ECW! ECW! ECW!

Great news peeps! WWE is releasing an ECW DVD! Lots of matches on this thing and it comes out in February. If I get a girlfriend by then, this will have to be my Valentine's Day gift. Nothing like a Sabu-Terry Funk barb wire match that says L-O-V-E. I've got the match listings and here are my thoughts.

*ECW World Tag Team champions The Public Enemy vs. Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck (August 27, 1994 at ECW Arena)
Cactus and Mikey win over one of the best tag teams of the early ECW. Terry Funk was supposed to team with Cactus in this match, but couldn't make it. Mikey was the ultimate loser/jobber. For about 4 months of wrestling, he never got in ONE OFFENSIVE MANEUVER. He always talked about how scared he was to wrestle and how his opponent would kill him and he cried on camera. And people fell in love with him. This should be good.

*The Sandman & Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack & ECW World champion Shane Douglas (March 17, 1995, ECW Arena)
I think Shane turn on Cactus here. Cactus and Shane were actually trained together in Pennsylvania by Dominic Denucci. When Funk and Cactus go at it, it's awesome.

*Axl Rotten vs. Ian Rotten - Taipei Death Match (Hardcore Heaven '95, July 7, 1995)
The Bad Breed was the name of this one-time tag team. I've heard bad things about this match, so I don't know why it's here.

*Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis - Mexican Death Match (November to Remember '95, November 18, 1995)
I remember watching Rey Mysterio and Psychosis wrestle on the second or so ECW show I watched. I knew immediately Rey had potential to be huge. Remember these types of matches were from 1995, back when Kevin Nash was WWE champion, defending against King Mabel and WCW Monday Nitro was just getting off the ground. Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant was the big feud there. So to watch this kind of fast, aggressive wrestling was really exciting.

*ECW World Television champion Chris Jericho vs. Shane Douglas vs. 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Pitbull #2 (ECW Heatwave '96)
This was a legendary match for the TV title. Jericho was the up and coming star, Pit Bull 2, one half of a great tag team, whose tag partner would soon have his neck broken at the hands of Douglas, Scorpio, the flashy, but solid veteran, Douglas was one of the best heels around, and this match really propelled him into that spot. Francine, the Pit Bulls valet, joined up with Douglas in this match, cost Pit Bull 2 the match, and the Pit Bulls super bomb (top rope powerbomb) her through a table. I hear it went 40 minutes and is a wrestling classic. I'm excited to watch it.

*Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Lee - Weapons Match (ECW Hardcore Heaven '96)
Brian Lee was Chainz and Ted DiBiase's Undertaker in WWE. Dreamer, the ECW folk hero who represented the company with more heart than anyone ever did. I have a scaffold match between these two, where the ring was filled with tables. The fall Lee took off the scaffold and through all the tables has to be seen to be believed. Lee is not a great wrestler, in that he never seemed to show much passion. Let's see what this match has.

*Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam - Stretcher Match (The Doctor is In, August 3, 1996)
RVD is one of my 3 or 4 favorite wrestlers ever. Sabu is wrestling's human highlight reel. They had some phenomenal matches, both as a tag team and against each other. But I will skip this. I have it on another DVD, and I was disappointed. There were several blown spots and I just felt of the 4 or 5 matches I have with them in the ring together, this is the lowest of them all.

Terry Funk vs. Sandman vs. Stevie Richards (ECW Barely Legal)
From ECW's first pay per view in April 13, 1997. Excellent three-way match with the rising star in Richards (and he would have gotten bigger if he hadn't broken his neck a month later), Sandman (the hardcore icon), and Funk (a legend who has more retirements than Gordie Howe and Evander Holyfield combined). Right after this match, Funk beat Raven (my all-time least favorite ECW wrestler) to win the ECW world title. Talk about emotion. I wish I could have been there. Then again, I was 16 and had school the next day.

*ECW World champion Terry Funk vs. Sabu - No Ropes Barbed Wire Match (Born to Be Wired)
I remember watching an ECW show and they were advertising this match on home video. Joey Styles, the announcer, said "There are some who say that the Terry Funk-Sabu barbed wire match was too extreme even for ECW. And we would be hard pressed not to agree. The crew actually took the ropes down and strung up barbed wire all around the ring. This will be tough to watch. That said, I wanted it on the DVD.

*Beulah McGillicutty vs. Bill Alfonso (As Good as It Gets, September 1997 at ECW Arena)
Perhaps the most beautiful woman in wrestling ever (and Tommy Dreamer's current wife) vs. RVD's manager with the highest, loudest, squeakiest male voice ever. I know Paul Heyman loved this match, as he called it one of the hardest hitting matches ever in the history of the company. That's quite a claim.

*Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - ECW Death Match (ECW Heatwave '98 PPV)
Yeah, I have this on DVD too. Brooklyn, NY and Red Hook's own Taz (with one z) defends his TV title against the Beast From the East in Bigelow's home, Asbury Park. This was after the Lawrence Taylor Wrestlemania debacle, by the way. A good match, with a classic finish.

*ECW World champion Shane Douglas vs. Tazz (Guilty As Charged '99 PPV)
Taz finally wins the title. The Path of Rage begins.

*The Dudley Boyz vs. Spike Dudley & Balls Mahoney - Chicago Street Fight
Man I hated the Dudleys. Everyone did. I gladly would have spent my money to watch the Dudleys get beat up any day. And isn't Balls Mahoney one of the greatest wrestling names ever?
*ECW World champion Mike Awesome vs. Spike Dudley (Guilty As Charged 2000 PPV)
Spike took some of the sickest bumps ever. Safe bet he'll be taking a few powerbombs in this match.

*Rhino vs. The Sandman (ECW on TNN, February 2000)
Rhino was going to be the company's next huge heel if the company had not gone under. Hopefully, the company will pay the extra royalty money so we can hear Sandman come out to "Enter Sandman." It's not the same without it.

*Super Crazy vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Little Guido (ECW on TNN, March 2000)
International cruiserweights. Don't know what to expect.

*Tommy Dreamer vs. CW Anderson - "I Quit" Match (ECW Guilty as Charged 2001)
CW looked just like Ole Anderson. Something about an I Quit match always raises the ante.

*Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka (ECW One Night Stand PPV)
The best match from 6-12-05, ECW's reunion show. At the end, the fans were chanting "This match rules!" It did.

All in all, not a bad selection. The entire reign of ECW is pretty well represented and the attention given to the different wrestlers is fair. I do wish Raven had been included. He was the easiest guy in the world to hate. I'm really upset the Eliminators, the greatest tag team of all time, are not on here. No team I have ever seen in 20 years could outwork Perry Saturn and John Kronus. And I would have liked to have seen Eddy Guerrerro vs. Dean Malenko from their legendary 1995 feud. There could be a little more straight up wrestling on here.

Hopefully, there will be some promos here too. Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, and Tazz are the top 3 I would want to see. I would love to see Austin doing his Monday Nyquil skit, when he parodied Monday Nitro and impersonated Eric Bischoff.