As we get back on track from our holiday schedule, we will have Rewind-A-Wai #27 coming out next Sunday, January 6th for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
This week’s selection is ECW’s Massacre on 34th Street pay-per-view from December 2000 at the Hammerstein Ballroom as the company was struggling on its way to its demise in early '01. This event was chosen by Espresso Executive Producer @The_Fettman.
Leave us your feedback, comments, and questions and any contrasts to our last review of ECW’s One Night Stand show.
This card can be watched on the WWE Network at http://network.wwe.com/video/v31539053.
ECW Massacre on 34th Street
Sunday, December 3rd, 2000
Hammerstein Ballroom
*Steve Corino vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Justin Credible for the ECW title
*Mikey Whipwreck and Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy and Kid Kash
*Rhino vs. Spike Dudley for the ECW Television title
*Tommy Dreamer vs. C.W. Anderson
*Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke vs. Danny Doring and Roadkill for the ECW tag titles
*Nova vs. Julio Dinero
*Balls Mahoney vs. EZ Money
*Christian York and Joey Matthews vs. Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger
Alex From Minneapolis
I luckily was able to watch the original version of this PPV and not the network version. I was spared from hearing awful dubbed music over Highway To Hell, Bawitdaba, and Enter Sandman. Jokes aside, this was a pretty solid PPV that kept the live crowd excited. Don Callis had a great showing on commentary and enhanced the storylines, while Joey Styles kept the show on track. I feel Tommy Dreamer will go down as the most selfless guy in the business for always putting over young guys regardless of In-ring ability while also getting himself over by losing. ECW in its final weeks is very reminiscent to WCW as it featured many young talent on the rise with the popular stars either gone or phased down the card.
2 questions
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Given the unfortunate circumstances that caused his departure from the business, do you think Joey Styles will ever come back to commentary in a one off for AEW or New Japan?
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is it fair to say that the Hammerstein Ballroom has been to ROH, what the ECW Arena was to ECW as far as a home venue full of long lasting moments?
I came away feeling differently than Alex. I thought the show was a slog, mostly just standard ECW style matches we’ve all seen a thousand times before. Like an action movie that’s all explosions and no story.
I didn’t really enjoy much of the show at all. I would add that from a visual standpoint, by this time in ECW history so many of the wrestlers looked out of shape. IMO, it really hurts the perception of the show- just so many of the guys looked small and/or fat. I couldn’t imagine showing Dreamer vs Anderson to someone that’s used to watching WWF/WCW-- “it’s a chubby guy in adidas pants vs a scrawny dude in a singlet. You watch this?!”
That being said, I would agree that the crowd seemed to love this show.