleys…



To 3D Biscoff.

Then he directs Benoit..



To give Biscoff the flying headbutt. Austin then directs Rey Mysterio to whip up..



Some 619 on Eric.

Austin “ Eric.. this is Austin.. I thought I’d take this time to conduct a post show interview..”  Austin then give Eric the international sign of peace and good will.. one on each hand.. and then goes for a kick to the gut…



And gives Eric the Stunner.

The Dudley’s carry Biscoff out to a camera trucks and deposit him. Leaving him for dead as far as they were concerned. ECW old and new.. celebrate the success of the show. All look like they were about to get thoroughly drunk.

All in all.. ONE NIGHT STAND.. did better than I could expect. Definitely something worth buying when they release this on DVD later. (yes.. WWE will sell this on DVD.)

Lots of high spots.. the right mix of technical and lucha libre wrestling, old school chair swinging table crashing violence. Oh yah.. Sabu was awesome too.

Heyman and RVD’s shoots were worth watching this PPV on it’s own. Watching some guys take out their issues with Biscoff on him in the ring.. was even better.

How does the WWE top this if they decide to to something else with the ECW brand? Dunno.. can’t wait though.

this is some bull sh*t.
Stone cold leaves wrestling, and i quit watching.
then i miss this.
i guess i better pay more atention to whats goin on.

nice reveiw man.

First of all props to the whole ECW roster for a great show and 2nd for HSDEMONZ for a amazing indepth review. Keep 'em commin' I hope that the next ECW PPV is on it's way soon

Thanks.

Anyone interested in a small but decent wrestling forum.. there is one run by a good guy.. http://wrestlingdaily.net

ScottShadow run it.. good guy. I stay informed.. by reading his posts there.

time to drop this from the pins.